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SanDiegoSymphony

ABOUT THE CONCERT

Rafael Payare, conductor
Jean-Yves Thibaudet, piano
San Diego Symphony Orchestra

SAINT-SAËNS: Piano Concerto No. 5 in F Major, Op. 103, Egyptian
SHOSTAKOVICH: Symphony No. 7 in C Major, Op. 60, Leningrad

Considered one of the finest pianists of today, Jean-Yves Thibaudet takes the Jacobs Music Center stage to perform his acclaimed interpretation of Camille Saint-Saëns‘ final piano concerto, written while he was vacationing in Cairo, Egypt. Then Rafael Payare and the Symphony tackle Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 7, Leningrad. The first performance of the Leningrad took place in August 1942, a year into the 30-month blockade of the city by Axis powers, and was broadcast throughout the city as a show of defiance against German forces. Since then, the symphony has become a powerful international symbol of human resistance to brutality, barbarism and injustice.

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ABOUT THE CONCERT

Rafael Payare, conductor
Alisa Weilerstein, cello
San Diego Symphony Orchestra

UNSUK CHIN: Cello Concerto
BRUCKNER: Symphony No. 7 in E Major

South Korean composer Unsuk Chin has spent most of her working life in Germany where, as a young artist in Berlin, she absorbed many of the acoustic enthusiasms of European modernists in the late 20th century while swiftly building a distinctive language of her own. Her cello concerto, widely described as a triumph at its first appearance many years ago, has been taken up by many cellists and most recently by our own Alisa Weilerstein. Weilerstein’s mastery of drama and plangent lyricism is the perfect match for Unsuk Chin’s defiant and expressive music.

Bruckner is one of the greatest one-offs in the history of music. The heir to Schubert and Wagner (but to hardly any other of the great composers!), he had a deep influence on Gustav Mahler, who loved and admired him passionately. But perhaps his deepest roots lay in the folk-music of the Austrian countryside where he grew up, and in the church music of centuries ago. He himself was an organist and church musician of great distinction, but – more than that – a man of deep religious feelings, and his music vividly reflects that. The Seventh, one of his later symphonies, often makes the orchestra sound like a colossal organ in an ancient medieval church. Indeed, this symphony has often been described as nothing short of a cathedral in sound. It would be hard to imagine music better suited to exploring the deepest resonances of our beautiful new hall, especially under the baton of music director Rafael Payare.

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ABOUT THE CONCERT

Ruth Reinhardt, conductor
Steven Banks, saxophone
San Diego Symphony Orchestra

SMETANA: Overture and Three Dances from The Bartered Bride
YOSHIMATSU: Soprano Saxophone Concerto, Albireo Mode
DVORÁK: Symphony No. 8 in G Major, Op. 88

Ruth Reinhardt returns to lead the Symphony in two delightful works by two Czech masters: the Overture and Three Dances from Smetana’s folk-inspired romantic comedy The Bartered Bride and Dvorák’s infectiously joyous Symphony No. 8, which was conceived and written in the gorgeous green landscape of fields and woods around the small community where Dvorák had his country home. Having grown-up as a country boy in a largely agricultural community, the composer was passionate about the beauties of the rural world, taking pleasure especially in the rich variety of the songs of wild birds, which he would listen to in the little wood at the bottom of his garden. Probably no other symphony in the established repertoire is so full of delicious suggestions of singing birds as this!

And at the center of the concert, something else entirely! Having quickly established himself as one of the leading classical saxophonists today, Steven Banks returns to San Diego to take the Jacobs Music Center stage with famed Japanese composer Takashi Yoshimatsu’s Soprano Saxophone Concerto Albireo Mode. Written nearly 20 years ago, this accessible and gentle music, shot through with the sound of temple bells and the liquid traditions of American free jazz for which Yoshimatsu has a special admiration, takes its title from a famous double star in the Cygnus constellation, and is divided into two movements: the first – “Topaz” – after the precious stone which is often a pale-yellow color, and the second – “Sapphire” – after the familiar dark-blue stone.

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ABOUT THE CONCERT

Billy Pierce, tenor sax
Pre-show concert:

 

The artistic collaboration between Duke Ellington and composer/ arranger Billy Strayhorn is one of the most important in the history of American music. Duke Ellington trusted Billy Strayhorn’s artistic gifts from the moment he joined the band in 1939, until Strayhorn’s death in 1967. Strayhorn wrote many of the songs we associate with the Duke Ellington Band today, including their theme song “Take the A Train”, “Satin Doll”, “Something to Live For” and many more.

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ABOUT THE CONCERT

Tristan Rais-Sherman, conductor
Taylor Renee Henderson, narrator
San Diego Symphony Orchestra

LILI BOULANGER: D’un matin de printemps (Of a Spring Morning)
DE FALLA: The Three-Cornered Hat Suite No. 1
RAVEL: “Rigaudon” from Le Tombeau de Couperin
CAROLINE SHAW: The Mountain that Loved a Bird
Animation by the Graphic Arts and Media Technology students of
Truckee Meadows Community College
Fe Danger, director
JOHN WILLIAMS: “Flying Theme” from E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial

Transport yourself into a timeless story about friendship in composer and Pulitzer Prize winner Caroline Shaw’s musical adaptation of The Mountain that Loved a Bird by Alice McLerran.

This concert is designed for families with children ages 6 – 12. Please join them one hour before the performance for pre-concert activities in the lobby.

Concert banner image by visual artist Natalie Meza Barbosa.
ABOUT THE CONCERT

The Spirit of Mardi Gras!

Byron Stripling, conductor, trumpet and vocalist
Sydney McSweeney, vocalist
Bobby Floyd, keyboards
Jim Rupp, drums
San Diego Symphony Orchestra

Celebrate the spirit of Mardi Gras with a night of hot New Orleans jazz! The good times roll with music made famous by Fats Domino, Mahalia Jackson, Bessie Smith & Louis Armstrong. From street parades in the French Quarter to late night jams in the city’s famed clubs, this party transforms into an unforgettable Mardi Gras celebration with Byron Stripling, Sydney McSweeney and Bobby Floyd leading the parade with the San Diego Symphony Orchestra!

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