Masterworks & Ovation Series by Ives, C., Mahler, Strauss II, so 13 jan 2024, Od (2024/2024), Dirigent Michael Stern

You’ll want to start 2024 off right by joining Maestro Stern and superstar mezzo-soprano (and hometown favorite!) Joyce DiDonato for a dazzling evening of music. Chen Yi is a distinguished composer and long-time faculty member at the UMKC Conservatory and she’s writing a new piece. Her brilliant use of orchestral color and vivacious rhythms are captivating — we can hardly wait! A true American original, Charles Ives penned music that invites you to ponder. The Unanswered Question is one of his most famous works and DiDonato, another American original, sings this contemplative version, straight from her new recording “Eden.” Gustav Mahler wrote the poems that he later set to music in Songs of a Wayfarer, a thinly veiled autobiographical portrayal of his sensitive emotional state. Inhabiting the realm between pathos and acceptance, these songs follow the wayfarer through poignant memories, sharp despair, love betrayed, resignation, and dreams of solace. Also on the program, Mahler’s setting of poetry by German Romantic poet Friedrich Rückert is introspective and meditative, leaving behind the cares and tumult of the world, caressed in silken sounds. “The Places We Leave” by rising talent Joel Thompson is an evocative setting of poetry by Tracy K. Smith, a U.S. Poet Laureate and Pulitzer Prize winner. The combination of DiDonato’s luminous voice, Smith’s haunting words, and Thompson’s lush orchestration will linger in your memory. After such an emotional journey, it’s time for some musical champagne by Johann Strauss, Jr. The Overture to Die Fledermaus set the standard for rom-com soundtracks and never fails to please with its witty sparkle.