Our season begins with the exhilarating Fanfare on Amazing Grace, a short “explosion of joyous sound” by living African-American composer Adolphus Hailstork. Next, internationally renowned “spitfire” Romanian violinist, Irina Muresanu, and “ebullient” UMD Professor of Cello, Eric Kutz, join forces with CCS to bring Brahms’ sweeping Double Concerto for Violin and Cello, Op. 102, in A minor to life. Finally, we bring you Hindemith’s vivid and energetic imagining of artist Mathias Grunewald’s paintings in the Mathis der Maler Symphony, a work that emerges from Hindemith’s poignant opera exploring the artist’s role and voice within society.
Did you know?!
An arrangement of Hailstork’s Fanfare on Amazing Grace was performed as a part of the Presidential Inaugural Prelude in 2021.
Hindemith’s Mathis der Maler Symphony was banned by the German government a month after its 1934 premiere because the composer had allegedly been critical of Hitler. Indeed, Hindemith was notably anti-Nazi.
Brahms’ Double Concerto was written, in part, to pursue reconciliation with his dear, estranged friend, violinist Joseph Joachim.