YEAR OF THE VIOLIN 2018–2019 SEASON2018-2019.pdfManuel Barrueco, and have been conducted and embraced by esteemed music directors including Markand Thakar, Marin Alsop, Giancarlo

M A R K A N D T H A K A R M U S I C D I R E C T O R

2 01 8 –2 019 S E A S O N

Y E A R O F T H E V I O L I N

Welcome to Baltimore Chamber Orchestra’s 2018-2019 season: BCO’s 36th year and our Year of the Violin! We are delighted to bring you once again five outstanding concerts this season!

This is a special season for BCO, one of Baltimore’s musical treasures. We are conducting a search for our next concertmaster and are privileged to have four extraordinary violinists, who will demonstrate their technical and musical mastery over the course of the year. Each violinist will perform a concerto with us and will sit first chair for part of a concert. We invite you to help us assess each of the soloists and help us choose BCO’s next great concertmaster. Share your thoughts!

We provide compelling performances of outstanding music in a comfortable, beautiful setting that’s easily accessible. Our specialty is music for smaller orchestral ensembles from the extensive classical canon. In addition to providing fresh and inspiring interpretations of familiar classics, BCO plays less well-known masterpieces ignored by larger orchestras. BCO is Baltimore’s Intimate Classical Orchestra, striving to create musical intensity at every performance. Our Sunday afternoon audiences are passionate about our concerts, and our strong reviews reflect the artistry of the orchestra.

Thank you for your generous financial contributions that enable BCO to present outstanding classical music each season. Ticket revenues provide a small portion of the orchestra’s operating budget. Your donations also sustain BCO’s commitment to music education of young people, including All Students Free All the Time at concerts. Live Wire String Quartet, BCO’s educational-outreach ensemble, touched the lives of more than 1,600 students last season. We are continuing our development of The Listening Lab, BCO’s second music-education project for older, elementary-school students. We are helping to create the next generation of classical music lovers!

Please join us for the final nights of Music Director Markand Thakar’s exciting conducting programs each winter and summer. Aspiring young conductors come from around the world to work with BCO and hone their craft under Maestro Thakar’s tutelage. Donors and subscribers are invited to observe these revelatory sessions; we would love for you to attend the evenings with full orchestra. Our next conducting program will be in December. This is a unique experience available to BCO supporters.

Share the joy! Bring your friends and neighbors and introduce them to our performances. Bring students and give them a great musical experience (free for students). If you have ideas about how we can continue to build audiences and support for the orchestra, please let us know your thoughts.

On behalf of Baltimore Chamber Orchestra and its Board of Trustees, thank you for joining us.

Savor the music!

Kim Z. Golden, President Board of Trustees

president’s welcome!

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contents Board of TrusteesKim Z. Golden / PresidentInvestment Manager

John A. Roberts, Esq. / Vice President/SecretaryAttorney at Law

Justin C. Lefevre / TreasurerPricewaterhousecoopers

Sima BlueTrillium Ltd.

Douglas M. Fambrough, Ph.D.Johns Hopkins University

Kevin HiranoOpen Society Institute

Christine M. Hurt, CPA, MBAAyers Saint Gross, Inc.

Michael A. Jacobs, M.D.Good Samaritan Hospital

James T. McGill, Ph.D.Independent Consultant

Steven E. NorwitzT. Rowe Price and Associates

Brooke Pollack

Christine SnyderBD Life Sciences

Jason T. VlosichBrown Advisory

StaffLockwood HoehlExecutive Director

Ken BellOperations Manager

Craig TeerStage Manager

David ZeitHouse Manager

Composer in ResidenceJonathan Leshnoff

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President’s Welcome Kim Z. Golden

Music Director’s Welcome Markand Thakar

Programs / Annotation

16 October Concert

24 November Concert

32 February Concert

40 March Concert

48 May Concert

Sponsors

Donors

Markand Thakar

BCO Roster

BCO History

Patron Information

WBJC’s Jonathan Palevsky

leads PRE-CONCERT CONVERSATIONS at

2:15 pm before each concert

in Kraushaar Auditorium

Welcome to Baltimore Chamber Orchestra’s 36th season: Year of the Violin!

While we miss our former concertmaster Madeline Adkins, stolen so unceremoniously by Utah Symphony (and without apology, I might add), we are excited by the prospects of a new era for BCO!

We welcome four stellar candidates for the concertmaster position: Netanel “Nati” Draiblate, currently concertmaster of the orchestras of Annapolis and Lake Forest (IL); Karen Johnson, currently concertmaster of The White House Chamber Orchestra; Audrey Wright, associate concertmaster of Baltimore Symphony (Madeline’s successor); and Peter Sirotin, concertmaster of Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra. We also welcome William McGregor, the eighteen-year-old, virtuoso double-bass soloist and 2017 Stulberg International String Competition gold medalist.

Our programs bring violin concertos of Mozart, Beethoven, and Mendelssohn; symphonies of Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert, and Prokofiev; popular works by Dvořák, Rossini and Mozart; plus gems by Aaron Copland, Carl Nielsen, and of course by our much-loved Composer in Residence, Jonathan Leshnoff.

We look forward to hearing your thoughts on who you’d like as our next concertmaster and, by all means, stop backstage after the concerts to say hello to all of us.

Markand Thakar music director

music director’s welcome!

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Season SponsorsBaltimore County Commission on Arts

and SciencesKim Z. Golden and Jean SudaMaryland State Arts CouncilJohn Roberts and Susan ShanerMarkand Thakar and Victoria Chiang

Concert SponsorsBD Life SciencesKim Z. Golden and Jean SudaGreenspring Associates, Inc.Naden/Lean, LLCWells Fargo Advisors, LLC Lutherville Complex

Special PartnersWBJC-FMLive Wire String QuartetThe Listening Lab

Soloist SponsorsConcertmaster Search Sponsors: Ashworth Guest Soloist Fund Kim Z. Golden and Jean Suda John Roberts and Susan ShanerMr. McGregor is sponsored by: Stulberg International String CompetitionSponsor in honor of Jonathan Leshnoff: Towson University

Baltimore Chamber Orchestra is funded by an operating grant from the Maryland State Arts Council, an agency dedicated to cultivating a vibrant cultural community where the arts thrive. Funding for the Maryland State Arts Council is also provided by the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency, which believes that a great nation deserves great art.

special thanks!BCO Baltimore’s Intimate Classical Orchestra is grateful to its sponsors and partners for their extraordinary support of BCO’s 36th season.

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A former assistant conductor of New York Philharmonic, Music Director Markand Thakar’s appearances include concerts and a national radio broadcast with that orchestra, as well as concerts with National, San Antonio, Charlotte, Wichita, Knoxville, Colorado Springs, Illinois, Maryland, National Gallery, Waterbury, and Annapolis symphony orchestras; Ulsan (South Korea) Philharmonic; Boston Pro Arte, National, and Cleveland chamber orchestras; and opera productions with Baltimore Opera Theater, Teatro Lirico d’Europa, and Duluth Festival Opera. A frequent guest conductor at Aspen Music Festival, Mr. Thakar has appeared with Yo-Yo Ma and Colorado Symphony Orchestra and with Itzhak Perlman and Boulder Philharmonic. He is a winner of Geraldine C. and Emory M. Ford Foundation Award. He is a frequent commentator for NPR’s Performance Today and has appeared on CBS This Morning and CNN conducting Colorado Symphony.

With BCO, Thakar has recorded three CDs for the Naxos label, including disks of concertos by Classical Era masters Stamitz, Hoffmeister, and Pleyel and music by Jonathan Leshnoff. BCO traveled to China to perform a series of Viennese New Year’s concerts. A recent a performance in New York earned a review from The New York Times, which praised the group’s “warmth and substance.” During his 12-year’s tenure with Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra, DSSO saw dramatic growth in both audience and artistic prominence to what Minnesota Public Radio called “Minnesota’s other great orchestra.”

Noted internationally as a pedagogue, Maestro Thakar’s two annual, intensive conducting programs with BCO have drawn conductors from five continents. His students have won significant conducting positions across North America and internationally, including music directorships with Hartford, Winnipeg, Oklahoma

continued on page 6

about markand thakar music director

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City, Sioux Falls, and Grande Ronde symphony orchestras; staff conducting positions with The Metropolitan Opera and the orchestras of Philadelphia, New York, Los Angeles, Cincinnati, Dallas, Seattle, Saint Louis, Portland (OR), Phoenix, Charlotte, Kansas City; and numerous collegiate positions.

Formerly associate conductor of Colorado Symphony Orchestra and conductor of Eugene Symphony’s “NightMusic” pops series, Maestro Thakar was music director and conductor of Amadeus Chamber Orchestra in New York City, Barnard-Columbia Philharmonia, Classical Symphony of Cincinnati, Penn’s Woods Philharmonia, and National Festival Orchestra of Great Lakes Festival of Musical Arts.

Thakar was awarded a Fulbright fellowship for study of orchestral conducting in Romania and is a past winner of the national Exxon Conductors Program auditions. He earned a bachelor’s degree in composition and violin performance from The Juilliard School; a master’s degree in music theory from Columbia University; and a doctorate in orchestral conducting from Cincinnati College-Conservatory. He undertook special studies in orchestral conducting at Curtis Institute and Ciprian Porumbescu Conservatory in Bucharest, Romania. Other conducting studies were with Gustav Meier, Max Rudolf, and Peter Perret.

Most significant was his work conducting Munich Philharmonic under the mentorship of Sergiu Celibidache, the legendary, former music-director of Berlin Philharmonic. “From Celibidache I came to understand that the ‘magic moments’ that we all experience from time to time can

extend – even possibly from the very first sound of a movement through the very last. In such an extended ‘magic moment’ we experience a remarkable transcendence: we accept the sound; we absorb the sound; we become the sound; and in so doing we transcend everyday consciousness of time and space; we touch our conscious soul in a most remarkable way. My driving interest has been an exploration of the conditions – from the composer, from us performers, and from the listener – that allow this most profoundly exquisite, life-affirming experience.”

Thakar is the author of three seminal books. On the Principles and Practice of Conducting (University of Rochester Press, 2016) is a manual for acquiring necessary and invaluable skills and understandings. Looking for the “Harp” Quartet; An Investigation into Musical Beauty (University of Rochester Press, 2011) is a journey through the experience of musical beauty from the standpoint of the composer, performer, and listener. The book is described as “a 225-page tour de force,” and “an exercise in academic excellence and a seminal contribution for personal, professional, and academic classical music studies” (Midwest Book Review). Counterpoint: Fundamentals of Music Making (published by Yale University Press, 1990) uses species counterpoint to promote an understanding of how both composer and performer contribute to the experience of musical beauty.

Thakar lives in Baltimore with his wife, violist Victoria Chiang, and their son, Oliver.

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Distinguished by The New York Times as “a leader of contemporary American lyricism,” composer Jonathan Leshnoff attracts audiences with his music’s gripping embrace of tonality. His compositions have earned international acclaim for their striking harmonies, structural complexity, and powerful themes.

The Baltimore-based composer’s works have been performed by more than 60 orchestras worldwide in hundreds of orchestral concerts, He has received commissions from Carnegie Hall and orchestras including Atlanta, Baltimore, Dallas, Kansas City, and Nashville symphonies, Buffalo Philharmonic, and IRIS and Philadelphia Orchestras. Leshnoff’s compositions have been performed by classical music’s most celebrated stars, such as Gil and Orli Shaham, Roberto Díaz, and Manuel Barrueco, and have been conducted and embraced by esteemed music directors including Markand Thakar, Marin Alsop, Giancarlo Guerrero, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Robert Spano, and Michael Stern.

Leshnoff has been ranked among the most performed living composers by American orchestras in recent seasons, and upcoming seasons are comparably active with musical activity and collaborations. Highlights for the 2018-19 season include Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra’s premiere of Leshnoff’s Concerto for Clarinet and Bassoon; Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra’s premiere of Leshnoff’s Suite for Cello, Strings, and Timpani featuring the eminent cellist Johannes Moser; and the start of a multi-year residency with Fairfax Symphony. Orchestras from Knoxville Symphony to Colorado Springs Philharmonic also perform works from Leshnoff’s robust oeuvre.

Leshnoff has released four albums to date, all on the Naxos American Classics

about jonathan leshnoff composer in residence

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label. Featured recordings include Violin Concerto No.1 with Charles Wetherbee and Baltimore Chamber Orchestra – selected among Naxos’ Top 40 CDs the year of its release – and Symphony No.1, conducted by Michael Stern with IRIS Chamber Orchestra, along with Leshnoff’s chamber music. An all-Leshnoff recording of Atlanta Symphony performing Symphony No. 2 and Zohar oratorio was released in November 2016. In December 2017, the recent band arrangement of his Clarinet Concerto was featured with Philadelphia Orchestra principal Ricardo Morales in a recording with United States Marine Band. A new all-Leshnoff release is expected in early

2019, with Nashville Symphony performing his Guitar Concerto with Jason Vieaux and his recently premiered Symphony No.4.

Celebrated by Fanfare magazine as “the real thing,” Leshnoff’s music has been lauded by Strings magazine as “distinct from anything else that’s out there” and by The Baltimore Sun as “remarkably assured, cohesively constructed and radiantly lyrical.” Leshnoff’s catalog is vast, including several symphonies and oratorios, numerous concertos, solo, and chamber works.

Leshnoff is Professor of Music at Towson University.


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Violinconcertmaster candidates

Netanel DraiblateKaren JohnsonAudrey WrightPeter Sirotin

Kristin BakkegardCeleste BlaseAndrea BoeckerAnne FontenellaHeather HaughnHanbing JiaLinda LeanzaSharon OhLauren RauschCollette Wichert

ViolaChiara Dieguez principal

Joan BobAnnie Chang-CenterNana Vaughn

CelloSeth Low principal

Peter KibbeTodd Thiel

BassLaura Ruas principal

FluteKristin Winter-Jones principal

Chester Burke

OboeFatma Daglar principal

Joseph Deluccio

ClarinetWilliam Jenken principal

Edna Huang

BassoonBryan Young principal

Holden McAleer

HornKen Bell principal

Paul Hopkins

TrumpetBrent Flinchbaugh principal

Ted Jones

Timpani/PercussionBarry Dove

bco roster 2018 –2019 season

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Baltimore Chamber Orchestra’s first performance, led by Maestra Anne

Harrigan, was on January 29, 1984. She introduced the audience to a

classical orchestra offering virtuoso performances that touch the heart.

From its beginning, Baltimore Chamber Orchestra has grown to occupy an essential niche in the thriving arts scene of greater Baltimore. The orchestra is the actual size for which the classical repertoire was originally composed. BCO remains a group of exceptional musicians who are passionate about their performances. Indeed, the orchestra strives to meet the same standard established at its inception in 1984: to provide accessible, high-quality, classical music with an intimate touch.

BCO’s 21st season marked the final phase of its search for a music director to replace founder Anne Harrigan. BCO selected Markand Thakar for the position of music director in June 2004. Maestro Thakar made his debut with New York Philharmonic in 1997 and has since appeared with that orchestra numerous times, along with National, San Antonio, Winnipeg and Charlotte Symphony Orchestras, among others. A frequent guest conductor at Aspen Music Festival, Mr. Thakar has shared the stage with some of the world’s great artists, including Yo-Yo Ma and Itzhak Perlman. Formerly music director of Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra and principal conductor of Duluth Festival Opera, he was a long-time member of the graduate conducting faculty of Peabody Conservatory.

history of bco baltimore’s intimate classical orchestra

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Jonathan Leshnoff joined the orchestra as Composer in Residence in 2007, and BCO welcomed Baltimore Symphony associate concertmaster Madeline Adkins as our concertmaster in 2009.

BCO continues to achieve new heights. In recent seasons the orchestra has recorded three CDs that were released by Naxos, given five concerts on tour in China, presented a New York debut praised by The New York Times, performed on University of Delaware Masterplayers series, and hosted workshops for young conductors from around the world.

The orchestra comprises forty of the area’s best professional musicians. As the only professional orchestra with a subscription series in Baltimore County, BCO plays in the 973-seat Kraushaar Auditorium, Goucher College, where the audience is treated to an intimacy with the orchestra and soloists and to nuances and clarity in the music that can’t be achieved in a huge symphony hall.

A committed and enthusiastic Board of Trustees includes community leaders, philanthropic advisors, and music lovers. Creative partnerships with businesses and media in the region contribute to the visibility and accessibility of the orchestra.

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ONLINEVisit www.thebco.org.

BOX OFFICE On performance days only, the Box Office at Kraushaar Auditorium opens 75 minutes before the concerts.

PHONETickets may be purchased by calling 410.685.4050, Monday through Friday, 10–4.

MAILMail your ticket request and payment to:

Baltimore Chamber Orchestra 11 West Mount Vernon Place Baltimore, Maryland 21201

FEES $3 for each order.

GROUP DISCOUNTS Groups of 10 or more receive a discount, subject to availability. Please call BCO for details.

TICKET EXCHANGES Subject to availability, season subscribers may exchange tickets by 4pm Friday afternoon before each concert.

Please note: tickets will not be exchanged after the performance has taken place.

how to order tickets:

bco patron

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VISIT US ONLINE! thebco.org or follow

us on Facebook!

LATE SEATING Out of consideration for musicians and audience, ushers will seat latecomers at their discretion, usually between pieces. Similarly, audience members who must leave during the concert are asked to do so only when there is a pause in the program.

RESTROOMS Restrooms in Kraushaar Auditorium are located on the lower level, accessed by the stairs at the back of the Rosenberg Gallery. Handicapped facilities are located in the lobby.

WHEELCHAIR SEATING Kraushaar Auditorium is wheelchair accessible.

CAMERA/RECORDING DEVICES The use of cameras and recording devices at Baltimore Chamber Orchestra concerts is strictly prohibited.

ELECTRONIC DEVICES Patrons are asked to turn off cell phones and all other sound-emitting devices before the start of the concert.

SPECIAL SERVICES Taped program notes are available for the vision impaired. Call 410.685.4050 to request. Loops for the hearing impaired are available for Kraushaar Auditorium performances. Please request them at the Goucher box office the day of the performance.

WEBSITE For the latest information on programs, personalities, and other news regarding the orchestra, visit BCO at www.thebco.org.

CONTACT INFORMATION We are committed to customer service and welcome your feedback. Telephone: 410.685.4050 Email: [email protected]

A L L P R O G R A M S A N D P E R F O R M E R S A R E S U B J E C T T O C H A N G E

concert information:

information

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Baltimore Chamber Orchestra is dedicated to providing musical experiences for students of all ages.

ALL STUDENTS FREE ALL THE TIMEBCO welcomes all students free to all BCO’s concerts.

CONDUCTING PROGRAMSMusic Director Markand Thakar presents his Winter Conducting Workshop in December and his Summer Conducting Seminar in June. Dozens of early-career, professional conductors from around the world come to Baltimore to develop their conducting skills and musicianship by working with Maestro Thakar and BCO musicians. The final two evenings are open free to the community to observe the learning process of young conductors leading a full orchestra. If you would like to attend, please contact BCO for more information at [email protected].

LIVE WIRE STRING QUARTETLive Wire String Quartet brings music to low-income, younger, elementary-school students in small settings, usually classrooms, to enhance academic achievement in core curricula. Presentations by Live Wire feature instruction, performances, student activities and participation, and interaction with the musicians and their instruments. Live Wire reached 1,637 students in 35 school visits in the 2017-2018 school year.

THE LISTENING LABThe Listening Lab, presented by Rebecca Smithorn, BCO’s Education Conductor, teaches students concentration, awareness, and intentional listening-skills techniques through music and offers students live performances in their own schools.

bco loves music education

An orchestral concertmaster serves a vital role. She or he sits in the first chair of the first violins and is a kind of conduit between the conductor and the ensemble. This includes facilitating communication from the conductor to the ensemble and from the ensemble to the conductor. Concertmasters perform violin solos within an orchestral work and regularly stand in front of the orchestra to perform as a concerto soloist.

Our concertmaster must be: a first-rate violinist with impeccable technique and unassailable musicianship; widely respected personally and professionally by the BCO community; and a consummate solo artist.

As our audience well knows, Madeline Adkins, our former concertmaster was – and is, in her current role as concertmaster of Utah Symphony – a model practitioner! Succeeding Madeline will be no easy task. But, fortunately, BCO has four exceptional candidates, each clearly possessing the necessary technical, musical, and personal qualities. Each candidate will perform a concerto as soloist in the first half of a concert and, in the second half, will assume the first chair in the orchestra. The down side of four such top-flight candidates is that we anticipate a very difficult decision at the end of the season. Critical to the choice will be the response of the music director, trustees, and musicians – especially the response from the other principal players, who work particularly closely with the concertmaster. And, we are absolutely interested in your thoughts as well!

about bco’s concertmaster search

PROGRAM ANNOTATORAndrew Sauvageau is a classical singer, free-lance writer, and history buff. A former long-time resident of Baltimore, he is now based in Washington, DC. This is his fourth season writing notes for Bravo!.

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Netanel Draiblate violin has been hailed as “an extremely gifted violinist with a strong stage personality and charisma.” He has concertized across four continents. He performs as a soloist, chamber musician, and recording artist. The Washington Post called him “a violinist who combines confidence and virtuosity with a playful musical personality.”

The cadenza for Mendelssohn Concerto, which Mr. Draiblate plays in this concert, is a 2012 addition that he wrote. It replaces the original cadenza and will be the Maryland Premier when performed with BCO.

Netanel’s violin: I play on a modern violin made in New York City by a very talented Polish maker named Lukas Wronski. The violin was made in 2007 and is a copy of the “Canon” made by Guarneri. It is quite a beast. We tested it against a Strad in a hall; it was quite evenly matched. The great thing about having a modern violin and a living luthier is the ability to constantly update, tweak, and upgrade the violin’s capabilities. My bow is a Victor Fetique.

Draiblate is currently concertmaster of Annapolis Symphony Orchestra, Lake Forest Symphony, and Washington, DC-based PostClassical Ensemble, which performs works created after 1900. He has served as concertmaster for Tel-Aviv Soloists, World Youth Orchestra, Israel Young Philharmonic, and played in West Eastern Divan Orchestra under the direction of Daniel Barenboim.

artist biography30 SEPTEMBER 2018

In 2012, Draiblate created ND-Publishing to publish his original compositions as well as cadenzas for celebrated concertos. Last season saw the world premiere of his newly published cadenzas for Beethoven and Brahms violin concerti.

Draiblate’s recent and upcoming highlights include appearances with Brasilia Concert Society Orchestra and Lancaster and Annapolis Symphonies. He marked his second summer as artist-in-residence at Aruba Symphony Festival, where he was featured in Bach’s Concerto for Violin and Oboe. Last season, he appeared as soloist with AACC Symphony Orchestra in its Kennedy Center debut. This season, he will be featured in Bach’s Concerto for Two Violins with Lake Forest Symphony. Solo engagements include his debut with American Symphony at Carnegie Hall, Israel Chamber Orchestra, and Turkey’s Bursa Symphony Orchestra. He appeared as soloist with Baltimore Chamber Orchestra on tour in China.

As a chamber musician, Draiblate has collaborated with Pinchas Zukerman, Yo-Yo Ma, ltzhak Perlman, Jaime Laredo, and Cho Liang Lin. Last season, he joined members of New York Philharmonic as part of Lancaster International Piano Festival and served on its faculty. He will be featured on a special concert for the America-Israel Cultural

Foundation in November. He recently toured with pianist Lura Johnson, as Times Two, in a program dedicated to Brahms.

Perspectives, Draiblate’s debut solo recording, was recognized by American Record Guide as “very exciting and engaging.” It features works by Mendelssohn, Prokofiev, Elgar, Grieg, and Kreisler.

As a teacher, Draiblate is Director of Chamber Music at Georgetown University and serves on the faculty of Annapolis Young Artists Program and The Levine School.

His awards include first prize in Jerusalem Academy Solo Competition; Ben-Haim Competition; finalist in Young Artists Competition in Haifa; and a major prize in Peabody Conservatory’s Yale Gordon Competition. He was the first violinist to be supported by Ilona Feher Foundation. Early in his career he was honored to play on the personal violin of Ms. Feher. As child, Draiblate was asked to play for Isaac Stern during a master class in Jerusalem. Following the class, Stern arranged to give him a 7/8 violin, with a note saying “he would like me to have it until I grew out of it.”

When not concertizing, Mr. Draiblate enjoys cooking and watching and playing soccer. For more information, visit www.netaneldraiblate.com.

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what’s all that italian mean?

They are tempo indications that describe the character of the motion of the music.

Adagio: rather slow

Allegretto: gently moving

Allegro: quick, lively; faster than allegretto but slower than presto

Assai: very

Espressivo: conveying thought or feeling

Larghetto: fairly slow

Lento: very slow

Ma non troppo: but not too much

Marcia: march

Meno: less

Moderato: moderate

Molto: very

Moto perpetuo: perpetual motion

Pezzo: piece

Piacevole: pleasant

Poco: little

Presto: very fast

Ritmico: rhythmic

Scherzo: (literally: joke; jest) light or playful

Tenuto: sustained

Vivace: lively

mendelssohn concerto, leshnoff, beethoven

SUNDAY, 30 SEPTEMBER 2018 | 3PM

Markand Thakar conductor

Netanel Drablaite violin, concertmaster candidate

Kraushaar Auditorium, Goucher College

Concert SponsorNaden/Lean LLC

Concertmaster Search Sponsors

Ashworth Guest Soloist Fund

Kim Z. Golden and Jean Suda

John Roberts and Susan Shaner

Sponsor in honor of Jonathan Leshnoff

Towson University

Season Sponsors Baltimore County

Commission on Arts and Sciences


Maryland State Arts Council


Markand Thakar and Victoria Chiang

FOUR DANCES Jonathan Leshnoff

Commissioned by Eileen Williams and Judah Gudelsky in honor of Jonathan Leshnoff and his excellence in musical creativity!

VIOLIN CONCERTOFelix Mendelssohn

Allegro molto appassionatoAndanteAllegretto non troppo – Allegro molto vivaceMr. Draiblate

INTERMISSION

SYMPHONY NO.2 IN D MAJOR, OP.36Ludwig van Beethoven

Adagio molto – Allegro con brioLarghettoScherzo. Allegro vivoAllegro molto

The concert will end at approximately 5pm

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program notes30 SEPTEMBER 2018

JONATHAN LESHNOFFb. 1973 New BrunswickFour Dances, 2014 Commissioned by Eileen Williams and Judah Gudelsky in honor of Jonathan Leshnoff and his excellence in musical creativity!

Baltimore Chamber Orchestra is proud to inaugurate Year of the Violin with its favorite living composer, Jonathan Leshnoff. If you attended last season’s opening concert, you heard his Cello Concerto. BCO’s relationship with Leshnoff began with a performance of his Violin Concerto in 2006. He began as Composer in Residence in 2007. Since then, BCO has performed or recorded several of his compositions, including Distant Reflections, Requiem for the Fallen, Trombone Concerto, and String Quartet No.3. We’re not alone in our appreciation of him; Leshnoff is currently one of the most frequently programmed living composers by American orchestras.

If you are unfamiliar with Leshnoff’s work and feeling apprehensive about contemporary music, there is no reason to fear. While the 20th century had various schools of composers that deliberately

challenged listeners with extreme dissonance and atonality, the 21st century is something of a gentler age for its strains of concert music. Dissonance still adds sheen and interest to any music worth listening to, but it is not the vehicle that drives this century’s works. Leshnoff embraces lyricism and tonality in his music, allowing melodies to sweep and bloom throughout many of his collected works. His music beckons the listener to lean in and consider something new without fear or intimidation. The effect is welcoming and encourages a naturally emotional response.

Four Dances, Leshnoff’s most recent work for string quartet, was written in 2014 and was premiered by Carpe Diem String Quartet in 2015. Because it has yet to be recorded, many of you will certainly hear it for the first time today; in fact, this is the chamber-orchestra premiere. We are very pleased to introduce it to those who have not yet heard it and to share it again with those who have.

J O N A T H A N L E S H N O F F

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FELIX MENDELSSOHNb. 1809 Hamburg; d. 1847 LeipzigViolin Concerto, 1844

(Mr. Draiblate wrote the cadenza he will play.)

Felix Mendelssohn is another of history’s tragically short-lived composers. There is no dearth of young musicians who did not reach the age of forty and whose music tantalizes posterity with a sense of truncated possibility. Though Mendelssohn’s life was over too quickly, he began performing publicly around the age of nine as an already consummate pianist. So, his almost 30-year career rivals that of some composers who lived longer but started performing later in life.

Mendelssohn’s earliest surviving compositions begin when he was eleven or twelve. As is natural, many of them centered on his principal instrument, the piano, but he quickly expanded into composing for strings and salon-appropriate ensembles. One such early work is a prototype violin concerto for soloist and string orchestra written when he was 13. It is among his WoO (Werke ohne Opuszahl) compositions, mostly from his teenage years. They are brilliant, precocious pieces, but most weren’t published during Mendelssohn’s lifetime.

He wouldn’t attempt another violin concerto for years. When he finally returned to the genre, it took him six years to complete this mature work. He

may have doubted his ability to finish it properly or he may have been distracted by other projects. Whatever caused the delay, Mendelssohn told Ferdinand David (1810-1873) – the soloist who premiered the work – that the opening melody gave him no peace and he ultimately completed the concerto in 1844. It premiered six months later, but Mendelssohn was unable to conduct the premiere himself due to illness. The resulting masterpiece is explosively dramatic and a staple of violin repertoire.

Part of the appeal to soloists of Violin Concerto is its unrelenting difficulty. Concerti usually operate as a dialogue between soloist and orchestra, much like a kind of musical interview. The ensemble typically opens with an inspired question, followed by ingenious expostulation from the soloist. This pattern repeats until a climactic close. In this concerto, the orchestra only gets a measure and a half

F E L I X M E N D E L S S O H N

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into its opening remark before the soloist blasts into the first virtuosic line. From that impassioned beginning, the solo line will pause for a mere handful of moments until it careens into the finish line. The orchestra is compelled to follow the solo violin as it flies to the absolute extremes of its range with mercurial agility.

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVENb. 1770 Bonn; d. 1827 ViennaSymphony No.2 in D Major, Op.36, 1802

Beethoven – along with the other two members of the “Three Bs” of German music: Johann Sebastian Bach and Johannes Brahms – comes down to posterity as an old man. This is rather undeserved for Beethoven, who died when he was only 56. More than his trips around the sun, his late reputation as a surly, irritable character are closely linked to the great tragedy of his life: his premature deafness, beginning when he was 28 or younger and progressively worsening for the rest of his life.

This loss of one of the most important assets to his professional career as a musician was, obviously, frustrating. As anyone who has suffered from personal hearing loss or the deafness of a friend or loved one can attest, it is one of the most socially isolating experiences a person can face. Beethoven managed his disability as well as he could through his thirties, but as he progressed into his forties and fifties, he left us with the wild-haired, scowling image that graces so many pianos and mantles.

When he began Symphony No.2, he was still a young man of 31. His deafness hadn’t gone away and he was suffering from tinnitus. It had such a profound effect on him that he wrote a testament later that year outlining his wishes to his brothers in the event of his death. Suicide was a romantic device in the early

L U D W I G VA N B E E T H O V E N


Though Symphony No.2 doesn’t share as much of the modern spotlight as his

later symphonies, it is still a powerhouse from a master of the genre.

19th-century but, instead of following through with any fantasy of self-harm, Beethoven poured his efforts into Eroica Symphony, which follows the one you will hear today.

Though Symphony No.2 doesn’t share as much of the modern spotlight as his later symphonies, it is still a powerhouse from a master of the genre. Each of Beethoven’s nine symphonies exhibits different characteristics but, like siblings, they share a wide range of common traits. Even if you’re less familiar with this symphony than with some of his other symphonies, you may experience a case of déjà entendu very near the beginning of this work. You’re not imagining things. The

moment, nearly two minutes into the first movement, that will sound oddly familiar is almost identical to the opening theme of Symphony No.9, right down to the key. When that culminating symphony entreats “not these sounds” in its fourth movement, Beethoven may have been speaking to his younger self during one of the lowest emotional moments in his life.

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William McGregor bass, age eighteen, began his double-bass studies at age two with Derek Weller in Ann Arbor. In 2009, he was accepted into The Juilliard School Pre-College Division, where he studied for nine years with Albert Laszlo.

William’s bass: My bass is by an unknown Chinese manufacturer, refinished by Aaron Reiley at Guarneri House in Hudsonville, Michigan. I have played on this bass for five years. It is modeled after Larry Hurst’s bass. Mr. Hurst is formerly of Jacobs School at Indiana University. My bass is called a Larry Hurst model, although I call him George!

William has performed in master classes with Edgar Meyer, Harold Robinson, Tim Cobb, Ranaan Meyer, David Murray, Eugene Levinson, Anthony Stoops, and John Kendall. William was invited by John Kendall to play in a master class at University of Michigan in a celebration honoring Mr. Kendall.

In 2011, William became a fellowship-scholarship student at Aspen Music Festival and School, where he was the youngest full-time student at the Festival. William was selected to perform in Spotlight Recital at Aspen and performed with Aspen Concert Orchestra.

artist biography18 NOVEMBER 2018

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William returned to Aspen for summer 2012, where he performed with Philharmonic Orchestra and was selected to perform at String Showcase Recital.

In 2012, William won The Juilliard School Pre-College Open Concerto Competition and performed with The Juilliard Pre-College Symphony at Peter J. Sharpe Theater at Lincoln Center. Later, William won the grand prize at Ensemble 212 Young Artist Competition and performed his solo concerto with Ensemble 212 at Kaufman Center’s Merkin Concert Hall in New York City.

In November 2012, William made his Carnegie Hall debut, performing Paganini’s Mosé in Egitto.

In October 2013, William was the 1st Prize Winner in Salome Chamber Orchestra Young Artist Competition in New York City. He also received Most Promising Young Artist award with Salome. He performed as soloist with Salome Chamber Orchestra at Carnegie Hall in February 2014.

In 2015, William was invited to solo with Allentown Symphony under the baton of Diane Wittry.

In January 2016, William won, for the second time, The Juilliard Pre-College Open Competition and performed solo with The Juilliard Pre-College Orchestra in February 2016 under the baton of George Stelluto.

In May 2017, William won the gold medal at Stulberg International String Competition and he performed with Kalamazoo Symphony.

In 2018, William was named a National YoungArts Foundation Finalist and attended National YoungArts Week in Miami. Additionally, William was named a U.S. Presidential Scholar in the Arts and performed at The Kennedy Center. William will perform in 2019 with Grand Rapids Symphony.

William began study with Harold Robinson and Edgar Meyer at Curtis Institute of Music this fall.

William’s hobbies are all sports and collecting baseball cards.

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INFO & TICKETSHANDELCHOIR.ORG

667.206.4120

Handel Messiah7:30 pm Saturday Dec. 15, 2018 Grace United Methodist Church, 5407 N. Charles St, Baltimore 212123:00 pm Sunday Dec. 16, 2018 St. Mark Catholic Church, 30 Melvin Ave, Catonsville 21228Handel Choir and Handel Period Instrument Orchestrawith acclaimed soloistsBrian Bartoldus conductor

Heav'nly Harmony4:00 pm Sunday Mar. 10, 2019 The Church of the Redeemer, 5603 N. Charles Street, Baltimore 21210Handel Choir and organist Jeremy Filsell celebrate English poets and the music that brings their deft and subtle verse to life! Handel Choir of Baltimore Jeremy Filsell organBrian Bartoldus conductor

Lux Aeterna: Songs of Comfort and Hope4:00 pm SundayApr. 28, 2019The Church of the Redeemer, 5603 N. Charles Street, Baltimore 21210Handel Choir of Baltimore and guest artistsBrian Bartoldus conductor

2018-2019 SEASONBrian Bartoldus, Artistic Director and Conductor

Wells Fargo Advisors, LLC 2350 West Joppa Road | Greenspring Centre

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410.494.6800 | 1.800.777.8714

all about that bass

SUNDAY, 18 NOVEMBER 2018 | 3PM


Jonathan Palevsky narrator

William McGregor double bass Gold Medalist, 2017 Stulberg International String Competition


Concert SponsorGreenspring

Associates, Inc.

Soloist SponsorStulberg International

String Competition

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SERENADE NO.6, K.239 (SERENATA NOTTURNA)Wolfgang Amadé Mozart

CONCERTO FOR DOUBLE BASS IN E MAJORCarl Ditters von Dittersdorf

Allegro moderato Adagio AllegroMr. McGregor

MOSES VARIATIONSNiccolò Paganini

Mr. McGregor

INTERMISSION

SYMPHONY NO.31 IN D MAJOR (HORNSIGNAL)Joseph Haydn

AllegroAdagioMinuet – TrioFinale: Moderato molto


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program notes18 NOVEMBER 2018

WOLFGANG AMADÉ MOZARTb. 1756 Salzburg; d. 1791 ViennaSerenade No.6, K.239 Serenata Notturna, 1776

Mozart’s life has as much appeal for modern audiences as his music. If we follow his path for a moment, we begin with a precocious child who quickly masters several instruments and becomes the toast of Europe. We then watch as the marvel of his youth wears off and he is forced to take a job he dislikes in a town that is much too small for his cosmopolitan upbringing. He tries multiple times to find work elsewhere, quits his position, only to take it up again as his repeated attempts fail. When he finally does regain some of the notoriety he had as a child – moving to a large capital city with greater opportunities – he still strains against the social and economic forces in his life, restlessly considers other options in different cities, and is finally stricken by illness and carried off in his mid-thirties.

In a revolutionary time in history, Mozart had a revolutionary spirit. Never satisfied with the status quo, he pushed the boundaries of music, sometimes to his own personal or financial disadvantage. He fulfills the romantic, dramatic ideal of an

artist: brilliant, reckless, and misunderstood by the world around him.

When he wrote Serenade No.6 in early 1776, he was two years into his tenure in Salzburg. For a young man who gained international renown before the age of ten, being suddenly trapped in his hometown chafed him. He and his father spent three months in Vienna and another three in Munich over two trips to find the younger Mozart work in a bigger city, but had no concrete offers. In spite of the frustration and disappointment he felt around the time of his 20th birthday, he still managed to keep his music jovial, light, and fun.

Serenades have no strict rules as to form. They can be of any length, with no set ensemble or number of movements. They were usually party music. Just as we would queue up a playlist today, 18th-century patrons would commission a live playlist for a gathering or celebration. Serenades would punctuate important parts of the evening or waft pleasantly in the background. We no longer know the occasion for which Mozart wrote this piece, but it may have been for a New Year’s, Twelfth Night, or

W O L F G A N G A M A D É M O Z A R T

Epiphany celebration. The prominent use of timpani among so many strings evokes fireworks. The host may have planned literal pyrotechnics or he may have asked Mozart to insert a musical alternative.

CARL DITTERS VON DITTERSDORFb. 1739 Vienna; d. 1799 Deštná, Czech RepublicConcerto, double bass in E Major, late 18th-century

The double bass is among those giants that hide at the back of the orchestra and only occasionally get solo moments to shine. It usually adds nuance and color to the sound of an orchestra. But, because its sound is so low, it is sometimes difficult for a solo double-bass to balance against other strings. In large orchestras, it may take as many as eight double basses to produce enough sound to be heard properly.

In its lower registers, the double bass usually bottoms out at E1, or sometimes C1, only an octave above the extremes of what humans are capable of hearing. As it moves into its upper registers, the demands on the player become greater. Because the instrument is so large, the player has to contort over it in high octaves, which makes the normally challenging task of manipulating its thick strings that much more taxing.

In spite of all the difficulties that come with bringing the double bass to the fore, there are still notable examples of bass solo works, especially in the 18th and 20th centuries. Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf wrote two such concerti. Dittersdorf was a prolific

and very capable Viennese composer whose talents are somewhat eclipsed by the other luminaries who shared his time and place. His friends and acquaintances included Gluck (1714-1784), Haydn (1732-1809), and Mozart (1756-1791); the latter two joined him and another player occasionally to play string quartets. The three Austrians are reunited in today’s concert.

Dittersdorf orchestrates this concerto cleverly. Even though there is healthy representation from the winds and the other strings, he is careful to quiet the surrounding instruments or strip them away entirely when the soloist has an important line. This way, the featured instrument can blossom without having to compete. He sets a high, florid double-bass line against the other instruments only when they are at rest or playing piano or pianissimo in their middle registers. By varying the texture in this way, he eliminates some of the challenges and creates an elegant dialogue among equals.

C A R L D I T T E R S V O N D I T T E R S D O R F


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NICCOLÒ PAGANINIb. 1782 Genoa; d. 1840 NiceMoses Variations, 1819

Because the options for solo double-bass are somewhat limited, the best players borrow music originally written for other instruments to augment their repertoire. Some of those pieces are devilishly tricky for the original instrument – in this case, the violin – so when transposed for the violin’s massive cousin, the skill required to play them is staggering.

It is nearly impossible to discuss violin music without considering the virtuosic violinists that punctuate the history of that instrument. One of the most famous violin virtuosi, Niccolò Paganini, was also one of the most flamboyant. His strikingly long hands and easy agility made him a rock star of his time. Part of his apotheosis stemmed from wild musical stunts, including purposefully breaking strings during performances to show off his skills. He would prepare weakened strings that snapped under enough pressure, change to the remaining strings to accommodate, then sometimes break a second string or even a third to augment the effect. Moses Variations may have been one of the pieces Paganini played after he had rendered his instrument nearly unplayable.

Paganini was a champion of musical variations and made a career of borrowing themes for those variations from other composers. It’s fitting that his reputation was further enhanced by future composers borrowing his themes and writing variations of their own. The most famous may be Rachmaninoff Rhapsody on a

Theme by Paganini, but several other composers also paid him homage in the same way. Three of Paganini’s own works borrow from Rossini (1792-1868).

Paganini met the younger composer in 1818 and wrote three sets of variations the next year on selections from Rossini’s operas, namely La Cenerentola, Tancredi, and Mosè in Egitto. Moses Variations is occasionally called Sonata “a Preghiera,” as the theme is taken from a moment of prayer in Mosè in Egitto. When the fleeing Israelites are blocked by the Red Sea in the biblical tale, they pause to invoke divine assistance. The melody that passes from voice to voice within the operatic scene is the theme that appears within Paganini’s derivative fantasy. He holds true to the source material throughout the first half of this piece, showing off with various extended techniques before splintering off into something decidedly more lively than prayerful.

N I C C O L Ó P A G A N I N I


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JOSEPH HAYDNb. 1732 Rohrau, Austria; d. 1809 RohrauSymphony No.31 in D Major, 1765

When Haydn was born at the end of March 1732, George Washington (1732-1799) was all of one month old. While the American was destined to become “Father of His Country,” Haydn would grow to be “Father of the Symphony.” Ironically, neither great man ever enjoyed actual fatherhood. Washington definitely had no children. Haydn’s case is somewhat less absolute; he certainly never acknowledged any. That absence of offspring opened both “fathers” to nurture something that moved beyond progeny.

After a boisterous youth, Haydn began serving as music director or vice director for various members of the Austro-Hungarian aristocracy. It was in these positions that he first had regular access to an orchestra and the means whereby to begin writing symphonies. He wrote his earliest symphonies while holding his first full-time job under Count Morzin, several of which are in the older three-movement style of the 1750s. After a few years, he was hired by the fabulously wealthy princes of Esterhazy as a leading member of their musical staff.

In the early years of his employment under the Esterhazys, Haydn had no control over what happened to his compositions; his first contract stipulated that all his output was the property of his employers. Eventually, the terms of his contract were renegotiated, and Haydn was allowed to publish his own works. He quickly became the most famous musical servant in Europe and strode the line between continental celebrity and rural isolation on the Esterhazy estates.

Only five years into his tenure, Haydn was still a relative newcomer. Not yet elevated to the post of Kapellmeister, he had churned out more than 20 symphonies for the princes, among other works. Since all the musicians Haydn worked with were technically household staff, the number of players at his disposal were subject to vacancies. The horn section had an empty seat for at least two years and another following the death of a second member. Haydn lobbied to have the two gaps filled and finally had a complete section of four players in the middle of 1765. In celebration, he featured all four of them in Symphony No.31.

The result is impressive to modern ears and boggling by 18th-century standards. The four horns, which would have been valveless and notoriously temperamental in Haydn’s day, may have outnumbered all the lower strings at the premiere. Most of Haydn’s symphonies use only two horns, if any at all, yet here is a full, virtuosic quartet. The result must have shaken the windows of Schloss Esterhazy and filled the listener’s minds with memories of their latest hunt.

J O S E P H H AY D N

Karen Johnson violin performs as a soloist and as a chamber and orchestral musician. Her playing has been applauded for its “balance and precision” and her “enthusiastic showmanship of impressive energy and accuracy” by The Washington Post and hailed as “virtuosically energized and broadly lyrical” by Richmond Times-Dispatch. In a review of her solo CD (Brioso Records) with pianist Joanne Kong, American Record Guide stated, “It is a real pleasure to discover a violinist of the caliber of Karen Johnson.... Her tone is broad and pure, her attacks are flawlessly incisive, her vibrato nicely modulated, and her intonation infallible….”

Karen’s violin: My violin was made by Carlo Ferdinando Landolfi in 1727 (Milan) and I’ve been playing on it since 2005. When I first started playing it, I was immediately overwhelmed by the brilliance of sound and large array of musical colors. Over a decade later, I know the instrument so much better but yet there are still times when I get the violin out of the case to play and, in one note, the beauty and depth of sound captures me all over again. I feel very blessed to have this instrument be my voice.

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Ms. Johnson has performed in concerts throughout the United States and Europe and has worked with renowned conductors and musicians, such as James DePreist, Sergiu Comissiona, Yuri Temirkanov, Victor Yampolsky, Gerard Schwarz, and Joseph Silverstein. From 2002-2011, Karen was Concertmaster of Richmond Symphony Orchestra. She was invited as guest Concertmaster with Seattle Symphony, Phoenix Symphony, and Oregon Symphony. Ms. Johnson was recently featured as soloist at WCVE-FM’s celebration of Robert Schumann’s bicentennial.

Ms. Johnson began her musical studies in her hometown of Gilbert, Arizona at the age of 4. At age 10, she became the pupil of Dr. William Magers at Arizona State University. Under his tutelage, she won Corpus Christi International Young Artist Competition, Midland-Odessa National Young Artist Competition, and National MTNA Yamaha String Competition. Ms. Johnson earned her Bachelor of Music degree at The

Juilliard School as the pupil of Joel Smirnoff and was first-prize winner of local and national competitions, including Juilliard Sibelius Violin Concerto Competition. She completed her Masters degree at University of Maryland - College Park studying with William Preucil, Concertmaster of Cleveland Orchestra and former first violinist of Cleveland Quartet.

Ms. Johnson is a regular performer in the Washington, DC area. She performs as Concertmaster of The White House Orchestra, as a soloist, and as a chamber musician. She is a founding member of Phillips Camerata, presenting chamber music concerts at The Phillips Collection and National Gallery of Art.

Karen resides in Stafford, Virginia with husband Karl Johnson and their five children.

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BCO_Bravo_ad2018_Duotone629_K.indd 1 9/10/18 9:58 AM

mozart 5th concerto, copland, schubert

SUNDAY, 10 FEBRUARY 2019 | 3PM


Karen Johnson violin, concertmaster candidate


Concert SponsorKim Z. Golden

and Jean Suda





Season Sponsors






APPALACHIAN SPRINGAaron Copland

VIOLIN CONCERTO NO.5 IN A MAJOR, K.219Wolfgang Amadé Mozart

Allegro aperto – Adagio – Allegro apertoAdagioRondeau – Tempo di minuettoMs. Johnson

INTERMISSION

SYMPHONY NO.5Franz Schubert

AllegroAndante con motoMenuetto. Allegro moltoAllegro vivace


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program notes10 FEBRUARY 2019

AARON COPLANDb. 1900 Brooklyn; d. 1990 Sleepy Hollow, New YorkAppalachian Spring, 1944

During his long career, Aaron Copland composed in diverse styles. His output included scores for films (The Red Pony, Our Town, The Heiress), works incorporating jazz (Piano Concerto, Music for the Theater) and the 12-tone technique (Piano Quartet, Piano Fantasy). In the mid-1930s, he began to feel “an increasing dissatisfaction with the relation of the music-loving public and the living composer.” To reach a wider audience, he simplified his style to make it more accessible, yet without sacrificing sound artistic values. The first work in this more popular vein was El Salón México, finished in 1936. This was followed by the works by which he is best known today: his three American ballets Billy the Kid, Rodeo, and Appalachian Spring. Copland composed Appalachian Spring in 1944 for Martha Graham, the great pioneer of modern dance, to be performed at an evening of modern ballet at Library of Congress. (Other ballets on the program were by Paul Hindemith and

Darius Milhaud.) Copland originally called it Ballet for Martha, but Graham gave it its final title after a poem by Hart Crane, although the ballet bears no relation to the text of the poem. The size limitations of the stage at Library of Congress dictated a small ensemble. Consequently, the original version was scored for 13 instruments (flute, clarinet, bassoon, piano, and strings). Soon after the successful premiere, however, Copland extracted a somewhat shortened suite from the ballet for full orchestra, the version heard today. In the preface to the score of the suite, Copland summarized the story of the ballet using the words of a New York Herald Tribune review by Eric Denby, written after the New York premiere: “...A pioneer celebration in spring around a newly-built farmhouse in the Pennsylvania hills in the early part of the last century. The bride-to-be and the young farmer-husband enact the emotions, joyful and apprehensive, their new domestic partnership invites...

A A R O N C O P L A N D

A revivalist and his followers remind the new householders of the strange and terrible aspects of human fate. At the end the couple are left quiet and strong in their new house.” The sections of the suite merge into each other without pause, but reflect distinctly different moods and scenarios. The haunting but peaceful opening gives way suddenly to an outburst of excitement comprising several different musical motives, demonstrating the open octaves and fifths that became the hallmark of Copland’s “American” style. After building up to a frenzied climax, a solo clarinet interrupts plaintively with the Shaker tune, Simple Gifts. Copland uses the song as the theme for a set of variations, which themselves increase in intensity as more and more instruments are added with each new variation. Then, with another sudden shift in mood, we are transported back to the quiet introduction, and the Suite ends as it began. Simple Gifts was composed by Shaker Elder Joseph Brackett, Jr. in 1848 for dancing during Shaker worship. Copland’s five variations never veer far from the original melody, which he found in a 1940 collection of Shaker songs compiled by Edward D. Andrews. While the tune was certainly perfect for Graham’s choreography, it didn’t exactly fit the story line, as the Shakers themselves were dedicated to a life of celibacy.

(Copland note by Joseph & Elizabeth Kahn)

WOLFGANG AMADÉ MOZARTb. 1756 Salzburg; d. 1791 ViennaViolin Concerto No.5 in A, K.219, 1775

Library of Congress in Washington, DC has a collection of treasures in its archive.

Among them are a handful of 18th-century musical rarities, including six original manuscripts by Mozart and a letter to his sister. The oldest of those six manuscripts is Violin Concerto No.5. As you listen to this piece today, the original copy resides in a building less than fifty miles away.

It is interesting to compare the letter in Library of Congress, dated 1770, to this concerto, written five-and-a-half years later at the end of 1775. The letter is in the florid, slightly sloppy handwriting of a teenager who hasn’t quite mastered his pen. He actively apologizes for his bad penmanship in a letter written a few months later. With broad strokes and a little too much ink, he talks about all the exciting things he has seen in Milan around Carnival and asks his sister to kiss their mother a billion times. By contrast, the hand that set this violin concerto to paper is mature, assured, and clear. Though there is evident haste in the pen strokes, the whole manuscript is completely legible, with almost no corrections. There are fewer accidents with ink than there are with what appear to be little spills of wine or food scattered on select pages. Even though Mozart was famous for a puerile sense of humor throughout his life, the clarity in his scores demonstrates great adult skill as a nineteen-year-old. The unofficial title for this concerto is The Turkish, mostly for the musical idioms that appear in the third movement. The Ottoman Empire threatened Western Europe for centuries, often abducting foreign children and raising them in Janissary armies. A period of peace in the 18th century quieted the threat and brought Turkish trade and culture into vogue. The


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col legno beating in the strings and the melodic structures that appear in the last movement evoke the percussive music that accompanied the Janissaries.

This concerto is the last piece Mozart wrote in 1775. He hadn’t finished anything else since October but completed this work just before Christmas. Thanks to good recordkeeping while he was alive and care for his legacy after he died, we know that this kind of gap is fairly common for Mozart. He dated many of his works, and he often took a break from composing or at least finishing works as the weather started getting cooler. By odd coincidence, he would become fatally ill in November, sixteen years later. At nineteen, he had two thirds of his output yet to write, but his life was already more than half over. He had no way of knowing that, so this piece is still filled with youthful zeal and exotic flair.

FRANZ SCHUBERTb. 1797 Vienna; d. 1828 ViennaSymphony No.5, 1816

Schubert and Mozart lived very different lives but share several commonalities. Both lived short lives and died of uncertain or indeterminate causes. Both started composing as children and produced huge volumes of work. Because they both worked extensively in Vienna within a few decades of each other, they knew several of the same musical luminaries.

Though Mozart started earlier than Schubert and lived four years longer, Schubert was the more prolific of the two in sheer numbers. In part, this is due to

Schubert’s massive outpouring of songs or Lieder. He wrote around 400 pieces more than Mozart did but about 600 are songs. There are a number of reasons that over half of his output is on a small scale, the most pressing of which is probably his living situation. For much of his life, he shared apartments with friends or lived out of their houses. Since he moved so frequently, it was likely easier to dedicate time to works he knew he could finish quickly. This sense of urgency may have been compounded by a fear of mortality around the time he abandoned Symphony No.8, the so called Unfinished, six years after he completed Symphony No.5. Whatever the root cause, he never fully finished any of his later symphonies. After the sixth, he either abandoned them or left parts of the orchestration undone. When he wrote Symphony No.5 in 1816, he was nineteen and newly moved out of his father’s house. At the time, he was obsessing over Mozart’s music. He had

F R A N Z S C H U B E R T


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poured out his passion for Mozart’s work into his diary a few months earlier and may have had him in mind as he wrote. Indeed, had Mozart lived until 1816, his music may have evolved into something similar to this symphony. Schubert deliberately pares down his orchestra to strings and just seven wind instruments in similar configuration to Mozart’s later symphonies.

It’s fairly easy to conclude that this is at least partially an homage to one the previous generation’s musical celebrities. Though there are markers that clearly assign it to its own time in history, it’s impossible to deny the influence one young genius had upon another.

Audrey Wright violin joined Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in September 2016 and is now associate concertmaster. A versatile performer in solo, chamber music, and orchestral realms, Audrey has previously held positions with Excelsa Quartet and New World Symphony. Her repertoire spans early 17th-century to modern day and her performing experience includes the full spectrum of these musical styles from Baroque performance-practice to the premiering of new and personally commissioned works.

Audrey’s violin: My violin was made in 2004 by Marilyn Wallin, and I have had the joy of performing on it since 2005, as its first owner. What I love most about playing on this instrument is the incredible range of color I am able to draw out, from deep, rich tones on the lower strings to brilliant ones on the upper strings. It has aged beautifully and compliments my playing style. I am very grateful to play a violin that I regard as an old friend and trusted musical partner.

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While a member of Excelsa Quartet, Audrey traveled throughout North America and Europe giving concerts and competing in international competitions. The quartet worked closely with members of Guarneri, Emerson, St. Lawrence, and Juilliard quartets and, in 2015, it commissioned and gave the world premiere of John Heiss’s Microcosms. Audrey has been a participant of Verbier Festival (Switzerland) for the past six years and has been a member of the festival’s Chamber Orchestra, directed by Gábor Takács-Nagy since 2014. At Verbier Festival, she has performed as concertmaster under the direction of Gábor Takács-Nagy, Kent Nagano, Iván Fischer, and Charles Dutoit. She has performed in such chamber orchestras as Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and Discovery Ensemble and has appeared as guest artist with St. Lawrence String Quartet, Axelrod String Quartet, Borromeo String Quartet, and Boston Trio. Audrey has appeared on many concert series in the area, including Community Concerts at Second, Pro Musica Rara, and Smithsonian Chamber Society, where she has performed on the exquisite instruments within Smithsonian Instrument Collection. She has collaborated with artists such as Mayron Tsong, Paul Watkins, Roger Tapping, John

Heiss, and John Gibbons, and with pianist Christopher O’Riley on NPR’s From the Top. Most recent festival appearances include Verbier Festival, Manchester Summer Chamber Music, Great Lakes Summer Chamber Music Festival, Kneisel Hall School of Music, and McGill International String Quartet Academy.

In addition to performing, Audrey is also passionate about teaching and coaching chamber music. She was Director of Homewood Chamber Music Seminar at Johns Hopkins University from 2017-18 and maintains a small studio of private students. Previously, she coached chamber music at University of Maryland School of Music and held teaching positions at International School of Music, Beechwood Knoll Elementary School, and Panama Jazz Festival in Panama City, Panama.

Audrey completed her undergraduate studies in 2011 with Lucy Chapman at New England Conservatory, earning the prestigious Chadwick Medal, and she received a Master of Music from NEC in 2013, studying with Lucy Chapman, Bayla Keyes, and Jennifer Frautschi. She is currently a Doctor of Musical Arts candidate at University of Maryland, studying with David Salness. Audrey’s violin bow, generously on loan from The Maestro Foundation, was made by Paul Siefried in 2000.

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Featuring members of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra

SEP 16, 2018BENJAMIN PASTERNACK, PIANO

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CONCERT SEASON 2018 - 2019

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2018–2019CONCERT HIGHLIGHTS

The Music of World War I: A Centennial ComemmorationSunday, Nov. 11, 3 p.m.

I Can See the Light: Songs of Hope and ContemplationSunday, Dec. 2, 3 p.m.

Prism: A Musical CollageSaturday, April 13, 8 p.m.

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mozart 3d concerto, nielsen, dvořák

SUNDAY, 24 MARCH 2019 | 3PM


Audrey Wright violin, concertmaster candidate


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Lutherville Complex





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LITTLE SUITE, OP.1Carl Nielsen

VIOLIN CONCERTO NO.3 IN G MAJOR, K.216Wolfgang Amadé Mozart

AllegroAdagioRondeauMs. Wright

INTERMISSION

SERENADE FOR STRINGSAntonin Dvořák

ModeratoMenuetto: Allegro con motoScherzo: VivaceLarghettoFinale: Allegro vivace


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program notes24 MARCH 2019

CARL NIELSENb. 1865 Nørre Lyndelse, Denmark; d. 1931 CopenhagenLittle Suite, Op.1, 1888

Globally, Carl Nielsen is perhaps less well-known than his very near contemporaries Richard Strauss and Jean Sibelius; in his native Denmark, his stature is much more heroic. Unlike the other two composers, he had few extended periods in the larger culture capitals of Europe and spent most of his life in Denmark. He also never gained astronomical popularity or a great following during his lifetime. It took a later generation to understand the full impact of his work. Though his songs and vocal repertoire contributed to a stronger Danish identity in the face of German aggression during World War II, his music didn’t reach peak notoriety until almost thirty years after his death.

Nielsen was born to a poor family and spent much of his early life eking out his living with various musical gig-work and teaching. He played brass instruments in an army band as a young man, but his principal instrument was violin. It comes as no surprise that roughly three quarters of his earliest works include violin.

When one hears Little Suite, Op.1, the listener is struck by the seeming precociousness of such a strong first work. This is somewhat deceptive, because it was written when he was twenty-three and is not his first composition. Though Nielsen wrote over 400 works, he was selective with the pieces to which he assigned an opus number. Of all his compositions, he only gave that distinction to 58, with a 59th opus number assigned posthumously. Op.1 is still an early piece in his career as a composer, so the perceived precociousness is somewhat deserved.

Because the countries of Scandinavia share close cultural ties, it is easy to compare Little Suite to other music of the region. The first movement is cold and introspective, with little flashes of passion. It is also the shortest of the suite’s three movements and it quickly gives way to a sensual, waltzing intermezzo. The protracted finale makes up almost half of the whole suite. It first returns with the same icy feel as the opening introduction before ripping open into sweeping, ecstatic romanticism.

C A R L N I E L S E N

WOLFGANG AMADÉ MOZARTb. 1756 Salzburg; d. 1791 ViennaViolin Concerto No.3 in G, K.216, 1775

If you attended the February concert this season, you heard another of Mozart’s violin concerti, written only a few months after this one. Though the autograph copies of some of his works were dated and re-dated, all five of Mozart’s violin concerti were probably written in 1775. Mozart was nineteen at the time and employed by the Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg, Hieronymus von Colloredo. Colloredo was a puritanical prelate; among his almost protestant reforms in his archdiocese, he reduced the extravagant ceremony of the mass to its necessities, which explains why so many Mozart mass settings are so short.

Mozart was just as musically stifled outside his church obligations. He had just written a successful opera during a recent visit to Munich, but there were no opportunities to write opera in Salzburg. Colloredo closed the court theater and there were no other ready options for a resident opera composer. The Prince-Archbishop and the young composer found every opportunity to antagonize each other, either deliberately or by accident. The one begrudged the young man’s frequent absences from court while the other hated being restrained by his employer.

Mozart’s recourse in 1775 was to have as much fun musically as possible and violin was his brief obsession. From September to December, he wrote three of his five violin concerti and almost nothing else. Mozart wrote more than 600 works in thirty years,

so this was a dip from his normal output in a four-month period as a mature composer. The three concerti he wrote during that time are still regularly performed and are all scored for similar ensembles. In spite of all the trouble he had with the nobleman who paid his salary, Mozart had an admiring circle of friends in Salzburg and he may have enjoyed working with the orchestral musicians he wrote for there.

He probably wrote each of these pieces with himself in mind as the soloist and took a formulaic approach with the structure of all five concerti. Each begins with a fast, allegro movement, followed by an andante or adagio slow movement, and ending with another fast movement, often a rondo. Even though Mozart was probably anxious to realize his greater potential elsewhere, as evidenced by this sudden slump in the volume of his musical output, there is still a great deal of joy in each of these youthful pieces.

ANTONIN DVOŘÁKb. 1841 Nelahozeves, Czech Republic; d. 1904 PragueSerenade, 1875

Antonin Dvořák has a success story that should hearten any late bloomer. After scraping his way through adolescence and his twenties with subsistence jobs that barely covered his expenses, he finally gained international success in his mid-thirties and became one of the most celebrated Czech composers in history.

He spent much of his twenties in and around Prague playing viola in various


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orchestras, teaching piano lessons, and trying desperately to secure an organist position. At twenty-three, his income was so small that the only way he could manage his rent was by sharing an apartment with five other tenants. Through this hard decade of his life, he began composing, writing his first official opus in 1861 and completing at least two dozen works in ten years. It wasn’t until he reached thirty that he had an opportunity to perform publicly the few early pieces of which he was proud.

In 1874, he finally had the job he sought as an organist and was married and expecting his first child. His new personal life and growing family may have been part of the impetus to apply to Austrian Prize for the stipend it offered. He submitted fifteen pieces – catching the eye of notable jury members, including Johannes Brahms – won the prize in early 1874 and again in 1876 and 1877. His submissions granted him two important opportunities: the encouragement of Brahms – who opened doors with his connections – and the money needed to dedicate more time to composition.

Serenade for Strings was written shortly after his first grant from Austrian Prize in 1875. The relief he must have felt after becoming financially solvent for the first time in his life shines through in the obvious emotions that pour out in this work. The opening theme is among his most recognizable, tossed between violins and low strings and underpinned with a driving, breathless viola accompaniment. There are several iterations of this lush musical moment throughout the first movement,

which is in ABA form. It will also make a cameo appearance in the fifth movement to put a bow on the whole work.

Each movement is highly elegant, with its own flair. The first movement is deeply romantic; the second is a somewhat pensive, almost melancholic waltz; the third is by turns coquettish, enraptured, and joyful; and the fourth movement is serene and richly powerful. Finally, the fifth movement ties elements of each preceding emotion into one outcry of thanks, ascending and descending, lighting again on the original theme, and then slamming toward the finish with a jubilant presto.

A N T O N I N D V O Ř Á K


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Peter Sirotin violin has performed hundreds of concerts as a chamber musician, soloist, and concertmaster in Europe, North America, and Asia since his debut at the age of fourteen, performing Paganini Concerto No.1 with Kharkiv Philharmonic in his native Ukraine. After graduating with honors from Moscow’s Central Music School, Mr. Sirotin became the youngest member of the GRAMMY Award-winning Moscow Soloists chamber ensemble. With this group he has toured extensively, performing in the major music centers such as Royal Albert Hall in London, Pleyel Hall in Paris, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and Beethoven Hall in Bonn.

Peter’s violin: I am extraordinarily fortunate to have both an old and a new instrument. For many years I have performed on a Matthias Albanus violin made in 1706 but, a few years ago, one of my oldest friends and a former colleague from my “Moscow Soloists” days, Leonid Ferents, began making instruments. I have found his acoustical concept with the unusual responsiveness of his instruments very appealing and have been lately playing mostly on a violin made by him.

artist biography5 MAY 2019

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Mr. Sirotin’s performances as a concertmaster include a wide range of projects from concerts in Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, and Verizon Hall to the performances of Verdi Requiem, Bach St. John Passion, and Beethoven Missa Solemnis with Cathedral Choral Society in National Cathedral in Washington, DC. He is currently Concertmaster of Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra and Artistic Director of Market Square Concerts in Harrisburg.

An active educator, Mr. Sirotin is artist-in-residence at Messiah College in Grantham, PA, where he co-founded Chamber Music in Grantham, a summer chamber-music and composition program for young musicians. He has given masterclasses in U.S. and abroad and has served as an adjudicator in competitions.

In 1997, Mr. Sirotin and his wife, pianist Ya-Ting Chang, founded Mendelssohn Piano Trio. They have performed more than 500 concerts in U.S., Europe, and Asia and recorded fifteen CDs, including the complete Haydn Piano Trios on Centaur Records. Mr. Sirotin has collaborated in performance with pianists Ann Schein; Igor

Zhukov; Alexei Lubimov; violinist Earl Carlyss, formerly of Juilliard String Quartet; cellist Natalia Gutman; flutist Claudio Arrimani; and harpsichordist Arthur Haas. His performances have been described by critics as “stylistically refined,” “electrifying,” and “brilliant.” Recently, Mr. Sirotin performed Beethoven Violin Concerto in Parmer Concert Hall with Messiah College Symphony Orchestra. With Ya-Ting Chang, he appeared as soloist in the world premiere of Ching-Ju Shih Double Concerto for Violin, Piano, and Orchestra at National Concert Hall in Taipei.

Depending on the repertoire, Mr. Sirotin performs either on a violin made by Leonid Ferents in 2013 or on a violin made by Matthias Albanius in 1706.

artist biography5 MAY 2019

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PACIFICA QUARTET MARC-ANDRÉ HAMELIN, PIANO

Works by Beethoven, Marc-André Hamelin, Schumann

Oct 21

IMOGEN COOPER, PIANO

Works by Haydn, Thomas Adès, Beethoven, Schubert

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JENNIFER KOH, VIOLIN

SHAI WOSNER, PIANO

Works by Beethoven, Vijay Iyer

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JOHANNES MOSER, CELLO

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Works by Stravinsky, Webern, Beethoven, Debussy

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HAGEN QUARTET JÖRG WIDMANN, CLARINET

Works by Dvorák, Jörg Widmann, Mozart

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Works by Bach, Beethoven

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ARCANGELO JONATHAN COHEN, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, HARPSICHORD, ORGAN

JOÉLLE HARVEY, SOPRANO

Works by Handel, Bach, Buxtehude

May 12

beethoven concerto, mozart, rossini, prokofiev

SUNDAY, 5 MAY 2019 | 3PM


Peter Sirotin violin, concertmaster candidate


Concert SponsorBD Life Sciences





Season Sponsors






OVERTURE: THE MARRIAGE OF FIGAROWolfgang Amadé Mozart

VIOLIN CONCERTOLudwig van Beethoven

Allegro ma non troppo Larghetto Rondo. AllegroMr. Sirotin

INTERMISSION

OVERTURE: THE BARBER OF SEVILLEGioachino Rossini

CLASSICAL SYMPHONYSergei Prokofiev

AllegroLarghettoGavotta: Non troppo allegroFinale: Molto vivace


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program notes5 MAY 2019

WOLFGANG AMADÉ MOZARTb. 1756 Salzburg; d. 1791 ViennaOverture: The Marriage of Figaro, 1786

The two overtures in this concert have much in common. Both precede a staple masterwork of operatic literature and arguably each composer’s best – or, at least, most famous – contribution to the genre; each ensuing plot unfolds around the same set of characters; and neither overture bears any motivic similarity to the musical drama that follows it.

The Figaro Trilogy is a set of French plays written by Pierre Beaumarchais between 1772 and 1792. The first play illuminates the antics of Figaro as he helps Count Almaviva woo and wed Rosina. In the second play, the love between the Count and now Countess Almaviva has already cooled, and Suzanne – Figaro’s exceptionally clever fiancée – has to ward off the nobleman’s advances throughout her wedding day. The third play, written months before France abolished its monarchy, trails glumly and a little nervously after the two glittering farces that came before it.

Only the first two plays were written in Mozart’s lifetime, and he was a great fan

of both. The first play had already been adapted for the operatic stage, so Mozart campaigned to set the much more populist Le Mariage de Figaro to music. The five-act play was banned in France and Austria for its scathing critique of the nobility’s prerogatives. Mozart and his librettist, Lorenzo Da Ponte, smoothed out the harsh political points and the Italian version passed the Austrian censors.

Within the opera, Mozart and Da Ponte work hard to keep the actors busy and involved. Mozart does the same for his orchestra in the overture. Every instrument that appears in the score – excepting the keyboard that accompanies the recitatives – has a vigorous, often soloistic, role to play in this frantic, presto piece. Apart from the instrumentation, it is unique among Mozart’s most celebrated overtures in its musical independence from the opera for which it was written. By contrast, there are obvious motifs in both of the remaining Da Ponte collaborations and several other

W O L F G A N G A M A D É M O Z A R T

Mozart operas that are introduced in those overtures that then reappear at important dramatic moments. The overture to The Marriage of Figaro shares no thematic content with the rest of the work, but its unrelenting demands result in an exciting auditory journey and evocative picture for anyone who has tried to plan a wedding.

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVENb. 1770 Bonn; d. 1827 ViennaViolin Concerto, 1806

1806 was a relatively light year for Beethoven in terms of volume, but not in terms of compositional importance. That year, he completed the first of his middle symphonies (No.4), a revised version of his opera, Leonore (later Fidelio), his second-to-last piano concerto (No.4), Piano Sonata No.23 (Appassionata), the three Rasumovsky string quartets, and his only violin concerto.

Beethoven had written solo pieces for violin before, but nothing on the scale of Violin Concerto.

He wrote it for a colleague, Franz Clement, for a Christmastime concert in Vienna. The premiere went badly and the work was shelved for years, perhaps discouraging Beethoven from writing other violin concerti. Conjecture abounds about why the premiere flopped; the most commonly assumed reason is a lack of rehearsal. Either Beethoven took too long to deliver the finished work or Clement refused to rehearse it thoroughly enough to guarantee its success. Mendelssohn would revive the concerto almost forty years later and place it back among some of the strongest violin repertoire of the early 19th-century.

Violin Concerto is a longer work than some of Beethoven’s symphonies and the mammoth first movement often eclipses the entire running length of Symphony No.1, depending upon the length of the cadenza. Beethoven himself reworked the piece for piano and orchestra after the poor reception of the violin version and inserted a long piano cadenza at the end of the first movement. When the original version was revived in 1844, the tradition to add a new cadenza sprang from Beethoven’s example. Though there are certain favorite cadenzas that are used regularly, no less than thirty-two violinists or composers have written their own contributions to the piece.

Because the work is so long, the third movement is occasionally extracted as a standalone excerpt, so it may be the most familiar part of the whole work. In itself, it is an excellent example of a solo concerto. There is a triumphant interplay between soloist and ensemble throughout; both act as equal partners. Beethoven stays close

L U D W I G VA N B E E T H O V E N


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to the main theme throughout the entire movement and foreshadows the miraculous economy that opens Symphony No.5, already in development when Violin Concerto premiered.

GIOACHINO ANTONIO ROSSINIb. 1792 Pesaro, Papal States of Italy; d. 1868 ParisOverture: The Barber of Seville, 1813

Imagine for a moment that you had very little exposure to classical music. If you grew up with Bugs Bunny, you might recognize at least part of the overture to The Barber of Seville. Much of this opera has made its way into popular culture, so even listeners who haven’t had the pleasure of watching the famous rabbit giving Elmer Fudd a particularly savage spa treatment might have some contact with the eponymous Barber.

The opera itself is the first installment in The Figaro Trilogy. Its plot is pure commedia

dell’arte: with the help of a clown, the ardent young lover saves the charming maiden from the inappropriate advances of the old man. Beaumarchais’s heroines are often wiser and more resourceful than their male counterparts, a distinction that keeps Rosina (The Barber of Seville) and Susanna (The Marriage of Figaro) relatable to at least half of modern opera lovers.

Like Mozart’s overture to The Marriage of Figaro, Rossini’s overture to The Barber of Seville has no motivic relation to the rest of the opera, but for a completely different reason. Because the overture in 1816 was still an invitation to audiences to find their seats, it was practical to have an urgent, exciting piece to get them to settle in and turn their attention toward the stage.

SERGEI PROKOFIEVb. 1891 Sontsivka, Ukraine; d. 1953 MoscowClassical Symphony, 1917

If you are a concertgoer who likes to study the scores before attending a performance, you might have noticed an immediate similarity between the Mozart overture in this concert and this symphony. Both pieces are scored for the same forces. Aside from being written in the same key, you might also note some stylistic similarities with the Haydn symphony that appeared earlier this season. You’re not imagining things; these similarities are deliberate. When Prokofiev wrote his first symphony in 1916-17, he composed it as an homage to Haydn and accidentally initiated a new movement: Neoclassicism.G I O A C H I N O A N T O N I O R O S S I N I


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The practice of writing in an older style to give a piece a sense of antique familiarity existed well before the 20th century. Composers from Bach to Brahms used old-fashioned musical ideas to evoke nostalgia, poke fun at older generations, or give works a sense of gravity and immediate longevity. There are multiple examples of this across several centuries of music, but it isn’t until the period between the two world wars that neoclassicism crystalized into a cohesive trend. The world changed drastically in the first half of the 20th century, and music changed with it. Some music breaks free from any previous moorings into experimental new waters, while other pieces cling to the past with new strength.

Prokofiev first studied at Saint Petersburg Conservatory as a teenager but returned for further studies at the outbreak of war. He was in this second course of study when he began work on his first symphony. By then, he had already explored polytonality and other modern styles that would pervade much of his output, so Classical Symphony is something of a departure. A professor of conducting at the conservatory used 18th-century symphonies as examples; the original idea for the work may have sprung from there. Compared to the mammoth symphonic works of his contemporaries, this compact little gem is quite short. In fact, almost all of Prokofiev’s later symphonies are at least twice as long.

What this symphony lacks in length, it

more than makes up for in personality. After a short introduction, the pert, playful theme of the first movement appears in the violins, accompanied by a duenna-like bassoon line. After the exposition, the first movement follows all the structural components of sonata form. But, for some of the harmonic language, it could almost be mistaken for some recently rediscovered treasure from an Esterhazy closet. The remaining three movements all challenge the listener to guess their age. The seductive second movement warps between 1917 and 1787; the diminutive third movement dances through the air so quickly it could be from anywhere; while puckish fourth movement almost sounds like a proud Mendelssohn wrote it. In spite of all the masks it wears, Prokofiev still gives little hints throughout to remind the listener that this work is very much his.

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Documents

YEAR OF THE VIOLIN 2018–2019 SEASON2018-2019.pdfManuel Barrueco, and have been conducted and embraced by esteemed music directors including Markand Thakar, Marin Alsop, Giancarlo