As Fiesta season comes to a close, several San Antonio-area chamber ensembles celebrate the end of their own 2022-2023 seasons with finale concerts.
The Agarita quartet’s season doesn’t formally end until June 20, but their spring season comes to a close April 29 with a concert inspired by beloved Baroque era composer Johann Sebastian Bach.
The “Bach’s Echo” program will make use of the massive Schoenstein pipe organ that overlooks the Chapel of the Incarnate Word, as well as the acoustics of the chapel’s ornate interior with ensemble members placed throughout.
The concert centers on Bach’s Keyboard Concerto in F Minor, with seven string players from the Youth Orchestras of San Antonio joining the ensemble.
Modern compositions inspired by Bach and the Baroque era will fill out the program, with works including Preludes and Fugues by Dmitri Shostakovich, Arvo Pärt’s epic violin work Fratres, Limestone and Felt by contemporary American composer Caroline Shaw and the Passacaglia of 19th-century Norwegian composer Johan Halvorsen, an adaptation of a suite for solo harpsichord by George Frideric Handel.
Free tickets for “Bach’s Echo” are available through Eventbrite.
Mid-Texas Symphony
The Mid-Texas Symphony led by Music Director Akiko Fujimoto closes its season April 30 with a concert centered on French Romantic composer Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique.
The symphony’s website describes Berlioz’s piece as “conjuring up hallucinatory visions of longing, obsession, and the depth of despair all in glorious orchestral sounds,” complete with a satanic dream of the composer’s own hellish funeral.
In five movements, the composer expresses his obsession with Shakespearean actress Harriet Smithson, whom he first saw in a production of Hamlet.
Smithson did not respond to his initial approaches and missed the premiere of the symphonic work dedicated to her. They finally met two years later, and, with the actress apparently impressed by the composer’s fierce emotionality, married — only to divorce seven years later.
The moody symphony is complemented by Tchaikovsky’s lighter Variations on a Rococo Theme, op. 33, featuring cellist John-Henry Crawford.
Tickets for the 4 p.m. concert at Jackson Auditorium at Texas Lutheran University in Seguin are available here.
Caritas Concerts
The second annual Caritas Concerts series at the Chapel of the Incarnate Word closes its season May 6-7 with a San Antonio Chamber Choir program honoring “The Musical Soul of Jake Runestad,” a contemporary composer from Minneapolis noted for choral and operatic music.
Artistic Director Rick Bjella first heard Runestad’s music in 2019 and said it “had a powerful impact” on him. Bjella said the combination of Runestad’s music and lyricist Todd Boss’ words “[get] inside of the text in a way that very few composers are successful at doing.”
Both Boss and Runestad will be present for the world premiere of the work commissioned by the chamber choir, titled How’ll You Know.
The new choral piece considers the experience and perspectives of wolves, and asks singers to improvise as wolves during the final passage, Bjella said.
To build the remainder of the program, Bjella asked Runestad to explore his influences, which range from 12th-century composer Hildegard von Bingen to popular songwriter Joni Mitchell.
“[With] all of that variety,” Bjella said, “this is going to be a great concert.”
The May 6 concert at 8 p.m. and May 7 concert at 3 p.m. are free admission, with RSVP requested.
Musical Bridges Around the World
Musical Bridges Around the World closes its 25th anniversary season with two Russian guest musicians, cellist Boris Andrianov and classical guitarist Dimitri Illarionov.
The program for the May 7 concert, titled “Expedition,” will present classical music and folk tunes from locations around the world, fulfilling the nonprofit arts organization’s name and mission.
Selections include Suite Española by Spanish composer and pianist Isaac Albéniz, a Moldavian folk suite by Italian composer Giovanni Sollima, a cello sonata by celebrated Italian composer and violinist Antonio Vivaldi, and a piece by popular Argentine composer Astor Piazzolla.
Free tickets for the “Expedition” concert at San Fernando Cathedral are available through the Musical Bridges website.
