This season's Fall concerts featured two world premieres and two renowned works from the late 19th and mid-20th centuries.
“Take the path less traveled and discover repertoire that moves you from dreams and meditations to joy and exuberance.”
Matt CurleeDecay No. 3 (World premiere, commissioned for NCO) (2024)
Pierre FontaineThree Dances for Orchestra (World premiere) (2024)
Claude DebussyPrelude to the Afternoon of a Faun
Dmitri Shostakovich Symphony No. 6
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NCO’s 2025-26 season opened with its Fall concerts, "Uncharted Journey" -- two world premieres and two iconic works of the late 19th century and mid-20th century.
“Three Dances for Orchestra” by Pierre Fontaine (a winner of our “call for scores”) is an homage to the composers of La belle epoque, mixing baroque European dances and modern musical techniques. Learn more about Pierre Fontaine here.
Matt Curlee’s “Decay No. 3” was commissioned for NCO and is a meditation on the frailty of memories and the passage of time. Learn more about Matt Curlee here.
NCO also performed Debussy’s “Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun”, an alluring call beckoning the listener with hushed, captivating intensity.
This program was anchored by Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 6, created between and outside the political influences that defined his 5th and 7th symphonies. Alternately melancholy in its Largo passages, and then suddenly drunk, happy and lightning fast, it follows no standard symphonic form, theme or structure. It is Shostakovich unleashed – which he rarely was.
Conducted by Sara Jobin, Eric R. Stewart, and Mark Powell