Brahms Tragic Overture, op.81

Written in 1880, Brahms chose to title this Overture "Tragic" to emphasize the turbulent, tormented character of the piece, in contrast to the mirthful ebullience of a companion piece he wrote the same year, the Academic Festival Overture. Brahms summed up the effective difference in character between the two overtures when he declared "one laughs while the other cries."

Mahler Rückert Lieder

Rückert-Lieder (Songs after Rückert) is a song cycle for voice and orchestra, based on poems written by German poet Friedrich Rückert. The Lieder are independent, connected only by the poetry and common themes, but published together and most often performed together.

I.               Liebst du um Schönheit (If you love for beauty)
II.              Blicke mir nicht in die Lieder! (Do not look at my songs!)
III.            Um Mitternacht (At midnight)
IV.            Ich atmet' einen linden Duft (I breathed a gentle fragrance)
V.             Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen(I am lost to the world)
 

This piece features mezzo-soprano Abigail Dock. Most recently, Dock was a Young Artist at the Glimmerglass Festival, singing Amastre in Handel’s Xerxes, and was a 2015/16 Resident Artist with the Portland Opera, where she performed the role of Olga in Eugene Onegin and Third Lady in The Magic Flute. Other recent roles include Ruggiero in Handel’s Alcina, Minskwoman in Jonathan Dove’s Flight, and Isabella in Rossini's L'Italiana in Algeri at The Boston Conservatory, and the Page in Rigoletto and Orsini (cover) in Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia at the Caramoor Festival. She received her B.Mus. from Rice University and her Master’s Degree and Artist Diploma in Opera Performance from The Boston Conservatory.

Jonathan Holland Shards of Serenity

Originally from Flint, MI, Jonathan Bailey Holland began studying composition while a student at the Interlochen Arts Academy, where he received a school-wide award for his very first composition.  Upon graduation from Interlochen, he continued his composition studies with Ned Rorem at the Curtis Institute of Music, where he received a Bachelor of Music degree.  He went on to receive a Ph.D. in Music from Harvard University, where his primary teachers were Bernard Rands and Mario Davidovsky.  He has also studied with Andrew Imbrie, Yehudi Wyner, Robert Saxton and Robert Sirota.

Currently, he is Chair of Composition, Theory and History at Boston Conservatory at Berklee, and Faculty Chair of the Music Composition Low Residency MFA at Vermont College of Fine Arts. Previously he served as Professor of Composition at the Berklee College of Music.

http://www.jonathanbaileyholland.com/

Beethoven Symphony No.2, op.36

During the composition of his Second Symphony between 1801 and 1802, Beethoven had disclosed his secret of deteriorating hearing to a friend. In spite of this, the Symphony had a humorous and happy air. Beethoven wrote it without a standard minuet; instead, a scherzo took its place filled with Beethovenian musical jokes, giving the composition even greater scope and energy. Beethoven dedicated the Second Symphony to Prince Karl von Lichnowsky, and it is one of the last works of Beethoven's so-called "early period".