Great music can fire the emotions and stir the bones. That’s certainly true of late Romantic works like Dvořák’s “Seventh Symphony.”
The San Juan Symphony will highlight Dvořák’s masterpiece in the next concert pair of the 38th season. After performing Feb. 10 at the Community Concert Hall at Fort Lewis College in Durango, the orchestra will travel to Farmington for a matinee Feb. 11.
Music Director and Conductor Thomas Heuser continues to surprise music lovers by combining a familiar work like Dvořák’s beloved “Seventh” with two fresh and unexpected pieces.
Heuser will open the concert with “Ballade” in A minor, Op. 33, by British composer Samuel Taylor-Coleridge, a late-19th century Romantic, whose works are undergoing a revival. The other is a relatively new work by the American composer, Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate. Born in Norman, Oklahoma, Tate, 56, is a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation. He is classically trained, dedicated to the creation and development of American Indian classical composition, and swamped with commissions.
If you go
WHAT: “Passionate,” San Juan Symphony 38th Season, Music Director Thomas Heuser, works by Dvořák, Taylor-Coleridge and Tate.
WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Feb. 10, Durango; and 1 p.m. Feb. 12, Farmington.
WHERE: Community Concert Hall at Fort Lewis College, Durango. Henderson Performance Hall, Farmington.
TICKETS: Durango single tickets range from $21 students to $64 adults.
MORE INFORMATION: Call 247-7567 or visit www.durangoconcerts.com.
Taylor-Coleridge’s “Ballade” at the top of the concert functions as a wake-up call. The one-movement work ricochets between march-like brilliance and lyricism. The composer was born in 1875 and overcame prejudice against his mixed-race heritage. His English mother deliberately named him after the poet and called him Coleridge at home. Having graduated from London’s Royal College of Music at 22, the young composer got a lucky break. The story goes that the eminent Sir Edward Elgar reported he couldn’t accept a festival commission because he was “too busy.” Elgar strongly recommended the young Taylor-Coleridge, and the “Ballade” premiered in 1898.
The second work on the program features a 2018 piece by Chickasaw composer Impichchaachaaha’ Tate. Titled “Chokfi: (Rabbit) Sarcasm,” the piece was commissioned by the Oklahoma Youth Orchestra. It’s dynamic, propulsive, and scored for only strings and percussion.
“Our deep dive into Tate’s music has revealed some truly wonderful surprises,” Heuser said. “Tate uses Indigenous folk music as the basis for melodies of great breadth and intricacy. And his palette of harmonic colors spans the gamut, from harsh and dissonant to firmly tonal and resonant. It’s perfect for our Side-by-Side concert.”
Heuser added that annually the orchestra invites talented area students to audition to play alongside the professional musicians in a side-by-side concert.
“The students will play both ‘Chokfi’ and the ‘Ballade’ with the orchestra musicians,” he said. “The ‘Ballade’ is good for the students, offering them big, fully Romantic moments to really lean into their instruments. In contrast will be ‘Chokfi’’ and what might feel like a more pointillistic approach – scampering. We’re happy the students will be exposed to a diverse set of composers whose music will no doubt be new to them – as we hope it will be for our audience as well.”
The concert will conclude with Dvořák’s big “Seventh Symphony,” the most popular in the composer’s lifetime. It’s not as well-known today as his “Ninth,” “From the New World,” peppered as it is with borrowings from American Spirituals. Dvořák, who died in 1904, incorporated folk music into classical structures as part of the Nationalist movement in the late 19th century. Smetana, Borodin, Grieg and Sibelius also enlivened their country’s musical heritage with folk tunes and dance rhythms.
Dvořák spent two years in America at the National Conservatory of Music, the predecessor of Juilliard, and he took note of America’s great heritage of folk music, especially spirituals. He encouraged others to wake up and take notice.
Thanks to Heuser and the symphony, Dvořák’s stirring “Seventh” will unfurl in full-throttle, full-color Romantic brilliance come mid-February.
If you want to hear more about Dvořák and company, Music Director Thomas Heuser will offer a concert overview with musical excerpts and telling details at 6 p.m., Wednesday (Feb. 7) at the Powerhouse Science Center. The free series is titled Musically Speaking.
Heuser is a music educator in the style of Leonard Bernstein, weaving the history, structure, style and significance of individual works together. Like Bernstein, he avoids jargon and has an informal, informed and collegial style.
The popular series features light snacks, a cash bar and camaraderie. Heuser also offers 30-minute pre-concert talks without musical excerpts one hour before downbeat in each performance hall.
Judith Reynolds is an arts journalist and member of the American Theatre Critics Association.
