What about the music?
An inside look with the Virginia Symphony Orchestra
Grace Park Leads Mozart & Schubert
April 23, 2027 | 7:30PM | Attucks Theatre, Norfolk – Get Tickets
April 25, 2027 | 3:00PM | Music & Arts Center Concert Hall, William & Mary, Williamsburg – Get Tickets
April 25, 2027 | 7:00PM | Music & Arts Center Concert Hall, William & Mary, Williamsburg – Get Tickets
Grace Park, leader and soloist
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Violin Concerto No. 5 in A Major
Franz Schubert: Symphony No. 5
By Stella Feliberti
The Performers
Leader & Soloist
Grace Park
Grace Park is a violinist celebrated for her artistry, passion, and virtuosity. Praised by the San Francisco Chronicle as “fresh, different and exhilarating” and by Strings Magazine for her “intensely wrought and burnished” sound, she captivates audiences worldwide. A winner of the Naumburg International Violin Competition, Ms. Park is recognized both as a dynamic soloist and a devoted chamber musician.
Ms. Park’s most recent solo debuts include the Colorado Music Festival, Bard Festival under the baton of Leon Botstein, Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall with the New York Youth Symphony, The Rudolfinum/ Dvorak Hall in Prague with Prague Philharmonia, and recital debuts at Krannert Center, Beethoven Minnesota Festival and Merkin Hall.
Future collaborations include her solo debuts at Seoul Arts Center with Les Musiciens du Louvre with Marc Minkowski, Sarasota Orchestra with Peter Oundjian, Orlando Philharmonic with Eric Jacobsen, along with chamber music debuts at the Savannah Music Festival and Camerata Pacifica.
Ms. Park recorded her debut solo album with the Prague Philharmonia and their music director, Emmanuel Villaume, which will include concertos and solo works of Mozart and Dvorak. It is set to be released in the spring of 2025.
A devoted and passionate educator, Ms. Park is an alumnus of Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect and has taught masterclasses and coached at Conservatorio de Musica de Cartagena, Mannes School of Music, University of North Carolina, University of Mississippi, Washington and Lee University, North Dakota State University, Skidmore College, among others. She currently teaches as adjunct professor at the John J. Cali School of Music at Montclair State University.
As a native to Los Angeles, California, Ms. Park began violin at the age of 5 where she trained at the Colburn School of Music. She continued her studies at Colburn Conservatory and New England Conservatory for her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees. Principal teachers are Donald Weilerstein, Miriam Fried, Sylvia Rosenberg, and Robert Lipsett. She now resides in New York City.
She performs on a 1717 Giuseppe Filius Andrea Guarneri on loan from an anonymous sponsor.
The Creators
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Fast Facts:
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born in 1756 in Salzburg. He was the youngest of 7 children. He wrote his first composition at 4 years old.
- Mozart was known as a jokester, both in and outside of his compositions. His Divertimento from two horns and string quartet is thought to be intentionally humorous as it is clumsy, mechanical, and over-repetitive at times. In opera rehearsals, there are stories of the composer/conductor growing bored of conducting and began imitating a cat at the podium, often meowing and turning somersaults.
- Mozart composed a plethora of pieces. By the time of his death, he composed over 600 works, including symphonies, concerti, operas, chamber music, and choral works.
- Mozart was fluent in many languages, including German, Italian, French, and Latin. He learned all these languages to be able to compose and perform across Europe with diverse audiences.
- Mozart has the unique ability to compose complete works in his head before writing them down. It is said that he would envision complete scores with multiple instruments and unique harmonies, without the need for extensive revisions.
Franz Schubert
Fast Facts:
- Franz Schubert was born in 1797 in Vienna. He began his musical studies from a young age with piano lessons at age five, violin at eight, and composition by the time he was a teenager.
- Schubert was also part of a family string quartet where he played viola. His brothers played first and second violin while his father played cello. It was for this ensemble that he wrote his earliest string quartets.
- Schubert is most known for his art songs, or Lied in German. By the time of his death, he wrote over 600 songs.
- He was known for hosting lavish musical parties called “Schubertiads.” It was here that he and other composers were able to perform and discuss new compositions. Some notable attendees were Ludwig van Beethoven and Anton Diabelli.
- Schubert lived a short life and died at age 31 due to syphilis. It wasn’t until after his death that some of his most notable compositions like his “Unfinished Symphony,” his and Symphony No.9 “The Great” were finally brought to light.
The Pieces
Mozart
Violin Concerto No. 5 K219 in A Major “Turkish”
Listen to Mozart’s 5th Violin Concerto by the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra:
- Mozart’s fifth violin concerto was written in 1775. It follows the typical three movement structure of fast-slow-fast.
- At this time, young Mozart was still in his “apprentice” period where he was still defining his own sound and mastering the concerto form. Yet, as the last of his violin concerti, this work includes greater experimentation with varying tempi and meters within a single movement.
- This concerto is nicknamed “Turkish” because of its third movement, which is in the alla turca This style, mostly used in opera, is inspired by Turkish military bands, and usually incorporates a lively tempo, march-like character, and percussive textures.
- Early in the first movement highlights Mozart’s experimentation: after a broad and jovial orchestral introduction, the violin enters not in the same character but in a sweet lyrical melody, which is the only instance in Mozart’s concerti repertoire where the soloist enters as a slow interlude. After this interlude, the soloist reintroduces the vivacity from the introduction for the remainder of the movement. The second movement is a three-part song form with a contemplative and singing character. Lastly, the concerto closes with a boisterous, marching Rondo that uses the alla turca This effect is achieved through not only switching from major to minor, but also asking the cello and basses to play coll’ arco al roverscio or to “play with the wood of the bow” to produce a percussive sound.
Schubert
Symphony No. 5
Listen to Schubert’s Symphony No.5 by the Frankfurt Radio Symphony:
- Schubert’s Fifth Symphony was written in 1816, yet was not published until after his death. It was written only six months after his last symphony.
- At this time in Schubert’s life, he had become enamoured with Mozart and his style. He even noted in his journal that year, “O Mozart, immortal Mozart, how many, of how endlessly many such comforting perceptions of a brighter, better life hast thou brought to our souls!” There are many Mozartian similarities in this work with its lighter instrumentation and similar themes to Mozart’s Violin Sonata K.377.
- Rather than employing a slow introduction to start the work, Schubert instead uses what some Schubert scholars call a “musical curtain” with a charming four bar introduction. Once the “curtain rises,” one of Schubert’s loveliest melodies is revealed in the violins, which is developed throughout the movement as he expands traditional classical patterns of composing. The second movement is full of elegant melodies that introduce a new dreamy atmosphere with chromatic passages and key shifts to distant keys of C-flat major. The following minuet is a typical dance, yet with a higher sense of gravity in the phrase, giving a natural sense of the dancer’s feet sweeping and falling to the rhythm. Many believe this movement pays homage to Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 as the movement is also in G minor. Building off the bounciness of the minuet, the Finale takes a new cheerful atmosphere with harmonic surprises and development that hints at the progression of Schubert’s musical voice evident in his later works.
Glossary
Symphony
A large-scale work for full orchestra, typically in four movements.
Concerto
A work for a solo instrument accompanied by orchestra, usually in three movements.
Minuet
A graceful dance form from France in the 17th-18th century, typically in triple time. Usually appears in classical music as the third movement of a symphony or quartet.
Rondo
A musical form that alternated between a main tune or refrain and various different episodes. The word comes from the Italian term meaning round.
Three-Part Song Form
A musical structure built on three sections; an opening section (A), a contrasting middle section (B), and a final return of the opening (A).