Audio By Carbonatix
The last time you heard the Dallas Symphony Orchestra perform, you pulled up to the Meyerson in a big yellow bus. Fifth Grade was a long time ago, you’re due for another field trip. This weekend (Thursday through Sunday), Music Director Jaap Van Zweden leads the DSO in a performance of works by John Luther Adams, Franz Schubert, Richard Strauss, and Dmitri Shostakovich. Don’t worry, there’s no pronunciation quiz. That being said, you should always do your homework, so here are a few things to note before you revisit the symphony as an adult.
1. Jaap van Zweden Is The Best Conductor In America
No, really. He has an award to prove it. Last fall, the DSO’s Music Director, Jaap van Zweden was named America’s Conductor of the Year (2012) by Musical America. Beyond this formal recognition, Dallas audiences and critics alike have noted a marked improvement in our fair city’s orchestra since van Zweden’s arrival in 2008. Flailing arms during a performance is only part of a conductor’s job, and like any good coach, most of the work he does happens pre-game. Van Zweden’s genius is that, in addition to his detailed and artistic vision for how a given piece should sound, he has an uncanny ability to execute his ideas by drawing these sounds out of the orchestra.
2. John Luther Adams Is Alive!
For better or worse, many symphony orchestras tend to perform almost exclusively works composed in the 18th and 19th centuries (read: music by dead dudes). American composer John Luther Adams composed the first piece on this weekend’s program, “Dark Waves,” in 2007. Adams, who is still very much alive, is known for composing music with a cold, ethereal sound evocative of the remote Alaskan landscape that surrounds his home. “Dark Waves” is part-live music, part pre-recorded electronic soundscape. “Together,” he writes, “the orchestra and the electronics evoke a vast rolling sea. Waves of Perfect Fifths rise and fall, in tempo relationships of 3, 5 and 7. At the central moment, these waves crest together in a tsunami of sound encompassing all twelve chromatic tones and the full range of the orchestra.” A tsunami of sound. Not a bad start to an evening of music.
3. Schubert, Strauss, and Shostakovich are Dead.
Following Adams’ very contemporary work, German baritone Matthias Goerne joins the DSO to sing several songs by Schubert and Strauss. In the late 1800s, these short German art songs (called lieder) were hugely popular. Each one will last only a few minutes and they vary in mood. The real treat here is getting to hear Goerne, a master at this style, do what he does best. Finally, the last work on the program, Shostakovich’s 9th symphony, is surprisingly lighthearted and bright. Shostakovich, a soviet composer, is better known for long, politically driven wartime works. His 9th symphony was written in 1945 when victory for the soviets in World War II was eminent. Rather than sounding victorious in a bombastic way, however, this relatively short symphony is joyfully simple and reminiscent of a clean, classical style almost any listener can find appealing.
4. This Is A Big Kid Field Trip.
That’s right, kids! You can chew gum in the car because, well, it’s your car. You can also have a cocktail (or two) at intermission. Sometimes, not being in 5th grade is the best.
