1. Stellar (Okpebholo)

2. Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D minor, Op. 47: I. Allegro moderato (Sibelius)

3. Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D minor, Op. 47: II. Adagio di molto (Sibelius)

4. Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D minor, Op. 47: III. Allegro, ma non tanto (Sibelius)

5. Suite from Der Rosenkavalier (Strauss)

Shawn E. Okpebholo – Stellar (2024) 

Premiere Recording 

Stellar opens the album with a burst of kinetic energy and radiant color. Shawn E. Okpebholo’s music often draws on narrative and spiritual reflection, and here the orchestra is in motion — with bright, fleeting gestures coalescing into a larger arc. Stellar, composed in 2024, features harmonic clusters that flare like distant constellations and becomes a point of orientation—an invitation to expand the ear beyond the horizon. 

For Timothy Myers, Stellar was a natural choice to set the tone for the recording, “It feels like a spark. It immediately brings everyone into the same shared space of attention and energy.” That sense of collective focus is palpable in performance, as the orchestra navigates the piece’s precision and momentum with alert intensity. 

Jean Sibelius – Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 47 

Alexi Kenney, violin 

Sibelius’s Violin Concerto stands at the intersection of elemental force and inward reflection. Its vast landscapes and fierce rhythmic drive frame a solo line that is at once virtuosic and searching. In Alexi Kenney’s hands, it becomes not only a display of virtuosity but a work of raw introspection. The concerto’s vast landscapes, shadowed lyricism, and elemental power emerge with striking clarity, carried by a solo line that seems to challenge the orchestra before finally merging into its pulse.  

Violinist Alexi Kenney’s interpretation balances clarity and intensity, allowing the concerto’s raw lyricism to emerge without sentimentality. Hostetler hears in this performance “a tension you only feel when musicians are taking real risks together,” he says. “That’s something you don’t want to smooth out — it’s where the excitement lives.” Captured in concert, the Sibelius becomes not just a monument of the repertoire, but a living, breathing act of collaboration. 

Richard Strauss – Suite from Der Rosenkavalier 

Closing the album, Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier Suite offers a radiant contrast — sumptuous, nostalgic, and unapologetically theatrical. Waltzes bloom and dissolve; humor and tenderness coexist in music that glows with late-Romantic warmth. For Myers, the challenge lies in balancing polish with immediacy. “It’s incredibly lush music,” he notes, “but it still needs to feel spontaneous — like something unfolding right in front of you, not something preserved under glass.” Under his direction, the orchestra leans into both elegance and momentum, keeping the music buoyant and alive. 

Hostetler hears the suite as a fitting culmination to the album’s arc. “There’s joy in this music,” he says, “and joy is something you really feel at Spoleto — between the musicians, the audience, and the city itself.” As the final chords fade, the suite leaves listeners with a sense of celebration, bringing the orchestral journey to a luminous close.