Posted on Facebook 7/9
You know it’s going to be GREAT when the hosts are all jazzed about the repertoire! At the 6/13 “Inside the Classics” concert, violist-host Sam Bergman said that he and conductor Sarah Hicks have been waiting to do the Rachmaninoff “Symphonic Dances” since Inside the Classics began 5+ years ago.
This was Rachmaninoff’s final work, the capstone of his career, and is a tour de force of Romantic orchestral composition. Sam and Sarah will explore its background and composition during the first half of this Saturday night’s concert. After intermission, Sarah will lead the Minnesota Orchestra in a complete performance of the work.
More info and tickets ($29) here: http://www.minnesotaorchestra.org/buy/tickets/browse-calendar/eventdetail/457/-/inside-the-classics-rachmaninoff-s-romantic-legacy#.VZlIbflViko
You know it’s going to be GREAT when the hosts are all jazzed about the repertoire! At the 6/13 “Inside the Classics” concert, violist-host Sam Bergman said that he and conductor Sarah Hicks have been waiting to do the Rachmaninoff “Symphonic Dances” since Inside the Classics began 5+ years ago.
This was Rachmaninoff’s final work, the capstone of his career, and is a tour de force of Romantic orchestral composition. Sam and Sarah will explore its background and composition during the first half of this Saturday night’s concert. After intermission, Sarah will lead the Minnesota Orchestra in a complete performance of the work.
More info and tickets ($29) here: http://www.minnesotaorchestra.org/buy/tickets/browse-calendar/eventdetail/457/-/inside-the-classics-rachmaninoff-s-romantic-legacy#.VZlIbflViko
Posted on Facebook 7/5
Hornist Sarah Schmalenberger (Associate Professor of Music, Music History, and French horn at the University of St. Thomas) is passionate about Rachmainioff’s Symphonic Dances, the composition that will be explored at this Saturday’s “Inside the Classics” concert.
Sarah writes, “Was Rachmaninoff feeling nostalgic for his Russian homeland, as he looked out from the shores of New York’s Long Island Sound while penning his final composition? Symphonic Dances seems to offer a sonic panorama of Russia’s distinctive landscape, both culturally and musically. Right away in the first movement, the captivating persistent ground rhythms evoke the crisp air of a brisk troika ride through the snow. When a saxophone presents a contemplative second melodic theme, I hear a glimpse of the ubiquitous bear plodding along in the Russian circus, but also a similarly mournful saxophone melody by one of the composer’s younger contemporaries (Sergei Prokofiev and the Leiutenant Kije Suite, which premiered only a few years prior). But then the strings transform this melody and develop a soaring response across their octaves, returning us to the breathtakingly beautiful expanse of the frozen steppes.
“The second and third movements of Symphonic Dances continue its tableaux, in a brilliant display of shifting tone colors, meters, dancelike melodies, and harmonic adventures that confirm the mark of a master. These are the expressions of someone who deeply loved (and longed for) the artistic legacy of his country’s pre-revolutionary grandeur. In Rachmaninoff we hear the epitome of Russian Romanticism, the last master who bridged the sound of the late 19th century into the 20th. Truly breathtaking music, to be enveloped in its pure yet refined emotional utterances, is an experience you won’t want to miss.”
More info and tickets ($29) here: http://www.minnesotaorchestra.org/buy/tickets/browse-calendar/eventdetail/457/-/inside-the-classics-rachmaninoff-s-romantic-legacy#.VZlIbflViko
Hornist Sarah Schmalenberger (Associate Professor of Music, Music History, and French horn at the University of St. Thomas) is passionate about Rachmainioff’s Symphonic Dances, the composition that will be explored at this Saturday’s “Inside the Classics” concert.
Sarah writes, “Was Rachmaninoff feeling nostalgic for his Russian homeland, as he looked out from the shores of New York’s Long Island Sound while penning his final composition? Symphonic Dances seems to offer a sonic panorama of Russia’s distinctive landscape, both culturally and musically. Right away in the first movement, the captivating persistent ground rhythms evoke the crisp air of a brisk troika ride through the snow. When a saxophone presents a contemplative second melodic theme, I hear a glimpse of the ubiquitous bear plodding along in the Russian circus, but also a similarly mournful saxophone melody by one of the composer’s younger contemporaries (Sergei Prokofiev and the Leiutenant Kije Suite, which premiered only a few years prior). But then the strings transform this melody and develop a soaring response across their octaves, returning us to the breathtakingly beautiful expanse of the frozen steppes.
“The second and third movements of Symphonic Dances continue its tableaux, in a brilliant display of shifting tone colors, meters, dancelike melodies, and harmonic adventures that confirm the mark of a master. These are the expressions of someone who deeply loved (and longed for) the artistic legacy of his country’s pre-revolutionary grandeur. In Rachmaninoff we hear the epitome of Russian Romanticism, the last master who bridged the sound of the late 19th century into the 20th. Truly breathtaking music, to be enveloped in its pure yet refined emotional utterances, is an experience you won’t want to miss.”
More info and tickets ($29) here: http://www.minnesotaorchestra.org/buy/tickets/browse-calendar/eventdetail/457/-/inside-the-classics-rachmaninoff-s-romantic-legacy#.VZlIbflViko
RSS Feed