The Minería Symphony Orchestra’s 2026 Summer Season reaches its sixth program with three works that share one common trait: each one offers a surprise right from the very first bars.
The Unfinished Symphony opens with a musical question that history took decades to recover. Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 4 hides a reference to a melody associated with Strasbourg in its final movement. Haydn’s Symphony No. 103 begins with an unusual gesture: the solo timpani, before any other instrument.
Program 6 will be presented on Saturday, August 8, at 8:00 p.m. and on Sunday, August 9, at 12:00 p.m. in the Silvestre Revueltas Hall at the Ollin Yoliztli Cultural Center. Jeannette Sorrell will lead the orchestra as guest conductor, and Shari Mason will be the soloist in the Mozart concert.
The program explores two pivotal moments in the history of the symphony and features one of the most representative violin concertos of the Classical period. Here are some tips to help you enjoy each piece even more.
Franz Schubert's Symphony No. 8, "Unfinished": a complete work in two movements
The story of this symphony begins in April 1823, when Schubert was nominated as an honorary member of the Styrian Music Society in Graz. The composer gratefully accepted the appointment and promised to present, as a token of his appreciation, the score of a symphony.
Shortly thereafter, he sent two movements from a work in B minor via Josef Hüttenbrenner, whose brother Anselm was then president of the Society. Anselm kept the manuscript, and the work remained forgotten for decades.
Around 1860, Josef Hüttenbrenner informed the director Johann Herbeck of the existence of the score. Herbeck managed to recover it five years later and conducted the symphony’s premiere in Vienna on December 17, 1865, 37 years after Schubert’s death.
From the perspective of classical form, the work lacks a third and fourth movement. Schubert wrote only nine measures of a scherzo that never progressed beyond its initial sketches.
However, its two completed movements form a journey of immense expressive power. The music alternates between drama and lyricism, tension and contemplation, within a structure that feels solid and coherent.
The surviving documentation provides insight into both the two completed movements and the fragments of the third. The academic project Schubert Online, developed using funds from Austrian institutions, compiles information on the first editions of the work and its historical transmission.
Some directors have released “complete” versions by adding excerpts from Rosamunda, the incidental music Schubert wrote for Helmina von Chézy’s play. The standard performance retains only the two completed movements.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 4: A Young Person's Introduction to the Violin
Mozart composed his five violin concertos before he turned 20. The last four were written during a particularly intense period, between June and December 1775.
Concerto No. 4 was completed in Salzburg in October of that year, when the composer was 19 years old. The official catalog of the Mozarteum International Foundation confirms its authenticity, its date of composition, and the preservation of the autograph manuscript.
Mozart's affinity for the violin was no accident. His father, Leopold Mozart, was a violinist and, in 1756—the same year Wolfgang was born—published an influential method for teaching the instrument.
Accounts indicate that the young Mozart developed remarkable skill as a violinist. However, after this period, he turned his attention primarily to keyboard instruments.
His Concerto No. 4 for Violin and Orchestra has three movements:
- Allegro
- Andante cantabile
- Rondeau: Allegro
A letter written by Mozart to his father in 1777 offers one of the most interesting references to this work. In it, he mentions that he had played the “Strasbourg Concerto” during a dinner party and that the performance had gone smoothly.
Scholars have linked that name to the final movement of Concerto No. 4. The rondo includes a central section of contrasting character that recalls a gavotte built on a pedal reminiscent of the sound of a musette, a type of French bagpipe.
The melody in that episode bears similarities to a tune used by Karl Ditters von Dittersdorf in a section titled Ballo Strasburghese. This connection explains the name Mozart used in his correspondence.
The concerto combines Italian influences in form with French traits in melody. This ability to integrate different traditions is one of the central characteristics of the composer’s musical language; we explore it in the article "Mozart, Perfection, and Joy" on the Minería Symphony Orchestra blog.
Some historical sources link the concerto to Antonio Brunetti, a violinist at the Salzburg court and an acquaintance of Mozart. There is, however, no absolute certainty regarding the circumstances of its first performance.
Shari Mason: solo violinist
Shari Mason is a Mexican violinist who graduated from the National School of Music at UNAM and the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, where she studied with Henryk Kowalski. She has also taken master classes with renowned musicians such as Pinchas Zuckerman and Joshua Bell.
In 2017, she was invited by the New York Philharmonic to participate in the series A Concert for Unityseries. As part of that project, she was a member of an international ensemble made up of musicians from 19 countries.
He is the concertmaster of the Minería Symphony Orchestra.
Franz Joseph Haydn's Symphony No. 103, "The Drum Roll": a beginning no one expected
Symphony No. 103 is one of the twelve "London Symphonies" composed by Haydn during his two visits to England, between 1791 and 1792 and between 1794 and 1795, at the invitation of the impresario Johann Peter Salomon.
These works represent one of the high points of his symphonic output. Several were given descriptive titles, such as Surprise, Military, The Clock and Timpani Roll.
The title of Symphony No. 103 comes from its opening. The work begins with a solo passage on the timpani, before the rest of the orchestra enters. This gesture transforms an instrument usually associated with accompaniment into the undisputed protagonist of the opening seconds.
The symphony has four movements:
- Adagio–Allegro con spirito
- Andante più tosto–Allegretto
- Minuet
- Finale: Allegro con spirito
This work illustrates why Haydn was one of the composers who contributed most to the development of the symphonic form during the 18th century. In this regard, the project Haydn 107project, dedicated to his complete symphonies, highlights the historical influence of this work and the scope of its formal techniques.
Symphony No. 103 was composed during the winter of 1794–1795. It premiered on March 2, 1795, in London, during one of the Opera Concerts held at the King’s Theatre.
The orchestra for the premiere consisted of about 60 musicians, a large ensemble for its time. Conducting duties were shared by concertmaster Giovanni Battista Viotti and Haydn himself, who played from the fortepiano.
The work incorporates references to Hungarian and Croatian folklore. After returning to Vienna, Haydn made a small cut in the final movement that is generally followed in modern performances.
Jeannette Sorrell: Guest Conductor
Jeannette Sorrell is internationally renowned for her work with the Baroque and Classical repertoire. She studied harpsichord with Gustav Leonhardt in Amsterdam and specialized in conducting with Leonard Bernstein, Roger Norrington, and Robert Spano at the Tanglewood and Aspen festivals.
He won first prize at the Spivey International Harpsichord Competition. He has also been recognized for his creative programming and his ability to attract new audiences to early music.
Sorrell is the founder and artistic director of Apollo’s Fire, a period-instrument ensemble that has performed at Carnegie Hall and the BBC Proms in London. Its discography includes 34 recordings, several of which have appeared on the Billboard Classical, and she received a Grammy in 2019.
As a guest conductor, she has collaborated with the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Seattle Symphony, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, among other ensembles.
Of Mysteries, Youth, and Surprises
With Jeannette Sorrell conducting and Shari Mason as guest soloist, the Minería Symphony Orchestra presents, as part of its sixth program of the season, a journey through the mystery of Schubert, the grace of Mozart, and the ingenuity of Haydn.
We look forward to seeing you on Saturday, August 8, at 8:00 p.m. and on Sunday, August 9, at 12:00 p.m. in the Silvestre Revueltas Hall at the Ollin Yoliztli Cultural Center.
