Like Stallings, Revueltas wrote a zany score that borrows heavily from well-known works, replete with startling transitions and “wrong” notes. You’ll laugh when you hear it!

* The Serenade for Solo Violin, Strings, Harp and Percussion (after Plato's “Symposium“) is a five-movement concerto written by Leonard Bernstein in 1954. The Serenade is highly unusual in that the composer was inspired by Plato's Symposium, a dialogue of related statements in praise of love, each statement made by a distinguished speaker. The five speakers who inspired Bernstein's five movements are as follows, together with his musical markings:

1. Phaedrus: Pausanias -- marked lento and allegro
2.  Aristophanes -- marked allegretto
3. Eryximachus, the doctor -- marked presto
4. Agathon -- marked adagio
5. Socrates -- marked molto tenuto and allegro molto vivace

Essentially a five-movement violin concerto, the Serenade showcases a huge percussion section and Bernstein’s characteristic propulsive rhythmic drive.

Brahms’s Symphony No. 4 needs no introduction; the composer’s final symphony is beloved all over the world for its moving themes and autumnal qualities. The third movement is famous for the only appearances of piccolo and triangle in a Brahms symphony, while the finale is a monumental set of variations on a repeating chord progression.

I hope that reading these notes will whet your appetite to hear this music played live at our concerts! You may enjoy the live performance even more by listening in advance (or watching on YouTube) to works marked * if they are unfamiliar to you.

-- Eric Kujawsky