Fusing masterworks written by two of the most notable composers in classical music history, this afternoon of beautiful music is one you don’t want to miss! Maestro Guillermo Figueroa conducts the full Symphony Orchestra for Béla Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra—one of his best-known, most popular, and most accessible works—and Ludwig Van Beethoven’s masterful and ebullient Symphony No. 7 in A Major. Reserve your seats today while tickets last. Tickets for this epic program will sell out fast!
EXCITING NEWS—We are thrilled to bring back our FREE Preview Talks this season! Be sure to join us one hour before each Lensic performance for 30 minutes of interesting program details presented by Maestro Figueroa, guest soloists, or musicians. Each talk is unique and all ticket holders are invited!
The Santa Fe Symphony Orchestra
Guillermo Figueroa, Principal Conductor
PROGRAM
BÉLA BARTÓK
Concerto for Orchestra, Sz 116
I. Introduzione: Andante non troppo – Allegro vivace
II. Giuoco delle coppie: Allegretto scherzando
III. Elegia: Andante non troppo
IV. Intermezzo interrotto: Allegretto
V. Finale: Pesante – Presto
Intermission
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN
Symphony No. 7 in A Major, op.92
I. Poco sostenuto – Vivace
II. Allegretto
III. Presto
IV. Allegro con brio
Of Note
While the title of Concerto for Orchestra, one of Béla Bartók’s most well-known works, seems to be an oxymoron, Bartók said that he called the piece a concerto rather than a symphony because of the way each instrument section is treated in a “soloistic and virtuosic way.”
Beethoven conducted his Symphony No. 7 at its premiere in Vienna, in December 1813, at a charity concert for soldiers wounded in the Battle of Hanau. The audience was so enamored with the second movement that they demanded an encore. The Allegretto is still frequently performed separately at concerts.
Beethoven called the Symphony No. 7 his “most excellent symphony,” and one music critic of the time reported, “this symphony is the richest melodically and the most pleasing and comprehensible of all Beethoven symphonies.” On the dissenting side, Carl Maria von Weber (1786–1826) heard the piece as evidence that its composer had lost his mind, and Friedrich Wieck (1785–1873), a renowned piano teacher and Clara Schumann’s father, maintained that the music could only have been written by someone who was seriously intoxicated.
Guillermo Figueroa, Principal Conductor
One of the most versatile and respected musical artists of his generation—renowned as conductor, violinist, violist and concertmaster—Guillermo Figueroa is the Principal Conductor of The Santa Fe Symphony Orchestra & Chorus. He also serves as the Music Director of the Music in the Mountains Festival in Colorado and Music Director of the Lynn Philharmonia in Florida, and he is the founder of the highly acclaimed Figueroa Music and Arts Project in Albuquerque. He was the Music Director of the New
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Program Notes
Bartók and his wife fled to the United States in October 1940 to escape World War II and the Nazi domination of Hungary, but their hopes for a new life in America were quickly dashed. Wartime America had little interest in Bartók or his music, the couple soon found themselves living in near-poverty,…