The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) opened its first non-gala concert of the 2017-2018 season with “Tchaikovsky Thrill Ride,” a program that combined works by contemporary composers and beloved classics.
Music Director Marin Alsop and her talented ensemble began the year with the guest appearance of a gifted Peabody graduate in a marvelous guitar solo.
The evening began with a rendition of “Short Ride in a Fast Machine,” a 1986 composition by contemporary composer John Adams. Described by the symphony literature as, “minimalism on amphetamines,” the piece was lively and percussive, with a driving groove and rhythm held together by Alsop and the orchestra.
Following the performance of Adams’ composition, a special onstage announcement was made by the President and CEO of the Baltimore Symphony Orchesta, Peter T. Kjome, as well as a representative of Columbia University.
The pair announced that Alsop was the recipient of the 2017 Ditson Conductor’s Award for her work in advocating and performing the works of current classical composers.
The Alice M. Ditson Fund, which sponsors the award and its family of grants, works to promote the performing and recording of works by new and emerging American composers. Alsop has agreed to donate the $5000 cash prize included in this grant to the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.
“Lola Montez Does the Spider Dance,” another Adams piece, was written in 2016 and is dedicated to Alsop for her work as music director of the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music in California, a festival for new and experimental music.
The piece was inspired by the rather saucy tale of an Irish-American vaudeville star who performed the eponymous dance for a group of Western coal-miners while covered in spiders and cobwebs; The finale of her frantic, fiery dance involved the killing of the very last of the 10,000 spiders that had crawled over her body.
The composition, less playful and more portentous than its origins might have suggested, received its east coast premiere this weekend at the BSO.
The orchestra’s next rendition was of “Concierto de Aranjuez”, by Spanish composer and pianist Joaquín Rodrigo. One of Rodrigo’s best-known compositions, the classical guitar piece was inspired by the beautiful royal gardens of the Palacio Real de Aranjuez.
“Concierto” was composed in 1939 — during the final months of the bloody Spanish Civil War — while Rodrigo was living in Paris.
The concierto featured a gifted soloist on guitar with a connection to Baltimore: Lukasz Kuropaczewski, a Polish guitarist who studied at the Peabody Conservatory of Music under Maestro Manuel Barrueco. While at Peabody, Kuropaczewski received the Solomon H. Snyder Award and performed at Carnegie Hall in New York.
This was Kuropaczewski’s debut performance with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, and he played exceptionally, lending a lyrical, moving intensity to the concierto’s second movement.
The final piece, “Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony in E. Minor,” was performed with a racing tempo which added a marvelous, driving quality to the second movement but rendered the waltzing third movement slightly unstable.
The upcoming calendar at the BSO includes several evenings which feature pieces by this Russian composer: next weekend, his “Hamlet Fantasy Overture”, then in January, his “Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat Minor”, and his “Symphony No. 2 in C Minor” in March.
In addition to these, an all-Tchaikovsky program including choreography by George Balanchine is planned for the end of April.
The BSO has been making recent forays into venues outside of the concert hall, including a summer guest appearance at Joe Squared Pizza in Mount Vernon and recent “Conduct Me” pop-up appearances at Baltimore Penn Station and Baltimore Washington International-Thurgood Marshall Airport.
The orchestra has continued its recent interest in performing Movies with Orchestra and at the end of this month, will be performing the classic John Williams score to Jurassic Park.
Later in the season, the BSO will perform the score of the Wizard Of Oz in October, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban in March and Raiders of the Lost Ark in May.
The BSO Pulse Series invites young and contemporary alternative artists to play alongside the Orchestra, in a series of performances held throughout the year. In October, the series will welcome Esperanza Spalding, the bassist who famously won the Best New Artist Grammy.
Also featured in Pulse this season are NPR Tiny Desk Contest Winners Tank and the Bangas as well as Valerie June.
If you’re interested in attending more BSO events, it’s worth noting that the student passport permits students to attend a number of BSO concerts at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall for a low annual fee, with the exception of special performances.
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