Home From the Sea! May 7, 2010

Join the GSO in its season finale as it hoists the Jolly Roger featuring music from the sea! The GSO will feature Alex McDonald, pianist, performing Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Major, Op. 26.

McDonald began his piano studies at the age of 4. Since his orchestral debut at age 11, he has soloed with the Orquesta Sinfónica del Estado de Mexico in Toluca, Mexico, the Utah Symphony, the Fort Worth Symphony, the San Antonio Symphony, and the Corpus Christi Symphony, among others. His solo recitals include performances for Pro Musica in El Paso, the American Chopin Society, the Texas Conservatory for Young Artists and the Miami Civic Music Association.
McDonald was awarded the second prize at the Gina Bachauer International Young Artist Piano Competition, grand prize in the Kingsville International Young Performers Competition, and grand prize at the Music Teachers National Association Yamaha Competition.
McDonald is currently pursuing his master of music degree under Yoheved Kaplinsky and Julian Martin at The Juilliard School in New York. He completed his bachelor of music degree under Russell Sherman at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, with academic honors and distinction in performance.

Also being performed on this concert will be Wagner’s Overture to Der Fliegende Hollander and Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade. This orchestral work combines two features common to Russian music and of Rimsky-Korsakov, in particular: dazzling, colorful orchestration and an interest in the East, which figured greatly in the history of Imperial Russia, as well as Orientalism in general. It is considered Rimsky-Korsakov's most popular work. Scheherazade consisted of a symphonic suite of four related movements, which form a unified theme. It was written to produce a sensation of fantasy narratives from the Orient.
I. The Sea and Sinbad's Ship (Largo e maestoso — Allegro non troppo)

II. The Kalendar Prince (Lento — Andantino — Allegro molto — Con moto)
III. The Young Prince and The Young Princess (Andantino quasi allegretto — Pochissimo più mosso — Come prima — Pochissimo più animato)
IV. Festival At Baghdad. The Sea. The Ship Breaks against a Cliff Surmounted by a Bronze Horseman. (Allegro molto — Vivo — Allegro non troppo maestoso).

The composer deliberately made the titles vague, so that they are not associated with specific tales or voyages of Sinbad. However, in the epigraph to the finale, he does make reference to the adventure of Prince Ajib.

Official Website: http://www.garlandsymphony.org/events/