A classical music concert this Saturday at the Christopher Cohan Performing Arts Center (PAC) will feature dramatically successful works that were disasters when they premiered.
The concert is part of this year’s Festival Mosaic, an annual summer series featuring concerts, art and more. This year’s theme explores the concept of music through time, said Curtis Pendleton, the festival’s executive director.
“This year’s festival is different because there are more than 30 events in less than a two-week period,” Pendleton said. “The orchestra (for Saturday’s concert) has people from all over the world this year. There are people from all over the nation, Asia and even Sweden.”
The concert’s theme is “From Scandal to Success” and features the Festival Orchestra and Scott Yoo, the festival’s music director and Evenings with the Orchestra conductor and violinist. The two works featured at the concert will be Ludwig van Beethoven’s “Concerto for Violin, op. 61” and Igor Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring.”
Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring” caused a Parisian riot when it first premiered in 1913.
“We are exploring the concept of music and time,” Yoo said. “The Stravinsky (piece) was written about 100 years ago, and now it’s a classic, but when it first came out, it was a disaster.”
Audience members can expect to see young performers on stage, Yoo said.
“They’ll hear probably the most famous violin concerto of all time,” he said, adding that Ludwig van Beethoven’s “Concerto for Violin, op. 61” was first performed very poorly. “It was canned by everyone, and wasn’t performed again for decades.”
Yoo first performed Beethoven’s violin concerto when he was 15, and joins the Festival Orchestra as a soloist. Assistant Conductor David Arrivee will be holding the baton.
These two pieces are very important because they have been used from theater to film, but more importantly, they were “better the second time around,” Pendleton said.
“They were incredibly unpopular at the time, but now, for classical musicians and classical audiences, it’s music we can’t live without,” Yoo said.
Evenings with the Orchestra will begin Saturday with a pre-concert discussion led by music professor Alyson McLamore at 7 p.m. The concert begins at 8 p.m. on Saturday and tickets and information can be found at the PAC box office at (805) 756-2787.