Music Forged In Pain

Symphony Celebrates Tchaikovsky In Spring Concert

The Rockbridge Symphony’s spring concert on May 4 will celebrate Pyotr Illyich Tchaikovsky and Edvard Grieg, and aspects of their music which, though forged in pain, reaffirm the “Lifeforce of music,” this concert’s theme.

Tchaikovsky wrote of the Fourth Symphony: “There is not a single line in this symphony that I have not felt in my whole being and that has not been a true echo of my soul.”

Tchaikovsky seems never to have felt accepted in 19th century society, and contemplated suicide around the time he wrote the Fourth Symphony. It was the support of “my best friend,” Nadezhda von Meck, that got him through this trying time. Tchaikovsky told her: “I should like to dedicate it to you, because I believe you would find in it an echo of your most intimate thoughts and emotions.”

“The symphony is also auto-biographical in that it describes Tchaikovsky’s struggle against his fate. I personally think it is his way of processing not being accepted by society for his homosexuality, and how he looked for hope in music, companionship, and in himself,” commented director Yi-Ping Chen.

She continued, “We join with Rockbridge Area Community Services to take this opportunity to help bring attention to the issue of suicide prevention in this month of May, which celebrates mental health awareness.

“Today, a major work from a difficult time in Tchaikovsky’s life gives us an emotionally exciting composition,” said Chen. “It begins in sadness, but ends in exuberance. Tchaikovsky’s own words resonate in our theme and the music of this program: ‘Rejoice in the happiness of others – and you can still live.’” Preceding the Tchaikovsky Symphony will be Grieg’s Funeral March, composed in memory of his friend and fellow composer Rikard Nordraak, who died young of tuberculosis. Grieg valued this work so greatly that he asked that it be performed at his own funeral. Director Chen expresses the hope that “As we share Grieg’s pain of losing a friend too soon, his music will make us feel less alone together.”

The concert will be at Lexington Presbyterian Church Saturday, May 4, at 5 p.m.

Tickets - at $10 for adults, $5 for students and free for those 12 and under – are on sale in downtown Lexington at University Florist, Cheese to You, Artists in Cahoots, and Sugar Maple Trading Company. Tickets can also be purchased online at the symphony’s webpage, rockbridgesymphony. org, and at the door.