Masterworks I

Description: The ACO goes All-American for the opener of our 33rd season. We open with highlights from Leonard Bernstein’s On the Town. A musical first, then a movie staring Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra, it epitomizes the energy and joie de vivre of post World War II New York. Korngold’s violin concerto leaps straight out of Hollywood—the Austrian’s adopted home. With early hits like Captain Blood and Anthony Adverse, Korngold almost single-handedly established the lush sound of movie music that continues to be the standard today. After intermission, music about America by a visitor from Bohemia.  Dvorak visited the USA and fell head-over-heels for the African-American and Native American musical tradition.  In his “New World Symphony”, Dvorak wove American vernacular with European formal technique, crafting a unique, and uniquely ‘American’ symphony that was an instant and enduring hit.