April Schumann

I sit here in an advanced state of readiness for the three concerts in four days (and their six rehearsals-- these concerts don't just magically happen!) that shall take place this coming weekend, sandwiched around the Knoxville Opera Company's Rossini Festival. What are we looking at?

April's Masterworks concerts will be conducted by guest maestro Edwin Outwater this Thursday and Friday. Guest soloist for the Mozart D Minor Piano Concerto will be Fei-fei Dong. Featured in the final scene and end credits of the film Amadeus, this is probably THE most popular Mozart piano concerto- come on out and see why! The Mozart will follow Violent, Violent Sea, composed in 2011 by Missy Mazzoli. The large orchestra version of the Mazzoli work was premiered by the Albany Symphony under David Alan Miller, who was a finalist for music director of the KSO when Lucas Richman was hired. Marimba and vibraphone figure prominently in this roiling, turbulent work. Maestro Outwater led his home orchestra, the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, in VVS's Canadian premiere in January of 2013.

Closing the program will be Robert Schumann's  Symphony No. 2, from 1846. When you think of symphonists, perhaps Schumann (pronounced "shoo-mon") isn't the first composer to come to mind, what with music by these dudes named Beethoven, Brahms and Tchaikovsky around. Taken as a whole, though, Schumann's four symphonies establish him as a distinct voice in a crowded field, unlike Brahms, whose symphonies try just a little too hard to be the second coming of Beethoven. I guarantee you, right at this moment 22 KSO violinists are up to their noses in the notes that make up the exciting 2nd movement scherzo (pronounced “scared so”). I have heard many violinists play this at auditions and frankly, my heart goes out to them. This is music that would aptly accompany a kayak trip down Class IV (or higher) rapids. 

That's Thursday and Friday nights, 7:30 at the Tennessee Theatre. Tickets here. More about Sunday's "Unstaged" performance in a bit...