23 / 24
SEASON
Christopher Zimmerman, music director and conductor John Murton, assistant conductor Chee-Yun, violin Saturday, February 3, 2024 at 8pm Harris Theatre at George Mason University
GIACOMO PUCCINI (arr. Talmi) Crisantemi (Chrysanthemums) for strings John Murton, assistant conductor THE FOUR SEASONS OF ANTONIO VIVALDI & ASTOR PIAZZOLLA (arr. Desyatnikov) Vivaldi: La Primavera (Spring), RV 269 Piazzolla: ‘Verano porteño’ – Summer in Buenos Aires Vivaldi: L’estate (Summer), RV 315 Piazzolla: Otoño porteño’ – Autumn in Buenos Aires —Intermission— Vivaldi: L’Autunno (Autumn), RV 293 Piazzolla: Invierno porteño’ – Winter in Buenos Aires Vivaldi: L’Inverno (Winter), RV 297 Piazzolla: ‘Primavera porteña’ – Spring in Buenos Aires Chee-Yun is represented exclusively by Opus 3 Artists The FSO’s 2023/24 Season is made possible with generous support from
FSO at Capital One Hall in Tysons
Tickets at www.FairfaxSymphony.org These concerts are brought to you through a partnership of the Fairfax Symphony and
MEET THE ARTIST CHEE-YUN Violinist Chee-Yun’s flawless technique, dazzling tone, and compelling artistry have enraptured audiences on five continents. Charming, charismatic, and deeply passionate about her art, Chee-Yun continues to carve a unique place for herself in the ever-evolving world of classical music. A winner of the Young Concert Artists International Auditions and a recipient of the Avery Fisher Career Grant, Chee-Yun has performed with many of the world’s foremost orchestras and conductors. She has appeared with the San Francisco, Toronto, Pittsburgh, Dallas, Atlanta, and National symphony orchestras, as well as with the Saint Paul and Los Angeles Chamber Orchestras. As a recitalist, Chee-Yun has performed in many major U.S. cities, including New York, Chicago, Washington, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Atlanta. In 2016, Chee-Yun performed as a guest artist for the Secretary General at the United Nations in celebration of Korea’s National Foundation Day and the 25th anniversary of South Korea joining the UN. In 1993, Chee-Yun performed at the White House for President Bill Clinton and guests at an event honoring recipients of the National Medal of the Arts. Recent highlights include her appearance with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, as well as her collaboration with acclaimed guitarist Mak Grgić. Her most recent recording, Serenata Notturno, released by Decca/Korea, is an album of light classics that went platinum within six months of its release. In addition to her active performance and recording schedule, Chee-Yun is a dedicated and enthusiastic educator. Her past faculty positions have included serving as the resident Starling Soloist and Adjunct Professor of Violin at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and as Visiting Professor of Music (Violin) at the Indiana University School of Music. From 2007 to 2017, she served as Artist-in-Residence and Professor of Violin at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. Chee-Yun plays a violin made by Francesco Ruggieri in 1669. It is rumored to have been buried with a previous owner for 200 years and has been profiled by the Washington Post. For additional information and to sign up for her e-newsletter, please visit www.chee-yun.net.
PROGRAM NOTES ANTONIO VIVALDI The Four Seasons for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 8, Nos. 1-4 Composer: born March 4, 1678, Venice; died July 27/28, 1741, Vienna Work composed: published 1725. Dedicated to Count Wenceslas Morzin. World premiere: undocumented These four concertos are arguably the best-known examples of Baroque music, and are some of the most recognizable and most performed classical pieces of all time. They have also been used by numerous companies to sell products, from diamonds to high-end cars to computers. With that level of exposure, it is easy to assume one “knows” Antonio Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, but there is more to these concertos than meets the eye, or the ear. The Four Seasons are part of a larger collection of concertos Vivaldi titled Il cimento dell’armonia e dell’inventione (The contest between harmony and invention). Published in 1725, the composition dates for each concerto are undocumented, but scholars believe the Four Seasons may have been written as early as 1715. Another interesting component of these concertos is their literary and programmatic components. Each concerto is accompanied by a sonnet, possibly written by Vivaldi himself, which gives specific descriptions of the music as it unfolds. As with Johannes Brahms, who often used second-rate poetry as the textual basis of his masterful lieder, so here the literary quality of the sonnets is negligible, but the music they inspired has endured for 300 years. All the concertos employ a conventional Baroque structure of three movements, fast-slow-fast; the fast movements are composed of alternating ritornello (whole ensemble)-solo sections. The slow movements are freer, in the manner of an aria. Spring joyfully welcomes the Goddess of Spring; the first solo’s birdcalls are a natural complement to the structured music of the ritornello. Subsequent solos evoke a flowing brook and a cloudburst. In the slow movement, we hear a gentle lullaby for a sleeping goatherd. A solo viola intones the insistent slow barking of the goatherd’s dog (listen for the “bow wow”). In the third movement, a country dance celebrates the season of renewal. Summer’s slow introduction evokes a hot, humid summer day: “Under the merciless summer sun languishes man and flock; the pine tree burns … ” Lethargic birdcalls are abruptly interrupted by violent thunderstorms. In the slow movement, the soloist (shepherd) cries out in fear for his flock in the blistering heat. While he laments, the ensemble becomes buzzing flies. The final movement morphs into a tremendous hailstorm that destroys the crops. Harvest celebrations herald the coming of Autumn as peasants take part in a Bacchanalian revel. The more they drink, the more they stumble and hiccup before eventually lying down to sleep. The soloist’s music is by turns merry,
fiery, inebriated, and exhausted. The slow movement’s lullaby for the drunken merrymakers features shifting harmonies and slow arpeggios in the harpsichord. In the final movement, everyone gathers for the hunt, highly descriptive music that includes hunting horns, barking dogs, and the pursuit of their quarry. The solo violin’s shivering tremolos usher in Winter. These solos are the most demanding of the four concertos, as both solo and ritornello evoke freezing temperatures and biting winds. In the slow movement, Vivaldi takes us indoors to warm up. The soloist plays a lyrical melody over pizzicato strings, which represent dripping raindrops striking a windowpane. In the final movement, we “walk on the ice with slow steps and go carefully for fear of falling,” heard in the stuttering stop-and-start solo part. Despite incessant north winds and slippery ice, Vivaldi’s winter also “brings joy.”
ASTOR PIAZZOLLA (arr. Desyatnikov) Cuatro estaciones porteñas de Buenos Aires (The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires) Composer: born March 11, 1921, Mar del Plata, Argentina; died July 5, 1992, Buenos Aires Work composed: Piazzolla originally composed the Cuatro estaciones porteñas de Buenos Aires for Melenita de oro, a play by his countryman, Alberto Rodríguez Muñoz. The movements were written individually, between the years 1965 -1970, and Piazzolla did not originally intend them to be performed as a single work. The original version of Cuatro estaciones is scored for Piazzolla’s quintet, which consisted of violin, electric guitar, piano, bass, and bandóneon (a large button accordion). Leonid Desyatnikov created the version for solo violin and string orchestra heard here in 1999 for violinist Gidon Kremer. World premiere: Piazzolla and his quintet played the Cuatro estaciones for the first time at the Teatro Regina in Buenos Aires, on May 19, 1970. “For me, tango was always for the ear rather than the feet.” – Astor Piazzolla Astor Piazzolla and tango are inseparably linked. He took a dance from the back rooms of Argentinean brothels and blurred the lines between popular and “art” music to such an extent that, in the case of his music, such categories no longer apply. In the mid-1950s, Piazzolla went to Paris to study with Nadia Boulanger, one of the 20th century’s most renowned composition teachers. She was unimpressed with the scores he showed her but, after insisting he play her some of his own tangos, she declared, “Astor, this is beautiful. I like it a lot. Here is the true Piazzolla – do not ever leave him.” Piazzolla later called this “the great revelation
of my musical life,” and followed Boulanger’s advice. He took tango’s raw passion and fire, with its powerful rhythms and edgy melodies, and made it an essential part of classical repertoire. The version of the Cuatro estaciones porteñas de Buenos Aires heard on tonight’s program was created in 1999 by Russian composer/arranger Leonid Desyatnikov, at the request of violinist Gidon Kremer. Desyatnikov not only arranged Cuatro estaciones, but also inserted quotes from Antonio Vivaldi’s Four Seasons into Piazzolla’s music. Piazzolla and Desyatnikov give the audience plenty of aural tidbits to savor. In each movement, Desyatnikov’s quotes from Vivaldi are clearly distinct from Piazzolla’s music. Some of the Vivaldi insertions are tongue-in-cheek, as in Verano (Summer), when Desyatnikov includes a short, airy reference to Vivaldi’s Winter, reminding listeners that seasons are reversed in the southern hemisphere. Tango’s musical style requires several string techniques not usually heard in classical music: wailing glissandos, sharp pizzicatos that threaten to break strings, bouncing harmonics and, in particular, a harsh, scratchy, distinctly “unpretty” manner of bowing, sometimes using the wood, rather than the hair, of the bow. © Elizabeth Schwartz
JOHN MURTON, Assistant Conductor Praised for his “musicality and gravitas” on the podium, John Murton is currently the Assistant Conductor of the Fairfax Symphony Orchestra, and a recent winner of the Sofia Sinfonietta International Conducting Competition in Bulgaria. Murton’s work draws upon his background as both a singer and instrumentalist with the goal of bringing the life-affirming, life-changing power of live classical music to as wide an audience as possible. Murton has been a Conducting Fellow with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Allentown Symphony Orchestra, and at the Eastern Music Festival. While studying at the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati he served as the Assistant Conductor of the CCM Philharmonia, conducting numerous performances on and off campus, and in a program alongside Cincinnati Symphony Music Director Louis Langrée. A strong proponent of the power of musical education to change lives, Murton leads the Fairfax Symphony Orchestra’s Link Up educational concerts, providing many students in Fairfax County Public Schools with their first taste of live orchestral music.
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CHRISTOPHER ZIMMERMAN, Music Director Named Music Director of the Fairfax Symphony Orchestra in 2009, Christopher Zimmerman celebrates his fourteenth season with the FSO. Under his leadership, the FSO has received consistent praise from the media. Former Washington Post arts critic, Anne Midgette, wrote: “the Bernstein was a note-perfect end to a very refreshing evening that spoke well for the programming vision of Zimmerman.” Washington Post reporter, Stephen Brookes, commented: “Zimmerman has been injecting adrenalin into this determined ensemble… (and has) made the Fairfax players a serious force to be reckoned with.” Christopher Zimmerman graduated from Yale with a B.A. in Music and received his Master’s from the University of Michigan. He also studied with Seiji Ozawa and Gunther Schuller at Tanglewood, and at the Pierre Monteux School in Maine with Charles Bruck. Zimmerman served as an apprentice to Andrew Davis and the Toronto Symphony and in Prague, as assistant conductor to Vaclav Neumann and the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra.
FAIRFAX SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Christopher Zimmerman | Music Director VIOLIN 1 Allison Bailey, Concertmaster Cristina Constantinescu, Assistant Concertmaster Mia Lee Natalie Trainer Celaya Kirchner Amelia Bailey Sharon Like Shu-ting Yao Carolina Pedroza, FSO Fellow VIOLIN 2 Sarah Berger, Principal Andrew Juola, Assistant Principal Sue Manus Karan Wright Angela Ramirez, FSO Fellow Cindy Crumb Jessica Mun Milena Aradski
VIOLA Caroline Castleton, Principal Cristian Contreras, FSO Fellow Helen Fall Asha Baylor, FSO Fellow Patti Reid Raggie Cover CELLO Natalia Vilchis, Principal Rachel Sexton, Associate Principal Anne Rupert Syneva Colle Brent Davis Kathy Thompson DOUBLE BASS Aaron Clay, Principal Asa Dawson, FSO Fellow John Barger
FSO at George Mason University Saturday, March 9, 2024 | 8pm Center for the Arts
Jandali Clarinet Concerto (World Premiere) Anthony McGill, clarinet Beethoven Symphony No. 3 “Eroica”
Saturday, May 18, 2024 | 8pm GMU Harris Theatre Clyne “Dance” for cello and orchestra Inbal Segev, cello Stravinsky Orchestral Suite Pulcinella Suite
Sunday, June 9, 2024 | 4pm
Center for the Arts at Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue
Boyer Rhapsody in Red, White, and Blue Jeffrey Biegel, piano Beach “Gaelic” Symphony
Tickets and more information at www.FAIRFAXSYMPHONY.org
2023-2024 PHILANTHROPIC SUPPORT The Fairfax Symphony gratefully acknowledges the generosity of the following contributions received within the past twelve months as of February 1, 2024. Thank you for dedicating these vital gifts to the music and education programs we work so passionately to create and share with our community. GOVERNMENT ARTSFAIRFAX City of Fairfax Commission on the Arts County of Fairfax National Endowment for the Arts Virginia Commission for the Arts FOUNDATIONS AND CHARITABLE FUNDS Paul M. Angell Family Foundation Charles Delmar Foundation Clark-Winchcole Foundation Nelson J. & Katherine Friant-Post Foundation Richard & Caroline T. Gwathemy Memorial Trust Mary & Daniel Loughran Foundation TD BANK Foundation The Rea Charitable Trust CORPORATIONS Hilton Fairfax Goodwin Living McKeever Services The Mather Dominion Energy NOVEC Priority One Services, Inc. SYMPHONY SOCIETY CONCERTO CLUB PLATINUM Mr. and Mrs. Thomas M. Brownell Pepe Figueroa Joyce L. Hanson Dr. Mark Head Martin Poretsky
Stephen and Mary Preston Laura and Ervin Walter GOLD The Timothy Evan Owens Memorial Chair Steve and Debbie Cohen Mr. Sean Foohey John Lockhart Eric Moore In memory of Richard Benedict Sherman & Etta Mae Thomas Sherman Sally and Rucj Uffelman SILVER Anonymous Ms. Esther Beaumont Nina and David Breen Janine and Curt Buser Mr. and Mrs. Edward Caress Daniel and Carol Graifer Mr. and Mrs. C. David Hartmann Mr. and Mrs. Glenn A. Hemer Robert and Maryanne Jones David & Lenka Lundsten Ms. Joetta Miller Mr. William A. Nerenberg David and Bridget Ralston James and Miriam Ross Mr. and Mrs. David Seida RHAPSODY CIRCLE Anonymous William Bell James and Jane Bangarra Mr. and Mrs. James Bongarra, Jr. Bill and Dorothy Brandel Dr. Karen Detweiler
Donald and Ruth Drees Frank and Lynn Gayer Eric and Joyce Hanson Robert W. Henry Mr. Kurt P. Jaeger Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Kaye Mr. and Mrs. Anthony Kerr Anje Kim Dr. and Mrs. Per Kullstam John and Jeanette Mason Mr. and Mrs. Matt Mattice Joetta Miller Judith Nitsche Dr. and Mrs. Eugene Overton Sandra Lee Stoddard Linda Vitello Michael Wendt David and Deborah Winston, In Memory of May Winston SONATA CIRCLE Ms. Pamela Charin Christopher Forsberg Anthony and Lucy Griffin Christopher Gohrband Gareth and Tân Habel Mr. & Mrs. Eric Hanson Spencer Howell Mr. and Mrs. Keith Highfill Mr. and Mrs. Wade Hinkle Mr. and Mrs. David J. Lynch Helen Noyes Mr. Justice Percell Ms. C. Carole Richard Deborah Roudebush Mary Jane Spiro Mr. Michael W. Stoltz Dr. Jack and Mrs. Jane Underhill Timothy N. Wade Roy and Margaret Wagner Mr. William Walderman
SERENADE CIRCLE Dr. Charles Allen Ms. Gay B. Baker Mr. and Mrs. Ronald Baker David Black Mr. and Mrs. James Bland Donald Bieniewicz Ms. Patricia Boots Beverly and Terry Boschert Kathryn and Tony Bovill Patricia G. Brady Judith and Peter Braham Bill and Dorothy Brandel Louis and Monika Brenner David W. Briggs and John F. Benton Mr. Eric Brissman Mr. Robert Brown Judith Buchino Mary L. Burns Marvin Burge Mr. W. Carlson Cedric Chang Ms.Tzu-yi Chen Mr. and Mrs. Brian H. Chollar Douglas Cobb Ms. Helen M. Conlon Ms. Sandy Cromp Mr. and Mrs. David Cross Isabelle Cummings Karin and Michael Custy Ms. Barbara d’Andrade In honor of Ms. Sarah Daniel Ms. Alice DeKany Catherine Dettmer Dr. and Mrs. John S. Dillon Judy Donnelly Marilyn Dorn Jean Mitchell Duggan Colleen Dutson Karen Eaton Peggy and Arye Ephrath Jean Esswein Brian and Marian Ewell Mr. John A. Farris Ms. Jenifer Fisch Wilford Forbush Ms. Dorien Garman Jennifer Gitner Allen S. Greenspan Mr. and Mrs. Hardy Hargreaves Frederic Harwood In memory of
R. Dennis McArver Joan Lisante Hood and James Hood Mr. and Mrs.Ted Hudson Mr. and Mrs. Fredrick G. Hutchison Geraldine Inge Mr. Edward Jarett Mr. and Mrs. Christopher Jehn Nelson Joyner Benjamin Justesen Ms. Carol Kearns Mr. and Mrs. Philip Kieffer Bill and Priscilla Kirby Frank and Susan Kohn Greta Kreuz Charles Kuehn Dr. and Mrs. Frederick Kuhl James Langmesser Dara and William Laughlin Anne Loughlin Mr. and Mrs. David J. Lynch Catherine Lyon and Stuart Kantor Susan Manus Barrie March Alison Marr Mr. Scott Marschall In Memory of Joseph G. Marshall, M.D. Kolleen Martin Mr. and Mrs.Timothy J. McCarthy Joel Meyerson Mr. Robert L. Miller Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth P. Mittelholtz Virginia and Marion Moser Jean Murphy Peggy Newhall Diane Nolin Col. and Mrs.Tommy T. Osborne Anne and Jim Painter Catherine Pauls Mr. and Mrs. Ron Petrie Mitzi and Dan Rak Mr. Richard L. Renfield Rolland Roup Stephen Sanborn Mr. and Mrs. Robert E. Schaub Catherine Schifferli Gayle Schlenker
Ms. Roslyn Schmidt Mr. and Mrs. Karl W. Schornagel Michael Schwartz Ms. Doris Seaton Neil and Beverly Seiden Mr. and Mrs. Robert Seraphin Kathleen Shultz Mr. and Mrs. James Simpson Sydney Smith Nigel Smyth Dorothy Staebler John and Pamela Stark Kristina Stewart Agnes D. Stoertz Mr. John Strong Frederick and Marjorie Stuhrke Mr. and Mrs. David Sukites Reede and Jane Taylor William Tompkins Alton P. and Alice W. Tripp Ms. Barbara Tuset Mr. and Mrs. Michael Twedt Jane Underhill Ms. Shelley Vance Janet Vanderveer Mr. and Mrs. Stephen Vandivere Andrew and Myrna Wahlquist Ms. Diane Wakely-Park Robert and Charlene Ward Mr. and Mrs. Egon Weck Mr. and Mrs. Larry N. Wellman Harry and Sandra Wilbur Ms. Jane Woods Mr. Emile L. Zimmermann In-Kind Fairfax City Self Storage
FAIRFAX SYMPHONY BOARD OF DIRECTORS Jose “Pepe” Figueroa, Chairman Priority One Services
Thomas Brownell, Secretary Holland & Knight LLP
John Lockhart, Treasurer
Eric Moore American University
Thomas Murphy, General Counsel Jackson Lewis P.C.
Leland Schwartz Author and Publisher
HONORARY BOARD The Honorable Sharon Bulova
Dr. Gerald L. Gordon
The Honorable Thomas M. Davis
Julien Patterson
FSO ARTISTIC AND ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF Jonathan Kerr, Executive Director
Celeste Duplaa, Link Up Program Manager
Lisa LaCamera, Chief Operating Officer
Suzy Dawson, Accountant
Susan Petroff, Director of Development
Cynthia Crumb, Personnel Manager
John Murton, Assistant Conductor and Fellowship Program Coordinator
Wendi Hatton, Librarian
Christopher Zimmerman, Music Director
Timothy Wade, Stage Manager Heather Rhine, Graphic Designer
The FSO is supported in part by the Virginia Commission for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, ArtsFairfax and the County of Fairfax.
Fairfax Symphony Orchestra • P.O. Box 2019, Merrifield, VA 22116 703-563-1990 • www.fairfaxsymphony.org info@fairfaxsymphony.org
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