Mannes Orchestra returns to Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall with a program devoted to icons and iconoclasts, known, unknown and rediscovered. 

FREE/WALK-UP TICKETS AVAILABLE UNTIL SHOWTIME WHILE SEATS LAST!

Walk-up tickets are available on a first-come, first-served basis at the Alice Tully Hall Box Office, located in the lobby at 1941 Broadway (at West 65th Street). Tickets may be picked up from now until showtime. 

Featured in the program is Bohuslav Martinů, distinguished composer, former Mannes faculty member, and a pivotal figure whose legacy is enjoying a significant resurgence in today’s musical landscape. Hale Smith's rarely performed work Ritual and Incantations is preceded by Igor Stravinsky's Symphonies of Wind Instruments, offering its own lamentations and expressions of ritual. 

This program brings together three striking works that, while distinct in voice and context, are bound by a shared exploration of rhythmic vitality, formal innovation, and a dialogue between tradition and modernity. Bohuslav Martinů’s Symphony No. 4 (1945), composed during his American exile, pulses with optimism and clarity, blending Czech lyricism with neoclassical structures. Igor Stravinsky’s Symphonies of Wind Instruments (1920/1947), reflects his pivot from Russian romanticism to a leaner, more abstract idiom—distilled further in his later neo-classical period. Hale Smith’s Ritual and Incantations (1974) builds on this legacy of transformation, integrating elements of jazz, African American spiritual traditions, and contemporary classical language into a work of deep expressive power.

Though none of these composers were born or raised in New York City, each spent significant periods of their careers here. The city’s dynamic artistic scene offered fertile ground for their creativity, serving as a crossroads for innovation, cross-cultural exchange, and new musical identities.

Join us.

MANNES ORCHESTRA

Igor Stravinsky: Symphonies of Wind Instruments

Hale Smith: Ritual and Incantations,  Shutong Chen, MM ’26, Conductor

Bohuslav Martinů: Symphony No. 4

 Music Director and Conductor, David Hayes

"The artist is always searching for the meaning of life, his own and that of mankind, searching for truth. A system of uncertainty has entered our daily life. The pressures of mechanization and uniformity to which it is subject call for protest, and the artist has only one means of expressing this, by music."

 — Bohuslav Martinů

Igor Stravinsky: Symphonies of Wind Instruments 
Composed in 1920 as a memorial tribute to Claude Debussy and revised in 1947, Symphonies of Wind Instruments is a striking work for winds and brass. Rooted in Russian folk and Orthodox liturgical influences, the piece unfolds in contrasting episodes of varied tempo, texture, and color, evoking a sense of ritual and ceremony.

Hale Smith: Ritual and Incantations
Written in 1974, Hale Smith’s Ritual and Incantations fuses orchestral traditions with rhythmic patterns inspired by West African drumming. The result is a work of mystery, tension, and dramatic power, reflecting Smith’s ability to merge cultural influences into music that resonates well beyond stylistic boundaries.

Bohuslav Martinů: Symphony No. 4

Martinů’s Symphony No. 4 stands as one of his  most spirited and optimistic works. Composed at the end of World War 2, it reflects the composer's relief and nostalgia for his homeland. Unlike the darker and more turbulent tone of his earlier symphonies (particularly the Third), the Fourth is often described as more joyful with the same vibrant rhythms, neoclassical clarity, Czech folk influences, and rich orchestration of previous works. Across its four movements, the symphony moves from flowing lyricism to playful energy. The third movement, a  deeply expressive work, is often read to be the emotional heart of the piece, which is released during the finale that bursts with spirited drive and contrapuntal brilliance. Premiered in 1945 by the Philadelphia Orchestra under Eugene Ormandy, Symphony No. 4 was immediately well received and remains one of Martinů’s most frequently performed symphonic works.

MORE ABOUT THE PROGRAM:
Symphonies of Wind Instruments (1920, revised 1947) by Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971)

Duration: 10 minutes
Scoring: 23 players: 3 flutes, 2 oboes, English horn, 3 clarinets, 3 bassoons (3rd doubling contrabassoon), 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, and tuba.

Even for Stravinsky, the Symphonies of Wind Instruments is strikingly original, grounded not in the "symphonic" genre but – as the musicologist Richard Taruskin has shown – in the Russian Orthodox service for the dead. It began as a serene and archaic chorale composed in memory of Debussy. Stravinsky then expanded this "Fragment" with music more popular in flavor. The chorale, at the close, became an apotheosis sublimating an eclectic wealth of material. The ensemble eschews strings in favor of colorful, chanting winds. According to Stravinsky, in 1936: "I did not, and indeed I could not, count on any immediate success for this work. It lacks all those elements that infallibly appeal to the ordinary listener, or to which he is accustomed. . . . It is an austere ritual which is unfolded in terms of short litanies . . . This music is not meant to 'please' an audience, nor to arouse its passions." More than half a century later, the religious elan of the Symphonies of Wind Instruments seems both pleasing and arousing. (Program note by Joseph Horowitz for Boosey & Hawkes)

Ritual and Incantations (1974), Hale Smith (1925-2009)
Duration: 16 minutes
Scoring: 2 Flutes (second doubling piccolo), 2 Oboes (second doubling English Horn), 2 Clarinets (second doubling Bass Clarinet), 2 Bassoons, 4 Horns, 3 Trumpets, 3 Trombones, Tuba, Timpani, 3 Percussionists, Piano, Harp, Strings
A vital yet often underrecognized figure in American music, Hale Smith combined modernist techniques, serialism, large-ensemble jazz tradition, and African American folk musical traditions. Ritual and Incantations, composed in 1974, is one of his most striking orchestral works—a dramatic, abstract piece that evokes the power of ceremony and transformation.
Rather than following a conventional narrative, the piece unfolds like a musical ritual: bold, atmospheric, and unpredictable. Smith employs complex rhythms, vivid orchestration, and contrasting textures that move between intensity and stillness. Echoes of jazz and spirituals are present, not as quotations, but as underlying currents in a broader, modernist language.
Ritual and Incantations reflects Smith’s unique voice—a composer who bridged cultural and stylistic divides. It challenges performers and listeners alike to engage with sound as both structure and expression. The work was premiered in 1974 by the Houston Symphony Orchestra.

Symphony No.4 (1945), Bohuslav Martinů (1890-1959)
Duration: 35 minutes
Scoring: three flutes, piccolo, three oboes, cor anglais, three clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion (triangle, wood block, tambourine, side drum, bass drum, cymbals, tam-tam), piano, and strings.
Symphony No. 4 was composed by Martinů in New York City and completed at his home in Cape Cod in 1945, during a productive creative period in which he composed a new symphony annually.

Martinů’s Symphony No. 4 stands as one of his most spirited and optimistic works. Composed at the end of World War 2, it reflects the composer's relief and nostalgia for his homeland. Unlike the darker and more turbulent tone of his earlier symphonies (particularly the Third), the Fourth is often described as more joyful with the same vibrant rhythms, neoclassical clarity, Czech folk influences, and rich orchestration of previous works.

Across its four movements, the symphony moves from flowing lyricism to playful energy. The third movement, a deeply expressive work, is often read to be the emotional heart of the piece, which is released during the finale that bursts with spirited drive and contrapuntal brilliance. Premiered in 1945 by the Philadelphia Orchestra under Eugene Ormandy, Symphony No. 4 was immediately well received and remains one of Martinů’s most frequently performed symphonic works.

Composer Biographies

Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971)

A Russian-American composer born in 1882, Igor Stravinsky was widely known as the greatest composer of the 20th century. His contributions to music were wide and varied. He studied music with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov from 1903 to 1906. He gained fame from his performances while commissioned with the impresario, Sergey Diaghilev. Stravinsky’s ballet score, The Firebird (1910), was a huge success at the Paris Opera, followed by Petrushka, performed during the Ballets Russes 1911 season in Paris. Another outstanding work of this period is The Rite of Spring (1913), which was a dynamic masterpiece. He worked on various pieces of ballet music, including a piano piece by Frédéric Chopin for Les Sylphides. The Nightingale (1914) and The Soldier’s Tale (1918) were some of his compositions created while in exile in Switzerland during the War. In France, he diverted to neoclassical style and composed Oedipus Rex (1927) and the Symphony of Psalms (1930).
His renewed ties with Diaghilev resulted in his arrangement of music of Pergolesi - Pulcinella (1920) and Apollo Musagète (1928). From 1923 to 1935, he composed various piano and wind instruments pieces. He moved to the United States in 1939 and became a U.S. citizen in 1945. The Rake’s Progress (1948-51), Canticum Sacrum (1955), and the ballet Agon (1953-57) were larger scale works wherein the music moves from a modal and tonal beginning into a full serial score. After his work on Requiem Canticles (1966), a work as famous as his masterpieces and neo-classicals, his health failed. He died in 1971 and was buried in Venice. (Sourced from The Kennedy Center)

Hale Smith (1925-2009)

Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Hale Smith is a prominent performer, arranger, and composer within classical and jazz music. Starting at age 7, Smith played piano and eventually, he branched out to composing at age 16 in high school, attracting the attention of Duke Ellington. His skills as an arranger expanded after being drafted in the army in 1943, where his music was used for touring shows in Florida and Georgia. Following his tour, he pursued his education in composition at the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he studied with Marcel Dick and Ward Lewis, and earned his bachelor’s in 1950 and master’s in 1952. In that year, Smith won a musical licensing organization’s, BMI, first student composer award. He moved to New York in 1958, worked as an editor and consultant at several music-publishing houses, and taught at Long Island University. He later taught at University of Connecticut before he retired in 1984. Hale Smith compositional style is a fusion of traditional chords and twelve-tone chord music. He is best known for his orchestral work Contours and his piano piece, Evocation. (Sourced from The African Diaspora Music Project)

Bohuslav Martinů (1890 - 1959)

Born in 1890 in Policka, a small town in the Bohemian-Moravian highlands, Martinů began composing early in his teens before studying at the Conservatoire in Prague. Inspired by composers like Debussy and Stravinsky, an individual musical voice began to emerge, characterised by motoric, insistent rhythmic patterns and a natural, folklike melodiousness.

In 1923 Martinů moved to Paris to continue his studies. Although he now seemed settled in Paris for good, he was becoming more aware of his Czech roots, and Czech themes and Czech authors featured prominently in his music. The threatened German invasion of Czechoslovakia prompted a work of protest, the powerful Double Concerto for two string orchestras, piano and timpani. With the Nazi invasion of France in 1940 Martinů and his wife fled before the advancing troops, escaping to the United States. On his arrival in New York City, Martinů joined the composition faculty at the Mannes School of Music. The Mannes annual orchestral composition prize is named in his honour.

In 1942 Martinů began the first of what were to be six symphonies, the first five written at the rate of one a year. A succession of teaching posts gave him some financial security, but a fall from a balcony in 1946 resulted in serious injury and high medical bills, and a temporary interruption in his ability to write music.

Later in his life Martinů returned to Europe, living and working in Rome before retiring to Switzerland where he remained until his death in 1959. (Sourced from Boosey & Hawkes).