Akiko Fujimoto, became music director of the Mid-Texas Symphony in 2019, and she’s still discovering great things about the orchestra.
Take the concert they performed on Nov. 5, 2023. The program included Mozart’s “Turkish” violin concerto, and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 2. When Fujimoto started rehearsing the ensemble—the day before the performance—she heard something amazing.
“I said, ‘wow, it sounds like Tchaikovsky wrote it for you guys,’” Fujimoto told TPR during an in-studio follow-up to the show. “There was a good match. A lot of people in the orchestra told me this was the first time they played this particular symphony. So that's always nice, when there's a match made in heaven between an orchestra and a piece, because I think every orchestra is a little bit unique and different in their personality.”
The Tchaikovsky symphony for years was known as the “Little Russian,” but it makes use of a Ukrainian theme, so the Mid-Texas Symphony chose to label it on the program (as many other orchestras are doing now) as the “Ukrainian” symphony by Tchaikovsky.
“Ukraine and Russia share a lot of the same folk material,” Fujimoto said. “But since the onset of the war in Ukraine, there was a movement to go ahead and just start calling the symphony ‘Ukrainian,’ because Tchaikovsky … was working on this symphony when he was summering in Ukraine, and he heard the household workers singing these folk songs. He loved them so much he put them in his symphony.”
Fujimoto said programming the symphony was a way to turn it around in the public’s eyes and ears.
“It's very sad that when the war broke out, there was a lot of anti-Tchaikovsky sentiment, and people are afraid to program Tchaikovsky. And I thought this is a great opportunity to celebrate Tchaikovsky's love for Ukraine, despite what people might assume, and also celebrate Ukraine's independence and its unique culture.”
Also on the program is Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5, influenced by Turkish folk music. For the performance, San Antonio native Nancy Zhou returns to solo.
Hear the entire concert by using the audio player at the top of this page.
Program:
- Key/Scott: The Star-Spangled Banner
- Mozart: Violin Concerto No. 5, K. 219, A major (Turkish)
- Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 2, Op. 17, C minor (Ukrainian)
