The Symphony is honored to partner with the Sphinx Organization for the second consecutive season and thrilled to present 2021 Sphinx Competition First Prize Winner, 25-year-old Samuel Abraham Vargas Teixeira performing Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Violin Concerto in G Minor. This brilliant afternoon of beautiful music includes Haydn’s Symphony No. 6 “Le Matin“ (Morning) and Claude Debussy’s La mer.
This concert is presented in collaboration with our partners at WildEarth Guardians and the Defenders of Wildlife In Honor of Earth Day.
The Santa Fe Symphony Orchestra
Guillermo Figueroa, Principal Conductor
PROGRAM
JOSEPH HAYDN
Symphony No. 6 “Le Matin” (Morning)
SAMUEL COLERIDGE-TAYLOR
Violin Concerto in G Minor op.80
Samuel Abraham Vargas Teixeira, Violin
CLAUDE DEBUSSY
La Mer
Of Note
The nickname of Haydn’s Symphony No. 6, “Le Matin,” derives from the introduction of the opening movement, which conveys the sunrise. It is part of a symphony trilogy that also includes No. 7 (“Le Midi”) and No. 8 (“Le Soir”). His patron, Prince Anton, commissioned him to write works inspired by morning, noon and evening.
The violinist Maud Powell commissioned Samuel Coleridge-Taylor to write Violin Concerto in G Minor. The orchestral parts were lost while being shipped from England to the U.S. and had to be reconstructed at the last minute in order for the premiere to take place. The composer was ill and unable to attend; he died three months later of pneumonia at age 37.
Debussy’s La Mer was not successful at its 1905 premier in Paris. One possible explanation is that the conductor was unfamiliar with “modern” music. But after its second performance in Paris in 1908, which was conducted by the composer, it became one of his most popular orchestral works.
Samuel Abraham Vargas Teixeira, Violin
Violinist Samuel Vargas Teixeira has received wide recognition for his powerful artistry and awards including First Prize of the Sphinx Competition (2021), Yamaha Young Performing Artist (2019), Grand Prize of the Jefferson Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition (2019), First Prize in Atlanta’s GA Philharmonic Competition (2017), and Concertmaster Ambassador of the United Nations (2014).
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
Prince Paul Anton Esterhazy hired Haydn as his Vice-Kapellmeister in May 1761, and the composer immediately took up his duties at the Esterhazy palace in the small town of Eisenstadt, about 30 miles south of Vienna. The old Kapellmeister, Gregor Werner, was being eased upstairs, and the 29-year-old …