yale philharmonia Peter Oundjian, Principal Conductor
Peter Oundjian principal conductor
Thursday, November 15, 2018 | 7:30 pm Woolsey Hall
Robert Blocker, Dean
Program Johannes Brahms 1833–1897
Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor, Op. 15 I. Maestoso II. Adagio III. Rondo. Allegro non troppo Sophiko Simsive, piano
intermission
Richard Strauss 1864–1949
Also sprach Zarathustra, Op. 30 I. Einleitung, oder Sonnenaufgang (Introduction, or Sunrise) II. Von den Hinterweltlern (Of Those in Backwaters) III. Von der großen Sehnsucht (Of the Great Longing) IV. Von den Freuden und Leidenschaften (Of Joys and Passions) V. Das Grablied (The Song of the Grave) VI. Von der Wissenschaft (Of Science and Learning) VIII. Der Genesende (The Convalescent) VIII. Das Tanzlied (The Dance Song) IX. Nachtwandlerlied (Song of the Night Wanderer)
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Artist Profiles Peter Oundjian, principal conductor
Sophiko Simsive, piano
Toronto-born conductor Peter Oundjian has been an instrumental figure in the rebirth of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra since his appointment as Music Director in 2004. In addition to conducting the orchestra in dynamic performances that have achieved significant artistic acclaim, he has been greatly involved in a variety of new initiatives that have strengthened the ensemble’s presence in the community and attracted a young and diverse audience.
Hailed as an “exceptional musician of rare talent who promises to become one of the leading pianists of her generation” by pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Georgian-born Sophiko Simsive began her studies at the age of three and was the youngest ever to be admitted to the Sweelinck Conservatory of Amsterdam. Sophiko has won numerous awards and accolades including the first prize at the Princess Christina Concours in the Netherlands, the Yamaha Piano Competition in Amsterdam, the Young Pianist Foundation Competition, first prize at the Geertruidenberg Klassiek, and GrachtenfestivalPrijs where she performed as Artist-in-Residence during Grachtenfestival 2017.
In addition to his post in Toronto, from which he stepped down in 2018, Oundjian served as Principal Guest Conductor of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra from 2006 to 2010 and played a major role at the Caramoor International Music Festival in New York between 1997 and 2007. In 2012 he was appointed Music Director of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. Oundjian was the first violinist of the renowned Tokyo String Quartet, a position he held for fourteen years. Since 1981, he has been on the Yale School of Music faculty. He was awarded the School’s Samuel Simons Sanford Medal for distinguished service to music in 2013 and named Principal Conductor of the Yale Philharmonia in 2015. He is Professor (adjunct) of Music and Orchestral Conducting at the School of Music.
She has toured extensively throughout North America, Asia, and Europe. In 2013, Sophiko was invited to the Verbier International Music Festival and in 2015 made her debut at Carnegie Hall with cellist Kian Soltani. Most recently she was selected as the winner of Music Academy of the West’s second Solo Piano Competition, which will take her on a multicity recital tour that includes appearances at St. Luke’s in London, Chicago, Santa Barbara and LA. Sophiko is represented by Interartists Amsterdam Management and is currently working towards her master of musical arts degree under Boris Berman.
Program Notes Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor brahms Jordan Kuspa, ed. Aaron Levin In February 1854, Brahms began sketching a large-scale orchestral work, which he had hoped would become an epic symphony in D minor. Brahms, a notorious perfectionist, worked on the composition for several years, morphing his original material from the planned symphony into a sonata for two pianos, and finally into what would become his first piano concerto. As the form of the work developed, Brahms only kept the original material from the work’s first movement, and composed two entirely new movements. The first movement bears the clear influence of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, not only in its D minor tonality but also in its gigantic scope and dramatic gestures. Brahms called the second movement a “gentle portrait” of Clara Schumann, the wife of his teacher, Robert Schumann. The new finale Brahms composed has a strong resemblance to the third movement of Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto, particularly in its formal design. After its completion in 1856, the concerto was premiered on January 22, 1859, in Hanover, Germany, with the 25-year-old composer as soloist. When the work was performed in Leipzig five days later, the audience hissed at the concerto and critics savaged it, calling the piece “perfectly unorthodox, banal, and horrid.” Today the work is seen as one of the greatest and most powerful masterpieces of the entire piano concerto literature.
Also sprach Zarathustra strauss Patrick Campbell Jankowski “I did not intend to write philosophical music or to portray in music Nietzsche’s great work. I meant to convey by means of music an idea of the development of the human race from its origin, through the various phases of its development, religious and scientific, up to Nietzsche’s idea of the Superman.” Richard Strauss penned these words shortly after the 1894 premiere of Also sprach Zarathustra, perhaps his boldest intellectual exercise. Strauss conveys the “origins” of the human race from the very opening fanfare. Even the key, C major, which comes to represent the natural state of man, is devoid of any printed sharps or flats on the page, and functions as the most “natural,” or even primitive, of keys. Out of a low rumble in the bass that seems almost to emanate from the earth itself, Strauss constructs a fanfare motive (C-G-C) derived from the unadulterated harmonic series. From these pure and natural origins, as the work progresses through each of Strauss’s designated “episodes,” the music becomes increasingly complex as the state of man is elevated through discovery and enlightenment. Along the way, Strauss quotes the Catholic Magnificat in the ecclesiastic organ to represent the influence of religion on man’s life. He later crafts a fugue, the most “academic” of musical forms, to convey the complexities of science and technology. In a central episode, the fanfare theme, symbolic of man, cycles through numerous transpositions in search of C
About the Yale Philharmonia major, representing man losing his way, until triumphantly finding its place once again, a moment impossible to miss. From here, the solo violin takes center stage as Strauss transitions into a distorted waltz, with even the fanfare motive joining in this celebration. The dance is ultimately a satire on man’s excesses, for when the bell tolls and night falls on the festivity, the mood immediately transforms to lucid reality in the “song of the night-wanderer.” The composer depicts man in his present state: adrift. The solo violin poignantly evokes this state of wandering, rhapsodically meandering to B major. Though only a half-step removed from the “primeval” C major, the key is completely foreign to it: five sharps grace the key signature, even adding visual complexity to the printed page. In the allegories of both Strauss and Nietzsche, man has become distant from his nature. The composer brilliantly encapsulates this in the concluding measures, as the string basses softly pluck a C-natural against the ringing B. So near, and yet so far.
The Yale Philharmonia is one of America’s foremost music-school ensembles. The largest performing group at the Yale School of Music, the Philharmonia offers superb training in orchestral playing and repertoire. Performances include an annual series of concerts in Woolsey Hall, as well as Yale Opera productions in the Shubert Theatre. The Yale Philharmonia has also performed on numerous occasions in Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully Hall in New York City and at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.
Yale Philharmonia Spring 2019 jan 18
Peter Oundjian, conductor Beethoven Symphony No. 1 in C major; Shostakovich Symphony No. 11 in G minor “The Year 1905”
feb 22
Peter Oundjian, conductor Philharmonia in Sprague Kodály Dances of Galánta; Mozart Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor; Dvorák: Symphony No. 6 in D major
apr 5
Carolyn Kuan, guest conductor Copland Fanfare for the Common Man and Appalachian Spring; Plau Concerto for Tuba and Strings; Stravinsky Symphony in Three Movements
apr 26
Peter Oundjian, conductor Reinecke: Flute Concerto; Brahms: Symphony No. 1 in C minor
Yale Philharmonia Peter Oundjian, principal conductor Violin I Cameron Daly Julia Mirzoev Brandon Garbot Beatrice Hsieh Emily Switzer Yoon Bae Kim Bora Kim Pei Wen Liao Xiaoxuan Shi Eva Wetzel Dong Soo Cha Yebeen Seo James Poe Max Yiming Mao Violin II Kate Arndt Gregory Lewis Marianne Di Tomaso Jisun Lee Jessy Kim Maura Scanlin Matthew Woodard Jung Eun Kang Kyungah Oh Dustin Wilkes-Kim Cheuk Ching Tse Yejin Min Viola Abigail Elder Marlea Simpson Alex McLaughlin Minkyoung Lee Minji Kim Arjun Ganguly Rayna Chou Rubina Lee Marta Lambert Cello Megan Yip Guilherme Monegatto Harry Doernberg Anita Balazs Bo Bae Lee Samuel Walter Sophie Yu
Josephina Kim Hongli Diao Ha Eun Song Bass Eric Timperman Ross Wrightman Kelvin Ng Kohei Yamaguchi Russell Thompson Ying-Yin Chia Amy Nickler Samuel Zagnit Flute Maria Luisk 1 Jungah Yoon Lucas Oliveira 2 Amir Farsi Hannah Creswell Oboe Elliot Lichtenberg 1 Amelia Merriman Leonardo Ziporyn 2 Shawn Hutchison Noah Kay English Horn Leonardo Ziporyn 1 Amelia Merriman 2 Lauren White 3 Clarinet Richard Adger 1 Ziqi Yue Amy Hur 2 Giovanni Bertoni Michael Moy Juan Martinez Bassoon Eleni Katz 1 Kristy Tucker Dana Brink 2 Andrew Sledge
Horn Gabriel Mairson 1 Esteban Garcia Scott Leger Steven Harmon Nivanthi Karunaratne Antonia Chandler 2 Stephen Newberry Griffin Botts Trumpet Melissa Munoz 1 Brian Garcia Rodriguez Chloe Swindler 2 Eric Rizzo Kenny Chauby Oscar Mason trombone Ingram Lee IV 2 Lyman McBride bass trombone Jordan Crimminger tuba Jake Fewx 2 Aidan Zimmerman Timpani Arlo Shultis 1, 2 Percussion Kevin Zetina 1 Russell Fisher Jisu Jung Harp Héloïse Carlean Jones 2 Anna Ellsworth organ David Simon 1 2
Principal on Brahms Principal on Strauss
Manager Jeffrey M. Mistri Assistant Manager/ Librarian Samuel Bobinski philharmonia office assistant Kristy Tucker Stage Crew Héloïse Carlean-Jones Cameron Daly Jisu Jung YoungKyoung Lee Gabriel Mairson Lucas Oliveira Arlo Shultis Andrew Sledge Russel Thompson Daniel Vaitkus Rimbo Wong Aidan Zimmerman Music Librarians Antonia Chandler Brandon Garbot Bora Kim Marta Lambert Gregory Lewis Alex McLaughlin Leonardo Ziporyn
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Upcoming Events nov 28 Melvin Chen, piano Horowitz Piano Series Faculty pianist Melvin Chen performs an arrangement of Brahms’ Symphony No. 3, and works by Sibelius and Ravel. 7:30 p.m. | Morse Recital Hall Tickets start at $15, students $7 nov 29 Paul Kerekes, composition Doctor of Musical Arts Recital 7:30 p.m. | Morse Recital Hall free dec 1 Vista: Chamber Music YSM Ensembles 12:30 p.m. | Morse Recital Hall Free dec 4 Emerson String Quartet Oneppo Chamber Music Series A performance by the legendary Emerson String Quartet, an ensemble The New Yorker has said is “as eminent as ever.” 7:30 p.m. | Morse Recital Hall Tickets start at $28, students $13 dec 5
Lunchtime Chamber Music 12:30 p.m. | Joseph Slifka Center Free
dec 5 Russian Liederabend Yale Opera An evening of Russian song. 7:30 p.m. | Morse Recital Hall Free dec 6 New Music for Orchestra New Music New Haven A program of new orchestral music by the School’s student composers performed by the Yale Philharmonia, with guest conductor Julian Pellicano. 7:30 p.m. | Woolsey Hall Free dec 8 Yale Percussion Group YSM Ensembles 7:30 p.m. | Morse Recital Hall Free dec 10 Tuba Studio Recital YSM Ensembles 4:30 p.m. | Sudler Recital Hall Free dec 12 Lunchtime Chamber Music 12:30 p.m. | Morse Recital Hall Free
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