Las Cruces will be treated to a series of “symphonic landscapes” on Sunday when the New Horizons Symphony Orchestra performs a concert entitled just that with music by Antonín Dvorák, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, and Franz von Suppé. Conductor Jorge Martinez-Rios came to KRWG to talk with Intermezzo host Leora Zeitlin about these classical favorites.
The concert opens with the “Light Cavalry Overture,” by von Suppé, a famous work that has been popularized in movies, cartoons, and popular culture. “It’s one of the pieces that everyone should listen to with a live orchestra,” Martinez-Rios said. Several orchestra members will have extended solos in “Capriccio-Espagnol,” by Rimsky-Korsakov, which he said “could be easily named ‘Fantasia for Violin, Harp, Clarinet, Trumpet, Oboe,’ because it has solos for all those instruments. And it’s a very virtuosic piece.”
The concert concludes with Dvorak’s “bright and optimistic” Symphony No. 8 in G major. “It’s just pure joy,” he said. “This symphony invites everyone to feel—wow, we should be thankful for everything that happens in our life.” You’ll hear much more about the music and hear excerpts in the interview.
The free concert takes place on Sunday, Nov. 1 at 3 p.m. at the Atkinson Recital Hall. Musical excerpts in the interview are:
• Light Cavalry Overture, by Franz von Suppé, performed by the Vienna Philharmonic with Franz Welser-Möst conducting (Sony cd #440712);
• Capriccio Espagnol, by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, performed by the New York Philharmonic with Zubin Mehta conducting (CBS/Sony cd #44942);
• Symphony No. 8, 4th movement, by Antonín Dvorák, performed by the Cleveland Orchestra with George Szell conducting (CBS/Sony #38470).
