TRUTH TO POWER

Friday, Nov 10, 2023 ∙ 8pm
Paramount Theatre, Oakland

Welcome back to The Paramount and the Oakland Symphony.  Tonight’s concert speaks “Truth to Power” with four works from three centuries. 

Bookending the program are Beethoven’s Fidelio Overture and Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms. The Beethoven was composed in 1814 for the revised version of his only opera. Beethoven being Beethoven, he fashioned a political work where the truth and love of a political prisoner and his wife triumph over tyranny and corruption, a message more powerful now than even then. Stravinsky’s choral Symphony of 1930 offers us consolation from all we will have heard before. 

Anthony Davis’ You Have the Right to Remain Silent for clarinet and chamber orchestra is based on the composer's run in with law enforcement in the 1970s, pulled over for a “routine” traffic harassment on his way to a concert of his works. Fear, outrage, and wit are woven into this work, and we are fortunate to have the incomparable Anthony McGill as soloist.  Among the nation’s foremost woodwind artists, Mr. McGill is the Principal Clarinet of the New York Philharmonic.  

Margaret Bonds (1913-1972) composed her Montgomery Variations in anguished response immediately following the 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in which four young girls were martyred.  The seven variations, based on a spiritual, eulogies and celebrates those lost.  

Tonight’s conductor, Jeri Lynne Johnson, is the Founder and Artistic Director of the Black Pearl Chamber Orchestra, and she is an internationally recognized leader and innovator in social justice and racial equity in classical music. In 2005, she made history as the first Black woman to win an international conducting prize when she was awarded the Taki Alsop Conducting Fellowship.  

A reminder to mark your calendar for the 2023 edition of  Let Us Break Bread Together.  The Oakland Symphony’s holiday tradition returns for one performance only on Sunday, December 10 at 4pm right here at the Paramount.  Great concerts continue in the New Year, and we look forward to sharing them with you.     

On behalf of the musicians, the Board of Directors, and the management team of the Oakland Symphony, I wish you and yours a happy Thanksgiving. The holiday’s spirit of sharing and community begins with tonight’s very special performance.   

Sincerely,

Dr. Mieko Hatano, Executive Director

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN
Overture to Fidelio

Anthony Davis
You Have the Right to Remain Silent
   I. Interrogation
   II. Loss
   III. Incarceration
   IV. Dance of the Other

Anthony McGill, clarinet
Earl Howard, Kurzweil synthesizer

INTERMISSION

MARGARET BONDS
Montgomery Variations
   I. The Decision
   III. March
   VII. Lament
   VI. Benediction

IGOR STRAVINSKY
Symphony of Psalms
   I. [92 quarter notes per minute]
   II. [60 eighth notes per minute]
   III. [48 quarter notes per minute]

Oakland Symphony Chorus
Ash Walker, chorus director

The 2023-2024 Season of Oakland Symphony is generously funded in part by the East Bay Music Fund at the East Bay Community Foundation; the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation; the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency; and supported by the Oakland City Council and funded by the City of Oakland’s Cultural Funding Program.