The Passion of Carmen 

Opening Weekend

Saturday, September 20, 2025 | 7:30 PM
Sunday, September 21, 2025 | 3:00 PM

Chia-Hsuan Lin | conductor

American Horn Quartet  |  guest artist

This season opens under the baton of Chia-Hsuan Lin, who has been a vital part of the Richmond Symphony family since 2016. For this program, she reunites with the American Horn Quartet – a distinguished ensemble founded in 1982 that has become a global ambassador for horn repertoire. One of its newest members is James Ferree, former Principal Horn of the Richmond Symphony and now with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Ferree and Lin are also married, making this shared appearance on the Richmond stage especially meaningful.

“Both are coming back to Richmond together on the same stage for this concert,” says Music Director Valentina Peleggi. “So we wanted to build a program around this bond – with each other, with the Richmond Symphony, and with our community.”

The Schumann Konzertstück, a unique concerto for four horns, places this heroic instrument at center stage. Framing it are two boldly expressive orchestral works: A Lasting Bond by Taiwanese composer Ke-Chia Chen and selections from Bizet’s Carmen – a score Lin is especially fond of, and one that offers the musicians a dazzling showcase of color and emotion.

Ke-Chia Chen / A Lasting Bond

Born in Taiwan and on faculty at the Curtis Institute of Music since 2010, Ke-Chia Chen draws on both Asian and Western classical traditions to create a distinctive voice. She composed A Lasting Bond in 2016, inspired by the music of the Saisiyat people, one of Taiwan’s smallest Indigenous groups. Known for their oral traditions and animist beliefs, the Saisiyat use ceremonial folksong to preserve and transmit their heritage.

Despite centuries of outside pressure, the Saisiyat have maintained a strong cultural identity. Chen notes how their folksongs serve as a vehicle for transmitting ancestral wisdom, not only within the community but across cultures. She incorporates two traditional melodies – Hunting Song and Song of Fear – which Chen describes as “representative of the pride and steadfastness of the Saisiyat.”

Robert Schumann / Konzertstück for Four Horns in F major, Op. 86

“The horn is the soul of the orchestra,” Robert Schumann once declared. In the

Romantic imagination, the horn evoked nature, heroism, and noble longing. By the mid- 19th century, the instrument was undergoing a dramatic transformation. Advances in brass technology, including the introduction of valves, greatly expanded the horn’s range and agility – qualities that fascinated Schumann and shaped his Konzertstück, composed in just a few days in February 1849.

Schumann lived in Dresden, then simmering with revolutionary energy. While he himself avoided direct political action, his music embraced innovation. He described the Konzertstück to his publisher as “something quite curious” and considered it “one of 
my Best.”

Though resembling a concerto, the piece is more theatrical and ensemble-driven. Schumann doesn’t feature a single soloist but elevates all four horn players, treating them as a dramatic ensemble. The horn itself becomes the hero.

The work compresses the traditional fast–slow–fast concerto structure into a continuous sweep. It opens with bright fanfares, syncopated rhythms, and galloping energy; then moves into a lyrical “Romanze,” bringing out the horn’s soulful, poetic voice. The final section bursts forth with dazzling virtuosity, closing in a blaze of color and fireworks.

GEORGES BIZET / Carmen Suites 1 and 2

Today, Carmen stands as one of the most beloved icons of classical music and opera – yet Bizet never lived to enjoy its success. He died in 1875, three months after the premiere, unaware of how far-reaching its legacy would become. Carmen’s melodies have since echoed in cartoons, commercials, pop songs, and film scores.

Carmen herself – the bold, free-spirited woman who refuses to be controlled – has become a cultural symbol, inspiring countless reinterpretations in theater, dance, and cinema. Bizet based the opera on Prosper Mérimée’s 1845 novella, centered on a free- spirited woman destroyed by her possessive lover. Curiously, Bizet himself never traveled to Spain, let alone Seville, where the story is set.

Carmen, a cigarette factory worker in Seville, captivates the soldier Don José. Blinded by obsession, he abandons his duty and is cast aside when she falls for the bullfighter Escamillo – leading to a fatal final confrontation.

Carmen’s path to fame was anything but smooth. The premiere was not a disaster, but audiences were unsettled by its realism and emotional volatility. After Bizet’s death, his friend Ernest Guiraud assembled two orchestral suites from Carmen’s most evocative music. Though originally published in a fixed order, these selections are often reshuffled to reflect the opera’s dramatic arc. Together, the suites capture the opera’s vivid orchestration and 
theatrical flair.

Suite No. 1 includes the darkly dramatic Prelude with its trembling strings and Fate motif; the fiery Aragonaise; the flute-sweetened Intermezzo; the sensual Seguidilla, transformed into a seductive instrumental dance; and the swaggering Marche du Toréador, Escamillo’s musical emblem.

Suite No. 2 features the famous Habanera, where Carmen declares love as a fickle force. The gentle Nocturne, based on music for Micaëla, offers tender lyricism; the March of the Smugglers adds stealthy, suspenseful rhythm. The Danse Bohème, performed by Carmen and her companions, builds thrilling momentum and ends in a burst of unleashed, frenzied energy.

Program notes (c)2025 Thomas May