Travel Through the Solar System at Symphony San Jose

This weekend, Symphony San Jose performs three pieces, each an invitation to escape the bounds of our own planet and consider the wonders that lie beyond.

“Mankind has always looked up to the heavens and wondered, ‘What is out there?’” said Robert Massey, artistic director at Symphony San Jose. “It makes us reflect on our own existence and mortality and where we’ve come from and where we’re going. It’s like nature’s perfect muse.”

Space — like great art — exists beyond the boundaries of the everyday. Astronomer and semi-retired professor Andrew Fraknoi, instructor at the Fromm Institute of the University of San Francisco, said it’s this frontier nature that makes planets, stars and galaxies so ripe for composing music.

“Outer space is so much larger, so much more complex than what we have on Earth, has inspired writers, it’s inspired scientists — people become astronomers because of that mystery — and it’s inspired composers and songwriters. It has been a very natural source of inspiration.”

Symphony San Jose’s program, which people can experience on Saturday, May 10, 2025, at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, May 11, at 2:30 p.m., will begin with Starburst, a contemporary piece by composer Jessie Montgomery, followed by Gustav Holst’s The Planets and W.A. Mozart’s Symphony No. 41.

The Planets is the concert’s anchor. It’s a mammoth masterpiece that was and is so loved, Holst could never compose a follow-up that outshone it, leaving him with the unfortunate impression of being a one-hit wonder. Seven planets and their musical motifs will pair with high-definition imagery from NASA projected on a giant screen above the stage.

“There is a distinctive theme behind each planet,” Massey said, who selected the program. Mars, The Bringer of War, is the first movement. Holst’s five-four rhythm sets a martial tone and compels it forward, like soldiers surging into battle.

John Williams directly quoted “Mars” in his Oscar-winning Star Wars score. Movie fans will recognize what sounds like Darth Vader’s theme, The Imperial March. “It’s the same key, it’s the same chord, and it just builds this incredible tension,” Massey said.

The paired visuals include close-up shots of the Red Planet, flights through its mountains and canyons and simulated imagery of landers and rovers reaching the surface and beginning their missions.

Mars will be followed by Venus, The Bringer Of Peace, a relaxing, softer, more romantic piece, which returns to a classic, balanced-feeling four-four time signature. Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune each get their chance to shine during this nearly hour-long piece. Pluto is not included because it hadn’t been discovered in 1916, at the time of Holst’s composition (not even to be demoted to a dwarf planet).

In the final movement, Neptune, the Mystic, about 90 musicians will be on stage, including 50 choral singers.

“It’s a really nice texture that Holst uses for this ethereal women’s chorus that comes in,” Massey said. “This will be the largest number of musicians on our stage this season.”

While the audience might feel like they have explored the solar system, that was not atop Holst’s mind when composing.

“If you read Holst’s notes,” Fraknoi said, “each of the pieces named after a planet is about the astrological characteristics of that planet, not what that planet is really like.”

For this reason, Fraknoi excluded it from a list he keeps of music inspired by astronomy, which he sometimes uses as a teaching resource. Despite that, he said, it’s still “a wonderful piece of music and it has not stopped astronomers from adopting the piece of music to their own purposes.”

The final piece is Mozart’s Symphony No. 41, dubbed the “Jupiter Symphony” after the composer’s death. It’s considered one of his best symphonies, an exuberant, grand work.

“Basically, a concert promoter thought that it would sell more tickets” if it had a nickname, Massey said. “It was given that name primarily because this symphony was so unlike anything else at the time, it was so much longer, it was kind of a giant of its own and widely regarded as just one of the best symphonies in history, even long after Mozart died.”

The first chords of the music remind some people of thunder, which are associated with Jupiter, ancient Roman pantheon’s main deity and thunderbolt-hurler-in-chief, and with the real planet. NASA’s Juno mission has observed the glow of bolts of lightning on Jupiter.

Massey selected this symphony because he wanted to bring new works to Symphony San Jose, which he said has not performed the work yet in its 22 years.

“We thought it would be a great time to bring this warhorse out and pair it with The Planets,” he said. To begin the concert, he wanted something composed more recently. “Starburst” is the only piece written by a living composer, Jessie Montgomery.

“I’m a huge believer in fostering the future of the symphonic canon,” Massey said. “Jessie Montgomery is a composer who is just doing incredible work and is going to have a long legacy of her own.”

Starburst is a short piece that comes in at about three and a half minutes, but in that time, the listener is energized and transported. Montgomery wanted to showcase the wide range of feelings, colors, textures and techniques that are available in a string orchestra.

“It resulted in a kind of glowing sheen,” Montgomery told KQED. “That was my goal, thinking of it reflecting a starburst or some kind of cosmic explosion.”

The imagery of space, Montgomery said, was helpful in getting her unstuck and guiding the evolution of the piece. It’s a great piece to open a concert with, she said.

“It’s virtuosic. It features the really special qualities of individual instruments in the orchestra. I think that’s what makes it so effective. You get a lot sonically out of a small package.”

The weekend’s concerts kick off on Friday morning with two shows just for school kids, followed by shows Saturday, May 10, 2025, at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, May 11, at 2:30 p.m. Tatsuya Shimono will conduct.

“I think this is really the high point of our season,” Massey said.