Festive Beginning

Overview

Celebrating our new partnership with Loyola Academy in Wilmette, Festive Beginning marks the Band’s subscription debut at the Leemputte Family Theater. Dmitri Shostakovich’s rousing Festive Overture raises the curtain with a grandiose ceremonial fanfare followed by sweeping, effervescent melodic lines. In his Slavyanskaya Symphony — a work not heard in the United States until the fall of the Iron Curtain — Boris Kozhevnikov quotes folk melodies from his hometown, the ancient city of Novgorod, with pensive lyricism and radiant vitality.

The second half of the program is packed with American favorites, including Morton Gould’s spirited American Salute, based on the Civil War-era song “When Johnny Comes Marching Home.” Mysterium, Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Jennifer Higdon’s arrangement of her choral work O Magnum Mysterium, provides momentary repose, evoking the mystery of how music moves us. This ethereal work employs a combination of melody and rhythm that reflect spoken language, drawing inspiration from the earliest forms of sacred music. The jubilant and cinematic final movement of Howard Hanson’s Romantic Symphony brings the program to a rousing conclusion with flourishing woodwinds and valiant brass.

Program

Artists