Applause Jan/Feb 2014

JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015

10

STRATHMORE AT

INSIDE: Baltimore Symphony Orchestra The genius of the Bach family The National Philharmonic Aspirations high for next decade

Washington Performing Arts

Marsalis premieres Blues Symphony

Strathmore

AMP powers live music scene

ARTS CENTER’S LEADERS REFLECT ON THE MUSIC CENTER’S FIRST DECADE AND EXCITEDLY LOOK TO THE NEXT ONE

THE NATION’S LEADER IN

WOMEN’S HEALTH Congratulating Our Doctors For Making Us The National Leader in Screening Our Mothers, Sisters and Daughters for Breast Cancer Breast Cancer Screening* KAISER PEREMANTE MID-ATLANTIC1 Aetna HMO2 Aetna MD/DC PPO3 Aetna VA PPO4 Anthem HMO5 Anthem PPO6 Care First HMO7 CareFirst PPO8 Cigna MD9 Cigna VA/DC10 Hopkins TriCare11 Hopkins Employer12 Optima HMO13 Optima PPO14 United HMO15 United MD PPO16 United VA PPO17 United DC PPO18 Optimum Choice United19 MD IPA20 National Average 60%

PERMANENTE MEDICINE

88.84% 69.36% 70.04% 71.04% 71.65% 71.66% 71.47% 71.45% 68.25% 70.43%

#1

Mid-Atlantic Permanente Medical Group

IN THE NATION

WHERE WOULD YOU LIKE YOUR MOTHER TO GET HER HEALTH CARE?

77.84% 76.33% 74.69% 73.30% 70.63% 68.73% 66.65% 70.74% 67.20% 67.47% 72.01% 65%

70%

75%

80%

Find out more about our 1,100+ doctors in Maryland, DC and Virginia. kp.org/doctor

85%

90%

Mid-Atlantic Permanente Medical Group Physician Recruiting physiciancareers.kp.org/midatl (800) 227-6472

Percentage of eligible women who received a timely mammogram

* The source for data contained in this publication is Quality Compass® 2014 Commercial data and is used with the permission of the Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA). Quality Compass 2014 includes certain CAHPS data. Any data display, analysis, interpretation, or conclusion based on these data is solely that of the authors, and NCQA specifically disclaims responsibility for any such display, analysis, interpretation, or conclusion. Quality Compass is a registered trademark of NCQA. CAHPS® is a registered trademark of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). Official plan names per Quality Compass: (1) Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of the Mid-Atlantic States, Inc., (2) Aetna Health Inc. (Pennsylvania)–Maryland, (3) Aetna Life Insurance Company (MD/DC), (4) Aetna Life Insurance Company (Virginia), (5) HealthKeepers, Inc., (6) Anthem Health Plans of Virginia, Inc. dba Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield of Virginia, (7) CareFirst BlueChoice, (8) Group Hospitalization and Medical Services, Inc. (GHMSI), (9) Connecticut General Life Insurance Company–Maryland, (10) Connecticut General Life Insurance Company–Virginia/District of Columbia, (11) Johns Hopkins US Family Health Plan, (12) Johns Hopkins Employer Health Programs, (13) Optima Health Plan, (14) Optima Health Insurance Company, (15) UnitedHealthcare of the Mid-Atlantic, Inc., (16) UnitedHealthcare Insurance Company (Maryland), (17) UnitedHealthcare Insurance Company (Virginia), (18) UnitedHealthcare Insurance Company (Washington, DC), (19) Optimum Choice, Inc., (20) MD–Individual Practice Association, Inc.

APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015 1

prelude

program notes Jan. 3

Feb. 13

Jan. 9

The Bach Family

22 / BSO: Beethoven’s Ninth 28 / BSO Off the Cuff:

The Rite of Spring

Jan. 10

29 / The National

Philharmonic: Haydn’s Surprise Symphony

Jan. 11

32 / BSO: The Rite of Spring

Jan. 16

36 / Washington

Performing Arts: Gil Shaham

66 / BSO Off the Cuff:

Feb. 14

Pizzarelli and Jane Monheit

Feb. 18

71 / Strathmore: Irvin

Mayfield and the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra

Feb. 19

72 / BSO SuperPops:

Patti Austin Sings Ella and the Duke

Feb. 20, 21

Jan. 17

73 / Strathmore:

Symphony No. 8

Feb. 22

37 / BSO: Bruckner

Harry Connick Jr.

Jan. 18

74 / Strathmore: Imago

Step Xplosion

Feb. 25

40 / Strathmore: Step Afrika!

Jan. 22

41 / BSO SuperPops: An

76 / Strathmore: Tango Buenos

Aires—Songs of Eva Perón

Feb. 7

March 22

Philharmonic: The Art of the Mazurka

March 26

Feb. 8

61 / The National

Philharmonic: Beethoven’s Ninth

Feb. 12

66 / BSO: All-Bach

8

16

Theatre—Frogz

Evening With Jason Alexander Feb. 28 78 / BSO: Jan. 23 The Firebird Suite 42 / Washington Performing Arts: Budapest March 1 Festival Orchestra 81 / Strathmore: Annapolis Symphony Orchestra with Jan. 24, 25 Simone Dinnerstein 44 / The National Philharmonic: March 4 Bach’s Brandenburgs 82 / Strathmore: Paddy Moloney & The Chieftains Jan. 30 47 / Strathmore: March 7 Ladysmith Black Mambazo 83 / BSO: Shakespeare in Love & Simon Trpčeski Jan. 31 48 / BSO: Mahler’s Third March 12 Symphony 86 / BSO: Mozart’s Great Mass Feb. 4 51 / Washington Performing March 15 Arts: Blues Symphony 90 / Washington Performing Arts: Feb. 5 András Schiff 53 / BSO: Garrick Ohlsson Plays Rachmaninoff March 17 91 / Strathmore: Feb. 6 Carlos Nuñez with the 56 / Strathmore: Culkin Dancers Savion Glover’s STePz 57 / The National

APPLAUSE AT STRATHMORE JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015

70 / Strathmore: John

92 / BSO: Haydn & Ravel 95 / BSO SuperPops:

features 8 Expanding the Universe

With its venue AMP, Strathmore goes off site to pump up the live music scene on Rockville Pike

10 Back to Back Bach

The BSO celebrates Baroque’s first family over two nights

12 Winter Warm-Up

Spring means a new crop of classes and performances at Levine Music

13 Cellist Stays Uber Busy

Bo Li’s children’s schedules keep him on the go

14 A Decade of Artistic Aspirations

The National Philharmonic looks ahead to the next decade of music making

15 The Music Center Gets the Blues

Wynton Marsalis premieres his revised, complete Blues Symphony

16 Legacy of Music and Art Endures

The Strathmore campus was lively way before the Music Center

18 Transcendent at 10

Reflections on what Strathmore means to the community

Singin’ in the Rain

March 27

96 / Strathmore:

Audra McDonald

March 28, 29 97 / The National

Philharmonic: Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3

ON THE COVER The Music Center at Strathmore. Photo by Jim Morris.

2 APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015

departments

4M usings of Strathmore CEO Eliot Pfanstiehl 4 A Note from BSO Music Director Marin Alsop 6C alendar: April, May and June performances

musician rosters

24 Baltimore Symphony Orchestra 31 National Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorale

Sept. 18 20 / BSO: Beethoven’s Violin Concerto

Oct. 15, 16 36 / Strathmore: Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons

Sept. 20 24 / Strathmore: Wanda Sykes

Oct. 17 38 / Strathmore: David Sedaris

Sept. 27 25 / BSO: Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 1

Oct. 18, 19 40 / The National Philharmonic: Dvořák’s New World Symphony XX

Oct. 8 29 / Strathmore: Oct. 24 Belgrade Philharmonic 44 / BSO: Orchestra Off the Cuff: Ein Heldenleben Oct. 9 32 / BSO SuperPops: Oct. 26 Broadway Standing 45 / BSO: Ovations Ein Heldenleben— A Hero’s Life Oct. 10 34 / Strathmore: Oct. 30 California Guitar Trio 49 / BSO: Brahms’ & Montreal Guitar Trio Symphony No. 2

XX

APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015 3

Musings from Strathmore Come, get closer.

As Strathmore steps into its second decade of the Music and Education Center, we invite you to come closer to the energy, the artistry, the engagement offered here. Come inside the work. Engage with the creativity that thrives here. We invite you inside the Strathmore experience for a more vivid encounter with ideas and performances than ever before. From a bold new voice in our messages, to expanding our spaces, to re-imagining our stages, to enhancing our patron services, Strathmore is celebrating past success with future promises that will redefine the audience experience.

In March, we’ll have our first live performances at our new 250-seat venue called AMP, powered by Strathmore, at Pike & Rose. Thanks to a unique partnership with Federal Realty, Rockville Pike has its first live performance venue for patrons in search of a late night, intimate music scene, with great food provided by the Neighborhood Restaurant Group.

The Mansion at Strathmore is currently being upgraded, both physically and programmatically, to feature programs that make you think, feel, and engage in ways today’s audiences want. The concert hall is getting an escalator as an alternative to the Great Stairway, and the Bou Terrace will soon be permanently covered to provide additional dining areas. The Prelude Café is being updated with better signage, food displays, line management, and thematic cuisine. And Strathmore’s new website will offer connection, information, and convenience to every customer.

At the Music Center’s opening on Feb. 5, 2005, Maryland Poet Laureate Michael S. Glaser blessed Strathmore with a poem, “The Luminous Dream,” writing, in part: “Bless these walls as they embrace a hundred thousand dreams, the imagined and still unimagined magic of this place and consecrate the joy such blessings bring.”

A decade later it all came true.

Applause at Strathmore Publisher CEO Eliot Pfanstiehl Music Center at Strathmore Founding Partners Strathmore Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Resident Artistic Partners The National Philharmonic Washington Performing Arts Levine Music Maryland Classic Youth Orchestras CityDance Ensemble

CEO| Strathmore

A note from the BSO Dear Friends, Welcome to the second decade of The Music Center at Strathmore! On Feb. 5, 2005, this world-class concert hall opened with a performance by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Two days later, The Washington Post’s Tim Page concluded, “This may turn out to be the best place to hear symphonic music that the Washington area has ever known.” Ten years later, we now fully appreciate the significance of the hall and our Montgomery County/D.C. metro area audiences.

Performing weekly at Strathmore has transformed the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.

Musically, its brilliant acoustics have opened our ears in new and rewarding ways. But, it is your enthusiastic responses that mean the most to me and the musicians of the BSO. BSO violinist Greg Mulligan said it perfectly when he said, “I love playing concerts for our wonderful audiences at Strathmore and I really appreciate your dedication to our concerts, and your love of great music!”

Thank you for 10 fabulous years filled with music.

Marin Alsop

Music Director | Baltimore Symphony Orchestra

partners

● Strathmore: 301-581-5100, www.strathmore.org ● Baltimore Symphony Orchestra: 301-581-5215, www.bsomusic.org ● The National Philharmonic: 301-493-9283, www.nationalphilharmonic.org ● Washington Performing Arts: 202-785-9727, www.wpas.org ● CityDance Ensemble: 301-581-5204, www.citydance.net ● Maryland Classic Youth Orchestras: 301-581-5208, www.mcyo.org ● Levine Music: 301-897-5100, www.levinemusic.org ● interPLAY: 301-229-0829, www.interplayband.org

4 APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015

Affiliates interPLAY Published by

Editor and Publisher Steve Hull Associate Publisher Susan Hull Senior Editor Cindy Murphy-Tofig Design Director Maire McArdle Art Director Kelly Martin / kmartindesign.com Advertising Account Executives Paula Duggan, Penny Skarupa, LuAnne Spurrell 7768 Woodmont Ave., Suite 204 Bethesda, MD 20814 301-718-7787 Fax: 301-718-1875 Volume 11, Number 3 Applause is published five times a year by the Music Center at Strathmore and Kohanza Media Ventures, LLC, publisher of Bethesda Magazine. Copyright 2010 Kohanza Media Ventures. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or part without permission is prohibited.

STRATHMORE PHOTO BY JIM MORRIS, ALSOP PHOTO BY ADRIANE WHITE, PHANSTIEHL PHOTO BY KIRSTEN BECKERMAN

Eliot Phanstiehl

STRATHMORE

5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda

APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015 5

calendar ➲ FRI., APRIL 10, 8:15 P.M. BALTIMORE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Off the Cuff—Tchaikovsky: Mad But for Music Marin Alsop, conductor Didi Balle, playwright-in-residence, writer and director

Celebrate Strathmore's first decade and get excited about the next 10 years during the annual Spring Gala.

The evening will include dinner, dancing, and a performance by a special guest. ➲ FRI., APRIL 17, 8 P.M. STRATHMORE PRESENTS Rosanne Cash

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5

Marin Alsop and playwright-in-residence Didi Balle join forces once again to guide audiences through Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony, a heady mix of drama, vigor and passion.

Bach: St. John Passion Bach’s St. John Passion remains one of the most deeply affecting and riveting masterworks in this genre. A free pre-concert lecture will begin at 6:45 p.m. ➲ SUN., APRIL 12, 3 P.M. BALTIMORE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony Marin Alsop, conductor Adam Walker, flute

Shostakovich: Festive Overture Puts: Flute Concerto (East Coast premiere) Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5

➲ WED., APRIL 15, 8 P.M. STRATHMORE PRESENTS Engelbert Humperdinck Engelbert Humperdinck’s versatility has kept his career thriving for more than five decades. On his latest album, Engelbert Calling, he performs duets with Elton John, Willie Nelson, and Dionne Warwick. ➲ THURS., APRIL 16, 8 P.M. STRATHMORE PRESENTS Strathmore 10th Anniversary Gala

SUN., APRIL 26, 4 P.M. STRATHMORE PRESENTS Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain With more than 10 million YouTube views, this inspired group of uke virtuosos has won fans around the world with its quirky, compelling, all-ukulele versions of classics from Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries” to Lady Gaga’s “Born this Way.”

MAY ➲ FRI., MAY 1, 8 P.M. STRATHMORE PRESENTS Rain—A Tribute to The Beatles This multimedia event transcends the conventional concert format to re-create the art and artistry of John, Paul, George, and Ringo in a show that looks, sounds, and feels just like the real thing.

➲ SAT., APRIL 11, 8 P.M. THE NATIONAL PHILHARMONIC Bach’s St. John Passion Victoria Gau, conductor Rosa Lamoreaux, soprano Magdalena Wór, mezzo-soprano Rufus Müller, tenor (Evangelist) Matthew Smith, tenor Andrew McLaughlin, baritone (Jesus) Christòpheren Nomura, baritone The National Philharmonic Chorale

Liszt: Hungarian Rhapsody No. 15, S. 244/15 “Rákóczi March”

ROSANNE CASH

Rosanne Cash’s 2014 album The River and the Thread draws from country, blues, gospel, and rock. ➲ SAT., APRIL 18, 8 P.M. BALTIMORE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Pictures at an Exhibition Peter Oundjian, conductor Katherine Needleman, oboe

Haydn: Symphony No. 96, “Miracle” Vaughan Williams: Oboe Concerto Mussorgsky (arr. Ravel): Pictures at an Exhibition

Few works can match the orchestral color, sonic impact or sheer excitement of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition.

Experience it along with Vaughan Williams’ Oboe Concerto, performed by BSO Principal Oboe Katherine Needleman.

➲ SAT., MAY 2, 8 P.M. SUN., MAY 3, 3 P.M. THE NATIONAL PHILHARMONIC Mozart’s Jupiter Symphony Piotr Gajewski, conductor Christopher Taylor, pianist

Mozart: Overture to The Marriage of Figaro Piano Concerto No. 21 (“Elvira Madigan”) Symphony No. 41, “Jupiter”

The overture to The Marriage of Figaro instantly sets an emotional tone with its distinctive whirlwind humor. A free pre-concert lecture will begin at 6:45 p.m. May 2 and 1:45 p.m. May 3. ➲ THURS., MAY 7, 8 P.M. BALTIMORE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto Marin Alsop, conductor Lukáš Vondráček, piano

➲ WED., APRIL 22, 8 P.M. WASHINGTON PERFORMING ARTS Evgeny Kissin, piano Beethoven: Sonata No. 21 in C Major, Op. 53 “Waldstein” Prokofiev: Sonata No. 4 in C minor, Op. 29 Chopin: Selected mazurkas Chopin: Three Nocturnes

6 APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015

EVGENY KISSIN

CASH PHOTO BY CLAY PATRICK MCBRIDE, KISSIN PHOTO BY F. BROEDE / EMI, EVERLY PHOTO BY MICHAEL TAMMARO

APRIL

[April/May/June] Rimsky-Korsakov: Russian Easter Overture Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1 Prokofiev: Symphony No. 7

➲ SAT., MAY 9, 8 P.M. STRATHMORE PRESENTS An Evening with Shirley MacLaine

Join us for a celebration of this iconic contemporary composer and hear your favorite themes from blockbusters such as Schindler’s List, Star Wars, the Harry Potter films and Empire of the Sun. ➲ SAT., MAY 30, 8 P.M. THE NATIONAL PHILHARMONIC Fauré’s Requiem Piotr Gajewski, conductor Julie Keim, soprano Andrew McLaughlin, baritone National Philharmonic Chorale

Brahms: Serenade No. 2 Fauré: Requiem

SHIRLEY MACLAINE

Shirley MacLaine, the bestselling author and actress who won an Academy Award for Best Actress in 1984 for Terms of Endearment, embarks on a multi-media concert experience about her life in film. ➲ SAT., MAY 16, 8 P.M. BALTIMORE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Debussy and Don Juan Mario Venzago, conductor Oliver Schnyder, piano

Schubert: Symphony No. 8 in B minor, “Unfinished” Haydn: Harpsichord Concerto in D Major R. Strauss: Don Juan Debussy: La Mer

➲ SAT., MAY 23, 8 P.M. BALTIMORE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Strauss’ Four Last Songs Markus Stenz, conductor Heidi Melton, soprano

Weber: Der Freischütz Overture R. Strauss: Four Last Songs Schumann: Symphony No. 2

Newly appointed Principal Guest Conductor Markus Stenz brings panache and musical depth to signature German repertoire. ➲ THURS., MAY 28, 8 P.M. BALTIMORE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA BSO SUPERPOPS A Tribute to John Williams Jack Everly, conductor

A subtle and poignant work, the popular Fauré Requiem features colorful melodic lines and rich French harmonies. A free pre-concert lecture will begin at 6:45 p.m.

JUNE ➲ SAT., JUNE 6, 8 P.M. BALTIMORE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Beethoven’s Fifth Christoph König, conductor Alban Gerhardt, cello

Sibelius: Symphony No. 7 Shostakovich: Cello Concerto No. 1 Beethoven: Symphony No. 5

Power, simplicity, beauty. Christoph König conducts the most famous symphony of all—Beethoven’s Fifth. ➲ THURS., JUNE 11, 8 P.M. BALTIMORE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Candide

JACK EVERLY Marin Alsop, conductor Kevin Newbury, director Baltimore Choral Arts Society Cast in order of appearance: Joshua Hopkins Keith Jameson Marie Lenormand Lauren Snouffer Mark Diamond

Bernstein: Candide

Celebrate the end of the BSO’s season with Leonard Bernstein’s brilliant comedic operetta. ➲ THURS., JUNE 25, 2 AND 8 P.M. STRATHMORE PRESENTS Mormon Tabernacle Choir This fabled ensemble shares a 150year history that includes performances for 10 U.S. presidents, and in concert halls around the world.

[beyond the stage] Strathmore

Step in schools At Strathmore, audiences get closer to the arts. Sometimes that means taking the art out of the Mansion or concert hall and into the community—which is precisely what the arts center is doing with Step Afrika! In the week leading up to the Jan. 18 performance, Step Afrika! dancers will host clinics with local step teams and perform at the East County Community Recreation Center, and Briggs Chaney Middle, Greencastle Elementary, A. Mario Loiederman Middle, and Langley Park-McCormick Elementary schools. The partnership will share the art of step dance with nearly 1,000 young people, and is just one example of Strathmore’s year-round outreach to schools and members of the Montgomery County community.

APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015 7

R

10 STRATHMORE

STRATHMORE

Expanding

the Universe

Strathmore’s footprint grows with AMP, its new live music and dining destination

By Chris Slattery

AMP, POWERED BY STRATHMORE—THE ARTS ORGANIZATION’S NEW LIVE MUSIC AND DINING DESTINATION—IS SCHEDULED TO OPEN IN MARCH. 8 APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015

T

he traditional 10th anniver- these organizations— along with Strath- he and Pfanstiehl started planning. sary gift is tin, but Strath- more’s own educational, outreach, and They considered and rejected a nummore CEO Eliot Pfanstiehl artistic programs and the affiliated orga- ber of possibilities before hitting on has something more lyri- nizations that keep them humming—for a high-ceilinged, 3,000-square-foot cal in mind to mark a decade since the feeding off each other’s energy and cre- indoor performance space complete opening of the Music Center. Music, ating an evolving entity. with a green room and 1,100 square and lots more of it.

“Whatever you were when you feet in which patrons can dine, drink, “Our 10th anniversary is a reminder came here,” he says, “you won’t stay and dish before and after events. that we can’t get too comfortable,” he that way alone, because this is an or- Neighborhood Restaurant Group will says. “We are focused on what’s com- ganic and connected community; the be in charge of the food; Strathmore ing—what the next 10 years will bring. combinations are endless. will do the programming—encom“We really want to look through “It’s a synergy we can’t predict, but passing jazz, folk, zydeco, R&B, Roots the front windshield, not through the we can see that it’s at critical mass.” rock, and contemporary music, comrearview mirror.”

Evan Goldman could certainly see that. edy, and way beyond.

What Pfanstiehl sees in the windThe Federal Realty Investment “It’s nice to have a trusted partner shield is AMP, powered by Strathmore. Trust vice president for develop- who’s so good,” says Goldman. “You The 250-seat music venue is scheduled ment had some strong ideas of his know it’s going to be amazing.” to open in March just up the road from own about synergy, even before he Montgomery County Executive Strathmore’s North Bethesda campus. sat down with Pfanstiehl to talk Isiah Leggett, creator of the county’s Still, there’s nothing wrong with the about Pike & Rose, a new residential Nighttime Community Task Force, sees view behind him. The William Rawn and commercial development along the venue as just what Montgomery Associates-designed Music CenCounty needs. ter is a magnificent edifice that’s “This is a suburban area,” says renowned for its superb acoustics.

Leggett, a well-known supporter of The Mansion at Strathmore, the the arts along with his wife, Cathmansion-turned-arts center that erine, “and while it’s a great place was dedicated to Montgomery to be for the older population, County and to the arts in 1979, we need to recapture that 22- to continues to serve as a creative 40-year-old demographic by adding hub where exhibits are hung, mobility, becoming cooler and hipclasses are held, and every variety per, and providing a vibrant range of music is performed for smaller of options for everybody.” yet no-less-devoted audiences.

“We need to look at our landBut the nature of Strath- ARTIST CONCEPT OF AMP STAGED FOR A PRIVATE EVENT use policy, our transportation and more is that it never stays still recreation options, our nightlife,” for long, and Pfanstiehl is focused on Rockville Pike, near the White Flint he adds. “AMP is in a location that’s continuing the organization’s reach in Metro stop. accessible; there’s a great nightlife scene the community.

“We had a space,” he recalls. “We that attracts young people. For me the “I honestly believe the next 10 years had an opportunity. The key to it all immeasurable impact of the arts is that will be about expanding the Strath- was how to create a community ame- it educates, it lifts people up, and it remore solar system,” he explains. “This nity, to be a place in the community flects our culture. That’s what Strathis the new world, the expanding uni- residents are really proud of.” more does, and AMP will do it, too.” verse, the big bang! The last 10 years?

Goldman says that from the project’s Of that Pfanstiehl has no doubt.

That was the little bang!” inception “we‘ve always had this vision “We’re always urging people to ‘get It was a big enough bang to boost of becoming the entertainment center closer,’” he says. “To get a sense of that the local profiles of several arts organi- of the entire county. In Phase I alone joy, that tremendous emotional power zations—founding partner Baltimore we’ve spent $7 million on art—sculp- that drives performance. AMP is us Symphony Orchestra, and resident artis- tures, spaces, landscapes—because we’re going out into the community, taking tic partners The National Philharmon- going to own this property forever, and artistic risks. ic, Washington Performing Arts, Levine that’s what creates community.”

“I don’t know anybody else that does Music, CityDance and Maryland ClasAnd because Goldman’s always this,” he adds. “There just isn’t another sic Youth Orchestras. Pfanstiehl credits been a big supporter of Strathmore, arts center that’s quite like us.”

APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015 9

R

BALTIMORE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Baltimore Symphony Orchestra presents All-Bach Thursday, Feb. 12, 8 P.M.

Off the Cuff: The Bach Family Friday, Feb. 13, 8:15 P.M.

BACK TO BACK

BACH and keyboard player, delved into Baroque music with his friend, the late conductor and keyboard player Christopher Hogwood. “We made many recordings of Baroque music using original instruments from the 18th century.

It was a rebirth of period instrument

10 APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015

performance,” McGegan says. Jonathan Carney, BSO concertmaster, says, “Nick is a musician’s musician.

He brings a great deal of lightness and humor to his work, including the lighthearted aspects of composers.”

The concert will open with J.S. Bach’s Orchestral Suite No. 4 in D Major, a majestic composition that is an audience favorite.

“When Bach wrote for orchestra,” says McGegan, “he looked to the French and Italian composers. He was particularly drawn to Vivaldi’s spritz, panache and brilliance.” From Paris, which, at the time, had the largest court in Europe and was considered to be the most sophisticated place on Earth, “Bach drew on the spirit of dance and the majestic feeling of being at the Court of Versailles.”

The celebration of J.S. Bach continues with his Concerto for Two Violins in D minor, also known as the “Bach Double.” One of Bach’s late Baroque works, the concerto is a masterpiece of counterpoint. Soloists have equal time to share the NICHOLAS MCGEGAN limelight and the music draws

PHOTO BY STEVE J. SHERMAN

W

inter is the perfect time to enjoy the lively and uplifting delights of the Baroque period’s first family: father Johann Sebastian Bach, and sons Johann Christian and Carl Philipp Emanuel. The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s All-Bach program lights up the stage at the Music Center at Strathmore on Feb. 12, and will feature guest conductor Nicholas McGegan, a connoisseur of the Bach family’s compositions and the Baroque period.

The following evening, McGegan will lead a discussion on the Bach family in the BSO’s popular series Off the Cuff, which will feature excerpts of the concert’s works and McGegan’s encyclopedic knowledge of the family’s music and social history.

McGegan is known as “one of the finest Baroque conductors of his generation” (The London Independent) and “an expert in 18th century style” (The New Yorker).

During his time at Cambridge University in the early 1970s, McGegan, who began as a flutist

A two-night recognition of Baroque’s first family spans the works and legacies of J.S., J.C. and C.P.E. Bach

By Pamela Toutant out the subtle and expressive relationship between the two violins. “It is arguably the best work J.S. Bach wrote, although there are some keyboard musicians who might disagree with me,” Carney says.

Joining Carney as soloist is violinist Madeline Adkins, BSO associate concertmaster and champion of Baroque music, including many performances of early music on period instruments. Commenting on the complex dynamics of the concerto, Carney says, “Two violins are the hardest solo combination.

To come up with a style and approach that matches including bow strokes, tempo and intonation takes thought, and knowing each other well.

Although I have played this piece with Madeline before, we will be approaching it all with fresh ears.”

Opening the second half of the program is C.P.E. Bach’s Symphony in E Flat Major. Emanuel Bach was the fifth child and second surviving son of J.S. Bach and his first wife, Maria Barbara Bach.

Known as the leading transition-

al figure between the Baroque style of his father and the classical and romantic styles that followed, C.P.E. Bach is known for influencing both Mozart’s and Haydn’s keyboard style.

“C.P.E. Bach was both a composer and a brilliant keyboard player,” says McGegan. “He was an avant garde and high-spirited composer. Breaking away from the more formal style of his father, his music, including this symphony, is surprising and wild.”

youngest son of J.S. Bach (from Bach’s second marriage). “He did everything his father didn’t,” says McGegan. “He traveled, had no children, became a Catholic and wrote opera. His music is lovely—graceful and elegant. He was highly sophisticated and everyone adored him, including his good friend, English portrait and landscape painter Thomas Gainsborough.”

Considered a composer of the Classical Era, his fluid compositions are known to have influenced the concerto style of Mozart. “The symphonia concertante form,” explains McGegan, “is a hybrid of the symphony and concerto. The one on the program features an elegant conversation between the four soloists with an orchestra.

Through the violin, J.C. Bach brings Italian sunshine back into the Bach family.”

That sunshine will no doubt warm audience members during the February performance. “With McGegan at the helm of the BSO, one of the best orchestras in the world,” says Carney, “our All-Bach program will delight Bach aficionados and newcomers alike.”

“Bach drew on the spirit of dance and the majestic feeling of being at the Court of Versailles.”

— Nicholas McGegan The evening’s finale features Johann Christian Bach’s Sinfonia Concertante for Flute, Oboe, Violin and Cello in C Major. Sometimes referred to as the “London” Bach due to the time he spent living in the British capital, J.C. Bach is the 11th child and

APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015 11

R

10 STRATHMORE

LEVINE MUSIC

Winter Warm-Up

A

s a founding partner of The Music Center at Strathmore, Levine Music has both celebrated and contributed to the success of Strathmore over the past decade. And now, as Strathmore approaches the 10th anniversary of its education complex, Levine applauds its longstanding partner while also preparing to mark its own 40-year milestone in 2016.

Starting with a name change last year, Levine Music (formerly Levine School of Music) has renewed its commitment to excellence through a refreshed emphasis on three pillars of the organization— community, education and performance.

“As we reflect on the thousands of students that Levine has impacted over the past four decades, we are eagerly planning for the future,” says Peter

Jablow, president and CEO of Levine’s four citywide campuses. “We are realizing our role as the region’s leader in creating community around music participation and presentation…and we look forward to growing—alongside our collaborators at Strathmore—by continuing to expand our services to the community.”

Levine Music has put unprecedented fervor into its annual public performance series, Levine Presents. The 2014-2015 series, called Pushing the Boundaries, has attracted record-breaking crowds and continues into 2015 with two master classes—internationally acclaimed pianist Louis Lortie visits on Feb. 28, and musical pioneer and cellist Matt Haimovitz on March 28. Both events will feature talented Levine students, presented in partnership with the Baltimore Symphony Or-

One of the many memorable events Levine has hosted during its 10 years at Strathmore includes Broadway duo Pasek and Paul in a master class and concert with Levine’s Act Two students.

12 APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015

chestra and Strathmore, respectively.

“Levine Master Classes are free and open to the public, giving emerging musicians access to world-famous artists in an intimate and interactive setting,” says Karen Shepherd, Levine’s Maryland campus director and associate director of events and partnerships.

Shepherd has been leading Levine’s Strathmore program since its founding 10 years ago. “It’s been inspirational to be a part of the incredible artistry that takes place on this campus and to foster the skills of classical, rock, jazz and musical theater students of all ages and abilities as the music education partner. We look forward to many more years of music-making at Strathmore.”

Levine Presents also brings the brilliance of legendary saxophonist and composer John Coltrane to Strathmore on March 28 as distinguished and charismatic Levine faculty artists—Josh Walker (electric guitar), Lyle Link (saxophone), Karine Chapelaine (bass) and Andrew Hare (drums)—interpret some of the most captivating, challenging and electrifying jazz music of the last century.

Levine’s connection to the community is also evident at the ever-popular “jam” sessions. On Feb. 21, the Levine “Blues Jam” welcomes musicians of all ages and experience levels to come together and improvise on well-recognized blues standards, facilitated by Levine jazz faculty.

Spring lessons and classes begin on Feb. 2. For more information about Levine Music, visit www.levinemusic.org.

PHOTO BY SCOTT SELMAN / CYM MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

Spring season of classes and performances marks Levine’s 10th year at Strathmore By Kristin Guiter

R

BALTIMORE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Cellist Stays Uber Busy Kids’ busy schedules can mean lots of driving, but also lots of joy for Bo Li By Laura Farmer

S

ome days, BSO Acting Assistant Principal Cello Bo Li feels like a taxi driver.

That’s because, like many a harried parent still in the thick of child-rearing, Bo and his wife Mary shuttle their two children, Mia, 10, and Ryan, 8, to a host of activities each week.

“I don’t have any hobbies right now,” says the amiable dad. “My kids are my hobby.”

Mia’s activities, for example, include piano and cello lessons, orchestra rehearsal with the Howard County Gifted and Talented (GT) Orchestra, swim practices and meets, and Chinese class. Ryan’s current passion is soccer, which requires two practices and one game per week.

Plus, he’s also in the GT Orchestra, takes piano lessons, studies violin with the BSO’s own Wonju Kim, and joins his sister for Chinese class.

“When the kids were younger, my wife and I could manage the various dropoffs and pickups between the two of us,” says Li. “But now we need to collaborate with other parents to do carpools. My wife is a lot better at keeping all of this organized than me. She sends me a memo practically every day of when to get whom and where.”

The obvious question: Can the kids drop some of these activities to simplify life a bit? The answer right now is “not really.”

“We ask what they want to drop, but they enjoy all of it so much,” says

Li. “It’s tough to ask them to cut back when they are doing what they love, it doesn’t interfere with their schoolwork, and all of their friends also take part in these activities.” But there’s reward in it for the parents, too.

“Over the years, I feel my fulfill-

ment has come less from what I am doing and more from my kids,” he says. “When they win a game, their achievement gives me more joy than anything I do on my own. It’s all worth it. If they practice and succeed, it gives me pleasure for them.”

APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015 13

R

THE NATIONAL PHILHARMONIC

A Decade of Artistic Aspirations The National Philharmonic, Strathmore’s orchestra in residence, will stay ambitious with more premieres and expanded offerings in the next 10 years By M.J. McAteer

Chorale presented Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, and it will reprise that magnificent work for its anniversary celebration on Feb. 8, 2015.

The Philharmonic also has hosted some of the world’s finest soloists at Strathmore, including pianist Leon Fleisher, mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves and violinist Sarah Chang. In the 2013-2014 season, it proudly premiered The Lost Childhood concert opera of Janice Hamer.

“It’s been a great ride,” Gajewski says, and that ride is far from over.

“We plan to continue what we currently do and expand our offerings,” says Philharmonic President Kenneth Oldham Jr. In addition to audience favorites, he promises more American music, more premieres, and even some pops concerts.

The Philharmonic’s educational ambitions have been equal in scale to

14 APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015

its artistic ones. In addition to its All Kids, All Free, All the Time program, it has nurtured summer string and choral institutes, brought music into the schools and offered master classes and a concerto competition. It hopes to expand all these programs as well as one of its most exciting outreach efforts: its children’s concerts.

In the fall of 2004, before the Music Center officially opened, the Philharmonic performed before all 10,000 of Montgomery County Public Schools’ second-graders for what would become an annual series of concerts.

The Philharmonic is also looking at other ways to expand its reach in the community. Given how many people the Philharmonic already has touched in so many ways since its move to Strathmore, that’s a “greater aspiration” that is within reach.

PHOTO BY DON LASSELL

T

he Music Center at Strathmore is celebrating its 10th anniversary, but its first inkling came in 1984, when the creation of the state-of-the-art concert hall was only a dream.

“The property was purchased to build a performing arts center, but there was no plan yet as to how it would come about,” says National Philharmonic Music Director and Conductor Piotr Gajewski. He told Strathmore CEO Eliot Pfanstiehl, then head of the Strathmore Hall Foundation, “I’ll be out there building an orchestra until you get it done.”

Gajewski built his Montgomery Chamber Orchestra first into the National Chamber Orchestra and, then, eventually, teamed with the Masterworks Chorus to form the National Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorale. When the Music Center officially opened in 2005, the Philharmonic took up residence there and gained a new stability that allowed it “to fulfill its greater aspirations,” Gajewski says.

Those aspirations were and remain both artistic and educational.

Artistically, in the decade since the National Philharmonic has been at Strathmore, it has shown its mastery of some of the classical repertoire’s most demanding and best-loved works, such as Mozart’s Requiem, Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9 in E minor (“From the New World”) and Handel’s Messiah. At its gala opening concert in 2005, the National Philharmonic Orchestra and

R

WASHINGTON PERFORMING ARTS

Washington Performing Arts presents Blues Symphony Wednesday, Feb. 4, 8 P.M.

The Music Center Gets the Blues

Wynton Marsalis’ revised Blues Symphony—which premieres at Strathmore—articulates many styles of American music By Roger Catlin

PHOTO BY CLAY MCBRIDE

W

ynton Marsalis first started performing movements from his ambitious Blues Symphony in 2009. Since then, there have been other performances of the work by the Grammy- and Pulitzer Prizewinning jazz musician and composer.

On Feb. 4, he premieres a newly revised, hourlong Blues Symphony at the Music Center at Strathmore in a Washington Performing Arts concert.

Mixing blues and other American idioms with classical orchestrations is still unusual 90 years after Duke Ellington and George Gershwin did it. And because musicians benefit from spending more time with a piece, Washington Performing Arts got the Shenandoah Conservatory Symphony Orchestra from Winchester, Va., involved.

“One of the challenges with professional orchestras is that they just don’t have a lot of rehearsal time,” says Samantha Pollack, Washington Performing Arts’ director of programming. She says Marsalis wanted an orchestra to spend more time with the piece, “because it’s not a standard classical piece. Because of the jazz idioms, because of all the other American melodic idioms he has in it, it’s very much a different type of piece.”

The arts organization had done some work with the Shenandoah Con-

servatory and approached the conservatory about a semester-long project involving a residency, culminating in the February performance.

For musicians largely schooled in orchestral music, there’s a lot to learn, Marsalis says.

“I think it will be instructional for students just in the amount of music that you learn just playing it. Not even the music I wrote, but where it comes from; the amount of vernacular music

WYNTON MARSALIS

you have to know to play it, because it comes from a lot of vernacular sources.

“In our country in general, we don’t teach our vernacular,” he says. “It doesn’t matter what kind of musicians. It could be jazz musicians, who don’t know early American folk music, Celtic traditions, fiddling, the tradition of spirituals, the gospel traditions, the earliest root forms of it, fife and drum music that existed in a certain time, a way of playing.”

Still, there is a commonality among all the approaches, Marsalis says.

“They all were in this country; they all played syncopated rhythms and march rhythms. It seems to come from the Anglo-Celtic fiddling traditions, showed up in slave music, which showed up in the banjo music, which showed up in affirmation music, Irish folk songs and English tragic ballads; it showed up in the Negro spiritual … and on and on and on,” he says. “All of our music is connected like we are connected.”

Marsalis says he enjoys playing at Strathmore and working with Washington Performing Arts. “My entire career I’ve had the honor of being presented by them. I’m one of the biggest advocates of theirs since the 1980s. So any opportunity to be associated with them or any connection with them I always jump at that,” he says.

APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015 15

R

STRATHMORE

Legacy of Music andArt Endures

The Mansion at Strathmore was built in 1899 by Capt. James Frederick Oyster and his wife. The Oyster used the mansion as their summer home until 1908.

16 APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015

10 STRATHMORE

Decades before the Music Center and Mansion, Strathmore’s rolling campus was the backdrop for the trilling sounds and lush hues of nature, and the buzzing excitement of summertime guests

By Chris Slattery

I

t’s doubtful there ever was silence here.

As far back as 12,000 years ago, if archeological records are to be believed, nomadic or semi-nomadic people made their way to this spot where we now celebrate the arts. Even if its only music came from birds and beasts, even if its art was just the deep hues of flowers and leaves and the sparkle and play of spider webs and dewdrops, there’s a sense of artistic destiny to Strathmore that seems to pervade every corner and burst outward in a flourish of creative euphoria.

Years later, the indigenous Piscataway left the land we now know as the Strathmore campus open to the colonists who would come to carve a continent into America. They grew tobacco and rolled it in barrels down Rockville Pike south to Georgetown. George Washington marched to war here; Francis Scott Key eluded the British; Josiah Henson nur-

tured a dream of freedom; Andrew Jackson dined; and George Atzerodt fled after collaborating in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.

Even before Captain James Frederick Oyster and his wife sought this breezy hilltop north of D.C. to build their summer home, the land hosted action, drama, and buzz. And now, 35 years after that house was renamed Strathmore and developed as Montgomery County’s first center for the arts; nearly 32 years after The Mansion at Strathmore opened its doors to the public as an arts center; 10 years after the opening of the 1,976-seat concert hall and education center known as the Music Center at Strathmore, the paradigm gets ready to shift once again, moving briskly out into a brave new world.

The next iteration of Strathmore, this entity that encompasses not just the physical space, the buildings and grounds, but the founding partners—

BSO at Strathmore, National Philharmonic, Levine Music, CityDance, Maryland Classic Youth Orchestras, InterPLAY and Washington Performing Arts—leads it off the leafy hilltop and into an increasingly urban landscape; out into a community that will be served in different ways. First stop: AMP, powered by Strathmore, a new music and events venue. It’s an “amplification” of the cultural, musical, and educational programming for which Strathmore is known, programming that will be redirected and infused into North Bethesda and Montgomery County and beyond. It’s a burst of color and culture being incorporated into a new kind of neighborhood, an experiment in how we’ll live in the future.

“How do we run this?” is the hypothetical question CEO Eliot Pfanstiehl likes to pose—and then answer. “I don’t know…let’s figure it out.”

One thing there will not be, and that is silence.

Since its renovations in the 1900s, The Mansion at Strathmore has hosted countless fine arts exhibits and music performances, plus weddings and other special occasions.

APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015 17

R

STRATHMORE

Transcendent at 10

Is Strathmore a performance venue, an educational resource, or an artists’ haven? All of the above, plus a whole lot more Compiled by Cindy Murphy-Tofig

S

“My first memory of Strathmore dates from 2005, when then guest conductor Marin Alsop led the BSO in Brahms’ Third Symphony. The combination of a world-class orchestra performing at its acoustically brilliant second home initiated what has become a continuing love affair.

“Shortly thereafter I as- SPERO sumed a staff position with the BSO at Strathmore, enabling me to attend almost “By being on the Strathmore all of our concerts here. I Board of Directors through the design continue to thrill at how and opening of the Music Center, I had the wonderfully our orchestra presprivilege of working with Eliot Pfanstiehl, ents in this fabulous hall.

Doug Duncan, Chuck Lyons, Mario Loi “Indeed, Strathmore has become ederman, William Rawn, Michael Mael, a second home for me—both profesand Phil English. I remain grateful for the sionally and personally—and I warmsupport of the enlightened leadership of my ly reflect on the friendships I have employer at the time, Lockheed Martin. made with the entire roster of persons “A fondly remembered amusement is who make our concerts here come off the time a Montgomery County coun- so seamlessly: docents, stagehands, cil member grilled me: ‘Mr. Phil- PHILLIPS ushers, ticket office and security lips, I would like to know what personnel, food and beverage you knew and when you knew servers, security guards, adit!’ My most meaningful memoministrators, and, of course, ry is of the opening concert, seeour wonderful and highly taling Yo-Yo Ma and cellists from ented musicians. the Maryland Classic Youth Orches “Here’s to all of us and to many tras on the stage of Montgomery County’s more decades of great memories!” great artistic-social achievement. I real- —DICK SPERO, COMMUNITY LIAISON, ized then how important the Music Cen- BSO AT STRATHMORE ter could be in bringing together people “Strathmore is a jewel of a hall from different backgrounds.”

—DAVID PHILLIPS, ASSOCIATE DEAN with wonderful acoustics, and it’s a FOR THE ARTS, MONTGOMERY COLLEGE strong presence in a community where

“In Europe, an ‘evergreen’ is a symbol of greatness in the arts— works that remain forever new, such as Beethoven’s Ninth S y m p h o n y. T h e M u s i c C e n E B R E T S O ter at Strathmore also is G N EN our ‘evergreen,’ as the hall envelops performers and audience members with its graceful architecture, amazing acoustics, and a shimmering ‘European’ presence during each performance.

“It has been a great honor to perform here as a partner organization for the past 10 years enriching our community, and we look forward to a bright future ahead, where new generations will continue to enjoy how our music uniquely comes alive at Strathmore.”

—STAN ENGEBRETSON, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, NATIONAL PHILHARMONIC CHORALE

18 APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015

ENGEBRETSON PHOTO BY JERRY FERNANDEZ, SPERO PHOTO BY MICHAEL VENTURA

ince its inaugural concert in February 2005, the Music Center at Strathmore has captivated thousands of schoolchildren in the Concert Hall that appears to shimmer with gold; hosted vocalists, orchestras, dancers, stand-up comedians, and many other performers who marvel at the hall’s superb acoustics; and entertained and educated the community through free outdoor concerts, workshops and other outreach opportunities. To help it mark a decade of nurturing artists and encouraging artistic expression, folks from around Strathmore’s arts family and the community reminisce and recall what the Music Center means to them.

10 STRATHMORE

GA

JE W S KI

we have arts-loving audiences.

“The additional presence of Levine Music and CiFI E L D BIL tyDance underscores the shared mission of Strathmore and Washington Performing Arts—to engage current audiences and to help excite and cultivate new ones in meaningful ways.”

ALSOP PHOTO BY ADRIANE WHITE, GAJEWSKI PHOTO BY MICHAEL VENTURA, RAWN PHOTO BY DESIGN & CO., PFANSTIEHL PHOTO BY JIM SAAH

— JENNY BILFIELD, PRESIDENT & CEO, WASHINGTON PERFORMING ARTS

ing, more than 10,000 children became our first mass audience at the new Music Center.

“Now, 10 years later, the National Philharmonic has played to more than 150,000 children, in some cases changing lives or just simply nurturing their musical curiosity.

Playing for children remains the most important and fun music making we do.”

—PIOTR GAJEWSKI, MUSIC DIRECTOR AND CONDUCTOR, THE NATIONAL PHILHARMONIC

“The concert I remember most “We jumped at the chance well was my first subscription as music over 10 years ago to be part of director of the Baltimore Symphony Or- Strathmore, a beautiful, acousticalchestra in 2007. We performed ly superb, accessible concert hall our ALSOP Mahler’s Fifth Symphony and artists would love in an area of Marythe brightness, immediacy, land without a Washington Performand beauty of the hall were ing Arts venue. In fact, we have many artists who only want to come to enormously impressive.

“There have been many Strathmore.

“It is such a joy every time I first see landmark events for me at OLLACK P an artist walk on stage and the look Strathmore, especially our of amazement that crosses their first Rusty Musicians event where face. And they’re even more in we had hundreds of non-profeslove with it after they perform!” sionals turn out to play with the —SAMANTHA POLLACK, orchestra. This was the start of DIRECTOR OF PROGRAMMING, our hugely successful initiative, and WASHINGTON PERFORMING ARTS a great way to kick it off!

“Having two beautiful yet different halls has been a joy for the BSO. We “As the Music Center at Strathmore love our audiences at Strathmore and the celebrates its 10th anniversary, hall brings out different dimensions and it gives us, as architects, a chance to step characteristics in the orchestra. The ex- back and think about the ideas and inperience has been more than rewarding: tentions for the building.

“We sought to celebrate a demoit’s been an inspiration.”

—MARIN ALSOP, MUSIC DIRECTOR, cratic spirit for Strathmore. We wantBALTIMORE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA ed a concert hall that felt accessible and open to a broad public. Honored “In early 2004, I approached to have Strathmore as a second home then-Montgomery County Pub- to the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, lic Schools Superintendent Jerry we wanted the hall to feel welcoming Weast and Strathmore CEO Eliot to all forms of music.

Pfanstiehl about the possibility of the “The curving building form delibNational Philharmonic performing con- erately references the rolling hills of certs for all MCPS school children. the site. Similarly we sought to creR AW N We then selected second-graders ate a warm and embracing inteto be our first concertgoers, and rior which surrounds the stage in December 2004, even before and connects audience and the official concert hall openperformer in as seamless a way

as possible—everyone coming together for an evening of music.”

—WILLIAM RAWN, WILLIAM RAWN ASSOCIATES, ARCHITECTS, INC., BOSTON

To me, Strathmore is about the people!

From our staff, board, and over 400 volunteers, to our partners, artWIC K TRA ists, and teachers, to our customers and children.

Truly, it is our people that fuel our creative energy and take us beyond our walls to the far reaches of our community and our dynamic destiny!

—CAROL TRAWICK, FOUNDER, THE JIM AND CAROL TRAWICK FOUNDATION CHAIR, MARYLAND STATE ARTS COUNCIL

We built it and you came. The Music Center at Strathmore—190,000 square feet of superb concert hall, education classrooms, rehearsal space, and office suites for Strathmore and five resident organizations—opened on Feb. 5, 2005.

Suddenly, Strathmore was on the map of world-class artists. With more than 120 shows the first year (now 160!) and a quarter million visitors each year, Strathmore isn’t finished yet.

Strathmore is about to become the hub of a new urban center called The Pike District. It gives passion TIEH S L and substance to our entire PFAN community as a platform for international voices and cultures. It inspires a new economic driver and developments like Pike and Rose, which decades from now will dwarf what we see today. But most of all, it educates and entertains the next generation who will grow up thinking this magnificent place must have always been here...wasn’t it?

No it wasn’t, but now and forever more, it will be. Happy 10th Birthday, Strathmore!

—ELIOT PFANSTIEHL CEO, STRATHMORE

APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015 19

Saturday, January 3, 2015, 8 p.m.

● Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Marin Alsop, Music Director Presents

Beethoven’s Ninth Nicholas McGegan, conductor Katie Van Kooten, soprano Mary Phillips, mezzo-soprano Thomas Cooley, tenor Andrew Foster-Williams, bass-baritone Baltimore Choral Arts Society Tom Hall, Director

Overture to King Stephen, Op. 117 Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

The Storm, H.XXIVa:8 Franz Joseph Haydn Baltimore Choral Arts Society (1732-1809)

Opferlied, Op. 121b Ludwig van Beethoven Mary Phillips Baltimore Choral Arts Society INTERMISSION

Symphony No. 9 in D minor,

Op. 125, “Choral” Allegro ma non troppo, un poco maestoso

Molto vivace

Adagio molto e cantabile Presto - Allegro assai - Allegro assai vivace

Katie Van Kooten

Mary Phillips

Thomas Cooley

Andrew Foster-Williams

Baltimore Choral Arts Society

Ludwig van Beethoven

The concert will end at approximately 10 p.m.

The appearance of tonight’s soloists is made possible through the generosity of the Alvin and Fanny Blaustein Thalheimer Guest Artist Fund.

The Music Center at Strathmore Marriott Concert Stage

Nicholas McGegan, conductor

As he embarks on his fourth decade on the podium, Nicholas McGegan, hailed as “one of the finest Baroque conductors of his generation” by the

London Independent, is increasingly recognized for his probing and revelatory explorations of music of all periods. He has been music director of Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra for 27 years, and was artistic director of the International Handel Festival Göttingen for 20 years (1991–2011). Beginning in the 20132014 season he became principal guest conductor of the Pasadena Symphony,

22 APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015

and in 2014 became artist-in-association with Australia’s Adelaide Symphony.

Visit McGegan on the web at www. nicholasmcgegan.com.

Katie Van Kooten, soprano

American soprano Katie Van Kooten’s operatic and concert appearances continue to thrill audiences and earn her praise for using her “powerful, gleaming soprano” to bring vibrancy and life to all of her performances.

Notable operatic performances include Magda La Rondine at the Metropolitan Opera and the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Elisabetta in Maria Stuarda, Mimi in La Bohème and Ellen Orford in Peter Grimes at Houston Grand Opera, Antonia in Les contes d’Hoffmann, Vitelia in La Clemenza di Tito and Elettra in Idomeneo at Oper Frankfurt, the Marschelin in Der Rosenkavalier at Minnesota Opera, and returns to Covent Garden for Antonia, Pamina, Mimi and Marguerite.

Concert highlights include appearances with San Francisco Symphony led by Michael Tilson Thomas, Philadelphia Chamber Orchestra, Charlotte Symphony and Louisville Symphony.

The current season will see her debut with the Atlanta Opera as well as appearances with the , Tucson and Elgin symphony orchestras.

Mary Phillips, mezzo-soprano

Internationally acclaimed mezzo-soprano Mary Phillips is particularly high in demand in the repertoire of Wagner, Verdi, Beethoven and Mahler. She has performed most of the mezzo roles in the Ring Cycle, returning to the Metropolitan Opera as Schwertleite in Die Walküre and Jezibaba in Dvořák’s

BALTIMORE CHORAL ARTS SOCIETY PHOTO COURTESY BSO

SATURDAY, JANUARY 3, 2015, 8 P.M.

Saturday, January 3, 2015, 8 p.m.

Rusalka. Phillips has also made an acclaimed portrayal of Brangäne in Tristan und Isolde for the Dallas Opera.

She has been lauded as Azucena in Il Trovatore, Princess Eboli in Don Carlo and Amneris in Aida.

Concert performances include Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, the National Symphony, the Hong Kong Philharmonic and the Handel & Haydn Society.

Thomas Cooley, tenor

Thomas Cooley has established a reputation for possessing a lyric tenor voice of great flexibility, dynamic range and precision.

He has appeared with such conductors as Carlo Rizzi, David Robertson, Donald Runnicles, Eji Oue, Franz Welser-Möst, Helmuth Rilling, Manfred Honneck, Michael Tilson-Thomas, Nicholas McGegan, Osmo Vänskä, Robert Spano and Wolfgang Swallisch.

His repertoire on the concert stage includes Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis, Berlioz’s Requiem, Nuits d’été and L’enfance du Christ, Haydn’s Seasons, Stravinsky’s Les Noces, Handel’s Messiah, Mendelssohn’s Lobgesang, Kodály’s Psalmus Hungaricus, Britten’s War Requiem, Bach’s St. John Passion, Mozart’s Requiem, Bernstein’s Candide and Penderecki’s Credo. He is frequently invited to perform in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, a role that has taken him to Singapore, Japan, Germany, Italy, Spain, and throughout the U.S. In the Baroque repertoire he is a well-known interpreter of the works of Bach and Handel.

Andrew Foster-Williams, bass-baritone

Andrew Foster-Williams studied at and is now a fellow of the Royal Academy of Music in London.

Opera plans include Balstrode in Britten’s Peter Grimes for Theater an der

Wien and Donner and Gunther Wagner’s Ring Cycle for Opera North in 2016.

Concert plans include Mendelssohn’s Elijah in Boston and with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra; Bach’s St. John Passion (Christus) with the Concertgebouw Orchestra; Gounod’s Cinq Mars with Münchner Rundfunkorchester; Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis in Lisbon and Méphistophélès in Berlioz’s La Damnation de Faust in Moscow.

Foster-Williams has sung concerts with the symphony orchestras in Cleveland, Philadelphia, New York, San Francisco and London, and the philharmonic orchestras of the Netherlands, Monte Carlo and Hong Kong. He also has performed with DSO Berlin, Mozarteum Orchestra, Salzburg, Orchestra of the Age of the Enlightenment, L’Orchestre des Champs Élysée and Les Talens Lyriques as well as appearances at Washington National Opera, Opéra National de Bordeaux, Opera National de Lyon, Netherlands Opera, Opera North, WNO and Glyndebourne Festival.

Baltimore Choral Arts Society

The Baltimore Choral Arts Society, now in its 49th season, is one of Maryland’s premier cultural institutions. The Symphonic Chorus, Full Chorus, Orchestra and Chamber Chorus perform throughout the mid-Atlantic region, as well as in Washington, D.C., New York and Europe.

For the past 18 years, WMAR Television has featured the Baltimore Choral Arts Society in an hour-long special, “Christmas with Choral Arts,” which won an Emmy Award in 2006. Music Director Tom Hall and the chorus were also featured in a PBS documentary called “Jews and Christians:

A Journey of Faith,” broadcast nationwide and on National Public Radio in 2001. On local radio, Hall is the host of “Choral Arts Classics,” a monthly program on WYPR, and he is the culture editor on WYPR’s “Maryland Morning With Sheilah Kast.”

The society has appeared with the National Symphony Orchestra, and makes regular appearances with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.

Program Notes King Stephen Overture

Ludwig van Beethoven Born Dec. 16, 1770 in Bonn, Germany; died March 26, 1827, in Vienna, Austria

Many portraits and the character of some of his music have imprinted Beethoven as “the man with the scowl” on our collective imaginations. But anyone who doubts the composer had a sense of humor should listen to the opening of his King Stephen Overture. Its portentous opening chords, leading to one of the most inane little tunes ever penned, is as good an example of comedy in music as anything by Peter Schickele (aka P.D.Q. Bach).

This overture plus nine other numbers was created in a bout of high-speed composing during the late summer of 1811 along with the overture and incidental music for The Ruins of Athens. Both King Stephen or Hungary’s First Benefactor (to give the full title) and The Ruins of Athens were brief festival plays written

by August von Kotzebue to celebrate the opening of the new theater in Pest, Hungary, that autumn.

Both plays paid obsequious tribute to the Austrian Emperor Franz I, who was also emperor of Hungary.

Canonized as a saint in 1803, Stephen was Hungary’s national hero, crowned king in 1000 A.D. and subsequently converting his people to Christianity. The subtitle “Hungary’s First Benefactor” implied that Franz I, who would be attending the

APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015 23

Saturday, January 3, 2015, 8 p.m.

Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Marin Alsop, Music Director, Harvey M. and Lyn P. Meyerhoff Chair Jack Everly, Principal Pops Conductor Yuri Temirkanov, Music Director Emeritus Ken Lam, BSYO Artistic Director & Associate Conductor for Education Nicholas Hersh, Assistant Conductor Michael Repper, BSO-Peabody Conducting Fellow

First Violins Jonathan Carney ∫ Concertmaster, Ruth Blaustein Rosenberg Chair Madeline Adkins † Associate Concertmaster, Wilhelmina Hahn Waidner Chair Rui Du Acting Assistant Concertmaster James Boehm Kenneth Goldstein Wonju Kim Gregory Kuperstein Mari Matsumoto Gregory Mulligan Rebecca Nichols E. Craig Richmond Ellen Pendleton Troyer Andrew Wasyluszko Second Violins Qing Li Principal, E. Kirkbride and Ann H. Miller Chair Ivan Stefanovic † ∫ Associate Principal Angela Lee ∫ Assistant Principal Leonid Berkovich Leonid Briskin Julie Parcells Christina Scroggins Wayne C. Taylor James Umber Charles Underwood

Melissa Zaraya Minsun Choi** Violas Lisa Steltenpohl † Principal, Peggy Meyerhoff Pearlstone Chair Noah Chaves Associate Principal Karin Brown Assistant Principal Rebekah Newman Richard Field Viola Principal Emeritus Peter Minkler Sharon Pineo Myer Delmar Stewart Jeffrey Stewart Mary Woehr Cellos Dariusz Skoraczewski † ∫ Principal, Joseph and Rebecca Meyerhoff Chair Chang Woo Lee Associate Principal Bo Li ∫ Acting Assistant Principal Seth Low Susan Evans Esther Mellon Kristin Ostling Paula Skolnick-Childress Pei Lu**

performance, was the country’s modern benefactor.

Beethoven obviously did not take this commission as an opportunity for musical profundity. Vacationing at the Bohemian health spa of Teplitz, he was enjoying one of the happiest summers of his life, and the Overture’s music reflects that mood. He seemed to be mocking his own heroic style with those fateful

Basses Robert Barney Principal, Willard and Lillian Hackerman Chair Hampton Childress Associate Principal Owen Cummings Mark Huang Jonathan Jensen David Sheets Eric Stahl Flutes Emily Skala Principal, Dr. Clyde Alvin Clapp Chair Marcia Kämper Piccolo Laurie Sokoloff Oboes Katherine Needleman Principal, Robert H. and Ryda H. Levi Chair Melissa Hooper Assistant Principal Michael Lisicky English Horn Jane Marvine Kenneth S. Battye and Legg Mason Chair Clarinets Steven Barta Principal, Anne

Adalman Goodwin Chair Christopher Wolfe Assistant Principal William Jenken E-flat Clarinet Christopher Wolfe Bassoons Fei Xie Principal Julie Green Gregorian Assistant Principal Schuyler Jackson** Contrabassoon David P. Coombs Horns Philip Munds Principal, USF&G Foundation Chair Gabrielle Finck Associate Principal Lisa Bergman Mary C. Bisson Bruce Moore* Jeanne Getz** Trumpets Andrew Balio Principal, Harvey M. and Lyn P. Meyerhoff Chair René Hernandez Assistant Principal Nathaniel Hepler

opening chords. And as the music warms to Presto, a fiery syncopated tune in the Hungarian style takes the stage. Without development or emotional complexities, the music sails on to a bombastic finish, topped off with a crowd-pleasing drum roll.

The Storm

Franz Joseph Haydn Born March 31, 1732, in Rohrau, Austria; died May 31, 1809, in Vienna

24 APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015

Trombones Aaron LaVere Principal, Alex Brown & Sons Chair James Olin* Co-Principal John Vance Bass Trombone Randall S. Campora Tuba Seth Horner** Timpani James Wyman Principal Christopher Williams Assistant Principal Percussion Christopher Williams Principal, Lucille Schwilck Chair John Locke Brian Prechtl Harp Sarah Fuller** Piano Lura Johnson** Sidney M. and Miriam Friedberg Chair

Director of Orchestra Personnel Nishi Badhwar Assistant Personnel Manager Jinny Kim Librarians Mary Carroll Plaine Principal, Constance A. and Ramon F. Getzov Chair Raymond Kreuger Associate Stage Personnel Ennis Seibert Stage Manager Todd Price Assistant Stage Manager Charles Lamar Audio Engineer Mario Serruto Electrician * On leave ** Guest musician † Performing with an instrument (†) or a bow (∫ ) on loan to the BSO from the private collection of the family of Marin Alsop.

The musicians who perform for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra do so under the terms of an agreement between the BSO and Local 40543, AFM.

In the winter of 1792, Joseph Haydn was the toast of London; he was progressively unveiling his superb London symphonies in packed concerts organized by the GermanEnglish impresario Johann Peter Salomon. But in its Jan. 27, 1792 issue, a critic for The Oracle decided to rain on his parade: “HAYDN, though in instrumental compositions so various and original,

Saturday, January 3, 2015, 8 p.m.

has yet but slender merit as a Writer for the Voice.”

Now Haydn had not yet written his magnificent The Creation, but he had composed many operas and mass settings and felt this was an unjust slander of his abilities. In response, he chose an English text, “The Storm” by Peter Pindar (pen name of John Wolcot), set it for orchestra and chorus, and presented it at Salomon’s next concert of Feb. 24. The text was a canny choice for throughout the 18th century the English loved musical portrayals of Nature at her most extreme. The success of this new choral work was a better riposte than any letter to the editor.

This extremely colorful music is in two contrasting moods and keys: D minor for the furious depiction of the storm menacing the people, and D major for their slower-paced prayer for the return of calm weather. When Haydn returned to Austria,

he substituted a German text and enlivened the orchestration, as we will hear, with imposing trumpets and timpani.

Opferlied, Op. 121b

Ludwig van Beethoven Along with Goethe, Friedrich von Matthisson (1761–1831) was Beethoven’s favorite poet and the only one to whom he dedicated a song, his beautiful “Adelaide.” One of Matthisson’s poems seems to have held special meaning for the composer, the “Opferlied” or “Sacrificial Song,” for he set it four times over the course of his career. In this classical verse, a youth is sacrificing to Zeus in an oak grove; he asks the god to grant him, both now and in his old age, beautiful things because he is good. Beethoven wrote its last phrase, “Das Schöne zu dem Guten!” (“The beautiful to the good”), on the manuscripts of several of his late works.

Music & Arts su pports your local schoo ls!

We will hear Beethoven’s final setting of this verse, made in 1823– 24 about the time he was composing the Ninth Symphony. In E major throughout, it features a soprano soloist, who presents the solemn ceremonial theme and is echoed by the chorus for the last part of each of her two strophes.

The most striking quality of this setting is perhaps the color of the instrumental ensemble Beethoven has chosen here: a plangent-sounding wind ensemble of clarinets, bassoons, and horns—but omitting the brighter toned flutes and oboes— along with strings. For the second verse, he introduces a prominent solo cello part, later expanded to all the cellos, whose mellow tone adds a poignantly personal quality to the music.

Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125, “Choral”

Ludwig van Beethoven

Find Your Voice .

Visit Us:

Instruments | Le

Arundel Mills (410) 799-0200 Bailey's Crossroads (703) 820-3610 Ellicott City (410) 461-1844 Bel Air (410) 569-3500 Bowie (301) 262-5950 Burke (703) 764-1400 Germantown (301) 353-1113

ssons | Rentals

Hagerstown (301) 733-1441 Laurel (240) 568-0600 Manassas (703) 361-0149 McLean (703) 356-9394 North Frederick (301) 620-2015 Oakton (703) 281-0400

Rockville (301) 881-6440 Severna Park (410) 544-1010

| Repairs

Timonium (410) 453-0811 Woodbridge (703) 491-4196

South Frederick (301) 694-0007 Springfield (703) 451-0875 Sterling (703) 444-3700

MusicArts.com APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015 25

Saturday, January 3, 2015, 8 p.m.

In the 190 years since its composition, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 has become far more than just another symphony. It is now “The Ninth”: an artistic creation, like Shakespeare’s Hamlet, in which every age and nearly every culture finds a mirror of its identity, its struggles and its aspirations. Most listeners would agree with Michael Steinberg that, “explicitly, it seeks to make an ethical statement as much as a musical statement.”

Beethoven always believed music had a higher purpose than merely the making of beautiful sounds, that it could express and inspire human aspirations toward a more exalted life, in closer harmony with neighbors and strangers alike, and ultimately with God. In the Ninth, he drove home this message by crowning his instrumental symphony with an unprecedented choral finale: a setting of Friedrich Schiller’s poem

“Ode to Joy,” in which joy is defined as a state in which “all men are made brothers.”

The Ninth Symphony comes from the visionary last years of Beethoven’s life during which he also created the Missa solemnis and his celebrated late string quartets. He had not written a symphony since the Eighth in 1812.

The years that followed had been a period of emotional struggle and artistic stasis. Only when Beethoven resolved the battle for custody of his nephew Karl in 1820 did his creative powers flow freely again. By 1822 when he began sketching the Ninth, he was described by a Viennese contemporary, Johann Sporschil, as “one of the most active men who ever lived … deepest midnight found him still working.”

Now virtually stone deaf, he had, in biographer Maynard Solomon’s words, “reached a stage where he had become wholly possessed by his art.”

26 APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015

Since at least the early 1790s, Beethoven had loved Schiller’s “Ode to Joy” (written in 1785 as a drinking song) and considered setting it to music. But as late as the summer of 1823, he was still considering a purely instrumental finale for the Ninth. When he made the bold decision to risk a vocal movement, he edited the poem to make it express a higher joy for mankind than could be found in any tavern.

Premiered at Vienna’s Kärtnertor Theater on May 7, 1824, the first performance reportedly moved its audience to tears as well as cheers.

Beethoven was on the podium, but the real conductor was Michael Umlauf; the musicians had been instructed to follow only his beat and ignore the deaf Beethoven’s. The performance would probably have sounded terrible to us today: orchestra and singers had had only two

PHOTO COURTESY BSO

BALTIMORE CHORAL ARTS SOCIETY

Saturday, January 3, 2015, 8 p.m.

rehearsals together of a work that many found beyond their capabilities. And yet the magic of the Ninth somehow won out. At the end of symphony, the alto soloist, Caroline Unger, had to turn Beethoven around to see the audience’s tumult; unable to hear them, he had remained hunched over his score.

And what of the wonders of this score? Later composers wrote longer first movements, but the Ninth’s opening movement, at just 15 minutes, seems the vastest of them all.

From the opening trickle of notes, seemingly born from the primordial ooze, emerges the mightiest descending theme. After moods of struggle, reverie and provisional triumph, Beethoven appends a huge coda— one quarter of the movement—that even touches on a ghostly funeral march before the orchestra shouts the principal theme one last time in a powerful unison.

The Scherzo second

movement—Beethoven’s greatest example of the fierce dance form he refashioned from the 3/4-time minuet—is built out of another descending motive, consisting of just two pitches and a dotted rhythm.

From that dotted rhythm and the potential it offers to the timpani to become a major player instead of an accompanist, Beethoven creates a witty, infectious movement of relentless intensity. And if the Scherzo is the apotheosis of a rhythm, the succeeding slow movement is the apotheosis of melody. Here Beethoven builds a double variations movement out of two melodies, one slow and noble, the other like a flowing stream: a musical representation of a heavenly utopia.

The key of D major finally triumphs over D minor in the exhilarating choral finale, famed for making the cellos and basses speak like human voices as they review the events of the previous movements

and then dismiss them in favor of the sublimely simple “Joy” theme. The remainder of the finale then becomes a series of extraordinary variations on this heart-stirring melody, sung by chorus, the solo quartet and orchestra. A particularly striking one comes early on: a jaunty military march featuring the tenor soloist.

The other major theme of this huge finale is sung in unison by the tenors and basses at the words “Seid umschlungen, Millionen” (“Be embraced, ye millions.”) It opens an extended, awe-struck episode in which the chorus hails the loving Father, creator of the universe, and concludes in a magnificent double fugue in combination with the “Ode to Joy” theme. At the end, Beethoven drives his voices almost beyond their capacities to express his glorious vision of a new world just beyond human reach.

Notes by Janet E. Bedell © 2014

APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015 27

Friday, January 9, 2015, 8:15 p.m.

FRIDAY, JANUARY 9, 2015, 8:15 P.M.

● Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Marin Alsop, Music Director Presents

Off the Cuff: The Rite of Spring Marin Alsop, conductor

The Rite of Spring, Le Sacre du printemps

Part I: The Adoration of the Earth

Part II: The Sacrifice

Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)

The concert will end at approximately 9:30 p.m.

The Wagner Tuben used in this concert are a gift from Beth Green Pierce in memory of her father, Elwood I. Green.

Support for this concert is provided by the Governing Members of the BSO.

Marin Alsop, conductor

Marin Alsop is an inspiring and powerful voice in the international music scene, a music director of vision and distinction who passionately believes that “music has the power to change lives.” She is recognized across the world for her innovative approach to programming and for her deep commitment to education and to the development of audiences of all ages.

Alsop made history with her appointment as the 12th music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. With her inaugural concerts in September 2007, she became the first woman to head a major American orchestra. She also holds the title of conductor emeritus at the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in the

United Kingdom, where she served as the principal conductor from 2002 to 2008.

Her success as the BSO’s music director has garnered national and

28 APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015

international attention for her innovative programming and artistry.

Additionally, her success was recognized when, in 2013, her tenure was extended to the 2020-2021 season.

Alsop took up the post of chief conductor of the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra in 2012, where she steers the orchestra in its artistic and creative programming, recording ventures, and its education and outreach activities.

In the summer of 2014, Alsop served her 23rd season as music director of the acclaimed Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music in California. Musical America, which named Alsop the 2009 Conductor of the Year, recently said, “[Marin Alsop] connects to the public as few conductors today can.”

PHOTO BY ADRIANE WHITE

The Music Center at Strathmore Marriott Concert Stage

Saturday, January 10, 2015, 8 p.m.

prizes and awards, among them a prize at New York’s prestigious Leopold Stokowski Conducting Competition and, in 2006, Montgomery County’s Comcast Excellence in the Arts and Humanities Achievement Award.

SATURDAY, JANUARY 10, 2015, 8 P.M.

● The National Philharmonic Piotr Gajewski, Music Director and Conductor Presents

Haydn’s Surprise Symphony Piotr Gajewski, conductor Zuill Bailey, cello Symphony No. 38 in D Major, K. 504, “Prague” Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Adagio-Allegro (1756-1791) Andante Presto

Concerto No. 2 for Cello and Orchestra

in D Major

Allegro Moderato Adagio

Rondo: Allegro

Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)

INTERMISSION ymphony No. 94, in G Major, “Surprise” S

Adagio-Vivace assai Andante

Menuetto: Allegro molto

Finale: Allegro di molto

Joseph Haydn

All Kids, All Free, All The Time is sponsored by The Gazette and the Dieneke Johnson Fund The Music Center at Strathmore Marriott Concert Stage

Zuill Bailey, cello

Widely acknowledged as one of the pre-eminent cellists of his generation, Zuill Bailey engages audiences with compelling artistry and technical finesse.

This season Bailey has orchestral engagements with the El Paso, Fairbanks, Knoxville, Shreveport, Pensacola, York and Fort Collins symphony orchestras.

Bailey performs on a 1693 Matteo Gofriller Cello, formerly owned

by Mischa Schneider of the Budapest String Quartet. He is the artistic director of El Paso Pro Musica, artistic director designate of the Sitka Summer Music Festival and Series in Alaska, and professor of cello at the University of Texas at El Paso.

Program Notes

GAJEWSKI PHOTO BY MICHAEL VENTURA, BAILEY PHOTO BY DIANE SIERRA

Piotr Gajewski, conductor

Piotr Gajewski is widely credited with building the National Philharmonic to its present status as one of the most respected ensembles of its kind in the region. The Washington Post recognizes him as an “immensely talented and insightful conductor,” whose “standards, taste and sensitivity are impeccable.”

In addition to his appearances with the National Philharmonic, Gajewski is much in demand as a guest conductor. In recent years, he has appeared with most of the major orchestras in his native Poland, as well as the Royal

Liverpool Philharmonic in England, the Karlovy Vary Symphony in the Czech Republic, the Okanagan Symphony in Canada and numerous orchestras in the United States.

Gajewski attended Carleton College and the University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music, where he earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in orchestral conducting. Upon completing his formal education, he continued refining his conducting skills at the 1983 Tanglewood Music Festival in Massachusetts, where he was awarded a Leonard Bernstein Conducting Fellowship. His teachers there included Leonard Bernstein, Seiji Ozawa, André Previn, Gunther Schuller, Gustav Meier and Maurice Abravanel.

Gajewski is also a winner of many

Symphony No. 38, in D Major, K. 504, “Prague”

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Born Jan. 27, 1756, in Salzburg, Austria; died Dec. 5, 1791, in Vienna

Prague was one of few cities to show sincere interest in Mozart’s work during his lifetime. The capital of Bohemia (now the Czech Republic) at that time, Prague’s citizens enjoyed music and had a sincere appreciation of Mozart. His operas Abduction from the Seraglio and The Marriage of Figaro succeeded there. He composed Don Giovanni specifically for performance in Prague; many of his symphonies and chamber works premiered there.

On Dec. 10, 1786, Mozart’s opera The Marriage of Figaro, which had been received only with moderate enthusiasm at its earliest performances in

APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015 29

XXXday, Saturday,XXX January X, 2015, 10, X 2015, p.m.8 p.m.

Vienna, was produced in Prague. Mozart had accepted an invitation from Count Johann Thun for the revival of the production in January 1787. In honor of the occasion, he wrote a new symphony, completing it on Dec. 6. It premiered in Prague on Jan. 19, 1787, with Mozart himself conducting. This performance, too, was very successful, perhaps partially because Mozart quoted one of the last movement’s themes from Figaro in this symphony.

When the applause called Mozart to the platform, he sat down at the piano and played extemporaneously for a half-hour. During its first 11 years, the “Prague” Symphony was performed more than 100 times in Prague.

Mozart, at this time, was starting to compose works that were difficult in conception and in execution, complex beyond what his contemporaries were composing. These works made increased demands upon performers; however in this symphony, Mozart seems at first to have returned to an earlier approach, because the “Prague” Symphony has only three movements, not four. It was the last of his symphonies to have this structure, and it is sometimes called “The Symphony Without a Minuet,” implying that all of Mozart’s other symphonies have one. However, many 18th century symphonies also had only three movements, as they evolved from the threemovement Italian sinfonia.

Critics often have considered the first movement of this work to be “the greatest single symphonic movement ever composed by Mozart.” Moreover, the writing, particularly for the winds, is extremely difficult and requires a level of expertise from the players that Mozart did not demand in his earlier works.

After its dramatic introduction, the movement becomes lighter, more airy, full of a pleasant spirit, and the body of the movement, Allegro, has rich, rhythmic and contrapuntal interest.

The serious and reflective second movement, Andante, exceptionally broad and slow, combines profound expression with drama and has elegant counterpoint and canonic writing.

The absence of a minuet does not signal a return to the early Italian style of the three‑movement symphony, and the work does not seem to be lacking anything without one. The short but exuberant final movement, Presto, offers agreeable interchanges between the strings and woodwinds. Counterpoint and syncopated rhythm again play an important role in the most animated and playful of the three movements; occasionally, however, Mozart interjects darker hints within the generally jovial sentiments. He composed this last movement before the others, possibly as a substitute final movement for another symphony. Within it he quotes his own principal melody from “Aprite presto,” the duet of Cherubino and Susanna from Figaro.

Concerto for Cello and Orchestra in D Major

Joseph Haydn

the taste of the time by making extensive cuts, rewriting some solo passages and altering the orchestration.

The concerto has three movements as was usual in Haydn’s time, in a fastslow-fast sequence. The first movement is a well-developed classical structure, Allegro moderato, in which the orchestra lays out the two main themes.

The cello embellishes the themes, and instead of significant orchestral development, the cello displays virtuoso passagework before the return of the themes and a cadenza for the soloist. In the second movement, Adagio, Haydn allows the cello to announce the lyrical theme, which then reappears in recurring versions from the larger body of instruments. This movement also ends in a cello cadenza. The third movement, a brilliant Rondo, Allegro, sandwiches contrasting sections between repeated refrains of the initial cello theme.

Born March 31, 1732, in Rohrau, Austria; died May 31, 1809, in Vienna

Symphony No. 94, in G Major, “Surprise”

Haydn wrote this cello concerto, his second, in 1783, to display the skills of Anton Kraft, Haydn’s composition pupil and the first chair cellist of his orchestra from 1778 to 1790. In 1806, an important publisher of good reputation issued it in a version that he said was based on the composer’s original manuscript, but in the 1830s, Kraft’s son somehow persuaded much of the musical world that his father, not Haydn, had actually composed the concerto. A few 19th century scholars said that they had seen the music written in Haydn’s hand, but because it could not be located, the controversy over the authorship of the work continued for more than a century until the original manuscript was eventually rediscovered in 1954.

In the meantime, the concerto had become a popular work in several modern editions of varying degrees of authenticity. For many years, the most often played was the one that strayed furthest from Haydn’s original intentions. It was published in 1890, edited by a fine Belgian musician and musicologist, François-Auguste Gevaert (1828-1908), who adapted the score to

In 1790, when Prince Esterházy died, his successor reduced the size of his musical establishment and pensioned off the 58-year-old Haydn. Then, the German violinist Johann Peter Salomon, who had become a successful impresario in London, persuaded Haydn to go to England for a series of concerts and asked him to write six new symphonies for performance there. Haydn was lionized in England. The concerts and the new symphonies were greatly successful and his London Symphonies, extraordinarily inventive pieces, made both Haydn and Salomon wealthy men.

This symphony was first performed on March 23, 1792 and immediately became Haydn’s best loved work, not just because of the amusing “surprise” in the second movement, but because it is a masterpiece of the composer’s witty but simple and popular style.

The grave, slow introduction, Adagio cantabile, contrasts perfectly with the clever and lively Vivace assai with its three sharply contrasting subjects.

The second movement, Andante, consists of a simple theme, five artful variations on the theme, and a coda.

30 APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015

Joseph Haydn

Saturday, January 10, 2015, 8 p.m.

XXXXday, XXX X, 2015, X p.m.

National Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorale First Violins Colin Sorgi ^

Concertmaster

Jody Gatwood

Concertmaster emeritus

Benjamin Scott ^ Olga Yanovich ^ Leslie Silverfine ^ Mayumi Pawel ^ Brenda Anna Eva Cappelletti-Chao Maureen Conlon-Dorosh Laura Tait Chang Claudia Chudacoff Lisa Cridge Lysiane Gravel-Lacombe Jennifer Kim Regino Madrid Kim Miller Jennifer Rickard Chaerim Smith Second Violins Henry Flory ^ Principal

Arminé Graham ^ Katherine Budner ^ Jennifer Shannon ^ Cathy Stewart ^ Doug Dubé Justin Gopal June Huang Karin Kelleher Alexandra Mikhlin Laura Miller Joanna Owen Jean Provine Rachel Schenker Ning Ma Shi Rachael Stockton Violas Julius Wirth ^ Principal

Judy Silverman ^

Associate Principal emeritus

Leonora Karasina ^ Mark Pfannschmidt ^ Phyllis Freeman Stephanie Knutsen Margaret Lang Jennifer Rende Chris Shieh Derek Smith Tam Tran

Cellos Lori Barnet ^

Principal

Todd Thiel ^ Kerry Van Laanen ^ Barbara Brown April Chisholm Danielle Cho Ken Ding Catherine Francis Andrew Hesse Beth Peterson Kristen Wojcik Basses Robert Kurz ^ Principal

Shawn Alger Kelly Ali Barbara Fitzgerald William Hones Michael Rittling Mark Stephenson Flutes David Whiteside ^ Principal

Nicolette Oppelt David LaVorgna Piccolo David LaVorgna Oboes Mark Hill ^ Principal

Kathy Ceasar-Spall Fatma Daglar English Horn Ron Erler Clarinets Cheryl Hill ^ Principal

Carolyn Alvarez-Agria Suzanne Gekker Bass Clarinet Carolyn Alvarez-Agria Bassoons Erich Hecksher ^ Principal

Katherine Jones Sandra Sisk

Contrabassoon Nicholas Cohen

Haydn frequently used popular melodies in his symphonies, particularly in the variation movements. Here he utilized a universally well known melody that we know as “Twinkle, twinkle, little Star.”

In Haydn’s first sketch, the theme is played softly throughout, but during preparation of the first performance, he drew a big “X” across the page and wrote the version we know now in which the first strain ends with a smashing chord, the “surprise.”

No one knows exactly why Haydn altered the dynamics of the second movement, but over the years, there

French Horns Michael Hall ^ Principal Mark Wakefield ^ Justin Drew David Smith Margaret Tung

Daniela Fiore Meg Flanagan Sarah B. Forman Caitlin A. Garry ** Carole L. Haas Denise R. Harding Etahjayne H. Harris Linda Hosler Trumpets Eun Hye Kim Chris Gekker ^ Robyn Kleiner Principal Jessica Holden Kloda Robert Birch ^ Joanna Lam Robert & Margaret Carolyn Rodda Lincoln Hazen Chair John Abbracciamento Kaelyn Lowmaster Sharon Brent Madsen Majchrzak-Hong Trombones Kathryn McKinley David Sciannella ^ Sara W. Moses Principal Katherine Nelson-Tracey * James Armstrong Mary Beth Nolan Jeffrey Cortazzo Gloria Nutzhorn Juliana S. O’Neill Tuba Lynette Posorske Willie Clark Emily Pulse Timpani & Percussion Maggie Rheinstein Tom Maloy ^ Carlotta Richard Principal Lisa Romano Aubrey Adams Theresa Roys Curt Duer Katherine Robert Jenkins Schnorrenberg Bill Richards Carolyn J. Sullivan Chelsea Toledo Harp Cathlin Tully Rebecca Smith Ellen van Valkenburgh Elizabeth Blakeslee Susanne Villemarette Jessica Williams Keyboard Lynne Woods William Neil Jeffery Watson Altos Theodore Guerrant Helen R. Altman Toni Barrett Sopranos Carol Bruno Jacqueline Andros Carolyn Chuhta Marietta R. Balaan Melissa Culp Emily A. Bell Erlinda C. Dancer Mary Bentley * Sandra L. Daughton Jocelyn Bond Jenelle M. Dennis Cheryl Branham Deirdre Feehan Kristin Brown Robin Fillmore Rebecca Carlson ** Shannon Finnegan Cheryl Castner Elissa Frankle Anne P. Claysmith Francesca Frey-Kim Nancy A. Coleman Maria A. Friedman Eileen S. DeMarco Julia C. Friend Lauren Drinkwater Andrea Frisch Alejandra Elizabeth Bishop Durán-Böhme Gemoets Lisa Edgley

Jeanette Ghatan Sarah Gilchrist Lois J. Goodstein Jacque Grenning Stacey A. Henning Jean Hochron Sara M. Josey * Marilyn Katz Irene M. Kirkpatrick Martha J. Krieger ** Meg Larkin Melissa J. Lieberman * Corinne Loertscher Julie S. MacCartee Nansy Mathews Susan E. Murray Daryl Newhouse Martha Newman Patricia Pillsbury Ann E. Ramsey-Moor Beryl M. Rothman Lisa Rovin Samantha Scheff Jan Schiavone Deborah F. Silberman Lori J. Sommerfield Carol A. Stern Pattie Sullivan Bonnie S. Temple Virginia Van Brunt Christine Vocke Sarah Jane Wagoner ** Wendy J. Weinberg Tenors Kenneth Bailes J.I. Canizares Colin Church Paul J. DeMarco Ian Elder Ruth W. Faison * Yubin Hung Don Jansky Joseph E. Jones Curt Jordan Tyler A. Loertscher Jane Lyle David Malloy Michael McClellan Chantal McHale Eleanor McIntire Wayne Meyer ** Tom Milke Rolf Moeckel Tom Nessinger Steve Nguyen Drew Riggs

has been much speculation. According to one account, Haydn had already given the downbeat to begin the movement when he heard snores that inspired his sense of humor, and he signaled to the orchestra that they should play a grand fortissimo, which not only woke the snorer, but also brought him to his feet. Others attest that competition with his former student, Pleyel, who had been brought to London as a composer by a different impresario, might have prompted Haydn to make the change as Pleyel included similar devices in more than one of his works,

Dennis Vander Tuig Tyler Zimmerman

Basses Russell Bowers Albert Bradford Ronald Cappelletti Pete Chang Stephen Cook Clark V. Cooper Bopper Deyton J. William Gadzuk Robert Gerard Mike Hilton Luke Hlavin Chun-Hsien Huang John Iobst William W. Josey ** Peter Kadeli Allan K. Kirkpatrick Ian Kyle Jack Legler Larry Maloney Ian Matthews Alan E. Mayers David J. McGoff David G. Medland Kent Mikkelsen * John Milberg ** Oliver Moles Mark Nelson Leif Neve Anthony Radich Harry Ransom, Jr. Edward Rejuney * Frank Roys Charles Serpan Carey W. Smith Jason James Smoker Charles Sturrock Alun Thomas Donald A. Trayer Roberto Villeda Wayne R. Williams Michael Wu Theodore Guerrant

Accompanist, Theodore M. Guerrant Chair ^ National Philharmonic tenured musicians * section leader ** assistant section leader

using some of Haydn’s own earlier symphonies as models.

The third movement is a fast but heavy-footed Minuet, Allegro molto (in some editions) in the Austrian peasant style, with a contrasting central trio section for bassoon and strings. The finale, a very lively Allegro di molto, (not Haydn’s own marking,) is a jolly rondo that closes with a witty coda.

Whatever Haydn’s motivation, the episode ultimately earned for the work its everlasting nickname, “Surprise.” © Susan Halpern, 2014

APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015 31

Sunday, January 11, 2015, 3 p.m.

SUNDAY, JANUARY 11, 2015, 3 P.M.

● Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Marin Alsop, Music Director Presents

The Rite of Spring Marin Alsop, conductor

Cristina Pato, Galician bagpipes Kayhan Kalhor, kamancheh David Krakauer, klezmer clarinet Michael Ward-Bergeman, hyper-accordion Medea’s Dance of Vengeance, Op. 23a Samuel Barber (1910-1981)

Rose of the Winds Osvaldo Golijov

Cristina Pato (1960-)

Kayhan Kalhor

David Krakauer

Michael Ward-Bergeman INTERMISSION he Rite of Spring, Le Sacre du printemps Igor Stravinsky T

Part I: The Adoration of the Earth (1882-1971)

Part II: The Sacrifice Presenting Sponsor: M&T Bank The concert will end at approximately 4:30 p.m.

The BSO premiere of Osvaldo Golijov’s Rose of the Winds is underwritten by the Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neuroscience of The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

The Wagner Tuben used in this concert are a gift from Beth Green Pierce in memory of her father, Elwood I. Green.

The shofars performed in Rose of the Winds are played by Rabbi/Dr. Moshe Shualy and Jack C. Crystal.

The Music Center at Strathmore Marriott Concert Stage

Marin Alsop, conductor

For Marin Alsop’s biography, please refer to page 28.

Cristina Pato, Galician bagpipes

Hailed by The New York Times as “a virtuosic burst of energy,” Galician bagpiper, pianist and composer Cristina Pato enjoys an active professional career devoted to Galician

popular and classical music, and her dual careers have led to performances on major stages throughout Europe, United States, Africa and Asia.

Pato was the first female gaita player to release a solo album and has since collaborated on world stages with Yo-Yo Ma, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Osvaldo Golijov, World Orchestra and Paquito D’Rivera. Pato is a member of Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble and a founding member of its Leadership Council, collaborating closely in tours and planning residencies. She also is the founder and

32 APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015

artistic director of Galician Connection, a world music forum celebrated annually in Galicia.

Kayhan Kalhor, kamancheh

Three-time Grammy nominee Kayhan Kalhor is an internationally acclaimed virtuoso who has been instrumental in popularizing Persian music in the West and is a creative force in today’s music scene.

He has studied the music of Iran’s many regions and has toured the world as a soloist with various ensembles and orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic and the Orchestre National de Lyon. He is co-founder of the renowned ensembles Dastan, Ghazal: Persian & Indian Improvisations and Masters of Persian Music.

Kalhor has composed works for Iran’s most renowned vocalists and has also performed and recorded with Iran’s greatest instrumentalists. He has composed music for television and film, and was most recently featured on the soundtrack of Francis Ford Coppola’s Youth Without Youth in a score that he collaborated on with Osvaldo Golijov.

David Krakauer, klezmer clarinet

Considered among the world’s greatest clarinetists, David Krakauer is recognized internationally as a key innovator in modern klezmer as well as a major voice in classical music. He has appeared with the Tokyo, Kronos and Emerson quartets, plus as soloist with the Dresden, Seattle and Detroit symphony orchestras, among others.

With his band Ancestral Groove, he has redefined the klezmer genre with major appearances at Carnegie

Sunday, January 11, 2015, 3 p.m.

Hall and internationally. His discography contains some of the past decade’s preeminent klezmer recordings, notably The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind (Golijov/Kronos/Krakauer).

Consistently defying categorization, Krakauer has collaborated with Dawn Upshaw, Itzhak Perlman, John Zorn, Fred Wesley, Music from Marlboro, Abraham Inc, the Klezmatics, John Cage, Danny Elfman and Socalled. His newest project, The Big Picture, explores personal identity by reimagining familiar film themes in a cinematic concert with original visuals.

Krakauer is an avid educator at Mannes (New School), the Manhattan School of Music, New York University and the Bard Conservatory.

Michael Ward-Bergeman, hyper-accordion

Michael WardBergeman brings the 21st century to the accordion through his passion for a wide range of music.

From his classical creations on the concert stages of America and Europe to the roots music projects of his trio, Groanbox, Ward-Bergeman brings an extraordinary inventiveness, coupled with deep respect for the past, into all of his creations and collaborations.

Ward-Bergeman started his musical training on piano and violin, but it was his dedication to the accordion that led him to invent a 21st century version of the instrument called the “hyper-accordion.” The hyperaccordion extends the acoustic accordion’s potential through creative performance technique and digital sound processing.

Ward-Bergeman previously collaborated with Osvaldo Golijov on the soundtrack for Francis Ford Coppola’s Youth Without Youth, wrote Damagomi commissioned by Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble and performed

at least once a day for a year as part of his GIG 365 project.

Program Notes Medea’s Dance of Vengeance, Op. 23a

Samuel Barber

Born March 9, 1910, in West Chester, Penn.; died Jan. 23, 1981, in New York City

Martha Graham was the high priestess of American dance for more than five decades: the creator of largerthan-life female characters who would never be caught wearing toe-shoes.

Beginning in the 1930s, she commissioned remarkable dance scores from many of America’s leading composers, including Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring, William Schuman’s Judith and Samuel Barber’s Medea, the latter forming the impetus for her celebrated mythic ballet, Cave of the Heart.

Perhaps the most terrifying heroine of Greek mythology, Medea is the sorceress daughter of King Aeëtes of Colchis and the granddaughter of the Sun God, who falls in love with Jason and helps him to steal the Golden Fleece. After 10 years, he deserts her to marry another princess, Glaucis, and she wreaks a terrible vengeance by killing Glaucis with a poisoned robe and then slaughtering the two small children she has borne Jason.

Her story became one of Euripedes’ most powerful tragedies.

Celebrated for his lyrical, melodically expressive music displayed in earlier works such as the Adagio for Strings, Barber would not have seemed a natural choice for so violent a subject. But with the score he created for Graham’s ballet, performed first in 1946, then in a slightly revised version in 1947, he transformed his style, revealing a more intense contemporary voice full of harmonic bite and rhythmic drive.

Sensing his music demanded bigger forces than the 13 instruments of Graham’s pit orchestra, Barber reworked the score into a seven-movement dance suite for large orchestra premiered by The Philadelphia Orchestra in 1947.

Nearly a decade later, he revised it yet

again into the one-movement Medea’s Dance of Vengeance. This powerful distillation of the best of his ballet score, premiered by the New York Philharmonic Feb. 2, 1956, became one of his most popular concert works.

In a program note in the score, Barber described the work’s progression from passive grief to active revenge: “Tracing [Medea’s] emotions from her tender feelings toward her children, through her mounting suspicions and anguish at her husband’s betrayal and her decision to avenge herself, the piece increases in intensity to close in the frenzied Dance of Vengeance of Medea, the Sorceress descended from the Sun God.” Rose of the Winds

Osvaldo Golijov Born Dec. 5, 1960, in La Plata, Argentina; now living near Boston, Mass.

There’s no more exciting composer working today than Osvaldo Golijov, whose music is as eclectic and impossible to categorize as is his own fascinating mixed heritage. One could as easily place his CD’s in the World Music section of a record store as into the Classical bins. Writes Alex Ross in the New Yorker: “His works arouse extraordinary enthusiasm in audiences because they revive music’s elemental powers: They have rhythms that rock the body and melodies that linger in the mind.”

Born into a Russian Jewish family that had immigrated to Argentina to escape the Czarist pogroms, Golijov describes himself as a “Jewish gaucho.” His father was a physician and his mother a piano teacher who “took me to Buenos Aires to hear opera and also … Astor Piazzolla tangos. She sang to me in Yiddish, but she also got me to listen to Bach. Somehow it all came together.”

Indeed it did. Golijov’s special genius—confirmed by a coveted MacArthur fellowship—has mixed Yiddish soulfulness with Latino rhythms and solid classical training in Argentina, Jerusalem, and at the University of Pennsylvania (where he earned a Ph.D.) into a potent brew. Now living near Boston, he divides his time

APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015 33

Sunday, January 11, 2015, 3 p.m.

between composition and teaching; he is Loyola professor of music at the College of Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass., where he has taught since 1991. In 2000, the premiere of his Latino-flavored oratorio the St. Mark Passion won him instant fame.

Rose of the Winds was created for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and members of the Silk Road Ensemble of world musicians founded by Yo-Yo Ma; it was premiered in Chicago April 12, 2007. We will hear its revised version first performed under Marin Alsop’s baton at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music in August 2012. This stunning 20-minute work features four ethnic instruments: the kamancheh, a bowed string instruments used in Iran and neighboring countries; the Galician bagpipes from Northern Spain; the hyper-accordion, a version of the accordion utilizing stereophonic electronic enhancements to expand its sonic possibilities developed by its performer Michael Ward-Bergeman; and the well-known klezmer clarinet of traditional Jewish music. And in its final movement, it calls on 10 members of the brass section to play shofars, the ram’s-horns blown during the Jewish high holiday services.

The title and multicultural dimensions of Rose of the Winds were inspired by the rose-of-the-winds compass symbol, which points not only to the four corners of the Earth but in all directions. When Golijov was a child, his uncle gave him a desk with a map of the world painted on top bearing a compass rose over the Pacific Ocean.

Gazing at it, he recalls, “I spent more time imagining what was happening—what life was like—in every one of the places on the map than doing homework.” Rose of the Winds explores different types of human experience throughout the world; Golijov comments it “provides contrast without explanation.”

The contrasts are powerful. The first movement, Wah Habibi, (“My Love”) is based on an Arab-Christian song for Easter Friday, which Golijov originally

set for his song cycle Ayre. Though in Ayre, it sounded more Christian, here it becomes more Arabic in feeling; as Golijov explains, “With the most minute changes, one culture becomes another. This is a song of faith and love, surrounded by outbursts of violence and anger.” Both the bagpipes and the kamancheh are featured here.

Movement two, K’in Sventa Ch’ul Me’tik Kwadalupe (“Ritual for the Holy Mother of Guadalupe”), was inspired by a field recording of a ritual in Chiapas, Mexico. Strings divided into many different parts imitate the voices murmuring the ritual chant over the beating of the percussion.

Also used in Ayre, Tancas Serradas a Muru (“Walls are encircling the land”) is a Spanish protest song, driven by the percussion section, against the feudal barons who oppress the people. The unsung words of this ecstatic yet violent song are: “Walls are encircling the land, /the land seized with greed and in haste, /if Heaven was on Earth, /they would grab it too. /Moderate your tyranny, Barons, /otherwise, I swear on my life: /I’ll bring you down from your horses! / War is now declared /against your superiority! /You have exhausted / the people’s patience.”

Rose of the Winds’ final movement is “Tekyah,” the name of a village in central Iran; in Marc Geelhoed’s words, it is “a movement of surpassing tenderness.” Here the chief soloist is the kemancheh player. The music culminates unforgettably in the wailing of the 10 shofars over the drone of strings and clarinets.

The Rite of Spring

Igor Stravinsky Born June 17, 1882, in Oranienbaum, Russia; died April 6, 1971, in New York City

The premiere of The Rite of Spring in Paris in 1913 has come down to us as perhaps the wildest evening in the history of classical music. This was the third of the spectacular Russian ballet scores Stravinsky had created for Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes ensemble, which had become the sensation of pre-World War I Paris. The

34 APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015

two previous ballets, The Firebird and Petrouchka, had been rapturously received. But the music for The Rite was much more advanced: a revolutionary statement that the 19th century was gone for good. In its savage rhythms, harmonic dissonances and orchestral effects, it brutally embodied the “fleeting vision” of pagan Russia that Stravinsky said had inspired him.

“I saw in my imagination a solemn pagan rite: sage elders, seated in a circle, watched a young girl dance herself to death. They were sacrificing her to propitiate the god of spring.”

Stravinsky remembered that infamous performance on May 29, 1913, at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, conducted by Pierre Monteux and with choreography by the notorious Russian dancer Nijinsky. Audience disturbances began shortly into the introduction, and when with the fierce chugging of strings the curtain rose on a group of “knock-kneed, long-braided Lolitas jumping up and down,” the catcalls escalated to pandemonium. Fistfights broke out in the audience between those who liked the piece and those who didn’t. Furious, Stravinsky rushed backstage where Nijinsky was standing on a chair shouting out the beats to the dancers and Diaghilev alternately turning the house lights on and off in a vain attempt to calm the fracas. Once the riot began, the audience was probably reacting more to the choreography or simply its own frenzy than the score itself, since the music became virtually inaudible.

The story of this catastrophe is wellknown. But it had an important, lesstold sequel that turned the fortunes of The Rite of Spring completely around.

On April 5, 1914, again in Paris, Monteux led its concert premiere—without any dancers and controversial choreography—and this time the performance was an overwhelming success. The audience erupted in a cheering ovation, and enthusiastic fans bore Stravinsky out of the hall on their shoulders.

But The Rite of Spring was and remains today a shocking work: one fit to provoke a riot. Stravinsky had a

Sunday, January 11, 2015, 3 p.m.

very different image of the coming of spring than we do in America. In Russia when winter’s legacy of snow and ice begins to melt and swell the streams, the effect is much more extreme than our soft breezes and flowering fruit trees. Stravinsky referred to it as “the violent Russian spring that seems to begin in an hour and was like the whole world cracking.” To express this raw elemental force and the passionate response it must have evoked in pagan Russia, he created music of unprecedented violence.

In his score Stravinsky wrote: “Music exists if there is rhythm, as life exists if there is a pulse.” And it is indeed rhythm—in powerful repetitive ostinatos, constantly changing meters, and brutal pileups—that dominates this score and reaches a climax of violent energy in Part II’s “Glorification of the Chosen One” and the final “Sacrificial Dance.” Throughout the 19th century, rhythm had been the stepchild of European concert

music, trailing behind melodic allure and harmonic richness. Europeans essentially looked down on intricate rhythm as belonging to more “primitive” musical cultures, such as Africa and Asia. Stravinsky showed them what they were missing.

Along with pounding percussion—and in this score even the string instruments join the percussion section—Stravinsky created his pagan world through strikingly original writing for the wind instruments: the primeval sound of a high bassoon opening the work, the cool high woodwinds setting an ominously eerie nocturnal atmosphere at the beginning of Part II, the “elderly” sounding English horn leading the penultimate “Ritual of the Old Men,” and the savagely snarling brass throughout.

Stravinsky provided his own terse scenario for The Rite: “Part I: ‘The Adoration of the Earth.’ [Daytime] The spring celebration… the pipers pipe and the young

men tell fortunes. … Young girls with painted faces come in from the river in single file. They dance the spring dance. Games start. The Spring Khorovod [round dances]. The people divide into two groups opposing each other.

The holy procession of wise old men… interrupts the spring games. … The people pause trembling. … The old man blesses the Earth. … The people dance passionately on the Earth, sanctifying it and becoming one with it.

“Part II: ‘The Great Sacrifice.’

At night, the virgins hold mysterious games walking in circles. One of the virgins is consecrated and is twice pointed to by fate, being caught twice in the perpetual circle. The virgins honor her, the chosen one, with a marital dance. … They invoke the ancestors and entrust the chosen one to the old wise men. She sacrifices herself in the presence of the old men in the great holy dance.”

Notes by Janet E. Bedell © 2014

The Physicians’ Kitchen – Where Food IS Medicine!

Tricks, tips, and tools of the trade to turn food into medicine in YOUR kitchen

Turn Your New Year’s Resolution into an Action Plan!

Kick off the new year right – come to the Physicians’ Kitchen to learn about whole foods and how to use them in the new year! Carrie Runde, ND, and Nicole Farmer, MD, demonstrate easy recipes to add healthy fats, antioxidants, nutrients, and metabolism boosters to your diet. All participants get to taste their creations and leave with recipes to implement into their action plan for 2015.

Sign up now at caseyhealth.org or call 301.355.2030 for more information.

Class topics include: • Introduction to Healthy Nutrition: 5 Practical Applications • The Skinny on Fats & Oils • Veggie Stews & Soups to Keep You Warm During Winter • A Whole Lotta Whole Grains • Sweeteners & Treats

Classes start

January 27th!

800 SOUTH FREDERICK AVENUE | GAITHERSBURG, MD 20877 | 301.355.2030 | WWW.CASEYHEALTH.ORG

APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015 35

Friday, January 16, 2015, 8 p.m.

FRIDAY, JANUARY 16, 2015, 8 P.M.

● Washington Performing Arts Celebrity Series Presents

Gil Shaham, violin Johann Sebastian Bach The Six Sonatas and Partitas for Unaccompanied Violin

Sonata No. 1 in G minor for

Unaccompanied Violin, BWV 1001 Adagio

Fuga: Allegro Siciliano Presto

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

Gil Shaham, violin

Gil Shaham’s flawless technique, inimitable warmth and generosity of spirit have solidified his renown as an American master. The Grammy Award winner is sought after throughout the world for concerto appearances with leading orchestras and conductors.

Besides giving the world premiere performances of a new concerto by David Bruce with the San Diego Symphony, the violinist’s upcoming orchestral highlights also include Mendelssohn in Tokyo, Canada and Luxembourg, and two Bach concertos with the Dallas Symphony.

Partita No. 1 in B minor for

Unaccompanied Violin, BWV 1002

Allemande

Double: Presto Corrente Double Sarabande Double Bourrée Double INTERMISSION

Partita No. 2 in D minor for

Unaccompanied Violin, BWV 1004

Allemande Courante Sarabande Gigue Chaconne INTERMISSION

Sonata No. 3 in C Major for

Unaccompanied Violin, BWV 1005

Adagio Fuga Largo

Allegro assai

Partita No. 3 in E Major for

Unaccompanied Violin, BWV 1006

Preludio Loure

Gavotte en Rondeau

Menuet I and II Bourrée Gigue This performance is generously supported by Miriam and Eliezer Benbassat.

The Music Center at Strathmore Marriott Concert Stage

Last season saw the release of 1930s Violin Concertos (Vol. 1), the first double album to be yielded by Shaham’s long-term programming project, which was recorded live with the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, BBC Symphony, Staatskapelle Dresden and Sejong. In live performance, he played 1930s concertos by Bartók, Prokofiev, Barber, Berg and Britten with such eminent ensembles as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Berlin Radio Symphony, Bavarian Radio Symphony, and Carnegie Hall’s National Youth Orchestra of the USA, which he joined as guest soloist on its inaugural national tour.

He plays the 1699 “Countess Polignac” Stradivarius.

Please see insert for notes on the program.

36 APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015

PHOTO BY LUKE RATRAY

Sonata No. 2 in A minor for

Unaccompanied Violin, BWV 1003

Grave Fuga Andante Allegro

Saturday, XXXXday, January XXX17, X, 2015, X 8 p.m. p.m.

SATURDAY, JANUARY 17, 2015, 8 P.M.

● Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Marin Alsop, Music Director Presents

Bruckner Symphony No. 8 Günther Herbig, conductor Alon Goldstein, piano Piano Concerto No. 21 in C Major, K. 467

[Allegro maestoso] Andante

Allegro vivace assai

Alon Goldstein

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

INTERMISSION

Symphony No. 8 in C minor

Allegro moderato Scherzo: Allegro moderato - Trio: Langsam Adagio: Feierlich langsam, doch nicht schleppend

Finale: Feierlich nicht schnell

Anton Bruckner (1824-1896)

The concert will end at approximately 10:05 p.m.

The Wagner Tuben used in this concert are a gift from Beth Green Pierce in memory of her father, Elwood I. Green.

The Music Center at Strathmore Marriott Concert Stage

GOLDSTEIN PHOTO BY MEAGAN CIGNOLI

Günther Herbig, conductor

Günther Herbig left behind the challenging political environment of East Germany and moved to the United States in 1984, where he has since conducted all of the top-tier orchestras in North America. He has also led all of the major orchestras in Europe and the Far East.

Herbig has held posts that include music director of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra; principal guest conductor of both the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and the BBC Philharmonic, and general music director of both the Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra and

Berlin Symphony Orchestra. Former artistic advisor of the National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan, he is now their conductor laureate. He is principal guest conductor of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, Spain.

Recording more than 100 works, Herbig has led American tours with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, including a critically acclaimed performance in Carnegie Hall. With the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, he toured the Far East and Europe.

Alon Goldstein, piano

Alon Goldstein’s musical intelligence, artistic vision and innovative programming have made him a favorite with audiences throughout the United States, Europe and Israel. In recent seasons Goldstein has performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic;

Philadelphia Orchestra; St. Louis; Vancouver; the Rhode Island Philharmonic; and orchestras on tour in Paris, Russia and Bulgaria.

His 2014-15 season includes appearances with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Israel Chamber Orchestra, George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, Ars Viva Symphony Orchestra and Symphony in C. He will perform recitals in Washington, D.C; at The Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts in Chicago; the International Keyboard Institute and Festival in New York; Northeast Kingdom Classical Arts Series; and concerts throughout Israel, Canada and Spain. He will perform in chamber music roles, the Ariel Quartet and in nationwide performances as part of both the Goldstein-Peled-Fiterstein Trio and The Tempest Trio. An advocate for education, Alon will participate in teaching engagements and extended residencies across the country.

Program Notes Piano Concerto No. 21 in C Major, K. 467

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Born Jan. 27, 1756, in Salzburg, Austria; died Dec. 5, 1791, in Vienna

During the concert season of 1784-85, Mozart was at the peak of his popularity as a piano virtuoso in Vienna. And, unlike today’s concert pianists, he created his own repertoire. From 1784 to 1786, the continual demand for new works with which to dazzle his audiences brought forth 12 of the greatest piano concertos ever written—concertos in which Mozart was not content simply to cater to popular taste. Instead, he enjoyed stretching both himself and his audiences, and his Piano Concerto No. 21 in C Major, K. 467 is a splendid example of his ability simultaneously to seduce and challenge his listeners.

Even before Swedish director Bo

APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015 37

XXXday, Saturday,XXX January X, 2015, 17, X 2015, p.m.8 p.m.

Widerberg made its slow movement the theme music of his film Elvira Madigan in the 1970s, this was one of the most popular of Mozart’s concertos. But when it premiered on March 10, 1785, the composer’s father, Leopold, was so alarmed by its dissonance that he thought the overworked copyist must have made an unusual number of mistakes. After all, his son was notorious for barely meeting his deadlines and had just completed the score the day before the premiere. But the notes were correct. In the sublime slow movement, Mozart demonstrated what the poet Baudelaire put into words a century later: “The Beautiful is always strange.”

This second movement is a soaring aria sung by pianist and orchestra, always hushed and breathing a nocturnal, dreamlike atmosphere.

The orchestration is exquisite: muted strings magically blended with poignant woodwinds. But listen closely: In this song without words, soothing consonances constantly tumble into dissonances. Its harmonies always yearn toward keys far from the home key of F major.

And its gentle flow is troubled by a nervous accompaniment.

Of course, this concerto also has two other movements, and the first especially matches the slow movement’s greatness. Expansive and leisurely, it is a remarkably subtle military march, with its stealthy opening “a tiptoed march in stocking feet” (Cuthbert Girdlestone).

Listen for the charming gesture of oboe, bassoon and flute gently beckoning the pianist onto the stage for his first solo.

The finale is a comic-opera rondo with a sly refrain and merrily mischievous contributions from the woodwinds. Here Mozart wakes his audience from the yearning dream of his slow movement and sends them home smiling.

Symphony No. 8 in C minor

Anton Bruckner

Born Sept. 4, 1824, in Ansfelden, Austria; died Oct. 11, 1896 in Vienna

Anton Bruckner is perhaps the most misunderstood of the great

symphonists. In his own day, he confused both his supporters—leading them to undertake extensive editing of his works to make them conform better to contemporary norms—and his detractors, among them the redoubtable Viennese critic Eduard Hanslick, who savaged most of his symphonies at their premieres. In our own day, a significant number of concertgoers react to him with incomprehension and boredom.

Labeled by his contemporaries “the Wagner symphonist,” Bruckner actually wrote symphonies that are anything but the Romantic/Wagnerian celebration of self. Instead they are spiritual quests, homages to God in whom he fervently believed and whom he sought to glorify in his music. “Each of his symphonies is in reality one gigantic arch which starts on Earth in the midst of suffering humanity, sweeps up towards the heavens to the very Throne of Grace, and returns to earth with a message of peace,” writes biographer Hans-Hubert Schönzeler.

The man Bruckner was is unusual as his music. Born in rural Upper Austria to a family of sturdy peasant origins, he was the latest bloomer of all the major composers. His early life was devoted to teaching and service as organist in a series of local churches, including the great Baroque abbey of St. Florian.

With great reluctance, he left his provincial sanctuary for Vienna in 1868 at the ripe age of 44. There he wrote his last eight symphonies while building a legend at the Vienna Conservatory as a belovedly eccentric teacher of music theory. So devout a Catholic was Bruckner that students recalled his interrupting classes to kneel in prayer at the sound of the Angelus bell from nearby St. Stefan’s Cathedral.

As Bruckner completed his Symphony No. 8 at age 63, he was at the peak of his powers. In performances in Germany and Vienna during 1885 and 1886, his Symphony No. 7 had brought him the greatest acclaim of his career.

In September 1887, convinced that he had created his finest work, he sent the

38 APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015

score of No. 8 to his friend, the noted conductor Hermann Levi. But despite his admiration for No. 7, Levi found he could not comprehend this longest and most mystical of Bruckner’s scores. Regretfully, he sent word he couldn’t perform it and suggested revisions.

Bruckner was devastated. Levi’s rejection led to a crisis of confidence that lasted for years and undoubtedly prevented the aging composer from completing Symphony No. 9. Not only did he revise his No. 8, but with the eager assistance of his pupils Josef and Franz Schalk and Ferdinand Löwe, he rewrote symphonies nos. 1 through 4 as well. Although the revision of No. 8, completed in 1890, did actually strengthen Bruckner’s original concept, the work on the other symphonies did more harm than good, as Löwe and the Schalks took substantial cuts and made the orchestrations more sumptuous and Wagnerian. Despite his acquiescence, Bruckner still stubbornly believed in his original versions and carefully preserved them “for the future.”

In the 1930s, the International Bruckner Society, under the direction of Robert Haas, tried to straighten out the resulting mess by issuing editions of the symphonies cleansed of the cuts and embellishments made by Bruckner’s pupils. In the problematic case of No. 8, Haas used some creative license. Recognizing that the 1890 revision was in many ways superior, he published that version but with some material in the third and fourth movements restored from the 1887 original. A later edition

by Leopold Nowak took a “purer” approach by not including the 1887 material. Günther Herbig has chosen to perform a version that is a hybrid of the Haas and Nowak editions.

Listening to Bruckner To enter into the world of a Bruckner symphony—and especially into the visionary splendor of Symphony No. 8, the composer’s longest and by general consent his greatest—listeners must readjust their 21st-century internal clocks. Inspired by Wagner’s tremendous expansion of the operatic form,

Saturday, XXXXday, January XXX17, X, 2015, X 8 p.m. p.m.

Bruckner conceived his symphonic movements on a very broad scale.

Even when his tempos are not actually slow, his music still seems leisurely.

Bruckner themes are very long: built cumulatively from many elements.

Fortunately, he initially presents them twice, which helps us fix them in our minds for the considerable duration of his movements. His harmonic strategies are even more protracted: harmonies often change slowly, and the home key becomes a distant goal approached by a very circuitous route.

Actually, Bruckner’s model for No. 8 is less Wagner than Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9.

Bruckner has been unfairly accused of writing for immense, swollen orchestras in the manner of Wagner or Mahler. In fact, he was a master of achieving monumental effects from moderate orchestral means. For the Symphony No. 8, he employed his largest ensemble, but its only special additions are the eight horns—four of them doubling on Wagner tubas (a hybrid of horn and tuba devised for the Ring operas)—plus two harps for the second and third movements. Bruckner’s orchestral sound is unique and extraordinarily effective. Like the great organist he was, he juxtaposed contrasting blocks of wind, brass or string sound much as an organist moves to different manuals with new stop combinations. His strategy for building his immense climaxes was to fall continually short of the summit and build again to achieve truly Olympian heights.

Just as we allow our pulse to slow when we enter a cathedral, so must we turn off our cell phones and surrender ourselves to a world beyond time as we listen to this composer. In the words of Robert Simpson, Bruckner’s art has “a special appeal in our time to our urgent need for calm and sanity, for a deep stability in the world, whatever our beliefs, religious or other.”

First Movement: The symphony begins with the characteristic Bruckner sound of hushed tremolo violins.

Against this primeval background, we hear a disturbed, questioning theme leaping upward on jagged rhythms, then drooping backward. After each pause, it grows a little more. Bruckner interrupts its close and cadence on C minor with a more dramatic statement of the theme that veers farther from home. Violins then introduce the gentler second theme group, beginning with a rising scale; this, too, is repeated in variation and reaches a noble summit. A third and final thematic group features loud downward cascades in antiphonal groups of instruments playing together in a mighty “Bruckner unison.”

But the music soon darkens and loses its way. The movement expresses humanity’s plight on Earth, and here questions are not easily answered, nor goals reached. A huge climax reprises the opening theme and marks a temporary arrival home in C minor. But subsequent events undermine this security, and the movement ends in a tragic coda, added by Bruckner in his 1890 revision of the score. He called it the “Death Watch” and likened it to a dying man watching a clock ticking steadily as his life ebbs.

The second-movement scherzo in C major has been transformed from its rural Austrian dance origins to something huge and cosmic. Simpson likens it to “a celestial engine”; to this writer, it sounds like a heavenly carillon or the peal of God’s laughter. Descending bell peals juxtaposed against ascending ones form the thematic substance. This scherzo encloses a lengthy trio section in A-flat. Lyrical and serene, it suggests Bruckner’s rural Austrian roots and contains some of his loveliest orchestral writing, emphasizing the warm colors of horns, strings and harps.

Movement three, in D-flat major, is one of the greatest adagios created by the man Austrians dubbed the AdagioKomponist for his tragic eloquence in slow movements. Composed of variations of two large thematic groups, it offers, after much striving, a fleeting vision of Heaven to the yearning soul.

Over pulsing strings, we hear a sighing melody in the violins. This grows into a labored climb toward God, plunges briefly back to the depths, then miraculously reaches a heavenly vision of radiant violins and harps. The whole process is then repeated in somewhat condensed form. Cellos next introduce the beautiful second theme group, more passionate and yearning; it also includes a wonderful, mellow passage for the horns and Wagner tubas. Two more cycles expand and develop these thematic elements. And here we have a spectacular example of Bruckner’s climax-building technique of breaking off just short of the summit and falling back to build higher still. When the climax is finally reached, it is followed by the most soaring version of the “vision of Heaven” music. This, too, is fleeting, but in a magnificent coda Bruckner expresses his confidence that he will ultimately reach Heaven.

Buoyed by his vision and still in the key of D-flat, Bruckner opens his finale with a burst of joyous energy. Over galloping strings, horns and trombones blare out a darkly triumphant theme. Then comes a pause and the contrast of a lushly contrapuntal second theme for strings. Another pause and Bruckner brings on a sturdy clodhopping march for his “Bruckner unison” third theme. Then the drama ensues as Bruckner undertakes the arduous search for C-minor home. Three times the brass try to muscle their way in with the main theme, always in the wrong key. When they finally succeed, the recapitulation is tremendous with trumpets intensifying the gallop. After a wonderful contrapuntal setting of the rustic march, brass brutally cut in with the questioning theme that opened the symphony well over an hour ago. But now questions have been answered, and Heaven is in sight. Bruckner triumphantly combines the principal themes of all four movements. With a unison shout, the entire orchestra turns the question theme into a joyous C-major affirmation.

Notes by Janet E. Bedell © 2014

APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015 39

Sunday, January 18, 2015, 4 p.m.

SUNDAY, JANUARY 18, 2015, 4 P.M.

● Strathmore Presents

Step Afrika! Step Xplosion C. Brian Williams, Founder and Executive Director And featuring the local step groups: K.A.O.S.S. Entertainment, Inc. (Kids Always On the Same Step) Dem Raider Boyz Step Squad QuaDrew Step Team Blue Assassin Step Squad The Main Event Step Team of Lambda Sigma Upsilon Latino Fraternity, Inc. The Ladies of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.—Alpha Chapter The Music Center at Strathmore Marriott Concert Stage

About Step Afrika!

Step Afrika! is the first professional company in the world dedicated to the tradition of stepping. Founded in December 1994, the company is celebrated worldwide for its efforts to promote an appreciation for stepping and the dance tradition’s use as an educational tool for young people. Step Afrika! reaches tens of thousands of Americans each year and has performed on many stages in North and South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean.

Based in Washington, D.C., Step Afrika! is the city’s first and only

cultural ambassador representing D.C. and nation at events around the world. The company is a national model for the use of stepping in education, espousing themes such as teamwork, academic achievement, and cross-cultural understanding.

Step Afrika! blends percussive dance styles practiced by historically African-American fraternities and sororities, African traditional dance, and influences from a variety of other dance and art forms.

Step Afrika! holds workshops, residency programs, and a variety of arts

40 APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015

education activities for K-12 and college students in Washington, D.C., and in cities around the world.

C. Brian Williams

C. Brian Williams is a native of Houston, Texas, and graduate of Howard University. He learned to step as a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.– Beta Chapter and launched the historic Step Afrika! International Cultural Festival in partnership with the Soweto Dance Theater in December 1994.

Williams has performed, lectured, and taught all over the world. He has been cited as a “Nation Builder” by the National Black Caucus of State Legislators; one of Washington, D.C.’s “arts innovators” by Washingtonian magazine; and earned the Pola Nirenska Award for Contemporary Achievement in Dance.

Williams is the recipient of an artist fellowship, numerous awards from the D.C. Commission on Arts and Humanities, and the Mayor’s Art Award for Innovation in the Arts.

He is featured in “Soulstepping: African American Step Shows,” the first book to document the history of stepping. Under Williams’ leadership, stepping has evolved into one of America’s newest cultural exports and inspired the designation of Step Afrika! as Washington, D.C.’s official cultural ambassador.

Thursday, January 22, 2015, 8 p.m.

THURSDAY, JANUARY 22, 2015, 8 P.M.

● Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Marin Alsop, Music Director Jack Everly, Principal Pops Conductor Presents

An Evening with Jason Alexander Jack Everly, conductor

Overture to Gypsy

Jule Styne and Stephen Sondheim, arr: Ramin/Ginzler

Overture to Peter Pan

Jule Styne, Betty Comden, Adolph Green, Mark Charlap and Carolyn Leigh, arr. Everly

“March of the Siamese Children” from The King and I

Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein, arr: Robert Russell Bennett

Overture to Bells Are Ringing

Jule Styne, Betty Comden and Adolph Green, arr. Salinger/Everly

Overture to West Side Story

Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim, arr: Peress

INTERMISSION

“An Evening with Jason Alexander” Jason Alexander Keith Harrison, accompanist Kate Fisher, vocals

The program will be announced from stage.

Presenting Sponsor: Total Wine & More

The Music Center at Strathmore Marriott Concert Stage

EVERLY PHOTO BY MICHAEL TAMMARO

Jack Everly, conductor

Jack Everly is the principal pops conductor of the Indianapolis and Baltimore symphony orchestras, Naples Philharmonic Orchestra and the National Arts Centre Orchestra (Ottawa). He has conducted the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, The New York Pops at Carnegie Hall and appears

regularly with The Cleveland Orchestra at Blossom Music Center. This season, Everly will conduct more than 90 performances in more than 20 North American cities.

As music director of the National Memorial Day Concert and “A Capitol Fourth” on PBS, Everly leads the National Symphony Orchestra in these patriotic celebrations on the National Mall. These concerts attract hundreds of thousands attendees on the lawn and the broadcasts reach millions of viewers

and are some of the very highest rated programming on PBS television.

Originally appointed by Mikhail Baryshnikov, Everly was music director of the American Ballet Theatre for 14 years. In addition to his ABT tenure, he teamed with Marvin Hamlisch on Broadway shows that Hamlisch scored. He conducted Carol Channing hundreds of times in Hello, Dolly! in two separate Broadway productions.

Everly, a graduate of the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, holds an honorary doctorate of arts from Franklin College in his home state of Indiana. He is a proud resident of the Indianapolis community for over 12 years and when not on the podium you can find Everly at home with his family, which includes Max the wonder dog.

Jason Alexander

Jason Alexander is undoubtedly best known for his iconic portrayal of hapless George Costanza on the legendary hit show “Seinfeld.” The series continues to play around the world, showcasing the reason Alexander received seven Emmy nominations, four Golden Globe nominations, two American Television Awards, two American Comedy Awards and two Screen Actor Guild awards.

Initially focusing on the Broadway stage, Alexander has starred in the original production of Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along as well as The Rink, Neil Simon’s Broadway Bound and Jerome Robbins’ Broadway, a musical revue. Alexander both authored and starred in Jerome Robbins’ Broadway, playing 14 roles each night and winning a Drama Desk, Outer Critic Circle and Tony Award for Best Musical Actor. Even after moving to Los Angeles, he continued his dedication to the theater by becoming the artistic director of Reprise Theatre Company and triumphantly starring with Martin Short in the Los Angeles production of Mel Brooks’ The Producers.

APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015 41

Friday, January 23, 2015, 8 p.m.

FRIDAY, JANUARY 23, 2015, 8 P.M.

● Washington Performing Arts Celebrity Series Presents

Budapest Festival Orchestra Iván Fischer, music director Pinchas Zukerman, violin Anna Lucia Richter, soprano Barbara Kozelj, mezzo-soprano Pro Musica Girls’ Choir (Nyíregyháza/Hungary)

Overture to The Magic Flute, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

Violin Concerto No. 5 in A Major,

K.219 “Turkish” Allegro aperto; Adagio; Allegro aperto Adagio

Rondo: Tempo di Menuetto

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

INTERMISSION Incidental Music to A Midsummer Felix Mendelssohn

Night’s Dream, Op. 61 (1809-1847)

Overture Scherzo Melodrama

March of the Fairies Song with Chorus: “Ye Spotted Snakes” Melodrama Intermezzo Melodrama Nocturne Melodrama

Wedding March Melodrama

Funeral March

The Dance of the Clowns Melodrama Finale The Music Center at Strathmore Marriott Concert Stage

Iván Fischer, music director

Iván Fischer is founder and music director of the Budapest Festival Orchestra and music director of the Konzerthaus and the Konzerthausorchester in Berlin. Recently he has been also

active as a composer: His works have been performed in the United States, Holland, Belgium, Hungary, Germany and Austria. He also staged successful opera performances, recently a Mozart cycle in Budapest and New York.

42 APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015

Both in Berlin and Budapest, he has developed and introduced new types of concerts, “cocoa-concerts” for young children, surprise concerts where the program is announced from the stage; public dress rehearsals, where he talks to the audience; open-air concerts attracting tens of thousands of people; and staged concerts, combining concert and theater. He has founded several festivals, including the Budapest Mahlerfest, which is also a forum for commissioning and presenting new compositions, and the Bridging Europe festival.

Fischer is a founder of the Hungarian Mahler Society, and patron of the British Kodály Academy. He received the Golden Medal Award from the president of the Republic of Hungary, and the Crystal Award from the World Economic Forum for his services to help international cultural relations. In 2006 he was honored with the Kossuth Prize, Hungary’s most prestigious arts award. He is an honorary citizen of Budapest. In 2011 he received the Royal Philharmonic Award and the Dutch Ovatie prize.

Pinchas Zukerman, violin

Pinchas Zukerman has remained a phenomenon in the world of music for over four decades. His musical genius, prodigious technique and unwavering artistic standards are a marvel to audiences and critics.

Pinchas Zukerman’s 2014-2015 season includes over 100 worldwide performances, bringing him to multiple destinations in North America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia. He completes his 16th and final season as music director of the National Arts Centre Orchestra of Ottawa, with whom he toured the

Friday, January 23, 2015, 8 p.m.

United Kingdom in October 2014.

In his sixth season as principal guest conductor of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London, he leads the ensemble in concerts at home in the United Kingdom as well as on its January 2015 tour of Florida.

A devoted and innovative pedagogue, Zukerman chairs the Pinchas Zukerman Performance Program at the Manhattan School of Music, where he has pioneered the use of distance-learning technology in the arts. In Canada, he has established the NAC Institute for Orchestra Studies and the Summer Music Institute encompassing the Young Artists, Conductors and Composers Programs.

Born in Tel Aviv in 1948, Zukerman came to America in 1962, where he studied at The Juilliard School with Ivan Galamian. He has been awarded the Medal of Arts, the Isaac Stern Award for Artistic Excellence and

Budapest Festival Orchestra Iván Fischer,

music director

Stefan Englert,

executive director

Bence Pócs,

tour manager Rita Szabó, tour assistant

Róbert Zentai, stage manager

Sándor Kathi, technician

Inga Petersen,

personal assistant to Maestro Fischer

First Violins Violetta Eckhardt Ágnes Bíró Mária Gál-Tamási Radu Hrib Erika Illési István Kádár Péter Kostyál Eszter Lesták Bedő Gyöngyvér Oláh Gábor Sipos Emese Gulyás Csaba Czenke

Balázs Bujtor Zoltán Tuska

Second Violins János Pilz Györgyi Czirók Tibor Gátay Krisztina Haják Zsófia Lezsák Levente Szabó Zsolt Szefcsik Antónia Bodó Noémi Molnár Anikó Mózes Zsuzsa Szlávik Zsuzsa Berentés Violas Ágnes Csoma Miklós Bányai Judit Bende Cecília Bodolai Zoltán Fekete Barna Juhász Nikoletta Reinhardt Nao Yamamoto Csaba Gálfi László Bolyki

was appointed as the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative’s first instrumentalist mentor in the music discipline. Zukerman’s extensive discography contains over 100 titles, and

Cellos Péter Szabó Lajos Dvorák Éva Eckhardt György Kertész Gabriella Liptai Kousay Mahdi György Markó Orsolya Mód

Double Basses Zsolt Fejérvári Károly Kaszás Géza Lajhó László Lévai Attila Martos Csaba Sipos Flutes Erika Sebők Anett Jóföldi

Oboes Victor Aviat Eva Neuszerova Clarinets Ákos Ács Roland Csalló

Bassoons Moritz Winker Dániel Tallián Sándor Patkós Horns Zoltán Szőke András Szabó Dávid Bereczky Zsombor Nagy Trumpets Zsolt Czeglédi Tamás Póti Zoltán Tóth

Trombones Balázs Szakszon Attila Sztán Justin Clark Tuba József Bazsinka Timpani Roland Dénes

Percussion László Herboly István Kurcsák

has earned him two Grammy awards and 21 nominations.

Please see insert for notes on the program and additional artist bios.

Now You Can Wear Those Skinny Jeans, Even If You Don’t Have Skinny Genes

ZUKERMAN PHOTO BY PAUL LABELLE

We offer fat reduction treatments for abdomen thighs back upper arms

Call to schedule an appointment and trim down in 2015!

BETHESDA 6410 Rockledge Dr. Suite 205 Bethesda, MD 20817 301.968.1200

SIBLEY 5215 Loughboro Rd. NW Suite 140 Washington, DC 20016 202.244.4550

GERMANTOWN 19735 Germantown Rd. Suite 210 Germantown, MD 20874 301.444.0153

A 2015 Top Vote Getter

Reader’s Pick A Top Vote Getter Best Cosmetic Surgeon

www.dermskin.com APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015 43

Saturday, January 24, 2015, 8 p.m. and Sunday, January 25, 2015, 3 p.m.

● The National Philharmonic

Piotr Gajewski, Music Director and Conductor Presents

Bach’s Brandenburgs Piotr Gajewski, conductor Justine Lamb-Budge, violin Victoria Chiang, viola Julius Wirth, viola David Whiteside, flute Nicolette Oppelt, flute Mark Hill, oboe Chris Gekker, trumpet

Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G Major

Allegro

Adagio Allegro

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 in B-flat Major

Allegro

Adagio ma non tanto Allegro INTERMISSION Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 in G Major Allegro Andante Presto Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F Major

Allegro Andante

Allegro assai Weekend Concerts Sponsor: Ameriprise Financial Sunday Concert Sponsor: Ingleside at King Farm All Kids, All Free, All The Time is sponsored by The Gazette and the Dieneke Johnson Fund The Music Center at Strathmore Marriott Concert Stage

Piotr Gajewski, conductor

For Piotr Gajewski’s biography, please refer to page 29.

Justine Lamb-Budge, violin

Violinist Justine Lamb-Budge is bringing “youthful vibrancy” to orchestral performances on stages

across North America and Europe.

Lamb-Budge is principal second violinist of Symphony in C, associate concertmaster of the Curtis Symphony Orchestra, and frequently performs with the Philadelphia Orchestra. She has participated in the Verbier, Tanglewood, NYSOS and

44 APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015

Aspen music festivals, and has performed throughout the United States, Germany, Switzerland and Puerto Rico.

Victoria Chiang, viola

Victoria Chiang is an artistfaculty member of the Peabody Conservatory of Music, where she serves as coordinator of the viola department.

Her most recent recording of the viola concertos of Stamitz and Hoffmeister was released for Naxos to critical acclaim. Other recordings include Pleyel Sinfonia Concertante for Violin and Viola also on Naxos, as well as a recording of Shostakovich and Roslavets viola sonatas.

Julius Wirth, viola

Julius Wirth is a highly regarded and much sought after violist locally as well as nationally. Presently principal violist of the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, Harrisburg Symphony and the National Philharmonic, he is also a member of the Baltimore Opera Orchestra, Concert Artists of Baltimore, Key West Symphony and the Berkshire Opera Company.

Wirth has appeared as soloist with the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, Concertante Chamber Ensemble, the Harrisburg Symphony and the National Arts Chamber Orchestra. He has appeared with such artists as Michael Tilson Thomas, Paul O’Dette and Saschko Gawriloff. He is a founding member of the Wilde Quartet and the Windemere Ensemble and is presently a member of the Umoja String

LAMB-BUDGE PHOTO BY PETE CHECCHIA, CHIANG PHOTO BY RACHAEL BOER

SATURDAY, JANUARY 24, 2015, 8 P.M. SUNDAY, JANUARY 25, 2015, 3 P.M.

Saturday, January 24, 2015, 8 p.m. and Sunday, January 25, 2015, 3 p.m.

Quartet. He is also a composer, pianist and violinist.

Wirth holds a bachelor’s degree from the Eastman School of Music, where he studied with Francis Tursi, Jefferey Irvine and Marcus Thompson. His master’s degree studies took him to the Peabody Conservatory, where he worked under the tutelage of Karen Tuttle.

David Whiteside, flute

David Whiteside is principal flutist with the National Philharmonic, flutist with the Verge Ensemble of the Contemporary Music Forum and performs and teaches at festivals in Burgos, Spain; St. Petersburg, Russia; Castelnuovo di Garfagnana, Italy; and at the Summit Music Festival in New York.

Solo appearances include the Boston Pops, the Manhattan Philharmonic and the St. Cecilia Orchestra, broadcast nationally on NPR’s “Performance Today.”

HILL PHOTO BY KEVIN SPRAGUE, GEKKER PHOTO BY JILL BOCHICCHIO

Nicolette Oppelt, flute

Flutist Nicolette Oppelt was born in Amstelveen, the Netherlands, and began studying flute at age 11 with Hans van Loenen, principal flutist of the Gelder’s Orkest in Arnhem. After immigrating with her family to Charlotte, N.C., in 1977 she attended the University of North Carolina School of the Arts for both high school and college, studying with Philip Dunigan. While there, she was a two-time winner of the school’s concerto competition. She also appeared as a soloist on the Dutch national television show “Jonge Mensen op weg naar het Concertpodium” (“Young People on Their Way to the Concert Stage”) with her father, conductor Leo Driehuys, on the podium.

Mark Hill, oboe

Mark Hill has earned a wide reputation as an oboe and English horn soloist, chamber musician, orchestral player, recording artist and teacher. Currently principal oboe of the National Philharmonic, his orchestral experience includes performances with the New York Philharmonic, the New York Chamber Symphony, Orpheus, and the National and Baltimore symphony orchestras.

In the area of chamber music he has appeared and collaborated with such artists as the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Guarneri String Quartet, the New York Woodwind Quintet, the Bach Aria Group, the Mendelssohn String Quartet, Claude Frank, Jaime Laredo, Paula Robison, the Sylvan Winds and the Left Bank Concert Society.

Chris Gekker, trumpet

Chris Gekker, principal trumpet of the National Philharmonic, has been a featured soloist at concert halls throughout the United States, Europe and Asia. The New York Times has described his playing as “clear toned and pitch perfect.”

Currently a professor of trumpet at the University of Maryland, Gekker was a member of the American Brass Quintet for 18 years, and on the faculties of the Juilliard School, the Manhattan School of Music and Columbia University.

Program Notes Brandenburg Concerti, Nos. 2, 3, 4 and 6

Johann Sebastian Bach

Born March 21, 1685, in Eisenach, Germany; died July 28, 1750, in Leipzig, Germany

Between 1717 and 1723, Bach served Prince Leopold of AnhaltCöthen as director of chamber music and court conductor, and it was during this period that he composed most of his music for instrumental ensemble. When Prince Leopold went to Carlsbad to take the waters in 1718 and 1720, Bach and several court musicians traveled with him. It was probably on one of these trips that Bach met Christian Ludwig, Margrave of Brandenburg, a devoted amateur musician who collected concertos as one might collect coins or stamps, and who commissioned from Bach a set ofconcertos for his collection.

Each concerto in the set that Bach sent to Brandenburg is written for a different combination of instruments. Each was composed with great care and was probably tried out in Cöthen before being sent to the Margrave on March 24, 1721, with an elaborate, obsequious letter of dedication in French, under the simple title “Six Concertos with Several Instruments.”

The concertos were probably never performed at Brandenburg, for the parts show no signs of use.

When the Margrave died in 1734, his library was divided into two lots.

In the second lot (of 77 lesser concertos) were the six masterpieces by Bach, each one valued at four groschen, the equivalent today of a few cents. Eventually, the manuscript score came into the possession of Bach’s pupil, Johann Philipp Kirnberger, who bequeathed them to Frederick the Great’s sister, Princess Amalie of Prussia, whom he served as music director. They were published for the first time in 1850, a century after the composer’s death.

Although the Margrave of Brandenburg seems to have forgotten that he owned the concertos, Bach did not forget that he had written them, for in later years he adapted at least one of them to another use.

APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015 45

Saturday, January 24, 2015, 8 p.m. and Sunday, January 25, 2015, 3 p.m.

The Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 has only two movements, both of them Allegro. Two Adagio chords separate them in a cadence that provides a framework for an improvised, ornamental keyboard cadenza (which is the Italian word for “cadence”), if the performers so wish.

Bach set both movements in the key of G major, but the differences in meter, rhythm, form and texture provide a great deal of contrast between them. Only strings are used (with a keyboard for the continuo, of course): three violins, three violas, three cellos and double bass.

Bach writes for the strings in greatly varied ways. The instruments of each group are variously treated: as a homogeneous choir playing in unison or in independent parts, or in combination with the individual parts from the various groups joined. In the entire second movement and in about half of the first, the three cello parts are actually reduced to one single part. With this concentration, Bach provides the bass line with even more emphatic power than usual. In the Baroque era, the bass could often be considered functionally more important than the upper parts.

Brandenburg Concerto No.6 takes the form of a concerto grosso, a commonly used Baroque musical structure in which small groups of solo players are set in contrast and in competition with a larger orchestra of strings. The form uses a concertino, a small grouping and a ripieno, the full body of strings, in alternation. Bach’s groupings have a dark sound, but in sections of both the fast movements, he maintains a slow harmonic motion, allowing the bass notes to retain clarity and individuality. In this work, the smaller group of the two solo violas, sometimes joined by the cello, is made to contrast with the larger body of strings. In the unusual contrapuntal opening movement, Bach varies both the pitch interval and the time interval he allows between

the themes presented for imitation.

Here he uses many ingenious and fascinating variations. As Jonathan Kramer has noted, Bach helps the listener hear his intricate imitation techniques by “restricting the accompaniment to the simplest of materials—repeated notes articulating slowly changing harmonies.”

In the lush and languid second movement Adagio, the gambas are completely silent, and Bach effectively writes a trio for violas and cello with continuo accompaniment. Again, he uses imitation with long spans of time between entrances of the theme. The movement ends in a different key than that in which it began. The final movement, a gigue, has syncopated figures against the steady, striding bass. Exuberant solo lines demanding virtuosity appear against the larger body in concerto grosso fashion, with the solo group in relief against the larger body of strings.

Bach’s chosen combination for Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 was solo violin with a pair of flutes or recorders, a particularly felicitous mix of instruments, offering a range of effects from brilliant virtuosity to compelling sweetness. In the Allegro first movement, the solo group of a violin and two recorders or flutes is very much in the forefront, and the opening phrase, which later recurs as a ritornello between passages of contrasting material, is almost the only one in which the violin is not clearly the leading instrument. The movement has buoyancy and a broad dance-like feel.

The violin part in this concerto is often a great deal more difficult than in any of Bach’s violin concertos. In the central Andante, Bach does not reduce the orchestra, as he does in the other Brandenburgs, and he writes contrasting echo effects for the large and small bodies of instruments, using an opposition of groups that is usual for the concerto grossi of the time. Even

46 APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015

though there was a tradition in which concerto final movements were lighter in texture and material, this exuberant final Presto, a dashing fugue of dazzling virtuosity, becomes interrupted just before its end by smashing chords derived from the fugue subject.

Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 is set for four soloists with strings and basso continuo. The solo instruments in Bach’s time were all somewhat different from the modern equivalents: the flute and violin softer in tone, and the oboe coarser. The trumpet and trumpet playing have changed the most.

Trumpets then had no valves to help the musician produce the required notes from his instrument.

Instead, some trumpeters were especially trained to play in the highest register, where the natural notes are close together and changes of breath and lip pressure were used to pick out the sounds desired. With the change in musical styles that took place in the middle of the 18th century, this special skill disappeared completely, and when the Brandenburgs were rediscovered, Concerto No. 2 could be played only with makeshift substitutions or alterations in the trumpet part.

Since the middle of the 20th century, this part has most often been played on a small version of the modern trumpet, often referred to as a Bach trumpet, which makes it possible, though very difficult, to play the part as Bach wrote it.

The first movement is a jaunty Allegro in which the four solo instruments converse among themselves and with the rest of the orchestra. The middle movement, Andante, is scored only for solo flute, oboe and violin with basso continuo. The final Allegro assai is in fugal style, but the sparkling music is so high-spirited that the “learned” character of its complex counterpoint goes almost unnoticed. © Susan Halpern, 2014

Friday, XXXXday, January XXX30, X, 2015, X 8 p.m. p.m.

FRIDAY, JANUARY 30, 2015, 8 P.M.

● Strathmore Presents

Ladysmith Black Mambazo Albert Mazibuko, vocals Abednego Mazibuko, vocals Thulani Shabalala, vocals Sibongiseni Shabalala, vocals Thamsanqa Shabalala, vocals Msizi Shabalala, vocals Babuyile Shabalalala, vocals Mfanafuthi Dlamini, vocals Pius Shezi, vocals The Music Center at Strathmore Marriott Concert Stage

Ladysmith Black Mambazo

PHOTO BY LUIS LEAL

In 2014, Ladysmith Black Mambazo celebrated more than 50 years of joyous and uplifting music. Within the members’ singing are the intricate rhythms and harmonies of their native South Africa’s musical traditions.

Ladysmith Black Mambazo was assembled in the early 1960s by Joseph Shabalala, then a young farmboy turned factory worker. Ladysmith is the name of Joseph’s hometown, a small farming area between Durban and Johannesburg; Black refers

to the oxen, the strongest of all farm animals; and Mambazo, the Zulu word for chopping axe, is a symbol of the group’s ability to “chop down” any singing rival. Their collective voices were so tight and their harmonies so polished that by the end of the 1960s they were banned from competitions, although they were welcome to participate as entertainers.

A radio broadcast in 1970 opened the door to the group’s first record contract—the beginning of an ambitious discography that includes more

than 50 recordings. The group sings from a traditional music called isicathamiya (is-cot-a-ME-Ya), which developed in the mines of South Africa, where black workers were taken by rail to work far away from their homes and their families.

Poorly housed and paid worse, the mine workers would entertain themselves after a six-day week by singing songs into the wee hours on Sunday morning. When the miners returned to the homelands, this musical tradition returned with them.

During the 1970s Ladysmith Black Mambazo established itself as the most successful singing group in South Africa. In the mid-1980s, Paul Simon visited South Africa and incorporated the group’s rich harmonies into his famous Graceland album— a landmark recording that was considered seminal in introducing world music to mainstream audiences. A year later, Simon produced Ladysmith Black Mambazo’s first worldwide release, Shaka Zulu, which won a Grammy in 1988. Since then, the group has been awarded three more Grammys— for Raise Your Spirit Higher (2004), Ilembe (2009), and Singing For Peace Around The World (2013)—and has been nominated a total of 15 times.

Ladysmith Black Mambazo has also recorded with Stevie Wonder, Dolly Parton, Sarah McLachlan, Josh Groban, Emmylou Harris, and Melissa Etheridge, among others. The group also has provided film soundtrack material for the films The Lion King, Part II, Coming to America, A Dry White Season, Cry the Beloved Country, and Invictus.

The ensemble’s newest album, Always With Us, is a tribute to the group and Shabalala family matriarch, Nellie Shabalala, Joseph Shabalala’s wife, who passed away in 2002. This collection of songs is made up of recordings Nellie made with her church choir in 2001. Ladysmith Black Mambazo has since added its voices to Nellie’s recordings to create a collection of hauntingly beautiful songs that are a tribute to Nellie Shabalala’s life and memory.

APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015 47

Saturday, January 31, 2015, 8 p.m.

SATURDAY, JANUARY 31, 2015, 8 P.M.

● Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Marin Alsop, Music Director Presents

Mahler's Third Symphony Marin Alsop, conductor Jamie Barton, mezzo-soprano Baltimore Choral Arts Society Tom Hall, director Peabody Children’s Chorus Doreen Falby, director

Symphony No. 3 in D minor Gustav Mahler (Erwin Ratz, 1972) (1860-1911)

Kräftig, Entschieden

Tempo di Menuetto. Sehr mässig

Comodo. Scherzando. Ohne Hast

Sehr langsam. Misterioso Lustig im Tempo und keck im Ausdruck

Langsam. Ruhevoll. Empfunden

Jamie Barton

Baltimore Choral Arts Society

Peabody Children’s Chorus There will be no intermission during this program.

The concert will end at approximately 9:40 p.m.

The Music Center at Strathmore Marriott Concert Stage

Baltimore Choral Arts Society

For Baltimore Choral Arts Society’s biography, please refer to page 23.

Peabody Children’s Chorus

The Peabody Children’s Chorus, founded in 1989, is dedicated to providing age-appropriate vocal training for young people. The chorus brings children together to rehearse and perform art and folk music of multiple cultures, languages, historical periods and styles. In six ensembles rehearsing in Towson or Columbia, Md., 400 young people between the ages of 6 and 18 gain invaluable experience making music in ensemble settings and studying ear-training and music-reading.

The Peabody Children’s Chorus has performed with groups such as the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, the Baltimore Choral Arts Society, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Concert Artists of Baltimore, Lyric Opera Baltimore, the Morgan State University Choir and the Peabody Symphony Orchestra. The chorus has performed in London, Rome, Venice, Paris and at Carnegie Hall, and was featured on the BSO’s Naxos American Classics Grammy-nominated recording of Bernstein’s Mass.

Program Notes Marin Alsop, conductor

For Marin Alsop’s biography, please refer to page 28.

Jamie Barton, mezzo-soprano

The winner of both the Main and Song Prizes at the 2013 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition, a winner of the 2007 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and a Grammy nominee, American mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton has been described by The Guardian as “a great

artist, no question, with an imperturbable steadiness of tone.”

After a 2013-2014 season that included a triumphant Adalgisa in Norma at the Metropolitan Opera, Barton returns this season to that role for her debut at the San Francisco Opera. She will be heard at the Lyric Opera of Chicago as Giovanna Seymour in Anna Bolena and at the Houston Grand Opera as Fricka in Die Walküre, and will sing Azucena in Il Trovatore with the Cincinnati Opera.

Barton’s season also includes the world premiere of Jake Heggie’s The Work at Hand with the Pittsburgh Symphony and Verdi’s Requiem with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.

48 APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015

Symphony No. 3

Gustav Mahler Born July 7, 1860, in Kalischt, Bohemia; died May 18, 1911, in Vienna

In June 1895, Gustav Mahler happily abandoned the pressures and politics of the Hamburg State Opera, where he was chief conductor, and headed for the village of Steinbach on the Attersee, in Austria’s beautiful Salzkammergut lake district for a summer of composing. Throughout his career, Mahler pursued a double life: for nine months of the year he was one of Europe’s greatest conductors, driving his orchestras and himself mercilessly to achieve his musical ideals; during the three summer months, he was an equally

Saturday, January 31, 2015, 8 p.m.

driven composer, creating his songs and symphonies. In the summer of 1895, he was particularly eager to reach Steinbach for a new symphony was fermenting inside—his No. 3—the subject of which would be nothing less than all of Nature: from the rocks, flowers and animals to mankind and God himself.

Mahler was an insatiable reader, and in the 1890s he had been engrossed with the philosophers Schopenhauer and Nietzsche. The concept of nature behind his Symphony No. 3 related more to their concepts than to a simple appreciation of nature’s beauties. “That this nature hides within itself everything that is frightful, great, and also lovely... of course no one ever understands this,” he wrote. “It always strikes me as odd that most people, when they speak of ‘nature,’ think only of flowers, little birds and woodsy smells. No one knows the god Dionysius, the great Pan.” No. 3, the longest of his symphonies, grew from this mystical vision of nature as a complex living being, evolving upward from the rocks, plants, animal life and man to the divine. So powerful was this vision that he composed movements two through six of this sixmovement symphony in under two months that summer and still had time to write one of his greatest songs, Wo die schönen Trompeten blasen. It was the most productive summer of his career.

After another year in Hamburg, Mahler returned in June 1896 to Steinbach to complete his symphony with a massive introductory movement in which sleeping nature is awakened from the prison of winter and the elemental power of summer transforms all things into riotous life. This first movement— at nearly 35 minutes, the length of a normal symphony—poured from his pen in just six weeks. When Bruno Walter arrived to visit and stood admiring the craggy mountain looming over the Attersee, an exultant Mahler told him, “There’s no need to look at that, for it’s all in my music.”

Mahler’s philosophical program for the symphony tended to shift somewhat over time. In its final version, he subtitled the work “A Midsummer

Morning Dream” and listed the six movements as follows: First Part: No. 1: Introduction: Pan’s Awakening and Summer Marches in (procession of Bacchus) Second Part: No 2: What the flowers of the meadow tell me No. 3: What the animals of the forest tell me No. 4: What man (night) tells me No. 5: What the angels (bells) tell me No. 6: What (divine) love tells me In Mahler’s original plan, there was also a seventh movement—“What the child tells me”—but the composer wisely set this aside to become the sopranosolo finale of his Symphony No. 4. He stipulated that there be a long pause— 10 minutes in his own performances— between the first movement and the rest of the symphony and that movements four through six be played without pause.

In contrast to the quickness of its composition, Symphony No. 3 had to wait nearly six years—until June 9, 1902—to be premiered in its entirety.

Finally, Richard Strauss invited Mahler to present the entire symphony under his baton at a festival of new German music in Krefeld near Cologne in 1902.

Despite the composer’s gloomy predictions that no one would understand the “comic” aspects of a symphony he considered fundamentally happy (he had earlier given it the title “The Happy Life”), the premiere was the greatest triumph of his career to date.

Listening to the Music

The musical forces required for this work are immense: a huge orchestra with eight horns, enlarged string sections, two harps and two timpanists as well as other drums and percussion.

Added to this are an alto soloist for the fourth and fifth movements, and women’s and children’s choirs for the fifth.

And yet during most of the work’s 100 minutes, Mahler uses only a small portion of his forces—instead presenting chamber-like groups of instruments, combined with superb sensitivity for their colors and expressive qualities.

As he wrote to Natalie Bauer-Lechner: “The aspect of instrumentation in

which I consider myself ahead of past and present composers can be summed up in a single word: clarity. … Each instrument must be employed only in the right place and for its own qualities.”

Mahler called the first movement “the wildest thing I ever wrote.” Its long D-minor introduction—“Pan Awakens”—opens unforgettably with the eight horns blaring out in unison a foursquare theme Mahler called the “Waking Call.” Sleeping nature begins slowly to stir with the rumble of drums, a mysterious swing of major and minor chords that we’ll hear later in the fourth movement, and a snarling, dissonant motive from muted trumpets. Soon one of Mahler’s signature funeral marches lumbers into action—the deadly weight of winter. A solo trombone twice presents a fanfare-based melody. Alternating with this music is an ethereal lullaby for high flutes over tremolo violins plus a tender theme for solo violin representing the sleeping Pan. As woodwind birds call, we hear the approach of a much more festive march, and the main part of this stretched-out sonata-form movement begins now in F major. This is summer’s march, and it has a strongly popular, even vulgar cast to it that is a characteristic feature of Mahler’s music, with a brassy melody and snare drum borrowed from military bands.

After a “Hollywood” climax with harp glissandos, the development section begins with the theme of the trombone solo played by horns. All of this gradually builds into a frenzied, loud, dissonant section Mahler labels “Das Gesindel!”—”The Mob!” An accelerated march in distant keys announces the beginning of a battle between the forces of summer and winter. Eventually, the summer march dominates, building to a finale that is “wild” indeed.

The second movement, “What the flowers of the meadow tell me,” provides complete contrast. Mahler loved the flower-filled meadow outside his composing cottage, and it inspired this lovely minuet in A major. The middle trio section features faster, slightly more intense music with whirling

APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015 49

Saturday, January 31, 2015, 8 p.m.

16th notes and fuller but still transparent orchestration. “It is the most carefree piece I have ever written,” Mahler wrote to Natalie Bauer-Lechner. “It is carefree as only flowers can be. Everything hovers in the air with grace and lightness, like flowers bending on their stems and being caressed by the wind.”

The third-movement scherzo, “What the animals of the forest tell me,” is longer and more emotionally complex. It begins innocently with a perky, birdlike melody in the woodwinds, taken from Mahler’s song “Ablösung im Sommer” (“Relief in Summer”) which mourns the cuckoo who fell to its death from the tree and was replaced by the mellifluous nightingale. The music is a polka with typical polka slides in the brass, inspired by Mahler’s Bohemian childhood. A middle section introduces a solo posthorn that seems to represent man as the hunter; it sings a benign and very nostalgic melody as if from a distance. The animals react to this by returning to their polka, reaching a point

A

F I V E

S TA R

of near riot before the now more distant posthorn returns, this time magically answered by first violins in high register. But all this loveliness cannot tame the animals, who react with an amazing orchestral crescendo from pianissimo to triple forte in just a few measures.

Again a huge contrast as the fourth movement, “What man tells me,” begins very slowly with an oscillating motive in muted cellos and basses and the alto soloist gravely intoning the words of Nietzsche’s “Midnight Song” from Thus Spake Zarathustra. The entire movement swings between D major and D minor, representing the two poles of Lust or “joy” and Weh or “woe”—mankind’s hope versus his earthly condition.

Fifth Movement: Suddenly the joyous voices of children imitating bells break in as the women’s chorus launches a bright, naive chorus taken from the German poetry collection Mahler loved, Des Knaben Wunderhorn (“The Child’s Magic Horn”).

Women and children represent the

S E N I O R

L I V I N G

here a rich life W doesn’t cost a fortune.

8100 Connecticut Avenue, Chevy Chase, MD 20815 (301) 915-9217 • www.fivestarpremier-chevychase.com C E L E B R AT I N G 2 5 Y E A R S !

50 APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015

S

angels above mankind, and they offer a message of celestial comfort and salvation. Midway through, the alto soloist enters pleading for mercy for her sins, but the angels tell her not to weep.

Sixth Movement: Symphony No. 3 ends with a long, intensely beautiful slow movement, “What love tells me,” referring to nature’s highest plane: the divine love of God. The comfort offered now is much deeper than the angels’ innocent assurances. This D-major movement is in the form of a theme (actually more than one) with continuous variations. It begins with strings alone presenting the first of the themes, all of which aspire upward toward the divine.

Gradually instruments are added, and the movement builds to two climaxes in which the heavens almost seem to open. But the greatest climax is saved for the final moment: a glorious blaze of D major that brings this monumental symphony to a cathartic close.

Notes by Janet E. Bedell © 2014

C O M M U N I T Y

pend your life in the lap of luxury at Five Star Premier Residences of Chevy Chase. Enjoy the comfort of your own rental apartment and a wealth of enriching amenities, including attentive personal service. This is senior living as it was meant to be — wonderfully active, immensely satisfying and surprisingly affordable. Call today for a private tour.

• Park-like setting inside the Beltway • Club room and cocktail lounge newly renovated • Executive, sous and pastry chefs • Indoor swimming pool • In-home washers and dryers • Secure underground parking

Formerly known as Classic Residence by Hyatt

Wednesday, XXXXday, February XXX X, 4, 2015, X 8 p.m. p.m.

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2015, 8 P.M.

● Washington Performing Arts Presents

Blues Symphony

Wynton Marsalis Quintet Shenandoah Conservatory Symphony Orchestra Jan Wagner, conductor Wynton Marsalis Quintet Wynton Marsalis, trumpet Walter Blanding, saxophone Dan Nimmer, piano Carlos Henriquez, bass Ali Jackson, drums INTERMISSION

Symphony No. 2: Blues Symphony Wynton Marsalis Shenandoah Conservatory (1961-) Symphony Orchestra Jan Wagner, conductor Please see insert for program and artist information.

This performance is made possible through the generous support of Patricia and Lloyd Howell, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Amphion Foundation, and the Van Auken Family Private Foundation, honoring global efforts to advance awareness and early detection of lung cancer.

The Music Center at Strathmore Marriott Concert Stage

Wynton Marsalis

PHOTO BY FRANK STEWART

Born in New Orleans, Wynton Marsalis began his classical training on trumpet at age 12 and soon

began playing in local bands of diverse genres. He entered The Juilliard School at age 17 and joined Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers.

Marsalis made his recording debut as a leader in 1982, and he has since recorded more than 30 jazz and classical albums, which have won him nine Grammys. In 1983 he became the first and only artist to win both classical and jazz Grammys in the same year, and he repeated this feat in 1984. Marsalis’ rich body of compositions includes Sweet Release; Jazz: Six Syncopated Movements; Jump Start; Citi Movement/Griot New York; At the Octoroon Balls; In This House, On This Morning; and Big Train.

In 1997, Marsalis became the first jazz artist to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize in music, for his oratorio Blood on the Fields, which was commissioned by Jazz at Lincoln Center. In 1999 he released eight new recordings in his unprecedented “Swinging into the 21st” series, and premiered several new compositions, including the ballet Them Twos, for a June 1999 collaboration with the New York City Ballet. That same year he premiered the monumental work All Rise, commissioned and performed by the New York Philharmonic along with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and the Morgan State University Choir in December 1999.

In 2004 Marsalis released The Magic Hour, his first of six albums on Blue Note Records. He followed up his Blue Note debut with Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson, Wynton Marsalis: Live at The House Of Tribes (2005), From the Plantation to the Penitentiary (2007), Two Men With the Blues featuring Willie Nelson (2008), and He and She (2009).

To mark the 200th anniversary of Harlem’s historical Abyssinian Baptist Church in 2008, Mr. Marsalis composed a full mass for choir and jazz orchestra.

The piece premiered at Jazz at Lincoln Center, followed

APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015 51

XXXday, Wednesday, XXXFebruary X, 2015, X4, p.m.

2015, 8 p.m.

by performances at the celebrated church. Marsalis composed his second symphony, Blues Symphony, which premiered in 2009 with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and was performed again by the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 2010. In 2010 Marsalis premiered Swing Symphony, a co-commission by the New York Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and The Barbican Centre.

Mr. Marsalis is also an internationally respected teacher and spokesman for music education and has received honorary doctorates from dozens of universities and colleges throughout the United States.

He conducts educational programs for students of all ages and hosts the popular Jazz for Young People SM concerts produced by Jazz at Lincoln Center. Marsalis has also written and is the host of the video series Marsalis on Music and the radio series Making the Music.

Shenandoah Conservatory Symphony Orchestra Jan Wagner, artistic director and conductor

First Violins Jingjing Nie* Leyla Feyzulayeva Samantha Allen Kiara Rubin Levi Bradshaw Zachary Windsor Gerson Medina Jian Song Tyler Garner Gwendolyn Pfouts Fiona Black

Second Violins Kailbeth Chacin* Eli Thomas Eunbit Seo Michael Divino Christopher Tillman Maya Lonçar Anthony Shields Madison Rairie Grace Wines Terez Anthony Badger Violas Erin Reilly* Wenran Meng Zachary Thayer Kyle Wade Mengxin Wu Katelyn Desseau

Make every day an

EXTRAORDINARY experience.

Bridget Olson Samantha Marsico Anna Dye Violoncellos Michael Puryear* Thomas Valdez Carlos Figueroa Robert Rohr William Abbott Alexander Sheetz Joseph Noto Meghan Callender Sydney Vonada Sydney Bennett Double Basses Sarah Lahasky* Harris Grossman Nors Hexum Zachary Crabtree Fumio Ogawa Carlos Banda Flutes Alexandra Lee* Kerri Kappler Katelyn Kaiser Piccolo Katelyn Kaiser Oboes Luis Gutierrez*

Jose Hernandez Ayako Ogawa English Horn Ayako Ogawa

Clarinets Jacob Moyer* Paul Wissman Danielle Confletti Kyla Rose Wilcox E-flat Clarinet Danielle Confletti Bass Clarinet Kyla Rose Wilcox Bassoons Timothy Woerner* Garrett Brown* Alexandra Flanigan Contrabassoon Alexandra Flanigan Horns Michael Hollin* James Currence Danielle Franc Abbie Allison Brent Redmond Trumpets Nathaniel Hussell*

Kane Fuhrman Benjamin Stern Trombones Jefferson Ritchie* Nathan Davis James Martin Tuba Jeffrey Jacobson Timpani Curtis Moody Percussion Dylan Di Mauro Colin Maher Stephen Readyoff Alexander Radabaugh Daniel Kelley

Orchestra Manager/ Principal Librarian Nathaniel Hussell Library Assistants Samantha Allen Leyla Feyzulayeva Yeji Lee Thomas Valdez Kailbeth Chacin * principal

Chances are you’ve never seen a cosmopolitan senior community quite like this, where you can have the amenities of a world-class hotel with the investment advantages of condominium ownership.

Call 888-898-1648 to schedule a tour today!

Challenge

your personal wellness goals in our fitness center.

eXPlORe

your creative side in our art studio.

ReJUVenaTe

your body and soul in our Sanctuary Spa and Salon.

8300 Burdette Road Bethesda, MD 20817 888-898-1648 www.foxhillresidences.com

52 APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015

Thursday, XXXXday, February XXX X, 5, 2015, X 8 p.m. p.m.

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2015, 8 P.M.

For Marin Alsop’s biography, please refer to page 28.

●

Garrick Ohlsson, piano

Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Marin Alsop, Music Director Presents

10th Anniversary Gala Concert Garrick Ohlsson Plays Rachmaninoff Marin Alsop, conductor Garrick Ohlsson, piano Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18 Sergei Rachmaninoff

Moderato (1873-1943)

Adagio sostenuto

Allegro scherzando

Garrick Ohlsson INTERMISSION

Church Windows Ottorino Respighi The Flight into Egypt (1879-1936) Saint Michael Archangel

The Pines of Rome Ottorino Respighi The Pines of the Villa Borghese Pines Near a Catacomb The Pines of the Janiculum The Pines of the Appian Way

Marin Alsop, conductor

The concert will end at approximately 9:50 p.m.

The appearance of Garrick Ohlsson is made possible through the generosity of the Alvin and Fanny Blaustein Thalheimer Guest Artist Fund.

Since winning the 1970 Chopin International Piano Competition, pianist Garrick Ohlsson has established himself worldwide as a musician of magisterial interpretive and technical prowess. Ohlsson is noted for his masterly performances of the works of Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert, and Romantic repertoire. Although long regarded as one of the world’s leading exponents of the music of Frédéric Chopin, Ohlsson commands an enormous repertoire of more than 80 concertos, ranging from Haydn to works of the 21st century.

An exponent of Busoni’s rarely programmed piano concerto, Ohlsson performed it with the National Symphony, and London’s Barbican with the BBC Symphony Orchestra this past fall.

This January marks the centenary of the death of Alexander Scriabin, whose piano music Ohlsson will present in a series of recitals in London, San Francisco, Chicago and New York. He will also return to the orchestras of San Francisco, Detroit, Dallas, Baltimore, BBC Scotland and Prague, where he is a frequent guest.

The Music Center at Strathmore Marriott Concert Stage

Program Notes Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18

Sergei Rachmaninoff

OHLSSON PHOTO BY PIER ANDREA MOROLLI

Born April 1, 1873, in Oneg, Russia; died March 28, 1943, in Beverly Hills, Calif.

GARRICK OHLSSON

Composers have dedicated their works to many different sorts of people: royal patrons, family members, soloists, conductors. But, to the best of this writer’s knowledge, only one work has been dedicated to the composer’s psychiatrist: Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 to Dr. Nikolai Dahl, who, by freeing Rachmaninoff of his creative block, had made this work possible.

In 1897, Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 1—a work in which he had great

APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015 53

XXXday, Thursday, XXX February X, 2015, 5,X2015, p.m.8 p.m.

faith—was given a dreadfully inept premiere in St. Petersburg. Unable to separate a promising new work from a bad performance, the critics gave the sensitive 23-year-old composer reviews that would devastate even a more seasoned artist. César Cui’s wrote: “If there were a conservatory in Hell, if one of its talented students were instructed to write a program symphony on the ‘Seven Plagues of Egypt,’ and if he were to compose a symphony like Mr. Rachmaninoff’s, then he would have fulfilled his task brilliantly and would delight the inhabitants of Hell.” Rachmaninoff withdrew the symphony and would never let it be performed again. He sank into a deep depression. Despite a standing commission from the London Philharmonic to write a piano concerto, for several years he created almost nothing.

Dahl was an internist who dabbled in the infant practice of psychiatry, including hypnosis. He was also a gifted amateur viola and cello player. In March 1900, Rachmaninoff’s relatives brought the composer to Dahl, who put him into a light trance during which he repeated over and over: “You will begin your concerto—you will work with great facility—the concerto will be excellent.” Over several sessions this mantra, combined with sympathetic talk with a wise and cultivated man, produced a cure. By summer, Rachmaninoff’s creative juices were pouring into the new concerto, which was completed the following spring. Premiered by Rachmaninoff with the Moscow Philharmonic on Oct. 24, 1901, its immediate success has never faded.

The first movement’s opening is one of the most justly famous in the repertoire: a series of nine chords in the piano, underpinned by the tolling of a deep F, that crescendos from pianissimo to fortissimo and leads directly into the first theme, played low in the strings and clarinets. Surely this is an evocation of the great bells of Russian churches, which fascinated Rachmaninoff from his childhood and inspired many stunning moments in his music. Also influenced by Russian Orthodoxy is the melancholy principal theme, which moves chant-like within a narrow range. The

piano introduces the even lovelier second theme, pure Rachmaninoff and full of romantic yearning. After a brief development section (announced by a brass fanfare) featuring both themes, the chant theme returns in the strings, but now with the piano providing an incisive march tread beneath.

A quiet prelude by muted strings opens the slow movement and moves the tonality from C minor to a very distant E major. The movement’s main theme is oddly introduced: Over a piano arpeggio a solo flute presents a little phrase that turns out to be the theme’s ending. Then the solo clarinet offers the theme proper, a subdued, repetitive tune that will only find passionate release when the piano takes it on late in the movement. Rachmaninoff saves his loveliest music for the close: The woodwinds’ singing birdcalls mesh magically with the piano while the violins complete the melody.

Another bridge prelude opens the finale. Here in the midst of much bold, aggressive music comes a surprise: the marvelous soaring melody, first heard in the plangent tones of solo oboe and viola, for which this concerto is so beloved. This tune almost lost its dignity forever when Tin Pan Alley hijacked it in the 1940s for the sentimental love song “Full Moon and Empty Arms.” The work ends with one last sweeping statement by full orchestra and soloist of the big tune, then hustles to an exciting finish.

Church Windows

Ottorino Respighi Born July 9, 1879, in Bologna, Italy; died April 18, 1936, in Rome

Ottorino Respighi’s very beautiful but rarely performed tone poem Church Windows merges the two very different sides of his musical personality: his fascination with the powers of a large modern orchestra and his love for early music.

As a young man, Respighi had lived in St. Petersburg, where he became principal violist in the opera orchestra and a student of Rimsky-Korsakov, the Russian virtuoso of brilliant, sensual orchestration. Respighi learned well from Rimsky and, decades later, used

54 APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015

his orchestral mastery to create three spectacular tone poems saluting his adopted city of Rome: The Fountains of Rome, The Pines of Rome and Roman Festivals. All promoted with passion

by Arturo Toscanini, they won him immediate and lasting celebrity with international concert audiences.

Strangely, the equaling dazzling Church Windows of 1926 has never equaled their fame. For here Respighi drew on his lifelong interest in early music—and specifically with Gregorian chant—to create a showpiece for the Boston Symphony Orchestra and its music director, Serge Koussevitzky, commissioner of the score. It grew from his Three Preludes on Gregorian Melodies for piano written in 1919. His wife, Elsa Respighi, remembered that composition’s birth on the Island of Capri: “[It] reflects Respighi’s state of mind at the time: the joyous wonder of a revelation [his discovery of Gregorian chant] and at the same time the mystic exultation of profound religious feeling.”

Respighi essentially reconceived these piano preludes for an enormous orchestra and added a new final movement saluting Pope Gregory the Great (540 to 604 A.D.), who is traditionally credited with codifying Gregorian chant and its use in the Catholic liturgy. However, he only decided after he completed the score what precisely each movement was about, with advice from his librettist Claudio Guastalla. Guastalla wrote the descriptions for each of these “windows,” which do not exist in any church, only in the imagination.

The Flight into Egypt: “The little caravan proceeded through the desert in the starry night, bearing the Treasure of the World.” On a slow, irregular rhythm like the swaying of a camel, this quiet nocturnal music materializes from a haunting melody based on Gregorian chant in the clarinet. Decorative arabesques in the woodwinds lend it an exotic Middle Eastern atmosphere.

Saint Michael the Archangel: “And a great battle was made in the heavens; Michael and his angels fought with the dragon and his angels. But these did not prevail, and there was no more place for

Thursday, XXXXday, February XXX X, 5, 2015, X 8 p.m. p.m.

them in Heaven (Homily XII of St. Gregory).” An immense orchestral whirlwind summons St. Michael, the warrior angel, into action. His battle theme, roared out by trombones, is a transformation of the gentle chant theme from the first movement. Yet another transformation of this melody is played offstage by a solo trumpet in the more lyrical middle section. But Michael soon returns to triumph over Satan.

The Pines of Rome

Ottorino Respighi Ottorino Respighi had a love affair with Rome. Though raised in the proud university city of Bologna, he lost his heart upon moving to the Eternal City in 1913 to assume a professorship at the prestigious Conservatorio di Santa Cecilia, and he reveled in its beauty, rich history and vibrant contemporary life until his premature death in 1936. He created three love letters to the city: The Fountains of Rome (1914-16), The Pines of Rome (1923-24)

and Roman Festivals (1927-28). Of these, The Pines of Rome was the most popular and Respighi’s own favorite.

Its four interlocking movements are like picture postcards of Roman scenes transmuted into sound—imaginatively using every timbral resource of a very large 20th-century orchestra. The giant percussion section includes piano, organ, harp and many bell-like instruments.

For the last movement—an epic vision of ancient Rome—Respighi called for six bucelli, the old Roman war trumpets, but allowed modern flugelhorns to take their place. And most unusual of all—especially in 1924—was his use of a gramophone to play the nightingale’s silvery song at the close of movement three.

Respighi wrote these brief poetic descriptions for The Pines of Rome: I. The Pines of the Villa Borghese: “Children are at play in the pine groves of Villa Borghese; they dance round in circles, they play at soldiers, marching and fighting, they are wrought up by their own cries like swallows at

evening, they come and go in swarms.

Suddenly the scene changes, and ...”

II. Pines Near a Catacomb: “We see the shades of the pine trees fringing the entrance to a catacomb. From the depth rises the sound of mournful psalm-singing, floating through the air like a solemn hymn and gradually and mysteriously dispersing.”

III. The Pines of the Janiculum: “A quiver [piano] runs through the air: The pine trees of the Janiculum stand distinctly outlined in the clear light of a full moon. A nightingale is singing.”

IV. The Pines of the Appian Way: “Misty dawn on the Appian Way: solitary pine trees guarding the magic landscape; the muffled, ceaseless rhythms of unending footsteps. The poet has a fantastic vision of bygone glories: Trumpets sound and, in the brilliance of the newly risen sun, a consular army bursts forth toward the Sacred Way, mounting in triumph to the Capitol.”

Notes by Janet E. Bedell © 2014

WORLD

READY Analytical. Resourceful.

The career-ready skills employers want.*

*2012 Association of American Colleges & Universities: Promising Practices for Personal and Social Responsibility

think.umw.edu Fredericksburg, VA

APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015 55

Friday, February 6, 2015, 8 p.m.

● Strathmore Presents

Savion Glover’s STePz Savion Glover, director, choreographer Marshall Davis, Jr., hoofer 3CW (3 Controversial Women): Robyn Watson, Lisa LaTouche, Sarah Savelli The Music Center at Strathmore Marriott Concert Stage

About Savion Glover’s STePz Under the direction of Savion Glover, Savion Glover’s STePz is yet another exuberant celebration of tap dance to sound, and sound to dance. In this dance production, Glover and his ensemble of dancers take tap dance to new heights and levels while fusing traditional music selections of the past with his self-proclaimed tap style and energy of the future.

Savion Glover’s STePz exposes Glover’s capability in all complexities of jazz phrasing, both bass line and melody, the wild improvisations, structures and deconstruction, from departure to return. Savion Glover’s STePz will once again display the infinite versatility and virtuoso of Savion Glover’s genius as a tap master.

Marshall Davis, Jr.

Marshall Davis, Jr. was born in Miami Beach, Fla. He began tap dancing at age 10 at the African Heritage Cultural Arts Center. By age 11, he was a finalist in the Philip Michael Thomas “Rising Star” competition and was the 1989 Florida winner for the Tri-Star Pictures Tap Day contest, a promotion for the movie Tap starring Gregory Hines and Sammy Davis, Jr. At age 13, he accepted a check from Ed McMahon for winning the coveted 1991 “Star Search” Teen Dance Champion.

Savion Glover

Savion Glover is a Tony-winning, hoofer, choreographer, and producer. His numerous credits include the Broadway shows The Tap Dance Kid; Black and Blue; Jelly’s Last Jam; and Bring in ‘da Noise, Bring in ‘da Funk, and the films Tap with Gregory Hines and Sammy Davis Jr.; Bamboozled by Spike Lee; and Happy Feet 1 and Happy Feet 2, an Academy Award winner choreographed by Glover.

SAVION GLOVER

56 APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015

Since winning, he has performed in Europe, Japan, and throughout the United States.

Davis’ dancing is most heavily influenced by his mentor, the late Steve Condos of the Condos Brothers. He has also received training from Buster Brown, Edwin Holland, Paul Kennedy, Ted Levy, Lavaughn Robinson and Sam Weber. He performed in the Tony Award-winning Broadway and touring production of Bring in Da’ Noise, Bring in Da’ Funk.

Lisa La Touche

Internationally renowned tap dancer Lisa La Touche’s career started in her hometown of Calgary, Alberta, Canada, where she started performing and learning about the industry. La Touche later started producing and directing her own shows and with celebrated youth organizations across the U.S. She has appeared in the New York and North American touring casts of STOMP, and remains enthusiastic about further enhancing communities by sharing her talents with the world.

Robyn Watson

Robyn Watson was introduced to dance at age 5, fell in love with it at 8, and the falling hasn’t stopped. She thanks the Lord for this precious gift.

Sarah Savelli

Sarah Savelli credits her mother, Dianne, for her love of dance and early training. She served as artistic director/choreographer for Rhythm ISS..., an all-female, Chicago-based tap company she co-founded in 1995, and was featured in the PBS documentary “Juba! The Masters of Tap and Percussive Dance.” Savelli was commissioned three times to create, choreograph and present her original work, Tap in2 Peace, by PlayhouseSquare in Cleveland, and is currently the director of three tap crews, located in Cleveland, Detroit, and Chicago.

PHOTO BY LOIS GREENFIELD

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2015, 8 P.M.

Saturday, XXXXday, February XXX X, 7, 2015, X 8 p.m. p.m.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2015, 8 P.M.

● The National Philharmonic Piotr Gajewski, Music Director and Conductor Presents

The Art of the Mazurka Brian Ganz, piano Four Mazurkas, Op. 24 Frédéric Chopin No. 1 Lento, in G minor (1810-1849) No. 2 Allegro non troppo, in C Major No. 3 Moderato con anima, in A-flat Major

No. 4 Moderato, in B-flat minor

Polonaise in F-sharp minor, Op. 44

Three Mazurkas, Op. 50 No. 1 Vivace, in G Major No. 2 Allegretto, in A-flat Major No. 3 Moderato, in C-sharp minor INTERMISSION

Three Waltzes, Op. 64 No. 1 Molto vivace, in D-flat Major

No. 2 Tempo giusto, in C-sharp minor No. 3 Moderato, in A-flat Major

Nocturnes, Op. 15 No. 2 Larghetto, in F-sharp Major No. 3 Lento, in G minor

Three Mazurkas, Op. 59 No. 1 Moderato, in A minor No. 2 Allegretto, in A-flat Major No. 3 Vivace, in F-sharp minor

Rondo à la Mazur, Op. 5 Concert Sponsor: Ingleside at King Farm All Kids, All Free, All The Time is sponsored by The Gazette and the Dieneke Johnson Fund The Music Center at Strathmore Marriott Concert Stage

the Queen Elisabeth of Belgium international piano competitions, Ganz has appeared as soloist with such orchestras as the St. Louis Symphony, the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, the National Philharmonic, the Baltimore Symphony, the National Symphony and the City of London Sinfonia, and has performed with such conductors as Leonard Slatkin, Piotr Gajewski, Marin Alsop and Mstislav Rostropovich. After the Brussels competition, La Libre Belgique wrote, “We don’t have the words to speak of this fabulous musician who lives music with a generous urgency and brings his public into a state of intense joy.”

Tonight’s recital is the latest in his multi-year project with the National Philharmonic in which he will perform the complete works of Chopin.

The inaugural recital, called “masterly”

by The Washington Post, featured solo works of the romantic composer. Since the January 2011 Chopin recital, Ganz has performed the Grieg piano concerto with the National Philharmonic and Music Director Piotr Gajewski, and Beethoven with the National Symphony of Costa Rica under the baton of Mykola Diadiura. He has toured northern California with the Palomarin Chamber Music Foundation and played in Italy with the Alba Music Festival.

Ganz is artist-in-residence at St. Mary’s College of Maryland and is on the piano faculty of the Peabody Conservatory of Music. He lives in Annapolis.

Program Notes Four Mazurkas, Op. 24

Frédéric Chopin

PHOTO BY JAY MALLIN

Brian Ganz, piano

Brian Ganz is widely regarded as one of the leading pianists of his generation. The Washington Post has written: “One comes away from a recital by pianist Brian Ganz not only exhilarated by the power of the performance but also moved by his search for artistic truth.”

Ganz has made it his mission to join vivid music making with warmth and intimacy onstage, often guiding listeners on a journey of discovery inside the composer’s craft. The result is a new kind of listening experience in which great works come to life with insight and authentic emotional power.

A laureate of the Marguerite Long Jacques Thibaud and

Born ca. March l, 1810, in Zelazowa Wola, Poland; died Oct. 17, 1849, in Paris

The mazurka, a folk dance, takes its name from the Mazury region in northeast Poland, where Chopin was born. It is always in triple meter, although because of its frequent displacement of accents and its variety of rhythmic figures, it strongly differs from the waltz. In its original form, the mazurka was danced by groups of couples and sometimes accompanied by the Polish version of the bagpipe, the dudy.

APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015 57

XXXday, Saturday,XXX February X, 2015, 7, X 2015, p.m.8 p.m.

Between 1820 and his death, Chopin wrote more than 50 mazurkas.

Franz Liszt, in his 1852 biography of Chopin wrote, “It is only in Poland that it is possible to catch the haughty yet tender and alluring character of the mazurka. To understand how perfectly Chopin succeeded in displaying [its] magic, it is necessary to have seen that dance performed on its native soil.”

Although Chopin’s mazurkas are highly stylized, he usually retained some traditional characteristics, like an accent on the third beat and a drone bass. Chopin relied heavily on Polish folk music as inspiration, but did not quote actual folksongs. He utilized three-part form in most of his mazurkas; many even have da capo markings indicating an identical first and last section. Chopin composed Op. 24 in 1832-33, when he had become established in Paris.

The very popular Mazurka No. 1, in G minor, Lento, has melodic appeal. This elegant and wistful work has a bright middle section; when the main theme returns, it reestablishes the original sadder mood.

In the introduction to the lively Mazurka No. 2, in C major, a short, energetic work, Allegro non troppo, Chopin uses open fifths to create a peasant-like, somewhat exotic feel.

The playful main theme contrasts effectively with the mazurka that precedes it and exemplifies its folk dance lineage. In the transition to the festive middle section, Chopin creates the feeling of duple meter through his use of accents rather than chords.

The graceful Mazurka No. 3, in A flat major, Moderato con anima, has an elegant main theme. It is characterized by pauses, highlighting the last ascending part of the theme. This mazurka has upbeat spirits, although Chopin creates a suggestion of regret, a combination of sweetness and sadness.

Mazurka No. 4, in B flat minor, Moderato, the longest of the four, begins with one of Chopin’s most daring introductions, flirting with atonality. Incorporating counterpoint, this charming piece feels distant from what Chopin’s

contemporaries would have considered a mazurka. Harsh dissonance in the contrasting melody and modal inflections permeate the trio’s opening, and the main themes return in reverse order. The lengthy coda completely upsets the traditional proportions of the mazurka but provides a fitting close to the set. Chopin avoids a strong cadence at the end by creating a melody without accompaniment and concluding mysteriously on the dominant rather than on the more expected tonic.

Polonaise.” It is an extended work, built of long, elegant musical statements. It is the first of the three polonaises in which Chopin completely cast off any dancelike qualities. The melodies, presented in octaves, are commanding. In the contrasting middle section, Chopin utilizes another Polish dance, a mazurka, in place of the expected trio, in a unique fashion. Liszt called its mood idyllic and said it seems to “spread forth the scents of marjoram and mint.”

Polonaise in F-sharp minor, Op. 44

Through the years, Chopin’s mazurkas gradually changed in character.

They became progressively less literal echoes of a popular social dance and more nostalgic evocations of his birthplace; some consider them to be among his most original works. They are diverse in form, texture and expression, and in them, Chopin embraces a wide span of moods, much eloquence and emotion.

The three Mazurkas, Op. 50 were composed in 1842 at George Sand’s estate. These later mazurkas allowed Chopin to experiment with harmonic and melodic colors and textures, as well as with unusual rhythmic patterns and individualized, personal, expressive traits.

Mazurka No. 1, in G, Vivace, the shortest, is elegant and optimistic. It is a grand and noble mazurka, rich in melodic and harmonic invention. In the brief second theme, Chopin uses a kind of minor Lydian mode with a raised fourth creating both a sense of mystery and danger. Optimism quickly returns in this vibrant piece with its complex main theme.

Mazurka No. 2, in A flat, Allegretto, an introspective, tender mazurka, has an almost waltz-like elegant, flowing theme and a lighthearted center.

Its grace gives it an aristocratic feel.

Its trio is proud and poised, and the whole has a bright and positive feel.

Mazurka No. 3, in C-sharp minor, takes on the stylized Polish aspects of the mazurka. It includes the rhythmic and characteristic traits of three folkdances: the Mazur with its strong irregular accents and moderate tempo;

The polonaise, originally a stately court dance or a royal ceremonial march, was introduced to Poland by a French king who sat on the Polish throne in the 16th century. In the 18th century, the polonaise became popular in the West, but in the 19th century when it moved away from its dance origins, it became a musical symbol of the Poles’ struggle for independence. Although many composers wrote polonaises, Chopin is the composer inseparably linked with it. His mature polonaises became symbols of Polish nationalism for him and for his countrymen. Chopin returned to the form over the course of his life, developing its style and perfecting its form. Liszt observed that the energetic rhythms of Chopin’s polonaises “thrill and galvanize the torpor of our indifference.”

The polonaise usually appears in a moderate triple meter, characterized by its general lack of upbeats as well as its repeated rhythmic figures. It has a distinctive rhythm: an eighth note and two sixteenths are followed by four eighth notes. Chopin gave the form a new level of complexity and expression. J.G. Huneker called Chopin’s polonaises “heroic hymns of battle,” but while many do breathe a militant spirit, they are not battle cries; a melancholic, poetic spirit pervades them.

In Op. 44, in F-sharp minor, composed in 1840-1841 and dedicated to Madame La Princesse Charles de Beauvau née de Komar, a powerful expression of national feeling can be felt. Chopin wrote, “It is a kind of Fantasy in the form of a Polonaise, and I shall call it a

58 APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015

Three Mazurkas, Op. 50

Saturday, XXXXday, February XXX X, 7, 2015, X 8 p.m. p.m.

the Oberek, also with pronounced irregular accents, but with a fast tempo, and a spontaneous nature; and the Kujawiak, slow and with a singing nature, and more subtle accents.

No. 3 is the most substantial mazurka of the set and one of Chopin’s longest. Critics agree that with it, Chopin effectively redesigned the mazurka by combining folk rhythms with cultivated counterpoint, modal harmonies and chromatic writing. The beginning sounds very much like a fugue. The trio has an insistent rhythmic pattern, opening with what seems to be a continuous, never-ending phrase. Chopin sometimes reduces the texture to a single line and ends with a long coda in which he goes on a harmonic adventure into chromaticism before returning to the tonic.

Three Waltzes, Op. 64

When Chopin journeyed to Vienna, then the musical capital of his part of the world, the city was dancing the waltzes of the elder Johann Strauss. Chopin’s waltzes, written over the course of his career, have very little in common with those. Chopin disliked Viennese taste and wrote contemptuously to his family about the Viennese waltzes, which he found foreign to his nature. He seemed determined to reinvent the distinctive form in a way that reflected his own nature instead of conforming to the form of the dance vehicle to which he could not relate. Chopin’s waltzes can be more accurately described as “waltz-poems.”

Chopin designed his waltzes for aristocratic salons: his sophisticated works outwardly display glitter, but deeper and often melancholic feelings reside below the surface. These waltzes are frequently harmonically simpler than his other works. Most are in three-part form (ABA) form and are brilliant idealizations of the Viennese ballroom waltz or sometimes, when a performer prefers to stress their harmonies and rhythms, witty parodies of those dances.

The Waltzes, Op. 64, the last waltzes Chopin published (1847), were among his last works before his illness made composing impossible for him. Valse

in D flat major, No.1, Molto vivace, one of the shortest waltzes, known as the “Minute Waltz,” is also the most famous of Chopin’s waltzes. A very familiar work of much charm, it ranks among the best-loved pieces in the piano repertoire. Its energetic theme emerges from a group of four notes, a little melodic cell that takes its time becoming established as the melody. The contrasting middle section is a very graceful cantabile. Although written when health was becoming a major problem and his relationship with George Sand was disintegrating, the music is energetic and positive.

The Slavic sounding Waltz in C sharp minor, No. 2, Tempo giusto, is more subdued and suggests a nocturne in its lyrical main section with a bittersweet melancholic yearning. Commentators have noted that this waltz is the most poetic of Chopin’s waltzes and the most Slavic in both rhythm and temperament.

The remarkable, chromatic Waltz in A Flat Major, No. 3, Moderato, is seldom performed. Chopin’s final waltz, it has a charming theme subtly varied in shape and harmonic setting, and is elegant and finely constructed.

It has exquisite melodic lines and is graceful and light-hearted.

Nocturnes Op. 15, Nos. 2 and 3

In the 18th century the notturno (night piece) was a serenade, intended for a small ensemble, often of winds.

Notturni, normally three to five movements, were generally performed outdoors. Chopin did not base his Nocturnes on this model, instead taking his idea of the nocturne from those of the Irish composer, John Field (17821837) and the Polish pianist and composer, Maria Szymanowska (17891831). Chopin adapted the form to his own expressive purposes, ennobling it with breadth, passion and grandeur.

Chopin’s nocturnes are generally hushed reveries, quiet, reflective, poetic pieces in simple three-part form: the first part an elegant and often Italianate melody with an accompaniment; the second, contrasting and with more motion; the third, a varied

return of the first. The melody is usually decorated with grace notes, runs and elaborate ornamentation. Adapting the nocturne to his own purposes, Chopin often gave the central section a new key and new thematic material.

Chopin was especially concerned with the nocturne’s capacity to affect the emotions powerfully. D. G. Mason writes, “Chopin is one of the supreme masters in the coloristic use of the dissonance. His nocturnes may fairly be said to inaugurate by this means a new era in music, comparable in many respects to the era of impressionism in painting.”

The Nocturnes Op. 15 were published in 1834 and dedicated to the German pianist, composer and conductor Ferdinand Hiller, Mendelssohn’s close friend, who as a boy impressed Chopin with his great talent. In them, Chopin’s approach is more personal than in earlier works.

Franz Liszt said: “Chopin, in his poetic Nocturnes, sang not only the harmonies which are the source of our most ineffable delights, but likewise the restless, agitating bewilderment to which they often give rise.”

Nocturne in F Sharp Major, No. 2, Larghetto, composed in 1832, is complex and very beautiful: it is very original, tender and passionate, especially in its center section, set in an ambiguous tonality with both major and minor flavors. This gem has been said to be somewhat Eastern in character. Beginning with an open flowing melody, it presents many technical difficulties for performers. The 19th century German pianist/ teacher Theodor Kullak remarked that the return of the “heavenly opening theme touches one like a benediction.”

The Nocturne in G minor, No. 3, was inspired by a performance of Shakespeare’s Hamlet that Chopin attended. On the manuscript, Chopin inscribed, “After a performance of Hamlet,” only later to cross out the words, replacing them with the exclamation, “No! Let them guess for themselves!”

Here it has been presumed that Chopin reflects musically on Hamlet’s psychological journey, exploring the feverish realms of Hamlet’s despair. The

APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015 59

XXXday, Saturday,XXX February X, 2015, 7, X 2015, p.m.8 p.m.

opening, Languido e rubato, has an acute sensitivity to nuance of dynamics and articulation. The second section speeds along, incorporating a daring series of modulations. The ornaments are an integral part of Chopin’s melody, enriching it and extending it, functioning as a source of energy and variation.

The section builds to a climax; a more introspective passage follows, beginning with three bell-like tones, Religioso. Without a recapitulation, the piece ends with equanimity.

Three Mazurkas, Op. 59

These mazurkas progress from a strong opening piece to a simpler, song-like second one. The set culminates in a substantial, grandly conceived third work. Unity is maintained among the three through their tonal connections and similar textures.

No. 1, in A minor, is very chromatic, yet warm, rich and lyrical throughout.

The shortest, No. 2, in A-flat Major, a pleasant, good-natured piece, is

characterized by unusual and often unexpected subtleties: e.g., when the opening theme returns, its melody, slightly varied, appears in two voices, while in the recapitulation, the main theme is greatly condensed. The work highlights an exchange between the hands, a characteristic feature of Chopin’s mature style, while the transition to the coda demonstrates Chopin at his most chromatically creative.

The richly varied and noble No. 3, in F-sharp minor, feels at times like a waltz, at times like a polonaise. The transparent texture of the beginning becomes submerged in the work’s center as the left hand accompanying figure becomes subsumed by counterpoint. The main theme is a melody that spins out with seeming endlessness. Chopin includes chromaticism in some interesting, descending chords in the accompaniment, while the expressive melody forms the upper line. When Chopin brings back the opening material, he radically foreshortens it, giving the

60 APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015

effect of making the structure less stable. The piece ends with a lengthy coda, which also has a notable chromatic section. Here, Chopin gives the melody to the left hand while maintaining a moving upper line; he includes a new theme with a restricted range at the coda’s end.

Rondo à la Mazur, in F Major, Op. 5

Chopin’s Op. 1 is a Rondo written when he, at 15, began the serious study of composition. A year later, in 1826, he produced this “Rondo in the Manner of a Mazurka,” Op. 5. It is a virtuoso rondo, with its initial section repeated but with new sections presented between repetitions. It makes frequent use of the Lydian mode, the mode most often heard in Polish folk music. Characteristic of the mazurka is the frequent use of dotted rhythms; in this rondo, Chopin sometimes places dotted rhythms at the beginning of a measure but also on other beats as well. © Susan Halpern, 2014

Sunday, XXXXday, February XXX X, 8, 2015, X 3 p.m. p.m.

Piotr Gajewski, conductor

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2015, 3 P.M.

For Piotr Gajewski’s biography, please refer to page 29.

●

Brian Ganz, piano

The National Philharmonic Piotr Gajewski, Music Director and Conductor Presents

10th Anniversary Concert Beethoven’s Ninth Piotr Gajewski, conductor Brian Ganz, piano Summer Hu, cello Danielle Talamantes, soprano Margaret Mezzacappa, mezzo-soprano Colin Eaton, tenor Norman Garrett, baritone National Philharmonic Chorale

Strathmore Overture Andreas Makris

(1930-2005)

Variations on a Rococo Theme

for Cello and Orchestra, Op. 33

Moderato assai, quasi Andante – Thema – moderato semplice

Variation 1: Tempo della Thema

Variation 2: Tempo della Thema

Variation 3: Andante sostenuto

Variation 4: Andante grazioso

Variation 5: Allegro moderato

Variation 6: Andante

Variation 7 e coda: Allegro vivo

Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

Scherzo: Molto vivace-Presto-Molto vivace

Adagio molto e cantabileAndante moderato-Tempo Primo

Andante ModeratoAdagio-Lo Stesso Tempo

Margaret Mezzacappa, mezzo-soprano

Allegro assai Sponsor: Ingleside at King Farm

TALAMANTES PHOTO BY ROY COX

Summer Hu is a recent graduate from the Curtis Institute of Music, where she studied with Peter Wiley.

Hu is substitute cellist with the Philadelphia Orchestra and an intern at Citibank China while pursuing a master’s degree from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Hu is from Potomac and started studying piano at age 3 and cello at age 5.

“It’s not often that a fortunate operagoer witnesses the birth of a star!” the Livermore (Calif.) Independent noted of Danielle Talamantes’ role debut as Violetta in La traviata.

In the 2014-2015 season, Talamantes debuts as Frasquita in Bizet’s Carmen in a return to The Metropolitan Opera.

INTERMISSION

Summer Hu, cello

Danielle Talamantes,soprano

Introduction and Grande Polonaise Brillante Frédéric Chopin (1810-1840)

Symphony No. 9 in D minor, “Choral,” Op.125 Allegro ma non troppo, un poco maestoso

For Brian Ganz’s biography, please refer to page 57.

Supported in part by the Robin and Paul Perito Vocal Guest Artist Fund All Kids, All Free, All The Time is sponsored by The Gazette and the Dieneke Johnson Fund The Music Center at Strathmore Marriott Concert Stage

A graduate of the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia, Margaret Mezzacappa received a bachelor’s degree in music performance from Baldwin-Wallace College Conservatory of Music.

APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015 61

Mezzacappa’s roles at the Academy of Vocal Arts her roles have included Cuniza in Oberto, Mother’s Voice in Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Adelaide in Arabella, La zia Principessa in Suor Angelica, Frugola in Il tabarro, Azucena in excerpts from Il trovatore, and Mistress Quickly in Falstaff.

Colin Eaton, tenor

“Commanding tenor” (The Washington Post) Colin Eaton has appeared in Treemonisha with the Municipal Opera Company of Baltimore and in Pinocchio with the Opera Theatre of Northern Virginia.

Eaton is a native of East Palo Alto, Calif., and received his early music training at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Fla.

Norman Garrett, baritone

American baritone Norman Garrett, a native of Lubbock, Texas, is a recent alumnus of the DomingoCafritz Young Artist Program at Washington National Opera.

Highlights of Garrett’s 2014-2015 season include Ríolobo in Daniel Catán’s Florencia in the Amazon at Washington National Opera and his Lyric Opera of Chicago company debut as Jake in Porgy and Bess, both directed by Francesca Zambello.

Program Notes Strathmore Overture

Andreas Makris Born March 7, 1930, in Salonika, Greece; died Feb. 3, 2005, in Silver Spring, Md.

Andreas Makris served for many years as violinist in the National Symphony Orchestra as well as its

composer-in-residence. It is telling that the famed cellist and former music director of the National Symphony, Mstislav Rostropovich, who has worked with the likes of Dmitri Shostakovich and Sergei Prokofiev, commissioned more works from Makris than from any other composer, stating once: “In my opinion, Makris is a great composer.”

Makris and National Philharmonic Music Director Piotr Gajewski forged a friendship over many years, and Makris composed several works for the Philharmonic. The Strathmore Overture was commissioned by Gajewski and the National Philharmonic for the Feb. 12, 2005 gala concert at the Music Center at Strathmore; it was the Philharmonic’s first public appearance in the new Music Center. The overture was completed on March 14, 2004 and named to celebrate the opening of the new concert hall. Tragically, Andreas Makris died suddenly just a few days before the premiere. He provided the following notes just days before his passing: “The work is about four to five minutes long; it starts with a slow opening, but with a rather aggressive and pointed texture. After a short development of the opening theme, there is a clarinet cadenza. From there on, the music becomes more robust with emphasis on different rhythms. The development of this new theme is shortly interrupted with material from the slow movement. Then the music rushes uninterrupted, with a fast texture, up to the end like a rushing cascade.”

Notes by Sara Coffey Variations on a Rococo Theme, for Cello and Orchestra, Op. 33

Pitor Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Born May 7, 1840, in Votkinsk, Russia; died Nov. 6, 1893, in St. Petersburg

Among Tchaikovsky’s colleagues on the faculty of the Moscow Conservatory was the German-born cellist Wilhelm Fitzenhagen (1848-1890), for whom, in December 1876, Tchaikovsky wrote the Variations on a Rococo Theme. It was first performed Nov. 30, 1877. With its graceful main

62 APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015

theme and resourceful invention, it remains one of Tchaikovsky’s most popular pieces.

Tchaikovsky probably did not intend the adjective “rococo” to signify specifically the mid-18th century style of art, architecture and music. In his time, this term was often loosely applied to almost anything ornately decorated and old-fashioned. In fact, these variations are Tchaikovsky’s homage to the spirit of Mozart, his favorite composer of the past, and the “rococo theme” is an example of how Tchaikovsky saw or heard the past filtered through his Russian and Romantic sensibilities.

He composed the theme as a variation subject, and its stability and symmetry predominate all through the work. To avoid the composition’s being static, which can be the great danger in writing variations, Tchaikovsky worked out an original formal scheme.

He began conventionally enough with a short introduction for orchestra and the soloist’s statement of the theme, and then separated and spaced the variations with orchestral interludes.

Perhaps, as contemporary accounts have hinted, Fitzenhagen was not quite up to the demands of the new Tchaikovsky work. A composer himself, Fitzenhagen decided to alter the work by adding repeats to the easier opening solo passages, rewriting several passages, rearranging the sequence of variations and eliminating the final and most difficult variation. Surprisingly, although Tchaikovsky was not content with these alterations, he allowed Fitzenhagen’s version to be published.

The work contains contrasting sections, heard without pause between them. First comes a gentle Moderato semplice assai quasi Andante, an orchestral introduction, the only place in the work where an extended passage without the cello, the solo instrument, exists. The first variation, Tempo del tema, gives the soloist some busy Rococo-style figurations, and while this variation seems far from the theme, the second Tempo del tema more closely matches the original. Variation III, Andante sostenuto, the longest variation,

GARRETT PHOTO BY ARIELLE DONESON

XXXday, Sunday, February XXX X, 2015, 8, 2015, X p.m.

3 p.m.

Sunday, XXXXday, February XXX X, 8, 2015, X 3 p.m. p.m.

is a waltz. Variation IV begins Andante grazioso, and includes much quick solo passage-work. In Variation V, Allegro moderato, the flute joins the cello both in the first half and then again, near the conclusion. A cello cadenza follows this variation, and then Variation VI, a minor-key lament, Andante, with a melodic cello theme against pizzicato strings with clarinet and flute interjections, follows. With the last variation, VII, Allegro vivo, Tchaikovsky builds momentum for the coda. © Susan Halpern Grande Polonaise Brillante, Op. 22

Frédéric Chopin

Born ca. March 1, 1810, in Zelazowa Wola, Poland; died Oct. 17, 1840, in Paris

In 1831, when he arrived in Paris, Chopin completed the composition of Grande Polonaise Brillante for piano and orchestra. Not even his greatest admirers have ever claimed that Chopin wrote particularly well for orchestra, but at that time, the quality of the orchestral accompaniment was not a critically important matter. A light background appropriate to Chopin’s own style of piano performance was what was needed and what he wrote. He placed the emphasis on his piano technique, and it varied greatly within a small range: it was fleet, fluid, light in touch, yet small in tone.

The polonaise began as a peasant dance and evolved into a sophisticated salon dance. In the Grande Polonaise Brillante, Chopin gave new character to the style of the dance, expanding the form from the small pieces he had previously written by that name. Here he highlighted the virtuoso elements and increased the dimensions of the work. The piece has a three-part scheme with binary form in the Polonaise proper. The orchestral part had such little importance for the effect that Chopin intended to create that he often played the Polonaise as an unaccompanied piano solo. © Susan Halpern

Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125

Ludwig van Beethoven

Born Dec. 16, 1770, in Bonn, Germany; died March 26, 1827, in Vienna, Austria

Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, a paean to the brotherhood of man and a work of great optimism, is one of the cornerstones of the history of European music. In it, Beethoven celebrates the potential of mankind. Historically, this symphony, Beethoven’s last, allowed him to look back at the demise of Napoleon and ahead with prophetic vision and sanguinity to a time of peace when, metaphorically, all men would be brothers.

Symphony No. 9 required a long period of gestation. Beethoven’s first eight symphonies had been produced in the 12 years that began the century, but between them and the ninth, another 12 needed to elapse. The earliest mention of what would evolve into this symphony occurred in 1793 when Beethoven announced he wanted to set to music the Ode to Joy, by the contemporary German playwright and poet Friedrich Schiller. Yet it took almost 30 years before Beethoven outlined the last movement of the symphony, using this text for a choral setting with vocal soloists and orchestra.

Beethoven’s sketchbooks evidence thoughts and actual work on this symphony as early as 1812, when the composer was still completing the previous two symphonies, and in 1815, he wrote the fugue subject for the theme that was to be the Scherzo of the Ninth Symphony. Music historians think his Missa Solemnis, Op. 123, gave him motivation to write what he imagined would be a “religious symphony,” as the idea of using a chorus began to form. He knew his new music was to require new subjects, new forms and new powers of creation because the works of his middle years had exhausted for him all the possibilities of the classical forms he had inherited from Haydn and Mozart.

Beethoven began the composition of his last and longest symphony in earnest around 1817, although he actually did most of the writing of it in the year and a half of late 1822 and 1823, finishing it

in 1824. In April 1822, his pupil Ferdinand Ries inquired of the London Philharmonic Society how much it would offer him for his new symphony. The Society offered 50 pounds for the work, with several conditions: that Beethoven deliver it in March 1823, and that the Society have the exclusive performance rights for a year and a half. Beethoven agreed and accepted payment but did not comply with the agreement.

At the time, the success of Rossini’s music in Vienna rankled Beethoven and he resolved that his new symphony must be first performed elsewhere. However, when a large group of professional and amateur musicians petitioned him to allow his own city of Vienna to hear his new work first, he was touched and relented. His friends soon issued an announcement that a concert, with Herr Beethoven personally taking part in its direction, would take place on May 7, 1824, nearly a year before it was heard in London. The works to be performed were Beethoven’s Grand Overture (The Consecration of the House, Op. 124) and three hymns with solo and choral voices (the Kyrie, Credo and Agnus Dei from Missa Solemnis) as well as a new symphony with solo and choral voices in the finale, on Schiller’s ode, To Joy (the Ninth Symphony, Op. 125).

Beethoven’s innovation at the beginning of the first movement, the enigmatic open fifths which grow imperceptibly out of stillness, have been likened to the “darkness and void before creation.”

After the initial growth from nothingness, an agitated, dramatic, often mysterious or questioning mood takes over in this serious first movement, Allegro ma non troppo, un poco maestoso. Fragments of themes slowly metamorphose into the main theme, followed by a concentrated development and coda.

The second movement, Molto vivace, Presto, Molto vivace, is a scherzo in sonata form, the only scherzo in all Beethoven’s symphonies that precedes, rather than follows, the slow movement. It has a fugal exposition, but no ordinary one. Each of the themes and counter themes share almost the same rhythm. The main section of this

APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015 63

XXXday, Sunday, February XXX X, 2015, 8, 2015, X p.m.

3 p.m.

“Ode to Joy” from Symphony No. 9 in D minor

Recitative: Baritone

O Freunde, nicht diese Töne!

Sondern lasst uns angenehmere anstimmen, und freudenvollere.

Allegro assai: Soloists and Chorus

Freude, schöner, Götterfunken, Tochter aus Elysium, Wir betreten feuertrunken, Himmlische, dein Heiligtum!

Deine Zauber binden wieder, Was die Mode streng geteilt; Alle Menschen werden Brüder, Wo dein sanfter Flügel weilt.

Wem der grosse Wurf gelungen, Eines Freundes Freund zu sein, Wer ein holdes Weib errungen, Mische seinen Jubel ein!

Ja, wer auch nur eine Seele Sein nennt auf dem Erdenrund!

Und wer’s nie gekonnt, der stehle Weinend sich aus diesem Bund.

O friends--not these sounds! Let us bring up more pleasant, more joyful ones.

Joy, beautiful, divine, spark, daughter of Elysium, transported by your flame, we rise.

Yours is the holiness of heaven. Your magic brings together again those whom social custom has parted. All people become brothers where your sweet bird flies.

Those to whom true friendship and happy marriage are given may join in jubilation, and, yes, whoever calls just one soul on the earth’s sphere his own. Whoever cannot, let him creep, weeping, out of our circle.

Freude trinken alle Wesen Nature nurses every creature with joy.

An den Brüsten der Natur, All the good and all the wicked alike seek Alle Guten, alle Bösen out her rosy scent. She gave us kisses and Folgen ihrer Rosenspur. wine and friendship that stands the test of Küsse gab sie uns und Reben, death. Pleasure is granted even to the worm Einen Freund, geprüft im Tod, —and the cherub stands before God. Wollust ward dem Wurm gegeben, Und der Cherub steht vor Gott.

Allegro assai vivace. Alla marcia: Tenor and Chorus

Froh, wie seine Sonnen fliegen Durch des Himmels prächt’gen Plan, Wandelt, Brüder, eure Bahn, Freudig wie ein Held sum Siegen.

Freude, schöner, Götterfunken, etc.

Seid umschlungen, Millionen!

Diesen Kuss der ganzen Welt!

Brüder - überm Sternenzelt Muss ein lieber Vater wohnen.

Ihr stürzt nieder, Millionen?

Ahnest du den Schöpfer, Welt?

Such ihn überm Sternenzelt! Über Sternen muss er wohnen.

Freude, schöner Götterfunken, etc.

Seid umschlungen, Millionen! etc.

Ihr stürzt nieder, Millionen? etc.

Freude, Tochter aus Elysium, etc.

Happy as the sun flying through the splendor of heaven, travel your path, brothers, joyful as a champion on his way to victory.

Joy, beautiful glimmer of God, etc.

Andante maestoso: Chorus

You are embraced, you millions!

This is a kiss from the whole world!

Brothers, a beloved father must live above the canopy of stars.

Adagio ma non troppo, ma divoto: Chorus

Are you kneeling, you millions? Do you know the creator, O world? Look for him above the firmament! He must live above the stars!

Allegro energico, sempre ben marcata: Chorus

Joy, beautiful glimmer of God, etc.

Embrace the millions, etc.

Are you kneeling, etc.

Allegro ma non tanto: Soloists and Chorus

Joy, daughter of Elysium, etc.

Prestissimo: Chorus

Seid umschlungen, Millionen! etc. You are embraced, you millions! etc.

64 APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015

unusually dark scherzo, Molto vivace, is based principally on an arresting rhythmic pattern that is driven home with most striking effect when it is heard as a solo on the timpani and then is treated as a five-voice fugue. The contrasting trio section, Presto, is more frolicsome and lighter in temperament. It recurs twice, between repetitions of the section, then, in abbreviated form, brings the movement to a close.

The third movement is a model of serenity. It presents two themes, a slow Adagio molto e cantabile, a very melodic subject alternating with a moving and romantic theme, Andante moderato, and then variations on each theme. Overall, this movement has a quiet lyricism that contrasts with all the other movements in the symphony.

Many Beethoven analysts have tried to establish the theory that each of the first three movements derives from one main theme or motif. The French composer d’Indy pointed out: “All the typical themes of the symphony present the arpeggio of the chords of D or B flat, the two tonal bases of the work; one might, therefore, consider this arpeggio as the real cyclic theme of the work.”

In the fourth movement the symphony’s message finally emerges, as Beethoven’s biographer, Maynard Solomon, put it, “from powerful opposing forces—from the tragic, frenzied and probing modalities of its earlier movements— and by grafting the cantata form into the sonata cycle.” It reaches its climax and “succeeds, primarily, because of the rich ambiguity of a message that manages to transcend the particularities of its origin and to arrive at a set of universal paradigms.”

This memorable movement makes the dramatic transition from instrumental to choral work. Jonathan Kramer noted that the unusual form of the last movement is “an experiment in combining different traditional forms into a single movement: sonata, variations, cantata, concerto, fugue and opera. It is a complete four-movement symphony in miniature, onto which is grafted the outlines of sonata form. The sonata’s exposition is a set of variations, its

Sunday, XXXXday, February XXX X, 8, 2015, X 3 p.m. p.m.

development is a fugue, and its coda is an operatic finale.”

The final movement’s long introduction serves as a link between the first three movements and the concluding one. After an initial dissonant fanfare, the principal themes of the first three movements each reappear fleetingly before the main theme, on which the finale is based, appears as a recitative in the cellos and basses. Beethoven has created a mammoth set of variations on what is actually a simple theme.

First it is articulated without words.

After the orchestra creates a fierce and unsettling clamor, the low strings intone this noble main theme of the movement, and this theme repeats several times, each time with more instruments added, until the entire orchestra joins in with its majesty. The opening returns yet again, and this time the baritone recitative follows. His words are not Schiller’s, but Beethoven’s own as he sets the stage with a rebuke: “O, friends, not these sounds! Let us sing

something more pleasant, more full of gladness!” What come next as the chorus enters are the words of Schiller’s Ode, which Beethoven adopts to express his ideas of human brotherhood and the joy it releases.

When the second theme would naturally appear, the theme transforms into a Turkish march, a style popular since Mozart’s time, which has a distinctive “Turkish” sound produced by the triangle, cymbals and bass drum. Then the chorus and orchestra add another variation to the Ode to Joy theme before a break, after which comes the fugue, whose themes then combine before the ending section commences. With great emotional depth and tremendous intensity, the symphony concludes with a double fugue for the chorus and a jubilant and triumphant operatic finale of joy and praise. Nietzsche, the philosopher, paraphrased Schiller’s words as Beethoven used them: “Now that the gospel of universal harmony is sounded, each individual becomes not only

reconciled to his fellow but actually at one with him.”

When Beethoven planned the symphony, he had thought of ending it with a purely instrumental movement for which he even made some sketches, but he used them later in the finale of his Quartet in A minor, Op. 132. After much working and reworking, Beethoven decided not to set the Schiller poem to music, but to rearrange the text to suit his musical and dramatic intentions. Schiller’s To Joy, or Ode to Joy as it is often called in English, is a poem of five 12-line stanzas, each stanza having a 12-line and an eight-line section, written when Schiller was only 25. In the opening chorus, in accordance with his own poetic vision, Beethoven runs together the 12-line sections of the first three stanzas. The text of the tenor solo, which follows, is the six-line section from the fourth stanza. © Susan Halpern

PROFILE | DENTISTS

ADVERTISEMENT

Jay Samuels, DDS, PA 11140 Rockville Pike, Suite 510, N. Bethesda, MD 20852 301-881-4200 | drj@drjsamuels.com www.drjsamuels.com

What is the one thing that your patients should know about you?

We pride ourselves in comprehensive, whole-patient dentistry. Advanced studies in cosmetic, implant and restorative dentistry keep us on top of oral health care, and focused on preventative measures against larger, costlier procedures.

TONY LEWIS JR

What makes you different than others in your profession?

We capture the art and science of dentistry—keeping up with the latest dental technologies, while enhancing the nature and beauty of our patients’ smiles.

The dental office does not have to be a frightening place or an emergency clinic where we just fix things that cause pain. We create a relaxing environment and focus on preventative measures to help patients keep a natural, healthy smile for many years.

Nothing makes us happier than seeing a face light up after we fix broken, worn or misaligned teeth. The confidence we see when our patients show their smile makes us smile!

APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015 65

Thursday, February 12, 2015, 8 p.m., and Friday, February 13, 2015, 8:15 p.m.

● Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Marin Alsop, Music Director Presents

All-Bach

Thursday, Feb. 12, 2015, 8 P.M. and

Off the Cuff: The Bach Family Friday, Feb. 13, 2015, 8:15 P.M. Nicholas McGegan, conductor Jonathan Carney, violin Madeline Adkins, violin Rui Du, violin Dariusz Skoraczewski, cello Emily Skala, flute Michael Lisicky, oboe

Orchestral Suite No. 4 Johann Sebastian Bach

in D Major, BWV 1069 (1685-1750) Overture

Bourrée I & II Gavotte Minuet Rejouissance

Concerto for Two Violins

in D minor, BWV 1043

Vivace

Largo ma non tanto Allegro

Jonathan Carney

Madeline Adkins

Johann Sebastian Bach

INTERMISSION

Symphony in E-Flat Major, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach

Wq 179 (H. 654) (1714-1788) Prestissimo Larghetto Presto Sinfonia Concertante for Flute, Oboe, Johann Christian Bach

Violin and Cello in C Major, C. 43 (1735-1782)

Allegro Larghetto Allegretto

Rui Du

Dariusz Skoraczewski

Emily Skala

Michael Lisicky Please note that the Off the Cuff concert will include excerpts from Orchestral Suite No. 4 in D Major, Symphony in E-Flat Major, Sinfonia Concertante for Flute, Oboe, Violin and Cello in C Major, and Concerto for Two Violins in D minor.

The Off the Cuff performance does not include an intermission.

The Music Center at Strathmore Marriott Concert Stage

66 APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015

Nicholas McGegan, conductor For Nicholas McGegan’s biography, please refer to page 22.

Jonathan Carney, violin

BSO Concertmaster Jonathan Carney is in his 14th season with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra after 12 seasons in the same position with London’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. After completing his studies with Ivan Galamian and Christine Dethier, he was awarded a Leverhulme Fellowship to continue his studies in London at the Royal College of Music.

Solo performances have included concertos by Bruch, Korngold, Khatchaturian, Sibelius, Nielsen, the Brahms Double Concerto and Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending, which was featured as a live BBC broadcast from London’s Barbican Hall. He has made a number of recordings, including concertos by Mozart, Vivaldi and Nielsen, sonatas by Brahms, Beethoven and Franck, and a disc of virtuoso works by Sarasate and Kreisler with his mother Gloria Carney as pianist.

Madeline Adkins, violin

Madeline Adkins was appointed to the position of associate concertmaster of the BSO by Maestro Yuri Temirkanov in 2005. She has appeared frequently as soloist with the BSO, performing works by Beethoven, Vaughan Williams, Bach, Mendelssohn, Mozart and Prokofiev. Adkins also performs as concertmaster of the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra. She has served as guest concertmaster of the Hong Kong Philharmonic, the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, the Oregon Symphony and the Grant Park Symphony Orchestra in Chicago, as well as concertmaster of the Tanglewood

CARNEY PHOTO BY CHRIS LEE, ADKINS PHOTO BY CASSIDY DUHON

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2015, 8 P.M. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2015, 8:15 P.M.

Thursday, February 12, 2015, 8 p.m., and Friday, February 13, 2015, 8:15 p.m.

Music Center Orchestra under Seiji Ozawa. Adkins won first prize in a number of competitions, including the Stulberg International String Competition, the ASTA National Solo Competition, and the New England Conservatory Concerto Competition.

Rui Du, violin

Rui Du joined the BSO in 2012 as fourth chair first violin, and was soon after appointed acting assistant concertmaster. He was formerly concertmaster of the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra, and also served as associate concertmaster of the Aspen Festival Orchestra for two years at the Aspen International Music Festival and School. He has won numerous violin competitions, including the Grand Prix at the 2006 Canetti International Violin Competition in France, and has performed as a soloist with orchestras in concert halls throughout the world, including those in Turkey, Singapore and Shanghai.

SKORACZEWSKI AND SKALA PHOTOS BY CHRISTIAN COLBERG

Dariusz Skoraczewski, cello

Principal Cello Dariusz Skoraczewski has delighted audiences of many concert halls in America and Europe with his great artistic and technical command. As a soloist he performed with numerous orchestras in the U.S. including the Montgomery Symphony, Alexandria Symphony, Arlington Philharmonic, Lancaster Symphony and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. As a chamber musician, Skoraczewski has appeared in many chamber music concert series, including the Candlelight Series, Music at the Great Hall in Baltimore and the Barge Music Festival in New York City. In November 2005, he gave his Carnegie Hall debut, which was sponsored by the La Gesse Foundation.

Emily Skala, flute

Emily Skala’s passion for the flute has led her all over the country and beyond. Her range of experiences encompasses engagements long and short with nine professional orchestras on three continents. Her critically acclaimed CD of music by Brahms and Schubert (Summit Records, 2001) is frequently aired on radio stations nationwide: “Emily Skala, brings ... conviction and sensitivity to these sonatas, not to mention superb articulation and intonation ...The subtle, prismatic glow of Skala’s tone and, above all, the deep warmth of her phrasing matches ... anything (the clarinet and viola) can achieve ...” (Baltimore Sun, 2002).

Skala has appeared as soloist with such internationally renowned maestri as Marin Alsop, Juanjo Mena, David Zinman and Mario Venzago.

Michael Lisicky, oboe

Michael Lisicky has been performing with the BSO since 2003, and has been praised by critics for his “magical nuances” (Baltimore Sun), “tonal purity” (Richmond Times-Dispatch) and “quite wonderful musicianship” (The Boston Globe). Before coming to Baltimore, he was a member of the Richmond Symphony. While in Richmond, Lisicky served on the faculty of the University of Richmond and performed as a soloist with the RSO on six occasions. A graduate of the New England Conservatory, he studied with Alfred Genovese, John deLancie, Peter Bowman and Marion Norcross. He is also an English hornist and founding member of Trio La Milpa, an oboe trio comprised of himself, BSO Principal Oboe Katherine Needleman and his wife Sandra Gerster. In August 2007, the trio became the first American ensemble to tour Greenland.

Program Notes Orchestral Suite No. 4 in D Major, BWV 1069 Concerto for Two Violins in D minor, BWV 1043

Johann Sebastian Bach

Born March 21, 1685, in Eisenach, Thuringia, now Germany; died July 28, 1750, in Leipzig, Saxony

In the intellectual rigor of his fugues and the spiritual depth of his passions and cantatas, J. S. Bach seems to represent the loftiest state to which music can aspire. But this formidable German had his lighter side as well, and his four orchestral suites show him as a master entertainer, wielding the courtly dance forms of his day with wit and panache.

Scholars are still not sure when and where the Suites were written. Their secular nature and courtly style would seem to place them in the period of 1717 to 1723 when Bach served as Kapellmeister at the princely court of Cöthen and primarily created secular instrumental works, notably the six Brandenburg Concertos. But Prince Leopold’s orchestra was of modest size and presumably unable to provide the exceptionally sumptuous complement of three trumpets required by Suites 3 and 4. Therefore, though Bach may have composed earlier versions of these works at Cöthen, most likely the Suite we hear tonight was created in the late 1720s or early 1730s during his long service in Leipzig.

In addition to his primary duties providing music for St. Thomas Church in Leipzig, from 1729 to 1737 Bach directed that city’s Collegium Musicum, a voluntary association of professional musicians and university students. The Collegium gave weekly concerts—in summer in an outdoor square and in winter at Zimmermann’s coffee house.

Here Bach could put aside sacred texts and exercise his secular genius.

The festive quality of the suite comes from the opening Overture’s connection with Christmas: this music was also used for the first movement of Bach’s Cantata No. 110, “Unser Mund sei voll Lachens” (“Our

APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015 67

Thursday, February 12, 2015, 8 p.m., and Friday, February 13, 2015, 8:15 p.m.

mouths shall be filled with laughter”), composed for the Christmas Day service. And the Suite closes not with a traditional dance but with an exuberant movement called in French “Réjouissance” (“Rejoicing”).

Like all the Orchestral Suites, No. 4 opens with the traditional Overture, by far the longest movement.

In the French style, this is proud and stately music built on elegant dotted rhythms. The lighter middle section is a bouncing triple-beat dance similar to a gigue in character. Especially striking in this Overture is how Bach plays off the contrasting colors of his large ensemble against each other.

Instead of the traditional formal dances that usually comprised the Baroque suite, here Bach opts for lighter alternative dances known as galanterien. So we hear a pair of high-spirited Bourées; an elegant, highly rhythmic Gavotte with charming antiphonal effects; and a pair of very rapid Minuets omitting the trumpets and timpani.

The second Minuet is for strings only and features an odd-couple duet between the first violins and cellos. The concluding “Réjouissance” is a tour de force of joyous rhythmic games.

Concerto for Two Violins

At Cöthen, Bach created much of his finest secular instrumental music, including concertos for solo instruments in the manner of Vivaldi. Since these were intended as ephemeral pieces to be quickly replaced by newer concertos, only a few survive today. In fact, we would not have the superb Concerto for Two Violins in D minor if Bach had not later arranged it for two harpsichords in Leipzig in the early 1730s; fortunately, the original violin parts were preserved as well.

Bach had closely studied the music of Vivaldi and the other Italian masters, and he took Vivaldi’s concerto form of three movements in fast-slowfast tempos and enriched it with his own stronger contrapuntal and architectural gifts. The Baroque concerto placed far less emphasis on virtuoso solo display than would the concertos of the Classical and Romantic periods.

Movement one opens with an elaborate tutti emphasizing rich contrapuntal play between the orchestral string parts.

Thus, the soloists present the illusion of less complexity as well as welcome airiness when they enter. The tutti and the soloists each have distinct themes: the orchestra’s beginning with a rising fournote scale, the soloists’ with descending scales and angular upward leaps.

Focusing on the soloists, the slow movement is one of the most sublime movements Bach ever wrote: a love duet in which the two violins curve around each other in dance-like imitative phrases. The poignant expressiveness of this music derives from the stings of dissonance between the instruments resolving into sweet consonance.

The lively third movement is one of Bach’s most ingenious. Here the roles of soloists and orchestra are sometimes reversed so that the soloists lead the opening tutti and then later imitate an orchestral accompaniment with energetic chords. And in his 3/4 meter, Bach happily accents any beat, or portion thereof, in an infectious display of rhythmic vivacity.

Symphony in E-flat Major, Wq 179

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach Born March 8, 1714, in Weimar, Germany; died Dec. 14, 1788, in Hamburg, Germany

The thoroughly cosmopolitan C.P.E. Bach was the most successful and prolific of all Johann Sebastian Bach’s musical sons. Boasting a university education in the law and humanities from the Universities of Leipzig and Frankfurt, he borrowed from the latest French and Italian styles to keep his music au courant with the times.

For nearly 30 years, he served at the Berlin court of Frederick the Great of Prussia, a hotbed of cultural and especially musical life in mid-18th-century Europe. Frederick was a keen amateur flutist, who performed at concerts several times a week, usually with C.P.E. as his keyboard accompanist. Regarded as the leading exponent of the North German empfindsamer Stil or “sensitive style,” C.P.E. wrote music that is much lighter and more entertaining than his

68 APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015

father’s. The empfindsamer Stil was borrowed from the French taste for music influenced by literature. In his solo keyboard and orchestral music, C.P.E. transferred this approach from vocal music to instrumental music—music expressing emotions without words.

He was also a pioneer in the still very young genre of the concert. Rather brief in comparison to later symphonies and always in three movements—fast-slowfast—these works were nevertheless considerable advances on the Italian sinfonia of the Baroque period. In the words of Bach scholar Christoph Wolff, a C.P.E. symphony “must sound arresting and audacious in its first movement, meditatively beautiful in its second, and cheerful or innocent in its third.”

These words perfectly describe the Symphony in E-flat Major, composed for the Berlin court orchestra in 1757.

The first movement seizes our attention at once with its furious ascending and descending theme for the violins, delivered at a breakneck Prestissimo tempo. Many passages played together in unison underline the intensity of this high-octane music, which only eases occasionally for some gently plaintive responses in the strings.

C.P.E. liked to link his movements together, and so a transitional passage bridges directly to the second movement. This subtle Larghetto in G minor for the strings alone epitomizes the “sensitive style.” Here the composer makes wonderful use of dissonance to color the melodic line; considerable rhythmic freedom within and between each instrumental part also contributes to the expressive clashes. Again the close of this movement prepares the way for the next.

The last movement is much simpler: a jaunty hunting-theme finale on a galloping-horses rhythm.

Sinfonia Concertante for Flute, Oboe, Violin and Cello in C Major

Johann Christian Bach

Born Sept. 5, 1735, in Leipzig, Saxony; died Jan. 1, 1782, in London

Johann Christian Bach was Johann Sebastian’s youngest son, born when

Thursday, February 12, 2015, 8 p.m., and Friday, February 13, 2015, 8:15 p.m.

his father was 50 and thus a composer of the Classical era of Haydn and Mozart rather than of the Baroque. When his father died in 1750, the adolescent J.C. moved to Berlin to live with his brother C.P.E., 21 years his senior, and also studied with him. But unlike his father and brother, his career would be made outside of Germany.

After beginning his career in Italy, he arrived in London in 1762 to fulfill an operatic commission. His operatic career flourished, and he stayed on in that city for the rest of his life, becoming known as “the London Bach.”

His subscription concerts there with the viola da gambist Carl Friedrich Abel attracted the British aristocracy and even the royal family for nearly two decades.

In 1764, the 8-year-old Mozart and his father arrived in London to demonstrate his prodigious keyboard talent and developed an instant friendship with J.C. Bach. Mozart adored the amiable composer both for his

warm personality and for his charming music, and they remained in contact for the rest of J.C.’s life. Upon hearing of Bach’s death in 1782, Mozart exclaimed that this was “a loss to the musical world” and promptly memorialized J.C. in his Piano Concerto No. 12.

Mozart also honored J.C. Bach by composing two Sinfonia concertantes, inspired by J.C.’s love of this genre, a mixture of symphony and concerto that somewhat resembles the Baroque concerto grosso for groups of soloists (epitomized by J.S. Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos). During the 1770s, J.C. composed more than dozen works in this style, designed to feature many of the leading London soloists who appeared at his Bach-Abel concerts.

J.C. Bach was a master of the midcentury galant style: music intended to be pleasing, elegant, witty, and tuneful, without too much complexity. And we hear all these qualities in his Sinfonia Concertante in C Major, which with its mixed pairs of soloists—two woodwinds, two

PROFILE | FINANCIAL PROFESSIONALS

strings—also demonstrates his fine ear for instrumental colors. Its vivacious Allegro first movement is launched by a bold flourish in unison proclaiming the chord of C major, which will be the movement’s most prominent motive. Also listen for the beautifully colored second theme introduced by clarinets and bassoons.

J.C. was famous in his day for the beauty and sensitivity of his slow movements as the Larghetto second movement in F major demonstrates.

He chose the oboe with its poignantly expressive tone to introduce the lovely, gracious main theme. This movement, however, is particularly striking for the many luscious dueting passages created for each solo pair.

The soloists acting together as a quartet present the finale’s cheerful refrain theme. In between its many returns, the soloists are given finely crafted opportunities to show off their individual brilliance.

Notes by Janet E. Bedell © 2014 ADVERTISEMENT

What makes your client experience unique?

Each of our clients has a professional team of two certified financial planners, plus the firm’s director of investments, working for them. A paraplanner, an individual on his or her way to earning a CFP, and other support staff also contribute.

This breadth of expertise allows us to perform not only the traditional reviews of retirement, estate, insurance and tax planning in concert with an investment plan, it also facilitates full understanding of unique circumstances. In recent years, one of our colleagues, Stacy Bakri, earned the designation of Certified Divorce Financial Analyst™ from the Institute for Divorce Financial Analysts. Adding this specialization has enabled us to offer guidance about tax and other consequences of various settlement options.

Nathan Gendelman, President and

JAMES KIM

Director of Investments The Family Firm

8120 Woodmont Ave., #630, Bethesda, MD 20814 301-656-3999 | www.familyfirm.com

What brings you the most satisfaction in your work?

Developing realistic, achievable roadmaps to financial success is very rewarding, as is the implementation of customized investment strategies.

APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015 69

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2015, 8 P.M.

● Strathmore Presents

John Pizzarelli & Jane Monheit The Music Center at Strathmore Marriott Concert Stage

John Pizzarelli

Using performers like Nat “King” Cole, Frank Sinatra, and João Gilberto and the songs of composers from Richard Rodgers to Lennon & McCartney as touchstones, jazz guitarist and singer John Pizzarelli has established himself as one of the prime interpreters of the Great American Songbook.

Pizzarelli started playing guitar at age 6, following in the tradition of his father, Bucky Pizzarelli. After playing in pickup groups and garage bands through high school he began exploring jazz with his father as a teenager, and was able to perform with Benny Goodman, Les Paul, Zoot Sims, Clark Terry, and Slam Stewart. John Pizzarelli went out on his own after recording My Blue Heaven for Chesky Records in 1990, then toured extensively, playing clubs and concert halls, opening for such greats as Dave Brubeck, Ramsey Lewis, and Rosemary Clooney.

In 1993, he was honored to open for Frank Sinatra’s international tour and

then joined in the celebration for his 80th birthday at Carnegie Hall.

In addition to being a bandleader and solo performer, Pizzarelli has been a special guest on recordings for major pop names such as James Taylor, Natalie Cole, Kristin Chenoweth, Tom Wopat, Rickie Lee Jones, and Dave Von Ronk, as well as leading jazz artists Rosemary Clooney, Ruby Braff, Johnny Frigo, Buddy DeFranco, and Harry Allen.

Pizzarelli’s latest album, Double Exposure, is a collection of tunes by some of the great pop songwriters of his own generation that are framed squarely within traditional jazz arrangements.

He also appears on several tracks on Paul McCartney’s 2012 album, Kisses on the Bottom. He performed with Sir Paul at an iTunes concert at Capitol Records Studios and the two also performed together at the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles.

Jane Monheit

Jane Monheit’s sense of liberation is apparent throughout The Heart Of The Matter, the acclaimed, Grammy-nominated vocalist’s ninth studio album. It can be felt in her wide-ranging choice of material, in the unique arrangements, and in her own fearless performances and interpretations. The diverse and very personal set of songs includes both familiar standards and compositions by Lennon & McCartney, Randy Newman, two songs by Ivan Lins—recorded in the original Portuguese—and, for the first time, a Monheit original.

Monheit has been a leading light in both the jazz and cabaret worlds since emerging as a finalist in the Thelonious

70 APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015

Monk Institute’s 1998 vocal competition. In addition to her own recordings, she has worked alongside Terence Blanchard, Tom Harrell, and Ivan Lins.

She says that the distinctive, continually surprising sound of The Heart Of The Matter is the result of an especially satisfying collaboration with Grammywinning producer Gil Goldstein, who has previously worked with such giants as Wayne Shorter, Gil Evans, and Pat Metheny. The pair first joined forces for part of Monheit’s 2009 album The Lovers, The Dreamers, and Me. This confidence manifests most visibly with the inclusion of Monheit’s own “Night Night Stars,” the first song she has released for which she has written both music and lyrics.

From the song choices to the performances, The Heart Of The Matter is a work deeply informed by Monheit’s life—as a woman, wife, and mother in the second decade of a remarkable career—and it reaches emotional levels she attributes to an “extreme comfort zone” in the recording studio. “It was a small group, we’re all friends, and everyone really wanted to be there,” she says. “I’m very close with my band, so to hear Gil’s beautiful work with my family beneath it inspired me to be completely unselfconscious... I think I’ve finally reached my level of onstage, live interpretation in the studio, which has always been a challenge for me.”

“When you’re playing with people you love,” says Monheit, “it always makes for better music.”

PIZZARELLI PHOTO BY JIMMY KATZ, MONHEIT PHOTO BY TIMOTHY SACCENTI

Saturday, February 14, 2015, 8 p.m.

Wednesday, February 18, 2015, 8 p.m.

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2015, 8 P.M.

● Strathmore Presents

Irvin Mayfield and the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra

Barney Floyd, trumpet

Ashlin Parker, trumpet

Glenn Hall, trumpet

Leon Brown, trumpet

James Williams, slide trumpet and sousaphone

Michael Watson, trombone

David Harris, trombone

Emily Fredrickson, trombone

Khari Lee, alto saxophone, clarinet, and flute Jeronne Ansari, alto saxophone and flute Ed Petersen, tenor saxophone Ricardo Pascal, tenor saxophone Jason Marshall, baritone saxophone Jasen Weaver, bass Victor Atkins, piano Adonis Rose, drums

The Music Center at Strathmore Marriott Concert Stage

Irvin Mayfield

Irvin Mayfield, 36, is a Grammy and Billboard Awardwinning artist with 15 albums to his credit. Mayfield is the founding artistic director of the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra and currently serves as artistic director of jazz at the Minnesota Orchestra.

In 2009, Mayfield entered into a historic partnership with the Royal Sonesta Hotel and created Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse. Mayfield was nominated to the National Council on the Arts by President George W. Bush and was subsequently appointed to the post by President Barack Obama in 2010.

MAYFIELD PHOTO BY GREG MILES

About New Orleans Jazz Orchestra

The New Orleans Jazz Orchestra (NOJO) is the first and only performing arts institution committed solely to the development of an industry for jazz in the city that created it. Founded in 2002 by Artistic Director and Grammy Award-winning trumpeter Irvin Mayfield, NOJO creates jazz to enhance life, transform place, and elevate spirit.

NOJO has become a leading voice of Jazz in New Orleans and throughout the nation.

The New Orleans Jazz Orchestra understands that for the human experience to be maximized, all individuals, and the global community, must encounter the elements of truth, love, and beauty. As a performing arts organization, NOJO uses these three

Personalized

Hearing Care that can improve your

Quality of

Life.

tenets to frame its goal of strengthening the business of jazz through performances, tours, recordings, education, and media platforms. In these ways, NOJO seeks to provide meaningful jazz experiences to whomever they are privileged to encounter.

POTOMAC

Readers’ Pick Best Audiologist • Comprehensive Hearing Exams • Accurate Real-Ear Measurements • Latest Digital Hearing Instruments • Assistive Listening Devices • Custom Ear Protection • In-home Hearing Care

Win2n01e3r

Gail Linn, Au.D. Doctor of Audiology 240-477-1010 or 301-770-3231 11300 Rockville Pike Suite 105, Rockville, MD 20852

PotomacAudiology.com APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015 71

Thursday, February 19, 2015, 8 p.m.

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2015, 8 P.M.

● Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Marin Alsop, Music Director Jack Everly, Principal Pops Conductor Presents

Patti Austin Sings Ella and the Duke Jack Everly, conductor Patti Austin, vocalist This evening's program will be announced from the stage.

Support for this performance is provided by the Governing Members of the BSO. The Music Center at Strathmore Marriott Concert Stage

Jack Everly is the principal pops conductor of the Indianapolis and Baltimore symphony orchestras, Naples Philharmonic Orchestra and the National Arts Centre Orchestra (Ottawa). He has conducted the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, The New York Pops at Carnegie Hall and appears regularly with The Cleveland Orchestra at Blossom Music Center. This season, Everly will conduct more than 90 performances in more than 20 North American cities.

As music director of the National Memorial Day Concert and “A Capitol Fourth” on PBS, Everly leads the National Symphony Orchestra in these patriotic celebrations on the National Mall. These concerts attract hundreds of thousands attendees on the lawn and the broadcasts reach millions of viewers and are some of the very highest rated programming on PBS television.

Originally appointed by Mikhail Baryshnikov, Everly was music director of the American Ballet Theatre for 14 years. In addition to his ABT tenure, he teamed with Marvin

Hamlisch on Broadway shows that Hamlisch scored. He conducted Carol Channing hundreds of times in Hello, Dolly! in two separate Broadway productions.

Everly, a graduate of the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, holds an honorary doctorate of arts from Franklin College in his home state of Indiana. He is a proud resident of the Indianapolis community for over 12 years and when not on the podium you can find Everly at home with his family, which includes Max the wonder dog.

Patti Austin

Patti Austin has been a bonafide entertainer since she stepped onto the stage of the Apollo Theater in Harlem at age 4 at the urging of music legend Dinah Washington.

During the 1970s, Austin was the undisputed queen of the New York session scene; her voice was heard behind everyone from Paul Simon, Cat Stevens and James Brown to Bette Midler and Diana Ross. She signed with her godfather Quincy Jones’ Qwest label and achieved mainstream success on an international level thanks to the Grammy-nominated hit “Baby Come To Me,” and the

72 APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015

Academy Award-nominated “How Do You Keep the Music Playing?”

The Grammy-nominated album For Ella opened up new doors for Austin as a performer and her embrace by the jazz world was sealed with her Grammy-winning album Avant Gershwin.

In 2014, Austin continued her philanthropic work with The Over My Shoulder Foundation and is working on a Duke Ellington big band tribute.

EVERLY PHOTO BY MICHAEL TAMMARO

Jack Everly, conductor

Friday, February 20, 2015, 8 p.m., and Saturday, February 21, 2015, 8 p.m.

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2015, 8 P.M. AND SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2015, 8 P.M.

● Strathmore Presents

Harry Connick, Jr. The Music Center at Strathmore Marriott Concert Stage

Harry Connick, Jr.

Showered with awards and recognition for his live and recorded musical performances, and for his achievements on screens large and small as well as the Broadway stage, Harry Connick, Jr. has exemplified excellence in every aspect of the entertainment world.

The foundation of Connick’s art is the music of his native New Orleans, where he began performing as a pianist and vocalist at age 5. Connick’s career took off when he signed with Columbia Records and revealed his stunning piano technique and vivid musical imagination with his multi-platinum success with the soundtrack for the film When Harry Met Sally. To date, Connick has released 29 albums, won three Grammys and two Emmys, and garnered sales of 28 million.

In addition to his music career, Connick has also appeared on the screen and stage as an actor. His feature film credits include Little Man Tate, Copycat, Hope Floats, Memphis Belle, Independence Day, P.S. I Love You, New in Town, and the hit family films, Dolphin Tale and Dolphin Tale 2.

On television, Connick is perhaps best known for his recurring role on “Will & Grace” and his appearances in “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.” Following his successful stint as a mentor on “American Idol,” Connick was invited to join Jennifer Lopez and Keith Urban at the judges’ table for seasons 13 and 14.

His Broadway career boasts equal recognition, having received Tony Award nominations as both composer/ lyricist for the musical Thou Shalt Not, and as the lead in the Tony Awardwinning revival of The Pajama Game.

Connick has used his influence as an entertainer to further his charitable work. Following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, he helped create

the Musicians’ Village in the Upper Ninth Ward, which provides homes for musicians and other displaced citizens, and an after-school facility for kids. His contributions to the post-Katrina effort have been acknowledged by a Redbook Strength and Spirit Award, an honorary degree from Tulane University, and the 2012 Jefferson Award for Public Service.

APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015 73

Sunday, February 22, 2015, 4 p.m.

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2015, 4 P.M.

● Strathmore Presents

Imago Theatre: Frogz Carol Triffle, Creator Jerry Mouawad, Creator Katie Griesar, Original Music Jeff Forbes, Light Design George Smith, Cowboy Illustrations Kayla Scrivner, Production Stage Manager Carol Triffle, Jerry Mouawad, Cati Thomas, Fabrication Mark De Gli Antoni, Music Jonathan Godsey, performer Mark Mullaney, performer Pratik Motwani, performer Tera Nova Zarra, performer Kaician Jade Kitko, performer Frogs Alligators Paper Bag Windbags Strings Cowboy Sloth Circus

INTERMISSION Orbs Larvabatic Penguins Paper

Program subject to change.

The Music Center at Strathmore Marriott Concert Stage

About Imago Theatre

Founded in 1979 by Carol Triffle and Jerry Mouawad, Imago Theatre’s original productions have toured internationally for more than two decades.

Working out of an 18,000-square-foot theater laboratory in Portland, Ore., Imago’s ensemble of actors, dancers, designers, fabricators and musicians seek fresh perspectives on performance. The company has been honored for mask theater pieces that have appealed to a wide age range, as well as for innovative works that push the boundaries of form, design, and story.

Imago Theatre’s methodology is based on the teachings of Jacques Lecoq (1921-1999). Triffle studied extensively with Lecoq, completing his exclusive pedagogical program. Drawing inspiration from Lecoq, Imago Theatre aims to

place form and design at the forefront of theater creation and infuses each production with an idiosyncratic physical energy. In 2006, the company’s innovative production of Jean-Paul Sartre’s No Exit ran at American Repertory Theater and The Hartford Stage Company.

Carol Triffle

Carol Triffle completed a three-year pedagogical program with Jacques Lecoq in 1997 after studying him for two previous years in 1986-1988.

A member of the dance company The Company We Keep, she founded Imago Theatre in 1979 with Jerry Mouawad and began touring the United States with original mask theater. In 1997 she wrote and directed Ginger’s Green, which marked the beginning of

74 APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015

a canon of original music-theater works that includes Ajax, Oh Lost Weekend, No Can Do and Missing Mona.

In 2006 her music-theater works changed form after influences from Richard Maxwell and often featured anti-clown heroes played by Danielle Vermette and Mouawad in works titled Hit Me in The Stomach, Mix Up, The Dinner, Simple People, Backs Like That and Splat. She co-directed with Mouawad on Broadway’s Frogz and ZooZoo.

Jerry Mouawad

Jerry Mouawad studied the teachings of Jacques Lecoq at the Hayes-Marshall School of Theatre Arts. After co-founding Imago Theatre, he went on to collaborate with Carol Triffle for 14 years creating mask pieces before exploring experimental theater.

He staged two works by Richard Foreman—Samuel’s Major Problems and Symphony of Rats. He has adapted magical realism literature for the stage incorporating multimedia, puppetry and stage illusion in Verdad (in collaboration with Triffle) and Half Light.

Modern classic adaptations include Blood Wedding, The Imaginary Invalid, Exit the King, and Uncle Vanya.

His adaptation of Sartre’s No Exit on a moving stage played at American Repertory Theatre and Hartford Stage Company. He has staged work for BodyVox, The Portland Opera, and The Oregon Symphony. His series of original silent works titled “Opera Beyond Words” include Apis, or the Taste of Honey; The Cuban Missile Crisis; Tick Tack Type; Stage Left Lost; and Zugzwang. On Broadway he co-directed with Triffle on Frogz (2000, 2002) and ZooZoo (2010.)

Katie Griesar

Katie Griesar makes music with guitar, antique and toy musical instruments, found objects, collected sounds, wrong notes, and awkward gestures. A graduate of Vassar College and the American Repertory Theatre Institute at Harvard University, she is a three-time Portland Drama Critics Circle Award winner for her music/sound work with Imago Theatre, where she is currently resident composer.

Sunday, February 22, 2015, 4 p.m.

Griesar has contributed original music/sound to Imago’s productions of Frogz, Biglittlethings, ZooZoo, House Taken Over, Oh Lost Weekend, Missing Mona, The Dinner, Simple People, Backs Like That, Splat, Symphony of Rats, Half Light, Ginger’s Green, Trailer Park Paradise, Blood Wedding Blood Wedding, Imaginary Invalid, No Can Do, and A Number. She has also contributed original music/sound to works by choreographers Linda Austin, Catherine Egan, Mary Oslund, Cydney Wilkes, and most recently she scored the dance piece Problem of Bias by choreographer Jessica Hightower.

Jeff Forbes

Jeff Forbes is a Portland-based lighting designer working primarily in theater and dance. He is a nine-time winner of the Willie and Drammy Awards for theater, for such companies as Artists Repertory Theatre, Imago Theatre, the Musical Theatre Company, Storefront Theatre, and Tygres Heart Shakespeare Co. He tours nationally and internationally with Imago’s production of Frogz as lighting designer and stage manager, and as technical director/lighting designer for the Deborah Hay Dance Company.

He is a co-founder, with Linda Austin, of Performance Works NW, for which he also serves as technical director.

George Smith

George Smith was a nationally syndicated cartoonist best known for The Smith Family. He was the proud father of 11 children, one of which is artistic co-director of Imago Carol Triffle

PHOTO BY FRITZ LIEDTKE

Kayla Scrivner

Kayla Scrivner studied dance and technical theater at Portland State University. From 1993 to 1997 she taught dance at The Edna Manley College of Fine and Performing Arts in Jamaica and danced with The National Dance Theatre of Jamaica. She worked as technical coordinator with White Bird Productions for nine years and has also worked with Northwest Dance Theatre, The Portland Ballet, Bodyvox, and Portland Institute for Contemporary Art.

Jonathan Godsey

Jonathan Godsey became interested in theater at age 28. Since then, he has performed in numerous national Frogz tours with Imago Theatre, including runs at American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, Mass., and on Broadway. His other Imago appearances include Oh Lost Weekend, The Imaginary Invalid, and Biglittlethings.

Mark Mullaney

Mark Mullaney is excited and honored to join the cast of Frogz. In addition to acting, Mark likes to play and teach the bagpipes to kids, and record audiobooks in his free time. Previously he acted in Imago’s Pimento & Pullman.

Pratik Motwani

Pratik Motwani is an actor from Mumbai, India. He holds a master’s in fine arts in ensemble based physical theater from the Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre in Calif. As a voiceover artist, Motwani has lent his voice to Dev Patel (the protagonist) in the Indian version of the Academy Award-winning Slumdog Millionaire. As a performing artist Motwani has played leading roles in The Dell’Arte Company’s production of The Nutcaper , Mary Jane: The Musical and The Comedy of Errors. After a fantastic touring experience last year Motwani returns back to join Imago for his second season.

Tera Nova Zarra

Tera Nova Zarra is an acrobat, aerialist, and vocalist. She has trained under the direction of former Austrian sport acrobatics champion and national team coach Stefan Furst for seven years. She has also trained at Sons Of Cayuga in San Francisco with coaches Dominik Wyss and Serchmaa Byamba, and taken lessons from École Nationale de Cirque’s Yuri Bozyan in Montreal.

Zarra holds a black belt in aikido and aiki jujutsu from American Institute of the Martial Arts, and is a trained opera, jazz, and rock singer.

She has recorded backing vocals for Shock G of Digital Underground, and her ninja rock band, Fist of Dishonor,

toured with Vanilla Ice. She previously appeared in Imago’s Apis and Zoo Caper.

Kaician Jade Kitko

Born in California, but raised in Hawaii, Kaician Jade Kitko now lives in Portland, Ore. Before moving to Portland, he was trained in tap dancing by Carol Culver, and is currently learning trapeze and lyra from Nightflight Aerial.

His first show in Portland was Imago’s Stage Left Lost, followed by three seasons in its show, Bim Bam Bop.

Cati Thomas

Cati Thomas was born and raised in England. She started sewing at age 7 and a few years later set off to work in the costume shops of regional and London theaters. A taste for adventure led her and her sewing machine to the American Northwest where, for 20 years, she led a domestic life in central Oregon. She has performed in, directed, and costumed numerous community theater and dance productions, including A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Tempest, Charley’s Aunt, Death Trap, Oliver, Swan Lake, and Trojan Women.

Katherine Gray

Katherine Gray has performed in four of Imago’s original works. She has assisted in creature creations for both Frogz and Biglittlethings. While her primary focus has been as a dancer over the past 18 years, including many seasons with Oslund & Co./Dance, she works steadily in the field of prototype development, special events production, costuming, and industrial design.

APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015 75

Friday, February 25, 2015, 8 p.m.

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2015, 8 P.M.

● Strathmore Presents

Tango Buenos Aires Song of Eva Perón Rosario Bauza, Artistic Director Fernando Marzán, Music Director Héctor Falcón, Choreographer Lucrecia Laurel, Régisseur, Scriptwriter, Photographer Fred Allen, Light Designer Act 1: The Rise of a Star

I Will Take Care of You Until the End/ Fernando Marzán “Santa Eva” Eva Perón sings to us Lucia Alonso, singer

Souvenir / Fernando Marzán “My people” Group dance of Eva’s friends and family Four couples dance

Nos Vemos Pronto, Pueblo / Fernando Marzán “A Zamba for Eva” Eva’s family and friends say goodbye to Eva by dancing a “zamba,” a typical folk dance from the north region of Argentina

Act 2: The Rise of Love A la Guardia Nueva Solo of Perón tapping El Choclo “Marching All together” All men march with Perón Male dancers

Orillera / Agustín Bardi “The boys and the girls” Militars and girls dance together Full company

Taquito Militar / Mariano Mores

Full company

Orchestra solo

Próxima Estación, Mis Sueños / Fernando Marzán “Railroad Dreams” In the train, Eva dreams of being a star

A Orlando Goñi / Alfredo J. Gobbi “Strength”

La Cumparsita / Matos Rodriguez “Buenos Aires” Presentation of the city. A couple dances a tango.

Corazón de Oro / Francisco Canaro “Game of gazes” Eva and Perón meet, they cannot stop gazing at each other

Glamour y Suburbio / Fernando Marzán “Promenade” Eva walks around the city and meets some friends

My Wish to Give it All / Fernando Marzán “The rise of love” Eva declares her love to Perón

Sabado Inglés / Juan Félix Maglio “Golden night” At night, aristocrats also dance

Celos / Jacob Gade “Us” People are touched by Eva and Perón union

Full company

Couple solo

Two couples dance

Couple solo

De Puro Guapo / Pedro Laurenz “At the Radio Station” Eva is looking for a job as an actress at the radio Four couples

Felicia “Things are changing” Felicia, Eva’s dear friend, dances a tango Couple solo

De antaño El llorón milongueando en el 40 milonga de mis amores “Celebrating Eva—Good Times” Eva gets her paper at the radio. Celebration with friends.

Everybody dances “milonga.”

Full company

Ojos Negros / Vicente Greco Orchestra solo Malambo “Las Boleadoras” Las Boleadoras are a typical Argentinean tool used to catch the cattle in the countryside.

76 APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015

Couple solo

Full company

Full company

Full company

Tanguera / Mores Couple solo

Triunfal / Astor Piazzolla Orchestra solo

Adios Nonino / Astor Piazzolla “Red Carpet” Eva becomes first lady Full company

Oblivion / Astor Piazzolla “Oblivion” Couple solo

Violentango / Astor Piazzolla “Final” Full company

The Music Center at Strathmore Marriott Concert Stage

Friday, February 25, 2015, 8 p.m.

About Tango Buenos Aires

Tango Buenos Aires has become one of Argentina’s great cultural exports, known throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia as the most authentic and uncompromising representation of the tango.

Tango Buenos Aires was created for the “Jazmines” festival at the famous Buenos Aires cabaret Michelangelo by renowned composer and tango director Osvaldo Requena. The company met with tremendous success and was immediately added to the season of the General San Martin Municipal Theatre.

In 1986, the company traveled to the United States in order to represent Argentina at the Latin American Festival, which took place at the Delacorte Theatre in New York City. This event was followed by an extensive tour throughout the United States, along with trips to Mexico, Puerto Rico, and El Salvador. In December 1986, the group appeared on NHK television in Tokyo, and it completed 62 performances throughout Japan, as well as a CD recording for Sony entitled Quejas de Bandoneón (Sony 32 DP 731).

The company traveled extensively throughout the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, performing at the Spring Festival in Argentina and the International Tango Festival in Spain, among others. The ensemble has crisscrossed the globe, performing in Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Australia, Finland, Chile, the United States and many other nations.

The company also has held master classes at the Dance University of Beijing and the Kuopio Festival in Finland.

Rosario Bauza

Born in Argentina, Rosario Bauza is the third generation manager of D.A.N.I.E.L. Artists & Concertos, an international leader in managing the touring activities of instrumental soloists and singers, ensembles, and theatrical attractions.

Under the umbrella of D.A.N.I.E.L Artists, she has presented many concerts at the Colon Theatre, the Coliseum Theatre and Luna Park in

Buenos Aires for performing artists such as tenor Jose Carrerras, piano duo Labeque, Montserrat Caballe, Barbara Hendrix, and Paula Mijenes.

In 1988, the minister of culture for Argentina honored Bauza by requesting that she be a cultural ambassador for the tango with the creation of different groups like Tango Buenos Aires, which traveled the world and visited more than 200 cities in the Untied States.

Fernando Marzán

Fernando Marzán continues the legacy of the Marzán family as a line of extremely reputable and well-known musicians in Buenos Aires. Since 1994, he has been the pianist for the Broadway/London hit production of Forever Tango. With this company he has toured almost seven years throughout the United States, Canada, Japan, and many other countries.

He has also participated in the Musicians Fernando Marzán, pianist

Marco Antonio Fernandez, bandoneon Emiliano Guerrero, bandoneon Mayumi Urgino, violin Roberto Santocono, bass Sebastian Noya, bass Dancers Paula Arias

Juan Corvalan Matias Vidoni Aldana Artemisa Pajaro Héctor Falcón Karina Piazza Lucia Alonso Nestor Gude Eliana De Bartolis Hector Eduardo Fernandez Singer

Lucia Alonso

recording of several albums, including Evita, starring Madonna, and The Impostors, starring Oliver Platt and Stanley Tucci. He has also produced four albums with Forever Tango. As a soloist, he produced five albums: Bendita Buenos Aires, Recuerdo, Gotanda Tango Station, Tanguera, and Tangueando en los ´40.

In 2002, he took the musical direction of the show Tango Seduction. In 2003, he became the musical director and arranger for the show Tango Buenos Aires. Subsequent engagements include musical director of Tango Premium (2008) and Tango Romance (2010).

Héctor Falcón

Choreographer, dancer and teacher of tango and Argentinean folk dances, Héctor Falcón has been involved in the dance world since he was a child.

He began his dance education at age 5, graduating and obtaining a diploma as a professor of Argentinean folk dance at age 15. Since then he has worked with several folk dance companies such as the Ballet de Amalia Garcia, Ballet de Machaco, Ballet de Salta, Bombos de Oro, Los Ñaquis, Los Diablos Gauchos and Ballet Argentina Hoy.

Lucrecia Laurel

Lucrecia Laurel was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. At age 18, she moved to Los Angeles to study theater and photography. She has always been inspired by tango, which began by watching, listening, and touring with her mother, Rosario Bauza, director of Tango Buenos Aires.

Laurel has been actively involved in producing and developing shows since returning to Buenos Aires in 2008.

APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015 77

Saturday, February 28, 2015, 8 p.m.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2015, 8 P.M.

● Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Marin Alsop, Music Director Presents

The Firebird Suite Yan Pascal Tortelier, conductor Louis Lortie, piano

Le corsaire, Op. 21 Hector Berlioz (1803-1869)

Trio in A minor Maurice Ravel

Orchestration by Yan Pascal Tortelie (1875-1937)

Modéré

Pantoum. Assez vif

Passacaille. Très large

Finale. Animé INTERMISSION Piano Concerto No. 23 in A Major, K. 488 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Allegro (1756-1791) Adagio

Allegro assai

Louis Lortie

The Firebird Suite (1919) Igor Stravinsky Introduction and Dance of the Firebird (1882-1971)

Dance of the Princesses

Infernal Dance of King Kashchei Berceuse Finale The concert will end at approximately 9:45 p.m.

The Music Center at Strathmore Marriott Concert Stage

Louis Lortie, piano

Pianist Louis Lortie has attracted critical acclaim throughout Europe, Asia and the United States.

He has extended his interpretative voice across a broad range of repertoire rather than choosing to specialize in one particular style.

Lortie has performed complete Beethoven sonata cycles at London’s Wigmore Hall, Berlin’s Philharmonie and the Sala Grande del Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi. A pianist and conductor with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, he has performed all five Beethoven concertos and all of the Mozart concertos. Lortie has also won widespread acclaim for his interpretation of Ravel and Chopin.

In 2014-2015, he returns to the Sydney and Adelaide symphony orchestras, the Warsaw Philharmonie, and the Chicago, Toronto, Baltimore and San Diego symphony orchestras; and presents recitals in London’s International Piano Series, and in Berlin, Milan, Calgary and Brussels.

Program Notes Le corsaire Overture, Op. 21

Hector Berlioz

Yan Pascal Tortelier, conductor

Yan Pascal Tortelier enjoys a distinguished career as guest conductor of the world’s most prestigious orchestras. He began his musical career as a violinist and at 14 made his soloist debut with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. He was principal conductor of the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra from 2009 to 2011, and currently holds the position of guest conductor of honour. Following his outstanding work as chief conductor of the BBC

Philharmonic, he was given the title of conductor emeritus and continues to work with the orchestra regularly.

He also holds the position of principal guest conductor at the Royal Academy of Music in London.

Highlights of the 2014-2015 season and beyond include returns to the United States to conduct the orchestras in Pittsburgh, Montreal, San Francisco, Minnesota and Baltimore; European performances with the Iceland and Bournemouth symphony orchestras, and the Royal Liverpool and BBC philharmonic orchestras; and Australia to conduct the Melbourne, Adelaide and Sydney symphony orchestras.

78 APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015

The year 1844 was an exhausting and demoralizing one for Hector Berlioz.

After a long period of deterioration, his “dream” marriage to the Irish actress Harriet Smithson finally collapsed. As fans of the composer’s Symphonie fantastique will remember, Berlioz fell madly in love with her in 1827 after seeing her in Paris performances of Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet, and that spectacular program symphony expressed his frustrated passion for her.

His fatal mistake was to marry her in 1833, a union that went south almost from day one and taught him it was far better to sublimate desire into music.

Furthermore, Berlioz had just

LORTIE PHOTO BY ELIAS

Born Dec. 11, 1803, in La Côte-Saint-André, France; died March 8, 1869, in Paris

Saturday, February 28, 2015, 8 p.m.

organized and conducted one of his mammoth concerts—mobilizing more than 1,000 performers!—to celebrate the close of the international Festival of Industrial Products in Paris on Aug. 1. At this extravaganza before an audience of 8,000, he nearly collapsed on the podium, and his doctor immediately ordered a rest cure in the warm sunshine of Nice on the French Riviera.

There the composer regained both his health and creative energies, composing the last of his colorful concert overtures, the fiery Le corsaire (“The Pirate”).

In his three mature overtures—Benvenuto Cellini, Roman Carnival and Le corsaire—the radical Berlioz developed a very personal, iconoclastic formal approach that shattered the sonata-form template for 19th-century overtures. In C major, Le Corsaire opens with arresting gestures: a virtuosic whirlwind of string scales that collides with the intricate syncopations of the equally agitated woodwinds. Then Berlioz presents a slow adagio section, featuring a pensively beautiful melody in A-flat major.

All too soon this lovely music is broken off; the orchestra cranks itself back to C major; and the main allegro section ensues with a reprise of the whirling string scales and syncopations. The brass hints at the swashbuckling principal theme, but the violins finally unfurl it. Almost unrecognizable in the faster tempo, the adagio melody then returns for contrast. Despite the lack of an orthodox development section, Berlioz keeps revisiting his bold theme in new and exciting ways, the best being the brass’ dashing, totally uninhibited proclamation just before the end.

Trio in A minor

Maurice Ravel Born March 7, 1875, in Ciboure, Basses-Pyrenées, France; died Dec. 28, 1937, in Paris Arranged for Orchestra by Yan Pascal Tortelier

Maurice Ravel was born in the French Basque country near the Spanish border, and he retained a great love for this region all his life. One of his favorite places for combining relaxation with composition was the seaside resort

of St. Jean-de-Luz. There he wrote his greatest chamber work, the Trio in A minor for Piano, Violin and Cello, during the summers of 1913 and 1914. But his idyll at St. Jean-de-Luz was shattered on Aug. 4, 1914 when the start of World War I was announced; the news propelled him into overdrive to complete the Trio so he could enlist.

In its original form, this work, despite being scored for just three instruments, frequently suggests an orchestra with its rich, coloristic writing. Thus it is one of the chamber music pieces best suited to an orchestral arrangement. In reconceiving it for a very large orchestra, Yan Pascal Tortelier draws on the type of instrumentation Ravel himself used in such technicolor works as Daphnis et Chloé and La Valse.

The first movement, “Modéré,” is shaped by the irregular meter of 8/8, subdivided into three beats + two beats + three beats; we hear it in the swaying, folkloric opening theme, introduced by the flutes. Ravel described this music as in “Basque color,” and this rhythm resembles the Basque dance the zortzico. A solo flute shadowed by solo cello presents the wistful, exquisitely lyrical second theme, which plays an equally prominent role.

Movement two is called “Pantoum,” for the Malayan poetic form of that name, which was occasionally adopted by the French poets Victor Hugo and Charles Baudelaire. Pianist Lois Shapiro writes, “In a pantoum, virtually two independent poems with independent subject matter are interwoven within one poetic framework, with an integration of the two poetic ideas saved for the climactic last line.” And this is exactly what Ravel does in this virtuosic scherzo. Two very different musical ideas are presented against each other: a glittering, brittle dance introduced by the xylophone and a swooning romantic waltz for strings and harps. In the middle or trio section, Ravel adds yet another clash: a suave new dance for violins in 4/2 time against pattering woodwinds and percussion remaining in 3/4 time.

Roger Nichols describes the deeply moving “Passacaille” as being “imbued

with a nostalgia, a sense of loss,” as Ravel expresses his anguish as Europe tumbled toward war. The form is a passacaglia or variations on a repeated theme, here a gravely meditative melody heard first in the double basses at the very bottom of the orchestra. Its repetitions follow an arch shape: gradually rising in pitch and textural richness to a shattering climax, then descending just as gradually back to the lower regions for a brooding close.

From this darkness, the lights flicker on again as shimmering violins, harps and celesta open the “Finale.” An exotic, quasi-pentatonic melody sparkles in flutes and piccolos; its irregular pulse of 5/4 and 7/4 again recalls Basque dance rhythms. Proud brass fanfares over sustained trills in strings and woodwinds form a second theme. The fanfares and trills build to a spectacular conclusion, with the orchestra fulfilling all the color and grandeur the original three instruments were striving to achieve.

Piano Concerto No. 23 in A Major, K. 488

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Born Jan. 27, 1756, in Salzburg, Austria; died Dec. 5, 1791, in Vienna

Mozart essentially invented the classical piano concerto, epitomized by the 12 keyboard masterpieces he wrote between 1784 and 1786. Each is a world unto itself, and one of the loveliest and most refined of these worlds is that of Piano Concerto No. 23, completed on March 2, 1786.

Sounding like an intimate conversation between close friends, the A major is also one of the most vocal of the concertos. This is not surprising, for simultaneously Mozart was completing his vivacious comic opera, The Marriage of Figaro. Busy creating arias and ensembles for a castle-full of characters, Mozart apparently had plenty of melodic ideas left over, for this concerto is propelled by its melodies, some high-spirited, some heartwrenching. Here the soloist is asked not so much to display his digital dexterity as to play the great opera singer, especially in the sublime slow movement.

As in most of the late concertos, the pianist also must share the spotlight with

APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015 79

Saturday, February 28, 2015, 8 p.m.

the orchestra’s woodwind section. Mozart became more and more intrigued with how woodwind colors could blend and contrast with the piano, and for this concerto he had a pair of his favorite wind instruments, the round-toned, fruity clarinets, to exploit.

Concerto No. 23 is also filled with an emotional quality very characteristic of Mozart: the mood of smiling through tears. This is heard best in the first movement, which sounds outwardly serene, but immediately disturbs the atmosphere at the second chord with its dissonant note troubling the A-major harmony. “The light of the movement is one of a March day—the month in which it was composed—when a pale sun shines unconvincingly through fleeting showers,” as Mozart scholar Cuthbert Girdlestone poetically described it. The second theme, introduced soon by the violins, is rather melancholy and grows more so as a bassoon and flute join in.

As the exposition section closes, listen for a quiet, chin-up closing theme in the strings; from it Mozart will build an expressive development section.

Smiles give way to tears for the slow movement, one of Mozart’s greatest and his only one in the key of F-sharp minor. The soloist opens with a poignant melody featuring large intervals in the manner of a virtuosic 18th-century diva. The orchestra answers with a more anguished melody, with achingly beautiful dissonances created by its clashing contrapuntal lines. Flutes and clarinets try to brighten the mood in the middle section. But the tears persist as the opening music returns and is capped by a heartbreaking closing coda.

The brilliant rondo finale at last dries all tears. And finally the pianist can play the virtuoso as he leads off with the sparkling rondo theme. But this is just one of a quiver-full of melodies Mozart has ready, and he keeps on shooting fresh ones at us in a movement of nonstop vivacity and invention.

The Firebird Suite (1919)

Igor Stravinsky

Born June 17, 1882, in Oranienbaum, Russia; died April 6, 1971, in New York City

Igor Stravinsky’s score for the fairy-tale ballet The Firebird, particularly in its suite adaptation, is far and away his most popular work. For nearly six decades, the composer conducted it hundreds of times, even though he had since moved on to more radical styles. In fact, it became almost impossible to believe that this fearless modernist had actually once written such a lush and sensual score: a grand summation of the 19th-century Russian fascination with fantastic plots and opulent instrumental colors.

The Firebird’s music needed to be lush for it was written for Serge Diaghilev’s spectacular Ballets Russes, which was dazzling Paris during the seasons immediately preceding World War I. Diaghilev had a genius for assembling the greatest Russian dancers as well as designers, poets and composers from Russia and France to create ballet extravaganzas that looked as colorful as they sounded. In 1909 seeking a composer to replace Anatoly Liadov (dropped after he failed to meet his deadline), Diaghilev had the happy inspiration to try the 27-year-old Stravinsky, who had previously worked for him only as an orchestrator. The Firebird was Stravinsky’s first major commission. “Take a good look at him,” Diaghilev told his leading ballerina Tamara Karsavina during rehearsals.

“He is a man on the eve of celebrity.”

And indeed, when The Firebird premiered at the Paris Opéra on June 25, 1910, to tumultuous applause, Stravinsky became one of the hottest composers of the day.

The firebird is a beloved creature in Russian folklore, and she corresponds to the phoenix in classical mythology as a symbol of rebirth. The Russian folklorist Afanasyev describes her: “The feathers of the firebird are effulgent with silver and gold. ... Her eyes shine like crystal, and she sits in a golden cage. At darkest midnight, she flies into the garden and lights it as brightly as if with a thousand burning bonfires. Just one of her tail feathers holds such magical power that it is worth more than a kingdom.” The scenario of the ballet combines the firebird with the legends of the evil ogre Kashchei the Deathless

80 APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015

One, and the captive princesses (familiar to us as the Grimm Brothers’ tale The Twelve Dancing Princesses).

At this concert, we will hear the 20-minute suite Stravinsky drew from his 45-minute complete ballet score, which serves as a kind of promotional trailer for this gorgeous work. In the murky and mysterious “Introduction,” he conjures the dangerous realm of Kashchei’s castle with ominous scales in muted low strings and menacing trombone snarls. Soon we hear the eerie sound of the firebird’s wings: an otherworldly effect created by the strings playing natural harmonics.

Prince Ivan climbs over the castle wall to try to capture her. He briefly succeeds in “Dance of the Firebird”: here is some of Stravinsky’s most ingenious music, glinting with darting rhythms and prismatic, lighter-than-air colors from high woodwinds. The Firebird escapes, but leaves the Prince with one of her magical feathers.

More earthbound is the “Dance of the Princesses,” who like Ivan are ordinary mortals and captives of Kashchei. They dance a traditional Russian khorovod, or female round dance, and the Prince falls in love with the most beautiful of them. Next comes the stunning “Infernal Dance of King Kashchei”; Stravinsky’s rhythmic vitality is on display in this brutal dance built from syncopations.

In the nick of time, Prince Ivan remembers the magic tail feather and summons the firebird. She forces Kashchei and his minions to dance until they drop in exhaustion. Lulling them to sleep with the rocking “Berceuse” led by solo bassoon, the firebird tells the Prince that Kashchei’s soul lives in a buried egg; if he can crush that, he will kill the ogre and break the spell that binds the princesses.

The prince accomplishes this and in the majestic “Finale” weds his princess. Its melody, introduced by solo horn, is another authentic Russian folksong. The melody spreads through the orchestra, and the ballet ends in a blaze of bell-tolling Russian splendor.

Notes by Janet E. Bedell © 2014

Sunday, XXXXday, March XXX X, 1, 2015, X 3 p.m. p.m.

SUNDAY, MARCH 1, 2015, 3 P.M.

● Strathmore Presents

Annapolis Symphony Orchestra with Simone Dinnerstein, piano José-Luis Novo, conductor

The Garden of Fand Arnold Bax (1883-1953)

Piano Concerto in G Major Maurice Ravel

Allegramente (1875-1937)

Adagio assai Presto

Simone Dinnerstein

Simone Dinnerstein, piano

INTERMISSION

Ein Heldenleben, TrV 190, Op. 40 The Hero The Hero’s adversaries The Hero’s companion The Hero’s battlefield The Hero’s works of peace The Hero’s retirement from the word and fulfillment of his life Netanel Draiblate, violin

Richard Strauss (1864-1949)

The Music Center at Strathmore Marriott Concert Stage

DINNERSTEIN PHOTO BY LISA-MARIE MAZZUCCO

About the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra

With a 53-year history of artistic excellence, the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra is recognized as the largest and most distinguished performing arts organization in Maryland’s capital city. Under the direction of Maestro José-Luis Novo, the ASO continues to rise in excellence and national reputation, performing classic, pops, family concerts, and special events.

Additionally, the ASO sponsors numerous award-winning education concerts and outreach programs in schools, sharing the joy of music-making with thousands of schoolchildren.

mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves for the ASO’s 50th anniversary gala concert, and the launching of the ASO’s first commercial CD commemorating the 300th anniversary of the signing of Annapolis’ Royal Charter.

A committed advocate of contemporary music, Novo has led more than a dozen world premieres of commissioned compositions. In the operatic field, he made his debut conducting a production of Smetana’s The Bartered Bride in collaboration with Maestro Julius Rudel and subsequently has conducted productions of Britten’s Albert Herring, Menotti’s Old Maid and the Thief, and Vaughan Williams’ Riders to the Sea.

José-Luis Novo, conductor

Since his appointment as music director and conductor of the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra in 2005, José-Luis Novo has instilled a new and vibrant artistic vision.

Some of the ASO’s highlights during Novo’s tenure include a 2006 debut concert appearance at the Music Center at Strathmore, a 2008 ASCAP Adventurous Programming Award, a national broadcast on NPR’s “Performance Today,” a 2012 return appearance at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center with

American pianist Simone Dinnerstein is a searching and inventive artist who is motivated by a desire to find the musical core of every work she approaches.

In spring 2013, Dinnerstein and singer-songwriter Tift Merritt released Night, a collaboration uniting classical, folk, and rock. Night features original songs written for the duo by Brad Mehldau and Patty Griffin, as well as classical selections and Merritt’s own work.

Other recent highlights include Dinnerstein’s debuts in Sydney and Melbourne, Australia, her debuts in Leipzig at the Gewandhaus, the world premiere of Nico Muhly’s “You Can’t Get There From Here” at Symphony Hall in Boston, and her third return engagement at the Berlin Philharmonie.

Dedicated to her community, in 2009 Ms. Dinnerstein founded Neighborhood Classics, a concert series open to the public hosted by New York City Public Schools. Neighborhood Classics began at P.S. 321, the Brooklyn public elementary school that her son attended and where her husband teaches fourth grade.

APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015 81

Wednesday, March 4, 2015, 8 p.m.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4, 2015, 8 P.M.

● Strathmore Presents

Paddy Moloney & The Chieftains The Music Center at Strathmore Marriott Concert Stage

The Chieftains

The Chieftains, six-time Grammy winners, have uncovered the wealth of traditional Irish music that has accumulated over the centuries, making the music their own with a style that is as exhilarating as it is definitive.

The Chieftains were formed in 1962 by Paddy Moloney, who brought together fiddler Martin Fay, flautist Michael Tubridy, tin whistle virtuoso Seán Potts, and bodhrán player David Fallon. They recorded a supposedly one-off instrumental album but five years later were reunited with some additions: fiddler Seán Keane, and Peader Mercier replacing Fallon.

Harpist Derek Bell came on board in 1973. The Chieftains began playing together full time in 1975 and they

marked the event with a historic performance at Royal Albert Hall in London. The following few years saw the departure of Mercier, and the addition of bodhrán player and vocalist Kevin Conneff. Another lineup change in 1978-79 would see the departure of Potts and Tubridy and the addition of a new flautist, Matt Molloy.

Although The Chieftains’ early following was purely a folk audience, the range and variation of their music very quickly captured a much broader public. The group has performed with many symphony and folk orchestras worldwide, and has collaborated and performed with some of the biggest names in rock, pop, and traditional music in Ireland and around the world.

82 APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015

In 2010, The Chieftains released a collaboration with guitarist/producer Ry Cooder entitled San Patricio on the Concord Music Group label.

The album was named after The San Patricio Battalion, a group of Irish immigrant conscripts who deserted the U.S. Army in 1846 to fight on the Mexican side of the MexicanAmerican War. This release proved a remarkable collaboration, with distinguished Mexican and MexicanAmerican musicians Lila Downs, Los Tigres Del Norte, Los Cenzontles, and Carlos Nuñez, as well as narration by Liam Neeson and a piece featuring Linda Ronstadt. A commercial and critical success, the album sold more than 60,000 copies in North America and charted No. 37 in the Billboard 200, the highest charting of all 58 of The Chieftains’ albums.

The Chieftains’ most recent album, Voice of Ages, found the band collaborating with some of modern music’s fastest rising artists such as Bon Iver, The Decemberists, The Punch Brothers, and the Pistol Annies among them to reinterpret traditional songs for old and new generations alike, proving what the music means today while hinting where it might lead tomorrow.

Saturday, XXXXday, March XXX X, 7, 2015, X 8 p.m. p.m.

orchestras in North America; the U.K.’s Hallé Orchestra and Bournemouth Symphony; and the Hague’s Residentie Orkest in the Netherlands.

SATURDAY, MARCH 7, 2015, 8 P.M.

●

Simon Trpčeski, piano

Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Marin Alsop, Music Director Presents

Shakespeare in Love and Simon Trpčeski Cristian Măcelaru, conductor Simon Trpčeski, piano

Divertimento from The Fairy’s Kiss Igor Stravinsky (Revised 1950)

(Le Baiser de la fée) (1882-1971)

Sinfonia

Danses suisses Scherzo

Pas de deux

Piano Concerto No. 1 Sergei Prokofiev in D-flat Major, Op. 10 (1891-1953) Allegro brioso Andante assai Allegro scherzando Simon Trpčeski INTERMISSION

The Tempest, Fantasy-Overture, Op. 18 Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)

Romeo and Juliet Fantasy-Overture

Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

The concert will end at approximately 9:45 p.m.

MĂCELARU PHOTO BY SORIN PAPA, TRPČESKI PHOTO BY LUBE SAVESKI

The Music Center at Strathmore Marriott Concert Stage

Cristian Măcelaru, conductor

Winner of the 2014 Solti Conducting Award, Cristian Măcelaru has established himself as one of the fast-rising stars of the conducting world. Recently appointed conductor-in-residence of the Philadelphia Orchestra, Măcelaru has conducted the Philadelphia Orchestra in subscription concerts three times in recent seasons: his own 2014 performance and two substitutions.

During the 2014-2015 season, Măcelaru conducts the Danish National Symphony Orchestra in Denmark and on tour in Germany and the United States. The 11-concert project, which includes Măcelaru’s official Carnegie Hall debut, celebrates the 150th anniversaries of the composers Carl Nielsen and Jean Sibelius, and features Anne-Sophie Mutter and Ray Chen as violin soloists. This season Măcelaru also returns on subscription to both Chicago and Philadelphia and has subscription debuts with the Toronto, Baltimore, St. Louis, Seattle, Milwaukee, Detroit and Indianapolis symphony

Born in 1979, Macedonian pianist Simon Trpčeski has established himself as one of the most remarkable musicians to have emerged in recent years, performing with many of the world’s greatest orchestras and captivating audiences worldwide. This season’s highlights include the London Symphony; Philharmonia Orchestra; Royal Liverpool Philharmonic; Los Angeles Philharmonic; Seattle, Baltimore and St. Louis symphonies; Netherlands Radio Philharmonic; RSO Berlin; NDR Hamburg; Russian National Orchestra; Barcelona Symphony; and a tour of Australia and New Zealand.

Trpčeski has given recitals in major cities around the world and also regularly performs chamber music, including such festivals as Aspen, Verbier and Risor. He regularly works with young musicians in Macedonia to cultivate the talent of his country’s next generation of artists. As a result, he was awarded with the Presidential Order of Merit and the first-ever title National Artist of Macedonia.

Trpčeski recorded on Onyx, Wigmore Hall Live, EMI and Avie labels.

Program Notes The Fairy’s Kiss, Divertimento

Igor Stravinsky

Born June 17, 1882, in Oranienbaum, near St. Petersburg, Russia; died April 6, 1971, in New York City

In 1928, 18 years after The Firebird’s premiere, another fairy tale ballet with a score by Stravinsky opened at the Paris Opéra. In the intervening years, Stravinsky had shattered the traditional Russian ballet world with The Rite

APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015 83

XXXday, Saturday,XXX March X, 2015, 7, 2015, X p.m.

8 p.m.

of Spring and had become one of Europe’s leading modernists. Therefore, The Fairy’s Kiss came as a shock to Parisian audiences because it was neither modern nor neoclassical (Stravinsky’s current style), but instead a faithful recreation of the world and even the musical language of Tchaikovsky’s Romantic ballets. It was a bittersweet glance back at a world lost forever.

One of Stravinsky’s fondest childhood memories was attending the premiere of Tchaikovsky’s The Sleeping Beauty and observing the composer at close range in the audience. Even as his own musical voice grew far apart from Tchaikovsky’s, he continued to revere the older master. Thus when Alexander Benois approached him “to do something with Uncle Petya’s music,” he readily agreed.

For his libretto, Stravinsky adapted Hans Christian Andersen’s The Ice Maiden, renaming it The Fairy’s Kiss. In a preface to his score, he summarized the plot: “A fairy marks a young man with her mysterious kiss while he is still a young child. She withdraws him from his mother’s arms; then she withdraws him from life on the day of his greatest happiness [his marriage] in order to possess him and preserve his happiness forever.” Stravinsky identified the young man with Tchaikovsky himself.

For his score, Stravinsky drew on little known piano pieces and songs

by Tchaikovsky. He also wrote original music that skillfully imitated the older composer’s style: the shape of his melodies, the way he used instruments, his characteristic dramatic gestures and his overall Romantic sweep.

In 1931, Stravinsky extracted the Divertimento, a four-movement suite from the ballet. Its opening Sinfonia corresponds to the ballet’s first scene, “The Lullaby in the Storm.” As the child’s mother carries him through the storm, the boy is torn from her arms by the Fairy’s attendants. At the repeat of the poignant flute lullaby, the Fairy bestows her fatal kiss.

The Danses suisses correspond to Scene Two’s “Village Fete.” A rustic Stravinskian peasant band is playing.

The child is now a young man, and to a more delicately scored waltz, he dances with his bride-to-be. In the ballet, after this musical sequence the Fairy reappears to seduce the man away from his fiancee.

The Scherzo opens scene three, “At the Mill.” The young man follows his fiancee and, to this gossamer, playful music, finds her frolicking with her friends. Continuing the scene is the final Pas de Deux, a grand multisectional dance in the Russian balletic tradition for the two lovers. A romantic cello solo, favored by Tchaikovsky for such scenes, plays against harp and luminous woodwind solos. The Suite concludes with a fast virtuoso dance, representing the couple’s last moments together before the Fairy returns to claim her prize forever.

Piano Concerto No. 1 in D-flat Major, Op. 10

Sergei Prokofiev

Born April 23, 1891, in Sontsovka, Ukraine; died March 5, 1953, in Moscow

During his years at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, Sergei Prokofiev managed to annoy nearly all his teachers.

Bursting with arrogance, he was a pianist of staggering technical prowess and a composer who marched to his own drummer, refusing to bow to the established traditions of Russian Romanticism. At his graduation in 1914, he decided to make up for his mediocre academic record by capturing the Anton Rubinstein Prize as the Conservatory’s finest pianist. And while all his competitors selected hallowed concertos from the canon, he decided to display his virtuosity with a piece of his own: his Piano Concerto No. 1, written when he was only 20.

This concerto had already been premiered in Moscow on July 25, 1912, where it had received both cheers and catcalls. Some hailed it as a breath of fresh air while others sided with the disgruntled critic who wrote, “If that is music, I really believe I prefer agriculture.” At the Conservatory’s competition on April 22, 1914, the jury was split, but Prokofiev’s audacity was ultimately rewarded with the Rubinstein Prize and a new piano.

84 APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015

Though he’d written a number of other pieces, Prokofiev considered the Piano Concerto No. 1 to be his first “more or less mature” work. Already it revealed most of the characteristics that were to make up his distinctive voice for the rest of his career: classical clarity mixed with a sometimes brutal modernity; biting, sarcastic wit; an evocative, dark lyricism; high rhythmic energy; and technical brilliance. Even though it is only a bit over 15 minutes in length, it is a true “take-no-prisoners” concerto and an extraordinary showpiece.

Though ostensibly divided into the traditional three movements, this concerto, Prokofiev tells us, was conceived as one continuous movement: an overarching sonata form following architecture pioneered by Liszt. The opening Allegro brioso is unforgettably arresting: a business card hurled at the audience. Three vehement D-flat chords launch piano and orchestra on an ascending theme etched in brawny octaves. This music is the basis for the whole concerto and will return at important structural moments.

After this astounding introduction, the music accelerates for witty, metallically brilliant music dominated by the piano. After a mocking cadence, Prokofiev abruptly shifts into a slower, vaguely disturbing section with dark brass fanfares and a tolling piano part. Gradually, the pianist’s glissandos and other caprices drive this mood away. The curtain-raising music returns with a virtuosic new counterpoint for the piano.

The music then flows into an Andante assai slow movement, which Prokofiev calls an “interlude before the development.” But this uncanny mood piece, both fragile and passionately powerful, is much more than an “interlude”; it is the first of the composer’s flights of lyrical reverie, which grew more poignant in his later music after hardships had tempered his youthful bravado.

Horns and tuba break in to launch the Allegro scherzando, Prokofiev’s brittle, laughing “development section,” which sends up elements of the first movement’s themes. This

Saturday, XXXXday, March XXX X, 7, 2015, X 8 p.m. p.m.

continues into a spiky solo cadenza, which savages one of the secondary themes—it was passages like this that made the conservatives squirm! The piano pyrotechnics become more and more frenzied until the curtain-raising music makes its final appearance, now glittering with bells and doublefisted keyboard octaves, for a stunning “take-that!” finish.

The Tempest, Symphonic Fantasy Overture Romeo and Juliet Overture-Fantasy

Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Born May 7, 1840, in Votkinsk, Russia; died Nov. 6, 1893, in St. Petersburg

While Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet Overture-Fantasy is one of his most familiar compositions, probably few audience members are familiar with his other two Shakespearean tone poems: Hamlet and The Tempest. An opportunity to hear The Tempest brings the discovery of one of the Russian master’s most alluring romantic melodies.

Composed in August 1873, The Tempest was the product of a particularly happy time in Tchaikovsky’s life. He had just returned from a vacation in Western Europe, and before returning to Moscow, he decided to spend a few weeks at Usovo, the country estate of his wealthy friend Vladimir Shilovsky. Since Shilovsky was away, the composer had the whole place to himself. As he later remembered in a letter to his patroness Nadezhda von Meck: “I was in a kind of exalted, blissful frame of mind, wandering during the day alone in the woods... and sitting at night by the open window listening to the solemn silence of this out-ofthe-way place. ... During those two weeks I wrote The Tempest in rough without any effort, as though moved by some supernatural force.” The success of The Tempest’s first performance in Moscow in December 1873 far exceeded the response to Romeo and Juliet in 1869.

The idea of setting to music this magical romance of reconciliation, Shakespeare’s last play, had come from Vladimir Stasov. The composer

reduced Stasov’s detailed scenario to this outline printed in the score: “The sea. The magician Prospero sends his obedient spirit Ariel to raise a tempest, which wrecks the ship with Ferdinand on board. The magic island. First timid feelings of love between Miranda [Prospero’s daughter] and Ferdinand [son of one of Prospero’s enemies].

Ariel. Caliban. The lovers give themselves up to the delights of passion.

Prospero renounces his magic power and leaves the island. The sea.”

The music closely follows this scenario. It opens with a portrait of the calm sea surrounding the island where Prospero and Miranda have been exiled, with many divided string parts representing the undulating waves. A solemn, enigmatic horn melody emerges from this background; it is the key theme unifying the piece. Prospero, in majestic brass chords, and his fairy servant, Ariel, in flickering high woodwinds, appear and conjure the tempest, which wrecks the ship carrying the magician’s old enemies from Italy and casts them upon the shores of his island. After the storm subsides, we hear in the cellos the glorious love theme representing the romance between Miranda and Ferdinand.

The central portion presents contrasting musical portraits of the airy spirit Ariel and the ugly island troll Caliban, both servants of Prospero. The love music soon resumes, now becoming more passionate and resembling a great balletic pas de deux. With a ringing brass chorale, Prospero gives up his magical powers, as all the characters, now reconciled, prepare to leave the island. The Tempest closes as it began with the undulating music of the sea.

Romeo and Juliet

In 1869, the 28-year-old Tchaikovsky was recovering from the breaking off of his only love affair with a woman— the fascinating Belgian opera singer Desirée Artôt—when he was urged to use Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet as a vehicle to transform his pain into art by his fellow Russian composer Mily

Balakirev. This renunciation had been difficult for Tchaikovsky, and soon after, he was seen at the opera house listening to Artôt with tears streaming down his face.

A member of the five Russian nationalist composers known as the “Mighty Handful,” Balakirev became more famous for the compositions he inspired in others than for his own works, and the young Tchaikovsky was one of his protégés. Like Stasov, Balakirev provided a detailed plot for a tone poem, but Tchaikovsky used his own artistic discretion about his suggestions. The first version of his “Fantasy” Overture was written in just six weeks at the end of 1869. But when he heard it performed in Moscow in March 1870, Tchaikovsky decided it needed considerably more work. In revisions made soon after, he added the brooding opening that so perfectly establishes a mood of tender pathos, and before publishing it in 1880, he devised the startling conclusion that confirms the tragic denouement with eight searing B-major chords.

The musical events of Tchaikovsky’s first masterpiece are so well known they need little explanation; they convey virtually all the dramatic elements of Shakespeare’s play except the scenes of comic relief. Some commentators have linked the dark chant-like theme that opens the work with the character of Friar Laurence who marries the young lovers. This theme plays an important role in the middle development section—striving in the horns against the jagged principal theme representing the battles between the Capulets and Montagues, just as in the play Laurence tries vainly to bring the families together. Notice how craftily Tchaikovsky introduces his famous love theme, one of the most inspired this great melodist ever wrote. He first presents it with very subdued scoring—an English horn solo over violas—saving its full passion for later when it returns soaring aloft in the violins.

Notes by Janet E. Bedell © 2014

APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015 85

Thursday, March 12, 2015, 8 p.m.

● Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Marin Alsop, Music Director Presents

Mozart’s Great Mass Masaaki Suzuki, conductor Augustin Hadelich, violin Simona Saturova, soprano Joanne Lunn, mezzo-soprano Nicholas Phan, tenor Kyle Ketelsen, bass-baritone University of Maryland Concert Choir

Overture to Don Giovanni, K. 527

Violin Concerto No. 5 in A Major, K. 219

Allegro aperto Adagio

Rondo: Tempo di menuetto

Augustin Hadelich

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

INTERMISSION ass in C minor, K. 427 (417a), “The Great” M

KYRIE

GLORIA Laudamus te Gratias Domine Deus Qui tollis Quoniam Jesu Christe - Cum sancto spiritu

CREDO Et incarnatus

SANCTUS Benedictus Agnus Dei

Simona Saturova

Joanne Lunn

Nicholas Phan

Kyle Ketelsen University of Maryland Concert Choir

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Ed. Franz Beyer, 1989)

The concert will end at approximately 10 p.m.

Presenting Sponsor: M& T Bank

The Music Center at Strathmore Marriott Concert Stage

86 APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015

Masaaki Suzuki, conductor

Since founding Bach Collegium Japan in 1990, Masaaki Suzuki has established himself as a leading authority on the works of Bach, and his impressive discography on the BIS label includes all Bach’s major choral works and the complete cycle of cantatas.

He also conducts repertoire as diverse as Britten and Stravinsky with orchestras including the Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin, Leipzig Gewandhausorchester, the New York Philharmonic and the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra. Suzuki is an active organist and harpsichordist who studied with Ton Koopman at the Sweelinck Conservatory, Amsterdam.

Founder and head of the early music department at the Tokyo University of the Arts, he also holds positions at the Yale School of Music and Yale Institute of Sacred Music.

Augustin Hadelich, violin

Multiple performances with almost every major orchestra in the United States have confirmed Augustin Hadelich as one of the most important violinists of his generation.

Highlights of his 2014-2015 season include debuts with the Minnesota Orchestra, Danish National Symphony and the London Philharmonic, as well as re-invitations to perform with the New York Philharmonic and the symphonies of Baltimore, Houston, Indianapolis, Liverpool, Saint Louis and Seattle.

In addition to his many performances in the U.S., Canada and South America, Hadelich has appeared with the BBC Philharmonic, Bournemouth Symphony, Dresden Philharmonic, NHK Symphony/

SUZUKI PHOTO BY MARCO BORGGREVE, HADELICH PHOTO BY ROSIE O’CONNOR

THURSDAY, MARCH 12, 2015, 8 P.M.

Thursday, March 12, 2015, 8 p.m.

Tokyo and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, to name a few.

Hadelich’s first major orchestral recording, featuring the violin concertos of Jean Sibelius and Thomas Adès with Hannu Lintu conducting the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, was released to great acclaim in March 2014 and nominated for a Gramophone Award.

Simona Šaturová, soprano

Simona Šaturová, born in Bratislava, Slovakia, studied singing at the Bratislava Conservatory and attended various master classes, most notably with the Romanian soprano singer Ileana Cotrubas.

She regularly performs at the Théâtre de la Monnaie Brussels and Aalto-Theatre Essen. She has performed in La traviata, La finta giardinier), Titus, Rigoletto, The Abduction From the Seraglio and Idomeneo. She also has performed on the stages of Teatro Colón Buenos Aires, Théâtre du Châtelet Paris, Opéra de Monte Carlo, Oper Frankfurt and in Athen’s Megaron Concert Hall.

Conductors with whom the soprano singer has worked include Christoph Eschenbach, Krzysztof Penderecki, Sir Neville Marriner, Jiří Bělohlávek, Manfred Honeck, Tomáš Netopil, Kent Nagano, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Adam Fischer, Ivan Fischer and Christopher Hogwood.

Joanne Lunn, mezzo-soprano

Joanne Lunn studied at the Royal College of Music in London, where she was awarded the prestigious Tagore Gold Medal.

Joanne has performed with the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestra, the Academy

of Ancient Music, Les Musiciens du Louvre, Concerto Köln and many others, at venues including the Conservatoire Royal (Brussels), Tchaikovsky Concert Hall (Moscow), Sage Gateshead, St Paul’s Cathedral, and at the Halle Handel Festival and the BBC Proms.

Engagements in 2014-2015 include regular appearances with the Dunedin Consort and New London Consort & Musicians of the Globe, as well as with Bach Collegium Japan across Europe and in the United States. Future engagements include Nelson’s Mass in Moscow, Handel’s Cantatas with Musica Alta Ripa and a program of 16th century music at the Rhine Valley Music Festival with The Queen’s Revels.

Nicholas Phan, tenor

Nicholas Phan has appeared with many leading orchestras in North America and Europe, including the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic and BBC Symphony. He has toured extensively throughout Europe with Il Complesso Barocco and appeared with the Oregon Bach, Tanglewood, Ravinia, Marlboro and Edinburgh festivals and at the BBC Proms.

In opera, Phan has appeared with the Houston Grand, Seattle, Glyndebourne and Frankfurt operas and the Maggio Musicale in Florence.

In recital, he has been presented

by Carnegie Hall, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society and the University of Chicago. Phan’s growing discography includes the Grammy-nominated Pulcinella with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and his solo albums Winter Words and Still Falls the Rain.

His many engagements this season include his return to Houston

Grand Opera for Sweeney Todd, and concerts with the symphony orchestras of Cleveland, San Francisco, Dallas, Cincinnati, Baltimore and Vancouver.

Kyle Ketelsen, bass-baritone

American bassbaritone Kyle Ketelsen is in regular demand by the world’s leading opera companies and orchestras for his vibrant, handsome stage presence and his distinctive vocalism.

Ketelsen opens the 2014-2015 season as Leporello in a new production of Don Giovanni at Lyric Opera of Chicago. Other operatic highlights of Ketelsen’s season include his return to Canadian Opera Company as Leporello in Don Giovanni and Cadmus in the company’s production of Semele at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, as well as performances of his acclaimed Escamillo in Carmen with the Minnesota Opera under the baton of Michael Christie and at the Chorégies d’Orange festival in France.

Ketelsen’s symphonic engagements include Mozart’s Requiem with Pinchas Zukerman and the Colorado Symphony Orchestra.

University of Maryland Concert Choir

Over the past decade the University of Maryland Concert Choir has established itself as one of the premier symphonic choruses in the United States. Regular collaborations with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and the National Symphony Orchestra of Washington D.C., in repertoire such as Britten’s War Requiem, Mozart’s Requiem, Haydn’s Creation, Bach’s St. Matthew Passion and B minor Mass, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, and Handel’s Messiah have been met with acclaim from audiences and critics alike.

Performances at the University’s College Park campus have included Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem, Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms, Verdi’s Requiem and Beethoven’s Symphony No.

APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015 87

Thursday, March 12, 2015, 8 p.m.

UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND CONCERT CHOIR

9. Student singers are chosen by audition from the School of Music as well as from across the university’s various disciplines. Under the direction of Edward Maclary, the UMD Concert Choir strives to meet the highest professional standards while providing its membership a joyful educational and social experience.

Program Notes Overture to Don Giovanni

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Born Jan. 27, 1756; in Salzburg, Austria; died Dec. 5, 1791, in Vienna

In 1786, just as Mozart’s popularity in Vienna went into a slump, the city of Prague, capital of the then-Austrian province of Bohemia, came to the rescue. Mozart’s new comic opera The Marriage of Figaro had been such a spectacular success at the Prague Opera House that the city’s musical leaders begged the composer to visit as soon as possible. Arriving in early January 1787, he found the city gripped by Figaro-mania. He described a ball given in his honor: “I looked on … with the greatest pleasure while all these people flew about in sheer delight to the music of my Figaro, arranged for contradances and German dances. For there, they talk about nothing but Figaro. Nothing is played, sung, or whistled but Figaro. No opera is drawing like Figaro. …

Certainly a great honor for me!” Not surprisingly, the Prague Opera House offered a commission for a new opera, and it turned out to be one of his greatest masterpieces: Don Giovanni, premiered in Prague on Oct. 29, 1787.

The story of Don Juan, the prodigious Spanish womanizer who seduces thousands of women throughout southern Europe, dated back at least to the late 16th century. The French dramatist Molière created a play about him, while the forgotten Giuseppe Gazzaniga had produced a one-act opera in Venice earlier in 1787. Librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte actually cribbed from Gazzaniga’s libretto to create his longer story for Mozart. Da Ponte and Mozart called their work a “dramma giocoso” because, to an unprecedented degree, it combined comedy with a very serious drama of crime and punishment.

The opera’s riveting overture encapsulates both the tragic and the comic aspects of this dramma giocoso. First, we hear a slow introduction in D minor, full of darkness and foreboding; its whirling scale passages terrifyingly portray the supernatural forces that will ultimately destroy the Don; this music returns in the opera’s final scene when Don Giovanni meets his doom. Then the tempo accelerates to Allegro, and the key brightens to D major for music of comic verve. But it also has more weight than do the overtures for Mozart’s more purely comic operas and with its dashing fanfares seems a portrait of the virile Don himself.

Violin Concerto No. 5 in A Major, “Turkish”

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Although he eventually chose to concentrate on the keyboard, the young Mozart was almost equally gifted as a violinist, admired for the beauty and purity of his tone. As concertmaster of the PrinceArchbishop Colloredo’s court orchestra, he played the principal violin part and led the orchestra from his chair. He was

88 APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015

soon to grow deeply frustrated with this role, but between 1773 and 1775, it inspired him to write his five violin concertos, as well as a number of other works with prominent solo violin parts for him to play. The last three of these concertos, all written in 1775 when he was 19, rank among his earliest masterpieces.

Dated Dec. 20, 1775, the Violin Concerto in A Major is the last of the group.

Full of surprises and shifts of emotional tone, it shows Mozart playing freely and creatively with the concerto norms of his day. It is nicknamed “Turkish” for an exuberant episode of “alla Turca” (“in the Turkish manner”) music Mozart inserted in its vivacious finale. Such music—with its exotic leaping melodies, menacing unison passages, drone basses, and the clatter of drums and cymbals— was very fashionable in Europe during the late-18th century. But this music really isn’t “Turkish” at all; rather, as Mozart scholar Neal Zaslow explains, it actually came from Hungary.

The first movement opens with music of charm and insouciance. The orchestral violins merely sketch the principal theme with pert ascending notes. Likewise, the winsome second theme with its humorous repeated notes is but a preview of what the soloist will do. Now comes Mozart’s first surprise: instead of entering in this mood and tempo, the soloist floats in with a dreamy romance over rustling orchestral strings in a much slower tempo. Eventually, he shifts up to Allegro and transforms the orchestral pencil sketch of the principal theme into a soaring, full-color melody. And then he expands the second theme into music of great charm. A brief development section deepens the music’s expressiveness before the violin reprises its rapturous theme.

Movement two is an early example of Mozart’s almost painfully beautiful slow movements, which yearn for something more than ordinary life can give. The long-spun melodic lines are continually punctuated by little sighing figures in the orchestra. In the movement’s middle section, poignant harmonies intensify the mood to the brink of tears.

The work closes with a finale in the

Thursday, March 12, 2015, 8 p.m.

rondo form Mozart favored for his concertos. In this form, a refrain melody keeps returning in the home key while, in between, episodes of contrasting music explore other keys. Here the refrain tune is a courtly minuet ending with a little teasing upward flourish.

Midway through the movement comes Mozart’s “Turkish” surprise. Since he didn’t have percussion in his small ensemble, he cleverly asked the cellos to thump their instruments with the wooden side of their bows to produce the drum-and-cymbals effect.

Mass in C minor, “The Great,” K. 427

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart By strange coincidence, both of Mozart’s greatest sacred choral/orchestral works, the Requiem and the “Great” Mass in C minor, were left unfinished. The tragic story of Mozart attempting to complete the Requiem before his death was well known to music lovers even before the death-bed scene in Peter Shaffer’s play Amadeus dramatized it with many fictional embellishments. But what of Mozart’s other unfinished masterpiece?

When Mozart composed the Mass in C minor 1782–83, he was in good health and recently married to Constanze Weber. Why should he break off in midstream, leaving half the “Credo” and all of the “Agnus Dei” unset?

If Mozart had continued writing on the scale he’d begun, the Mass in C minor would have been as long as Bach’s epic Mass in B minor. And in fact there are many parallels with the Bminor, which Mozart surely knew. Like Bach, Mozart divided the mass text into various brief segments and then worked them out expansively in the form of solo arias or elaborate choruses. Both Bach and Mozart set the Gloria’s “Laudamus Te” section as a florid aria for the second soprano soloist and the “Cum Sancto Spirito” as a spectacular choral fugue.

Indeed, the influence of Baroque composers, particularly Handel and Bach, is very strong throughout the Cminor Mass. In 1782, the year he began composing this work, Mozart became acquainted with Baron Gottfried van Swieten, a scholar of the Baroque with a

splendid library of music of this period.

Poring over van Swieten’s scores, Mozart soaked up the contrapuntal techniques of these earlier masters and became very enamored of their music. Not surprisingly, the C-minor Mass became a glorious mélange of Baroque practices, particularly in its choral music.

But back to the mystery of why this work was never completed. On Aug. 4, 1782, shortly after he began writing the C-minor Mass, Mozart married Constanze Weber, much to the dismay of his father. Mozart seems to have begun the Mass as an act of thanksgiving for his marriage and a bridal gift to Constanze, for whom he wrote the first soprano solo. Perhaps the pressure of commissions that would earn him money against this personal work that was growing too big to be performed by any church finally drove him to break it off. Only a portion of what he had written was premiered at St. Peter’s Church, Salzburg, with Constanze as soprano soloist, in either late August or late October 1782. And Mozart seemed to have little appreciation for the greatness of his work in progress; in 1785, he actually cannibalized it to meet a hasty commission for a sacred cantata Davidde penitente.

The “Kyrie” gives us a dark, dramatic setting of the “Lord, have mercy” text, in keeping with the character of the Cminor tonality. (Interestingly, this is the only movement in the home key of C minor in the piece.) A gentler, more personal prayer, “Christ, have mercy,” is offered by the first soprano soloist, above a more subdued chorus and orchestra.

The “Gloria,” the longest completed section, begins in a blaze of brass and the bright key of C major. This is the first chorus in which you’ll hear the influence of Handel, including some nearly direct quotes from the “Hallelujah” Chorus. The second soprano is then introduced in “Laudamus te”: a vivacious, virtuosic aria of praise, full of joyful ascending scales in the violins.

In addition to the lovely duet for both sopranos for “Domine Deus” and flowing trio for the sopranos and the tenor for “Quoniam Tu Solus Sanctus,” the major numbers of the “Gloria” are the

extraordinarily powerful “Qui Tollis” and the grand choral fugue for “Cum Sancto Spiritu.” Michael Steinberg has called the “Quoniam” section “one of the summits of Classical church music,” and it is difficult to argue with him. In G minor and a slow tempo, this is a Baroquestyle choral piece, set over a traditional Baroque descending bass accompaniment. The weight of its heavy orchestral rhythms and the inclusion of three trombones perfectly expresses the text: “Thou who bearest the sins of the world.” Sudden descrescendos to piano introduce the pleas for mercy Misere” and “Suscipe.”

“Cum Sancto Spiritu” (“With the Holy Spirit”) traditionally received a fugal treatment, but Mozart’s is exciting rather than pedantic. A slow, simple fugal subject juxtaposes beautifully against continuous faster-note passages, and a little down-and-up figure is exploited to create two thrilling, long crescendo passages.

The glory of the incomplete “Credo” section is the long, sublimely beautiful aria for the first soprano, “Et incarnatus est” (“And was incarnate from the Holy Spirit”). Traditionally, composers offer their loveliest writing for this passage, but this exquisite setting with the soprano accompanied by solo flute, oboe and bassoon arguably tops them all.

Particularly marvelous are the passages in which the soprano sings with the woodwinds; Mozart also exploits this blending of singer and instruments in a lengthy cadenza near the end. No husband could ever have devised a more magnificent gift for his wife!

Many parts are missing in the concluding “Sanctus” section, but several editors believe this already massive music should be scored for eight-part double chorus. The eight-voice division then continues into the intricate, high-speed double fugue for “Osanna.”

Although this makes a satisfactory conclusion for this “noble torso” (in the words of Alfred Einstein), we can only weep that Mozart apparently didn’t prize this glorious work as we do today and bring it to completion.

Notes by Janet E. Bedell © 2014

APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015 89

Sunday, March 15, 2015, 4 p.m.

SUNDAY, MARCH 15, 2015, 4 P.M.

● Washington Performing Arts Celebrity Series Presents

András Schiff, piano

Sonata No. 60 in C Major, Hob. XVI:50 Joseph Haydn

Allegro (1732-1809) Adagio

Allegro molto

Sonata in E Major, Op. 109

Vivace ma non troppo - Adagio espressivo Prestissimo

Andante molto cantabile ed espressivo

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

INTERMISSION

Sonata in C Major, K.545 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Allegro (1756-1791) Andante Rondo

Sonata in C minor, D. 958 Franz Schubert

Allegro (1797-1828) Adagio

Menuetto & Trio Allegro This performance is generously supported by Betsy and Robert Feinberg.

András Schiff, piano

András Schiff is world-renowned and critically acclaimed as a pianist, conductor, pedagogue and lecturer. Born in Budapest, Hungary in 1953, he started piano lessons at age 5 with Elisabeth Vadász. He continued his musical studies at the Ferenc Liszt Academy with Professor Pál Kadosa, György Kurtág and Ferenc Rados, and in London with George Malcolm.

Schiff’s project, The Last Sonatas, a series of three recitals comprising the final three sonatas of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert. The Last Sonatas takes place over the 20142015 and 2015-2016 seasons with the complete series slated for Washington Performing Arts, New York’s Carnegie

Hall, San Francisco’s Symphony Hall, Los Angeles’ Disney Hall, Chicago’s Symphony Hall, The Vancouver Recital Society and University Musical Society of the University of Michigan.

Orchestral engagements find Schiff performing mainly as both conductor and soloist. In 1999 he created his own chamber orchestra, the Cappella Andrea Barca, which consists of international soloists, chamber musicians and friends.

He also works every year with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe.

Schiff’s discography includes the

90 APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015

complete solo piano music of Beethoven and Janácek, two solo albums of Schumann piano pieces, his second recordings of the Bach Partitas and Goldberg Variations, The Well Tempered Clavier, Books I and II and Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations recorded on two instruments: a Bechstein from 1921 and an original fortepiano from Vienna 1820. An all-Schubert disc featuring Sonata in B (D960), Sonata in G (D894), Moments Musicaux (D780) and the Impromptus will be released in spring 2015.

Please see insert for notes on the program.

PHOTO BY BIRGITTA KOWSKY

The Music Center at Strathmore Marriott Concert Stage

Tuesday, XXXXday, March XXX17, X, 2015, X 8 p.m. p.m.

TUESDAY, MARCH 17, 2015, 8 P.M.

● Strathmore Presents

A Special St. Patrick’s Day concert: Carlos Núñez and Friends featuring The Sean Culkin Dancers Traidisiún Performed by the Sean Culkin Dancers W. Seán Culkin, TCRG: Director Nicki Bayhurst, ADCRG: Artistic Director

About the Culkin School of Traditional Irish Dance

The Music Center at Strathmore Marriott Concert Stage

Carlos Núñez

Carlos Núñez is one of Galicia's most revered artists, undisputed as the tradition’s greatest piper. He is already known in Irish music thanks to his early “adoption” by The Chieftains (so close was his musical and personal connection he was dubbed “The Seventh Chieftain”). He played on many of the acclaimed Irish group’s albums including Treasure Island, The Long Black Veil, the Grammy-winning Santiago (inspired by Galician music), Mexican project San Patricio, and their latest release, Voice of Ages.

CARLOS NÚÑEZ

flamenco singer Carmen Linares, Irish accordionist Sharon Shannon, Scottish accordionist Phil Cunningham, flamenco guitarist Vicente Amigo, Brazilian star Carlinhos Brown, Early Music master Jordi Savall, Spanish soprano Montserrat Caballé, and Buena Vista Social Club members Omara Portuondo, Compay Segundo and Cachaito.

Núñez’s next album, Inter-Celtic, features music and artists from the different Celtic countries.

Núñez then launched his own solo career and built on his long list of collaborations. His 1996 debut album, Brotherhood of Stars, reached platinum sales in Spain. Nuñez followed with Mayo Longo (2000), Todos Os Mundos (2002), Finisterre: The End of the Earth (2003), Carlos Núñez in Concert (2004), Cinema Do Mar (2006) and Alborada Do Brasil (2009).

Núñez was born in 1971 in Vigo, the port that connects Galicia to the world. He started playing the gaita at age 8. He studied recorder and Baroque music at Madrid's Royal Conservatory. At age 12, he performed at Brittany's Festival InterCeltique. Núñez’s music draws on influences that range from ancient and contemporary Celtic (with a unique Spanish swing) to Medieval and Baroque, and also borrows from the sounds and styles of the places where Galicians have settled, including Cuba, Brazil, Argentina, and the United States.

He recently made his first major U.S. tour and presented his Sony Masterworks debut, Discover, which showcases Núñez’s range and depth. The list of guests that appear on Discover, includes Linda Ronstadt, Los Lobos, Jackson Browne, Ry Cooder, Waterboys frontman Mike Scott, Sinéad O'Connor, Laurie Anderson, The Chieftains,

Seán Culkin’s mission and passion is teaching Irish dance and sharing it with area audiences. Having begun at age 6 with Washington D.C.’s Peggy O’Neill, he went on to establish the Culkin School of Traditional Irish Dance in 1997. The mission of the Culkin School is to pass on the tradition of Irish dance, teach the basics of dance and the music it is danced to, and to have fun while learning.

The school has performed at the Kennedy Center, Wolf Trap, Glen Echo Park, National Geographic Live, and The Music Center at Strathmore.

Dancers have performed onstage with Carlos Núñez, The Chieftains, De Dannan, Eileen Ivers, Natalie McMaster, Cherish the Ladies, Téada, Lúnasa, Beoga, and The Saw Doctors.

About Traidisiún

Traidisiún is the Irish word for tradition. The Culkin School is one of traditional Irish dance, and tonight presents an array of dances and arrangements that typify the dance forms of Ireland. Groupings of dancers will take the stage, such as a boys reel, a traditional Blackbird set piece, and an a cappella jig. The concert also includes a few twists on traditional Irish dance, such as the school’s signature “Silver Spring Set” danced to polka music, and a hard shoe/soft shoe slip jig. Dancers from the Culkin School adult program will also perform a few of the fun group dances that are the traditional Ceili dances of Ireland.

APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015 91

Sunday, March 22, 2015, 3 p.m.

● Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Marin Alsop, Music Director Presents

Haydn and Ravel Marin Alsop, conductor Sol Gabetta, cello

Valses nobles et sentimentales Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)

Cello Concerto in C Major, H. VIIb:1 Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) Moderato Adagio

Allegro molto

Sol Gabetta INTERMISSION

La Valse Maurice Ravel

Suite from Der Rosenkavalier, Op. 59 Richard Strauss The concert will end at approximately 4:45 p.m.

The Music Center at Strathmore Marriott Concert Stage

Marin Alsop, conductor

For Marin Alsop’s biography, please refer to page 28.

Sol Gabetta, cello

Sol Gabetta achieved international acclaim upon winning the Crédit Suisse Young Artist Award in 2004 and making her debut with the Wiener Philharmoniker and Valery Gergiev.

Following her highly acclaimed debut with Berlin Philharmonic and Sir Simon in 2014, Gabetta performed with Staatskapelle Berlin this past December. Other highlights for the 2014-2015 season include her debut with Toronto Symphony Orchestra, a European tour with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Vladimir Jurowski, as well as recitals across Europe with Bertrand Chamayou.

Gabetta has appeared with leading orchestras worldwide, including the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, National

Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National de France, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, and The Philadelphia, London Philharmonic and Philharmonia orchestras.

92 APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015

Program Notes Valses nobles et sentimentales

Maurice Ravel

Born March 7, 1875, in Ciboure, Basses-Pyrénées, France; died Dec. 28, 1937, in Paris

Many of Maurice Ravel’s most beautiful orchestral pieces began as works for the piano. Such is the case with the gracious Valses nobles et sentimentales, which he composed in 1911, taking his inspiration from Schubert’s waltzes for piano of a century earlier (12 Valses nobles and 34 Valses sentimentales).

The fragile charm of these pieces was summed up in the brief quotation the composer added at the top of the score, drawn from a recent novel by Henri de Régnier: “The delightful and always novel pleasures of a useless occupation.”

However, when shortly thereafter the Russian-French ballerina Natasha Trouhanova commissioned a new ballet score from Ravel, he thought these piano pieces arranged for orchestra would suit the projected ballet scenario, which he was also creating for Trouhanova. He polished off the exquisite scoring in only 15 days, and the ballet, titled Adélaïde, ou la langage des fleurs (“Adélaïde, or the Language of Flowers”), was premiered in Paris at the Theâtre du Châtelet on April 22, 1912, with Ravel himself conducting. Later the score became a concert work, first performed in Paris in February 1914.

In Ravel’s ballet scenario set in 1820, the courtesan Adélaïde dallies between two suitors: the serious and idealistic Lorédan and a more frivolous but extremely wealthy Duke. The flirtation and courtship are carried out through the exchange of various flowers, each representing a different virtue or vice.

Lorédan presents Adélaïde with a buttercup as a symbol of true love while the Duke offers a sunflower representing extravagance. The Duke is finally rejected, but Lorédan is kept in suspense as the courtesan presents him with a tuberose (pleasure) and then a poppy (forgetfulness). When in the Epilogue he threatens suicide, Adélaïde relents and gives him a red rose as she falls into his arms.

PHOTO BY UWE ARENS

SUNDAY, MARCH 22, 2015, 3 P.M.

Sunday, March 22, 2015, 3 p.m.

Though Valses nobles calls for a large orchestra, it mostly features gorgeously subtle playing for the strings and, above all, the woodwinds, whose delicately variegated colors Ravel masterfully exploits. The seven waltzes are contrasted in key, tempo and mood. Only in the last of them, which is the longest and richest of the set, does Ravel let the full orchestra fly in a sweeping, truly Viennese waltz. A final movement, the Epilogue, quotes from most of the preceding dances and brings the piece to a nostalgic, bittersweet close.

Cello Concerto in C Major

Joseph Haydn

Born March 31, 1732, in Rohrau, Austria; died May 31, 1809, in Vienna

Perhaps the ultimate dream of the sleuthing musicologist is to discover, hidden away in some dusty drawer or overlooked closet, a major missing work by one of the master composers.

It happened in 1961 when Czech musicologist Oldrich Pulkert was working in the Prague National Museum: He unearthed Haydn’s Cello Concerto in C Major, lost for nearly 200 years. The composer’s Cello Concerto in D, written in 1783, had long been in the active repertoire. But scholars knew there was an earlier concerto because it was listed both in the catalogue of Haydn’s works he’d begun in 1765 and in the works list he prepared shortly before his death. Since Haydn had included the opening two measures of the solo entrance (known as the “incipit”) in his catalogue, Pulkert was able to verify his discovery easily. The “new” Haydn Cello Concerto made its debut the following year at the Prague Spring Music Festival and was promptly taken up by cello virtuosi around the world.

Believed to have been written sometime between 1761 and 1765 during Haydn’s first years at the court of Prince Esterházy, this concerto was probably created for the lead cellist of the Esterházy orchestra, Joseph Franz Weigl, to play at one of the court’s twice-weekly orchestral concerts.

Weigl must have been highly accomplished, for the concerto fully exploits

the special qualities of the instrument as well as the technical skills of a virtuoso player. Scored for a small string ensemble with two oboes and two horns, this is a lovely work that looks back to the Baroque era while being advanced enough to stand proudly beside its better-known sibling.

The opening movement is warm, noble and expansive. It is in sonata form, but with a more leisurely Moderato tempo rather than the customary fast Allegro. The thematic material emphasizes three elements: syncopated rhythms, large upward leaps and rapid repeated notes. In place of a leap, the cellist frequently reverses direction and swoops downward to powerful low notes. She also exploits the bouncing repeated notes to add drama to the middle development section and the cadenza.

The Adagio second movement is a beautiful aria for soloist and strings, reminiscent of the great Baroque slow movements. The soloist enters gently on a sustained note an octave below the violins and employs the cello’s sweetest tenor/alto singing range throughout.

By extending phrases beyond where we would expect them to end, Haydn contrives to give this movement the quality of endless, ever-flowing song.

Haydn is famous for his brilliant, high-spirited finales, and this one is a vivacious, virtuosic example. Here the cello’s low register is exploited, often to comic effect, as well as the soloist’s agility in long passages of very rapid notes.

Toward the end, in a game of one-upmanship, the orchestra pushes the soloist to ever-greater feats of daring.

La Valse

Maurice Ravel Ravel originally conceived La Valse in 1906 as the tone poem Wien (“Vienna”): “a sort of apotheosis of the Viennese waltz,” he called it, in tribute to Johann Strauss. However, by the time he came to write it in 1919–1920, World War I had smashed that enchanted world, along with the Austrian Hapsburg empire, forever. Though pushing 40 and of frail physique, Ravel had struggled to play his patriotic role for

France. Repeatedly turned down by the army and air force, he became a truck driver behind the front lines. When he was demobilized, his health was broken. The death of his beloved mother early in 1917 sent him into a long depression. La Valse was written by a man who had experienced horrors both on the battlefield and in his personal life.

There was no longer any possibility of creating a Romantic apotheosis, only, in Ravel’s words, “the impression of fantastic and fatal whirling.”

Like his beloved Daphnis and Chloé, La Valse was originally intended as a ballet for the flamboyant Russian impresario Serge Diaghilev and given the subtitle “choreographic poem.” But when Ravel and a colleague played it in a two-piano version for Diaghilev in April 1920, he dismissed it with a backhanded compliment: “It’s a masterpiece ... but it’s not a ballet. It’s a portrait of a ballet, a painting of a ballet.” However, La Valse has been subsequently choreographed several times, with George Balanchine creating a particularly successful version in the 1950s.

Ravel provided a brief synopsis for his ghostly dance, in which nostalgia and horror are superbly blended: “Through whirling clouds, waltzing couples may be faintly distinguished.

The clouds gradually scatter: one sees ... an immense hall peopled with a whirling crowd. ... The light of the chandeliers bursts forth at the [first] fortissimo. ... An imperial court, about 1855.”

The music opens ominously with the dark rumble of low strings and bassoons, and a nightmarish thud in 3/4 time delivered by basses and timpani.

A few waltz strains gradually penetrate the mists, then shine forth brilliantly. The ominous dark music returns, and, whirling faster, the waltzes begin to collide with each other in wild harmonic and rhythmic confusion. Finally, even the 3/4 beat breaks down in an orgy of self-destruction—the most violent ending in Ravel’s music. In just 12 minutes, we have experienced the most vivid sound portrait imaginable of the end of an era.

APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015 93

Sunday, March 22, 2015, 3 p.m.

Suite from Der Rosenkavalier

Richard Strauss

Born June 11, 1864, in Munich, Germany; died Sept. 8, 1949, in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, West Germany

Having devoted his early career to the composition of tone poems, in middle age Richard Strauss moved on to the most dramatic musical form of all: opera. Of his 15 operas, the most popular and, in the opinion of many critics, the finest is Der Rosenkavalier, his bittersweet comedy set in 18th-century Vienna. With a libretto by the Austrian poet Hugo von Hofmannsthal, it tells the story of a love triangle involving different generations: two women vying for the love of one man.

The older woman is the Marschallin, a beautiful, married noblewoman who is carrying on an affair with the 17-yearold Octavian, Count Rofrano. (Because he personally disliked the tenor voice, Strauss cast Octavian as a mezzo-soprano, a “trouser role” like Cherubino in

Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro.) When the Marschallin’s cousin, the boorish country bumpkin Baron Lerchenau von Ochs, arrives with the news he is wooing the teenaged Sophie von Faninal and needs a young man to present a silver rose to her as a token of his love (the old Viennese ceremony of the “Rose Cavalier”), the Marschallin proposes Octavian as rose-bearer, half knowing she is sending him into the arms of an attractive woman his own age. And indeed the story unfolds as she suspected. Sophie and Octavian are instantly smitten with each other during the rose presentation ceremony; Ochs’ crude wooing throws Sophie into Octavian’s arms; and, after various comic episodes, Ochs admits defeat, and the Marschallin gracefully surrenders Octavian to Sophie.

Ever since its premiere in 1911, this opera has entranced audiences with its soaring ensembles for its three female (Octavian included here) leads, its comic sparkle, and especially its anachronistic

(the waltz hardly existed in the 18th century) but gloriously Viennese waltzes.

The suite we hear tonight is a potpourri of its greatest melodies pulled together by an unknown arranger with the elderly Strauss’ blessing in 1945, when World War II had left him in desperate financial straits. We will hear: the Act II “Rose Presentation Scene,” with its high cascading motive shimmering in celesta, harps, flutes and strings; the tender duet in which Octavian and Sophie first acknowledge their attraction; Baron Ochs’ sentimental waltz “Mit mir” (the most famous of the opera’s waltzes); the glorious Act III trio in which the Marschallin tenderly renounces her claims to Octavian; and the charmingly naive duet for the young lovers that closes the opera.

Finally, though Baron Ochs loses in the opera, he gets the last word in the suite with his exuberant waltz boasting of the “Luck of the Lerchenaus.”

Notes by Janet E. Bedell © 2014

It’s music to my ears.

GEICO is proud to support students and education in the cultural arts, including Strathmore Student Concerts.

We know the only way to build stronger communities for tomorrow is to invest our time and energy today. We call it our insurance plan for the future, and it’s a policy we’re proud of.

geico.com | 1-800-947-AUTO (2886) Some discounts, coverages, payment plans and features are not available in all states or all GEICO companies. GEICO is a registered service mark of Government Employees Insurance Company, Washington, D.C. 20076; a Berkshire Hathaway Inc. subsidiary. GEICO Gecko image © 1999-2014. © 2014 GEICO

94 APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015

Thursday, March 8 p.m.

XXXXday, XXX26, X, 2015, X p.m.

THURSDAY, MARCH 26, 2015, 8 P.M.

● Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Marin Alsop, Music Director Jack Everly, Principal Pops Conductor Presents

A Symphonic Night at the Movies: Singin’ in the Rain With the score performed live by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Conducted by Jack Everly Film courtesy of Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. THE CAST Gene Kelly..................Don Lockwood Donald O’Connor.......Cosmo Brown Debbie Reynolds........Kathy Selden Jean Hagen................Lina Lamont Millard Mitchell..........R.F. Simpson Cyd Charisse..............Dancer Douglas Fowley..........Roscoe Dexter Rita Moreno................Zelda Zanders Screenplay by Adolph Green & Betty Comden Directed by Gene Kelly (Director and Choreographer) and Stanley Donen Produced by Arthur Freed Music by Nacio Herb Brown (songs) and Arthur Freed Producer: John Goberman Music Preparation: Larry Spivack Original orchestrations reconstructed by John Wilson, Paul Campbell and Andrew Cottee The producer wishes to acknowledge the contributions and extraordinary support of John Waxman (Themes & Variations).

A Symphonic Night at the Movies is a production of PGM Productions, Inc. (New York) and appears by arrangement with IMG Artists.

Jack Everly, conductor

For Jack Everly’s biography, please refer to page 41.

PHOTO BY MICHAEL TAMMARO

Singin’ in the Rain: Hollywood’s Greatest Musical

Some movies make a big splash when released, win fistfuls of Oscars and Golden Globes, then fade into history. The 1952 MGM musical Singin’ in the Rain followed exactly the opposite trajectory. Initially only a modest success with audiences and critics, it was nominated for two Academy Awards—Best Supporting Actress for Jean Hagen and Best Score—and astonishingly won neither.

Yet today it is generally regarded as the

publicity-engineered love interest, the blonde screen siren Lina Lamont (Jean Hagen); and his sidekick, hoofer Cosmo Brown (Donald O’Connor).

Trying to escape his voracious fans, Lockwood virtually falls into the lap of the pretty chorus girl with big aspirations Kathy Selden (Debbie Reynolds), and they fall in love. When Al Jolson’s The Jazz Singer is released as the wildly successful first talkie, Lockwood and Lamont’s studio, Monumental Pictures, is faced with a crisis. The studio attempts to turn the co-stars’ next film The Dueling Cavalier into a sound picture, but are thwarted by Lina’s screechy voice and intractable New York accent. Cosmo Brown’s ingenious solution is to turn the film into a musical The Dancing Cavalier, with Kathy’s mellow voice dubbed in for Lina’s and a big “modern” dance sequence for Lockwood, “Broadway Melody.”

What made Singin’ in the Rain a legend are its spectacularly performed and staged song-and-dance sequences. Donald O’Connor’s breakneck virtuoso dancing—done without the assistance of stunt doubles or today’s special effects—in “Make ‘em Laugh” actually caused him to be hospitalized briefly. In her first starring role, Debbie Reynolds was only 19 and a gymnast rather than a trained dancer; none other than Fred Astaire volunteered to coach her, producing a perkily graceful performance to match her fine singing.

However, the number that has made this film immortal is Gene Kelly’s rendition of the title song as, realizing he is in love with Kathy, he dances through the rain-soaked streets of Hollywood. Originally, this was intended to be a trio for Kelly, O’Connor and Reynolds, as shown in the opening credits, but Kelly as co-director appropriated it for himself. Kelly’s deftly imaginative use of his umbrella is the supreme example of his penchant for building dances around props and the given set.

finest of the legendary string of MGM musicals of the 1940s and ’50s, and in its 2007 list of the greatest American movies ever made, the American Film Institute ranked it No. 5.

Singin’ in the Rain’s plot is set in 1927 during Hollywood’s perilous transition from silent films to “talkies” and hilariously reflects the trials of directors trying to sequence sound with image and of silent stars (like John Garfield) whose weak or unattractive voices betrayed their photogenic faces.

It revolves around Don Lockwood (Gene Kelly), the dashing star of silent costume picEVERLY tures; his co-star and strictly

Janet E. Bedell © 2014

APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015 95

Friday, March 27, 2015, 8 p.m.

● Strathmore Presents

Audra McDonald Andy Einhorn, piano Mark Vanderpoel, bass Gene Lewin, drums The Music Center at Strathmore Marriott Concert Stage

96 APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015

Audra McDonald

Audra McDonald is unparalleled in the breadth and versatility of her artistry as both a singer and an actress. A record-breaking six-time Tony Awardwinner (Carousel, Master Class, Ragtime, A Raisin in the Sun, The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess, and Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill), she has also appeared on Broadway in The Secret Garden, Marie Christine (Tony nomination), Henry IV, and 110 in the Shade (Tony nomination).

The Juilliard-trained soprano’s opera credits include La voix humaine and Send at Houston Grand Opera and Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny at Los Angeles Opera. On television, she was recently seen as the Mother Abbess in NBC’s “The Sound of Music Live!” and played Dr. Naomi Bennett on ABC’s “Private Practice” for four seasons. She has received Emmy nominations for “Wit,” “A Raisin in the Sun,” and her role as official host of PBS’ “Live From Lincoln Center.”

Other TV credits include “The Good Wife,” “Homicide: Life on the Street,” “Law & Order: SVU,” “Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters’ First 100 Years,” “The Bedford Diaries,” “Kidnapped,” and the 1999 remake of Annie. On film, McDonald has appeared in Seven Servants, The Object of My Affection, Cradle Will Rock, It Runs in the Family, The Best Thief in the World, She Got Problems, and Rampart.

A two-time Grammy winner and exclusive recording artist for Nonesuch Records, she released her fifth solo album for the label, Go Back Home, in 2013. McDonald also maintains a major career as a concert artist, regularly appearing on the great stages of the world and with leading international orchestras.

An ardent proponent of marriage equality and an advocate for at-risk and underprivileged youth, she sits on the boards of Broadway Impact and Covenant House. Of her many roles, her favorites are the ones performed offstage: wife to her husband, actor Will Swenson, and mother to her daughter, Zoe Madeline.

PHOTO BY AUTUMN DEWILDE

FRIDAY, MARCH 27, 2015, 8 P.M.

Saturday, March 28, 2015, 8 p.m. and Sunday, XXXXday, March XXX29, X, 2015, X 3 p.m. p.m.

SATURDAY, MARCH 28, 2015, 8 P.M. SUNDAY, MARCH 29, 2015, 3 P.M.

● The National Philharmonic

Piotr Gajewski, Music Director and Conductor Presents

Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3

Program Notes

Piotr Gajewski, conductor Haochen Zhang, piano

Romeo and Juliet Overture-Fantasy Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)

Capriccio Espagnol, Op. 34 Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

(1844-1908) INTERMISSION

Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, No. 3, in D minor, Op. 30 Allegro ma non tanto Intermezzo: Adagio Finale: Alla breve

Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943)

Weekend Concerts Sponsor: Ameriprise Financial Sunday Concert Sponsor: Ingleside at King Farm Supported in part by the Tanya and Albert Lampert Guest Artist Fund All Kids, All Free, All The Time is sponsored by The Gazette and the Dieneke Johnson Fund The Music Center at Strathmore Marriott Concert Stage

Piotr Gajewski, conductor

For Piotr Gajewski’s biography, please refer to page 29.

ZHANG PHOTO BY BENJAMIN EALOVEGA

Haochen Zhang, piano

Since his gold medal win at the 13th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 2009, 24-year-old Chinese pianist Haochen Zhang has captivated audiences in the United States, Europe and Asia with a unique combination of deep musical sensitivity, fearless imagination and spectacular virtuosity.

Zhang’s 2014-2015 season includes return invitations to Pacific Symphony, La Roque d’Antheron Festival in France, recitals in Paris,

Tokyo and Beijing, as well as a debuts with the L.A. Philharmonic with Xian Zhang, the Warsaw Philharmonic with Jerzy Semkow and Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbücken with Myung-Whun Chung.

In spring 2015 Zhang will be the soloist for a tour with the NDR Hamburg and Thomas Hengelbrock in Tokyo, Beijing and Shanghai.

Romeo and Juliet, Fantasy-Overture

Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Born May 7, 1840, in Votkinsk, Russia; died Nov. 6, 1893, in St. Petersburg

Tchaikovsky was a young man and an inexperienced composer when he started to write a descriptive overture for orchestra based on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Before he completely finished it, it went through three versions and more than a decade passed. Over the years, he worked closely and thoroughly on the overture with his friend Mily Balakirev, a self-taught composer of extraordinary natural gifts to whom the piece is dedicated. None of Balakirev’s compositions earned him a place in history like Tchaikovsky’s, but he held many important positions in the musical circles of Tchaikovsky’s Russia. Balakirev gathered together a group of Russian composers known as the Mighty Five, made up of Alexander Borodin, César Cui, Modest Mussorgsky and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, who fostered nationalist musical ideals, and it was he who suggested that Tchaikovsky should write a concert overture based on Shakespeare’s tragedy, Romeo and Juliet. Balakirev loved Shakespeare and had composed an overture and incidental music based on King Lear a decade earlier. Balakirev possessed one quality that Tchaikovsky completely lacked: self-confidence. With it, he felt that he could dictate just how Tchaikovsky should go about completing this project; Balakirev suggested the subject and the form

APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015 97

XXXday, Saturday,XXX March X, 2015, 28, 2015, X p.m.

8 p.m. and Sunday, March 29, 2015, 3 p.m.

and also the key, the harmonic structure, and even certain rhythmic details that he thought would be best for Tchaikovsky to use.

Tchaikovsky completed almost all the work on the score for his overture under his friend’s scrutiny and was docile about it. “The layout is yours,” Tchaikovsky assured him.

“The introduction portraying the friar, the fight—Allegro, and love— the second subject; and, secondly, the modulations are yours: also the introduction in E, the Allegro in Bflat minor and the second subject in D-flat.” While the work was in progress, Balakirev criticized the themes and their organization, and when Tchaikovsky tired of the piece and allowed his attention to wander elsewhere, Balakirev forcefully steered him back to Romeo.

In November 1869, Tchaikovsky completed the score, and on March 16, 1870, the Orchestra of the Imperial Russian Music Society of Moscow premiered the work with Nikolai Rubinstein conducting. Unfortunately, the debut was a sad failure, and Tchaikovsky (and Balakirev) set to work on a revised version. The new version was performed in St. Petersburg in 1872, but was still unsatisfactory.

Later on, Tchaikovsky briefly considered composing an opera based on Romeo and Juliet, but then turned back to the Fantasy-Overture and in 1880, completed the popular third version, which is now generally considered to be the preferred setting.

The overture follows the structure of sonata form, but the plot of Shakespeare’s play does not dictate a specific program for the music. Some of the themes do, however, represent specific characters or plot developments in the play. According to Jonathan Kramer, the Andante introduction, with chorale-type harmony, represents Friar Laurence. The Allegro that follows, consisting of quick scales and rhythms, represents the feud of the Capulet and Montague families. The love theme, which of course refers to Romeo and Juliet’s relationship, is a

quintessential romantic melody. In the coda, all the main ideas of the composition recur and gain intensity. The death of the two young lovers ends the work.

The score calls for two flutes and piccolo, two oboes and English horn, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, cymbals, bass drum, harp and strings. Tchaikovsky attached no opus number to this work.

Capriccio Espagnol, Op. 34

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov Born March 18, 1844, in Tikhvin, Russia; died June 21, 1908, in Liubensk, Russia

Most of Rimsky-Korsakov’s compositions are based, in one way or another, on Russian folk music, but in this one, written in 1887, he turned to the opposite end of Europe for his inspiration, gravitating to the warm melodies and rhythms of Spain, the country that he had visited as a Russian naval officer.

He said in his memoirs, “The Spanish themes supplied me with rich material,” and “the changing orchestral colors, the fit of the melodies and the instruments, the rhythms of the percussion, are all the essence of the composition.”

Rimsky-Korsakov first drafted his popular Capriccio Espagnol as a fantasy on Spanish themes for violin and orchestra, but in 1887, he completely revised his sketch and recast the work in the form we know it today. On Oct. 31, 1887, the composer conducted the first performance of the Capriccio at a concert of the Russian Symphony Orchestra in St. Petersburg. In his autobiography, My Musical Life, he described the event: “At the first rehearsal, the first movement had scarcely been finished when the whole orchestra began to applaud. I asked the orchestra for the privilege of dedicating the work to them.

There was general delight at this. The Capriccio sounded brilliant. At the concert itself it was performed with perfection of execution and enthusiasm such as never was given to it later. Despite its length, the work had to be repeated.”

In November, Tchaikovsky wrote to the composer, “I must add that your

98 APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015

Spanish Capriccio is a colossal masterpiece of instrumentation, and you may regard yourself as the greatest master of the present day.” This, and similar observations by others, the composer did not take to be an unqualified compliment. He wrote, “The opinion that the Capriccio is a magnificent piece of orchestration is incorrect. The Capriccio is a brilliant composition for the orchestra.

The change of timbres, the selection of melodic designs and figuration exactly adapted to each kind of instrument, the brief virtuoso cadenzas for solo instruments, the rhythm of the percussion instruments, all constitute the very essence of the composition, and not its garb or orchestration. The Spanish themes supplied me with rich material for the use of variegated orchestral effects. Taking it as a whole, the Capriccio is clearly a purely external work, but sparklingly brilliant for all that. [Abridged]” The Capriccio Espagnol has five connected movements: Alborada (a Spanish morning song), Variazioni (“Variations”), five variations on a lyrical theme; Alborada, a repetition of the opening movement, but in a different key and with different instrumentation); Scena e Canto Gitano (“Scene and Gypsy Song”); and Fandango asturiano (“Fandango of the Asturias”) a folk dance from northwestern Spain. At the work’s end, the Alborada theme returns as a coda.

The score calls for two flutes, piccolo, two oboes, English horn, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drum, snare drum, cymbals, triangle, tambourine, castanets, harp and strings.

Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 3, in D minor, Op. 30

Sergei Rachmaninoff

Born April 1, 1873, in Oneg, Russia; died March 28, 1943, in Beverly Hills, Calif.

Sergei Rachmaninoff was one of the supreme pianists of his era, an admired composer as well as a conductor who was offered the direction of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Cincinnati Orchestra. Although he always badly needed the money, he did not accept either offer because he was concerned he

Saturday, March 28, 2015, 8 p.m. and Sunday, XXXXday, March XXX29, X, 2015, X 3 p.m. p.m.

did not know enough of the orchestral repertory to become the regular conductor of a major orchestra. He also felt that such a position would distract him too much from composing. Despite his heavy schedule of concert performances, he was able to write a great deal of music: four piano concertos, three symphonies, three operas, a large number of works in diverse forms and a larger number of songs and piano pieces. He left Russia in 1917 and resided in the United States for the rest of his life.

Rachmaninoff was educated at the conservatories of St. Petersburg and Moscow, and after winning a gold medal for composition, in 1892 he set off on his first extensive concert tour, which was to launch his long career.

The melodic power and the rich, characteristically Russian sonority of his music made him one of the most popular composers of the 20th century.

The Piano Concerto No. 3 makes intense demands on the pianist’s stamina and is recognized as one of the most difficult works in the piano repertoire. It was written in 1909 for Rachmaninoff’s first American tour, a trip motivated amusingly enough, by the composer’s desire to make enough money to buy a desirable new item of his day, a car.

He was charmed by the idea of driving through the countryside and was enchanted by the novelty of the new technology. Rachmaninoff resisted pressures to give the first performance in Russia and sailed for New York even before he had thoroughly learned the work himself. He practiced it while at sea, on a mute keyboard, and after appearances with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Philadelphia Orchestra, he gave the first performance of the new work on Nov. 28, 1909, with the New York Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Walter Damrosch. About two months later, he played it again, with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra under Gustav Mahler. It was published in 1910, with a dedication to the great pianist Josef Hofmann.

The concerto is a large work, but concise with movements tightly integrated by their use of related themes.

In the first movement, Allegro ma non tanto, the piano’s entrance with the melancholy and lyrical main subject is preceded by a throbbing accompaniment figure. Then the piano introduces a lengthy and calm theme that has an important role in all of the movements in the score. Even the playful second theme of this movement is a variant of the first. A musicologist friend of the composer, Joseph Yasser, felt that this dark, pessimistic Russian sounding melody was derived from an old Russian Orthodox chant, The Tomb, O Savior, Soldiers Guarding, sung in the Monastery of the Cross near Kiev. Rachmaninoff denied the source and told Yasser that the theme had written itself and come to him ready-made. Yasser persisted, hypothesizing that Rachmaninoff may have heard the melody many years before and subconsciously remembered it. Of course, there is no way to know. The first movement involves the piano more and more as it goes on, and ends in an extensive cadenza, which also briefly features solo wind players.

The second movement, a rhapsodic and tender Intermezzo Adagio, has a little scherzando waltz as a contrasting middle section. The theme of both the pensive introduction and the scherzo are transformations of the main theme of the preceding movement. The piano is not as completely dominant in this movement as it was in the prior one. The poignant, plaintive Adagio theme returns, and after a fierce cadenza, leads into the driving propulsive finale, Alla breve, without a pause, overflowing into brilliant, soaring melodies, most of them again derived from the first movement. This movement shows the solo piano in many different guises, all variations of the piano’s potential textures. The concerto ends as the tempo becomes faster and faster and the excitement builds until the climax.

The concerto is scored for two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drum, snare drum, cymbals and strings.

Get the most for your money Save up to 30% when you place your home, auto and life coverages with Erie Insurance.

Walker Poole Insurance Inc

19502 Club House Rd Montgomery Village, MD 20886 301-258-2602 Fax: 301-330-8903 www.walkerpoole.com wpia@walkerpoole.com

WHEN BUSINESSES DO GOOD, THE COMMUNITY PROFITS. As members of Community Profits Montgomery, the following businesses have committed to give at least 2% of their pre-tax earnings back to the community or $100,000 to nonprofits serving Montgomery County. To learn more, or to join in our pledge, visit CommunityProfitsMontgomery.org

www.mafcu.org

COMMUNICATIONS FOR A CHANGE

in partnership with

Bethesda Urban Partnership and Bethesda Magazine will honor writers at the Bethesda Literary Festival, April 17-19, 2015.

DEADLINE: JANUARY 23, 2015 For eligibility and rules, please visit www.bethesda.org or www.bethesdamagazine.com.

AWARDS

First place: $500 and published in Bethesda Magazine Second place: $250 // Third place: $150 // Honorable Mention: $75 The first place winners will also receive a gift certificate to The Writer’s Center.

All winners will be published on the Bethesda Magazine and Bethesda Urban Partnership websites and will be honored at a special event during the Bethesda Literary Festival.

High School winners receive: $250, first place; $100, second place; $50, third place.

Bethesda Magazine will print the first place Essay & Short Story.

For more information, please call 301-215-6660, Ext. 117 or 301-718-7787, Ext. 207.

At Ingleside at King Farm we hit all of the high notes.

S

triking the perfect note! Visit us and see all Ingleside at King Farm has to offer, spacious residences; an unparalleled lifestyle in a spectacular location; superior amenities including a full continuum of on-site care that means peace of mind for the future. Enjoy a way of life in concert with your dreams. You’ll find that life at Ingleside at King Farm is music to your ears.

The IKF Wait List Club is a perfect way to join the community with the flexibility that will suit your lifestyle. This unique program allows you to enjoy many benefits and amenities of Ingleside at King The IKF Wait List Club Farm right now, while giving you a priority position for your perfect choice of residence.

Now is the time to join the IKF Wait List Club!

The Ingleside at King Farm wait list is growing, so reserve your spot today!

To learn more or schedule a personal tour, please call (240)398-3847.

102 APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015

A Remarkable Retirement Community

701 King Farm Blvd. • Rockville, MD • www.inglesidekingfarm.org • (240)398-3847

Music Center at

Strathmore IMPORTANT INFORMATION

please contact the Ticket Office for replacements.

patrons. Both main entrances have power- assisted doors.

CHILDREN

GIFT CERTIFICATES Gift certificates may be purchased at the Ticket Office.

GROUP SALES, FUNDRAISERS

For ticketed events, all patrons are required to have a ticket regardless of age. Patrons are urged to use their best judgment when bringing children to a concert that is intended for adults. There are some performances that are more appropriate for children than others.

Some presenters do not allow children under the age of six years to non-family concerts. As always, if any person makes a disruption during a concert, it is appropriate that they step outside to accommodate the comfort and convenience of other concert attendees. Contact the Ticket Office at (301) 581-5100 for additional information.

For information, call (301) 581-5199 or email groups@strathmore.org.

PARKING FACILITIES

5301 Tuckerman Lane North Bethesda, MD 20852-3385 www.strathmore.org Email: tickets@strathmore.org Ticket Office Phone: (301) 581-5100 Ticket Office Fax: (301) 581-5101 Via Maryland Relay Services for MD residents at 711 or out of state at 1(800) 735-2258

TICKET OFFICE HOURS Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Wednesday 10 a.m. – 9 p.m.

Saturday 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.

Sixty minutes prior to each performance in the Music Center through intermission.

All tickets are prepaid and non-refundable.

Concert parking is located in the Grosvenor-Strathmore Metro garage off Tuckerman Lane. At the end of each ticketed event in the Music Center at Strathmore, the exit gates to the garage will be open for 30 minutes to exit the garage. If you leave before, or up to 90 minutes after this 30-minute period, you must show your ticket stub to the stanchion video camera at the exit gate to exit at no cost. For all non-ticketed events, Monday-Friday, parking in the garage is $5 and may be paid using a Metro SmarTrip card or major credit card.

Limited short-term parking also is available at specially marked meters along Tuckerman Lane. To access the Music Center from the GrosvenorStrathmore Metro garage, walk across the glass-enclosed sky bridge located on the fourth level.

WILL CALL

PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION

Patrons must present the credit card used to purchase tickets or a valid ID to obtain will call tickets.

Strathmore is located immediately adjacent to the Grosvenor-Strathmore Metro station on the Red Line and is served by several Metro and Ride-On bus routes. See www.strathmore. org, or the Guide to the Music Center at Strathmore for detailed directions.

TICKET POLICIES Unlike many venues, Strathmore allows tickets to be exchanged.

Tickets may only be exchanged for shows presented by Strathmore or its resident partner organizations at the Music Center. Exchanges must be for the same presenter within the same season. Ticket exchanges are NOT available for independently produced shows. Please contact the Ticket Office at (301) 581-5100 for details on how to exchange tickets.

If a performance is cancelled or postponed a full refund of the ticket price will be available through the Ticket Office for 30 days after the original scheduled performance date.

TICKET DONATION If you are unable to use your tickets, they may be returned for a tax-deductible donation prior to the performance. Donations can be made by mail, fax or in person by 5 p.m. the day of the performance.

MISPLACED TICKETS If you have misplaced your tickets to any performance at Strathmore,

DROP-OFF There is a patron drop-off circle off Tuckerman Lane that brings patrons to the Discovery Channel Grand Foyer via elevator. No parking is allowed in the circle, cars must be moved to the Metro garage after dropping off

COAT CHECK Located in the Promenade across from the Ticket Office. As weather requires, the coat check will be available as a complimentary service to our patrons. If you would like to keep your coat or other belongings with you, please place them under your seat. Coats may not be placed over seats or railings.

THE PRELUDE CAFÉ The Prelude Café in the Promenade of the Music Center at Strathmore, operated by Restaurant Associates, features a wide variety of snacks, sandwiches, entrees, beverages and desserts. It is open for lunch and dinner and seats up to 134 patrons.

CONCESSIONS The Interlude intermission bars offer beverages and snacks on all levels before the show and during intermission. There are permanent bars on the Orchestra, Promenade and Grand Tier levels.

LOST AND FOUND During a show, please see an usher.

All other times, please call (301) 581-5100.

LOUNGES AND RESTROOMS Located on all seating levels, except in the Upper Tier.

PUBLIC TELEPHONES Courtesy telephones for local calls are located around the corner from the Ticket Office, in the Plaza Level Lobby, and at the Promenade Right Boxes.

ACCESSIBLE SEATING Accessible seating is available on all levels. Elevators, ramps, specially designed and designated seating, designated parking and many other features make the Music Center at Strathmore accessible to patrons with disabilities. For further information or for special seating requests in the Concert Hall, please call the Ticket Office at (301) 581-5100.

ASSISTIVE LISTENING The Music Center at Strathmore is equipped with a Radio Frequency Assistive Listening System for patrons who are hard of hearing. Patrons can pick up assistive listening devices at no charge on a first-come, firstserved basis prior to the performance at the coatroom when open, or at the ticket taking location as you enter the Concert Hall with a driver’s license or other acceptable photo ID. For other accessibility requests, please call (301) 581-5100.

ELEVATOR SERVICE There is elevator service for all levels of the Music Center at Strathmore.

EMERGENCY CALLS If there is an urgent need to contact a patron attending a Music Center concert, please call (301) 581-5112 and give the patron’s name and exact seating location, and telephone number for a return call. The patron will be contacted by the ushering staff and the message relayed left with Head Usher.

LATECOMER POLICY Latecomers will be seated at the first appropriate break in the performance as not to disturb the performers or audience members. The decision as to when patrons will be seated is set by the presenting organization for that night.

FIRE NOTICE The exit sign nearest to your seat is the shortest route to the street. In the event of fire or other emergency, please WALK to that exit. Do not run.

In the case of fire, use the stairs, not the elevators.

WARNINGS The use of any recording device, either audio or video, and the taking of photographs, either with or without flash, is strictly prohibited by law. Violators are subject to removal from the Music Center without a refund, and must surrender the recording media. Smoking is prohibited in the building.

Please set to silent, or turn off your cell phones, pagers, PDAs, and beeping watches prior to the beginning of the performance.

APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015 103

STRATHMORE HALL FOUNDATION, INC. BOARD OF DIRECTORS OFFICERS Dale S. Rosenthal Chair Robert G. Brewer, Jr., Esq. Vice Chair William R. Ford Treasurer Carolyn P. Leonard Secretary and Parliamentarian Joseph F. Beach Cathy Bernard Dickie S. Carter David M.W. Denton Hope B. Eastman, Esq. Suzanne Brennan Firstenberg The Honorable Nancy Floreen

Barbara Goldberg Goldman Sol Graham Nancy E. Hardwick Paul L. Hatchett Steven P. Hollman, Esq. Sachiko Kuno Delia K. Lang Karen R. Lefkowitz The Honorable Laurence Levitan J. Alberto Martinez, M.D. Ann L. McDaniel Kenneth O’ Brien DeRionne P. Pollard Donna Rattley Washington Graciela Rivera-Oven Mary K. Sturtevant Raymond D. Tetz

DONORS Strathmore thanks the individuals and organizations who have made contributions between July 1, 2013 and June 30, 2014.

Their support of at least $500 and continued commitment enables us to offer the affordable, accessible, quality programming that has become our hallmark.

$250,000+ Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County Maryland State Arts Council $100,000+ Hogan Lovells (in-kind) Post-Newsweek Media, Inc. (includes in-kind) $50,000+ Booz Allen Hamilton Delia and Marvin Lang Lockheed Martin Corporation The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation $25,000+ Asbury Methodist Village Federal Realty Investment Trust GEICO Glenstone Foundation Yanqiu He and Kenneth O’Brien Carolyn and Jeffrey Leonard Paul M. Angell Family Foundation PEPCO TD Bank Carol Trawick $15,000+ Cathy Bernard Fondazione Bracco Nancy Hardwick Elizabeth and Joel Helke Lyle and Cecilia Jaeger (in-kind) MARPAT Foundation, Inc. Effie and John Macklin Montgomery County Department of Economic Development National Endowment for the Arts S&R Foundation

$10,000+ Abramson Family Foundation Inc. Adventist Healthcare Bank of America Capital One Services Inc. Jonita and Richard S. Carter Clark Construction Group, LLC Comcast Elizabeth W. Culp Suzanne and Douglas Firstenberg Giant Food LLC Ellen and Michael Gold Dorothy and Sol Graham Graham Holdings Company Janet L. Mahaney Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation Natelli Communities LP Janine and Phillip O’Brien Emily and Mitchell Rales Della and William Robertson Symphony Park LLC $5,000+ Agmus Ventures Inc. Mary and Greg Bruch Frances and Leonard Burka Dallas Morse Coors Foundation for the Performing Arts Carolyn Degroot EagleBank Carl M. Freeman Foundation Elizabeth and Peter Forster Friends of Jennie Forehand Jane Elizabeth Cohen Foundation Barbara Goldberg Goldman Julie and John Hamre Allen Kronstadt Sachiko Kuno and Ryuji Ueno Tina and Arthur Lazerow Lerch, Early & Brewer, Chartered (includes in-kind) Sharon and David Lockwood

104 APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015

Board Chair Dale Rosenthal congratulates Chelsey Green as Strathmore celebrates 10 years of its hallmark Artist in Residence program at Strathmore Cabaret on Oct. 25.

Constance Lohse and Robert Brewer J. Alberto Martinez Minkoff Development Corporation Patricia and Roscoe Moore Paley, Rothman, Goldstein, Rosenberg, Eig & Cooper Chtd Dale S. Rosenthal Carol Salzman and Michael Mann John Sherman, in memory of Deane Sherman Meredith Weiser and Michael Rosenbaum WGL Holdings, Inc. Ellen and Bernard Young $2,500+ Anonymous Marie and Fritz Allen Louise Appell Alison Cole and Jan Peterson Community Foundation for Montgomery County Margaret and James Conley Carin and Bruce Cooper CORT Business Services DonnaKaran Co. Marietta Ethier and John McGarry Starr and Fred Ezra Carolyn Goldman and Sydney Polakoff Lana Halpern Diana and Paul Hatchett Monica Jeffries Hazangeles and John Hazangeles Cheryl and Richard Hoffman A. Eileen Horan Igersheim Family Foundation Alexine Jackson Robert Jeffers Peter S. Kimmel, in memory of Martin S. Kimmel John M. and Teri Hanna Knowles Judie and Harry Linowes Jill and Jim Lipton Florentina Mehta Cynthia Samaha Melki and Toufic Melki Katharine and John Pan Carol and Jerry Perone Mindy and Charles Postal Randy Hostetler Living Room Fund Cheryl and William Reidy Lorraine and Barry Rogstad Karen Rosenthal and M. Alexander Stiffman Barbara and Ted Rothstein Janet and Michael Rowan Katherine Rumbaugh and Diana Downey Phyllis and J. Kenneth Schwartz Mary Kay Shartle-Galotto and Jack Galotto Leon and Deborah Snead Tanya and Stephen Spano Annie S. Totah Susan Wellman

Anne Witkowsky and John Barker Paul A. and Peggy L. Young, NOVA Research Company $1,000+ Anonymous Mary Kay and Dave Almy Doris and David Aronson Benita and Eric Bailey Dena Baker and Terry Jacobs Margaret and Craig Bash Barbara Benson Carol and Scott Brewer Vicki Britt and Robert Selzer Lucie and Guy Campbell Eleanor and Oscar Caroglanian Linda Chatman Thomsen and Steuart Thomsen Alexandra Davies and George Javor Mary Denison and John Clark III Hope Eastman Jamie and Timothy Evankovich Marcia Feuerstein and Ronald Schwarz Dorothy Fitzgerald Marlies and Karl Flicker Robert Fogarty Theresa and William Ford Marijane and Terry Forde Senator Jennie Forehand and William E. Forehand, Jr. Susan and C. Allen Foster Sandra and Victor Frattali Noreen and Michael Friedman Suzanne and Mark Friis Juan Gaddis Nita and Patrick Garrett Evan Goldman Luis Gonzalez Grace Creek Advisors, Robert Atlas and Gloria Paul Susan and Allan Greenberg Greene-Milstein Family Foundation Linda and John Hanson Boots Harris Sara and James A. Harris, Jr. Vicki Hawkins-Jones and Michael Jones Louisa and Steven Hollman Wilma and Arthur Holmes Jr. Linda and I. Robert Horowitz Linda and Van Hubbard Joan and Howard Katz Dianne Kay Paula and Malik Khan Kathleen Knepper Carole and Robert Kurman Susan and Gary Labovich Harriet Lesser Barbara and The Honorable Laurence Levitan Jacqueline and Paul London Sandy and M. Gerald Loubier Cidalia Luis-Akbar and Masud Akbar Sandra and Charles Lyons

Strathmore Board Member and Event Sponsor Cathy Bernard and Wendy Block, with Richard Kotch and Karen Barr.

Strathmore Circles Members Effie and John Macklin with Strathmore VP of Development Bianca Beckham at Strathmore Cabaret.

Jacqueline and J. Thomas Manger Marianne and Aris Mardirossian Virginia and Robert McCloskey Jesse I. Miller, by spouse Ann Miller Mocho, LLC Victoria B. Muth Michelle Newberry Esther and Stuart Newman Susan Nordeen Dale and Anthony Pappas Margie Pearson and Richard Lampl Susan and Brian Penfield Cynthia and Eliot Pfanstiehl Potomac Valley Alumnae Chapter Jane and Paul (deceased) Rice Karen Rinta-Spinner and Joseph Spinner Grace Rivera-Oven and Mark Oven Marylouise and Harold Roach Kitty and Glenn Roberts Sally Sachar and Robert Muller Charlotte and Hank Schlosberg Lenore Seliger and Richard Alperstein Allan Sherman Terry Sherman Christine Shreve and Thomas Bowersox Fran and Richard Silbert Ryan Snow Mary Sturtevant Marilyn and Mark Tenenbaum Myra Turoff and Ken Weiner Roslyn and Paul Weinstein Judy Whalley and Henry Otto Jean and Jerry Whiddon Irene and Steven White Vicki and Steve Willmann $500+ Allen E. Neyman Architecture, LLC Anonymous Judy and Joseph Antonucci Odita and Hector Asuncion Laura Baptiste and Brian Kildee Susan and Brian Bayly Deborah Berkowitz and Geoff Garin Christina and James Bradley James Brady Jeff Broadhurst Eileen Cahill Trish and Timothy Carrico Kathy and C. Bennett Chamberlin Frank Conner Jr. Ken Defontes David Denton Judith Doctor Shoshanah Drake The Emmes Corporation Sue and Howard Feibus Linda Finkelman and Leo Millstein Joyce Fisher Winifred and Anthony Fitzpatrick Gail Fleder Gregory Flowers Joanne and Vance Fort

Gertrude and Michael Frenz Carol Fromboluti Nancy and Peter Gallo Pamela Gates and Robert Schultz Loreen and Thomas Gehl Mr. and Mrs. Alan Gourley Ellie and John Hagner Sue Hains and Brian Eaton Gerri Hall and David Nickels Patricia Harris Carol and Larry Horn Jane and David Fairweather Foundation JD and JDK Foundation Richard Joss Henrietta and Christopher Keller Deloise and Lewis Kellert KHS America, Inc. Richard Klinkner Patricia and James Krzyminski Jennifer and Chuck Lawson Catherine and The Honorable Isiah Leggett Ellen and Stuart Lessans Susan Shaskan Luse and Eric Luse Richard Marlo Janice McCall Nancy McGinness and Thomas Tarabrella Sabrina and Patrick McGowan Viji and Dan Melnick Marilyn and Douglas Mitchell Ann Morales and Rice Odell Katie Murphy Ellen and Jim Myerberg Jackie and Franklin Paulson Mary Pedigo and Daniel Washburn Manual Perez Charla and David Phillips Yolanda Pruitt Barbara and Mark Rabin William Ritchie Imogene Schneider Estelle Schwalb Betty Scott and Jim McMullen Gail Scott-Parizer and Michael Parizer Bob Sheldon Donald Simonds Judi and Richard Sugarman Chris Syllaba Aurelie Thiele Marion and Dennis Torchia Heather VanKeuren Benjamin Vaughan Kevin Vigilante Linda and Irving Weinberg Jean and Robert Wirth Irene and Alan Wurtzel Susan and Jack Yanovski

CON BRIO SOCIETY Securing the future of Strathmore through a planned gift.

Anonymous Louise Appell John Cahill Jonita and Richard S. Carter Irene Cooperman Trudie Cushing and Neil Beskin Julie and John Hamre Yanqiu He and Kenneth O’Brien A. Eileen Horan Vivian and Peter Hsueh Tina and Arthur Lazerow Chiu and Melody Lin

STRATHMORE STAFF Eliot Pfanstiehl Chief Executive Officer Monica Jeffries Hazangeles President Julie Lockwood Executive Assistant to the CEO & President Jennifer Smith Director of Finance Mary Kay Almy Executive Board Assistant

DEVELOPMENT

Bianca Beckham VP of Development Bill Carey Director of Donor and Community Relations Erin M. Phillips Manager of Patron Engagement Julie Hamre Development Associate

PROGRAMMING

Shelley Brown VP/Artistic Director Sam Brumbaugh Director of Programming Phoebe Anderson Dana Artist Services Coordinator Harriet Lesser Visual Arts Curator Kaleigh Bryant Visual Arts Coordinator

EDUCATION

Lauren Campbell Director of Education Betty Scott Artist in Residence and Education Coordinator

OPERATIONS

Mark J. Grabowski Executive VP of Operations Miriam Teitel Director of Operations Allen V. McCallum, Jr. Director of Patron Services Marco Vasquez Operations Manager

Margie Pearson, Richard Lampl, Tina and Arthur Lazerow at Strathmore Cabaret.

Diana Locke and Robert Toense Janet L. Mahaney Carol and Alan Mowbray Cynthia and Eliot Pfanstiehl Barbara and David Ronis (deceased) Henry Schalizki and Robert Davis (deceased) Phyllis and J. Kenneth Schwartz Annie Simonian Totah and Sami Totah (deceased) Maryellen Trautman and Darrell Lemke Carol Trawick Peter Vance Treibley Myra Turoff and Ken Weiner Julie Zignego

Allen C. Clark Manager of Information Services Christopher S. Inman Manager of Security Chadwick Sands Ticket Office Manager Jeffrey Higgins Box Office Coordinator Aileen Roberts Rentals Manager Christian Simmelink Ticket Services Coordinator Christopher A. Dunn IT Technician Johnathon Fuentes Operations Specialist Adam Steffes Facilities Assistant Jon Foster Production Stage Manager William Kassman Lead Stage Technician Lyle Jaeger Lead Lighting Technician Caldwell Gray Lead Audio Technician Beth Radovsky Operations and Production Coordinator

THE SHOPS AT STRATHMORE Charlene McClelland Director, Mansion and Retail Lorie Wickert Director, Mansion Support and Retail Systems

MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS

Alaina Sadick VP Marketing and Communications Shana Gerber Director of Marketing and Communications Jenn German Marketing Manager Julia Allal Member and Group Services Manager Michael Fila Associate Director of PR and Marketing

STRATHMORE TEA ROOM Mary Mendoza Godbout Tea Room Manager

APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015 105

BALTIMORE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

D. F. Dent and Company DLA Piper Ms. Marietta Ethier Susan Fisher Dr. David Leckrone & Marlene Berlin Dr. James and Jill Lipton Susan Liss and Family Ms. Janet L. Mahaney David Nickels & Gerri Hall Jan S. Peterson & Alison E. Cole William B. and Sandra B. Rogers Mike & Janet Rowan Daniel and Sybil Silver John & Susan Warshawsky Clark Winchcole Foundation

GOVERNING MEMBERS SILVER

BOARD OF DIRECTORS OFFICERS

Barbara M. Bozzuto*, Chair Kathleen A. Chagnon, Esq.*, Secretary Lainy LeBow-Sachs*, Vice Chair Paul Meecham*, President & CEO The Honorable Steven R. Schuh*, Treasurer

BOARD MEMBERS

A.G.W. Biddle, III Constance R. Caplan Robert B. Coutts Alan S. Edelman* Sandy Feldman+, President, Baltimore Symphony Associates Sandra Levi Gerstung Michael G. Hansen* Denise Hargrove^, Governing Member Co-Chair Stephen M. Lans Ava Lias-Booker, Esq. Howard Majev, Esq. Liddy Manson Hilary B. Miller* E. Albert Reece, M.D. Ann L. Rosenberg Stephen D. Shawe, Esq. The Honorable James T. Smith, Jr. Solomon H. Snyder, M.D. * Andrew A. Stern* Gregory W. Tucker Amy Webb Jeffrey Zoller^, BSYO Chair

LIFE DIRECTORS

Peter G. Angelos, Esq. Rheda Becker H. Thomas Howell, Esq. Yo-Yo Ma Harvey M. Meyerhoff Robert Meyerhoff Decatur H. Miller, Esq. Linda Hambleton Panitz

DIRECTORS EMERITI

Barry D. Berman, Esq. Murray M. Kappelman, M.D. M. Sigmund Shapiro

CHAIRMAN LAUREATE Michael G. Bronfein Kenneth W. DeFontes, Jr. Calman J. Zamoiski, Jr.

BOARD OF TRUSTEES BALTIMORE SYMPHONY ENDOWMENT TRUST

Benjamin H. Griswold, IV, Chairman Terry Meyerhoff Rubenstein, Secretary Chris Bartlett Barbara M. Bozzuto Kenneth W. DeFontes, Jr Paul Meecham The Honorable Steven R. Schuh Calman J. Zamoiski, Jr. *Board Executive Committee ^ ex-officio

SUPPORTERS OF THE BALTIMORE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA The BSO is funded by an operating grant from the Maryland State Arts Council, an agency dedicated to cultivating a vibrant cultural community where the arts thrive.

The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra is deeply grateful to the individual, corporate, foundation and government donors whose annual giving plays a vital role in sustaining the Orchestra’s tradition of musical excellence. The following donors have given between August 1, 2013 and October 25, 2014.

THE CENTURY CLUB

($100,000 and above) Marin Alsop Mayor and City Council of Baltimore City The Citizens of Baltimore County BGE, An Exelon Company The Bozzuto Family Charitable Fund Hecht-Levi Foundation, Ryda H. Levi* & Sandra Levi Gerstung Lori Laitman & Bruce Rosenblum Maryland State Arts Council The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County M&T Bank National Endowment for the Arts PNC Henry & Ruth Blaustein Rosenberg Whiting-Turner Contracting Company

CHAIRMAN’S CIRCLE PARTNERS

($25,000-$99,999) The Jacob and Hilda Blaustein Foundation The Morris & Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation Chick-fil-A The Hearst Foundation, Inc.

($3,000-$4,999) Anonymous (2) Alan V Asay and Mary K Sturtevant Dr. Nancy D. Bridges Lt Gen (Ret) Frank B. and Karen Campbell Geri & David Cohen Jane C. Corrigan Kari Peterson and Benito R. and Ben De Leon Marcia Diehl and Julie Kurland J. Fainberg Sherry and Bruce Feldman Georgetown Paper Stock of Rockville S. Kann Sons Company Foundation, Amelie & Bernei Burgunder Mr. & Mrs. Christopher Keller Paul Meecham and Laura Leach Marc E. Lackritz & Mary DeOreo Burt & Karen Leete Mr. & Mrs. Howard Lehrer June Linowitz & Howard Eisner Dr. Diana Locke & Mr. Robert E. Toense Mr. James Lynch Howard and Linda Martin The Meisel Group Mr. & Mrs. Humayun Mirza Dr. William W. Mullins Ms. Diane M. Perin Martin and Henriette Poretsky Bill and Shirley Rooker Patricia Smith and Dr. Frances Lussier Don Spero & Nancy Chasen Mr. Alan Strasser & Ms. Patricia Hartge Dr. Edward Whitman Sylvia and Peter Winik Ms. Deborah Wise/Edith and Herbert Lehman Foundation, Inc.

SYMPHONY SOCIETY GOLD

($2,000-$2,999) Anonymous Leonard and Gabriela Bebchick Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth R. Feinberg John and Meg Hauge Mr. and Mrs. Gerald Hoefler Fran and Bill Holmes Dr. Phyllis R. Kaplan Marie Lerch and Jeff Kolb Joellen and Mark Roseman Roger and Barbara Schwarz Jennifer Kosh Stern and William H. Turner

SYMPHONY SOCIETY SILVER Howard County Arts Council Mr. & Mrs. Stephen M. Lans Maller Wealth Advisors Maryland State Department of Education T. Rowe Price Foundation

MAESTRA’S CIRCLE

($10,000-$24,999) American Trading & Production Corporation Mr. & Mrs. A. G. W. Biddle, III Charlotte A. Cameron/Dan Cameron Family Foundation Chesapeake Employers Insurance Company Gordon Feinblatt LLC Michael Hansen & Nancy Randa Joel & Liz Helke Howard Majev and Janet Brandt Majev In memory of James Gavin Manson Legg Mason Hilary B. Miller & Dr. Katherine N. Bent Mr. and Mrs. Arnold Polinger Saul Ewing LLP Shugoll Research Total Wine & More

GOVERNING MEMBERS GOLD ($5,000-$9,999) The Charles Delmar Foundation

106 APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015

($1,200-$1,999) Anonymous (4) Mr. and Mrs. Anthony Abell Charles Alston and Susan Dentzer Mr. William J. Baer and Ms. Nancy H. Hendry Caroline W. and Rick Barnett Ms. Franca B Barton and Mr. George G. Clarke Mrs. Elaine Belman Mr. and Mrs. Alan and Lynn Berkeley Sherry and David Berz Drs. Lawrence and Deborah Blank Gilbert and Madeleine Bloom Dorothy R. Bloomfield Hon. & Mrs. Anthony Borwick Mr. Richard H. Broun & Ms. Karen E. Daly Gordon F. Brown Frances and Leonard Burka Mr. and Mrs. John Carr Mr. Vincent Castellano

Cecil Chen & Betsy Haanes Dr. Mark Cinnamon & Ms. Doreen Kelly Mr. Harvey A. Cohen and Mr. Michael R. Tardif Jane E. Cohen Joan de Pontet Mr. John C. Driscoll Chuck Fax and Michele Weil Dr. Edward Finn Anthony and Wyn Fitzpatrick Mr. and Mrs. Arthur P. Floor Mr. and Mrs. John Ford Mr. and Mrs. Roberto B. Friedman Mary Martin Gant Mary and Bill Gibb Peter Gil Dr. and Mrs. Sanford Glazer George and Joni Gold Dr. and Mrs. Harvey R. Gold Joanne and Alan Goldberg Mr. & Mrs. Frank Goldstein Drs. Joseph Gootenberg & Susan Leibenhaut David and Anne Grizzle Mark & Lynne Groban Joan and Norman Gurevich Ms. Lana Halpern John and Linda Hanson Sara and James A. Harris, Jr. Mr. Fred Hart and Ms. Elizabeth Knight Keith and Linda Hartman Esther and Gene Herman Ellen & Herb Herscowitz David A. & Barbara L. Heywood IBM Corporation Madeleine and Joseph Jacobs Betty W. Jensen Virginia and Dale Kiesewetter Ms. Kristine Kingery Ms. Kathleen Knepper Darrell Lemke and Maryellen Trautman Drs. David and Sharon Lockwood Dr. and Mrs. Peter C. Luchsinger Michael & Judy Mael Mr. Winton Matthews Marie McCormack David and Kay McGoff David and Anne Menotti Dr. & Mrs. Stanley R. Milstein Ms. Zareen T. Mirza Mr. and Mrs. Glenn Miyamoto Bernard and Rae Newman Douglas and Barbara Norland Mr. & Mrs. Ellis Parker Evelyn and Peter Philipps Thomas Plotz and Catherine Klion Herb and Rita Posner Richard and Melba Reichard Dr. and Mrs. Gerald Rogell Mr. and Mrs. Barry Rogstad Estelle D. Schwalb Mrs. Phyllis Seidelson Laura H. Selby Donald M. Simonds Dr. and Mrs. Jeffrey R. Singer Marshall and Deborah Sluyter Mr. and Mrs. Richard D. Spero Margot & Phil Sunshine Mr. and Mrs. Richard Swerdlow Mr. & Mrs. Richard Tullos Donna and Leonard Wartofsky David Wellman & Marjorie Coombs Wellman Ms. Susan Wellman Dr. Ann M. Willis Marc and Amy Wish H. Alan Young & Sharon Bob Young, Ph.D.

BRITTEN LEVEL MEMBERS ($500-$1,199) Anonymous (3) Ms. Judith Agard Rhoda and Herman Alderman Donald Baker Mr. and Mrs. Robert Benna Nancy and Don Bliss Ms. Marcia D. Bond Judy and Peter Braham Ms. Sharon Phyllis Brown Mr. Stephen Buckingham

BENEFITS OF MEMBERSHIP WITH THE BSO Make a donation today and become a Member of the BSO! There is a gift level that is right for everyone, and with that comes an insider’s perspective of your world-class orchestra.

For a complete list of benefits, please call our Membership Office at 301.581.5215 or contact via e-mail at membership@BSOmusic.org. You may also visit our Web site at BSOmusic.org/benefits.

Governing Member Nancy Chasen and Principal Cello Dariusz Skoraczewski

Louis and June Carr Mr. and Mrs. James C. Cooper Dr. Connie C. Duncan Mr. and Mrs. Robert Fauver Drs. Charles and Cynthia Field Dr. & Mrs. David Firestone Robert and Carole Fontenrose Bernard A. Gelb Ms. Wendy Goldberg Ms. Alisa Goldstein Mr. Robert Green Frank & Susan Grefsheim Ms. Melanie Grishman & Mr. Herman Flay, MD Drs. Marlene and Bill Haffner Ms. Haesoon Hahn Mr. Jeff D. Harvell & Mr. Ken Montgomery Mr. Lloyd Haugh Ms. Marilyn Henderson and Mr. Paul Henderson Mr. & Mrs. William L. Hickman Mr. & Mrs. Howard Iams Mr. William Isaacson and Ms. Sophia McCrocklin Ms. Katharine Jones Mr. and Mrs. Norman Kamerow Ms. Daryl Kaufman Dr. Richard D. Guerin and Dr. Linda Kohn Dr. Birgit Kovacs Ms. Delia Lang Ms. Flora Lee Ulrike Lichti and Stephen Leppla Harry and Carolyn Lincoln R. Mahon Mr. Mark Mattucci Mr. and Mrs. Martin McLean Merle and Thelma Meyer Ellen G. Miles and Neil R. Greene Mr. & Mrs. Walter Miller William and Patricia Morgan Mr. Koji Mukai Ms. Caren Novick Dr. Jon Oberg Amanda & Robert Ogren Mr. Joseph O’Hare Ms. Mary Padgett Mr. and Mrs. Philip Padgett Dr. and Mrs. J. Misha Petkevich Marie Pogozelski and Richard Belle Andrew and Melissa Polott Thomas Raslear and Lois Keck Mr. and Ms. Donald Regnell Ms. Marjorie Roher Harold Rosen Henry Roth Ms. Ellen Rye Norman and Virginia Schultz Mr. Allen Shaw and Ms. Tina Chisena Dr. Janet Shaw Donna and Steven Shriver Ms. Terry Shuch and Mr. Neal Meiselman Gloria and David Solomon Mr. Peter Thomson Mr. and Mrs. Robert Wein Richard and Susan Westin Mr. and Mrs. Duncan and Adelaide Whitaker Allan and Wendy Williams Mr. David M. Wilson Robert and Jean Wirth Ms. MaryAnn Zamula

BRAHMS LEVEL MEMBERS ($250-$499) Anonymous (2) Louise S. Appell, Ph.D. Mr. Bill Apter Pearl and Maurice Axelrad Mr. and Mrs. James Bailey

BSO Music Director Marin Alsop with the cast of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and director Edward Berkeley

Mr. Paul Balabanis Mr. and Mrs. John W. Barrett Mariv and Rachel Becker Mr. & Mrs. John W. Beckwith Melvin Bell Alan Bergstein and Carol Joffe Mr. Donald Berlin Mr. Neal Bien Drs. Ernst and Nancy Scher Billig Ms. Ruth Bird Mr. Harold Black Ms. Marjory Blumenthal Ms. Monica M. Bradford Mr. and Mrs. Serefino Cambareri Ms. Patsy Clark Mr. Herbert Cohen Ms. June Colilla Dr. and Mrs. Eleanor Condliffe Marion Fitch Connell Mr. and Mrs. Herbert Cooper Mr. and Mrs. Charles Davenport Dr. & Mrs. James R. David Mr. David S. Davidson Anne and Arthur Delibert Ms. Sandra Kay Dusing Drs. Stephen and Irene Eckstrand Mr. Ahmed El-Hoshy Lionel and Sandra Epstein Claudia and Eliot Feldman Mr. Michael Finkelstein Mr. and Ms. Clifford and Betty Fishman Mr. & Mrs. Michael Scott Friedman Lucian & Lynn M. Furrow Roberta Geier Irwin Gerduk Mr. and Mrs. Stephen Giddings John Glenn and Blair Reid Ellen and Michael Gold Edward G. Griffin Brian and Mary Ann Harris Mrs. Jean N. Hayes Marylyn Heindl Mr. John C. Hendricks Mr. Robert Henry Ms. Patricia Hernandez Jeff Herring Joel and Linda Hertz Ms. Linda Lurie Hirsch Mr. Thomas Hormby Dr. and Mrs. Robert Horowitz Mr. & Mrs. Paul Hyman Ms. Susan Irwin Mrs. Lauri Joseph Mr. Peter Kaplan Dr. & Mrs. Robert W. Karp Lawrence & Jean Katz Mr. & Mrs. Robert Katz James and Tomoko Kempf Mr. William Kenety and Ms. Christine Kenety Ms. Jennifer Kimball Fred King Mr. William and Ms. Ellen D. Kominers Ms. Nancy Kopp Mr. Stephen Kramer Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Lambert Susan and Stephen Langley Robert Lanza Ms. Joanne LaPorte Michael Lazar & Sharon Fischman Mr. Myles R. Levin Alan and Judith Lewis Ms. Julie E. Limric Dr. Richard E. and Susan Papp Lippman Jacqueline London Andrea MacKay Frank Maddox and Glenda Finley Mr. James Magno Mr. David Marcos Mr. Michael McCollum and Ms. Jennfier Ricks

Governing Members Bruce Rosenblum, Hilary Miller and Dr. Katherine Bent

Anna Therese McGowan Mrs. Margit Meissner Sandra and Paul Meltzer Mr. Steve Metalitz Mr. Gary Metz Mrs. Rita Meyers Dr. and Mrs. Arve Michelsen Ms. Barbara Miles Naomi Miller Mr. Jose Muniz Mr. and Mrs. Robert and Mary Nisbet Dr. & Mrs. John R. Nuckols Mr. John P. Olguin and Mrs. Linda Cinciotta Olguin Mr. Thomas O’Rourke and Ms. Jeanine O’Rourke Mr. and Mrs. James Palmer Mr. Kevin Parker Ms. Johanna Pleijsier Mr. and Mrs. Edward Portner Mr. and Mrs. Stanley Rabin Mr. Samuel G. Reel Jr. Dr. and Mrs. Bernard Reich Lynn Rhomberg Mr. William Robertson Lois and David Sacks Mr. & Mrs. Robert Sandler Ronald Schlesinger David and Louise Schmeltzer

Hanita and Morry Schreiber Mr. J. Kenneth Schwartz Mr. Paul Seidman Ms. Debra Shapiro Ms. Deborah Sherrill Mr. & Mrs. Larry Shulman Mr. and Mrs. Micheal D. Slack Ms. Deborah Smith Richard Sniffin Mr. Andrew Sonner Mr. Howard Spira Bill Grossman Fund of the Isidore Grossman Foundation Mr. and Mrs. Charles Steinecke III Erica Summers Margot & Phil Sunshine John and Susan Symons Dr. Andrew Tangborn Mr. Alan Thomas Alan and Diane Thompson Mr. & Mrs. Robert Thompson Mr. John Townsley Mr. Mallory Walker Mr. and Mrs. Elliot and Esther Wilner Mrs. Janet Wolfe Mrs. Sandra Wool Dr. & Mrs. Richard N. Wright Dr. David Yaney

BALTIMORE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA STAFF Paul Meecham, President & CEO John Verdon, Vice President & CFO Leilani Uttenreither, Executive Assistant Eileen Andrews, Vice President of Marketing & Communications Carol Bogash, Vice President of Education and Community Engagement Jack Fishman, Vice President of External Affairs, BSO at Strathmore Matthew Spivey, Vice President of Artistic Operations ARTISTIC OPERATIONS Nishi Badhwar, Director of Orchestra Personnel Toby Blumenthal, Manager of Facility Sales Tiffany Bryan, Manager of Front of House Patrick Chamberlain, Artistic Coordinator Jinny Kim, Assistant Personnel Manager Tabitha Pfleger, Director of Operations and Facilities Evan Rogers, Operations Manager Meg Sippey, Artistic Planning Manager and Assistant to the Music Director EDUCATION Nicholas Cohen, General Manager of BSYO & OrchKids Annemarie Guzy, Director of Education Nick Skinner, OrchKids Director of Operations Johhnia Stigall, Education Program Coordinator Larry Townsend, Education Assistant Dan Trahey, OrchKids Artistic Director Mollie Westbrook, Education Assistant DEVELOPMENT Jessica Abel, Grants Program Manager Jordan Allen, Institutional Giving Coordinator Katie Applefeld, Director of External Affairs, OrchKids Megan Beck, Manager of Donor Engagement and Special Events Kate Caldwell, Director of Philanthropic Planning Sara Kissinger, Development Operations and Membership Coordinator Mary Maxwell, Manager of Annual Giving, BSO at Strathmore Emily Montano, Annual Fund Assistant Stephanie Moore, Director of the Annual Fund Joanne M. Rosenthal, Director of Principal Gifts & Government Relations Alice H. Simons, Director of Institutional Giving

Richard Spero, Community Liaison for BSO at Strathmore Janie Szybist, Research & Campaign Associate Sarah Weintraub, Executive Assistant and Office Manger FACILITIES OPERATIONS Shirley Caudle, Housekeeper Bertha Jones, Senior Housekeeper Curtis Jones, Building Services Manager FINANCE AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY Sarah Beckwith, Director of Accounting Sophia Jacobs, Senior Accountant Janice Johnson, Senior Accountant Evinz Leigh, Administration Associate Donna Waring, Payroll Accountant Jeff Wright, Director of Information Technology MARKETING AND PUBLIC RELATIONS Derek Chavis, Marketing Coordinator Teresa Eaton, Director of Public Relations & Publications Justin Gillies, Graphic Designer Anna Hoge, Digital Content Coordinator Derek A. Johnson, Senior Marketing Manager Theresa Kopasek, Marketing and PR Associate Bryan Joseph Lee, Marketing and PR Manager, BSO at Strathmore Ricky O’Bannon, Writer in Residence Erin Ouslander, Senior Graphic Designer Alyssa Porambo, Public Relations and Social Media Manager Adeline Sutter, Group Sales Manager Rika Dixon White, Director of Marketing & Sales TICKET SERVICES Amy Bruce, Director of Ticket Services Timothy Lidard, Manager of VIP Ticketing Juliana Marin, Senior Ticket Agent for Strathmore Peter Murphy, Ticket Services Manager Michael Schultz, Senior Ticket Agent, Special Events Michael Suit, Ticket Services Agent Thomas Treasure, Ticket Services Agent BALTIMORE SYMPHONY ASSOCIATES Larry Albrecht, Symphony Store Volunteer Manager Louise Reiner, Office Manager

APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015 107

GIFTS OF $25,000+ Dale Collinson Family Jean & Paul Dudek for the Pre-Concert Lecture Series Fund Ann & Todd Eskelsen for the Chorale Music Fund Tanya & Albert Lampert for the Guest Artist Fund

NATIONAL PHILHARMONIC BOARD OF DIRECTORS BOARD OF DIRECTORS Rabbi Leonard Cahan Dr. Ron Cappelletti *Todd Eskelsen *Carol Evans *Ruth Faison Dr. Bill Gadzuk Dr. Robert Gerard Ken Hurwitz *Dieneke Johnson *Greg Lawson Joan Levenson *Dr. Jeff Levi Dr. Wayne Meyer Dr. Roscoe M. Moore, Jr. *Dr. Kenneth Moritsugu Robin C. Perito JaLynn Prince

BOARD OFFICERS

MAESTRO CIRCLE Anonymous (2) Robert B. Anderson Dr. & Mrs. Val G. Hemming Daniel Nir & Jill Braufman Family Foundation Laszlo N. Tauber Family Foundation, Inc.

BOARD OF ADVISORS

CONCERTMASTER CIRCLE Dr. Kenneth P. Moritsugu, Emily Moritsugu & Ms. Lisa R. Kory, includes match by Johnson and Johnson Ms. Joanna J. Sobieski, in honor of Joanna C. Sobieski

Sally Sternbach Dr. Charles Toner Elzbieta Vande Sande *Albert Lampert, Chair *Kent Mikkelsen, Vice Chair *William Lascelle, Treasurer *Paul Dudek, Secretary *Todd R. Eskelsen, Chair Emeritus Joel Alper Albert Lampert Chuck Lyons Roger Titus Jerry D. Weast

*Executive Committee

As of October 1, 2014

SUPPORTERS OF THE NATIONAL PHILHARMONIC The National Philharmonic takes this opportunity to gratefully acknowledge the following businesses, foundations and individuals which have made the Philharmonic’s ambitious plans possible through their generous contributions.

Maestro Circle Concertmaster Circle Principal Circle Philharmonic Circle Benefactor Circle Sustainer Circle Patron Contributor Member

$10,000+ $7,500 to $9,999 $5,000 to $7,499 $3,500 to $4,999 $2,500 to $3,499 $1,000 to $2,499 $500 to $999 $250 to $499 $125 to $249

ORGANIZATIONS MAESTRO CIRCLE Ameriprise Financial Paul M. Angell Family Foundation Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation Ingleside at King Farm Maryland State Arts Council Montgomery County, MD Montgomery County Public Schools Musician Performance Trust Fund Schiff Hardin, LLP The State of Maryland CONCERTMASTER CIRCLE Clark-Winchcole Foundation Embassy of Poland The Gazette PRINCIPAL CIRCLE Executive Ball for the Arts Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation Jim and Carol Trawick Foundation, Inc. PHILHARMONIC CIRCLE Exxon Mobil Foundation

GIFTS OF $15,000+ Patricia Haywood Moore and Roscoe M. Moore, Jr. for the Guest Artist Fund Dieneke Johnson for the All Kids Free Fund Misbin Family Student Performance Fund Paul & Robin Perito for the Vocal Guest Artist Fund

Johnson & Johnson National Philharmonic/MCYO Educational Partnership The Washington Post Company BENEFACTOR CIRCLE Rockville Christian Church, for donation of space SUSTAINER CIRCLE American Federation of Musicians, DC Local 161-170 Bank of America Dimick Foundation Lucas-Spindletop Foundation Target PATRON American String Teachers’ Association DC/MD Chapter Gailes Violin Shop, Inc. GE Foundation IBM Lashof Violins Potter Violin Company Washington Music Center CONTRIBUTOR Brobst Violin Shop Violin House of Weaver

INDIVIDUALS GIFTS OF $50,000+ Ms. Anne Claysmith* for the Chorale Chair-Soprano II Fund Robert & Margaret Hazen for the Second Chair Trumpet Fund Mrs. Margaret Makris

108 APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015

PRINCIPAL CIRCLE Anonymous Dr. Ryszard Gajewski PHILHARMONIC CIRCLE Mr. Edward Brinker & Ms. Jane Liu Dale Collinson Family * Dr. & Mrs. John V. Evans Dr. J. William & Anita Gadzuk * Dr. Robert Gerard * & Ms. Carol Goldberg Mr. & Mrs. Ken Hurwitz Mr. William A. Lascelle & Ms. Blanche Johnson Mr. & Mrs. Kent Mikkelsen * Drs. Charles and Cecile Toner Ms. Elzbieta Vande Sande, in memory of George Vande Sande, Esq. BENEFACTOR CIRCLE Mrs. Rachel Abraham Mrs. Ruth Berman Dr. Lawrence Deyton * & Dr. Jeffrey Levi Mr. & Mrs. John L. Donaldson Mr. Greg Lawson & Mr. Sai Cheung, includes match by UBS Financial Services Mr. Robert Misbin Michael & Janet Rowan Ms. Aida Sanchez Sternbach Family Fund Mr. & Mrs. Royce Watson SUSTAINER CIRCLE Anonymous (3) Fred & Helen Altman * Ms. Nurit Bar-Josef John & Marjorie Bleiweis Dr. Ronald Cappelletti * Dr. Mark Cinnamon & Ms. Doreen Kelly Ms. Nancy Coleman * Mr. Steven C. Decker & Ms. Deborah W. Davis Paul J. & Eileen S. DeMarco * Mr. & Mrs. Robert Dollison Ms. Justine D. Englert Mr. William E. Fogle & Ms. Marilyn Wun-Fogle Dr. Maria A. Friedman * Darren & Elizabeth Gemoets * Ms. Sarah Gilchrist * Mr. Barry Goldberg Dr. Joseph Gootenberg & Dr. Susan Leibenhaut Dr. Stacey Henning * Mr. David Hofstad Mr. & Mrs. Joseph A. Hunt

Mr. & Mrs. Bill Iwig Drs. William & Shelby Jakoby Mr. Philip M. John William W. * & Sara M. Josey * Sarah Liron & Sheldon Kahn Ms. Joanna Lam, in memory of Mr. Chin-Man Lam Mr. & Mrs. John R. Larue, includes match

by IBM Mrs. Joan M. Levenson Mr. Pardee Lowe, Jr. Mr. Larry Maloney * Mr. Winton Matthews Mrs. Eleanor D. McIntire * Dr. Wayne Meyer * Mr. & Mrs. David Mosher Mr. & Mrs. Raymond Mountain Susan & Jim Murray * Mr. Thomas Nessinger * Ms. Martha Newman * Dr. & Mrs. Goetz Oertel Mr. & Mrs. William Pairo Mr. & Mrs. Ellis Parker Mr. & Mrs. Jerome Pinson, includes match by GE Foundation Mr. & Mrs. Peter Ryan Mrs. Jan Schiavone * Mr. & Mrs. Steven Seelig Ms. Kathryn Senn, in honor of Dieneke Johnson Mr. & Mrs. Gerald Stempler Ms. Carol A. Stern * Dr. & Mrs. Robert Temple * Ms. Ellen van Valkenburgh * Mr. & Mrs. Robert Vocke * Ms. Carla Wheeler Dr. Jack & Susan Yanovski Mr. & Mrs. Bernard J. Young Paul A. & Peggy L. Young Mr. & Mrs. Walter Zachariasiewicz PATRON Anonymous Mr. & Mrs. Joel Alper Mr. & Mrs. Richard Azrael, in honor of Mary Azrael and Janice Hamer Mr. David E. Kleiner & Ms. Mary Bentley * Mr. Philip Bjorlo Richard Okreglak & Dr. Edwarda Buda Rabbi & Mrs. Leonard Cahan Susan Linn & Clifford Craine Mr. & Mrs. Norman Doctor Mr. John Eklund Dr. Stan Engebretson Dr. & Mrs. Joseph Fainberg David & Berdie Firestone Dr. & Mrs. Arnold Fridland Mr. & Mrs. Mayo Friedlis Mr. Steven Gerber Mr. & Mrs. William Hickman Ms. Martha Jacoby Krieger * Mr. Michael Lame Mr. & Mrs. Eliot Lieberman * Ms. Judy Lieberman Ms. Jane Lyle * Mr. John McGarry & Ms. Marietta Ethier Ms. Florentina Mehta Dr. Hanna Siwiec & Mr. Spencer Meyer Mr. & Mrs. Richard Michalski Mr. Stephen Mucchetti David Nickels and Gerri Hall Mr. Larz Pearson & Mr. Rick Trevino Mr. & Mrs. Don Regnell Ms. Kari Wallace & Dr. Michael Sapko Silvan S. Schweber & Snait B. Gissis Ms. Katherine Nelson-Tracey* Mr. and Mrs. John F. Wing CONTRIBUTOR Anonymous (2) Ms. Ann Albertson Mr. & Mrs. Byron Alsop Mr. Robert B. Anderson Mrs. Marietta Balaan * Mike & Cecilia Ballentine Mr. & Mrs. Richard Bender Ms. Michelle Beneke, in honor of

National Philharmonic guest artist and violinist Chee-Yun greets students Tyler Fanyo-Tabak and Morgan Fanyo-Tabak in the Comcast Lounge.

National Philharmonic Associate Conductor Victoria Gau with Board member Greg Lawson, Sai Cheung, and Board member Kent Mikkelsen in the Comcast Lounge.

Jeff Levi & Bopper Deyton Mr. & Mrs. Gilbert Bloom Mr. John H. Caldwell, in memory of Dale Collinson Mrs. Patsy Clark Ms. Irene Cooperman Mr. & Mrs. J. Steed Edwards Ms. Linda Edwards Mr. & Mrs. Dwight Ellis, in memory of Dale Collinson Claudia & Eliot Feldman Ms. Shannon Finnegan Mr. Philip Fleming Ms. Julia Friend Mr. & Mrs. William Gibb Dr. William & Dr. Marlene Haffner Dr. & Mrs. John Helmsen Mr. & Mrs. James Hochron * Mr. Myron Hoffmann Ms. Katharine Cox Jones Mr. & Mrs. Allan Kirkpatrick * Dr. Mark & Dr. Cathy Knepper Mr. & Mrs. William Kominers Mr. Steven Lainoff, in memory of Dale Collinson Ms. Rachel Leiton Dr. Marcia D. Litwack Dr. Susan Lotarski Mr. Jerald Maddox Mr. David E. Malloy * & Mr. John P. Crockett Mrs. Julie Mannes & Dr. Andrew Mannes Mr. & Mrs. James Mason Mr. David McGoff * Ms. Maria Miller, in memory of Ryszard Gajewski Dr. & Mrs. Oliver Moles, Jr. * Ms. Martha E. Moore Ms. Cecilia Muñoz & Mr. Amit Pandya Dr. Stamatios Mylonakis Dr. Ruth S. Newhouse Mrs. Jeanne Noel Ms. Anne O’Brien Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth A. Oldham, Jr. Ms. Victoria J. Perkins Evelyn & Peter Philipps Mr. & Mrs. William Pitt Dr. & Mrs. Manuel Porres Mrs. Dorothy Prats Mr. Mark Price, in memory of Dale Collinson Drs. Dena & Jerome Puskin Ms. Beryl Rothman * Ms. Lisa Rovin * Mr. J. Michael Rowe & Ms. Nancy Chesser Mr. Ronald Saunders Mr. Ronald Sekura Dr. & Mrs. Kevin Shannon Mr. & Mrs. Robert Smith Mr. John I. Stewart & Ms. Sharon S. Stoliaroff Mr. & Mrs. Grant Thompson Gen. & Mrs. William Usher Dr. & Mrs. Richard Wright MEMBER Anonymous Mr. Dan Abbott

Mr. Jose Apud Mr. Robert Barash Mr. & Mrs. Normand A. Bernache Mrs. Barbara Botsford Ms. Cheryl A. Branham* Mr. & Mrs. Herman Branson Mr. & Mrs. Frederick Brown John & Rosemary Buckley Ms. Patricia Bulhack Mr. John Cahill Dr. John Caldwell Dr. F. Lawrence Clare Dr. & Mrs. Gordon M. Cragg Mr. Alan T. Crane Ms. Louise Crane Mr. & Mrs. J.R. Crout Deborah Curtiss Ms. Margaret E. Cusack Mr. & Mrs. David Dancer * Mr. & Mrs. Mike Davidson Mr. Carl DeVore Mr. & Mrs. Bruce Dickson Ms. Terri Dobbins Mr. & Mrs. Paul Dragoumis Sandy & Norton Elson F.W. England Mr. & Mrs. Lionel Epstein Mr. & Mrs. Elliott Fein Dr. John Ferguson Mr. & Mrs. Frank Forman Mr. Harold Freeman CAPT Bruce & Eva French Mr. Bernard Gelb Mr. & Mrs. Richard O. Gilbert Mr. & Mrs. Mitch Green Ms. Melanie Grishman Ms. Lucy Hamacheck Ms. Jacqueline Havener Mr. & Mrs. Rue Helsel Dr. & Mrs. Terrell Hoffeld Mr. & Mrs. Waldemar Izdebski Mr. & Mrs. Doug Jacobson Mr. & Mrs. Jerome Jaffe Mr. & Mrs. Donald Jansky * Mr. & Mrs. Barbara Jarzynski Dr. Elke Jordan Mr. & Mrs. Gerald Kaiz Ms. Kari Keaton Ms. Elizabeth King Mr. & Mrs. David Koff Mr. Dale Krumviede Ms. Michelle Lee Mr. & Mrs. Herbert J. Lerner Mr. & Mrs. Harald Leuba Ms. Elizabeth Levin Dr. & Mrs. David Lockwood Mr. & Mrs. Forbes Maner Dr. Lorenzo Marcolin Ms. Jean A. Martin Mrs. Nancy C. May Mr. Alan E. Mayers * Mr. & Mrs. Michael McClellan Mr. & Mrs. Robert McGuire Mr. & Mrs. Curtis Menyuk Mr. & Mrs. Michael Merchlinsky Mr. & Mrs. David Miller

Mr. & Mrs. Edward Mills Mr. & Mrs. Thaddeus Mirecki Mr. & Mrs. David Mitchell Ms. Stephanie Murphy Mr. Stephen Nordlinger Mr. James Norris Dr. Sammy S. Noumbissi Mr. & Mrs. Kenneth Oldham Mr. & Mrs. Alan Peterkofsky Anton Pierce Mr. & Mrs. Robert Pirie Mr. Charles O’Connor & Ms. Susan Plaeger Mr. & Mrs. Paul Plotz Mr. Luke Popovich Mr. & Mrs. Robert Provine Mr. & Mrs. James Render Mr. & Mrs. Richard Riegel Mr. & Mrs. Clark Rheinstein * Mrs. Donna H. Runyan Mr. Ronald Saunders Mr. & Mrs. Joel Schenk Dr. Walter Schimmerling Mr. Jack Schmidt

Mr. & Mrs. Sydney Schneider Mr. John Schnorrenberg Mrs. Helen Kavanaugh & Mr. John Schultz Gabriela & Dennis Scott Mr. & Mrs. John Shorb Mr. & Mrs. Charles L. Short, Jr. Dr. & Mrs. Paul Silverman Mr. David Spaans Ms. Sarah Thomas Mr. & Mrs. Carl Tretter Ms. Virginia W. Van Brunt * Mr. & Mrs. Gerald Vogel Mr. & Mrs. William Wadsworth Mr. David B. Ward Ms. Krystyna Wasserman Mr. & Mrs. Barry Watts Mr. Stephen Welsh Ms. Claire Winestock Dr. & Mrs. Kevin Woods * Mr. Hans Wyss Ms. Katherine Yoder * Chorale members

NATIONAL PHILHARMONIC ENDOWMENT Robert B. Anderson Mrs. Ruth Berman Dale Collinson Family Jean & Paul Dudek Dr. & Mrs. John V. Evans Ms. Ruth Faison

Mr. & Mrs. Al Lampert Dr. Jeff Levi & Dr. Lawrence Deyton Mr. & Mrs. Kent Mikkelsen Dr. Kenneth P. Moritsugu & Ms. Lisa R. Kory Dr. Theodora Vanderzalm

HERITAGE SOCIETY The Heritage Society at the National Philharmonic gratefully recognizes those dedicated individuals who strive to perpetuate the National Philharmonic through the provision of a bequest in their wills or through other estate gifts.

For more information about the National Philharmonic’s Heritage Society, please call Ken Oldham at 301-493-9283, ext. 112.

Mr. David Abraham* Mrs. Rachel Abraham Mr. Joel Alper Robert B. Anderson* Ms. Ruth Berman Ms. Anne Claysmith Dale Collinson Family Mr. Todd Eskelsen Mrs. Wendy Hoffman, in honor of Leslie Silverfine

Ms. Dieneke Johnson Mr. & Mrs. Albert Lampert Mrs. Margaret Makris Mr. Robert Misbin Mr. Kenneth A. Oldham, Jr. Mr. W. Larz Pearson Ms. Carol A. Stern Ms. Elzbieta Vande Sande Mr. Mark Williams *Deceased

NATIONAL PHILHARMONIC STAFF Piotr Gajewski, Music Director & Conductor Stan Engebretson, Artistic Director, National Philharmonic Chorale Victoria Gau, Associate Conductor & Director of Education Kenneth A. Oldham, Jr., President Leanne Ferfolia, Vice President Filbert Hong, Director of Artistic Operations Deborah Birnbaum, Director of Marketing & PR

Katie Tukey, Associate Director of Development & Operations Amy Salsbury, Graphic Designer Lauren Aycock, Graphic Designer William E. Doar Jr. Public Charter School for the Performing Arts Staff Dr. Scarlett Zirkle, Program Director Isaac Bell, Music Instructor Chris Sanchez, Suzuki Instructor

APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015 109

BOARD OF DIRECTORS Reginald Van Lee, Chairman* (c) James J. Sandman, Vice Chair* (c) David Marventano, Vice Chair* Christina Co Mather, Secretary* (c) Steven Kaplan, Esq. Treasurer* (c) Burton J. Fishman, Esq., General Counsel* + Jenny Bilfield,* President and CEO Douglas H. Wheeler, President Emeritus Neale Perl, President Emeritus Patrick Hayes, Founder † Katherine M. Anderson Paxton Baker Arturo E. Brillembourg* Hans Bruland (c) Rima Calderon Charlotte Cameron* Karen I. Campbell* Yolanda Caraway Lee Christopher Josephine S. Cooper Debbie Dingell Robert Feinberg* Norma Lee Funger Tom Gallagher Bruce Gates* Felecia Love Greer, Esq. Jay M. Hammer* (c) Susan B. Hepner* Grace Hobelman (c) Patricia Howell Jake Jones* David Kamenetzky* Edmond Lelo Tony Otten Rachel Tinsley Pearson*

Elaine Rose* Irene Roth Charlotte Schlosberg Samuel A. Schreiber Peter Shields Roberta Sims Ruth Sorenson* (c) Veronica Valencia-Sarukhan Mary Jo Veverka* Carol W. Wilner Carol Wolfe-Ralph

HONORARY DIRECTORS

Nancy G. Barnum Roselyn Payne Epps, M.D. Michelle Cross Fenty Sophie P. Fleming † Eric R. Fox Peter Ladd Gilsey † Barbara W. Gordon France K. Graage James M. Harkless, Esq. ViCurtis G. Hinton † Sherman E. Katz Marvin C. Korengold, M.D. Peter L. Kreeger Robert G. Liberatore Dennis G. Lyons Gilbert D. Mead † Gerson Nordlinger † John F. Olson, Esq. (c) Susan Porter Frank H. Rich Ambassador Arturo Sarukhan*(c) Jon Sedmak Albert H. Small Shirley Small The Honorable James W. Symington Stefan F. Tucker, Esq. (c) Paul Martin Wolff

PAST CHAIRS

Todd Duncan †, Past Chairman Laureate William N. Cafritz † Aldus H. Chapin † Kenneth M. Crosby †

Jean Head Sisco † Kent T. Cushenberry † Jerome B. Libin (L) Harry M. Linowes Edward A. Fox Hugh H. Smith Alexine Clement Jackson Lydia Micheaux Marshall Stephen W. Porter, Esq. Elliott S. Hall Lena Ingegerd Scott (c) James F. Lafond Bruce E. Rosenblum Daniel L. Korengold Susan B. Hepner Jay M. Hammer

WOMEN’S COMMITTEE OFFICERS

Elaine Rose, President Albertina Lane, Recording Secretary Lorraine Adams, 1st Vice President Beverly Bascomb, Assistant Recording Secretary Ruth Hodges, 2nd Vice President Cheryl McQueen, Treasurer Zelda Segal, Corresponding Secretary Janet Kaufman, Assistant Treasurer Gladys Watkins, Immediate Past President

LAWYERS’ COMMITTEE CO-CHAIRS Jerome B. Libin, Esq. James J. Sandman, Esq. * Executive Committee + Ex Officio † Deceased (c) Committee Chair

(L) Lawyers’ Committee As of Dec. 1, 2014

WASHINGTON PERFORMING ARTS ANNUAL FUND Washington Performing Arts gratefully acknowledges the contributions of the following individuals, corporations, foundations and government sources whose generosity supports our artistic and education programming throughout the National Capital area. Friends who contribute $500 or more annually are listed below with our thanks. (As of Oct. 23, 2014) $100,000 and above Abramson Family Foundation Altria Group The Morris & Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation Dr. Gary Mather and Ms. Christina Co Mather Daimler DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities Betsy and Robert Feinberg Fluor Corporation Mars, Incorporated Ms. Jacqueline Badger Mars Dr. Paul G. Stern Mr. Reginald Van Lee $50,000-$99,999 Dallas Morse Coors Foundation

for the Performing Arts Centric TV EventsDC Mr. and Mrs. Joseph F. Horning, The Horning Family Fund Estate of Ms. Doris H. McClory (W) National Arts and Cultural Affairs Program/The Commission of Fine Arts Park Foundation, Inc. The Pitts Family Foundation Mr. Bruce Rosenblum and Ms. Lori Laitman The Van Auken Private Foundation 35,000-$49,999 Anonymous (2) Ruth and Arne Sorenson

$25,000-$34,999 Airlines For America Ambassador and Mrs. Tom Anderson BB&T Private Financial Services Mr. and Mrs. Arturo E. Brillembourg Philip L. Graham Fund Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd Howell Jr. National Endowment for the Arts Mr. Gerson Nordlinger III † Pfizer Inc. United Therapeutics Corporation $15,000-$24,999 Anonymous Arcana Foundation AT&T Services

110 APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015

Billy Rose Foundation Ms. Pamela Farr FedEx Corporation Mr. and Mrs. Jose Figueroa Mr. and Mrs. Morton Funger Mr. and Mrs. Jay M. Hammer Carl D.† and Grace P. Hobelman Mr. and Mrs. Steven Kaplan Ms. Betsy Scott Kleeblatt, in memory of James L. Kleeblatt Kiplinger Foundation Inc. Judith A. Lee, Esq. (L) Linda and Isaac Stern Charitable Foundation Mr. and Mrs. John Marshall Dan Cameron Family Foundation, Inc. The Meredith Foundation Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation Mr. and Mrs. Herbert S. Miller PEPCO Dr. Irene Roth Mr. James J. Sandman and Ms. Elizabeth D. Mullin (L) Mr. and Mrs. Hubert M. Schlosberg (L) (W) NoraLee and Jon Sedmak Time Warner Inc. Mr. and Mrs. Stefan F. Tucker (L) Verizon Washington, DC Versar Ms. Mary Jo Veverka Washington Gas Light Company Wells Fargo Bank $10,000-$14,999 Miriam and Eliezer Benbassat Mr. James H. Berkson† Diane and Norman Bernstein BET Networks Booz Allen Hamilton Clear Channel Communications Mrs. Ryna Cohen Comcast Mr. † and Mrs. † Sidney Dickstein Edison Electric Institute Mr. and Mrs. Burton J. Fishman Graham Holdings Company J. Willard and Alice S. Marriott Foundation Robert P. and Arlene R. Kogod Family Foundation Macy’s Mr. and Mrs. Michael Marshall Mr. and Mrs. Herbert Milstein Nancy Peery Marriott Foundation, Inc. John F. Olson, Esq. (L) Ms. Janice J. Kim and Mr. Anthony L. Otten Pennsylvania Performing Arts on Tour PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP Roger and Vicki Sant Ms. Wendy Thompson-Marquez George Wasserman Family Foundation, Inc. Wiley Rein LLP Mr. and Mrs. Bernard Young $7,500-$9,999 Anonymous Mr. Eric Collins and Mr. Michael Prokopow Ernst & Young June and Jerry Libin (L) New England Foundation for the Arts Ms. Rachel Tinsley Pearson Adam Clayton Powell III and

Irene M. Solet Prince Charitable Trusts Mr. Peter Shields Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Simpkins $5,000-$7,499 Dr. and Mrs. Clement C. Alpert Capitol Tax Partners Bob and Jennifer Feinstein Mr. and Mrs. Rolf Graage Ms. Susan B. Hepner Ms. Pamela Joyner Mr. and Mrs. David Marventano Mr. and Mrs. David O. Maxwell Microsoft Corporation Dr. Robert Misbin National Association of Broadcasters Mr. and Mrs. John Pohanka Mr. and Mrs. Tom Portman Ms. Christine C. Ryan and Mr. Tom Graham Mr. and Mrs. John V. Thomas Mr. Marvin F. Weissberg and Ms. Judith Morris † $2,500-$4,999 Anonymous (2) Ms. Anita Antenucci Jenny Bilfield and Joel Friedman Mr. Peter Buscemi and Ms. Judith Miller Mr. and Mrs. William N. Cafritz Mr. and Mrs. Jordan Casteel Mrs. Dolly Chapin The Charles Delmar Foundation Dr. and Mrs. Abe Cherrick Ms. Nadine Cohodas Mr. Carl Colby and Ms. Dorothy Browning Mr. and Mrs. Brian Coulter Mr. and Mrs. J. Bradley Davis Dr. Morgan Delaney and Mr. Osborne P. Mackie Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Dungan Mr. and Mrs. Glenn Epstein Linda R. Fannin, Esq. (L) James A. Feldman and Natalie Wexler Mr. Gregory I. Flowers Mr. Tom Gallagher Mr. and Mrs. Wayne Gibbens Dr. and Mrs. Michael S. Gold James R. Golden Mr. and Mrs. Stephen Graham Cab and Susan Grayson James McConnell Harkless, Esq. Alexine and Aaron † Jackson (W) Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Jacobs Drs. Frederick Jacobsen and Lillian Comas-Diaz Mr. and Mrs. Merritt Jones Ms. Danielle Kazmier and Mr. Ronald M. Bradley Mr. and Mrs. David T. Kenney Arleen and Edward Kessler (W) Mr. Daniel L. Korengold and Ms. Martha Dippell Mrs. Stephen K. Kwass Mr. and Mrs. Gene Lange (L) Mr. and Mrs. Steve Lans Ms. Sandy Lerner Mr. and Mrs. Dale Lindsay Mr. and Mrs. Harry M. Linowes Ms. Jacqueline Rosenberg London and Mr. Paul London James and Barbara Loots (L) Mr. James Lynch Mr. and Mrs. Christoph E. Mahle Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Manaker

Marshall B. Coyne Foundation Mr. Scott Martin Mark and Terry McLeod Mr. Larry L. Mitchell Ms. Mary Morton and Mr. Keith Forman Dr. William Mullins and Dr. Patricia Petrick Ms. Michelle Newberry Mr. and Mrs. Michael Niakani Dr. Gerald Perman Ms. Nicky Perry and Mr. Andrew Stifler The Honorable and Mrs. Stephen Porter Mr. Trevor Potter and Mr. Dana Westring Dr. and Mrs. Douglas Rathbun Mr. and Mrs. Peter Rich Mr. Ken Rietz and Ms. Ursula Landsrath Mr. and Mrs. David Roux Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Schreiber Lena Ingegerd Scott and Lennart Lundh Ms. Monica Scott Mr. and Mrs. Mike Stevens Mr. Richard Strother Ms. Mary Sturtevant and Mr. Alan Asay Mr. and Mrs. George Thomspon Mr. and Mrs. Brian Tommer Mr. John Warren McGarry and Ms. Marietta Ethier, Esq. Mrs. Judith Weintraub Dr. Sidney Werkman and Ms. Nancy Folger Mr. Richard Wilhelm and Mrs. Shelly Porges Mr. and Mrs. James T. Wilson Dr. and Mrs. William B. Wolf Ms. Margaret S. Wu $1,500-$2,499 Anonymous (3) Ms. Lisa Abeel Mr. and Mrs. J.W. Abel Smith Mr. John B. Adams The Amphion Foundation, Inc. Mr. and Mrs. Barry Barbash Lisa and James Baugh Robert and Arlene Bein Mr. and Mrs. Robert S. Bennett Jane C. Bergner, Esq. (L) Mr. and Mrs. Boris Brevnov Mr. and Mrs. Hans Bruland Mr. and Mrs. Leonard Burka Drs. Judith and Thomas Chused Dr. Mark Cinnamon and Ms. Doreen Kelly Ms. Josephine S. Cooper Mr. Paul D. Cronin Dr. and Mrs. Joseph H. Danks Mr. and Mrs. Guy O. Dove III Mrs. John G. Esswein Friday Morning Music Club, Inc. The Hon. Ruth Bader Ginsburg Gelman, Rosenberg & Freedman David and Lorna Gladstone Mrs. Paula Seigle Goldman (W) Mrs. Barbara Goldmuntz Mrs. Barbara W. Gordon (W) Dr. and Mrs. Joseph E. Harris (W) Mr. and Mrs. James Harris, Jr. Ms. Gertraud Hechl Ms. Tatjana Hendry Mrs. Enid T. Johnson (W) Dr. and Mrs. Elliott Kagan Mrs. Carol Kaplan

Mr. E. Scott Kasprowicz Ms. Betsy Scott Kleeblatt Mr. and Mrs. Steven Lamb Mrs. Eleanor Leak Mrs. Gail Matheson The Hon. Mary V. Mochary and Dr. Philip E. Wine Mr. and Mrs. Robert Monk Ms. Maureen B. Murphy Lt. Gen. and Mrs. Michael A. Nelson The Nora Roberts Foundation Mr. and Mrs. John Oberdorfer Mr. Jack H. Olender Ms. Jean Perin Mr. and Mrs. Robert Ramsay Mr. James Rich Ms. Mary B. Schwab Mr. and Mrs. Albert Small Mrs. Nadia Stanfield Mr. Eric Steiner Mrs. Holli P. Thompson Mr. and Mrs. Aaron Tomares Mrs. Annie Totah Mr. James Treptow Mr. and Mrs. J. Christopher Turner Ms. Loki van Roijen G. Duane Vieth, Esq. (L) Ms. Viviane Warren A. Duncan Whitaker, Esq. (L) Mr. and Mrs. Robert H. Winter Ms. Henry Wolfinger $1,000-$1,499 Anonymous (4) Ruth and Henry Aaron Mrs. Rachel Abraham Mr. Jeffrey Abramson Mr. and Mrs. James B. Adler Mr. and Mrs. Dave Aldrich Mr. and Mrs. Rand Allen Ann and Russel Bantham Hon. and Mrs. John W. Barnum Mr. and Mrs. Morton Bender S. Kann Sons Company Fdn. Inc. Amelie and Bernei Burgunder, Directors Ms. Beverly J. Burke Ludmila and Conrad Cafritz Ms. Karen I. Campbell Sally and Edison W. Dick (L) Mr. and Mrs. Paul Dinte Ms. Nancy Ruyle Dodge Mr. John Driscoll DyalCompass Mr. and Mrs. Melvin Eagle (L) Ms. Lisa Egbuonu-Davis Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth R. Feinberg Mr. Juan Gaddis Mr. Donald and Mrs. Irene Gavin Mr. and Mrs. William Goldman (W) Mr. and Mrs. Richard Goldstein Mr. and Mrs. Carl F. Hicks, Jr. Mr. Charles E. Hoyt and Ms. Deborah Weinberger (L) Mr. and Mrs. Bill Jarvis Mrs. Lois Jones Ms. Annette Kerlin Dr. Marvin C. Korengold Simeon M. Kriesberg and Martha L. Kahn Sandra and James Lafond Mr. and Mrs. Richard F. Larkin Ms. May Lesar The Honorable and Mrs. Jan Lodal Mr. James Martin Ms. Jacqui Michel Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Moorman

Mr. and Mrs. Adrian L. Morchower (W) Mr. Richard Moxley Ms. Catherine Nelson Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence C. Nussdorf Tom and Thea Papoian with Mr. Smoochy Mr. and Mrs. Arnold Polinger Renah Blair Rietzke Family and Community Foundation Daniel and Sybil Silver Mr. and Mrs. Sanford Slavin Mr. and Mrs. Larry Somerville Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Strong Mr. Wesley Thomas and Mr. Eric Jones J. Haddock and Hector Torres Mr. and Mrs. George Walker Drs. Anthony and Gladys Watkins (W) Drs. Irene and John White Kathe and Edwin D. Williamson Mr. James D. Wolfensohn Mr. James Yap Mr. Albert Yarashus $500-$999 Anonymous (3) Mr. and Mrs. Edward Adams (W) Mr. Andrew Adair Miss Shirley Marcus Allen Ms. Carolyn S. Alper Mr. and Mrs. James Baird Miss Lucile E. Beaver Ms. Doris Belton Mr. Don Blanchon and Ms. Sarah Ducich Ms. Patricia N. Bonds (W) Mrs. Elsie Bryant (W) Mr. and Mrs. Charles Campbell Mr. William Cavanaugh Ms. Johnnetta B. Cole Mr. Andrew Colquitt Mr. John W. Cook Dr. and Mrs. Milton Corn Dr. and Mrs. Chester W. De Long Mr. and Mrs. James B. Deerin (W) Ms. Mary DesJardins Ms. Sayre E. Dykes Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Freeman Mr. and Mrs. Harold Finger Mrs. Rhona Wolfe Friedman and Mr. Don Friedman Dr. Melvin Gaskins Jack E. Hairston Jr. Ms. June Hajjar Dr. and Mrs. Harry Handelsman (W) Jack and Janis Hanson Mr. and Mrs. Brian J. Hardie Mr. Lloyd Haugh Mr. and Mrs. James D. Hurwitz Dr. Charlene Drew Jarvis Ralph N. Johanson, Jr., Esq. (L) Ms. Anna F. Jones (W) Ms. Janet Kaufman (W) Ms. Olga Khrovlevitch Mr. and Mrs. Stephen Klemp Dr. Allan Kolker Mr. and Mrs. John Koskinen Ms. Albertina D. Lane (W) Mr. William Lascelle and Blanche Johnson The Honorable Cheryl M. Long (W) Mr. and Mrs. David Maginnes (W) Nancie G. Marzulla, Esq. (L) Ms. Hope McGowan Mr. and Mrs. Rufus W. McKinney (W) Ms. Cheryl C. McQueen (W) Dr. and Mrs. Larry Medsker

Ms. Angela Messer Dr. Jeanne-Marie A. Miller Ms. Rachel Mondl Ms. Trixie Moser Mrs. Rita Posner Mr. Leonard Ralston Mr. and Mrs. Hunter Rawlings Mr. Spencer K. Raymond Mr. and Mrs. Martin Ritter Ms. Denise Rollins Ms. Elaine Rose (W) Mr. Lincoln Ross and Changamire (W) Mr. and Mrs. Henry Roth Mr. Burton Rothleder Mr. Daniel Rourke Anne & Henry Reich Family Foundation Lee G. Rubenstein, Co-President Mr. and Mrs. David Sacks Mr. and Mrs. Jeffrey Sanders Ms. Helen Santoro Mr. and Mrs. Michael Schultz, In memory of Mr. H. Marc Moyens Mrs. Zelda Segal (W) Dr. Deborah Sewell (W) Dr. Deborah J. Sherrill Ms. Virginia Sloss (W) Mr. Benjamin Smith, Jr. Prof. and Dr. Valery Soyfer Dr. and Mrs. Ronald Spooner Mr. Joseph D. Tartaglione Mr. Peter Threadgill Mr. and Mrs. J. Christopher Turner Mr. and Mrs. John Veilleux (W)

Maria Voultsides and Thomas Chisnell, II Dr. and Mrs. Allan Weingold Ms. Maggalean W. Weston Dr. June Whaun and Dr. Pauline Ting Mr. John Williams Mr. and Mrs. James D. Wilson (W) Ms. Julia S. Winton Ms. Christina Witsberger Dr. Saul Yanovich Paul Yarowsky and Kathryn Grumbach IN-KIND DONORS Booz Allen Hamilton Mr. and Mrs. Charles Both Embassy of Japan Embassy of Spain JamalFelder Music Productions LLC The Hay-Adams Hotel Mr. Daniel L. Korengold and Ms. Martha Dippell Dr. and Mrs. Marc E. Leland The Honorable and Mrs. Jan Lodal Mars, Incorporated Mr. Neale Perl St. Gregory Luxury Hotels & Suites Mr. Anthony Williams Kathe and Edwin D. Williamson Elizabeth and Bill Wolf KEY: (W) Women’s Committee (L) Lawyers’ Committee † Deceased

WASHINGTON PERFORMING ARTS STAFF Jenny Bilfield President & CEO Douglas H. Wheeler President Emeritus Allen Lassinger Chief Administrative Officer Murray Horwitz Director of Special Projects Leah Manning Administrative Assistant Development Mitchell Bassion Director of Development Meiyu Tsung Director of Individual Giving Heather Perram Frank Director of Leadership Gifts Roger Whyte II Director of Special Events Stephanie Johnson Assistant Director of Major Gifts June Yang Assistant Director of Institutional Giving Helen Aberger Development Coordinator Catherine Trobich Development Associate Jessica Dupont Development Intern Education Michelle Hoffmann Director of Education Katheryn R. Brewington Assistant Director of Education/ Director of Gospel Programs Megan Merchant Education and Community Programs Manager Koto Maesaka Education Associate Taylor Young Education Intern Finance and Administration Erica Hogan Accounting Manager

Rebecca Tailsman Accounting Associate Robert Ferguson Database Administrator External Relations Matthew Campbell Director of External Relations Hannah Grove-DeJarnett Associate Director of External Relations Scott Thureen Creative Media and Analytics Manager Wynsor Taylor Audience Engagement Manager Celia Anderson Graphic Designer Bucklesweet Media Press and Media Relations Carlos Howard Marketing Intern Programming Samantha Pollack Director of Programming Torrey Butler Production Manager Rachael Patton Programming and Production Coordinator Shay Stevens Mars Urban Arts Curator Stanley J. Thurston Artistic Director, Gospel Choirs Ariel Shelton Mars Urban Arts Intern Ticket Services Office Folashade Oyegbola Ticket Services Manager Jessica Mallow Ticketing and Marketing Coordinator Edward Kerrick Group Sales Coordinator

APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015 111

Trumpeter/composer Wynton Marsalis, Washington Performing Arts Board Chairman Reginald Van Lee and donors Keiko and Steve Kaplan

WASHINGTON PERFORMING ARTS LEGACY SOCIETY Legacy Society members appreciate the vital role the performing arts play in the community, as well as in their own lives. By remembering Washington Performing Arts in their will or estate plans, members enhance our endowment fund and help make it possible for the next generations to enjoy the same quality and diversity of presentations both on stages and in our schools.

Mrs. Shirley and Mr. Albert H. Small, Honorary Chairs Mr. Stefan F. Tucker, Chair Anonymous (6) Mr. David G.† and Mrs. Rachel Abraham Dr. and Mrs. Clement C. Alpert Mr. and Mrs. George A. Avery Mr. James H. Berkson † Ms. Lorna Bridenstine † Ms. Christina Co Mather Mr. and Mrs. Douglas Cook Mr. and Mrs. F. Robert Cook Ms. Josephine Cooper Mr. and Mrs. James Deerin Mrs. Luna E. Diamond † Mr. Edison W. Dick and Mrs. Sally N. Dick Mr. † and Mrs. † Sidney Dickstein Ms. Carol M. Dreher Mr. and Mrs. Melvin Eagle Ms. Eve Epstein †

Mr. and Mrs. Burton Fishman Ms. Sophie P. Fleming † Mrs. Charlotte G. Frank † Mr. Ezra Glaser † Dr. and Mrs. Michael L. Gold Ms. Paula Goldman Mrs. Barbara Gordon Mr. James Harkless Ms. Susan B. Hepner Mr. Carl Hobelman † and Mrs. Grace Hobelman Mr. Craig M. Hosmer and Ms. Daryl Reinke Charles E. Hoyt Josephine Huang, Ph.D. Dr. † and Mrs. Aaron Jackson Mrs. Enid Tucker Johnson Mr. and Mrs. Charles Jones Mr. Sherman E. Katz Mr. and Mrs. Bruce Kimble Mr. Daniel L. Korengold Dr. Marvin C. Korengold

112 APPLAUSE at Strathmore • JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015

Mr. and Mrs. James Lafond Ms. Evelyn Lear † and Mr. Thomas Stewart† Mrs. Marion Lewis † Mr. Herbert Lindow † Mr. and Mrs. Harry Linowes Mr. and Mrs. David Maginnes Ms. Doris McClory † Mrs. Carol Melamed Robert I. Misbin Mr. Glenn A. Mitchell Ms. Viola Musher Mr. Jeffrey T. Neal The Alessandro Niccoli Scholarship Award The Pola Nirenska Memorial Award Mr. Gerson Nordlinger † Mrs. Linda Parisi and Mr. J.J. Finkelstein Mr. and Mrs. Neale Perl Dr. W. Stephen and Mrs. Diane Piper Mrs. Mildred Poretsky † The Hon. and Mrs. Stephen Porter Mrs. Betryce Prosterman † Susan E. Roberts Miriam Rose † Mr. James J. Sandman and Ms. Elizabeth D. Mullin Mrs. Ann Schein

Mr. and Mrs. Hubert (Hank) Schlosberg Ms. Lena Ingegerd Scott Mrs. Zelda Segal Mr. Sidney Seidenman Ms. Jean Head Sisco † Mr. † and Mrs. Sanford L. Slavin Mr. and Mrs. Albert H. Small Mr. Robert Smith and Mrs. Natalie Moffett Smith Mrs. Isaac Stern Mr. Leonard Topper Mr. Hector Torres Sami and Annie Totah Family Foundation Mr. and Mrs. Stefan Tucker Mr. Ulric † and Mrs. Frederica Weil Mr. and Mrs. Douglas Wheeler Mr. and Mrs. Robert H. Winter Washington Performing Arts Women’s Committee Ms. Margaret S. Wu In memory of Y. H. and T. F. Wu For more information, please contact Douglas H. Wheeler at (202) 533-1874, or e-mail dwheeler@washingtonperformingarts.org.