Broadcast note: Tune in July 22 at 7 p.m. CT/8 p.m ET to hear this incredible live performance.
The National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America makes its Carnegie Hall debut in an electrifying program that begins with Bernstein's Symphonic Dances from West Side Story, a great American work that pulses with fiery rhythms but also includes some of the most tender love music ever written. The orchestra is then joined by Gil Shaham for Britten's Violin Concerto, an intense and virtuosic work written on the eve of World War II. Samuel Adams's innovative style is on display in Radial Play, a new work commissioned by Carnegie Hall, and Mussorgsky's perennial favorite Pictures at an Exhibition concludes the program.
Note: four Minnesotans are part of the National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America, including three alumni from the Minnesota Varsity project: Arjun Ganguly, (viola); Anna Humphrey (violin); and Emma Richman (violin).
Performers
National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America David Robertson, Conductor Gil Shaham, Violin
Program
LEONARD BERNSTEIN Symphonic Dances from West Side Story
West Side Story , first produced on Broadway in 1957, is universally recognized as a landmark in the history of American musical theater. After an initial run of 732 performances, it returned to the Great White Way for the first of many revivals in 1960, the same year in which Leonard Bernstein invited the show's orchestrators to extract a concert suite from his score.
BENJAMIN BRITTEN Violin Concerto, Op. 15
Completed in 1939, the Violin Concerto is among the fruits of Benjamin Britten's three-year sojourn in the United States and Canada. A pacifist, the young British composer had abandoned his homeland as the clouds of war gathered over Europe. Critical reception of the concerto was generally favorable, with Irving Kolodin of the New York Sun praising Britten's somberly lyrical score as "personal, heartfelt, communicative."
SAMUEL ADAMS Radial Play
Widely acclaimed acoustic and electroacoustic composer Samuel Adams draws from his experiences in a diverse array of fields, including noise and electronic music, jazz, and field recording. Radial Play, a new work commissioned by Carnegie Hall and dedicated to the National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America, is a complex, interwoven exploration of counterpoint that stretches the capabilities of the orchestra.
MODEST MUSSORGSKY Pictures at an Exhibition
Modest Mussorgsky's highly individual voice was long obscured by well-meaning editors and fellow composers who considered his unconventional harmonies and orchestrations crude. Pictures at an Exhibition—a suite of vividly drawn tonal sketches inspired by an exhibition of artworks by the composer's friend Viktor Hartmann—was originally written for piano. However, it is best known in the masterful orchestration that Maurice Ravel made in 1922.
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