Message from the Premier Congratulations to the esteemed Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra on their 2023-2024 season. The NSO is a cultural arts institution in Newfoundland and Labrador. Its ambitious and varied programming each year attracts regular audience members, and new fans alike. Over the last number of years, their inclusion of performances based on iconic pop culture have been met with enormous popularity and have drawn audiences of all ages. The NSO has a strong commitment to community partnerships, reaching over 10,000 students in 2022-23 with their in-school, virtual and interactive programs and providing online concerts, free of charge, to more than 80 senior’s homes. Congratulations, as well, to Marc David, now in his final full season as Music Director, on his outstanding artistic achievements during his long career with the NSO The Government of Newfoundland and Labrador is a proud supporter of the NSO and values its contributions to our province’s arts and cultural sector. All the best for a successful season.
Hon. Andrew Furey, Premier
Message from the Mayor On behalf of Council, it is my pleasure to congratulate the Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra on its 61st Anniversary, Celebrating the year of the Arts. The City of St. John’s is a proud supporter of the arts and of this vibrant organization. With multiple performances every season, the educational experiences and entertainment provided to all ages is amazing. This season promises to entertain like no other and we are extremely fortunate to have talented musicians as the heartbeat of our musical community whom are there to share their talent and love of music with us all. The NSO board, staff, volunteers and sponsors work diligently each and every year to bring these shows to our community. Allow me to express my appreciation for your hard work and dedication and thank you for the significant contributions you make to the truly unique culture of our City. Best wishes –
Danny Breen, Mayor
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We acknowledge the province of Newfoundland and Labrador as the traditional territory of diverse Indigenous groups, and we acknowledge with respect the diverse histories and cultures of the Beothuk, Mi’kmaq, Innu, and Inuit of this province. We strive for respectful relationships with all the peoples of this province as we search for collective healing and true reconciliation and honour this beautiful land together.
MASTERWORKS 3 February 9, 2024 | St. John’s Arts & Culture Centre
Sara Davis Buechner, piano; Marc David, conductor PROGRAMME Ma mère l’Oye - M. Ravel (17 min.) 1. Pavane de la Belle au bois dormant: (Pavane of Sleeping Beauty) 2. Petit Poucet: (Little Tom Thumb / Hop-o’-My-Thumb) 3. Laideronnette, Impératrice des Pagodes: (Little Ugly Girl, Empress of the Pagodas) 4. Les entretiens de la Belle et de la Bête: (Conversation of Beauty and the Beast) 5. Le jardin féerique: (The Enchanted Garden)
Concerto for piano in G - M. Ravel (23 min.) I. Allegramente
II. Adagio assai
III. Presto
INTERMISSION Adagio from Spartacus - A. Khachaturian (9 min.) Conducted by: Andrei Popkov (NSO RBC – Emerging Artist Conductor Fellow 2023-24
Firebird, 1919 Suite - I. Stravinsky (21 min.) 1. Introduction 2. L’Oiseau de feu et sa danse (The Firebird and its Dance) – Variation de l’Oiseau de feu (Firebird variations) 3. Ronde des princesses (The Princesses’ Round) 4. Dance infernale du roi Kastcheï (Infernal Dance of King Kashchei) 5. Berceuse (Lullaby) 6. Finale
NSO Board NSO Staff Marc David, Music Director/Conductor Hugh Donnan, CEO Lynn Ann Pye, Patron Relations Manager Jennifer Brennan, Education & Outreach Coordinator Maria Penney, Marketing & Development Manager Dominic Greene, Personnel Manager Steve Power, Production Manager/Video Production/Editing Jenny Griffioen, Librarian Kyle McDavid, Graphic Designer
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Tom Hickey(Chair) Ian Penney (Vice-Chair) Paul McDonald (Past-Chair) Douglas Wright (Treasurer) Conor Stack (Corporate Secretary) Jessica Chapman Heather McKinnon Michelle Davis Andrea Rose Alana Walsh-Giovannini Aimee Letto Robert Decker Jennifer Massey Jing Xia Karen Bulmer Amy Collyer-Holmes Elizabeth Wright Robert Thompson
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Sara Davis Buechner (piano) Noted for her musical command, cosmopolitan artistry, and visionary independence, Sara Davis Buechner is one of the most original concert pianists of our time. Lauded for her “intelligence, integrity and all-encompassing technical prowess” (New York Times), “thoughtful artistry in the full service of music” (Washington Post), and “astounding virtuosity” (Philippine Star), Japan’s InTune magazine sums up: “Buechner has no superior.” In her twenties Ms. Buechner earned a bouquet of top prizes at the world’s premiere international piano competitions — Queen Elisabeth (Brussels), Leeds, Mozart (Salzburg), Beethoven (Vienna), and Sydney. She was a Bronze Medalist of the 1986 Tschaikowsky Competition in Moscow and the Gold Medalist of the 1984 Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition. Ms. Buechner has performed in every state and province of North America — as recitalist, chamber musician and soloist with top orchestras like the New York Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony and Philadelphia Orchestra; and in venues such as Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center and the Hollywood Bowl. She has toured throughout Latin and South America and Europe; and she enjoys a special following in Asia, where she has been a featured soloist with the Sydney Symphony, New Zealand Philharmonic, New Japan Philharmonic and Shanghai Philharmonic, among many others. She has commissioned and premiered important contemporary scores by composers such as Michael Brown, John Corigliano, Ray Green, Dick Hyman, Vitězslavá Kaprálová, Jared Miller, Joaquín Nin-Culmell, and Yukiko Nishimura. Ms. Buechner’s performance versatility extends to unique collaborations with film and dance (including tours with the Mark Morris Dance Group, and Japanese kabuki-mime-mask dancer Yayoi Hirano). Ms. Buechner has released numerous acclaimed recordings of rare piano music by composers such as Rudolf Friml (“a revelation” — The New York Times), Dana Suesse, Joseph Lamb, Joaquín Turina, Miklós Rózsa, and Ferruccio Busoni (including the world première recording of the Bach-Busoni “Goldberg” Variations). Stereophile magazine selected her Gershwin CD as “Recording of the Month,” and her interpretation of Hollywood Piano Concertos won Germany’s coveted Deutsches Schauplatten Preis. Most recently her recorded traversal of the score to Carl Dreiser’s silent movie classic Master of the House (1925) may be heard on Criterion Collection DVD. Sara Davis Buechner joined the faculty of Temple University’s Boyer College of Music and Dance in 2016, after previously teaching at the Manhattan School of Music, New York University and the University of British Columbia. She has presented masterclasses and workshops at major pedagogic venues worldwide, adjudicated important international piano competitions, and is also a contributing editor for Dover Publications International. In 2017 Ms. Buechner marked her 30th year as a dedicated Yamaha Artist. As a proud transgender woman, Ms. Buechner also appears as a speaker and performer at important LGBTQ events, and has contributed interviews and articles about her own experience to numerous media outlets worldwide. Sara is a dual American-Canadian citizen who makes her home in Philadelphia.
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Visit nsomusic.ca/support
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Violin 1 Heather Kao Dominic Greene Andy Kao Ilyas Duissen Daniel Fuchs Natalie Finn Gabriel Brodeur Violin 2 Nancy Case-Oates Carole Bestvater Elena Vigna Whit Fitzgerald Cathy Anstey Stewart Gillies Zhongli Hu Karen Hawkin Viola Kate Read Mahina Graham-Laidlaw Duane Andrews
Chantelle Jubenville Rosaura Aguilar Norma Noseworthy Jonathan Stevenson
Cello Nathan Cook Sandra Pope Amy Collyer-Holmes Laura Wakeman Nulibeth Ortiz Nancy Bannister
Bass Frank Fusari Mario Miranda Nick Howlett Jim Vivian Flute Michelle Cheramy Sarah Comerford Oboe/English Horn Annie Corrigan Kathy Conway-Ward Clarinet Glenn Rice Brenda Gatherall Bassoon Grant Etchegary Nicole Hand Horn Emily Dunsmore Doug Vaughan David Natsheh Trumpet Katie Sullivan Jill Dawe Trombone Darren McDonald Erin Sullivan Bass Trombone Andrew Cooper Tuba Catherine Tansley Harp Sarah Veber Piano/Celeste Jenny Griffioen Percussion Rob Power Etienne Gendron Amy Parsons
Valerie Holden Chris Williams (contra) Michelle Stevenson
Bill Brennan
Special thanks to our accommodations partner:
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Compared to many of his contemporaries, French composer Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) had a relatively small compositional output, a fact exacerbated by his tendency to transform existing piano pieces into orchestral works. Ma mère l’Oye (My Mother the Goose) exemplifies this musical trajectory. Ravel originally wrote the five-movement suite as a piano duet for the young children of sculptor Cyprian Godebski in 1910. Each movement takes its inspiration from French fairy tales, some well-known to North American audiences, like Sleeping Beauty, and others more particular to French culture, such as Laideronnette, the story of an ugly princess who marries a dragon. Ravel orchestrated the suite in 1911—this is the version we will hear tonight—and would further expand the work into a ballet the following year. Ravel’s oeuvre contains only two concertos: Piano Concerto for the Left Hand, written for pianist Paul Wittgenstein who lost his right hand in World War I, and his penultimate work, the Concerto in G Major, which premiered in 1932. Despite appearing relatively late in the composer’s career, the concerto had long been on Ravel’s mind, with sketches for a work on Basque themes emerging in 1906. Inspired by the music he encountered during a tour of the United States, Ravel infused the concerto with musical idioms borrowed from Jazz and spirituals. Ravel often performed his own piano works but was too ill to perform the concerto at its premiere. Instead, he conducted the orchestra for pianist Marguerite Long, to whom the concerto is dedicated. Despite being one of the most prominent composers within the Soviet Union, Armenian Aram Khachaturian (1903-1978), like fellow composers Shostakovich and Prokofiev, was occasionally on the outs with Soviet leadership. In 1949, he was accused of deliberately writing music that was too difficult for ‘the people’ to understand—ironically, the problematic work, Khachaturian’s Third Symphony, had been written to celebrate the October Revolution! Khachaturian’s political exile was short lived, and by the time he composed his ballet Spartacus in 1956, he was back in the government’s good graces. In Spartacus, the titular King of Thrace has been enslaved by the Romans and leads his countrymen in revolt. The Adagio from Spartacus accompanies the moment in which Spartacus and his wife Phrygia are finally reunited, the triumphant and passionate music tinged with a sadness that presages the king’s ultimate death at the end of the ballet. Like Khachaturian, Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) found early career success in composing music for ballets. Sergei Diaghilev, owner of the Ballet Russes, commissioned Stravinsky to write a ballet based on a Russian fairy-tale—the resulting work, The Firebird, premiered in Paris in 1910, followed closely by Petrushka (1911) and the infamous Rite of Spring (1913). Stravinsky was living in Switzerland when the 1917 Russian Revolution effectively made him a political exile. With his music banned in the Soviet Union due to his affiliation with Western powers, Stravinsky would not return to his homeland until 1962 when the Union of Soviet Composers—of whom Khachaturian was a founding member—invited him to Moscow to premiere some of this works. The Firebird, one of Stravinsky’s most Russian works, has remained one of his most popular compositions, and frequently appears on orchestral concerts as The Firebird Suite. - Notes courtesy of Dr. Annalise Smith
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WAYS TO SUPPORT THE NSO You don’t have to be a musician to play your part in the NSO. NSO supporters make an investment in one of this province’s most important educational, musical, and cultural resources. The NSO performs nearly 20 times each season and reaches over 20,000 people across all demographics. This would not be possible without the support of the community, local businesses and people like YOU! There are many different ways to support your NSO and help us continue to grow orchestral music in Newfoundland and Labrador.
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A STANDING OVATION FOR ALL OUR SUPPORTERS
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Photo: Alick Tsui
P.O. Box 23125 St. John’s, NL A1B 4J9 709-722-4441