eke Fetrow, Conductor

Saturday March 29, 2025 8:00PM (7:15PM pre-concert conductor talk)
Sunday March 30, 2025 2:30PM

Ravel, Maurice – La Valse
Ravel, Maurice – Kaddish, from “Deux Mélodies Hébraiques”
Ullman, Viktor – Slavonic Rhapsody
Hailstork, Adolphus – Survive (Symphony No. 4)

Special guest:
Kenneth Radnofsky, alto saxophone

This concert’s composers all have different stories to tell, and our orchestra is grateful for the opportunity to perform these deep, meaningful, and introspective meditations. For example, Maurice Ravel’s moving work Kaddish includes a prayer for universal peace. Czech / Austrian composer Viktor Ullmann met his death in Auschwitz, but wrote in his journals, “By no means did we sit weeping on the banks of the waters of Babylon. Our endeavour with respect to arts was commensurate with our will to live.” His melodious Slavonic Rhapsody (1940), featuring guest soloist Kenneth Radnofsky on alto saxophone, is a testament to endurance in a turbulent time. And, in our closing work, Adolphus Hailstork’s recently completed Fourth Symphony, the composer asks us to consider the roots of American music and the evolution of civil rights.

We explore “Romantic Riches” with music by Mendelssohn (two movements of his beautiful Psalm 42) and Brahms – the great motets “Nanie” and “Schicksalslied” (Song of the Fates). Neither Mendelssohn nor Brahms ever wrote a musical line that was not wonderful to sing; these works explore the eternal quest for meaning and reassurance in the midst of the uncertainties of the human condition. In addition, we will revisit his “Four Songs for Women’s Chorus, Two Horns and Harp”( Vier Gesange), the epitome of Romantic expression.

The youngest cellist to win a Gold Medal at the International Tchaikovsky Competition, 24-year-old Zlatomir Fung enjoys a busy and varied international career. His appearances with renowned orchestras have showcased canon works and new commissions, demonstrating the breadth of his technique and musical insight.

Fung, a passionate film fan, has chosen works that conjure iconic moments from opera and screen, including a new fantasia on Bizet’s Carmen, written for him by Marshall Estrin.

Program Details:
Johannes Brahms | Violin Sonata No. 3 in D minor, Op. 108, arr. for cello and piano
Justin Dello Joio | Due Per Due for cello and piano
Bernard Herrmann | “Scène d’amour” from Vertigo, arr. Zlatomir Fung
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky | “Lensky’s Aria” from Eugene Onegin, arr. Mikhail Bukinik
Marshall Estrin | Fantasia Carmen, for cello and piano

Hewitt | The Battle of Trenton Wu, Wang, Liu | Little Sisters of the Prairie. Wu, Liu | Spring River Flowers and Moonlight Night
-Cao Yue, pipa Decruck | Symphonie Orientale Ó Riada | Mise Éire

Our season finale opens with James Hewitt’s The Battle of Trenton and explores the attitudes, mistakes and reasons people emigrated to America. Those stories are represented through the music immigrants brought with them, enriching our nation despite the challenges they faced. While the stories are as varied as was America’s attitude toward immigrants, these stories are important because all those who came to America looked for a new beginning and hope for the future — which has been America’s promise.