TO HOPE!
Orion continues its 32nd season with “To Hope!,” welcoming back guest violist Stephen Boe and guest violinist Mathias Tacke, who join the Orion musicians for a program of works by three very different but inspiring composers, including a Chicago premiere by José Elizondo and works by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and Dmitri Shostakovich.
A scientist as well as a musician, José Elizondo is a multifaceted Mexican-American composer with degrees in electrical engineering and computer science, as well as humanities and music, from MIT. He studied music analysis and choir and orchestra conducting at Harvard. He writes chamber and orchestral music that often draws inspiration from Latin-American folk music. Elizondo describes his works on Orion’s program as “pieces that I particularly love and are very optimistic and luminous.” La Alborada de la Esperanza (The Dawn of Hope) recognizes the 100th anniversary of the Armistice ending World War I and represents, in the composer’s words, “the journey from darkness to light.” Limoncello is a playful title, inspired by thoughts of the gentle Mediterranean breeze, the sparkling reflection of light on an Italian fountain and the beautiful, bright yellow color of the Italian limoncello drink that evokes the splendid midday sun. And Otoño en Buenos Aires (Autumn in Buenos Aires), in an arrangement for solo piano, is one of three Latin American dances that Elizondo describes as “a passionate tango that pays homage to the music of Astor Piazzolla and Carlos Gardel."
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875–1912) was particularly renowned for a large choral work, the three-part cantata The Song of Hiawatha, based on Longfellow’s poem. When he traveled to the U.S. as composer and conductor in the early 20th century, he became a symbol of possibility and hope for African Americans. Coleridge-Taylor wrote multiple chamber works, along with songs, piano pieces, orchestral music, choral music, incidental music and one opera in his short life. He wrote the Quintet in F-sharp minor for Clarinet and String Quartet, Op. 10 (1895) at age 20. This colorful work fully explores the timbres of the clarinet and the strings.
Dmitri Shostakovich’s Quintet in G minor for Piano and String Quartet, Op. 57 (1940) is a relatively early work among his chamber pieces, coming two years after Symphony No. 5 and four years after the official Soviet publication Pravda criticized his opera Lady Macbeth. Pravdadescribed the Quintet as “lyrically lucid, human and simple,” and Shostakovich was awarded the Stalin Prize for the work. References to the Baroque period and neoclassical traits in this piece include the titles and forms of the first two movements: The Prelude and the Fugue. The latter, as well as the two movements that follow, are incredible examples of Shostakovich’s ability to build intensity to an almost unbearable level. The third and fifth movements demonstrate his sense of humor, and the fourth movement especially exemplifies his ability to express tenderness.
