Jonathan Leshnoff Live Recording Featuring Guitar Virtuoso Jason Vieaux Highlights Nashville Symphony Concerts on April 27-28
Latin-flavored program also features works by Ravel and Ginastera
Nashville, Tenn. (April 20, 2018) — On April 27-28 at Schermerhorn Symphony Center, Maestro Giancarlo Guerrero and the Nashville Symphony perform Guerrero Conducts Ravel, a distinctly Latin-flavored program showcasing works by Maurice Ravel, Alberto Ginastera and American composer Jonathan Leshnoff, as well as the Schermerhorn debut of guitar sensation Jason Vieaux.
Vieaux will be the featured soloist on Leshnoff’s Guitar Concerto, which will be recorded live for future worldwide release on Naxos. The concerts will also include Ravel’sRapsodie espagnole and Le Tombeau de Couperin, and Ginastera’s Variaciones concertantes, a virtuosic showcase for the musicians of the Nashville Symphony.
Great seats start at $26, and the Symphony’s Soundcheck program offers $10 tickets to students in K-12, college and grad school. Date night packages – which include two tickets, two glasses of wine and Goo Goo chocolates – are available starting at $68. All April 27 ticket purchases include admittance to Happy Hour at the ’Horn, a pre-concert event with live music by Latin ensemble Serenatta, discounts on select wine and beers, and more.
About the Program
Hailed by National Public Radio as “perhaps the most precise and soulful classical guitarist of his generation,” Jason Vieaux earned the 2015 GRAMMY® for Best Classical Instrument Solo for his most recent release, Play. He has performed with more than 100 orchestras and frequently collaborates with a variety of artists across multiple genres. Vieaux has taught at the Cleveland Institute of Music since 1997, co-founded the guitar department at the Curtis Institute of Music in 2011, and was invited to inaugurate the guitar program at the Eastern Music Festival in 2015.
Vieaux’s talent and versatility are a perfect match for Leshnoff’s Guitar Concerto, which was commissioned by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and co-commissioned by the Nashville Symphony, Orquesta Sinfónica del Principado de Asturias and the Reno Philharmonic. Drawing on both classical Spanish guitar and his own Jewish spirituality, the piece is Leshnoff’s first foray into writing for guitar, and he immersed himself in the work of Heitor Villa-Lobos and Joaquín Rodrigo – both lauded for their orchestral writing for the instrument – before embarking on the concerto.
Strongly influenced by his Basque mother, French composer Ravel displayed a unique skill in writing Spanish-flavored music, as evinced in his best-known work, Boléro, and his Rapsodie espagnole. Though it was Ravel’s first orchestral piece, Rapsodie’s lively showcase of orchestral colors and Spanish dance rhythms makes it sound as though the composer had been writing for large ensembles for years already.
In contrast, Le Tombeau de Couperin began as a piano suite paying tribute to French Baroque traditions, specifically the work of François Couperin. The composer’s experiences as an ambulance driver during World War I, however, transformed the piece into a memorial for his fallen comrades on the battlefield, with each movement dedicated to a friend Ravel had lost during the conflict.
Rounding out the program is Ginastera’s Variaciones concertantes, which was influenced by the gaucho (cowboy) tradition of the composer’s native Argentina. Featuring the principal musicians of the Nashville Symphony in this performance, the work spotlights individual instruments – including flute, clarinet, viola, oboe and bassoon – throughout the 11 variations on the original theme.
Tickets for Guerrero Conducts Ravel may be purchased:
- Online at NashvilleSymphony.org/GuerreroConductsRavel
- Via phone at 615.687.6400
- At the Schermerhorn Symphony Center Box Office, One Symphony Place in downtown Nashville
Additional information, including program notes, a Spotify playlist and Jason Vieaux’s full biography can be found at:https://www.nashvillesymphony.org/GuerreroConductsRavel.
The GRAMMY® Award-winning Nashville Symphony has earned an international reputation for its innovative programming and its commitment to performing, recording and commissioning works by America’s leading composers. The Nashville Symphony has released 29 recordings on Naxos, which have received 24 GRAMMY® nominations and 13 GRAMMY® Awards, making it one of the most active recording orchestras in the country. The orchestra has also released recordings on Decca, Deutsche Grammophon and New West Records, among other labels. With more than 140 performances annually, the orchestra offers a broad range of classical, pops and jazz, and children’s concerts, while its extensive education and community engagement programs reach 60,000 children and adults each year.
