2007-2008 Concert Season

Thomas Shoebotham, Music Director

We are proud and excited to offer Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 in our opening concert. This monumental work is a ‘rite of passage’ for any orchestra, and “it is a very difficult work for all involved: orchestra, chorus, soloists and even the conductor”, says Maestro Thomas Shoebotham. “ I also look forward very much to giving the premiere of Lee Actor’s Celebration Overture. He is a wonderful composer, a first-rate musician with an individual voice and superb craftsmanship.”

Lee Actor, Composer-in-Residence

The second concert is different in that we do not have a featured soloist on the program. Instead, we offer an overture (Wagner’s Meistersinger Prelude) and then what are, in effect, two symphonies. The Stephen Paulus Age of American Passions is in three movements, fast-slow-fast, and has much of the thematic and harmonic development that would be typically associated with a symphony. The Sibelius Symphony No. 5 is a masterwork, demanding but yielding great musical rewards to musician and listener alike.

The third concert contains a piece that Music Director Shoebotham considers one of the most special, moving works in all 20th century music, Strauss’ Four Last Songs: “They are the last works he composed in his long life, and are a tribute to his strong love of the soprano voice. Even though he could not have expected his soprano wife to sing them, we may legitimately imagine these works as a tribute to her.” Also on the program is Mozart’s Overture to the Magic Flute and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5, a thrilling, dramatic work.

In the fourth concert of out 20th season, we showcase Daniel Glover as piano soloist in Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. A local talent, he has demonstrated amazing technique coupled with highly musical performances throughout the Bay Area, and we expect no less in the performance of this 20th century masterpiece. Also on the program is Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun by Debussy, and Brahms’ Symphony No. 2, which is one of Maestro Shoebotham’s favorite works in the symphonic literature.