JESSIE MONTGOMERY Starburst for Strings
GEORGE WALKER Lyric for Strings
IGOR STRAVINSKY Symphonies of Wind Instruments
SAMUEL BARBER Toccata Festiva
RICHARD STRAUSS Also sprach Zarathustra
Peter Oundjian, conductor emeritus of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, leads the CSO in its first live performance since February 2020. From Richard Strauss to Jessie Montgomery, this program reveals the remarkable musical variety of the modern era.
Leonard Bernstein Award recipient Jessie Montgomery describes her work Starburst as “a play on imagery of rapidly changing musical colors.” The program continues with the enduring Lyric for Strings by George Walker (Piano and Composition ’45). Igor Stravinsky draws from Russian folk music in his Symphonies of Wind Instruments. Organ faculty member Alan Morrison (Organ ’91, Accompanying ’93) performs the solo in the exuberant Toccata Festiva by Samuel Barber (Composition ’34). Audiences will immediately recognize the iconic opening of Richard Strauss’s Also sprach Zarathustra from the Stanley Kubrick film 2001: A Space Odyssey.