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On Today’s Program S. SUNG Fanfare BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor, Opus 37 I. Allegro con brio II. Largo III. Rondo: Allegro BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 6 in F major, Opus 68 (Pastoral) I. Awakening of cheerful feelings on arriving in the country: Allegro non troppo II. Scene by the brook: Andante molto mosso III. Merry assembly of country folk: Allegro IV. Thunderstorm: Allegro V. Shepherd’s song; Happy, grateful feelings after the storm: Allegretto
ABOUT THE MUSIC
S. SUNG FA N FA R E
STELLA SUNG COMPOSER (b. 1959)
• Stella Sung is an award-winning American composer who has composed for orchestra, ballet, opera, film, and multimedia. • Sung has served as Composer-in-Residence with the Dayton (OH) Performing Arts Alliance; was the first Composer-in-Residence for the Orlando (FL) Philharmonic Orchestra; and is currently Composer-in-Residence for Dance Alive National Ballet in Gainesville, FL. • Sung has a Texas connection, having received her Doctor of Musical Arts (piano performance) from The University of Texas at Austin. She is currently Professor of Music at University of Central Florida. • Composed in 1993, Fanfare for Brass Ensemble was commissioned and premiered by the Dayton Symphony Orchestra.
ABOUT THE MUSIC
B E E T H OV E N PIANO CONCERTO NO. 3
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN
COMPOSER (1770–1827) • Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 was premiered on April 5, 1803 with Beethoven as soloist. The performance also included premieres of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 2 and his oratorio, Christ on the Mount of Olives. • The concerto was influenced by Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 24, which Beethoven greatly admired, and he set his work in the same key of C minor. Despite this influence, the concerto ultimately breaks free from Mozart’s model, coursing with a sense of power and fire that’s all Beethoven. In this sense, the concerto is often seen as a bridge between the more purely Mozartian style of Beethoven’s earlier concertos and his own personal style. • The end of the 18th century brought an expansion of the piano keyboard beyond the 5-octave range. Beethoven’s Third Concerto makes use of this expansion, calling for the pianist to play a high G. This concerto is thought to be the first piano piece ever to use that particular note.
ABOUT THE MUSIC
B E E T H OV E N S Y M P H O N Y N O . 6 , PA S T O R A L
• Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6, Pastoral, was premiered on December 22, 1808 in a monumental four-hour concert that also included the premiere of his Fifth Symphony and Fourth Piano Concerto, among other works. • The Pastoral Symphony is an homage to nature, subject matter close to Beethoven’s heart. An avid nature-lover, the composer drew inspiration from regular outdoor walks and trips to the countryside. In an 1810 letter, he wrote: “No one can love the country as much as I do. For surely woods, trees, and rocks produce the echo that man desires to hear.” • The Pastoral Symphony stands unique in Beethoven’s output as one of his few works containing programmatic content (music intended to evoke an image, scene, or story), although as Beethoven wrote in his program notes for the premiere, the work represented “more the expression of feeling than painting.” • The Symphony has five movements instead of the standard four, and Beethoven provided each with a descriptive title (included on the program-listing page). The Pastoral Symphony represents some of the composer’s most charming and life-affirming music and brims with colorful, fun touches: listen for woodwind “bird calls” at the end of movement two, a good-natured parody of an amateur band in movement three, and one of music’s most fearsome and realistic thunderstorms in movement four.
ARTIST BIOS FABIEN GABEL CONDUCTOR Hailed as “boldly evocative,” Fabien Gabel is recognized internationally as one of the stars of a new generation of conductors, having established a broad repertoire ranging from core symphonic works to contemporary new works and championing lesser-known works by French composers. His conducting has taken him across the globe to lead top orchestras including the Cleveland Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Houston Symphony, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester, Seoul Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra D.C., Frankfurt Radio Symphony, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Tonkünstler Orchester, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Warsaw Philharmonic, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonie Orchester, Orchestre National de France, and Danish National Symphony Orchestra. His 2020–21 season includes debuts with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in addition to returns to the Houston Symphony, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Deutsche Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, and City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Following his successful eight year tenure as Music Director of Orchestre Symphonique de Québec, Gabel returns to the orchestra for several programs as Music Advisor. In France he gives concerts with Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestre Philharmonique du Capitole de Toulouse and Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo, and appears twice with Orchestre Français des Jeunes, of which he is Music Director.
ARTIST BIOS
Gabel has worked with the world’s most formidable soloists including Emanuel Ax, Seong-Jin Cho, Gidon Kremer, Christian Tetzlaff, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Alina Pogostkina, Julian Steckel, Johannes Moser, Antonio Meneses, Marc-André Hamelin, Beatrice Rana, Gautier Capuçon, Simone Lamsma, Xavier de Maistre, and Bertrand Chamayou, and singers such as Anne Sophie Von Otter, Michael Schade, Petra Lang, Jennifer Larmore, Measha Brueggergosman, Danielle de Niese, Natalie Dessay, and MarieNicole Lemieux. Gabel first attracted international attention in 2004 winning the Donatella Flick competition in London, which subsequently led to his appointment as the LSO’s assistant conductor for two seasons. Since then, the LSO has engaged him regularly as a guest conductor. Born in Paris into a family of accomplished musicians, Gabel began studying trumpet at the age of six, honing his skills at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris, which awarded him a First Prize in trumpet in 1996, and later at the Musik Hochschule of Karlsruhe. He went on to play in several Parisian orchestras under the direction of prominent conductors such as Pierre Boulez, Sir Colin Davis, Riccardo Muti, Seiji Ozawa, Simon Rattle, and Bernard Haitink. In 2002, Fabien Gabel pursued his interest in conducting at the Aspen Summer Music Festival, where he studied with David Zinman, who invited him to appear as a guest conductor at the Festival in 2009. He has worked as an assistant to Bernard Haitink and Sir Colin Davis. In 2020, Gabel was awarded the rank of Chevalier (Knight) by the Conseil de l’Ordes des Arts et des Lettres, a recognition given by France’s Ministry of Culture.
ARTIST BIOS YEFIM BRONFMAN PIANO Internationally recognized as one of today’s most acclaimed and admired pianists, Yefim Bronfman stands among a handful of artists regularly sought by festivals, orchestras, conductors, and recital series. His commanding technique, power, and exceptional lyrical gifts are consistently acknowledged by the press and audiences alike. In the wake of world-wide cancellations beginning in Spring 2020 his 2020–21 season began in January with the Concertgebouworkest, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, and London’s Philharmonia with appearances in Spain, Germany, Paris, Zurich, and London. In North America he can be heard in recital in San Francisco, La Jolla, and Aliso Viejo and with orchestras in Atlanta, Los Angeles, and Montreal. Mr. Bronfman works regularly with an illustrious group of conductors, including Daniel Barenboim, Herbert Blomstedt, Semyon Bychkov, Riccardo Chailly, Christoph von Dohnányi, Gustavo Dudamel, Charles Dutoit, Daniele Gatti, Valery Gergiev, Alan Gilbert, Mariss Jansons, Vladimir Jurowski, James Levine, Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti, Andris Nelsons, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Sir Simon Rattle, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Jaap Van Zweden, Franz Welser-Möst, and David Zinman. Summer engagements have regularly taken him to the major festivals of Europe and the US. Always keen to explore chamber music repertoire, his partners have included Pinchas Zukerman, Martha Argerich, Magdalena Kožená, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Emmanuel Pahud, and many others. In 1991 he gave a series of joint recitals with Isaac Stern in Russia, marking Mr. Bronfman’s first public performances there since his emigration to Israel at age 15. Widely praised for his solo, chamber, and orchestral recordings, Mr. Bronfman has been nominated for six Grammy Awards, winning in
1997 with Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Los Angeles Philharmonic for their recording of the three Bartók Piano Concerti. His prolific catalog of recordings includes works for two pianos by Rachmaninoff and Brahms with Emanuel Ax, the complete Prokofiev concerti with the Israel Philharmonic and Zubin Mehta, a Schubert/Mozart disc with the Zukerman Chamber Players, and the soundtrack to Disney’s Fantasia 2000. His most recent CD releases are the 2014 Grammy nominated Magnus Lindberg’s Piano Concerto No. 2 commissioned for him and performed by the New York Philharmonic, conducted by Alan Gilbert on the Da Capo label; Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No.1 with Mariss Jansons and the Bayerischer Rundfunk; a recital disc, Perspectives, complementing Mr. Bronfman’s designation as a Carnegie Hall ‘Perspectives’ artist for the 2007–08 season; and recordings of all the Beethoven piano concerti as well as the Triple Concerto together with violinist Gil Shaham, cellist Truls Mørk, and the Tönhalle Orchestra Zürich under David Zinman for the Arte Nova/BMG label. Now available on DVD are his performances of Liszt’s Second Piano Concerto with Franz Welser-Möst and the Vienna Philharmonic from Schoenbrunn, 2010 on Deutsche Grammophon; Beethoven’s Fifth Piano Concerto with Andris Nelsons and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra from the 2011 Lucerne Festival; Rachmaninoff’s Third Concerto with the Berlin Philharmonic and Sir Simon Rattle on the EuroArts label, and both Brahms Concerti with Franz Welser-Möst and The Cleveland Orchestra (2015). Born in Tashkent in the Soviet Union, Yefim Bronfman immigrated to Israel with his family in 1973, where he studied with pianist Arie Vardi, head of the Rubin Academy of Music at Tel Aviv University. In the United States, he studied at the Juilliard School, Marlboro School of Music, and the Curtis Institute of Music, under Rudolf Firkusny, Leon Fleisher, and Rudolf Serkin. A recipient of the prestigious Avery Fisher Prize, one of the highest honors given to American instrumentalists, in 2010 he was further honored as the recipient of the Jean Gimbel Lane prize in piano performance from Northwestern University and in 2015 with an honorary doctorate from the Manhattan School of Music.
