Pro Musica opens its 38th Season on September 21 and 22 in the Lensic with Heroic Beethoven, featuring Beethoven’s epic Symphony No. 3, “Eroica.” Rounding out the program is Julia Adolphe’s ethereal Shiver and Bloom and Erich Korngold’s film-inspired Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 35 with Colin Jacobsen as the soloist. Music Director and Conductor Thomas O’Connor leads the Pro Musica Orchestra in music that is dramatic, mercurial and monumental.
Meet the Music
Ludwig van Beethoven’s monumental Symphony No. 3, “Eroica” (1804) is one of his most celebrated and revolutionary compositions. Grounded in the Classical Period, it is a springboard into the Romantic Era. BBC Music Magazine declared this symphony the greatest of all time (from a 2016 survey of 151 conductors). The first movement has been described as expressing Beethoven’s courage in confronting his deafness; the dirge-like second movement communicates his despair; the third movement is an “indomitable uprising of creative energy;” and the last movement is an exuberant outpouring of energy and determination.
Julia Adolphe’s music Shiver and Bloom was commissioned in 2017 for the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. Adolphe describes this music as an “ethereal soundscape wrestling with the perceived divide between the mind and the body.” It is scored for a quintet of wind instruments, strings, harp and percussion.
To learn more about Julia, visit her website.
Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897-1957) earned his fame from writing movie music in Los Angeles in the 1930s and 40s. However, he stated that “I have never drawn a distinction between music for films, for operas or for concerts.” His movie scores were symphonic and operatic in their scope. Conversely, his Violin Concerto borrows liberally from his movie music. This is a work full of lusciously orchestrated melodies and virtuoso violin writing. Alex Ross recently wrote in The New Yorker (August 12, 2019) that Korngold is a “master of late-Romantic opulence” with a melodic gift that rivals Puccini’s.
More Meet the Music
To learn more about the music, join us one hour before each Pro Musica Lensic concert and hear informative conversations with Music Director Tom O’Connor and the guest artists. Free to ticket holders.
505.988.4640 | sfpromusica.org
Orchestra Series I
Heroic Beethoven
Lensic Performing Arts Center
Saturday, September 21 at 4 PM
Sunday, September 22 at 3 PM
Pro Musica Orchestra
Thomas O’Connor, conductor
Colin Jacobsen, violin
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 3 in E-Flat Major, Op. 55, “Eroica”
JULIA ADOLPHE Shiver and Bloom
ERICH KORNGOLD Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 35
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Tickets range from $20-$100.
Pro Musica Box Office
505.988.4640 | sfpromusica.org