Mysterious Mountain
16th Nov 2006, 14:35 GMT
No it's not a theme park ride - unless you're talking music, of course. Armenian American composer Alan Hovhannes wrote his Symphony No. 2 as a tribute to the "whole idea of mountains" — hence the subtitle "Mysterious Mountain." We'll hear it tonight from the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra under Jesus Lopez-Cobos. Other mountains are "heard" as well this evening: Pierre Monteaux leads the San Francisco Symphony in Vincent D'Indy's "Symphony on a French Mountain Air," followed by Yo-Yo Ma and Edgar Meyer in the traditional Chinese melody "Mido Mountain." Music for winds is heard in flutist (and composer) Valerie Coleman's Concerto for Wind Quintet (featuring her group the Imani Winds); we'll also hear J.S. Bach's Third Cello Suite from Ralph Kirshbaum. The evening is capped off by another big symphony, Dvorak's Eighth; Wolfgang Sawallisch conducts the Philadelphia Orchestra.