Old Cabell Hall, March 22 and March 23
As part of its 50th anniversary season, the Charlottesville Symphony at the University of Virginia offers a pair of what should be gripping and provocative performances.
The program wastes no time in lunging for the heart with Samuel Barber’s well-known Adagio for Strings. The compact and passionate piece has become a default to reflect the gravity of tragic events since it was first performed, touching listeners’ hearts from an NBC radio studio in New York City in 1938. The piece later accompanied the broadcast announcement of FDR’s death, followed JFK’s funeral, and conductor Leonard Bernstein led a New York Philharmonic performance in Barber’s memory after the composer’s own death.
Completely shifting gears, Music Director Benjamin Rous will play the role of a DJ of sorts as he guides the symphony through “& metaphors,” providing accompaniment to a new work by A.D. Carson, associate professor of hip-hop and the global South at UVA. As this is a world premiere, it’s impossible to guess at the length, the possible interplay between the words and symphonic instrumentation, or even the subject matter. The performance does come with a content warning of “strong language,” though.
Let’s hope that Carson, as perhaps the best locally known rapping professor since booted Public Enemy member Professor Griff, opts to be less controversial than that other guy.
For the big finish, a heavy hitter: Mozart’s Requiem. The last piece reportedly ever put together by the Salzburg prodigy remained unfinished when he kicked the bucket at age 35. Conflicting accounts cloud the story behind its completion, though it’s generally accepted that a contemporary of Wolfgang, the composer Süssmayr, lent a hand in wrapping it up shortly thereafter, ensuring that late 18th-century audiences were not left hanging.
As the dramatic and mournful mass for the dead requires four soloists and a choir, the symphony welcomes special guest vocalists soprano Clara Rottsolk, countertenor Patrick Dailey, tenor Gene Stenger, and baritone Andrew Garland, who will be joined by the University Singers to take on those weighty Latin liturgical lyrics. Requiem’s powerful blasts shake walls, beseeching heavenly reception and saving those already in hell. It’s a big ask, but Mozart wasn’t known for half-assing it.
A.D. Carson. Photo by Jeremie Bailey.
