Overture Magazine: 2017-2018 Season March - April 2018 | Page 26

RACHMANINOFF ’S TRANSCENDENT FANTASY SING TO YOUR AUDIENCE. WITH OVERTURE. Reach over 150,000 patrons of the BSO five times a year in Overture, a program that’s about more than just beautiful music. RESERVE YOU AD SPACE TODAY! In the Allegro first movement, Weber seizes our attention immediately with a bold and dashing orchestral exposition, which builds excitement for the delayed entrance of the soloist. And the clarinetist lives up to all this anticipation by beginning with a plunge of three octaves from a keening high note to the instrument’s deepest chalameau register. The extreme differences in tonal quality of the clarinet are exploited throughout this concerto. Exciting as that movement is, it is actually the slow movement and finale that are the concerto’s highlights. In the G-minor second movement, Weber carries his soloist into the world of opera and makes him a great singing diva. The clarinet’s magnificently arching phrases echo pure bel canto singing; late in the movement, it launches a tragic recitative passage we could almost put words to. In his last movements, Weber always sought maximum brilliance. That’s certainly the case here with his Alla polacca finale, in the style of a vivacious Polish dance. This is fiendishly challenging music for the soloist, but in the midst of all the virtuoso fireworks, Weber also finds time for some charm and sweetness. Instrumentation: Two flutes, two oboes, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, timpani and strings. SYMPHONY NO. 2 IN C MINOR Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Born in Votkinsk, Russia, May 7, 1840; died in St. Petersburg, Russia, November 6, 1893 TO ADVERTISE, CONTACT: Ken Iglehart [email protected] Lynn Talbert [email protected] Call 443.873.3916 Now also distributed at Strathmore Music Center in Bethesda 24 OV E R T U R E / BSOmusic.org As Russian composers strove to create a distinctive national voice in the seco