The IRIS Chamber Orchestra does not operate like a typical symphony orchestra. It reminds me much more of a summer festival atmosphere (like
Gathering together once a month (with a fair number of new faces each month) also means a period of readjustment to each other’s playing styles. Usually things gel partway into the first rehearsal.
We have four rehearsals for each performance. This is usually ample time to get the repertoire together, but only two of them are typical rehearsals. The first rehearsal is at 6 p.m. on Thursday night. This rehearsal has no audience, but the whole orchestra is usually tired from traveling to
The second rehearsal is Friday morning, and the second half of the rehearsal is broadcast live on Memphis Public Radio. I think that this is an interesting idea, and I wish that more orchestras would experiment with that.
The final rehearsal is performed for an audience. IRIS has been doing this since the first season. There are some die-hard audience members that are at every single dress rehearsal. Many audience members seem to really appreciate the chance to see the orchestra in a rehearsal setting.
This week’s program is exceptionally busy and difficult for us. The repertoire is all string music this time:
- Elgar: Introduction and Allegro, Op. 47
- Shostakovich: Chamber Symphony, Op. 110
- Shostakovich: Piano Concerto No. 1
- Dvorak: Serenade for Strings, Op. 22
The Shostakovich Piano Concerto features solo trumpet as well as solo piano. The piano soloist for this week is Wendy Chen, and Michael Stern is conducting as always.
Since the orchestra is a chamber orchestra and not a full-sized symphony orchestra we don’t play warhorses like Strauss tone poems or Mahler symphonies. Here is a repertoire list for our first four seasons (we are now in our seventh season):
Season I
9/19/2000
Élégie for cello & orchestra, C minor Op. 24
Gabriel Fauré
Yo-Yo Ma
Variations on a Rococo Theme for cello & orchestra in A major, Op. 33
Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky
Yo-Yo Ma
Fanfare for the Common Man from Symphony No. 3
Aaron Copland
On the Town
Leonard Bernstein
Symphony No. 5 in C minor Op. 67, “Fate”
Ludwig van Beethoven
Capriccio for cello & orchestra
Lukas Foss
Yo-Yo Ma
10/21/2000
Piano Concerto No. 2, B flat major, Op. 19
Ludwig van Beethoven
Garrick Ohlsson
Appalachian Spring
Aaron Copland
Kaiser-Walzer for Orchestra,
“Emporer Waltz”
Johann Strauss II
Overture to Semiramide
Gioachino Rossini
1/13/2001
Serenade for 13 wind instruments
in E flat major, Op. 7
Richard Strauss
Crisantemi “Chrysanthemums”
Giacomo Puccini
Symphony No. 8 in B minor, “Unfinished”
Franz Schubert
Violin Concerto No. 1 in D major, Op. 19
Sergey Prokofiev
Cho-Liang Lin
Leonore Overture No. 3 in C major, Op. 72b
Ludwig van Beethoven
2/3/2001
Horn Concerto No. 2 in E flat major, AV 132
Richard Strauss
Eric Ruske
Symphony No. 41 in C major, “Jupiter”
Wolfgang Amdeus Mozart
Fugue for string quartet in B flat major, Op. 133, “Grosse Fuge”
Ludwig van Beethoven
Larghetto for horn & orchestra
Emmanuel Chabrier
Eric Ruske
3/31/2001
Concerto Bass and Orchestra
Edgar Meyer
Edgar Meyer
Concerto for chamber orchestra in E-flat Major, “Dumbarton Oaks”
Igor Stravinsky
Symphony No. 101 in D major, “Clock”
Franz Joseph Haydn
Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G major
Johann Sebastian Bach
4/28/2001
Dances of Galánta for orchestra
Zoltán Kodály
Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra, Clarinet Concerto (“Landscapes with Blues”)
World Premiere
Steven Hartke
Richard Stoltzman
Symphony No. 3 in A minor, “Scottish”
Felix Mendelssohn
Season II
10/13/2001
Burlesque for piano and orchestra
Richard Strauss
Symphony No. 3 “Camp Meeting”
Charles Ives
Symphony No. 35 in D Major, “Haffner”
Wolfgang Amdeus Mozart
Emanuel Ax
Piano Concerto No. 14 in E Flat Major
Wolfgang Amdeus Mozart
Emanuel Ax
12/16/2001
Concerto for piano, violin, cello, & orchestra in C major, “Triple Concerto”
Ludwig van Beethoven
Yo-yo Ma, Emanuel Ax, Jaime Laredo
Egmont, incidental music, Op. 84
Ludwig van Beethoven
Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92
Ludwig van Beethoven
1/19/2002
Knoxville, Summer of 1915, Op. 24
Samuel Barber
Janice Chandler
Adagio for Strings
Samuel Barber
Symphony No.2 in B flat major, D. 125
Franz Schubert
Tombeau de Couperin
Maurice Ravel
2/2/2002
Violin Concerto in E minor
Felix Mendelssohn
Eight Instrumental Interludes
Igor Stravinsky
Quiet City
Aaron Copland
Symphony No. 4 in A major, Op. 90 “Italian”
Felix Mendelssohn
Kyoko Takezawa
3/2/2002
Symphony No. 103, E flat major “Drum Roll”
Franz Joseph Haydn
Jonathan Haas
Pacific Rim
Steven Hartke
Overture to La gazza ladra (The Thieving Magpie), opera
Gioachino Rossini
Concerto Fantasy for Two Timpanists and Orchestra
Philip Glass
Jonathan Haas
4/20/2002
In the Arms of the Beloved, Double Concerto for Violin, Cello and Orchestra
World Premiere
Richard Danielpour
Laredo & Robinson
Love Scene from Romeo and Juliet
Hector Berlioz
Symphony No. 3 in E flat major “Rhenish”
Robert Schumann
5/4/2002
Verklärte Nacht “Transfigured Night,” Op. 4
Arnold Schoenberg
Symphony No. 3 in E-Flat Major, Eroica
Ludwig von Beethoven
Season III
10/5/2002
Suite from Pulcinella
Igor Stravinsky
Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 61
Ludwig von Beethoven:
Itzhak Perlman
First Light
Richard Danielpour
11/16/2002
Lieder eines farenden Gesellen
“Songs of a Wayfarer”
Gustav Mahler
Michelle DeYoung
Symphony No. 38 in D Major, “Prague”
Wolfgang Amdeus Mozart
Oberon, overture to the opera
Carl Maria von Weber
Arianna a Naxos, Arr. Von Neukomm
Franz Josef Haydn
Michelle DeYoung
12/14/2002
Concerto for Pipa and Stings
Lou Harrison
Wu Man
Half-Wolf Dances Mad in Moonlight
Terry Riley
Ma mère l’oye Mother Goose Suite
Maurice Ravel
Sensemayá Chant for the Killing of a Snake
Silvestre Revueltas
Symphony No. 1 in D major, “Classical”
Sergei Prokofiev
1/25/2003
Violin Concerto No. 2 in g minor, Op. 63
Sergei Prokofiev
Boris Belkin
Tango in Time of War (Premiere)
Marshall Fine
Symphony No. 100 in D Major, “Military”
Franz Joseph Haydn
2/22/2003
The Fiddler’s Child
Leos Janácek
Violin Concerto No. 5 in A Major, “Turkish”
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Barnabás Kelemen
Zigeunerweisen, for violin & orchestra “Gypsy Airs,” Op. 20
Pablo de Sarasate
Barnabás Kelemen
Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op. 73
Johannes Brahms
3/22/2003
The Hebrides, overture in B minor for orchestra “Fingal’s Cave,” Op. 26
Felix Mendelssohn
Concerto for Vibraphone and Strings
Antonio Vivaldi
Evelyn Glennie
Veni, Veni Emmanuel
James MacMillan
Evelyn Glennie
Symphony No. 1 in B flat major “Spring”
Robert Schumann
4/12/2003
Moz-Art à la Haydnfor 2 violins & 11 strings
Alfred Schnittke
Concerto No. 2 for Bass and Orchestra
World Premiere
Edgar Meyer
Edgar Meyer
Symphony No. 6 in F major, “Pastoral”
Ludwig van Beethoven
5/3/2003
Piano Concerto No. 2, B flat major, Op. 83
Johannes Brahms
Yefim Bronfman
Souvenirs suite
Samuel Barber
Manfred, overture & incidental music,
Op. 115
Robert Schumann
Season IV
10/11/2003
Piano Concerto in G major
Maurice Ravel
Jean-Yves Thibaudet
A Jazz Symphony
George Antheil
Ragtime Dances
Charles Ives
La création du monde
Darius Milhaud
11/22/2003
Viola Concerto
Krzysztof Penderecki
Roberto Diaz
Italian Serenade in G major
Hugo Wolf
Symphony No. 40 in G minor
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Concerto for viola and strings in G major
Georg Philipp Telemann
12/6/2003
Cello Concerto No. 1, E flat major, Op. 107
Dmitry Shostakovich
Jian Wang
Capricorn Concerto, Op. 21
Samuel Barber
Der Bürger als Edelmann, Op. 60
“Le bourgeois gentilhomme”
Richard Strauss
1/24/2004
Concerto St. Marc
Tomaso Albinoni
Rhapsody in Blue Arranged for Trumpet
George Gershwin
Ryan Anthony
Symphony No. 6 in D Major, Op. 60
Antonín Dvorak
The Moldau from Má Vlast
Bedrich Smetana
2/21/2004
Pavane pour une infante défunte
Maurice Ravel
Les Nuits d’été, Op. 7
Hector Berlioz
Susanne Mentzer
Medea, suite for orchestra, Op. 23
Samuel Barber
El Amor BrujoSuite
Manuel de Falla
Susanne Mentzer
3/6/2004
Rituals for percussion & chamber orchestra
World Premiere
Ellen Taaffe Zwilich
NEXUS
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Op. 21
Felix Mendelssohn
Suite for Orchestra No. 4 in D major
Johann Sebastian Bach
4/3/2004
Concerto for Violin, Cello and Orchestra
Ned Rorem
Jaime Laredo & Sharon Robinson
Symphony No. 4 in B flat major, Op. 60
Ludwig van Beethoven
Divertimento for Strings 1939
Béla Bartók
5/8/2004
Symphony No. 25 in G minor
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 77
Johannes Brahms
Gil Shaham
Music for the Theater
Aaron Copland
technorati tags: IRIS, Chamber, Orchestra, Memphis, Tennessee
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