On Saturday, April 23, the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra is set to perform a major concert at Hill Auditorium. Exploring topics of fate and destiny, program highlights include Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4, Beethoven’s Triple Concerto and Carlos Simon’s Fate Now Conquers.
Conductor and 2021 Solti Foundation U.S Career Assistance Award recipient Earl Lee takes the podium as the A2SO’s final music director candidate of the 2021-22 season, ushering in his second-ever appearance with the orchestra.
An unflinchingly powerful expression of fate, Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4 sets titanic structures against the symphonic canvas. The composer himself compared the work to the iconic measures of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5, with conflicting visions of providence, fate and fortune forming the principal motives. In a letter to a close friend, Tchaikovsky wrote that they could discover “an echo
of your most intimate thoughts and emotions” in the course of the symphony, and it has become one of the most popular and often-performed works of the repertoire.
In a tribute to Beethoven’s influence, the concert includes his Concerto for Violin, Cello, and Piano in C major, Op. 56 (commonly referred to as his Triple Concerto). A masterclass in effective instrumentation and dynamic color, the soloists continuously engage in dialogue, both with each other and with the supporting orchestral forces. As First Prize winner of the Paganini International Competition, violinist Soovin Kim brings his transfixing artistry to the stage, joined by acclaimed pianist Gloria Chien and cellist Paul Watkins (of the Emerson Quartet).
Carlos Simon’s Fate Now Conquers (2020) concludes the program selections, its evocatively ambiguous passagework suggestive of the uncertainty we all experience in our lives. Inspired by a passage from Beethoven’s journal, the work fixates on a motif from the composer’s seventh symphony, developing extroverted sequences from this brooding source material.
The doors of Hill Auditorium open at 6:45PM, and a pre-concert talk with Maestro Lee commences at 7. The concert begins at 8PM and will last approx. 120 minutes, including a 20 minute intermission. Ticket prices range from $10-80, and a variety of discounts are available for kids, students, seniors and groups.
To reserve seats, visit tickets.a2so.com, call 734.994.4801 or email tickets@a2so.com. More information on the concert can be found at a2so.com/event-directory/tchaikovsky-4/.
