Episode Overview:

About the Concert: 

Violin Concerto by Erich Korngold

In Sarasota Orchestra's Concert Companion to Masterworks: Grand Treasures (April 4-6, Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall), we dig into a deep question about orchestral music: Art museum or living art form? Well, what if it's both?! Principal Keyboardist Jonathan Spivey masterfully guides us through Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 3, to be performed by Jon Kimura Parker in this concert. In highlighting Sarasota Orchestra’s co-commission of Horizons by Peter Boyer, we learn how orchestras become active participants in presenting contemporary compositions and whether an orchestra leaves fingerprints when new works are born. On the flip side of the coin, we ponder what makes a canonical composition a “masterwork” and discuss the orchestra’s vital importance in keeping these treasures from getting buried in the sands of time. How do orchestras and conductors make centuries-old music feel vital, relevant, and timeless, inspiring generations of repeat listens?
Tickets available at SarasotaOrchestra.org!
Music in this episode:Symphony No. 4 by Johannes BrahmsCzech National Symphony Orchestra
Piano Concerto No. 3 by Ludwig van BeethovenDrew Petersen, pianoMarcelo Lehninger, conductorSarasota OrchestraRecorded live at the Sarasota Opera House, September 28, 2019

In Sarasota Orchestra's Concert Companion to Masterworks: Heroic Spirit (January 30, Neel Performing Arts Center; January 31 - February 2, Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall), we hear from Nicholas Arbolino, who has played oboe and English horn with Sarasota Orchestra since 2014.
Every professional orchestra musician may not live in the spotlight; however, they all pour astonishing amounts of time, energy, sweat, and soul into their position. We talk with Nick about the athleticism and performance psychology inherent to being a musician and invite him to tell us about his music heroes. Nick's preview of the Heroic Spirit concert program explores other acts of musical heroics in Beethoven's Coriolan Overture and Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5, as well as Anne Akiko Meyers' performance of Fandango for violin and orchestra, a Latin GRAMMY®-winning work she recently commissioned from Arturo Márquez.
Tickets are available online at SarasotaOrchestra.org!
Music in this episode:
Fandango by Arturo Márquez
Anne Akiko Meyers, violin
Gustavo Dudamel, conductor
Los Angeles Philharmonic
From the album Fandango, released September 15, 2023 (Platoon)
 
Symphony No. 5 by Dmitri Shostakovich
Kenneth Schermerhorn, conductor
Sarasota Orchestra
Recorded live at the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, January 2005
Coriolan Overture by Ludwig van Beethoven
Case Scaglione, conductor
Sarasota Orchestra
Recorded live at the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, January 7, 2017

Check out Sarasota Orchestra’s Concert Companion to our second Masterworks concert of the season (Beethoven's Seventh, December 6-7, 2024, at Church of the Palms)! In this must-listen episode, cellist Chizuko "Cheeko" Matsusaka takes listeners on a fascinating journey, linking Carlos Simon, Brahms, Beethoven, Homer's Iliad, and symbols of human perseverance through some of history's darkest times. Cheeko also details her musical history with guest conductor Peter Oundjian and eavesdropping on Yefim Bronfman in the practice room at the Aspen Music Festival. Learn more about the robust concert program that features the GRAMMY® Award-winning pianist making his Sarasota Orchestra debut as soloist in Brahms' monumental Piano Concerto No. 1.

Tickets are available online at SarasotaOrchestra.org! 

Music in this episode:
"The Kiss of the Earth: Introduction" from The Rite of Spring by Igor Stravinsky (arrangement for piano four hands)
Marc-André Hamelin and Leif Ove Andsnes, piano
From the album The Rite of Spring & other works for two pianos four hands, released February 2018 (Hyperion)

Symphony No. 7 by Ludwig van Beethoven
Bramwell Tovey, conductor
Sarasota Orchestra
Recorded live at the Sarasota Opera House, October 30, 2021

Fate Now Conquers by Carlos Simon
Carter Brey, cello
Jaap van Zweden, conductor
New York Philharmonic 
Recorded live at the Bravo! Vail Music Festival, July 23, 2021

Piano Concerto No. 1 by Johannes Brahms
Roman Rabinovich, piano
Anu Tali, conductor
Sarasota Orchestra
Recorded live at the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, January 2018

In Sarasota Orchestra’s Concert Companion to our first Masterworks concert of the season (Going Places, November 7-9, 2024, at the Sarasota Opera House), Principal Flutist Betsy Hudson Traba joins us to talk about how she and her colleagues are feeling in one of the most exciting and joyous moments a symphony orchestra can have: the appointment of a new music director! Betsy visualizes the bold direction Sarasota Orchestra is heading with six-time GRAMMY® winning conductor Giancarlo Guerrero as the Orchestra’s chief baton. Learn more about the program that features the return of phenomenal violinist Vadim Gluzman with Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto.

Tickets are available online at SarasotaOrchestra.org! 

Music in this episode:
Violin Concerto by Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky 
 Vadim Gluzman, violin
 Leif Bjaland, conductor
 Sarasota Orchestra
 Recorded live at the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, December 2001

*Note to Listeners: The interview portion of this episode was recorded prior to programming changes due to Hurricane Milton's impact on Sarasota, Florida.