Let the game (and the season) begin

(Pictured: ASO’s principal violist, Kara Poorbaugh, who performs Vaughan Williams’ “Flos Campi” on April 20, 2013. Photo by Michael Morel)

On the heels of the Asheville Symphony Orchestra’s recent announcement of its 2012-2013 season, Music Director Daniel Meyer will throw the first pitch at the Asheville Tourists game on Wednesday, Aug. 1.

According to an ASO press release, “… Meyer will be trading in his baton for a baseball to throw out the first pitch … . Come out … to support your local team and your maestro as the Tourists take on the Lexington Legends at McCormick Field.” The energetic, boisterous conductor leads his eighth season with ASO this year. Since taking his position in 2004, Meyer has increased ASO’s community presence, with local in-school performances and other educational programs, as well as the now-annual Symphony in the Park concerts on Labor Day. This year, the free pops concert takes place at 7 p.m. on Sept. 3.

Meyer’s athletic foray brings to mind another example of sports-meets-classical-music: Peter Schickele’ play-by-play of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. Schickele (aka P.D.Q. Bach) could be considered the Weird Al Yankovic of classical music. The satirist/musicologist has produced many parody compositions under the P.D.Q. moniker, including “A Little Nightmare Music,” “The Short-Tempered Clavier” and “Oedipus Tex.”

Here is ASO’s 2012-2013 Masterworks program.

2012-2013 Masterworks Concerts
All Masterworks concerts take place in Thomas Wolfe Auditorium on Saturdays at 8:00 pm.

MW1  •  Sept. 15
Opening Night: “Symphonie fantastique” with soloist Chee-Yun on violin
Falla – “Ritual Fire Dance”
Glazunov -  Violin Concerto in A minor, Op. 82

Berlioz – “Symphonie fantastique”

MW2  •  Oct. 13
Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 2 with Valentina Lisitsa on piano
Takemitsu – “Funeral Music” from Black Rain
Strauss – “Death and Transfiguration”
Brahms – Piano Concerto No. 2

MW3  •  Nov. 17
Rachmaninoff’s Paganini Variations with Van Cliburn Medalist Joyce Yang on piano
Bizet – “L’Arlésienne” Suite No. 1
Rachmaninoff – “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini”
Beethoven – Symphony No. 4

MW4  •  Feb. 9, 2013
Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto with Tchaikovsky Competition Winner Daniil Trifonov on piano
Barber – Adagio for Strings
Franck – “Psyché”
Tchaikovsky – Piano Concerto No. 1

MW5  •  March 16, 2013
The American Four Seasons with Tim Fain on violin
Handel – Water Music Suite No. 2 in D Major
Glass – Violin Concerto No. 2, “The American Four Seasons”
Copland – Three Latin American Sketches
Bach – Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F

MW6  •  April 20, 2013
Mozart’s Requiem with Kara Poorbaugh on viola, the Asheville Symphony Chorus and the WCU Concert Choir, directed by
 Michael Lancaster
Pärt – Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten
Vaughan Williams – Flos Campi
Mozart – Requiem Mass in D Minor

MW7  •  May 11, 2013
Rite of Spring with Joshua Roman on cello
Fauré – Pavane
Saint-Saëns – Cello Concerto No. 1
Stravinsky – The Rite of Spring

For tickets, other 2012-2013 concerts and other ASO information, visit http://www.ashevillesymphony.org.