By NELLY CASE
Los Alamos Symphony Orchestra
This feast of symphonic music begins at 7 p.m. Saturday, April 20, at Crossroads Bible Church in Los Alamos. Student scholarship winners will also be recognized, and a reception will follow the concert in the lobby. Admission is free, but a donation of $10 per person is suggested and will be graciously accepted by the orchestra.
The Los Alamos Symphony Orchestra welcomes its new permanent conductor William Waag to the podium for the closing concert of its 2023-24 season April 20. Waag serves as Artistic Director of the Santa Fe Youth Symphony and Music Director of the Santa Fe Community Orchestra.
The program opens with Variations on a Theme of Joseph Haydn by Johannes Brahms. Like many other 19th century composers, Brahms was in awe of Beethoven, owing to the breadth and depth of his nine symphonies. But the enthusiastic acclaim from critics and audiences alike after the premiere of the Haydn Variations in 1873 finally gave Brahms the confidence he needed to confront the ghost of Beethoven, and during the next 15 years, he produced all the symphonic works that continue to assure his inclusion among the giants of classical music.
Similarly, when Sergei Diaghilev, impresario of the Ballets Russes in Paris, commissioned Igor Stravinsky to write the score for The Firebird in 1910, the composer was largely unknown. Nevertheless, the production was such a success that it brought international fame to the young man and sparked the lifelong career that made him one of the most influential composers of the 20th century. The Los Alamos Symphony will perform the last two numbers from that ballet. During the “Berceuse” the magical title character puts the wicked demon Kastchei and all his minions to sleep, allowing the hero of the tale, Prince Ivan, to destroy the source of the demon’s power and release all his prisoners. There follows a vision of ever greater joy as more and more instruments join in a musical celebration of freedom.
The program continues with “Danse Bacchanale” by Camille Saint-Saens from his operatic masterpiece Samson and Delilah—the only one of his numerous operas, ballets, and other stage works to remain in the repertory since its debut in 1877. Full of exotic melodies and powerful percussion, this excerpt well illustrates the dramatic Biblical story, which concludes with Samson destroying the temple of the tyrannical Philistines.
Widely considered Finland’s greatest composer, Jean Sibelius was born into a stressful period for his country, seeking cultural independence from Sweden while at the same time under active occupation by the Russian military. Among his seven symphonies, the second in particular was interpreted from its premiere in March 1902 as an overt expression of the political conflict in his homeland. Clearly, from beginning to end, the second symphony conveys the sense of great hope for the future that we all can appreciate and explains why Sibelius was hailed in his own time as the “Voice of Finland”.
