Symphony to play Prague perspective on the New World

Mar 10, 2010

For Immediate Release

Contact: Annie Matlow

SPOKANE—Music Director Eckart Preu will conduct the Spokane Symphony in a blend of French and Czech music “From the Golden City” on Saturday, March 20, 2010, at 8 p.m. and Sunday, March 21, 2010, at 3 p.m. at the Martin Woldson Theater at The Fox. Gautier Capuçon, one of the world’s leading cellists, will be guest soloist with the orchestra, and will be conducting a master class on Friday, March 19 at 3 p.m. In addition, there will be a pre-concert lecture in the hall one hour before each concert. Sunday’s performance is also part of the Symphony YES! Series for young listeners; there will be a children’s pre-concert presentation at 2 p.m. in the North Gallery.

Gautier Capuçon, who began playing the cello at five, was named New Talent of the Year by France’s top music award, the Victoires de la Musique, in 2001, and in 2004 he received an award from Borletti-Buitoni Trust. After a time as a member of the European Community Youth Orchestra, he has since performed internationally as a soloist with orchestras such the Santa Cecilia Orchestra Rome, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Munich Philharmonic, the Orchestre National de France, Dresden Philharmonie, and WashingtonDC's National Symphony Orchestra. A keen chamber musician, Capuçon closest musical relationship is with his violinist brother Renaud, with whom he notably made a critically acclaimed US recital tour. His recordings for Virgin Classics include Haydn Cello Concertos, and with Renaud a number of works by Brahms and a hugely popular version of Saint-Saëns' Carnaval des animaux. In 2008 saw the release of cello sonatas by Prokofiev & Rachmaninov with pianist Gabriela Montero.

Capuçon will be performing Cello Concerto No. 1 by gifted French composer Camille Saint-Saens. Saint-Saens, who was a child prodigy with broad intellectual interests, composed the concerto in a response to an urgent demand for French music that followed the nation’s defeat in the Franco-Prussian War. Written in three continuous movements with no pauses, the concerto opens with only a single orchestral chord and allows the soloist to the principal themes, including one that will be used throughout the Concerto as a unifying device. The energetic first glides into a subdued second movement, which proceeds without pause into the Finale that permits the soloist to indulge in virtuoso brilliance, races on to a dramatic finish.

The orchestra will begin the concert with L’Arlesienne, Suite No. 1 by Georges Bizet, best known for his opera

Carmen. In 1872 Bizet, composed incidental music for a play by Alphonse Daudet called L’arlésienne (The Girl from Arles). The plot concerns a girl who has been unfaithful to her fiancé who, unable to forget her, jumps to his death from a bridge. The play was not a success, but Bizet did not let his incidental music, containing 27 numbers, go to waste. He extracted an orchestral suite that has remained popular in the repertory. While we do not know exactly how the incidental music fit into the plot, it conjures up the folk dances of the lovely setting in Provence, coupled with the atmosphere of doom of the play.

The second half of the concert will feature Antonín Dvorák’s Symphony No. 9, “From the New World.” From 1892-1895, Dvorák lived in the United States while serving as the director of the first American music conservatory, the National Conservatory of Music in New York. Dvorák believed that Native American and African American music should be the basis of the American style of composition and he incorporated Negro and songs of Stephen Foster into the Symphony No. 9, composed while he was in New York. Despite evoking various folk melodies into the music, Dvorák manages to give the Symphony a coherence and power that has earned standing ovations since its debut.

Concertgoers can access new Interactive Program Notes, now available for each of the concerts in the Classics series on the Spokane Symphony website. These notes include audio clips from the music and a pop-up glossary of musical terms to enhance your understanding and enjoyment of the concerts. Notes for this concert can be accessed at http://www.spokanesymphony.org/notes/classics8.htm

Tickets for either performance are $22, $32, $40, and $44. Tickets are available in advance at the Box Office, located at the Martin Woldson Theater at The Fox, 1001 W. Sprague, or by calling 509-624-1200. Tickets may also be purchased online at www.spokanesymphony.org Tickets are also available at all TicketsWest outlets. The Sunday performance of this concert is also part of Symphony YES series, with greatly reduced tickets for young people age 8-14 and the adults that accompany them. Symphony YES tickets are only available through the Spokane Symphony Ticket Office.

These concerts have been underwritten by the Mary Jewett Gaiser Endowment Fund and by an Anonymous donor for the Spokane Youth Symphony. Symphony YES is underwritten by STCU.

CALENDAR LISTING:

From the Golden City, Classics Concert; Eckart Preu conducts the Spokane Symphony; Gautier Capuçon, cello; Saturday, March 20 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, March 21 at 3 p.m. in the Martin Woldson Theater at The Fox. Tickets are $22 to $44; tickets are available by calling the Box Office at (509) 624-1200 or in person at the Martin Woldson Theater at The Fox, 1001 W. Sprague; tickets are also available at www.spokanesymphony.org and through all TicketsWest outlets. Symphony YES tickets are only available through the Box Office or by calling 624-1200.