THE ORCHESTRA OF THE BRONX

Michael Spierman, conductor

plays

Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Mozart

Guest Violinist: Sharon Gunderson

Sunday October 20, 3 pm

Lehman Center’s Lovinger Theatre,

         250 Bedford Park Blvd. West

Free Admission – no reservations necessary

Information: 929.222.3973

Michael Spierman, founder/conductor of The Orchestra of The Bronx, announces the opening concert of the 2024-25 season.  The 40-member orchestra of musicians drawn from other major orchestras and Broadway shows, joined by guest violinist Sharon Gunderson, will perform a program of Beethoven, Mendelssohn, and Mozart, Sunday October 20, at 3 PM, at the Lehman College Lovinger Theatre, 250 Bedford Park Blvd. West, Bronx, NY.

Felix Mendelssohn’s Overture to The Hebrides (Fingal’s Cave) was inspired by the composer’s 1829 trip to Fingal’s Cave on the island of Staffa, off Scotland’s west coast.  Mendelssohn was overwhelmed by the scenery and wrote to his sister Fanny: “To make you understand how extraordinarily the Hebrides affected me, I send you the following, which came into my head there.”  He included the first 21 bars of the overture of Fingal’s Cave, which Mendelssohn wrote to capture the Atlantic swell, the sound of the waves crashing into rocks and lapping against each other.  Scored for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, and strings, the 10-minute Overture, dedicated to King Frederick William IV of Prussia, received its world premiere on January 10, 1833, in Berlin.

Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5, often referred to by the nickname “Turkish”, like Mozart’s other violin concertos, is an early work, written in 1775, when the composer was 19 years old, and premiered during the Christmas season that year in Salzburg.  It is not known for whom it was written, but Mozart himself may have played it since he was said to be an accomplished violinist.  It is the third movement that gives this concerto its “Turkish” nickname, as the violin and orchestra take up what is meant to suggest wild Turkish music.  Turkish culture was fashionable in 18th-century Europe, with Turkish coffee, Turkish subjects in dramas and paintings, and popular stories about Turkey in many operas.

Beethoven’s Symphony No. 8 in F Major, fondly referred to by the composer as “my little Symphony in F”, is generally regarded as light-hearted, though not lightweight, because of its short length, lighter tone, and frequent return to the musical styles and forms of the eighteenth century.  However, beneath the gaiety of its surface lies much complexity and a promethean connection.  The premiere took place February 27, 1814 at a concert in Vienna.  Beethoven was growing increasingly deaf at the time, but insisted on leading the premiere.  Reportedly, “the orchestra largely ignored his ungainly gestures and followed the principal violinist instead”.