Salt Lake City – The rich timbre of Hayden’s cello concerto and the majestic beauty of Rachmaninoff’s second symphony will fill the Tabernacle at the Orchestra at Temple Square’s annual fall concert on Friday and Saturday, October 18-19, at 7:30 p.m. This year’s special guest is Daniel Gaisford, a renowned American cellist.
The concert, “An Austrian Cello Concerto and a Russian Symphony,” will be directed by Igor Gruppman, conductor of the Orchestra at Temple Square. The concert will also mark Igor Gruppman’s 10th anniversary conducting the Orchestra. Gaisford will take the lead solo in Haydn’s Cello Concert no. 1, and for the second half of the evening the orchestra will perform Rachmaninoff’s Symphony no. 2 in E Minor.
Hailed by The New York Times as “transfixing” and The Philadelphia Inquirer as “remarkable,” Gaisford has firmly established himself as one of the most gifted cellists of his generation. As a soloist, he has appeared with orchestras throughout the United States and Canada, among them the major orchestras of Saint Louis, Seattle, Toronto and Montreal, under the direction of conductors such as Robert Spano, David Zinman and Hermann Michael.
Gaisford’s featured performance of the evening, Franz Josef Haydn’s Cello Concerto no. 1 was written in the mid-1760s for Joseph Wiegl, principal cellist in Haydn’s Esterhzy orchestra. It was considered lost until discovered in 1961 in the national museum in Prague. Since its 20th-century premiere, the concerto has become a staple of the cello repertoire and has been recorded by many famous artists, including Yo-Yo Ma and Mstislav Rostropovich.
Rachmaninoff’s Symphony no. 2 in E Minor was premiered in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1908 with the composer himself conducting to much critical acclaim. This well-known and well-loved work is in four movements and scored for a large orchestra. It follows the Russian symphonic tradition, which emphasizes a strong central motif and a beautiful flow of melody throughout the piece.
Free tickets for the concert will be available beginning Tuesday, September 17, at 10 a.m. or by calling 801-570-0080. Admission to this event is limited to those ages eight and older.
Igor Gruppman enjoys a career as a violin soloist, conductor, concertmaster and chamber musician and has appeared in the great European capitals and in the major cities of North America, Israel and New Zealand. He has been a frequent guest with such orchestras as the London Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Philharmonic and has worked with conductors Sir Georg Solti, Mstislav Rostropovich, Sir Colin Davis, Christoph Eschenbach and Bernard Haitink. In addition to his duties with the Orchestra at Temple Square, he is currently concertmaster of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra.
The Orchestra at Temple Square was formed in 1999, under the direction of Gordon B. Hinckley, then President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Its charter as an all-volunteer musical organization is to accompany the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and to perform in two concerts of its own each year. For more information about the orchestra, visit mormontabernaclechoir.org/about/orchestra.
