Houston Symphony to Perform Schumann and Bartok, 10/3-4

Music Director Andrés Orozco-Estrada will lead the Houston Symphony in Robert Schumann's rarely performed choral work The Pilgrimage of the Rose, a cantata that features solo vocalists, chorus and orchestra on Saturday, October 3, 2015, at 8:00 p.m. and Sunday, October 4, at 2:30 p.m. The program also features Bartók's Divertimento for Strings.

The Pilgrimage of the Rose, inspired by Moritz Horn's poem of the same name, is an art-song-inspired oratorio about a rose who yearns to become human and experience love. The Pilgrimage of the Rose is one of the last of Schumann's choral works that tells the story of a rose that eventually becomes human and experiences both love's pain and compassion. Schumann ends the piece with the rose rising to Heaven.

Though lesser-known than his symphonies, The Pilgrimage of the Rose is a powerful piece that contains magical elements and a story that spans a full year. With fairies and angels being an important part of the story, Orozco-Estrada wanted audiences to experience the various changes in mood as the rose embarks on a human journey searching for love. To creatively tell the story, Orozco-Estrada incorporated contemporary dancers from the University of Houston Dance Ensemble to act out certain parts of the story as the soloists tell the story through song. The choir alternatively represents fairies, townspeople and angels.

"Schumann recreates the story through music and singing, but Andrés wanted to bring to life the narration by adding a new layer of depth with the addition of dancers and lighting," said Carlos Andrés Botero, the Houston Symphony's new Musical Ambassador/Assistant Conductor. "The simple, yet effective lighting design will decorate each scene, building further layers of meaning and strengthening the storytelling."

Joining the contemporary dancers are the Houston Symphony Chorus under the direction of Betsy Cook Weber and sopranos Yulia Van Doren and Elizabeth Toy, mezzo-soprano Meg Bragle, tenor Brian Stucki and bass-baritones Michael Kelly and John Gallagher.

The program also features Bartók's lighthearted and inventive Divertimento for Strings, one of the composer's most accessible works. One of the last pieces Bartók completed before immigrating to the United States to escape the Nazis, this piece combines Bartók's modern style with Hungarian folk influences and the charm of eighteenth-century divertimenti, or musical "entertainments."

The concert will take place at Jones Hall for the Performing Arts, 615 Louisiana Street, in Houston's Theater District. For tickets and information, call (713) 224-7575 or visit www.houstonsymphony.org. Tickets may also be purchased at the Houston Symphony Patron Services Center in Jones Hall (Monday-Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.). All programs and artists are subject to change.