Festival Chamber Orchestra

Beethoven’s Symphony No. 2 stands out for its upbeat enthusiasm, a quality it offers in abundance despite the composer’s advancing deafness when he wrote it. Brimming with extremes and surprises, the piece exhibits an exuberance and cheerfulness not heard again until—perhaps—his Ode to Joy in the ninth symphony. The concert opens with Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll, a piece he wrote for his wife, Cosima. Wagner hired a small group of musicians to play the piece in the front hallway of his house to awaken her on her birthday morning.

Mozart fans may realize that the Festival has been slowly working its way through the great composer’s concertos for winds. This evening features his Concerto for Oboe, performed by the Festival’s Principal Oboe, Erik Behr. One of the most famous pieces ever written for the oboe, it offers a melodic showcase for the instrument’s range of expression. Wind instruments are also featured prominently in Argentinian composer Alberto Ginastera’s Variaciones Concertantes. Each variation gives the melodic lead to a different instrument, including the flute, clarinet, and a duet between the oboe and bassoon. And the final variation brings everything home with an exuberant, Latin-American flair.

The Festival’s 40th Season opens with a fanfare written by the composer Timothy Higgins especially for this occasion! Then soprano Meechot Marrero returns to Sun Valley to sing a few of her favorite arias–fans may remember her passionate performance in the Festival’s gala concert, Carmina Burana, in 2022. The concert closes with Prokofiev’s Classical Symphony. Prokofiev himself gave it the nickname, as he intended to write a symphony in the classical style, while “absorbing things from what was new in music.” It’s a delightful, sunny piece, and one of the most-performed works of the 20th century.

The Argentinian composer Astor Piazzolla, most famous for his tangos, composed The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires in the late 1960s. Festival Assistant Concertmaster Juliana Athayde will take the lead on these four lovely pieces that quote and improvise on Vivaldi’s masterpiece. Following, Associate Conductor Stephanie Childress returns to the podium to lead Mozart’s “Linz” symphony. On the way from Vienna to Salzburg, Austria, Mozart stopped to visit a friend in Linz, only to learn that said friend had committed him to performing a symphony there in four days. The only problem was that he didn’t have a symphony with him. So, being Mozart, he wrote one. It’s brilliant, of course!