Memorial Concert: Monteux Festival Orchestra - Strauss's Don Quixote (ft. Eric Kutz)

Music Director Tiffany Lu conducts the Monteux Festival Orchestra, joined by returning artist-in-residence, cellist Eric Kutz. This year’s memorial concert features Strauss's tone poem Don Quixote, Beethoven's thrilling Symphony No. 7, and Anna Clyne’s dynamic Sound and Fury.

Strauss’s Don Quixote recounts Cervantes’s famous novel of the same name. Strauss vividly illustrates Cervantes’s tale through his colorful composition; throughout the work, Don Quixote de la Mancha is represented by solo cello—to be performed by Eric Kutz—and Sancho Panza’s character is reflected through bass clarinet and tenor tuba before being assumed by solo viola. Monteux conducted Don Quixote with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in January 1959. The performance was broadcast and later released on CD. He also recorded it with the San Francisco Symphony.

Taking its title from Macbeth’s final soliloquy, Anna Clyne’s Sound and Fury was composed in 2019 and commissioned by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Clyne was a Festival Fellow at the new music festival Bang on a Can and was also a composer-in-residence at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. In her program notes Clyne writes: "Sound and Fury draws upon two great works of art for its inspiration: Haydn’s Symphony No. 60 (II distratto) and Shakespeare’s Macbeth.” The former we will present in our upcoming July 15 concert on the ‘Mainely’ Chamber Music performance series.

Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 has been described as “exuberant and delirious,” noted for the energetic dance rhythms incorporated throughout. It received its first performance as part of a benefit concert in 1813 which included a number of illustrious musicians, including composer Louis Spohr and composer and pianist Giacomo Meyerbeer in the orchestra, and composer Antonio Salieri in an assistant conductor role, among other notable contributors to the premiere. Monteux recorded the symphony with the London Symphony Orchestra in 1959.

Full Program:

• Clyne - Sound and Fury
• Beethoven - Symphony No. 7
• Strauss - Don Quixote, featuring Eric Kutz

The address of our concert hall known as the Forest Studio is 42 Melody Lane (off old track road) in Hancock, ME 04640. Concerts start at 5:00 PM and last approximately 2 hours and include an intermission. Doors open at 4:30 PM. 

For more details visit monteuxmusic.org or email Stan Renard, Executive Director at info@monteuxmusic.org

NOTE: Single tickets get assigned the best seats available at the time of purchase. We have a small hall and thus, do not have a seating chart that you can use to select your seating location. But we will take good care of you! However, if you and your friends are buying tickets separately but wish to seat next to each other please email us at info@monteuxmusic.org and we will do our best to accommodate you. Our three last Sunday concerts in July sell out and as such we recommend you purchase your tickets to those concerts much in advance.

Wish to enjoy priority reserved seating and a beautiful biography book of the musicians in the orchestra, consider subscribing to our season concert instead.

We look forward to seeing you at our concerts!

The Monteux Team