ALBANY — The Albany Symphony Orchestra’s January concerts will ring in 2024 by featuring two of Mozart’s greatest works, Haydn’s Symphony No. 80, and a world premiere by living composer Harriet Steinke on Saturday, Jan. 13, at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, Jan. 14, at 3 p.m. at Troy Savings Bank Music Hall.
Featuring perhaps one of the most complex finales in all of Mozart’s compositions, Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 19 will be performed by soloist Yi-heng Yang. Yang is a faculty member of Juilliard School and is a director of The Academy for Fortepiano Performance.
“We are so fortunate to have Yi-heng perform with us a piece that highlights the beauty of Mozart and showcases one of his most delightful piano compositions,” said Music Director and Conductor David Alan Miller.
Audience members will have the rare opportunity to experience the work performed by Yang on the fortepiano, a precursor of the modern piano, as it was by Mozart himself.
“Mozart was one of the greatest composers in music’s history. Another one of the greatest was his dear friend and mentor Franz Joseph Haydn,” said Miller, who described the concert as “joyful.” “I love to always partner with Mozart and Haydn. It’s a great chance to see the breadth of Mozart’s genius and Haydn’s as well.”
Over the years, due to a variety of factors, from historical hindsight to the facts, legends and myths that surround Mozart’s tragically young death, Haydn has often been “moved to the side,” said Miller.
“I love to play Mozart’s favorite composer next to Mozart because they practically were like father and son,” said Miller. “He (Haydn) was the pioneer of the symphony and the string quartet, and Mozart was the pioneer of the piano concerto.”
ASO’s January program includes selections from “The Marriage of Figaro” by Mozart, considered one of the great operas. In addition to favorite arias featuring talented Juilliard vocalists, ASO will perform the well-known and much-beloved overture to the opera. The program concludes with Haydn’s Symphony No. 80.
Combining these two uniquely gifted composers from different generations fits into the ever-renewing mission of ASO, as evidenced by the premiere composition “A Slow Movement” by Harriet Steinke.
Steinke, who recently finished her master’s degree at the Yale School of Music, first connected with ASO in 2022.
“It was a strange combination of events that led to me being present with the orchestra last year and getting to know David Alan Miller,” she recalled, adding that she stepped in when an unexpected composition space needed to be filled and captivated audiences with her work “Harrietlehre.”
ASO commissioned a new piece from Steinke for this season. She said she knew from the start that she wanted to develop a slow composition.
“I hope that my piece, from a listener’s perspective, lets the person take their time, almost as if they were listening to a slow movement and could pause the music at any moment and just sit.”
Steinke said that there is something personally gratifying about composing.
“There’s a lot in it that’s just for me that I enjoy,” she said. “I feel like I’m solving puzzles, but at the end of the day, I hope that anyone can walk in off the street without any information or have been to an orchestra concert before and still get something out of my music.”
She described the opportunity to premiere with ASO as the most exciting part of the process.
“It’s an incredible opportunity for a new composer,” she said. “I know that seeing them again this year is going to be such a wonderful experience. I hope this is just the start of a long relationship with the orchestra.”
“She’s an elegant young composer,” said Miller. “I’m delighted to feature her music. We’re always building relationships with young composers and giving them opportunities because we feel that’s the way to keep the art form alive and vibrant by searching for, nurturing and developing interesting young composers.”
Steinke said Miller’s support for composers is evident in the selections for ASO concerts.
“The juxtaposition of old and new in programs, in general, is so important because we’re seeing how composers who are alive right now see and view the world interact with older music rhetoric,” she said. “To be alive in 2023 and given an orchestra, there’s a million different things that you can do with it.”
Combining the living composers and older compositions is essential to the mission of ASO.
“Our idea is always to embed new composers and surround those in conversation with great works in our repertoire,” said Miller. “Both of those things are critical to each other. We believe that orchestra music is a living, breathing, forever renewing kind of art form.”
The concerts will be performed at the iconic Troy Music Hall, recently featured in the Emmy-winning television show “The Gilded Age.”
“We’re fortunate in the Capital Region to have so many wonderful venues for music,” said Miller. “There’s no doubt that the Troy Music Hall is one of the greatest spaces in the world to hear live, unamplified music. It’s a great privilege to hear music in that space; embrace it, cherish it.”
For more information, visit albanysymphony.com.
This story was featured on page 1 of the January 10th , 2024 print edition of the Spot
