Great Symphonies, Brilliant Soloists, Intriguing New Works and Old Favorites

SPM is thrilled to present as the featured work of its season opener, the other “Rach 2,” Rachmaninoff’s monumental second symphony. Those who have been enraptured, often numerous times, by the composer’s second piano concerto will be no less captivated by his major symphonic work. Chock full of memorable melodies, virtuosic display, and rich orchestral textures, the listener is sure to leave the performance moved and uplifted. Also featured is SPM principal flutist, Ethan Lin, performing the delightful and demanding concerto by Frenchman Jacques Ibert. And to open the program with a splash, Jessie Montgomery’s Starburst is everything its title implies.

Music has, throughout the ages, supported and enhanced stories sung, spoken, and danced. In our second program, we present works where music tells stories on its own, from Mother Goose’s nursery rhymes, through the journey of a river from its source to the sea, to the enduring presence of a fabled river in a composer’s life. Our featured concerto, by the English composer William Walton, is said, by one of its greatest devotees, to be a deeply personal work, evoking not only the people in Walton’s life, but also the Italian island of Ischia where he lived for the last 33 years of his life. Our exceedingly gifted young cello soloist, Leland Ko, returns to SPM after his dazzling debut performance with us at the age of 15! He has emerged as one of the leading young cellists of his generation, and we’re proud to have supported him in his path to success.

Celebrating the 200th anniversary of Anton Bruckner’s birth, SPM presents the fifth of his nine great symphonies. Bruckner is considered to be the last great symphonist of Austro-German romanticism. A man of both deep humility and profound genius, Bruckner’s musical expression moves the listener to simply succumb to the glories of his rich harmonic language and vast landscapes. We have in our midst Benjamin Korstvedt, one of the world’s leading Bruckner scholars, who is on the faculty of Clark University in Worcester. Mr. Korstvedt’s advice will guide our interpretation, and his informative pre-concert talks will elucidate this composer’s beloved music for us all. As a delightful prelude to Bruckner’s Symphony No. 5, we feature another gifted young virtuoso musician, 22-year-old hornist Graham Lovely, performing Mozart’s beloved Horn Concerto No. 4.

Brahms! Few composers represent the epitome of the European classical music tradition like Johannes Brahms. Closing SPM’s 41st season is the composer’s alluring and textured Symphony No. 3. The work opens with a statement of the notes F-Ab-F, representing Brahms’ personal motto “free but happy (frei aber froh),” which sums up both its spirit and emotion. The composer’s most subtle symphonic work, the listener is drawn into Brahms’ expressive world where in his own words he “speaks through his music.” Brahms’ influence on his contemporaries and future generations of composers cannot be overestimated, and the two other works on this program are highly representative of this legacy. Zemlinsky’s overture, in a more a contemporary language, remains romantic in musical expression as does the intriguing and heartfelt Seven Early Songs of Alban Berg. SPM is privileged to present as soprano soloist in Berg’s work, the internationally acclaimed vocal artist, Jennifer Johnson Cano, who’s voice was declared by the Boston Globe to be “radiant and intense, rich in the lower part of her range, bright and precise at the top, with… an uncanny ability to embody the character of each work”