Tucson Symphony exploring the universe in series finale

Tucson Symphony Orchestra will close out its 2023-24 Classics series this weekend with Holst’s epic suite “Planets.”

The orchestra also will perform retiring University of Arizona composing professor Daniel Asia’s 1991 symphony “At the Far Edge,” a work commissioned by the Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestra to mark its 50th anniversary.

“Planets,” based on astrology, not astronomy, is a seven-movement work named after the planets: Mars, the Bringer of War; Venus, Bringer of Peace; Mercury, the Winged Messenger; Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity; Saturn, Bringer of Old Age; Uranus, the Magician; and Neptune, the Mystic.

The work, which the TSO hasn’t performed since guest conductor Mei-Ann Chen was at the podium in 2016, anchors a program Music Director José Luis Gomez crafted mostly around the universe. The only work that doesn’t quite fit the theme is Asia’s, which the orchestra is performing for the first time.

In program notes, Asia said he was influenced by the death of Aaron Copland around the time that he began the piece in December 1990. He wanted the work to reflect youthfulness and exuberance — it was to celebrate a youth orchestra, after all — but he also wanted to honor Copland’s “musical spirit, his striving for the simple statement, his distinctly American sense of rhythm, as well as a preference for high glistening sonorities,” Asia wrote. The result was a work that married the two emotional states, “one somewhat elegiac and transcendent, the other bright, and bursting with energy,” he added.

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The TSO’s performance celebrates Asia’s 70th birthday and his retirement in May from the UA, where he has taught for 35 years.

Asia’s work opens the night, followed by Benjamin Britten’s “Four Sea Interludes” (“Dawn,” “Sunday Morning,” “Moonlight” and “Storm”) from his opera “Peter Grimes” and Ravel’s oceanic adventure of “Une barque sur l’océan.”

TSO is collaborating with Whipple Observatory, located on Mount Hopkins near Amado, for the concert. Whipple staff and volunteers will set up telescopes on the Linda Ronstadt Music Hall patio for folks to peer into the universe before going into the hall to hear the universe come alive in Gustav Holst’s music.

The TSO will perform the concert at 7:30 p.m. Friday, April 12, and 2 p.m. Sunday, April 14, at Linda Ronstadt Music Hall, 260 S. Church Ave. Tickets are $14-$90 through tucsonsymphony.org.