Before you watch the New Year’s Eve fireworks, enjoy Stravinsky‘s Fireworks! The Orchestra Now performed this 1908 work last December with conductor Tan Dun at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Rose Theater. You can read the concert notes, written by TŌN violist Lucas Goodman, by clicking here.
All of us at TŌN wish all of you a happy and prosperous 2021!
Our second Audio Flashback this Tuesday goes back to April 2019, when we performed the U.S. premiere of Joachim Raff‘s Psalm 130: De Profundis at the Fisher Center at Bard with conductor Leon Botstein; soprano Elizabeth De Trejo; and the Bard Festival Chorale, directed by James Bagwell. You can read the concert notes, written by TŌN horn player Emily Buehler, by clicking here.
0:00 Introduction: Andante (Moderately slow)
1:59 De Profundis: Andante con moto (Moderately slow, with motion)
8:24 Si iniquitates: Andantino (Moderate)
12:59 Quia apud te: Allegretto (Moderately fast)
17:18 A custodia matutina: Andante con moto (Moderately slow, with motion)
22:40 Et ipse redimet: Allegro (Fast)
Our first Audio Flashback this Tuesday is to our 2018 performance of Jennifer Higdon‘s ethereal and emotional blue cathedral. Higdon called the piece “a place of beginnings, endings, solitude, fellowship, contemplation, knowledge, and growth.” We performed the work with conductor James Bagwell at the Fisher Center at Bard on February 3, 2018. You can read notes from the composer by clicking here.
This holiday season we’d love to share with you some recent chamber performances presented by the musicians of The Orchestra Now. Enjoy short works by Mozart, Ravel, Duke Ellington, and others. We hope this music helps to brighten your holiday as we head in to a hopeful new year. Scroll down below the video for program info and timings.
0:19 Maurice Ravel String Quartet in F major
IV. Vif et agité
Yada Lee violin
Esther Goldy Roestan violin
Celia Daggy viola
Lucas Button cello
5:52 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Oboe Quartet in F major
I. Allegro
Shawn Hutchison oboe
Yada Lee violin
Larissa Mapua viola
Sarah Schoeffler cello
12:52 Arcady Dubensky Concerto Grosso for Three Trombones and Tuba
I. Prelude, II. Toccata, III. Fugue
Ian Striedter tenor trombone
David Kidd tenor trombone
Jack E. Noble bass trombone
Jarrod Briley tuba
19:52 Paul Dukas (arr. Wayne Barrington) La Péri Fanfare
22:08 Howard Cable A Newfoundland Sketch
26:06 Duke Ellington (arr. Jack Gale) In a Sentimental Mood
Samuel Exline trumpet
Guillermo García Cuesta trumpet
Emily Buehler horn
David Kidd tenor trombone
Jarrod Briley tuba
Beethoven‘s Piano Concerto No. 4 premiered on this day in 1808 in Vienna. Beethoven wrote the piece for himself, and its premiere was the last time he ever performed as a soloist with an orchestra. Pianist Anna Polonsky played the concerto with The Orchestra Now and conductor Leon Botstein at the Fisher Center at Bard this past February. You can read the concert notes, written by TŌN horn player Steven Harmon, by clicking here.
This week we’re revisiting our performance of Claude Debussy’s Rhapsody for Clarinet, with TŌN’s very own Viktor Tóth as the soloist. We performed this work with conductor Tan Dun one year ago this week at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Rose Theater. You can read the concert notes, written by TŌN clarinetist Ye Hu, by clicking here.
Ludwig van Beethoven, one of the greatest classical composers of all time, was born 250 years ago this week. We honor him by sharing our February performance of his Symphony No. 3, Eroica. This innovative work marked a turning point not only in Beethoven’s career, but in music history altogether. We performed it with conductor Leon Botstein at the Fisher Center at Bard in a concert celebrating Beethoven. You can read the concert notes, written by TŌN flutist Leanna Ginsburg, by clicking here.
This Throwback Thursday, revisit the final program from our September series Out of the Silence, presented with the Bard Music Festival, the Bard College Conservatory of Music, and the Fisher Center at Bard. Led by TŌN’s music director, Leon Botstein, this concert features Duke Ellington‘s Solitude and Sophisticated Lady; Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges‘ Symphonie concertante in G Major, with violinists Cyrus Beroukhim and Philip Payton; and Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta by Béla Bartók, who was the subject of the 1995 Bard Music Festival.
This Tuesday’s Audio Flashback is Igor Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms, which premiered 90 years ago this week. Stravinsky uses unusual instrumentation in this piece to create dark resonance and complexity. It all leads to an incredibly thought-provoking musical experience. Our 2018 performance at the Fisher Center at Bard, with the Bard College Chamber Singers and Bard Festival Chorale under the direction of James Bagwell, was led by conductor Leon Botstein. You can read the concert notes by clicking here.
On November 14, TŌN’s music director Leon Botstein, and assistant conductor, Andrés Rivas, led the orchestra in a streaming concert from the Fisher Center at Bard that featured three 20th-century works that all premiered in the U.S.—including the rarely heard Scherzi musicali of African American composer Ulysses Kay, who taught at Lehman College in the Bronx for twenty years—along with Haydn‘s regal Maria Theresa Symphony, performed for the Holy Roman Empress in 1773. Scroll down below the video for basic program info and timings, or click here to read the full concert program.
0:40 Introductory remarks by TŌN violinist Jacques Gadway
4:35 Edgard Varèse Hyperprism
Leon Botstein conductor
Read concert notes by TŌN horn player Steven Harmon by clicking here.
9:44 Introductory remarks by TŌN trumpet player Guillermo García Cuesta
14:05 Paul Hindemith Concert Music for Piano, Brass, and Harps
Leon Botstein conductor
Blair McMillen piano
Read concert notes by TŌN tuba player Jarrod Briley by clicking here.
40:13 Introductory remarks by TŌN cellist Kelly Knox
43:28 Ulysses Kay Scherzi musicali
Andrés Rivas conductor
Read concert notes by TŌN horn player Ser Konvalin by clicking here.
1:05:02 Introductory remarks by TŌN violinist Dillon Robb
1:07:56 Franz Joseph Haydn Symphony No. 48, Maria Theresa
Leon Botstein conductor
Read concert notes by TŌN cellist Pecos Singer by clicking here.