The Northbrook Symphony Orchestra’s music director Lawrence Rapchak has done it again.
He’s presenting the North American premiere of Symphony No. 4 in C minor written in 1905 by Czech composer Josef Bohuslav Foerster.
Never heard of Foerster? That’s no surprise because he is one of several fine composers who found themselves eclipsed by the over-towering genius of Gustav Mahler. In fact, this program concludes a three-season series titled “In Mahler’s Shadow,” which explores symphonies from the late Romantic period in Europe which today are rarely played.
In May of 2013 the Northbrook Symphony gave the first Chicago-area performance of Symphony No. 1 in E Major by Austrian composer Franz Schmidt, Mahler’s principal cellist in the Vienna Court Opera Orchestra. That was followed in September of 2013 with the first Chicago-area performance of Symphony in E Major, written in 1880 by Austrian composer and organist Hans Rott. He was Mahler’s fellow student and colleague at the Vienna Conservatory, but died in an asylum at age 26.
“Foerster’s Fourth Symphony is subtitled ‘Easter Eve,'” said Rapchak. “He was Mahler’s musical colleague in Hamburg and Vienna and his wife Bertha Lauterer was one of Mahler’s leading sopranos.”
The maestro describes the piece as a “quintessential late romantic work, filled with the melodic warmth and color so typical of the Bohemian culture and Dvorak’s mature masterworks in particular. It includes a wonderful eight-minute meditation on Easter and expresses the spirituality of springtime.”
In addition to the Foerster, the April 12 program includes guest organist Patricia Lee performing four of Mozart’s Sonatas for Organ and Orchestra, which Rapchak describes as a four-movement symphony.
The concert also features Slavonic Dance No. 7 by Dvorak, and the Polka and Fugue from Jaromir Weinberger’s opera “Schwanda,” another work in the folk-inspired tradition of the Czech culture.
“‘Schwanda the Bagpiper’ was first performed in 1927 and it had great success,” Rapchak said. “It was quickly translated into 18 languages and was even presented at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in 1931. But then it was completely gone. The only music that gets played once in a while is its Polka and Fuge.”
Northbrook Symphony Orchestra ‘In Mahler’s Shadow’
4 p.m. Sunday, April 12
Sheely Center for the Performing Arts, Glenbrook High School, 2300 Shermer Road, Northbrook
$30-$50 adults;$8 for children and students with ID
(847) 272-0755; NorthbrookSymphony.org
