Alpine Symphony with Bruch’s Violin Concerto
6:30PM – FREE PRE-CONCERT TALK! Join us in the Performance Hall to learn more about the program.
Carl St.Clair, longtime Music Director of the Pacific Symphony, returns to conduct the Charleston Symphony for a program of remarkable music from two of Germany’s late Romantic-era composers. Guest soloist Aubree Oliverson performs Max Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1, a favorite that demands and demonstrates a soloist’s skillfulness. Hearing Strauss’s “Alpine Symphony” live is not an opportunity you want to miss.
The “Alpine Symphony” is a grand work of art that requires 140 different instruments with a sizable orchestra, and because of its challenges, it is not often performed. Though the prerequisites are rigorous, they are worth it. It calls for so much to recreate the scene Strauss envisioned: a single day’s journey on foot in the Alps from pre-dawn to nighttime, along the way experiencing all the sounds one might encounter. It’s a true celebration of nature enrapturing the human spirit — sometimes startling and thunderous, sometimes blissfully quiet, but always fascinating and unrestrained.
MORE ON THE MUSIC & ARTISTS:
- Carl St.Clair is the longest-tenured American-born conductor of a major American orchestra.
- Young American violinist Aubree Oliverson is distinguishing herself with clear, honest, and colorful performances, which have been described as “powerful … brimming with confidence and joy” by the Miami New Times.
- Joseph Joachim, a prominent 19th-century violinist, said Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1 was “the richest, most seductive” in comparison to Beethoven’s, Brahms’s, and Mendelsohn’s violin concertos.
- Of his “Alpine Symphony,” Strauss wrote that “this represents moral purification through one’s own strength, liberation through work, worship of eternal, magnificent nature.”
PROGRAM
Max Bruch (1838-1920)
Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op. 26
I. Prelude: Allegro moderato
II. Adagio
III. Finale: Allegro energico
INTERMISSION
Richard Strauss (1911-1915)
Eine Alpensinfonie, TrV 233, Op. 64 (Alpine Symphony)
I. Nacht (Night)
II. Sonnenaufgang (Sunrise)
III. Der Anstieg (The Ascent)
IV. Eintritt in den Wald (Entering the Forest)
V. Wanderung neben dem Bache (Wandering near the Stream)
VI. Am Wasserfall (At the Waterfall)
VII. Erscheinung (Apparition)
VIII. Auf blumige Wiesen (On Blooming Meadows)
IX. Auf der Alm (On the Alpine Pasture)
X. Durch Dickicht und Gestrüpp auf Irrwegen (Going Astray)
XI. Auf dem Gletscher (On the Glacier)
XII. Gefahrvolle Augenblicke (Dangerous Moments)
XIII. Auf dem Gipfel (At the Summit)
XIV. Vision (View)
XV. Nebel steigen auf (Fog Arises)
XVI. Die Sonne verdüstert sich allmählich (The Sun Gradually Darkens)
XVII. Elegie (Elegy)
XVIII. Stille vor dem Sturm (Calm Before the Storm)
XIX. Gewitter und Sturm (Thunder and Storm)
XX. Sonnenuntergang (Sunset)
XXI. Ausklang (Vanishing Sound)
XXII. Nacht (Night)
ARTISTS
Carl St.Clair, Conductor
Aubree Oliverson, Violin
