Albany Symphony Orchestra announces 2018-19 season

PHOTOGRAPHER: File Photo

Albany Symphony Orchestra Music Director David Alan Miller.

The Albany Symphony Orchestra opens its 2018-2019 season Oct. 13 at the Palace Theatre with a performance of Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries.”

The 2018-2019 schedule, announced Wednesday night, will consist of eight different concerts, concluding with The American Music Festival June 1, 2019, at EMPAC.

Proctors in Schenectady will host the ASO’s second performance of the season, “Armistice Centennial,” on Nov. 10, a concert that will include an appearance by Albany Pro Musica. The work is inspired by English composer Edward Benjamin Britten, who wrote “War Requiem” in 1962.

“Benjamin Britten’s incredibly moving ‘War Requiem,’ which we perform to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I, is one of the greatest choral masterpieces of the 20th century,” said ASO Music Director David Alan Miller. “We are delighted to collaborate with Albany Pro Musica in a work that requires adult chorus, children’s chorus, two orchestras and vocal soloists. It is a profound and ultimately life-affirming reflection on the horrors of war.”

Britten, who died in 1976 at the age of 63, wrote “War Reiquiem” to help commemorate a new cathedral in England which had been left in ruins during a German air raid in 1940. Britten opted to make his work about the dead from both World Wars and produced a large-scale score for soloists, chorus, chamber ensemble and orchestra.

“The ‘War Requiem’ uses traditional Latin text from the Mass of the Dead interspersed with war poems written during World War II by Lieutenant Wilfred Owen, a casualty of the Great War,” said Miller. “We will perform this monumental work at Proctors in Schenectady, which allows us to accommodate the forces required for the ‘War Requiem’ and will allow additional programming focused around World War I.”

On Dec. 15-16 at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall, a 100th birthday memorial concert, “Classics from Vienna,” will honor Dr. Henrich Medicus, a long-time supporter of ASO who passed away in 2017.

“Beethoven Seventh” will be performed Jan. 4-5 at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall, and on Feb.9-10 of 2019, “Valentines Weekend: Romantic Chopin,” will be held also at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall.

Also on the schedule will be “Bolero!” at the Palace Theatre March 9, 2019, “Tchaikovsky Violin Concert,” at Troy Savings Bank Music Hall April 6-7, 2019, and the “American Music Festival,” June 1, 2019 at EMPAC.

The Albany Symphony Orchestra, which is performing at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., in April, has won more ASCAP Awards than any other orchestra in the country. The group, under Miller’s direction, has also been nominated for two Grammys, and won in 2014 for its recording of John Corigliano’s “Conjurer.”

The ASO’s “Water Music NY” tour last summer throughout the Mohawk Valley drew nearly 25,000 people to seven towns along the old Erie Canal.

For ticket information call (518) 694-3300 or visit the ASO Box Office in the Palace Theatre at 19 Clinton Ave., in Albany. For more information, visit www.albanysymphony.com.