Falletta and the orchestra open the program with Elliot Carter’s Holiday Overture. One of America’s most significant composers, Carter is a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize who just celebrated his 101st birthday in December. As Carter tells the story, when rival composer Aaron Copland looked at the Overture he said, “Another hard piece by Carter!” If that description is accurate, never fear, for Copland’s own popular El Salón México provides gentle relief later in the program.
Next up is the SRS debut of accomplished violinist Michael Ludwig and a chance to hear Corigliano’s Red Violin Concerto — a work that has rapidly taken its place in the serious classical violin repertoire. Corigliano originally scored the music to François Gira’s film The Red Violin, with violin virtuoso Joshua Bell performing, winning an Oscar for best soundtrack in 1999. He then reconceived the music as a violin concerto for Bell, who recorded it in 2007. In the hands of such a masterful composer and orchestrator, the story of a haunted violin, spanning three centuries of travels through time, style, and setting, is both haunting and powerful.
Rising star Ludwig is a natural choice as soloist, having recently recorded the concerto with Corigliano, Falletta, and the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, set for release by Naxos this year. (Falletta and that orchestra’s recording of Corigliano’s Mr. Tambourine Man: Seven Poems of Bob Dylan with soprano Hila Plitmann won a Grammy in two categories in 2009 — Best Classical Vocal Performance and Best Classical Contemporary Composition.)
Concluding the concert with Barber’s Symphony No. 1 sets the trend for the coming year of tributes for this composer, born on March 9, 1910; he died in January 1981. Look for copious amounts of Barber programming this year, in celebrations from Detroit to Denver, especially in Pennsylvania, Barber’s birthplace, and at the Curtis Institute, which he attended. That’s good news for listeners who enjoy the more traditional style of long, lyrical lines and lush, relatively tonal harmonies, which made him one of America’s most popular composers for years.
It’s a fitting concert for the likes of ardent new-music champion JoAnn Falletta. SRS music director Bruno Ferrandis met Falletta as a colleague in graduate school in New York at Juilliard. Bay Area audiences know her intimately as the music director of the San Francisco–based Women’s Philharmonic from 1986 to 1997, among other engagements, including as guest conductor with the San Francisco Symphony. With the now-defunct Women’s Philharmonic she furthered the group’s mission to create awareness of the music of women composers, released three CDs with them, and captured several ASCAP Adventurous Programming awards. She is currently Music Director of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and the Virginia Symphony Orchestra