YEAR 1905

to the Whitney Museum years ago and looking at contemporary art. “And it was like, ‘Wow, I have no idea what I’m looking at.’ And then I saw a group that had a lecturer (and I) listened to every word she said. And it was fascinating!”

Few explain a classical work quite like the accomplished and enthusiastic Oundjian. We confessed we couldn’t recognize when one movement in the Shostakovich symphony ended and another began.

“It’s a very intense narrative that never lets up,” Oundjian said. “It’s one of the most dramatic pieces of music that I think has ever been created... so moving and so exciting, as well.”

The piece’s four movements represent different elements of an historic event: the slow, ominous start signaling the thousands of desperate, starving folks arriving in St. Petersburg to plead and protest.

“There are all sorts of folk songs you hear ... softly but you also hear the distant fanfares, which are very eerie and threatening — one for the trumpet and one for the horn.

“The second movement is basically the massacre itself, when they open fire ... on this crowd,” the maestro said. “When this massacre scene ends, it ends with complete abruptness. And then you hear the music from the very beginning that represented the people, but now it is very eerie because it has trills on it. So he (Shostakovich) has transformed it ... and he’s also changed any optimistic note that existed ... flattened to be a tragic, pessimistic note.”

The third movement is

using low pizzicato on the cellos and double basses to create an eerie atmosphere, said Oundjian. The final movement, an alarm bell, is powerful and affirmative.

“It’s about defiance and vigilance,” said Oundjian. “Just before the end, there’s a really tragic solo on the English horn, that, oh my God, is so moving.”

It ends with a reprise of themes, “which gives phenomenal strength and power to the majesty of the people themselves. So, it’s incredible.”

And yet, this varied piece is seldom performed. Is that because it’s not smooth and comfy?

“I don’t know. I think people from all generations have been fans of pretty intense music, whether you go back to Deep Purple (he chuckles) or... You know, Pink Floyd wasn’t exactly good-time music either.”

Oundjian said he doesn’t understand why No. 11 is not played more live. “(For) a first-time concert-goer to an orchestra, I think this would be among the very best choices. It’s like a phenomenal film score, and you see everything in your own imagination.”

Canadian-born Oundjian previously played with the Tokyo String Quartet and conducted the Toronto Symphony Orchestra for 14 years, enjoying a touching send-off in June 2018. While he conducts classical pieces, he’s not a strict traditionalist.

“Of course we’re playing for the people who love classical music, but the people we also really care about are the people who aren’t so sure,” he said in reference to including a lighting effect or other theatrical touch in a performance.

The first half of the concert will be another historic piece, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1 in C major, Op. 21. It’s something of a comingout party for young Beethoven, showing influences of the great Haydn and Mozart but signaling there was a new superstar composer.

The work “is more a narrative of feelings, of human experiences, which we can all relate to . ... There’s a tremendous amount of playfulness in the first symphony; it’s one of the more optimistic pieces” — as a counterpoint to the heavy Shostakovich work.

Beethoven starts it unconventionally, with a quizzical chord. “He’s already saying, in his very first symphony, ‘I’m Beethoven; I have some new ideas here.’ ... The ‘1st Symphony’ is an absolute masterpiece; it’s a joy to play and to listen to.”

As for seeing and hearing the uber-talented Yale grad students play in the Philharmonia, Oundjian said, “I think there’s nothing quite as thrilling — in a very different way from hearing an established, world-class, famous orchestra — but in some ways it’s more thrilling because they play so exceptionally well. They’re so sophisticated now.”