The second concert of our 61st season brings you the vibrancy of 20th century composition and the romance of the 1890s. We welcome Christopher Stark to conduct and are excited to have bass-bartone Michael Ronan singing with us for the first time.

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William Schuman’s American Festival Overture is not music describing an American festival, but is music for “a very festive occasion,” wrote the composer. The festive occasion that occupied Schuman’s mind was a program of American works Sergey Koussevitzky and the Boston Symphony Orchestra were presenting in Boston and New York in the fall of 1939, for which the conductor asked Schuman to compose an opening piece. 

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Old American Songs are sets of songs arranged by Aaron Copland in 1950 and 1952 respectively, after research in the Sheet Music Collection of the Harris Collection of American Poetry and Plays, in the John Hay Library at Brown University. Originally scored for voice and piano, they were reworked for baritone (or mezzo-soprano) and orchestra.

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Amy Beach was heavily influenced by her Antonín Dvořák (her contemporary) and began composing her symphony in November 1894. Although Beach would later become more accepting of music from North American traditions—such as Native American themes—Beach chose to incorporate songs of the European influence into her early works. One such (Celtic) tune was her song entitled, Dark Is the Night! which she set to the words of the English poet William Ernest Henley. She borrowed this song for her symphony.

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