See photos from our May 14 Season Finale concert, including this one of our packed house at the Civic Center of Greater Des Moines.
The Des Moines Symphony and pianist Ilya Yakushev play a portion of the first movement from Rachmaninoff’s Concerto No. 2 in a Season Finale dress rehearsal tonight. In a swift hand-off, Conductor Joseph Giunta hands the baton to concertmaster Jonathan Sturm so Giunta can listen to the sound balance.
Russian Spectacular Season Finale Trivia
From Conductor and Music Director Joseph Giunta:
Q: What is the connection between the Russian Easter Festival Overture and Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony? (both are on this weekend’s concert lineup.)
A: The obvious answer is that they were both written by Russian composers, but what about the fact that they both quote liturgical themes from the Russian Orthodox Church liturgy.
As you will come to find with my programs, they often have a link from piece to piece or half to half. Some are very obvious (ie: Romeo and Juliet, All Russian Program, etc), some a little obvious (Haydn London Symphony followed by Brahms Haydn Variations), and some not obvious at all (Beethoven Symphony followed by Stravinsky major work…..both composers changed the way we think about, listen, critic and analyze music as well as changed the course of music history that followed them).
