Mobile Symphony Celebrates Season Finale with a "Short Ride in a Fast Machine"
Jenine Baines
April 05, 2008
MOBILE, Alabama. Mobile Bay area residents who have yet to visit the historic Saenger Theatre in downtown Mobile for a performance of the award-winning Mobile Symphony Orchestra (MSO) because they´re under the mistaken impression that ´classical music´ lacks the pizzazz, dazzle or white heat of contemporary hits may want to consider attending the orchestra´s season finale "Classical Fire" on Saturday, April 26 at 8 p.m.
"They´ll definitely be in for a surprise," says Executive Director Stephen Hedrick. "Although our regular patrons are well aware that every performance of the Mobile Symphony is a unique adventure and then some how can an evening that opens with a work called Short Ride in a Fast Machine be anything but exhilarating?"
Following John Adams´ Short Ride in a Fast Machine is a work by yet another living composer this noble company by MSO composer-in-residence Kevin Puts, hailed by the New York Times as "exhilarating and compelling" and the Cincinnati Enquirer as "an emerging young composer who is turning heads around the country." Rounding out the program are two classical blockbusters: Rodrigo´s Concierto de Aranjuez since its debut in 1939, the most performed guitar concerto worldwide with guitarist Pablo Sainz-Villegas, recipient of over 25 international awards including the "Andres Segovia" award and a Gold Medal from the Parkening International Guitar Competition; and Tchaikovsky´s Symphony No. 4.
"We´re presenting a stunning combination of styles of the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries," says Music Director Scott Speck.
John Adams´ description of Short Ride in a Fast Machine, soon after it was composed in 1986, quickly became the stuff of musical legend. "You know how it is when someone asks you to ride in a terrific sports car," he asked, "and then you wish you hadn't?"
Scott Speck explains further. "Short Ride in a Fast Machine begins with a woodblock playing a steady beat that continues throughout the piece," he says. "Over this, the trumpets play a propulsive fanfare that you might expect to hear at the beginning of a triumphant piece of music. But this fanfare continues on and on. The orchestra then takes you on a dizzyingly fast, kaleidoscopic ride through this rhythmic tunnel."
The pace becomes a bit less breakneck but no less breathtaking with this noble company, commissioned by the Atlanta Symphony in 2002. Puts was asked to write ´an American Pomp and Circumstance´; as parents of any graduating student know, the original Pomp and Circumstance is the march by Edward Elgar performed at virtually every graduation ceremony in the nation.
"My answer to this daunting challenge was ...this noble company, a processional for orchestra whose title, like Elgar´s, is drawn from Shakespeare´s Othello," Puts recalls. "The piece was written during a time of great wartime financial strife for our country´s orchestras and artistic organizations and is dedicated with gratitude and admiration to those devoted musicians and administrators."
It is also great music by a composer who, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, "confidently mixes a variety of contemporary modes into a musical narrative that is pure Beethoven."
"It´s a lovely, long, lyrical melody with modern and colorful touches," states Speck.
As far as Stephen Hedrick is aware, Rodrigo´s epically popular Concierto de Aranjuez has never before been performed in Mobile. Yet the MSO´s Executive Director is confident that the audience will recognize the well-known theme described by Speck as "ravishing" and "glorious" from the opening bars.
"In an instant, we´ll no longer be in Mobile but the gardens of courtly, baroque Spain," says Hedrick. "And we couldn´t have a more perfect guide for this first ´visit.´ Not only is Pablo from Spain but he is a phenomenon who plays this piece as if he had written it."
Closing the program is one of Tchaikovsky´s most profound and exciting symphonies, Symphony No. 4. A meditation on the awesome and often destructive power of fate the composer was renowned even during his lifetime for saddling fate with all blame for his calamitous personal life the symphony nonetheless ends triumphantly.
"Tchaikovsky shifts the excitement into the highest possible gear at the end, racing to a thrilling conclusion his own short ride in a very fast machine," says Speck.
The Residency of Kevin Puts is made possible through Music Alive, a residency program of the American Symphony Orchestra League and Meet The Composer. Funding for Music Alive is provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and The Aaron Copland Fund for Music. There will be a Sneak Preview Open Dress Rehearsal Matinee for "Classical Fire" on Saturday, April 26 at 2 p.m.
For more information about the Mobile Symphony Orchestra, its performances and educational outreach programs, visit the orchestra´s website at www.mobilesymphony.org. To purchase tickets which range from $15 to $55 call 251-432-7080 or order online. The Saenger Theatre is located at 6 South Joachim Street in Mobile.
The Mobile Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1970 as the Symphony Concerts of Mobile. Its mission was to present world-class touring orchestras such as Alabama Symphony, Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra and St. Paul Chamber Orchestra for six evening concerts. In 1996, the Board of Directors decided that to serve the educational, quality of life, and economic development needs of the community, it should create its own orchestra of local professional musicians.
Today, the Mobile Symphony Orchestra, under Music Director Scott Speck, is the premier producer of live symphonic music in the Gulf Coast region. It is committed to enhancing the lives of every member of the community by achieving the highest standards in live symphonic music and music education.
"They´ll definitely be in for a surprise," says Executive Director Stephen Hedrick. "Although our regular patrons are well aware that every performance of the Mobile Symphony is a unique adventure and then some how can an evening that opens with a work called Short Ride in a Fast Machine be anything but exhilarating?"
Following John Adams´ Short Ride in a Fast Machine is a work by yet another living composer this noble company by MSO composer-in-residence Kevin Puts, hailed by the New York Times as "exhilarating and compelling" and the Cincinnati Enquirer as "an emerging young composer who is turning heads around the country." Rounding out the program are two classical blockbusters: Rodrigo´s Concierto de Aranjuez since its debut in 1939, the most performed guitar concerto worldwide with guitarist Pablo Sainz-Villegas, recipient of over 25 international awards including the "Andres Segovia" award and a Gold Medal from the Parkening International Guitar Competition; and Tchaikovsky´s Symphony No. 4.
"We´re presenting a stunning combination of styles of the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries," says Music Director Scott Speck.
John Adams´ description of Short Ride in a Fast Machine, soon after it was composed in 1986, quickly became the stuff of musical legend. "You know how it is when someone asks you to ride in a terrific sports car," he asked, "and then you wish you hadn't?"
Scott Speck explains further. "Short Ride in a Fast Machine begins with a woodblock playing a steady beat that continues throughout the piece," he says. "Over this, the trumpets play a propulsive fanfare that you might expect to hear at the beginning of a triumphant piece of music. But this fanfare continues on and on. The orchestra then takes you on a dizzyingly fast, kaleidoscopic ride through this rhythmic tunnel."
The pace becomes a bit less breakneck but no less breathtaking with this noble company, commissioned by the Atlanta Symphony in 2002. Puts was asked to write ´an American Pomp and Circumstance´; as parents of any graduating student know, the original Pomp and Circumstance is the march by Edward Elgar performed at virtually every graduation ceremony in the nation.
"My answer to this daunting challenge was ...this noble company, a processional for orchestra whose title, like Elgar´s, is drawn from Shakespeare´s Othello," Puts recalls. "The piece was written during a time of great wartime financial strife for our country´s orchestras and artistic organizations and is dedicated with gratitude and admiration to those devoted musicians and administrators."
It is also great music by a composer who, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, "confidently mixes a variety of contemporary modes into a musical narrative that is pure Beethoven."
"It´s a lovely, long, lyrical melody with modern and colorful touches," states Speck.
As far as Stephen Hedrick is aware, Rodrigo´s epically popular Concierto de Aranjuez has never before been performed in Mobile. Yet the MSO´s Executive Director is confident that the audience will recognize the well-known theme described by Speck as "ravishing" and "glorious" from the opening bars.
"In an instant, we´ll no longer be in Mobile but the gardens of courtly, baroque Spain," says Hedrick. "And we couldn´t have a more perfect guide for this first ´visit.´ Not only is Pablo from Spain but he is a phenomenon who plays this piece as if he had written it."
Closing the program is one of Tchaikovsky´s most profound and exciting symphonies, Symphony No. 4. A meditation on the awesome and often destructive power of fate the composer was renowned even during his lifetime for saddling fate with all blame for his calamitous personal life the symphony nonetheless ends triumphantly.
"Tchaikovsky shifts the excitement into the highest possible gear at the end, racing to a thrilling conclusion his own short ride in a very fast machine," says Speck.
The Residency of Kevin Puts is made possible through Music Alive, a residency program of the American Symphony Orchestra League and Meet The Composer. Funding for Music Alive is provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and The Aaron Copland Fund for Music. There will be a Sneak Preview Open Dress Rehearsal Matinee for "Classical Fire" on Saturday, April 26 at 2 p.m.
For more information about the Mobile Symphony Orchestra, its performances and educational outreach programs, visit the orchestra´s website at www.mobilesymphony.org. To purchase tickets which range from $15 to $55 call 251-432-7080 or order online. The Saenger Theatre is located at 6 South Joachim Street in Mobile.
The Mobile Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1970 as the Symphony Concerts of Mobile. Its mission was to present world-class touring orchestras such as Alabama Symphony, Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra and St. Paul Chamber Orchestra for six evening concerts. In 1996, the Board of Directors decided that to serve the educational, quality of life, and economic development needs of the community, it should create its own orchestra of local professional musicians.
Today, the Mobile Symphony Orchestra, under Music Director Scott Speck, is the premier producer of live symphonic music in the Gulf Coast region. It is committed to enhancing the lives of every member of the community by achieving the highest standards in live symphonic music and music education.