Lorenz and Shostakovich

Program

More about the concert

CELEBRATION AND FINALE

Norrlandsoperan concludes its spring season with a spectacular celebration program, looking toward New York, South Africa, and Caracas. Don’t miss tonight’s maracas solo concert featuring the orchestra’s own percussionist, Maximilliano Polo, in the lead role. The evening’s classical and closing piece is Shostakovich’s Ninth Symphony, a short but hauntingly well-written masterpiece composed toward the end of the war in 1945.

The spring season at the Norrlands Opera concludes with a true musical celebration, where a variety of musical styles from around the world share the spotlight. Conducting the concert—in honor of the occasion and as expected—is the company’s own Eduardo Strausser.

The evening begins with a dreamlike excursion to the city of cities: the Big Apple, New York City. No other place can so effortlessly put people in a festive mood. There’s something about the urban energy that seems to permeate every street corner. But it’s also a city that, like all giant metropolises, is constantly reinventing itself, constantly changing its form. Jessie Montgomery captures some of that in her Records from a Vanishing City, a tribute to the eclectic soundscape that surrounded her in the bohemian neighborhoods East Village in New York as a child in the ’80s and ’90s. She believes this soundscape no longer exists, as Manhattan’s once less affluent but vibrant neighborhoods have increasingly become a place for the super-rich.

Montgomery’s wistful tribute to his hometown is followed by a 17-minute solo concerto for maracas and orchestra by the Venezuelan composer Ricardo Lorenz. Lorenz is known for his ability to draw upon the Latin American musical tradition to create art music that is both timeless and uniquely his own. He grew up and trained as a musician in Caracas, but later moved to the United States, where, among other things, he established and directed a music center for Latin American music. For many years, he was affiliated with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, for which he has written several significant works. His roots in both of these musical traditions lend his compositions a thrilling unpredictability. He often challenges clichés about what is typically Latin American, while at the same time giving well-established, classical compositional traditions their fair share of attention. The orchestra’s own percussionist, Maximilliano Polo, will perform as the maracas soloist.

After the intermission, we’ll hear a popular short piece by Andrea Tarrodi, *Camelopardalis*, inspired by the zodiac sign of the giraffe—a constellation of celestial bodies visible from the southern part of the African continent. Resonant, dreamlike, with a cinematic quality so often found in Tarrodi’s compositions.

The celebration continues with Dmitri Shostakovich’s Ninth Symphony, known as his “Classical.”

To some extent, it is indeed a “party symphony.” It is said that, from the outset, Shostakovich planned something grand and magnificent to celebrate the Soviet Union’s victory over the Nazis. Speaking to his students, he spoke enthusiastically of a massive orchestra with an accompanying choir in the style of Beethoven. But during the spring and summer of 1945, when he finally set to work, he seems to have abandoned this vision—if it ever existed at all. The Ninth Symphony is light-hearted, playful, but not jubilant, not grandiose. Anyone who has listened to Shostakovich’s brilliantly intelligent and sober music knows that pomposity was never his style. There is therefore reason to believe that he was teasing his students. “The musicians will enjoy playing it, and the critics will tear it apart,” he is said to have remarked later. That’s not quite how it turned out; many critics appreciated his technically masterful, though brief, Ninth Symphony. The premiere in St. Petersburg was broadcast live on the radio, and the work was well received. A few years later, in 1948, when Stalin’s reign of terror truly took hold, it ended up on a list of banned works.

The Ninth Symphony is, first and foremost, short—just 27 minutes—and distinctly chamber-like. As always, spending time with Shostakovich is a special treat. Whatever the form, it is musical art that never ceases to surprise. The only thing you can expect is that you don’t know what to expect.

More About Pataruco by Ricardo Lorenz

A concert featuring maracas and an orchestra might sound like an unexpected idea—almost provocative, which is also reflected in the title *Pataruco* (Venezuelan slang for something cocky or defiant). But in Venezuela, maracas are far more than just a simple percussion instrument: they represent a highly developed and virtuosic tradition.

The piece was written for percussionist Ed Harrison, who learned to play maracas in the Venezuelan style during his time in Caracas, where the technique is passed down orally in folk settings. His artistry inspired Lorenz to compose this unique concert piece.

The music does not aim to sound like pure folk music. Instead, the orchestra weaves a sonic world around the rhythmic patterns of the maracas—sometimes in harmony, sometimes in playful contrast.

The solo part is based on authentic playing techniques and is intended for percussionists with experience in this tradition.