Sandwiched between the overture to Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Tchaikovsky’s mighty Symphony No. 5, is the evening’s pièce de résistance: the premiere of Ray Angry’s ambitious Black Athena~Power. In three movements named after signs of the zodiac, the new symphony is “designed,” in the composer’s words, “to bring the essence of humanity to the surface” and to acknowledge “the Divine Feminine.” “It is a journey in time,” he continues, “to visit our collective ancestry and explore the trajectory of power throughout the ages.” Inspired by the novel Black Athena: The Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization, by Martin Bernal, the new work “confronts the historic and resolves in the personal; stripping external Hope, Love and Logic in order to restore control of one’s own power.” Remember the injunction to make no little plans? As the wise originator of that sentiment explained, “They have no magic to stir men’s blood and probably will not themselves be realized.” No one will mistake Ray Angry’s plans for small ones. —Matthew Gurewitsch