CSO explores music of Hungary’s Bartok, Chicago’s Stephenson

For its next Masterworks Series concert, the Chattanooga Symphony & Opera will feature Bela Bartok’s most popular work and a concerto partly inspired by the skat singing of Louis Armstrong.

The performance takes place tonight, March 2, at the Tivoli Theatre.

First on the program is a violin concerto by American composer James Stephenson. CSO concertmaster Holly Mulcahy will take on the challenging work, which premiered in April 2012.

The Chicago- based composer wrote t he piece for violinist Jennifer Frautschi, a past CSO guest artist, as a commission for the Minnesota Orchestra. He titled it “Tributes” in appreciation for all who helped in its creation.

Among those he credits on his website are “composers and soloists, past and present, who have written/performed timeless and inspiring violin concertos,” along with legendary jazz trumpeter Louis Armstrong, “who every day would ‘ compose’ improvised solos of incomparable form and structure.”

The work’s second movement, Stephenson says, “is based entirely on [Armstrong’s] spontaneous solo (skat singing) from a 1920s recording of ‘Hotter Than That’ when he was just in his mid-20s.”

Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra was his final completed work and is generally considered his most popular. It was commissioned in 1943 by the Koussevitzky Foundation, run by Boston Symphony Orchestra conductor Serge Koussevitzky, after Bartok fled from his native Hungary to the United States because of World War II.

Its title, Concerto for Orchestra, might seem contradictory since a conventional concerto features a solo instrument with orchestral accompaniment. Bartok said he called it a concerto rather than a symphony because of the way each section of instruments is treated in a soloistic and virtuosic way.

As the CSO website explains: “The work treats the various sections and solo instruments of the orchestra as if they were protagonists in a concerto, mysterious and expressive. Most of the CSO’s principal musicians will be featured.” Composer Stephenson will lead a Spotlight Talk at 6:45 p.m. in the Tivoli Dance Studio, previewing the night’s concert. Admission is free to ticketholders, but seating is limited. A post- concert Postlude, around 9 p.m., will feature CSO Music Director Kayoko Dan, guest artists and select musicians in the Tivoli lobby. This informal meetand-greet gives concertgoers a chance to talk about the concert with musicians and fellow members of the audience. At press time, tickets were still available for a Meet the Composer Luncheon with James Stephenson and CSO Music Director Emeritus Bob Bernhardt. It starts at noon today, March 2, at 212 Market Restaurant, 212 Market St. Tickets are $25. Check availability at www. chattanoogasymphony. org, click on Community, then Concert Events. BOB’S BOOTCAMP On Saturday, March 4, Bob Bernhardt will lead Bob’s Bootcamp previewing the “Mozart and Mahler” Masterworks concert April 6. Scheduled from 11 a. m. to 2 p. m. at the Tivoli Center, “More About Mahler” will explore the Austrian composer’s life and works, particularly his 4th Symphony and the song found within, “Das Himmlische Leben,” which presents a child’s vision of heaven. Lunch is included in the $ 35 ticket. To purchase tickets, go to www.chattanoogasymphony.org, Community, Bob’s Bootcamps.

CONTRIBUTED PHOTO Holly Mulcahy, left, CSO concertmaster, will be featured on “Tributes,” a violin concerto by Chicago-based composer James Stephenson, inset right.