For Mississippi Symphony Orchestra’s “Mozart Magic” concert January 10, Conductor Crafton Beck has conjured a program that glows with the genius of two masterpieces by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and lights up, too, with a lesser-known gem by another composer of the same era.
Georg Abraham Schneider’s Sinfonia Concertante for Violin and Viola provides the perfect showcase for MSO musicians Ausra Jasineviciute and Ruvim Echiusciu.
Violinist Echiusciu joined MSO soon after coming to Belhaven University from the Republic of Moldova in 2022, preparing for auditions with the help of his music professor Xie Song, also a long-time MSO principal who retired as a full-time MSO musician last April.
“That was the beginning of gaining real experience in performing with a high-level professional orchestra,” Echiusciu said.
“I am very grateful to God first of all and also to all the people in the orchestra who have become like family to us. We especially felt this last November when our baby was born and none of our relatives were here with us.
“Every member of the orchestra treated us warmly and supported us in every possible way. That says a lot about the relationships within the MSO.”
Echiusciu, who turns 25 this December, is part of a wave of young players populating MSO’s ranks as musicians move on or retire. “Change always brings growth, movement, development and adaptation to new ideas,” he said. “Of course, it is sad when our mentors retire, but as Solomon said, ‘To everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.’ And, right now, in MSO, it seems to be the season for young musicians.”
He was 6 years old when a recording of violin music had an impact so strong, he asked his mother if he could learn to play. “I am endlessly grateful to my mother and father for supporting this desire and doing everything they could — especially since their resources were limited — to help me get a musical education, and of course to serve God through it.”
Giving credit to God’s blessings, he is deeply grateful, too, to Belhaven University President Roger Parrott for the offer of a full scholarship to Belhaven. “He gave me an opportunity I could never have dreamed of.” Two weeks after marrying his wife in Modolva, “essentially on our honeymoon,” he said, the couple moved to Mississippi. “In a way, that honeymoon is still continuing.”
The “Mozart Magic” concert sparkles with Mozart’s Overture to Don Giovanni at the start, and his stellar Symphony No. 39 at the end, with Schenider’s Sinfonia Concertante for Violin and Viola tucked in-between.
Schenider’s piece was composed around 1800, when composers were pushing musical boundaries and exploring new expressive ideas between the Classical and Romantic eras. “These contrasts are reflected throughout the music,” said Echiusciu and mused that the sense of transition from one era to the next resonates with his own life moving from student life to adulthood and into a new chapter as husband and father.
MSO Principal Violist Jasineviciute found the piece online last season. “After a deeper search about this little-known work and composer, … I am thrilled to introduce this charming piece with Ruvim to our audience and colleagues,” she said.
“Both instruments in this piece are featured as equal soloists, allowing us to create and enjoy a wonderful musical dialogue,” Jasineviciute continued, “starting with the first movement full of virtuosic passages and expressive melodies, a gorgeous second movement and the most unique for me – a wonderfully written Polonais as the third movement.”
“It is a wonderful feeling to step onto the stage with such a great colleague and create beautiful music together,” Echiusciu said.
As part of MSO’s mission to connect the lives of all Mississippians through the power of music, this concert repertoire will also be performed January 9th at The Ellis Theater in Philadelphia and January 11th at Church of the Holy Trinity Church in Vicksburg.