TheOrchestraNow.org: "Dismal Swamp": William Grant Still’s evocative portrait of enslaved people taking refuge while seeking freedom 7 PM, May 12, 2022

William Grant Still (1895-1978)

The Orchestra Now

August 25, 2021

THE ORCHESTRA NOW (TŌN) ANNOUNCES 2021–22 SEASON SEPTEMBER 11, 2021 – MAY 22, 2022

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World Premieres of Leonard Slatkin’s Brahmsiana and Scott Wheeler’s Birds of America for Violinist Gil Shaham; Rare Performances of Bristow’s Symphony No. 4, Arcadian; Lutosławski’s Symphonic Variations; Messiaen’s Le tombeau resplendissant; Julia Perry’s Stabat Mater; and Still’s Dismal Swamp

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New Voices from the 1930s
Thursday, May 12, 2022 at 7 PM
Leon Botstein, conductor
Gilles Vonsattel, piano
Frank Corliss, piano
William Grant Still: Dismal Swamp
Carlos Chávez: Piano Concerto
Witold Lutosławski: Symphonic Variations
Karl Amadeus Hartmann: Symphony No. 1, Essay for a Requiem

The rarely-heard masterpieces in this concert spotlight works from the late 1930s, including William Grant Still’s evocative portrait of enslaved people taking refuge while seeking freedom, and Karl Amadeus Hartmann’s commentary on conditions under the Nazi regime. The program also features Mexican Symphonic Music Director and composer Carlos Chávez’s virtuosic Piano Concerto, called “imaginatively scored” and praised for its “elemental strength” and the “originality of its orchestral coloring” by The New York Times at its 1942 premiere. Leading progressive Polish music composer Witold Lutosławski’s adventurous Symphonic Variations was written while he was still a student at Warsaw University. His first substantial orchestral work, the Variations contain many folk-like themes.

Tickets priced at $25–$60 are available online at carnegiehall.org, by calling CarnegieCharge at 212.247.7800, or at the Carnegie Hall box office at 57th & Seventh Avenue. Ticket holders will need to comply with the venue’s health and safety requirements, which can be found here.