If you’ve heard of the Rogue Valley Symphony, but not heard the Rogue Valley Symphony, you’re in the right place – this is our collection of archival pieces from the last year, which we will be adding to over the course of the current season. Listen to your heart’s content, and if you want to see more, check out our YouTube channel.
From the 21/22 Season, Masterworks 4: Triangle of Love, Recorded 1/21/22
Consider for a moment that Clara Schumann, née Wieck, was younger than even Mozart was when she completed her first original piano concerto, and that her concerto predates those of Brahms, Felix Mendelssohn, and even Robert Schumann! Those three composers looked to Clara’s piece for inspiration, as hers was hugely popular during her lifetime. She performed the piano solo at the premier of the work in 1835 in Leipzig under the baton of Mendelssohn, and subsequently toured the piece around Europe.
Featuring Cicely Parnas as cello soloist, Tchaikovsky’s charming nod to music from his past serves as an interesting bridge to Tchaikovsky realizing his full potential and finding his voice as the Russian master we know today.
Joseph Bologne, later dubbed the Chevalier de Saint-Georges, was a jack of all trades, and master of several: master fencer, military commander, abolitionist, and virtuoso violinist and composer. His lovely first symphony follows the 18th century French model for its form, showing off Saint-Georges’s virtuosity and command of the orchestra’s color palette, making clear this is the work of not just a remarkable musician, but a man that history should never have forgotten.
Though the Symphony no. 94 (spoiler alert) gets its subtitle from the famous surprise in the Andante movement, the work has many other surprises in store. A product of Haydn’s first trip to London, the Surprise Symphony stands out as one of his finest symphonic works
2020/2021 Season – Digital Detours
Jim Fox’s ethereal musical landscape, The City the Wind Swept Away, takes us gently to a place of timeless beauty. This serene music is best savored when you find a calm moment for introspection. So pour yourself a hot cup of tea, light a candle, and spend twenty minutes with us as we reflect on how the world has changed, and how it has changed us.
Rogue Valley Symphony Masterworks 3 Concert Detour, featuring string players in the Holly Theater.
Aaron Kernis, Musica Celestis
Edvard Grieg’s From Holberg’s Time
Béla Bartók’s Romanian Folk Dances
Your Masterworks 2 Concert Detour is here! We proudly present to you our second Digital Journey! We would have welcomed fall together, in person, but instead we send you this detour from your regularly scheduled Masterworks 2. In it, we celebrate our heroes: first responders, teachers, nurses, health care workers, and more. This film was made with them in mind. We dedicate this film to you. We know that the resilience we seek resides in us all.
Every challenge is an opportunity. We dream about being with you in the concert hall again – nothing beats that feeling. However, the world still needs beauty – it needs it more than ever. Fortunately, we humans are inherently creative beings. Therefore, we put our heads together and came up with Digital Journeys with the Rogue Valley Symphony. They are our big and very sincere thanks to you for sticking with us. They are also a reminder that we will be here for you when life returns to normal! The first Digital Journey features a series of solo performances featuring various RVS soloists and friends of the orchestra, accompanied by Music Director Martin Majkut at the piano.
Soloists and Program
Rhett Bender, saxophone: Rachmaninoff: Vocalise
Alison Dresser, horn: Glazunov: Reveries & Gliere: Valse triste
Kristin Kessler, oboe/English horn: Cotton: The Call of Light
Katheryn McElrath, flute: Boehm: Souvenir des Alpes
Will Scharen, trombone: Saint-Saens: Cavatine for Trombone & Piano
Michael Sorensen, viola: Bowen: Viola Sonata No. 1, Op. 18, mvt. I
Alexander Tutunov, piano: Rachmaninoff: Paques from Suite No. 1 & Borodin: Nocturne