In honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Cristian Măcelaru assembled a program that would provide “a moment of reflection, understanding the story of who we really are as Americans.” That ranges from Margaret Bonds’ selected Montgomery Variations, which the composer dedicated to Dr. King in 1964, to a commission from poet Rita Dove, which bass Morris Robinson narrates above Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings. 

Măcelaru’s “only request” was for Dove’s new poem to follow the dramatic line of the Barber. Otherwise, “the intensity of how she writes her poem is a direct response to the teachings and writings of Dr. King,” he says. 

To complete the first half of the program, Robinson again takes the stage to sing three American songs, including one with text by the great American poet Langston Hughes.

If you attended last year’s Dvořák Symphony No. 9 concert — Cristi’s debut as CSO Music Director Designate — then you already heard the fourth movement of Wynton Marsalis’ Blues Symphony, “Southwestern Shakedown.” Măcelaru follows that with three more movements on this concert: “Swimming in Sorrow,” “Reconstruction Rag” and “Danzón y Mambo, Choro y Samba.” 

With his Blues Symphony Marsalis uses many of the stylistic references that characterize much of his music, which Măcelaru describes as “an encyclopedia of American arts.” 

“Every page directs you to discover something that he’s trying to reference — like, ‘This should sound like this jazz player from this year,’ or ‘this should sound like this city,’” Măcelaru marvels. “It blows my mind how creative it is, and how ingenious it is.”

—Hannah Edgar