The JSO will end the 1997-98 season with a flourish of color on April 25th with three Romantic masterpieces: a Mendelssohn overture inspired by the wonders of nature, one of Tchaikovsky's greatest symphonies, and a gorgeous violin concerto by one of the finest composers ever to write music for the movies.

Felix Mendelssohn's 36th opus, Fingal's Cave Overture, is also known as "Hebrides Overture." It was inspired by a journey to the famous Hebrides Islands known as Scotland in 1829. While Mendelssohn was visiting the caves of Staffa he was greatly impressed by the sight of rolling waves at the mouth of a waterfront cave. This inspired the opening theme heard in the lower strings and bassoons. The enduring quality of the overture goes far beyond pictorial associations, though, and it has earned countless admirer's over the years.

Erich Wolfgang Korngold appeared on the scene as an astonishing child prodigy. By the age of nine he performed one of his own compositions, a cantata entitled "Gold," for an amazed Gustav Mahler who declared him a genius. In his teens his music was championed by many of the greatest musicians in Europe. Richard Strauss reacted with "awe and fear" when he learned that Korngold's compositions were the work of an adolescent boy. At age 20 Korngold wrote an opera "Die tote Stadt" that was hailed around the world as a masterpiece. A poll taken in Vienna in 1928 named him as one of the two greatest living composers, along with Arnold Schoenberg.

The rise of Nazism, which rent so many careers and so much of Europe, sent him to Hollywood where he became in many ways the victim of his own success. He wrote brilliant film scores, so much so that he won Oscars for two films, "Anthony Adverse" and "The Adventures of Robin Hood." Many critics wrote him off as a "movie composer," even when he returned to serious composition after the war.

He certainly knew when he had written a good tune, and four of his most memorable movie themes are woven into his masterful Violin Concerto In D Major, Op. 35 which was premiered in 1947 by Jascha Heifetz and the St. Louis Symphony.

The beautiful opening theme was first heard in "Another Dawn," a quickly-forgotten film from 1937. The poignant second theme came from "Juarez," produced in 1939. The second movement is based on a memorable theme from score to "Anthony Adverse" which won him the Academy Award in 1939. The ebullient theme from the 1937 hit "The Prince and the Pauper" is the basis for the finale.

Korngold surrounds these themes with stunning orchestral effects and equally glorious passages for the solo violin.

Tchaikovsky's Symphony #4 in F Minor, Op. 36 was the first of his symphonies to become a standard part of the orchestral repertoire, It was written at a time of great personal stress in Tchaikovsky's life. In 1876 he entered a disastrous marriage that caused him to have a nervous breakdown. Fortunately, at this same time he was beginning his long and enormously beneficial relationship with Nadejda Fillaretovna von Meek, who became his longtime patron and friend, even though they knew each other only through long, detailed letters. She supported his compositions very generously, even though, at her insistence, they never met in person.

The fourth symphony was first performed in Moscow on March 4th of 1878. Later that year Tchaikovsky wrote to von Meck, describing his feelings about the music. 

Of the first movement he said: "The introduction is the kernel, the chief thought of the whole symphony. This is destiny." The introduction he refers to is an intense, almost brutal fanfare in the brass and woodwinds. The emotional main theme of the movement follows in the violins and cellos.

The poignant second movement begins with a singing oboe melody supported by pizzicato strings. This is followed by another beautiful theme in the woodwinds, violins and cellos. Tchaikovsky describes this movement as "...another phase of sadness. One regrets the past and there is no desire to begin life anew. There were joyful minutes. ...There were also sad moments and irrevocable losses."

Tchaikovsky describes the third movement as "...capricious arabesques, elusive images which pass in the imagination..." This slightly tipsy scherzo is based on a very effective pizzicato melody in the strings. In the contrasting middle section the woodwinds take over.

The finale is based on a boisterous opening theme and a famous Russian folk song "In the Fields There Stands a Birch Tree." The folk tune serves as the basis for variations throughout the movement. Of this movement, Tchaikovsky wrote "Go among the people; Observe how they can enjoy themselves; Rejoice in others' joys. To live is still possible!"