(lively orchestral music) - Minnesota Orchestra, together with Your Classical MPR and Twin Cities PBS, is live, with performances, interviews and more... on television, radio, and online.

This is Minnesota Orchestra.

Good evening to our friends around the world, across the U.S., and right here at home.

I'm your host, Sarah Hicks, and we're so glad to have you with us here at Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis for a concert of great live music, and especially glad that you've joined us tonight for a program of remembrance and reflection.

Reflecting back on the events of the last year is a powerful reminder that the scope of human experience is staggeringly complex.

Art, as a reflection of the human condition, is equally complex.

And while music ultimately appeals to our shared sense of humanity, it also holds a mirror to our anger, fear and sorrow, just as it does our joy, hope and awe.

Tonight, we approach music that expresses emotions across this broad spectrum: music that energizes and inspires us, music that gives voice to grief and anger, and music that helps us reflect on a hopeful future.

We'll find inspiration and energy in the vivacious lyricism of Saint-Georges' "Violin Concerto in D Major", with guest artist violinist Karen Gomyo.

Carlos Simon's "An Elegy: A Cry from the Grave" expresses the cry of those struck down unjustly by an oppressive power.

Finally, Mahler's "Adagietto" is an exquisite declaration of love and of the possibility of beauty.

We first turn, however, to music by Shostakovitch, in an arrangement by a dear friend of his "String Quartet No.

8", which was written in Dresden Germany.

While ostensibly inspired by a scenes of the postwar devastation he encountered there and dedicated to, quote, "the memory of the victims of fascism and war", end quote, this music is also autobiographical in nature, reflecting Shostakovich's own lifelong struggle against Stalinist totalitarianism.

The five movements of this work are played without pause and are unified by a four-note theme built on the abbreviation of the composer's name, DSCH, Dmitri Shostakovitch, which in German nomenclature represents the notes D, E flat, C, B.

Let's hear our concert master Erin Keefe play this theme a few times.

(somber violin music) This is the first theme you'll be hearing at the beginning of the piece, and we'll be spotlighting this theme on screen once per movement, although you will hear it more often as it weaves its way throughout the work.

The theme is heard in counterpoint throughout the elegiac first movement, which transitions into the violent allegro of the second movement.

The eerie waltz of the third movement gives way to an outpouring of melody in the fourth, leading finally to a fifth movement full of somber tones, all played without pause.

Dark, troubled, brutal, mournful and shatteringly powerful, here is Shostakovich's chamber symphony, conducted by music director Osmo Vanska.

(orchestra applauding and stomping) (dark orchestral music) (frantic orchestral music) (light orchestral music) (intense orchestral music) (soft orchestral music) - That was the chamber symphony by Dmitri Shostakovitch, which is based on his "String Quartet No.

8" from 1960.

Osmo Vanska led the Minnesota Orchestra in a live broadcast on Your Classical MPR, Twin Cities PBS and the orchestra's website.

Shostakovitch quotes himself many times in that music.

The first symphony, the piano trio, the "Cello Concerto No.

1", his opera, "Lady Macbeth".

But in that last movement, one of the borrowed melodies is an old prison song that was known to every school boy in the Soviet Union.

I'm Melissa Ousley in the radio booth for Your Classical MPR.

Sarah Hicks is not in the hall tonight.

Hello Sarah.

- [Sarah] Hey Melissa.

As you can see, I am backstage with some of the hustle and bustle as musicians come off stage.

But as always, great to hear your lovely voice.

- Nice to hear you too.

I love that you're right there in the thick of everything, and I'm looking forward to this next piece.

Now, the Shostakovitch, I should say, is part of a program that covers a lot of emotional ground.

And the next piece is a violin concerto by Chevalier de Saint-Georges.

He was a composer who was born in Guadalupe.

His father was a wealthy plantation owner.

His mother was one of the enslaved Africans that was working there.

And Saint-George ends up living in France, where he was kind of a trailblazer in the music world.

- [Sarah] He was, and what most people don't realize is that Saint-George was 11 years Mozart's senior, and when they met in 1778, Saint-George was a highly regarded musician and a celebrity in the court of Marie Antoinette, and Mozart was a bit envious.

So, by many accounts, Mozart's very famous Sinfonia concertante was influenced by the elder composer's sinfonia concertante.

So it was Saint-George who influenced Mozart and not the other way around.

- And it's easy to assume that it was the other way around, so thanks for that.

I was talking to Karen Gomyo the other day, and she told me she's playing this concerto for the first time, and when she opened the music, first of all, there wasn't a lot there telling her what to do, and the cadenzas, nothing at all.

And maybe you should explain what a cadenza is, Sarah.

- [Sarah] Sure.

- A cadenza is a moment in a concerto where the orchestra completely stops and the soloist plays an extended solo that's essentially a virtuosic display and a distillation of all the themes in that movement.

It's really a chance for the soloist to literally take center stage.

- Okay, so, Karen has nothing to go on, and she decides to create her own cadenzas, and I've heard some of them, and they are pretty amazing.

In fact, the one at the end of the first movement, which will be probably about eight minutes in, is spectacular, so pay attention.

- [Sarah] I always do, Melissa.

(both laughing) Thanks so much for chatting.

- Thank you.

- Saint-George is truly a Renaissance man: an accomplished athlete, dancer, fencer, military leader, and conductor, as well as a composer.

Add to that list violin virtuoso.

But despite the fact that he wrote violin concertos for his own use, they're more than mere vehicles of virtuosic display.

Instead, they're works of tuneful elegance written with a deft hand.

In the concerto we hear tonight, an intimate and expressive second movement is surrounded by two outer movements that demonstrate an adroit joie de vivre and intriguing originality.

It's a work that expresses both luminous beauty and inventiveness, some of the best elements of the human experience.

Here now is Saint-George's "Concerto in D Major", featuring violinist Karen Gomyo and the Minnesota Orchestra led by Osmo Vanska.

(orchestral tuning) (orchestral applauding and stomping) (lively orchestral music) (violin solo) (lively orchestral music) (solemn orchestral music) (lively orchestral music) (orchestral applauding and stomping) Elegant, inventive and uplifting.

That was the "Violin concerto in D Major" by Saint-George, with our guest soloist Karen Gomyo.

Karen is a familiar face here in Orchestra Hall, having less soloed with us in July of 2019.

And as we mentioned before, she wrote her own cadenzas for this concerto.

So this broadcast is a first performance for these new cadenzas.

This entire concerto may be new for you and it's actually new for us as well, as this broadcast marks the first performance of Saint-George's D major concerto by the Minnesota Orchestra.

And there's a reason for that.

While Saint-George was one of the most influential composers of his day, much of his music has been neglected or lost over the ensuing centuries.

And although we can't determine all of the factors that led to this neglect, as the son of a white plantation owner and a slave of Senegalese descent, we can assert undeniably that the fundamental factor was race.

Racism, like fascism and the violence of war, points to the inhumanity of which we humans are all too capable.

And just as Shostakovich wrote his chamber symphony as a cry against totalitarianism, our next composer has written a work that is the cry of those struck down unjustly.

Carlos Simon tells us more about his piece.

- Hi.

My name is Carlos Simon, composer.

This piece, "Elegy: Acquired from the Grave", is an artistic reflection dedicated to those who've been involuntarily murdered by an oppressive power, namely Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Breonna Taylor, and so many others.

The stimulus for this piece came as a result when prosecuting attorney Robert McCulloch announced that a selected the jury had decided not to indict police officer Darren Wilson after fatally shooting Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.

The evocative nature of this piece draws on strong lyricism, and a lush harmonic character.

A melodic idea is played in all the voices of the ensemble at some point of the piece or either whole, or as a fragmented segment.

The recurring, ominous motif represents the cry of those struck down unjustly in this country.

While the predominant essence of this piece is sorrowful and contemplative, there are moments of extreme hope, represented by bright, consonant harmonies.

I hope that you will listen to this piece intently.

Thank you.

- This week marks one year since the murder of George Floyd here in Minneapolis, our city, our community.

His murder set in motion a worldwide movement against police violence, racism and inequality, and has sparked a profound national discourse.

While we know that music itself cannot change the pain and injustice of the past or solve the struggles of the present, it can hold up a mirror to the uncomfortable truths of human nature and perhaps provoke examination and empathy.

But most importantly, music creates the space for us to sit with these truths, to feel, to reflect, to share, to remember, and to grieve together.

Our next work was originally written for string quartet and has been rearranged for string orchestra by the composer.

Are musicians are tuning, and here now is Simon's "An Elegy: A Cry from the Grave."

(orchestra tuning) (moving orchestral music) (somber orchestral music) A complex merging of so many emotions, revealing both anguish and the fragile possibility of justice.

That was Simon's "An Elegy: A Cry from the Grave".

We'd like to conclude this program by turning our gaze towards the light, to that fragile possibility and to the beauty within.

As we've heard tonight, music can reflect grief and struggle, but it can also aluminate compassion and hope.

Our Music Director, Osmo Vanska, shares his thoughts before our final selection, Mahler's "Adagietto".

- We just heard something which is... really dark... sad... about things... where there is no hope.

And now we are going to hear something totally different: Mahler's "Adagietto"... which actually is a love letter from a husband to his wife.

But I have always thought about, that music is more about hope... at a very general level, and I would like to describe that the sadness where we were, it could be like a child who is still crying.

The situation is already over, but the... memories and emotions are are still like... the crying is not going to stop, and then there is a chance to have grandmom or grandfather who can take the child.

Everything is going to be all right, even if you don't feel it right now, but it's going to be okay.

Just sit there, relax, and I will take care of you.

That's the music of Mahler's "Adagietto" When I'm thinking about the power of music, For me, it's something which goes... so deep and could give us... so much more than than even the best speaker when they are speaking and trying to con convince you or trying to console you, whatever.

I feel that, when all the words are set... but you know that it wasn't the whole thing.

You need something else.

Then give a chance for music.

And I feel very much like, when there is no way to add any verb, then the music starts... and not only starts, but it's going to be there and giving you, filling your life with all the emotions.

You need to be smiling again... or to be ready to do whatever you like to do in your life.

We can be in a concert alone and together at the same time.

And that is very powerful part of music.

- Mahler's "Adagietto" is an island of calm in the midst of his tumultuous Fifth Symphony.

Scored for strings and harp, it's aching beauty has led to its frequent performance as a standalone work, a work which both expresses a luminous timelessness and reminds us that life is finite and precious.

Here is Mahler's "Adagietto".

(gentle orchestral music) (passionate orchestral music) (gentle orchestral music) (passionate orchestral music) Music that is both deeply personal and utterly universal as an expression of pure love.

That was Mahler's "Adagietto", the Minnesota Orchestra conducted by music director Osmo Vanska.

We hope you've been moved by our journey across a spectrum of emotions, emotions the whole world has experienced over this truly extraordinary year.

Art, music, is at its most powerful when reflecting the full scope of human experience: anger, grief, compassion, joy, and the hope of presenting art is the hope that, if we allow ourselves to truly face that reflection, perhaps it can open us to the possibility of being a part of a different and better future.

Thank you for remembering and reflecting with us tonight, and we look forward to being in this space in person together.

So, until our next broadcast, as always, my friends, stay safe, stay well, and I'll see you soon.

Goodnight.

(light orchestral music)