Music Director José Luis Gomez to Conduct Program Featuring Beethoven’s Violin Concerto
(Tucson, AZ)─The Tucson Symphony Orchestra will open its 90th anniversary season with the Classic Series program, Beethoven Odyssey, on Friday, September 21 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, September 23 at 2:00 p.m. at the Tucson Music Hall. Music Director José Luis Gomez will conduct Anne Akiko Meyers, one of today’s most in-demand violinists, in a performance of Beethoven’s beloved Violin Concerto. The second half of the program will be Richard Strauss’ Also Sprach Zarathustra, used as the music for Stanley Kubrick’s classic film, 2001: A Space Odyssey, now celebrating its 50th anniversary. Concert Comments, one hour prior to performances are complimentary with tickets. Akiko Meyers will be in the lobby following her performance to autograph her CDs, which will be for sale.
Anne Akiko Meyers just released her 37th recording, Mirror in Mirror. Meyers was named Billboard’s top-selling traditional classical instrumental soloist in 2014 and her albums have debuted at #1 on Billboard classical charts. Born in San Diego, she studied at the Colburn School of Performing Arts, Indiana University, and The Juilliard School. She received the Avery Fisher Career Grant and the Distinguished Alumna Award from the Colburn School of Music. She performs on one of the most prized violins in the world, the Vieuxtemps Guarneri del Gesù, dated 1741, considered by many to be the finest sounding violin in existence.
About Beethoven’s Violin Concerto, Akiko Meyers told Tucson Lifestyle: “It is a pillar of beauty. There’s before Beethoven and after Beethoven. There is nothing like his music and especially his violin concerto.”
Stanley Kubrick had already commissioned a score to be composed for his epic 2001: A Space Odyssey when he changed his mind and decided to go with the classical music he had been temporarily using. He wanted music to play a vital role in evoking particular moods. As he explained: “However good our best film composers may be, they are not a Beethoven, a Mozart or a Brahms. Why use music which is less good when there is such a multitude of great orchestral music available from the past and from our own time?”
Richard Strauss’ famous tone poem Also Sprach Zarathustra was inspired by the esoteric, philosophical text of the same name by Friedrich Nietzsche. The composition is divided into nine sections named after some of the chapters of the novel. While the soundtrack is known for its use of many classical and orchestral pieces, and credited for giving many classical pieces resurgences in popularity, Also Sprach Zarathustra has become synonymous with the sci-fi masterpiece. Its use may be a reference to mankind’s eventual replacement, a central theme in both the book and the film.
The TSO Classic Series is sponsored by Mrs. Dorothy Dyer Vanek. Beethoven Odyssey is sponsored by Fidelity Investments.
Tickets to Beethoven Odyssey are $30 to $86. They are available online at www.tucsonsymphony.org, at the Tucson Symphony Orchestra Box Office, 2175 N. Sixth Avenue or by phone at 520.882.8585. TSO Box Office hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 5 p.m. unless otherwise indicated.
Programming, artists and prices are subject to change.
Contact: Terry Marshall, Public Relations Manager, 520.620.9158
