Wisconsin Union Theater - Rachel Barton Pine with UW Symphony Orchestra

Great History. Bright Future.

Rachel Barton Pine, Violin with

UW Symphony Orchestra Kenneth Woods, Conductor

www.uniontheater.wisc.edu | 608-265-ARTS 800 Langdon St., Madison, WI 53706 Rachel Barton Pine with UW Symphony Orchestra

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PROGR A M The Gale of Life

Phillip Sawyers (b. 1951)

Concerto in D Major for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 77

Rachel Barton Pine, violin Allegro non troppo Adagio Allegro giocoso, ma non troppo vivace

Johannes Brahms (1833 – 1897)

~Intermission~ Symphony No. 5 in D Minor, Op. 47 Moderato Allegretto Largo Allegro non troppo

Dmitri Shostakovich (1906 – 1975)

Presented by the Wisconsin Union Directorate Performing Arts Committee, directed this year by Annie Wright. Media sponsor is WORT, 89.9 FM.

UW-Madison students: to join the Wisconsin Union Directorate Theater Committee and help program our upcoming events, please contact Annie Wright at ahwright2@wisc.edu

The Woods portion is sponsored by the university’s Vilas Trust Wondering what’s new at the School of Music? Subscribe to our blog and get the latest scoop: http://uwmadisonschoolofmusic.wordpress.com/ For weekly School of Music concert listings, subscribe to receive announcements: join-musicdigest@lists.wisc.edu

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UW SYMPHONY ORCHESTR A VIOLIN 1 **Eleanor Bartsch Peter Miliczky Nathan Giglierano Keisuke Yamamoto Ami Yamamoto Thomas Bewell Alice Huang Monica Chou Leland Pan Jane Lee Samantha Kahl Matthew Lee Katherine Jiang VIOLIN 2 *Elliot Stalter Maia Gumnit Anthony Cudzinovic Amy Matzen Lydia Balge Hannah Muehlbauer Frances Shepherd Christian Blank Rebecca Jin Jen Stenson Ashley Kasim Annie Yao Nils Hjortnaes Beth Paradisin Lizzie Grams Zuodian Hu VIOLA *Micah Behr Sharon Tenhundfeld Karen Hill Virginia Haupt Brieanne Tingley Laura Gildenstern Margaret Hietpas Alexandra Cohn Sofi LaLonde Nathaniel Corey

CELLO *Philip Bergman Kasey Wasson Tadhg Sauvey Zou Zou Robidoux Emma Downing Tori Rogers Caroline Carlson Natalie Melk Erin McGaughey Andrew Maslawski BASS *Elizabeth Clawson Cooper Schiegel Gregory Smail Mark Ziegler Nicolas Bradley Hannah Voigt FLUTE *Elspeth Hayden Nicole Tuma April Kath

HORN *Kyle Pompei Amanda Fry Kayla Niehaus Dan Hively TRUMPET *Kyle Erickson Brian De Vere Mark Hatfield TROMBONE *Tyler Peterson Tom Kelly Alan Carr TUBA Jacob Grewe OBOE *Allison Kelley Youngjin Ki Felisha Jones HARP Jenny DeRoche

CLARINET *Kai-Ju Ho Eric Ellis Pedro Garcia III

PIANO / CELESTA Sara Giusti

BASSOON *Ross Duncan Erik Chapman CONTRABASSOON Nora Hickey

TIMPANI / PERCUSSION *Sam Moon Elena Wittneben Jacob Wolbert Jacob Bicknase ORCHESTRA LIBRARIANS Elizabeth Clawson Jacob Wolbert Max Spiewak **Concertmaster *Principal

Rachel Barton Pine with UW Symphony Orchestra

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ABOUT THE MUSIC The Gale of Life (2006) Notes by Philip Sawyers The idea to write a concert overture came shortly after the first performances of my first symphony where, it was suggested, the short and breathless Scherzo movement would make an ideal concert opener on its own. I tried to follow the request for a fast, energetic piece, and drew some inspiration from, as always with me, those great masters of the past, in particular those extraordinary works of Berlioz in the same genre. The title is taken from a stanza of poetry, ‘On Wenlock Edge’ from ‘A Shropshire Lad’ by that quintessentially English of poets, A E Housman.

‘There, like the wind through woods in riot, Through him the gale of life blew high; The tree of man was never quiet: Then ‘twas the Roman, now ‘tis I.’ The music opens with the full orchestra announcing the main ideas, the first two chords a direct self-quotation from the finale of the first symphony. From these, and smaller motivic units, the music continually develops, growing and transforming, although the motifs never lose their original identities completely. As with ‘gales’ real or metaphoric, the energy ebbs and flows and there is a central slow section which begins in strings and glockenspiel in a more reflective mood. This section gradually builds in intensity until a reprise of the very opening is heard which then leads to an even greater exploration and development of the original material. Although not tonal in a traditionally diatonic sense, the music is built around tonal centers, and I hope this helps give the piece a convincing sense of purpose and direction.

Concerto for Violin, op. 77 Notes by Rachel Barton Pine When Joseph Joachim and Johannes Brahms met in 1853, the twenty-one-year-old Joachim was already an established violin virtuoso and composer. The extremely gifted Brahms, two years younger, was virtually unknown. They quickly became close friends and began a musical interchange that lasted throughout their lives.

Brahms and Joachim challenged each other constantly, trading counterpoint exercises along with their correspondence. In 1853, they roomed together in Göttingen, and Brahms began to study orchestration with Joachim. Joachim served as a mentor to Brahms, introducing him to Schumann and other leading musicians of the day.

Throughout their friendship, Joachim was unwavering in his support of Brahms’s compositions. He performed Brahms’s chamber works, premiering many of them, and conducted Brahms’s symphonies. Joachim was particularly fond of the Brahms Violin Concerto. He described the work, which Brahms dedicated to him, as one of “high artistic value” that roused in him “a peculiarly strong feeling of interest” (Joseph Joachim and Andreas Moser, Violinschule, 1902-05).

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Brahms began composing his Violin Concerto in the summer of 1878, during a vacation on Lake Wörther in Pörtschach, Carinthia (Austria). On August 22, Brahms sent the manuscript of the violin part to Joachim with this note: “Naturally I wish to ask you to correct it. I thought you ought to have no excuse - neither respect for the music being too good nor the pretext that orchestrating it would not merit the effort. Now I shall be satisfied if you say a word and perhaps write in several: difficult, awkward, impossible, etc.” Thus began one of the most intriguing musical exchanges in history.

By the time Joachim premiered the concerto in Leipzig on January 1, 1879, the piece had undergone considerable changes. Two middle movements had been removed and replaced by a newly written Adagio, resulting in the three-movement concerto we know today. (Both of the original middle movements are now lost. Many scholars think that the Scherzo may have been converted into the Allegro appassionato of the Second Piano Concerto.) The score was passed back and forth at least a half dozen times before the premiere, and the two friends’ debate over revisions, which is clearly evident in the surviving manuscript, has been left for posterity. In the end, Brahms incorporated most of Joachim’s suggested orchestral changes but considerably fewer of his revisions to the solo violin part.

The first movement of the Brahms Concerto follows the example of both Joachim and Beethoven in integrating the solo part with the orchestral writing. Often the solo violin plays counter-melody while other instruments play the main material. Brahms left the composition of the cadenza to the performer. Joachim wrote his own cadenza, which remains the one most frequently performed. There is some evidence that Brahms had a hand in its creation. Brahms wrote to Elizabet von Herzogenberg of an early performance, “the Cadenza sounded so beautiful at the actual concert that the public applauded it into the start of the Coda.”

The Brahms Concerto is often described as “masculine,” due in large part to its robust first movement. I am continually awed by the majestic and inexorable qualities of such sections as the opening solo and the broken octaves in the development. If the Beethoven Concerto captures the beauty of God’s creation, the Brahms Concerto conveys its magnitude and power.

Many in the first generation of violinists exposed to the concerto did not recognize its brilliance. Referring to the second movement, Spanish virtuoso Pablo de Sarasate complained that he had to stand on stage while the oboe played the only good melody in the whole piece. This comment illustrates the difference between the straightforward melodic concept of the Franco-Belgian virtuoso school and the more complex treatment employed by Brahms and his musical compatriots. Simple in structure, this movement contains some of the most profoundly beautiful music ever written for the violin.

Brahms drew inspiration for the third movement from the Finale of Joachim’s “Hungarian” Concerto. Here Brahms’s rhythmic vitality and melodic exuberance evoke the same mood as do other Hungarian-inspired works, but without relying on gypsy tunes or the gypsy scale. Unlike the headlong rush that concludes the Joachim Concerto, the poco piu presto at the end of the Brahms calls for a march-like, steady beat, and even implies a slight ritard in the final bars. The concerto ends with D-major chords that confer a feeling of genuine, well-earned triumph.

Rachel Barton Pine with UW Symphony Orchestra

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I have been fascinated with the Brahms Concerto since my earliest violin lessons. I began studying it when I was 14, and it rapidly became a mainstay of my repertoire. It was with the Brahms Concerto that I won several of my international prizes and made many of my debuts in Europe, America, and Israel. It remains one of the most fulfilling works I perform.

My teacher in Berlin, Werner Scholz, was a student of Gustav Havemann, who studied with Joachim. I feel fortunate to have gained knowledge about the Brahms Concerto from one so close to the original source. My study of the Brahms was augmented also by reading Joachim’s essay in his Violinschule in which he laid out how he felt the Brahms concerto should be played.

Symphony No. 5, op.47 Notes by Daniel Cross Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) was one of the great Soviet composers of the 20th century. Throughout his career, he saw both dramatic advances in his popularity as well as abrupt condemnation. This cycle did not happen just once, but several times.

He saw both great successes and complete failures, depending upon the direction the political wind blew. As a prominent and successful composer, the eye of the Soviet government was ever on Shostakovich, and the requirements and warnings issued to him were both unpredictable and authoritative. He issued many plainly patriotic statements throughout his life, claiming his devotion to “the development of socialism in my country,” but his music seems to our ears to possibly contain oblique references of a rebellious nature. His true political beliefs are hard to know, since the official declarations made by him were no doubt coerced on some level. His music is unmistakably Russian in character, but is also filled with possibly veiled statements on the state of oppression in which it was produced.

The premiere of his Fifth Symphony in 1937 provided an opportunity for the composer to exhibit his politically rehabilitated viewpoints, and to show that he was an unmistakably pro-Soviet cultural figure. It also provided the audience with an opportunity for the expression of emotion that was both created and prohibited by their government’s oppressive regime. The slow movement provoked open weeping from the audience, and there was a half-hour period of applause at the symphony’s end. Whether the audience’s intense reactions were solely derived from the music or from the ability to publicly react emotionally to the current state of their society is a question worth pondering.

The opening movement begins in an ominous, almost violent mood. The strings begin the music, playing a canonical figure utilizing leaps of minor sixths and thirds. The dotted eighth-sixteenth rhythms give it a jagged, stressful feeling. The rhythm becomes more melodic and songlike, as the violins sound a gentle but hauntingly eerie melody.

These two themes contain the main musical material for the entire first movement, as much of what follows is Shostakovich’s creative manipulation of these subjects. The tense, quiet slowness of the movement is abruptly changed when the horns begin a slow, march-like theme in their low register. Other brass sections quickly enter, restating this new theme. Energy and tension build as the various sections of the orchestra all 6

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participate in playing fragments of the melody or supporting lines. As you listen, try to find the sections playing melodic material derived from the very beginning of the movement. It is almost always happening in some form! The movement with calmness and a certain level of uncertainty.

The second movement contains waltz subjects of a satirical-sounding nature. The music of this movement is raucous and fun, but filled with underlying tension. The low strings begin the movement with a rhythmic, energetic subject. An interjection by the horns leads to woodwind solos. Violins transition us into another subject, and the orchestra eventually builds into an entrance of the horns. Shostakovich uses the brass sections effectively in this movement, inserting them at brief intervals to interrupt melodic subjects, leading to new ones. Several different woodwind solos are separated and punctuated by bursts of full orchestration. Pizzicato strings play the melody at one point, assisted by growling bassoons. The music is unquestionably light and fun, but its satirical undercurrents and minor-key tonality give it a curiously tense feeling. It is as if the Soviet government is ordering people to dance and be merry, but instead of genuine smiles the dancers are wearing frightened grimaces. This forced, almost mocking happiness underscores the entire movement.

The third movement is in stark contrast to the opening two. Departing from the sinister and rowdy, brass-heavy opening movements, the Largo is a chilling, icily calm song of mourning. Shostakovich contours the movement with several small climaxes along the way. The movement begins with the strings playing an emotional theme made harmonically rich by frequent use of dissonant suspensions. Solo flutes and harp take the melody, passing it first to the basses and then back to the entire string section.

The strings produce a haunting, emotional peak, and upon its subsiding, the oboe plays a long solo over violin tremolos. The melody is passed into the solo clarinet and eventually returned to the flute. A group of woodwinds briefly play a subject that feels just a bit lighter, only to have the strings resume melodic roles in the same character as the beginning. Percussion joins the middle strings at the climactic section, playing a melody redolent of a Russian hymn. Shostakovich contrasts his orchestration with this movement, writing no parts for the brass. Instead, the strings are divided into different sections, with three violin parts, two viola, two cello, and the basses remaining unison.

Harp and celesta play a prominent role in this movement, contributing to the haunting, eerie aura that permeates it.

The finale opens with a roar of timpani and brass, leading to a sinister march led by the low brass. Shostakovich uses the full scope of instrumentation, tempo and dynamics, taking us from frantically fast sections with very thick orchestration into calm, peaceful solo statements with minimal accompaniment. From the initial storm of the first part of the movement, the music subsides at one point into a soft rhythmic pattern in the strings with soaring, ethereal horn solos above. Gradually this leads to a resumption of the violent outbursts of orchestration similar to the first two movements. In the coda section, a tense and dissonant brass chord eventually bursts into Major tonality. This process is repeated, and the work concludes with a feeling of genuine triumph.

Rachel Barton Pine with UW Symphony Orchestra

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N O T E S A B O U T T H E V I O L I N B Y R AC H E L B A R TO N P I N E The violin I use for most of my concerts is known as the “ex-Soldat.” It was made in 1742

by Joseph Guarneri “del Gesu.”

Guarneri and Stradivari are considered to be the two greatest violin makers of all time.

“Del Gesu” violins have been the preferred instruments of many famous violinists including Paganini, Ysaye, Kreisler, Heifetz, Stern, and Zukerman. Many of these violins have special histories; here is the story of mine: In 1875, an extremely talented young musician named Marie Soldat (1863-1955) decided to give up the violin to develop her talents in piano and voice. Hearing Joseph Joachim perform in Graz three years later, however, inspired her to return to the violin, and to study with him.

Marie Soldat was introduced to Brahms at Pörtschach during a summer tour of Austrian spas in 1879. After hearing her play, he arranged a benefit performance to help pay for her studies. Brahms also gave her money for a train ticket to join him and Joachim in Salzburg. When she began to play the Mendelssohn Concerto with Brahms at the piano, the strings on her violin snapped. Joachim handed her his Stradivari, and her performance was so impressive that Joachim accepted her into his class at the Hochschule für Musik in Berlin.

Soldat (later Soldat-Röger) became a member of Brahms’s inner circle and a regular chamber music partner. Their friendship continued throughout his life. The famed pianist and conductor Hans von Bülow once introduced her as “Brahms’s understudy.”

Soldat was widely considered one of the greatest violinists of her day. She studied the Brahms Concerto with both Joachim and Brahms, and it became her signature piece.

She introduced it to many European cities, including Vienna in 1885, with Hans Richter conducting the Vienna Philharmonic. She gave it its second performance in Berlin, with Joachim conducting.

Brahms selected this violin for Soldat in 1897 and arranged for a wealthy Viennese businessman to purchase it and loan it to her for her lifetime. The Strad magazine, in 1910, remarked that “…[it] bears most of the characteristics we have learnt to associate with this maker in a remarkable degree. The tone is of extraordinary beauty, and suits the violinist’s virile style admirably.… The tone is full and rich, and noticeably deep on the G string. All the outlines of the fiddle seem to breathe life and strength.”

I like to think that Brahms chose this violin, in part, because its voice represents most closely what he envisioned for his music.

After Marie Soldat passed away, her violin was bought by a collector and not heard in the world for many years. I have been using it since 2002 when I recorded the Brahms and Joachim Concertos with the Chicago Symphony. It is a great privilege to have such a magnificent instrument as my musical partner and it is a great joy to share its voice with you.

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ABOUT THE ARTISTS Rachel Barton Pine In both art and life, violinist Rachel Barton Pine has an extraordinary ability to connect with people.

Celebrated as a leading interpreter of great classical works, her performances combine her innate gift for emotional communication and her scholarly fascination with historical research. She plays with passion and conviction across an extensive repertoire. Audiences are thrilled by her dazzling technique, lustrous tone, and infectious joy in music-making.

Pine’s 2013-2014 season includes performances with orchestras from Alaska to New Mexico and Vancouver to Montreal. She will continue her annual residency with the Sacramento Philharmonic and perform the complete Mozart violin concertos in subsequent evenings with City Music Cleveland. In March 2014, she will premiere a new concerto by the Arab-American composer Mohammed Fairouz with the Alabama Symphony. Throughout the year she will play concertos by Berg, Barber, Brahms, Bruch, Glazunov, Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky, and Vivaldi. Pine will offer recitals at Cultura Artistica Itaim in Sao Paulo, Brazil, a performance of the complete Paganini Caprices at the Northwest Bach Festival, and a program called “Old World, New World” with the cellist Mike Block.

In fall, 2013, Cedille will issue her album of the Mendelssohn and Schumann Violin Concertos and the Beethoven Romances performed with the Göttinger Symphonie Orchester with Christoph-Mathias Mueller conducting. In 2014, Sir Neville Marriner, the Academy of St Martin in the Fields and Pine will celebrate the release of their recording of the five Mozart Violin concertos, as well as Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante for Violin, Viola and Orchestra with young violist Matthew Lipman.

Pine has appeared as soloist with many of the world’s most prestigious ensembles, including the Chicago, Montreal, Baltimore, and Vienna Symphonies; the Philadelphia Orchestra; the Mozarteum, Scottish, and Israel Chamber Orchestras; the Royal Philharmonic; and the Netherlands Radio Kamer Filharmonie. She has worked with such renowned conductors as Charles Dutoit, Zubin Mehta, Erich Leinsdorf, Neeme Järvi and Marin Alsop. She has performed all 24 Paganini Caprices live in Los Angeles, Chicago, New York City, Washington D.C. and at Ravinia.

Pine’s prolific discography of 25 recordings includes her performance of the Glazunov Violin Concerto with the Russian National Orchestra, conducted by José Serebrier, which is featured on Glazunov Complete Concertos on Warner Classics. Her Violin Lullabies performed with pianist Matthew Hagle and released on Cedille Records debuted at number one on the Billboard classical chart. For Beethoven & Clement Violin Concertos, recorded with The Royal Philharmonic conducted by Serebrier, Pine presented the world-premiere recording of Clement’s Violin Concerto. Her Brahms and Joachim Violin Concertos was recorded with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and conductor Carlos Kalmar.

The author of her own cadenzas to many of the works she performs, Pine became the only living artist to join musicians like Fritz Kreisler and Jascha Heifetz in Carl Fischer’s Masters Collection series with the publication of The Rachel Barton Pine Collection, a collection of original compositions, arrangements, and cadenzas penned or arranged by Pine.

Pine’s Rachel Elizabeth Barton Foundation assists young artists through projects Rachel Barton Pine with UW Symphony Orchestra

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including the Instrument Loan Program, Grants for Education and Career, Global HeartStrings (supporting musicians in developing countries), and a curricular series in development with the University of Michigan: The String Student’s Library of Music by Black Composers.

Pine resides in Chicago. She performs on the Joseph Guarnerius del Gesu (Cremona 1742), known as the “ex-Soldat,” on loan from her patron. rachelbartonpine.com Kenneth Woods Author, conductor and cellist Kenneth Woods has worked with many orchestras including the National Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic, Cincinnati Symphony, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Budapest Festival Orchestra and the State of Mexico Symphony Orchestra. In 2013, he takes up a new position as Artistic Director and conductor of the English Symphony Orchestra’s subscription concerts. In 1993, Ken Woods received a master’s degree in music from UW-Madison; he is also an alumnus of the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestra. http://kennethwoods.net/blog1/

MIRO STRING QUARTET FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2014, 8PM

GENE POKORNY

WITH UW SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA SUNDAY, MARCH 9, 7:30PM

INON BARNATAN FRIDAY, APRIL 18, 8PM

MILLS HALL

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O T H E R S H OW S T H I S S E A S O N Isthmus Jazz Series Papo Vazquez Thursday, November 14, 2013, 8:00pm, Music Hall Travel Adventure Film Series Cuba: The Inside Story with Karin Muller Monday, November 18 and Tuesday, November 19, 7:30pm The Marquee, Union South Travel Adventure Film Series Majestic Montana with Steve Gonser Monday, February 17, and Tuesday, February 18, 2014, 7:30pm The Marquee, Union South Miró String Quartet One of the best chamber music groups in the US, Miro combines “explosive vigor and technical finesse” into masterful performances.

Friday, February 21, 2014, 8:00pm Mills Hall Gene Pokorny with UW Symphony Orchestra The Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s tubist brings his big sounds to Madison with the UW Symphony Orchestra.

Sunday, March 9, 2014, 7:30pm, Mills Hall Inon Barnatan, piano “A true poet of the keyboard,” Inon Barnatan is one of the hottest up-and-coming classical piano performers.

Friday, April 18, 2014, 8:00pm, Mills Hall Travel Adventure Film Series Lost Worlds of the Middle East with Rick Ray Monday, April 21, and Tuesday, April 22, 2014, 7:30pm The Marquee, Union South Keyboard Conversations® with Jeffrey Siegel: Mistresses and Masterpieces Tuesday, May 6, 2014, 7:30pm, Mills Hall and much more! See www.uniontheater.wisc.edu

Rachel Barton Pine with UW Symphony Orchestra

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