Saturday, December 18, 2021 8pm
All Saints Parish
1773 Beacon Street, Brookline, MA 02445

Please note that masks and proof of vaccination are required for all attendees over 12 years old; masks required for those under 12.

Tickets are $15 general admission, $10 for students and seniors, and free for children 12 & under.
Pre-ordering tickets online is strongly encouraged.

Bedřich Smetana, The Moldau

Smetana was a Czech composer who has been regarded in his homeland as the father of Czech music. Internationally he is best known for his opera The Bartered Bride and for the symphonic cycle Má vlast ("My Fatherland"), which portrays the history, legends and landscape of the composer's native Bohemia. It contains the famous symphonic poem "Vltava", also popularly known by its German name "Die Moldau" (in English, "The Moldau").

Smetana conceived of a series of orchestral pieces with topics drawn from the legends and landscapes of his homeland Bohemia, which took the better part of the 1870s for the composer to bring into fruition as Má vlast. Each movement of the suite is a self-standing symphonic poem with its own story. In the order of their placement within the suite, the movements portray chivalrous deeds at a medieval castle (Vyšehrad); a river journey with scenes of rural life (Vltava); the legendary revenge of a spurned maiden (Šárka); the fields and woods along the Elbe River (Z c̆eských luhů a hájů); the perseverance of Czech warriors (Tábor); and the reminder of their eventual return in victory (Blanik). Of its movements, Vltava/The Moldau has remained the most popular.

The movement starts with light, rippling figures that represent the emergence of the Moldau River as two mountain springs, one warm and one cold. Water from the springs then combines to become a mighty river, symbolized by a stately theme that recurs periodically throughout the remainder of the work. The piece illustrates the river’s passing of such scenes as jubilant hunters, a village wedding, water nymphs, the St. John’s Rapids, and the castle Vyšehrad.

Alexander Arutiunian, Trumpet concerto in A♭ major

with concerto competition winner Andrew Harms

Dr. Andrew Harms is an active musician, teacher, and researcher. Andrew has been recognized by several international conferences, competitions, and organizations, including the International Trumpet Guild, the National Trumpet Competition, the Minnesota Orchestra Young Artist Competition, and the U.S. Fulbright Program in Germany. Andrew has performed recently with the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra, the Portland Symphony, Hartford Symphony, East Connecticut Symphony, and the Austin Symphony. He has served on the faculties of Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp, New England Music Camp, and Appel Farm Fine Arts Camp. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the North American Brass Band Association, as well as that of the New England Brass Band. Andrew has published in the Journal of the International Trumpet Guild on pedagogical topics, research on the trumpet in propaganda film and music, and the music industry in West Berlin during the Berlin Airlift.

Alexander Arutiunian was a Soviet and Armenian composer and pianist. At the age of seven Arutiunian joined the Yerevan State Conservatory’s children’s group, and at 14 graduated from same music conservatory on the eve of World War II. As a composer and pianist, Arutiunian also served as full Professor at the music conservatory. Spanning a life of 92 years, he was awarded a huge array of Soviet Union prizes that included the Stalin Prize, State Prize of Armenia, and People’s Artist of the USSR. The Trumpet Concerto was Arutiunian’s sixth major composition. It was promptly considered a virtuoso showpiece to be assimilated into the standard trumpet repertoire worldwide. The concerto was written in 1950 for Ukrainian virtuoso trumpeter, Timofei Alexandrovich Dokschitzer.

 
Johannes Brahms, Serenade No. 1

Johannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist of the Romantic period. Brahms is both a traditionalist and an innovator; his music is firmly rooted in the structures and compositional techniques of the Classical masters. His reputation and status as a composer are such that he is sometimes grouped with Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven as one of the "Three Bs" of music. 

Serenade No. 1 in D Major, Op. 11, is known for its unusually symphonic quality and for the prominence of its full quartet of horns. The first serenade was completed in 1858; at that time, Brahms was also working on his Piano Concerto No. 1. Originally, the composition was scored for nine wind and string players, but the composer’s friends encouraged him to rework the piece for a larger ensemble. Brahms chose to destroy the score and parts of the original nonet after he had made the orchestral version. Friend Joseph Joachim conducted the premiere of the revised, final version in 1860, which included brass, timpani, and a larger contingent of woodwinds. Throughout the Serenade’s six movements, Brahms juxtaposes cheerful energy with melancholy. On hearing a performance of Opus 11 in 1862, critic Eduard Hanslick wrote, “We regard the serenade, whose construction can assume the most multifarious forms, as the playground of idyllic dreams, of beloved thoughts, of lightness and gaiety. It is the symphony of tranquility.” Brahms himself referred to this piece as a "Simfonie-Serenade."