James Lowe and Malinda Wagstaff joined E.J. Iannelli in the KPBX studio to talk about the Spokane Symphony’s Masterworks 4 concert this weekend.
The concert is titled “Behold, the Sea" and features two programmatic works: And God Created Great Whales, Op. 229, No. 1 by Alan Hovahness, and Symphony No. 1, A Sea Symphony by Ralph Vaughan Williams.
As the Spokane Symphony's music director and conductor of this concert, Lowe shared some background on the Hovahness work, including the audiovisual elements and the added challenges of the composer's "aleatoricism" — a term he also took the time to explain. Hovahness' 1970 orchestral work incorporates recorded whale song from the album Songs of the Humpback Whale.
Wagstaff, a soprano who was recently selected as MusicFest Northwest's 2023 Young Artist Winner, is performing as a soloist in Vaughan Williams' Sea Symphony. She likened her role to that of a ship that rides above and below the symphonic waves. The work includes the Spokane Symphony Chorale as well as another soloist, the baritone Charles Robert Stephens. The vocal parts draw on the poetry of Walt Whitman.
Wagstaff also offered some detail on the initiative What Is Opera, Anyway?, which aims to develop an appreciation for opera among the wider public.
There are two performances of the Spokane Symphony’s Masterworks 4 concert. The first is on Saturday, November 4; the other is on Sunday, November 5. Both take place at The Martin Woldson Theater at the Fox in downtown Spokane. Tickets and more information are available at the Fox Theater website or by calling the box office on (509) 624-1200.
