The Santa Fe Symphony’s 38th Season is brought to a rousing close Sunday, May 15, 4:00 PM at The Lensic! Under the baton of Maestro Guillermo Figueroa, this spectacular afternoon of great music opens with The Unanswered Question by American composer Charles Ives and the monumental Second Symphony by master composer Johannes Brahms. And in finale, The Santa Fe Symphony and its partners at the Sphinx Organization proudly present Venezuelan violinist Rubén Rengel — winner of the 2018 Robert Frederick Smith Prize—for Mendelssohn’s powerful Violin Concerto in E Minor. Don’t miss it!
The Santa Fe Symphony Orchestra
Guillermo Figueroa, Principal Conductor
PROGRAM
CHARLES IVES
The Unanswered Question
FELIX MENDELSSOHN
Violin Concerto in E Minor, op.64
Allegro molto appassionato
Andante
Allegretto non troppo – Allegro molto vivace
Rubén Rengel, Violin
JOHANNES BRAHMS
Symphony No. 2 in D Major, op.73
Allegro non troppo
Adagio non troppo
Allegretto grazioso
Allegro con spirito
Of Note
Charles Ives’ conceived The Unanswered Question on three separate musical planes. It is written to be performed by three different groups of instruments that are separated physically, play entirely different music, and seem at first to have nothing to do with each other.
Mendelssohn hated applause between movements, and he tried to guard against it here by tying the first two movements of the Violin Concerto together with a single bassoon note. (This has not always stopped audiences, however.)
Brahms was haunted by the example of Beethoven’s nine symphonies. He worked on his First Symphony for nearly 20 years before he was ready to take it before audiences, and he conducted the work throughout Europe. With the stress of that tour behind him, he spent the summer of 1877 writing another symphony. Brahms’ First Symphony may have taken two decades, but his Second was done in four months.
Rubén Rengel, Violin
Venezuelan violinist Rubén Rengel is quickly gaining recognition as one of the most gifted emerging concert violinists, continuously captivating audiences with a rich, singing tone and charismatic virtuosity.
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 is the founder of the highly acclaimed Figueroa Music and Arts Project in Albuquerque.
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Program Notes
We do not normally think of Mendelssohn as an innovator, but his Violin Concerto is as remarkable for its originality as for its endless beauty. So over-familiar has this music become that it is easy to miss its many innovations.…