From Italy and Hungary with Love
Winner of Two Emmy® Awards in 2021
21-year old Felix Mendelssohn was swept away by the songs, scenery and romance of Italy, and he captured these sensations in his eternally youthful “Italian” Symphony. The great Hungarian composer Zoltán Kodály evoked Gypsy musicians from his childhood in the passionate “Dances of Galanta.” Alan Hovhaness’ haunting “Prayer of St Gregory” concludes the program.
A floating orchestra and a falling chandelier that harmed no one in a crowded concert hall – true stories behind two of classical music’s most popular works: the “Water Music” by Handel and the “Miracle” Symphony by Haydn. Augusta Read Thomas’ transcendent “Plea for Peace” crowns the program. Gerard Schwarz leads the All-Star Orchestra in truly miraculous performances!
Igor Stravinsky: Suite from the Firebird
Maurice Ravel: Daphnis and Chloe Suite No. 2
Bright Sheng: Prelude to Black Swan
The legendary impresario Serge Diaghilev of Les Ballet Russes commissioned from Stravinsky and Ravel some of the greatest music for the ballet. His influence stretched from St. Petersburg to Paris to the New York City Ballet founded by Diaghilev’s collaborator Georges Balanchine. Former NYCB Composer in Residence Bright Sheng captures the beauty of the dance with his Prelude to Black Swan.
Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 5
Philip Glass: Harmonium Mountain
This program explores the creative process, tracing the genesis of Beethoven’s iconic symphony, and the development of a new work by a modern master. Introductory features demonstrate how short rhythmic and melodic motives evolve into vast symphonic organisms. Interviews include leading Beethoven scholars and the All-Star musicians.
Antonin Dvorak: Symphony No. 9, From the New World
Ellen Taaffe Zwilich: Avanti!
Inspired by American dreams and legends, Dvorak created some of his greatest works while living in the United States, above all the “New World” Symphony. This program illuminates the multiple stories and Native American, African-American and Czech influences that Dvorak transformed in his most beloved work. Ellen Taaffe Zwilich’s Avanti! offers a contemporary interpretation of the American archetype of moving on.
Dmitri Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5
Music has sometimes reflected, and at other times challenged repressive ideologies. Shostakovich abandoned the premiere of his challenging 4th Symphony for fear of reprisals from the Stalinist government. His triumphant 5th Symphony was next, and the authorities were pleased. To this day the 5th is Shostakovich’s most popular symphony. What is its message? What does “political music” mean today?
Johannes Brahms: Academic Festival Overture
Robert Schumann: Symphony No. 3 “Rhenish”
Robert Schumann’s wife Clara was herself a gifted pianist and composer. She became a lifelong friend and source of inspiration for Schumann’s protege Johannes Brahms. This program explores the turbulent musical and emotional relationships between these three, and the masterpieces that they produced.
Richard Danielpour: Piano Concerto #4, A Hero’s Journey, 3rd Movement, Xiayin Wang, soloist
Samuel Jones: Concerto for Violoncello, Julian Schwarz, soloist
Joseph Schwantner: The Poet’s Hour, Soliloquy for Violin, Yevgeny Kutik, soloist
This program explores the creation of new concertos and the artistic process. Outstanding young soloists and leading American composers are featured in performance and in interviews.
Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 4
David Stock: Blast!
This program delves into Tchaikovsky’s dramatic personal life, his brief marriage, and his intense correspondence with his patroness Nadezhda von Meck, whom he never met, and to whom he dedicated his 4th Symphony. The dramatic brass fanfares that for Tchaikovsky symbolized Fate find a modern echo in David Stock’s Blast!
Mahler: Love, Sorrow and Transcendence
Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 2, 1st Movement, Rueckert Lieder
Augusta Read Thomas: Of Paradise and Light
Bernard Rands: Adieu
Mahler’s turbulent passions are expressed through his music. His settings of poems by Friedrich Rueckert explore themes of love, nature, and other-worldliness. Mahler was haunted throughout his life by the premonition of his own death. The first movement of his 2nd Symphony, which Mahler called “Totenfeier” (Funerary Rites), draws stark contrasts between the composer’s premonition of doom, and his vision of life. Modern reflections on these themes can be found in Adieu by Bernard Rands and Of Paradise and Light by Augusta Read Thomas.
Rhapsody in Blue — Visions of New York
Gershwin’s immortal Rhapsody in Blue is featured in the rarely heard original jazz-orchestra version from the 1924 premiere, with pianist Lola Astanova. This iconic work is paired with Aaron Copland’s 1925 jazz-age classic “Music for the Theatre.” Robert Beaser’s “Ground O” offers a modern musical perspective of New York after 9/11.
Arabian Nights — The Legend of Scheherazade
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s exotic orchestral showpiece Scheherazade is based on fantastical tales that – according to tradition – were told by the ingenious wife of a cruel Sultan so as to prolong her life for 1001 nights. Concertmaster David Kim conveys the voice of the wily heroine in virtuosic violin solos. Take a musical magic carpet ride between the worlds of Arabian folklore and Russian romanticism.
Richard Strauss’ orchestral autobiography from 1899 Ein Heldenleben, is a unique documentary in music, scored for extra-large orchestra, a sonic spectacular, and a showcase for the All-Star musicians, with extended solos by Concertmaster David Kim and Principal Horn Erik Ralske. In this highly pictorial music, the listener follows the Hero as he asserts his independence, falls in love, confronts his critics, engages in battle, creates a legacy of peace, and eventually comes to life’s end.
Mozart’s magical “Posthorn Serenade” is followed by the World-Premiere of Samuel Jones’ Violin Concerto with renowned soloist Anne Akiko Meyers performing on the legendary Vieuxtemps Guarneri violin. This rare event of a classical music world-premiere on national TV showcases the collaboration between composer, soloist, and conductor in bringing a brand-new concerto to life.
Modest Mussorgsky/Maurice Ravel: Pictures at an Exhibition.
The beloved orchestral showpiece: a series of unforgettable musical portraits, with a roof-raising finale “The Great Gate of Kiev.”
Sergei Prokofiev “Romeo and Juliet”, excerpts from the ballet. The dramatic selection includes: Capulets and Montagues, the Dance of the Knights, Portrait of Young Juliet, Scene at the Ball, the Fight, and The Death of Tybalt.
Jean Sibelius: Symphony #2
A pinnacle of Nordic Romanticism by the Finnish master’s grand, expansive melodies and searing harmonies; a musical contrast of fire and ice.
Sir Edward Elgar: Enigma Variations
Secret, enigmatic portraits of the composer’s friends, each done with great individuality and exquisite musical taste.
Sir Benjamin Britten: The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra
The perennial family favorite that showcases one by one all the instruments in the orchestra. The perfect introduction to classical music.
Alan Hovhaness: Symphony # 2, “Mysterious Mountain”
The most celebrated work by the mystical composer of the Pacific Northwest. A transporting mediation on the magnificence of nature.
Sir Eugene Goossens and Friends: Jubilee Variations
This is the world-premiere TV recording of this unpublished 1944 work created by ELEVEN great 20th Century composers: Goossens, Aaron Copland, Deems Taylor, Howard Hanson, Walter Piston, William Schuman, Roy Harris , Anis Fuleihan, Bernard Rogers, Ernest Bloch, and Paul Creston.
A unique collaboration: the All-Star Orchestra’s Gerard Schwarz conducts the U.S. Marine Band, America’s oldest continually performing musical ensemble – founded by an act of Congress in 1798, and dubbed “The President’s Own” by no less than Thomas Jefferson.
Revolutionary War melodies provide the inspiration for William Schuman’s iconic “New England Triptych”, including the moving meditation “When Jesus Wept” and the thrilling â”Chester” as performed at several Presidential inaugurations. Next, Vincent Persichetti’s colorful “Masquerade” shows off the Band’s amazing virtuosity. The program concludes with Sousa’s immortal”The Stars and Stripes Forever.”
The First Suite by Gustav Holst (famous composer of “The Planets” is an early masterpiece in the concert band repertoire, paired here with the first complete Symphony for Band by the great Paul Hindemith. The splendor of Chinese percussion in Bright Sheng’s “Shanghai Overture” brings the series to a spectacular finale.