Off-stage trumpets, 100+ person orchestras, low brass ringing throughout the concert hall, triumphant endings. These thrilling works will keep you on the edge of your seat and leave you wanting more. Catch one of these epic works brought to life in the Tent. 

Respighi’s Pines of Rome (Sunday, June 30) 
Respighi’s illustrious Pines of Rome is “one of those pieces that you just can't help but feel great when you hear it,” says Vice President of Artistic Administration Patrick Chamberlain. The piece showcases the extremes of what the orchestra can achieve, from delicate and beautiful to large and boisterous. An enormous brass choir will ring throughout, ushering in the season with a bang.  

Richard Strauss's Also sprach Zarathustra, op. 30 (Sunday, June 30)
Also sprach Zarathustra has perhaps one of the most recognizable openings in the classical canon. Appearing on countless film soundtracks, most notably in 2001: A Space Odyssey, the brass and timpani-centric opening, which depicts a glorious sunrise, makes it clear why this tone poem is one of the most well-known and epic works heard on the orchestral stage. 

Gustav Mahler’s Symphonies 
Gustav Mahler is known for his grand orchestration including large brass sections and long, intricate symphonies. Catch each of our orchestras play one of his massive symphonies this summer!

• Symphony No. 4 in G major (Friday, August 2) 
  One of Mahler’s shorter symphonies, lasting just under an hour, his Fourth is nonetheless one of the composer's most beautiful works. While the mood of many of his symphonies center on despair and anguish, the Fourth ultimately culminates in a child's beautiful view of heaven in the final movement. 

• Symphony No. 5 in C-sharp minor (Wednesday, August 14)
  From the first notes of the solo trumpet fanfare that opens into a funeral march, to the lively celebratory nature of the final movement, Mahler’s Fifth takes you on a musical journey of lyricism and technical prowess, mourning and triumph. 

• Symphony No. 9 in D major (Sunday, July 28) 
  Concerned by the ‘curse of the ninth,’ Gustav Mahler purposefully postponed writing his Ninth Symphony. The superstition followed the fact that for many composers—Beethoven, Bruckner, Schubert, and Dvorak, to name a few—their ninth symphony proved to be their last. The largely foreboding mood of his Ninth reflects the composer’s concern of falling victim to the same fate, and rightly so: he died just a few years later, leaving his Tenth Symphony unfinished.

Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5 in D minor, op. 47 (Wednesday, August 7) 
Shostakovich was under great scrutiny from the Soviet government after widespread backlash and condemnation of his opera Lady Macbeth. His Fifth Symphony, written carefully to please the strict government, is perhaps his most important and influential work. The orchestral score journeys through intense musical highs and lows, and although the the final movement ends jubilantly, is thought by many scholars to be a sarcastic, tongue-in-cheek rejoicing.