Hopkins Center for the Arts

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Dartmouth Symphony Orchestra

Anthony Princiotti, conductor

with soloist Stephanie Kim '08

Saturday, FEBRUARY 23 • 8 pm
Spaulding Auditorium
$18 • Dartmouth students $3

This concert combines two works not often heard together: Dvorák's Violin Concerto in A minor, Op. 53 and Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Op. 36. Even though the Violin Concerto was one of Dvorák's favorite pieces, it has never been given its due. Like much of his work, this bittersweet and beautifully crafted piece is exhilarating and lyrical, with abundant melodies, colorful harmonies and inventive rhythms referencing Czech folk dances. Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony echoes the personal crisis he was going through at the time. In an effort to suppress his homosexuality, he entered into a short-lived and doomed marriage, leading to a nervous breakdown. Confronting his turmoil through music, Tchaikovsky composed a major symphony that evolves from the invincible power of fate to poison the soul in the first movement, to the possibility of joy in the sweeping, dramatic denouement.