The Rogue Valley Symphony will be opening its 2016-2017 season on October 21, 22, and 23, 2016. Two-time GRAMMY nominee and Avery Fisher career grant recipient Jennifer Frautschi will be featured on Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto. The orchestra will also perform Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara’s Anadyomene-Adoration of Aphrodite and Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 9. Concerts will be on Friday, October 21 at 7:30 pm in the SOU Music Recital Hall, 405 S Mountain Ave, Ashland; Saturday, October 22 at 7:30pm in the Craterian Theater at the Collier Center for the Performing Arts, 23 S. Central Ave, Medford; and Sunday, October 23 at 3pm in the Grants Pass Performing Arts Center, 830 NE Ninth St, Grants Pass.
The Rogue Valley Symphony is extremely pleased to present the exquisite violinist Jennifer Frautschi on Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto. As the Chicago Tribune noted, “Jennifer Frautschi is molding a career with smart interpretations of both warhorses and rarities.” Equally at home in the classic and contemporary repertoire, her recent seasons have featured innumerable performances and recordings of works ranging from Brahms and Schumann to Berg and Schoenberg. She has also had the privilege of premiering several new works composed for her by prominent composers of today.
Ms. Frautschi has appeared as soloist with Pierre Boulez and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Christoph Eschenbach and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at the Ravinia Festival, and at Wigmore Hall and Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival. Selected by Carnegie Hall for its Distinctive Debuts series, she made her New York recital debut in 2004. As part of the European Concert Hall Organization’s Rising Stars series, Ms. Frautschi also made debuts that year at ten of Europe’s most celebrated concert venues, including the Salzburg Mozarteum, Vienna Konzerthaus, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, La Cité de la Musique in Paris, and Brussels’ Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie. She has also been heard in recital at the Ravinia Festival, La Jolla Chamber Music Society, Washington’s Phillips Collection, Boston’s Gardner Museum, Beijing’s Imperial Garden, Monnaie Opera in Brussels, La Chaux des Fonds in Switzerland, and San Miguel de Allende Festival in Mexico.
Music Director and conductor Martin Majkut has the goal of providing a great deal of variety within the scope of his season repertoire. He recently commented that he pairs “something that stretches listenerts with something very traditional. I look for challenges for myself and the musicians.” Majkut said that he thinks the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto “is one of the greatest pieces for violin and orchestra. It’s just so virtuosic and flows very freely and naturally. It makes the violin truly shine.” Majkut chose Frautschi because she is a musician that he has respected for quite some time. Also, he wants to provide soloists of very high caliber to the Rogue Valley audiences.
Rautavaara is probably a new composer to many music lovers. He was a Finnish composer who passed away within the last few months. He went from writing some very experimental music to writing in this beautiful style where he marries the more modern sounds with some traditional elements of 19th century music. Majkut was struck by the “very unusual and beautiful” sonorities in this particular piece, Anadyomene- Adoration of Aphrodite. “This whole concert is about northeast Europe. I thought it would be a fitting start to the concert.”
Majkut remarked that Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 9. “is the most Haydn-esque of his symphonies”. Shostakovich was writing under the ghost of Beethoven’s ninth symphony. It is very satiric and compact. There is no grandeur nor any majestic gestures. Majkut feels that “it is Shostakovich at his happiest and most witty. He is turning away from the dark places.” There are also some very virtuosic solos throughout the symphony, which feature trumpet and piccolo.
Conductor Martin Majkut will give a pre-concert talk one hour before each performance.
Concerts: Friday, October 21, SOU Music Recital Hall, Ashland, 7:30pm, Tickets: $36, $42, $48, $55. Youth (ages 6-18) $10
Saturday, October 22, Craterian Theater, Medford, 7:30pm, Tickets: $15, $25, $31, $36, $42, $48. Youth (ages 6-18) $10
Sunday, October 23, Grants Pass Performing Arts Center, Grants Pass, 3pm, Tickets: $15, $22, $30, $37. Youth (ages 6-18) $10 At the Grants Pass performance, tickets are available for $5 each to Oregon Trail Card holders from “SNAP”.
Tickets can be purchased online at rvsymphony.org or by phone at (541)708-6400 for all performances. Medford concert tickets can also be purchased through the Craterian Theater at craterian.org or (541)779-3000.
Featured image is of Jennifer Frautschi. Photo by Lisa-Marie Mazzucco.