Concert Notes

Julia Perry Born March 25, 1924 in Lexington, KY Died April 24, 1979 in Akron, OH A Short Piece for Small Orchestra Composed 1952 Premiered in 1952 in Turin, Italy Conducted by Dean Dixon Performance Time: Approximately 6 minutes In a 1986 article, the celebrated African-American composer Olly Wilson observed that many Black composers create…

The American Symphony Orchestra is honored and pleased once again to be part of the open-air concert programs in Bryant Park, right next to the glorious New York Public Library. Today’s concert addresses a habit to which we have become accustomed: assigning unique national characteristics to facets of our culture. It seems entirely understandable that…

Richard Strauss (1864-1949) Born June 11, 1864 in Munich, Germany Died September 8, 1949 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany Guntram, Op. 25 Composed 1887–1893; rev. 1939 Premiered on May 10, 1894 at the Grossherzoglichen Hoftheater in Weimar, conducted by Richard Strauss Performance Time: Approximately 2 hours and 15 minutes Richard Strauss’s operatic legacy of 14 operas in…

The American Symphony Orchestra (ASO) is honored and pleased to be able to mount this concert performance of Richard Strauss’s first opera, Guntram, which the composer completed in 1893. I am particularly delighted that Bryan Gilliam, who, in my opinion, is the finest Strauss scholar working today, has written the program notes for this performance.…

Today’s concert is a public foray into how the passage of time in history can be perceived subjectively. The music performed today was written approximately a century ago. A concert of music that might have been performed in 1925, made up of music from the 1820s would have struck the audience in 1925 as welcome,…

John Alden Carpenter (1876-1951) Born February 28, 1876, in Park Ridge, Illinois Died April 26, 1951, in Chicago Skyscrapers: A Ballet of Modern American Life Composed 1923-24 Premiered on February 19, 1926 in New York, New York at the Metropolitan Opera House conducted by Louis Hasselmans featuring dance soloists Albert Troy, Rita de Leporte, and…

C.P.E. Bach (1714-1788) was perhaps the most famous, respected, and original composer from the Protestant north of German Europe during the later eighteenth century, a worthy equal and rival of two composers whose posthumous reputation and place in the repertory far exceeds his own—Haydn, 18 years younger and a Catholic subject of the Habsburg Empire—and…

C.P.E. Bach (1714-1788) Born March 8, 1714, in Weimar, Germany Died December 14, 1788, in Hamburg, Germany Heilig, H.775 Composed 1776 Premiered premiered during Michaelmas in 1776 Conducted by C.P.E. Bach Performance Time: Approximately 8 minutes Die Auferstehung und Himmelfahrt Jesu, H.777 Composed 1774-78 Premiered March 18, 1778 Conducted by C.P.E. Bach Performance Time: Approximately…

Scott Joplin Overture to Treemonisha Born November 24, 1868 in Texarkana, TX Died April 1, 1917 in New York, New York Composed 1911 Premiered on January 28, 1972 in Atlanta, Georgia Conducted by Robert Shaw Performance Time: Approximately 8 minutes While all the composers on this program worked in a variety of genres and styles,…

This concert program tries to put a dent—so to speak—in a prejudice (if prejudices had metal surfaces like cars) too many of us still share: that there is a fundamental tension between popular music and classical “art” music, particularly in America. There is none; great music thrives in all genres from Taylor Swift to John…