DECONSTRUCTING DVORAK
Symphony No. 9 stripped down
The Windsor Symphony Orchestra will crown its 70th season Saturday by doing something a bit unusual: deconstruct Antonin Dvorak’s New World Symphony before performing it.
It’s kind of like the popular food trend of deconstructing a dish to discover what goes into it. Music director Robert Franz likens the concert’s approach to opening the hood of a car, taking apart the engine, looking at all the parts before rebuilding the car to take it out for a spin.
“It’s a unique perspective,” Franz said Wednesday. “All of our concert audiences come and they hear the music performed and it’s all finished and all together and they just have to come on the journey on their own. In this way, the unique aspect of it is that we’re going to help you map out your journey to this piece.”
It’s meant to be a fun exploration of Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9: From the New World. It’s the Bohemian/ Czech composer’s final symphony, written after a trip to America, Franz said.
In 1893, the symphony premiered at Carnegie Hall in New York City, where Dvorak had been teaching. The composition was inspired by Indigenous music, African-American spirituals, and the American landscape, Franz said. Usually Franz holds a pre-concert lecture, but instead, the first half of the performance is deconstructing the classical piece. Windsor jazz vocalist Shahida Nurullah will sing Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, which inspired part of the music, and another song titled Going Home, which was inspired by the symphony, he said. Franz will read sections of the poem the Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, which is also said to have influenced the symphony. “Really what I’m trying to do is show the inner workings of this piece,” Franz said.
After the intermission, the or- chestra will perform the 40-minute symphony, which should sound familiar since bits and pieces of it have made it into pop culture, he said. Saturday’s performance will cap off the 2017-18 season that saw close to 14,000 tickets sold and a record six sold-out performances (and possibly seven depending on Saturday night’s turnout). The symphony was celebrating 70 years and had its best year since moving to the Capitol Theatre in 2012, said Franz, who is wrapping up his fifth season here. “We’re really starting to hit our stride.”
The Windsor Symphony Orchestra will hold concerts Thursday and Friday for 1,200 high school students.
Saturday’s public concert starts at 8 p.m. at the Capitol Theatre. Tickets are available at the box office at 121 University Avenue West, by calling 519-973-1238, ext. 2, or online at www.windsorsymphony. com.
The orchestra has added its pops series and education/outreach with 22 concerts for students to its classical repertoire as it widens its audience base. And there’s interactive concerts with audience members invited onstage in the lineup for the 2018-19 season.
The unique aspect of it is that we’re going to help you map out your journey to this piece.