The Arkansas Symphony Orchestra (ASO), Philip Mann, Music Director and Conductor, presents the fifth concert in the 2014 -2015 Stella Boyle Smith Masterworks Series: Schubert’s Unfinished.

Renowned violinist Vadim Gluzman joins the ASO to perform Brahms’ Violin Concerto. The program opens with the Prelude to Wagner’s Die Meistersinger and reaches a finale with Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony. The Masterworks Series is sponsored by the Stella Boyle Smith Trust.

The concert takes place Saturday, February 28, 2015 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, March 1, 2015 at 3:00 p.m. at the Maumelle Performing Arts Center, 100 Victory Lane, Maumelle AR.

American Airlines Concert Conversations: All concert ticket holders are invited to a pre-concert lecture an hour before each Masterworks concert. These talks feature insights from the Maestro and guest artists, and feature musical examples to enrich the concert experience.
Tickets are $19, $35, $49, and $58; active duty military and student tickets are $10 are can be purchased online at www.ArkansasSymphony.org; at the Maumelle Performing Arts Center box office beginning 90 minutes prior to a concert; or by phone at 501-666-1761, ext. 100.

All Arkansas students grades K-12 are admitted to Sunday’s matinee free of charge with the purchase of an adult ticket using the Entergy Kids’ Ticket, downloadable at the ASO website.

ARTISTS

Vadim Gluzman, violin – Richard Sheppard Arnold Artist of Distinction

Philip Mann, conductor

PROGRAM

WAGNER: Prelude to Die Meistersinger
BRAHMS: Concerto for Violin in D Major, Op. 77
SCHUBERT: Symphony No. 8 in B minor, “Unfinished”

PROGRAM NOTES

Wagner’s Prelude to Die Meistersinger introduces the themes of the hero, von Stolzing, and the comic villain, Beckmesser, with a display of contrapuntal ingenuity worthy of Bach.

For Brahms, as it had been for Beethoven, a concerto was no less weighty and important than a symphony. Brahms and soloist Joseph Joachim had been friends for 25 years when Brahms began work on the Violin Concerto in D Major. While ignoring most of Joachim’s suggestions, Brahms crafted a powerful, warm, and dramatic concerto that nonetheless met his requirements of musical substance over pyrotechnic flash.

There are actually several ‘unfinished’ symphonies left by Schubert, but the haunting Symphony No. 8  is the most famous of the fragments. The work was composed while he was seriously ill, and also undergoing a major shift in creative direction. He completed the first two movements in every detail. After composing and partially orchestrating sketches for a third movement, he set the symphony aside and appears never to have returned to it again.

ABOUT THE ARKANSAS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
The Arkansas Symphony Orchestra celebrates its 49th season in 2014-2015, under the leadership of Music Director Philip Mann. ASO is the resident orchestra of Robinson Center Music Hall, and performs more than sixty concerts each year for more than 165,000 people through its Stella Boyle Smith Masterworks Series, ACXIOM Pops LIVE! Series, River Rhapsodies Chamber Music Series, and numerous concerts performed around the state of Arkansas, in addition to serving central Arkansas through numerous community outreach programs and bringing live symphonic music education to over 26,000 school children and over 200 schools.