In Sunday’s (9/14) Albuquerque Journal, Kathleen Robert previews the opening concert of the Santa Fe Symphony’s 31st season, scheduled for that afternoon. Titled “Showcase of the Stars” and led by guest conductor Kevin Rhodes, it consists of Brahms’s Double Concerto with violinist Mark Kaplan and cellist Clancy Newman; two Hungarian-themed pieces, Vittorio Monti’s “Czárdás” and David Popper’s “Hungarian Rhapsody”; Offenbach’s Overture to “Orpheus in the Underworld”; and the Suite from “Sleeping Beauty” by Tchaikovsky. Rhodes, speaking with the reporter from his home in western Massachusetts, discusses works on the program including the Brahms, which he “called almost operatic. ‘Instead of the traditional one soloist, this is the really huge operatic duet for instruments [Brahms] would have written if he’d written an opera,’ he said.” Rhodes is music director of the Springfield (Mass.) Symphony Orchestra, Michigan’s Traverse Symphony Orchestra, and the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra of Boston. “His professional life began in Albuquerque, where he conducted what was then the Albuquerque Civic Light Opera and taught piano at the University of New Mexico. ‘It was my first job out of school,’ he said. ‘My wife and I … can’t wait to get back to the Frontier and have a cinnamon roll.’ ”
Posted September 15, 2014
