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Welcome from the Music Director Kim Allen Kluge Welcome to the 2014-2015 Season! The music that we share together is a powerful expression of what’s best about humanity. It inspires us to feel more deeply. It dares us to follow our heart, to transcend, to embrace life more fully. We are so thankful to our loyal subscribers for joining us in what promises to be yet another extraordinary season. To you first time attendees, we embrace you and welcome you to our Alexandria Symphony Orchestra family -- a family that treasures building community through our shared love of music. Join us and let the music be the soundtrack of your life! 4
Sponsors of the 2014-2015 ASO Season With gratitude, we acknowledge the following foundations, corporations, and individuals for their sponsorship of our 2014-2015 season:
Alexandria Gazette Packet The Theodore H. Barth Foundation The Charles Delmar Foundation GEICO Global Printing, Inc. Mary and Daniel Loughran Foundation, Inc. New Target, Inc. Rotary Club of Alexandria Simpson Properties, LLC Unwined United Bank The Virginia Florist Guest Artist Sponsors Suzanne S. Brock Mrs. Ann Corson Concerto Foundation Mr. & Mrs. Stewart Dunn Teresa Guzman and Antonio Cafoncelli Mrs. James W. Vaughan, Jr. 5
A Message from the ASO Board President Dear ASO Friends and Supporters, I welcome you to the Alexandria Symphony Orchestra (ASO) 2014-2015 season. We celebrated the 25th anniversary of our Maestro Kim Kluge two years ago, and the 70th Anniversary of the Symphony just last year. We are now only a few years away from the celebration of our 75th year of providing classical music for audiences here in Alexandria. The theme for this season is “DARE TO”, in which we provide five concerts that will challenge you, the audience. The first concert is Dare to Embrace the World, including music from West Side Story as well as Rachmaninoff Symphony No. 2. The next concert, Dare to Transcend includes the Brahms Double Concerto, featuring Duo Parnas (violin and cello) and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7. The third concert is Dare to Follow Your Heart, this year’s Valentine’s Day concert, which includes music from Doyle, Mendelssohn and Mozart. In April, ASO presents Dare to Think Heroically, featuring headline artist Jeremy Denk on Bartok Piano Concerto No. 3. alongside music from Wagner, and music from Gladiator. Our season finale is Dare to Live Fully, pairing Strauss Horn Concerto No. 1 with Beethoven Symphony No. 9. We are proud to be a premiere orchestra located here in the heart of Alexandria. For those who have attended our concerts, you are aware of the quality of our Orchestra, as well as our venue, the Rachel M. Schlesinger Concert Hall and Arts Center. Unfortunately, there are people in our community who are not familiar with the ASO. We ask that if you enjoy the music, please tell a co-worker, a neighbor, or a friend about our orchestra. They can find information regarding the Symphony, as well as our performances, by visiting our website (www.alexsym.org) or calling our office at 703-548-0885. The ASO is excited about our future, but we need your help. Attend our concerts and events, support our education programs, or contribute as a concert sponsor, annual fund donor, or through legacy gifts. Every patron, donor, musician, student, and volunteer is special to us – help us grow the ASO Family and ensure on-going success through our 75th Anniversary, and beyond. We invite you to enjoy our music this season, but only if you dare to!
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Ronal E. Butler President, ASO Board of Trustees
2014-2015 Alexandria Symphony Orchestra
Board of Trustees
Ronal E. Butler, President Linda Bunce, Vice President Anne B. Rector, Vice President for Finance Edward J. Stark, Vice President for Development Donnan C. Wintermute, Vice President for Board Development Carl D. Behnke Miriam Browning G. Jack Dover Kristin Frykman
Barbara Hayes Mary McAuliffe Betty Quirk Rebecca Siegel Advisory Board
Sydney-Chanele Dawkins Alex Deringer Frank Fannon Dr. Bernard Murphy
Stewart Bartley Suzanne S. Brock Dr. John A. Bruno Carla Crawford Mollie Danforth
Phyllis Sintay, SOLA Jeanne Warner Judy Williams Cecily Winchell Margaret O’Grady Alan Paez Tamara Saltonstall Elizabeth Siegel Robert Vincent
Trustees Emeritus Dr. Joseph V. Braddock Capt. W. Ward Lasley (USN Ret.) CDR Tom R. Downs (USN Ret.) Mrs. Richard Reid Mr. Waller T. Dudley Mr. James B. Singerling
Concerto Foundation Board of Trustees
Charles Ballou Miriam Browning Mary Ann Best Millard
Forrest Williams
Frank J. Quirk Betty Quirk Thomas Sargeant
ASO Administration
Jessica G. Wisser, Executive Director Ryan Jordan, General Manager Susan Kelly, Personnel Manager Craig B. Teer, Stage Manager
Alexandria Symphony Orchestra 2121 Eisenhower Avenue, Suite 608 - Alexandria, VA 22314 www.alexsym.org 703-548-0885 alex@alexsym.org
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History of the Alexandria Symphony Orchestra The Alexandria Symphony Orchestra was formed in 1943 under the leadership and vision of Miss Neale Landen, a music teacher at George Washington High School. Initially an amateur group of about 40 musicians, the ASO sought to perform mostly impromptu concerts at a variety of venues around the city. The Symphony was officially incorporated on August 6, 1954 with an annual budget of around $1200. Dr. Wendell Margrave, director of the Washington Musical Institute, took over the baton in 1948 and led the group until the mid 1960’s. In 1966, as demand for a more formal programming schedule arose, the orchestra hired George Washington University professor Dr. George Steiner as Music Director. Under Steiner’s influence, the ASO introduced its first subscription series along with its Lollipop series of educational concerts, performing at Albohm Auditorium on the campus of T.C. Williams. During the 1980’s, in response to the growing need for volunteers, the Symphony Orchestra League of Alexandria (SOLA) was founded along with the Mary Graham Lasley Scholarship Competition. Following the retirement of Dr. Steiner, the ASO held an extensive national search for a new music director. Chosen for the position was award-winning Oberlin
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George Steiner, former ASO Conductor
Conservatory of Music Valedictorian Kim Allen Kluge. Under Kluge’s direction during the 1990’s, the ASO became a professional orchestra. It rapidly developed a reputation of artistic excellence and innovative programming through its highly successful concerts at the Kennedy Center. In partnership with the City of Alexandria, the ASO significantly expanded its programs and concerts in the schools and began performing in the annual City Birthday Celebration outdoor concerts. In 2001, the ASO gave the inaugural concert at the Rachel M. Schlesinger Center, which became its new home. In the Schlesinger era, the ASO emerged as a leader
of the finest professional freelance musicians in the Washington DC area, and regularly receives rave reviews from the Washington Post and other local newspapers.
Musicians warming up at Schlesinger Center
of the Washington DC inter-arts movement, forging artistic partnerships with many of the region’s leading cultural institutions including The Smithsonian Institution, The National Gallery of Art, The Washington Ballet and The Shakespeare Theatre. Crossover concerts featuring visual art, dance, and film have come to symbolize Maestro Kluge’s efforts to engage the regional community in all avenues of artistic expression.
Moving forward into the new millennium, the ASO continues to make education a centerpiece of its mission. In 2003, the ASO introduced the Children’s Arts Festival featuring inter-arts activities, workshops and performances for young children. Maestro Kluge has held a variety of masterclasses in performance, conducting and composition throughout the DC region. He has also instituted side-by-side collaborations, in which local high school students perform with the professional musicians of the ASO. The ASO and SOLA present the Mary Graham Lasley Scholarship Competition and the newly-founded Kluge Young Composer’s Competition, underscoring the Symphony’s commitment to nurturing young talent and creativity.
During the Schlesinger era, the ASO has performed with many of the world’s leading musicians including Midori, Peter Serkin, Nadja Solerno-Sonnenberg, Richard Stoltzman, Garrick Ohlsson, Yefim Bronfman, Lynn Harrell, Sarah Chang, and Branford Marsalis. The ASO is The ASO performs at the National Gallery of Art in May 2013 comprised
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Jeanne Warner
Congratulates
Maestro Kim Kluge and the Alexandria Symphony Orchestra in its 71st spectacular season
(703) 980-9106 12
Dare To Embrace the World September 27, 2014 at 8:00 pm
Rachel M. Schlesinger Concert Hall and Arts Center
Kim Allen Kluge, conductor
VILLA-LOBOS MAYSAUD
Bachianas Brasileiras #1
I. Embolada (Introduction)
O Great Mystery
World Premiere Winner, 2014 Kluge Young Composers Competition
BERNSTEIN
Symphonic Dances from West Side Story INTERMISSION
RACHMANINOFF
Symphony No. 2 in E minor, Op. 64 I. Largo — Allegro moderato II. Allegro molto III. Adagio IV. Allegro vivace
Program Notes Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887-1959)
Bachianas Brasileiras #1 - I. Embolada (Introduction) Heitor Villa-Lobos was, to many, the most significant creative figure in 20th-century Brazilian art music. Born to an artistic family, Villa-Lobos was encouraged at an early age to explore a wide range of creative endeavors, taking up many instruments including guitar, cello, and clarinet. Playing in a variety of street bands, Villa-Lobos focused on improvisation, with a particular interest in the Tango, a native Brazilian dance form. Still, he maintained interest in the European classical tradition, especially Johann Sebastian Bach. He composed a series of pieces called Bachianas Brasileiras (Brazilian Bachian-pieces), which include structural elements of Bach’s chamber suites, along with the influence of the Brazilian folk music he explored in his youth. The Bachianas Brasileiras include nine separate pieces scored for small to large ensembles. Bachianas Brasileiras No. 1 was written in 1930 and is scored for cello orchestra (four-part cello choir) in three movements. 13
Program 1 • September 27, 2014
The first movement, entitled Embolada, is based on a dance from northern Brazil. Villa-Lobos subtitled this movement Introduction, as it has less Bach influence then the following movements labeled Prelude and Fugue. It features a series alternating ostinati, which are interrupted throughout with lighter dance-like motifs.
Nebal Maysaud (b. 1995)
O Great Mystery Most of my music can be broken down to one essential question, Where is God? O Great Mystery marks the start of this musical quest. In essence, this piece can be split into three parts, the first, an introduction to the motif of conservatism. When I wrote this part, I imagined a line of monks chanting in an ancient, grand cathedral. It’s beautiful and mystic, but has a sense of darkness inside. The theme of this introduction goes back to when I was in choir in high school, and my teacher handed out a piece she was considering for us to do, and then played us a recording. The piece was O Magnum Mysterium by Tomas Luis de Victoria. I quoted the first two lines of the piece and included a translation from its original Latin. O magnum mysterium, et admirabile sacramentum,
O great mystery, and wonderful sacrament
The piece has such a beautiful mysticism to it, and the color of the words themselves, even without the music, gives off the perfect sense wonder yet it has a slightly ominous quality to it. What is this great mystery? It’s beautiful, yet ambiguous. While this piece is not programmatic, nor is it sacred, I believe this metaphor will help make this piece as understandable as possible. By this point, one of our monks decided he would leave the comfort of his church. He went out of the dark enclosed church and entered a strange world. Our monk here never really questioned anything he’s been told, and sort of followed what he was told almost blindly. Now he realizes that outside of home, he’s free. He lifts the rusty cage from his heart and lets it roam. This middle section, to give it a broader sense is about liberalism. It’s about leaving your mind and letting your heart roam free. But, absolute freedom can be overwhelming, and our hearts are wild. It’s almost too much, to be out into a free world and eventually, 14
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the freedom turns into fear, and you wish you were caged again. Here is where our monk returns to his church, but like Plato’s philosopher coming back to his cave, he cannot help but feel the emptiness in the prayers of that church. So he fills it, he realizes that his heart and his mind don’t need to be separate and neither the old and the new, rather, they should both be embraced, and only then can there be passion, foundation, and unity. It should be noted that I don’t write for myself, nor do I believe my music comes from me, therefore, please do not treat this analysis as an extension of the piece, but rather a way of seeing it from the perspective of someone who loves the piece. Your view of the piece is no less important than mine, nor does it need to be similar. This piece is a journey; I wrote it when I first started to hear the world I was witnessing, and I hope you enjoy my sharing of this mysterious voyage with you. - Nebal Maysaud
Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990)
Symphonic Dances from West Side Story The hallmark of a great work is that its impact extends beyond its immediate audience, inspiring new and derivative works from other artists. By this measure, Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim’s West Side Story was an immediate success, sparking the composition of Symphonic Dances in 1961, shortly after the release of the West Side Story movie. Scored for large orchestra, the piece was conceived by the movie orchestrators Sid Ramin and Irwin Kostal. However, Bernstein closely oversaw the arrangement, seeking to explore West Side Story’s musical themes without the organizational structure of the narrative. The piece begins with original music in the prologue before it is upstaged by the brash and bombastic gestures of the “Jets” theme. Next, the piece moves into “Somewhere,” although with an altered sequence of the material – the “Somewhere” prelude appears after the melody. This arrangement uses only two versus of the song, and repetition of the sustained “Somewhere” chords occur twice rather than three times. The tempo increases, leading straight into the “Mambo.” After short statements of the “Cha-Cha” and “Meeting Scene,” the theme from “Cool” is
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Program 1 • September 27, 2014
introduced and then combined with previous themes into an elongated section using the full resources of orchestra. The piece concludes by returning to the fully stated “Somewhere” melody.
Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943)
Symphony No. 2 in E minor, Op. 64 By 1906, Rachmaninoff was considered one of Russia’s most respected musical figures. Though despite his successful career, he was deeply frustrated with the way his conducting and performing schedule conflicted with his ability to compose; Rachmaninoff always considered himself a composer first. His first symphony was met with critical disdain, discouraging Rachmaninoff from larger orchestra forms. However, Rachmaninoff received more acclaim for his Piano Concerto No. 2 in 1901, and this success, along with his extensive solo piano composition achievements, gave him new confidence to compose a second symphony. He began Symphony No. 2 in 1906, almost ten years after the premiere of Symphony No. 1, and completed the work in April 1907, conducting the premiere in Saint Petersburg on January 16, 1908. Movement I, Largo – Allegro Moderato (Slow, then moderately fast), begins somberly. The movement becomes brighter, yet lyrical, as Rachmaninoff begins incorporating triplet motives, creating a “2 versus 3” feeling. Returning to the opening theme, the movement builds to a dark conclusion. Movement II, a scherzo, begins with a more deliberate feel – alternated short march-like gestures countered by lyrical figures. The music begins to feel more ambiguous, as Rachmaninoff uses a series of ascending and descending chromatic lines in the strings accompanied by the winds. The opening material returns before the movement slowly and quietly winds down. A short statement of the main theme opens Movement III before an extended solo for clarinet. Next, various instrument groups pass around four to six note melodic fragments that are continually layered and recombined to imitate the feeling of the opening theme without restating it. The tempo begins to slow, and Rachmaninoff makes a final statement of the theme before fading away. Movement IV opens in E Major in contrast with the E minor found in opening movement. Several previous themes are combined, but only in short fragments. The piece closes with heavier use of percussion and traditional Rachmaninoff romantic orchestration. 16
Program 1 • September 27, 2014
Program Commentary by Colleen Fay
There is not, nor has there ever been a language more universal, more “worldly,” than music. If that premise ever needed to be proved again – and it doesn’t – tonight’s program would certainly make its case! Audiences take music to their hearts; it doesn’t matter the country, the culture or the language of the audience: they hear and their minds appreciate and their hearts love. Bachianas Brasilieras No. 1 By 1932, when Brazilian Heitor Villa-Lobos composed the first of his series of nine Bachianas Brasilieras, he was already Brazil’s, even Latin America’s, most wellknown composer. Throughout his entire career, he blended the multi-cultural folk music of the Brazilian people with classical music forms familiar throughout the world. The music that ordinary people perform is the “raw material” that constantly enriches every form of classical music. The music of his beloved countrymen and women was a constant source of inspiration. Sometimes we forget that composers are also listeners just like us. They have their favorite pieces and favorite composers. Oh, don’t
get me wrong; composers study the composing masters just as art students study and even copy the works of the Old Masters. If I told you that Heitor Villa-Lobos revered J. S. Bach, you probably wouldn’t be surprised. You might be delighted, however, that he manifested his love of Bach in some wonderful, unusual ways. In these Bachianas Brasilieras works, Villa-Lobos incorporates another love of his: the cello. This piece is the first of this series and it is scored for eight cellos. Occasionally it’s easy to forget just how versatile the cello is – pitched low enough that its bottom notes produce a rich bass timbre, and yet a gifted cellist can play in a high register that could easily be mistaken for the violin. In chamber music, composers utilize this flexibility, but when we listen to the cello in the orchestra, we don’t always have that privilege. Many things have been said about the ways in which Villa-Lobos pays tribute to J. S. Bach in the Bachianas Brasilieras, but let me add my own personal reflection. These pieces are often described as Brazilian reflections on Bach’s 17
Program 1 • September 27, 2014
music. I think it’s just the other way around. For me, these are “what if ” pieces. What if the great J.S. Bach himself had come to Brazil, traveled up the Amazon, heard the music of the people at work and at play? What if he had drunk deeply of that tremendously diverse culture? What if then, he put pen to paper? Villa-Lobos is telling us that what the Master would have written might have been very close to Bachianas Brasilieras. O Great Mystery When the Kluge Young Composers Competition launched, we hoped that the young composers and their compositions would be worthy additions to the concert repertoire. Winner Nebal Maysaud crafted O Great Mystery, which bids fair to become a concert favorite. You know, sometimes we say of a model that they have good bone structure. Well, this is certainly true in the case of Maysaud’s O Great Mystery. The piece draws its inspiration from Tomas Luis de Victoria’s O Magnum Mysterium, meaning “O Great Mystery.” Victoria was one of the musical giants of the Renaissance and his motet O Magnum Mysterium is what we used to call a monument of music, a piece of unsurpassed beauty. 18
And what a fabulous structure for our young composer Maysaud. I find it fascinating that Lebanon is his ancestral home; in fact, he spent this past summer there. The country of Lebanon is a cultural crossroads: one foot in the Arab world and the other in Western Culture. Expect that the haunting lines of Victoria’s motet will be couched in sounds steeped in the folk culture of Lebanon. In the work, Maysaud takes Victoria’s opening theme and transforms it until it almost disappears into a more complex texture before emerging near the very end; it’s Maysaud’s way of both paying homage to the old and yet presenting it in entirely new ways. Symphonic Dances from West Side Story It was yet another golden era for American musicals, or musical comedies as they were called in those heady days of the 1950s. Post-war America thought that the heyday of musical comedy had been the 1920s-1930s. But the art form of the musical hadn’t worn out its welcome (I don’t think it has even to this day some 60 years later). The 1950s were a decade of shows like The Pajama Game, My Fair Lady, The Music Man, and above all West Side Story. Lerner and Loewe’s Camelot and Rogers
Program 1 • September 27, 2014
and Hammerstein’s The Sound of Music would follow soon after. All great Musicals are collaborations between talented artists: director, choreographer, lyricist and composer, to name just a few. Leonard Bernstein had already made a name for himself as Broadway composer before working on West Side Story. He worked with choreographer Jerome Robbins and lyricist Stephen Sondheim, honing the material – Romeo and Juliet transferred to the streets of 1950s New York. The 1957 musical took Broadway by storm and the 1961 movie was equally successful. The suite of dances Bernstein created from his original score has become a staple of the concert hall, as beloved here as it is in the musical theater. I had a conversation with Robert Saudek, producer of television’s “Omnibus,” a mix of culture, arts and entertainment in the 1950s-60s. The show was led by Alistaire Cooke, later the host of “Masterpiece Theater.” Saudek and Cooke took the train from New York to Washington to see the tryout of “West Side Story” at D.C.’s National Theatre. Saudek told me they thought it a great disappointment and predicted it would never succeed. He laughed telling me how wrong they were.
Although Bernstein called them “Symphonic Dances,” the work is more a suite of his soaring melodies that have forever made West Side Story so beloved of audiences and performers alike. If we were to dissect some of those melodies, they might seem to be awkward or difficult, but in the hands of Leonard Bernstein, they grow and flourish organically. Symphony No. 2, Op. 27 At the turn of the 20th century, the young Sergei Rachmaninoff was riding high. Having weathered his share of personal tragedies, this esteemed graduate of the Saint Petersburg Conservatory was a highly regarded pianist and conductor, as well as a composer, at only 31. He wasn’t satisfied, however. The premiere of his first symphony had been unsuccessful and he doubted his ability as a composer for orchestra. His fears were somewhat allayed by the success of his Second Piano Concerto and he hoped that doubts about his own abilities were unfounded. Well, the first audience of Symphony No. 2 and virtually every audience in the 110 years since has affirmed his ability as a composer of unquestionable talent. Young Sergei was also aware 19
Program 1 • September 27, 2014
that things were changing in his beloved Russia. Unrest was in the air; political turmoil was everywhere. He couldn’t have foreseen the two-fold cataclysm of World War I and the Russian Revolution of 1917. But cautious for his young family’s safety, he left Russia for the West; his reputation as a pianist gave him enough income to keep his family in Dresden, Germany. Russia, however, was still home. Home, that is until the 1917 Revolution stripped him of his home, his property, his income and, had he stayed, his freedom. He and his family left the newly renamed Petrograd for Helsinki, Finland. Rachmaninoff was only able to carry a handful of notebooks of musical sketches and a few full orchestral scores. He would never see Russia again. That being said, however, Rachmaninoff ’s music traveled the world. His Second Symphony, his Second and Third Piano Concertos, and Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini remain among the most beloved pieces of concert music, for good reason. Rachmaninoff may have learned from Tchaikovsky, his beloved teacher at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, but his music represented a new synthesis of technical brilliance, European cosmopolitanism, and love 20
of Russian lyricism. Later generations of Soviet critics might have called this bourgeois thinking, but audiences uniformly disagreed. Rachmaninoff had a great sense of humor; although, his wit was on the dry side. Once he was playing a recital in New York with his good friend the great violinist Fritz Kreisler. Kreisler had a lapse of memory. He sidled over to Rachmaninoff and whispered, “Where are we?” Without skipping a beat, Rachmaninoff replied, “Carnegie Hall.”
Nebal Maysaud, composer
Nebal Maysaud was born in 1995 in Alexandria, Virginia. The son of two Lebanese bakers, he did not grow up in a musical family but has found music on his own. His Lebanese heritage, however, is not quite as much
Program 1 • September 27, 2014
an influence on him as his personal faith and philosophy. These he prefers to express through his music, which infuse most of his pieces. His music is a convergence of Lebanese and Jordanian folk religion and such diverse influences as Vaughan Williams, renaissance-era religious music, especially Thomas Tallis, and the masters of Classical music such as Bach, Beethoven, and Shostakovich. When Nebal is not composing, he can be found working at his parents’ Great Harvest bakery in Alexandria, playing his oboe, practicing his lute harp or debating the purpose of prayer in religion over pizza at 4 am with his friends. Nebal has composed for a number of ensembles and won awards, including the Alexandria Choral Society Carol Competition, where the Alexan-
dria Choral Society performed his A Cappella work, Winter Dusk in concert. Nebal was also a finalist in the Neva Greenwood Memorial Student Composition Competition, where he directed a performance of his Saxophone Quartet, Dew. Nebal has also composed for the World Youth Symphony Orchestra, where, as a student at Interlochen, he had a hearing of his first orchestra piece, Fanfare. Nebal studied under famed Wind Band composer Mark Camphouse before entering the studios of Professor John Bensen and Asha Srinivasan. He is currently a composition student under Dr. Joanne Metcalf, at the Lawrence Conservatory of Music in Appleton, WI. You can explore Nebal’s music at www.nebalmaysaud.com
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THE ALEXANDRIA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA ON
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Dare to TRanscend November 15, 2014 at 8:00 pm
Rachel M. Schlesinger Arts Center and Concert Hall
November 16, 2014 at 3:30 pm George Washington Masonic Memorial
Kim Allen Kluge, conductor duo parnas (Madalyn Parnas, violin | Cicely Parnas, cello) HORNER
Music from Braveheart (1995)
BRAHMS
Double Concerto in A minor, Op. 102 duo parnas Madalyn Parnas, violin and Cicely Parnas, cello I. Allegro II. Andante III. Vivace non troppo
INTERMISSION BEETHOVEN
Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 72 I. Poco sostenuto – Vivace II. Allegretto III. Presto – Assai meno presto IV. Allegro con brio
Program Notes James Horner (b. 1953)
Music from Braveheart (1995) Born in Los Angeles, California, Horner grew up in a film industry family – his father served as a production designer, set designer and even film director on occasion. Horner showed promising talent in music at a young age, beginning piano at age 5 and later attending the Royal College of Music in London. Today, Horner has composed more than 100 film scores, many of which are considered iconic works – An American Tail (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Glory (1989), Legends of the Fall (1994), Apollo 13 (1995), Titanic (1997) (for which he won an Academy Award, a Golden Globe and a Grammy), A Beautiful Mind (2001), and Avatar (2009). Currently, Horner is working with director Gabriele Muccino on the upcoming film Fathers and Daughters, and is 23
Program 2 • November 15-16, 2014
scheduled to complete the scores to Avatar 2 and Avatar 3 in 2016 and 2017, respectively. Jim Henrikson, film music editor and frequent collaborator of Horner’s, notes, “I think it’s a tribute to James’ classical background that you can listen to his scores for pure listening enjoyment. James has always preferred to write extended cues, some as long as 12 to 16 minutes. That’s very unusual in film scoring and a hallmark of his work. I have not had to do a lot of editing of his scores for narrative purposes because he is diligent about his collaboration with the film maker.” The story of Braveheart focuses on William Wallace and his battle for Scottish independence from King Edward II of England. Horner’s score garnered praise, incuding a Golden Globe and Academy Award nomination. The movie went on to win the Academy Award for Best Picture and Best Director in 1996, cementing its legacy as an iconic film. The musical landscape of Braveheart is heavily defined by its eclectic orchestration, one that combines elements of Celtic music, with a unique fusion of acoustic and synthesized instruments.
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
Double Concerto in A minor, Op. 102 The legacy of Johannes Brahms can best be described in two parts – what he did as a musician and what he did for musicians. His influence and talent as a musician was unmatched. He was recognized as both a traditionalist and innovator, and championed the music of the past, performing and conducting the forgotten music of Beethoven, Haydn and more. To the younger generation of composers, such as Edward Elgar and Anton Dvořák, Brahms’ music became an important part of their development as artists. In particular, Elgar stated, “I look at the Third Symphony of Brahms, and I feel like a pygmy.” His relationship and admiration for talented performers was also notable. Robert and Clara Schumann were good friends of Brahms, and he was especially close with violinist Joseph Joachim, one of the most notable violinists of the 19th century. Brahms and Joachim collaborated many times throughout their careers. However, a divorce between Joachim and his wife, Amelie, created great tension among the friends. Following a request by cellist Robert Hausmann for a new violin and 24
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cello concerto, Brahms reconciled with his old friend Joachim, by featuring him in the Double Concerto with Hausmann. The Double Concerto, written in 1887, was Brahms’s final piece for full orchestra. As with many of Brahms’s larger works, the first movement of the concerto is the longest. After a short passage by the full orchestra, the soloists begin with alternating passages until Brahms begins merging the instruments more harmoniously, creating one solo string instrument accompanied by the orchestra. The second movement begins with the two soloists playing lyrical, unison themes that the string section double, creating choral-like figures. The woodwinds enter, at which point the violin and cello break away, each taking turns soloing with light string and upper woodwind accompaniment. The choral figures return, although accompanied by strings pizzicati that give reference to the Waltz, a dance of which Brahms was very fond. The soloists separate a final time, echoing each other before one last ascending gesture ends the movement. The cello opens the last movement, at a faster tempo than the preceding music. The soloists take turns alternating more aggressive gestures, utilizing multi-stopped techniques that create more complex sonorities. Gradually, the piece becomes truly virtuosic, as the soloists are repeatedly alternating figures across multiple registers. The cello takes the lead again, mirroring the opening material before combining with the violin as the piece closes.
Ludwig Van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 72 Beethoven began writing Symphony No. 7, No. 8, and sketching themes for No. 9 in 1812. Symphony No. 7 was completed by May 1812, and although Beethoven pushed for a late spring premiere of the piece, the official premiere of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 took place a year and a half later at the University of Vienna on December 8, 1813. Organized by his friend Ignaz Schuppanzigh, the concert benefited wounded Bavarian soldiers and widows from the war against Napoleon. Although the event was largely somber, the inclusion of the lively Symphony No. 7, which Beethoven conducted himself, pleased the 25
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audience. Viennese press noted, “the symphony brought forth applause which rose to the point of ecstasy.” The concert was so popular that it was repeated three times during 1814, and Symphony No. 7 became one of Beethoven’s most critically-acclaimed works. In particular, the second movement, Allegretto, was such an hit that it was encored immediately. Due to its astounding popularity, the movement was often performed separate from the full symphony, and even was inserted into other less popular Beethoven symphonies by 19th-century conductors. Movement I, marked Poco sostenuto (a bit sustained) features a combination of gradually ascending lines constantly interrupted by forceful downbeats. At the midpoint of the movement, the orchestra is at full force, playing a heroic theme reminiscent of Beethoven’s earlier works. While the music returns to the forceful downbeats of the opening momentarily, a lighter character emerges by the end. The Allegretto begins as Beethoven builds alternating two-measure ostinati. The theme is heard first in the viola and cello before it passes throughout the upper strings. The climax of the movement features the first violins carrying the theme, while the brass and percussion accentuate the underlying chord structure. The material switches abruptly to A Major, as the texture becomes more fugue-like and the tempo slows. The character of the piece shifts into a more traditional feeling in the Movement III, a scherzo. Beethoven highlights the instrumental families separately throughout this dance-like movement, which creates a lighter and gentler sound. Beethoven employs the expanded scherzo form of A-B-A-B-A in this movement; he alternates an F Major section (A) and a D Major trio based on an Austrian pilgrims’ hymn (B). The closing Allegro con brio is structured in the common sonata form. Movement IV prominently features the upper strings, while the woodwinds, brass and timpani accompany with aggressive gestures similar to the first movement. Beethoven ends the piece with the dynamic marking fff (fortississimo, or very, very loud), a marking rarely found in his scores, and never before seen in any Beethoven symphony.
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Program Commentary by Colleen Fay
Music from Braveheart (1995) With any movie score, the composer has to ask the question, “How do I create music for the film that will engage the audience and make them feel the sense of the characters, the mood and the story.” It’s not a terribly complicated question, but answering it is no small matter. One of the challenges of scoring a film set in a historical time, like Braveheart, is that sometimes the “authentic” music of the historical period doesn’t appeal to the audience. Or, more to the point, it doesn’t evoke the characters, the place, or the story. My favorite example of this was the movie, The Sting, set in the 1920s. The score used ragtime music that had been popular twenty years before, but it perfectly fit the mood and sense of sly wit. It didn’t matter that it was “wrong” historically; it worked for the audience.
of Khan. With that film, Horner’s music began to get noticed by prominent Hollywood directors and the opportunity to work with ensembles like the London Symphony Orchestra arose. Horner has since worked with George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, and Ron Howard, among others. Among the more than 100 films for which he wrote scores are Titanic, his double Oscar-winning turn for Best Song and Best Score, and Avatar.
What really intrigues me about Horner’s music for Braveheart, however, is that in the process of fulfilling the film director’s requirements for the perfect score for the film, he also created an orchestral work of real interest. I must confess that sometimes when I listen to film scores apart from the films for which they were written, the brief moments of music don’t amount to much. Hollywood-born, though raised in For Horner’s music, this is not the London, James Horner has made case; some of those brief moments Los Angeles his center of activity – a minute or two of music, somesince the 1970s. While he was still times even less – amount to little a student at UCLA, he had already jewels. So besides evoking the begun to score student films for world of pre-medieval Scotland’s the American Film Institute. In William Wallace, Horner has 1982, his big break came with his created a work of lasting beauty. score for Star Trek II: the Wrath 27
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In November 2014, Horner will conduct the premiere of his Double Concerto for Violin, Cello and Orchestra with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic. Later, in April 2015 at London’s Royal Albert Hall, Horner will conduct the orchestra, chorus and Celtic musicians in his score of Titanic (as he did for the original film). This will be Horner’s first concert of the entire score of this muchawarded film, as the audience watches the film itself in HD. Double Concerto, Op. 102 Great music and great families have gone together, as the old song says, “like a horse and carriage.” Parents spurring on their children or siblings in friendly rivalry have provided the musical world with a rich heritage. The two soloists on our program, Madalyn Parnas, violin, and Cicely Parnas, cello, are sisters, but each is a solo artist in her own right. Their wise parents encouraged each of their talented daughters to develop as individuals and encouraged their partnership. One of the delights of our age, perhaps, is that we don’t see one or another hiding while a more famous sibling takes the spotlight. We find glory in the fact that two sisters are sharing their prodigious talents not only with 28
each other, but with us. It is wonderful and fitting that they will be performing Johannes Brahms’s Double Concerto with the ASO. The Concerto was the last piece that Brahms wrote for orchestra, and the two virtuoso solo parts he entrusted to two of his very close friends. The cello part was given its premiere by Brahms’s frequent chamber music partner Robert Hausmann and the equally demanding violin solo part to his friend Joseph Joachim. Brahms and his friends stopped at an inn for a cup of coffee; the owner mixed the coffee with chicory, which Brahms hated. He called over the owner and asked her if she had any chicory. She told him she did. He said, “bring me all the chicory you have.” She gave it all to him. “Now,” Brahms said, “make me a real cup of coffee.”
Johannes Brahms and Joseph Joachim had been friends since their early 20s. In fact it was the 22-year-old Joachim who wrote a letter introducing Brahms, just barely 20 years old at the time, to Robert and Clara Schumann. Brahms’s relationship with the Schumann’s would be central to his life. His friendship with Joachim was equally long-lasting
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until Brahms took the side of Joachim’s wife, Amelie, in a bitter divorce. Brahms’s dedication of the Double Concerto to his friend was the closest thing to a piece offering to end their estrangement. What an offering it is! The soloists and orchestra members might just as well be dressed in track suits, because they’re all put through their paces. Some early critics of the work took Brahms to task for writing a work with such demanding jobs for the two soloists. Fortunately for us, Duo Parnas, granddaughters of the great cellist Leslie Parnas (in turn, the brother of recently-retired ASO Principal Violist, Richard Parnas) have the technicalities of the work well within their grasp. But don’t let that statement deter you. The thing that always delights me about this piece is the great soaring arches of melody that Brahms spins: first to the violin, then to the cello; the next time just the reverse. In fact, the final movement, Vivace, is something of a romp: it’s like another old song, Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better. Each of the solo lines seems to be in a friendly, joyous competition to decide who can outdo the other. By the end of the work, we all agree that it’s a tie.
Symphony No. 7, Op. 92 Beethoven was possessed of a genius that we still marvel at. I was having a conversation not long ago with a musician friend of mine about the fact that you would never see a sign announcing “A Beethoven Revival.” The reason for that is from the time that he wrote his music to the present day Beethoven’s music has always been played, listened to and loved. I should also add that among music students and scholars, Beethoven’s music is also admired. We’re constantly amazed at how Beethoven manages to develop his musical ideas in such unique ways. Other composers are also amazed, and a little envious too. Audiences, including generations of budding composers, have been listening to Beethoven’s symphonies since the days they were written. Putting whatever envy they may feel aside, composers are nearly all in slack-jawed admiration for Beethoven’s abilities. It bears mentioning that Beethoven is the master of development. I like to focus on the slow movement of the symphony. The tempo marking is Allegretto, “little lively,” but that only tells part of the story. The key to the movement, for me at any rate, is that little insistent 29
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bass line. It’s almost so quiet that you don’t hear it, but Beethoven plays with it: handing off first to one group of instruments, and then another, adding a little embellishment here, changing a key there, all the while never getting too far away from the original to the point that our ears don’t recognize it. He varies it just
enough to keep our interest and yet keeps it simple at the same time – a true stroke of genius. In 1852, composer Franz Liszt wrote to a friend, “To us musicians the work of Beethoven parallels the pillars of smoke and fire that led the Israelites through the desert.”
duo parnas, violin & cello of Martinu’s lively, sometimes prickly Duo for Violin and Cello. The intricate give-and-take between the cello and violin lines was perfectly balanced and suffused with … electricity and drama …” The release of two internationally acclaimed recordings further catalyzed the worldwide performance success of the duo, a success that serves as a testament to their undeniable sibling synergy.
The duo parnas is the stunning collaboration of supremely musical sisters, violinist Madalyn Parnas and cellist Cicely Parnas. Their profound artistry speaks of their life-long partnership and performance career. Officially recognized in Carnegie Hall with a 1st prize win at the 2008 International Chamber Music Ensemble Competition, the duo soon earned rave reviews in The New York Times for their exciting and technically flawless performances. “… the duo parnas gave a stunning account
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The duo parnas has toured as guest soloists with the French Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire under John Axelrod, performing a trilogy of Saint-Saëns’ works. In a six-concert tour of the Loire Valley, Madalyn performed the Violin Concerto No. 3, Cicely his Cello Concerto in A Minor, and together the beautiful duo concerto, La Muse et Le Poète. Previous appearances as duo soloists with orchestra include the New York String Alumni Orchestra under the baton of Jaime Laredo, and the Albany Symphony Orchestra led by David Alan Miller.
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In addition to performing chamber music in concerts and festivals across the globe as the duo parnas, Madalyn and Cicely have had the honor of collaborating with the great artist Peter Serkin. The Parnas/Serkin Trio concertized at The New School, People’s Symphony Concerts, Brattleboro Music Center, and twice at the Music Mountain Festival. Additionally, Madalyn and Cicely have had the distinct honor of working with the illustrious and award-winning composers Lera Auerbach, William Bolcom, Paul Moravec, and Charles Wuorinen on their string duo works. Pulitzer Prize recipient, Mr. Moravec has written a duo for them entitled Parnas Duo. Recording for Sheffield Lab, the duo parnas has released two CDs with a third available in July 2014. Parnas Double (2008) includes music by Handel-Halvorsen, Kodaly, Ravel, and Tcherepnin; Gare du Nord (2010) concentrates on music inspired by Parisian culture, featuring works by Martinu, Milhaud, Glière, Fennelly, and Honegger; and most recently, duo parnas NOW presents duos written by living composers Auerbach, Bolcom, Moravec, and Wuorinen, among others. Additionally, the duo performs on The Other Side of Time (Albany Records, 2012). This collection of works by Brian Fennelly includes his duo concerto, Fantasia Concertante, written for and performed live by the duo parnas with the Indiana University New Music Ensemble directed by David
Dzubay. Madalyn, 22, and Cicely, 20, hold Artist Diplomas from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where they studied with Jaime Laredo and Sharon Robinson. Madalyn also holds an undergraduate degree in Music Industry and French, and a Masters from London’s Royal Academy of Music, where she studied as a 2012 Marshall Scholar. Madalyn performs on a 1715 Allessandro Gagliano violin, and Cicely on a 1712 Giovanni Grancino cello. They are the granddaughters of the legendary cellist Leslie Parnas.
A Tradition of Service CELEBRATING 125 YEARS IN ALEXANDRIA
Fuel Oil n Boilers n Furnaces Air Conditioning n Heat Pumps Water Heaters n Gas, Oil, & AC Service 1200 DUKE STREET, ALEXANDRIA, VA 703-549-5700
www.tjfannonandsons.com In memory of Susan Dau Fannon, a proud supporter of the Symphony.
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Dare To Follow your Heart February 14, 2015 at 8:00 pm
Rachel M. Schlesinger Arts Center and Concert Hall
February 15, 2015 at 3:30 pm George Washington Masonic Memorial
Kim Allen Kluge, conductor
DOYLE
Music from Sense and Sensibility (1995)
MENDELSSOHN A Midsummer Night’s Dream I. Overture - Allegro di molto II. Scherzo (Entr’acte to Act 2) - Allegro vivace III. Elfenmarsch (Fairies’ March) - Allegro vivace IV. Bunte (O ye spotted snakes), Lied with chorus - Allegro ma non troppo V. Was du wirst erwachend sehn (The Spells), Lied - Andante - Allegro molto VI. Intermezzo - Allegro appassionato VII. Welch hausbacknes Volk (What hempen homespuns), Lied - Allegro - Allegro Molto - Andante VIII. Notturno - Con moto tranquillo IX. Andante (Removal of the Spells) X. Hochzeitmarsch (Wedding March) - Allegro vivace XI. Fanfare - Allegro commodo, Funeral March - Andante commodo XII. Ein Tanz con Rupeln (Bergomask; Dance of the Clowns) - Allegro di molto XIII. Hochzeitmarsch reprise - Allegro vivace XIV. Bei des Feuers mattem Flimmern (Through this house give glimm’ring light) - Allegro di molto
INTERMISSION MOZART
Selections from The Magic Flute
Program Notes Patrick Doyle (b. 1953)
Music from Sense and Sensibility (1995) Patrick Doyle, one of the most prolific film composers of the last three decades, has received numerous recognitions for his work, including an Academy Award for Best Original Score for Sense and Sensibility (1995). He also received the 2013 ASCAP Henry Mancini Award for “outstanding achievements and contributions to the world of film and television music.” Born in Scotland, Doyle studied at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. He joined the Renaissance Theatre Company in 1987, where he served as composer and musical director for works such as Hamlet and As You Like It. There, he met director and actor Kenneth Branagh, who launched Doyle’s film music career; Doyle has since composed scores for nine of Branagh’s films, most recently, Thor 33
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(2011). Other notable scores by Doyle include Dead Again (1991 – Golden Globe nominee), Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1994), Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001), Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005), Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011), and Brave (2012). In a 2007 interview with Joe Utichi of the entertainment website Rotten Tomatoes, Doyle spoke about his focus as a film composer: “I believe a score should be there to bring another element to the whole artistic output. But a score shouldn’t stand-alone and should be created to collaborate with everything else going on and to morph its way into all the different ingredients of a film. Of course, there are occasions where there may be a flying sequence or a battle sequence, and it’s in those moments where a composer can come out and have some fun and sing an aria or something. The thrill of writing is to have those moments. But it’s equally satisfying to ease your way in, to provide a tone and a quality and color that only music can provide.” In 2015, Doyle and Branagh will return to their partnership and produce their tenth film, a live action version of Disney’s Cinderella, featuring Cate Blanchett, Stellan Skarsgård, and Lily James.
Jacob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1809–1847)
A Midsummer Night’s Dream Called the “Mozart of the 19th century” by music critics of his time, Felix Mendelssohn was a true musical prodigy. He completed his solopiano debut at age 9. By the age of 14, he had written four Singspiele, dozens of vocal works, eight string symphonies, six chamber works including his Piano Quartet, Op. 1, and a number of piano and organ pieces. And at age 20, he conducted what is considered the historic “modern premiere” of Bach’s long-forgotten Saint Matthew Passion, an event credited with reviving interest in Bach during the 19th century. During the summer of 1826, at age 17, Mendelssohn turned to Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream for inspiration. Felix mentioned to his sister Fanny in a July 1826 note, “I have grown accustomed to composing in our garden… today or tomorrow I am going to dream there the Midsummer Night’s Dream. It is, however, an enormous audacity.” Still in the height of his adolescence, Mendelssohn identified 34
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strongly with the play’s themes of love, magic and the power to bend rules established by adults. However, in his first drafts, Mendelssohn struggled to connect his emotions to the music. According to Adolf Bernhard Marx, a Mendelssohn family friend, an early draft was: “Cheerful, pleasantly agitated, perfectly delightful, perfectly praiseworthy – only I could perceive no Midsummer Night’s Dream in it. Sincerely feeling that it was my duty as a friend, I told him this in candor… I explained that, as I saw it, such a score, since it serves as a prologue, must give a true and complete reflection of the drama... He went to work with fire… rushing around in high excitement...” Mendelssohn furiously rewrote the piece and premiered the revised version at a private concert in the Mendelssohn home on August 6, 1826. Mendelssohn offered the work publicly for the first time during February 1827 in Germany, and the Overture was debuted in the U.S. by the New York Philharmonic Society in April 1843. In 1843, Mendelssohn found himself overwhelmed with work, taking on roles as the director of an all-male choir in Berlin, the overseer of the Berlin opera orchestra, as well as Kapellmeister of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and founding faculty member of its newly established conservatory. However, upon request by King Friedrich Wilhelm, Mendelssohn returned to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, expanding his original thoughts in the Overture into an eleven-movement score that could be used during a staged production. Building on his almost two additional decades as composer and orchestrator, Mendelssohn incorporated new instrumental and vocal parts – some parts were meant to stand alone, while others were meant to accompany the dialogue. Today, many of the parts are easily recognizable – the Scherzo’s solo flute line, the Nocturne’s solo horn, and the most famous Wedding March, used by the daughter of Queen Victoria, friend of Mendelssohn, in her marriage to Prince Frederick William of Prussia in 1858. The expanded piece was premiered in a private performance at the Neuer Palais in Potsdam during October 1843, and was publicly performed four days later at the Berlin Schauspielhaus. The full version of the incidental music was first performed in the U.S. as a part of a performance of the play at the Astor Place Opera House in New York during December 1849. 35
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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
Selections from The Magic Flute (Die Zauberflöte) Mozart’s contributions to the operatic cannon began one month shy of his 14th birthday when he premiered his first opera seria (serious opera), a six-hour work that included more than twenty solo arias and an interpolated ballet. While Mitridate, Re di Ponto saw only this one performance during Mozart’s life, the work was well-received and commissions for additional operatic works filled much of his remaining life. The Magic Flute was Mozart’s final opera; it premiered in Vienna only two months prior to his death in 1791. Written in the Singspiel style – operatic music with spoken recitative – the work weaves together many eighteenth-century traditions including vocal lines in the style of Italian opera seria, folk humor of German Singspiel, the glorious solo aria, the buffo or comic ensemble, solemn choral ensembles, the revival of Baroque chorale-prelude technique, a new kind of accompanied recitative set to German text, and traditional contrapuntal accompaniment. In addition, The Magic Flute is filled with symbolic meanings from the Freemasonry society. Mozart was admitted as an apprentice to the Viennese Masonic lodge in December 1784, quickly progressing to journeyman and master within the next two months. The Magic Flute concept was originally suggested to Mozart by his friend, fellow Mason, and librettist, Emanuel Johann Schikaneder, who asked for music to accompany a puppet show at his theater. Following the success of a similar production at a different Viennese theater, Schikaneder shifted his focus to a story that would celebrate the ideals of Freemasonry. The new production was set in Egypt, where Freemasonry rites are believed to have originated, and Schikaneder drew correlations between the characters and real life – the Queen of the Night to Empress Maria Theresa, Sarastro to Ignaz von Born (a freemason leader), Tamino to the Emperor Joseph II, Pamina to the Austrian people. Schikaneder highlighted duality in his libretto, focusing on light versus dark, and reason versus irrationality. Mozart employed freemason correlations throughout the score as well, including heavy thrice-repeated chords that symbolize knocking at the lodge door, suspensions that symbolize brotherhood, and three-part harmonies that celebrate the importance of the three Masonic principals, Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity. 36
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Program Commentary by Colleen Fay
Music from Sense and Sensibility For a subject that has found its way on to the silver screen before, Scottish composer Patrick Doyle had to come up with a new approach yet one that would be faithful to this time honored subject. As any close follower of film knows, even the most lavish film must omit much of the literary work upon which it is based. This presents a problem for the composer as well. The music a gifted composer like Doyle had to compose would, like the film script itself, bridge the gaps and produce a seamless whole. A hallmark of Doyle’s style, from his earliest work on Kenneth Branagh's Henry V to the present, is his flexibility. Patrick Doyle has an advantage few of his film composer colleagues share: he is also a trained actor, singer and pianist. Although these skill don’t directly manifest themselves in his music, they do color his approach in that his musical efforts subtly underpin the work of the actors on screen. The music must support the actor, the sense of the scene itself, and the outcome. As Mrs. Willoughby and her daughters, the principal
characters of the novel and film, are effectively banished from their former home, Patrick Doyle's music paints a picture of a woman thrown on hard times, but we see a determined woman refusing to let adversity get her down. Doyle amazingly conveys this in his sweeping, lyrical style almost as if his music is another character giving the down-on-her-luck woman the support she needs. For a composer as busy and versatile as Patrick Doyle, it would be expected that his approach would be very methodical. Quite the contrary; as he told an interviewer, “You know, I don’t try to design anything. I’m a great believer in things just happening. It sounds very hippie-ish, but it’s true: you have to follow your own field, do your own thing, try to make sure you do things that – if you have any choice in the matter – you can choose and say, ‘I really want to do that. That’s enjoyable.”’
A Midsummer Night's Dream Precocious is a word that gets thrown around easily these days, but Felix Mendelssohn and his sister Fanny personified the idea. 37
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The young Felix had composed a series of 12 String Symphonies before he was 15. His famous overture to Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, was composed when he was 17 (he didn't complete his entire score of the incidental music until another 17 years had passed). What was abundantly clear to Mendelssohn's family, his teachers and their circle of highly educated and influential friends was that this young man was possessed of a prodigious musical talent. His wise parents sought to nurture that talent rather than exploit it so that the young composer could grow and mature in something like a normal environment. There were composers of Mendelssohn's time – we think of Liszt and Berlioz, for instance – who were more adventurous, pushing music in new directions. That was not where Mendelssohn's genius lay. If we had to think of a single word to describe him it would be a conciliator. Mendelssohn's music may not be as harmonically daring as some other composers, but what he lacks in daring he more than makes up for in sheer brilliance of melody and in harmonic structure. Where his compositional talent really shone was in its highly-developed sense 38
of lightness and clear organizational development. When we hear a work by Mendelssohn, we are inexorably drawn forward by the force of his musical development. It is as if he gives us cues to where he intends to go next. Therefore we have a series of “aha” moments – “he's taken us exactly where we thought we were going.” What we don’t realize is that the whole process is one of Mendelssohn’s devising. It is he who has given us that sense of logical progression when in fact it is as much an example of creative flight of fancy as if it had no structure at all. For me this is the reason that Mendelssohn's music sounds as fresh and inviting as the first day he wrote it. Queen Victoria and her husband Prince Albert were great admirers of Mendelssohn and his music. On the first page of Mendelssohn’s oratorio, Elijah, Prince Albert wrote, “To the Noble Artist who, surrounded by the [idol] worship of debased art, has been able, by his genius and science, to preserve faithfully, like another Elijah, the worship of true art...”
Selections from The Magic Flute It's hard for us to imagine, but at the time Mozart wrote The Magic
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Flute it wasn't considered an opera. In the 18th Century, for opera to be opera it had to be in the Italian language, and The Magic Flute is in German. Worse yet, the dialogue, by which the story of the opera is carried forward, is spoken and not sung. Horror of horrors! In those days in German speaking countries, works like The Magic Flute were called singspielen, literally “song plays.” Today we might call them musicals. But that fussy debate from 200-odd years ago makes little difference when compared to the glorious music the Mozart gave us. The opera has a plot involving the forces of good and evil with a couple of comedy characters thrown in for good measure. In the hands of a master like Mozart, however, each of the characters is given wonderful music to sing. The orchestra isn't neglected by Mozart by any means. Mozart being Mozart, there are serious themes underlying the comedy, just as there are lighter comedic touches to relieve the tension in serious works. The Magic Flute is no exception. We have poor Papageno, silenced with a padlock on his lips for his boastfulness, who sings an aria – well, actually he hums an aria – to the delight of the other characters
and the audience as well. At the same time we have the formidable Queen of the Night threatening anyone who dares cross her. We don't know until nearly the end of the opera who the real “good guys” are. All this while Mozart manages to keep two sets of lovers – and the audience – in suspense. Well, the dust has settled on that long-ago debate about what's opera and what's not. The Magic Flute is clearly in the opera column and remains a favorite not only for its charming plot (by the way the good guys do triumph in the end), but most of all for its glorious music. What seems clear even today is that Mozart had fun with this opera and its music and it definitely shows. Walking in a park one evening Beethoven and a friend heard from an outdoor concert a performance of a Mozart piano concerto. Beethoven suddenly stood still and directing his friend to listen carefully to the music, heard one of Mozart’s incomparable melodies, so deceivingly simple. Beethoven turned to his friend, nearly in despair and remarked, “I shall never be able to do anything like that.”
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Maestro Kim Allen Kluge ASO Music Director Distinguished by his powerful conducting style and its dramatic impact, Maestro Kim Allen Kluge has been likened to the great poetic conductors of our time. The Washington Post hails: “Kluge’s sense of drama was evident...relentless pressure I associate with Arturo Toscanini.” The Alexandria Journal has lauded Mr. Kluge’s passionate style, commenting: “In its power, Kluge’s performance bore the hallmarks of the work of such mesmerizing conductors as Artur Nikisch and...Leonard Bernstein.”
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In 2012-2013, Maestro Kluge celebrated 25 years as Music Director of the Alexandria Symphony Orchestra. During the season, Maestro Kluge led a historic performance at the National Gallery of Art in honor of the 100th anniversary of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring. The Washington Post raved about this performance, noting: “Kluge is superb at high-voltage works like this — if you haven’t heard him conduct, you’re missing a great musical experience — and turned in a taut, visceral reading, perhaps the most exciting heard here in years.”
and received the coveted Arthur Dann Award for Outstanding Pianist and the Pi Kappa Lamda Scholarship for Musical Excellence. Maestro Kluge pursued doctorates in Piano and Conducting from the University of Maryland and received a Conducting diploma from the Academia Musicale Chigiana in Siena. He participated in the prestigious Tanglewood Music Center Conducting Program where he studied with Seiji Ozawa and Sir Simon Rattle. He has appeared as guest conductor with the Sinfonietta de Paris, Les Solistes Parisiens, Boston Pops Orchestra, and Baltimore Lyric Opera.
Maestro Kluge is a Valedictorian of Oberlin Conservatory of Music where he served as concertmaster of the Oberlin Chamber Orchestra
A passionate advocate for music and arts education, Maestro Kluge believes education should be integrated into every concert
experience regardless of format or audience demographic. In 2003, Maestro Kluge founded the Children’s Arts Festival, as well as initiating Sunday matinee concerts. For Alexandria City Public School students, he has developed mentoring programs and side-byside concerts – pairing aspiring young musicians with ASO professionals. This season, he will work closely with many of Alexandria’s music students through conducting instruction, master classes, workshops, and mentoring. Maestro Kluge is earning glowing acclaim as a composer. His recent commissions include Vocalise, a concerto written for and performed by Branford Marsalis; Haiku Suite, choreographed and performed by Bowen McCauley Dance at the Kennedy Center; and Meibuki, a concerto written for the violinist Midori during her Orchestra Residencies Program with the ASO in 2012. Maestro Kluge, in collaboration with his wife, was commissioned by The National Gallery of Art in 2012 to compose and perform film scores for a historic Alice Guy Blache retrospective. In 2013, the Kluges were commissioned to write River Poem in dedication of the City of Alexandria. The Kluges composed and Maestro Kluge performed Rhapsody for Lily for orchestra and piano in 2014, which was dedicated to the Kluge’s newborn daughter.
The husband and wife team continue to write scores for film and live performance, and are in the process of composing a piano concerto. Their most ambitious current project is a commission from the National Gallery of Art that will benefit imprisoned writers throughout the world. The music will be inspired by these writers’ works, and is scheduled to be performed at NGA in 2015-16. Hear compositions by The Kluges at kimallenkluge.com. Maestro Kluge’s stature as a composer and conductor is being recognized nationally, as he has recently been named Music Advisor for the Hollywood Film Festival. He produced a music panel for the Topanga Film Festival in 2014 with film director/producer Alexander Payne. Additionally, Kluge serves as Music Advisor for CineCause, a global organization dedicated to filmmakers and change agents who want to have a positive social impact on the world. Maestro Kluge’s creative work derives from his passion and conviction that people of different backgrounds can share the essence of their humanity through artistic expression. The common denominator in all Kim Allen Kluge’s work, is his desire to reach audiences in a visceral and thought-provoking manner, often through the juxtaposition of disparate styles or genres.
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Dear ASO Patrons, The Alexandria Symphony Orchestra is proud to have a strong family of donors and sponsors who support our performances and education programs. It is only with the support of this family that we are able to provide quality, affordable, and accessible music in Alexandria, as well as foster a life-long appreciation of symphonic music by strengthening arts education in schools.
We invite you to support the ASO as we seek to connect more deeply to our community with each concert and event. Please speak us about your experience with the Symphony, and how you can become more involved with our organization. You can find us in the lobby before and after concerts, as well as during intermission. Support the ASO today! Sincerely, Ted Stark, Development Chair The ASO Development Committee: Carl Behnke, Miriam Browning, Linda Bunce, Barbara Hayes, Ted Stark, Jeanne Warner, and Cecily Winchell
Phone: 703-548-0885
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Web: www.alesym.org
Sponsored by the ASO Development Committee
Dare To Think Heroically April 11, 2015 at 8:00 pm April 12, 2015 at 3:00 pm
Rachel M. Schlesinger Concert Hall and Arts Center
Kim Allen Kluge, conductor Jeremy Denk, piano ZIMMER
Music from Gladiator (2000)
STRAUSS
Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks INTERMISSION
WAGNER
Lohengrin Preludes to Act I & III
BARTOK
Piano Concerto No. 3 in E major, Sz. 119 Jeremy Denk, piano I. Allegretto II. Adagio religioso III. Allegro vivace
Program Notes Hans Zimmer (b. 1957) Music from Gladiator (2000)
To Hans Zimmer, his musician-mother and engineer-father sparked his early interest in music technology. He notes, “I grew up modifying the piano, shall we say, which made my mother gasp in horror, and my father would think it was fantastic when I would attach chainsaws and stuff like that to the piano because he thought it was an evolution in technology.” Zimmer’s joined The Buggles in 1977. In 1979, the band released their smash hit Video Killed the Radio Star, becoming an international sensation. Starting in the1980s, Zimmer composed advertising jingles and film scores, focusing on fusing the traditional orchestral sound with electronic instruments. Zimmer wrote his first solo film score, Terminal Exposure, in 1987, and in the same year, worked as score producer for the Oscar-winning The Last Emperor. 43
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In 1988, Zimmer composed the score for director Barry Levinson’s Rain Man. Zimmer received an Academy Award nomination for the piece, and the movie went on to receive four Oscars, boosting Zimmer’s career. Some of Zimmer’s notable works since include Driving Miss Daisy (1990), The Lion King (1994), Armageddon (1998), The Thin Red Line (1998), Gladiator (2000), Madagascar (2005), The Dark Knight (2009), Inception (2011) and 12 Years a Slave (2013). Gladiator tells the fictional story of a Roman general, Maximus Decimus Meridus, who is betrayed by Commodus, the son of Emperor Marcus Aurelius. The score is often noted for its similarity to Holst’s Mars: The Bringer of War from The Planets as well as Wagner’s Das Rheingold and Götterdämmerung. Zimmer won a Golden Globe award and was nominated for an Academy Award for his work on Gladiator. The movie went on to win five Academy Awards, including Best Picture.
Richard Strauss (1864-1949)
Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks Versions of the Eulenspiegel story first appeared in the 16th century. Till Eulenspiegel, a real life figure born in the 14th century, was widelyrenowned for his pranks. The most famous publication of Till Eulenspiegel was created in 1866 by Charles de Coster; his story was Richard Strauss’ reference point. Although Strauss originally considered writing an operatic version of the Eulenspiegel story, he could not translate his creative vision into the music. Instead, Strauss began rewriting the work as a tone poem, completing the work in May 1895. The work opens with a solo horn line, an ode to his father’s influence as a premiere Horn player, presenting a statement of “once upon a time.” Strauss suggests a Rondo form, loosely alternating the two Eulenspiegel themes that appear throughout the piece. To add realism to Eulenspiegel’s escapades for the musicians, Strauss included notes in the margins of the original scores, highlighting activities of Eulenspiegel during specific themes. Although the themes reappear in disguise and woven into the instrumentation, the rondo form truly represents Eulenspiegel’s constant return as an unchanged and unrepentant prankster. Even at the close of the work, after Eulenspiegel is hung at the gallows for 44
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blasphemy, a return to the “once upon a time” theme suggests that he, and his pranks, cannot be destroyed.
Richard Wagner (1813-1883)
Preludes to Act I and Act III from Lohengrin Born in Leipzig, Germany, Richard Wagner was the ninth child of Johanna Rosine and Carl Frederich Wagner. When Carl passed away only six months later, Johanna married Ludwig Geyer, an actor and playwright from Dresden. Wagner developed a love of theater from Geyer, playing small parts in his productions. Around 1826, Wagner wrote a tragedy, Leubald; his interest in setting this work to music led Wagner to pursue formal music instruction. While composing during the 1830s and 40s, Wagner held a series of positions as musical director in various theaters. Financial problems from failed theatrical works forced Wagner and his then-wife Minna to run from his creditors – moving from Leipzig to Riga, London, Paris, and finally settling in Dresden. During the next six years, Wagner worked furiously, completing his operas Der fliegende Holländer (The Flying Dutchman) in 1843, Tannhäuser in 1845, and Lohengrin in 1849. Wagner’s welcome in Dresden was short-lived, however, after his involvement in left-wing and socialist politics led to the issuing of a warrant for his arrest. Wagner fled again, to Paris, and then Zürich. The story of Lohengrin centers on Elsa, who is accused of killing her brother Gottfried, the heir to the throne. When she finds no one who will defend her, she dreams of a knight in a boat drawn by a swan. The knight agreed to defend her, and love her, as long as she does not ask his name. At the end, when Elsa does ask, the knight reveals that he is Lohengrin, a Knight of the Holy Grail who can only live in secret. Lohengrin leaves, magically restoring Gottfried (the swan), and Elsa dies. The Act I Prelude was described by Wagner as a representation of the Holy Grail. Wagner noted that, “a magically attractive vision seems to condense out of the pure blue ether of the sky… the grail pours out its blessing on him who is swallowed up in the ecstasy of love… the fiery brilliance subsides to a milder glow, spreading over the earth in a 45
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breath of unspeakable joy and tenderness.” The Act III Prelude, in contrast, depicts the flurry of activity surrounding the marriage ceremony of Elsa and Lohengrin. An exuberant piece, the orchestral version often ends with a return to an earlier theme in which Lohengrin warns Elsa not to ask questions, while the staged version traditionally merges into the well-known wedding hymn (to us, Here Comes the Bride). Ultimately, Wagner could not fully celebrate the opera’s success. As he sat in exile, while his friend, Franz Liszt, conducted the premiere of Lohengrin in Weimar on August 28, 1850, Wagner began to shift his opinions about composing and art. He focused on opera as Gesamtkunstwerk (a “total work of art”), the unification of music, dance, poetry, visual arts and theater. By 1851, Wagner was consumed by this idea and published the essay Opera and Drama, in which he renounced all his previously written operas, including Lohengrin, and put forth a new opera vision that became Der Ring des Nibelungen – The Ring Cycle.
Béla Bartók
Piano Concerto No. 3 Born in 1881 in a small Hungarian town, Béla Bartók exhibited extraordinary musical ability even before he learned to speak. By age five, Bartók was studying piano with his mother, and by nine, Bartók produced his first composition – a piano work called The Course of the Danube. Bartók’s skills as a solo pianist were also clear; he gave his first public recital at the age of 11, including his composition. Bartók’s compositions were influenced by a broad range of composers, including the music of Richard Strauss, whom he met in person in Budapest, and the music of Claude Debussy, whose works Kodály brought back to Hungary from Paris. In addition, Bartók is well-known for his interest and influence in documenting the folk music of his region, much of which inspired his own music. Later, Bartók found inspiration in the works of Igor Stravinsky, adding complexity in both the structure and harmony of the works he composed during the 1920s and 30s. When World War II broke out, and Hungary sided with the Nazis, Bartók refused to give concerts or publish any works in Germany. 46
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His outspokenness regarding anti-fascist politics created significant trouble for Bartók, forcing him to send his manuscripts to the United States, and eventually, to immigrate to the U.S. in October 1940. Bartók struggled to find his identity, he was known primarily as a pianist and teacher in the U.S., and found almost no interest in his compositions. In 1942, Bartók’s heath took a sudden and terrible turn; two years later, he was officially diagnosed with leukemia. Although his body was failing, Bartók found renewed energy for composing. Intended as a 42nd birthday present for his wife, Ditta, Piano Concerto No. 3 was the final score on which Bartók worked – he passed away with only 17 measures left to complete. His student and friend, Tibor Serly, visited him on his final night at home before entering the hospital and found the composer working weakly on lined paper prepared by his son Peter. Serly finalized the score after Bartók’s passing by using the composer’s shorthand notes and his own knowledge of the work. From the writing of the solo piano part, it is clear that Bartók never expected to play his final work; in contrast to his own explosive style at the keyboard, the soloist role in Piano Concerto No. 3 is serene and lyrical, and considered a tribute to Ditta. Overall, the work is considered neo-classical, as it has a more classical tone than his earlier works. The work seems to reflect back on all his compositional influences, including simple folk melodies, running chromatic lines, complex counterpoint and rhythm, interplay among modalities, an ode to Beethoven’s String Quartet, op. 132, and even flashes of baroque-style. Despite his grave illness, the final movement displays Bartók’s traditional closing optimism, and a final theme based on Hungarian folk songs.
Program Commentary by Colleen Fay
Music from Gladiator (2000) Whenever a Hollywood movie is set in ancient times, the composer of the score has a challenge. We don’t know what Roman music sounded like. This problem hasn’t
stopped talented composers from inventing music that sounds “ancient” or “Roman.” Just as long as we understand that the music is an invention of the film composer, were are on firm footing. And we 47
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couldn’t be on any firmer footing than with the music of German composer Hans Zimmer. He has composed scores for nearly 150 films that have earned him a shelf full of awards, including the academy award for Gladiator.
legitimately find their way into the musical score of the movie. Inevitably anachronisms occur, but if the composer’s effort is to evoke a time and place rather than to replicate it, such faults may be easily forgiven.
Due to regulations of the Motion Picture Academy of Arts & Sciences (who award the Oscars) at the time Gladiator was nominated, Hans Zimmer’s co-composer Lisa Gerrard was denied an Oscar nomination, although Zimmer received one. This created a storm of protest of Gerard’s being snubbed by the Academy. The joint composers were, however, recognized as co-winners in the category best film score by the Golden Globes Awards.
Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks Richard Strauss was the first of a generation of German composers to emerge from the shadow of Richard Wagner, or perhaps I should say the twin shadows of Wagner and Johannes Brahms. Those two giants – and giant rivals – had so dominated music emanating from Germanspeaking countries that it must have been hard to imagine that there was any other kind of music. Richard Strauss was not only extraordinarily gifted as a composer, but lucky as well. Franz Strauss, the composer’s father (by the way the family was not related to the waltz-composing family of Johann Strauss II of Vienna), was the principal horn player in the Court Orchestra in Munich. Thus began the young Strauss’s musical education. The one drawback, or advantage depending on one’s point of view, is that young Richard’s father forbade him to listen to or to study the works of Wagner.
The score does, however, satisfy one important requirement of what the film’s director Ridley Scott called “sword and sandal movies.” It aptly evokes the atmosphere of the Roman Empire at the time that gladiatorial combat was most popular. At that time, the Roman Empire stretched from modern day Portugal and Spain all around the Mediterranean Sea to modern day Iraq. Therefore elements of the music from the cultures of the diverse peoples ruled by the Romans could 48
The initial effect of this prohibi-
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tion was that some of Strauss’s early compositions were harmonically and melodically quite conservative. However, coming under the influence of another German musical giant, the conductor and critic Hans von Bülow, Strauss’s musicianship grew and developed rapidly. One characteristic of his music in nearly every genre was his love of the French Horn. The instrument figures prominently in so many of his compositions, but most prominently of all in his tone poem Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks. The characteristic horn fanfare is the signature by which the work is so well known. At the rehearsal for the premiere of Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks, the orchestra’s principal horn player complained to Strauss that the opening fanfare for horn was too difficult for him to play. “Why certainly not, sir,” Strauss replied, “it’s the warm-up phrase you’ve been using for years; all I did was transcribe it into the score.”
To generations of German children, the prankster Till Eulenspiegel was a delightful scoundrel. It seemed that there wasn’t any mischief he couldn’t be involved in. But generations of mothers and nannies reminded their charges that if they didn’t behave,
they’d end up like Till. After a life of pranks and practical jokes, the townspeople had enough of Till and hanged him in the public square. “If you’re not good and don’t obey your parents,” a scolding nanny might say, “you could end up like Till Eulenspiegel.” Piano Concerto No. 3 in E Minor Béla Bartók never finished his Third Piano Concerto that he planned to give his wife as a birthday present. All that remained to do was to write out the last few measures and give the work a final edit based on Bartók’s notes. It doesn’t sound like much, but it represented that final review without which no great work of music or literature is complete. Nevertheless, this concerto, Bartók’s great valedictory, is full of the things that made his music so memorable. For instance, the first movement begins with a Hungarian folk melody that is an homage to Bartók’s life-long commitment to music of his native land. But the composer is not content to leave the melody just as it is. He plays with it, embellishes it and adds little bits of his own inimitable style to the core element. He never lets us forget the melody, but at the same time he turns it 49
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into a joyous celebration of music making. The second movement couldn’t be more different. It is almost as if we are in an ancient church or cathedral. Echoes of sacred hymns can just barely be heard and shafts of light filter down through the stained-glass windows. In the final movement, Bartók invites us to a celebration of his entire life in music. One glorious melodic phrase succeeds another and the entire orchestra is here for the party. It is as if a great garden were filled with a large family with a great table spread with dishes of all sorts and bottles of wine from local vineyards with children chasing each other across the lawn. Far from his beloved Hungary, and homesick for its countryside, Bartók and his wife were walking down a New York street. “I smell horses,” the composer exclaimed. “Here in Manhattan,” his wife responded, “you can’t be serious.” Pushing open the door of an unmarked building, the couple found themselves in, of all things, a riding academy. “What a peaceful, natural smell,” Bartók said, inhaling deeply of the smell of the
I’d best be careful in describing 50
pianist Jeremy Denk. He has written an essay bemoaning the state of program notes that appeared in Best Music Writing 2011. Suffice it to say that Mr. Denk, both an accomplished musician and writer is a formidable presence. He is just the sort of pianist to assay the Bartók Third Piano Concerto; he brings to the keyboard an overarching talent, a keen intellect, and a sense of the silliness that sometimes surrounds classical music. These are all traits familiar to those of us who have heard the ASO, as they are equally embodied in Maestro Kim Allen Kluge.
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Jeremy Denk, piano
One of America’s most thoughtprovoking, multi-faceted, and compelling artists, pianist Jeremy Denk is the winner of a 2013 MacArthur “genius” Fellowship, the 2014 Avery Fisher Prize, and Musical America’s 2014 Instrumentalist of the Year award. He has appeared as soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the symphony orchestras of Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, and London, and regularly gives recitals in New York, Washington, Boston, Philadelphia, and throughout the United States. Next season, he looks forward to launching a four-season tenure as an Artistic Partner of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra; making debuts with the Cleveland Orchestra under Susanna Mälkki
and the New York Philharmonic led by Esa-Pekka Salonen; appearing as a soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and San Francisco Symphony; and performing Bach concertos on tour with the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. Other upcoming engagements include a return to the Wigmore Hall, and his recital debut at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw playing Bach’s Goldberg Variations, which he also performs as part of the Barbican’s season at LSO St. Luke’s and throughout Europe, with performances at Piano aux Jacobins, the Rheingau Musik Festival, and the Thüringer Bachwochen. To coincide with the release of his second Nonesuch Records album, Bach: Goldberg Variations, Denk opened the 2013-14 season with performances of the “Goldbergs” in Boston, Chicago, and Washington; the album reached number one on Billboard’s Classical Chart and was featured in “Best of 2013” lists by the New Yorker and the New York Times. Other season highlights included his return to Carnegie Hall to play Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 25 on tour with the San Francisco Symphony and Michael Tilson Thomas, and performances of the concerto with the symphony 51
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orchestras of Cincinnati and Baltimore, as well as with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, which he led from the keyboard. Summer sees Denk return to the Tanglewood Festival to perform the Goldberg Variations, and play Beethoven’s First Piano Concerto with the Philadelphia Orchestra. As Music Director of the 2014 Ojai Music Festival, he performs, curates, and presides over the world premiere of a comic opera, The Classical Style: An Opera (of Sorts), which is set to the pianist’s own libretto by Pulitzer Prizewinning composer Steven Stucky. Inspired by Charles Rosen’s eponymous seminal text,the opera—a co-commission of the Ojai Music Festival, Carnegie Hall, Cal Performances, and the Aspen Music Festival—features the characters of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. Carnegie Hall and the Aspen Festival look forward to presenting it in 2014-15. Denk is known for his original and insightful writing on music, which Alex Ross praises for its “arresting sensitivity and wit.” The pianist’s writing has appeared in the New Yorker, the New Republic, The Guardian, and on the front page of the New York Times Book Review. One of his New Yorker contributions, “Every 52
Good Boy Does Fine,” forms the basis of a memoir he is writing for future publication by Random House. Recounting his experiences of touring, performing, and practicing, his blog, Think Denk, was recently selected for inclusion in the Library of Congress web archives. For his work as a writer and pianist, Out magazine included Denk on its “Out 100” list celebrating the most compelling people of 2013. In 2012, Denk made his Nonesuch debut with a pairing of masterpieces old and new: Beethoven’s final Piano Sonata No. 32, Op. 111, and György Ligeti’s Études. The album was named one of the best of 2012 by the New Yorker, NPR, and the Washington Post, and Denk’s account of the Beethoven sonata was selected by BBC Radio 3’s Building a Library as the best available version recorded on modern piano. Denk has a long-standing attachment to the music of American visionary Charles Ives, and his recording of Ives’s two piano sonatas featured in many “best of the year” lists. In March 2012, the pianist was invited by Michael Tilson Thomas to appear as soloist in the San Francisco Symphony’s American Mavericks festival, and he recorded Henry Cowell’s Piano
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Concerto with the orchestra. Having cultivated relationships with many living composers, he currently has several commissioning projects in progress. Denk has toured frequently with violinist Joshua Bell, and their recently released Sony Classical album, French Impressions, won the 2012 Echo Klassik award. He also collaborates regularly with cellist Steven Isserlis, and has appeared at numerous festi-
vals, including the Italian and American Spoleto Festivals, and the Santa Fe Chamber Music, Verbier, Ravinia, Tanglewood, Aspen Music, and Mostly Mozart Festivals. Jeremy Denk has earned degrees from Oberlin College, Indiana University, and the Juilliard School. He lives in New York City, and his web site and blog are at jeremydenk.net.
Claudia Chudacoff, ASO Concertmaster In addition to serving as concertmaster of the Alexandria Symphony Orchestra, the National Gallery of Art Orchestra, and the United States Marine Band White House Chamber Orchestra, violinist Claudia Chudacoff appears frequently as a soloist and chamber musician in the Washington and Baltimore areas. A member of both the Sunrise Quartet and the National Gallery of Art String Quartet, Ms. Chudacoff has also performed with the Contemporary Music Forum and National Musical Arts as well as in the Embassy Series and at the United States Holocaust National Museum. She
is featured on a CD of chamber music by Erich Korngold released by Albany Records, and she has been heard a number of times on American Public Media’s Performance Today. 53
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Dare To Live fully May 16, 2015 at 8:00 pm
Rachel M. Schlesinger Concert Hall and Arts Center
Kim Allen Kluge, conductor Amy Horn, horn
Metropolitan Chorus of Arlington, Barry S. Hemphill, Director Heritage Signature Chorale, Stanley J. Thurston, Director STRAUSS
Horn Concerto No. 1 Amy Horn, horn I. Allegro II. Andante III. Allegro
INTERMISSION BEETHOVEN
Symphony No. 9 in D major, Op. 67 I. Allegro ma non troppo, un poco maestoso II. Scherzo: Molto vivace - Presto III. Adagio molto e cantabile IV. Presto; Allegro molto assai (Alla marcia); Andante maestoso; Allegro energico, sempre ben marcato
Program Notes Richard Strauss (1864-1949)
Horn Concerto No. 1 Richard Strauss was born to compose Horn Concerto No. 1. His father, Franz Joseph Strauss, was the principal horn player in the Munich Court Orchestra. Known for both his technique and his artistry, Franz Strauss was highly sought after and came to be famous for his performances in Wagner’s operas, despite their public and mutual dislike. Richard Strauss’s first experiences with music were related to his father’s horn performance, and Franz served as Richard’s first music teacher. At the age of six, Richard Strauss began composing and attending rehearsals of the Munich Court Orchestra. He began private music instruction in theory and orchestration with an assistant conductor, and began violin instruction at the Royal School of Music in 1872. Two 55
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years later, Strauss experienced his first Wagner opera, and the influence of that experience would be profound. However, Franz Strauss strongly forbade Richard’s study of Wagner’s musical style. Horn Concerto No. 1 was completed in 1882, prior to the manifestation of Wagner’s influence. At only eighteen years of age, Richard Strauss’s composition reportedly impressed the elder Strauss with its virtuoso solo part featuring both heroic and lyrical themes. This work remains one of the most representative works of this early period of Strauss’s compositions, as well as a staple of the modern horn repertoire. Although the work was completed in 1882, it did not receive its public premiere until 1885, when it was presented by the Meiningen Court Orchestra, just prior to Strauss succeeding Hans von Bülow as conductor of the ensemble.
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Symphony No. 9 in D major, Op. 67 When Ludwig van Beethoven returned to the symphonic form a decade after the premiere of Symphony No. 8 in 1812, he was a changed man and a changed composer following a decade full of angst, illness, family discord and ever-encroaching deafness. Although originally commissioned by the Philharmonic Society of London in 1817, he did not truly begin composing until 1822. As he became immersed in his work, Beethoven became increasingly withdrawn, and he was rarely seen outside his home over the span of 1822-1824. It is often speculated that during that year and a half, Beethoven struggled to collect and organize the many fragments of Symphony No. 9 that lived in his mind, some of which percolated for more than 30 years. His initial interest in Schiller’s An die Freude (Ode to Joy) traced back to 1792, when he sketched multiple motifs of the song, although they went unused. And while in 1805 Beethoven included two lines from the piece in his opera Fidelio, his desire to use more of the piece – and add some of his own words – remained. A combination of the Ode to Joy theme with the choral ode structure (incorporating chorus and vocal soloists near the end of the piece to enhance the closing), appeared first in the Choral Fantasy Opus 80 56
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(1808). Shades of this idea appear in Beethoven’s early work for voice and piano, Gegenliebe, written sometime between 1794 and 1795, although the Choral Fantasy most strongly correlates to the closing movement of Symphony 9. Beethoven himself acknowledged this connection, noting that in Symphony 9 he was working on a project as “a setting of the words of Schiller’s immortal An die Freude in the same way as my pianoforte fantasia with chorus, but on a far grander scale.” Symphony 9 premiered on May 7, 1824 at the Kärntnertor Theater in Vienna. The program included one of his overtures, The Consecration of the House (Die Weihe des Hauses), the Kyrie, Credo and Agnus Dei of his Missa solemnis, and the premiere of Symphony 9. Originally, Beethoven intended to premiere this work in Berlin, as he disapproved of the focus of Vienna’s music lovers on Italian composers like Rossini. However, a petition by a powerful group of Viennese music patrons, friends and financiers convinced Beethoven otherwise. The premiere of Symphony 9 pushed many boundaries. The first three movements alone were over an hour long, and the full piece ran approximately 75 minutes (more than 20 minutes longer than Symphony 5). In addition, the work required Beethoven’s largest orchestra to date, and the Kärntnertor Theater did not have enough musicians to fill it. As a result, the orchestra was supplemented by members of The Vienna Music Society (Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde) and even a group of select amateur Viennese musicians. Adding to this complication, Beethoven conducted the concert himself, although most certainly with little to no hearing left. The result was an unorganized performance of difficult music desperately led by the beat of concertmaster Michael Umlauf. The critics were unkind, noting that “the necessary differentiation of light and dark, security of intonation, fine shading, and nuanced execution were all lacking,” and that “weak players,” who “set down their bows and sat out so many measures,” clearly were overwhelmed and marred the performance. Despite the poor response by the press, the power of the piece was palpable to many patrons who called for a second performance. Sixteen days later, Beethoven presented the second performance of Symphony 9, with even less success – a half-full house and a financial loss for the theater due to poor ticket sales. 57
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In the following years, Symphony 9 was considered too long, too difficult, and too expensive to perform, despite its few and vocal champions. It was not until the middle of the 19th century that public perception of Symphony 9 began to turn, with much credit given to the strong advocacy of composers, most notably Wagner, who stated, “This last symphony of Beethoven’s is the redemption of music out of its own element as a universal art. It is the human gospel of the art of the future. Beyond it there can be no progress, for there can follow on it immediately only the completed artwork of the future, the universal drama, to which Beethoven has forged for us the artistic key.”
Program Commentary by Colleen Fay
Horn Concerto No. 1 When we think of composer Richard Strauss, we tend to think of several things: his evocative tone poems that first made his reputation as an innovative user of orchestral colors, his operas – sometimes daring, sometimes charming and amusing, but always entertaining – or perhaps his lieder (art songs) with their haunting melodies so reminiscent of better days gone by. What we don’t do is think of Strauss as a composer of concertos, much less for horn. Franz Strauss, the composer’s father, was the principal horn player in the Munich Court Orchestra; the young composer would have had the sound of that instrument around the house growing up. Coupling that with the love of his 58
father at age 19, he composed this first of his two concertos for horn and orchestra. But it would be wrong to suggest that Strauss’s love for the sound of the horn with orchestra ended with the concertos. In his tone poems, principally Don Juan and Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks, the horn is a principal solo instrument. The mellow richness of its sound soaring out over the orchestra is a major characteristic of the music of Strauss. What I’ve always liked about this first concerto is that fresh, youthful exuberance that I find in almost every measure. Yes, even at age 19, Strauss was reaching for, and finding, darker depths to explore with the instrument in this concerto, but it’s the bright sunshine that wins my heart every time.
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Our Soloist, ASO Principal Amy Horn, is a member of “The President’s Own” The United States Marine Band. The Washington area is blessed with so many fine ensembles that we might have a tendency to overlook the superb military bands, The Marine Band among them. Within their ranks are some of America’s finest musicians who could easily change places with their counterparts in the finest orchestras in the country. Amy Horn is one such musician. Her clear, limpid horn sound has been treasured not only in The Marine Band, but in several other top ensembles throughout our region, including the ASO, where she enjoys a large fan base. Strauss greatly admired Mozart. That admiration found its way in all of Strauss’s music, but especially in his operas. Strauss said of Mozart, “The most perfect melodic shapes are found in Mozart; he has the lightness of touch which is the true objective... Listen to the remarkable expansion of a Mozart melody… You think it is coming to an end, but it goes farther, ever farther.”
Symphony No. 9, Op. 125 Have pity on the poor writer of program notes. What more is there to say about Beethoven’s
magisterial final symphony that hasn’t already been said? Every year classical radio station listeners are asked to nominate their favorite classical music pieces. The Ninth Symphony is always at the top or near the top of every list. But if we were to extend those lists to musicologists, to performing musicians, even – God forbid – to music critics, the verdict would be the same. And with good reason. The body of music lovers has taken this work to their hearts as they have no other. Think of those scenes of the falling of the Berlin Wall accompanied by the Ode to Joy with its appeal to universal brother- and sisterhood. Even the European Union has taken Beethoven’s theme for the Ode to Joy as its International Anthem. But it was not always so. A critic, writing in London in 1825, a year after the premiere, wrote, “We find Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony to be precisely one hour and five minutes long, a fearful period indeed, which puts the muscles of the [orchestra] and the patience of the audience to a severe trial... What relation [the last movement of the symphony] bears to the rest of the work we could not make out; and here the want of intelligible design is too apparent.” Ouch! The critic of London’s Harmoni59
Program 5 • May 16, 2015
con magazine was not alone. As this review suggests, even in his lifetime, Beethoven’s music was far from universally accepted, although he had his admirers to be sure. To the ears of those who loved music of an earlier era, Beethoven’s music must have seemed jarring. But as time went on, musicians, critics and audiences came to agree about Beethoven and his music. It was everything it was cracked up to be and then some. What it did was throw open the doors to a kind of musical experimentation – today we would say pushing the envelope – in new, untried directions. Beethoven traveled to the city of Döbling. When he went to look for his scores for the Missa solemnis, he found everything but the score for the Kyrie. Searches were fruitless and he was very upset. Several days later the sheets of the score were found, but in terrible condition. The very large sheets looked like waste paper to the old housekeeper and so she used them to wrap up boots, shoes and kitchen utensils, having first torn most of the pages in half. When Beethoven saw what had happened to this great work, he burst out laughing.
The Ninth Symphony is a work of manifest brilliance. It has always 60
seemed to me that Beethoven is telling us a story. As any good storyteller knows the ending of the story before beginning “Once upon a time,” so it was with Beethoven. The entire symphony, from the very first note, is sending us in one direction. Beethoven knows what it is, but we don’t— at least not at first. It’s also worth mentioning that Beethoven was not the first composer to use the chorus as part of a symphony, but no symphonic work from that time to this has used the chorus so effectively. Schiller’s Ode to Joy perfectly expresses the Enlightenment sentiment of universal enfranchisement that Beethoven felt so strongly. At the end of the 19th Century, Gustav Mahler’s great Symphony No. 2, The Resurrection, and No. 8, The Symphony of a Thousand, both use chorus, but even Mahler would not dare to compare himself to Beethoven. But Beethoven being Beethoven manages to sneak a sly joke – at his expense – into this great symphony. After a very stormy introduction to the fourth movement, the Baritone soloist enunciates a text Beethoven wrote himself as a clever way of introducing the Schiller ode. “O Freunde (O Friends),” Beethoven says, “nicht diese töne,” (not these [harsh]
Program 5 • May 16, 2015
sounds), “Let’s sound out something more pleasing, more joyful, Why, joy itself.” It’s a joke because Beethoven isn’t just referring to those few stormy measures, but to the previous three movements of the symphony which, of course, he wrote. He could have just launched into the melody of the Ode to Joy, but he doesn’t. Instead he makes this implied criticism of himself for having introduced all the storm and stress. In his hands, however, it makes a
perfect introduction to the Ode to Joy melody that is so deceptively simple. And he spends the rest of the movement not only developing and embellishing it, but emphasizing the sense of Schiller’s text. This Joy, this gift from Heaven itself, is that very thing that unites us all. It is a perfect statement of the secular religion of the Enlightenment. And no composer before or since would dare take so simple a melody and make it into a masterpiece. And that’s exactly what Beethoven did.
Amy Horn, french horn and Percussion.
Amy Horn joined the horn section of “The President’s Own” U.S. Marine Band in 1987. With them, she has performed in a wide variety of ensembles; from soloist and chamber musician on the horn to dance band, rock-n-roll, and country music singer. She has performed with many ensembles in the Washington DC metropolitan area including the National Symphony, Annapolis Symphony, Alexandria Symphony and the Washington Symphonic Brass
Amy enjoys a studio of horn students of all ages and talents. She has appeared as a soloist and clinician in Virginia, Washington, DC, Ohio, New Mexico, and New York. Amy was a finalist in the 1994 and 1989 American Horn Competition competing against other professionals throughout the U.S. in horn solo literature. She received her Bachelor Degrees in performance and education from Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio and her Masters degree from The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. Her primary teachers for horn have been Herbert Spencer, Dave Fedderly, Ted Thayer, and Peter Landgren.
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Program 5 • May 16, 2015
Metropolitan Chorus of Arlington Established in 1966 and recognized in the U.S. Congressional Record, The Metropolitan Chorus makes its home in Arlington, Virginia. The Chorus provides Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia residents an opportunity to hear great choral works...and perform! Today, the 100-voice Chorus presents concerts featuring music of all ages, from the renaissance to the 21st century, with a strong emphasis on American composers. The Metropolitan Chorus regularly performs in venues throughout the D.C. area, including the Kennedy Center, Constitution Hall and the National Building Museum. They also join forces with other musical organizations for unique performances and to present several free concerts each year as a special service to the community.
Barry S. Hemphill, Director
Barry S. Hemphill has been the Artistic Director of The Metropolitan Chorus since 1977. A native New Yorker, Mr. Hemphill graduated from Manhattan School of Music in New York City where his specialties were conducting, theory, and voice. He is the son of Shelton “Scad” Hemphill who played first trumpet for Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong and Duke Ellington, among others, and he claims Billie Holliday as one of his babysitters. Mr. Hemphill has a wide variety of musical experience to his credit including conducting singing, composing and arranging for voice and instrumentation. He retired from the United States Army (U.S. Army Band & Chorus) in 1991, ending his career as Sergeant Major of the Chorus after nearly 23 years of service as baritone soloist and conductor. Upon retirement he was presented with the Legion of Merit -- awarded for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services and achievements. Mr. Hemphill has conducted the massively popular and annual Messiah sing at the Kennedy Center since 1994. This yearly Washington event attracts more than 3,000 amateur and professional singers worldwide. He also serves as an adjudicator and clinician throughout the United States. Since 1983, the First Presbyterian Church of Arlington has prospered under his direction, where a strong music program contributes to a growing congregation with significant community involvement.
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Program 5 • May 16, 2015
Heritage Signature Chorale While embracing a broad repertoire of choral music, the Heritage Signature Chorale is committed to preserving at the highest possible level, the performance tradition of African-American music, especially the Negro Spiritual, while at the same time embracing its own interpretation of classical music. The Chorale shall provide a venue for showcasing artists, composers, and arrangers who share this commitment, thereby fostering community awareness and appreciation of an important historical legacy. To this end, the Chorale shall maintain an education component that targets youth. This component may include, but shall not be limited to, mini-concerts, lectures, demonstrations, workshops, and musical dramas.
Stanley J. Thurston, Director
Stanley J. Thurston is the founding Music Director of The Heritage Signature Chorale. He has appeared as conductor in concert venues including Carnegie Hall, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Concert Hall, U.S. Capitol; Music Center at Strathmore, Carter Barron Amphitheater; DAR Constitution Hall; Arena Stage; Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, University of Maryland; Washington Hebrew Congregation; Washington National Cathedral; and Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, in Baltimore, MD. He has appeared as guest conductor with the Alexandria Symphony Orchestra, Soulful Symphony, Columbus Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Civic Symphony, Prince Georges Philharmonic, Washington Symphony Orchestra, and National Symphony Orchestra. Choruses under his direction have performed with the National Symphony Orchestra, Alexandria Symphony Orchestra, Annapolis Symphony Orchestra, Washington Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore Festival Orchestra, Joffrey Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, and the Royal Ballet. He is currently the Artistic Director of the Washington Performing Arts Society’s Men, Women and Children of the Gospel Choirs, and Director of Music at Foundry United Methodist Church, Washington, D.C.
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Colleen Fay, Program Commentary Ms. Fay was the Head of the former Performing Arts Library at the Kennedy Center, a joint project with the Library of Congress. As Director of the Library from 1978 to 1992, Ms. Fay fashioned it into an incomparable resource for information in the performing arts, film and broadcasting. Prior to her tenure at the Kennedy Center, she was a music librarian at the Library of Congress. Since 1986 she has been the music critic on Public Television’s arts panel program, “Around Town,” WETA-TV’s Emmy award-winning weekly television show devoted to the performing arts, visual arts, and motion pictures. Ms. Fay is also the Arts Editor and Contributing Editor to WAMU FM’s “Metro Connection,” a weekly radio program covering events in the Washington, D.C. area. Ms. Fay writes regularly for the Washington Opera Magazine, Washington Review and WETA Magazine. She has lectured regularly for the Washington Bach Consort since 1993 and gave a series of lectures for that organization in Germany in July, 2000. She has lectured on the music of Bach, Monteverdi and Mendelssohn, and on the subject of criticism itself at Mount Vernon College, the Folger Library, George Mason University, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the National Cathedral and the Kennedy Center.
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Ms. Fay is a former member of the Board of Directors of the American Composer Forum. She is also the Past-President of the Washington Area Performing Arts Video Archive. She is a current or former member of the Boards of several arts organizations in the Washington area. As a singer, Ms. Fay has appeared with the Washington Opera, the Wolf Trap Opera, and Summer Opera Theatre. Ms. Fay is also a composer whose works have been performed in churches and synagogues and on national television; her most recent work has been published by Augsburg-Fortress Press of Minneapolis. A recording of Ms. Fay’s compositions is supported by a grant from the D. C. Commission on Arts and Humanities with funds from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Become a corporate sponsor Corporate sponsorship ensures that the Symphony reaches increased audiences, serves our students, and enriches our community year after year. Become a corporate sponsor today by underwriting an ASO guest artist, sponsoring an educational program, providing a program grant, or many other activities! • Recognition on signs in the concert hall lobby • Sponsored emails to ASO ticket buyers • Logo placement on the ASO website • Concert tickets • Customized private events Contact Jessica Wisser, ASO Executive Director, at 703-548-0885 or wisser@alexsym.org to start creating your sponsorship package or to learn more about sponsorship opportunities. 65
Rachel M. Schlesinger Concert Hall and Arts Center We are pleased to share this performance with you and hope that the following information will be enhance your concert experience: • Complimentary concert parking is provided by the ASO in the Beauregard Street Garage, located across Campus Lane from the Schlesinger Center. We highly encourage all our patrons to park in this location, as parking is restricted on campus. • Our Will Call pickup and On-Site Box Office sales begin 1.5 hours prior to the start of each performance the Lobby of the Schlesinger Center. • Restrooms and drinking fountains are available to the right of the Lobby on the first floor, and to the right of the Seminar Room on the second floor. • An elevator is available for your convenience and can be located around the corner from the restrooms. • Concessions are sold in the Lobby during intermission – choose from a variety of wines, sodas, snacks and bottled water.
Schlesinger Center Seating Map Upper Box Seats
SECOND FLOOR: Balcony (overhangs the Terrace) Box Seats (Main Floor)
GROUND FLOOR: Terrace (beneath the balcony)
Orchestra Right
Orchestra Center
STAGE 66
Box Seats (Main Floor)
Orchestra Left
Upper Box Seats
George Washington Masonic Memorial We are pleased to share this performance with you and hope that the following information will be enhance your concert experience: • Complimentary concert parking is provided by the ASO in the north parking lot with an entrance directly to the concert hall. • All patrons should enter the Memorial on the parking lot side of the building, where the handicap ramp can be found as well. This entrance is the closest one to the concert hall and can be accessed without stairs. • Our Will Call pickup and On-Site Box Office sales begin one and a half hours prior to the start of each performance. • An elevator is available for your convenience. Please note that the elevator runs slowly, and we encourage you to arrive early if you intend to use it. • Concessions are sold in the Lobby during intermission – choose from a variety of wines, sodas, snacks, and bottled water.
GW Masonic Memorial Seating Map Center Section -Right-
Right Section
Center Section -Left-
FLOOR
Left Section
The orchestra will perform in this area.
STAGE 67
Concerto Foundation
Ensuring the long-term stability of the ASO The Alexandria Symphony Concerto Foundation was established in 2005 to create an endowment fund providing long-term financial support to the ASO. The Foundation’s goal is to build a significant capital fund, with the income from that fund providing annual income to the Symphony. The Foundation is a “supporting organization” under section 509(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, and gifts made to the Foundation are tax deductible as charitable donations. As of the end of the first quarter of 2014, the fund had approximately $400,000 in assets. The following individuals contributed gifts of $5,000 or more to meet the $100,000 Challenge sponsored by Frank and Betty Quirk, which was completed in May 2007: Anonymous
Ruth Kotler
C. Maxine Baustian
Eva and Frank Manning
Suzanne S. Brock
Mary Ann and David Millard
Miriam and David Browning
Reae and Thomas Sargeant
Penny and Tim Bryan
Molly and Jim Singerling
Linda and Elliott Bunce
Ann and Roy Snyder
Agnes and Jack Dover
Symphony Orchestra League of Alexandria (SOLA)
Gerhard and Diana Dreo Loti and Stewart Dunn Julie and Edward Dyson Anne and Caswell Hobbs
Judy and Forrest Williams Stuart and Robert Wineland Susan and Allan Winn
A donation or bequest to the Alexandria Symphony Concerto Foundation will go toward insuring long-term support of the ASO. Gifts can be a specific dollar amount, a specific piece of property, a percentage of an estate, or all or part of the residue of an estate. You can also name the Foundation as a contingent beneficiary if someone named in your will is no longer living. For more information on the Concerto Foundation or making a bequest, please contact Jessica Wisser, ASO Executive Director, at 703-548-0885.
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You may have enjoyed a beverage with our coozie wrapped around it. PROUD SUPPORTER OF THE
Alexandria Symphony Orchestra.
When we’re not handing out useful supplies at ASO concerts, we specialize in: Print Communications Marketing Support Fulfillment & Distribution
703.751.3611 globalprinting.com
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Symphony Orchestra League of Alexandria The Symphony Orchestra League of Alexandria (SOLA) is comprised of a dedicated group of volunteers who serve as a major source of financial support for the Alexandria Symphony Orchestra (ASO). The members of SOLA are integral to the success of the ASO by hosting a number of fundraising events throughout the year. Highlights of the upcoming season include “SOLA Uncorked�, a lovely wine, cheese and chocolate tasting which will take place on October 22nd, a concert by the renowned soloist Elizabeth Kluegel will be held on November 7th, and the Annual Symphony Ball and Auction to be held on March 7, 2015 at the Alexandria Westin. If you are not a member of SOLA, we would like to invite you to join us. In addition to our fundraising efforts, SOLA hosts a number of enjoyable social activities throughout the year, including General Meetings, a Holiday Party, and the annual Spring Luncheon at Belle Haven Country Club. In March 2015, SOLA and ASO will co-sponsor the 39th annual Mary Graham Lasley Scholarship Competition for collegelevel music students. If you would like more information about joining SOLA, please contact our membership chair, Fran Vaughan at 703-765-0063. We welcome new members who wish to contribute toward the ongoing achievements of the ASO! Phyllis Sintay SOLA President psintay@mcenearney.com 703-472-3563 70
Symphony Orchestra League of Alexandria (SOLA) 2014-2015 Membership
Kate Armstrong Barbara Bankert Leef Smith and Paul Barnes Regina Begliutti Susan and Carl Behnke Shirley and Charles Bisselle Donna Blackburn Bertha and Joe Braddock Suzanne Brock Rosann Brodie Miriam and Ben Browning Marcia and Jim Buchanan Hilda Burcher Ronal Butler and Martha Lloyd Jan Campbell Jane Carlson Susan Knighton and David Cavanaugh Bill and Teddye Clayton Harlene and Bill Clayton Donna Cramer Betty Cranwell Carola Czernik Mollie Danforth and Steve Colangelo Becky Davies Tom Downs Patricia and Gerard Engh Sandra and Nicholas Fleischmann Amrita Frederick Muriel Freeman Yolande and Larry Frommer Rosa Fullerton
Amy and Bill Furr Patricia Gill Barbara Glover Sue and Marty Goodhart Lynn and Charlie Gorton Gila Harris Marjorie Harris Joan Higginbotham Ann and Michael Hobbs Margaret Hodges Jennifer Holt Pauline and Bob Hurd Monette Imlay Mike Ippolito and Elaine Macchio Erwin Jacobs Jon Jaeger and Ann Corson Barbara and Ted Jonas Shine Kang Ann Kavaljian Kim and Kathryn Kluge Jacque and Ed Knight Adron Krekeler and Rebecca Mahood Ruth Kupperschlag Pat Laane Ward Lasley Kit Leider Mary Frances Lewis Doris Lindsey Jean Lindsey Isin Ludlow Marie Malone Eva Manning Rebecca Mathis Ann and James McCrery Harriett McCune Cassie and Shawn McLaughlin
Susan Montague Suzanne and James Morrison Melinda Mount Diane Murphy June and Bruce Nagler Margaret and Bill O’Grady Kate Patterson Annmarie Pittman Tanya and Jack Pitzer Fran and Gant Redmon Carol Reese Helen and Richard Reid Jane and Connie Ring Audrey and Robert Routier Nancy Flaherty Rowe Jo-Ann and Robert Royer Anna Russi Ilona Savage Patti Schmid Janet Shipko Phyllis Sintay Ann and Roy Snyder Ann Spitler Emma-Jo and Bob Staton Susan and Paul Sticha Jennifer van Goethem Fran Vaughan Joan Vogel Sharon and Ken Walker Trudie Williams Eleanor Wilson Cecily and Steve Winchell Stuart Wineland Margaret Wohler Ruth Wong Margherita Woods Susan Yonts-Shepard
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Education Programs Two important parts of the ASO mission are to foster a life-long appreciation of symphonic music and to strengthen arts education. Through our El Sistema program, masterclasses and side-by-side performances with ASO musicians, Maestro Kluge and the ASO continue to inspire students of all ages!
El Sistema at John Adams
El Sistema is the global movement of social action proven to change students’ lives through music. The ASO’s El Sistema-inspired program at John Adams Elementary School provides unique opportunities for personal development to local students, using regular music instruction to develop not only musical skills but improved performance throughout the students’ lives!
For more information visit www.alexsym.org/elsistema 72
Emerging Artist Programs The Kluge Young Composers Competiton (KYCC) celebrates the talent of orchestral composers age 18 and under who reside in Virginia. The winner receives a cash prize, and the winning composition receives its premiere with the Alexandria Symphony Orchestra. The KYCC was established by the Alexandria Symphony Orchestra and the Symphony Orchestra League of Alexandria in recognition of Maestro Kim Allen Kluge’s 25th anniversary as Music Director of the ASO. With this initiative, we proudly acknowledge Maestro Kluge’s outstanding accomplishments as a composer and his interest in community outreach, specifically the development of emerging musical talent. For more information, visit www.alexsym.org/kycc or email kycc@alexsym.org.
2014 MGL Winner and Runnerup
In its 39th year, the Mary Graham Lasley Scholarship Competition, co-sponsored by the Symphony Orchestra League of Alexandria and the Alexandria Symphony Orchestra, encourages college-level musicians to pursue classical music careers.
In the 1980s, Mary Graham Lasley was a major figure in the musical world of Metropolitan Washington, DC, and was active on the boards of the Washington Opera Guild, the Alexandria Symphony Orchestra, and the Alexandria Symphony Guild, predecessor of SOLA. Her friends and family established a trust in tribute to her many contributions. The 2015 competition will take place March 22, 2015, on the Alexandria campus of the Northern Virginia Community College. An awards ceremony and reception will follow the competition. Visit www.alexsym.org/education/lasley-scholarship for more information.
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WASHINGTON METROPOLITAN PHILHARMONIC Washington Metropolitan Philharmonic salutes the ASO and our shared vision of providing high quality classical music performance and educational experiences to our Alexandria community!
Join WMP for our Concerts in Alexandria The George Washington Masonic National Memorial
3pm • 101 Callahan Drive, Alexandria, VA 22301 October 12, 2014 • February 1, 2015 March 29, 2015 (with the NOVA Community Chorus) June 5, 6, & 7, 2015 (“Beatles to Broadway” with The Alexandria Singers) .........................................
Convergence
3pm • 1801 N. Quaker Lane, Alexandria, VA 22302 December 7, 2014 For more information and to purchase tickets visit our website www.wmpamusic.org
McGladrey proudly supports the Alexandria Symphony Orchestra. For information on our services, please contact Teresa Guzman at 703.336.6400.
© 2012 McGladrey LLP. All Rights Reserved.
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The Symphony Orchestra League of Alexandria presents:
On Wings Of Music Annual Symphony Ball & Auction Saturday, March 7, 2015 Alexandria Westin Hotel
Reception and silent auction at 6:00pm Dinner and dancing at 8:00pm
For reservations contact: Margherita Woods Anna Russi (703) 960-7994 marg.woods@cox.com
(703) 888-0367 annarussi@live.com 75
David G. Speck, Managing Director - Investments Tristan M. Caudron, Managing Director - Investments Laurie J. Blackburn, Vice President - Investments Matt Megary, Senior Vice President - Investments Our nationally recognized team has more than 150 years of combined investment experience serving individuals, companies, and nonprofit organizations with investments, planning and portfolio management. 101 N. Union Street, Suite 220 Alexandria, VA 22314
www.SpeckCaudron.com Wells Fargo Advisors, LLC, Member SIPC, is a registered broker-dealer and a separate non-bank affiliate of Wells Fargo & Co
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2013-2014 ASO Supporters Contributions as of June 30, 2014
Foundations, Government, and Corporate Supporters Alexandria Commission for the Arts The Robert Alves Family Foundation The Theodore H. Barth Foundation Concerto Foundation Connection Newspapers The Charles Delmar Foundation GEICO Global Printing, Inc. The Goodhart Group Jack Taylor’s Alexandria Toyota The KBR Foundation The Mary and Daniel Loughran Foundation, Inc.
McEnearney Associates, Inc. National Endowment for the Arts Networking & Engineering Technologies Inc. New Target Inc. Redmon, Peyton & Braswell, L.L.P. Rotary Club of Alexandria Simpson Commercial Real Estate Properties SOLA (Symphony Orchestra League of Alexandria) Unalane Foundation Virginia Commission for the Arts The Virginia Florist
Conductor’s Baton Circle (over $20,000) Suzanne S. Brock Conductor Circle ($10,000-$19,999) Mr. & Mrs. Elliott Bunce Mr. & Mrs. Charles Holden Platinum Circle ($5,000-$9,999) Carl & Susan Behnke Mr. & Mrs. Stewart Dunn Ronal Butler & Martha Lloyd Dr. & Mrs. William P. O’Grady Mr. & Mrs. Carlyle C. Ring* Donors denoted with * made gifts in memory of Mr. James W. Vaughan, Jr.
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Golden Circle ($2,500-$4,999) Charles & Susan Ballou Kay H. Logan Dr. & Mrs. Joseph V. Braddock Mary McAuliffe Miriam & David Browning* Anne B. Rector & Tim Allen Marcia & David Speck Ann D. Corson & B. Jon Jaeger Edward & Christine G. Jack and Agnes Dover Corcoran-Stark Jack Fannon Peter & Helen Toepffer Barbara & Stephen Hayes Ken & Sharon Walker Capt. & Mrs. Robert C. Hurd The Hon. & Mrs. John Warner Adron Krekeler & Linda W. Windsor Rebecca Mahood Donnan C. Wintermute Doris J. Lindsey Patrons Circle ($1,000-$2,499) Mr. & Mrs. Stewart Bartley Ms. Regina Begliutti Amoret Bell Bunn Mr. Donald Cohen Mollie Danforth & Steve Colangelo CDR Tom R. Downs, USN (Ret.) Diana & Gerry Dreo Mr. & Mrs. Fred S. Dunning, Jr. Kristin Frykman Mr. & Mrs. William L. Furr Margaret Hodges Mr. Phillip John Janet King Mr. & Mrs. Edward Knight Mr. & Mrs. George Ludlow Harriett McCune* Mr. & Mrs. Shawn McLaughlin Mr. & Mrs. Dennis Meyer Myron Mintz Mr. & Mrs. Frank Quirk Mr. and Mrs. Jerry Siegel Edwin & Jen Sheridan Catherine & Tim Thompson Lucy Thomson & Arthur Peabody Mrs. James W. Vaughan, Jr. Mr. & Mrs. Forrest Williams Mr. & Mrs. Steven Winchell Dr. & Mrs. Robert Wineland
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Donors ($500-$999)
Tom Bradley & Judith Starr Mrs. Hilda Burcher Raymond & Quincy Butler* Gincy & Nick Carosi Edward & Virginia Caress Jeanne Clark* William & Teddye Clayton* Dr. & Mrs. John B. Davies Mr. & Mrs. Grady Frank Stevie & Gardner Gillespie Lynn & Charles Gorton Teresa Guzman & Antonio Cafoncelli Mr. & Mrs. Caswell O. Hobbs Dr. & Mrs. Michael Ippolito* COL & Mrs. Freeman Jones Margaret Kenna Mr. & Mrs. David Lacey Larry & Jeanne Leggett Capt. & Mrs. W.W Lasley, USN (Ret.) Ms. Karen Leider Chris & Maura Lindsay Dr. & Mrs. J. Bernard Murphy Alan & Laura Paez Smith & Anne Paul Janet & Rick Price Mr. & Mrs. Gant Redmon* Susan Montague-Reese Mr. & Mrs. Donald Simpson
Donors ($500-$999)
Fay & Jack Slotnick Currie Smith & Bruce Batten Ms. Maureen Sullivan Sandra Welch Marc & Nancy Williams Margherita Woods* Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Shepard
Sustainers ($100-$499)
Dave & Sue Aland Amy & Larry Alberson Patrick & Kim Anderson Billie Anderton Steve & Sylvie Balenger Mia & Tim Bass Margaret Batko James & June Beans Barbara Becker Edward & Geraldine Bernier Deborah Best Mr. David W. Briggs & Mr. John Benton Shirley & Charles Bisselle John C. & Laura B. Bradburne* Robert and Judith Bregman Browne Academy* Robert & Sandra Calhoun Mr. & Mrs. Hugh Campbell Paul & Amelia Carew Carolyn Carmack Robert & Joan Chase Howard Clark Alice & James Close Karen Coda Edward & Mary Ann Conant Mr. & Mrs. Brian Coupe Nick & Vicki Coward Thomas & Betty Cranwell Janet Crisler Steven & Mary Deleyiannis Alex & Caulley Deringer Thelma Deutsch Paul & Jeanne Domson Daniel & Mary Taylor DosĂŠ Patricia & William Depuy Mr. & Mrs. Edward Dyson Erin M. Eddy
The Hon. William D. Euille Frank Fannon Edwin & Linda Feulner Dianne & James Field Stephen & Mary Dedre-Fiske Nicholas & Sandra Fleischmann Oliver & Carol Flint Michael Fogarty Louise Forstall Richard Forstall Janet Frake Mrs. Maureen M. Franks Daniel & Diann Frantz Yolande & Larry Frommer Carolyn N. Fuller James Fye Rosann Garber* Marion & Patricia Goodyear Wiley & Caryl S. Grant Martin & Sue Goodhart* Elaine J. Guth* Sally Guy & Thomas Brown Mrs. Marjorie A. Harris Mr. & Mrs. James Hauhart Ross Heasley Hugh & Barbara Heishman Michael Henke & Judy S. Campbell L.E. Herr Laing & Enid Hinson Morris & Holly Hoven, Jr. Marshall & Betty Howie* Lindalyn L. Hutter Monette Imlay Margo Jackisch Erwin Jacobs Kenneth Johnson Jacqueline Jones Richard Jones Richard & Melissa Keiser Michael & Paula Kirby Stanley & Gail Krejci Lynn & Karl Lady Mr. & Mrs. Phillip E. Lantz Robert Larke Robert & Amanda Lasker Mr. & Mrs. Thomas M. Lawler
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Sustainers ($100-$499)
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Christine Lettieri* Jean B. Lindsey William & Elizabeth Livingston George & Jane Lukes Mr. & Mrs. John M. Maloney Susan Maslanka Ms. Marion Mangus Avalon Marchant Mary Carol Mason Libby McClary Regina & Michael McCormick William McCulla Nicole Meister Mr. & Mrs. Bowman H. Miller John & Mary Miller* David & Katherine Molnar Carole & John Monroe* James & Suzanne Morrison Ruth Mulkey Diane & James Murphy Tobin & Teresa Naidorf Louis & Janice Odom* Kate Patterson Laura Peebles & Ellen Fingerman Greg & Diane Beyer-Perett Jane Perkinson Mr. & Mrs. Jack Pitzer Mr. Paul Phillips Charlotte Plasan Arthur Purcell Carole Pyle Quinn Family Trust* Ann & Steve Reed Prof. Young-Key Kim-Renaud Elizabeth & Nichols Reynolds Michaela Robinson Mark Roth Richard Ryan Rick & Barbara Sada Don & Constance Dunlap-Santarelli Thomas & Vivian Sargeant Elizabeth S. Schepps Mr. and Mrs. William Schuiling Tom Sellers Robert & Barbara Seraphin Roland & Desta Shaw Daniel Sherman
Elizabeth & John Siegel Alex & Ivy Sinaiko Allen & Jan Smith Peter & Susan Burson-Snyder Steven A. Starnes & Catherine V. Phillips Linda Spanier & George Yearsich Paul & Susan Sticha Jack Sulser & Sally Ann Green Alice L. Swalm Emerson & Allison Teer Jan & Jay Test Mr. & Mrs. Richard Toye Nancy Twomey Charles & Ellen Walker Nancy & Larry Wallace Marianne Weitz Converse West Mrs. Dorothy Wheeler Richard & Suzanne Willett Mr. Rance Willis Mr. & Mrs. Roger Willis Elizabeth Wilmot & Pete Adlen John & Pat Wilson Keith Wolverton* Ruth Sing Wong David Wormser & Janet Hawkins* Annette & Thomas Wilson* Allan & Susan Winn* Robert and Ingeborg Wolfe Madeleine Wyss Betty Ann Yurkewitch*
Put Us to The Test ❦ Selection ❦ Service ❦ Price
Come Taste the Difference Two Convenient Alexandria Locations
Open 7 days a week Bradlee Belle View 3690J King Street 1600A Belle View Blvd. 703.820.8600 571.384.6880
www.unwinedva.com
Sustainers ($100-$499) Kay & Terry Zerwick Nancy Ziegler
Friends ($1-$99)
Linda Millis Eva Molnar* Susan & Frederick Moore* Miklos & Anne Nagy Donald & Caroline Nordquist* Lucy Nunn Robert & Gay Pasley* R.W. & C.H. Petermann* Kristen Race Penelope Roberts Donald & Virginia Rocen* Gail Rothrock Patricia Schmid* Nina Sebastian Frances Simms Mary Speer Jean Storch Daniel Trahey Karen & Lennert Thunberg Nina Tisara Bob & Nancy Van Tine George Vercess Pat Webb Dianna Webb & Turner J. Trapp* Robert H. & Maryann W. White Ali & Charlie Whitley Melynda & David Wilcox* Cynthia Wilson Marguerite & John Zappa*
Carolyn M. Allen* Anonymous (3) Mr. Dewitt Armstrong III Walter Barbee Rachel Morrow Bates* Walter & Andrea Baumann Carol Betts* Daniel Boothe Rozella J. Bower James Bradley Ronald & Nellrena Carr* Jeanne Palmer-Capstaff* William Clark & Elizabeth Hilles* Jennifer Ciardelli Yolanda Corro Alice DeKany Sheila & Ira Epstein* John & Ann Glennon Janet D. Gregor Doris S. Gump* Cathy Fick Gloria Haher Sophie & Val Hawkins Cobina Higgins Hope Redwine-Ford If your donation listing is incorrect, Jane Edwin Donna Fowler please contact Jessica Wisser at 703-548-0885. Ronald & Jeanne Garant Jeffrey Gathers James & Emma Grimes Gordon & Jennifer Hay* Michael & Ann Hobbs Calvin Holt* Barbara Juszczyk Susan Kelly Donald & Linda Kent* Gerald T. Kluge Ruth Kupperschlag Certified Public Accountants: Serving the accounting, tax and Ms. Lola Terrell Lawson auditing needs of the Alexandria community for over 30 years. Nan Lukmire Phillip & Cynthia Major 703.642.2700 • www.kwccpa.com Claride W. Mayo* 5270 Shawnee Road, Suite 250 • Alexandria, VA Eva Manning
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The Paper of the City celebrates
the Symphony of the City in its home
The Rachel M. Schlesinger Concert Hall and Arts Center Northern Virginia Community College, Alexandria Campus
Continuously serving Alexandria for over 200 years
703-778-9410 1606 King Street, Alexandria, VA 22314 www.AlexandriaGazette.com • gazette@connectionnewspapers.com
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high quality string instruments for purchase & rent wide selection of accessories, bows, cases, & sheet music detailed instrument maintenance financing available exceptional customer care Sign-up with us on Facebook and Twitter for special offers and instrument care tips.
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Program Book Order Welcome from the Music Director................................................4 Sponsors of the ASO 2014-2015 season.......................................5 Message from the President of the Board of Trustees................6 ASO Board of Trustees...................................................................7 History of the Alexandria Symphony Orchestra.......................10 Program 1: Dare to Embrace the World (September 27, 2014) ...........13 Biography: Nebal Maysaud, composer......................................20 Program 2: Dare to Transcend (November 15-16, 2014) .....................23 Biography: Duo Parnas, violin and cello....................................30 Program 3: Dare to Follow Your Heart (February 14-15, 2015)..........33 Biography: Kim Allen Kluge, ASO Music Director..................40 The ASO Development Committee............................................42 Program 4: Dare to Think Heroically (April 11-12, 2015) ...................43 Biography: Jeremy Denk, piano...................................................51 Biography: Claudia Chudacoff, ASO Concertmaster..............53 Program 5: Dare to Live Fully (May 16, 2015) .....................................55 Biography: Amy Horn, frenh horn............................................61 Biography: Metropolitan Chorus of Arlington.........................62 Biography: Heritage Signature Chorale......................................63 Biography: Colleen Fay, program commentary........................64 Rachel M. Schlesinger Concert Hall information ....................66 George Washington Masonic Memorial information .............67 Concerto Foundation....................................................................68 Symphony Orchestra League of Alexandria (SOLA)...............70 ASO Education Programs............................................................72 Emerging Artist Programs: • The Kluge Young Composers Competition..........................73 • Mary Graham Lasley Scholarship Competition...................73 2013-2014 ASO Supporters..........................................................77 Concert programming and guest artists are subject to change.
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"Wherever the sh are, that's where we go." 121 South Union Street, Alexandria, VA www.unionstreetpublichouse.com | 703.548.1785 From an original work by John Carroll Doyle
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Index of Program Book Advertisers Alexandria Gazette Packet.....83 Speck-Caudron Investment Alexandria Jaycees..................74 Group of Wells Fargo Advisors....................................76 Clarke & Sampson..................32 StratPaths....................................9 Clyde’s.......................................76 Thomas J. Fannon and Sons...31 Donnan C. Wintermute............3 Union Street Public House.....88 GEICO......................................86 Unwined...................................80 Global Printing........................69 Virginia Florist.........................54 Goodwin House.........inside front cover Washington Metropolitan Harry Braswell, Inc...................8 Jeanne Warner.........................12
Philharminc.............................74 Wells Fargo.........inside back cover
Kositzka Wicks & Co..............81 Landmark Honda....................65 Little Theatre of Alexandria...22 McGladrey LLP........................74 Milestone Productions...........50
Please patronize the businesses that support the ASO.
Murphy & Associates..............21 N.E.T...........................................9 New Target, Inc.......................82 The Potter Violin Co...............84 Redmon, Peyton & Braswell....1 Savant Capital Management....2 Shaw & Sullivan, P.C.................8 SOLA Symphony Ball.............75
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