GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL (1685-1759) Messiah, HWV 56 (1741) George Frideric Handel was born on February 23, 1685, in Halle, Duchy of Magdeburg, Brandenburg-Prussia and died on April 14, 1759, in London, England. Messiah was first performed on April 13, 1742, in Dublin, conducted by the composer. Spanning fifty-three movements in three massive parts, Handel's Messiah earns its title in sheer musical weight. The score numbers 280 pages, and a complete set of performance parts easily surpasses 75 pounds of paper. A complete performance of the life and death of Jesus of Nazareth can last 140 minutes ..read more

Hawaiʻi Aloha (Arranged By Michael-Thomas Foumai) Known as Makua Laiana, Revered Lorenzo Lyons was born on April 18, 1807 in Colrain, Massachusetts and on July 16, 1832, he arrived in Hawaiʻi Island aboard the Averick, a whaling ship, as party to the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions in the Fifth Company of Protestant Missionaries. Lyons would be become a prolific writer and translator of Hawaiian language hymns, with several hundred to his name. In the article The Gospel Roots of “Hawaiʻi Aloha,” Ralph Thomas Kam writes, “Lyons has been called the ʻDr. Watts of Hawaiʻi,ʻ” c ..read more

Hamlet (Overture-Fantasia), Op. 67 (1888), 18 minutes The words of William Shakespeare have had a powerful effect on composers. The Bard’s plays have inspired many to create songs, symphonies, ballets and operas; among them, Brahms, Verdi, Rossini, Mendelssohn, Debussy, Sibelius, Vaughan Williams, Berlioz, Dvořák, Smetana, Elgar, Prokofiev, Stravinsky, Britten, Barber, the list goes on. Tchaikovsky was no exception devoting a triptych of symphonic overtures and tone-poem fantasies based on Romeo and Juliet (1869), The Tempest (1873) and Hamlet (1888). Tchaikovsky’s Hamlet, an overture-fantasia ..read more

Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Op.36 (1877), 42 minutes “You asked me whether there is a definite programme to this symphony? Usually when this question is put to me about a symphonic work my answer is: none! […] In our symphony there is a programme, i.e. it is possible to express in words what it is trying to say, and to you, and only to you, I am able and willing to explain the meaning both of the whole and of the separate movements.” These are the words of Tchaikovsky, in a letter Nadezhda Filaretovna von Meck, disclosing in programmatic detail, the inner workings of hi ..read more

A Sheraton Starlight Series Concert Recorded May 14-16, 2021 at the Waikiki Shell Watch the performances: Mozart, Overture to La Clemenza di Tito: https://fb.watch/8bIUjst9QV/ Mozart, Clarinet Concerto: https://fb.watch/8bIV0-PSN2/ Foumai, Becoming Beethoven: https://fb.watch/8bIWIVnN5V/ Beethoven, Symphony No. 8: https://fb.watch/8bITyD33xe/ Read the official program notes: Mozart, Overture to La Clemenza di Tito: https://www.myhso.org/news/overture-to-la-clemenza-di-tito Mozart, Clarinet Concerto: https://www.myhso.org/news/mozarts-clarinet-concerto Foumai, Becoming Beethoven ..read more

Concerto for Clarinet, K. 622, A Major (1791), 5 minutes Premiered on October 16, 1791, in Prague with soloist Anton Stadler. Scored for two flutes, two bassoons, two horns, strings, and solo clarinet. Much focus is given to the works composed in the last year of life. Questions of mortality have a way of seeping into the musical fabric of the final pieces of many composers to come after Mozart, including Tchaikovsky's Sixth Symphony, Mahler's Ninth Symphony, and most recently with the Sixth Symphony of American composer Christopher Rouse. In his final 35th year of life, 1791 was prolific and ..read more

Symphony No. 8 in F major, op.93 (1812), 26 minutes Premiered in Vienna on February 27, 1814. Scored for two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, timpani, and strings. The Eighth Symphony is often hidden in the shadows cast by the famous 40-minute Seventh Symphony and the final 70-minute Ninth Symphony. The 26-minute running time naturally gives the Eighth a diminished stature, but it packs in concentrated form the same energy, craft, and imagination of its mammoth odd-numbered siblings. Beethoven embraced the challenge of composing two symphonies simultaneo ..read more

WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756-1791) Overture to La Clemenza di Tito, K. 621 (1791), 5 minutes Premiered on September 6, 1791, in Prague. Scored for two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, timpani, and strings. Composed in the year of his death of 1791, Mozart's La Clemenza di Tito (The Clemency of Titus) is set in Rome 80 CE and surrounds a trio of characters: Titus the emperor, Sesto his loyal friend, and Vitellia, daughter of the former emperor with ambitions to be the empress. When Titus bypasses Vitellia, she plots his assassination with the help of Ses ..read more

The Telling Rooms (2018), 12 minutes I. The Happiest Color II. Dressed in Red II. Ink Wash The Telling Rooms was first performed by the Portland Symphony Orchestra conducted by Eckart Preu on January 27, 2019 in Portland, Maine. The work is scored for 2 flutes and piccolo, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets and bass clarinet, 2 bassoons and contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, various percussion, harp and strings. As a noun, Merriam-Webster’s dictionary provides “color” with fifteen definitions, from its premiere entry as a phenomenon of light, to the pigmentation of skin, and to ..read more

Rat Race! (2007, rev. 2008, 2010, 2011, 2021), 7 minutes Rat Race! was first performed by the Sioux City Symphony conducted by Ryan Haskins, on February 18, 2012 in Sioux City, Iowa. The score calls for flute and 2 piccolos, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, various percussion, harp and strings. Rat Race! is a homage to the Hollywood blockbuster soundtrack and the cartoons of Tom and Jerry. This high pursuit overture pulls every trick of the trade for the action summer showstopper and animated fantasy score. As the title suggests, this musi ..read more