Austrian conductor David Danzmeyer makes a visit to Omaha to lead artists of the Omaha Symphony in music by his countrymen, Franz Josef Haydn and Leopold Mozart, along with boundary-crossing American music and something familiar by Beethoven.
Least well-known is William Bolcom’s Commedia for (Almost) 18th-Century Orchestra from 1971. He was born 33 years before that, but this piece reaches much further back, as you might expect from the title. The composer points to inspiration from the stock characters of the Italian theatre tradition of commedia dell arte “tossed against each other in a variety of situations…not without a dark side.” It flashes by in 10 or so minutes as does another theatre-connected piece Beethoven’s Coriolan Overture written for a now-obscure play by Heinrich Joseph von Collin.
Taking center stage is Haydn’s 104th Symphony, his final one, part of the so-called “London” Symphonies. It has a reputation as a tour de force. Also on tap is a horn concerto in D Major by Wolfgang’s dad with Jason DeWater as the soloist.
David Danzmeyer’ major credits are both abroad and in the U.S. He has recently been the Music Director of the Illinois Philharmonic.
This Omaha Symphony’s Symphony Joslyn concert is on February 8 at Joslyn Art Museum’s Witherspoon Hall, 2200 Dodge St. 2 p.m. Tickets: $33. www.omahasymphony.org