The Music School Festival Orchestra performs under the baton of School of Music Artistic Director Timothy Muffitt last Monday in the Amphitheater.
Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 3 is filled with “sweeping melodies, colorful high energy, and a broad expressive emotional palette,” said Maestro Timothy Muffitt, and in it, the composer’s genius is on overt display.
The Music School Festival Orchestra and Muffitt, the School of Music’s artistic director and MSFO’s conductor, will take on Rachmaninoff’s Third Symphony as the final piece in the evening’s program when they perform at 8:15 p.m. tonight in the Amphitheater.
While the performance also includes Gala Flagello’s “Bravado” and Richard Strauss’ “Death and Transfiguration” — all difficult, Muffitt said — the Rachmaninoff specifically provides an opportunity for growth to “explore some expressive territory” through its unique challenges.
Gabriel Roth, violinist and second-year MSFO student, is looking forward to performing Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 3, since it was on the schedule for 2023 but got switched out for another work.
“Rachmaninoff’s harmonic and melodic language speaks to me very deeply,” Roth said. “I appreciate how intensely passionate his music is, while at the same time not being overstimulating in a way that can turn you off from some music.”
Strauss’ “Death and Transfiguration,” which explores the mystery of death and what may lie beyond it, has “a kind of profundity, with pensive moments,” Roth said.
“Being the tone poem that it is, it’s full of thoughtfulness, intense emotion and transcendence,” Roth said.
Roth has performed the Strauss twice, and is looking forward to the many musically inspiring moments within it. He’s new to the Rachmaninoff and “Bravado,” which is a newer work, composed for the 2023 Tanglewood Music Festival. It embodies exactly what the name indicates: bold, reckless, daring, confident.
Roth attends Oberlin College and Conservatory, pursuing degrees in history and violin performance. The decision to return to Chautauqua was an easy one for Roth; the schedule and program is conducive to a musician who aims to improve, he said.
“The program is very well-balanced between solo chamber and orchestral playing; I don’t feel like I’m missing out on an aspect of that while here. It’s useful for any musician who really wants to learn and get better at their instrument — and of course I enjoyed working with my teacher here,” Roth said. “This is a good place for me to continue to improve as I transition into grad school and the professional world.”
Chautauqua provides a space in which rising musicians can take the opportunity to develop professional habits early. This, plus the chance to collaborate with other musicians he respects to a great degree, and “fantastic” conductors like Muffitt and this year’s David Effron Conducting Fellow Samuel Hollister, also conducting this evening, is not something that he takes lightly.
Growing up in a family of musicians helped him appreciate the value of art; although as a kid he (reluctantly) participated in Suzuki classes for a while, there was a turning point with the death of his grandfather. Roth realized that he wanted to be able to play the instrument well to express emotions in a way that words cannot.
“Music is something I can never really get bored of,” Roth said. “There’s always more music to discover, more ways to play better, new angles through which I may look at the music; that’s very intellectually stimulating, as well.”
