Ahead of the Spokane Symphony's Masterworks 2 concert on October 8 and 9, music director James Lowe and guest soloist Demarre McGill joined E.J. Iannelli in the KPBX studio to talk about the program.
McGill is the principal flutist for the Seattle Symphony. For this concert, he'll be performing Danish composer Carl Nielsen's feisty, tender and playful Concerto for Flute and Orchestra.
The concert will open with Anna Clyne's short Masquerade, a whirlwind orchestral piece that was written for the close of the 2013 BBC Proms. The symphony performed the same composer's well-received five-movement cello concerto "Dance" last season.
Masterworks 2 closes with Sergei Rachmaninoff's grand and moving Second Symphony. Melodies from the symphony have inspired many latter-day musicians, including pop songwriters, and the symphony itself—like many other classical works—drew musical motifs from the medieval Dies Irae plainchant.
Tickets and more information about this weekend's Masterworks concert are available on the Spokane Symphony's website.
The From the Studio interview closes with a short sample of Gabriel Fauré's Fantaisie, Op. 79, which McGill recorded with the Seattle Symphony. It was released along with recordings of other Fauré works in 2014 on the Seattle Symphony's own label (SSM1004).
