Chapter IV — Reckonings & Renewal

After a season confronting conflict, memory, loss, and the search for peace,The Long Roadreaches its final and most powerful reckoning. Johann Strauss II's magnificentEmperor Waltzopens with the splendor and confidence of an old European order. Cellist Bennett Tsai takes center stage in Ernest Bloch'sSchelomo, an impassioned Jewish meditation of extraordinary depth for cello and orchestra—searching, anguished, defiant, and profound. Then comes one of the defining symphonies of the twentieth century: Shostakovich'sSymphony No. 5. Written under the terrifying pressures of Stalin's Soviet Union, its journey from darkness and grief toward its famous blazing conclusion has challenged generations of listeners to ask whether they are hearing genuine triumph, forced celebration, bitter irony—or all three at once. Reckonings & Renewal closes Symphonicity's season not with easy answers, but with something more powerful: music that survives, remembers, and endures.PROGRAMJohann Strauss II — Emperor Waltz (Kaiser-Walzer), Op. 437Ernest Bloch — Schelomo: Rhapsodie Hébraïque for Cello and OrchestraDmitri Shostakovich — Symphony No. 5Bennett Tsai, cello (Presented by Young Concert Artists)Daniel W. Boothe, conductor