September 5 Vallejo/Vacaville Arts and Entertainment Source: Earth gets the tuxedo treatment in Vallejo Symphony’s new season

Earth, the so-called “third rock from the sun,” is the only planet known to harbor life.

And it is life, specifically the meaning of being human, Earth’s seasonal rhythms and the spirit and natural grandeur of America, including its great cultural contribution to the world, jazz, that will underscore the Vallejo Symphony’s 2024-25 season.

Themed “Song of the Earth,” the three-concert season — highlighted by works of Gershwin and Grofe to Mahler and Milhaud — includes thematic titles to each of its programs. The first, dubbed “Rhythms of Nature,” begins at 3 p.m. Oct. 27 in the Empress Theatre in Vallejo, the orchestra’s traditional venue for all performances.

Longtime conductor Marc Taddei — a graduate of the Juilliard School in Manhattan and also leader of the Orchestra Wellington in New Zealand — will lead the symphony, among the oldest civic orchestras in California, on three Sunday afternoons.

Antonio Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons” and Astor Piazzolla’s “Four Seasons of Buenos Aires” kick off the orchestra’s new year and will feature violin virtuoso Liana Berube.

The Vivaldi, first published in 1725 and among the most popular works of the Baroque era, is a series of four concertos for violin and orchestra, titled, respectively, “Spring,” “Summer,” “Autumn,” and “Winter.”

No surprise, in this singular of his many concertos, the Italian composer sought to depict weather patterns and natural phenomena with precise musical effects. They include bird calls, westerly winds, a dog barking, rushing brooks, thunderstorms and hail, mixed with pleasant interludes, symbolizing a communion with nature.

Notably, the qualities of Vivaldi’s music — concise themes, clear formal structure, rhythmic drive, blended sounds and balanced phrases — influenced many other composers, including Johann Sebastian Bach, who transcribed several of Vivaldi’s concerto’s for keyboard.

Taddei and other symphony officials paired the Vivaldi with a work by tango guru Piazzolla, an arranger and band leader who grew up in New York City and learned to play the bandoneon, an Argentinian accordion. He became fascinated with tango music at a young age, and, from the mid-1950s onward, he blended tango rhythms with jazz, calling it “nuevo tango.” In his “Four Seasons of Buenos Aires,” Piazzolla pays homage to the Vivaldi original. Yet no matter how much Piazzolla experimented with tango’s musical elements, he never veered from a close rhythmic sense of tango’s sensuality and its despairing emotional essence.

Berube performs on both works, eight seasons in all. She is the co-founder and violinist of the Delphi Trio, and her appearances include the Thirteen Strings Chamber Orchestra, Oakland Symphony, and the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra.

The Jan. 19 concert, titled “Eternity,” features what some consider to be Gustav Mahler’s greatest work, “Das Lied von der Erde” (Song of the Earth), a 1909 symphony-like, six-movement work based on translations of ancient Chinese poems and scored for two solo singers and orchestra.

In a press statement, symphony spokesman Tim Zumwalt called it a masterpiece that “focuses on the essence of what it means to be human. A deeper or more-moving musical creation is difficult to imagine. This is art music at its most profound.”

“Song of the Earth” and his ninth and unfinished 10th symphonies are sometimes regarded as the Austrian composer’s farewell to life after repeated battles with the specter of death brought on by the death of a child and a heart condition.

Premiering six months after Mahler’s died and more than 60 minutes long, it is filled with sadness and longing but also, ultimately, spiritual uplift and beauty. It is organized in six songs: “Das Tranklied vom Jammer der Erde” (The Drinking Song of Earth’s Sorrow), “Der Einsame im Herbst” (Autumn Loneliness), “Von der Jugend” (Of Youth), “Von der Schonheit” (Of Beauty), “Der Trunkene im Fruhling” (Wine in Spring), and “Der Abschied” (The Farewell).

Mezzo-soprano Nikola Printz, a San Francisco Opera Adler Fellow, and tenor Corey Bix, who recently performed in San Francisco Opera’s staging of Berlioz’s “Les Troyens” (The Trojans) and Wagner’s “Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg,” tackle the significant vocal roles.

The program also include Haydn’s “Hornsignal” symphony, his 31st, in D major, a key often used for festive, celebratory music. The 1765 work generally includes the use of four horns to give it a more heraldic sound. There are solos for flute, oboe, violin, cello, horn, and bass. The symphony begins with a familiar horn call and the finale is in the form of theme and variation.

The April 27 and third program, dubbed “Place and Spirit,” features Milhaud’s “La creation du monde” (The creation of Earth), Gershwin’s Concerto in F Major and Grofe’s “Grand Canyon Suite.”

Grofe reportedly said of his 1931 piece, “This composition was born of sight, sound and sensations common to all of us. I think I have spoken of America in this music simply
because America spoke to me, just as it has spoken to you and to every one of us.”

Rooted in popular song, it was originally written for Paul Whiteman’s jazz band. It begins with “Sunrise” and a second movement suggests the nearby Painted Desert. The center movement, “On the Trail,” is a humorous depiction of a mule ride to the canyon’s bottom. And the last movement, “Sunset,” is scored for high strings and includes a sonic description of thunderstorm but ends with sounds suggestive of moonlight.

Pianist Elizabeth Dorman, a veteran soloist at the Kennedy Center and Davies Symphony Hall, will perform the 1925 Gershwin concerto, which followed his famous “Rhapsody in Blue.” The American composer, best known for his Broadway songs, uses theme-and-variation technique to lend a sense of unity to the concerto, considered by critics to be the pinnacle of his achievement as a concert composer.

Milhaud’s 1923 “La creation du monde,” a jazz-inspired ballet score, deals with the creation of the world as seen through African myth. The French composer — who finished his career teaching at Mills College in Oakland and Music academy of the West, where he taught Dave Brubeck and Burt Bacharach — made liberal use of syncopation, counterpoint and polytonality, the latter a quality that marked all of his mature works.

Note: Pre-concert talks are presented one hour before each orchestra performance and feature conversations between Taddei and guest artists, offering insights into the program.

KZCT-FM 89.5 in Vallejo, radio home of the Vallejo Symphony, will rebroadcast all three concerts: at 10:30 a.m. Nov. 8; 10:30 a.m. Jan. 31; and 10:30 a.m. May 9.

Single tickets, $50 to $80, are available online beginning Sept. 15. Season tickets are available at a 10 percent discount by sending an email to vallejosymphony@gmail.com or by calling (707) 643-4441. Discounts for groups of 10 or more are also available.

For more information, visit www.vallejosymphony.org.

Originally Published: September 3, 2024 at 5:13 p.m.