Helena Symphony Season 62 Program

www.helenasymphony.org

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THIS SEASON, JOIN 80 PLAYERS AND 100 SINGERS MAKING SOUNDS THROUGH A CONDUCTOR CARVING THE AIR, ALL IN THE NAME OF MUSIC Maestro Allan R. Scott

www.helenasymphony.org 406.442.1860 2 N Last Chance Gulch, Ste 1 Helena, Montana 59601 2 Helena Symphony Season 62 Helena Symphony Concert Photos ©2016 Allen S. Lefohn

CONTENTS CONCERTS 10 / OP ENING NIGHT WITH

VIOLINIS T S TEPHEN CEPEDA 16 / A SYMPHO NY S PO O KTACULA R 26 / PIANIS T JO N NA KA MATS U

PLAYS TCHAIKOV S KY 34 / ¡ F LAM ENCO !

46 / HAYDN’ S CREATION 56 / LA BOHÈM E IN CO NCERT

THE HELENA SYMPHONY 04 / SE ASO N 62 AT A GLANCE 05 / ED U CATIO N CO NCERTS 06 / MEET THE S Y MPHO NY 08 / OR C H ES TRA & CHO RALE 68 / D ON ORS & MEMO RIA LS 71 / SU P PO RT THE S Y MPHO NY

THANK YOU

TO O U R S E A S O N PA R T N E R S The official hotel of the Helena Symphony

The official restaurant of the Helena Symphony

www.helenasymphony.org

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SEASON

2016 | 2017

AT A GLANCE MASTERWORKS SERIES I

OPENING NIGHT WITH VIOLINIST STEPHEN CEPEDA

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A S Y M P H O N Y S P O O K TAC U L A R

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P I A N I S T J O N N A KA M AT S U P L AY S TC H A I KOV S KY

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¡FLAMENCO!

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H AY D N ’ S C R E AT I O N

VI

Saturday, 17 September 2016 | 7:30 p.m. | Helena Civic Center

Saturday, 22 October 2016 | 7:30 p.m. | Helena Civic Center

Saturday, 28 January 2017 | 7:30 p.m. | Helena Civic Center

Saturday, 25 February 2017 | 7:30 p.m. | Helena Civic Center

Saturday, 25 March 2017 | 7:30 p.m. | Helena Civic Center LA BOHÈME IN CONCERT

Saturday, 6 MAY 2017 | 7:30 p.m. | Helena Civic Center

NON-SERIES CONCERTS S Y M P H O N Y U N D E R T H E S TA R S : B R OA DWAY !

Saturday, 16 July 2016 | 8:30 p.m. | Carroll College S W I N G I N ’ S I N AT R A

Saturday, 12 November 2016 | 7:30 p.m. | Helena Civic Center C H R I S T M A S I N T H E C AT H E D R A L

Monday, 12 December 2016 | 7:30 p.m. | Cathedral of St. Helena

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Helena Symphony Season 62

EDUCATION CONCERTS FREE PERFORMANCES

10 : 0 0 A . M . | S T . PA U L ' S UNITED METHODIST CHURCH In a program created for 5 to 10 year olds, the Helena Symphony invites children and families to hear fun, imaginative and interactive performances by the Helena Symphony Orchestra along with actors and narrator Barbara Berg.

Young learners participate in an exciting program that not only introduces them to the world of music and instruments but also engages young students and their families in the concert experience.

Following each concert, children are invited to try instruments at the Instrument Petting Zoo. (sponsored by Piccolo’s Music).

Concerts sponsored by SIDNEY E. FRANK FOUNDATION MIGNON & RON WATERMAN

SYMPHONY KIDS 1

THERE'S A MONSTER IN MY CLOSET?!

S AT U R D AY, 1 O C TO B E R 2 016 Featuring the music of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition SYMPHONY KIDS 2

I NEED A PET!

ANNUAL YOUTH CONCERT

W E D N E S D AY 15 M A R C H 2 017 1: 0 0 P. M .

HELENA CIVIC CENTER Program To Be Announced Nearly 2,000 fourth and fifth graders from all over the region are invited through their school music programs to attend a concert created just for them. The young music lovers are entertained and inspired all while learning the importance of music in one’s education and life.

S AT U R D AY, 5 N O V E M B E R 2 016 Featuring the HSC and the music of Copland’s Old American Songs SYMPHONY KIDS 3

MY MOTHER IS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL WOMAN IN THE WORLD S AT U R D AY, 4 F E B R U A R Y 2 017 Featuring the music of Debussy & Fauré

Tickets are not sold for this concert – students attend through their school music program.

SYMPHONY KIDS 4

T H E E N G I N E T H AT C O U L D S AT U R D AY, 8 A P R I L 2 017 Featuring the HSO Brass and the music of Wagner & Grieg

Helena Music Teachers Association

www.helenasymphony.org

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ALLAN R. SCOTT MUSIC DIRECTOR

“

Maestro Scott is as intoxicating as you could wish and has that all-too-rare feeling of risk-taking spontaneity.

NEW ZEALAND NATIONAL RADIO

Maestro Scott is on a mission to bring music to the people, and if his music is as infectious as he is, then it’s only a matter of time INDEPENDENT RECORD

Appointed as Music Director of the Helena Symphony Orchestra & Chorale, Philadelphia Conductor Allan R. Scott is the longest serving Music Director in the Symphony’s six-decade history. Entering his fourteenth season, Maestro Scott and his leadership and conducting have been recognized by The Associated Press, music critic of The New Yorker Magazine, PBS, and Symphony Magazine for dynamic vision and ability to elicit top-notch performances from musicians. As the subject of SYMPHONY Magazine’s article “Big Sounds, Big Dreams,” Maestro Scott was acknowledged for his “large orchestra view” noting, “under Scott’s leadership the quality of the orchestra’s playing has skyrocketed.”

Dividing his time between residences in Helena and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the Philadelphia native also marks his fifteenth season as Music Director of Pennsylvania’s Southeastern Pennsylvania Symphony; serves as the Principal Conductor of the Wilmington Ballet Company in Delaware; and recently served as Conductor in Residence & Visiting Artist at West Chester University in Pennsylvania, and a guest lecturer for The Philadelphia Orchestra’s Pre-Concert Conversations.

Acknowledged by the Main Line Times for “splendidly realizing the awesome spiritual power of the score,” Maestro Scott has become most closely associated with the works of Gustav Mahler. As guest conductor, he has appeared with the National Radio Orchestra of Romania in Bucharest, New Zealand’s Christchurch Symphony Orchestra, Firelands Symphony in Cleveland, Pottstown Symphony (Pennsylvania), Orchestra Society of Philadelphia, Concerto Soloists of Philadelphia, Fairfax Symphony, Ogontz Opera Company, Bucharest National Opera, Royal Opera of Netherlands, Portland Opera Company, Kent Opera, and Fairfax Opera Company.

Throughout the past twenty-five years, Maestro Scott has served as Music Director of Philadelphia’s Main Line Philomusica Orchestra & Chorus, Principal Conductor of Bluett Theatre, Music Director of the Rocky Mountain Youth Orchestra, and the Artistic Director of Colorado’s New Artists Philharmonic.

After studying piano since the age of five and his conducting studies at the age of fifteen, Maestro Scott developed his artistry under the guidance of some of the most prolific conductors of our time including Seiji Ozawa, Charles Dutoit, and Jorge Mester. He further refined his craft with Luis Biava, Zdenék Macal, and Sir David Willcocks at renowned institutions, among them the Tanglewood Music Center, California Conducting Institute, The Keene Music Festival, Ogontz Music Festival, and the Conducting Institute of South Carolina.

Maestro Scott appears courtesy of Wade Artist Management (New York, NY)

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Helena Symphony Season 62

STAFF & BOARD ARTISTIC STAFF

OFFICERS

Allan R. Scott Music Director & Conductor

Matthew Dale President

June Lee Staff Accompanist

Patrick Keim Vice President

ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF Scott Kall Director of Patron Services Ellie Parker Administrative Assistant

Timothy Reardon, Esq. Treasurer Eleanor Parker, Esq. Secretary Susan Brookhart, Ph.D. Past President

Barb Berg Education Coordinator

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Darcie Conquergood Bookkeeper

Matthew Dale Chair

Duane Johnson I.T. Manager

Helen Ballinger Honorary

Allen S. Lefohn Staff Photographer

Barbara Berg Orchestra Representative

MARKETING Edge Marketing + Design

ARTISTIC ADMINISTRATION Teak Schummer Director of Artistic Planning

Susan Brookhart, Ph.D. Patrick Keim Ronald Lee, Ph.D. Ronald Lukenbill Virginia Markell Honorary Eleanor Parker, Esq.

Scott Kall Operations Manager

Allan R. Scott Ex Officio

Scott Black Librarian

Darien G. Scott, Honorary

Deanna Satre-Johnson Chorale Manager

Laura Weiss Smith, Esq.

Don Phillips Technical Director

HELENA SYMPHONY FOUNDATION

Joe Sanford Stage Manager

Ross Cannon, Esq. President

Frank Montibeller Darla Sautter Head Ushers

Joan Poston, Esq. Chair

Leatrice Lily Hospitality Coordinator

OFFICE VOLUNTEERS Marie Brown Ellie Parker Lois Hudson

Thomas C. Morrison, Esq. Treasurer Peter E. Bogy, Esq. Treasurer Darien G. Scott Secretary Helen Ballinger

JUNE LEE S TA F F A C C O M PA N I S T Joining the Artistic Staff of the Helena Symphony in 2007, Pianist June Lee received a Bachelor of Music degree in piano performance with emphasis in accompanying and pedagogy from Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington, and a Master of Music in piano performance at the University of Washington, as well as a Bachelor of Music in vocal performance.

As staff accompanist, Ms. Lee works with Maestro Scott accompanying guest artists in preparation for performance, performs piano and celeste with the Helena Symphony Orchestra, serves as accompanist for the Helena Symphony Chorale, and often serves as the rehearsal conductor of the Chorale.

She held a staff accompanist position at Pacific Lutheran University, and an assistantship in vocal accompanying at University of Washington. After completing her degrees, she spent many years as a minister and missionary. Ms. Lee currently resides in Townsend, Montana, and maintains a studio, teaching piano and voice in Helena.

Marty Thieltges www.helenasymphony.org

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HELENA SYMPHONY

ORCHESTRA

VIOLIN

CELLO

ENGLISH HORN

TROMBONE

Stephen Cepeda Concertmaster

Linda Kuhn Principal

Beth Antonopulos** Lauren Blackerby*

Don Stone+ Principal

Katharine Beckman Don Harmsworth Maren Haynes Marchesini Kelly Kuhn Lucas Poe-Kiser* Diane Sine* Matthew Wellert Carson Yahvah+

CLARINET

Sarah Harmsworth Associate Concertmaster Michael Mleko Principal Second Eleanor Parker Associate Principal Second Mary Jane Davidson Chair

Keith Bocian Colleen Casey* Emily Cooley Chelsey Hallsten Rebecca Hamlin Allison Elliott+ Ellie Parker Chair

Felicia Hellems Jeffrie Iams Elaine Kelly Mary Murphy** Jenny Murnane* Kyara Nelson* Steve Olson Katelyn Osborn Keirsti Osborn Luke Osborn Brookes Pennell* Cathy Pomeroy* Hope Radford* Jill Roberts* Laura Weiss Smith Coral White*

VIOLA Katie White Principal

Linda & Pat Keim Chair

Lauren Carr* Katie Gildner Scott Grundsted Terry Krugel* Elizabeth Sibulsky* Christine Wallace* Richard Wells

Dana Hillyer & Robert Caldwell Chair

Jill Miller Principal James Burkholder+ Associate Principal Jennifer Skogley Rebecca Cooley*

BASS CLARIENT

Trebor Riddle Principal Cortney Bury John Coefield Ryan Hennessy* Thomas Larson Michelle Tanberg

Jennifer Skogley

PICCOLO Elizabeth Burke

FLUTE Barbara Berg+ Principal Elizabeth Burke Kathy Chase Abby Nyhof*

OBOE Becky Tipler Principal Sandra Rolan Associate Principal Lauren Blackerby*

Scott Black Scott Kall

Marie Kall Chair

Chris Nevinski* Fred Wenger*

Peter W. Sullivan Chair

BASS

String section players are listed alphabetically as seating rotates.

Nancy & Richard Trudell Chair

TUBA Phil Johnstone

Princess Orphelia Pumpernickel Chair

HARP Tess Michel

E-FLAT CLARINET Mary Ann Jacobson

PIANO & CELESTE

BASSOON

Jeanne & Ronald Baldwin Chair

June Lee

Steve Olson

Dana Nehring Principal Natalie Law Dorian Antipa*

ORGAN & HARPSICHORD

CONTRABASSOON

Mary Jane Davidson Chair

June Lee

Natalie Law

HORN Nancy Roe Principal

Susan Benedict & Scott Mainwaring Chair

Warren McCullough Associate Principal Brooke Mortensen Daniel Lande Ian McClean*

TRUMPET Thomas Lee Principal

TIMPANI Dennis Dell Mat Schaefer*

PERCUSSION Mark Schummer+ Principal

Harlan & William Shropshire Chair

Dennis Dell Mat Schaefer* Tom Schaefer* Lauree Wenger Joe Goodwin*

Dr. Scott Pargot Chair

Michael Hamling+ Dr. Scott Pargot Chair

Duane Zehr*

Dr. Scott Pargot Chair

** Leave of Absence 8

Helena Symphony Season 62

* Substitute

+ Players Council

HELENA SYMPHONY

CHORALE

SOPRANO Christine Brown Fay Buness Val Colenso Laura Curtis Kelly Downing-Keil Christina Duke Rebecca Egeline Laurie Ekanger Christine Gardner Jill Guthrie Nancy Harper Fong Hom Faith Johnson** Linda Keim Janet Kenny Katie Korin June Lee Carolyn Linden Sharon Maynard Patty Mazurek Karen McLean Laura Pippin Sanna Porte** Deanna Satre-Johnson Gayle Sheldon Coleen Smith Anna Strange

Carol Waniata Lynn Webb Mary Williams Lisa Williams-Mathews Katy Wright

ALTO Rachel Aagenes Cathy Barker Andrea Bateen Anna Bierlink-Olheiser Jeannette Bower Kathy Bramer Sue Brookhart Marj Clark Connie Conley Angela Conley** Jessie Cundall Ashley Dalton Chris Deveny Lisa DeWitt Jill Frankforter Lois Hudson Christine Kaufmann Rika Lashley Leatrice Lily Sharon Madsen Beverly Magley Michelle Maltese

Liz Moore** Judy Nakagawa Roberta Nelson Jillian Newton Rehanna Olson Carol Potuzak Molly Roby Meghan Scott Maggie Stockwell Mesheala Sundblade Marty Thieltges Echolyn Travis Linda Vrooman Peterson Cathy Wright Dawn Zehr Janet Zimmerman

TENOR Joshua Dickey Henry Elsen Tony Etherington** Duane Johnson John Mundinger** Dean Naylor Phil Robison Neil Squires Dale Waniata Alex Worthy

BASS Jon Bennion Calder Bergam Art Bumgardner David Buness Robert Caldwell Hal Fossum Joe Foster** Gary Guthrie Bradley Johnson** Jim Keil Pat Keim Ron Lee Kevin Mathews Joe May Ron Nelson Brett ONeil Larry Sheldon Gordon Stockstad Michael Swisher Brad Ulgenes Dick Weaver Greg Zeihen

** Leave of Absence www.helenasymphony.org

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I MASTERWORKS CONCERT SERIES

OPENING NIGHT WITH VIOLINIST STEPHEN CEPEDA S A T U R D A Y, 1 7 S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 6 7 : 3 0 P. M . | H E L E N A C I V I C C E N T E R

The Season opens with Concertmaster Stephen Cepeda performing Korngold’s sublime Violin Concerto complete with Hollywood richness and romantic energy. The HSO culminates the concert with Rachmaninoff’s emotionally stirring Second Symphony in all its glory – soaring melodies, hypnotic themes, and the reality of redemption.

Maestro Scott

Cepeda

Mr. Cepeda’s solo appearance is sponsored by the generous support of

The use of photographic and recording equipment is strictly prohibited. As a courtesy to the performers and fellow concert-goers, please turn off all cell phones prior to the beginning of the performance. Latecomers will not be seated until an appropriate time in the concert.

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Helena Symphony Season 62

ALLAN R. SCOTT – Conductor STEPHEN CEPEDA – Violin Helena Symphony Orchestra

KORNGOLD

Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35+

Mr. Cepeda, violin

I. Moderato nobile II. Romance: Andante III. Finale: Allegro assai vivace –– I N T E R M I S S I O N –– RACHMANINOFF Symphony No. 2 in E minor, Op. 27+

I. Largo – Allegro moderato II. Allegro molto III. Adagio IV. Allegro vivace

+ Helena Symphony

premiere performance

www.helenasymphony.org

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OPENING NIGHT WITH VIOLINIST STEPHEN CEPEDA

I MASTERWORKS CONCERT SERIES

ABOUT THE PROGRAM By Allan R. Scott©

Korngold’s Violin Concerto is scored for piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, English horn, two clarinets, bass clarinet, two bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, two trumpets, trombone, timpani, glockenspiel, cymbals, xylophone, vibraphone, bass drum, celeste, and divided strings.

Duration: 25 minutes

PARALLEL EVENTS / 1945 Franklin D. Roosevelt dies, and Harry S. Truman becomes the 33rd U.S. President France elects Charles de Gaulle president, and English Prime Minister Winston Churchill resigns World War II in Europe ends, and U.S. bombs Japan Hitler commits suicide & Mussolini is executed George Orwell writes Animal Farm Tennessee Williams’ play The Glass Menagerie premieres Copland receives Pulitzer Prize for ballet score Appalachian Spring Violinist Itzhak Perlman, actors Steve Martin, Mia Farrow, and Goldie Hawn, director Rob Reiner, and singers Jesse Norman, Bette Midler, Rod Stewart, Bob Marley, and Pete Townshend are born 12

Helena Symphony Season 62

ERICH KORNGOLD

Born: Brno, Moravia, 29 May 1897 Died: Hollywood, California, 29 November 1957

VIOLIN CONCERTO IN D MAJOR, OP. 35

Erich Korngold was born about a century too late. Like Rachmaninoff, Korngold embraced the lush, overly indulgent sounds and melodies of the 19th century Romantic period. He was also a true child prodigy on the piano, equal to the proficiency of a young Mozart or Mendelssohn. Although he had only basic training on the piano, many believed that formal studies might not have improved Korngold’s virtuosity at the keyboard. “Erich just always played the piano,” explained his mother. Korngold’s father, a music critic, convinced the legendary composer Gustav Mahler to assess the nine-year-old Korngold. Upon listening to the young composer’s (now lost) cantata, Gold, at the piano, Mahler declared him to be a genius.

Composer Alexander von Zemlinsky mentored Korngold, and by age 13 the Vienna Court Opera produced his ballet Der Schneemann (The Snowman). His Piano Trio, Piano Sonata No. 2, and Sonata for Violin & Piano quickly became part of standard repertoire for leading performers in Europe. By the time he was 20, composers such as Richard Strauss, Giacomo Puccini, and Jean Sibelius were in awe of Korngold, as he was commissioned by the Vienna Philharmonic and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, and his operas were performed in over 80 opera houses.

The one major obstacle to being universally accepted around the world was because Korngold grew up in the tumult of the early 20th century, when the Romanticism of the previous era had been eclipsed by the horrors of World War I and the stark trends of his fellow Viennese composers Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg, and Anton Webern. Korngold rejected this new modernism that bristled with dissonance, unexpected rhythms, and not many memorable melodies. Perhaps knowing he was considered out of date, he accepted an invitation to work for Warner Brothers, and he moved to Hollywood to compose music for films. In 1934 Korngold wrote his first film score for A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and spent the next dozen years composing music for 18 films, including The Sea Hawk, The Adventures of Robin Hood, Kings Row, Another Dawn, Juárez, The Prince and the Pauper, and his Oscar-winning score to Anthony Adverse.

While some composers, like Stravinsky, and critics regarded film music as less significant than works written for the concert hall, Korngold did not. “I have never drawn a distinction between music for films and for operas or concerts,” he explained; calling film scores “operas without singing.” While he did return to composing works for the concert hall, Korngold’s music remained unapologetic in its Romanticism and its acknowledgement of Hollywood’s charms. His ability to connect to an audience in his

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The Violin Concerto displays all of the rigorous craftsmanship and masterful virtuosity of Korngold’s upbringing in Vienna, coupled with the flair for emotional directness he employed at Warner Brothers. rich film scores translated perfectly in his Violin Concerto (1945).

The Violin Concerto displays all of the rigorous craftsmanship and masterful virtuosity of his upbringing in Vienna, coupled with the flair for emotional directness he employed at Warner Brothers. In many ways, Korngold’s Violin Concerto is a compilation of themes from several of his film scores, specifically Another Dawn and Juárez in the first movement; Anthony Adverse in the second movement; and The Prince and the Pauper in the massive finale.

Korngold composed the Violin Concerto for a family friend, Polish violinist Bronislaw Huberman; however, it was the great virtuoso Jascha Heifetz (another former child prodigy) who premiered the work. Korngold referred to Heifetz as the perfect combination of “Enrico Caruso (exceptional opera singer) and Paganini (one of the most prolific violinists) all in one person.” Heifetz premiered the Concerto in 1947, and he went on to become permanently identified with the piece in performance and recordings.

The Violin Concerto remains Korngold’s most performed work, in addition to a few of his film scores. Coming full circle, he dedicated the Violin Concerto to Mahler’s widow, Alma Mahler-Werfel – perhaps suggesting long overdue gratitude to Mahler’s early acknowledgement of praise to the young Korngold decades earlier. 

STEPHEN CEPEDA VIOLIN The 2016-2017 season marks Violinist Stephen Cepeda’s eleventh year as concertmaster of the Helena Symphony Orchestra. He has appeared as soloist with the HSO on several occasions, including performances of violin concertos

by Sibelius, Mendelssohn, Brahms, and Tchaikovsky. Performing with Maestro Scott, Mr. Cepeda appeared as soloist with the Southeastern Pennsylvania Symphony Orchestra during two different seasons, and a performance the Lamont Symphony Orchestra at Denver University. In the summer of 2009, he completed a tour throughout Southeast Asia performing Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto, including a recital at the United States Embassy in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Mr. Cepeda is a founding member of the award-winning Meritage String Quartet, which was featured on Emmy award winning television series 11th and Grant on PBS. Beginning his studies at the age of five with Daniel Reinker, Mr. Cepeda has studied with some of the nation’s finest violinists, including Stephanie Sant’ Ambriogio, and Julius Schulman. While attending University of Houston’s Moores School of Music, he studied with renowned violinist Andrzej Grabiec. Having a passion for teaching, Mr. Cepeda was an Adjunct Professor at Montana State University, and maintains an active violin studio in Helena.

Recently, he founded the Helena Chamber Music Series which brings noted musicians from throughout the country to perform in Helena.

www.helenasymphony.org

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OPENING NIGHT WITH VIOLINIST STEPHEN CEPEDA

I MASTERWORKS CONCERT SERIES

ABOUT THE PROGRAM By Allan R. Scott©

Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 2 is scored for piccolo, three flutes, three oboes, two clarinets, bass clarinet, two bassoons, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drum, cymbals, glockenspiel, and divided strings.

Duration: 55 minutes

PARALLEL EVENTS / 1908 William Howard Taft is elected 27th U.S President General Motors is founded Albert Einstein presents quantum theory of light Grand Canyon National Monument is created New York subway linking Brooklyn and Manhattan opens First passenger airplane takes flight Mahler’s Symphony No. 7 premieres First New Year’s Eve ball is dropped in Times Square, NY Author Ian Fleming, President Lyndon Johnson, cartoonist Mel Blanc, Justice Thurgood Marshall, comedian Milton Berle, newscaster Edward R. Murrow, and actress Joan Crawford and Bette Davis are born President Grover Cleveland dies 14

SERGEI RACHMANINOFF Born: Oneg, Russia, 1 April 1873 Died: Beverly Hills, California, 28 March 1943

SYMPHONY NO. 2 IN E MINOR, OP. 27

As Beethoven is the final amalgamation of the Classical era (17501820), Sergei Rachmaninoff represents the final culmination of the Romantic period. Unlike Beethoven, however, Rachmaninoff is not the link to the next period of musical development. In fact, his contemporaries saw Rachmaninoff as not keeping up with the times as he was determined to hold on to the roots of Romanticism – melody for melody’s sake.

As a virtuoso pianist and composer, Rachmaninoff stands in the long line of Romantic performers-composers such as Liszt and Chopin. Growing up in a wealthy Russian family, Rachmaninoff was not permitted to pursue music as a career at first. After his parents divorced and their family fortunes declined, Rachmaninoff, one of six children living with their mother, was then encouraged to study music. At the age of ten, Rachmaninoff entered the St. Petersburg Conservatory and two years later the Moscow Conservatory where he studied with pianist Alexander Siloti and task-master Nikolay Zverev, both former students of Tchaikovsky.

Ironically, in spite of his improvisational skills on the piano, Rachmaninoff did not study composition during his formative years. His education consisted of advancing his piano skills and understanding of music. Only after meeting a harmony instructor and enrolling in harmony and counterpoint classes did Rachmaninoff’s abilities as a composer evolve. Stricken with malaria, Rachmaninoff decided to take the final piano and composition examinations a year early and successfully passed, earning the school’s gold medals in both areas. By the age of 19, Rachmaninoff had composed a symphony, a one-act opera (Aleko), some songs, his first piano concerto (Piano Concerto No. 1), and Five Pieces for Piano, which included the celebrated Prelude in C-sharp minor. The steady creative output came to a halt after the disastrous first performance of his first published symphony days before his 24th birthday.

Not only was Rachmaninoff’s First Symphony publicly panned, but the critics trashed the performance too, one referring to it as a “conservatory in hell,” and the symphony was never played again in Rachmaninoff’s lifetime. The composer’s collapsed confidence became a frequently reoccurring depression and Rachmaninoff ceased to compose for several years. Upon seeking therapy and hypnosis from Dr. Nikolai Dahl, Rachmaninoff slowly emerged from his depression. As Rachmaninoff remembered, Dr. Dahl would repeat over and over “You will begin your concerto. You will work with great facility. The concerto will be of excellent quality.” The treatment was a success and by the autumn of 1900 Rachmaninoff’s creativity flourished with his Piano Concerto No. 2, and he became a full time performer as a pianist and conductor. He eventually composed

regularly, if not prolifically, writing several operas, tone poems, a second symphony, and a piano sonata.

“Music must first and foremost be loved,” Rachmaninoff explained. “It must come from the heart, and it must be directed to the heart. Otherwise it cannot hope to be lasting, indestructible art.” This creed can easily be linked to his Symphony No. 2 given its emotionally charged and compelling themes. A Soviet music critic even referred to the work as the “Russian Lyric Symphony,” saying that the themes are “so direct and sincere, and they develop so naturally and spontaneously.”

While the opening of the Second Symphony begins in mystery, a sigh-like four note idea becomes the genesis of the movement’s themes and the underpinning of the entire work. After a swirling moment from the violins, an English horn solo transitions into the main section of the movement. Complete with lush strings, melancholy laments by the woodwinds, and some triumphant fanfares, the agitated journey continues with Tchaikovsky-like suspense until the storm unravels and stops. An outburst of a thrilling gallop opens the second movement.

Wildly energetic, Rachmaninoff adds playfulness to the movement with bright brass interjections and the frolicking of the glockenspiel. The overthe-top Rachmaninoff richness is inserted in between the lively theme, and a sinister brass ending derived from the “Dies irae” coupled with the opening theme of the Symphony winds down the movement until it fizzles out.

From beginning to end, the third movement is one of Rachmaninoff’s most heartfelt. A single clarinet sings a long, weeping melody until a dialogue among a solo oboe, English horn, and strings begins. The touching theme nostalgically returns, making for a real musical tear-jerker.

Lightening the mood, the final movement opens with a wild tarantella dance. After a march by the woodwinds and a lush string theme, the tender sounds of the third movement reappear. In one of the most extraordinary passages, Rachmaninoff

creates a long crescendo of downward scales in different speeds using various combinations of instruments until the entire work races to a whirlwind ending in complete splendor.

Rarely given to artistic explanation and justification, Rachmaninoff revealingly confessed that “a composer’s music should express the country of his birth, his love affairs, his religion, the books that have influenced him, and the pictures he loves. It should be the sum total of a composer’s experience.” Given the rage of “isms” in music during the early 20th century (serialism, neo-classicism, impressionism, expressionism, primitivism, etc.), Rachmaninoff’s artistic creed, reminiscent of 19th century Romanticism, was considered outdated by his contemporaries who thrived off a new found objectivity (like Picasso’s Cubism). Sadly, Igor Stravinsky, Rachmaninoff’s most outspoken critic and fellow Russian, referred to Rachmaninoff’s music as nothing more than “grandiose film music.”

During the Soviet era in Russian history, Rachmaninoff was considered bourgeois and decadent, and Rachmaninoff and his music were exiled from his homeland for a period of time.

Today, however, Rachmaninoff is a symbol of Russian greatness. He is considered the musical successor to Tchaikovsky and the link from Tchaikovsky to Prokofiev and Shostakovich.

Rachmaninoff never saw his works as capturing “mother Russia” as Rimsky-Korsakov and his protégés did about their own music. Like Tchaikovsky, if Rachmaninoff captured any Russian nationalism it was far more inspired by national pessimism than optimism. Perhaps more than anything else, Rachmaninoff’s works portrayed a world-view of his homeland. As a world traveler, Rachmaninoff saw Russia from a distance and therefore was able to see the cloudy future that the rest of the world saw when confronted with Russian conditions of the 20th century. As a new century dawns, Rachmaninoff is perceived as an intact artistic force and a personality, totally unshaken by modernist doubt or by the oppression of his homeland. 

“

Music must first and foremost be loved.

It must come from the heart, and it must be directed to the heart. Otherwise it cannot hope to be lasting, indestructible art.

RACHMANINOFF www.helenasymphony.org

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II MASTERWORKS CONCERT SERIES

A SYMPHONY SPOOKTACULAR S A T U R D A Y, 2 2 O C T O B E R 2 0 1 6 7 : 3 0 P. M . | H E L E N A C I V I C C E N T E R

Celebrate, mourn, howl, or jest your way to a haunting musical exploration of some ghoulishly delightful works for Halloween. In addition to well-known favorites such as Bach’s Toccata & Fugue, Rachmaninoff’s Isle of the Dead, and Saint-Saëns’ Danse macabre, the concert features Danny Elfman’s fantastical, spine-tingling music from popular beloved Tim Burton films, including Corpse Bride, Batman, and Beetlejuice! Join the HSO&C in your wildest Halloween costume!

Maestro Scott

The use of photographic and recording equipment is strictly prohibited. As a courtesy to the performers and fellow concert-goers, please turn off all cell phones prior to the beginning of the performance. Latecomers will not be seated until an appropriate time in the concert.

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Helena Symphony Season 62

ALLAN R. SCOTT – Conductor Helena Symphony Orchestra & Chorale

J.S. BACH/Stokowski

Toccata & Fugue in D minor, BWV+

RACHMANINOFF

The Isle of the Dead, Op. 29+

SAINT-SAËNS

Danse macabre, Op. 40

GRIEG “In the Hall of the Mountain King” from Peer Gynt, Op. 23 –– I N T E R M I S S I O N –– ELFMAN

“Into the Forest” from Corpse Bride+

ELFMAN

Batman / Batman Returns: Suite+

ELFMAN

Beetlejuice: Suite+

+ Helena Symphony

premiere performance

www.helenasymphony.org

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A SYMPHONY SPOOKTACULAR

II MASTERWORKS CONCERT SERIES

ABOUT THE PROGRAM By Allan R. Scott©

Leopold Stokowski’s orchestration of Bach’s Toccata & Fugue in D minor is scored for two piccolos, four flutes, three oboes, English horn, three clarinets, bass clarinet, three bassoons, contra-bassoon, six horns, four trumpets, four trombones, tuba, timpani, two harps, celeste, and divided strings.

Duration: 10 minutes

PARALLEL EVENTS / 1703-07 Early stages of War of Spanish Succession and Great Northern War Treaty of Union forms Great Britain with Scotland, Wales, and England Earthquake in Italy kills 3,000 people American preacher Jonathan Edwards and Benjamin Franklin are born

PARALLEL EVENTS / 1927 Charles Lindberg flies first transatlantic flight Kern & Hammerstein’s musical Show Boat premieres Jazz Singer opens as the first talking film Opera singer Leontyne Price, playwright Neil Simon, actor Sidney Poitier, and artist Andy Warhol are born

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH Leopold Stokowski, transcription B o r n : E i s e n a c h , G e r m a n y, 2 1 M a r c h 1 6 8 5 D i e d : L e i p z i g , G e r m a n y, 2 8 J u l y 1 7 5 0

TOCCATA & FUGUE IN D MINOR, BWV 565

ABOUT THE COMPOSER The Bach family was primarily comprised of musicians since the early 1500s, but they were only locally known to the people in Northern German territories until Johann Sebastian. The youngest child of his parents, Johann Sebastian Bach, the organist, harpsichordist, composer, teacher, and stern Lutheran, is today synonymous with music as much or more than any other name in history. Bach, the towering figure of the Baroque era, who summed up the musical knowledge and techniques that preceded him and developed them further, represented his time more than any other – he was the Baroque period’s (1600-1750) most valid embodiment.

Largely self-taught, Bach spent his entire career as an organist and choirmaster in some of the most prestigious churches, courts, and schools in all of the German territories. He produced his earliest compositions while in his late teens, writing most of his works out of necessity for his organist positions. As a pious Lutheran, Bach viewed music as part of his religious duty rather than as an art form.

Bach’s surviving compositional output includes five complete cycles of cantatas for the church year (almost 300), as well as two massive Passions (St. John Passion and St. Matthew Passion), numerous works for the keyboard, including the Art of Fugue, instrumental works (such as his Brandenburg Concertos), and his monumental Mass in B minor. Although he introduced no new forms of music, Bach enriched the prevailing German style with the perfection of counterpoint, a control of harmonic organization, and the adaptation of rhythms and textures from abroad, particularly Italy and France.

While Bach’s fame as an organist was great during his lifetime, he was not particularly well-known as a composer until nearly a century after his death. Bach, the father of twenty children between two marriages (only ten of the children survived infancy), composed over a thousand works before he became increasingly blind and died at the age of sixty-five (ironically, his eyesight returned ten days before his death). Today, Bach is considered one of the greatest composers in all of Western civilization, and scholars fittingly date the end of the Baroque era with the year of Bach’s death.

ABOUT THE WORK To truly experience Bach’s organ music one must be in a church setting with, ideally, a Baroque organ. The legendary conductor of The Philadelphia Orchestra, Leopold Stokowski, wanted to give audiences (especially American audiences) the opportunity to hear Continued on page 21

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Helena Symphony Season 62

A SYMPHONY SPOOKTACULAR

II MASTERWORKS CONCERT SERIES

ABOUT THE PROGRAM By Allan R. Scott©

SERGEI RACHMANINOFF Born: Oneg, Russia, 1 April 1873 Died: Beverly Hills, California, 28 March 1943

THE ISLE OF THE DEAD, OP. 29

As Beethoven is the final amalgamation of the Classical era (17501820), Sergei Rachmaninoff represents the final culmination of the Romantic period. Unlike Beethoven, however, Rachmaninoff is not the link to the next period of musical development. In fact, his contemporaries saw Rachmaninoff as not keeping up with the times as he was determined to hold on to the roots of Romanticism – melody for melody’s sake.

As a virtuoso pianist and composer, Rachmaninoff stands in the long line of Romantic performers-composers such as Liszt and Chopin. Growing up in a wealthy Russian family, Rachmaninoff was not permitted to pursue music as a career at first. After his parents divorced and their family fortunes declined, Rachmaninoff, one of six children living with their mother, was then encouraged to study music. At the age of ten, Rachmaninoff entered the St. Petersburg Conservatory and two years later the Moscow Conservatory where he studied with pianist Alexander Siloti and task-master Nikolay Zverev, both former students of Tchaikovsky.

Ironically, in spite of his improvisational skills on the piano, Rachmaninoff did not study composition during his formative years. His education consisted of advancing his piano skills and understanding of music. Only after meeting a harmony instructor and enrolling in harmony and counterpoint classes did Rachmaninoff’s abilities as a composer evolve. Stricken with malaria, Rachmaninoff decided to take the final piano and composition examinations a year early and successfully passed, earning the school’s gold medals in both areas.

By the age of 19, Rachmaninoff had composed a symphony, a one-act opera (Aleko), some songs, his first piano concerto (Piano Concerto No. 1), and Five Pieces for Piano, which included the celebrated Prelude in C-sharp minor. The steady creative output came to a halt after the disastrous first performance of his first published symphony days before his 24th birthday. Not only was Rachmaninoff’s First Symphony publicly panned, but the critics trashed the performance too, and the symphony was never played again in Rachmaninoff’s lifetime. The composer’s collapsed confidence became a frequently reoccurring depression and Rachmaninoff ceased to compose for several years.

Upon seeking therapy and hypnosis, Rachmaninoff slowly emerged from his depression. The treatment was a success and by 1900 Rachmaninoff’s creativity flourished with his Piano Concerto No. 2, and he became a full time performer as a pianist and conductor. He eventually composed regularly, if not prolifically, writing several operas, tone poems, a second symphony, and a piano sonata.

The Isle of the Dead is scored for piccolo, three flutes, two oboes, English horn, two clarinets, bass clarinet, two bassoons, contrabassoon, six horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drum, cymbals, harp, and divided strings.

Duration: 21 minutes

PARALLEL EVENTS / 1909 Height of World War I Woodrow Wilson is reelected U.S. President Montana feminist Jeanette Rankin is elected first woman to U.S. Congress Albert Einstein presents Theory of Relativity George Gershwin composes his first published song Planned Parenthood is founded Chicago’s Wrigley Field opens Actor Jackie Gleason, violinist Yehudi Menuhin, and news anchor Walter Cronkite are born James Kraft invents processed cheese Nathan’s Famous Hot Dogs opens

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A SYMPHONY SPOOKTACULAR

II MASTERWORKS CONCERT SERIES

ABOUT THE PROGRAM By Allan R. Scott©

The Danse macabre is scored for obbligato violin solo, piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, cymbals, bass drum, triangle, xylophone, harp, and divided strings.

Duration: 7 minutes

PARALLEL EVENTS / 1874 First electric street trolley Alexander Graham Bell proposes idea for telephone Verdi’s Requiem premieres Johann Strauss’ opera Die Fledermaus premieres Tchaikovsky writes his First Piano Concerto Monet and Renoir begin painting along the Seine First ice cream soda is sold First zoo in U.S. opens in Philadelphia 13th U.S. President Millard Fillmore dies Poet Robert Frost, magician Harry Houdini, U.S. President Herbert Hoover, Winston Churchill, composers Arnold Schoenberg, Gustav Holst, and Charles Ives are born 20

CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS

B o r n : Pa r i s , Fr a n c e , 9 O c t o b e r 1 8 3 5 Died: Algiers, France, 16 December 1921

DANSE MACABRE, OP. 40

Craftsmanship, fluency, and restraint best describe Camille SaintSaëns’ approach to composition. This creed would not only serve as a true rejection of the overly exuberant and self-expressive era dominated by the operas of Richard Wagner, but it would begin the very musical revolution that was passed down to Fauré, Debussy, and Ravel. Above all else, Saint-Saëns stood for the classical ideals of Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven – ideals that seemed to adapt to the French culture, yet took on its own uniquely French sound.

Despite the fact that he was born to a family of peasant origins and raised only by his mother, Saint-Saëns began composing at the age of six and was still composing at the age of 86. Often compared to the genius of Mozart, Saint-Saëns began picking out tunes on the piano at age two and could read at age three. Saint-Saëns not only excelled musically, but was an extremely well-rounded individual who wrote poetry, and was well-versed in many languages, sciences, and history, and spoke out politically during the Franco-Prussian War. As a highly skilled organist and pianist, Saint-Saëns sought to gain notice as a composer by winning the coveted Grand Prix de Rome. Saint-Saëns failed to win twice; however, at the age of twentytwo, he was appointed organist of La Madeline – the most coveted post in France.

Saint-Saëns’ career as a composer took shape, and by 1870, he was one of the most famous musicians in France. In addition to serving at the cathedral of La Madeline, he toured as a pianist throughout Europe and America; briefly taught at the Paris Conservatory; championed the cause of new French music and rediscovery of Bach, Handel, and Mozart in France; and received several honorary degrees and awards. Saint-Saëns’ compositional output includes over 300 works, including three violin concertos, five piano concertos, two cello concertos, six symphonies (though he only published three), ballets, incidental music, sacred and secular choral music, chamber music, works for solo piano and organ, thirteen operas, and tone poems – most notably Carnival of the Animals and Danse macabre.

The lively Danse macabre (Dance of Death) has become SaintSaëns’ most performed and most popular work – all in seven minutes of music! The tone poem was actually inspired by a Henri Cazalis poem of the same title, and Saint-Saëns quotes part of the poem in the score: Zig and zig and zag Death sets the rhythm Stroking a tombstone with his heel Death at midnight plays a dance Zig and zig and zag, on his violin

One hears the rattling bones of the dancers But psitt!

Suddenly the dance ceases They push each other, they flee, the cock has crowed.

Having some fun with temptation, Saint-Saëns explores the legend of “Death” appearing at midnight every year on Halloween, calling forth the dead from their graves to dance for him while he plays his fiddle. Like a pied-piper, the Devil plays as the skeletons dance until dawn. Opening with the harp intoning twelve chimes at midnight, Saint-Saëns’ Danse macabre focuses the entire

work on the solo violin (where the E-string is lowered by a half-step – referred to as “the Devil in music”).

The eerie melody descending in half-steps is cleverly coupled with a whirling waltz, and layered with the sounds of the xylophone to capture the brittle, bony sounds of the skeletal dancers. The winds and harp interject the “Dies irae” melody (the “Day of Doom” chant from the Mass of the Dead), all the while the devil’s frenetic and frenzied fiddle playing races faster and faster until it abruptly stops at the oboe’s rooster crow to cue the sunrise. The sounds of death slither away as the devil mournfully completes his tune – perhaps waiting for All Hallow’s Eve to return in a year. 

BACH

RACHMANINOFF

Continued from page 18

Bach’s great organ works which were falling into obscurity. As a trained organist himself, Stokowski believed that the orchestra could function as the moral equivalent of the church organ for a secular public. He transcribed several of Bach’s organ music for the orchestra to underscore the powerful sonorities and layers of sound that Bach created with the organ.

Rarely does one object to setting a Shakespeare play in modern times. Likewise, the tradition of transcribing or rearranging previously composed works is nothing new, although sometimes scoffed at by musical purists. Mozart made his own version of Handel’s Messiah; Ravel orchestrated Mussorgsky’s piano work Pictures at an Exhibition; Schoenberg and Stravinsky both transcribed Baroque music for modern orchestral forces; and Edward Elgar and Mahler re-orchestrated several of Bach’s works.

Perhaps the most famous and most familiar is Stokowski’s 1927 orchestration of Bach’s Toccata & Fugue in D minor. Bach is still considered the greatest composer of fugues that ever existed (where different melodic themes overlap and develop simultaneously). A toccata (literally meaning “to touch”) was a technique used to demonstrate the performer’s virtuosity.

Made internationally known in 1938 by Disney in the film Fantasia, the Toccata & Fugue has become one of Bach’s most loved works. Stokowski’s transcription evokes not only Bach, but the brash self-confidence and commitment to contemporary possibilities that American orchestras exuded in the early 20th century. Stokowski kept true to Bach’s original organ work, and allowed the orchestra to become wonderfully self-indulgent with grandeur and fantasy that is nothing short of all-consuming, devouring our aural appetite. 

Continued from page 19

While in Paris, Rachmaninoff first saw the painting The Isle of the Dead by Swiss artist Arnold Böcklin. Painted in 1880 for a young German widow who asked Böcklin for a picture to dream by, The Isle of the Dead haunted and captured viewers all throughout Europe, and it is considered an artistic icon of the late 1800s. The artist described his painting as “a dream picture; it must produce such an effect of stillness that anyone would be frightened to hear a knock at the door.” It became such a popular work that the artist painted five versions (and variations) of it.

Amazingly, Rachmaninoff first saw the blackand-white reproduction of the painting, not the full-color original. He went on to say that nothing could match his initial impression, and suggested that he might never have composed the tone poem that was inspired by the mysterious painting he first experienced. Like a great tone poem, Rachmaninoff’s The Isle of the Dead musically brings the painting to life.

The irregular movement of oars in the water captured by low strings, timpani, and harp first move forward with little destination, yet with a growing urgency. Short melodic fragments interject as if giving glimpses through the mist until the island comes into sight. As with other works, Rachmaninoff employs the “Dies irae” (the Gregorian chant meaning “day of doom,” taken from the Mass for the Dead). Gathering force, life emerges in the music that seems more passionate and even joyous (departing somewhat from Böcklin’s painting). The intensity fades, however, and the musical shadows return, leaving us with the ceaseless rowing and the mysterious island fading away.  www.helenasymphony.org

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A SYMPHONY SPOOKTACULAR

II MASTERWORKS CONCERT SERIES

ABOUT THE PROGRAM By Allan R. Scott©

Grieg’s “In the Hall of the Mountain King” from Peer Gynt is scored for piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drum, cymbals, divided strings, and mixed chorus.

Duration: 3 minutes

PARALLEL EVENTS / 1875 California Gold Rush The Billy McGeorge Gang attacks and robs settlers in Yankee Hill, Colorado Bizet’s opera Carmen premieres Degas paints Place de la Concorde Renoir paints Woman at the Piano Composer Maurice Ravel, poet Robert Frost, automobile president Walter Chrysler, clothing store founder James Cash Penny, and psychiatrist Carl Jung are born Composer Georges Bizet, Danish fairy tale author Hans Christian Anderson, and 17th U.S. President Andrew Johnson die First Kentucky Derby

EDVARD GRIEG

B o r n : B e r g e n , N o r w a y, 1 5 J u n e 1 8 4 3 D i e d : B e r g e n , N o r w a y, 4 S e p t e m b e r 1 9 0 7

“IN THE HALL OF THE MOUNTAIN KING” FROM PEER GYNT, OP. 23

Like Sibelius in Finland, Vaughan Williams in England, Bartók in Hungary, and Copland in America, Edvard Grieg built much of his musical output on the folk music of his country’s heritage.

Grieg, in fact, made it his own personal cause to bring the music of Norwegian composers to the attention of the audiences abroad, so much so, he would often perform in spite of his frequent attacks of severe pleurisy. For the world as a whole, Grieg remains the Norwegian composer, and even has achieved great fame for his uncharacteristic Piano Concerto in A minor.

Young Edvard Grieg must have been a responsive student, for he composed his first piece, a set of piano variations, only three years after his first piano lesson at the age of six. He was sent to the Leipzig Conservatory in Germany at fifteen, where he came under the influence of famed composer Robert Schumann, to whom Grieg owes much of the inspiration for his Piano Concerto. Grieg was a natural songwriter and a superior one at that, considered to be on the same level as Gabriel Fauré or Franz Schubert. In one sense, Grieg had an unusually sensitive response to the words he set; a real gift for expressive melody; and an intuitive ability to provide original and poetic piano accompaniments. Grieg composed more than 100 songs over the course of his creative life, and each reveals him to have a natural gift for melody free from any pretension.

Conversely, Grieg’s song-writing ability often limited him as well.

As with most song composers, Grieg had an inclination towards musical ideas which are wonderful in brevity. Leaving aside his unsuccessful youthful attempt to compose a symphony, Grieg’s orchestral music consists mainly of arrangements of piano works and the incidental music for plays, namely Ibsen’s Peer Gynt.

Collaborating with playwright and fellow countryman Henrik Ibsen, Grieg embarked on a 23 movement work that would accompany the four and one half hour drama, which premiered along with the score. The score’s written introduction of the title character depicts Peer Gynt as “a type of character whose exuberance of spirit and wantonness must inevitably lead to his perdition, unless saved by woman (as in Goethe’s Faust).” Perhaps one of the most larger than life characters in all of drama, Ibsen’s Peer Gynt obtains the love, hatred, pity, and even envy of the audience.

The extraordinary popularity of Grieg’s concert suites for Peer Gynt won Grieg international fame and personal economic success, but Grieg’s complete incidental music to the play is a lesserknown entity. Today, Grieg’s music has completely overshadowed Ibsen’s masterpiece. Originally written in verse, Peer Gynt’s dense Continued on page 25

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A SYMPHONY SPOOKTACULAR

II MASTERWORKS CONCERT SERIES

ABOUT THE PROGRAM By Allan R. Scott©

DANNY ELFMAN

Born: Los Angeles, California, 29 May 1953 Died: Living in Los Angeles, California

“INTO THE FOREST” FROM CORPSE BRIDE BATMAN / BATMAN RETURNS: SUITE BEETLEJUICE: SUITE

As with such director and composer creative collaborations like Alfred Hitchcock and Bernard Hermann, or Steven Spielberg and John Williams, the films of Tim Burton are intrinsically linked to the music of Danny Elfman. Spending much of his youth in movie theatres, Daniel Robert Elfman grew to admire the legendary film composers of the mid 1900s, including Bernard Herrmann, Franz Waxman, Dimitri Tiomkin, Erich Korngold, and Max Steiner.

Elfman’s curiosities also attracted him to 1930s jazz artists like Cab Calloway, and classical composers such as Prokofiev and Stravinsky.

Elfman actually lacks the formal musical training in composition or orchestration typically required for writing music. He started his career in the “willfully, weird, slyly cerebral octet” Oingo Boingo. The band first arose out of the Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo, an avant-garde comedy/music/theatre troupe founded by Elfman and his older brother. Although the band never quite achieved a decisive commercial breakthrough, they existed for nearly two decades, and at a time when “alternative” music had yet to substantially penetrate mainstream popularity. During that period, however, Elfman provided the music for his brother’s 1982 underground cult film Forbidden Zone.

A fan of Oingo Boingo, the wonderfully and hauntingly odd film maker (and former Disney animator) Tim Burton asked Elfman to score the music for Burton’s first movie, Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure (1985). With hands-on training, Elfman went on to provide scores for about forty films in the last two decades, and for many other nonBurton films such as Spiderman, Good Will Hunting, Men in Black, Spy Kids, Flubber, and Sommersby, as well as the themes for the television series The Simpsons and Desperate Housewives.

Burton’s first major success that defined his gothic and quirky cinematic genre was the 1988 dark comedy, Beetlejuice. “I get drawn to things that don’t make any sense, and I learned early on not to resist that,” explained Elfman. His personal tastes for the off-kilter and the bizarre has made him a natural choice for the darker edges of Tim Burton’s movies.

With Beetlejuice, Elfman created an in-your-face, relentlessly fun score that is full of hi-jinx and light terror (and even used two songs by Harry Belafonte: Day-O and Jump in the Line). It was not until 1989 that Elfman captured attention with his score to Burton’s masterwork, Batman (for which Elfman won a Grammy Award). The score to the 1989 film and its sequel Batman Returns (1992) were

The three works of Danny Elfman’s film music performed here are scored for piccolo, three flutes, two oboes, English horn, three clarinets, bass clarinet, three bassoons, contrabassoon, six horns, four trumpets, five trombones, tuba, timpani, cymbals, tam-tam, chimes, glockenspiel, marimba, wood block, tambourine, shaker, tom-toms, bass drum, snare drum, two harps, organ, celeste, piano, mixed chorus, and divided strings.

Duration: 30 minutes

PARALLEL EVENTS / 1988-89 Iran-Iraq War ends The Phantom of the Opera opens on Broadway Cold War ends, and Berlin Wall comes down George H.W. Bush becomes the 41st U.S. President

PARALLEL EVENTS / 1992 AND 2005 William J. Clinton elected 42nd U.S. President Johnny Carson resigns from NBC’s The Tonight Show Hurricane Katrina hits U.S. Gulf Coast killing over 1,000 people Pope Benedict XVI becomes 265th pontiff of Roman Catholic Church

Continued on page 25 23

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Helena Symphony Season 62

A SYMPHONY SPOOKTACULAR

II MASTERWORKS CONCERT SERIES

“

In one sense, Grieg had an unusually sensitive response to the words he set; a real gift for expressive melody; and an intuitive ability to provide original and poetic piano accompaniments.

Grieg composed more than 100 songs over the course of his creative life, and each reveals him to have a natural gift for melody free from any pretension.

GRIEG

Continued from page 22

and surreal plot features a repellent Faust-like protagonist hell-bent in pursuit of his own desires.

There are so many well-loved moments in Grieg’s music, used in movies, commercials, cartoons, etc.

“In the Hall of the Mountain King” commemorates Peer’s frightening sojourn with the trolls. Starting pianissimo in the orchestra’s lowest instruments, this relentless dance uses one menacing little melody to build a steady acceleration and crescendo to a wild triple-forte finish.

Unfortunately for Ibsen, Grieg’s score to the play remains generally more popular than the great dramatic poem, particularly outside the

ELFMAN

Scandinavian region. The two suites from the full incidental music were compiled mainly because of the limited appeal of the awkwardly translated drama and unattractive length of the full drama and score combined. Grieg, as stated earlier, was highly influenced by the folk music style of his Norwegian heritage, but unlike Vaughan Williams, Bartók, and Copland, Grieg never used the actual folk tunes as musical subjects, except in Peer Gynt, but like Sibelius and Copland, Grieg’s greatest achievement in his music was to give the spirit of his country’s culture and heritage to the world in the international language of music. 

Continued from page 23

drenched in darkness and romance. In addition to Burton’s “dark knight” vision, Elfman’s score took a comic book movie and transformed it into a veritable romantic fantasy epic that still captures the imaginations of moviegoers today.

The score to Batman attracted other filmmakers who were looking for a darker film composer alternative to Elfman. His scores for Warren Beatty’s Dick Tracy, Sam Raimi’s Darkman, Richard Donner’s Scrooged, and Burton’s Edward Scissorhands all helped solidify the hallmark of Elfman’s “sound” – a melancholy mix of gentle choruses and idiosyncratic orchestral palette, along with elements of Béla Bartók, Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky, Prokofiev, and Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana.

One of Burton and Elfman’s most ambitious projects was the animated musical Nightmare Before Christmas, where Elfman composed all of the music and did the singing of the film’s main character. He has composed the scores for all, except three, of Burton’s films. “I have to be halfcomposer and half-psychiatrist” when composing a score for a Tim Burton film, says Elfman. In 2005, Burton and Elfman collaborated on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and on Corpse Bride – another animated “Burtonesque” dark film where Elfman also did the singing. His works also include music for Cirque du Soleil, and film scores for Oz the Great and Powerful (2013) and Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015).  www.helenasymphony.org

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III MASTERWORKS CONCERT SERIES

PIANIST JON NAKAMATSU PLAYS TCHAIKOVSKY S A T U R D A Y, 2 8 J A N U A R Y 2 0 1 7 7 : 3 0 P. M . | H E L E N A C I V I C C E N T E R

Internationally renowned Pianist and Van Cliburn Gold Medalist Jon Nakamatsu makes his HSO debut with the best-known concerto of all time – Tchaikovsky’s irresistible and virtuosic Piano Concerto No. 1. The concert also features Debussy’s reflective and colorful Printemps (Spring), and Four Sea Interludes from Benjamin Britten’s psychological thriller Peter Grimes.

Maestro Scott

Nakamatsu

Mr. Nakamatsu’s appearance is sponsored by the generous support of

The use of photographic and recording equipment is strictly prohibited. As a courtesy to the performers and fellow concert-goers, please turn off all cell phones prior to the beginning of the performance. Latecomers will not be seated until an appropriate time in the concert.

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Helena Symphony Season 62

ALLAN R. SCOTT – Conductor JON NAKAMATSU – Piano Helena Symphony Orchestra

DEBUSSY Printemps+

I. Trés modéré — II. Modéré BRITTEN Four Sea Interludes & Passacaglia from

Peter Grimes, Op. 33a & 33b+

I. Dawn

II. Sunday Morning

III. Passacaglia IV. Modéré

V. Storm

–– I N T E R M I S S I O N –– TCHAIKOVSKY Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor, Op. 23

Mr. Nakamatsu, piano

I. Allegro II. Andantino semplice – Presto III. Allegro con fuoco

+ Helena Symphony

premiere performance

www.helenasymphony.org

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PIANIST JON NAKAMATSU PLAYS TCHAIKOVSKY

III MASTERWORKS CONCERT SERIES

ABOUT THE PROGRAM By Allan R. Scott©

Debussy’s Printemps is scored for piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, English horn, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, timpani, bass drum, cymbals, snare drum, triangle, harp, piano (4 hands), and divided strings.

Duration: 15 minutes

PARALLEL EVENTS / 1887 U.S. approves a naval base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii U.S. regulates railroads Verdi’s opera Otello premieres Rimsky-Korsakov’s Capriccio Espagnol premieres Van Gogh paints The Courtesan Monet paints The Seine with the Pont de la Grande Jatte Notre Dame University loses its first football game Anne Sullivan begins teaching 6-year-old blind-deaf Helen Keller American painter George O’Keeffe and French composer Nadia Boulanger are born Barbed wired is patented First Groundhog Day (Punxsutawney, PA)

CLAUDE DEBUSSY

Born: Saint Germain-en-Laye, France, 22 August 1862 D i e d : Pa r i s , Fr a n c e , 5 M a r c h 1 9 1 8

PRINTEMPS ( SPRING)

There are very few defining moments in music history that drastically altered the future of music. Certainly they include Beethoven’s Third and Ninth Symphonies, Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, and Debussy’s Prelude to Afternoon of a Faun, which premiered 22 December 1894.

In a single ten-minute work, the grandiose late-Romantic era shaped by Richard Wagner collapsed, and the sounds of the 20th century were ushered in and, as modern composer and conductor Pierre Boulez often claims, “the art of music began to beat with a new pulse.” The thirty-two year old pianist, Claude Debussy, indeed did create a completely new sound of music with this tone poem that was inspired by Stéphane Mallarmé’s poem of the same name written almost two decades earlier. The subject matter of Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun however, is not the main interest of the composer; rather, it is the images left over from the faun’s dreams that Debussy attempts to capture, or as Debussy states, “it is the general impression of the poem.” The effect of this sensuous, fluid, subtly constructed music and supremely refined style of composition became known as impressionism in music, thereby linking Debussy with painters such as Monet, Renoir, and Seurat.

For Debussy, music was rooted in memory. In a letter to a pupil, Debussy wrote: “Collect impressions. Don’t be in a hurry to write them down. Because that’s something music can do better than painting: it can centralize variations of color and light within a single picture.” This very statement became Debussy’s creed, mirroring statements from the impressionist and post-impressionist painters.

Earlier in his largely self-taught compositional career, Debussy won the coveted Prix de Rome for composition in 1884; composed in Italy (where he played for Liszt); discovered and rejected the growing Wagnerian cult; then returned to Paris more focused and musically mature. It was then that he composed his well-known string quartet and Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun. While Debussy’s music contains the color and ambiguity of Wagner’s harmonies, he avoids its emotional tensions. Through his own discoveries, musically and otherwise, Debussy learned to prefer suggestion to direct statement.

He trusted no “lifeless rules invented by pendants,” as Debussy said; rather, it was his instinct that he followed, and in the process he brought to music a unique world of sensibility.

While the hallmark sounds of Debussy were formed after his artistic annexation in Rome, there were some formative works that offer a glimpse into the composer that evolved. As part of the Prix de Rome terms, Debussy was obliged to write four works for academic approval in order to demonstrate his artistic development during the residency. “The idea I had was to compose a work in a very special Continued on page 31

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PIANIST JON NAKAMATSU PLAYS TCHAIKOVSKY

III MASTERWORKS CONCERT SERIES

ABOUT THE PROGRAM By Allan R. Scott©

BENJAMIN BRITTEN

Born: Lowestoft, England, 22 November 1913 Died: Aldeburgh, England, 4 December 1976

FOUR SEA INTERLUDES & PASSACAGLIA FROM PETER GRIMES, OP. 33A & 33B

If there is one quality that sets the music of Benjamin Britten apart from his contemporaries, it is surely his unerring response to the theme of innocence. Born Edward Benjamin Britten, the English composer possessed the unique ability to capture an astonishing variety of moods through, as it were, the eyes of the innocent.

Even as a young musician Britten’s early efforts as a composer included ten piano sonatas, six string quartets, three suites for piano, an oratorio, and dozens of songs. In all, the active composer, conductor, and pianist produced six operas, concertos for violin and cello, orchestral works, including A Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, many songs, chamber music, incidental music for theatre and film, folk song arrangements, and many choral works. Britten knew how to use music to the best effect, whether in the concert hall, on the stage, or in the church. His music possessed qualities of freshness and simplicity that made it easily accessible to the common listener, and he never lost the radiance that came from the imaginative understanding of youth, the loss of innocence, and the passage to adulthood.

Like so many composers who would write for their friends or colleagues, Britten composed for his partner, tenor Peter Pears. While living a few years in the U.S., Britten came across the works of a littleknown English poet, George Crabbe. Britten and Pear were intrigued with Crabbe’s long poem The Borough, particularly its tragic tale of Peter Grimes written in 1810. The story gave the couple the scenario to construct an opera. The story of Peter Grimes “gave me the feeling of nostalgia for Suffolk,” said Britten. “It evoked a longing for the realities of that grim and exciting seacoast around Aldeburgh.”

Set during the 1840s in the fishing community of Aldeburgh (where Britten would die), Peter Grimes opens as an inquest is held into the recent death at sea of Grimes’ boy apprentice. While it is ruled an accident, the townspeople remain suspicious and warn Grimes not to take on another apprentice. Ellen Orford, the school teacher and loyal friend of Grimes, helps him get another boy despite the warning, but she quarrels with him when she learns the boy has been treated roughly.

When the villagers learn of this, they set out after Grimes, who has taken the boy to his cliff-top hut. As Grimes and the boy try to escape, the boy slips and falls down the cliff to his death. Three days pass, and Grimes returns to the village at dawn, physically and emotionally drained. He accepts the advice of the retired captain and his friend, Balstrode, who tells Grimes the only way out is to sail out to sea alone and sink his boat, with himself aboard, leaving the audience to decide Grimes’ guilt or innocence.

The Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes is scored for two piccolos, two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, E-flat clarinet, two bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, two trumpets, piccolo trumpet, three trombones, tuba, timpani, snare drum, bass drum, tenor drum, cymbals, tam-tam, tambourine, chimes, xylophone, harp, celeste, and divided strings.

Duration: 23 minutes

PARALLEL EVENTS / 1945 U.S. bombs Japan and World War II ends Franklin D. Roosevelt dies four months into his unprecedented fourth term as U.S. President English Prime Minister Winston Churchill resigns France elects Charles de Gaulle president Hitler commits suicide and Mussolini is executed Tennessee Williams’ play The Glass Menagerie premieres Aaron Copland receives the Pulitzer Prize for his ballet score Appalachian Spring Violinist Itzhak Perlman, actor Steve Martin, and singers Jesse Norman, Bette Midler, and Bob Marley are born

Continued on page 31 29

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PIANIST JON NAKAMATSU PLAYS TCHAIKOVSKY

DEBUSSY

Continued from page 28

color which should cover a great range of feelings,” Debussy wrote. “It is to be called Printemps, not descriptive, but a human one.”

While Printemps predates Debussy’s most mature years as a composer, it certainly foreshadows them. The solo introduction of the first of the two movement work is very similar to the opening flute solo in his Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun. The gentle melody and oriental sounds of the opening of the second movement also recall the exoticism of many of his later pieces. “I should like to express the slow and labored birth of beings and things in nature, their gradual blossoming, and finally, the joy of being born into some new life,” said Debussy. Color and light, images and feelings – are all at the heart of Printemps. It was not meant to capture some literal image of the new season of spring coming from a

BRITTEN

III MASTERWORKS CONCERT SERIES

cold, dead winter. “I despise all music that has to follow some literary text,” the composer vented.

The evocative two-part work was composed for solo piano, and Debussy later planned to arrange it for orchestra and wordless chorus. It is believed that this orchestral version was lost in a fire. Some 25 years after he wrote the original work for piano, Debussy collaborated with a conductor, and orchestrated Printemps (without a chorus). Despite the early signs of Debussy trademarks employed in the Printemps, his academic mentors back in Paris were baffled. They were concerned that his enormous interest in orchestral color would make him forget the importance of precision of design and form. They believed his works demonstrated “one of the most dangerous enemies of works of art – vague impressionism.” How wrong they were! 

Continued from page 29

“In Peter Grimes,” Britten wrote, “I wanted to express my awareness of the perpetual struggle of men and women whose livelihood depends on the sea.” Perhaps more than that, however, Peter Grimes is a story of acceptance and lost innocence.

It has a similar sensibility that Arthur Miller conveys in his play The Crucible where one man’s character is under constant scrutiny, even if that man’s innocence is not always certain. The opera wonderfully and uncomfortably offers a sympathetic portrayal of a social outcast; undertones of sexual ambiguity and abuse; and exposes the hypocrisy of an intolerant community easily given to scapegoating. Tenor Anthony Dean Griffey, renowned for his performances as Grimes, explains the duality of the character: “The alarming parts of Grimes are his abrupt, violent outbursts. He was an outcast most of his life. Underneath all the harshness there’s a vulnerability; he has the same needs and desires that all of us have – to be wanted, accepted, and loved.”

Part of what made Britten’s first full length opera such a huge success was his ability to intricately convey the development of the plot and characters through the orchestra alone. The essence of the drama in Peter Grimes is encapsulated against the omnipresent backdrop of the sea, and Britten extracted moments of orchestral music to convey the stormy, grim uncertainty into several different interludes throughout the opera which have evolved into an effective musical drama for the concert hall: the Four Sea Interludes and the Passacaglia.

The five different movements (the Four Sea Interludes and the Passacaglia) present musical vignettes from the opera; however, the music also stands alone as tone poems inspired by sea images.

Dawn, the opening movement, links the prologue of the opera to the suspicious inquiries into the death of Grime’s boy apprentice, as well as evoking the stillness of the morning sea covered with mist.

Serving as a prelude to the second act in the opera, Sunday Morning uses the theme from an aria and the bell-sounds that call the villagers to town, conveying a tranquil sunlight from the earlier, eerie, first movement. Extracted from the introduction to Act III, Moonlight is similar to the first movement of the Four Sea Interludes, but has a serene quietness about it. Inserted into the Four Sea Interludes is the Passacaglia, which falls between the first and second scenes of Act II. This interlude builds in intensity as Grimes and his new apprentice ascend the cliff to the fisherman’s hut. The Passacaglia (a form of music that generally is very serious in tone) serves as a quasi-funeral march, for, as Grimes and the boy leave the hut to go fishing, the child slips and falls to his death – the event that seals Grimes’ fate as well. Finally, Britten flashes back to earlier moments in the opera, allowing some of the most tumultuous scenes in the story to create a riveting, tour-de-force storm (and perhaps Grimes’ own intemperate personality) bringing the concert work, and the orchestral interludes from Peter Grimes, to a crashing conclusion.  www.helenasymphony.org

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PIANIST JON NAKAMATSU PLAYS TCHAIKOVSKY

III MASTERWORKS CONCERT SERIES

ABOUT THE PROGRAM By Allan R. Scott©

Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto is scored for solo piano, two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, timpani, and divided strings.

Duration: 32 minutes

Because of the origins of the Piano Concerto, the work was dedicated three times: first to Nikolai Rubinstein, then rededicated to a student at the Moscow Conservatory, and then re-rededicated to conductor Hans von Bulow.

PARALLEL EVENTS / 1874 First electric street trolley Alexander Graham Bell proposes idea for telephone Verdi’s Requiem premieres Monet and Renoir begin painting along the Seine First ice cream soda is sold First zoo in U.S. opens in Philadelphia 13th U.S. President Millard Fillmore dies Poet Robert Frost, magician Harry Houdini, U.S. President Herbert Hoover, Winston Churchill, composers Arnold Schoenberg, Gustav Holst, and Charles Ives are born 32

PETER ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY

B o r n : K a m s k o -Vo t k i n s k , R u s s i a , 7 M a y 1 8 4 0 D i e d : S t . Pe t e r s b u r g, Ru s s i a , 6 N o v e m b e r 1 8 9 3

PIANO CONCERTO NO. 1 IN B-FLAT MINOR, OP. 23

Many great Romantic artists are plagued by inner demons that haunt their lives and often destroy them. Beethoven lost his hearing, Schumann lost his sanity, and Brahms was sickened with a broken heart. Tchaikovsky, too, was stricken with his own inner turmoil. As a sensitive, shy, yet eager child, young Tchaikovsky had turbulent formative years. Forced to relocate throughout his childhood, Tchaikovsky and his brother were banished to a factorylike boarding school. At the age of 14, he lost his mother, of whom he was obsessively fond, to cholera. During his younger years he was prone to sudden fits of neurosis, ironically induced by the very music he loved.

In addition, the composer attempted to shield his homosexuality from the world with a failed marriage. It is not surprising, then, that Tchaikovsky suffered most of his life with a bi-polar disorder, and suffered through long bouts of depression. He eventually died in very unclear circumstances believed to be suicide.

After completing law school and practicing law for a few years, Tchaikovsky entered the St. Petersburg Conservatory as one of its first students. He went on to teach at the Moscow Conservatory and then made several conducting tours to Europe and the United States. Tchaikovsky’s music, primarily for orchestras and the stage (operas and ballets), is especially esteemed for its melodic skill, dark harmonies and orchestration, and the use of Russian folk melody. His works include such operas as Eugene Onegin and The Queen of Spades, ballets such as The Nutcracker, The Sleeping Beauty, and Swan Lake, six symphonies, tone poems, overtures, piano concertos, a violin concerto, choral works, string quartets, piano works, and songs.

Much of Tchaikovsky’s music is often considered gloomy or selfindulgent due to the often vulgar sounds and orchestrations that are almost too rich. Tchaikovsky, however, had a deeply rooted love of life that is expressed in his music, especially his ballet scores, with their vigor, harmonic richness, and elegant beauty. Overly critical of his compositional abilities, at one point Tchaikovsky vowed to cease composing so he could correct previous works. Despite this promise and despite agonizing headaches, Tchaikovsky did compose new works after the divorce. It is ironic that during one of Tchaikovsky’s darkest years (1880), he produced three of his most invigorating works: 1812 Overture, Capriccio Italien, and Serenade for Strings.

Perhaps Tchaikovsky’s most often told tale is associated with his Piano Concerto No. 1. While he was not a great pianist, Tchaikovsky sought the opinion of friend and pianist Nikolai Rubinstein regarding the Piano Concerto. On Christmas Eve in 1874

“

The famous opening theme, for all its grandeur storming in with blaring horns, sweeping strings, and ascending chords from the piano, continues for only 110 measures and simply drops out, never to be heard again.

Tchaikovsky played the entire first movement at the piano for Rubinstein, who replied that the work was “worthless, impossible to play, unoriginal … and only two or three pages can be salvaged and the rest must be thrown away.”

Devastated, Tchaikovsky refused to alter a single note. Instead, he offered the work to conductor Hans von Bulow, who declared it a work “so noble, so strong, and so interesting in detail” that he premiered the work in America where it was well received. Ironically, Rubinstein was not entirely incorrect, for the Concerto is in some places nearly unplayable and some passages are barely audible. The famous opening theme, for all its grandeur storming in with blaring horns, sweeping strings, and ascending chords from the piano, continues for only 110 measures and simply drops out, never to be heard again; however, the work rarely fails to charm as it is complete with Tchaikovsky’s signature lush and well-crafted melodies.

After the opening movement ends in a burst of virtuosity for the orchestra and soloist, the gentle second movement offers a bit of rest from the bold first movement. The second movement is based on the French song Il faut s’amuser, danser et rire (One must amuse one’s self by dancing and laughing), as it was a song favored by the opera singer Désirée Artôt, with whom Tchaikovsky had once been infatuated. The opening theme of the final movement is taken from a Ukrainian folk song (Come, come Ivanku) and it dances throughout in syncopations as a more lyrical second theme plays above the piano line. Today, it stands on a mantel that only true virtuosic players even dare to attempt. 

JON NAKAMATSU PIANIST Internationally-acclaimed for the panache and elegance of his solo, concerto, and chamber performances, the distinguished American Pianist Jon Nakamatsu has become a favorite with audiences throughout the world.

Last Season, Mr. Nakamatsu joined the Seattle Symphony Orchestra for performances of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and returned to the Cape Cod Symphony for the world premiere performances of Grammy-winning composer Gordon Goodwin’s double concerto The Single Step, written for Mr. Nakamatsu and his longtime artistic partner, clarinetist Jon Manasse.

Mr. Nakamatsu has been an active guest soloist with leading orchestras throughout his career, including orchestras of Dallas, Detroit, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Rochester, San Francisco, Seattle, Vancouver, Berlin, Milan, and Tokyo. He has appeared at the summer festivals of Aspen, Tanglewood, Ravinia, Caramoor, Vail, Wolftrap, and Britt, and in 1999, he performed at the White House at the special invitation of President Bill Clinton.

A graduate of Stanford University, and originally a high school German teacher with no formal conservatory training, Jon Nakamatsu’s electrifying performance of Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto won him the Gold Medal at the 1997 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition.

Mr. Nakamatsu appears courtesy of Arts Management Group (New York, NY)

www.helenasymphony.org

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IV MASTERWORKS CONCERT SERIES

¡FLAMENCO! S A T U R D A Y, 2 5 F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 7 7 : 3 0 P. M . | H E L E N A C I V I C C E N T E R

Share romance with the fire of Flamenco!

The timeless world of dream-like Spain and the allure of flamenco come alive with the HSO and Solero Flamenco, including a dancer, singer, and guitarist. The concert features Spanish gypsy-inspired flamenco music, such as Falla’s El amor brujo (Love bewitched), Rodrigo’s Guitar Concerto, and many more. The performance features sensual dancing, strummed guitar, and ethnic singing. Experience this evening of unforgettable tragic passion.

Maestro Scott

La Paloma

García

Calix

Howard

This concert is sponsored by the generous support of

The use of photographic and recording equipment is strictly prohibited. As a courtesy to the performers and fellow concert-goers, please turn off all cell phones prior to the beginning of the performance. Latecomers will not be seated until an appropriate time in the concert.

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Helena Symphony Season 62

ALLAN R. SCOTT – Conductor Solero Flamenco

Irma La Paloma, cante (singer)

Jeremy S. García, toque (guitar)

Solangel “Lali” Calix, baile (dancer & castanets)

Chris Howard, cajón (box drum) Helena Symphony Orchestra

FALLA El Amor Brujo (Love, The Magician)+ Irma La Paloma, cante Solangel “Lali” Calix, baile

I. Introduction & Scene —

In the Cave (Night-time) — II. Song of a Broken Heart — III. The Apparition — IV. Dance of Terror V. The Magic Circle (The Fisherman’s Story) VI. Midnight (The Spells) — VII. Ritual Fire Dance (To drive away the evil spirits) VIII. Scene IX. Song of the Will-o’-the-Wisp X. Pantomime — XI. Dance of the Game of Love — XII. Finale (The Bells of Dawn) (Performed in Spanish with English subtitles.)

+ Helena Symphony

premiere performance

Continued on page 37

www.helenasymphony.org

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Helena Symphony Season 62

¡FLAMENCO! Continued from page 35

RODRIGO

IV MASTERWORKS CONCERT SERIES

Concierto de Aranjuez+

Jeremy S. García, toque

I. Allegro con spirito II. Adagio III. Allegro gentile GIMÉNEZ Intermedio from La Boda de Luis Alonso

(The Wedding of Luis Alonso)+ Solangel “Lali” Calix, García, baile –– I N T E R M I S S I O N –– Solero Flamenco

Alegrías de Cádiz

ALBÉNIZ/de Burgos, arr. Suite Española, Op. 47+ I. Granada II. Asturias III. Sevilla GARCÍA

Los Cuatro Muleros (The Four Muleteers)+

Solero Flamenco FALLA Spanish Dance from La Vida Breve (The Brief Life)+ Solangel “Lali” Calix, baile & castanets

+ Helena Symphony

premiere performance

www.helenasymphony.org

37

¡FLAMENCO!

IV MASTERWORKS CONCERT SERIES

ABOUT THE PROGRAM By Allan R. Scott©

Falla’s El Amor Brujo is scored for mezzo soprano solo, piccolo, two flutes, oboe, English horn, two clarinets, bassoon, two horns, two trumpets, timpani, chimes, piano, and divided strings.

Duration: 25 minutes

PARALLEL EVENTS / 1915 German U-boat sinks R.M.S. Lusitania, killing 1,198 people Albert Einstein publishes his theory of relativity First stone of Lincoln Memorial is laid First transcontinental telephone call is made Babe Ruth hits first career home run Kiwanis International service club is founded First stop sign Singers Frank Sinatra and Billie Holiday, playwright Arthur Miller, jazz musician Billy Strayhorn, novelist Saul Bellow, and actor Zero Mostel are born African-American educator Booker T. Washington dies 38

MANUEL DE FALLA

Born: Cádiz, Spain, 23 November 1876 Died: Alta Gracia, Argentina, 14 November 1946

EL AMOR BRUJO (LOVE, THE MAGICIAN) SPANISH DANCE FROM LA VIDA BREVE (THE BRIEF LIFE)

ABOUT THE COMPOSER As Aaron Copland is with American music, Ralph Vaughan Williams with English music, Verdi with Italian music, and Dvořák with Czech music, Manuel de Falla is intrinsically linked to Spanish music.

This was not always the case for Falla, who initially wanted to be a writer before he entered the conservatory in Madrid and learned the importance of traditional Spanish folk music. He had little success with his earliest works – zarzuelas (a type of Spanish light opera similar to American musical theatre). Although he went on to win an opera competition for his two-act La Vida Breve (The Brief Life), the performance of it was postponed. Falla left Spain for Paris, and ended up living there for seven years until the outbreak of World War I. Oddly enough, before Falla, the most widely known Spanish music was composed by French and Russian composers, such as Georges Bizet (especially with his opera Carmen) and Nikolai RimskyKorsakov (with Capriccio Espagnol). Audiences during the late 19th century were drawn to the exoticism, romance, and color of the Iberian Peninsula. While in Paris, Falla expanded his musical horizons and experienced the avant-garde; met Debussy, Ravel, and Stravinsky; and, most importantly, witnessed how other countries were intoxicated with the music from his homeland. Upon his return, he began to search for a natural Spanish sound to capture the country’s atmosphere.

In addition to finally getting his opera La Vida Breve premiered first in France then to a triumphant welcome in Madrid, Falla composed several works that solidified his connection to Spanish music. His most notable works include Noches en los jardines de España (Nights in the Gardens of Spain), and El Sombrero de Tres Picos (The ThreeCornered Hat) – a ballet commissioned by ballet impresario Sergei Diaghilev (and Pablo Picasso designed the sets and costumes). The first major work Falla composed after returning from Paris was a work for flamenco singer and dancer, and originally eight instruments.

ABOUT EL AMOR BRUJO El Amor Brujo was conceived as a specialty piece for the gifted gypsy singer and dancer Pastora Imperio – one of the great Andalusian gypsy dancers and “empress of all Spanish dances.” Imperio contacted the Spanish poet and choreographer Gregorio Martínez Sierra requesting a staged work incorporating song and dance to be performed by members of her family. Imperio’s mother, the wellknown flamenco artist Rosario la Mejorana, recounted songs and stories to Falla and Sierra (who wrote the text for the work). Falla happily studied all the forms of music used in flamenco – seguiríyas,

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El Amor Brujo became one of the great works that inspired an explosion of interest in indigenous folk music as the basis for symphonic works. soleares, polo, and alegrías – and within a few short months the entire work was complete.

El amor brujo is the story of Candela, a young Andalusian gypsy. Her family arranged for her to marry José, even though she loves Carmelo.

Years later, José is murdered. His ghost, however, refuses to leave, and forces her to dance with him every night (Dance of Terror). Free to pursue, Carmelo, the lovers are unable to truly connect because of the ghost.

Candela and Carmelo get advice that a ritual dance is necessary to cast the ghost off (Ritual Fire Dance), but it does not work, as the ghost is still obsessed with Candela’s soul. Learning of her deceased husband’s extramarital affairs, she plots to trick him with his former mistress, Lucía.

The nightly ritual of Candela’s dance with her husband’s ghost begins, but at the last moment Candela moves away from her husband, and Lucía is taken away by her now dead lover (Dance of the Game of Love). Dawn breaks, Candela and Carmelo are now truly free to enjoy their love.

Premiering in Madrid in 1915, El Amor Brujo was poorly received at first. It was accused of lacking Spanish character. Perhaps the combination of such an earthy subject coupled with Falla’s new style of distilling native folk music to its most elemental components was not to the audience’s taste; or perhaps the small instrumental ensemble may have limited the necessary orchestral colors to truly show the Spanish exoticism. After some editing and arranging it for full orchestra in 1925, it was an enormous success, and Falla was praised as “a musical poet of Spanish emotion.” El Amor Brujo became one of the great works that inspired an explosion of interest in indigenous folk music as the basis for symphonic works. It has captured the creativity of others, as it has been made into a film, inspired other ballets, and even arranged by jazz legend Miles Davis.

ABOUT LA VIDA BREVE La Vida Breve finally premiered in 1913, but in Nice, France, and performances in Paris and Madrid followed with some revisions encouraged by Debussy. Only an hour long, La Vida Breve tells the simple story of Salud, a fiery young gypsy. She is passionately in love with the wealthy young Paco, who fails to tell her he is already engaged to Carmelo, a wealthy woman. Salud’s family members find out the secret, and try to prevent Salud from stopping Paco and Carmelo’s wedding. Slaud, however, goes to the wedding, and stabs herself, falling dead at Paco’s feet.

The Dance episode can be performed with flamenco dancer playing the castanets or just as a concert piece. The four-minute dance captures the flavor of the entire opera, as it is brazenly joyous yet mysterious, colorful, and masterfully orchestrated, dripping with Spanish flair. The opera itself did finally get premiered in 1913 in Nice, France (almost a decade after it was supposed to be performed). Performances in Paris and Madrid quickly followed, and with significant revisions made by Falla at the encouragement of Debussy. Today, La Vida Breve is rarely, if ever, performed.

Orchestras and solo violinists with piano accompaniment (arranged by the legendary violinist Fritz Kreisler) perform the Spanish Dance as a show piece or encore in concerts regularly. 

Falla’s Spanish Dance from La Vida Breve is scored for piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, timpani, triangle, castanets, bass drum, cymbals, glockenspiel, and divided strings.

Duration: 4 minutes

PARALLEL EVENTS / 1905 Theodore Roosevelt begins first full term as the 26th U.S. President, after finishing assassinated William McKinley’s term Russia Revolution begins Norway declares independence from Sweden Alfred Einstein presents theory of relativity Massenet’s opera Thais premieres Richard Strauss’ opera Salome premieres Debussy’s La Mer premieres Baseball great Ty Cobb makes major league debut Actor Henry Fonda, industrialist and aviator Howard Hughes, and band leader Tommy Dorsey are born Rotary Club is founded 39

¡FLAMENCO!

IV MASTERWORKS CONCERT SERIES

ABOUT THE PROGRAM By Allan R. Scott©

Concierto de Aranjuez is scored for solo guitar, piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, English horn, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, and divided strings.

Duration: 22 minutes

PARALLEL EVENTS / 1939 World War II officially begins Earthquake in Chile kills 30,000 people Mohandas Gandhi begins fast to protest British rule in India Films The Wizard of Oz and Gone with the Wind premiere John Steinbeck publishes The Grapes of Wrath Baseball great Lou Gehrig retires after playing 2,130 consecutive games New York World’s Fair opens Batman first appears in comic books First Little League Baseball game is played Assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, singer Tina Turner, politician Harry Reid, fashion designer Ralph Lauren, and actors F. Murry Abraham, Lily Tomlin, and John Cleese are born 40

JOAQUÍN RODRIGO

Born: Sagunto, Spain, 22 November 1901 Died: Madrid, Spain, 6 July 1999

CONCIERTO DE ARANJUEZ

In spite of being left virtually blind from diphtheria at the age of three, Joaquín Rodrigo became one of the most acclaimed and honored Spanish composers and teachers of the 20th century. Because of blindness, Rodrigo turned to music at an early age, and went on to study with Paul Dukas (composer of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice) in Paris, where he also was mentored by Spain’s Manuel de Falla.

The outbreak of the Spanish Civil War forced Rodrigo to lose his scholarship in Paris, and he and his wife barely made ends meet by teaching music and Spanish in France and Germany. After the Civil War ended they returned to Spain, and with a single composition, their lives were changed almost instantaneously. In 1939, Rodrigo wrote his Concierto de Aranjuez for guitarist Region Sainz de al Maza, and the premiere performance a year later in Barcelona brought the composer international acclaim. The work became one of the most popular 20th century concertos ever written, and was arranged for many other solo instruments (the theme of the second movement was also famously adapted by jazz legend Miles Davis for his album Sketches of Spain in 1960).

Concierto de Aranjuez not only gave Rodrigo enormous success, but it encouraged him to compose other works for solo guitar (and concertos for two and four guitars), thereby extending and popularizing the repertoire for classical guitar. Ironically, Rodrigo did not know how to play the guitar! He was a talented pianist, but embraced the rich legacy of Spanish musical history, especially stylized dance forms of Baroque music (like fandango), and the traditional music of the vihuela (the strummed string instrument popular in Spain in the 15th and 16th centuries, and precursor to the modern classical guitar).

Rodrigo’s specific inspiration for the Concierto de Aranjuez came from the Palacio Real de Aranjuez, the palace and gardens built by Philip II in the 16th century, near Madrid, and later rebuilt in the 18th century by Ferdinand VI. The blind Rodrigo sought to depict “the fragrance of magnolias, the singing of birds, and the gushing of fountains,” he explained. “The Concierto is meant to sound like the hidden breeze that stirs the treetops in the parks; it should be agile as a butterfly, and tightly controlled as a veronica [a term from bullfighting referring to a pass with a cape].” Most importantly, though, was that Rodrigo said the work should be “a suggestion of times past,” as the work deliberately seems to long for a time before the turbulent aftermath of the Spanish Civil War and the rise of Hitler across Europe.

Given the subtleness and quietness of the classical guitar, Rodrigo carefully insures that solo guitar is never overpowered by the lushness of the orchestra, giving the Concierto de Aranjuez an

intimacy that has a hypnotic-like effect on the audience. Opening with a Baroque-like dance, the solo guitar opens the work with an aristocratic dance of the Spanish court, including the fandango alternating between the orchestra and the soloist.

The light gentleness of the first movement transitions to absolute longing in the famous middle movement. The guitar strums quietly while the English horn plays a plaintive melody inspired by the saeta, an Andalusian lamentation sung during Holy Week by a few women as a

religious statue is carried through the streets, and their cry would be echoed by the crowd. After the guitar solo and English horn trade off the heartaching melody, the entire orchestra takes it up like the crowds in the street. The sacredness to the movement is also very personal to Rodrigo as the movement was a response to the death of his infant son. The final movement cleverly combines Baroque flavored counterpoint with Spanish folklike melodies until it ends with charm, gentility, and warmth. 

SOLERO FLAMENCO Cante (singer) – Irma La Paloma delivers her singing with artistic integrity, elegance, and sincerity. Her heritage and musical intuition are present in her phrasing, dexterity, and repertoire of flamenco compositions. Born of Spanish descent in Havana, Cuba, Ms. La Paloma began her flamenco journey at the Escuela de Baile Monterroso y Antas de Ulla under the direction of Spain’s Maria Asela Bermudez. Ms. La Paloma performed flamenco and Spanish regional dances in Havana’s Centro Gallego and Teatro Garcia Lorca. Her father’s love of poetry and her passion for song and lyrics led her to concentrated study in the United States of cante and flamenco dance accompaniment.

In 2009, she and Guitarist Jeremy S. Garcia founded Solero Flamenco. As Houston’s premiere flamenco performance company, Solero Flamenco performs and tours in Houston and the region often, collaborating with internationally-acclaimed artists. Later in 2011, they co-founded the Houston Spanish & Flamenco Festival in collaboration with San Jacinto College and the Consulate General of Spain in Houston. The Festival provides educational, artistic, and cultural opportunities for art students, lovers of flamenco, and the general public.

Ms. La Paloma was recently honored by Suceso newspaper and Solo Mujeres Magazine as one of the 24 most influential Hispanic women in Houston, and was recognized as Hispanic Woman of the Year in the Arts.

Toque (guitar) – Jeremy S. García is a classically trained and educated musician and composer who has made a very successful transition to flamenco. Mr. García earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Classical Guitar Performance from Texas A&M and a Master’s degree from Southern Methodist University. His debut as a classical concertist at Texas A&M, televised by ABC, led to many professional collaborations and performances. As a soloist, he performed Joaquín Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez twice leading to the debut performance of his original concerto for two guitars and orchestra, Concierto Nuevo Flamenco.

Complementing his classical education and his love for the music of Spain, he trained with noted flamenco guitarist Juan Serrano and other renowned tocaores. He has accompanied acclaimed flamenco artists, and recently released two albums featuring his original compositions.

His guitar duo, Garcia y Reyna, has performed throughout the United States. Mr. García currently serves as Professor of Music and Director of Guitar Studies at San Jacinto College Central in Pasadena, Texas. He also teaches private lessons and guitar workshops while keeping a busy performance schedule both as a soloist and with Solero Flamenco.

Continued on page 45

www.helenasymphony.org

41

¡FLAMENCO!

IV MASTERWORKS CONCERT SERIES

ABOUT THE PROGRAM By Allan R. Scott©

Giménez’s Intermedio from La Boda de Luis Alonso is scored for two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, bassoon, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, castanets, cymbals, bass drum, triangle, tambourine, and divided strings.

Duration: ??? minutes

PARALLEL EVENTS / 1897 William McKinley becomes 25th U.S. President Mahler’s Third Symphony premieres Debussy’s opera Pélleas et Mélisande premieres John Philip Sousa’s Stars and Stripes Forever March premieres in Philadelphia Johannes Brahms dies Thomas Edison patents the movie camera First U.S. subway station opens in Boston Peter Pan opens in NYC Playwright Thornton Wilder, writer William Faulkner, film composer Erich Korngold, conductor George Szell, pilot Amelia Earhart, and Three Stooges member Moe Howard are born.

42

GERÓNIMO GIMÉNEZ

Born: Seville, Spain, 10 October 1854 Died: Madrid, Spain, 19 February 1923

INTERMEDIO FROM LA BODA LUIS ALONSO

In the lineage of Spanish composers, Manuel de Falla and then Joaquín Rodrigo defined so much of the national flavors of Spanish music. Before Falla, however, Jerónimo Giménez y Bellido influenced the future composers’ style and dedication to Spanish folk music and dance in symphonic music. Preferring for his name to appear as simply Gerónimo Giménez, he dedicated his career as a composer, conductor, and music director to the music of the Spanish theatre.

While few details about Giménez’s early life remain, he was probably born in Seville and grew up in Cádiz. As a skilled violinist at an early age, he studied music with his father and with a teacher privately. At the age of 12, he accepted a position in the first violin section in Cádiz’s Teatro Principal Orchestra. Five years later, he became the director of a Spanish theatre company. He left that position to enroll at the Conservatoire de Paris in 1874, and upon graduating, he traveled to Italy before returning to Spain to settle in Madrid to accept positions as director of Teatro Apolo de Madrid and Teatro de la Zarzuela. Beyond dramatic works for the stage, Giménez also wrote three cadenzas to Beethoven’s Violin Concerto. He was later denied a teaching position with the Madrid Conservatory, and lived the end of his life in precarious economic conditions before dying in Madrid.

Giménez focused his work to produce zarzuelas, as well as adapting comic texts for zarzuelas. Similar to American musical theatre, zarzuela is a Spanish lyric-dramatic genre that alternates between spoken and sung scenes usually incorporating operatic and popular songs, as well as dance. The zarzuela came into Spanish culture in the mid-18th century that was influenced from Italian opera using Spanish texts. It later added spicy spoken scenes, comedic songs using popular jargon, and musical “revue” type structures.

Collaborating with the leading authors of his day, Giménez was hailed as a “musician of elegance” because of his sense of rhythm and easy melodies that fit wonderfully with the texts and scenarios of the librettists. In 1896, Giménez composed the zarzuela titled El baile de Luis Alonso (The Dance of Luis Alonso), and due to its success and popularity, he wrote a prequel to the story – La boda de Luis Alonso (The Wedding of Luis Alonso), which achieved even greater success. The work was wonderfully popular for the Spanish audiences because of Giménez’s skill for coupling intense lyricisms with the colloquial styles of the people. As with many works by Manuel de Falla, the Andalusian roots of flamenco are present throughout La Boda de Luis Alonso.

While zarzuelas are generally performed in Spain, Cuba, or parts of Mexico, excerpts from La Boda de Luis Alonso are performed as concert show pieces often by orchestras around the world. While the intense, exotic passion captures the Spanish flair, Giménez’s music avoids some of the darker themes that Falla often explores. The Intermedio especially remains on the lighter, sensual side that was the hallmark of Giménez and his love for zarzuelas. 

¡FLAMENCO!

IV MASTERWORKS CONCERT SERIES

ABOUT THE PROGRAM By Allan R. Scott©

ISAAC ALBÉNIZ

Born: Camprodón, Spain, 29 May 1860 Died: Cambo-les-Bains, France, 18 May 1909

SUITE ESPAÑOLA, OP. 47 orchestrated by Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos

As with Manuel de Falla, Isaac Albéniz is one of the most important and influential figures in the history of Spanish music. A child prodigy on the piano, performing his first concert at the age of four and publishing his first composition at eight, he traveled around world performing concertos. It was somewhat of a legend that he ran away and hid on a ship to North and South America at the age of 12 to give concerts (more than likely, he was accompanied by his father). When he was twenty, he met Liszt in Budapest, and studied privately with him, which reaffirmed his commitment to a life in music.

His compositions, exclusively for the piano, adopted Liszt’s transcendent keyboard technique and lush Romanticism early in Albéniz’s career. In 1883, however, he met the Spanish composer and folklore specialist Felipe Pedrell, who convinced Albéniz of the importance of Spanish folk music and the need for more nationalist music of the Spanish culture. After a lengthy stay in Granada, Albéniz was completely convinced, and he went on to write distinctly Spanish works that blended his affinity for Romantic textures with the rhythms, dance forms, melodies, and harmonies derived from Andalusian folk music.

Despite the thunderous approval he received in Europe and the Americas, Albéniz gave up his career as a touring virtuoso to focus on composing. He moved to France in 1893, where he spent the rest of his life before dying of a kidney ailment shortly before his 49th birthday. In addition to being respected by his Spanish colleagues, his music influenced French composers, including Debussy and Ravel.

Credited with creating a Spanish national keyboard style, Albéniz is remembered most for his piano works Iberia, Navarra, and the Suite Espagñola. Posthumously assembled as an eight-movement suite for piano, the Suite Espagñola was arranged in the 1960s by conductor Spanish Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos as a five-movement orchestral tour-de-force. The three sections performed here showcase the exotic and hypnotic allure of Spain. Beginning with a gentle nocturne, Granada captures the Arab-influence airs of Andalusia, while the second movement, Sevilla, evokes dances heard in the city during Holy Week. The final movement performed here, Asturias (which is also famous for a guitar transcription), transports us to the northwestern coast of Spain. We do not need to know any of the dances or Spanish folk music that Albéniz recalls in his Suite Espagñola. We simply need to allow our minds, hearts, and spirits to truly indulge in the exoticness of this rich culture that is complete with sensuality, intimacy, and fiery passion. 

Albéniz’s Suite Española is orchestrated for piccolo, three flutes, alto flute, two oboes, English horn, two clarinets, two bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drum, castanets, chimes, cymbals, glockenspiel, tambourine, tam-tam, tom-tom, triangle, xylophone, celeste, harp, and divided strings.

Duration: 18 minutes

PARALLEL EVENTS / 1886 Last Impressionist exhibit in France Rodin sculpted The Kiss Novelist Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island and The Strange Case of Dr. Jeckyll & Mr Hyde President Grover Cleveland became the first and only U.S. President to marry in the White House Poet Emily Dickinson, composer Franz Liszt, and the 21st U.S. President, Chester A. Arthur, died Baseball great Ty Cobb and jazz singer Al Jolson were born Maxwell House coffee is named 43

¡FLAMENCO!

IV MASTERWORKS CONCERT SERIES

A B O U T T H E P R O G R A M B y I r m a L a Pa l o m a & J e r e m y S . G a r c í a ©

García’s Los Cuatro Muleros is scored for Guitar solo, flamenco singer, flute, oboe, clarinet, bass clarinet, bassoon, horn, trumpet, trombone, tuba, timpani, castanets, box drum, and divided strings.

Duration: 7 minutes

PARALLEL EVENTS / 2015 U.S. and Cuba end 54 years of hostility and reestablish full diplomatic relations NASA discovers water on Mars U.S. Supreme Court rules there is a constitutional right to same sex marriage Eurasian Economic Union goes into effect David Letterman retires from The Late Show after 22 years Baseball legend Yogi Berra, blues musician B.B. King, singer Natalie Cole, and author E.L. Doctorow die 44

JEREMY S. GARCÍA

Born: Omaha, Nebraska, 9 October 1973 L i v i n g : H o u s t o n , Te x a s

LOS CUATRO MULEROS ( THE FOUR MULETEERS)

ABOUT THE COMPOSER Guitarist and composer Jeremy S. García’s ancestral roots hail from Spain, Mexico, Sicily and Denmark. Originally self-taught on the piano and guitar, García composed his first song for piano (unpublished) at the age of 17. The guitar soon became the focus, and as with many young guitarists, he wrote and performed music for his alternative rock band. In 1992, he began formal guitar studies and ultimately earned a Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree in Classical Guitar Performance from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. It was during this time that his innate passion for composition flourished and inspired him to compose various pieces for classical guitar and solo piano.

Underlying the musical tendencies of his youth was his love for classical music and a remarkable affinity for the music of Spain.

After moving to Houston in 1999, García embarked into the world of “rumba flamenca,” a flamenco genre of “ida y vuelta” centered on Spanish guitar and Cuban rhythms. His debut album for guitar duo (García y Reyna), Baile del Sol, was released in 2004, which prompted many invitations to tour in the U.S. The guitar due went on to compose and perform Concierto Nuevo Flamenco with the Brazosport Symphony and the Fort Bend Symphony.

During his classical studies with Robert Guthrie, a student of the internationally renowned Spanish guitarist Andrés Segovia, García focused on the music of Spain, including the great composers Falla, Albéniz, Rodrigo and others, as well as contemporary composers and guitarists. He was especially enthralled by the music and guitar technique of the great Paco de Lucía and flamenco music. García released his second album, Distancia, in 2006 consisting of all original compositions. He formed Solero Flamenco with flamenco singer Irma La Paloma, who introduced him to the flamenco roots. He developed a new work for flamenco singer and guitar solo based on the melody of the Spanish song Los Cuatro Muleros. The work evolved from a work for solo guitar composition to a larger piece to be performed in the flamenco cuadro with guitar, cante (singing), castanets, palmas (hand clapping) and cajón (boxdrum). He went on to arrange the work for solo flute, and later for solo violin. In 2015, he orchestrated Los Cuatro Muleros for chamber orchestra and the flamenco performers.

ABOUT THE WORK Los Cuatro Muleros is a traditional Andalusian popular song. In 1916 Spanish poet and musician Federico García Lorca embarked on a journey in his native Andalucía to gather the songs of the gypsy and Andalusian folklore. As a poet and musician, he was intrigued by the mystery of the human spirit, explaining that “with words we can say

human things; with music we express that which no one knows nor can define, but that exists in each of us....”

In 1931, García Lorca compiled, harmonized, and interpreted Canciones Populares Españolas (Antique Popular Spanish Songs) which included Los Cuatro Muleros (The Four Muleteers). Described by García Lorca as a villancico from Granada, this “delicious song” of social context is in the voice of a country girl or girls speaking of four men and their mules by the river. “Of the four muleteers, dear mother, who go to the river, the one with the dappled mule, dear mother, steals my soul.” Its flirtatious melody and lyrics made it a catchy and popular tune.

This song was rescued from the oral folklore of the Andalusians, who perhaps never imagined it performed by Lorca on piano in accompaniment to La Argentinita’s vocals, recorded on gramophone or performed by a full orchestra in theaters in Europe and America. Although popularized in a different setting and modality than that in the dwellings in Granada, its melodic beauty and rhythmic ease invite familiarity. In fact, the song was given varied lyrics and intentions during political and social movements in Spain such as Los Cuatro Generales

SOLERO FLAMENCO

“

With words we can say human things; with music we express that which no one knows nor can define, but that exists in each of us...

FEDERICO GARCÍA LORCA (The Four Generals) during the Spanish Civil War. The main melody can also be heard in El Baile del Carbonero (Dance of the Coal Merchant) by Vicente Escudero, Folkways Records, 1952. Recognizing its important origins and Garcia Lorca’s intention to preserve musical traditions, we are grateful to enjoy Los Cuatro Muleros today as yet another testament to the beautiful music of the South of Spain. 

Continued from page 41

Baile (dancer & castanets) – Solangel “Lali” Calix is a flamenco and Spanish classical artist with excellent castanet technique learned from Maria Magdalena, one of Spain’s most prominent players. Her interest in the world of dance began as a child in Honduras and culminated in extensive training in Spain under the guidance of expert flamenco figures. She studied flamenco and classical ballet at the famous Amor de Dios School in Madrid with acclaimed dancer Juan Polvillo.

After returning to the United States, she established Alianza Flamenco New Orleans as Co-Director with guitarist John Lawrence. From 1994- 2005, she was the flamenco instructor for the New Orleans School of Ballet. She also maintains an active performance schedule at El Matador, New Orleans Jazz Festival, and made several guest appearances nationwide.

With over 30 years of experience, Ms. Calix is now based in Houston where she teaches dance technique, choreography, improvisation, and castanets. She serves as a correspondent for flamencobuzz.net, reporting flamenco events for the southwest region of the United States.

Canjón (boxdrum) – Chris Howard has been performing in Houston since 1977. He has played with numerous bands and ensembles covering an array of traditions, including Flamenco, Bulgarian, Turkish, West African, Spanish, Cuban, Brazilian, Funk, and Jazz. As a well-known accompanist, he plays for dance classes and workshops at the Hope Center, Houston Metropolitan Dance Company, and the University of Houston. He has played for countless musicals at Theatre Lab Houston, Houston Community College, Main Street Theatre, and Stages Repertory Theatre. He currently plays with the jazz fusion septet Free Radicals. Mr. Howard also directs children’s classes at Hope Center and Madhatter Arts Camp.

www.helenasymphony.org

45

V MASTERWORKS CONCERT SERIES

HAYDN’S CREATION S A T U R D A Y, 2 5 M A R C H 2 0 1 7 7 : 3 0 P. M . | H E L E N A C I V I C C E N T E R

The seven most important days of all time captured by Haydn’s monumental work. Based on the Bible’s Book of Genesis and Milton’s epic Paradise Lost, this powerful masterpiece conveys the chaos of the world as it unfolds – from silence, to the first sunrise and appearance of stars, sun, moon, animals, and culminating with man and woman in the idyllic Eden.

Maestro Scott

Copeland

Adams

Jones

The use of photographic and recording equipment is strictly prohibited. As a courtesy to the performers and fellow concert-goers, please turn off all cell phones prior to the beginning of the performance. Latecomers will not be seated until an appropriate time in the concert.

46

Helena Symphony Season 62

ALLAN R. SCOTT – Conductor RACHEL E. COPELAND – Soprano (Gabriel & Eve) DAVID ADAMS – Tenor (Uriel) EVAN THOMAS JONES – Baritone (Raphael & Adam) Carroll College Choir

Robert Psurny, Jr., artistic director Helena Symphony Orchestra & Chorale

HAYDN The Creation+

PART I

Introduction:

Bass Recitative:

Tenor Aria & Chorus:

Bass Recitative: Soprano Aria & Chorus:

Bass Recitative:

Representation of Chaos “In the beginning” “Now vanished” “And God made the firmament”

“What wonder”

“Let the waters”

Bass Aria:

“Rolling in foaming billows”

Soprano Recitative:

Soprano Aria:

Tenor Recitative:

Chorus:

Tenor Recitative:

“Let there be lights”

Tenor Recitative:

“In shining splendor”

Chorus & Solos:

“The heavens are telling”

“Let all the earth” “Now cooling green” “And the heavenly host” “Awake the harp”

–– I N T E R M I S S I O N ––

+ Helena Symphony

premiere performance

Continued on page 49

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47

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48

Helena Symphony Season 62

HAYDN’S CREATION

V MASTERWORKS CONCERT SERIES

Continued from page 47

PART II

Soprano Recitative:

Soprano Aria:

Bass Recitative:

“And God created great whales”

Bass Recitative:

“And the angels”

Trio:

Trio & Chorus:

Bass Recitative:

“Let the earth bring forth”

Bass Recitative:

“Straight opening her fertile womb”

Bass Aria:

Tenor Recitative:

Tenor Aria:

Bass Recitative:

Chorus:

Trio:

Chorus:

“Let the waters bring forth” “On mighty wings”

“In fairest raiment now” “The Lord is great”

“Now shines the brightest glory” “And God created man” “In native worth” “And God saw everything” “Fulfilled at last the glorious work” “From thee, O Lord, doth all proceed” “Fulfilled at last the glorious work”

PART III

Tenor Recitative:

“In rosy mantle”

Duet & Chorus:

“By Thee with grace”

Duet Recitative:

“Now is the duty”

Duet:

Tenor Recitative:

Final Chorus & Solos:

“Sweet Companion” “O happy pair” “Sing to God”

(Performed in English with English subtitles.)

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49

HAYDN’S CREATION

V MASTERWORKS CONCERT SERIES

ABOUT THE PROGRAM By Allan R. Scott©

The Creation is scored for three flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, contrabassoon, two horns, two trumpets, three trombones, timpani, cembalo (here played by harpsichord), divided strings, mixed chorus, and solo voices.

The text used in this performance is an English translation

by Robert Shaw and Alice Parker.

Duration: 109 minutes

PARALLEL EVENTS / 1798 Napoleon captures Egypt and island of Malta Republic of Switzerland forms Territory of Mississippi is organized U.S. forms Department of Navy William Wordsworth publishes Lyrical Ballads Beethoven completes Piano Sonata Op. 10, No. 3 French painter Eugene Delacroix is born 50

FRANZ JOSEPH HAYDN Born: Rohrau, Austria, 31 March 1732 Died: Vienna, Austria, 31 May 1809

THE CREATION

ABOUT THE COMPOSER Beethoven first considered Haydn merely a venerable professor, and the Romantics (especially Schumann and Berlioz) said Haydn was only a skillful supplier of fragile, courtly works, without lasting value. Today, Franz Joseph Haydn serves as the perfect representative of the Classical era, the period of 1750-1820, the time of Mozart, the Age of Enlightenment, order, reason, and the era of the American and French Revolutions. Haydn represents his epoch so well, rather than Mozart, perhaps because he, like Bach, appeared to detain the forward motion of their time. Whereas Mozart and Schubert constantly shifted from the known to the unknown, from the past to the present, and from the present to the future – Bach and Haydn were final destinations, syntheses, and culminations of their respective era, technique, and artistic form.

By the end of Haydn’s career, he was recognized by the brief Classical period to be its greatest figure – its most valid embodiment. The patriarch of the modern-day symphony and string quartet, Haydn possessed a natural yet noble tone, a feeling for formal order and, inside this order, a freedom of invention with a subtlety of expression.

Like Handel, Joseph Haydn seems to have had no notable musical ancestry. He received his early musical training from a cousin, and at the age of eight was admitted as a chorister at St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna where he remained until the age of sixteen when his voice changed. After briefly studying with Nicola Popora, the famous Italian composer and vocal instructor in Vienna, Haydn began a long and industrious career as a composer for the aristocracy, notably the Esterházy family.

Working for wealthy nobles and princes allowed Haydn lengthy periods of isolation and solitude where he could perfect his craft, specifically his symphonies, which forced him to be original.

Haydn’s enormous outpouring of work totaled 104 symphonies (almost three times as many as Mozart composed), 14 Mass settings, 6 oratorios, almost 70 string quartets, many keyboard sonatas, concertos, songs, folk-song arrangements, operas, incidental music, and sacred and secular vocal music. Haydn’s 77 years witness many radical changes in music: he was eighteen when Bach died and 72 when Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony premiered – his life spanning the end of the Baroque period, most of the Classical era, and the early signs of Romanticism.

The almost childlike cheerfulness of Haydn’s music, its inexhaustible inventiveness, and its perfection of design conceal a considerable inner strength. This fusion of exuberance, originality, classical elegance, and intellectual power explains to a large extent

the compelling appeal of Haydn’s music and is perhaps the reason why his music is placed above all of Haydn’s contemporaries except Mozart. Even Mozart recognized Haydn’s music as exceptional, saying that “Haydn alone has the secret both of making me smile and of touching my innermost soul.”

ABOUT THE WORK During the composer’s two successful visits to London, Haydn fell under the spell of Handel’s oratorios and witnessed the strong appeal and emotional effect they had on the public. This form of composition, which was essentially the invention of Handel, forged a synthesis of Italian opera combined with the mixture of English ceremonial and cathedral music. At the time of Haydn’s stay in London, a text was submitted to him arranged by a certain Thomas Linley (or Lidley or Liddel) using excerpts from the Book of Genesis and the seventh book of Milton’s Paradise Lost (it is believed that this text was originally intended for Handel, who, for some reason, had not set it to music.) Due to Haydn’s poor grasp of the English language, the new libretto was translated into German and adapted

by Baron Gottfried van Swieten, the director of the Imperial Library in Vienna, patron of Baroque music, and friend of both Mozart and Beethoven. Van Swieten, whose role was more than simply a translator, stripped the original text of stiff, conventional rhetoric and gave it a cheerful tone, enlivening it with simple images and touching symbols which catered to the temperament of the composer.

The theological premise of The Creation is essentially grounded in a faith of Haydn, a faith expressed in joy, in happiness – happiness prolonged and strengthened by undertones of wonder and veneration which, as musicologist Robert Cushman claims, “gives the music an irrepressible sweep that is not wholly epic nor completely lyrical, but a mysterious compound of the two.” A devout Catholic, Haydn seems to have found happiness through his faith, or at least a comfortable reconciliation with an unsatisfactory marriage and at times a thankless position with the Esterházy estate. Even in his compositions of Masses, Haydn had the traditionally dark Agnus Dei (Lamb of God) maintain a general cheerfulness, as he said that the important words of that prayer are not “sins” Continued on page 53

RACHEL E. COPELAND – SOPRANO Soprano Rachel E. Copeland continues to receive acclaim as a thriving young artist, combining her crystalline voice with her compelling and energetic stage presence. As her career and reputation continue to grow, Ms. Copeland recently debuted at Avery Fisher Hall as the soprano soloist in Mozart’s Coronation Mass to rave reviews.

Recent and current seasons also involve debuts with the Asheville Lyric Opera, Cleveland Opera Theater, Wilmington Opera, Choral Society of Durham, NC, and repeat engagements with numerous national companies. Ms. Copeland recently sang with the Brussels Chamber Orchestra in a concert of arias and duets with the highly acclaimed 2012 Operalia winner, Anthony Roth Costanzo. Other career highlights include Queen of the Night in Mozart’s The Magic Flute with Apollo’s Fire, The Cleveland Baroque Orchestra, Frasquita and Micaela in Bizet’s Carmen with San Diego, Indianapolis and North Carolina Operas, and the title role of Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor with New Jersey Opera and subsequent covering of the role with Cleveland Opera. Other favorite roles include Juliette in Gonoud’s Romeo et Juliette, Adina in Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore, Musetta in Puccini’s La bohème, Lauretta in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi, and Zdenka in Strauss’s Arabella.

Dr. Copeland is currently on the faculty of East Carolina University School of Music, where she teaches voice and diction. She is also the Director for Graduate Studies and the Associate Director of the School of Music. She is active in teaching nation-wide master classes and is on the faculty of the Cornish American Song Institute in England. In addition, Dr. Copeland is the Director of Operations for Oberlin in Italy, Oberlin Conservatory of Music’s prestigious summer program in Arezzo, Italy.

Ms. Copeland appears courtesy of Wade Artist Management (New York, NY)

www.helenasymphony.org

51

DAVID ADAMS – TENOR Grammy Award winning Tenor David Adams has performed in a variety of settings throughout the United States and Europe. His work in opera has been described in Opera News as “light and flexible, yet fiery and expressive.” In the music of Handel, roles to his credit include the title character in Acis and Galatea, and Jupiter in Semele. In the works of Mozart, Mr. Adams has sung Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni, Tamino in Die Zauberflote, Belmonte in Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail, Ferrando in Cosi fan Tutte, and the title roles in La Clemenza diTito and Idomeneo.

On the concert stage, Mr. Adams has performed many of the major works of Bach, including the Evangelist in the St. Matthew Passion, and the tenor soloist in St. John’s Passion, Magnificat, and the Mass in B Minor. Mr. Adams has been engaged by the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Fort Worth Opera, Augusta Opera, Shreveport Opera, Syracuse Opera, and a variety of other regional houses across the country. His major performances in concert venues include Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center’s Rose Theater, and Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts.

Mr. Adams may be heard as the Celebrant in Rachmaninoff’s Liturgy of Saint John of Crysostum on a critically acclaimed recording of the work by the Kansas City Chorale for Nimbus Records. Recently Mr. Adams’ work has garnered many accolades, including involvement in Grammy nominated recording projects. He has recently participated as a soloist on Life and Breath: The Choral Works of Rene Clausen for Chandos Records, which received two Grammy Awards, including Best Choral Performance.

Mr. Adams appears courtesy of Wade Artist Management (New York, NY)

EVAN THOMAS JONES – BARITONE Originally from Buffalo, New York, Baritone Evan Thomas Jones has enjoyed a diverse performing career in opera, musical theater, concert, and recital. He has appeared with the Helena Symphony on several occasions, including his most recent performance in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion.

His notable roles include Figaro in both Il Barbiere di Siviglia and Le Nozze di Figaro, the title role in Don Giovanni, Papageno in Die Zauberflöte, Junius in The Rape of Lucretia, and Sam in Trouble in Tahiti. Highlights in musical theater and operetta include Voltaire and Pangloss in Candide, Danilo Danilovich in The Merry Widow, Fredrik Egerman in A Little Night Music, and Dr. Falke and Frank in Die Fledermaus.

In concert he has been featured as a soloist in Orff’s Carmina Burana, Brahms’ German Requiem, and Fauré’s Requiem, Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis, and Bach’s Magnificat and St. Matthew Passion. He is particularly in demand as an interpreter of the concert repertoire of Ralph Vaughn Williams, having frequently performed the Five Mystical Songs, Serenade to Music, Dona Nobis Pacem and Fantasia On Christmas Carols.

Mr. Jones has appeared with Opera Memphis, Opera Naples, Berkshire Opera Company, Compañía Lírica Nacional de Costa Rica, Finger Lakes Opera, Mercury Opera, the Buffalo and Rochester Philharmonic Orchestras, the Memphis and Jackson Symphonies, as well the Finger Lakes Choral Festival and the Augusta Choral Society.

Mr. Jones currently serves on the voice faculty at Florida State University.

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HAYDN

Continued from page 51

but “takest away.” Haydn’s religious orientations in The Creation reflect a faith that is simple, but also optimistic, rational, humanistic, and tolerant, not inconsistent with Enlightenment ideals. The fact that Haydn’s own beliefs motivated the composition accounts for the comfortable picture of the world and mankind that The Creation presents.

Many scholars criticize Haydn for not mentioning the “fall” of man and the sin that initiated the need for atonement, which are the very essence of Christianity. Rather, Haydn intentionally shows man and woman in eternal love, surrounded by idyllic innocence, and the relationship of God’s people and in nature. Even if the Christians in the audience know that the “fall” with all its miserable consequences is just around the corner, at least it is banished from the closed world of Haydn’s oratorio.

The structure of The Creation is best described

by Sir Donald Francis Tovey, who gives a clear picture of the scope and purpose of the work: The words of the Bible are divided between three archangels, Raphael, Uriel, and Gabriel, and a chorus which, throughout the whole work, may be considered as that of the heavenly hosts. The list and description of created things is not distributed haphazardly among the three archangels: Uriel is distinctly the angel of the sun and daylight; his is the tenor voice, and his is the description of Man. Raphael sings of the earth and the sea, of the beginning of all things … the description of the beasts, the great whales, and ‘every living creature that moves;’ and it is he who reports God’s blessing, ‘Be fruitful and multiply.’ Gabriel, the soprano, leads the heavenly hosts and describes the vegetable kingdom and the world of bird life. Lastly, Adam and Eve appear and fulfill the purpose announced by Raphael while as yet ‘the work was not complete; there wanted yet that wondrous being,’ who God’s design might thankful see, and grant His goodness joyful praise.’ Or, as the Catechism has it: the chief end of Man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

Like Handel’s Messiah, The Creation is divided into three parts. The first part is devoted to the

first four days of the creation: chaos, the creation of light, the dividing of the waters, the creation of the earth, grass and trees, the stars, and the sun.

Part two concerns the last three days: the creation of birds, fish, mammals, insects, snakes, man and woman, and God’s rest on the seventh day. The last part is an addendum describing man’s feeling towards the creation and the happiness of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.

While no attempt can be made here to analyze the 35 movements which make up The Creation, one of them should be singled out: the Introduction (“Representation of Chaos”), in which the music drifts constantly, touching upon several keys without being able to hold firmly to any of them.

The tonal uncertainties give the movement a Romantic sound. For Haydn, chaos (the absence of order) could not be represented within the disciplines of classical harmony, but only in the juxtaposition of totally unexpected, clashing keys and startling dissonances. It is Haydn’s genius that illustrates disorder by depicting the “undepictable” musically. Immediately following Haydn’s “chaos,” the most famous moment of The Creation is the first kindling of light, achieved through the simplest means with the chorus.

The first performance of The Creation was privately held for a group of noble citizens on Good Friday in April 1798. The first public performance on April 30 was also a private affair, but hundreds of people crowded into the street to hear the eagerly anticipated work. Those permitted to attend by invitation only included wealthy patrons of the arts, high government officials, prominent composers and musicians, and some nobility of several countries. The common folk, who would have to wait for almost another year to hear a public performance, so crowded the streets that dozens of special police were needed to keep order.

The triumph of the musician whom Mozart called his “dear Papa Haydn,” took place in Vienna on March 27, 1808, at a revival of The Creation. At this revival performance, the composer, greeted by the flourish of trumpets and the roll of the kettledrums, made his entrance in a wheel-chair which was pushed to the center of a hall, filled by many great artists of Vienna who came to pay their last homage, including Beethoven, Hummel, and Gyrowetz.

The strain of it all proved to be too much for the great master, and he had to be carried out after the Continued on page 55 www.helenasymphony.org

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HAYDN’S CREATION

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“

Above all, the work represents the composer – a creator himself, and his outlook on humanity. It also represents an act of faith for the deeply religious Haydn, who ended every section of the work with “praise to God.” HAYDN

Continued from page 53

first part of the oratorio. Upon leaving, Beethoven bent down and kissed Haydn’s hand and forehead, and most of the audience was in tears. As the old composer reached the door, Haydn asked to be turned towards the orchestra, and after lifting his hand, as if in the act of benediction, he was carried out into the night, surrendering his greatest contribution to music history.

The Creation has proved to be one of the most universal of musical works, gaining acceptance among all classes and in all lands where European music is admired. It is blessed with one of the strongest and most logical large-scale structures in eighteenth-century vocal music and has remained a central part of symphonic music throughout Europe and America from the day of its private premiere on April 29, 1798 until our own time. The mass popularity

of the work is certainly due to the simplicity of musical diction, imaginative tone-painting, and the great “Handelian” choruses of praise that Haydn evokes. Above all, the work represents the composer – a creator himself, and his outlook on humanity. It also represents an act of faith for the deeply religious Haydn, who ended every section of the work with “praise to God.” Haydn later remarked that “I was never so devout as when I was at work at The Creation.” Listeners today can, perhaps, understand The Creation, as author Nicholas Termperly asserts, “as a statement of warm optimism about the world and our place in it, clothed in some of the most gorgeous music of music’s golden age. We may well look back with sadness and envy to a time when a composer could say such things, and men and women could hear them, in a spirit of simple confidence.” 

CARROLL COLLEGE CHOIR R o b e r t P s u r n y , J r. – a r t i s t i c d i r e c t o r Making their debut with the Helena Symphony Orchestra & Chorale, the 50-voice Carroll College Choirs comprise singers from numerous areas of study, including majors in Nursing, Engineering, Sciences, Education, and Theatre. The Choirs specialize in a cappella sacred music, and perform regularly at the Cathedral of Saint Helena. Other notable performances have included masses at St. James Cathedral in Seattle and the Proto-Cathedral of St. James the Greater in Vancouver, Washington.

Artistic Director Robert Psurny, Jr., a native of Ohio, earned his Doctorate of Musical Arts from the Cleveland Institute of Music. Dr. Psurny has performed with the Robert Page Cleveland Singers, Apollo’s Fire (Cleveland’s Baroque Orchestra), Cantabile Men’s Ensemble, and numerous churches and synagogues in the Cleveland Area. Recently, Dr. Psurny received a Fulbright Grant to study Czech choral music and the Czech Language in residence at both Charles University and the Academy of Musical Arts in Prague.

www.helenasymphony.org

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VI MASTERWORKS CONCERT SERIES

LA BOHÈME IN CONCERT S A T U R D A Y, 6 M A Y 2 0 1 7 7 : 3 0 P. M . | H E L E N A C I V I C C E N T E R

Sometimes love is not enough. Experience Puccini’s ravishing, achingly beautiful and tragic tale of La Bohème performed in concert. With an all-star cast of nationally-acclaimed singers, La Bohème perfectly captures the intense passion and idealism of young love through the lives, dreams, and desires of six bohemian friends in Paris. The opera that inspired Broadway’s Rent still touches the hearts of us all.

Maestro Scott

DeAthos

McVey

Meers

Hendrickson

Cooper

Mathews

Loyd

This concert is sponsored by the generous support of The guest artists’ appearances are sponsored in part by the generous support of

The use of photographic and recording equipment is strictly prohibited. As a courtesy to the performers and fellow concert-goers, please turn off all cell phones prior to the beginning of the performance. Latecomers will not be seated until an appropriate time in the concert.

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ALLAN R. SCOTT – Conductor Mimì SAUNDRA DeATHOS – Soprano Musetta DIANA McVEY – Soprano Rodolfo HAROLD MEERS – Tenor Marcello RON LOYD – Baritone Schunard BRANDON HENDRICKSON – Baritone Colline SEAN COOPER – Bass Benoît Alcindoro Parpignol

KEVIN MATHEWS – Baritone KEVIN MATHEWS – Baritone JOSHUA DICKEY – Tenor

Helena Symphony Orchestra & Chorale

PUCCINI La Bohème

Set in Paris, circa 1830

Act I:

Apartment of Roldolf, Marcello, Schunard, & Colline in the Latin Quarter on Christmas Eve

Café Momus

Act II:

–– I N T E R M I S S I O N ––

Act III:

Dawn, at the snowy outskirts of Paris

Act IV:

Months later, at the men’s apartment

(Performed in Italian with English subtitles.)

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LA BOHÈME – A SYNOPSIS OF SCENES AN OPERA IN FOUR ACTS

VI MASTERWORKS CONCERT SERIES

M U S I C BY G I AC O M O P U C C I N I L I B R E T TO BY G I U S E P P E G I AC O S A & LU I G I I L L I C A B A S E D O N H E N R I M U R G E R’ S N OV E L S C È N E S D E L A V I E D E B O H È M E

ACT I

In a garret in the Latin Quarter of Paris, it is a cold Christmas Eve. The two young bohemians have no money to keep warm, and so Rodolfo the poet, and Marcello the painter, attempt to keep warm by finding something to burn. First they are going to burn a chair or Marcello’s painting, then they think the passion in Rodolfo’s poetry might give out more heat. So they feed the stove with pages from Rodolfo’s drama. Soon their friend Colline, a young philosopher, arrives during the burning of the poetry and then Schaunard, the musician, walks in a moment later with money and food. The others ignore Schaunard as he recounts how he came into some money by giving music lessons to a wealthy British gentleman.

They are celebrating their newfound fortune when there’s a knock at the door. It is the landlord, Benoît, who has come to collect the overdue rent. Giving the older man wine, they tell Benoît he has been seen with a young girl and the friends urge him to tell of his infidelity.

Finding an excuse to get rid of him without paying the rent, the four friends lash out in mock indignation at Benoît’s disloyalty to his wife and throw him out.

Colline, Schaunard and Marcello depart for the local Café Momus while Rodolfo stays behind to finish some writing. As Rodolfo is plagued with writers block, he hears a gentle tap at the door. The neighbor Mimì enters asking Rodolfo if he can re-light her candle which has gone out in the drafty stairwell. Looking pale and weak Mimì says she is out of breath after climbing the steep stairs. Rodolfo relights her candle and helps her to the door. As Mimì starts to leave she becomes faint and realizes that she must have dropped her key and her candle has gone out again. While the two search for the key, Rodolfo flirtatiously snuffs out his own candle and he finds the key but hides it in his pocket. In the moonlight, Rodolfo takes Mimì’s freezing hands in his and tells her all about his hopes and dreams. Mimì then tells Rodolfo about her life as a simple seamstress. Rodolfo asks Mimì to take his arm; they embrace and slowly leave. Rejoicing in their new found love, their voices can be heard as they go down the stairs towards the Café.

ACT II

In the midst of the hustle and bustle of the Latin Quarter and the shouting of street peddlers near the Café Momus, Schaunard purchases a new horn, Colline buys a used coat and an old book, and Rodolfo buys Mimì a bonnet. The friends all meet at the Café and meet Rodolfo’s new found love. All choosing the food they cannot afford, the toy peddler, Parpignol, can be heard followed by children and mothers.

Marcello’s former lover, Musetta, enters followed by her current admirer, Alcindoro, a wealthy older statesman. Musetta does every thing she can to attract Marcello’s attention, but he is determined to ignore Musetta, which becomes increasingly difficult. The turmoil reaches its peak as Musetta sings a brazen waltz about her popularity. Finally Marcello’s resistance

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breaks down and he is bewitched by Musetta’s charms, as she fakes a pain in her foot in order to send Alcindoro to fetch her new shoes. As Marcello and Musetta embrace and rekindle their tumultuous love affair, the dinner bill comes for the friends’ meal. Musetta directs the waiter to bill everyone’s meal to Alcindoro. The military band is heard parading towards the Café. Musetta, Mimì, and the bohemians fall in behind the passing soldiers, and discreetly leave Alcindoro with the bill.

Intermission

ACT III

It is a dark, snowy morning in February on the border of Paris. People can be seen and heard within a nearby tavern, where they are still merrymaking from the night before. Street sweepers, then milk-maids arrive at the toll gates to start their day of work as the customs officials allow them to pass.

A weakened and deathly ill Mimì arrives at the toll gate looking for Marcello. Marcello meets Mimì outside the tavern and hears Mimì explain that her love for Rodolfo has changed due to Rodolfo’s overly jealous and suspicious behavior, and perhaps it is best that she and Rodolfo part. Hearing Rodolfo exiting from the tavern, Mimì quickly hides in the shadows. Marcello engages Rodolfo about his relationship with Mimì. First Rodolfo explains that he wants to separate from his fickle sweetheart because of her flirting ways, but after some gentle persuasion from Marcello, Rodolfo admits the truth and that he loves Mimì, but is frightened for her health. He confesses that she is ill perhaps because he could not provide a warm home.

Rodolfo hears Mimì coughing, knowing she has overheard his confession. Rodolfo tries to convince Mimì not to end their relationship. Meanwhile Musetta storms out from the tavern, quarrelling with Marcello, who has caught her flirting. They part on ill terms throwing insults at each other. Mimì and Rodolfo promise each other to stay together until the springtime, as the couple strolls through the gates.

ACT IV

Back at the bohemian’s garret, Marcello is painting and Rodolfo is writing. Both have lost their lovers. Marcello tries to cheer up Rodolfo as they both attempt to continue to work but lack concentration and start to muse over their separation from their lovers. Colline and Schaunard arrive with food and pretend they are dining like established gentlemen. The meal turns into an imaginary ball with dancing and a mock duel after fictitiously insulting one another.

Abruptly the frivolity is ended when Musetta bursts in looking for help as Mimì is sitting at the top of the stairs breathless and too frail to walk any longer. Rodolfo and Marcello help Mimì while Musetta tells the others how Mimì had pleaded to be taken to Rodolfo. Mimì’s hands are cold and she wishes for a muff to warm them and Rodolfo lovingly warms her hands in his as he did when they first met. Meanwhile, Musetta worries about Mimì’s health and offers her earrings to Marcello to sell them for medicine and a doctor. Before Musetta and Marcello depart to seek help, Mimì tells Marcello how good Musetta truly is and not to separate from her.

As Mimì tries to convince Rodolfo that she is feeling better, Colline decides to surrender his cherished coat and laments that it is wise to part with his “friend” for the greater cause of obtaining medicine for Mimì. Schaunard and Colline leave Mimì alone to rest with Rodolfo.

The lovers reminisce about the way they met and they renew their love for each other as Mimì’s health worsens.

The other return with medicine, a scarf, and money, as Musetta prays for Mimì who quietly dies. Silence overcomes the room as each of Rodolfo’s friends becomes aware that Mimì has died. Rodolfo realizes the news and holds her body calling her name, weeping.

THE END www.helenasymphony.org

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LA BOHÈME IN CONCERT

VI MASTERWORKS CONCERT SERIES

ABOUT THE PROGRAM By Allan R. Scott©

La Bohème is scored for piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, English horn, two clarinets, bass clarinet, two bassoons, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, snare drum, bass drum, cymbals, triangle, glockenspiel, xylophone, chimes, harp, divided strings, on stage piccolos, trumpets, and snare drums, mixed chorus, children’s chorus, and two soprano, tenor, two baritone, and three bass soloists.

Duration: 110 minutes

PARALLEL EVENTS / 1896 William McKinley elected 25th U.S. President Utah becomes 45th U.S. state Henry Ford test-drives first automobile X-rays are discovered Charles Dow publishes first edition of Dow Jones Industrial Average Tsunami in Japan kills 27,000 people John Philip Sousa composes Stars and Stripes Forever March First kiss on film Pianist Clara Schumann and composer Anton Bruckner die Lyricist Ira Gershwin and author F. Scott Fitzgerald are born

GIACOMO PUCCINI

B o r n : L u c c a , I t a l y, 2 2 D e c e m b e r 1 8 5 8 Died: Brussels, Belgium, 29 November 1924

LA BOHÈME

Descended from a long line of musicians, Giacomo Puccini is considered the most important Italian opera composer since Verdi.

While it was assumed that the young Puccini would inherit the interests and talent of the family business, Puccini was by no means a child prodigy. It was not until Puccini walked to Pisa at the age of 18 to see a production of Verdi’s Aida did he find his calling. A few years later he moved to Milan to enter the conservatory. Upon completing his studies, Puccini’s noted ability for melodic invention and colorful orchestration become noticed with one of his only instrumental works, Capriccio Sinfonico.

Puccini entered a competition for new one-act operas, and lost.

Ironically it was this loss that became the most significant event that launched his career! At a party, Puccini entertained the guests by playing and singing excerpts from the opera (Le Villi) that was not noticed at the competition. The party goers were so enthralled with the music that it was produced that season in Milan.

World renowned Italian publisher Giulio Ricordi recognized the immense success and potential of Puccini and acquired the rights to the work and began a long time relationship with him. Ricordi immediately commissioned a new full length opera by the composer titled Edgar; however, it was a dismal failure and despite its several revisions, it has not survived today. Puccini’s next effort was based on the same subject that was used by French opera composer Massenet – Manon Lescaut. Puccini, along with five additional librettists, composed an opera that launched Puccini’s career overnight and ensured his place as the rightful successor to Verdi.

The composer’s next three works included three of the most loved operas of all time: La Bohème, Tosca, and Madame Butterfly. For these three Puccini employed the talents of two librettists. Luigi Illica created the scenes and the picturesque details, and Giuseppe Giacosa wrote the poetry of the text. While La Bohème is considered to be Puccini’s masterpiece, it was not nearly as successful as Tosca.

Madame Butterfly, however, was not received nearly as well, and required several revisions before it gained mass appeal.

At the turn of the 20th century, Puccini experienced significant torment in his private life that resulted in several artistic failures. In 1903, Puccini was the victim of one of the first automobile accidents in Italy and was seriously injured. In 1906, Puccini’s principal librettist, Giacosa, died; and in 1909, Puccini’s wife wrongly accused Puccini of having an affair with their maid causing the maid to commit suicide. Puccini’s next work, The Girl of the Golden West, was commissioned for the opening of New York’s Metropolitan Opera, with Toscanini conducting. The next two operas included one of his Continued on page 63

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S A U N D R A DE AT H O S – S O P R A N O Soprano Saundra DeAthos has been heralded for the remarkable quality of both her vocal and dramatic presentations. Excelling in a varied and broad repertoire, she began her career as an Adler Fellow and in the Merola Opera Program with San Francisco Opera. Flourishing in the spotlight, Ms. DeAthos claimed numerous principal assignments with San Francisco Opera and on tour with Western Opera Theater.

Of her San Francisco Opera performances, Opera Magazine said in admiration, “Saundra DeAthos imparted vulnerability and an elegant soprano.”

Accordingly, the San Francisco Chronicle noted, “Saundra DeAthos delivered a virtuosic performance... a real charmer of a soprano, she made one love the character.” Ms. DeAthos has graced the stages of many outstanding opera companies across the United States, such as San Francisco Opera, Western Opera Theater, Boston Lyric Opera, Amarillo Opera, Sacramento Opera, Opera North, Opera Illinois and West Bay Opera, among others.

In addition to her operatic activities, Ms. DeAthos performs regularly with symphony orchestras throughout the United States, including the San Francisco Symphony, Charleston Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Sinfonia da Camera, Illinois Symphony Orchestra, and many others, including a recent telecast on PBS in a performance of Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem with Charleston Symphony Orchestra & Chorus.

Ms. DeAthos holds a Bachelor’s degree in Music Education from Central Michigan University, a Master of Music degree in Vocal Performance from the University of Illinois, and is a graduate of the Opera Institute at Boston University. She has recently completed her Doctorate of Musical Arts in Performance and Literature, also at the University of Illinois. She also serves as the Music Coordinator in the Theatre Department at Illinois Wesleyan University.

DIANA MCVEY – SOPRANO “The sweetness and pliancy of Soprano Diana McVey’s voice, and the sighing quality of her singing make us love her.”

Soprano Diana McVey is an artist whose consummate skills as both a singer and an actress have quickly made her highly visible in opera, oratorio, and as soloist with symphony orchestras. She has become known for her riveting and moving portrayals of Countess Madeleine in Capriccio, Violetta in La Traviata, Contessa in Le Nozze di Figaro and Lucia in Lucia Di Lammermoor. She has sung leading roles with Florentine Opera, Opera Theater of Pittsburgh, Opera Omaha, Opera Dubai, Opera Tampa, Opera Columbus, Lake George Opera Festival, Jacksonville Lyric Opera, Treasure Coast Opera, Opera Naples and many others.

She was an apprentice artist with both the Sarasota Opera Company and the Lake George Opera Festival, and was a finalist in the New England Regional Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.

A few of her recent engagements include Countess Madeleine in Strauss’s final opera Capriccio, Vaughan Williams’s Dona Nobis Pacem with the Helena Symphony, Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with the Salisbury Singers, and Vivaldi’s Gloria at Carnegie Hall. Upcoming engagements include Brahms’ German Requiem with the Rhode Island Civic Chorale & Orchestra, and appearances with the Music on the Hill Festival and Mendelssohn’s Elijah with the Idaho State Civic Symphony.

Ms. McVey appears courtesy of Wade Artist Management (New York, NY)

www.helenasymphony.org

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WE ARE PROUD TO SUPPORT THE 2016-2017 SEASON

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PUCCINI

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Continued from page 60

“

Puccini’s greatest gift was his ability to invent liquid, melting melodies with tender lyricism, combined with his genius of colorful orchestrations, intense emotion, and theatrical vocal lines that contribute to the stories he composed. weaker works, La Rondine, and the much loved three one-act operas: Il tabarro, Suor Angelica, and Gianni Schicchi.

Because Puccini took such an active role in the production of his works, the composer only wrote 12 operas, compared to Verdi’s 28. While German, French, and Austrian influences can be noted in some of his music, Puccini rarely strayed far from his Italian roots. His greatest gift, however, was his ability to invent liquid, melting melodies with tender lyricism, combined with his genius of colorful orchestrations, intense emotion, and theatrical vocal lines that contribute to the stories he composed.

Four years before his death, Puccini began his final work – Turandot. The work was never finished as Puccini died during surgery due to throat cancer. Today, Puccini’s works are framed by two masterpieces – La Bohème and Turandot, and he stands alongside Mozart, Verdi, and Wagner as composers for the stage. Following his death, Italy went into official mourning and Puccini’s remains were eventually laid to rest in Torre del Lago, the small village where he composed most of works.

Today, Puccini fans make pilgrimages to the house where the most popular opera composer of the 20th century worked and lived. 

HAROLD MEERS – TENOR Metropolitan Opera singer and internationally celebrated Tenor Harold Meers returns to Helena by way of the MET this season for the company’s much anticipated new production of Verdi’s Otello, as Cassio.

Mr. Meers joined the prestigious roster of the Metropolitan Opera for the 2014-2015 Season as Rodolfo in Puccini’s La Bohème.

During the 2014-2015 Season, Meers also took his acclaimed Rodolfo in La Bohème to San Diego Opera for a production that celebrated the company’s 50th anniversary. Opera News remarked, “Meers presented a lovely vocal quality throughout his range and was convincingly ardent.”

Last season’s highlights included acclaimed appearances as Macduff in Verdi’s Macbeth with Minnesota Opera, an Opera in the Park gala with Madison Opera, and in concert with the Madison Symphony Orchestra. Meers will return to Madison Opera in 2016 for an exciting role debut in the title role of Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann, and appearances in Il Trittico with Utah Festival Opera, Don José in Carmen, with Opera Santa Barbara, and Madama Butterfly with Kentucky Opera.

He has also appeared with San Francisco Opera, Opera Philadelphia, Minnesota Opera, Opera Theater of St. Louis, Boston Lyric Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, and many others.

Internationally, Mr. Meers has been heard as Tamino in Die Zauberflöte with Bangkok Opera.

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RON LOYD – BARITONE Recognized by The New York Times as a “robust baritone” and “agile comedian” and by The Sondheim Review for his “opulent baritone and nuanced phrasing,” Baritone Ron Loyd is known for performing new American works and the masterworks for the concert and the stage. He recently made his debut with the Helena Symphony in a new work by the Symphony’s 2014-2015 Composer in Residence Kile Smith.

He has given the world premiere performances of Music Theatre Group’s The Wing Where, Opera America’s New Opera Showcase, a new opera by American composer Sheila Silver and librettist Stephen Kitsakos based on Khaled Hosseini’s New York Times best-selling novel.

Mr. Loyd’s performances include his Carnegie Hall debut in Richard Strauss’ Feuersnot with the American Symphony Orchestra, in Verdi’s Falstaff, Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci with the Mobile Opera, with Albuquerque’s Opera Southwest in Don Giovanni, and Sondheim’s title role in Sweeney Todd with Look Musical Theatre, which garnered the distinction of Tulsa’s “Best Night of Theatre” in 2007.

Recently, he has appeared with Little Opera Theatre of New York, Mid Atlantic Symphony Orchestra, and Opera Delaware.

Mr. Loyd appears courtesy of Wade Artist Management (New York, NY)

SEAN COOPER – BASS Bass Sean Cooper enjoys a diverse artistic life comprised of singing, acting, writing, directing, and lecturing. Praised for his “rich,” “powerful, and “well-tempered” vocal production, he appeared as Colline in the original cast of Baz Luhrmann’s production of Puccini’s La Bohème on Broadway, as well as Riverdance on Broadway. He has appeared in productions of The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, Pirates of Penzance, and the title roles in Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, and the baritone soloist in the world premiere of Christopher Dietz’s Only a Breath.

Mr. Cooper has performed with such companies as Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera, Opera Carolina, Opera Memphis, Pittsburgh Opera, Toledo Opera, Opera Columbus, Opera North, Opera Theatre of Guam, Sacramento Choral Society, and the symphony orchestras of Detroit, Pittsburgh, Memphis, Toledo, and Oakland, among others.

Dr. Cooper attended Carnegie-Mellon University and the Manhattan School of Music, completed his Doctorate of Musical Arts at the University of Memphis, and his writings were recently published in The Opera Journal. He has also served on the review boards for the North American Opera Journal and the National Opera Association’s Scholarly Research Committee.

Mr. Cooper appears courtesy of Wade Artist Management (New York, NY)

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BRANDON HENRICKSON – BARITONE Baritone Brandon Hendrickson is an active performer on the opera, concert, and recital stage. Mr. Hendrickson’s “mellifluous” and “beautiful baritone,” as hailed by Opera News, has been heard interpreting standard and contemporary operatic and recital repertoire on an international level.

His performances for the stage include Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi and La Bohème, Pasatieri’s The Seagull, Mozart’s The Magic Flute, Lehar’s The Merry Widow, Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro and Così fan tutte, Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Bizet’s Carmen, Adamo’s Little Women, Massenet’s Werther, Poulenc’s Dialogues of the Carmelites, Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel, La Traviata, and Die Fledermaus by J. Strauss. Most recently, Hendrickson performed the role of Papageno alongside Samuel Ramey in a production of The Magic Flute with The Sounds of South Dakota, and appeared with The Dallas Opera in the world premiere of Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer’s great American Opera, Moby Dick.

On the concert stage, Hendrickson’s recent credits include debuts with South Dakota Chorale, Piccolo Spoleto Music Festival, Great Falls Symphony Orchestra, Canterbury Choral Society, Oklahoma City Philharmonic, Helena Symphony Orchestra, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Sounds of South Dakota, Louisiana Sinfonietta, Southeast Pennsylvania Symphony Orchestra and many others.

An active recitalist, Hendrickson performs frequently by invitation. In addition to recital work in his home state of Iowa, he has performed recitals all across the United States, Canada, Ireland and Northern Ireland. He currently serves on the voice faculty at Louisiana State University.

KEVIN MATHEWS – BARITONE Well-known Helena baritone Kevin Mathews is a frequent guest artist for the Helena Symphony & Chorale. Mr. Mathews has previously appeared with the Helena Symphony including multiple performances at the Symphony Under the Stars, and in Handel’s Messiah, Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd, Bizet’s Carmen, Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, Rossini’s The Barber of Seville, and Puccini’s Madame Butterfly.

Mr. Mathews is well known to the Helena community in musical theatre, as well, for his appearances in The King and I, Urinetown, Les Miserables and She Loves Me at Grandstreet Theatre, and in Helena Theatre Company’s production of Sondheim’s A Little Night Music.

He has also performed as a vocal soloist with Ballet Montana, the Helena Chamber Singers, the Helena Symphony Chorale, Bozeman Symphonic Choir, MSU Chorale & Orchestra, and the Glacier Symphony & Chorale.

He frequently performs jazz standards with Jim Madden at Benny’s Bistro here in Helena.

www.helenasymphony.org

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THANK YOU

FOR YOUR CONTINUING SUPPORT AND GENEROSITY

Support of the Helena Symphony comes from a variety of important sources: donations, performance proceeds, program advertising, concert sponsorships, grants, patron-planned annuities, the Montana Cultural Trust, and the Helena Symphony Society Foundation.

Each year, we honor all who give by naming the various gift levels with Montana minerals and precious gemstones from the state of Montana.

(This list includes donations or grants through 31 August 2016. It will be updated throughout the Season. Corrections are welcomed.)

SAPPHIRE $25,000 AND ABOVE Anonymous Blue Cross Blue Shield Pamela & Virginia Bompart Jack Collishaw Pat & Linda Keim Susan Benedict & Scott Mainwaring Joan Poston Treacy Foundation

DIAMOND

Marilyn Hudson Jim Hunt & McDonald Law Offices Marie Kall Montana Association of Symphony Orchestras Laura, Robert, & Bentley Pippin Summit Air Ambulance REACH Air Medical Services Mēghan Scott & Maestro Allan R. Scott Harlan & Bill Shropshire Peter W. Sullivan Christa & James Tarver The Boeing Company Nancy & Richard Trudell

$15,000 TO $24,999 Susan & C. Franklin Brookhart, Jr City of Helena Helena Community Credit Union Linda B Knoblock Montana Arts Council Montana Community Foundation Mary D. Munger Ellie Parker

PALLADIUM $10,000 TO $14,999 Anonymous James Burkholder Deloitte Services LP Sidney E Frank Foundation Dana Hillyer & Robert Caldwell

PLATINUM $5,000 TO $9,999 Anonymous Ron & Jeanne Baldwin Helen & William Ballinger Kathy Bramer Mary Jane Davidson First Interstate Bank 68

Helena Symphony Season 62

GOLD $1,000 TO $4,999 AARP Montana American Chemet Anderson ZurMuehlen Donna C. Barer Connie & Ron Bergum Peter & Janice Bogy Fay & David Buness Sigrid & William Carroll Crowley Fleck PLLP CTA Architects D.A. Davidson & Co Matthew Dale Michael Dalton Shirley Palmer & Bruce L. Desonia Diana & Tom Dowling Donna & Donald Eisenmenger Laurie Ekanger Lisa & Tom Evans Exergy Development Group Finlandia Foundation National First Interstate Foundation Golden Eagle Construction Elizabeth & Jeffry A. Goldes Jill & Gary Guthrie Helena Kiwanis Foundation Helena School District No. 1

Sheila Hogan Barbara Howe & Jim Hunt Mary Douglass & Harry Israel Susan & Dale G. Johnson Kay Mathews & Cordell Johnson Patricia Hunt & Charles Johnson Kanter Kallman Foundation Barbara D Kenny Janet Kenny Ron Lee Lewis & Clark County Tatiana & Ron Lukenbill Mekell Lybbert Patty Mazurek Beth & Warren McCullough Joan Bird & Max Milton Montana Credit Union League Carol & Wayne Montgomery Thomas Morrison Morrison-Maierle, Inc. Dana & Jonathan Nehring Nancy & Alan Nicholson Dianne Nickman NorthWestern Corporation Opportunity Bank of Montana Ann M. Page Scott Pargot Parrot Confectionary, Inc. Robert Peccia & Associates Julie & Tim Reardon Rocky Mountain Credit Union Joan & Charles E. Rolling Joyce Schillinger Dianne Scott Gayle & Larry Sheldon Audra Shropshire Rosana Skelton Laura W. Smith Timothy Speyer Abigail St. Lawrence St. Peter’s Hospital State Employees’ Charitable Giving Campaign Student Assistance Foundation Sussex Construction, Inc. US Bank Valley Bank of Helena

Betsey & Bill War Mignon & Ron Waterman Wipfli LLP

SILVER $500 TO $999 Base Camp Baskin-Robbins Ice Cream Charles Biklé Marie & Kent Brown Browning, Kaleczyc, Berry & Hoven Gaynell & David Bruck Bryant School Parent Alliance Bullman’s Wood Fired Pizza Donna Burgess Jean A. Davis Su DeBree DeMarois Buick GMC Mercedes-Benz Four Georgians’ Parent Council Sue & Bob Ganter Beverly Gibson Leila Goldes Rev. Joseph D. Harrington Barbara Harris Mary & John Harris Hawthorne School Parent Council Helena Hawaiian Ice Helena Music Teachers Assoc.

Mark Huber Tori Hunthausen Jefferson School Parent Council Jim Darcy PTO Kessler School Parent Council Cheryl & Micheal Lamb Jeanne MacPherson & William Gallea Donna & Hassan Massouh Carol McKerrow Marcy & Daniel McLean Mediterranean Enterprises Inc. Teri & Andrew Michel Montana City School PTA Montana Club

Montana State Fund Linda & Ralph Nelson Ljudmila & Uros Roessmann Darien & Roger Scott Thea Lou Seese Mark M Smith Sodexo Stockman Bank Anna Strange Greg Strizich Lori & David Swenson Venus Villalva Mary L. Williams

COPPER $100 TO $499 Chris Abbott Marika Adamek Adventure Dogs Tanya Anderson Linda & Edward Andrews Anonymous Elizabeth Baker Beth Barry Andrea & Robert Bateen Mary Lutgen & Raymond L Bell Jane Benson Benson Brothers Ken & Barbara Berg Sara Berg Leeann & John Berry Peter Berry Birds & Beasleys Martha Bolen Patricia Bollinger Bonnie Bowler Broadwater School Joyce & Raymond Brown Joy Bruck Mark A Burzynski Ellen Bush Amie Butler Susan & Charles Butler, Jr Janet & Dave Campana Ross W. Cannon Colleen & Mike Casey Central School Parent Council Clancy School District Act Fnd Michael Clow Connie & Charles Conley Stephen Cooper Council for the Arts, Inc. Kathleen Culver Allyn Ann & Bob Cummins Patricia Delauter Ann Dooling & Terry Spear Colleen & Curt Drake Bruce A Duenkler Pamela & Stanley Duensing East Helena Student Activity Fund Kay & Tom Ellerhoff Karen Fairbrother Fred Flanders Bob Fox Sandy & Reginald Goodwin Great Ape Crepes Lyle W Hamilton Deborah A. & Roy Hansmann Ann Harris Helena Area Christian Home Educators Helena Area Community Foundation Helena Business Improvement District

Teak Hoiness Barb Howe & Jim Hunt Arthur Howell Lois & Duke Hudson Barbara Hunter Jody Inbody Isbell Intermountain Edwin H. Jasmin Duane Johnson Mary Irish Johnson James Keil Janet Kelly Dorathy Kendall Andree Larose & Henry Elsen Jo Lasich Ruth L. & Jesse W. Long William Lowe Beverly Magley James J. Maher Sharon & Bob Maynard Marsha McFarland, Ph.D. Judith & Bruce Meadows Mary & Donald Meek Richard Misplon Evan Moore Liz & Tim Moore Kurt Moser Mountain Sno Shaved Ice Brad Moyel Gwynn & John Mundinger Roberta & Ron Nelson Barry Nigh Lenora Jacobson & Mae Novak Elsie O’Connor Oregon Newspaper Publishers Assoc.

Katherine Orr & Randy Dix Panda Restaurant Group, Inc. Parents for Smith School Pennies On The Go Toni & Bob Person Power Townsend Rick Pyfer Marvin Ratcliff Karla Ritten Norman Rognlie Judy & Tom Rolfe Rossiter Elementary School Rossiter Parent Council Ryland K M Foote Mem. Fund Deanna Satre Liz Scholz Leah Schwabauer Patricia Seiler Jan Shaw Sandy Shull Harnek Singh Luanne & John Smith Joseph Smits Van Oyen St. Andrew School Betty Stinchfield Daphne Crosbie & Jack Stults Beverly Tatz Joan & Dennis Taylor Marty & Richard Thieltges Barbara & Thomas Tobin Donna Torgerson Scottie & Tom Trebon Trilogy Chiropractic & Wellness Center Trevor Uffelman Carol & Dale Waniata Shirley J. Warehime Warren School PTO Wayne Miller Coins Dick Weaver Roy A. Wells

Ann Williams David (Kim) Wilson, Jr. Victoria Wolfe Duane & Sue Wright

IRON UP TO $99 Maris Aldrich Linda & John Almas Amazon Smile Foundation Avon School District No. 29 Annette Baird Baswick Family Stephanie & Zeno Baucus Nancy & Wayne Beckman M.C. & Leroy Beeby Barbara & James Benish Beverly Black Boulder Elementary Activities Fund Janet Brooke Bret Brunner Joan & Neil Carlson Marcalee Carroll Isaiah Cech Kathy & Robert Chase Marian Collins Joyce & Pat Connors Tana & Scott Cromwell Lucy Dayton Chris Deveny Lynda Faulkner Marylis & Robert Filipovich Boyce Fowler Chris Fuller Raylene Edwin Glenn Colleen Grass Judy & David Grebenc James Greytak Dr. M.P. & Kathleen Hamill Jamie Harmon Duane Harp Barbara F & James E Hogan Suzy & Tom Horlen Rose Hughes Gordon Jackson Mary & Hal Jacobson Scott Kall Ann & Norb Lauer Linda Lode Everett Lynn Carole & Mark Mackin James Madison Sunny Ray & Steve Mandeville Barbara Martin Kathy & Robert Martinka Joel Mathews Sandra A. & John R. McInnis Sandra Merdinger Shirley & Gary Miller Jeri Moon L. Maxine Morehouse Dean Naylor Ann & David Orndoff Katherine Peterson Mary Pitch Helen Vidal Posewitz Dari & James Quirk William Ramsay Sally Randel Jonathan Roe Mary & Neal Ruedisili Michelle Rush Susan & Bob Russell Joanne Schaller

Thomas J Schneider Robert Silbering Mary D. Simpson Jane Slattery Paul Smetana Laurie Stetler Robert Sturdevant Karen Tobel Sara Toubman Trinity Parents Assoc.

Triple Divide Spirits Bo Turnbow Alanna & Richard Von Tersch Carolann & W Macklin Vosbeck Rachel Weiss Nancy & William Wells William Spilker Real Estate James & Marilyn Williams Leona Williams Sheena Wilson & John Ilgenfritz

MEMORIALS In Memory of Joe Madsen Marty & Richard Thielges In Memory of John Jacobson Lenora Jacobson & Mae Novak In Memory of Judy Logan Anonymous Maris Aldrich Baswick Family Benson Brothers Barbara & Ken Berg Joyce & Raymond Brown Joyce & Pat Connors Tana & Scott Cromwell Barry Nigh Darien & Roger Scott Jane Slattery In Memory of Kerry Brown Linda & John Almas Barbara & James Benish Marie & Kent Brown Fay & David Buness Joan & Neil Carlson Michael Clow Pamela & Stanley Duensing Marylis Filipovich Boyce Fowler Elizabeth & Jeffry A. Goldes Everett Lynn Sunny Ray & Steve Mandeville Ellie Parker Sally Randel Gayle & Larry Sheldon Marty & Richard Thielges Alanna & Richard Von Tersch Marilyn & James Williams Leona Williams In Memory of Linda Knoblock Kay Mathews & Cordell Johnson In Memory of Virginia Bompart & Les Davis Pamela Bompart William Spilker Real Estate In Memory of Carolyn & Ward Cole Linda & Edward Andrews In Memory of Carol Roberts Darien & Roger Scott www.helenasymphony.org

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Official

THE

RESTAURANT OF THE

We are proud to support and serve the Helena community.

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833 Great Northern Blvd | 495.0677 | silverstarsteakco.com

Helena Symphony Season 62

AN INVESTMENT THAT LASTS A LIFETIME Tickets support less than 30% of the Helena Symphony’s annual operating budget, and concerts costs over $50,000 for every performance. As one of the leading symphonies in the Rocky Mountain region, the Helena Symphony strives to continue to be a cultural leader in the Helena region, performing for over 30,000 people every year.

This is your Symphony, and we make music for you. As we celebrate our seventh decade, please help us continue to make music for decades to come. There are many ways to support the Helena Symphony: V O L U N T E E R : Volunteering your time, talent, and energy is a great way to support the Symphony. In addition to receiving complimentary tickets to most performances, volunteering with the Symphony gives you an up-close look at the inner workings of the organization, and exposure to the musicians of the HSO&C as well as internationally-noted guest artists. Volunteer areas include: Patron Services, Office Support, Fundraisers & Special Events, and Education & Community Engagement D O N A T I O N S : The Symphony is honored every season to receive donations from $10 to over $50,000 from individuals, corporations, foundations, and civic organizations. This is an incredible way to show your support!

SPONSORSHIPS: M usi ca l Cha i rs – To continue to attract some of the finest musicians to the Helena Symphony Orchestra, artistic integrity and exciting programming are essential. Sponsoring a musician’s chair for a season (or endowing it in perpetuity) gives you the opportunity to make a significant, affordable, and direct impact on the music-making. In addition to being acknowledged in the annual concert program and the Symphony’s website, you get to personally know the musician you are sponsoring. Musician sponsors cover less than 25% of the costs for the musician, and sponsorships are from $1,000-$10,000 C oncer t Sp o ns o rs – Become a proud sponsor of a performance in the season, where your family, organization, or corporation is thankfully acknowledged in marketing materials to thousands of people.

Sponsorships cover less than 10% of the costs of a performance, and range from $2,500-$10,000.

G uest Ar ti s t Und er w r itin g – In order to feature some of the world’s finest soloists today, you can help sponsor the special appearance of a nationally or internationally noted guest artist. This gives you the opportunity to make a significant, affordable, and direct impact on the music-making. In addition to being acknowledged prominently in the annual concert program and the Symphony’s webpage, you get to meet with the guest artist the week of the artist’s appearance with the HSO. G I F T C E R T I F I C A T E S : Celebrate special occasions by giving the gift of music. Gift certificates are available for any event.

M E M O R I A L D O N A T I O N S : Remember a loved one by making a charitable gift in the name of a family member or friend.

P L A N N E D G I V I N G : Continue your legacy with the Helena Symphony. A legacy gift can meet your financial and philanthropic goals, as well as keep the Helena Symphony’s music-making thriving. The Helena Symphony Foundation is available for Planned Giving.

Please contact Director of Patron Services Scott Kall for more information www.helenasymphony.org 406.442.1860 or patronservices@helenasymphony.org

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SEE IT We're honored to be part of a community that embraces the arts. It makes Helena an inspiring and invigorating place to live and work.

HEAR IT And it's beautiful proof of the power of creativity - something we celebrate every day at Edge.

Here's to the Helena Symphony's 62nd season.

FEEL IT www. Edge M ar ket i n gDe s i gn . co m

Helena

406.996.1361