Symphonie fantastique
JUST ANNOUNCED: ARTIST UPDATE
“Due to the natural disaster in her hometown of Los Angeles, Anne Akiko Meyers regretfully has had to cancel her performances with the Charleston Symphony. She looks forward to returning to Charleston in future seasons.”
The CSO is honored to welcome violinist Rachel Barton Pine, now joining the orchestra under the baton of Maestro Graf to perform Samuel Barber’s demanding Violin Concerto. Anne Akiko Meyers, her family, and all those impacted by the devastating wildfires will remain in our thoughts.
During this concert, you’ll have once-in-a-lifetime experience with your Charleston Symphony, featuring the extraordinary violinist Rachel Barton Pine and revered Austrian conductor Hans Graf. You’ll be captivated by Ravel’s Mother Goose and Barber’s Violin Concerto, as well as the epic orchestral masterpiece that is Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique. From tender love scenes to a gripping march to the scaffold and an opium-fueled nightmare, Berlioz’s mesmerizing composition takes you on a thrilling, unforgettable journey.
Symphonie fantastique with Rachel Barton Pine
Rachel Barton Pine will perform Samuel Barber’s Violin Concerto. The concerto is famous for several reasons, not the least of which being that in its final movement Barber requires the soloist to prevail with a thrilling, consuming, and breathtaking finale.
Hector Berlioz composed Symphonie fantastique while he was wracked with passion, fixated on an unrequited love, and deeply inspired by Beethoven. In doing so, he gave the world five movements of intense narrative portraying love’s torment and bliss through the opium dreams of an imaginative young man. In 1830, nothing like it had ever been heard before. Today, it endures as a captivating work of art that spans the orchestra’s instruments, with everything from a delicate waltz theme to ravenous and eerie chaos, and it is regarded as the pièce de résistance of Berlioz’s compositions.
MORE ON THE MUSIC & ARTISTS:
- “Striking and charismatic…she demonstrated a bravura technique and soulful musicianship.” – The New York Times describes Rachel Barton Pine
- Hans Graf is the Music Director of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra and Music Director Emeritus of the Houston Symphony Orchestra, among other current and past appointments. He has an extensive discography and won a Grammy Award in 2018 for Best Opera Recording.
- Prior to writing Symphonie fantastique, Berlioz wrote to a friend, “For some time I have had a descriptive symphony … in my brain. When I have released it, I mean to stagger the musical world.”
PROGRAM
Maurice Ravel
Ma Mère l’Oye (Mother Goose)
Samuel Barber
Violin Concerto, Op. 14
- Allegro
- Andante
- Presto in moto perpetuo
INTERMISSION
Hector Berlioz
Symphonie fantastique, Op. 14
- Rêveries (Passions)
- Un bal (A Ball)
- Scène aux champs (Scene in the Country)
- Marche au supplice (March to the Scaffold)
- Songe d’une nuit du sabbat (Dream of a Witches’ Sabbath)
ARTISTS
Hans Graf, conductor
Rachel Barton Pine, violin
