Program: Fung, Bologne + Brahms

Fung, Bologne + Brahms 12 + 13 November 2021 / 7:30PM Jack Singer Concert Hall

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program Vivian Fung

Prayer

5’

Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges

Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op. 11

11’

I. Allegro Presto II. Andante III. Presto

Johannes Brahms

Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op. 73

I. Allegro non troppo II. Adagio non troppo III. Allegretto grazioso (Quasi andantino) IV. Allegro con spirito

43’

About the Calgary Phil Rune Bergmann Music Director Norwegian conductor Rune Bergmann is Music Director of the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Szczecin Philharmonic in Poland, and Music Director of Switzerland’s Argovia Philharmonic.

Highlights of Bergmann’s 2021/2022 Season include the opening of a new concert hall for the Argovia Philharmonic, returning to the Baltimore Symphony and Odense Symphony, and debuting with the Colorado Symphony and Utah Symphony. Bergmann also regularly conducts distinguished orchestras and opera houses, including the Oslo Philharmonic, Norwegian National Opera, Bergen Philharmonic, Wroclaw Philharmonic, Orquesta de Valencia, and the Mainfranken Theater Würzburg, as well as the Symphony Orchestras of Malmö, Helsingborg, Bergen, Kristiansand, Stavanger, Trondheim, and Karlskrona, and Lisbon’s Orquestra Sinfonica Portuguesa. In North America, he has appeared with the Alabama, Baltimore, Detroit, Edmonton, Grand Rapids, Pacific, Houston, and Toledo Symphony Orchestras, as well as the Brevard Music Festival. Bergmann has been Artistic Director of Norway’s innovative Fjord Cadenza Festival since its inception in 2010, and his former posts include Deputy-General Musik Direktor with the Augsburger Philharmoniker and Theater Augsburg in Germany.

The Calgary Philharmonic celebrated 65 years as a pillar of Calgary’s vibrant arts community in 2020 and has grown to be one of Canada’s most celebrated live music ensembles. Led by Music Director Rune Bergmann, the Calgary Phil presents classical standards, pop favourites, bold collaborations, and cutting-edge new works, and attracts world-renowned guest artists and conductors. In a typical Season, the Orchestra welcomes over 100,000 visitors to the concert hall and reaches audiences around the world through its free and accessible digital programming and live-stream initiative — an immersive, online concert experience that launched in 2017.

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about the pieces Prayer Vivian Fung b. 1975 JUNO Award-winning composer Vivian Fung has a unique talent for combining idiosyncratic textures and styles into large-scale works, reflecting her multicultural background. NPR (National Public Radio) calls her “one of today’s most eclectic composers.” She has a deep interest in exploring cultures and is passionate about fostering the talent of the next generation.

The composer has provided the following note: Prayer is, in essence, an aberration, for under no other circumstance in the past (or probably in the future) have I worn my heart on my sleeve as transparently as I have with this piece. In times of crisis and peril, we have but the reliance of faith — from the profound faith in humanity, faith in love, and faith that we will persevere and get through this with dignity, to the mundane faith that I would complete the piece within the extraordinary conditions that faced me, with a young child at home 24/7, a bronchial infection, and a very tight timeline (ultimately, a matter of days) to complete the piece in a manner feasible for COVID remote performance requirements.

In the end, I chose a chant from my composer heroine Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179) as inspiration for my Prayer. It goes: O Shepherd of our souls, O primal voice, whose call created all of us; Now hear our plea to thee, to thee, and deign to free us from our miseries and feebleness.

I wish to thank my family — my husband, parents, and son — as well as my neighbours, the Lees, who have all made composing this piece possible.

Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op. 11 Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges 1745 to 1799 Joseph Bologne, le Chevalier de Saint-Georges, was the son of Nanon, an enslaved African-Guadeloupean woman, and George Bologne, a wealthy French plantation owner. In 1753, the family moved to France, where Joseph received an education worthy of an aristocrat. Thanks to his elegant manners, striking appearance (dark-skinned and more than six feet tall), dazzling musicianship, and expertise at fencing, he became a much sought-after figure in the aristocratic salons of Paris.

Given the rampant racism of that period, his success is even more remarkable. So too is his music’s survival through to the present day.

In 1781 he founded a new orchestra, the Concert de la Loge Olympique.

It came to be considered one of the finest ensembles in Europe. It commissioned Joseph Haydn’s ‘Paris’ symphonies (Nos. 82 to 87), and premiered them, under the direction of Saint-Georges. He himself composed more than 200 works.

The published pieces included symphonies, violin concertos, examples of the popular hybrid form symphonie concertante (part-concerto, part-symphony), operas, and chamber works.

Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op. 73 Johannes Brahms 1833 to 1897 “I shall never write a symphony,” Brahms told conductor Hermann Levi. “You have no idea how the likes of us feel when we hear the tramp of a giant like ‘him’ behind us.” The “him” was Beethoven, and Brahms needed 20 years to compose a symphony he felt was worthy of comparison with the master’s. Once he had passed that test — his first symphony enjoyed a highly acclaimed première in 1876 — he wasted little time in creating a second. Comfortably ensconced in the lakeside Alpine resort of Pörtschach, he composed Symphony No. 2 during the summer of 1877. Its genial personality reflected the contented, optimistic state of mind that his flourishing career was bringing him, and the green, sunny, spectacularly beautiful location where he composed it.

Program Notes by Don Anderson ©2021

Orchestra First Violins Diana Cohen Concertmaster

John Lowry

Associate Concertmaster

Donovan Seidle

Assistant Concertmaster

Edmund Chung Hangyul Kim Olga Kotova Bonnie Louie Genevieve Micheletti Maria van der Sloot Hojean Yoo TBD TBD

Second Violins

Celli

Horns

Arnold Choi Josue Valdepenas Kathleen de Caen Thomas Megee David Morrissey Daniel Poceta TBD TBD

Robert McCosh Jennifer Frank-Umana TBD Maxwell Stein Heather Wootton

Basses Sam Loeck Kyle Sanborn Mathew Heller Trish Bereti-Reid Patrick Staples Jonathan Yeoh

Lorna Tsai Stephanie Soltice-Johnson Erin Burkholder Jeremy Gabbert Hyewon Grillet-Kim Craig Hutchenreuther Minnie Min Kyung Kwon Theresa Lane Adriana Lebedovich Steven J. Lubiarz

Flutes

Violas

David Sussman

Laurent Grillet-Kim Marcin Swoboda Arthur Bachmann Jeremy Bauman Peter Blake Michael Bursey Alisa Klebanov Jesse Morrison

principal associate principal assistant principal

Sara Hahn-Scinocco Gwen Klassen

Piccolo Gwen Klassen

Oboes Alex Klein David Sussman

English Horn Clarinets Slavko Popovic Jocelyn Colquhoun

Bassoons Antoine St-Onge Michael Hope

Trumpets Adam Zinatelli Miranda Cairns

Trombones James Scott TBD

Bass Trombone David Reid

Tuba Tom McCaslin

Timpani Alexander Cohen

Percussion TBD

Harp Tisha Murvihill

Librarian Rob Grewcock

Assistant Librarian TBD

Personnel Manager Michael Thomson