A masterworks performance by the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra featuring violinist Akemi Takayama and the raw emotion and romantic lyricism created by composers Wagner, Barber, and Tchaikovsky will take place at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, March 4.
Presented by the Center for the Arts at Virginia Tech, the performance will be held in the Anne and Ellen Fife Theatre, located within the Moss Arts Center’s Street and Davis Performance Hall at 190 Alumni Mall in Blacksburg.
Led by David Stewart Wiley, Roanoke Symphony Orchestra music director and conductor, the orchestra is joined by its concertmaster and featured soloist Takayama to perform Barber’s Violin Concerto, which is the most performed American violin concerto today. A subtle melding of violin and orchestra with a chamber music-like sensibility, the piece showcases Barber’s lifelong interest in vocal music, focusing on the violin’s expressive singing quality.
Also featured is Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4 in F minor, a tale of two women who entered the composer’s life in 1877, the year he created the piece. One of the women nurtured his creative career with gifts of friendship, understanding, and money, while the other nearly destroyed it through an impractical marriage.
The work was created during this turmoil — drafted before the marriage and orchestrated in the aftermath — and the turbulence of its first movement, along with the almost hysterical rejoicing of its finale, reflect it.
The evening will open with the prelude of Wagner’s third act of “Lohengrin.” Inspired by the German legend of Lohengrin, a story of the noble knight of the Holy Grail sent in a boat pulled by swans to rescue a maiden, Wagner created both poetic libretto and the full score of an opera based on the tale.
Tickets are $25-55 for general public and $10 for students and youth 18 years old and under. They can be purchased online; at the Moss Arts Center’s box office, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday; or by calling 540-231-5300 during box office hours.