Bartók Concerto for Orchestra: Mar. 25 & 26

Treyton Oak Towers Coffee series
Thursday, March 25, 2010 | 10:30am | Whitney Hall
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Hilliard Lyons Classics series
Friday, March 26, 2010 | 8pm | Whitney Hall
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Jorge Mester, conductor
Jack Griffin, Viola

Program
Hector Berlioz
Harold in Italy

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Béla Bartók
Concerto for Orchestra

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A “virtuoso orchestra” season would most certainly be incomplete without some of the major “concertos for orchestra” that came into high fashion in the 20^th century. Perhaps the most famous of these is Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra – a true tour de force for the musicians, each having opportunities to ’step into the spotlight,’ as well as to play a supporting role in one of the landmark orchestral compositions of all time.

Having fled to the United States in the 1940s as a result of the Nazi’s takeover of his home country, Hungary, Bartók was filled with anguish and at wit’s end. He was said to have weighed as little as 87 pounds at one point due to the burdens of WWII and family matters upon him. Fritz Reiner and others rallied to convince the Boston Symphony to offer him a U.S. commission which eventually became the Concerto for Orchestra. The American Society of Composers, Arrangers and Publishers (ASCAP) helped the composer to recoup, paying for a stay in a sanatorium, and he completed the work – one of the last of his lifetime – while recovering in North Carolina. It debuted on December 1, 1944 in Boston’s Symphony Hall under Koussevitzky.

We’re thrilled to pair the Concerto with another concerto of sorts, Berlioz’s “Harold in Italy” for solo viola and orchestra. Jack Griffin, the Orchestra’s principal violist for more than two decades, steps into the spotlight for this featured role.