Tempest & Triumph

Saturday, May 8, 2027 - 7:30pm

James Welsch

conductor

Nathan Chan

cello

Storms rage. Fate knocks. Music wins.

James Welsch, conductor & Music Director candidate
Nathan Chan, cello

Ethel Smyth: Overture to The Wreckers
Dimitri Shostakovich: Cello Concerto No. 1
Pyotr Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 4 in F minor

A season finale of pure drama: Ethel Smyth's storm-tossed Wreckers Overture, Shostakovich's electrifying First Cello Concerto with soloist Nathan Chan, and Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony, a battle with fate that ends in blazing triumph. Come for the tempest, stay for the victory.

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The Vibe

Here’s what this concert feels like, who it’s right for, and what to bring with you.

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Type of Evening

This concert works well as:

• A high-drama season finale
• Edge-of-your-seat intensity
• A night of big emotions
• A chance to go out with a bang — the last concert of the season

What to Expect

From your seat, you can expect:

• Storms, fate, and fireworks
• A cellist on fire
• Tchaikovsky’s most gripping symphony
• A finale that brings the house down

Come With

To get the most out of the night, bring:

• Your whole heart
• An appetite for drama
• Energy for a standing ovation

At the Same Time

Each of these works arrived in a particular moment. Here’s what else the world was doing the year it was first heard.

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1878

Symphony No. 4

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Tchaikovsky’s Fourth was first performed in Moscow on February 22, 1878 — the same week Thomas Edison was granted his patent for the phonograph, the machine that would let anyone hear a symphony without an orchestra in the room.

1906

Overture to The Wreckers

Ethel Smyth

Ethel Smyth’s The Wreckers reached the stage in Leipzig in 1906 — the same year W. K. Kellogg founded the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company in Michigan, the beginning of Kellogg’s.

1959

Cello Concerto No. 1

Dmitri Shostakovich

Rostropovich gave the first performance of Shostakovich’s First Cello Concerto in Leningrad in 1959, having memorized it in four days — the same year Alaska, bought from Russia ninety-two years earlier, became the forty-ninth state.

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