Get on board for TSO’s musical voyage to Italy
Texarkana Symphony Orchestra takes listeners for “An Italian Voyage” on Tuesday, Oct. 8, at Perot Theatre. The concert features a multimedia presentation from Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s Beyond the Score series. The concert begins at 7:30 p.m., and TSO conductor Marc-André Bougie provides a concert preview at 6:40 p.m.
Romantic composer Felix Mendelssohn’s “Italian Symphony” will be performed.
The show includes two actors, a narrator and a projection screen, in addition to live music performed by TSO as the show progresses through the first half, Bougie said.
He says Beyond the Score is a concept developed by Chicago Symphony Orchestra that presents masterworks in a two-part fashion.
“Part one is a documentary, if you will, an explanation of how the piece came to be, the history, the social and historical background,” Bougie said. “The second half of the concert is actually a performance of the piece.”
In the first half, he said, people will learn everything about how Mendelssohn’s symphony came together.
“It’s like a magnified, interactive, full-blown, live preview or description of that music,” Bougie said.
In the second half, the complete work is performed by TSO.
About Mendelssohn, the conductor said he was a prodigy at a young age, even more so than other composers who were child prodigies.
“His early works are of a complexity and a depth that’s very hard to imagine from someone that age,” Bougie said. “He wrote concertos early on. He even wrote string symphonies. Beautiful artistry, beautiful craft. But also a depth in the composition.”
He calls Mendelssohn a true Renaissance man. “He had talent and interests in just about everything,” Bougie said.
The German composer’s parents sent him on a tour of Europe, which included Italian cities. “He got the whole tour of Italy,” Bougie said. This was expected of society people at the time.
He said the music is not descriptive of Italy, but the inspiration is Italian.
“He has some Italian dance rhythms in there, so really Italian elements are part of that music,” the conductor said. “He wrote the sketches to his symphony while in Italy, so 1830-1831, but he was never able to complete it.”
When Mendelssohn returned to Germany, he worked on it more. It was performed in 1833. But oddly enough, the composer was never satisfied with “Italian Symphony,” Bougie said. The composer kept reworking sections of the piece.
“He never authorized the piece to be published. It was only published after he died. He even left some instructions about how to rework some further movements,” Bougie said.
No one really knows the source of this dissatisfaction, but to listeners, the symphony feels perfect, the conductor believes. He describes it as classic, timeless music.
“When you hear this music, you feel a sense of perfection,” Bougie said, “like it is what it is, and what else could be changed?”
The actors for this show are Michael Cooper and Austin Alford. Alford performs as a young Mendelssohn. Ruth Hale provides the narration.
“People will actually hear the words Mendelssohn wrote regarding his impression and his progress on the symphony,” Bougie said.
Cooper will speak the words that others have said about the composer.
“The interaction here will be very interesting,” the conductor said. On the screen will be images from Italy.
This approach is similar to “The Planets” presented by TSO a few years ago. That show combined music with onstage imagery.
The background provided in the first half of the evening will make the full performance richer for the listener, Bougie said. “This will be the ultimate documentary on the music.”
Chicago Symphony Orchestra produces Beyond the Score. Gerard McBurney is creative director, and Martha Gilmer is executive producer.
(Tickets are $49, $41 and $27. Student discounts are available. For more information or tickets, visit TexarkanaSymphony.org or call the Perot box office at 903-7924992.)