Palm Beach Symphony - 2020/21 Masterworks Program Book

2020

pa l m b e ac h sym p h o n y

2021

Masterworks m u s i c d i r e c to r g e r a r d s c h wa r z

January 24

February 3

March 21

April 19

May 22

Pinchas Zukerman

Olga Kern

Vladimir Feltsman

Julian Schwarz

Alexander Toradze

WEALTH IS ABOUT MORE THAN MONEY.

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Table of Contents January 24

Pinchas Zukerman Performs Beethoven

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All Beethoven!

Live Streamed from the Kravis Center March 21

Vladimir Feltsman Performs Mozart

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Diamond | Mozart | Walker | Stravinsky Live Streamed and the Kravis Center April 19

An Enchanted Evening with Julian Schwarz

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Still | Saint-Saëns | Dvořák | Mendelssohnn Live Streamed and the Kravis Center May 22

Season Finale with Alexander Toradze

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Ravel | Brahms Live Streamed and the Kravis Center

President’s Welcome

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Message From the Music Director

Photo Credits: IndieHouse Films: All performance photos Capehart Photography: All social photography

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Symphony Mission

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Chief Executive Officer’s Letter

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Acknowledgments

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400 Hibiscus Street, Suite 100, West Palm Beach, FL 33401 Phone: 561.655.2657

Box Office: 561.281.0145

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2020–2021 Calendar of Events

Thursday, Dec. 24 Friday, Dec. 25 Saturday, Dec. 26 Thursday, Dec. 31

Sounds of the Season TELEVISED HOLIDAY CONCERT

Presented by CBS12 News Featuring guest violinist: Valentina Paolucci, inaugural winner of the Lisa Bruna B-Major Award CBS12 News & CW34 Sunday, Jan. 24

Pinchas Zukerman Performs Beethoven MASTERWORKS CONCERT 1

All Beethoven!

Live Streamed from the Kravis Center 3:00 pm

The first Masterworks concert in January will be livestreamed, and we hope to perform the remainder of the season as a mix of livestream and select seating.

Livestream concerts supported by the Max M. and Marjorie S. Fisher Foundation Arts & Culture Fund of the Community Foundation for Palm Beach and Martin Counties.

Olga Kern Wednesday, Feb. 3

Olga Kern Performs with Palm Beach Symphony E XCLUSIVE CONCE RT

Strauss | Shostakovich | Fine | Dvořák The Society of the Four Arts 7:30 pm

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Tuesday, Apr. 6

Sunset Dinner Cruise MEMBERS-ONLY SOCIAL EVENT

North Palm Beach Marina 6:45 pm Monday, Apr. 19

Sustaining the Note 19th Annual Gala One Small Step Monday, Feb. 15 Friday, Feb. 26

One Small Step CHILDREN’S CONCERT SERIES

Virtual Field Trip!

Palm Beach County | Kravis Center Monday, Feb. 22 – Friday, Mar. 5

One Small Step CHILDREN’S CONCERT SERIES

Virtual Field Trip Broward County | Miramar Cultural Center

A Virtual Celebration 6:30 pm Monday, Apr. 19

An Enchanted Evening with Julian Schwarz MASTERWORKS CONCERT 3

Still | Saint-Saëns | Dvořák | Mendelssohn The Kravis Center and Live Streamed 7:30 pm Saturday, May 22

Season Finale with Alexander Toradze MASTERWORKS CONCERT 4

Saturday, Mar. 13

Ravel | Brahms

One Small Step

The Kravis Center and Live Streamed 7:30 pm

FREE VIRTUAL FAMILY CONCERT

Copland | Tower | Williams 6:00 pm

Saturday, May 22

Monday, Mar. 21

MEMBERS-ONLY SOCIAL EVENT

Vladimir Feltsman Performs Mozart

Club Colette 9:00 pm

MASTERWORKS CONCERT 2

Monday, May 24

Diamond | Mozart | Walker | Stravinsky

Inaugural Golden Baton Society Dinner

The Kravis Center and Live Streamed 3:00 pm

Post-Concert Dinner

1000 North 6:30 pm

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Board of Directors

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Dale McNulty

James Borynack

John D. Herrick

President

Vice President

Treasurer

Philip M. Reagan

Paul Goldner

Secretary

Director

Peter M. Gottsegen

Carol S. Hays

Y. Michele Kang

Gary Lachman

Director

Director

Director

Manley Thaler

Don Thompson

Director

Director

Director

PALMIBEACH S Y M P H O N Y

President’s Welcome This season will be unlike any other in Palm Beach Symphony’s 47-year history.

While we all would prefer enjoying the Symphony’s orchestral music in the Kravis Centers’ halls, remember how important it is for us all to follow our health officials’ recommendations.

And the wait for in-person concerts will be justly rewarded once we can again relish in the excitement of a live performance.

As plans for the 2020-2021 season were being made in the early months of 2020, we would have never envisioned a year where all concerts would be live streamed. However, it was apparent at the beginning of the pandemic that the Symphony continue performing great music. Thanks to our dedicated staff, partners, Music Director, musicians, and my fellow board members, we pulled together to bring you a season that will engage, educate, and entertain you through spirited performances of orchestral music. And most importantly, you’ll have the best seat in the house!

I thank you for joining us this 47th season, in which the Symphony will be remembered for how it overcame obstacles to share inspiring music with our community.

Dale McNulty

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Message from the Music Director We are so thrilled and thankful to be bringing music to everyone in Palm Beach Symphony’s 47th season.

After many months of not playing together, the musicians, staff, and I are incredibly grateful to you for joining us as we continue to share spirited performances of orchestral music with Palm Beach County.

It’s been a very trying time for performing arts organizations worldwide, throwing season schedules into disarray.

Many orchestras have chosen to cancel their seasons.

These uncertain times have made it difficult to return to the concert hall.

Still, I’ve been amazed by the passion and commitment of the Symphony’s board of directors, musicians, guest artists, and staff who have worked tirelessly to rearrange schedules and programs. Even through these challenging times, Palm Beach Symphony’s educational efforts, which have impacted the lives of more than 50,000 students in recent years, continue to make a difference in the lives of students in Palm Beach County through virtual coaching sessions, instrument donations, and virtual concerts.

The season will begin with a live stream celebration of Beethoven’s 250th birthday with my very good friend Pinchas Zukerman performing the great composer’s Violin Concerto.

Joining the outstanding violinist for the Masterworks Series will be two virtuosic pianists, Vladimir Felstman and Alexander Toradze, who have performed with major orchestras worldwide. Acclaimed guest cellist and my beloved son, Julian Schwarz, will join us to perform Saint-Saëns Cello Concerto in A minor and Dvořák’s Silent Woods with the orchestra.

I am also extremely excited to lead the orchestra for an additional exclusive, intimate performance at the Society of the Four Arts featuring the great pianist Olga Kern.

We will perform Shostakovich’s First Piano Concerto, a wonderfully clever work the composer created to perform himself. This performance will also feature a piece by Strauss arranged by me and a work by Irving Fine and Antonín Dvořák.

We are excited to share inspiring works of orchestral music with you again for the 47th season, safely with protocols that include wearing masks, keeping musicians and staff six feet apart, and air circulation.

And once we can, we look forward to welcoming you to the concert hall with select seating at Drefyoos Hall at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts!

Gerard Schwarz @pbsym ph o ny

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Ring IN THE NEW YEAR

WEST PALM 561.833.7755

NAPLES I 239.649.7737

JUPITER 561.747.4449

FORT MYERS 239.274.7777

NAPLES II 239.649.7200

PROVIDENTJEWELRY.COM

PALM BEACH 561.833.0550

WELLINGTON 561.798.0777

PALMIBEACH S Y M P H O N Y

Music Director Gerard Schwarz In his nearly five decades as a respected classical musician and conductor, Schwarz has received hundreds of honors and accolades. Over the years, he has received seven Emmy Awards, 14 GRAMMY nominations, eight ASCAP Awards and numerous Stereo Review and Ovation Awards.

Internationally recognized for his moving performances, innovative programming and extensive catalogue of recordings, American conductor Gerard Schwarz serves as Music Director of the All-Star Orchestra, Eastern Music Festival, Palm Beach Symphony and Mozart Orchestra of New York, and is Conductor Laureate of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra and Conductor Emeritus of the Mostly Mozart Festival. He is Distinguished Professor of Music; Conducting and Orchestral Studies of the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami and Music Director of the Frost Symphony Orchestra.

His considerable discography of over 350 albums showcases his collaborations with some of the world’s greatest orchestras including The Philadelphia Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National de France, Tokyo Philharmonic, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, New York Chamber Symphony and Seattle Symphony Orchestra among others. In 2017 The Gerard Schwarz Collection, a 30-CD box set of previously unreleased or limited release works spanning his entire recording career was released by Naxos.

Schwarz began his professional career as co-principal trumpet of the New York Philharmonic and has held Music Director positions with the Mostly Mozart Festival, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and New York Chamber Symphony. As a guest conductor, he has worked with many of the world’s finest orchestras and has led the San Francisco, Washington National and Seattle Opera companies on many occasions. He is also a gifted composer and arranger with an extensive catalogue of works that have been premiered by ensembles across the United States, Europe and Korea.

Schwarz is a renowned interpreter of 19th century German, Austrian and Russian repertoire in addition to his noted work with contemporary American composers.

He completed his final season as Music Director of the Seattle Symphony in 2011 after an acclaimed 26 years - a period of dramatic artistic growth for the ensemble.

In his nearly five decades as a respected classical musician and conductor, Schwarz has received hundreds of honors and accolades including Emmy Awards, GRAMMY nominations, ASCAP Awards and the Ditson Conductor’s Award. He was the first American named Conductor of the Year by Musical America and has received numerous honorary doctorates. The City of Seattle named the street alongside the Benaroya Hall “Gerard Schwarz Place” in his honor. His book, Behind the Baton, was released by Amadeus Press in March 2017.

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History & Mission Palm Beach Symphony is South Florida’s premier orchestra known for its diverse repertoire and commitment to community. Founded in 1974, this 501(c)(3) nonprofit arts organization adheres to a mission of engaging, educating, and entertaining the greater community of the Palm Beaches through live performances of inspiring orchestral music. The orchestra is celebrated for delivering spirited performances by first-rate musicians and distinguished guest artists. Recognized by The Cultural Council for Palm Beach County with a 2020 Muse Award for Outstanding Community Engagement, Palm Beach Symphony continues to expand its education and community outreach programs with children’s concerts, student coaching sessions and master classes, instrument donations and free public concerts that have reached more than 50,000 students in the past five years.

In our earliest days, the orchestra performed only a few concerts a year with a part-time conductor and a volunteer staff. It was not until Mrs. Ethel S. Stone became the Symphony’s board chair, a position she held for 23 years, that the Palm Beach Symphony orchestra began establishing itself as a cultural force in the community A visionary leader, Mrs. Stone inherited her love of music from her family and generously shared it with the community she loved. During her tenure, a number of well-known musicians served in leadership roles, including Karl Karapetian, John Iuele, Kenneth Schermerhorn, Stewart Kershaw, David Gray, Ulf Bjorlin, and John Covelli.

Upon Mrs. Stone’s death on August 6, 1996, John and Joan Tighe stepped in to continue her legacy. They established a stable board of directors, a dedicated administrative staff, and a small endowment fund to ensure the symphony’s continued growth. Musicians who led the orchestra during the Tighes’ tenure were Alan Kogosowski, Vladimir Ponkin, Sergiu Schwartz, Ray Robinson and Donald Oglesby.

From our humble beginnings, Palm Beach Symphony has grown to become a cultural pillar in the Palm Beach community. Now a key cultural force in the area, we attract members who enjoy pairing quality concerts with fine dining experiences and social events, and who value and support the symphony’s music education and community outreach programs.

In 2019, as the Symphony entered its 45th season, we moved our operations across the bridge from Palm Beach (where we’d operated since 1974) to West Palm Beach, allowing us space to realize our full potential by expanding our mission and reaching even more corners of the community with orchestral music. By integrating with the rich fabric of the Downtown West Palm Beach business district, we’re able to align with countless economic development and tourism assets to enrich the lives of families, businesses, residents, students, and tourists.

Through important collaborations with our valued community partners – the Palm Beach School District, the Related Group, the Cultural Council, the Downtown Development Authority, and the West Palm Beach Arts and Entertainment District, to name just a few – we’re continuing to grow our mission and expand our reach in Palm Beach County, bringing classical music to people of all ages, backgrounds, and life experiences.

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Chief Executive Officer’s Letter Palm Beach Symphony has returned …

This is a phrase we have longed to say for many months. In this unique season, this simple idea went through many challenges brought up by the pandemic, abrupt closures of concert halls around the world, and uncertainties of the future. Now, Palm Beach Symphony is making a triumphant return to performing inspiring orchestral music for season 47… because of YOU. Through your support, we’ve inched our way out from nine months of isolation to bring great music back to our community. We are so excited to bring you a season that is undoubtedly our greatest artistic achievement to date in an accessible manner that allows the power of orchestral music to connect us once more. And what a way we started the season with having multiple airings of a free televised holiday concert presented by CBS 12 News. So many people tuned in during the holidays to watch Sounds of the Season that it was second only (barely!) to the holiday mainstay “It’s a Wonderful Life” on Christmas Eve. What a tremendous success – thanks to you and the incredible generosity of Dodie and Manley Thaler and the Thaler/Howell Foundation with their matching grant gift. Thank you for your support!

While we look forward to performing for you in-person again, the health and safety of our audience is our top priority. We will carefully follow the health and safety guidelines from CDC recommendations and guidance from local and state officials. However, we have taken all steps to ensure that you wouldn’t have to experience a year without Palm Beach Symphony.

In his first full season on the podium, Music Director Gerard Schwarz utilized his incredible experience and brilliant knowledge to work through the uncertainties to rearrange programs with acclaimed artists performing with the first-rate musicians of the orchestra.

This season, which can be watched on any device and enjoyed in the way in which you are most comfortable, will once again elevate Palm Beach Symphony’s performances and give you a unique experience that in some ways is even better than attending live!

The critical work of Palm Beach Symphony also goes far beyond our inspiring live performances. It provides a lifeline to the more than 30 students who received their own instrument from our Instrument Donation program last fall. It brings healing through music via our 13 Virtual Nurturing Notes Sessions for struggling communities.

Fortunately, none of us will have to imagine our community with the Symphony going dark in season 47. It’s thanks to you, our members, donors, sponsors, board of directors, community partners, staff, musicians, and volunteers who helped make a season worth celebrating.

Thank you for helping us sustain the note with Palm Beach Symphony.

David McClymont

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Planned Giving: Leave A Musical Legacy Palm Beach Symphony is deeply grateful to those who remember us through bequests or planned gifts. There are many ways to make a planned gift to the Symphony. Depending on your age, your income and assets, and your vision of giving, you may wish to consider: • Beneficiary Designations under Retirement Plan Assets • [401(k), 403(b), IRA] • Bequests via Will or Living Trust • Cash

• Charitable Lead Trusts • Charitable Remainder Trusts • Gift Annuities • Life Insurance • Pledges

Your planned gift will help ensure the Symphony’s bright future by: • Keeping classical music thriving by supporting our world-class musicians and critically acclaimed conductor.

• Allowing thousands of local students to be instructed and inspired by our concerts and education programs.

• Building a cultural community by helping us make classical music accessible to all through free outreach events.

The Dora Bak Society The Dora Bak Society recognizes the dedication and generosity of music patrons who choose to include Palm Beach Symphony in their bequests or other longrange charitable giving plans. The Society offers a wonderful way to help sustain the Symphony’s mission for generations to come.

Dora Bak Society members are acknowledged in a variety of ways, including presence on all printed donor lists and other naming opportunities that will carry the donor’s name into perpetuity.

Contact Us When you’re ready to learn more about bequest opportunities that benefit the Palm Beach Symphony, please contact David McClymont at 561-655-2657, or join us on Wednesday, March 10, 2021 for a virtual planned giving event.

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Palm Beach Symphony / PNC Wealth Management Series

Save the Date

Planned Giving: Virtual Event Wednesday, March 10, 2021 12:00 PM EVENT INFORMATION

Hulya Selcuk 561.568.0265 hselcuk@palmbeachsymphony.org

PALMIBEACH S Y M P H O N Y

Orchestra & Staff ORCHESTRA VIOLINS Evija Ozolins, Concertmaster Marina Lenau ^ Glen Basham Monica Cheveresan Avi Nagin Claudia Cagnassone Askar Salmidjanov Alfredo Oliva Valentin Mansurov+ Michelle Skinner+ (Holiday) Svetlana Salminen Anne Chicheportiche Kristin Baird Patrisa Tomassini Orlando Forte Abby Young Morena Kalziqi VIOLA Chauncey Patterson* Yael Hyken* (Holiday) Felicia Besan Ethan Durell Glenn Lootjens Roberto Henriquez Hilary Gamble

CELLO Claudio Jaffé* German Marcano^ Jason Calloway Brent Charran Aziz Sapaev BASS Juan Carlos Peña* Brian Myhr^ Matthew Medlock* (Holiday) Santiago Olaguibel FLUTE Nadine Asin* (Mar, April) Joseph Monticello* (Holiday, Jan, May) Elizabeth Lu^ (Holiday, Jan, May) Johanna Gruskin (Holiday) OBOE Robert Weiner* Gabriel Young* (Jan) Matthew Cooperman Erin Gittelsohn (Holiday) Jessica Myers^ English Horn CLARINET Anna Brumbaugh* (April, May) Julian Santacoloma* (Holiday, Jan) Stojo Miserlioski^ (Holiday, Jan) BASSOON Gabriel Beavers* Christina Bonatakis

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CONTRA BASSOON Carlos Felipe Viña FRENCH HORN Amber Dean* Ryan Little* (April) Stanley Spinola Peter McFarland Andrew Karr (Holiday, April) Corbin Castro (Holiday) TRUMPET Kevin Karabell* Marc Reese^ Jim Hacker^ (Jan) TROMBONE Domingo Pagliuca* Salvador Saez BASS TROMBONE Gabriel Ramos Jose Leon TUBA Kevin Ildefonso* TIMPANI Lucas Sanchez* PERCUSSION Evan Saddler* Guillermo Ospina Karlyn Viña Scott Crawford HARP Kristina Finch* * Principal ** Co-Principals ^ Assistant Principal + Principal Second

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STAFF

David McClymont Chief Executive Officer May Bell Lin Membership Director Felix Rivera Patron Advancement Coordinator Hulya Selcuk Development & Special Events Coordinator

Olga M. Vazquez Director of Education & Orchestra Operations Jason Barroncini Stage Manager Alfredo Oliva Orchestra Contractor Miami Symphonic Entertainment, Inc.

PRINCIPAL CHAIRS SPONSORED BY

Felicia Taylor/ The Mary Hilem Taylor Foundation, flute

Karen & Kenneth Rogers, horn The Lachman Family Foundation, viola

Leslie Rogers Blum, cello Norman and Susan Oblon, clarinet

PALMIBEACH S Y M P H O N Y

Principal Musicians ALFREDO OLIVA is Palm Beach Symphony’s orchestra contractor.

A New York City native, he grew up in Hialeah, and his first performances at age 17 included working with Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Bing Crosby, Ray Charles, Barry White, Smoky Robinson and Burt Bacharach. The Concertmaster of many Broadway shows, he has played in nearly every major classical ensemble in South Florida. Oliva has collaborated with hundreds of award-winning recording artists, including Gloria Estefan (Grammy® nominated album The Standards), Natalie Cole (Grammy nominated album, Natalie Cole En Español), Barry Gibb (In the Now), Michael Jackson (“Heaven Can Wait” and “Whatever Happens” from Invincible), Placido Domingo, Barbra Streisand, The Bee Gees, Julio Iglesias, Celia Cruz (“Yo Viviré” from Siempre Viviré), Alejandro Sanz (El Alma Al Aire, MTV America Latina), José Feliciano (Señor Bolero), Vic Damone, Jennifer Lopez, Shakira, Jon Secada, Enrique Iglesias, Busta Rhymes with Stevie Wonder (“Been Through the Storm” from The Big Bang), Marc Anthony and Ricky Martin (Ricky Martin MTV Unplugged). Since 2007, Oliva’s orchestras have been performing at the Adrienne Arsht Center and other South Florida concert venues as members of the Florida Grand Opera Orchestra as well as the Palm Beach Symphony and recently performed the incredible movie experience Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets™ in Concert!

EVIJA OZOLINS is concertmaster for Palm Beach Symphony, assistant concertmaster for Florida Grand Opera and a member of the acclaimed Bergonzi String Quartet. Born in Riga, Latvia, she is a third generation musician in a family of professional musicians and began playing the piano at the age of four and violin one year later. After participating in numerous competitions, solo recitals and chamber music performances throughout Latvia and Europe in her teens, she was accepted at the Mannes College of Music in New York City where she studied with renowned violinists Aaron Rosand and David Nadien and played under conductors Kurt Masur, James Levine, Leonard Slatkin and Yehudi Menuhin.

She has given solo recitals in many U.S. cities, including Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall in Manhattan, as well as in Canada, the Caribbean and Europe. Ozolins has premiered multiple contemporary chamber music and solo violin works such as Imants Mezaraups Short Suite for violin solo and electronic sound. She has served as concertmaster for Camerata NY, Jupiter Symphony and the Carnegie Hall concert series of the New England Symphonic Ensemble. She has also served as Principal 2nd violin with the Binghamton Philharmonic and, for several years, was a member of the Jupiter Symphony under conductor Jens Nygaard. Having recorded as a soloist with Maureen McGovern, Lee Leesack and Brian Lane Green, her name also appears on movie soundtracks and commercial recordings, including releases with Barry Gibb, Natalie Cole and Gloria Estefan. She performs in numerous Broadway shows, including Motown, Little Mermaid, Camelot, Lion King, My Fair Lady, Color Purple and Phantom of the Opera on Broadway. Recently, she performed the Mendelssohn’s

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D minor Violin Concerto and the Beethoven Two Romances for violin and orchestra in New York City. Ozolins plays on a 1782 Antonio Gragnani violin.

VALENTIN MANSUROV is Palm Beach Symphony’s principal second violinist. An award-winning musician who has won multiple competitions in the former U.S.S.R, Canada, and the United States, Mansurov has performed in solo recitals and chamber music concerts throughout Europe, North America and South America. In addition to his Palm Beach Symphony performances, both orchestral and chamber, he performs locally as a member of the Florida Grand Opera Orchestra. In 2015, Mansurov became a member of the critically acclaimed Delray String Quartet, performing in concerts nationwide. He began studying violin at the age of seven at Uspenskiy’s School for Musically Gifted Children in Uzbekistan and has pursued further college degrees in Turkey, France, Canada and the United States.

CHAUNCEY PATTERSON is principal violist for Palm Beach Symphony and Florida Grand Opera, violist for Bergonzi String Quartet at University of Miami, Assistant Principal Violist of The Eastern Music Festival summer program and Associate Professor of Chamber Music at Lynn Conservatory of Music. He has been principal violist of the Denver and Buffalo Symphonies, interim violist of the Fine Arts Quartet and, for 15 years, violist of the renowned and extensively recorded Miami String Quartet. Patterson’s faculty affiliations include: The Cleveland Institute of Music, Blossom School of Music, Kent State University, Hartt School of Music, Encore School for Strings, Eastern Music Festival, University of Charleston (WV), University of Denver, New World School of the Arts, FIU and The University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee. He attended The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the Cleveland Institute of Music and The Curtis Institute.

CLAUDIO JAFFÉ is principal cellist for Palm Beach Symphony and Florida Grand Opera Orchestra, as well as cellist for the Delray String Quartet. He made his orchestral debut at the age of 11, performing a concerto written specifically for him. Trained as a solo cellist, Jaffé received four degrees from Yale University, including Doctor of Musical Arts. A prizewinner in numerous national and international competitions, he has performed in prestigious concert halls around the world. As an educator, he served as Dean of the Lynn University Conservatory of Music and created their Preparatory Division. He began the Strings Program at Saint Andrew’s School in Boca Raton and has been resident conductor of the Florida Youth Orchestra for over 18 years. Jaffé performs regularly at the Sunflower and Buzzards Bay Music Festivals and is currently teaching at Palm Beach Atlantic University.

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JUAN CARLOS PEÑA plays principal double bass for both Palm Beach Symphony and the Florida Grand Opera Orchestra and performs regularly with the Naples Philharmonic Orchestra. Born in Honduras, he studied at the Victoriano Lopez School of Music.

In Honduras, he was artistic/technical director for the Victoriano López School of Music and music director of the San Pedro Sula. In Colombia, he was director of the Chamber Orchestra of the Antonio Valencia Conservatory, and in Spain, he was music director of the Madrigalia Chamber Choir. Other credits include: principal double bass and soloist with the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional (Honduras) and Orquesta Sinfónica del Valle (Colombia), co-principal double bass with Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia (Spain), conductor of the Symphony Orchestra of the Escuela Nacional de Música (Honduras), and bass instructor and soloist at Soli Deo Gloria Music Camp (Dominican Republic).

NADINE ASIN is Palm Beach Symphony’s principal flute and maintains a busy career since leaving her full-time position with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra after a 20-year tenure. She performs as principal flutist of the Florida Grand Opera Orchestra and with the new All-Star Orchestra (a recent PBS series). Asin has performed with the New York Philharmonic, Great Performers Series of Lincoln Center, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Da Camera Society of Houston, NPR’s Performance Today, Seattle Chamber Music Society, the Norton Museum and the Musimelange series. She commissioned, performed and recorded the world premiere of Augusta Read Thomas’s flute concerto, Enchanted Orbits, and David Schiff’s After Hours for flute and piano, and recorded Aaron Avshalomov’s Flute Concerto on the Naxos label.

She serves on the faculty of the Bard College Conservatory of Music and as adjunct faculty at The Juilliard School.

ROBERT WEINER is principal oboe for both Palm Beach Symphony and Florida Grand Opera and has in the past been principal oboe with the Miami Symphony Orchestra, Mexico City Philharmonic, Miami City Ballet Orchestra, Oklahoma Symphony Orchestra and others.

Weiner is currently professor of oboe at University of Miami’s Frost School of Music and previously taught oboe at Cornell University.

Known for his work on gouging machines and reed-making, he advises professionals who work in these areas. He holds a degree from the Eastman School of Music and has studied oboe with Harold Gomberg and Joseph Robinson, former principal oboes with the New York Philharmonic, and John Mack, former principal oboist of the Cleveland Orchestra. Weiner has performed with American Symphony Orchestra, New York City Ballet and Long Island Philharmonic. He’s recorded on major labels and is active in Miami recording studios.

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PALMIBEACH S Y M P H O N Y

ANNA BRUMBAUGH is principal clarinet of Palm Beach Symphony and Florida Grand Opera. She has performed professionally with American Ballet Theatre Orchestra, The Orchestra of St. Luke’s, The Colorado Music Festival Orchestra, The New York Concerti Sinfonietta and the Boca Symphonia. She’s collaborated with the Eastman Wind Ensemble to record the Stravinsky Octet. Having mentored students at Juilliard’s pre-college division and taught at two of their educational outreach programs, she is a music mentor at Plumosa School of the Arts in Delray Beach. She earned a master of music degree in clarinet performance from the Juilliard School, an undergraduate degree and the coveted Performer’s Certificate from the Eastman School of Music and she is currently pursuing her Professional Performance Certificate at Lynn University. Her teachers have included soloist Jon Manasse and Bil Jackson, former principal clarinet of the Colorado Symphony.

GABRIEL BEAVERS is the Associate Professor of Bassoon at the University of Miami Frost School of Music and in addition to the Palm Beach Symphony is a member of Miami’s Nu-Deco Ensemble.

During the summer, Beavers performs as 2nd bassoon with the Music in the Mountains Festival Orchestra and serves on the faculty of the Sewanee Summer Music Festival. Prior to joining the faculty at Frost, he served on the faculty of Louisiana State University School of Music and as principal bassoon with the Baton Rouge Symphony. Formerly a fellow with the New World Symphony, he has also served as Principal Bassoon with the Virginia Symphony, Acting Principal Bassoon with the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra and the Jacksonville Symphony and as Acting Second Bassoon with the Milwaukee Symphony for one season.

He has appeared as a soloist with the Symphonia, Frost Wind Ensemble, Greater Miami Symphonic Band, Chesapeake Bay Wind Ensemble, Virginia Symphony, Baton Rouge Symphony and Louisiana Sinfonietta and has given recitals throughout the United States and at international festivals in Japan and Brazil. His first two solo albums, Gordon Jacob: Music for Bassoon and A Quirky Dream, are available on Mark Records and his recording of the Dinos Constantinides Bassoon Concerto was published by Centaur Records. His latest solo album entitled SWAGGER has been released on Beauport Classical. More Information can be found at www.gabrielbeavers.com.

AMBER DEAN is a French horn player from East Moline, Illinois.

In 2012, Amber joined the Orquesta Sinfónica Sinaloa de las Artes in Culiacán, Sinaloa, Mexico, where she played third horn for three years. In February 2015, Dean became the second horn of the Orquesta Filarmónica de Jalisco in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico.

During her time with the OFJ, the orchestra went on tours to South Korea, Germany, Austria, and the United States of America. Dean can be heard playing on two albums that the OFJ recorded during her time there, Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto-Francesca da Rimini and Mariachitlán. In 2019, Dean moved to Miami to pursue a master’s degree at the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music, where she is a fellow in the

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PALMIBEACH S Y M P H O N Y

Henry Mancini Institute. Since moving to Miami, Amber Dean has been playing Principal Horn in the Palm Beach Symphony and Florida Grand Opera.

KEVIN KARABELL , a Venezuelan-American trumpeter, regularly performs as principal trumpet of the Florida Grand Opera and Palm Beach Symphony. He recently performed as principal trumpet of the New York City Ballet and has also performed as principal trumpet of the Sichuan Symphony in Chengdu, China. In 2017 Mr. Karabell was selected to tour with the Orchestra of Americas to Chile, Argentina, and Brazil. During this tour he recorded Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G Major with Grammy award winning pianist Gabriela Montero, which can be heard on Spotify. Mr. Karabell holds degrees from the Lynn Conservatory of Music and the Cleveland Institute of Music. During his studies at the Cleveland Institute of Music he was the recipient of the Dr. Calvin E. Weber Award for excellence in trumpet performance. He has attended Spoleto Festival USA, Colorado College Summer Music Festival, Chautauqua Summer Music Festival and has been the teacher assistant/faculty brass member of the Sewannee Summer Music Festival.

DOMINGO PAGLIUCA is a Latin Grammy Award-winning trombonist and principal trombonist for the Palm Beach Symphony and the Florida Grand Opera Orchestra. A native of Venezuela, he received undergraduate and master’s degrees from the University of Miami. After returning to Venezuela at the age of 18, Domingo made his solo debut with the Venezuela Symphony. As a trombone soloist, Domingo has performed multiple times nationally and internationally accompanied by symphonic orchestras, including the Orquesta Sinfónica de Venezuela, Orquesta Sinfónica de Colombia, Central Ohio Symphony, Orquesta Sinfónica de Carabobo (Vzla), performing the trombone concertos by Nino Rota, F. David, Rimsky Korsakov, F. Graffe, and LE. Larsson. In July 2013, Domingo joined world-renown Boston Brass. In June 2019, Domingo released his first solo album, entitled Eternal Gratitude, which won a Latin Grammy Award in the category of Best Classical Music Album, produced by the famous musician and pedagogue Maestro Sam Pilafian.

KEVIN ILDEFONSO is principal tuba for Palm Beach Symphony and Florida Grand Opera. He has also performed with Orchid City Brass Band. Raised in Miami, he began his musical studies as a guitar player at age 11 and picked up the tuba at age 13. After receiving his bachelor of music degree from University of Miami, he moved to Boston to pursue his master of music degree at the New England Conservatory of Music. While there, he worked with several members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and studied tuba primarily with Mike Roylance, principal tubist of the BSO. Other primary tuba teachers have included Sam Pilafi an, John Olah, and Calvin Jenkins. He has performed throughout South Florida and has held

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PALMIBEACH S Y M P H O N Y

teaching positions at New World School of the Arts (tuba and euphonium instructor) and Keys Gate Charter School (band director).

LUCAS SANCHEZ is Palm Beach Symphony’s principal timpanist and enjoys a multi-faceted career as a timpanist, percussionist and teacher. Sanchez currently performs with Florida Grand Opera, Nu Deco Ensemble and the Southwest Michigan Symphony Orchestra.

Previously, he has appeared with the Houston Symphony and the Amarillo Symphony. Sanchez maintains a private percussion studio in Coral Gables, is an instructor for the Greater Miami Youth Symphony program and gives masterclasses at high schools and colleges in South Florida. After beginning his studies in Albuquerque with Douglas Cardwell, he received his undergraduate and master’s degrees from Rice University under the tutelage of Richard Brown. Sanchez is currently writing his thesis for a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Miami, studying with Matthew Strauss and Svetoslav Stoyanov. Sanchez is proudly endorsed by Pearl/Adams instruments and performs on Adams Philharmonic Dresden Classic Timpani.

EVAN SADDLER is Palm Beach Symphony’s principal percussionist.

He is a member of Miami’s genre-bending chamber orchestra Nu Deco Ensemble and co-artistic director of the chamber ensemble Conduit. Performance highlights include engagements with New World Symphony, NOVUS NY, and with members of the Grammy Award-winning chamber group eighth blackbird. Saddler has also performed at the Bang on a Can Festival, Madison New Music Festival, Stellenbosch International Music Festival in South Africa, Princeton Festival of the Arts, and in venues such as The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Alice Tully Hall, MoMA, and Carnegie Hall. Saddler is a graduate of Interlochen Arts Academy, University of Michigan, and The Juilliard School.

KRISTINA FINCH is a model of an independent modern musician based in Hattiesburg, MS. Versatile and flexible in all settings Kristina is constantly striving to connect with new and diverse audiences using classical training and a passion for popular music to defy expectations and expand perceptions of the harp. Kristina holds a Doctorate in Music Performance and Literature and Bachelor of Music Degree from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY and a Master of Music Degree from Florida State University. Kristina maintains an active freelance, orchestral, and chamber music career throughout South Florida, which has included performances for the Palm Beach Symphony Orchestra, Nu Deco Ensemble, Miami Symphony Orchestra, Florida Grand Opera, Tiffany & Co., Prestige Imports, Burgees Yachts, and the Biltmore Hotel.

Besides her musical activities, Kristina is a RYT/200 Yoga Teacher, a contributor to Harp Column Magazine, and the host/creator of “Harp Column Podcast.”

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Cummings & Lockwood Proudly Supports the Palm Beach Symphony

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David M. Halpen, Esq. Principal-In-Charge Golden Bear Plaza 11760 U.S. Highway 1 Suite 502 W Palm Beach Gardens, FL 33408 Phone: 561.214.8500 Fax: 561.214.8514 dhalpen@cl-law.com www.cl-law.com

NAPLES | BONITA SPRINGS | PALM BEACH GARDENS | STAMFORD | GREENWICH | WEST HARTFORD

PALMIBEACH S Y M P H O N Y

Paul and Sandra Goldner Conservatory of Music Each season our music education initiatives are expanded upon to reach more students in Palm Beach County, and in the last five years, our efforts have impacted more than 50,000 students. These programs continuously evolve to deepen and extend student learning opportunities with multiple interactions that enhance learning and reinforce academic and arts concepts.

Coaching Sessions and Residencies Student musicians learn technique, tone, posture, and proper instrument position in small group settings with professional Palm Beach Symphony instrument instructors.

Instrument Donations and Lisa Bruna B-Major Award One to three talented student musicians will be honored with the annual Lisa Bruna B-Major Award and receive an advanced level instrument after working with the Symphony to identify, test, and select the one with which to study and launch a career. In addition, we provide the donations of orchestral instruments we receive to underserved children or school music programs.

Lecture Demonstrations and In-School Concerts Presented in a variety of small ensemble combinations, Symphony musicians perform selected works, discuss the music, the instrument, the composer, and their backgrounds and professional careers. The in-school concerts, a highly sought-after program, provide students with the opportunity to ask questions and speak with musicians in an intimate and more personal setting. The program is offered directly to school sites, or as a virtual option, free of charge to Title 1 middle and high schools.

Instrumental Music Teacher Of The Year We pay tribute to one special band or orchestra K-12 music teacher in Palm Beach County as the Instrumental Music Teacher of the Year with an award that includes coaching sessions by Palm Beach Symphony musicians, a classroom visit by Music Director Gerard Schwarz, Symphony concert tickets for the winner’s classes, and a basket-full of personal indulgences.

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PALMIBEACH S Y M P H O N Y

Children’s Concert Series – One Small Step Virtual Field Trips and Workshops Our successful production of One Small Step returns for another year, as we celebrate the first lunar landing by integrating music, dance, science and history into an inspiring program featuring works by Aaron Copland, John Williams and Joan Tower.

Conducted by Maestro Gerard Schwarz and with special script narrated by Brenda Alford, this year’s production was video recorded and is being offered as a virtual field trip for grades K – 12 in February and March 2021.

Selected fourth grade students will have an opportunity to heighten their One Small Step learning experience through pre- and post-concert virtual workshops offered free of charge by our musicians and teaching artists from Demetrius Klein Dance Company and the South Florida Science Center and Aquarium.

Invest in the arts, our community, and future generations of classical musicians.

Your contribution will help enhance and increase arts education in Palm Beach County public schools. Help the Palm Beach Symphony share the gift of music. For more information about music education sponsorship and underwriting opportunities, please contact the Palm Beach Symphony office at (561) 655-2657 or visit www. palmbeachsymphony.org/programs/education.

Palm Beach Symphony’s educational outreach programs are sponsored in part by generous donations and grants from The Paul and Sandra Goldner Conservatory of Music, The Frederick A. DeLuca Foundation, Publix Charities and the School District of Palm Beach County.

PAUL AND SANDRA GOLDNER

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Community Outreach Palm Beach Symphony provides impactful outreach programs that allow us to reach beyond our concert venue to engage members of the community. Our community outreach events serve as the cornerstone of our efforts to reach Palm Beach County’s broad and diverse community which together with our educational initiatives enabled us to be recognized by The Cultural Council for Palm Beach County with a 2020 Muse Award for Outstanding Community Engagement.

Randolph A. Frank Prize The mission of the Randolph A. Frank Prize for the Performing Arts is to recognize and reward individual performing artists and dedicated educators who enrich the quality of the performing arts in Palm Beach County, Florida.

Chamber Chats Palm Beach Symphony presents lively chamber music concerts enhanced by enlightening narration by local musicians, historians, and scholars. These informative and engaging chamber music programs provide both entertainment and learning experiences for audiences of all ages.

Middle-Bridge Trio The Middle Bridge Trio combines the worlds of European classical string playing and American fiddle music to create an intoxicating blend of concert hall and barn dance.

Nurturing Notes Palm Beach Symphony partners with Creative Arts Therapies of the Palm Beaches to connect all corners of the community through music.

Through music-based interventions, our symphony musicians, and a certified music therapist from CATPB work with vulnerable and isolated populations throughout our community, such as seniors and children receiving inpatient care for medical or mental health needs to address physical, social and emotional needs like pain, stress, isolation and depression.

Musical Masterpieces Through our musical masterpieces project, we work with diverse populations all over the community, children and adults to turn unusable donated instruments into works of art.

We partner with organizations that hold art classes, donate the instruments, and the art students get the opportunity to create musical masterpieces!

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Photo: Cheryl Mazak

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JANUARY 24, 2021

3:00 PM Dreyfoos Hall The Kravis Center for the Performing Arts and LIVE STREAMED

Pinchas Zukerman Performs Beethoven Gerard Schwarz, Conductor Pinchas Zukerman, violin –––

program

BEETHOVEN

Coriolan Overture, Op. 62

(1770 – 1827)

Violin

Concerto in D Major, Op. 61

Allegro non troppo

Larghetto Rondo: Allegro

intermission

Symphony No. 7 in A Major, Op. 92

Poco sostenuto - Vivace

Allegretto Presto Allegro con brio

Room nights for artists generously sponsored by the Colony Palm Beach and the Hilton West Palm Beach

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PALM BEACH SYMPHONY FIFTH ANNUAL HOLIDAY LUNCHEON

SAVE THE DATE! TUESDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2021, 11am THE BEACH CLUB, PALM BEACH 755 N County Road, Palm Beach, FL 33480

Celebrate the season with fine food, camaraderie, glorious music, and an extensive silent auction.

Join us for our traditional instrument donations and the presentation of the 2021 award for Palm Beach Symphony Instrumental Music Teacher of The Year!

This festive fundraising luncheon supports Palm Beach Symphony’s mission to provide world-class music, community outreach, and music education programs to Palm Beach County.

EVENT INFO:

(561) 568-0265 hselcuk@palmbeachsymphony.org SPONSORSHIP AND UNDERWRITING OPPORTUNITIES AVAILABLE

Guest Artist

Pinchas Zukerman, violin With a celebrated career encompassing five decades, Pinchas Zukerman reigns as one of today’s most sought after and versatile musicians - violin and viola soloist, conductor, and chamber musician. He is renowned as a virtuoso, admired for the expressive lyricism of his playing, singular beauty of tone, and impeccable musicianship, which can be heard throughout his discography of over 100 albums for which he gained two Grammy® awards and 21 nominations.

Highlights of the 2019-2020 season include tours with the Vienna Philharmonic and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as guest appearances with the Boston, Dallas and Prague Symphonies, Berlin Staatskapelle, and Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. In his fifth season as Artist-in-Residence of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, he tours with the ensemble to China and Korea, and recently premiered Avner Dorman’s Double Concerto for Violin and Cello, written for Zukerman and cellist Amanda Forsyth. Subsequent performances of the important new work take place at Tanglewood with the Boston Symphony, Ottawa with the National Arts Centre Orchestra, where Zukerman serves as Conductor Emeritus, and with the Israel Philharmonic. In chamber music, he travels with the Zukerman Trio for performances throughout North and South America, Europe and Asia, and joins longtime friend and collaborator Daniel Barenboim for a cycle of the complete Beethoven Sonatas for Violin and Piano, presented in a three-concert series in Berlin.

A devoted teacher and champion of young musicians, he has served as chair of the Pinchas Zukerman Performance Program at the Manhattan School of Music for over 25 years, and has taught at prominent institutions throughout the United Kingdom, Israel, China and Canada, among others. As a mentor he has inspired generations of young musicians who have achieved prominence in performing, teaching, and leading roles with music festivals around the globe. Mr. Zukerman has received honorary doctorates from Brown University, Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, and the University of Calgary, as well as the National Medal of Arts from President Ronald Reagan. He is a recipient of the Isaac Stern Award for Artistic Excellence in Classical Music.

Mr. Zukerman has recorded for Decca, Analekta, CBS Masterworks, Philips, Angel, Deutsche Grammophon, CBC Records, Altara, Biddulph Recordings, Sony and BMG Classics/RCA Victor Red Seal.

Exclusive Representation: Kirshbaum Associates Inc. 307 Seventh Avenue Suite 506 New York, NY 10001 www.kirshbaumassociates.com @pbsym ph o ny

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Pinchas Zukerman Performs Beethoven

Pinchas Zukerman Performs Beethoven Notes on the Program by Aaron Grad

Even 250 years after his birth, Beethoven still thrills and astounds audiences with the radical authenticity of his compositions. These three masterpieces date from the pivotal decade when Beethoven, assured of his talents and deprived of his hearing, stripped away the niceties of his predecessors to deliver music of pure, elemental emotion.

Coriolan Overture, Op. 62 [1807]

Ludwig Van Beethoven Born December 1770 in Bonn, Germany Died March 26, 1827 in Vienna, Austria When Beethoven arrived in Vienna in 1792, he was following in the footsteps of his hero Mozart, whose death a year earlier left an opening for a hotshot keyboard player that the young Beethoven eagerly filled. In those early years, before his reputation earned him a measure of artistic independence (and before his deafness cut him off from the world), Beethoven hustled for all sorts of paying gigs around town—teaching lessons, performing concerts, and writing accessible music that could be published and sold to amateurs. But his real ambition was to write music on a grand scale, like the symphonies of his onetime teacher Haydn or operas like Mozart, and he entered his thirties on track to eclipse them both.

Beethoven did indeed go on to write symphonies that made even Haydn’s seminal works look modest by comparison, but he was not so fortunate in the theatrical realm. His debut opera, Leonore, was a flop in 1805, and it took him until 1814 to get it staged again in a revised version known as Fidelio. During that interval, Beethoven was desperate to find a way back into the opera house, which must have had something to do with his unsolicited offer in 1807 to write an overture for a dormant play that had been produced five years earlier in Vienna.

The overture went along with Heinrich Joseph von Collin’s play Coriolan—not to be confused with Shakespeare’s Coriolanus, based on the same story from Plutarch. The drama follows a Roman general who defects to the enemy camp and raises an army against Rome, reaching the gates of the city before his mother convinces him to stop. The choice of key, C-minor, foreshadows the fateful Fifth Symphony that Beethoven composed the following year, and like that symphony, the Coriolan Overture generates its power from the most compact material. The signature motive here is a drawn-out C that bursts into a short, explosive chord. The unresolved harmonies, like hanging questions, suggest a battle waging within the protagonist’s own conscience.

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Notes on the Program

Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 61 [1806]

Ludwig Van Beethoven Beethoven often took months or years to draft and refine a major composition, and his 8,000-plus pages of surviving sketches attest to the grit and endurance involved in his typical working process. He had no such luxury, however, when he agreed on short notice to write a violin concerto for his friend Franz Clement. Beethoven just barely completed the score in time for the premiere on December 23, 1806, leaving Clement scant time to learn the imposing solo part. The initial audience didn’t know what to make of such a profound and symphonic concerto, and Beethoven’s only full-length feature for the violin languished until Felix Mendelssohn revived it in 1844, joined by the twelve-year-old Hungarian prodigy Joseph Joachim.

The Violin Concerto starts with a quintessential Beethoven theme: a single note, D, struck five consecutive times by the timpanist. This modest tapping motive proves to be the backbone of the substantial first movement, an approach typical of Beethoven’s “middle period,” when he mastered the art of distilling musical ingredients down to their purest essence. The slow movement continues the rarified mood with a stately theme and variations, and then the Rondo finale, reached without pause through a solo cadenza, supplies the concerto with a more extroverted conclusion.

Symphony No. 7 in A Major, Op. 92 [1812]

Ludwig Van Beethoven In 1811, the ailing Beethoven took his doctor’s advice and spent the summer in the Bohemian spa town of Teplitz. The trip succeeded in refreshing Beethoven’s health and spirits, and soon he started on a new symphony, his first in three years. He completed the Symphony No. 7 the following spring, but with the Napoleonic Wars disrupting concert life in Vienna, the new work did not reach the public until the end of 1813, when Beethoven conducted a benefit concert for wounded soldiers.

The Seventh Symphony begins with an introduction, the structure favored by Haydn in his late symphonies. Typically this would be a slow introduction, but Beethoven’s Poco sostenuto tempo has unusual forward drive, its momentum reinforced by repeated notes and rising scales. The introduction is also of an unprecedented length, lasting nearly four minutes before a single repeated pitch links into the lively Vivace continuation, set in a rollicking triple meter infused with the snap of dotted rhythms.

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Pinchas Zukerman Performs Beethoven

The Allegretto second movement again defies the expectation of slow music. It explores a distinctive rhythmic stamp (long, short-short, long, long), advancing a simple theme while expanding the scoring from lower strings to the full orchestra. A contrasting major-key section with broad phrases and pulsing pizzicato intervenes twice, but variants of the opening figure return each time as the heartbeat of the music, even when it is reduced to a skeletal final statement. The audience at the premiere was so struck by this movement that they demanded an encore, and it has been a fan favorite ever since.

The third movement is a Scherzo in all but name, Beethoven’s supercharged answer to Haydn’s minuets. It features cheeky rhythmic play and sudden dynamic contrast, as would be expected from a palate-cleansing third movement; more surprising is the strangely earnest trio section, with winds intoning a hymn-like chorale over droning violins. Instead of the typical three-part structure in which the trio appears once as a central departure, here it enters twice and then echoes again in the movement’s coda.

The finale is another marvel of rhythmic drive, with its vigorous accents on the off-beats. It is no wonder that Richard Wagner called this symphony “the apotheosis of the dance”—each movement is a celebration of relentless, infectious rhythms. © 2020 Aaron Grad.

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FEBRUARY 3, 2021

7:30 PM The Society of the Four Arts

AN EXCLUSIVE CONCERT FOR MEMBERS

Olga Kern performs with Palm Beach Symphony Gerard Schwarz, Conductor Olga Kern, piano –––

program

STRAUSS Sextet

from Capriccio

(1864 – 1949)

(arr. Gerard Schwarz)

SHOSTAKOVICH

Piano Concerto No. 1 in C Minor, Op. 35

Allegro moderato Lento Moderato Allegro con brio (1906 – 1975)

intermission

FINE

(1914 – 1962)

Serious Song: A Lament for String Orchestra

DVOŘÁK

Serenade for Strings in E Major, Op. 22

Moderato Tempo di Valse Scherzo: Vivace Larghetto Finale: Allegro vivace (1841 – 1904)

Room nights for artists generously sponsored by the Colony Palm Beach and the Hilton West Palm Beach @pbsym ph o ny

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Young Friends of Palm Beach Symphony

Young Friends of Palm Beach Symphony is an active group composed of young professionals in their 20s, 30s, and 40s who have an appreciation for classical music and are committed to supporting Palm Beach Symphony’s impactful education and outreach programs.

Members enjoy exclusive tailored events, which include dynamic socials and engaging networking opportunities.

ALL MEMBERS RECEIVE • Access to exclusive concert socials • Invitation to social events • Access to special single ticket rate • Advanced single ticket ordering • Subscription to text-alert reminders • Subscription to select email communications • Early access to purchase a discounted gala ticket

MEMBERSHIP BENEFITS CORPORATE PLUS ($2,500) • Membership benefits for five adults • Masterworks Series Subscription for five adults • Access to special subscription rate • Invitation to Executive VIP events • Logo on website with link • Logo on select email communications • Logo on Young Friends collateral • Collateral displayed at Young Friends events • Opportunity to speak at Young Friends events • Recognition in concert program • Logo on signage at Young Friends events • Complimentary half-page ad 46

Pa l m B e a ch Sy mphony

CORPORATE MEMBERSHIP ($1,250) • Membership benefits for three adults • Masterworks Series Subscription for three adults • Access to special subscription rate • Invitation to Executive VIP events • Logo on website with link • Logo on select email communications • Logo on Young Friends collateral EXECUTIVE PLUS ($650) • Membership benefits for two adults • Masterworks Series Subscription for two adults • Access to special subscription rate • Invitation to Executive VIP events EXECUTIVE PLUS ($375) • Membership benefits for one adult • Masterworks Series Subscription for one adult • Access to special subscription rate • Invitation to Executive VIP events MEMBERSHIP ($175) • Membership benefits for one adult

Guest Artist

Olga Kern, piano Russian-American pianist Olga Kern is now recognized as one of her generation’s great pianists.

She jumpstarted her U.S. career with her historic Gold Medal win at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Fort Worth, Texas as the first woman to do so in more than thirty years.

First prize winner of the Rachmaninoff International Piano Competition at seventeen, Ms. Kern is a laureate of many international competitions. In 2016 she served as Jury Chairman of both the Seventh Cliburn International Amateur Piano Competition and the first Olga Kern International Piano Competition, where she also holds the title of Artistic Director.

Ms. Kern frequently gives masterclasses and since September 2017 has served on the piano faculty of the prestigious Manhattan School of Music. Additionally, Ms. Kern has been chosen as the Virginia Arts Festival’s new Connie & Marc Jacobson Director of Chamber Music, beginning with the 2019 season.

For the 2019-20 season, Kern will perform with the Allentown Symphony, Grand Rapids Symphony, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Colorado Symphony, Toledo Symphony Orchestra, New Mexico Philharmonic, Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie, New West Symphony, and the Sao Paulo Symphony, as well as appearing on United States Tour with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine. She is also the guest soloist at the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center for Leonard Slatkin’s 75th Birthday Celebration. She will appear in recitals in Orford, Sunriver, Fort Worth (Cliburn), Carmel, San Francisco, Sicily, Calvia, and Helsingborg. This October and November, Olga Kern will be hosting her Second Olga Kern International Piano Competition.

This season, she will also be a part of the jury at the following piano competitions: Sydney International Piano Competition, Gurwitz International Piano Competition, Gershwin Piano Competition, Schumann Prize Competition, and the Scriabin International Competition.

In recent seasons, Kern performed with the Moscow Philharmonic, Santa Fe Symphony, and the St. Louis Symphony, as well as opened the Pacific Symphony’s 2018-19 season. Kern was also a featured soloist for the Royal Scottish National Orchestra during the 2018-19 Tour. She also served as Artist in Residence for the San Antonio Symphony’s 2017-18 season and had her debut with the National Youth Orchestra on their China tour. Ms. Kern opened the Baltimore Symphony’s 2015-2016 centennial season with Marin Alsop. Other season highlights included returns to the Royal Philharmonic with Pinchas Zukerman, Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice with Giancarlo Guerrero.

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Olga Kern Performs with Palm Beach Symphony

Serious Fun: Olga Kern Performs with Palm Beach Symphony Notes on the Program by Aaron Grad

By revisiting the past, composers can escape into simpler, happier times, whether it is Dvořák’s reverent look back at the night music of Mozart or the winking nods to history found in cheeky scores by Strauss and Shostakovich. Turning to the past can also lend timeless resonance to the most profound emotions, as demonstrated by Irving Fine’s Serious Song.

Sextet from Capriccio [1941]

Richard Strauss Born June 11, 1864 in Munich, Germany Died September 8, 1949 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany Richard Strauss, the same composer who shocked the world in 1905 with Salome, closed his operatic career in 1941 with Capriccio, a study in gentility and rococo charm. The scenario features a composer and poet vying for the love of a countess, a story adapted from an 1 8th-century libretto by Giambattista Casti titled Prima la musica, poi la parole (First the Music, Then the Words).

In Capriccio, Strauss finds an alter ego in Flamand, the composer in love with the countess. As the opera opens, we hear a string sextet rehearsing one of Flamand’s pieces at the countess’ château. The textural intricacy of the music and certain moments of harmonic daring clearly belong to Strauss’ post-Romantic language, but the sweet themes and ornate melodic decorations channel an air of bygone Classicism. This arrangement by Maestro Gerard Schwarz distributes the six lines of music among the string orchestra, bringing extra richness to Strauss’ yearning melodies.

Piano Concerto No. 1 in C Minor, Op. 35 [1933]

Dmitri Shostakovich Born September 25, 1906 in Saint Petersburg, Russia Died August 9, 1975 in Moscow, Soviet Union As of 1933, when Shostakovich composed the Piano Concerto No. 1, his recent work on theater, ballet, film and opera projects had helped crystallize his acerbic sense of humor, and his music exuded all the bravado you would expect from a national hero in his mid-twenties.

He composed the First Concerto as a showcase for himself, surrounding the piano with a lean

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Notes on the Program

accompaniment of strings along with a single trumpet that functions as a wry commentator, sometimes skewing the music toward dance hall exuberance, other times imparting a militaristic discipline.

The concerto opens with a short, biting introduction, and then the piano provides a few measures of its own bass accompaniment to usher in a melody fashioned after the start of Beethoven’s “Appassionata” Sonata. (The telltale fragment borrowed from Beethoven is a descending minor triad in a dotted rhythm—similar to the first three notes of The StarSpangled Banner.) A galloping theme in a major key makes for an incongruous contrast, charting an uneasy intersection between the hilarious and the grotesque.

The second movement is a melancholy waltz, marked by ruminative passages for unaccompanied piano. Even the trumpet, emerging out of a hushed series of string chords, sets aside its joking to take a turn at the docile waltz theme.

A short Moderato movement provides a rhapsodic bridge to the finale. The violins introduce the playful main theme built on repeated notes and leaps, and the music bounds through a range of moods and tempos. There is a bawdy, saloon-like quality to some of the piano figures, perhaps not far off from the kind of music Shostakovich played when he accompanied silent films in his student days. The piano saves one more parody for the cadenza, a harmonically restless reimagining of Beethoven’s Rondo a capriccio in G Major— better known by its nickname, “The Rage over a Lost Penny.”

Serious Song: A Lament for String Orchestra [1955]

Irving Fine Born December 3, 1914 in Boston, Massachusetts Died August 23, 1962 in Boston, Massachusetts Irving Fine studied and taught at Harvard University before he joined the faculty of Brandeis University in 1950, a tenure that lasted until his death from heart disease at age 47. This lifelong Bostonian never enjoyed widespread success, but his champions did include Leonard Bernstein, who praised Fine’s Serious Song as “rich, sensitive, emotional music,” and Aaron Copland, who wrote, “Sureness of musical instinct informed Fine’s every activity.”

Fine composed Serious Song in the summer of 1955 to satisfy a commission from the Louisville Orchestra. The short, elegiac work uses a rich and supple harmonic language that combines late-Romantic tonality with glints of modern technique. Fine considered the work “essentially an extended aria for string orchestra,” and the melodic contours of this instrumental “lament” exhibit a singing, voice-like quality.

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Olga Kern Performs with Palm Beach Symphony

Serenade for Strings in E Major, Op. 22 [1875]

Antonín Dvořák Born September 8, 1841 near Prague, Bohemia Died May 1, 1904 in Prague, Bohemia Antonín Dvořák grew up in a small Bohemian village where his father ran an inn and entertained guests by playing the region’s quintessential folk instrument, the zither. After Dvořák moved to Prague to pursue a career in music, he scraped by any way he could— teaching piano, playing church organ, and gigging with a dance band on the viola, to name a few of the activities that supported his composing. He might have spent the rest of his life in obscurity had it not been for the intervention of a most influential champion, Johannes Brahms, who discovered the young Czech composer when judging a competition.

One work that Dvořák submitted for that competition was the Serenade for Strings that he had composed over twelve days in May of 1875. Brahms was so impressed that he forwarded a stack of scores on to his publisher Simrock, writing, “For several years I have enjoyed works sent in by Antonín Dvořák (pronounced Dvorschak) of Prague. … Dvořák has written all manner of things: operas (Czech), symphonies, quartets, piano pieces. In any case, he is a very talented man. Moreover, he is poor! I ask you to think about it!” Heeding Brahms’ advice, Simrock commissioned Dvořák’s Slavonic Dances, which became an instant hit and launched Dvořák’s international career.

The Serenade, as practiced by eighteenth-century composers, contained light-hearted music to be performed outdoors at public gatherings in the evening. By the nineteenth century, composers applied the term more generally to pieces of a pleasing, “night-music” character with a loose assemblage of movements, a format that suited Dvořák’s gift for melodic invention.

Most of the movements of the Serenade for Strings follow a three-part structure, with statements of a primary theme (or group of themes) separated by a contrasting middle section. The opening Moderato demonstrates this simple elegance, forgoing an introduction and developmental transitions, and instead moving without delay from one memorable melody to the next. Singable themes continue to unfurl in the Waltz, Scherzo and Larghetto, the last of which provides a rich and sentimental departure from the Serenade’s cheery disposition. In the Finale, playful quotations help to bring the work full circle. © 2020 Aaron Grad.

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SAVE THE DATE

PALM BEACH SYMPHONY INAUGURAL GOLDEN BATON SOCIETY DINNER MONDAY | MAY 24, 2021 | 6:30PM 1000 NORTH

1000 US-1, Jupiter, FL 33477

Rescheduled for the 2020/2021 season, this exclusive event promises a spectacular evening of music, drinks, and fine dining at 1000 North, the sophisticated waterfront restaurant and private club in Jupiter. Hosted by Patrick & Milly Park, the Honorary Chairs of the Golden Baton Society, as well as Host Chairs Howard and Michele Kessler, and Centennial Honoree Hermé de Wyman Miro, the evening features a performance by violinist Elizabeth Pitcairn, the owner of the 300-year-old "Red Violin" Stradivarius that inspired the film of the same name. Proceeds from the event support the Symphony's mission to engage, educate, and entertain the greater community of the Palm Beaches.

TICKETS & INFO: Original tickets from the postponed 2020 event remain valid.

RSVP by phone by contacting Hulya Selcuk (561) 568-0265

hselcuk@palmbeachsymphony.org

palmbeachsymphony.org

@pbsymphony

Susan Gottsegen (1945-2020)

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A Remembrance I first saw my future wife Susan when she was a 15-year-old sophomore at Huntington High School on Long Island, where we both lived. I was 16 and had started boarding school the previous year. I had gone to the high school to see some of my friends since my vacations were different from those of public schools.

I remember Sue was standing at her locker, wearing a maroon skirt and white blouse, laughing at something someone had said. I thought to myself: she’s really good-looking, and I’ve got to find a way to meet her.

It just so happened that I knew someone who was a friend of Sue’s brother. A short time later, I was at her house, an introduction was made, and as they say, the rest is history.

Sue’s mother wanted her to get out of Huntington High and, like some of her older sisters, go away to boarding school. Sue wanted nothing to do with that, so the compromise was that she would commute daily to a private school in New York City. The good news was that she was now on my vacation schedule, so we could hang out together while our friends were still in school.

I thought I was the luckiest guy in the world being with this great-looking, fun girl who, for some reason, seemed to like me. And, I continued to feel that for the next 60 years. From the time we met until the day she died, there were no other girlfriends or boyfriends—just us.

I look back on that now and see it was quite remarkable because there were so many places along the way we could have drifted apart. Think about it--we literally grew up together: we went through adolescence together; stayed together through college; got married while I was in graduate school; became parents in our early 20s, literally children having children; experienced the proverbial empty nest and were happily growing older together.

Why do some marriages work and others don’t? I have no idea. But maybe I can describe our relationship to explain why I think it lasted so long and was so happy.

First, we respected each other and never wanted the other one to be unhappy or get hurt.

Arguments were rare and never lasted very long. No one had to be the winner or loser or automatically had the right answer. We listened to each other and always were willing to compromise; nothing was left to fester—we talked it through, made a decision, and moved on.

I guess you could say we met young, fell in love and stayed that way for 60 years.

Secondly, we liked doing things together.

When our two sons were young, we’d go on family trips. At Christmas and spring break, it was skiing, initially in New England and then out west to all the well-known spots–Sun Valley, Telluride, Steamboat, Taos, Alta, Aspen.

We also did other fun, family things. Rafting trips out west, as well as travels outside the US— Europe, Mexico, Bermuda, and the Caribbean come to mind.

A special one was sailing in the Mediterranean. We had chartered a beautiful sailboat—the @pbsym ph o ny

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A Remembrance

Moon Beam– with good friends one year to sail from Rhodes along the Turkish coast. It was a great trip, and we agreed with one of the other couples to charter the boat again the following year, this time bringing our children along. We sailed from Piraeus, the port of Athens, to Rhodes—south all through the Greek islands. We all had a ball.

But soon, the boys outgrew trips with mom and dad, and we had to find something else we liked to do together.

Sue tolerated skiing but didn’t love it. I enjoyed it but hated the cold, so we decided to look for another hobby. Tennis and golf were non-starters for her, but as a young girl, she rode and loved it. She had friends with horses in Bedford, New York, where we lived, and she decided to take it up again. She encouraged me to learn. I had never been on a horse before, so I started taking lessons at the age of 47.

Sue and her friends were having a good time training for and entering local horse shows.

That didn’t have much appeal to me. I was more interested in riding cross country, so I moved to a different barn nearby. Sue gave up showing and soon joined me there. Riding was something we both liked to do, and it was fun doing it together. We were of equal ability and confident riders—we could go fast, jump and handle the horses when they were scared or threatened to get out of control.

For the next 25 years, we saw a lot of the world from the top of a horse. In the winter, we went to Central and South America because they were warm, in the same time zone, and easy to get to. Argentina, Belize, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Honduras, and Uruguay were some of our destinations, a couple of them multiple times. A memorable trek was with four other friends; a four-day ride through the lake district of Chile to Argentina. Our greatest crisis during the trip was running out of wine on the second day.

We also rode in Europe and 2019 on both the north and south islands of New Zealand.

Sue also did “girls” trips to Ireland, Tuscany, and Provence.

Our favorite activity, though, was participating in cross country events of 6-12 miles. What could be better than spending a beautiful Sunday in October and November riding in the Hudson Valley. It was fun galloping through the woods and the rolling farmlands and jumping over stone walls and natural obstacles. The events were typically over in one to one and a half hours, then we cooled the horses and enjoyed a picnic lunch and bottle of wine. We both loved it and were pretty good at it; I recall we won three or four of the seven events we entered one year.

About five years ago, our horses were getting old and galloping through fields and jumping were not advisable for the horses or us. We had never been hurt before. We didn’t want to break that record or any bones, so we retired our three horses.

It’s pretty special to find something that you both like to do and get to do together.

Importantly, we weren’t competing against each other; we had to work as a team to be successful. I think it only strengthened the bond between us.

By our early to mid-40s, the kids had moved on and were working or in school out west.

We both had lots of energy and curiosity, and decided that as long as we had our good health,

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A Remembrance

we were going to live life to its fullest. We just wanted to do things we enjoyed doing together and have fun. And, we sure did.

It was easy to have fun with Sue. She was always happy, optimistic, and kind, never grumpy, gloomy, or mean. She had a great, off-beat sense of humor, was totally transparent, and never pretentious. I think others appreciated her always positive attitude and liked to be around her too.

We both had the spirit of adventure and loved to travel to places off the beaten track— countries in Africa like Namibia, the Central African Republic, Mali, Botswana, Zimbabwe; in Brazil--the Amazon, Pantanal, and Bahia, in Chile--the Atacama desert in the north and Torres Del Pine in the far south near Tierra del Fuego; in Asia--the stans (Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan); the Arctic on a Russian icebreaker; Antarctica; Papua New Guinea, Seychelles and most recently to the Kimberley, the remote northwest coast of Australia. We always had fun, met new people, saw amazing birds and other animals, and learned about different cultures.

I take some comfort knowing that Sue died never having regained consciousness after suffering a covid induced heart attack and being placed on a ventilator. I was assured she felt no pain and was at peace. I certainly hope that was the case and deeply, deeply regret that I could not be with her at the end.

I also take comfort in believing she lived a good, happy life. God knows, I certainly did with her. She loved her sons and adored her grandchildren, and always looked forward to family gatherings with them and our many nieces and nephews. She especially enjoyed celebrating birthdays, anniversaries, and weddings, as well as having dinners on our terrace in Pound Ridge with so many close, good friends.

In closing, let me get back to where I started: why did we stay together for so long?

We respected each other; we listened to each other; we enjoyed each other’s company; we liked making each other happy; we supported each other during the disappointments and celebrated the triumphs together, and we made each other laugh and had fun. I think that is a winning formula, and it certainly worked for us for 60 years--each one filled with happiness, laughter, and love. For that, I am grateful, and I couldn’t have asked for anything more.

PETER GOTTSEGEN, FEBRUARY 2021

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Photo courtesy of Arts Management Group

MARCH 21, 2021

3:00 PM Dreyfoos Hall The Kravis Center for the Performing Arts and LIVE STREAMED

Vladimir Feltsman Performs Mozart

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Gerard Schwarz, Conductor Vladimir Feltsman, piano ARTS MANAGEMENT GROUP, INC. –––

program

DIAMOND

Rounds

Allegro, molto vivace Adagio Allegro vigoroso (1915 – 2005)

MOZART

Piano Concerto No. 27 in B-flat Major, K. 595

Allegro Larghetto Allegro (1756 – 1791)

intermission

WALKER

Lyric for Strings

STRAVINSKY

Pulcinella Suite

(1922 – 2018)

Sinfonia Serenata Scherzino Tarantella Toccata

Gavotta con due variazioni Vivo Minuetto Finale (1882 – 1971)

This evening was generously underwritten by Peter M. Gottsegen / Gottsegen Family Foundation in memory of Susan Gottsegen Room nights for artists generously sponsored by the Colony Palm Beach and the Hilton West Palm Beach @pbsym ph o ny

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Guest Artist

Vladimir Feltsman, piano Pianist and conductor Vladimir Feltsman is one of the most versatile and constantly interesting musicians of our time. His vast repertoire encompasses music from the Baroque to 21stcentury composers. He has appeared with all the major American orchestras and on the most prestigious musical stages and festivals worldwide.

Born in Moscow in 1952, Mr. Feltsman debuted with the Moscow Philharmonic at age 11. In 1969, he entered the Moscow Tchaikovsky State Conservatory of Music to study piano under the guidance of Professor Jacob Flier. He also studied conducting at both the Moscow and Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) Conservatories. In 1971, Mr. Feltsman won the Grand Prix at the Marguerite Long International Piano Competition in Paris; extensive touring throughout the former Soviet Union, Europe and Japan followed this.

In 1979, because of his growing discontent with the restrictions on artistic freedom under the Soviet regime, Mr. Feltsman signaled his intention to emigrate by applying for an exit visa. In response, he was immediately banned from performing in public and his recordings were suppressed. After eight years of virtual artistic exile, he was finally granted permission to leave the Soviet Union. Upon his arrival in the United States in 1987, Mr. Feltsman was warmly greeted at the White House, where he performed his first recital in North America.

That same year, his debut at Carnegie Hall established him as a major pianist on the American and international scene.

A dedicated educator of young musicians, Mr. Feltsman holds the Distinguished Chair of Professor of Piano at the State University of New York, New Paltz, and is a member of the piano faculty at the Mannes College of Music in New York City. He is the founder and Artistic Director of the International Festival-Institute Piano Summer at New Paltz, a three-week-long, intensive training program for advanced piano students that attracts major young talents from all over the world.

Mr. Feltsman’s extensive discography has been released on the Melodiya, Sony Classical, Musical Heritage and Nimbus labels; it includes more than 60 CD’s and is expanding. He completed recently a recording of all the Schubert Sonatas and the works by Schumann for Nimbus. Feltsman’s discography includes all major clavier works of J.S. Bach; recordings of Beethoven’s last five piano sonatas, the Moonlight, Pathetique and Appassionata Sonatas, and Diabelli Variations; solo piano works of Haydn, Chopin, Liszt, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Scriabin, Mussorgsky, Messiaen and Silvestrov; as well as concerti by Bach, Brahms, Chopin, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, and Prokofiev.

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Notes on the Program

Vladimir Feltsman Performs Mozart Notes on the Program by Aaron Grad

From its eighteenth-century heyday to its modern reincarnation, the classical style has always represented the apex of elegance, balance, and sparkling joy in music. Alongside the towering example of Mozart’s final piano concerto, twentieth-century gems show how a diverse swath of composers continued to engage with models from music’s glorious past.

Rounds

David Diamond Born July 9, 1915 in Rochester, New York Died June 13, 2005 in Rochester, New York David Diamond is best known today as the composer of Rounds, a legacy that obscures his many contributions to American music that were admired by the likes of Gershwin, Copland and Bernstein. After studying in Paris with Nadia Boulanger, Diamond returned to the United States during World War II. Amid the ongoing despair of the war, the conductor Dmitri Mitropoulos asked the composer for a new piece. “These are distressing times,” Mitropoulos wrote in his invitation. “Most of the difficult music I play is distressing. Make me happy.”

As the title suggests, this work is full of rounds in which parts enter one-by-one, each playing the same music (i.e. “Row, row, row your boat”). Besides those basic rounds, a wide spectrum of other canons and imitative counterpoint give an antique glow to this modern score, culminating in the finale’s vigorous fugue. Diamond liked to recount a line from his friend Aaron Copland, who programmed Rounds frequently for his appearances as a conductor. “I wish I had written that piece,” Copland purportedly said. “It really works for the audience very well.”

Piano Concerto No. 27 in B-flat Major, K. 595 [1791]

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Born January 27, 1756 in Salzburg, Austria Died December 5, 1791 in Vienna, Austria When Mozart, the former child prodigy, found himself still stuck at home in Salzburg in his early twenties with no suitable job offers, he took the leap of moving to Vienna in 1781 to start a freelance career. He soon attracted a loyal following of subscribers who attended his

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Vladimir Feltsman Performs Mozart

self-produced concerts, where the highlights were often his new piano concertos— fifteen of them appearing between 1782 and 1786.

Mozart completed only two more piano concertos after 1786, when war with the Ottoman Empire scattered Vienna’s elites and put a damper on his concert career. He may have begun the last one, No. 27 in B-flat Major, in 1788, but he only logged it in his catalog of completed works on January 5, 1791, exactly 11 months before his death. Mozart notated cadenzas for the outer movements, which lends credence to the idea that his talented student Barbara Ployer gave the first performance at a concert in Vienna on January 9. (For works he was performing himself, Mozart usually improvised the cadenzas.) He did perform the concerto that March at a benefit concert for a clarinetist friend, in what proved to be his last known public appearance as a pianist.

Mozart, always an opera composer at heart, filled this concerto with sweet and cheerful tunes that simply beg to be sung. When the piano takes over the music introduced by violins at the start of the first movement, it incorporates florid decorations, similar to how a soprano might add flourishes to an aria. To begin the central Larghetto, the soloist enters alone with a theme of child-like innocence. The finale also opens with the piano presenting a disarming melody, one that Mozart reused a few days later in his setting of a poem titled Longing for Spring (K. 596) for an album of children’s songs.

Lyric for Strings (1946)

George Walker Born June 27, 1922 in Washington, DC Died August 23, 2018 in Montclair, New Jersey George Walker was a vital American composer who was active right up to his death in 2018 at the age of 96. Decades before he became the first African-American winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1996, he broke ground in 1945 as the first American-American graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied piano with Rudolf Serkin and composition with Samuel Barber. In an uncanny parallel with Barber, whose most celebrated music is still the Adagio for Strings adapted from the First String Quartet he wrote just after graduating from Curtis, Walker too is best known for the slow movement of the String Quartet No. 1 that he wrote in 1946. Originally titled Lament and dedicated to his recently deceased grandmother, Walker renamed the movement Lyric and created a transcription for string orchestra.

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Notes on the Program

Pulcinella Suite [1922, revised 1949]

Igor Stravinsky Born June 5, 1882 near Saint Petersburg, Russia Died April 6, 1971 in New York, New York After conquering Paris with his ballet scores for The Firebird, Petrushka and The Rite of Spring, all in a span of three years, Stravinsky earned a reputation as one of music’s most progressive and strident voices. His follow-up with the Ballets Russes was delayed by World War I and funding difficulties, and by the time that fabled company unveiled Pulcinella in 1920, Stravinsky shocked audiences once again, this time for the music’s unabashed simplicity and charm.

Pulcinella owes its creation to the powerhouse impresario Serge Diaghilev, who crafted the scenario out of stock characters from the Commedia dell’arte tradition, a semi-improvised style of theater that flourished in Italy in the seventeenth century. Diaghilev engaged Pablo Picasso to design the sets and costumes for the Ballets Russes production, and Léonide Massine, the leading male dancer after Nijinsky’s departure, contributed the choreography.

Diaghilev even had a hand in shaping the music; to provide Baroque inspiration, he gave Stravinksy a sheath of manuscripts thought to be the work of the Italian composer Giovanni Pergolesi (1710-1736).

Stravinsky decided to construct his score around that existing music by “Pergolesi”— the majority of which has turned out to be the work of other, lesser-known composers.

Stravinsky’s approach left the melodies and bass lines mostly intact, but he added inner textures and counterpoint, and used the chamber orchestra (including a group of solo strings, as in a concerto grosso) to enunciate the phrases with his unique style of fragmentation and shifting accents.

Stravinsky extracted an orchestral suite from Pulcinella in 1922, omitting the voices and several numbers from the original ballet, and in this form the music has become a concert staple. The short movements encompass Baroque dances, winking parodies and even a droll duet for trombone and solo contrabass. Pulcinella was not the first modern score to incorporate antique material—Ravel’s Le tombeau de Couperin and Prokofiev’s Classical Symphony are notable predecessors—but its particular blend of elegance, irony and irreverence marked the true arrival of the neoclassical style in music, as rendered by its greatest practitioner. © 2021 Aaron Grad.

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Photo: Matt Dine

3

APRIL 19, 2021

7:30 PM Dreyfoos Hall The Kravis Center for the Performing Arts and LIVE STREAMED

An Enchanted Evening with Julian Schwarz Gerard Schwarz, Conductor Julian Schwarz, cello APPEARS BY ARRANGEMENT WITH CM ARTISTS –––

STILL

program

Darker America

(1895 – 1978)

SAINT-SAÉNS

Cello Concerto No. 1 in A Minor, Op. 33

Allegro non troppo Allegretto con moto Allegro non troppo (1835 – 1921)

intermission

DVOŘÁK

Silent Woods, Op. 68, No. 5

MENDELSSOHN

Symphony No. 1 in C Minor, Op. 11

(1841 – 1904)

Allegro di molto Andante Menuetto: Allegro molto Allegro con fuoco (1809 – 1947)

Room nights for artists generously sponsored by the Colony Palm Beach and the Hilton West Palm Beach

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Guest Artist

Julian Schwarz, cello Julian Schwarz was born to a multigenerational musical family in 1991. Heralded from a young age as a cellist destined to rank among the best of the 21st century, his powerful tone, effortless virtuosity, and extraordinarily large color palate are hallmarks of his style.

After making his concerto debut at the age of 11 with the Seattle Symphony with his father, Gerard Schwarz, on the podium, Mr. Schwarz made his US touring debut with the Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra in 2010. Since being awarded first prize at the inaugural Schoenfeld International String Competition in 2013, he has led an active career as soloist, performing with the symphony orchestras of Annapolis, Boise, Buffalo, Charlotte, Columbus, Des Moines, Hartford, Jacksonville, Louisville, Memphis, Modesto, Omaha, Puerto Rico, Richmond, Rochester, San Antonio, Sarasota, Seattle, Syracuse, Toledo, Tucson, Virginia, West Virginia, Wichita, and Winston-Salem, among others. Internationally, he made his Australian debut with the Queensland Symphony, his Mexican debuts with the Boca del Rio Philharmonic in Veracruz and the Mexico City Philharmonic with frequent collaborator Jorge Mester, and his Hong Kong debut at the Intimacy of Creativity Festival. He has also appeared at the Salzburg Mozarteum in Austria and the Verbier Festival in Switzerland.

As a chamber musician, Mr. Schwarz performs extensively in recital with pianist Marika Bournaki. In 2016 the Schwarz-Bournaki duo was awarded first prize at the inaugural Boulder International String Competition’s “The Art of Duo”, and subsequently embarked on an extensive 10-recital tour of China in March 2017. Mr. Schwarz is a founding member of the New York based Frisson Ensemble (a mixed nonet of winds and strings), and the Mile-End Trio with violinist Jeff Multer and Ms. Bournaki. He performs frequently at Bargemusic in Brooklyn with violinist Mark Peskanov, on the Frankly Music Series in Milwaukee with violinist Frank Almond, as a member of the Palladium Chamber Players in St. Petersburg FL, and has appeared at the Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival, Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival and the Seattle Chamber Music Festival. In addition, he is the co-coordinator of chamber music at Eastern Music Festival, programming the repertoire for the Tuesday evening chamber music series.

Julian Schwarz is an ardent supporter of new music and has premiered concertos by Richard Danielpour and Samuel Jones; the Jones concerto was recorded with the All Star Orchestra for public television in 2012 and subsequently released as a DVD on Naxos. In the 17-18 season, he gave the world premiere of Lowell Liebermann’s first Cello Concerto with the Toledo Symphony and a consortium of five other orchestras. Additional premieres include recital works by Paul Frucht, Scott Ordway, Jonathan Cziner, Gavin Fraser, Alex Weiser, Ofer Ben-Amots, and the US Premiere of Dobrinka Tabakova’s Cello Concerto. No stranger to the recording studio, he has recorded Bright Sheng’s “Northern Lights” for Naxos, the complete cello/piano works by Ernest Bloch for the Milken Archive of American Jewish Music, and an 56

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Notes on the Program

album of concertos with the Seattle Symphony.

A devoted teacher, Mr. Schwarz serves as Asst. Professor of Cello at Shenandoah Conservatory of Shenandoah University (Winchester, VA) and on the artist faculty of New York University (NYU Steinhardt). He spends his summers teaching and performing at the Eastern Music Festival (Greensboro, NC). Past faculty appointments include artist-inresidence at the Lunenburg Academy of Music Performance (Nova Scotia, Canada), faculty teaching assistant to Joel Krosnick at The Juilliard School, and Artist-In-Residence at the piano Sonoma Festival.

Born in Seattle, WA, Julian Schwarz studied at the Academy of Music Northwest and the Lakeside School. His studies continued at the Colburn School in Los Angeles under Ronald Leonard, and he then moved to New York City to study with mentor Joel Krosnick at The Juilliard School, earning his Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in 2014 and 2016 respectively. Other influential teachers include the late David Tonkonogui, Toby Saks, Lynn Harrell, Neal Cary, and chamber music mentors Andre Roy, Arnold Steinhardt, Jonathan Feldman, Toby Appel and Paul Coletti. Mr. Schwarz plays a Neapolitan cello made by Gennaro Gagliano in 1743 and uses an American bow made by Paul Martin Siefried. He is an active contributor to Strings Magazine’s Artist Blog and sits on the music committee of the National Arts Club. A Pirastro artist, he endorses and plays the “Perpetual” medium and edition sets of cello strings and as well as Melos Rosin.

E N J OY

Sundays

AT T H E PAV I L I O N Experience World-Class

Polo & Hospitality!

Brunch begins at 2:00 p.m. every Sunday

Match begins at 3:00 p.m.

Purchase tickets at

internationalpoloclub.com COVID-19 protocols will be implemented for the 2021 season.

3667 120th AVENUE SOUTH • WELLINGTON, FL 33414 • internationalpoloclub.com

3667 120 th AVENUE SOUTH • WELLINGTON, FL 33414 • internationalpoloclub.com

An Enchanted Evening with Julian Schwarz

An Enchanted Evening with Julian Schwarz Notes on the Program by Aaron Grad

These four composers from different walks of life shared a strong commitment to authenticity, allowing their true voices to shine. From the silence of the Bohemian forests that inspired Dvořák to the raucous blues clubs that influenced William Grant Still, the outside world breathed new life into their concert works. Saint-Saëns allowed the cello to shine through in his suave and indubitably French concerto, while young Mendelssohn tapped into the well-oiled precision and force honed within the German-speaking sphere of music.

Darker America (1924)

William Grant Still Born May 11, 1895 in Woodville, Mississippi Died December 3, 1978 in Los Angeles, California As a gifted composer, conductor and arranger fluid in both classical and popular styles, William Grant Still achieved a level of success that had been inaccessible to any AfricanAmerican musician before him. After studying at Wilberforce University, a historical Black college in Ohio, he found work arranging songs for the bandleader W. C. Handy, i.e. “The Father of the Blues.” Still went back to school at Oberlin College to refine his skills in theory and counterpoint, and he kept seeking out mentors for private composition lessons even as his career in music theater progressed admirably. Having earned a spot as the oboe player for the show Shuffle Along—the first Black musical to play in white theaters—Still used the production’s long run in Boston to study with George Chadwick, an esteemed composer and the director of the New England Conservatory. (Still, incidentally, had picked up oboe on his own, on top of playing piano, violin and cello.)

In the early 1920s, while scraping by from gig to gig arranging scores for short-lived Broadway shows, Still found his most important teacher in Edgard Varèse, an avant-garde French composer based in New York who “taught me to be independent,” as Still recounted in a biographical note. Varèse also used his platform as the founder of the International Composers’ Guild to promote Still’s early experiments with concert music, including Darker America from 1924, which debuted two years later on one of the Guild’s concerts in New York.

As Still’s brief program note for this tone poem explains, “Darker America is representative of the American Negro, and suggests triumph over sorrows through fervent prayer.” Where other Black composers turned to spirituals for source material, Still was drawn to the blues, which, “unlike many spirituals, do not exhibit the influence of Caucasian music,” as he wrote

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Notes on the Program

in a later sketchbook. He had a deep working knowledge of the smoky harmonies, bent notes and rhythmic shuffle of the blues from the time he spent arranging for Handy’s band, and this score demonstrated how those elements could speak authentically through a classical orchestra.

Cello Concerto No. 1 in A Minor, Op. 33 (1872)

Camille Saint-Saëns Born October 9, 1835 in Paris, France Died December 16, 1921 in Algiers, Algeria The extraordinarily long and rich career of Camille Saint-Saëns began in the late 1850s, when his gifts as an organist and improviser won over important champions like Berlioz and Liszt. He went on to compose brilliant piano concertos that he performed himself, along with operas and symphonies that placed him at the forefront of French music.

In 1872, at a time when the cello was barely recognized as a viable solo instrument, SaintSaëns composed the Cello Concerto No. 1 for the French virtuoso Auguste Tolbecque. A second cello concerto followed, along with several shorter works featuring the instrument, making Saint-Saëns one of the true heroes of the cello repertoire—not least for the lone portion of Carnival of the Animals he allowed into print in his life, The Swan, with its unforgettable cello melody.

The trouble with writing a cello concerto, then and now, is that most of the instrument’s enormous range falls into a register that tends to be sonically crowded. With a piano or violin, the soloist can always rise into an upper range above the accompanying voices, but even the penetrating top notes of the cello collide with the typical range of the treble instruments, and its velvety bass and tenor range is easily drowned out by the low woodwinds and brass.

Saint-Saëns’ approach stands out for the transparency of the orchestration—a distinctly French approach to sound—allowing the cello to pass through its full compass without straining to be heard.

The fluid form of the First Cello Concerto unfolds in one continuous movement. Saint-Saëns was devoted to honing a new French aesthetic, but that did not prevent him from borrowing good ideas from the rival Germans, including Liszt’s experiments with cyclical forms. To begin the concerto, one stout chord sets up the soloist to deliver an impassioned melody. For the contrasting theme, the cello is able to introduce the tender melody at a piano dynamic, undisturbed by slow-moving chords from the strings. These competing themes never find complete resolution; instead they make way for an enchanting central section, starting with dry, dance-like passages from the muted strings. The spell breaks with a return to the opening tempo and the first theme, and new looks at earlier music round out the concerto’s integrated structure, enlivened by flashy solo passages that show off additional facets of the cello’s versatility.

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An Enchanted Evening with Julian Schwarz

Silent Woods, Op. 68, No. 5 (1883)

Antonín Dvořák Born September 8, 1841 near Prague, Bohemia Died May 1, 1904 in Prague, Bohemia Dvořák might have languished forever as a struggling freelancer in Prague had it not been for an intervention by Brahms, who was so impressed by the young composer’s entries to a competition that he forwarded scores to his own publisher, Simrock. Dvořák delivered a huge hit for Simrock with the Slavonic Dances from 1878, written in the highly marketable format of four hands at the piano. When the publisher asked for more four-hands music in 1883, Dvořák had the idea to construct a cycle inspired by a mountainous region of southern Bohemia that he loved to visit, but he had trouble coming up with suggestive headings for the movements. He ended up seeking help from Marie Cervinkova-Riegrova, the librettist he had worked with on a recent opera, and she devised the movement titles for the cycle that came to be known as From the Bohemian Forest.

When Dvořák was preparing music for a farewell concert tour of Bohemia in 1892 (in advance of his move to New York), he arranged the lyrical fifth movement of that earlier cycle for cello and piano, and then he followed up the next year with this version for cello and orchestra.

The original Czech title of the movement translated as Silence, but Simrock’s edition of the arrangement, printed in German, expanded the name to the more poetic and evocative Waldesruhe, or Silent Woods in English.

Notes on the Program

Symphony No. 1 in C Minor, Op. 11 (1824)

Felix Mendelssohn Born February 3, 1809 in Hamburg, Germany Died November 4, 1847 in Leipzig, Germany Felix Mendelssohn, the grandson of a famous philosopher and the son of a successful banker, took full advantage of the opportunities his family’s wealth afforded him. This was a child who celebrated his twelfth birthday with a private performance of his first work of musical theater, in a fully staged production at his house in Berlin, featuring members of the royal orchestra! By the age of fourteen, Mendelssohn had tried out twelve modest sinfonias at the family’s regular house concerts, and he was ready for his first symphony. He completed the Symphony No. 1 in C Minor shortly after his fifteenth birthday, and he conducted the premiere at home. Five years later, he took the podium in front of the Philharmonic Society of London to introduce the symphony to the public.

When considering Mendelssohn’s prodigious talents, the comparison to Mozart is inevitable. One could argue that Mozart’s first masterful symphony (after many youthful experiments) was No. 25 in G Minor, composed at age seventeen, and the only minorkey symphony in his catalog until No. 40, his penultimate symphony. It is fitting that the fifteen-year-old Mendelssohn struck up the same breathless energy found in Mozart’s two minor-key symphonies, and the parallels even show up on a note-by-note level, as in the half-step “sigh” that begins the second phrase and the quick-stepping cadence a few measures later—gestures with clear origins in Mozart’s 40th. Still, it would be wrong to chalk up Mendelssohn’s fledgling effort as something wholly derivative. Even as a teenager, Mendelssohn possessed a distinctive voice, with a knack for unbridled forward momentum shaped by long crescendos and seamless transitions, as heard throughout the symphony’s opening movement.

Mendelssohn, in his piano music, had a special gift for “songs without words.” The symphony’s Andante is likewise suffused with sweet, singing melodies, distributed equitably between the strings and winds. The Menuetto, composed in the wake of Beethoven’s symphonic scherzos, is something of a throwback. Mendelssohn may have felt uneasy with the dated tone of the Menuetto, since he replaced it with an orchestration of his high-flying Scherzo from the String Octet at the symphony’s London premiere. Fortunately he saved the original Menuetto and brought it back for the published score. Its stern dance steps and peaceful trio section make valuable contributions to the symphony’s shape.

Any doubt as to the Mozart connection vanishes with the start of the finale, with its melody that parodies the equivalent theme from the Symphony No. 40. The triumphant ending in C-major points to another of Mendelssohn’s heroes, Beethoven, who reached the same conclusion in his fateful Fifth Symphony. © 2021 Aaron Grad.

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Photo: Peter Ringenberg

MAY 22, 2021

7:30 PM Dreyfoos Hall The Kravis Center for the Performing Arts and LIVE STREAMED

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Season Finale with Alexander Toradze Gerard Schwarz, Conductor Alexander Toradze, piano –––

program

Ma Mère l’Oye (Mother Goose) Suite Pavane of Sleeping Beauty Tom Thumb

Little Ugly One, Empress of the Pagodas

Conversation of Beauty and the Beast The Fairy Garden RAVEL

(1875 – 1937)

Piano

Concerto in G Major

Allegramente Adagio assai Presto

intermission

BRAHMS

Serenade No. 1 D Major, Op. 11

(1833 – 1897) Allegro molto

Scherzo Adagio non troppo

Menuetto I & II Scherzo Rondo Room nights for artists generously sponsored by the Colony Palm Beach and the Hilton West Palm Beach @pbsym ph o ny

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palm beach symphony 1 9 th a n n u a l g a l a

A V I R T U A L C E L E B R AT I O N Monday | April 19, 2021 6:30pm (est) Enjoy an unforgettable virtual gala with special guests, entertainment, and an online auction of exquisite experiences to benefit Palm Beach Symphony.

ELEVATE THE EVENING The 19th Annual Gala will be followed by the Symphony’s Livestreamed Masterworks Concert, crafted by the Symphony’s internationally acclaimed music director Gerard Schwarz.

Don’t miss this experience as guest cellist Julian Schwarz reunites with his father on the podium for what will be a moving performance of two Palm Beach Symphony premieres.

Gala and concert registration packages are available. registration & INFOrmation: (561) 568-0265 hselcuk@palmbeachsymphony.org Sponsorship and Underwriting Opportunities Available GALA SPONSOR: The Addison Hines Charitable Trust 70

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Guest Artist

Alexander Toradze, piano Alexander Toradze is universally recognized as a masterful virtuoso in the grand Romantic tradition.

He has enriched the Great Russian pianistic heritage with his own unorthodox interpretative conceptions, deeply poetic lyricism, and intensely emotional excitement.

Mr. Toradze’s recording of all five Prokofiev concertos with Valery Gergiev and the Kirov Orchestra for the Philips label is acclaimed by critics as definitive. His recording of Prokofiev’s Piano Concert No. 3 was named by International Piano Quarterly as «historically the best on record» (from among over seventy recordings).

Other highly successful recordings have included Scriabin’s Prometheus: The Poem of Fire, with the Kirov Orchestra, Valery Gergiev conducting as well as recital albums of the works of Mussorgsky, Stravinsky, Ravel and Prokofiev for the Angel/EMI label. The recording of both Shostakovich Piano concerti with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra under Paavo Järvi has been considered by the Frankfurter Allgemeine as an historical achievement of the artist’s career.

Mr. Toradze has appeared as soloists with literally all major orchestras in the world, such as the Berlin Philharmonic, the London Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Filarmonica della Scala, the Orchestra di Santa Cecilia, the Mariinsky Orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic, the NHK Symphony Orchestra. Additionally, he regularly takes part in many summer music festivals including those of Salzburg, the White Nights in St. Petersburg, London’s BBC Proms concerts, Edinburgh, Rotterdam, Mikkeli (Finland), the Hollywood Bowl, Saratoga and Ravinia. Among his best friends, some of the leading conductors of today such as Valery Gergiev, Esa Pekka Salonen, Yukka Pekka Saraste, Mikko Frank, Neeme, Paavo and Kristjan Järvi, Vladimir Jurowski and Gianandrea Noseda, but also emerging talents such as Daniele Rustioni and Dima Slobodeniouk.

Born in Tbilisi, Georgia, Alexander Toradze graduated from the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow and soon became a professor there. In 1983 he moved permanently to the United States and in 1991 was appointed as the Martin endowed Professor of Piano at the Indiana University South Bend, where he has created a teaching environment that is unparalleled in its unique concept. The members of the multi-national Toradze Piano Studio have developed into a worldwide touring ensemble that has performed projects detailing the piano and chamber works of Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev, Dvorak, Stravinsky and Shostakovich in Europe (UK, Italy, Germany, Portugal, France) and in the United States. In 2012 the Toradze Piano Studio has realized a revolutionary Radio program by Joseph Horowitz in collaboration with the network WFMT dedicated to Stravinsky and Rachmaninoff.

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Season Finale with Alexander Toradze

Season Finale with Alexander Toradze Notes on the Program by Aaron Grad

Experience wonder and delight along with Ravel and Brahms, two composers who channeled their zest for life into music of the utmost charm, even in trying times. The Mother Goose Suite and Piano Concerto show off Ravel’s bright-eyed imagination, while Brahms’ First Serenade reinterprets the breezy comfort of outdoor party music.

Suite of Five Pieces from Ma mère l’Oye (Mother Goose) [1911]

Maurice Ravel Born March 7, 1875 in Ciboure, France Died December 28, 1937 in Paris, France The French composer Maurice Ravel was a regular guest at the Sunday evening salons hosted by Cipa and Ida Godebski, a Polish couple living in Paris, and on several occasions he vacationed with the family at their country house. Over the course of visits between 1908 and 1910, Ravel composed a set of pieces for piano (scored for four hands) dedicated to the young Godebski children, Mimie and Jean. He called the suite Ma mère l’Oye (Mother Goose), and fashioned the “five children’s pieces,” as he subtitled them, out of popular fairy tales. The title and two of the tales came from Charles Perrault, a seventeenth-century French writer and the father of the fairy tale as a literary genre. His 1697 opus, Tales and Stories of the Past with Morals: Tales of Mother Goose, immortalized Sleeping Beauty, Tom Thumb, and many other classic characters. Other tales came from Madame d’Aulnoy, a rival of Perrault. One more timeless story, Beauty and the Beast, first appeared in an eighteenth-century collection.

The orchestral version of Mother Goose owes its existence, indirectly, to Serge Diaghilev and Igor Stravinsky. After the sensational appearances in Paris by the Ballets Russes, the French impresario Jacques Rouché countered by renting out the Théâtre des Arts and assembling productions with leading French composers and artists. Rouché asked Ravel for a new ballet, and the composer obliged by orchestrating the five Mother Goose pieces, stitching them together into a dramatic arc with a new prelude and connecting interludes.

This performance features the five original selections of Mother Goose in their orchestrated versions. The Pavane of Sleeping Beauty is a short and mournful dance; like Ravel’s famous Pavane pour une infante défunte, orchestrated a year earlier, this Pavane retains the ceremonial quality of the Italian court dance it is named for. In Tom Thumb, the little protagonist drops breadcrumbs to guide his way home and becomes flummoxed as the chirping birds steal his crumbs. Laideronnette, Empress of the Pagodas, uses pentatonic themes and tam-tam strikes to evoke an Asian setting. The next tale depicts The Conversation of

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Notes on the Program

Beauty and the Beast, in which the clarinet leads a beauteous waltz and the contrabassoon makes beastly interjections. The Enchanted Garden blooms from delicate solos into a resplendent finale for full orchestral forces, celebrating the rising sun.

Piano Concerto in G Major [1931]

Maurice Ravel Born March 7, 1875 in Ciboure, France Died December 28, 1937 in Paris, France Maurice Ravel had an unrivaled ear for orchestral color and an imaginative approach to standard classical forms, but still it took him until the very end of his career to combine those talents in a traditional, multi-movement orchestral score. He never wrote a symphony, although he did finally write two piano concertos: the first a single-movement concerto for left hand only (commissioned by Paul Wittgenstein, who was maimed during World War I), followed soon after by the Piano Concerto in G Major. It was a work he hoped to perform himself and take on tour, but the advancing state of his degenerative brain disease kept him from ever playing it. He did manage to conduct the premiere, performed by the concerto’s dedicatee, the pianist Marguerite Long.

As Ravel told an interviewer, “A concerto can be gay and brilliant and need not try to be profound or strive after dramatic effects. It has been said of some of the great classical composers that their concertos were written not for but against the piano, and I think this is perfectly correct.”

Spurred on by an initial crack of the whip (the actual name of the percussion instrument made of two long boards), the concerto opens with the pianist functioning as an integral part of the orchestra, its flowing filigree decorating a call to action from the piccolo and trumpet.

Ravel was one of many European composers who flirted with jazz in the 1920s, and he was especially struck by the jazz bands he heard while touring North America in 1928. For the slower, contrasting material of the concerto’s opening movement, he devised a five-note motive that leans on the lowered third tone of the scale, a classic “blue” note.

The slow movement is exquisitely understated, flowing in a songlike manner that, as Ravel acknowledged, leans on the example of Mozart. The piano plays in solitude for the first third of the movement, as if the orchestra, the audience, and the entire world are just distant, halfremembered visions in a dream. When the piano and orchestra go on to develop the ideas together, slightly mismatched harmonies and rhythmic groupings preserve the sense that the pianist is still adrift in a private reverie.

The Presto finale echoes the concerto’s opening by launching in with a percussive burst (this time a drum roll) and using the piano’s restless figures as a platform for feisty contributions from solo voices within the orchestra. Even when the music takes on a marching, militaristic character, it never loses the youthful exuberance that was central to Ravel’s personality, like a child delighting in an imaginary scene acted out by his toys. @pbsym ph o ny

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Season Finale with Alexander Toradze

Serenade No. 1 in D Major, Op. 11 [1858, revised 1860]

Johannes Brahms Born May 7, 1833 in Hamburg, Germany Died April 3, 1897 in Vienna, Austria After the death of his mentor and champion Robert Schumann in 1856, Brahms did not publish any music for the next four years, and he performed only sporadically at the piano.

While supporting himself by teaching and conducting, he labored over a Piano Concerto, studied counterpoint and other musical styles of the past, and challenged himself to experiment in new forms. Each year from 1857 to 1859, he spent a few months conducting a choir and offering piano lessons in Detmold, Germany, and it was there that he wrote two Serenades, using as his guide the Classical-era tradition of lighthearted music for evening gatherings. The Serenade No. 1 in D Major (1857-58) existed in a version for nine players, until Brahms expanded the scoring to chamber orchestra in 1860. The Serenade No. 2 in A Major (1858-59) also used less than a full orchestral complement, omitting violins.

The Serenades were important laboratories for Brahms. Free of the gravitas of symphonies (a form that flummoxed him for decades) but extending beyond the small-scale comfort zone of solo piano music and songs (genres that dominated his early output), these fruitful trials in large-ensemble writing brought forward the full potential that Schumann had seen years earlier.

Brahms almost titled the First Serenade a “Symphony-Serenade,” and without the twin scherzos inserted after the first movement and before the last, the remaining four movements do resemble a symphony. More than the organization of the movements, it is the bucolic mood of the Serenade that differentiates it from Brahms’ conception of a symphony—especially his First Symphony, a weighty minor-key work Brahms grappled with for two decades.

The Serenade’s opening Allegro molto movement is unabashedly pastoral, barreling in with horn and clarinet solos over the droning keynote. The first Scherzo counters with a more urban atmosphere, combining unsettled unison lines and chains of drifting harmonies with elegant, dance-like music. The stately dotted rhythms (alternating long and short notes) of the unhurried slow movement reinforce the link to music of the past, as does the Minuet pairing with its contrast between major and minor keys. The second Scherzo returns to the sound of horn calls and rustic harmonies, setting up the Finale and its spirited new take on those lopsided dotted rhythms. © 2021 Aaron Grad.

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Become a Symphony Member Special NEW Benefits for Winter/Spring 2021: Palm Beach Symphony has paired up with top rated restaurants 1000 North, Café Chardonnay, and Swifty’s POOL to provide members fine dining paired and curated with our world-class Masterworks Series concerts. Meal can be delivered straight to your home from your choice of restaurant or picked up. Members can also choose to receive a credit for dining at their choice of restaurant.

PLUS: Enjoy exclusive Virtual Pre-Concert Talks with Maestro Gerard Schwarz, getting a glimpse into the artistic context of each Masterworks performance.

ALL MEMBERS RECEIVE • Access to Masterworks Series Concerts

• Welcome Package

• Invitation to Dining Experiences and Social Events*

• Waived Convenience Fees

• Invitation to Virtual Socials

• Complimentary Ticket Exchanges

• Ticket to 19th Annual Gala*

• Access to Behind-the-Scenes Concert Footage

• Recognition in Program and Video Credits • Premier Access to Seating & Advanced Ticket Sales

• Complimentary Valet Parking*

• Priority Access to In-Person Seating

* We do not anticipate having in-person social events when the season opens. However, we hope to host in-person socials with limited capacity and activate in-person benefits later in the season when health and safety guidelines allow.

PALMIBEACH S Y M P H O N Y

The Ladies Guild The Palm Beach Symphony Ladies Guild was formed to assist the Board of Directors in developing ideas related to Symphony programs and membership. As ambassadors of the Symphony, Ladies Guild members are “friend-raisers” who share their enthusiasm for the organization and work together to invite and encourage membership.

Elizabeth M. Bowden+

Sheryne Brekus

Trudy B. Brekus

Sophia Harvey Burnichon

Nannette Cassidy

Amy Collins

Mary Demory

Margaret C. Donnelley

Virginia Gildea

Sandra Goldner+*

Arlette Gordon+

Carol S. Hays

Ann Johnson*

Helene Karp

Linda FellnerLachman

Marietta Muiña McNulty+

Dawn Galvin Meiners*

Sharon M. Muscarelle

Sally Ohrstrom+

Ruby S. Rinker

Karen Rogers

Tricia Trimble

Sieglinde Wikstrom+

Judy Woods

Heather McNulty Wyser-Pratte+

+Founding Member

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Mrs. James N. Bay

*Honorary Member

PALMIBEACH S Y M P H O N Y

Planned Gifts & Endowment

Dora Bak Society

Palm Beach Symphony is grateful to those who have made the commitment – through a planned gift or bequest – to help ensure the continuation of our world-class orchestra, music education, and outreach programs to enrich the community for generations to come.

Dora Bak Doris Hastings John Herrick Philip Reagan Marguerite Rosner

Ray Robinson Endowment

We are grateful to Palm Beach Symphony’s Ladies Guild for their support in establishing the Ray Robinson Endowment Fund.

David Albenda David C. and Eunice Bigelow Leslie Rogers Blum Trudy B. Brekus Margaret C. Donnelley Jose and Lurana Figueroa Paul and Sandra Goldner Carol and Joseph Andrew Hays JoAnne and Lowell Jaeger Helene Karp Leonard and Norma Klorfine Foundation Dale and Marietta McNulty Barbara Rentschler Ruth A. Robinson Marguerite Rosner Robin B. Smith Don and Mary Thompson

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PALMIBEACH S Y M P H O N Y

Thank You SPONSORS AND CORPORATE & GOVERNMENT PARTNERS

Palm Beach Symphony extends sincere appreciation to the businesses and government agencies whose generous partnership allows us to enrich and expand our world-class music, education, and community outreach programs.

–––––S P ON SORS –––––

Addison Hines Charitable Trust

–––––G OV E R N ME N T S P ON SOR S–––––

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Individual Support Palm Beach Symphony gratefully recognizes the individuals listed here for their generous financial support, which makes our season of life-enriching programs for the community possible.

Received as of February 26, 2021

GIFTS FROM $20,000 TO $49,999 Mrs. James N. Bay David and Eunice Bigelow Board of County Commissioners Palm Beach County, the Tourist Development Council, and the Cultural Council of Palm Beach County James Borynack and Adolfo Zaralegui / Findlay Galleries Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs and the Florida Council of Arts and Culture Mary B. Galvin Paul and Sandra Goldner Addison Hines Charitable Trust Mr. and Mrs. Charles B. Johnson Y. Michele Kang

DIAMOND GRAND BENEFACTOR $1,000,000 AND MORE

The Lachman Family Foundation

Dora Bak*

The McNulty Foundation

Patricia Lambrecht Bonnie McElveen-Hunter Dawn Galvin Meiners

GOLDEN BATON SOCIETY

The David Minkin Foundation

Patrick and Milly Park, Honorary Chairs

PNC Wealth Management

Nancy and Ellis J. Parker, III Karen and Kenneth Rogers

Leonard and Norma Klorfine Foundation

David Schafer

Leslie Rose

Felicia Taylor

GRAND BENEFACTORS $100,000 AND MORE Frederick A. DeLuca Foundation Peter M. Gottsegen / Gottsegen Family Foundation Doris L. Hastings Foundation Leslie Rose BENEFACTORS GIFTS FROM $50,000 TO $99,999 Howard and Michele Kessler / The Kessler Family Foundation Leonard and Norma Klorfine Foundation Max M. and Marjorie S. Fisher Foundation of the Community Foundation for Palm Beach and Martin Counties Patrick and Milly Park Dodie and Manley Thaler and the Thaler/Howell Foundation

Sinclair Broadcasting Group The William and Karen Tell Foundation Herme de Wyman Miro/The International Society Seth Sprague Educational & Charitable Foundation

GIFTS FROM $10,000 TO $19,999 Arthur Benjamin Leslie Rogers Blum Jerome J. Claeys Virginia and John Gildea Jim Hawkins Carol S. and Joseph Andrew Hays John D. Herrick Norman and Susan Oblon Mr. and Mrs. James Perrella / Jim and Diane Perrella Foundation Lois Pope Provident Jewelry / Scott Diament Ari Rifkin / The Len-Ari Foundation, Inc. William Robertson Robin Smith Kimberly Strauss Don and Mary Thompson Sieglinde Wikstrom The Ann Eden Woodward Foundation / Judy and Pat Woods Trustees

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GIFTS FROM $4,000 TO $9,999 Hans and Sigrid Baumann C. Kenneth and Laura Baxter Foundation, Inc. Barbara Ann and Hans Bergstrom Jeffrey Blitz Trudy Brekus Thomas and Carol Bruce Manny and Sophia H. Burnichon John and Marianne Castle John and Amy Collins The Colony Palm Beach Julie and Todd Dahlstrom Shoshana and Daniel Davidowitz Mary and Willard Demory Anthony DiResta and Terrance Mason Edith R. Dixon Dr. Jose and Lurana Figueroa Eric Friedheim Foundation, Inc. The Fortin Foundation of Florida, Inc. Michael and Elizabeth Galvin GGE Foundation, Inc. Mr. & Mrs. Robert Grace / Mae Cadwell Rovensky Foundation Ann Grimm The Hilton West Palm Beach Helen C. Karp Mrs. James Kay The Kirkwood Fund of the Community Foundation for Palm Beach and Martin Counties The Lunder Foundation Lynn and Robert Mackle Mary Bryant McCourt Dale and Marietta McNulty Drs. Ling and Thomas Patnaude Sarah Pietrafesa Katherine and Steven C. Pinard Lynn Pohanka Paul E. Raether / KKR Financial Services Company LLC Philip Reagan Carol and Lawrence A. Reich / Modestus Bauer Foundation Gudrun Sawerthal Carol and Jerome Trautschold Michael S. Trent MD James J Verrant Dinyar Wadia / Wadia Associates

Michael Gottsegen Caroline Harless Stephanie Lefes Robert M. Lichten Marilyn Macron Heather McNulty Wyser-Pratte Shari and Michael Meltzer David and Millie McCoy Publix Super Market Charities William and Nancy Rollnick Burton Rocks Dr. Lawrence Rocks and Marlene Rocks Mary Lou Wagner

GIFTS FROM $1,000 TO $1,999 Lon and Richard Behr Gene M. Bernstein William B. Blundin Nannette Cassidy Arnold and Bryn Cohen Dr. Alexandra C. Cook Cummings & Lockwood Katherine and William Devers Donald M Ephraim Family Foundation Dr. Peter Heydon Todd and Amanda Houser The Lisa Huertas Family Fund of the Community Foundation for Palm Beach and Martin Counties Arsine Kaloustian and Taniel Koushakjian Allan A Kennedy Sanda and Jerry Lambert Louis and Sherry Lehr Lytal, Reiter, Smith, Ivey & Fronrath Kitty and Dudley Omura Thomas M. and Nancy H. O’Neill Paul and Anne Paddock Mr. and Mrs. David F. Paulson PJ Callahan Foundation, Inc. Juan and Shanon Pretel Lana and Lawrence Rouff Dr. and Mrs. William Schneider Scott and Deborah Siegel R. P. Simmons Family Foundation Dr. Richard and Mrs. Arlene Florence Siudek of the Ayco Charitable Foundation Dr. Arthur and Jane Tiger Tom and Tricia Trimble

Camilla Webster

GIFTS FROM $2,000 TO $3,999 John Pierce Archer C. Gordon Beck III Thomas Boland Dr. Elizabeth M. Bowden Margaret C. Donnelley Arlette B. Gordon

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GIFTS UP TO $999 Beth Altenkirch Stephan and Madeline Anbinder Burt and Ellen Anderson Inger Anderson Mason Anthony Easter Arora Barbara and Peter Aschheim Nadine Asin

Mark Baccash Amy Baker Judy Ballard Charles Bane Virginia Barlow Todd Barron Kirill Basov Annette Bauman JoAnne Berkow Harry and Marie Bissell Edith Bjornson Margaret Blake Tom Block Allan Bratman Richard and Sheryne Brekus Christina Cannon Ronald Capute Vera Chapman Lt. Gen (Ret) Robert D. Chelberg Sylvia B. Chilli Guy W. Clark Margaret M. Condron John and Mary Coons Angela Cortesio Dale Coudert Sandra Kay Crawford Carla Crawley Carmen Cruz Betty Cutting Kelly Dace Thomas D’Agostino Jr Ellen and Tommy Davis R. Thomas and Denise M. Decker Johnny Delprette Paul Destito Karen L. Dissinger Patricia M. D’Orazio Susan Dyer Alan M. and Arden Epstein Stephen Epstein Kyle Fant Joseph Flanagan William Frick Michael Ganz Robert Gebbia Sam Goldman Erika Gottsegen Joshua Gottsegen Charles Gradante Roslyn Grant Linda Grosz Emily Guskin Morton Handel Victoria Bolker Hagerty Michael and Theresa Hammond Daniel A. Hanley William K Harris Douglas and Cynthia Hartwell Dr. Neri Holzer Barbara and Robert Hurwit Sabra Ingeman

Lester Ingham Eric Jablin Martin and Mary Jacobson Dr. Robert and Ann Jaeder Dale Jenkins Stuart Joseph Sheila Josephberg Elizabeth Joyce David Kamp Lori Kaplan James and Sarah Karis Evan Kass Richard Katzenberg Michelle Keba Patricia Kennedy Jennifer and James Kimenker Susan Kingston Sherwin Kite Elizabeth Klein Judith Klein Lori Kollmeyer Juliza Kramer Edie Langner Joann R Laux Alfred Lavker Adele & Herman Lebersfeld Myriam Leibowitz Gary Lesser Ellane Leuwenkroon Alaric Levin Mr. and Mrs. Howard Levin Anne Levy Sigrid Light Mollie Linsky John Lipscomb Brooks Little Stephen Lovas Cory Lyon Sarah MacNamee and Kevin McCaffrey Maria E. Mamlouk Allan and Teitsa Mann George Mann Susan Mark Marjorie Marks Richard Mascolo George Matsoukas Kristy McDaniel John McDonald Matthew McGeever Terrence McGeever Patric McPoland Margaret and Michael Meiners Lois Miller Glen and Carmel Mitchell Foundation Linda Moavenzadeh Samantha Moore Joseph and Sharon Muscarelle Cynthia Musikas Jennifer Nawrocki

Kenneth and Sally Ohrstrom Martin Orlowsky Ximena Pacheco-Veliz Anthony, Alex, Rory Palermo Anka Palitz Elaine Patterson William Pittler Harriet Primack Henry Quartullo Karen Restaino Ann M. Riker Ruby S. Rinker Stella Ritsos Clive Roberson Philip Robinson Helmut Rohde S. Jane Rose Roberta Rubin and family Phillip E. Ruppe Patricia Salas John Salny Michele Cestari Schimmel Miguel Serrano Michael Sexton Glenda R. Shaffer Robert L. Shell Katherine Shenaman Interiors Stanley H. Singer Revocable Trust Toni Sosnoff Sharon Stamp Lois Steinberg Lisa Stella John and Karin Strasswimmer Ted and Marianne Strelec Jessica and Trent Swift Helen Stoll Mary Stuart Rita and David Sullivan Don and Carrie Templin Carol Thur Theodore Tribolti The Van Poznak Family / Joan and Frederick Van Poznak Judith Vavrus Robert Veltkamp Krystian von Speidel Jamie Stampar Katherine Waldman Kathleen and William Wallace David Walker and Ralph Daniel Rawe Bruce Warshal Kate and Robert Waterhouse Ann Webb Suzanne Webster Carole Wilson Alan Wiseman Christine Wolf Captain David Wood David Wood Susan Zuckert

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