Curtis Symphony Orchestra Presents “Osmo Conducts Bartók” on Jan. 25
The Curtis Symphony Orchestra presents the second concert of its 2025–26 series on Sunday, January 25, at 3:00 p.m. in Marian Anderson Hall, Kimmel Center, featuring Béla Bartók’s virtuosic Concerto for Orchestra, performed under the baton of Finnish conductor Osmo Vänskä. This dynamic program also features the world premiere of a new concerto for Imani Winds and orchestra by David Serkin Ludwig (Composition ’01)—as well as a piece by Missy Mazzoli, led by Rita E. Hauser Conducting Fellow Yiran Zhao, and a meditative work by composer-conductor Henry Dorn.
The program opens with Missy Mazzoli’s Sinfonia (for Orbiting Spheres), conducted by Ms. Zhao. A swirling, celestial work, this 12-minute piece was inspired by planetary motion and the roiling drone of the medieval stringed instrument, the hurdy-gurdy. Mazzoli composed it in the shape of a solar system, featuring a collection of rococo loops that twist around each other within a larger orbit. Commissioned in 2013 by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, this piece churns and roils, transforming the ensemble into a makeshift hurdy-gurdy that is flung recklessly into space.
Henry Dorn’s powerful Transitions follows—a deeply personal tone poem about loss, transformation, and resilience. Written as a reflection on caring for his mother during her final days, Dorn addresses the realities of cancer and caregiving with clarity and intensity. He structures the piece around dense, driving textures, including a recurring fugal idea that reflects the illness’s progression, alongside mechanical gestures inspired by hospital sounds and a breath-like rising melody. The work concludes with a final return of the opening material, culminating in a prominent horn statement—an intentional reference to his mother, who played the horn—serving as the piece’s closing tribute.
The concert continues with the world premiere of David Serkin Ludwig’s A Book of Forgotten Creatures, performed by Grammy Award-winning quintet and Curtis faculty Imani Winds. Narrated by Star Trek actor John de Lancie, the work unfolds in five movements—Basilosaurus, Paraceratherium, Smilodon, Teratornis, and Eohippus—each inspired by a prehistoric animal. Through this approach, Ludwig, a Curtis alumnus and former faculty member who served as head of the composition department, draws on both musical and literary storytelling.
“Storytelling is the thread that runs through everything I write,” says Ludwig. “I’m interested in telling stories through music that provoke thought in the listener. In A Book of Forgotten Creatures, I’m hoping to capture the fantastical qualities of these prehistoric animals in the sounds and characters of the music, but there’s a subtext. On the surface, it’s like Carnival of the Animals, but underneath it’‘s about the necessity of change and the recognition that there is always a choice.”
Béla Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra concludes the program. Commissioned in 1943 by Serge Koussevitzky, conductor of the Boston Symphony, in memory of his late wife, the five-movement masterwork blends folk-inspired melodies with modernist harmonies, treating each section of the ensemble as a virtuosic soloist. Bartók composed the work during a period of profound personal hardship, writing it in just two months while residing at a New York sanatorium, where he was being treated for leukemia after fleeing Hungary to escape the Nazi regime.
Bartók described the concerto’s trajectory as a gradual progression—from the severity of the opening movement and the “lugubrious death-song” of the third, through the levity of the second, toward the life-affirming energy of the finale. One of his final completed works, the Concerto for Orchestra was premiered in 1944. Bartók died the following year, less than twelve months after its debut.
Tickets
Single tickets for “Osmo Conducts Bartók” at Marian Anderson Hall start at $28 and are available through curtis.edu. Curtis’ flexible Choose Your Own subscription option offers 25% off single ticket prices when purchasing tickets to two or more performances. To order a subscription, visit curtis.edu/subscribe, call (215) 893-7902, or email tickets@curtis.edu. To learn more about performances in Curtis’ 2025–26 season, including the Curtis Opera Theatre, Curtis New Music Ensemble concerts, Curtis Recital Series, and more, visit curtis.edu/calendar.
About the Curtis Institute of Music
At Curtis, the world’s great young musicians develop into exceptional artists, creators, and innovators. With a tuition-free foundation, Curtis is a unique environment for teaching and learning. A small school by design, students realize their artistic potential through intensive, individualized study with the most renowned, sought-after faculty. Animated by a learn-by-doing philosophy, Curtis students share their music with audiences through more than 100 performances each year, including solo and chamber recitals, orchestral concerts, and opera—all free or at an affordable cost—offering audiences unique opportunities to participate in pivotal moments in these young musicians’ careers. Curtis students experience a close connection to the greatest artists and organizations in classical music, and innovative initiatives that integrate new technologies and encourage entrepreneurship—all within an historic campus in the heart of culturally rich Philadelphia. In this diverse, collaborative community, Curtis’ extraordinary artists challenge, support, and inspire one another—continuing an unparalleled legacy of musicians who have led, and will lead, classical music into a thriving, equitable, and multidimensional future. Learn more at curtis.edu.
