To open this program, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra welcomes Spanish harpist Cristina Montes Mateo. She is featured in a challenging contemporary work, the Concerto Capriccio by the 20th-century Catalan master Xavier Montsalvagte. After intermission, we have Rimsky-Korsakov’s masterpiece, Scheherazade.

Writing for harp and orchestra is a challenge, requiring both a knowledge of the technical aspects of the instrument, and a mastery of orchestral writing that will allow the solo part to balance with orchestra. Montsalvagte apparently considered his 1975 Concerto Capriccio to be one of his best works for this very reason, remarking: “perhaps it was the challenge behind the composition; I wanted to write for the harp in such a manner that it would unite with a heterogeneous orchestra. It made for interesting, and difficult, work!”

Rimsky-Korsakov, the great Russian nationalist and leading teacher at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, first conceived of a work on stories from The Thousand and One Nights in the winter of 1887. He finished Scheherazade in 1888, during his summer break from teaching duties. Rimsky-Korsakov was an acknowledged master of scoring music for orchestra (his Principles of Orchestration is still one of the standard works on the subject)—for him, “…orchestration is part of the very soul of the work.” Scheherazade may well be his masterwork in this regard—are few other works that make such effective use of orchestral color.

The 2024/25 Symphonic Series season is presented by United Grain Corporation.