What about the music?
An inside look with the Virginia Symphony Orchestra
West Side Story Symphonic Dances
Friday, March 14, 2025 | 7:30PM | Ferguson Center
Sunday, March 16, 2025 | 2:30PM | Sandler Center
Richard Strauss: Don Quixote
Leonard Bernstein: Symphonic Dances from West Side Story
Maurice Ravel: La Valse
By Stella Feliberti
The Performers
Conductor
Eric Jacobsen
Hailed by the New York Times as “an interpretive dynamo,” conductor and cellist Eric Jacobsen has built a reputation for engaging audiences with innovative and collaborative programming. He is the newly-named Music Director of the Virginia Symphony, becoming the 12th music director in the orchestra’s 100-year history.
Jacobsen is Artistic Director and conductor of The Knights, and serves as the Music Director for the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra. Jacobsen founded the adventurous orchestra The Knights with his brother, violinist Colin Jacobsen, to foster the intimacy and camaraderie of chamber music on the orchestral stage. Eric splits his time between New York and Orlando with his wife, singer-songwriter Aoife O’Donovan, and their daughter.
Cello
Michael Daniels
Michael Daniels is currently the principal cellist of the Virginia Symphony. He began playing cello at age 11 in Spartanburg, South Carolina, and continued further studies at the Brevard Music Center, in Brevard, North Carolina. He later received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.
While in Cincinnati, Mr. Daniels was a member of the Dayton Philharmonic and performed with the Cincinnati Symphony, the Cincinnati Ballet Orchestra, and the Cincinnati Symphony Pops. He has been a member of the Swannanoa Chamber Music Festival, a faculty member at Eastern Music Festival and the Brevard Music Center, and a participant in the Grand Teton Summer Music Festival.
He is also a founding member of the Adagio Trio (harp, flute, and cello), which has produced five successful CDs: Stillpoint, Sanctuary, Winter Gift, Evensong, and Celtic Heart.
Mr. Daniels has performed as soloist regularly with the Virginia Symphony. His solo appearances include Saint-Saens Concerto in A minor, Haydn Cello Concerto in C, Beethoven Triple Concerto, Brahms Double Concerto, Elgar Concerto, and a duo performance with Bobby McFerrin of the Vivaldi Double Cello Concerto.
The Creators
Richard Strauss
Pronounced RIH-kard SHTROWS
Fast Facts:
- Richard Strauss was born June 11th, 1864. He grew up around music as his father was a principal horn player who support Richard’s musical education. He wrote his first composition at aged six.
- Strauss is known for his ability to write tone poems, a piece of orchestral music based on a descriptive poem or piece of literature. His most famous ones are Don Juan and Also Sprach Zarathustra (which was used in the open scene of 2001: A Space Odessey)
- Strauss was also known for his evocative operas. Some of his most famous operas include Elektra (which is known as the most demanding soprano role in the repertoire), Der Rosenkavalier, and Salome.
- Strauss was deeply impacted by the works of Wagner and Brahms. After the performances of works by these composers, Strauss was extremely inspired by the richness of these composers works. It was at this time that he wrote some of his most prominent works: his First Horn Concerto and the song Zueignung.
Leonard Bernstein
Pronounced BURN-stine
Fast Facts:
- Leonard Bernstein was born in 1918 in Massachusetts. He was exposed to music from a young age through the household radio and music on Friday nights at the Congregation Mishkan Tefila. He eventually started piano lessons when he was 10 years old.
- Bernstein grew up in a very strong Jewish community from which inspired many of his pieces as well as his identity. As antisemitism grew in the US, his mentor, Serge Koussevitsky, encouraged Bernstein to change his name to further his career. Bernstein infamous replied, “I’ll do it as Bernstein or not at all.”
- In 1943, Bernstein became the youngest person to ever conduct the New York Philharmonic. He was Assistant Conductor of the New York Philharmonic at the time when he was called to fill in for the principal conductor who was sick. With less than 24 hours’ notice, the then 25-year-old Bernstein made his New York Philharmonic conducting debut.
- Bernstein is a highly decorated conductor and composer. He has received 16 Grammy Awards, 7 Academy Awards, 2 Tony Award, the Kennedy Center Honors, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
- Bernstein was one of the first people to bring classical music to television. His Young People’s Concerts were televised concerts to help bring in and educate new audiences. In 1962, these recorded concerts became a TV show where Bernstein conducted in 53 of the episodes.
Maurice Ravel
Pronounced moh-REES rah-VEHL
Fast Facts:
- Maurice Ravel was born in 1875 in the Basque region of France. He started music lessons at 6 and gave his first public recital at 14. He claims that as a child he was extremely sensitive to music, “every kind of music.”
- He studied composition under another famous French impressionist composer, Gabriel Fauré.
- Ravel was very opinionated when it came to other composers and their music. He is said to describe Beethoven as “exasperating,” Wagner’s influence as “pernicious,” and Berlioz’s harmony as “clumsy.”
- In 1928 Ravel toured the US where he was exposed to jazz artists such as George Gershwin. After this, Ravel began to include more jazz elements into his later compositions, especially his piano concerti.
- Ravel was an extreme perfectionist when it came to his compositions. He would often get inspiration from his walks alone in the French countryside or Paris. Then, he would write down his new ideas and work on the composition until it was complete. He would not let anyone see the work until he deemed it ready.
- Ravel included a wide variety of music and sounds into his works. His inspiration ranged from Baroque music forms to gamelan (a Balinese percussion instrument) music, to Spanish music and ancient modes.
Strauss
Don Quixote
Listen to the Finale of Strauss’s Don Quixote by Berliner Philharmoniker featuring Mstislav Rostropovich:
- Don Quixote was written in 1897 and premiered in 1898. It is one of Strauss’s many tone poems as it depicts the story of Don Quixote de la Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes. Learn more about the story here.
- Strauss orchestrated this piece to have different instruments represent different characters. For example, the solo cellist represents Don Quixote while the solo viola, tenor tuba, and bass clarinet depict his squire, Sancho Panza. Each of these characters have their own individual theme that is threaded throughout the work.
- This piece is composed like a theme and variations. Each variation illustrates a different encounter Don Quixote has throughout his journey to correct the wrongs of the world.
- Strauss uses many revolutionary techniques of the time, employing strange harmonies or extended techniques such as flutter-tonguing.
Discussion Questions
- What elements of Strauss’s Don Quixote make Cervantes story come to life?
- Why is this piece denoted as “programmatic”? What elements make this work programmatic?
- How is the interaction between the cello soloist and orchestra different from ither solo cello pieces with orchestra, like concerti?
- How does this work differ from some of Strauss’s other tone poems such as Don Juan and Also Sprach Zarathustra?
Bernstein
Symphonic Dances from West Side Story
Listen to Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from “West Side Story” by the Frankfurt Radio Symphony:
- The Symphonic Dances from West Side Story is an orchestral suite by Bernstein adapted from his award-winning musical, West Side Story. It was written in 1960.
- West Side Story is a musical adaptation of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. It follows the ill-fated love story of Maria and Tony who belong to two opposing New York City Gangs, the Sharks and the Jets. To learn more about the story, click here.
- Throughout the symphonic dances, Bernstein uses an unusual juxtaposition of classical composition techniques with dance and jazz rhythms and syncopation. This blend of classical and dance-style music makes these pieces so engaging to listen to.
- The biggest difference between the symphonic dances and the score from the musical is the shift in focus from the love story to the gang rivalry. Instead of focusing on the love story between Tony and Maria, Bernstein chose to include more sequences of the gang rivalry in the symphonic dances. This shift increases the dramatic tension that shapes the entire work.
Discussion Questions
- Why did Bernstein choose these movements to include in the Symphonic Dances? Why did he exclude others?
- How does Bernstein compositional techniques illustrate the scenes of the musical?
- What are some of the challenges of adapting a musical score for orchestral performance?
Ravel
La Valse
Listen to Ravel’s La Valse by the Frankfurt Radio Symphony:
- La Valse, poème choréographique pour orchestra (The Waltz, a choreographic poem for orchestra) was written by Maurice Ravel between 1919 and 1920. It was first conceived as a ballet, but it is now perceived as a concert work.
- The piece was once described by musicologist Paul Landormy as “the most unexpected of the compositions of Ravel, revealing to us heretofore unexpected depths of Romanticism, power, vigor, and rapture in this musician whose expression is usually limited to the manifestations of an essentially classical genius.”
- Ravel first intended to write this piece as a tribute to the waltz form and Johann Strauss II. He later then combined his ideas from his symphonic poem Wien to reformulate La Valse into the composition it is known as today.
- In the score, Ravel described La Valse in the preface as, “through whirling clouds, waltzing couples may be faintly distinguished. The clouds gradually scatter: one sees at letter A an immense hall peopled with a whirling crowd. The scene is gradually illuminated. The light of the chandeliers bursts forth at the fortissimo letter B. Set in an imperial court, about 1855.”
Discussion Questions
- In what ways does Ravel transport the listener to Vienna circa 1855 (as denoted in the score) throughout La Valse?
- How similar is Ravel’s waltz to other Viennese waltzes?
- Do you think this piece is better fit for the ballet (as Ravel originally intended) or as a concert piece as it is performed today?
- How does Ravel blend his own unique compositional style with the traditions of Viennese waltzes, from which he took inspiration?
