U.S. premiere, arias by Rossini and Puccini, and Beethoven’s countryside

By Peter Alexander March 26 at 5:10 p.m.

The composer Peter Drew came late to a musical career.

After some inconclusive experiences in music as a youngster, he worked a succession of jobs including taxi driver and cruise-ship host and eventually settled in as a teacher. Feeling something was missing, he bought a clarinet and decided to take music more seriously. He played both classical and jazz and studied musical composition.

To make a long story short, his first symphony was recorded in 2022 by the Zagreb Symphony, with positive reviews. And now it will have its U.S. premiere by the Boulder Symphony Saturday and Sunday (March 29 and 30; details below).

Devin Patrick Hughes will conduct the performances, which will also include arias by Rossini and Puccini sung by soprano guest artist Anastasia Antropova. Beethoven’s “Pastoral Symphony” rounds out the program. Parma Recordings will record the performances.

Drew titled his First Symphony “Reminiscence.” He calls it a pastiche, based on music that had an impact on him and listing the specific sources for each movement. For example, the first movement is titled “Journey” and includes music reflecting Villa-Lobos’ descriptive piece for orchestra Little Train of the Caipira, as well as folk songs that recall Joseph Canteloube’s Songs of the Auvergne.

The second movement, “Pictures in an Album,” refers to Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, along with traces of Copland-esque Americana. The third movement evokes J.S. Bach while the finale, “The Return,” revisits ideas from the first movement.

Russian soprano Anastasia Antropova graduated from the St. Petersburg Conservatory in 2017 and since has performed extensively in Italy. She will perform Rossini’s “Una voce poco fa” (A voice spoke to me), the iconic aria of Rosina in The Barber of Seville; and Puccini’s poignant aria from Madama Butterfly, “Un bel di” (One fine day).

Boulder Symphony’s publicity material quotes Antropova commenting on “these iconic arias, each revealing a distinct operatic world. The fusion of music and text bring these characters to life, allowing me to fully immerse in their emotions.”

Beethoven Symphony No. 6 in F major, known as the “Pastoral Symphony,” is one of the composer’s more cheerful even-numbered symphonies, all of which are in major keys. It was made popular when it was used in Walt Disney’s animated musical film Fantasia, with a setting of pastoral scenes from Greek mythology.

Unlike most Beethoven symphonies, the Sixth has specific descriptive titles for the movements, all derived from the composer’s own excursions into the countryside outside Vienna. The five movements are titled “Awakening of cheerful feelings on arrival in the countryside,” “Scene by the brook,” “Merry gathering of country folk,” “Thunder, storm,” and “Happy and thankful feelings after the storm.”

The first performance took place in 1808 as part of a notorious four-hour concert that included premieres of the Fifth and Sixth symphonies, the Fourth Piano Concerto and the Choral Fantasy, along with selections from other works by Beethoven and improvisation at the piano by the composer. 

Held in an unheated hall, the program strained the audience’s attention. One attendee wrote afterwards, “There we sat, in the most bitter cold, from half past six until half past ten, and confirmed for ourselves the maxim that one may easily have too much of a good thing.”

Of course the Boulder Symphony performance will neither take place in a cold hall nor last four hours. And the good things it offers—a U.S. premiere, two beloved arias and a musical tour of the Austrian countryside—are pleasantly varied.

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Boulder Symphony, Devin Patrick Hughes, conductor
With Anastasia Antropova, soprano

• Rossini: “Una voce poco fa” (A voice spoke to me) from Barber of Seville
• Peter Drew: Symphony No. 1 (“Reminiscence”), American premiere
• Puccini: “Un bel di” (One fine day) from Madama Butterfly
• Beethoven: Symphony No. 6 in F major, op. 68 (“Pastoral”)

7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 29
2 p.m. Sunday, March 30
Gordon Gamm Theater, Dairy Arts Center

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