We open our season with the Overture to Beethoven’s heroic Opera Fidelio, followed by the charming Joyous Youth Suite by Eric Coates and the mystic Poem of Ecstasy by Russian composer Alexander Scriabin. Leonardo Zhou will be the soloist in Camille Saint-Saëns’ virtuosic Second Piano Concerto.
Special Note on Alexander Scriabin’s Poem of Ecstasy
The connection between mysticism and the erotic was important for Russian composer, Alexander Scriabin, and it is manifested in one of his most significant works, Poème de l’Extase (Poem of Ecstasy), Op. 54. Scriabin toyed with naming the work Poème Orgiaque (Orgiastic Poem). The printed musical score includes a variety of unusual expression markings, which translate as very perfumed, with a feeling of growing intoxication, and with a sensual pleasure becoming more and more ecstatic. The work combines impressionistic elements reminiscent of Debussy and Ravel, highly chromatic post-Wagnerian harmonic language, and a lavish orchestration that includes no less than 6 trumpets and 8 horns. Maestro Michael Miropolsky remembers performing this work one in time in Moscow years ago, and has looked forward to conducting it for some time. On October 28, Cascade Symphony presents a rare Pacific Northwest performance of this post-Romantic masterpiece.
