Marin Alsop Leads the BSO in Gustav Holst’s The Planets, November 7-10
Baltimore, Md. (PRWEB) October 11, 2013 -- Music Director Marin Alsop leads the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) in Gustav Holst’s influential work The Planets on Thursday, November 7 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, November 10 at 3 p.m. at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall. A women’s chorus from the Baltimore Choral Arts Society will join the Orchestra from offstage to perform the tone poem’s final moment, Neptune, the Mystic. Also on the program is Stravinsky’s Violin Concerto, performed by Leila Josefowicz, and Leopold Stokowski’s 20th century arrangement of Bach’s Toccata & Fugue. Maestra Alsop kicks off the first Off the Cuff series this season with a closer look into Holst’s work, exploring its present-day relevance on Friday, November 8 at 8:15 p.m. at the Music Center at Strathmore and on Saturday, November 9 at 7 p.m. at the Meyerhoff. All four concerts will feature high-definition images from space projected onto a screen suspended above the orchestra. Please see below for complete program details.
The Planets is a suite of seven poems that Gustav Holst began composing in 1914 and completed in 1916. The seven movements each convey a particular mood assigned with each astrological sign. The opening movement, for example, features Mars, the bringer of war, suggesting destruction and coldness. The remaining planets follow, excluding Earth and the then undiscovered Pluto. The Planets was Holst’s first work composed for a major symphony orchestra.
Called “skillful and fearless” by The Classical Review, 35 year-old violinist Leila Josefowicz will perform Stravinsky’s neo-classical masterwork, his Violin Concerto. The concerto, commissioned by American composer Blair Fairchild in 1931, premiered on October 23, 1931 in Berlin with Polish violinist Samuel Dushkin and the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Stravinsky himself. The piece has such a powerful kinetic energy that the father of American ballet, George Balanchine, choreographed two ballets to it: Balustrade (1941) and Stravinsky Violin Concerto (1972).
First published in 1833 through the efforts of Felix Mendelssohn, Bach’s Toccata & Fugue is known today as one of the most famous works in the organ repertoire. The Orchestra will perform Leopold Stokowski’s arrangement of this Baroque masterwork, popularized in the 20th century when it was included in Walt Disney’s film Fantasia, released in 1940.
Marin Alsop, conductor
Hailed as one of the world’s leading conductors for her artistic vision and commitment to accessibility in classical music, Marin Alsop made history with her appointment as the 12th music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. With her inaugural concerts in September 2007, she became the first woman to head a major American orchestra. She also holds the title of conductor emeritus at the Bournemouth Symphony in the United Kingdom, where she served as the principal conductor from 2002-2008, and is music director of the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music in California.
In 2005, Ms. Alsop was named a MacArthur Fellow, the first conductor ever to receive this prestigious award. In 2007, she was honored with a European Women of Achievement Award, in 2008 she was inducted as a fellow into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and in 2009 Musical America named her “Conductor of the Year.” In November 2010, she was inducted into the Classical Music Hall of Fame. In February 2011, Marin Alsop was named the music director of the Orquestra Sinfônica do estado de São Paulo (OSESP), or the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra, effective for the 2012-13 season. Ms. Alsop was named to Guardian’s Top 100 Women list in March 2011. In the spring of 2011, Marin Alsop was named an Artist-in-Residence at the Southbank Centre in London, England.
A regular guest conductor with the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra and Los Angeles Philharmonic, Ms. Alsop appears frequently as a guest conductor with the most distinguished orchestras around the world. In addition to her performance activities, she is also an active recording artist with award-winning cycles of Brahms, Barber and Dvořák.
Marin Alsop has led Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in several key outreach initiatives. In 2008, she partnered with the BSO to launch OrchKids™, a music education and life enrichment program for youth in West Baltimore. In 2010, she conducted the first “Rusty Musicians with the BSO” – an event that gave amateur musicians the chance to perform onstage with a professional symphony orchestra and quickly became a popular component of the BSO’s efforts to connect with the community. In June 2010, Maestra Alsop conducted the inaugural BSO Academy – an immersive summer music program that gives approximately 100 amateur adult musicians the opportunity to perform alongside a top professional orchestra.
Marin Alsop attended Yale University and received her master’s degree from The Juilliard School. In 1989, her conducting career was launched when she won the Koussevitzky Conducting Prize at Tanglewood where she studied with Leonard Bernstein.
Leila Josefowicz, violin
An outstanding advocate and champion of contemporary music, Leila Josefowicz is a frequent collaborator of several leading composers, and works with orchestras and conductors at the highest level around the world. She has also been awarded a prestigious MacArthur Fellowship, joining prominent individuals¬¬ who have made unique contributions to contemporary life.
Colin Matthews, Steven Mackey and Esa-Pekka Salonen have written violin concertos especially for Josefowicz, and John Adams and Luca Francesconi have also recently been commissioned to write new pieces for her. The latter will be given its world premiere in February 2014 with Susanna Mälkki and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra.
This 2013-2014 season, Josefowicz performs John Adams’ Violin Concerto with the Sydney Symphony and Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. She will also appear with the BBC Symphony, Finnish Radio Symphony, Toronto Symphony, the Orchestra della Scala and the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della Rai. In the US, she has engagements with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the San Francisco Symphony and National Symphony Orchestra.
Recent highlights include performances with the London Symphony, London Philharmonic, Boston Symphony and The Philadelphia Orchestra, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Gothenburg Symphony and Danish National Symphony.
Josefowicz has released several recordings for the Deutsche Grammophon, Philips/Universal and Warner Classics labels. She has recorded many works by John Adams, including The Dharma at Big Sur with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the title track on the Grammy-nominated Road Movies album. Her latest recording features Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Violin Concerto with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by the composer.
Baltimore Choral Arts Society, women’s chorus
The Baltimore Choral Arts Society, now in its 48th season, is one of Maryland's premier cultural institutions. The Symphonic Chorus, Full Chorus, Orchestra and Chamber Chorus perform throughout the mid-Atlantic region, as well as in Washington, D.C., New York and Europe.
For the past 17 years, WMAR Television has featured Choral Arts in an hour-long special, Christmas with Choral Arts, which won an Emmy Award in 2006. Music Director Tom Hall and the chorus were also featured in a PBS documentary called Jews and Christians: A Journey of Faith, broadcast nationwide and on National Public Radio in 2001. On local radio, Mr. Hall is the host of "Choral Arts Classics," a monthly program on WYPR that features the Choral Arts Chorus and Orchestra, and he is the Culture Editor on WYPR’s "Maryland Morning with Sheilah Kast."
Choral Arts has appeared with the National Symphony, and has made regular appearances with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Acclaimed artists collaborating with Choral Arts have included Chanticleer, Dave Brubeck, the King’s Singers, Peter Schickele, Sweet Honey in the Rock and Anonymous 4.
Tom Hall is one of the most highly regarded performers in choral music today. Appointed music director in 1982, Hall has added more than 100 new works to the BCAS repertoire, and he has premiered works by contemporary composers including Peter Schickele, Libby Larsen, Robert Sirota, James Lee, III, Rosephanye Dunn Powell and many other internationally acclaimed composers.
Hall is also active as a guest conductor in the U.S. and Europe, including appearances with the Handel and Haydn Society in Boston, the Choral Arts Society of Philadelphia, the Berkshire Choral Festival, Musica Sacra in New York and Britten Sinfonia in Canterbury, England. Mr. Hall has prepared choruses for Leonard Bernstein, Robert Shaw, Helmuth Rilling and others, and he served as the Chorus Master of the Baltimore Opera Company for 10 years.
COMPLETE PROGRAM DETAILS
BSO Classical Concert: The Planets
Thursday, November 7, 2013 at 8 p.m. – Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall (JMSH)
Sunday, November 10, 2013 at 3 p.m. – JMSH
J.S. Bach (arr. Stokowski): Toccata & Fugue in D minor
Stravinsky: Violin Concerto
Holst: The Planets
Marin Alsop, conductor
Leila Josefowicz, violin
Baltimore Choral Arts Society, women’s chorus
BSO Off the Cuff Concert: The Planets
Friday, November 8, 2013 at 8:15 p.m. – The Music Center at Strathmore
Saturday, November 9, 2013 at 7 p.m. – JMSH
Holst: The Planets
Marin Alsop, conductor
Baltimore Choral Arts Society, women’s chorus
Tickets range from $29 to $84 and are available through the BSO Ticket Office, 410.783.8000 or BSOmusic.org.
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Alyssa Porambo, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, http://www.bsomusic.org/main.taf?p=0, +1 (410) 783-8044, [email protected]
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