As we closed our four semi-staged performances of Krasa’s Brundibar this past weekend (see photos below), someone asked how I recover from the high of performances.

Interesting question.

The way I look at it is that a Music Director’s brain seems to be constantly chewing on many things at the same time. The performance at hand, what is coming up, what is being planned for future seasons, administrative decisions, how the orchestra is holding up with the week after week progress of programs, etc.  I don’t know if I’m speaking for my fellow Music Directors? If they have as much going on as I do, I imagine it is so.

It has been an amazing opening five weeks of a season. The orchestra goes on its first vacation week next week, and I think they will need it after all the roads we’ve “traveled” in such a short time. They have proven to be an astonishingly resilient group, putting forward tremendous energy for a huge variety of music.

Before we take that first vacation week however, there is a charming and dramatic program yet to be played as well as our Annual Fundraising Gala with Donna Summer.

The Classics program is all about the drama that unfolds in music from the Classical period. Some of it is humorous but, most of all, I think it is remarkable in its honest portrayal of human emotion.

Last night, my Grandfather passed away after a brief illness, and I was reminded again how human beings continue to enjoy life, toil through it and experience the same needs, hopes and desires from generation to generation. So it is with the music we play this week and every week for that matter. Haydn and Mozart were geniuses, but they lived life as we do, playing, laughing, crying and dying. The basic elements of being a human being haven’t changed even though the environment in which we act out the part changes from day to day.

So why play their music as if it must be handled with white gloves and kept dust-free?!

Let’s celebrate the swings of emotion and the fact that they could harness some part of their soul and leave that record for us to perform and marvel at.

My motto as Music Director is “Variety is Key.” We’ve enjoyed costumed characters for The Music Man and Brundibar, visits by some of the most distinguished artists living today and works never heard on this side of the Atlantic. This week’s element of variety is that we return to the core experience of witnessing an orchestra lovingly render some of the most cherished music of all time. Just us onstage - performing for you.

Photo slideshow from Brundibar rehearsal (click images to enlarge):

Cast of Brundibar with Ella Weissberger before our Sunday matinee

A character compilation photo after I narrated Peter and the Wolf today! It wasn't exactly a duck, but the inflatable pool chick was the best I could find since all of the pool shops in town are not stocking such things during the off-season!

This is what it’s all about! This week I will be conducting four performances of works that perfectly illustrate what it is that makes my musical heart tick.

The opening of the program is Hans Krasa’s Brunidbar, a 30-minute children’s opera originally written briefly before Krasa was taken by the Nazis to the transit “artist refuge” Terezin, and then later to Auschwitz, where he perished alongside some of the most notable musical talents of the 20th century.

I chose this as the opening work of our Rediscovered Masters series at the Phoenix Symphony because it is a simple but completely heartfelt expression of human survival and sense of humor. It makes me cry every time I think of the icing on this cake — we are joined by one of the only surviving original cast members from Terezin, Ella Weissberger, the original “Cat.”  She will join our cast on stage for the finale, singing in Czech, the language she sang in over 55 performances seven decades ago.

The premiere on the program is by Mieczysław Weinberg, his Rhapsody on Moldavian Themes. This will be the North American premiere. I’ve already scheduled it with another US orchestra to be announced shortly, and it is a brilliant barnburner. When I have violinists who play a million notes tell me they could play this piece all day, I’m a very happy Music Director!

Keep your eyes and ears open for Weinberg. His music will become standard repertory. A very exciting complete works series is in progress, recorded by the Gothenburg (Sweden) Symphony. (Damn, they got to it first!)

Finally, a return to the piece I’ve conducted more than any other in my life, Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet. After dozens of performances of the full ballet at the Zurich Opera in the late '90s, this is my first time with the official Suites. Ok, it’s the plum for the audience, but it’s also an acknowledgement of the profound relationship Weinberg had with Shostakovich and Prokofiev by extension. I also love that we bookend the concert with two story works.

New and old, a bit of thematic acknowledgement where appropriate, and extremely good music presented in an interesting way. That’s what makes my musical heart leap for joy!