Tulsa Symphony’s 2014-2015 Season

Tulsa Symphony’s ninth season offers yet another musically diverse and artis-tically distinctive PAC Classics series that is Simply Sensational!

The 2014-15 season features TSO’s own virtuoso concertmaster, Rossitza Goza, in her masterful interpretation of the Mendelssohn E minor Violin Concerto, rising young piano talent Meng-Sheng Shen, performing the Rach-maninoff  Piano Concerto in C minor and Mozart’s immortal and final mas-terwork, the Requiem, featuring the Tulsa Oratorio Chorus and stirring vocal soloists.

The May 9 grand finale of the season is a tribute to the powerful and dra-matic music of John Williams conducted by one of Tulsa Symphony’s favorite and most dynamic conductors, Ron Spigelman.

The entire season is focused on a selected few immortal composers, their historical significance and the societies and periods they represent.

We hope you will join us for the Simply Sensational Classics Series and the fourth season of our Fridays in the Loft Chamber Series.  And we cer-tainly hope to see you on Friday, September 5th at the Guthrie Green as we perform our annual Symphony in the Park to celebrate the new season. The free concert, as always, will include fireworks and many of your favorite popular musical scores.

All Concerts in this series are performed in Chapman Music Hall at the Tulsa Performing Arts Center on Saturday evenings beginning at 7:30 pm.  The October 5th second performance will be held on Sunday at 2:30 pm.

Tulsa Symphony’s 2014-2015 Season

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This concert is provided by the continuing generosity of the Patti Johnson Wilson Foundation

Rachmaninoff, Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, op.18Schubert, Symphony No. 9 in C major, D. 944 (“The Great”)

DANIEL HEGE, guest conductorMENG-SHENG SHEN, piano (Crescendo Award winner)

The Piano Concerto No. 2 is one of Sergei Rachmaninoff’s most enduringly popular pieces. As one of the finest pianists of his time, this work established his prowess as a concerto composer. Tulsa Symphony has chosen this staple of the piano repertoire to serve as an artistic showcase for the rising young virtuoso pianist and Crescendo Award winner, Meng-Sheng Shen.

The Ninth Symphony, known as The Great, was published in 1840 as “Symphony No. 7 in C Major.” It is the final symphony completed by Franz Schubert. Originally called The Great C major to distinguish it from his Symphony No. 6, The Little C major, the subtitle is now usually taken as a reference to the symphony’s majesty.

Simply great Sept 13 2014

Simply Great

Simply Sibelius

Finlandia, op.26The Swan of Tuonela from Lemminkäinen Suite, op.22Valse triste, op.44, No. 1Symphony No. 2 in D major, op.43

GRANT COOPER, guest conductor

Simply Sibeliusoct 4&5 2014

An entire evening of music by Finnish composer, Jean Sibelius includes Finlandia, op. 26, a symphonic poem. The piece was composed for the Press Celebrations of 1899, a political protest, and depicts episodes from Finnish history. Its patriotic fervor and now familiar, singable, hymn-like tune has led to its adoption as a symbol of Finnish Nation-alism.

The Swan of Tuonela tone poem was originally written as a prelude to an unfinished opera, but was published as the third symphonic poem of a series based on tales from the Kalevala epis of Finnish mythology. The music paints a transcendental image of a mystical swan, represented by the English horn, in the waters surrounding Tuonela, the island of the dead.

Valse triste (Sad Waltz), is a short orchestral work in waltz form. While originally com-posed as incidental music for a psychological play, Valse triste emerged as a popular and familiar separate work and and remains one of Sibelius’s signature compositions.

Listening to Sibelius’s classic Symphony No. 2 today, it is difficult to believe how daring it was to audiences of his day. But to his contemporaries, it was daring indeed and a work that departed from the conventions of the time that nonetheless pleased audiences from the outset as it still does today.

This concert is in recognition of the generosity of the Hilti Corporation

Simply Romantic Holiday

Simply Romantic holiday

Simply Romantic Holiday

dec 6 2014

Tchaikovsky, Selections from The NutcrackerMendelssohn, Violin Concerto in E minor, op.64Tchaikovsky, Symphony No. 1 in G minor, op.13 (“Winter Dreams”)

STEVEN SMITH, guest conductorROSSITZA JEKOVA-GOZA, violin

Tchaikovsky’s enormously popular ballet The Nutcracker has captured the hearts and imagination of people across the world since its premiere performance in 1892. The music has become intertwined with popular culture and because of some of the themes and characters, is typically associated with Christmas, with performances of the ballet and the orchestral suite receiving thousands of performances every December, including Tulsa Ballet’s annual PAC production.

Felix Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor, op. 64, is his last large orchestral work and one of the foremost violin concertos of the Romantic era. In three connected move-ments, the first presents the elegiac first theme, while the second offers a flowing lyrical melody. The capricious scherzo third movement is an exciting and driving finale that ends with a dazzling cadenza artistically and energetically interpreted by Tulsa Sympho-ny’s own virtuoso concertmaster, Rossitza Jekova-Goza.

A most fitting work for a December concert, the Symphony No. 1 is a young composer’s work.  In an 1883 letter to his patron, Nadezhda von Meck, Tchaikovsky wrote, “Al-though it is immature in many respects, it is essentially better and richer in content than many other more mature works.” But in originality, charm and genuine feeling “Winter Dreams” stands squarely on its own feet as a work able to give pleasure without refer-ence to anything the composer might have written in later years and  deserving of a place alongside his masterful last three symphonies.

This concert is in recognition of the generosity of T.D. Williamson, Inc.

Simply Classical

Beethoven, Symphony No. 8 in F major, op.93Mozart, Requiem Mass in D minor, K. 626

JAMES BAGWELL, guest conductorTULSA ORATORIO CHORUS(Vocal Soloists, TBA)

To call Symphony No. 8 “the little one,” as Beethoven himself once did, is to ignore the fact that this clas-sically structured symphony is also the most explo-sive of the nine. In no other Beethoven symphony is a movement so peppered with abrupt chords and rip-roaring outbursts than the first movement of this work. In fact, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 8 is “little” only in the sense that it is compact. Completed in 1812, along with the Symphony No. 7, it possesses the same furiously creative drive in even more concen-trated form. Beethoven himself preferred the Eighth to the Seventh. When told that its brevity had disap-pointed its first audience, he replied that that was because it was “so much better.”

The Requiem Mass by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was composed in Vienna in 1791. No work of Mozart’s has acquired such legend and romantic fiction as his final composition, the Requiem Mass. The composer was scarcely in his grave, the unfinished Requiem still on his desk, before various persons began to speculate on the coincidence of his writing a setting of the Latin Missa pro Defunctis while he himself was fatally ill. Since the 19th century, the Requiem legend has grown so familiar and so universally appealing while the con-troversy, mystery and intrigue regarding the comple-tion of this magnificent work continues to this day.

Simply Classical jan 17 2015

This concert is in recognition of the generosity of the Allergy Clinic of Tulsa

Simply Tragic

Mahler, Symphony No. 6 in A minor (“Tragische”)

GERHARDT ZIMMERMANN, guest conductor

The Symphony No. 6 by Gustav Mahler, sometimes referred to as the Tragische (“Trag-ic”), was composed between 1903 and 1904 and revised in 1906. The work’s first perfor-mance was in Essen, on May 27, 1906, conducted by the composer. The revisions that Mahler made in the summer of 1906 have created one level of controversy; statements that his wife, Alma, made in her memoirs have added another. What was the intended order of the two inner movements? Why did Mahler remove the last hammer blow from the Finale? And how did the symphony become the “Tragische” when it was not titled by the composer? In Mahler’s words “My Sixth will propound riddles the solution of which may be attempted only by a generation which has absorbed and truly digested my first five symphonies.”

Simply TragicMar 14 2015

Simply Cinematic

Simply Cinematic may 9 2015

Music of John Williams

RON SPIGELMAN, guest conductor

American composer, conductor and pianist, John Williams is unquestionably one of the greatest film composers of all time. In a career spanning over six decades, he has com-posed some of the most popular and recognizable film scores in cinematic history. Let John Williams’ music transport your imagination across time and space with his iconic Hollywood soundtracks and scores that include Star Wars, Harry Potter, Jurassic Park and Raiders of the Lost Ark.

This concert is provided by the continuing generosity of the Adelson Family Foundation

Simply Cinematic

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Enjoying its fourth season, Tulsa Symphony’s Fridays in the Loft Chamber Series continues in its new home in the Fly Loft located in the vibrant Brady Arts District. Join us for a fun evening of wine, cheese and chamber music, and get to know Tulsa Symphony’s finest musicians in our urban yet intimate setting. Please call us with questions or concerns about parking in this popu-lar downtown area.

Program highlights include Schubert’s famous “Trout” Quintet on our November 14th program and Brahms’ Trio for Clarinet, Cello, and Piano (op.114) on January 23rd. Our final concert on April 17th will feature Benny’s Gig, a set of 8 duos for clarinet and double bass written by Morton Gould in 1979 on the occasion of Benny Goodman’s 70th birthday.

November 14, 2014 • January 23, 2015 • April 17, 2015

Music, wine and conversation in a classically casual atmosphere

Fridays in the Loft

Season Subscription for 3 concerts - $75Individual Tickets - $30

All performances take place at 7:00 PM in FlyLoft Space 1, 117 N. Boston, second floor.

BALCONY

MEZZANINE L–R II

MEZZANINE L–R

MEZZANINE CENTER II

MEZZANINE CENTER

MEZZANINE BOX

ORCHESTRA III

ORCHESTRA II

ORCHESTRA I

PREMIUM ORCHESTRA

N/A

$126

$162

$162

$300

$300

$132

$180

$300

$390

$15

$25

$30

$30

$55

$55

$25

$35

$55

$70

SectionSeason

Price

Single Concert

Price

Stage

premium orchestra

orch estra i

orch estra ii

orch estra iii

mezzanine Box

mezzanine center

mezzanine center ii

Balcony

mezzanine l-r ii

mezzanine l-r

SEATING CHART

117 N Boston Ave, Suite 201 Tulsa OK 74103

TEL 918 584 3645 FAX 918.584.3603

www.TulsaSymphony.org

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