Spokane Symphony celebrates Tango and human passions

Sep 21, 2011

For Immediate Release

Contact: Annie Matlow 464-7071

SPOKANE—The Spokane Symphony and Music Director Eckart Preu will explore a range of human emotions at Martin Woldson Theater at The Fox on Saturday, Oct. 1 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, Oct. 2 at 3 p.m. American violinist Tim Fain will perform Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 3, sandwiched between Golijov’s tango-inspired Last Round and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6.

Maestro Eckart Preu has promised a season of surprises. At the first Classics concert, a high school marching band entered the hall and played the Star-Spangled Banner at the beginning of the concert. This concert will also offer the concertgoers a musical surprise.

Osvaldo Golijov’s Last Round was created in homage to the late Astor Piazolla, one of the great Argentinean tango composers. Golijov, of Eastern European Jewish heritage in officially Catholic Argentina, forged a distinctive musical voice that combines Western Classical music, the traditional Jewish and Christian liturgies, and Latin-American influences, especially the tango. Last Round, originally for two string quartets and a double bass, was composed to evoke “an idealized bandoneón,” a type of concertina used extensively by Piazolla. Golijov writes: “Last Round is also a sublimated tango dance. Two quartets confront each other, separated by the focal bass, with violins and violas standing up as in the traditional tango orchestras. The bows fly in the air as inverted legs in criss-crossed choreography, always attracting and repelling each other, always in danger of clashing, always avoiding it with the precision that can only be acquired by transforming hot passion into pure pattern.”

The orchestra will then perform Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 3, one of several he wrote in his late teens. Unlike his earlier violin concertos, this one uses the orchestra as a true partner to the soloist, rather than as a pale accompaniment. The opening movement is characterized by a happy discussion between violin and orchestra as it modulates from a cheerful, rhythmic theme through key changes, returning to the opening theme. The slow movement is one of those ravishingly sensuous adagios that are a Mozart hallmark. The Finale begins as a rollicking rondo with a very simple theme. As the rondo theme alternates with new material, the music vacillates between G major and g minor, Mozart’s key of extreme pathos and despair. But the dark mood does not persist and the high spirits return with a theme resembling a German folk tune and finally to the original rondo theme. The movement ends quietly and somewhat unexpectedly with a simple repetition of the rondo theme. 

Violinist Tim Fain, a rising star in the classical music world who has appeared at concert halls around the world will be the soloist for the Mozart Violin Concerto No. 3. With his adventuresome spirit and vast musical gifts, Fain has emerged as a mesmerizing new presence on the music scene. The “charismatic young violinist with a matinee idol profile, strong musical instincts, and first rate chops” (Boston Globe) was featured as the sound of Richard Gere’s violin in Bee Season. Selected as one of Symphony magazine’s “Up-and-Coming Young Musicians of 2006,” and a StradMagazine 2007 “Pick of Up and Coming Musicians,” Fain has recently captured the Avery Fisher Career Grant and a Young Concert Artists International Award. As The Washington Post recently raved, “Fain has everything he needs for a first-rate career.” A native of Santa Monica, California, Fain is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where he studied with Victor Danchenko, and The Juilliard School, where he worked with Robert Mann.

The concert will conclude with Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6, a musical portrayal of nature. Beethoven was a lover of nature and the rural life, frequently taking long walks in the country, and this bucolic masterpiece is his ultimate expression of this. He wrote extensively about this symphony, even providing descriptive titles for each movement, while at the same time commenting that the music was self-explanatory and needed no titles. The first movement, “Cheerful feelings awakened on arriving in the country,” placidly depicts the composer's feelings as he arrives in the country. The second movement, “Scene by the brook,” is a beautiful and serene tone painting, filled with the sounds of a flowing brook, birdcalls and chirping insects. The last three movements, which run together as a continuous whole, beginning with “Merry gathering of country folk,” a depiction of dancing and reveling, “Thunderstorm,” a superb impressionistic evocation of lightning, thunder and howling winds, and concluding with  “Shepherd's song: Happy and thankful feelings after the storm.”

Ticket prices for either performance begin at $14 and are available in advance at the Spokane Symphony Ticket Office, located at Martin Woldson Theater at The Fox, 1001 W. Sprague, or by calling 509-624-1200. Tickets may also be purchased online at www.spokanesymphony.org. Tickets are also available at all TicketsWest outlets or by calling 1-800-325-SEAT.

Don Herak & Family on behalf of Gonzaga University is the underwriter for this concert.