Into the Light: Prokofiev, Beethoven, R. Strauss, October 18, 2025
Ludwig van Beethoven: Leonore Overture No. 3 in C Major, Op. 72b
Beethoven’s only opera, first staged in 1805 as Leonore and later revised as Fidelio, tells of a woman who disguises herself as “Fidelio” to free her husband from political imprisonment. The work belongs to the “rescue opera” tradition, but Beethoven infused it with his ideals of love, justice, and freedom. In revising the opera, he wrote four overtures, of which Leonore No. 3 (1806) is the most monumental and enduring, often performed independently in concert.
The overture distills the opera’s drama into a single symphonic arc. Its somber opening evokes Florestan’s confinement, gradually giving way to visions of light, Leonore’s courage, and the fateful trumpet call that signals liberation. The music surges from darkness to triumph, ending in exultant celebration. Too grand to serve as an operatic prelude, Leonore No. 3 instead endures as a powerful standalone work- a universal testament to hope and the triumph of freedom.
Sergei Prokofiev: Violin Concerto No. 1 in D Major, Op. 19
Prokofiev began sketching his First Violin Concerto in 1915 as a light “concertino,” but by 1917 it had grown into a full-scale concerto remarkable for its dreamlike lyricism and delicacy. Written during the upheavals of the Russian Revolution, it reflects not political turmoil but a world of fantasy, much of it composed in rural seclusion. Its premiere, delayed by the chaos of 1917, finally took place in Paris in 1923 under Serge Koussevitzky, with a glittering audience that included Picasso and Pavlova. Critics were divided - too lyrical for the avant-garde, too modern for traditionalists, but the concerto soon found champions in great violinists, securing its place in the repertoire.
Musically, the work straddles two eras: the outer movements glow with Romantic lyricism, while the biting, sardonic scherzo points to modernism. This evening’s performance carries special resonance: we hear the concerto on October 18, 2025 - exactly 102 years to the day after its premiere in Paris! Across a century, Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 1 continues to enchant audiences with its combination of lyric beauty, virtuosity, and imagination.
Christine Donkin: Three Autumn Scenes
From Christine Donkin: Three Autumn Scenes were written for a performance by the Prince George Symphony Orchestra in the fall of 2012. Since I didn't have a great deal of time to complete the piece before rehearsals began, I took some themes from a set of pieces that I had originally planned to use for a string quartet - those pieces depicted the four seasons, so the "autumn" movement became the first theme for "Migration" (the English horn solo was originally intended for viola) and the "winter" movement became the first theme of "First Snowfall". Then I expanded both of those movements, reorchestrating them and adding new themes that highlighted the winds (since the original themes had been written for strings only); and added a first movement which was completely new.
The "Migration" theme was inspired by time spent in northwest Alberta, sitting by a lake for several hours and watching a steady procession of hundreds of geese heading southeast.
Richard Strauss: Tod und Verklärung (Death and Transfiguration) Op. 24, TrV 158
By his mid-twenties, Richard Strauss had already made his name with vivid tone poems like Don Juan. With Tod und Verklärung (1888-89), premiered under his own baton in 1890, he turned to the profound theme of a dying artist’s final hours and vision of transfiguration. The music traces a journey from fragile, uncertain pulses, suggesting faltering breath and heartbeat, through violent struggle and flashes of memory, toward a radiant apotheosis. The climactic “transfiguration” theme rises in luminous orchestration, embodying the fulfillment of all that life left incomplete.
Strauss never let go of this youthful vision. Decades later, the theme returns in his Four Last Songs, and on his own deathbed in 1949 he is said to have remarked: “Dying is just as I composed it in Death and Transfiguration.”
