There are loud moments and soft moments and tender moments and sweet moments. They're all there. It's not just one level. I think it'll keep everyone's interest.
If you go
› What: Chattanooga Symphony & Opera Masterworks Series performance of “Scheherazade.”› When: 7:30 p.m. today, April 28.› Where: Tivoli Theatre, 709 Broad St.› Admission: $21-$83.› Phone: 423-267-8583.› Website: chattanoogasymphony.org/event/scheherazade.
When programming its various concert series seasons, the Chattanooga Symphony & Opera likes to go “bang” at both ends.
This year’s Masterworks series began in September with a potluck of sweeping, outdoor-themed works, including Antonin Dvorak’s overture to “Carnival” and Ottorino Respighi’s “Pines of Rome.” As the season comes to a close, CSO conductor Kayoko Dan is hoping to inspire a bit of adventurous spirit in Masterworks fans tonight, April 28, with a climactic performance of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Scheherazade.”
The 19th-century Russian composer’s four-movement symphonic suite is based on the “One Thousand and One Nights” (aka “Arabian Nights”). Dan says the movements evoke the same wanderlust and swashbuckling derring-do embodied in the tales that inspired them, such as “Aladdin’s Wonderful Lamp,” “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves” and “The Seven Voyages of Sinbad.”
“I would say it’s very adventurous music,” Dan says. “If you just close your eyes and listen to it, you’ll hear ships sailing through the ocean, and you’ll hear the waves and the crashes of the waves and storms and pirates.
“It’s very descriptive and a lot of fun. I think that’s why it’s so well-loved. It’s very exciting.”
Rimsky-Korsakov was a master of orchestration and possessed a deep understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of each instrument at his disposal. As a result, Dan says, he was a deft hand at creating colorful music that allowed his players to both build off each other and shine individually.
“[‘Scheherazade’] is not an easy piece,” she says. “Mainly, there are different tempo changes, and rhythmically there are a lot of challenges for everyone. There are huge violin solos and credenzas. Each wind instrument – flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, trumpet, trombone – there’s a solo for every instrument. Everyone is exposed and presented. It’s a way to display everyone.”
Although “Scheherazade” will comprise the bulk of tonight’s performance, the program also includes a guest appearance by Ukrainian pianist Stanislav Khristenko, the first-prize winner at the 2013 Cleveland International Piano Competition. Khristenko will perform Frederic Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1.
The CSO signed up to act as a host orchestra for the winner of the Cleveland competition long before the winner was known and will be featuring Khristenko at a discounted solo fee. Past CIPC winners who have performed with the CSO have forged lasting bonds with the orchestra, including Alexander Schimpf, who was a featured guest during a Masterworks performance earlier this season after making his Chattanooga premiere with the CSO in 2012.
“It just so happens that we might get repeat performance with an orchestra, if you get along with the soloist and there’s chemistry and you feel like you work well together,” Dan says. “It’s kind of fun to not know who the soloist is when you sign up [as a host orchestra], because you might actually end up making great friends when they come.”
Contact Casey Phillips at cphillips@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6205.