If Bach were alive, what music would he put on his iPod? UMWO suggests works by Pergolesi, Kirchner, Britten and Dahl.
Conductor Michael Votta says, “Much like Bach’s compositions, the music on this program tends to take a simple idea and elaborate it.”
The playful theme of Kirchner’s Concerto for Violin, Cello, Ten Winds and Percussion builds through exchanges between solo violin and cello, transforming across two movements.
UMWO uses unique staging to envelop the listener in the intricate textures of the opening piece, Gabrieli's Canzonas and Sonatas.
With John Adams's cartoon-influenced Chamber Symphony, Strauss's youthful, jaunting Serenade and Rands's ritualistic Ceremonial to follow, this is not your garden-variety wind orchestra concert.
Composer Vincent Persichetti wrote that, outside the pop field, “Band music is virtually the only kind of music in America today... which can be introduced, accepted, put to immediate and wide use, and become a staple of the literature in a short time.”
In this concert, the UMD Wind performs these repertoire essentials.
The UMD Symphony Orchestra opens its season with Nicholas Montopoli, winner of the 2011 UMSO Concerto Competition, performing Ravel’s exotic and colorful violin showpiece Tzigane.
The program also includes Lutoslawski’s Symphonic Variations, Barber’s 1st Essay and Rachmaninoff’s 2nd Symphony.
The program includes Albinoni’s Concerto for 2 Oboes, Op. 9, No. 9, Strauss’s Till Eulenspiegel; Moravec’s Brandenburg Gate; and Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 3 (Scottish).
These four works — Albinoni’s sprightly Baroque piece, Strauss’s tone poem, Moravec’s contemporary work influenced by Bach and Mendelssohn’s expansive, emotional symphony — offer audiences a rich selection of orchestral styles.
Faculty artist Mayron Tsong plays Brahms’s Piano Concerto No. 1.
Also on the program: Debussy’s Nuages and Fêtes from Nocturnes and Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 1.
UMSO performs Britten’s Les Illuminations, with lighting and stage design by Doug Fitch.
Renowned for his multimedia spectacles in symphonic and opera productions — including work with the New York Philharmonic, Santa Fe Opera and Tanglewood — Fitch previously collaborated with UMSO conductor James Ross on UMSO’s 2008 presentation of Petrushka.
The Britten also features new School of Music voice faculty member, tenor Gran Wilson. Mahler’s towering Symphony No. 7 fills the second half.
The UMD Concert Choir and the UMD Symphony Orchestra perform a concert of music anchored by Verdi and Stravinsky, including Te Deum (Verdi) and The Firebird Suite (1945) (Stravinsky).
Also included in the program will be Ives’s Three Places in New England and General Booth Enters Heaven, as well as John Adams’s Son of Chamber Symphony.
Usually positioned at the back of the orchestra, the percussion section moves center stage to reveal the colorful, melodic potential of their instruments in this striking concert of contemporary music.
The UMD Women’s Chorus and the UMD Men’s Chorus explore repertoire spanning several eras, genres and styles, including a recent work by contemporary Norwegian-American choral composer Ola Gjeilo.
