Volume 10 Issue 4

Words from the Maestro... Well...one positive thing social distancing has accomplished is it has made musicians such as myself think about alternatives to big orchestra programs that can be put together using smaller, more easily-spread-out ensembles. One must look hard for a silver lining to this dark covid cloud and the first Serenade by Johannes Brahms is pretty silvery.

I came to know the work decades ago, fell in love with it, but have never programmed it. For a conductor, the fun of rehearsing and performing a favorite work is compounded by the time I get to spend studying the score, immersing myself in its details, absorbing the piece in the way one might savor a house under construction by studying the architectural drawings and floor plan.

We all have a picture of Brahms - bearded, magisterial, and old (though he was only 64 when he passed) – and perhaps can call to mind those monumental works for which he is best known – the symphonies, the concertos, the German Requiem (which Tuscarawas Philharmonic and Chorus were supposed to be working on as I type this...rats!). The music sounds the way he looks....wise, wizened, august, ruminative and other words we don't use much anymore.

1

About our Sponsors

Tuscarawas Philharmonic appreciates the ongoing support of our patrons and sponsors.

This concert is made possible through generous contributions from:

Season Sponsor:

• Provia

Guarantors:

• Chevron

• The Max and Jane Krantz Foundation

• James and Linda Angel Rice

• Tuscarawas County Community Foundation

Sponsors

• Krugliak, Wilkins, Griffiths & Dougherty Co., LPA

Co-Sponsors

• Bill and Chris Emley

• Peggy Pritz

TUSCARAWAS PHILHARMONIC State of the Art | February 2021

Volume 10 Issue 4

The Serenade in D was composed by the young Johannes Brahms at the tender age of 25. Pictures of him at that age reveal a handsome kid, clean-shaven, and fresh-faced. He was just beginning to compose some big pieces of chamber music and his dramatic first piano concerto. He found work conducting two women's choirs (one can imagine the giggles...) and had been championed by the esteemed Robert Schumann and his wife, Clara (with whom he reputedly fell in undeclared love). The Serenade is a fresh sprig of romanticism – the first movement sounds a bit like folk music, and the young composer takes his inventive faculties out for a run – through developmental episodes and new keys – good heavens! – a D major piece that turns up and episode in Db??!!? Can you DO that? "Shur" says Brahms.

There are two charming minuets – long out of fashion as dances or compositional studies, but Brahms had a thing about the musical past – he loved it – and was not averse to giving old forms a facelift. The finale is rambunctious fun, galumphing along playfully and then sounding a bit like Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.

The work was originally composed for an ensemble of nine instruments and he later scored it for full orchestra. We'll present the chamber version. It's sheer delight – and I've described only three of the work's six movements. But those are the three we will prepare and record to present online via our website in lieu of the live concert originally scheduled for February 13. The rest will come later. Stay tuned.

Happy hearing,

Eric

A Little History... On the evening of March 3, 1860, a young composer was ushered from the theatre wings to thunderous applause from a Hannover audience of nearly 1,200 concertgoers. Shy, insecure, and thinking the performance did not go well, he was stunned by the audience’s enthusiastic reception to one of his earliest orchestral compositions: Serenade No. 1 in D, Op. 11. That young composer was none other than Johannes Brahms, and if not for the encouragement of a few close friends, his subsequent extensive repertoire that has come to define late 19th century Romanticism may never have been written.

Johannes Brahms’s iconicity earned him inclusion into a category reserved for what many consider the preeminent hierarchy of European composers – the “Three Bs” – Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms. But, from an early age Brahms was trained and encouraged by his parents to become a performer, not a composer. Johannes’s father, Johann Jakob, was a talented musician and served as Johannes’s first teacher, instructing him on both violin and cello.

2

Volume 10 Issue 4

By the age of seven, Johannes began studying piano and while he showed promise as a pianist, his teacher, Otto Friedrich Cossel, complained that Brahms “could be such a good player, but he will not stop his never-ending composing.”

Brahms’s next teacher, pianist and composer Eduard Marxsen, was more encouraging. Marxsen was a contemporary of Beethoven and Schubert and schooled the young composer in the musical traditions set forth by Haydn, Mozart, and J.S. Bach. It was at this time also that Brahms launched his performance career and formed friendships with several noted musicians of the day, including violin virtuoso Joseph Joachim. This proved a pivotal juncture, as Joachim was responsible for introducing Brahms to the two most influential and supportive friends the young composer would subsequently have: Robert and Clara Schumann.

Superstars of their day, the Schumanns were known throughout Europe. Upon meeting Brahms and witnessing his talent, Robert Schumann published an article in the journal Neue Zeitschrift für Musik predicting Brahms as “fated to give expression to the times in the highest and most ideal manner.” Self-critical and insecure, Brahms wrote to Schumann stating his praise “will arouse such extraordinary expectations by the public that I don’t know how I can begin to fulfill them.” In 1858, two years after Robert’s death and with Clara’s encouragement, Brahms penned two of his earliest orchestral compositions, Serenades No. 1 and No. 2, the latter dedicated to his devoted friend, Clara.

Tuscarawas Philharmonic is pleased to offer three movements of Serenade No. 1 in D, Op. 11 for our February 13th virtual performance at 7:30 p.m. We hope you’ll join Maestro Benjamin and our chamber ensemble on the orchestra’s webpage (www.tuscarawasphilharmonic.org), YouTube, or Facebook page for this delightful early work written by one of the greatest composers of the Romantic Era!

Spotlight on the Orchestra: Jim Perone I’ve been the principal clarinetist of the Philharmonic for the past 26 years. My first encounter with the orchestra was a call for auditions for the positions of principal clarinetist and principal flutist that was posted on the bulletin board in Mount Union’s music building. My wife, flutist Karen Perone, and I auditioned for Marjorie Henke at Marge’s and Bob’s house in Canton. That’s the kind of personal touch you find in this orchestra that really makes it feel like home for me.

I’ve been playing the clarinet for a couple of ticks over 50 years and first began after hearing the classic in-school demonstration by a group of professional musicians who helped Columbus-based Coyle’s Music with recruiting for their rental program. My college degrees are in music education (Bachelor of Music), clarinet performance (Master of Fine Arts), and music theory (Master of Arts and Ph.D.) and are from Capital University (undergraduate) and the State University of New York at Buffalo (graduate). I’m currently Professor Emeritus of Music at the University of Mount Union, from which I recently took an early retirement after teaching there for 25 years. In addition to playing clarinet in the Philharmonic, I perform with the Canton Concert Band, and I play clarinet, dobro, banjo, and cajon in the Americana/roots music group Rock Salt and Nails. When not doing music, I enjoy appearing as the on-screen host of the Alliance Historical Society’s “Marking Time in Alliance” programs on YouTube.

3

Volume 10 Issue 4

4

Tuscarawas Philharmonic P.O. Box 406 New Philadelphia, OH 44663

www.TuscarawasPhilharmonic.org