Yucatán Symphony Orchestra: Current season program

The Orquesta Sinfónica de Yucatán’s Sept. 8.-Dec. 10, 2017 season is under way. Visit their website for ticket information.

Program 1

Gala Mexicana: The Yucatán Symphony Orchestra begins its season with a traditional Mexican music program, which will include well-known works by the nationalist composers Carlos Chávez and José Pablo Moncayo. As a double first, the OSY will premiere “Pueblos Mágicos,” an opening based on Alejandro Basulto’s Huapango rhythm, and will be performed for the first time by Yucatán Symphony Orchestra, the only one of that genre composed in 1942 by Moncayo and released in 1944 by National Symphony Orchestra of Mexico.

• Friday, Sept. 8, 9 p.m.
• Sunday, Sept. 10, noon

Program 2

Nordic Gala: The OSY will transport us to the Nordic countries. From Jean Sibelius we will enjoy his work “Finland,” whose nationalistic content evokes the hymn of his homeland, as well as his First Symphony composed and released in 1899 by the Helsinki Orchestra. The Yucatecan pianist Alfredo Arjona will delight us with the only Piano Concerto by Edvard Grieg, inspired by Robert Schumann’s only concert for that instrument.

• Friday, Sept. 22, 9 p.m.
• Sunday, Sept 24, noon

Program 3

Nature and Theater: The brilliant violinist Leticia Moreno returns to Merida to interpret “Las Cuatro Estaciones Porteñas,” a work based on the “Four Seasons” by Antonio Vivaldi with elements of the contemporary tango from the great Argentine composer Astor Piazzola. In the second part we will be able to enjoy the “Romeo and Juliet” Suite by Sergei Prokofiev, which contains the most outstanding themes of the homonymous ballet based on the great work of William Shakespeare.

• Friday, Sept. 29, 9 p.m.
• Sunday, Oct. 1, noon

Program 4

Romantic Gala: The works of two great geniuses of German Romanticism are related to each other: the Academic Festival Overture composed by Johannes Brahms in 1880 in gratitude to the recognition received from the University of Breslau, and Robert Schumann’s only Concert for violoncello, interpreted by the outstanding German cellist Leo Schmidt. In the second part the OSY will captivate us with the Symphony Great of the Austrian composer Franz Schubert, antecedent of the symphonies of great format that later used Anton Bruckner and Gustav Mahler.

• Friday, Oct. 6, 9 p.m.
• Sunday, Oct. 8, noon

Program 5

Pastoral Symphony: French director Jean-Luc Tingaud, head of the Orthinato Orchestra in Paris, will be behind the baton interpreting the The Force of Destiny Overture that precedes Giuseppe Verdi’s based based on the story of Angel de Saavedra. Two brilliant members of the OSY, Paolo Dorio and Miguel Galván, will be the soloists of one of the few existing clarinet and bassoon concerts, the classical composer Carl Stamitz, great predecessor of the Bönn genius, Ludwig van Beethoven, whose Sixth Symphony, which is part of the program, masterfully describes nature.

• Friday, Oct. 13, 9 p.m.
• Sunday, Oct. 15, noon

Program 6

Polish Gala: The brilliant Polish brothers Zurakowski will delight us with beautiful Italian songs for tenor and orchestra. Director Bartosz Zurakowski will lead the performance of Tchaikovsky’s “Polish” Symphony No. 3, the only work of the genre with five movements of this Russian composer.

• Friday, Nov. 10, 9 p.m.
• Sunday, Nov. 12, noon

Program 7

The Spanish director Francisco Maestre and the OSY will be the soloists of this program, which includes Beethoven’s First Symphony, whose first chords amazed the classical public of 1800 for its originality, which would then give the beginning of Romanticism, as well as Suites 1 and 2 by George Bizet, which contain the best-known fragments of the opera based on the work of Prosper Merimée.

• Friday, Nov. 17, 9 p.m.
• Sunday, Nov. 19, noon

Program 8

Tribute to the Flute: The Magic Flute Overture, which precedes Mozart’s last opera, will kick off the show. The excellent flute player LeeAnne Thompson, principal flutist of the Las Colinas Symphony Orchestra, in Dallas will be the soloist of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach’s Flute Concerto, whose classical style contrasts with that of his father, the great baroque conservative Johann Sebastian Bach. In the second part, the sublime Symphony No. 4 of Johannes Brahms, whose last movement in the form of passacaglia contains one of the most beautiful solos for flute.

• Friday, Nov. 24, 9 p.m.
• Sunday, Nov. 26, noon

Program 9

Richard Strauss Gala: The first horn at the National Orchestra and Choirs of Spain, Salvador Navarro, will play the Concerto for Horn No. 1 by Richard Strauss, whose difficulty makes him the most representative for this instrument. Also the OSY will address for the first time a great symphonic challenge: Till Eulenspiegels, who evokes German folklore. The works of Strauss are of great difficulty due to their grand orchestrations and sonorous exigencies.

• Friday, Dec. 1, 9 p.m.
• Sunday, Dec. 3, noon

End-of-Year Opera Gala

The season’s finishing touch. The OSY, together with the brilliant Yucatecan voices of the Yucatan Opera Workshop, will delight us with choral pieces of great beauty and power such as Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy, Handel’s famous Hallelujah and Borodin’s Polovtsian Dances.

• Friday, Dec. 8, 8 p.m.
• Saturday, Dec. 9, 8 p.m.
• Sunday, Dec. 10, noon