Berlioz’s
SYMPHONIE FANTASTIQUE
FRIDAY, MAY 23, 2025 / 7:30 PM / MAURICE ABRAVANEL HALL
SATURDAY, MAY 24, 2025 / 7:30 PM / MAURICE ABRAVANEL HALL
MARKUS POSCHNER, conductor (Utah Symphony’s Music Director Designate)
CHARLES YANG, violin
UTAH SYMPHONY
KRIS BOWERS
Violin Concerto - For a Younger Self (27’)
I. Moderato ma non troppo
II. Larghetto (gently)
III. Presto (with ease and confidence)
INTERMISSION
BERLIOZ
Symphonie fantastique (49’)
I. Reveries and Passions: Largo - Allegro agitato e appassionato assai
II. A Ball: Waltz - Allegro non troppo
III. In the Country: Adagio
IV. March to the Scaffold: Allegretto non troppo
V. Dream of the Witches’ Sabbath: Larghetto - Allegro
CONCERT SPONSOR
QUINN EMANUEL
This evening we are honored to recognize musicians who’ve reached specific milestones with USUO during this 2024-25 season. We are grateful to the O. C. Tanner Company for providing tangible mementos of these milestones which express the sincere appreciation we have for our wonderful musicians and their service to our community.
Markus Poschner Conductor
Utah Symphony Music Director Designate
Since taking over as principal conductor of the Bruckner Orchestra Linz in 2017, Markus Poschner and the top Austrian ensemble have been delighting audiences and the international press alike. His vision is to find new Bruckner interpretations. 2020 Bruckner Orchestra Linz was named “Orchestra of the Year” and himself “Conductor of the Year” in Austria.
Since winning the German Conductors Award, Markus Poschner has made guest appearances at many internationally renowned orchestras and opera houses, including Staatskapelle Dresden, Bamberger Symphoniker, Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, Dresden Philharmonic, The Konzerthausorchester Berlin, RSB Berlin, Radio Symphony Orchestra Vienna, The Wiener Symphoniker, Orchestre National de France, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Netherlands Philharmonic, Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, NHK Tokio, Utah Symphony Orchestra, Dallas Symphony Orchestra as well as being present at Opera houses in Berlin, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Stuttgart and Zurich.
GUEST ARTIST SPONSOR
Charles Yang
Violin
Grammy Award-winning violinist Charles Yang is the recipient of the 2018 Leonard Bernstein Award and has been described by the Boston Globe as a musician who “plays classical violin with the charisma of a rock star.”
A compelling vocalist, crossover artist, and improviser, he is a member of Time for Three, an eclectic, freewheeling string trio that locates itself at the busy intersection of Americana, modern pop, and classical music. In 2023, the group received a Grammy Award in the category of Best Classical Instrumental Solo for its recording of Letters for the Future, featuring the music of Kevin Puts and Jennifer Higdon with the Philadelphia Orchestra and conductor Xian Zhang.
A Juilliard graduate, he began his violin studies with his mother, Sha Zhu, in Austin, Texas, before working with Kurt Sassmannshaus, Paul Kantor, Brian Lewis, and Glenn Dicterow.
Charles performs on the 1852 “ex-Soil” J.B. Vuillaume.
By Jeff Counts
For A Younger Self (Violin Concerto)
Duration: 27 minutes in three movements.
THE COMPOSER – KRIS BOWERS (b. 1989) – Known primarily for his film and prestige television scores, Kris Bowers has written award-winning music for titles like Green Book, King Richard, The Color Purple, Bridgerton and The Wild Robot. Bowers’ parents, both veterans of the entertainment business, began exposing him to music at a very early age. He studied jazz at the Colburn School and got two degrees from Juilliard before launching a genre-breaking career that included performances with everyone from Jay Z to the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. A few years ago, Bowers was selected to participate in a unique project that commissioned film composers to write concert works.
THE HISTORY – In the wonderfully personal note he wrote for the Los Angeles Philharmonic premiere of For A Younger Self, Bowers lays out the programmatic architecture of the music: “This being my first concert work for orchestra, the shape and sound of the piece began to unravel throughout the composition process. Having learned so much about storytelling as a film composer, I wanted to see if I could convey a narrative through the shape and pacing of this piece. Using Charles [Yang, the work’s dedicatee] and his violin as the protagonist, I wondered if there was a way for me to follow the format of The Hero’s Journey while at the same time adhering to the rules and traditions of the violin concerto. When we meet our hero at the beginning of the piece, he is somewhat melancholic and timid, and pretty soon we feel he is almost being pushed around by the orchestra. The orchestra represents life in this way, and can be both the bully and the mentor. So we go back and forth between these moments of chaos and anxiety, to these gentler sections that represent the pining for tranquility, nostalgia, love, etc. The second movement is a moment for our protagonist to finally have that moment of peace and reflection. It’s in this movement that we hit our ‘Mid-Point,’ and our hero finally takes control of the narrative. He is now driving the orchestra, flowing through with much more ease and acting from a place of love rather than fear. Lastly, we reach the climactic final movement in which the hero and what he’s learned is put to the test, and the ease in which he exhibits his self-confidence and assuredness amidst the chaos is on full display.” Bowers closes his essay with the heartfelt sentiment, “On some level, writing this piece became a way to send a message to the younger version of myself, in terms of finding a way to maintain balance and inner peace in this chaotic and troubling world, and also as a way to
encourage and celebrate my curiosity and love for so many types of music.”
THE WORLD – Elsewhere (everywhere) in 2020, we went inside and stayed there, but also…Harry and Meghan quit the royal family in Great Britain, historic brushfires raged across Australia and a foreign language film (“Parasite” –South Korea) won the Oscar for Best Picture.
THE CONNECTION – These concerts represent the Utah Symphony premiere of Kris Bowers’ For A Younger Self
Symphonie fantastique, op. 14
Duration: 49 minutes in five movements.
THE COMPOSER – HECTOR BERLIOZ (1803-1869) – Berlioz won the Prix de Rome in 1830, and the honor did much to confirm him in Paris as a composer of considerable merit and ingenuity. The Prix, mentioned often in music biographies, was a prestigious French scholarship for artists with winners like Debussy, Lili Boulanger, Gounod, Bizet and Massenet. A central requirement of the award was an extended relocation to Italy and for Berlioz, this meant departing from France just as he was gaining significant momentum in his professional life. His personal life was also flourishing, and a passionate relationship with a 19-year-old named Camille Moke took up a lot of his attention at the time.
THE HISTORY – Their betrothal would not survive the Italian sojourn as their courtship proved much less solid than Berlioz thought. He hadn’t been gone long when he discovered that Camille had left him for another. Berlioz was so instantly and completely enraged that he set immediately to planning their murder and his own suicide. Though initially quite serious about the matter (he traveled back as far as Nice), he did not ultimately carry out the plot. The emotional temperature displayed in the reaction to Camille’s betrayal is illustrative of the wild imagination that made the Berlioz’ music so startling at times. Symphonie fantastique, for example, was among the rush of Paris premieres Berlioz gave in 1830 just before he left for Rome and, to some in the audience, it must have sounded every bit as lurid and outrageous as a double homicide. Fittingly, it might have been the product of another, pre-Camille infatuation. Harriet Smithson was an Irish actor and theater manager and, after seeing her as Juliet in Romeo and Juliet and as Ophelia in Hamlet, Berlioz was smitten beyond
HISTORY OF THE MUSIC —
hope. The two would eventually marry in 1833 but, at the time of Symphonie fantastique, Berlioz’ love for Harriet was decidedly unrequited. This is a big part of why he turned his ardent attention to Camille. Harriet and Hector would not last as a couple either, sadly, but he continued to support her after they split up. Symphonie fantastique, such an on-the-nose product of Berlioz’s emotional tumult in 1830, takes the listener on a fictional journey through sumptuous reveries and drug-induced dreams that lead ultimately to a death by beheading and a monstrous gathering of ghosts and witches. The “Hero” and the “Beloved” of the tale are alternately credible as stand-ins for Berlioz and Smithson or Berlioz and Camille Moke, and the jaw-dropping musical creativity that lights their way (whoever’s way it truly was)
places the composer in a class with very few peers. And several decades ahead of his time.
THE WORLD – Elsewhere in 1830, William IV became King of England, revolution began in Belgium, Greece became an independent state as part of the London Protocol and the United States enacted the Indian Removal Act.
THE CONNECTION – The very popular Symphonie fantastique was performed most recently on a Utah Symphony concert in 2019. Thierry Fischer conducted.
