Monterey Symphony Concert 4, Sound Waves

Jung-Ho Pak guest conducts the fourth concert of the season with works by Tan Dun, Shostakovich, and Alan Hovhaness. Revolutionary experimental composer Tan Dun transposes the sounds of water – at play and at work – into the textures of his music, most literally in Water Concerto for water percussion and orchestra.

The symphonic poem And God Created Great Whales by Alan Hovhaness – commissioned in 1970 by the New York Philharmonic – features prerecorded humpback whale vocalizations, and was credited with early efforts to save whales from extinction. To celebrate the Soviet victory over Germany, Dmitri Shostakovich was commissioned to write Symphony No. 9, which, Leonard Bernstein described as a series of musical jokes (including purposeful mistakes)…completing a boisterous, 99.99% organic, and exciting concert program.