Italian Nights

March 17, 2024
4:00 PM—The Lensic

Italian Nights presents Rossini’s L’Italiana in Algeri Overture, Mendelssohn’s Italian Symphony, and Berlioz’s Harold in Italy, commissioned for the composer by virtuoso violinist Niccolò Paganini in 1834 and featuring The Symphony’s Principal Violist, Kimberly Fredenburgh.  

PROGRAM

GIOACHINO ROSSINI
L’Italiana in Algeri Overture

FELIX MENDELSSOHN

Symphony No. 4 in A Major, op.90 “Italian”

I. Allegro vivace
II. Andante con moto
III. Con moto moderato
IV. Saltarello: Presto

HECTOR BERLIOZ
Harold in Italy, Symphony with Viola obliggato, op.16

Harold in the Mountains
March of the Pilgrims
Serenade of the Abruzzi mountaineer to his mistress
Orgy of the Brigands

        Kimberly FredenburghViola

Tickets start as low as $25. Subscriptions (five or more concerts) are available only by phone through The Symphony Box Office at 505.983.1414. Half-priced tickets for children 6 to 14 years of age can also be purchased by phone.

Join us for a FREE 30-minute preview talk about the performance presented from The Lensic stage by Maestro Guillermo Figueroa at 3:00 PM.


Venue

The Lensic
211 W San Francisco St.
Santa Fe, NM 87501

Of Note

  • Felix Mendelssohn did not publish the “Italian” symphony during his lifetime. He made substantial revisions to the work after its 1833 premiere, and the original version was published in 1851, four years after his death. Although the revised score has been published and performed, the first version is the one generally performed by symphony orchestras.
  • Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage by Lord Byron describes the travels of a young man who is disillusioned with his aimless life and looks for satisfaction by visiting foreign lands. It made Byron’s reputation: “I awoke one morning and found myself famous,” he wrote. Although Berlioz said the poem influenced Harold in Italy, one critic of the time said, “No definite elements of Byron’s poem have penetrated the impregnable fortress of Berlioz’s encyclopaedic inattention…there is no trace in Berlioz’s music of any of the famous passages of Childe Harold.”
  • L’italiana in Algeri was an enormous hit for Rossini, which is perhaps why he partially recycled it for the following year’s Il Turco in Italia. “The titles of the two operas make it  sound like Rossini took the first opera and simply reversed its premise to come up with a new one—and that’s basically what he did,” said NPR in a “World of Opera” broadcast. The report concedes, however, that they are different musically, with L’italiana featuring blockbuster arias and Il Turco focusing more on ensemble singing.

Guillermo Figueroa_2023

Guillermo Figueroa, Music Director

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, Music Director of the Lynn Philharmonia in Florida, and is the founder of the highly acclaimed Figueroa Music and Arts Project in Albuquerque.

March 17

Kim Fredenburgh, Principal Viola

Violist Kimberly Fredenburgh, originally from New York, is Professor of Viola and serves as Head of the String area at the University of New Mexico. She has been featured as a soloist and chamber musician across the United States, Puerto Rico, South Africa, Brazil, Ecuador, Argentina, Mexico, Canada, Portugal, Spain, Germany, Italy and Monaco.