October 18 – Classical Concert I
Brahms, Symphony No. 4
Mendelssohn, Calm Sea and Prosperous Journey
Wagner, Tannhäuser Overture
This is the SSO’s 60th Season, and we are beginning the year with some of our favorite works. We’ve all heard of Romanticism, that art and music movement in the 19th Century, and these pieces are quintessentially Romantic. Mendelssohn’s Calm Sea and Prosperous Journey Overture is the experience of a sea voyage played in notes and melodies by the orchestra. Listen for the waves and seagulls but there won’t be any scary moments! Wagner’s opera Tannhäuser is the tale of a medieval German knight who has fallen from the true and narrow path of personal conduct that is demanded of that rank. His ideas on music’s role in opera (or, as he would later call his stage works, “music drama”) were somewhat extreme and at odds with composers like Brahms. So, we decided to put them both on this concert! Brahms’ Symphony No. 4 was his last symphony and one of the last purely musical Romantic symphonies of the century. Brahms’ genius in working out inventive and interesting textures and themes is in clear view in this masterful work. And there’s a musical surprise in the last movement that you need to hear in context. Hint: it has something to do with Wagner!
Start your musical year off right with this Romantic evening. Bring a friend and introduce them to your Sherman Symphony Orchestra!