Program Notes

NEW! Read some fun facts about Masterworks in HSO's Prelude!

Prelude is HSO’s new pre-concert guide which will be sent only in an electronic format to our subscribers, single-ticket holders, donors and any others who might be interested in some “insider information” about a piece, composer or artist that will be featured on the upcoming Masterworks program.

Prelude will not replace the excellent program notes in our concert program, but is written to offer some different – and hopefully fun – facts that will spark interest in the upcoming Masterworks program. It will be sent approximately a week in advance of the upcoming Masterworks program.

Please let us know what you think! If you know someone who might be interested in receiving Prelude, or you have feedback, please contact Ruth Sovronsky at 860-760-7321 or at rsovronsky@hartfordsymphony.org

2018-2019 Season

• Masterworks 1: Pictures at an Exhibition
• Masterworks 2: Brass & Brahms
• Masterworks 3: Tchaikovsky's Firsts
• Masterworks 4: Bach & Beyond
• Masterworks 5: Latin Lovers

2017-2018 Season

• Masterworks 9: Carmina Burana: Festival of Fate
• Masterworks 8: Shostakovich 5
• Masterworks 7: Copland & Gershwin
• Masterworks 6: Stravinsky & Swan Lake
• Masterworks 5: The Keys to Romance
• Masterworks 4: A Scottish Fantasy 
• Masterworks 3: December Dreams
  
• Masterworks 2: Mozart & La Mer
• Masterworks 1: Beethoven's Eroica

2016-2017 Season

• Masterworks 9: Choral Fantasy and Mystical Songs
• Masterworks 8: Russian Intensity
• Masterworks 7: The Planets: Different Worlds
• Masterworks 6: A Faust Symphony
• Masterworks 5: Symphonic Love Potions
• Masterworks 4: Beethoven and Ravel
• Masterworks 3: Merry Mozart
• Masterworks 2: Bewitching Brahms
• Masterworks 1: Scheherazade

2015-2016 Season

• Masterworks 9: Gershwin: Pop artist or classical composer?
• Masterworks 8: Romantic Rachmaninoff – Why did Rachmaninoff's composing career nearly end almost as soon as it began?
• Masterworks 7: Mozart & Hartt – Connecting to Mozart
• Masterworks 6: Russian Masters – Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in D Major
• Masterworks 5: What piece of music can claim to have “induced fits of sobbing, fainting and even orgasms” in the theatre?
• Masterworks 4: The Role of the Conductor, OR – Can Someone Please Explain What a Conductor Does, Really?
• Masterworks 3: Handel: He Created a Gift That Keeps on Giving
• Masterworks 2: Beethoven – The Bold Entrepreneur
• Masterworks 1: Focus on Max Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op. 26

Notes with composers’ biographical information and detailed remarks about the musical selections on the program compiled by a musicologist are available in the playbill for all Masterworks and Classical Connections.

2014-2015 Season Program Notes

• Porgy and Bess Program Notes

2013-2014 Season Program Notes Archive

• A Midsummer Night’s Dream Program Notes
  
• West Side Story Program Notes
  
• Enigma Variations Program Notes
  
• Mozart's Requiem Program Notes
• Brahms' Double Concerto Program Notes
  
• Bolero! Program Notes