Orchestra Plays Music of ‘Revolutionaries’
Space Coast Symphony program features Brahms & Shostakovich
(VERO BEACH, FL) February 21, 2022 – Without gunfire or violence, composers Brahms and Shostakovich left their indelible stamp on the world of orchestral music. On Sunday, March 6th at 3:00 PM, the Space Coast Symphony Orchestra will celebrate their work with a presentation of Revolutionaries: Brahms & Shostakovich. The concert will be held at Vero Beach High School Performing Arts Center, 1707 16th Street in Vero Beach. Written in 1887, Brahms’ Double Concerto for violin and cello is his final composition for orchestra. Modern musicologists see the work as the culmination of Brahms’s counterattack against the conventions of the romantic concerto and a distinctly original work. Still, the Double Concerto is rarely heard in concert. Critics have pointed to a problem then and now– superstar soloists are required to sublimate their egos and share the spotlight. Space Coast Symphony musicians, Paul Fleury on cello and Bulgarian-born Konstantin Dimitrov on violin, are up to the task: Fleury is the principal cellist for the SCSO and Dimitrov is the concert master and principal soloist for the Florida Lakes Symphony Orchestra. Together, the two experienced players create the “super” stringed instrument Brahms’ envisioned, with synergistic sonority and range. Closing the program is Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5, written on the heels of public condemnation of his music, as not conforming to Soviet ideals. Shostakovich described his Fifth Symphony as ‘a Soviet artist’s creative response to just criticism,’ and the stirring work proved a critical, political, and public success. $30 tickets are available through the orchestra website at SpaceCoastSymphony.org or at beachside and mainland branches of Marine Bank & Trust. Tickets at the door are $35. Concertgoers aged 18 and under or with a college ID are admitted free to every SCSO concert. For more information about Revolutionaries: Brahms & Shostakovich, call toll free to 855-252-7276 or visit SpaceCoastSymphony.org.
Also on the program is the Southeast U.S. premiere of Christopher Marshall’s “Threnody,” a work for strings written during the pandemic, offering reflection, hope and healing in the darkest of times. Aaron T. Collins, Conductor and Artistic Director for the Space Coast Symphony Orchestra, reflects on the concert as a whole.
“Each of the composers on the program has proven to be revolutionary in their own way,” said Collins. “All of them have blown past musical norms and created unique works that left the musical form enhanced.”
For more information about the Space Coast Symphony 2021-22 season or the Symphony for Everyone program, visit SpaceCoastSymphony.org or call toll-free (855) 252-7276.
