The Tacoma Symphony Orchestra opens the 2010-2011 season with a globetrotting musical adventure that includes works
evoking Paris, Spain, and the American West. Music Director Harvey Felder opens his 17th season with Chabrier’s España
and Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez. Joining him for the second piece will be Croatian guitarist Ana Vidovic, whose playing
was called “nuanced and intensely personal” by The Washington Post. Copland’s Billy the Kid and Gershwin’s An American in Paris
will round out the second half of the program. The concert will be held at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, October 23 in the Pantages Theater,
at the Broadway Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Tacoma. For tickets, $24 to $77, call (253) 591-5894 or (800) 291-7593
or visit www.tacomasymphony.org. The program is sponsored by Gordon Thomas Honeywell, Odom Corporation, and Marine Floats.
Ana Vidovic last appeared regionally as a recitalist at the 2006 Northwest Guitar Festival in Bellingham in 2006, but her concert with
the TSO marks her orchestral solo debut both in Washington and the Pacific Northwest. Her extensive 2010-2011 tour also includes
performances in Japan, the Netherlands, France, Poland, Scotland, and throughout the U.S. The young musician is developing a
growing reputation for captivating audiences with “an unmatched phrasing ability and an understanding of the soul of music”
(Knoxville News Sentinel). Ms. Vidovic’s appearance with the TSO is underwritten by the Gottfried and Mary Fuchs Foundation.
Concierto de Aranjuez, the first work ever written for guitar and orchestra, represented a daring leap in instrumentation – posing the
relatively quiet classical guitar against the full force of a symphony orchestra. The work stemmed from a 1939 meeting between the
composer and Spanish guitarist Regino Sainz de la Maza in Paris. Its 1940 premiere in Barcelona was an instant sensation; the work’s
resulting popularity gave Rodrigo the financial security that had hitherto eluded him. Its prominence came to overshadow his other work
(similar to Ravel’s experience with his Bolero) and left him with ambivalent feelings about the piece. Nevertheless, it remains seminal in
the repertory of Spanish music, artfully capturing the “fragrance of magnolias, the singing of birds, and the gushing of fountains"
in the gardens of Aranjuez.
Aaron Copland’s music, more than any other composer’s, is reflective of wide-open landscapes and the fierceness and opportunity of
the American frontier. He once said his mission was to express “the deepest reactions of the American consciousness to the American scene.”
That dedication has made him the most beloved and popular of classical American composers. Billy the Kid, the first major orchestral work Copland
wrote in the style that came to define him, captures the spirit of the Wild West through its distinctive use of actual cowboy and folk tunes. The open
chordal spacing and use of simple, direct harmonies spoke to audiences immediately – as it still does today. These techniques contributed to
the development of a distinctly American style of music.
Taking a step back in time to the latter half of the 1800s, the popular showpiece España marked a turning point in the career of French Romantic
composer Emmanuel Chabrier. The work’s immediate appeal prompted various transcriptions and arrangements, earning Chabrier sufficient clout
to compose his grander scale works. Though his body of work is limited, it was highly influential on early 20th century composers such as Debussy
and Ravel.
An American in Paris was the third in a series of orchestral works by George Gershwin that began with Rhapsody in Blue and continued with
Piano Concerto in F. Rather than focusing on the piano in the manner of the first two pieces, An American in Paris is a lush and colorful tone poem
for orchestra that illustrates the experience of an American tourist visiting Paris. In order to evoke the bustling streets of Paris, with its endless braying
taxis, the score calls for the use of four car horns. While visiting Paris in 1928 just prior to the work’s composition, Gershwin had a now-legendary
meeting with composer Igor Stravinsky, during which he asked the famous Russian for composition lessons. Stravinsky asked Gershwin about his
level of income, to which Gershwin replied, “About $100,000 a year.” Stravinsky paused, and then remarked, “In that case, I should study with you.”
Dr. Gregory Youtz will lead a pre-concert talk about the music being performed beginning at 6:30 p.m. in the hall. Patrons are invited to come early
to enhance their appreciation and enjoyment of the concert. They are also encouraged to bring a non-perishable food item with them.
The TSO is collaborating with the Emergency Food Network to provide collection bins at every concert this season for distribution to the area needy.
