Czech Masterpieces and a Saxophone Concerto

Ruth Reinhardt, conductor
Steven Banks, saxophone
San Diego Symphony Orchestra

SMETANA: Overture and Three Dances from The Bartered Bride
YOSHIMATSU: Soprano Saxophone Concerto, Albireo Mode
DVORÁK: Symphony No. 8 in G Major, Op. 88

Ruth Reinhardt returns to lead the Symphony in two delightful works by two Czech masters: the Overture and Three Dances from Smetana’s folk-inspired romantic comedy The Bartered Bride and Dvorák’s infectiously joyous Symphony No. 8, which was conceived and written in the gorgeous green landscape of fields and woods around the small community where Dvorák had his country home. Having grown-up as a country boy in a largely agricultural community, the composer was passionate about the beauties of the rural world, taking pleasure especially in the rich variety of the songs of wild birds, which he would listen to in the little wood at the bottom of his garden. Probably no other symphony in the established repertoire is so full of delicious suggestions of singing birds as this!

And at the center of the concert, something else entirely! Having quickly established himself as one of the leading classical saxophonists today, Steven Banks returns to San Diego to take the Jacobs Music Center stage with famed Japanese composer Takashi Yoshimatsu’s Soprano Saxophone Concerto Albireo Mode. Written nearly 20 years ago, this accessible and gentle music, shot through with the sound of temple bells and the liquid traditions of American free jazz for which Yoshimatsu has a special admiration, takes its title from a famous double star in the Cygnus constellation, and is divided into two movements: the first – "Topaz" – after the precious stone which is often a pale-yellow color, and the second – "Sapphire" – after the familiar dark-blue stone.