2020-2021 Season At A Glance
MASTERWORKS
Beethoven’s Beginnings
Our season premiere is a celebration of youth in music. Beethoven’s First and Second Symphonies premiered when he was just 29 and 32 respectively.
The period between Beethoven’s First and Second Symphonies was a time of great reckoning in the composer’s early life. His First Symphony, nearly five years in the making, was largely ignored by Vienna’s top music critics. Undeterred, Beethoven went back to the drawing board to begin his Second Symphony. This time, however, he was battling a secret demon: the deterioration of his own hearing.
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN
Symphony No. 1
PABLO DE SARASATE
Zigeunerweisen, “Gypsy Airs”
PABLO DE SARASATE
Carmen Fantasy
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN
Symphony No. 2
The Roaring Twenties
Calling all guys and dolls! Grab your boas and help us welcome back the roaring twenties with a night like you wouldn’t believe. When it comes to picking the best music, Maestro Yuriy sure does know his onions. Get ready for tunes like George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, Duke Ellington’s It Don’t Mean A Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing), the music of Chicago, and heaps more. It’s gonna be the cat’s pajamas! Read more…
French Revolutionaries
It is safe to say that this evening’s program will feel nothing short of heroic. Concertmaster Yuriy Bekker will perform Violin Concerto No. 3 by Camille Saint-Saëns, a 19th century French composer who made it his mission to reestablish the prominence of French art and music. One could say that Saint-Saëns succeeded through works like his Violin Concerto No. 3–now an audience favorite the world over. Read more…
CINDY MCTEE
Circuits
CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS
Violon Concerto No. 3
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN
Symphony No. 3 “Eroica”
Beethoven’s 5th
Perhaps the most recognizable piece of classical music ever written, Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony rose to a new level of prominence during World War II, when the BBC used the symphony’s famous four-note opening to preface daily radio broadcasts. Mimicking the sound of the letter “V” in Morse code (dot-dot-dot-dash), the first few notes of Beethoven’s Fifth became closely associated with the Allied Forces’ quest for victory, and ultimately gave this masterpiece its unofficial nickname, the “Victory” Symphony. Read more…
FANNY MENDELSSOHN HENSEL
Hiob
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN
Symphony No. 5
FELIX MENDELSSOHN
Die erste Walpurgisnacht
Holiday Pops
Experience one of Charleston’s all-time favorite traditions. Yuriy Bekker leads the Symphony in a festive mix of symphonic and popular music that will be sure to put you in the holiday spirit. This annual sell-out event features multiple guest artists, including a very famous resident of the North Pole. Don’t worry … cookies and milk not required. Read more…
A Serious Comedy
Beethoven was indeed serious about his “Serioso” string quartet. “It is never to be performed in public,” he wrote about the piece. Beethoven was most likely referring to the fact that such an intimate and innovative string quartet would sound out of place when performed next to larger works such as his own symphonies or concertos. Read more…
JEAN-PHILIPPE RAMEAU
Selections from Les Indes Galantes
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN
String Quartet No. 11, “Serioso”
RICHARD STRAUSS
Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme
Music of the Movies: In Space
Get ready for the Event Horizon of the year! Charleston Pops’ newest annual tradition, Music of the Movies, is heading to outer space. Suit up and strap in for the ride of a lifetime, featuring the music of Star Wars, E.T., Apollo 13, Star Trek, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and more. Read more…
Footsteps of a Giant
“I shall never write a symphony! You can’t have any idea what it’s like always to hear such a giant marching behind you!” The author of this quote was Johannes Brahms, and the “giant” he spoke of was none other than Ludwig van Beethoven. Read more…
JULIA PERRY
A Short Piece for Small Orchestra
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN
Piano Concerto No. 5, “Emperor”
JOHANNES BRAHMS
Symphony No. 4
Beethoven’s 7th
It is difficult to be the middle child–just ask Beethoven’s Symphony No. 8. Squeezed between the iconic Seventh and Ninth Symphonies, poor number eight often goes overlooked. We believe it deserves another listen, however. Read more…
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN
Symphony No. 8
ALMA MAHLER-WERFEL
Sieben Lieder
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN
Symphony No. 7
Once Upon A Time In The West
Yeehaw! Grab your cowboy hats and saddle up for a rootin’ tootin’ time, because Maestro Yuriy has rounded up the best music of the wild wild west. Get ready to hear iconic numbers from the Magnificent Seven, Toy Story, Billy the Kid, Copland’s Rodeo, and lots more. Read more…
Music of the Earth
If, as Shakespeare once said, “The earth has music for those who listen,” then classical composers arguably pay the closest attention in the spring. The number of composers who count the season of new life amongst their muses is high: Debussy, Verdi, Schumann, Strauss, Grieg, and Vivaldi, to name a few. Read more…
LILI BOULANGER
D’un matin de printemps (Of a Spring Morning)
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN
Symphony No. 6, “Pastoral”
IGOR STRAVINSKY
Petrushka
Ode To Joy
Possibly the only thing more astonishing than the unparalleled genius of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 is the fact that he was almost completely deaf when he wrote it. Despite its exuberant finale, the symphony represents nearly three decades of struggle and anguish for Beethoven, whose hearing began to fade while still in his twenties. The first ever to include a chorus, this symphony may have been Beethoven’s way of, quite literally, giving voice to his own internal battle between despair and triumph. Read more…
PAUL HINDEMITH
Nobilissima Visione: Suite
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN
Symphony No. 9, “Choral”