New World Symphony
This program features music by three of the world’s most beloved composers: Brahms, Mozart, and Dvořák. Andrew Litton, the GRAMMY Award-winning Music Director of the New York City Ballet, will return to Charleston to conduct. Charles Messersmith, Principal Clarinet, will take the stage as soloist for Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto. Plus, the Charleston Symphony Chorus will join the orchestra for Johannes Brahms’s “Song of Destiny.”
Bohemian composer Antonín Dvořák spent three years at the helm of the National Conservatory of Music in New York City, which was a far cry from his home in the Bohemia region of Europe. The homesick Dvořák found familiarity within the folk music of America, and the “New World” Symphony thus became a melting pot of sounds with unmistakable provincial Czech influence and distinctly American inspiration.
Brahms’s divine, moody “Song of Destiny” and Mozart’s exceptional Clarinet Concerto are perfect preludes to Dvořák’s fondness for lush symphonic sounds.
MORE ON THE MUSIC & ARTISTS:
- Charles Messersmith has been a member of the CSO since 1998 and has been Principal Clarinet for 20 years.
- Johannes Brahms was a mentor and friend of Antonín Dvořák. They connected when Brahms, when acting as a judge for a composers’ competition, was impressed by the younger Dvořák’s music.
- An acknowledged expert on George Gershwin, Andrew Litton has performed and recorded Gershwin widely as both pianist and conductor and serves as Advisor to the University of Michigan Gershwin Archives.
- Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto was written just months before his death at age 35.
PROGRAM
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
Schicksalslied, Op. 54 (Song of Destiny)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
Clarinet Concerto in A Major, K. 622
INTERMISSION
Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904)
Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Op. 95 (From the New World)
ARTISTS
Andrew Litton, Conductor
Charles Messersmith, Clarinet
CSO Chorus (Nicholas Quardokus, Director)
