​An intimate evening with the Fargo-Moorhead Symphony Orchestra

While there have been lulls in the unforgiving temperatures now and again, this winter in Fargo has been a bitterly cold one, with below-zero temperatures for sometimes a week at a time. It is in this frigid weather that the Fargo-Moorhead Symphony Orchestra offers a reprieve with its third concert in the 2016-2017 Masterworks Series sponsored by Sanford Health, “The Intimate Tango.”

In keeping with the more “personal” feel that FM Symphony Orchestra executive director Linda Boyd said they have been striving for this season, “The Intimate Tango” seeks to heat up the audience’s evening not only by getting them out of the cold and blustery winds, but by offering an evening of intimate orchestral performance with fewer musicians, playing pieces written for smaller chamber orchestras.

The third concert of the Masterworks series will see the return of internationally acclaimed violinist Chee-Yun, who has previously performed with the FM Symphony Orchestra and worked with conductor and music director Chris Zimmerman about three years ago. Boyd had no end of praises to shower on Chee-Yun, saying, “There are a million violinists out there but hardly any compare with her for sheer technique and charisma. She’s the real deal.”

Chee-Yun will play at the head of a strings-only ensemble performing 20th century Argentinian composer Astor Piazzola’s “The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires.” As one might surmise from the name, the piece is patterned after the famous “Four Seasons” by Antonio Vivaldi, but with a distinctly Argentinian flair.

The order of the seasons is reversed, given Argentina’s location in the southern hemisphere. The work, instead of being inspired by the baroque of Vivaldi’s time, is inspired by the popular music of Argentina when Piazzola composed it, especially tango. This lends the composition an earthy and sensual property.

Another 20th century composer who drew from the popular music of his day and lived right here in the United States was Aaron Copland, whose “Music for Theatre” will be performed during the concert. Copland’s compositions are saturated through and through with a “wide-open American feel” as Boyd put it. “You can practically smell the hay bales.”

Perhaps his most famous works were Appalachian Springs, one of the most popular American compositions of the century, and his stage music for the show “Rodeo”, part of which would be featured in the famous “Beef, It’s What’s for Dinner” commercials.

However, Linda said, people who will recognize the name Copland may not be so likely to recognize this piece, which is one of his more obscure ones, which is not to say it is any less enjoyable.

An interesting tidbit of information that Boyd brought up was that both Piazzola and Copland studied under the Parisian music teacher Nadia Boulanger, who was the go-to educational figure in the musical arts at the time. Boyd said, “She told Copland that he could be a second-rate European composer or a first-rate American one.” This proved to be the impetus that drove Copland to embrace the American musical heritage and become one of its most cherished composers.

The evening will end with a performance of Symphony No. 40 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, one of his most recognizable pieces. “He was his own force of nature,” Boyd said. Mozart, like any composer, absorbed the musical influences around him (for example, studying with Haydn) and expanded on them to create something truly unique and powerful. “Mozart had a genius compositional style,” said Boyd. He certainly was able to turn convention on its head. At the time it was accepted that happy music was written in a major key and sad in a minor key. Mozart, not one to be told what to do, wrote some pieces of great pathos and gravity in a major key and bubbly, effervescent pieces in a minor key.

Concertgoers will be greeted by NDSU students dancing tango in the lobby before the show. And as always, people can arrive forty-five minutes early to sit in on a Q&A with conductor Chris Zimmerman and the soloist for the evening.

And if you’re looking for something to do the evening of Wednesday, January 25, soloist Chee-Yun will be giving a performance at “Urban Overture” at the Radisson downtown. The festivities start at 5:30 with wine-tasting and hors d’oeuvres.

And the best part, especially for cash-strapped college students, is that the event is free. Boyd recalled that when she was an adolescent, going out for the opera or the symphony was quite popular, and said that she saw “Urban Overture” as a way to “bring symphony back as a date night experience.”

Whether you are a longtime patron of the Fargo-Moorhead Symphony Orchestra or just seeking to expand your musical horizons, you’ll hardly have a better opportunity than “Urban Overture” and “The Intimate Tango” this month.

IF YOU GO:

The Intimate Tango

Saturday, January 28 at 7:30 pm

Sunday, January 29 at 2:00 pm

NDSU Festival Concert Hall, 12th Ave N, Fargo

www.fmsymphony.org or 701-478-3676