UPCOMING CONCERTS & EVENTS

Program 2

Orquesta Filarmónica de Jalisco
Music Director Jesús Medina 

Overture to “Fidelio” | LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN
Symphony #8 “Unfinished” | FRANZ SCHUBERT
Symphony #5 “Reformation” | FELIX MENDELSSOHN 

Synopsis:

We begin our Second Program this season just as if we were presenting Ludwig van Beethoven’s only opera: with his Fidelio overture.  Some years ago, the OFJ participated in performances of the opera Fidelio, under the aegis of the Festival de Mayo.  This time, the Filarmónica de Jalisco will leave the rescue drama (where our brave heroine Leonore liberates the prisoners who are overjoyed to welcome daylight and fresh air) to our imaginations, but in this Overture we will experience all of the emotions of the opera in their symphonic form.

We continue with one of the great mysteries in the history of Western music:  the Eighth, “Unfinished” Symphony by Franz Schubert.  Schubert began this symphony in 1822, but left it in October or November of that same year with only two movements written.  When the score was discovered in an old trunk after a lapse of forty years, nine bars of a completely orchestrated Scherzo were found on the reverse side of the second, “Andante”, movement, followed by four blank sheets of manuscript paper.  So, it seems, Schubert had left the work; he lived for six more years but never added anything to it.  Why?  Many critics believe that when we listen to it, we will conclude that Schubert left his symphony unfinished for the simple reason that it would have been impossible to add anything that would equal the perfection of what had already been written.  Are we in agreement?  The Orquesta Filarmónica de Jalisco will now offer us the opportunity to contemplate this multi-level musical enigma.

The Symphony No. 5, “Reformation” by Felix Mendelssohn, rounds out this concert.  Even though the context of the work raises some questions (for example, why is this called the Fifth Symphony when it was the second symphony written by the composer?), its musical program is explicit, describing the encounter of the Catholic Church with the Lutheran Church, finally culminating in the triumph of the Lutheran Reformation.  This narrative is outlined in the first and last movements by means of three different melodic motives.  In the first movement, the opening motive is inspired by Gregorian chant.  The second motive is the “Dresden Amen”, which harmonizes an ascending six-note melody that was sung in (Catholic) churches in Saxony throughout the nineteenth century (Wagner, who did not much care for Mendelssohn, nevertheless used this same motive in his opera Parsifal).  In the work’s final movement, the Gregorian motive does not return but the Dresden Amen does, in juxtaposition with the third melodic motive, the famous chorale "Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott" ("A Mighty Fortress is our God”) composed by Martin Luther himself.  When the work comes to its climactic conclusion with an imposing proclamation of “A Mighty Fortress”, this grand statement serves as a celebration of the Reformation. The massive symphonic forces of the largest group of OFJ musicians onstage together since the pandemic began, proudly present Mendelssohn’s “Reformation” symphony in all its glory.

Thursday, October 14th, 8:30 PM
Sunday, October 17th, 12:30 PM
Third Orchestra Season 2021, Teatro Degollado

*Tickets ranging from $90 to $250 pesos, available at the Teatro Degollado Box Office and through the Ticketmaster system.