Celebrate nature’s return with a program that explores the triumph of resurrection through Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 2. The Charleston Symphony Orchestra Chorus, along with two guest vocalists, will join the CSO for an unforgettable concert led by conductor Mikhail Agrest.

For violinist Gil Shaham, the list of accolades is long: winner of multiple Grammy Awards, recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant and Avery Fisher Prize, 2012 Instrumentalist of the Year by Musical America—just to name a few. He performs regularly with the world’s leading orchestras (Berlin Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Israel Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, San Francisco Symphony) and has an impressive discography of recordings. In this final Masterworks concert of the season—his first performance with the CSO in several decades—he will shine alongside other giants in the orchestral world.

Inspired by Hollywood film music of the 1930s (or, perhaps, vice versa since the composer was a regular contributor to the genre), Korngold’s virtuosic Violin Concerto never fails to showcase the technical skills of its performers. Shaham as soloist on the Violin Concerto is guaranteed to be pure bliss.

Robert Spano will conduct in his first appearance with the CSO for this concert. After 20 years with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, he now serves as Music Director Laureate; he is Music Director of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra; and, since 2011, has been Music Director of the Aspen Music Festival and School. Spano has had numerous opportunities to conduct world premiere works and earned multiple Grammy Awards for recordings. He frequently garners great acclaim as guest conductor in the U.S. and internationally for classical and opera performances.

To its early audiences in the final decade of the 19th Century, Gustav Mahler’s First Symphony must’ve sounded quite revolutionary compared to many of the late-Romantic era music of that period and earlier. The wonderful thing about the piece is that it still does! The entire symphony demands your attention as it deftly navigates from one extreme to the other: quiet and loud, calm and fury, darkness and light. In just around an hour’s time, “Titan” takes the audience through a range of emotions that are unique to each listener as Gustav Mahler intended. In it, you hear a death march intertwined with a familiar child’s tune: “Frère Jacques” (“Are You Sleeping?” or “Where is Thumbkin?” in the U.S.).  At times “Titan” evokes nature, waltzy dances, and offstage fanfares — all of which immerse and captivate the listener.

A concert experience unlike any other. Valentina Peleggi leads the Richmond Symphony, Chorus, and soloists in Mahler’s monumental Symphony Number Two. The awe-inspiring “Resurrection” Symphony is a not-to-be-missed concert event. Music by George Walker begins the program.   

Andrew Litton, Music Director of the New York City Ballet, GRAMMY Award winner, and accomplished pianist, will be conducting from the keyboard while performing Beethoven’s Triple Concerto. Though the violin-cello-piano combination is often heard in chamber music ensembles, it is much rarer as a trio of three soloists with orchestra. The concerto will feature two of the CSO’s principal musicians: Yuriy Bekker and Norbert Lewandowski. Bekker, the orchestra’s concertmaster since 2007, and Lewandowski, principal cellist, will shine in one of Beethoven’s most soulful, challenging, and charming concertos.

Arguably the most significant Soviet-era composer of the last century, Dmitri Shostakovich was condemned and stifled during the Stalin era. Though it is a mystery to pinpoint exactly when his Tenth Symphony was written (between 1946-1953), it is a work of masterful emotional outpouring likely inspired by this suffering. Like his predecessor Tchaikovsky, the composer employed waltzes and militaristic drums intermingled with the symphony’s musical themes and motifs to convey dramatic momentum, heart-wrenching longing, and slow despair. It’s not all doom and gloom, however; the fourth movement—after a final frenzied return of anguish—ushers in a promising moment of triumph and victorious release.

It’s a musical family affair for the opening weekend of the CSO’s 2022-2023 season with father and son Gerard and Julian Schwarz! 

For the first time in history, the CSO will perform a work by Valerie Coleman—a highly sought-after composer for orchestra commissions. Coleman’s Umoja (“unity” in Swahili) was originally written as a song for women’s choir; it has also been reimagined for woodwind quintet and, in 2019, commissioned as a full orchestral work by The Philadelphia Orchestra. Emotive folk melodies collide with bold brass and percussion, taking the listener on a journey, addressing societal tension and social injustice, and then the music returns to its undeniable theme–and brings everyone together.

Guest cellist Julian Schwarz joins the orchestra in Elgar’s Cello Concerto, which was completed in 1919 during a particularly bleak period of the British composer’s life. The WWI armistice between Germany and the Allies had halted fighting in late 1918, but the war had already taken its toll and Elgar’s despair was poured into this last of his large-scale works. Despite the somber moment in time and the loss that it represents, the Cello Concerto is timeless music that is full of life and exudes compassion.

Richard Strauss’s music from the 1913 opera Der Rosenkavalier (The Knight of the Rose) was so adored that it was adapted into an orchestral suite for the concert hall in the 1940s. With its audacious horns and sweeping strings, the suite tells a dramatic love story without abandoning the comedic interludes that ensue. Strauss employed waltzes throughout the piece and, in the final moments, celebrates the triumph of true love with the “Rosenkavalier Waltz.”

Performers

• Francesco Lecce-Chong, conductor

• Conrad Tao, piano

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 5 “Emperor”
Jessie Montgomery: Records from a Vanishing City
Elgar: In the South

He was plagued by self-doubt and had abandoned his music. But when inspired to compose again, Sergei Rachmaninoff wrote the music that would make him immortal. George Li plays the Second Piano Concerto. “He is a powerhouse,” The New York Times declares of George Li. Music Director Valentina Peleggi also conducts Shostakovich’s defiant Fifth Symphony.

New Zealand-born conductor Gemma New, recently named the 2021 recipient of The Sir Georg Solti Conducting Award, leads a program of works that draw inspirations from art and the sea. Mendelssohn’s The Hebrides Overture and Debussy’s La mer take listeners on a journey through the misty winds and waves of Scottish and French seas. Kevin Puts’ The Brightness of Light pulls emotions from letters exchanged between painter Georgia O’Keeffe and her husband, photographer Alfred Stieglitz. Paired with stunning visuals from the couple, opera superstars Renée Fleming and Rod Gilfry give voice to O’Keeffe and Stieglitz.

Christoph König leads a dramatic program featuring Strauss’ Also sprach Zarathustra and Clara Schumann’s Piano Concerto. Often overshadowed by her husband, Clara Schumann was an accomplished concert pianist and child prodigy. Pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason, of the prodigiously talented Kanneh-Mason family, presents the BSO premiere of Clara's concerto. Strauss' Also sprach Zarathustra, instantly recognizable from the soundtrack of Kubrick's film 2001: A Space Odyssey, concludes the program.

With this season opening concert — a journey from France to Russia and back again — we will rejoice with music to honor our much-anticipated return to the audience-filled concert hall.

Camille Saint-Saëns’ Symphony No. 3 —known best as the “Organ” Symphony for its grand final movement featuring its namesake instrument—was written in 1886 at the height of his career. This gloriously euphoric, satisfyingly gutsy work features themes of renewal and resurrection and, like the Rhapsody, uses the Dies irae chant as a recurring musical motif. A performance not to be missed, the “Organ” Symphony truly awakens the spirit.

For 17 days and nights each spring, Spoleto Festival USA fills Charleston, South Carolina’s historic theaters, churches, and outdoor spaces with performances by renowned artists as well as emerging performers in opera; theater; dance; and chamber, symphonic, choral, and jazz music. Now approaching its 43rd season, Spoleto Festival USA is internationally recognized as America’s premier performing arts festival.