蜜柚直播 Symphony Orchestra Conductor Jos茅 Luis Gomez likes to think of the orchestra鈥檚 Masterworks chamber series as 鈥渁 laboratory for music,鈥 where the conductor and orchestra showcase their shared musical development.
It also could easily be called a window to his past as Gomez, in his inaugural TSO season, programs works for that series that sort of tell his biography.
With Mozart鈥檚 Symphony No. 4, a cornerstone of this weekend鈥檚 concert, we glimpse at Gomez the young musician. Gomez first played Mozart when he was concertmaster of the Youth Orchestra of Zulia State in his native Venezuela 鈥 part of El Sistema de Orquestas Juveniles de Venezuela 鈥 at the age of 11 or 12.
鈥淚 was performing as a soloist with the Youth Orchestra and with the professional orchestra, the Maracaibo Symphony,鈥 he said in a written statement. 鈥淣ow I am looking forward to having our concertmaster perform it with me.鈥
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Mozart penned the virtuosic piece for himself when he was still a teen, imparting in it challenges that thrill violinists to this day.
Gomez paired it with early 19th century Spanish composer Juan Cris贸stomo Arriaga鈥檚 Overture 鈥淧astourelle,鈥 written just two years before Arriagas died at the age of 19. Arriaga was called the Spanish Mozart and not just because he was a child prodigy like Mozart. The two shared a birthdate 鈥 50 years apart 鈥 were accomplished composers and both died tragically young.
The program concludes with Mendelssohn鈥檚 Third Symphony 鈥淪cottish,鈥 also written when the 19th century composer was young. And like Mozart and Arriaga, Mendelssohn died young; he was 38 and had been in poor health his last years, likely due to overwork and exhaustion 鈥 which also played into the deaths of Mozart and Arriaga.