Maestro Plays Mozart 032623

Eduard Zilberkant, Music Director

Board of Directors

Charles W. Lemke

President

Tony Johansen

Vice President

Patty Mongold

Treasurer

April Jaillet

Secretary

Glenda Grant Burbank

Joan Johnson

Bill McKenzie

Joe Vargas

Anna Zilberkant

Tom Gross

Phyllis Pendergrast

April Jaillet & Daniel Strawser

Orchestra Representatives

Mailing Address

Fairbanks Symphony Orchestra

P.O. Box 82104

Fairbanks, AK 99708

Office Staff

Jenni Warren

Managing Director

Kerri Hamos

Front of House Manager

Ruth Rutherford Librarian

Jessica Shafstall

Production Manager

Sasha Jalinski Bookeeper

General Information

907.474.5733

fairbankssymphony.org

From the President

Dear Friends of the Fairbanks Symphony,

Welcome to Maestro plays Mozart! We are extremely pleased to be able to present Maestro Eduard Zilberkant conducting from and playing the piano for Mozart’s Piano Concerto in D Minor. As we showcase the Maestro’s many talents today, we are reminded how truly fortunate we are to have a person of his talent and dedication leading the Fairbanks Symphony for well over 20 years. His passion and tenacity for the arts and music education are an inspiration here in our community. We know you will enjoy this superb performance!

Looking toward the beginning of spring means that we are preparing for a few final events that will close out the season! First, we will indulge in an evening of wine and food with our annual Rhapsody in Red and White on April 7th at 6:30PM at Raven Landing. Purchase one of 100 raffle tickets to win 1 of 4 Instant Cellars put together by none other than Bruce Abbott of Brown Jug. Next, get your sneakers out and ready for the first 5K of the year as our annual Beat Beethoven 5K moves back to its regular time in April. We’ll see you at the starting line on April 22nd at 11am! Finally, we are very much looking forward to the Season Finale featuring Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. We are eager to present the Fairbanks Symphony Chorus, the Choir of the North , and 4 guest soloists for this final performance of the 22-23 season.

Of course, preparations are already underway for next season! Look for a sneak peek coming very soon.

A very special thank you to Jack and Carol Wilbur for their generous support of this concert. As always, we appreciate and cannot do without your support! Enjoy today’s concert.

As always,

Chuck Lemke President, Fairbanks Symphony

LIVE ALASKA.

Music gives texture and meaning to the lives we live in Alaska. We’re proud to support the musical creativity and expression performed by talented local artists.

The

Jack & Carol Wilbur

Symphony Orchestra would like to thank for their generous support.

Fairbanks

Many thanks to our sponsors who helped make our C Note Poker Tournament a success! We could not have done it without your support!

Dr. Phyllis Pendergrast, DMD

Dr. Joe Vargas The Damian Family

Music Director, Condutor, Pianist

Eduard Zilberkant

Russian-born Eduard Zilberkant is recognized as one of today’s most gifted artists and has an active career as conductor and pianist. A Yamaha performing artist, he has been received enthusiastically by audiences and press alike throughout Europe, Canada, Asia and the United States.

He has been a guest artist and conductor at some of the most prestigious music festivals which include the International Keyboard Institute and Festival in New York City; the Ravello Festival in Italy; the Gumi International Music Festival in South Korea; the Corfu Festival Ionian Concert Series in Greece; the Monolis Kalomiris International Music Festival in Greece; the Assisi International Festival and Orazio Frugoni Music Institute in Italy; the Baracasa Festival of Radio France in Montpellier, France; the Alaska International Piano-e-Competition, Fairbanks, Alaska; and the Bellingham Music Festival in Washington. Some of the orchestras he has guest conducted include the Czech National Symphony Orchestra in Prague and on tour to Germany; the orchestra of Pomeriggi Musicali di Milano in Italy; the Martinu Chamber Orchestra in the Czech Republic and Germany; the Orchestra of the Teatro Massimo Bellini in Catania, Sicily; the Manhattan Chamber Orchestra in New York City; the Teatro di San Carlo Orchestra in Naples, Italy; and the Prague Philharmonic both in Prague and on tour in Italy.

Eduard Zilberkant has been hailed as an inspirational teacher around the world. He has given master classes at the International Keyboard Institute and Festival in New York City, the Rubinstein Academy in Dusseldorf, Germany; the Puccini Conservatory in Italy; the Gumi International Music Festival in South Korea, and the Ionian Conservatory in Greece. His students have won national and international piano competitions and appear as soloists worldwide.

A Fulbright Scholar in Germany, Eduard Zilberkant received a Solisten Diploma from the Freiburg Musik Hochschule. He received the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Temple University in Philadelphia. His teachers have included Jerome Rose, Vitaly Margulis, Theodore Lettvin, Robert Spano, and Robert Shaw. Presently, he is Artist in Residence and Professor of Piano at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. For the past twenty one years he has been Music Director and Conductor of the Fairbanks Symphony Orchestra and the Arctic Chamber Orchestra.

For more information, visit: eduardzilberkant.com

The Fairbanks Symphony Orchestra in partnership with our generous sponsor

JACK & CAROL WILBUR and the University of Alaska Fairbanks present

The Maestro Plays Mozart

Eduard Zilberkant, Musical Director/Piano

March 26th, 2023 at 4:00 PM

Charles W. Davis Concert Hall

Mozart

Piano Concerto in D Minor, K.466

Eduard Zilberkant, Piano

I. Allegro

II. Romanze

III. Rondo, Allegro assai

~ INTERMISSION ~ Mendelssohn

Symphony #1 in C minor

I. Allegro di molto

II. Andante

III. Menuetto (Allegro molto)

FAIRBANKS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA EDUARD ZILBERKANT, MUSIC DIRECTOR & CONDUCTOR

The 2022-2023 FSO Orchestra Roster

VIOLIN I

Yue Sun, Concertmaster

Leah Nenaber

Dori Olsen

Jonathan Swank

Arielle Stadig

Asa Edwards

VIOLIN II

Julie Parshall, Principal

Annalisa Bates

Michael Austin

Sarah Zieschang

Kathryn Baird

Meg Baird

Ruth Rutherford

Bree Hoerdeman

VIOLA

Katrina Nore, Principal

Laurie Long

Emily Vockeroth

Gabrielle Sevillano

Terry Chapin

CELLO

Daniel Strawser, Principal

Nikolas McGraw

Joshua Swank

Cirdan Vonnahme

Sean Braendel

Marlys Schneider

Kathy Price

Casey Lambries

Mimi Chapin

BASS

Bob Olsen, Principal

Leo Nordman

Wilhamina Gower

Wayne Koelsch

Erin Gleason

FLUTE

Dorli McWayne, Principal

Therese Schneider

Bobbi Janiro

Kurt Hunter

PICCOLO

Kurt Hunter

OBOE

Candy Rydlinski, Principal

Joey Hogenson

Enigma Swan Adams

ENGLISH HORN

Joey Hogenson

CLARINET

Ruth McDonald, Principal

April Jaillet

BASS CLARINET

April Jaillet

BASSOON

Jay Million Principal

George Rydlinski

HORN

Seward Schillaci

Melissa Balvanz

TRUMPET

Tristan Hovest, Principal

Seth Burke

TIMPANI

Sean Dowgray, Principal

Graham Jones

PROGRAM NOTES

Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K. 466 WOLFGANG

AMADEUS MOZART (1756 - 1791)

When Mozart premiered his Piano Concerto No. 20, he was at the height of his popularity in Vienna, attracting crowds as much for his virtuosity as a performer as for the desire to hear his latest compositions. Finished a day before its premiere the concerto was still being tinkered with up until the performance, and Mozart did not have a chance to run through his part before the concert. Much of the success of the premiere is due to his popularity as a performer. In 1781 Mozart petitioned to be released from his position as court musician for the Archbishop of Salzburg, and moved to Vienna where he was sought after as a performer, teacher and composer. Perhaps due to his demand as a performer during this time Mozart composed twelve piano concertos between 1784 and 1786, often performed by himself and his pupils.

The majority of Mozart’s piano concerti are in major keys, delivering on the audience’s expectations of the form as an energetic and joyful genre. The D minor Concerto is striking in its contrast to these norms, bringing a darker side of Mozart’s creativity to the surface. The opening music is syncopated and urgent, full of unease and pathos. Mozart later wrote in this same tonality for the penultimate scene of his opera Don Giovanni, when the main character confronts his impending doom and is consumed by flames. Due to these dark, tempestuous leanings, this piece was a favorite among 19th-century audiences and Romantic composers; Beethoven himself often performed this work in concert.

In another breach from tradition the first movement’s principal theme is not stated outright in the orchestral introduction. Rather, the turbulent energy is the main focus, gathering in strength from the strings until the whole orchestra explodes the tension and makes way for the piano to enter softly and hesitantly. The dark mood and struggle between orchestra and soloist remain unresolved throughout this movement.

The sublime melody of the second movement is an exquisite example of Mozart’s lyrical genius. A respite from the first movement, the landscape is filled with the warmth of B-flat major sonorities. This Romanze is structured as a five-part rondo (ABACA) plus a coda. Mozart delves into the minor realm with themes from the first movement, as if reminding the listener not to grow complacent, before concluding the movement in the tranquil

resolution of the major key.

Shocking the listener out of this peaceful lull, the finale opens with dramatic arpeggios and dissonant chords. This theme alternates with a contrasting cheerful, major-key tune in the woodwinds, and the push and pull of conflicting ideas continue throughout. Ultimately, Mozart provides an optimistic conclusion in D major; a symbolic triumph of light over darkness that resonates to this day.

-Catherine Case

Symphony No. 1 in C Minor, Op. 11

FELIX MENDELSSOHN (1809 - 1847)

Between the ages of 12 and 14, Mendelssohn composed 13 symphonies for strings (with occasional surprise entries for percussion). He also produced songs, piano pieces, operas, and chamber music in astonishing profusion while all the time marching toward the maturity that emerged with the famous Octet and the overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, all written before he was 17.

Those dozen early symphonies were discounted, and the official numbering began with this C-minor Symphony, in which the young composer, now 15, called for woodwinds and brass for the first time. Mendelssohn’s models were primarily Mozart and Weber, with some touches of Beethoven. His Berlin teachers had enforced a regime of counterpoint and technical orthodoxy, not that the boy needed any instruction in the intricacies of voice-leading and instrumentation. He picked that up effortlessly from his thirsty consumption of Bach, Handel, and Mozart and any music which came to hand; these early works display a classical poise and balance that he never lost, even when his horizons broadened to Shakespeare, Goethe, and romantic landscape.

The traditional symphonic sequence established by Haydn served Mendelssohn well. A fiery opening movement in the minor key allowed for a strong, forthright statement, with some milder, contrasting material introduced early in the argument. The boy composer is never short of new ideas, treated with daring dissonance and deft scoring. The coda is heralded by a surprisingly long-held note on two horns, full of expectation. We are reminded here of Beethoven, and again in the slow movement when the violins weave a flowing counterpoint to the main melody in the winds.

The third movement is headed Menuetto, although its brusque energy belies the courtly dance that the title suggests. The trio section, traditionally an opportunity for contrast, gives a chant-like melody to the clarinets and bassoons with discreet accompaniment from the strings. The process of returning to the Menuetto is then set in motion by drum taps reminiscent of a similar passage in Beethoven’s Fifth and by an unstoppable crescendo.

In the middle of the finale, whose fiery energy well matches the character of the work up to this point, Mendelssohn displays his brilliant gift for writing fugal counterpoint for strings, a gift he had perfected in the previous twelve symphonies. This passage makes a welcome return near the end, before the major key and some lusty trumpeting and drumming bring the Symphony – which was first performed March 31, 1824 – to a close.

On Mendelssohn’s first visit to London in 1829, the Philharmonic Society performed this Symphony, for which occasion he replaced the Menuetto with an orchestrated version of the Scherzo from the Octet, fairy music thus replacing fiery music. This was encored, the beginning of the immense reputation he enjoyed in London throughout his life. In gratitude he presented the Society with the original manuscript of his “first” symphony.

-Hugh Macdonald

FREUDE

Upcoming 22-23 Events/Concerts

All events take place in the Charles W. Davis Concert Hall, unless otherwise noted.

04/07/23 @ 7:00PM

Rhapsody in Red & White

Location TBD

04/22/23 @ 11:00AM

Beat Beethoven 5K

Start of Race: UAF Patty Center

04/30/23 @ 4:00PM

Season Finale

Beethoven Symphony No. 9

Upcoming UAF Dept. of Music Events/Concerts

All events take place in the Charles W. Davis Concert Hall, unless otherwise noted.

04/02/23 @ 4:00PM

UAF Graduate Student Recital: Ann Weaver

04/08/23 @ 7:30PM

Student Chamber Recital

04/19/23 @ 7:30PM

UAF Steel Pan and Percussion Ensemble

Fairbanks Symphony performances are made possible by grants from the Alaska State Council on the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Fairbanks Arts Association/City of Fairbanks Bed Tax Regrant, Alaska Airlines, and the University of Alaska Fairbanks.