Hugh Macdonald, the Avis Blewett Professor of Music in Arts & Sciences, will conduct a concert of late works by Richard Strauss (1864-1949) at 8 p.m. Monday, Jan. 25, in Washington University’s E. Desmond Lee Concert Hall.
The performance, which celebrates Macdonald’s 70th birthday, will feature more than two dozen musicians from the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) and from the Department of Music in Arts & Sciences. Concertmaster will be Heidi Harris, violinist and associate concertmaster for the SLSO.
Macdonald
The program will highlight Strauss’ late masterpiece “Metamorphosen” (1945) for 23 solo strings. Begun shortly after the bombing of Dresden, “Metamorphosen” was completed in the final weeks of World War II and serves as a requiem to a devastated German culture. Indeed, the work’s final measures quote the funeral march from Beethoven’s “Eroica” Symphony, while another passage recalls King Mark’s lament in Wagner’s “Tristan and Isolde.”
Also on the program will be the Sextet from Strauss’ last opera, “Capriccio” (1942), performed by six string players. Baritone Ian Greenlaw, WUSTL teacher of applied music, then will sing three Strauss songs in English translations prepared by Macdonald, who will accompany Greenlaw at the piano.
Prior to arriving at Washington University in 1987, Macdonald served as musical director of Cambridge’s legendary Footlights Club and conducted much of the orchestral and choral repertoire as well as some opera, for the Cambridge Philharmonic Society, the Oxford University Orchestra and other groups.
He was music director of the Handel in Oxford festival for four years and has commissioned new orchestral works by John Hardy and Judith Weir. In 1985, he conducted the world premieres of five choral works by Ravel.
Macdonald has published books on Scriabin and Berlioz and served as general editor of the complete edition of Berlioz’s works, published by Barenreiter between 1967 and 2006. His book of essays on musical topics, “Beethoven’s Century,” came out last year.
A regular preconcert speaker for the SLSO, he also appears in that role for the Cleveland Orchestra and the Boston Symphony Orchestra and has prepared translations for Opera Theatre of St. Louis, among others.
This spring Macdonald will receive the 2010 Médaille du Rayonnement Culturel, awarded by the French Government for services to French culture. He currently is preparing a new edition of Chabrier’s opera “L’Étoile” for production at the Deutsches Oper Berlin, under the baton of Sir Simon Rattle.
The E. Desmond Lee Concert Hall is located in the 560 Music Center, 560 Trinity Ave., at the intersection with Delmar Boulevard. The performance is free and open to the public and is sponsored by the Department of Music.
For more information, call (314) 935-5566 or e-mail kschultz@artsci.wustl.edu.
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WHO: Washington University Department of Music in Arts & Sciences WHAT: 70th birthday concert for Hugh Macdonald WHEN: 8 p.m. Monday, Jan. 25 WHERE: E. Desmond Lee Concert Hall, 560 Music Center, 560 Trinity Ave., at the intersection of Trinity and Delmar Boulevard COST: Free and open to the public PROGRAM: Music of Richard Strauss INFORMATION: (314) 935-5566 or e-mail kschultz@artsci.wustl.edu.
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