Notes continued...........................................................................................
James Gaffigan, conductor
American conductor James Gaffigan is hailed for his insightful musicianship and the natural ease of his conducting. In summer 2011, he begins appointments with the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra (chief conductor) and the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra (principal guest conductor). 28 www.houstonsymphony.org
Gaffigan made his professional opera debut conducting La Bohème (Zurich Opera) and conducted performances of Don Giovanni (Aspen Music Festival) and Falstaff (Glyndebourne) in 2009. Last year, he co-conducted Così fan tutti with Sir Charles Mackerras (Glyndebourne) and led performances of Marriage of Figaro (Aspen). He leads the Houston Grand Opera and makes his Vienna State Opera debut in 2011. Born in New York City (1979), Gaffigan studied at the LaGuardia High School of Music and Art and the Juilliard School Preparatory Division. A New England Conservatory of Music graduate, he earned his Masters of Music in conducting at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music. He was chosen as an academy conductor in the American Academy of Conducting’s inaugural year in Aspen (2000). He received the Academy’s first Robert Harth Conducting Award (2002), was selected as a Tanglewood Music Center conducting fellow and won first prize at the 2004 Sir Georg Solti International Conducting Competition. Gaffigan previously led the San Francisco Symphony (associate conductor) and the Cleveland Orchestra (assistant conductor). He currently lives in Lucerne with his wife, writer Lee Taylor Gaffigan.
musical intelligence, he performs diverse repertoire, including commissions from Leon Kirchner, Lewis Spratlan and Bernard Rands this season.
Biss
Biographies. ...............
Gaffigan has guest conducted the Philadelphia and Cleveland orchestras, the Chicago, Houston, National, New World and Baltimore symphonies, and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, among others. This season, he returns to the Cincinnati and Indianapolis symphonies and debuts with the Vancouver and Milwaukee orchestras. Internationally, he returns to the Munich and Rotterdam Philharmonics, Deutsches Symphony Orchestra Berlin, Bournemouth Symphony, the Leipzig and Stuttgart Radio Orchestras and debuts with the Dresden Staatskappelle, Sydney Symphony and the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra.
Gaffigan
Symphony in D minor. In no other Dvorˇák symphony is there such a sense of a lonely hero struggling against the dark forces of fate. Dvorˇák’s reverence for Brahms extended back 11 years before this work, when Brahms (along with conductor Johann Herbeck and critic Eduard Hanslick) nominated the obscure young Bohemian composer for the Austrian State Stipend in 1874. The cash award, the honor and the support by Brahms eventually won Dvorˇák a Viennese publisher and a window on the world that led to international performances during the last 30 years of his life. A decade later, he won several important conducting engagements in England and also received a commission for a new symphony from the London Philharmonic Society. The very serious, tightly knit sonata forms Dvorˇák composed in the two outer movements most strongly reflect the muscularity of Brahms’ musical style. The opening movement begins quietly with a somber theme in the lower strings, building upon its basic idea in several large musical sentences. Eventually, the woodwinds – mainly clarinets – introduce a lilting second theme and, finally, the full orchestra returns to conclude the exposition with the principal theme, this time in the major key. The two themes are pitted against each other in a fairly brief though substantial development. Dvorˇák then reverses the dynamic sequence in the recapitulation, returning the main theme full force, followed by the lyrical second theme and a quiet coda based on the first theme. The middle movements more readily identify Dvorˇák’s Bohemian heritage. The slow movement is a string of song-like melodies, interrupted by turbulent episodes that follow each other in no specified order. The movement is rounded off by a return of the first two melodies at the end. The third movement is a typical Dvorˇákian scherzo, whose stamping cross-rhythms suggest the Bohemian dance called a Furiant. Like the first movement, the finale is again a sonata form cast in a heroic mould. But where the first movement ends in a tone of resignation, this movement turns from the minor to the major key, culminating in a victorious climax. ©2011, Carl R. Cunningham
Since his New York recital and New York Philharmonic debuts at age 20, Biss has appeared with the foremost orchestras of North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. He is a frequent performer at leading international music festivals and gives recitals in major music capitals at home and abroad. Collaborations this season include scheduled performances with Midori and Miriam Fried (violin), Antoine Lederlin (cello) and Nobuko Imai (viola). His newest recording was named one of the best albums of the year by NPR Music. Albums for EMI Classics include a live recording of Mozart Piano Concertos 21 and 22 (Orpheus Chamber Orchestra) and Schumann and Beethoven recital discs, which were recognized with a Diapason d’Or Award and an Edison Award, respectively. Biss studied at Indiana University with Evelyne Brancart and at The Curtis Institute of Music with Leon Fleisher. He represents the third generation in a family of professional musicians, including his grandmother, Raya Garbousova, for whom Samuel Barber wrote his Cello Concerto, and his parents, Miriam Fried (violin) and Paul Biss (viola/violin). He has received the Leonard Bernstein Award, the Andrew Wolf Memorial Chamber Music Award, an Avery Fisher Career Grant and the 2003 Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award. He was the first American participant in BBC’s New Generation Artist program. Biss blogs about his life as a musician at jonathanbiss.com.
Acknowledgements
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Jonathan Biss, piano
American pianist Jonathan Biss, widely regarded for his artistry and interpretations, has won international recognition for his orchestral, recital and chamber music performances and for his award-winning recordings. Noted for his prodigious technique, intriguing programs and
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