American composer and critic Virgil Thomson once wrote in a 1940 New York Herald Tribune review, “It’s not easy to define what we mean by great music, but it is very easy to agree that the nineteenth century produced lots of it.”
And lots of it, plus a few 20th-century works in a classical vein — some accompanied by humorous spoken-word interjections from 1950s pop culture — will be part of the 2024 Solano Symphony Salute to Youth Concert Sunday in Vacaville.
Sponsored by the Margaret Beelard Community Foundation, the program, featuring the winners of last fall’s Young Artist’s Competition, begins at 3 p.m. in the Vacaville Performing Arts Theatre.
Longtime conductor Semyon Lohss and the regional orchestra musicians will accompany the two winners: Violinist Jenna Son and pianist Caitlyn Ohler, both from Davis.
The concert’s first half will feature Felix Mendelssohn’s “The Hebrides Overture (“Fingal’s Cave”); Son performing the solo part to the first movement of the Sibelius Violin Concerto in D minor; and Ohler performing the first movement of Saint-Saens’ Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor.
After an intermission, the concert’s second half features musical groups from local schools, showcasing their skills side by side with the symphony musicians.
Together, they will perform several works: The first movement from Johann Sebastian Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G major; Bela Bartok’s Romanian Folk Dances for String Orchestra (arranged by A. Willner) ; and “Irish Tune from County Derry” (“Londonderry Air,” arranged by P. Grainger ).
Additionally, the second-half works include R. R. Bennett’s “Rag” from Suite of Old American Dances (the 5th movement); and the concert ends on a fun, fast-paced and bouncy note — or many notes from popular classical works, that is — with “What’s Up at the Symphony?” (instrumental excerpts from Looney Tunes cartoons), arranged by J. Brubaker.
And during the tunes, expect to hear narrator David McCallum, a marketing employee at KUIC-FM 95.3 in Vacaville and former Vacaville Unified trustee, to interject perhaps some well-known lines from the Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig cartoon characters, among others.
During a telephone interview Tuesday morning from his Fairfield home, Lohss said the concert’s first rehearsal with Son and Ohler occured Monday night.
Such rehearsals are “not always easy,” the Russian native said, “because the orchestra needs to know what the soloists are doing. Listening to other soloists (in the absence of the solo musicians, on recordings, for example, to get a feel for the solo parts) might not help on the day of a live performance.”
Normally, competitition winners get to select the pieces they perform, but that was not the case this time, said Lohss, for the past 30 years especially known for his perceptive readings of the Russian and Northern European literature.
“This was some relief for me in terms of selections,” he said.
However, he added, the Mendelssohn “was not easy to find, in part because it needed to match the overall tone color of the Sibelius.
Clocking in at 10 minutes in length, “Hebrides Overture” — written in 1830 after the German composer’s trip to England and Scotland and revised two years later — establishes a theme that is repeated in 46 bars, then moves on to a second melodic theme for cellos and bassoons. That is followed by more development of the second theme but ends in a sonic soft landing of plucked strings, timpani and the sound of a lone flute.
“It’s interesting,” Lohss said of the overture. “Ten bars before it ends, it’s loud, then ends suddenly, almost quietly.”
“It might be the very first tone poem,” he said, describing a piece of orchestral music, usually in a single, continuous movement, illustrating the content of a poem, short story, novel, painting or landscape. “But no musicologist will describe it that way.”
In the Sibelius, written in 1905, Son will perform the Finnish composer’s first movement of a piece that is regarded as one of the most popular Romantic concertos. Basically, it’s a musical story of contrasts, at times restrained and sad, at others vigorous and intense.
Midway through the movement, it boasts a cadenza, or ornamental passage, allowing the performer to display virtuosity.
“It’s a very big cadenza,” said Lohss. “And a very difficult one. It’s the only concerto Sibelius wrote.”
On the Saint-Saens, Ohler will perform a first movement that is somewhat unusual in its tempo, he noted, saying the majority of piano concertos begin at a sharp clip. But the French composer’s 1868 piece “is in a very moderate tempo,” said Lohss.
The concerto begins with Ohler’s solo introduction, which will last about one minute, “which, by itself, is like a cadenza,” he said. “Then the orchestra comes in the more traditional way,” followed by another cadenza.
For the Bach, one of six Brandenburg concertos, only the string section will perform “a simplified version of the first movement,” said Lohss.
The Bartok? Not so easy, he said, calling each dance in a suite of seven dances, “very short,” a minute but less than two minutes.
In Romanian, as listed in the program, they are: I. “Jocul cu bâtă” II. “Brâul” III. “Pe loc” IV. “Buciumeana” V. “Poarga Românească” VI. “Mărunţel” and VII. “Mărunţel.”
The first four come and go with a short break in between each, but the last three continue without a break, essentially a three-part movement of increasing tempos, said Lohss.
The second, third and fourth dances have violin solos, and Concertmaster, or lead violinist, Max Baluyev, will perform the solos.
As for the Looney Tunes instrumental medley, you can expect to hear Rossini’s Overture to his “William Tell” and “The Barber of Seville” operas; Wagner’s “The Ride of the Valkyries”; Liszt’s “Hungarian Rhapsody”; Brahms’ “Hungarian Dance”; and “The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down,” a 1937 composition written by Cliff Friend and Dave Franklin.
IF YOU GO
What: Solano Symphony
Salute to Youth Concert
When: 3 p.m. Sunday
(lobby reception at 2 p.m.)
Where: Vacaville Performing Arts Theatre,
1010 Ulatis Drive
Tickets: $15 to $35
Online: www.vpat.net
Telephone: (707) 469-4013
