August 10, 2025

In the history of western music, 50 years is a relatively short time span. In most cases, if a person were to listen to two works of music from within nearly any given 50-year period, there would be enough stylistic similarities to connect the two. 
 
This all changes towards the end of the 19th century when the evolution of western music began splinter into several very different pathways. The one trait that much of this music had in common was the diversity that came to define the era.
 
I had the pleasure of doing a concert with the Chautauqua Symphony on Thursday night that highlighted this very feature. We did two works, Faure’s Suite from Pelleas and Melisande and Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 5.
 
Faure was a part of the ilk of late 19th Century composers who were exploring the coloristic and atmospheric possibilities of harmony, texture and pacing of ideas. Formally, the work is actually quite “retro,” echoing a Baroque dance suite in many ways, but the beauty is in the details. The play of Pelleas for which the music was written was the work of Maurice Maeterlinck, the French symbolist poet whose style played perfectly into the ethos of French music of the time, and especially that of Faure.
 
At the other end of the spectrum was Prokofiev. “Epic” is a word that gets tossed around casually, but I think we can use it for real here. Written during the turbulent 1940’s, Prokofiev took an unexpected tack and penned a work with a strong underlying sense of  optimism, saying it was a “symphony on the greatness of the human soul.” This work is one of those that stands alone in the symphonic repertoire. There is nothing else quite like it.
 
The CSO brought so much to these two works, highlighting the extraordinary stylistic differences, finding the style and spirit of each work and delivering a memorable evening to all in attendance.
 
I treasure these opportunities to work with my CSO colleagues, many of whom teach the conservatory students who make up the orchestra I conduct regularly, and all of whose performances I admire and enjoy over the course of a summer here at CHQ.
 
#chautauquasymphonyorchestra #chautauqua
 
NEXT UP
 
August 11, 2025
 
Music School Festival Orchestra
Chautauqua Institution Amphitheater
8:15 p.m.
Hannah Schendel, MSFO conducting fellow
 
TORKE             Javelin
TCHAIKOVSKY Francesa da Rimini*
BARTOK           Concerto for Orchestra
 
*Ms. Schendel