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SoundWaves with The Florida Orchestra
For more than 55 years, The Florida Orchestra has been a driving force for cultural arts in the Tampa Bay region. Every work of music, every musician, every composer has a story to tell. SoundWaves with The Florida Orchestra gives those stories a voice, so you can experience a deep, personal connection to the music during a concert or anytime. The non-profit Florida Orchestra is the largest orchestra in the state and the only arts organization that bridges Tampa Bay. TFO exists to INSPIRE – UNITE – EDUCATE as we build community through the power of music onstage and in our schools and community. With 71 full-time professional musicians and conductors, TFO performs more than 100 concerts a season, including a wide range of classical, popular, film, rock and family-friendly music. Performances are at three major performing arts venues: Mahaffey Theater in St. Petersburg, Straz Center in Tampa and Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater. For tickets and information: FloridaOrchestra.org
Episodes
57 episodes
Program Notes: Brahms' Symphony No. 4
This episode brings together three composers shaped by place, identity and tradition. In Augusta Holmès’s Irlande, pastoral beauty and mourning give way to a spirit of resilience, reflecting Ireland’s long struggle and enduring hope. D...
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Program Notes: Sibelius’ Symphony No. 2
This episode traces a path from nature to Beethoven’s first hint of the heroic ideal to a sense of national identity. In Einojuhani Rautavaara’s Cantus Arcticus, recorded birdsong merges with orchestra to create a soundscape that feels...
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Program Notes: Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7
Had Beethoven composed only one symphony, and it happened to be the music contained in his Seventh Symphony, he would still be idolized today. Its hypnotic rhythm is irresistible – as is the haunting allegretto movement, one of Beethov...
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Program Notes: Beethoven's Symphony No. 9
This episode explores the final symphonic works of two iconic composers, Mahler and Beethoven – specifically his triumphant Symphony No. 9. The adagio from Mahler’s unfinished Symphony No. 10 sets the stage for the program. It...
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Program Notes: Mozart's Jupiter Symphony
In this episode, we explore Mozart’s stellar Symphony No. 41, “Jupiter.” Says The Florida Orchestra Music Director Michael Francis: “In this symphony, Mozart looks at everything in life. Then he takes you to a point where he says ‘now,...
Program Notes: Bruch's Violin Concerto No. 1
This episode explores Max Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1, Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 5 and Brian Raphael Nabors’ Pulse. The German composer Bruch left a rich library of works, but he lived and died under th...
Program Notes: Beethoven’s Triple Concerto
Beethoven Meets BrucknerIn this episode, we explore two very different kinds of musical journeys. First, Beethoven’s Triple Concerto, often described as “basically a cello concerto with violin and piano,” where the cello sin...
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Program Notes: Ravel’s Daphnis and Chloe
Charles T. Griffes’ The Pleasure Dome of Kubla Khan is an American masterpiece that captures the dreamy quality of Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem. Then comes a French masterpiece, Ravel’s Piano Concerto, a lighth...
Program Notes: Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 21
Enjoy Siegfried’s Rhine Journey, a digestible nugget from Wagner’s massive Ring of the Nibelung. This arrangement by Engelbert Humperdinck preserves the work’s atmosphere, the awakening at dawn and the love themes of Brünnhilde and Siegf...
Program Notes: Mozart & Handel
This Masterworks program celebrates Baroque and beyond with music by Handel, Haydn and Mozart. Handel’s Water Music — commissioned for King George’s 1717 Thames celebration — sparkles with regal pomp, innovative use of horns and vibran...
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Program Notes: Beethoven & Bernstein
Experience two monumental works that bridge centuries. Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy, a dazzling precursor to his Ode to Joy, blends virtuosic piano, orchestra and chorus in a joyful, triumphant finale that echoes through his
Program Notes: Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto
Experience the emotional sweep of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto, a fiery showcase of virtuosity and lyricism once panned by critics but now cherished as one of the greatest violin concertos ever written. From its bold opening to the fo...
Program Notes: Strauss’ An Alpine Symphony
Explore three lush, evocative works that celebrate nature and the power of storytelling through music. Start with a day-long mountain hike in Richard Strauss’ An Alpine Symphony, a grand tone poem with a massive orchestra — including w...
Program Notes: Pictures at an Exhibition
Art comes to life. The great orchestra showpiece Pictures at an Exhibition started out as an extended piano suite in 10 movements by Mussorgsky. That is until a half-century later, when Maurice Ravel had the good sense to see its true ...
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Program Notes: Vivaldi's The Four Seasons
Is it possible to find someone who cannot hum a bit of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons -- arguably one of the most enduring works of all time? Vivaldi presents a musical travelogueof spring, summer, autumn and winter, complete with bird son...
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Program Notes: Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet
This program spotlights an unusual instrument for a classical program: the saxophone. For Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet, the tenor saxophone makes a rare appearance in a symphony orchestra with the theme representing Juliet. Of Prokofie...
Program Notes: Beethoven’s Violin Concerto
Beethoven composed his Violin Concerto in 1806, when he was deaf. From the onset, the music unfolds with a sense of spaciousness, its character more graceful than frenetic. This work is not about power and bravura but poise and spiritu...
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Program Notes: Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1
For some listeners, Tchaikovsky’s evergreen Piano Concerto No. 1 is overplayed and overwrought. For others, it never fails to thrill with its embraceable tunes and striking rhythmic flourish. No, Tchaikovsky wasn’t subtle, and this pie...
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Program Notes: Debussy's La Mer
A concert immersed in the sea. It opens with Garth Neustadter’s Seaborne, a film with stunning images of the sea set to music, performed by the Percussion Collective. The work explores water from the air, surface and underwater vantage...
Program Notes: Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations
Variations on a Rococo Theme is the closest Tchaikovsky ever came to writing a cello concerto. Scored for a reduced orchestra, the Variations assume a chamber-like texture and balance the sweetness of the classical style with ...
Program Notes: Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto
Felix Mendelssohn’s best-loved work has to be his radiant Violin Concerto. It is loaded with good tunes. In particular is the finale, a puckish movement full of sparkle and bravado. One of the most significant African-American composer...
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Program Notes: Brahms' Symphony No. 2
Brahms’ idyllic Symphony No. 2 radiates warmth – until an explosion of brass announces one of the most exciting endings in music. In Grieg’s impassioned Piano Concerto, the opening rumble of timpani sends the piano on a flouri...
Program Notes: Beethoven's Symphony No. 5
The concert pairs two of the most famous openings in music: Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 and Richard Strauss’ Also sprach Zarathustra (Theme from 2001: A Space Odyssey). In Beethoven’s Fifth, it’s up to you, th...
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