Beethoven: Symphony No. 7

Beethoven, like any great storyteller, asks us to follow him down a path that has yet to be explored.

10242021 Concert, Program NotesLuke SmithOctober 17, 2021

Strauss: Horn Concerto No. 1

Although Strauss’s music eventually releases its late Classical imprint and adopts the broad, sweeping style of late Romanticism, this concerto offers us hints of what is to come, foreshadowing the great “horn moments” in Strauss’s epic tone poems such Don Juan, Ein Heldenleben, and Don Quixote.

10242021 Concert, Program NotesLuke SmithOctober 17, 2021

Coleridge-Taylor: Symphonic Variations on an African Air

“Actually, my entire exposure to African culture is the result of my relationships with my African brothers and sisters in the United States. It was these relationships that taught me my heritage and how to express my heritage in my music – one example being African Air.”