JSO opens season with bold Mahler symphony
The Jackson Symphony Orchestra will perform one of Gustav Mahler’s most popular compositions at the 2012-2013 season opener Oct. 13 beginning at 7:30 p.m. at the Potter Center on the Jackson Community College campus. On the program is Symphony #1 in D Major — Titan, known for its robust score filled with sound and emotion.
When Mahler conducted the première performance of this symphony at the Vigadó Concert Hall in Budapest in 1889, the audience wasn’t ready for the composition’s intense bursts of spirit, playful dances, spooky funeral march and stormy finale. The performance was greeted with hisses. Today, orchestras around the world regularly incorporate Mahler’s first symphony into their programs. The impassioned piece is now admired for the very fervor that displeased his first listeners.
“Mahler’s conducting skill led him to be recognized as one of the finest musicians of his age, but he struggled all his life for recognition as a composer,” Dr. Bruce Brown writes in his program notes for this concert. “His nine symphonies are conceived on a grand scale and usually call for a huge instrumentation, but individual musicians must also play daunting solo passages that provide a stern test of endurance, nerve and skill,” said Brown, who is JSO’s Composer-in-Residence and chair of the music department at Spring Arbor University.
As a bonus for the JSO’s first concert of the season, Andy Mead, professor of Music Theory at the University of Michigan, has written an illuminating theatrical prologue describing the times and lives of Mahler and his wife. Michigan Shakespeare Festival performers Bart Williams and Janet Haley will play the parts to add a special element to the concert-going experience.
After the failed premiere, Mahler (Austrian, 1860-1911) began revising his symphony and continued to alter it until 1899, when the score was first published. There are now four movements instead of five and the piece takes about an hour to perform. The overall theme is about man’s earthly struggles.
“Mahler originally grouped the first two movements into one section called From the Days of Youth, Youth, Fruit, Thorn Pieces,”Brown says. “The third movement, a funeral march, begins with an eerie solo in the double bass. Mahler based this movement on the familiar tune Frère Jacques, but in a somber minor key.”
The finale begins with a loud, terrifying cymbal crash. Mahler wrote in 1896 that the “fourth movement springs suddenly, like a lightening bolt from a dark cloud. It is simply the cry of a deeply wounded heart.”
“The hero’s hopes rise time after time in the last movement, only to be hit on the head again and again by Fate,” Brown says. “But the hero wins in the end! The music concludes with a magnificent, triumphant chorale.”
The symphony’s subtitle, Titan, came from a 900-page novel by the popular German writer Jean Paul. The four-volume book traces the life of a man from his youth to his ascendency to the throne in a small principality. Mahler specified that the music was not about the book and dropped the subtitle for later performances, but the Titan name lives on.
The concert is sponsored by Tri-Star Trust Bank. Individual tickets are $18 for Section C, $27 for Section B and the Balcony Wings, and $32 for the main floor’s Section A. Tickets may be ordered online at the JSO’s website at www.jacksonsymphony.org, at the box office by phoning 517-782-3221, or in person at 215 W. Michigan Ave., Jackson.
JSO concert ticket holders are invited to attend the complimentary and highly acclaimed pre-concert lecture series hosted by Dr. Brown. Called Backstage Glimpses, the lectures take place at 6:30 p.m. in the Federer Rooms off the main floor lobby in the Potter Center.
JSO’s 2012-2013 Season
Season tickets are still available at the following prices: $72 for Section C, $108 for Section B and the Balcony Wings, and $128 for the main floor’s Section A.
In addition to five concerts and free lectures, season ticket holders become members of the Concert Plus program, which includes many perks, such as two-for-one pricing on lunches and dinners at area restaurants, on Holiday Pops concert tickets, on tickets to the Michigan Theatre and admission to the Purple Rose Theatre in Chelsea. The Concert Plus program also provides one additional free ticket to any one concert so you can bring a friend.
The other four concerts this season are as follows:
Nov. 17, 2012 — Young, Exciting and Very Cool — Julian Pollack, 23, will perform the Midwest premiere of his Piano Concerto. The San Francisco Chronicle has described him as “…a ferociously assured and creatively dazzling pianist, composer and arranger …” Begins at 7:30 p.m. at the Potter Center. Sponsored by Spring Arbor University.
Feb. 8, 9 or 10, 2013 — Classical Cabaret — A chance to get up close and personal with the JSO All-Stars — those principal players with our orchestra. A great variety of music in the intimate and elegant setting of our downtown Performing Arts Center, complete with complimentary refreshments. Sponsored by Consumers Energy.
March 16, 2013 — Stranger in a Strange Land — Antonín Dvořák’s Symphony No. 7 in D minor, in which he found a way to both dazzle his western critics and still remain true to his Slavonic roots, resulting in arguably his greatest symphonic work. A program of composers who were driven into unfamiliar circumstances and responded with their most stellar and innovative creations. Also featuring Swan of Tuonela by Jean Sibelius and Dmitri Shostakovich’s first Cello Concerto. Begins at 7:30 p.m. at the Potter Center. Sponsored by Alro Steel Foundation/Louis Glick Trust.
May 4, 2013 — Lovers — The plays of Shakespeare have inspired musicians for centuries. From the Renaissance to today, none has been more influential than Romeo & Juliet. Two 19th Century versions, Hector Berlioz and Pyotr Tchaikovsky and one 20th Century, Sergei Prokofiev, will make for an extraordinary opportunity to experience the emotion of these great artists. Begins at 7:30 p.m. at the Potter Center. Sponsored by Curtis & Curtis, P.C.
NOTE: The Jackson Symphony Orchestra is a community resource providing performances of the classics and popular music, a community music school with private and group instruction and numerous educational programs for students of all ages. The organization owns a 30,000-square-foot facility in the heart of downtown Jackson which not only serves as an administrative, rehearsal, and recital performance space for the orchestra but also is home to the Jackson Youth Symphony, the Jackson Chorale and Children's Choir, the Michigan Shakespeare Festival and JSO Community String Ensemble. The orchestra primarily performs at the world-class Music Hall of the Jackson Community College Potter Center and other venues in town including several churches, the County Fairgrounds and Michigan Theatre.
NOTE: The Jackson Symphony Orchestra is a community resource providing performances of the classics and popular music, a community music school with private and group instruction and numerous educational programs for students of all ages. The organization owns a 30,000-square-foot facility in the heart of downtown Jackson which not only serves as an administrative, rehearsal, and recital performance space for the orchestra but also is home to the Jackson Youth Symphony, the Jackson Chorale and Children's Choir, the Michigan Shakespeare Festival and JSO Community String Ensemble. The orchestra primarily performs at the world-class Music Hall of the Jackson Community College Potter Center and other venues in town including several churches, the County Fairgrounds and Michigan Theatre.