Adrian Symphony Orchestra's Nov. 13 concert features LA Philharmonic principal violinist

ADRIAN — Samuel Barber was composer-in-residence at the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, the school from which he had graduated, in 1939 when he was approached to write a violin concerto for a fellow Curtis alumnus.

The commission came from soap company owner Samuel Fels, who wanted the concerto for a young violinist whose career Fels wanted to advance. A disagreement arose over the perceived need for more difficulty in the original third movement, one thing led to another, and the end result was a concerto with a blazingly fast, virtuosic third movement that was premiered by a completely different violinist and the Philadelphia Orchestra.

“It’s the great American violin concerto,” Adrian Symphony Orchestra Music Director Bruce Anthony Kiesling said. “But, of course, there’s not a whole lot of competition.”

The ASO, with guest artist Martin Chalifour, performs the concerto as part of the orchestra’s concert, titled “Folk Inspirations,” at 3 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 13, at Adrian College’s Dawson Auditorium.

Tickets are $21/$29/$32 for adults, $21/$27/$30 for senior citizens, and $15/$18 for students and are available by calling 517-264-3121, online at adriansymphony.org, or at the door beginning two hours prior to the concert.

A Classical Conversation about the music begins at 2:10 p.m. in the auditorium and is free to all ticketholders.

The award-winning Chalifour, concertmaster of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, is in his 25th season in that role. He graduated from the Montreal Conservatory in Canada and then followed in the footsteps of the composer whose work he’s playing at Sunday’s concert by attending Curtis.

Before his current role with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, he was with the Atlanta Symphony and then the Cleveland Orchestra. During his tenure in Cleveland he also taught at the Cleveland Institute of Music and was a founding member of the Cleveland Orchestra Piano Trio. He has performed as a soloist with orchestras around the world.

Barber’s concerto “is so not what people expect” when they think of Barber’s music, Kiesling said. “It’s so accessible, and I just know Martin’s going to play it really well.”

Sunday’s concert also includes a relatively new work, “The Dancing Moonlight” by Dai Wei, and Tchaikovsky’s Second Symphony.

Wei, who was born in China and is now studying at Princeton — and who will be in Adrian for the concert — wrote “The Dancing Moonlight” during the Chinese New Year in 2017 as a way to capture the idea that no matter where in the world someone sees the moon, it’s the same moon.

Kiesling said he’s happy that the ASO has the chance to perform the piece, which blends a specific Chinese ethnic dance music with Western jazz and rock idioms.

“It’s a short work and it’s absolutely sensational,” he said. “I heard the Curtis orchestra play it, and there’s a joy in it that I was immediately drawn to. It’s rhythmic and contemporary, (with) an energetic vibe but slightly nostalgic.”

The third work on Sunday’s program, Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 2, was traditionally called the “Little Russian” Symphony because the composer based it on several folk tunes from Ukraine, which was nicknamed — by Russians — Little Russia.

Tchaikovsky wrote it in 1872, premiered it to an enthusiastic response, and then rewrote it a few years later because he wasn’t happy with it. His own musical tastes had changed, and he wanted a different timbre and structure than the original version. This revised version is the one generally performed today.

Although Kiesling programmed the work long before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine early this year, it turned out to be a prescient choice. After the invasion, a movement to re-brand the symphony as the “Ukrainian” Symphony began, re-asserting the nationality of the folk music Tchaikovsky used. More and more orchestras have also started to perform the piece.

Kiesling first learned the work at the suggestion, so to speak, of Gustavo Dudamel, music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Kiesling spent five years conducting that orchestra’s YOLA (Youth Orchestra Los Angeles) program, and “when Gustavo tells you to look at something, you do,” he said.

YOLA performed one movement of the symphony to start, over time learning the rest of it, and since then Kiesling has conducted it several times with other orchestras.

Describing the piece as “a love letter to Ukraine,” Kiesling said that it is an example of a symphony that’s magnificently done even though it’s one of a composer’s earliest attempts at that particular musical form.

At only about 35 minutes, it’s relatively short, but it packs a whole lot into those 35 minutes and especially into the dramatic final movement.

“It’s a great piece and it’s really underrated,” Kiesling said. “I think the audience will love it.”

If you go

WHAT: “Folk Inspirations,” an ASO concert with guest artist Martin Chalifour featuring music by Wei, Barber, and Tchaikovsky

WHEN: 3 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 13. A Classical Conversation begins at 2:10 p.m.

WHERE: Dawson Auditorium, Adrian College

TICKETS: $21/$29/$32 adults, $21/$27/$30 senior citizens, $15/$18 for students

HOW TO ORDER: By calling 517-264-3121; online at adriansymphony.org; at the door beginning two hours prior to the concert

This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Adrian Symphony Orchestra to feature violinist Martin Chalifour