Saturday, February 8, 2025 • 7:30 p.m.
Northshore Concert Hall (15500 Simonds Rd NE, Kenmore)
Harmonia Orchestra
William White, conductor
Katherine Goforth, tenor
Program
Carl Maria von Weber (1786–1826)
Overture to Oberon
Gustav Mahler (1860–1911)
selections from Des Knaben Wunderhorn
— intermission —
Dmitri Shostakovich (1906–1975)
Symphony No. 5 in D minor, Op. 26
About the Concert
Gustav Mahler was so enchanted by The Boy’s Magic Horn, a collection of Romantic German folk poems, that he set 14 of them for voice and orchestra , incorporating some into his early symphonies. The innocence of childhood in these songs stands in contrast to the innocence of a guileless artist, Dmitri Shostakovich, whose symphonies were deeply influenced by those of Mahler. Shostakovich’s multi-layered fifth symphony publicly served as a form of atonement to the Soviet government, which had found him guilty of artistic sins.
About the Soloist
American vocalist Katherine Goforth shares the “thrilling tenor power” (Opera News) of her “noble, colorful and iridescent vocal sound” (Magazin Klassik) in vivid character portraits and heartfelt performances that “[do] not hold back” (The New York Times). Katherine is the recipient of Washington National Opera’s inaugural True Voice Award for transgender and non-binary singers and the Career Advancement Award from the fourth Dallas Symphony Orchestra Women in Classical Music Symposium. Based in Portland, she has appeared extensively as a soloist with Pacific Northwest-based arts organizations, including Portland Opera, Bozeman Symphony, Walla Walla Symphony, Yakima Symphony, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Opera Bend, Opera Theater Oregon, Sound Salon, Artists Repertory Theatre, Fuse Theatre Ensemble and Pink Martini. Katherine was a member of the International Opera Studio of Oper Köln, received her Bachelor’s degree from St. Olaf College, her Master’s degree from the Juilliard School, and attended the Franz-Schubert-Institut, Britten Pears Young Artist Programme, Heidelberger Frühling Liedakademie, Georg Solti Accademia, and Boston Wagner Institute.
- Learn more: katherinegoforth.com
Program Notes
Dmitri Shostakovich
Symphony No. 5 in D minor, Op. 26
Shostakovich was born September 25, 1906 in St. Petersburg, and died in Moscow on August 9, 1975. He composed his fifth symphony between April 18 and July 20, 1937, in St. Petersburg (then called Leningrad), where the first performance was given on November 21 of the same year under the direction of Yevgeni Mravinsky. The work is scored for 2 flutes, piccolo, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, E♭ clarinet, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani; snare drum, bass drum, cymbals, triangle, tam-tam, glockenspiel, xylophone, piano (doubling celesta) harp and strings.
Shostakovich was forced to “voluntarily” withdraw his fourth symphony by the Soviet authorities after a single rehearsal; the fifth symphony is the composer’s response to that act, a work that — on the surface — told the authorities what they wanted to hear. It opens with an arresting dotted rhythm that will pervade the first movement, which unfolds as a series of interrelated episodes that alternate tragedy and anguish with moments of serene beauty. The third movement will have a similar plan, so between the two Shostakovich inserts a scherzo that is equal parts Cossack dance and Mahlerian ländler, with biting harmonies and grotesque humor emphasized by the occasional insertion of an extra beat into the 3/4 meter. After the slow third movement dispenses with the brass entirely, emphasizing strings (the violins divided into three sections instead of the usual two) and episodes for solo woodwinds and horn, the brass come roaring back in the finale, a D-minor march that begins slowly but soon accelerates. After a slower central episode, timpani leads into a reprise of the march theme, resulting in a D major finale that was for many years believed to be a conclusion of genuine celebration. But in his 1979 memoir, Testament, Shostakovich relates that the rejoicing is forced, “as if someone is beating you with a stick and saying, ‘Your business is rejoicing, your business is rejoicing.’ ”