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Our Conductor
Welcome to the Albany Symphony’s 2007-2008 season. Inspired by
Yo-Yo Ma’s journeys along the Silk Road, our season celebrates exciting
and beautiful art from distant and exotic cultures
and its connections to the
grand European tradition.
It is a celebration
of world culture, featuring extraordinary young artists and classics
new and old, performed by our brilliant Albany Symphony musicians.
Our opening concerts will transport you to the British Isles with
a program that includes a new work for Bagpipes and orchestra inspired
by ancient Irish folk music, alongside works of Mendelssohn, Britten
and Haydn. In October, we travel to China where the radiant Erhu
soloist (the Chinese classical violin) Betty Xiang performs the
most popular Chinese classical work of all times, the “Butterfly
Lovers” Concerto. In December,
the dynamic cellist, Matt Haimovitz, will take us to the “Old Country” with a
Klezmer Concerto for Cello and Orchestra.
We’ll also explore
the world of American Jazz in April with music from Gershwin’s “Porgy
and Bess,” and we’ll close the season in May when Albany
Pro Musica joins us for Beethoven’s monumental Ninth
Symphony.
Our soloists include Joshua Bell, who will join us for a special
January Gala performance. In addition, you’ll hear three
of the most exciting young pianists on the scene today: 19-year-old
Adam Golka, playing the Grieg
concerto in
November; the charismatic Orion Weiss, playing Mozart in February;
and an Albany Symphony favorite, Joyce Yang, who recently won the
Silver Medal in the Van Cliburn Competition, playing Ravel in April.
Glorious orchestral masterworks appear on every program: they include
Berlioz’ “Symphony
Fantastique,” Wagner’s
music from “Tannhauser,” Schubert's “Unfinished” Symphony,
Shostakovich’s poignant Cello
Concerto No. 1, “West
Side Story”," Richard
Strauss’ “Death
and Transfiguration,” Schumann’s “Spring” Symphony,
and Mozart’s Piano Concerto
No. 21, (“Elvira Madigan”).
Leonard Bernstein’s achingly beautiful “Jeremiah” Symphony will
be the centerpiece of Key's American Music Festival, which will
also feature Wu Wei, the world’s greatest Sheng player
(the ancient Chinese mouth organ, half way between a harmonica
and a church organ...) in a dazzling new concerto by Huang Ruo.
Please join me and your brilliant Albany Symphony musicians for
the most exciting series of orchestra concerts anywhere, a richly
textured, deeply satisfying worldwide journey of exploration and
discovery, our '07-'08 subscription season. |
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