Cinematic symphonics on GTMF program this weekend – JH News&Guide
Had Beethoven been born in a different era, he might have written his “Pastoral” Symphony No. 6 (1808) for a movie.
“It’s very descriptive,” violinist Madeline Adkins said. “There are all kinds of colorful, descriptive music.”
Of course, Ludwig’s years straddled the turn of the 19th century, not the 20th. But while he missed the boat to Hollywood, Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897-1957) arrived right on time. His scores for hits like “Captain Blood” and “The Sea Wolf” allowed him to later rekindle his career as a composer of concert music, which had been interrupted by his escape from the rising Nazi tide and his emigration to the U.S.
This weekend, the Grand Teton Music Festival Orchestra, under the baton of Music Director Sir Donald Runnicles, will perform Korngold’s Violin Concerto (1945), featuring Adkins, paired with Beethoven’s Sixth. Selections for English composer John Berry’s scores from “Out of Africa” and “Dances with Wolves” start each night in Jackson Hole High School’s auditorium — the Festival’s temporary digs while its Walk Festival Hall in Teton Village undergoes renovations.
Adkins, one of GTMF’s concertmasters since 2018, has held the same title in the Utah Symphony since 2016 and, before that, with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. She also has appeared as guest concertmaster in Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Honk Kong, Houston, Sao Paulo and across Europe.
The youngest of eight children born to musicologists on the faculty of the University of North Texas, Adkins’ music career was practically a foregone conclusion.
“It was sort of expected that you would play an instrument,” she said last week. “Our parents felt strongly that we were meant to be musicians, and many of us did.”
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