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MUSIC Rogue Valley Symphony Orchestra kicks off its 2015-16 season Comment By Laurie Heuston Mail Tribune MailTribune.com By Laurie Heuston Mail Tribune Posted Sep. 23, 2015 at 12:28 PM By Laurie Heuston Mail Tribune Posted Sep. 23, 2015 at 12:28 PM » Social News Rogue Valley Symphony Orchestra's music director Martin Majkut has been the impetus behind the symphony's growth in artistry and audiences since 2010. During his tenure, RVSO's core of musicians has grown to about 75, and the orchestra's annual budget has increased by nearly 65 percent. At the moment, though, this is not what's exciting the Czech Republic-born conductor. He's thinking about all of the fun he's going to have performing with the great lineup of soloists during RVSO's 2015-16 season of concerts. "This is the strongest roster of soloists we've had so far," Majkut says. "We keep raising the bar." The season kicks off with Ukrainian-born pianist Stanislav Khristenko, who will perform Rachmaninov's Second Piano Concerto, a perennial favorite, Majkut says. "He's a dynamite of a pianist. We kept hearing from other orchestras around the country telling us to get him if we could. He lives in America, but trained in Russia. So I asked him to play one of the most popular concertos for piano. With his training, it will be a perfect match for him." A difficult piece to play, Majkut says, Rachmaninov was known for his large hands, which allowed him to play an impossible span and huge intervals on piano. "It's a challenge for pianists who want master his pieces," Majkut says. "He wrote for himself, basically. His music was considered old-fashioned because he composed romantic-style pieces when the newer thing was to compose more modern, atonal compositions. But his music has really stood the test of time. Now he's one of the popular composers of piano music." To enhance the Rachmaninov concerto, Majkut chose to open the concert with Russian composer Mikhail Glinka's "Overture to Ruslan and Ludmilla." "It's one of those fast and furious overtures," Majkut says. "I thought we'd start the season with something that really gets your blood going. It will show off the orchestra's virtuosic skills. It's short, sparkly and fast." The second half of the program celebrates the 150th anniversary of the birth of Danish composer Carl Nielsen with his Symphony No. 4, "The Inextinguishable." "There's a renewed interest in this composer's music," Majkut says. "He was born in 1865, deep in the 19th century, but his music sounds very modern. Sometimes it's romantic, and sometimes it sounds like Shostakovich, like it was written in the 1950s. One of his biggest fans was Leonard Bernstein. He loved Nielsen's music. It's finally catching on, and large orchestras around the country are programming Nielsen more and more. "The title is quite high-falootin'," Majkut says. "The composer believed that music is like life and that it can express a will to live. Life can be described in words, but he thought notes are a better medium for capturing the entirety of life experience." Writing during the first World War, Nielsen includes something unique to orchestral literature in his Symphony No. 4, Majkut says. There are two sets of tympani — or orchestral kettle drums — one on each side of the stage, and there's a tympani duel in the fourth movement, a description of a battle. It creates an incredible effect with a lot of wild, dramatic music — evoking thunder on stage. Concerts are set for 7:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 25, at the Music Recital Hall on the Southern Oregon University campus, 1250 Siskiyou Blvd., Ashland; 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 26, at the Craterian Theater, 23 S. Central Ave., Medford; and 3 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 27, at the Performing Arts Center, 830 N.E. Ninth St., Grants Pass. Conductor Majkut will offer pre-concert talks one hour before the concerts. Tickets are $36, $42, $48 or $55 for the Ashland show; $15, $31, $36, $42 or $48 for the Medford show; and $15, $22, $30 or $37 for the Grants Pass show. Students get 50 percent off tickets. All tickets can be purchased online at rvsymphony.org or by calling 541-708-6400. Craterian Theater tickets also can be purchased online at craterian.org , at the box office, 16 S. Bartlett St., or by calling 541-779-3000. RVSO's 2015-16 season continues Oct. 16-18 with Israeli cellist Amit Peled playing Antonin Dvorak's cello concerto, one of Majkut's favorite pieces of orchestral literature. "I love that piece, and I'm really excited about this guy," he says. "Last year I read a full-page article about Amit Peled in the Wall Street Journal. He'll perform on legendary cellist Pablo Casals' cello, loaned to him by Casals' widow, Marta Casals Istomin." RVSO's executive director, Jane Kenworthy, knows Peled personally and was able to make this concert happen. Majkut programmed Smetana's overture to "The Battered Bride" and Beethoven's Symphony No. 6, "Pastorale," to perform with Dvorak's concerto. On Dec. 3-5, RVSO will join Southern Oregon Repertory Singers, directed by Paul French, for performances of Handel's masterpiece, "Messiah." RVSO will present an Oregon premiere of a new work by American composer Christopher Theofanidis Jan. 15-17. Mexican-American violinist Elena Urioste — another "distinguished guest who plays with such big shots as the BBC Orchestra in London," Majkut says — will join RVSO for Beethoven’s Violin Concerto. The concert will conclude with Mozart’s Symphony No. 28, “Prague." On Feb. 26-28, Croatian guitar prodigy Ana Vidovic will return to the Rogue Valley to perform a well-known concerto, Joaquin Rodrigo's "Concierto de Aranjuez." The concert will feature three other equally fiery pieces: Manuel de Falla’s The Three Cornered Hat Suites, No. 1 and 2, Arturo Márquez’s Danzón No. 3 and Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s "Capriccio Espagnol." RVSO will close its season April 22-24 with German composer and pianist Alexander Schimpf, winner of the 2011 Cleveland International Piano Competition. "He's a good friend of mine," Majkut says. "He's a sensitive musician, and I love working with him. We've been planning to do this concerto, Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 2, since his first visit to the symphony more than three years ago. It's been a long time in the making, and now it's happening." The final concert also will include Mendelssohn's "The Hebrides" and Claude Debussy's "La Merto" to close the season with a splash. By Laurie Heuston Mail Tribune MailTribune.com By Laurie Heuston Mail Tribune Posted Sep. 23, 2015 at 12:28 PM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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