The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra on Monday Night at the Symphony

Tonight’s Monday Night at the Symphony highlights the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. In the 106 years since its founding, it has expanded from its small roots into one of America’s leading orchestras. The orchestra’s current Music Director, Jonathan Heyward, answered a few of our questions about their current program.

One of your upcoming concert series will celebrate the relationship between composers and nature. What are some of the connections between nature and classical music? How does the relationship between nature and music expand your understanding of the composers you perform? 

The connection between nature and classical music always starts with the composers in mind. Particularly with Beethoven and Dvořák, we know that throughout their entire life they drew inspiration from nature and used it as part of their narrative. You see this in many other composers as well; the beauty is that we can all relate to nature in some way, shape, or form. I think being able to elicit the feeling of walking through nature and being surrounded by it is something that breaks the boundary of relatability, and we see it happening from the earliest musical movements. Nature is so great and powerful and has acted as a unifier, so to have it as a musical narrative seems natural.

 Your website includes a lot of educational content and teachers’ guides for BSO performances. How do you think this fosters an appreciation of classical music in non-musicians? 

I’m very proud that the BSO includes a lot of educational content and teachers’ guides for our performances, because it allows us to break any preconceived notions that this art form is not accessible. Through this content and these guides, I think any non-musician can feel at home in our hall, and that is what we are aiming to do.

 Your program at the end of May features Tchaikovsky’s Pathetique Symphony alongside contemporary composers’ works. When you perform a well-known older work like this along with newer works, what parallels are you able to find between them? What are the connections between the pieces? 

When thinking about composers to pair with Tchaikovsky’s Pathetique, I was thinking about composers who have a profound story to tell about themselves. We have Xavier Foley’s piece, Soul Bass, and this piece is truly about Xavier and his life and upbringing; influences of gospel, blues, and jazz were all a part of him and his identity. Similarly, Tchaikovsky’s Pathetique Symphony is his last statement; his last statement of struggle, or joy, but so personal to his identity.

 On Monday, June 5th, at 8 p.m. EST, listen to the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s recordings of Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 3, Bloch’s Three Pictures of Hassidic Life, and the full first act of Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet. Listen on TheClassicalStation.org, 89.7 FM, or download our App!