The famed conductor will not only delve into the story of Sibelius’ Symphony, but also leads orchestra in modern, genre-defying piece by Mason Bates
If there were a first-time orchestra experience to wow and impress a broad spectrum of audience members, it’s this Saturday evening’s performance in Breckenridge.
Highly acclaimed guest conductor Robert Moody leads The National Repertory Orchestra through a program climaxing with one of the world’s most popular classical works – Symphony No. 5 by Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. Regular orchestra patrons are guaranteed to be delighted, but the performance also stands to enchant newcomers who aren’t classical music aficionados.
Moody proudly admits he has a reputation for an “outside-of-the-box” programming style. Saturday’s show kicks off with “Liquid Interface,” a four-movement, electronica-oriented piece written by Grammy-nominated composer Mason Bates, who is famous for embracing multiple genres of music and happens to be Moody’s good friend.
“Mason Bates is the perfect introduction into a live orchestral experience,” says Moody, who is the long-time Music Director of both the Arizona Musicfest and The Memphis Symphony Orchestra as well as newly named Music Director of the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra. “There is a decent amount of lounge trip hop in this piece. The first movement is ‘Glacier Calving,’ and he actually samples Antarctic sounds of glaciers calving. The music starts to dance in a sort of hip hop, techno way. There’s a great amount of jazz in the third movement, ‘Crescent City.’ Connected to Hurricane Katrina, it has one of the biggest forays made into electronica, quite aggressively creating a hurricane That’s exactly what people will hear.”
Moody has known Bates since the composer was 15 and later served as a groomsman in Bates’ wedding. He half-jokingly considers himself the composer’s muse because Bates often calls him to talk through composition concepts. Moody was the first conductor to commission work by the composer, who happens to moonlights as a DJ (under the alias DJ Masonic) around his hometown of San Francisco.
“His work is an amazing entrée into the possibilities of musical form,” Moody says. “There’s a reason why he’s one of the most popular composers of our time.”
Dovetailing into the NRO’s 2024 summer theme, Elements of Nature, Sibelius’ Symphony No. 5 also shares broad audience appeal, particularly its manifestation of imagery.
“Sibelius was taking a walk by a lake when he saw 16 swans lift off and fly above him. He thought it was the most inspiring sight in nature,” Moody says, adding that he has a personal connection with the piece tying into a first opportunity to perform it around his 50th birthday.
“I was in a car ride with another conductor and he said, ‘have you conducted Sibelius 5?’ I said, not yet. He said, ‘you have to hear this,’ and played the finale. Just sitting there listening in the car, I was smitten. Then I did what I always do with certain works; I became a stalker for a while. I found out that Sibelius was commissioned by the Finnish government to write Symphony 5 for his 50th birthday.”
Making a point during performances to interact with audiences, Moody, who launched his conducting career in Breckenridge in 1994 as Assistant Conductor to NRO Music Director Laureate Carl Topilow, will read excerpts from Sibelius’ diary about the composer’s inspiration for the symphony.
“He talks about the swans circling above him before flying away,” Moody says. “You hear it in the piece – what can only be these grand wings going up and down, these elegant, noble wings of swans taking the breeze. The symphony ends in a most unusual way. He places 15 seconds of silence between the last five chords. I believe that was his big nod to 50 – a chord for every decade.”
Robert Moody Conducts Sibelius – and more – at 6 p.m. this Saturday, Aug. 3 at The Riverwalk Center in Breckenridge. Tickets start at $20 for adults and $5 for children.
PHOTO: Robert Moody conducts the NRO in 2023. Photo by Elaine Collins.