by nicholas arbolino, oboe/english horn for sarasota orchestra

Over 10 years of performing with Sarasota Orchestra, someone inevitably asks me which Masterworks concert they should go to each season. Oftentimes they ask me in terms of which one is “the best.” It’s never a question I can adequately answer in under five minutes. It’s as if someone lined up seven craft bourbon cocktails and told me to drink my favorite. I know I’d thoroughly enjoy every last sip of each—alas, it’s hardly advisable for me to just knock them all back. So this season, I’ll spare you the hangover from an essay on all the Masterworks concerts we’re playing and just tell you this: Don’t miss Heroic Spirit on January 30 through February 2.

Featuring our Music Director Designate Giancarlo Guerrero on the podium, this program offers a powerful lineup of Beethoven, Shostakovich, and Arturo Márquez that is as emotionally rich for the listeners as it is technically demanding for the players. High praise goes to Giancarlo for his masterful curation of this concert program. It’s a great reflection of his commitment to the living art form of orchestral music, especially to contemporary composers from the Americas, married to an undying love for the venerable warhorses that we musicians have been privileged to put through their paces for hundreds of years.

Opening the concert, Beethoven’s Coriolan Overture epitomizes the legendary composer’s stormy style and is the perfect way to set the tone for an electrifying evening. Even in its compact form, the overture expresses a remarkable range of emotions. It’s an absolute trip from beginning to end, and we’re only just getting started.

From the sturm und drang of Beethoven, the program transitions to the vibrancy of Arturo Márquez’s Fandango, a mariachi-inspired concerto for violin and orchestra commissioned by the soloist herself, Anne Akiko Meyers. She represents the pinnacle of today’s concert violinists. Through her many commissioning projects, her name is linked with some of the coolest new music for solo violin out there right now. Meyers’ recent recording of Fandango was nominated for a GRAMMY® last year and won two Latin GRAMMY® awards.

After Meyers’ breathtaking performance, we’ll arrive at the monumental Symphony No. 5 by Shostakovich. I am admittedly partial to this symphony because it contains one of the most show-stopping high-wire acts for oboe in the orchestral repertoire. In the third movement, the oboe emerges from a bed of trembling strings with a solo so delicate, it sucks the air from the room and leaves the audience holding its breath. Shostakovich’s writing is so effectively measured by the aching, heart-stopping fragility of this solo. This cornerstone of the symphony shouldn’t leave a single dry eye in the house.

Written in 1937, Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony marked a turning point in his career. It was seen as a revival for the composer while living and working in the Soviet Union, under intense political scrutiny by Joseph Stalin’s regime. Outwardly triumphant themes skillfully overshadow and disguise other, more subtle sounds. This symphony is a deeply personal statement and a fascinating balance of raw emotion and creative control.  

With Maestro Guerrero leading the foray, my Sarasota Orchestra colleagues and I can’t wait to bring these demanding, complex works to life for you all. I hope to see you in the concert hall for this heroic musical journey. 

To learn more and purchase tickets to Masterworks: Heroic Spirit, visit Sarasota Orchestra’s website or call the Box Office at 941-953-3434. All programs and featured artists are subject to change.

Hungry for even more insight and storytelling about this concert? Tune into Nick Arbolino’s episode of the Concert Companion podcast on SarasotaOrchestra.org/podcast or wherever you get your podcasts.

About the Author: Nicholas Arbolino joined Sarasota Orchestra on oboe and English horn in 2014. He previously performed as the Principal oboist of the Garland Symphony, Symphony Arlington, and the Las Colinas Symphony Orchestra in the Greater Dallas area. Nick has performed in several summer festivals including the Aspen Music Festival and School, Chen International Cultural Arts Festival (Eureka Springs, AR), and the Alba Music Festival (Alba, Italy), and he currently spends his summers as Principal oboe of the Charlottesville Opera.