The San Diego Symphony will open their May 7 concert at the Rady Shell with Grażyna Bacewicz‘s Overture. The program will also include Edvard Grieg’s world famous Piano Concerto and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade. The Symphony will be joined by soloist Gabriela Martinez (piano) and led by conductor Ruth Reinhardt.
Below is an excerpt from the program notes on Bacewicz’s Overture written by Linda Shaver-Gleason for the LA Philharmonic:
Bacewicz wrote her Overture in 1943, during the German occupation of Poland; she fled Warsaw during an uprising the following year. The Overture would not be performed until after Poland’s liberation from the Nazis, receiving its premiere in 1945 during the Krakow Festival of Contemporary Music… With a rumble of timpani and raw strokes of open strings, the Overture begins with a blazing Allegro. The strings take off in running figures punctuated by brass blasts and woodwind interjections. Even when the orchestra suddenly drops off in dynamic, the strings rouse the rest of the ensemble in a rapid crescendo. After a few energetic chords, the woodwinds sustain and usher in the contemplative Andante section. Here, the winds take the lead with intertwining solo lines. Lush strings and noble horns fill out the sound, creating a respite from the frenetic opening. This tranquility is fleeting, as the violins reclaim the urgent tempo of the opening Allegro. Brass fanfares lend a triumphal spirit to the rush to the decisive final chords. With its clear form consisting of short, contrasting segments, the Overture packs the power of a larger symphonic work into a compact six minutes.
Friday May 6 | 7:00 p.m. PST & Saturday May 7 | 5:00 p.m. PST
Grażyna Bacewicz’s Overture in San Diego
The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park
222 Marina Park Way, San Diego, CA 92101
Tickets and More Info: www.theshell.org
[Sources: theshell.org, laphil.org; Image of Bacewicz: PMC Archive, All rights reserved]