2024.03.24 | Pacific Symphony plays Beethoven & Mendelssohn with Aubree Oliverson Program

Pacific Symphony

plays Beethoven & Mendelssohn with Aubree Oliverson, violin & Carl St.Clair, conductor

Sunday, March 24, 2024 | 3 PM Soka Performing Arts Center at Soka University of America

Pacific Symphony with Aubree Oliverson, violin

PROGRAM LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 1 in C Major, Op. 21 Adagio molto - Allegro con brio Andante cantabile con moto Menuetto: Allegro molto e vivace - Trio Finale: Adagio - Allegro molto e vivace

FELIX MENDELSSOHN Violin Concerto in E Minor, Op. 64 Allegro molto appassionato Andante Allegretto non troppo - Allegro molto vivace

Symphony No. 1 in C Major, Op. 21 LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN Born December 1770, Bonn Died March 26, 1827, Vienna According to scholarly consensus, Beethoven was nervous about tackling two of the musical forms for which we know him best—the symphony and the string quartet— and waited until he felt ready. Did he reserve them as a self-imposed rite of passage? He briefly studied with Haydn, who was the reigning master of these forms and had virtually defined the rules for composing them, and whose twelve “London” symphonies had scored a huge success in London; Beethoven, having heard them, began composing a symphony of his own when he was in his mid-

twenties. Sketches dating back to 1794 contain musical materials that Beethoven incorporated into this symphony. But he tabled them, and did not complete the process of composing this symphony until 1800, when he was almost thirty. By then he had already demonstrated his abilities in most of the important musical genres of his day.

When Beethoven worked on this symphony, Europe was on the cusp of a new century and he was approaching the end of his “early” period, not yet facing the trial of his progressive deafness. He had every reason to approach the symphonic form with confidence, investing it with Classical grace and new ideas. He dedicated the

ABOUT THE PROGRAM work to his patron Baron Gottfried van Swieten, and premiered it in Vienna in April 1800. It was greeted with enthusiasm. Though to us it does not suggest the formbreaking innovations of his later compositions, contemporary listeners hailed it as innovative and bold.

We can hear Viennese tradition throughout this work, and in particular the influence of Haydn and Mozart. But even as the symphony opens, we sense harmonic adventurism, as a series of unstable chords resolves without returning to the movement’s “home” until after a long introduction keeps us in suspense. It’s a fascinating passage that foreshadows the even longer and more elaborate development sections we hear in later Beethoven. The opening of the second movement echoes that of the first by introducing a key interval we heard before—a perfect fourth. But this movement, too, combines tradition with boldness, by relying unusually heavily on the woodwinds and trumpets in its scoring. Emphatic timpani lend a muscular quality to the sound.

The third movement is labeled a minuet, but it is far from the discreet, stately minuets frequently encountered in Haydn’s symphonies. Instead it is rhythmically vigorous, with a speedy allegro marking that suggests the ebullient scherzos we hear in Beethoven’s later symphonies. In an intervening trio, many listeners hear humor in the

scrambling string passages that sandwich themselves between woodwind phrases.

The fourth movement brings the symphony into a symmetrical arc with a slow, deliberate opening that resolves in a way that recalls the first movement’s mysterious opening and meandering chords.

Incorporating fragments of scales rather than more conventional melodies, the symphony again foreshadows a “Beethovenian” principle we encounter later: It’s not the melody that counts, but what the composer does with it. Note by exciting note, rising phrases in the violins culminate in an emphatic finale.

Violin Concerto in E Minor, Op. 64 FELIX MENDELSSOHN Born February 3, 1809, Hamburg Died November 4, 1847, Leipzig Felix Mendelssohn was born in Hamburg in 1809, eighteen years after the death of Mozart. As with Mozart, Mendelssohn’s astounding genius was evident from earliest childhood, and both had musically talented sisters and parents who were ambitious for their success.

But as the scion of a wealthy Jewish family and the grandson of the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn, the young Felix was not viewed as someone whose talents were to be exploited for financial gain, as Leopold Mozart sought to do with Amadeus.

Instead, Felix’s father Abraham moved his family to Berlin and made their residence there a salon that attracted the most prominent

Pacific Symphony with Aubree Oliverson, violin intellectuals of the day. Music and stimulating conversation were constants. Though Abraham and his wife Lea renounced Judaism and were themselves baptized along with their four children as Reformed Christians, the Mendelssohn name and heritage were well known in Europe, and the family never sought to conceal their ethnicity in cultivating their place in European cultural life.

Young Felix did not begin piano studies with his mother until the relatively advanced age of six (far older than Mozart), but by then he had been demonstrating his musicality for years; according to another of those irresistible myths, the four-year-old Felix was already in bed for the evening when a visiting pianist pounded an unresolved C-major seventh chord and left it hanging, unresolved.

Felix found the lack of finality unbearable. He ran downstairs to the piano, played the tonic chord with equal force, and scampered back to bed. By the time he was in his late teens, he had composed some of his best-known works, demonstrating both superb craftsmanship and a glorious gift for melodies that sing with emotion.

In his tragically short life (he died at age 38 in 1847), Mendelssohn achieved a statesmanlike position in European culture, directing one of the continent’s most important orchestras (the Leipzig Gewandhaus) and spurring revivals of interest in the music of Mozart and J.S. Bach. Most of all, Mendelssohn composed more

than his share of indestructible all-time hits of the classical repertoire—works like the violin concerto, the octet, the “Italian” symphony, the incidental music to “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” with its wedding march now a universal symbol for matrimony. Remarkably for such a popular composer, there is much more about Mendelssohn’s music, especially his majestic choral works, waiting to be discovered.

Mendelssohn’s gorgeous violin concerto is one of the three or four most beloved staples of the violin repertory, and is universally regarded as one of the greatest of all violin concertos. Its singing melodies traverse an arc from poetic sadness to sheer joy. Once we hear these tunes, they are ours forever. Or do they possess us, as they seem to have possessed Mendelssohn himself? “I would like to write a violin concerto for you next winter,” he famously told his longtime friend the violinist Ferdinand David, concertmaster of the Leipzig Gewandhaus, in 1838.

“One in E minor runs through my head, the beginning of which gives me no peace.” That beginning is the concerto’s dazzling opening, which plunges into a sweetly melancholy statement in the solo violin without the drama-building introduction that precedes the soloist’s entrance in most romantic concertos.

This songlike opening statement quickly gives way to a bravura display of notes that swirl downward until the opening

ABOUT THE PROGRAM theme is restated in the orchestra. From then on, the concerto packs in abundantly virtuosic writing. The movement contains an adventurous, complex development through highly chromatic modulations, introducing a second melody that answers the concerto’s initially melancholy E minor statement with an answer in tranquil, glowing G major. On the way back to the opening E minor theme, Mendelssohn leads the soloist through an innovative cadenza that is fully notated (no improvising allowed). Of this movement’s beautiful features that were modern for their day, note especially the “ricocheting” bow, which oscillates over the strings to voice arpeggios at bullet-speed while the E minor melody is played by the full orchestra. In passages such as this one, the soloist serves as accompanist—but the playing is spectacular.

As the excitement of the opening allegro movement subsides, the bassoon continues to sustain its note—a B—as the rest of the orchestra is silent. Moving up a tone to middle C, the bassoon leads us without pause into the concerto’s middle movement, a serene andante in C major.

The movement’s lyrical beauty, which opens from E minor into C major before incorporating a darker middle section in A minor, incorporates fleet passagework for the soloist. But for many listeners, it serves mainly as a transitional movement between the concertos sweetly melancholy opening and

its joyful closing movement, an effervescent vivace in E major that sounds like a merry chase through sunny fields. A boisterous coda concludes the concerto.

Speaking on the occasion of his 75th birthday in 1906, the great violinist Joseph Joachim aptly described the world’s affection for the Mendelssohn violin concerto: “The Germans have four violin concertos. The greatest, most uncompromising is Beethoven’s.

The one by Brahms vies with it in seriousness. The richest, the most seductive, was written by Max Bruch. But the most inward, the heart’s jewel, is Mendelssohn’s.”

Program Notes are Copyright © Michael Clive 2024

Aubree Oliverson, violin Praised for her evocative lyricism and joyful, genuine approach, young American violinist Aubree Oliverson is proving to be one of the most compelling artists of her generation, distinguishing herself with clear, honest, and colourful performances, which have been described as “powerful… brimming with confidence and joy” by the Miami New Times.

Acclaimed as a “masterful” soloist (San Diego Story), Aubree’s most recent solo appearances in 2023 include season openings of the Chamber Orchestra of New York at Carnegie Hall (di Vittorio), Utah Symphony at Abravanel Hall (Morlot), Peace Orchestra Project (Mengoli), and Ridgefield Symphony with a pairing of the Barber and Esmail violin concertos. Other season highlights include performances with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic (Teychenné), Columbus Symphony (Miller), Orquesta Sinfónica de Navarra (Hoving), North Carolina Symphony (Prieto), Pacific Symphony (St. Clair), Des Moines Symphony (St. Clair), Amarillo Symphony (Jackson), Moldavian Philharmonic (Macek), Excelentia Madrid (Braunstein), Slovak Sinfonietta (Foron), Rousse Philharmonic Orchestra (Sachedina), New Haven Symphony (So), Puerto Rico Symphony (Valdés), and the Kontrapunktus Baroque Ensemble; in works by Brahms, Dvorak, Barber, Bruch, Korngold, Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky, Weinberg, Haydn, Saint-Saens, Esmail, and Bach.

Passionate about and at ease with all periods of classical repertoire, Ms. Oliverson is committed both to performing the beloved standard works for as many people as possible, as well as bringing lesserknown pieces into their rightful spotlight: “I play music that speaks to me regardless of how often it’s already being played, rediscovering lost masterpieces and composers who deserve more attention, paired with my own fresh take on the classics. It’s my hope that if I love a piece, someone in the audience will too.” Among the works she has championed over the years are the Pergolesi Bb Major concerto, Julius Conus concerto (1896), Weinberg concertino (1948), Reena Esmail The Blue Room concerto (2007), Salvatore di Vittorio Voyages of Aeneas concerto (2022), and more, alongside her favorite standard repertoire.

A dynamic recitalist and sensitive chamber musician, Aubree recently toured Europe with JeanYves Thibaudet, Clive Greensmith, and Tatjana Masurenko and collaborates this season with Anne Akiko Meyers and the Philharmonic Society of Orange County in duo works of Bach, Philip Glass, and Handel-Halvorsen.

Other engagements include festivals such as the Aix-enProvence Easter Festival with Gil Shaham, the Rome Chamber Music Festival, Oropa Music Festival, Moab Music Festival, ChamberFest West, and recitals at the Grand Teton Music Festival and Soka Performing Arts Center, among many others. Ms. Oliverson

ABOUT THE ARTISTS has collaborated with worldrenowned artists such as Robert McDuffie in Harris Hall at the Aspen Music Festival, Gil Shaham on tour in Mexico, Renaud Capuçon in France, Joseph Silverstein in Salt Lake City, and Lynn Harrell, Orli Shaham, Robert Chen, and Andrew Marriner in Los Angeles.

Ms. Oliverson has been dedicated to reaching a broader audience and the importance of music education from a young age, and she has travelled to over 100 schools throughout the Western United States and spoken at national education conventions, encouraging thousands of children to work hard and participate in music. Recently, Aubree presented digital master classes for organizations including the Orchestra of the Americas, Music to Save Humanity, and Kontrapunktus Baroque, and she participated in a masterclass and side-by-side performance with the Esperanza Azteca Youth Orchestra in Mexico.

Aubree won the ‘Special Prize of Merit’ for violin at the prestigious Verbier Festival Academy, the Aspen Music Festival Dorothy Delay competition, a National YoungArts Foundation award, was honoured as a United States Presidential Scholar in the Arts, and most recently named the 2023 Francis Rosen Prize recipient at the Colburn Conservatory, where she also obtained her Bachelor’s Degree and Artist Diploma. A former student of Debbie Moench, Eugene Watanabe, Danielle Belen,

and Boris Kuschnir at the Musik und Kunst Privatuniversität der Stadt Wien, Aubree graduated from the Colburn Music Academy in 2016 and from the Colburn Conservatory in 2023, studying with the Jascha Heifetz Distinguished Violin Chair, Mr. Robert Lipsett, for nine years Aubree plays a very fine Giovanni Battista Guadagnini violin, kindly loaned to her by Irene R. Miller through the Beare’s International Violin Society, and a Jean “Grand” Adam bow on loan from the Metzler Violin Shop.

Carl St.Clair, conductor The 2023-24 season marks Music Director Carl St.Clair’s 34th year leading Pacific Symphony. St.Clair is one of the longest-tenured conductors of the major American orchestras. St.Clair’s lengthy history solidifies the strong relationship he has forged with the musicians and community. His continuing role also lends stability to the organization and continuity to his vision for the Symphony’s future. Few orchestras can claim such rapid artistic development as Pacific Symphony—the largest-budgeted orchestra formed in the United States in the last 50 years, due in large part to St.Clair’s leadership.

During his tenure, St.Clair has become widely recognized for his musically distinguished performances, his commitment to building outstanding educational programs, and his innovative approaches to programming.

In April 2018, St.Clair led Pacific Symphony in its sold-out Carnegie Hall debut, as the finale to the Carnegie’s yearlong celebration of preeminent composer Philip Glass’ 80th birthday, ending in a standing ovation with The New York Times calling the Symphony “a major ensemble!” He led Pacific Symphony on its first tour to China in May 2018, the orchestra’s first international tour since touring Europe in 2006. The orchestra made its national PBS debut in June 2018 on Great Performances with Peter Boyer’s Ellis Island: The Dream of America, conducted

by St.Clair. Among St.Clair’s many creative endeavors are the highly acclaimed American Composers

Festival, which began in 2000, and the opera initiative, “Symphonic Voices,” which has included concert-opera productions of Madama Butterfly, The Magic Flute, Aida, Turandot, Carmen, La Traviata, Tosca, and Rigoletto in previous seasons.

St.Clair’s commitment to the development and performance of new works by composers is evident in the wealth of commissions and recordings by the Symphony.

The 2016-17 season featured commissions by pianist/ composer Conrad Tao and composer-inresidence Narong Prangcharoen, a follow-up to the slate of recordings of works commissioned and performed by the Symphony in recent years. Other commissions include John Wineglass’ Alone Together (2021), William Bolcom’s Songs of Lorca and Prometheus (2015-16), Elliot Goldenthal’s Symphony in G-sharp Minor (201415), Richard Danielpour’s Toward a Season of Peace (2013-14), Philip Glass’ The Passion of Ramakrishna (2012-13), and Michael Daugherty’s Mount Rushmore, and The Gospel According to Sister Aimee (201213). St.Clair has led the orchestra in other critically acclaimed albums including two piano concertos of Lukas Foss, Danielpour’s An American Requiem, and Goldenthal’s Fire Water Paper: A Vietnam Oratorio with cellist Yo-Yo Ma. Other commissioned composers include James Newton Howard, Zhou Long, Tobias Picker, Frank Ticheli, Sir James MacMillan, Chen Yi, Curt Cacioppo, Stephen Scott, Jim Self (Pacific Symphony’s

ABOUT THE ARTISTS Principal Tubist), and Christopher Theofanidis.

In 2006-07, St.Clair led the orchestra’s historic move into its home at the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall at Segerstrom Center for the Arts.

The move came on the heels of the landmark 2005-06 season that included St.Clair leading the Symphony on its first European tour—nine cities in three countries playing before capacity houses and receiving extraordinary responses and reviews. From 2008-10, St.Clair was general music director for the Komische Oper in Berlin. He also served as general music director and chief conductor of the German National Theater and Staatskapelle (GNTS) in Weimar, Germany, where he led Wagner’s Ring Cycle to critical acclaim. He was the first non-European to hold his position at the GNTS; the role also gave him the distinction of simultaneously leading one of the newest orchestras in America and one of the oldest in Europe.

In 2014, St.Clair became the music director of the National Symphony Orchestra in Costa Rica. His international career also has him conducting abroad several months a year, and he has appeared with orchestras throughout the world. St.Clair has led the Boston Symphony Orchestra (where he served as assistant conductor for several years), New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the San Francisco, Seattle, Detroit,

Atlanta, Houston, Indianapolis, Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver symphonies, among many.

Carl St.Clair is a strong advocate of music education for all ages and is internationally recognized for his distinguished career as a master teacher. He has been essential to the creation and implementation of the Symphony’s education and community engagement programs including Pacific Symphony Youth Ensembles, Heartstrings, Sunday Matinees, OC Can You Play With Us?, arts-X-press, and Class Act. In addition to his professional conducting career, St.Clair has worked with most major music schools across the country. In 2018, Chapman University President Danielle Struppa appointed St.Clair as a Presidential Fellow, working closely with the students of the College of the Performing Arts at Chapman University. St.Clair has been named “Distinguished Alumni in Residence” at the University of Texas Butler School of Music beginning 2019. And, for over 25 years, he has had a continuing relationship with the USC Thornton School of Music where he is artistic leader and principal conductor of the orchestral program.

Pacific Symphony Orchestra Pacific Symphony, led by Music Director Carl St.Clair for the last 34 years, has been the resident orchestra of the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall since 2006. Currently in its 45th season, the Symphony is the largest orchestra formed in the U.S. in the last 50 years and is recognized as an outstanding ensemble making strides on both the national and international scene, as well as in its own community of Orange County.

In April 2018, Pacific Symphony made its debut at Carnegie Hall as one of two orchestras invited to perform during a yearlong celebration of composer Philip Glass’ 80th birthday, and the following month the orchestra toured China. The orchestra made its national PBS debut in June 2018 on Great Performances with Peter Boyer’s Ellis Island: The Dream of America, conducted by St.Clair.

Presenting more than 100 concerts and events each year and a rich array of education and community engagement programs, the Symphony reaches more than 300,000 residents—from school children to senior citizens.

The Symphony offers repertoire ranging from the great orchestral masterworks to music from today’s most prominent composers. Just over a decade ago, the Symphony launched the highly successful opera initiative, “Symphonic Voices,” which continues in April 2024 with Puccini’s La Bohème.

It also offers an in-demand Pops season, enhanced by state-ofthe-art video and sound, led by

celebrated pops conductors.

Each season also includes Café Ludwig, a chamber music series; an educational Family Musical Mornings series; and Sunday Matinees, an orchestral matinée series offering rich explorations of selected works led by St.Clair.

Founded in 1978 as a collaboration between California State University, Fullerton (CSUF) and North Orange County community leaders led by Marcy Mulville, the Symphony performed its first concerts at Fullerton’s Plummer Auditorium as the Pacific Chamber Orchestra, under the baton of then-CSUF orchestra conductor Keith Clark. Two seasons later, the Symphony expanded its size and changed its name to Pacific Symphony Orchestra. Then, in 1981-82, the orchestra moved to Knott’s Berry Farm for one year.

The subsequent four seasons, led

by Clark, took place at Santa Ana High School auditorium where the Symphony also made its first six acclaimed recordings. In September 1986, the Symphony moved to the new Orange County Performing Arts Center, and from 1987-2016, the orchestra additionally presented a Summer Festival at Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre. In 2006, the Symphony moved into the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, with striking architecture

by Cesar Pelli and acoustics by Russell Johnson. In 2008, the Symphony inaugurated the hall’s critically acclaimed 4,322-pipe William J. Gillespie Concert Organ.

The orchestra embarked on its first

ABOUT THE ARTISTS European tour in 2006, performing in nine cities in three countries.

Recordings commissioned and performed by the Symphony include the release of William Bolcom’s Songs of Lorca and Prometheus (2015-16), Richard Danielpour’s Toward a Season of Peace, Philip Glass’ The Passion of Ramakrishna (2013-14), as well as Michael Daugherty’s Mount Rushmore and The Gospel According to Sister Aimee (2012-13). In 2014-15, Elliot Goldenthal released a recording of his Symphony in G-sharp Minor, written for and performed by the Symphony. The Symphony has also commissioned and recorded An American Requiem by Danielpour and Fire Water Paper: A Vietnam Oratorio by Goldenthal featuring Yo-Yo Ma. Other recordings have included collaborations with such composers as Lukas Foss and Toru Takemitsu. Other leading composers commissioned by the Symphony include Paul Chihara, Daniel Catán, James Newton Howard, William Kraft, Ana Lara, Tobias Picker, Christopher Theofanidis, Frank Ticheli, John Wineglass, Sir James Macmillan, and Chen Yi. In both 2005 and 2010, the Symphony received the prestigious ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming. Also in 2010, a study by the League of American Orchestras, Fearless Journeys, included the Symphony as one of the country’s five most innovative orchestras. The Symphony’s award-winning education and

community engagement programs benefit from the vision of St.Clair and are designed to integrate the orchestra and its music into the community in ways that stimulate all ages. The Symphony’s Class Act program has been honored as one of nine exemplary orchestra education programs by the National Endowment for the Arts and the League of American Orchestras. The list of instrumental training initiatives includes Pacific Symphony Youth Orchestra, Pacific Symphony Youth Wind Ensemble, Pacific Symphony Santiago Strings, and new this season, Pacific Symphony Youth Concert Band. The Symphony also spreads the joy of music through arts-X-press, Class Act, Heartstrings, OC Can You Play With Us?, Santa Ana Strings, Strings for Generations, Symphony on the Go!, and Symphony in the Cities.

Website www.pacificsymphony.org/

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CONCESSIONS

Concessions A wide variety of wine, beer, soft drinks and freshly prepared snacks will be available before the concert and during intermission in the lobby.

Artist Drink Pick Hot Chocolate We asked the artists for their favorite drink pick to feature at concessions!

The Hot Chocolate was chosen by Aubree Oliverson and will be available for purchase before the performance.

Click here for menu and to order Pre-order your concessions and skip the line ahead of time!

Concessions provided

by FPG Events