Baylor Symphony Orchestra in Concert on November 15

The Baylor Symphony Orchestra, multiple winner of the prestigious American Prize for Orchestral Performance, will present its third concert of the 2021-2022 season on Monday, November 15, beginning at 7:30 p.m. in Jones Concert Hall, which is located within the Glennis McCrary Music Building. This nationally renowned, 107-member orchestra is led by Conductor-in-Residence Stephen Heyde, and its graduate conductor is K. Trey Thompson from Haslet, Texas.
The program will open with Mr. Thompson leading a performance of Bohemian composer Antonín Dvo'?ák’s Carnival Overture. This is the centerpiece of a triptych of overtures Dvo'?ák composed in 1891 and 1892. The three works share a common musical theme and were originally to have been published as a single work with the title Nature, Life, and Love. Dvo'?ák presented them in that form when he conducted their premiere in Prague on April 28, 1892, and at their American premiere at Carnegie Hall on October 21 of the same year. Dvo'?ák later revised his initial plan, publishing the three overtures separately as In Nature’s Realm (Op. 91), Carnival (Op. 92), and Othello (Op. 93). Dvo'?ák’s notes for the Carnival Overture describe the work as a depiction of “a lonely, contemplative wanderer reaching at twilight a city where a festival is in full swing. On every side is heard the clangor of instruments, mingled with shouts of joy and the unrestrained hilarity of the people giving vent to their feelings in songs and dances.”
Dimitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5 in D minor, Op. 47, the most popular of the composer’s fifteen symphonies in today’s concert halls, was written at a critical juncture in Shostakovich’s career, when he was forced to confront the peril of Stalin’s displeasure. The Fifth Symphony was composed between April and July 1937. Its premiere was in Leningrad on November 21, 1937, by the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra under Yevgeny Mravinsky. The performance was a huge success, inspiring an ovation that lasted well over half an hour.
The Baylor Symphony Orchestra concert is free of charge and open to the public. It is also available for livestreaming at baylor.edu/music/live.