Overture September-October 2010 by Baltimore Symphony Orchestra

overture

A MAGAZINE FOR THE PATRONS OF THE BALTIMORE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA MARIN ALSOP, MUSIC DIRECTOR SEPTEMBER 11, 2010 - NOVEMBER 28, 2010

They are young, filled with talent and passion, and still in the early days of their musical careers. Haven’t heard of them yet? Don’t worry, you will.

Your technique is impeccable. Your phrasing, sensational. Your talent, undeniable. But when noise-induced hearing loss damages your pitch

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contents

10 Meet Lukásˇ Vondrácˇek,Tianwa Yang, Ilyich Rivas FOUR UNDER 25

and Yuja Wang—four of the most gifted artists of their generation. Plus: Mahler’s obsession with innocence. BY MARIA BLACKBURN

14 BSOViolinist Gregory Mulligan tells what ONE ON ONE

musicians—and audiences—have to gain when players have a stake in choosing their repertoire.

59 PROGRAM NOTES 17 SEPT 11

Gala Concert

22 SEPT 24

Mahler’s Seventh Symphony

25 OCT 2-3

Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto

29 OCT 8-10

Gotta Dance!

32 OCT 14-15

Beethoven and Shostakovich

36 OCT 22-23

Midori Plays Shostakovich

40 NOV 4

The Unfinished Symphonies

44 NOV 5

Ravi Shankar

45 NOV 6

Analyze This: Mahler and Freud

46 NOV 11-12

Beethoven’s “Eroica” Symphony

49 NOV 21

Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto

52 NOV 26-28

Chris Botti

INTERVIEW BY MARIA BLACKBURN

LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT AND CEO

IN TEMPO

BSO LIVE

News of note. Upcoming events you won’t want to miss!

ORCHESTRA ROSTER

DONORS

IMPROMPTU The BSO’s Kristin Ostling tests her “metal” with the cello rock band Primitivity.

f ro m t h e

president

overture BSOmusic.org • 410.783.8000

Baltimore Symphony Orchestra 2010-2011 Season

Dear Friends, Welcome back to the Meyerhoff for what promises to be another great year with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.We are thrilled to begin this season with a balanced budget, strong community support and thriving education programs. Like her first three seasons, Marin Alsop’s fourth season as Music Director has a wonderful blend of the old and the new, the familiar and the unfamiliar.With youth as a central theme, many of the programs feature the very best up-and-coming young artists destined to become leading stars in the field, including our own BSO-Peabody Bruno Walter Assistant Conductor, 17-year-old Ilyich Rivas.We also celebrate Gustav Mahler’s double jubilee with performances of both his most notable and lesser-heard works. And the BSO’s celebrated Holiday Spectacular returns with vocalist Maureen McGovern. The BSO under Marin Alsop’s leadership is attracting increasing national and international attention for recording and touring. Its series of Dvorˇák symphonies on the Naxos label will be complete with this Fall’s release of Symphony No. 6. And on November 13 and 14, the BSO will travel to New York City’s Carnegie Hall for performances of Beethoven’s “Eroica” Symphony and Too Hot to Handel:The Gospel Messiah. Regular visits to Carnegie Hall maintain vital recognition for the BSO, bringing tourism and support to the City of Baltimore and the State of Maryland. If you are planning a weekend trip this Fall, come to NYC and show your support for your hometown orchestra! I hope you will enjoy this special season we planned for you as much as we enjoyed planning it. See you around the hall!

Marin Alsop Music Director Michael G. Bronfein Chairman Paul Meecham President and CEO Eileen Andrews Jackson Vice President of Marketing and Communications Sarah Haller PR & Publications Coordinator Janet E. Bedell Program Annotator

Alter Custom Media Sue De Pasquale Editor Cortney Geare Art Director Maria Blackburn Contributing Writer Jeni Mann Director of Custom Media Lauren Geldzahler Proofreader Maggie Moseley-Farley Senior Sales Consultant Karen R. Bark Marcie Jeffers Sales Consultants Heidi Traband Advertising Designer

Paul Meecham President and CEO, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra

Be Green: Recycle Your Program! Please return your gently used program books to the Overture racks in the lobby. Want to keep reading at home? Please do! Just remember to recycle it when you’re through.

Kristen Cooper Director of Advertising Design and Advertising Sales Alter Custom Media 1040 Park Ave., Suite 200 Baltimore, MD 21201 443.451.0736

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Baltimore Symphony Orchestra

Life is Better with Music

The BSO is committed to serving our community in relevant and meaningful ways, including high quality music education and life enrichment programs for more than 55,000 youths each year. Your support makes this important work possible, helping to secure the BSO as a key contributor to the culture and quality of life in Baltimore and throughout Maryland. For more information about supporting your world-class orchestra, please contact our membership office.

410.783.8124 | BSOmusic.org/musicmatters September 11, 2010 – November 28, 2010

tempo

News of note.

Forte Grows, More Ways to Get Involved Forte, the BSO’s fan group of young professionals, provides exciting networking opportunities between fellow music lovers and the BSO. Forte members enjoy a wide variety of special benefits, including discounted tickets, happy hours, access to post-concert parties, free gifts and chances to win prizes. Each season, Forte hosts social events at four concerts. For $40, members receive a premium seat for the concert, admission into the pre- or post-concert event with the opportunity to meet BSO musicians and guest artists and one drink voucher. The 2010-2011 Forte events include Analyze This: Mahler and Freud on Saturday, November 6; Icarus at the Edge of Time on Friday, January 14; Rachmaninoff ’s Second Piano Concerto on Friday, February 11; and Charlie Chaplin’s The Gold Rush on Saturday, April 16. Established in 2008 to engage young patrons from the Baltimore area in the classical music scene, Forte hopes to evolve outside the walls of the Meyerhoff through volunteer and networking activities in the Baltimore area—such as involvement with the BSO’s OrchKids and other outreach programs.

Forte members enjoy the post-concert party in the Meyerhoff Lounge.

Forte members meet pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet at a post-concert party.

There are four easy ways to join Forte this season; please visit BSOmusic.org/forte for more information on how to get involved.

“Rusty Musicians” Perform

Overture

Music Director Marin Alsop leads “Rusty Musicians” and members of the BSO in Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony on February 2, 2010 at the Music Center at Strathmore.

CE Y

More than 600 musicians applied to the first “Rusty Musicians” program held at the Music Center at Strathmore in February 2010, with 400 accepted to participate. The success of the program at Strathmore prompted area musicians to request another, this time in Baltimore. “By engaging patrons in this directly participatory experience, we are tearing down the walls that separate us from our audiences,” said Maestra Alsop.

TR A

The much-anticipated Baltimore edition of “Rusty Musicians with the BSO” will take place on Tuesday, September 21 from 6 to 10 p.m. at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall. More than 440 amateur musicians applied to join members of the BSO and Music Director Marin Alsop on stage to perform Brahms’ Academic Festival Overture and the finale from Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite, with 324 accepted to participate. To accommodate this many participants, the evening will include four separate sessions: 6 p.m., 7 p.m., 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. “Rusty Musicians with the BSO” is part of the BSO’s vision to increase the community’s involvement in music and serve as a cultural resource for the Baltimore-Washington region.

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September 11, 2010 – November 28, 2010

bsolive SPECIAL EVENT

Handel’s Messiah Fri, Dec 3, 7:30 p.m. Edward Polochick, conductor Concert Artists of Baltimore

BSO Holiday Spectacular

KIRILL GERSTEIN

Fri, Dec 10, 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Sat, Dec 11, 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Sun, Dec 12, 2 p.m. Wed, Dec 15, 2 p.m. Fri, Dec 17, 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Sat, Dec 18, 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Sun, Dec 19, 2 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.

MARCO BORGGREVE

It wouldn’t be the holiday season without Handel’s Messiah.The BSO continues the tradition of ushering in the Christmas season with a performance of Handel’s glorious oratorio and the “Hallelujah Chorus.”

Upcoming key events.

Damon Gupton, conductor (Dec. 10-12) Steven Reineke, conductor (Dec. 15-19) Maureen McGovern, host and vocalist Martin Preston, vocalist Holiday Spectacular Chorus Baltimore School for the Arts Dancers

Icarus at the Edge of Time Fri, Jan 14, 8 p.m. Sun, Jan 16, 3 p.m. The Nutcracker Marin Alsop, conductor Science and sound collide when famed Baltimore’s best holiday variety show is Sat, Dec 4, 11 a.m. physicist and author of The Elegant bigger and better than ever starring Rheda Becker, narrator Universe, Brian Greene, teams up with award-winning vocalist Maureen Baltimore Ballet American composer and Baltimore McGovern and the BSO! Experience Join the BSO and the Baltimore Ballet as more than 100 singers, dancers and enter- native Philip Glass in this multimedia excerpts from this holiday classic come to recreation of Greene’s board book for tainers in lavish costumes, an amazing life.Treat your child (and yourself!) to the musical performance by Las Vegas show- children, Icarus at the Edge of Time. Led timeless tale of The Nutcracker and delight by Marin Alsop, this cautionary tale man Martin Preston as Liberace,Tony in some of the season’s most memorable with mythological roots depicts a young Hoard and Rockin’ Rory as seen on melodies. Please note: the BSO Family boy’s accidental adventure to a black America’s Got Talent and, of course, the Fun Zone opens at 10 a.m. in the hole.The program opens with Marknow legendary Tap-Dancing Santas. main lobby. Anthony Turnage’s Ceres and John Williams’ Star Wars Suite. Robustly Russian Vienna Choir Boys Thu, Jan 20, 8 p.m. Sat, Dec 4, 4 p.m. Sun, Jan 23, 3 p.m. The world’s foremost boys’ choir will fill the Meyerhoff with the angelic sounds that Marin Alsop, conductor have captivated kings and commoners for more than 500 years. Don’t miss the Kirill Gerstein, piano opportunity to hear the Vienna Choir Boys during their 2010 U.S. tour. With his popular Fifth Symphony, Please note: the BSO does not perform on this program. Shostakovich achieved the seemingly impossible—he maintained his personal and artistic integrity to create one of the 20th century’s most powerful orchestral masterpieces while keeping at bay the Soviet authorities’ desire to crush his spir it. Opening the program are two works by Rachmaninoff: an orchestral transcrip tion of the melodic Vocalise and his First Piano Concerto (composed at age 19), performed by the brilliant Rubinstein Competition winner, Russian pianist Kirill Gerstein. FAMILY CONCERT

For children ages 5 and up and their families

SPECIAL EVENT

VIENNA CHOIR BOYS

LUKAS BECK

Overture

OFF THE CUFF

Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony Sat, Jan 22, 7 p.m. Marin Alsop, conductor

FAMILY CONCERT

INGRID FLITER

Beethoven: A Musical Hero For children ages 5 and up and their families

Sat, Feb 5, 11 a.m. Rheda Becker, narrator Tony Tsendeas, actor

Travel back in time and uncover the remarkable life of one of history’s greatest composers, Ludwig van Beethoven. Listen as the BSO plays music from some of Beethoven’s most heralded and recognizable pieces including Für Elise, Symphonies Nos. 5 and 9 and Moonlight Sonata. Please note: the BSO Family Fun Zone opens at 10 a.m. in the main lobby.

you join us for Classical Conversations, a pre-concert lecture free to Friday ticket holders, which begins at 7 p.m. Ingrid Fliter Plays Chopin Fri, Feb 18, 8 p.m. Hans Graf, conductor Ingrid Fliter, piano Argentine pianist Ingrid Fliter makes her BSO debut in Chopin’s earliest Brahms’ Violin Concerto masterpiece, Piano Concerto No. 2, which Thu, Jan 27, 8 p.m. captures the pathos of unrequited love. Fri, Jan 28, 8 p.m. Tchaikovsky’s joyous Second Symphony Juanjo Mena, conductor celebrates his homeland in an intricate and Augustin Hadelich, violin colorful work based on Ukrainian folk Twenty-six-year-old violinist extraordinaire Augustin Hadelich tunes.The program opens with Rossini’s makes his BSO debut with Brahms’ Violin Concerto, one of the Olympian peaks legendary William Tell Overture. of the violin repertoire. Also featured is the local premiere of Puerto Rico DRUMLine LIVE born Roberto Sierra’s Sat, Feb 19, 7:30 p.m. Sinfonia No. 4 DRUMLine Live brings the black and Haydn’s marching band tradition to the Meyerhoff “La Reine” stage.With riveting rhythms, bold beats Symphony. and ear-grabbing energy, this musical showcase incorporates original composi tions and soul-infused interpretations of top 40 hits, colorfully choreographed routines and incredible displays of drum riffs and cadences. Big Band Hit Parade Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto Fri, Feb 4, 8 p.m. The Magic Flute Fri, Feb 11, 8 p.m. Sat, Feb 5, 8 p.m. Sat, Feb 26, 8 p.m. Sun, Feb 13, 3 p.m. Sun, Feb 6, 3 p.m. Sun, Feb 27, 3 p.m. Juanjo Mena, conductor Jack Everly, conductor Marin Alsop, conductor Yuja Wang, piano Judy McLane, vocalist Young Artist Program, Jon Manasse, clarinet After her dynamic 2008 BSO debut, piano Domingo-Cafritz vocalists Capitol Quartet phenomYuja Wang returns to conquer the Baltimore Choral Arts Society You’ll be “In the Mood” for Tom Hall, director work that cemented Rachmaninoff ’s fame Michael Ehrman, stage director “Sophisticated Swing” when the BSO as both a composer and a pianist, his Second Armed with his wits and magical flute SuperPops, Broadway star Judy McLane Piano Concerto.A favorite of BSO musi- to protect him,Tamino on and the Capitol Quartet perform the cians, incisive Spanish conductor Juanjo a perilous quest to save embarks the beautiful greatest hits of the Big Band era includ- Mena leads the BSO’s first performance Pamina from an evil sorcerer. Mozart’s ing “Stardust,” “String of Pearls” and a since 1988 of Bruckner’s Sixth Symphony, a most beloved opera will be performed special tribute to the “King of Swing,” work of tender, memorable themes building in a semi-staged concert version with Benny Goodman. up to an exultant climax. Hear engaging solo vocalists and chorus. musical insights from the experts when SPECIAL EVENT

COURTESY OF BSO

AUGUSTIN HADELICH

BSO SUPERPOPS

September 11, 2010 – November 28, 2010

GARY HOULDER

Shostakovich set out to triumph over adversity with his Fifth Symphony, an epic work conceived in a time of great political unrest in 1930s Russia. Marin Alsop walks the audience through the period of scrutiny and pressure that served as an impetus for many of the composer’s most evocative musical creations, including this work that the composer allegedly subtitled, “the creative reply of a Soviet artist to justified criticism.”

They are young, filled with talent and passion, and still in the early days of their musical careers. By Maria Blackburn

Overture

Haven’t heard of them yet? Don’t worry, you will. The following musicians, all scheduled to perform with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra this season, aren’t yet 25, but they already have established themselves as four of the most gifted artists of their generation. Passionate at the Podium Ilyich Rivas, 17, BSO-Peabody Bruno Walter Assistant Conductor Ilyich Rivas looks like a teenager, dresses like a teenager and loves sports and cars as any teenager does. But when the 17-year-old steps up to the podium, baton in hand, the last thing he wants the orchestra seated before him to see is a teenager. He wants them to see a conductor. “I think my goal is to get everyone to forget my age,” says Rivas, who spends months preparing and researching the music he conducts.“If I really prepare the right way, it shouldn’t seem like I’m some kid up there.This is something that I have done half my life.” BSO Music Director Marin Alsop recognizes how Rivas’ challenge differs from that of other young, talented musicians.“He is by far the youngest, yet he is operating as the boss,” she says of the Venezuelan-born teen.“Having something valuable and helpful to say to musicians who are triple your age can seem a daunting task.” But Rivas, who just started his second year as the BSO-Peabody Bruno Walter Assistant Conductor, is up to the challenge.“Ilyich is enthusiastic, deferential, respectful and focused,” she says.“And he’s passionate.” The son of a conductor and a literature professor, Rivas has always felt a deep attraction to moving his arms in a way that expresses music.With his father as his teacher and mentor, he developed his skills as a conductor, and by age 9, could conduct all of Beethoven’s symphonies from memory. Since then, he’s trained with noted conductors and performed internationally, making his U.S. conducting debut with the Atlanta Symphony in the summer of 2009. “I’ve always been passionate about unifying a piece and being a leader,” says Rivas, who was raised in Denver, Co.“I love social sciences. I love international politics.And conducting is a way of combining a passion for music and a passion for ideas.” After spending much of last year in graduate-level classes at the Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University, Rivas will be touring and performing more this year. He’s eager for the next stage of his career to begin.“I just want to go as far as I can in my field because this is what I’ve come to this earth to do.” Rivas makes his subscription concert debut with the BSO on Oct. 14 and 15. He will conduct Beethoven’s Second Piano Concerto, Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 1, Brahms’Academic Festival Overture and Mahler’s Blumine.

From left to right: Lukásˇ Vondrácˇek, Tianwa Yang, Ilyich Rivas and Yuja Wang.

September 11, 2010 – November 28, 2010

“

Doing this takes not only talent, but discipline, patience, good communication skills and strong character.” —Yuja Wang

HEIKO ROGGE

Tianwa Yang was 4 years old the first time she lifted a violin to her shoulder to play. “I loved it from the first moment,” she says. “When I played, I could feel how the sound vibrated on my body.That touched me immediately.” Violin came naturally to the Beijing kindergartener, and she was soon winning competitions and being lauded as “a pride of China” by local media. At age 10,Yang was accepted to study with Professor Lin Yaoji at the Central Conservatory of Music. Two years later, Issac Stern saw her perform at the 1999 Beijing Music Festival and invited her to study with him in the United States. However, despite Yang’s many successes, she didn’t see music as a possible career. “Too unrealistic,” she thought. Yang’s opinion changed when, at the age of 13, her teacher challenged her to record Paganini’s 24 Caprices for Solo Violin. She did and became the youngest person in the world to interpret the famously demanding composition. “Afterward I just realized what I had achieved,” Yang says. “I knew then that I could become a professional musician.” Since then, she’s performed all over the world and has been heralded by critics as the most important new violinist to come on the scene in years. Recently, she finished recording the complete works for violin by Sarasate for Naxos. People often mention her technique when they talk about her playing.Yang doesn’t mind, but as an adult she avoids playing “stylistically brilliant” works like the Caprices that only show off her technical skills. Instead she’d rather tell stories through her music, to evoke the audience’s memories and feelings.“The last thing I want to be recognized as is a virtuosic player with 10 flying fingers.To me, that’s not what music is about,” she says.“People have to enjoy it.” Yang makes her BSO debut in Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 1 on November 21.

Overture

FELIX BROEDE

“A Pride of China” Tianwa Yang, 23, violin

Strong and Independent Yuja Wang, 23, piano Yuja Wang can’t help but laugh when she recalls her childhood career ambitions. “I wanted to be a mathematician,” she says. “And a dress designer. Oh, and a model. But I am way too short for that.” Wang’s 5-foot, 2-inch frame may have made her unsuitable for the runway, but considering her talent as a pianist, it all worked out for the best. Born in Beijing in 1987 to a ballerina and a musician, she started playing piano at age 6 and began giving concerts six months later. She studied at the Central Conservatory of Music, and in 2002 at the age of 15,Wang won the Aspen Music Festival’s concerto competition and moved to the U.S. to study with Gary Graffman at the Curtis Institute of Music. She’s performed with many of the world’s top orchestras; her debut CD, Sonatas and Etudes, was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2009; and The Washington Post described her Kennedy Center recital debut as “jaw-dropping.” And perhaps she did achieve fashion model status in her own way. Fashion designers have asked to dress Wang in concert. But she has declined because she doesn’t want the distraction. “During a concert, I try to put myself into another world, another place somewhere,” she says. “I really like going onstage and sharing what I find is so beautiful.” The profession has its challenges. “Doing this takes not only talent, but discipline, patience, good communication skills and strong character,” she says. “To do this career, especially being a woman, is really tough.You have to be strong and independent, especially as a soloist.” It’s worth it. For Wang, music is more than a career. “People talk about the music business, but I don’t think of this as business at all,” she says. “It’s something that is part of my life. It’s not a career. It’s just part of who I am.” Wang returns to the Meyerhoff on February 11 and 13 to play Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto.

A “Magical” Performer Lukásˇ Vondrácˇ ek, 23, piano Lukasˇ Vondrácˇek has always hated the title “child prodigy,” yet for most of his life he’s been unable to shake it. Vondrácˇek was only 2 years old when his professional pianist parents realized his musical talent. He gave his first concert at the age of 4 and made his first international tour in 1997 at the age of 10. “It was like a game,” says Vondrácˇek, who was born in Opaza, Czech Republic in 1986. “I didn’t need to read the music. I have perfect pitch. So my parents would play something and then I would play it.” However, for the first half of his career,Vondrácˇek’s favorite part of performing wasn’t the music. “For me playing was more about getting chocolate or some books after the concert, about getting to travel and meet interesting people,” he says. Then, when he was 13, he played for Vladimir Ashkenazy, music director of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra.The acclaimed conductor and pianist told the teen he had potential and to work hard. “I knew then that the piano was something I wanted to do,” he says.Vondrácˇek threw himself into practicing 10 to 12 hours a day. In 2002, he made his debut with the Czech Philharmonic, and soon afterward he played with the orchestra at Carnegie Hall. He’s given more than 1,000 concerts in 25 countries to date, and his playing has been described as “pure” and “magical” by reviewer Mike Winter on the Van Cliburn Competition blog. “I was lucky to have met Mr. Ashkenazy because he opened doors for me,” says the young musician. Now that he’s in his early 20s,Vondrácˇek is rarely described as a child prodigy. Instead he’s about to take on a new title: graduate student. He starts a two-year graduate diploma program at the New England Conservatory of Music this fall. He’s looking forward to living in Boston and spending time with other young people. Mostly though, he’s looking forward to the music. “I think about music a lot more than I ever did before,” Vondrácˇek says. “It’s something I love and couldn’t imagine my life without it.”

Vondrácˇek returns to the BSO on March 4 and 6 to perform Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini.

Mahler: Obsessed with Innocence It’s been 150 years since Gustav Mahler’s birth and 100 years since his death, but this double jubilee isn’t the sole reason for the BSO to fully explore the work of the legendary composer this season. His work also ties nicely into the Orchestra’s focus on young artists. “Mahler had almost an obsession with youth, innocence and childhood,” explains BSO Music Director Marin Alsop. “It just seemed like a natural fit.” Indeed, Mahler once said, “It should be one’s sole endeavor to see everything afresh and create it anew.” And his original voice and extensive and varied symphonic repertoire give listeners much to appreciate and consider. “People love Mahler because he really is, as Leonard Bernstein said, ‘the prophet of the 20th century,’” Alsop says. “It is music of our time.” Mahler lived at the turn of the last century, a time when Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung were exploring the psyche and the conscious mind, and people were anticipating and fearing a new industrialized existence. “In his music, Mahler is trying to capture his whole philosophy about life, spirituality, the afterlife, why we exist, his love of nature, his thoughts about innocence and his children. One piece of music might contain everything,” notes Alsop. Such epic themes aren’t always easy to understand, and that’s why one needs to give Mahler’s music time to unfold in order to fully experience it. “Mahler is our lens to review the recent past and move on to the 21st century. It’s a vehicle for us to explore what’s possible for our futures,” says Alsop. “People today are looking for a heightened transcendental kind of experience through art, and I think that’s what this season will provide. This isn’t a sound bite. It is a journey.” —Maria Blackburn Upcoming Concerts featuring works by Gustav Mahler: September 24-25: Mahler’s Symphony No. 7 October 14-16: The second movement “Blumine” from Mahler’s Symphony No. 1

MARTINA CECHOVA

November 4-6: The unfinished 10th symphonies of Mahler and Beethoven, and Sieben Lieder, a work by Mahler’s wife, Alma. November 5-6: A special Off the Cuff program, “Analyze This: Mahler and Freud,” reenacts the little-known meeting in 1910 between Mahler and psychiatrist Sigmund Freud and features excerpts of Mahler’s music.

September 11, 2010 – November 28, 2010

o n e on o n e

The Musing Behind “Musicians’ Picks”

CHRISTIAN COLBERG

Q. What’s involved in choosing the repertoire, and what kinds of pieces do BSO musicians suggest?

MUSICIANS ARE USED TO TAKING DIRECTION, like being

A. Technically, the process of selecting repertoire is our management’s responsibility, not ours. On the other hand, we really have a big interest in getting it right and we like contributing.There are masterpieces that we don’t play very often for one reason or another that we might suggest and it’s always exciting to do those. Over the years the list has generated a lot of interesting suggestions.They can range anywhere from a Mahler symphony that is completely standard repertoire, but that we just haven’t played recently. Or it can be a little bit more off the beaten track, like Sibelius’ Symphony No. 7, which is a personal favorite of mine.We found a match with guest conductor Thomas Dausgaard who came in and conducted it last season. And sometimes it can be more obscure—like Hugo Alfven’s Swedish Rhapsody No. 1. Q. How are BSO musicians’ suggestions different from what Music Director Marin Alsop may want to play?

told what, when and how to play—but sometimes they want to do

A. It’s not so much that we’re suggesting

more than that.

different choices than what Marin might want to perform, because she is very open-minded, and like most musicians, she loves the entire repertoire. Some listeners are more conservative and would only go to things they know, while others want to expand their musical horizons.That’s why we often program lesser-known pieces with more popular ones.We’re all interested in tapping into our passion for our artform and maybe getting people to be a little bit more experimental.

For the last few seasons, BSO musicians haven’t just performed the 70 or so works that form their classical repertoire each season; they’ve helped select the music, too. BSO musicians share their programming suggestions with the Artistic Advisory Committee, seven musicians who meet regularly with the BSO management team and occasionally with Music Director Marin Alsop. Taking such issues as artistic themes, conductor schedules, guest artist repertoires and the needs of their patrons into account, together they program a handful of works for the coming season from BSO musicians’ suggestions. This year for the first time, these “Musicians’ Picks” have been highlighted for BSO audiences in the concert guide. Gregory Mulligan, a member of the Artistic Advisory Committee, has been a violinist with the BSO for 25 years. In the interview that follows, he tells what BSO musicians—and audiences—have to gain when players have a stake in choosing their repertoire. Interview by Maria Blackburn

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Q. Are there certain pieces or composers that musicians suggest every year, no matter what?

A. Yes. Bruckner.We’re told sometimes

that Bruckner is not a huge audience draw, but we consider him to be an incredibly great symphonic composer.

It’s the At the moment we have been doing Bruckner every other year and that has developed out of our conversations with management. Q. Even if management likes a

musician’s suggestion, what might keep it from being programmed? A. We may all be really enthusiastic about

a particular piece and when we look at a week that has openings in that season and who might be conducting it, it may not always be a match and might have to wait until the next year. Instrumentation is a consideration, too. Q. Which of the six “Musicians’

Picks” are you particularly looking forward to playing this season? A. I’m definitely looking forward to

the Lutosławski Concerto. And Mahler’s Symphony No. 7 is typical in the sense that we always play some Mahler in a given year, but it’s atypical in that it calls for a pretty huge orchestra. And the Walton, since Walton is great and does pretty unusual stuff. And the Bruckner. And yes, the Barber. Gosh, it’s all great.

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Q. Do you have any favorite pieces

that you personally would like the BSO to play in concert soon? A. Janácˇek’s Sinfonietta, a beautiful,

20-minute piece for a large orchestra that calls for an ungodly number of trumpets. I have only ever performed it once in my life and I would love to do it again. I know many other musicians who also love this piece. Q. When you are playing, do you

feel any extra affinity for music the musicians have chosen? A. Maybe during preparation. But when

you get down to performing any piece, you forget about how it came about because you’re just busy concentrating on playing it beautifully.

BEFORE OR AFTER THE SHOW SERVING LUNCH, DINNER & WEEKEND BRUNCH PRIVATE PARTIES • CARRYOUT 2360 JOPPA ROAD AT GREENSPRING STATION P 410.583.TARK (8275) • F 410.583.8205 INFO@TARKSGRILL.COM

September 11, 2010 – November 28, 2010

Baltimore Symphony Orchestra 2010-2011 Season

Marin Alsop,

Marin Alsop Music Director, Harvey M. and Lyn P. Meyerhoff Chair

Music Director

Jack Everly Principal Pops Conductor Yuri Temirkanov Music Director Emeritus

DEAN ALEXANDER

Ilyich Rivas BSO-Peabody Bruno Walter Assistant Conductor

First Violins

Hailed as one of the world’s leading conductors for her artistic vision and commitment to accessibility in classical music, Marin 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 in the United Kingdom, where she served as the principal conductor from 2002 to 2008, and is music director of the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music in California. In 2005, Ms. Alsop was named a MacArthur Fellow, the first conductor ever to receive this prestigious award. In 2007, she was honored with a European Women of Achievement Award; in 2008, she was inducted as a fellow into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; and in 2009, Musical America named her “Conductor of the Year.” A regular guest conductor with the New York Philharmonic, The Philadelphia Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra and Los Angeles Philharmonic, Ms. Alsop also appears frequently as a guest conductor with some of the most distinguished orchestras around the world. In addition to her performance activities, she is also an active recording artist with award-winning cycles of Brahms, Barber and Dvorˇák orchestral works. Ms. Alsop attended Yale University and received her master’s degree from The Juilliard School. In 1989, her conducting career was launched when she won the Koussevitzky Conducting Prize at Tanglewood, where she studied with Leonard Bernstein. 16

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Jonathan Carney Concertmaster, Ruth Blaustein Rosenberg Chair Madeline Adkins Associate Concertmaster, Wilhelmina Hahn Waidner Chair Igor Yuzefovich Assistant Concertmaster Yasuoki Tanaka James Boehm Kenneth Goldstein Wonju Kim Gregory Kuperstein Mari Matsumoto John Merrill 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 Assistant Principal Leonid Berkovich Leonid Briskin Julie Parcells Christina Scroggins Wayne C. Taylor James Umber Charles Underwood Melissa Zaraya

Sharon Pineo Myer Genia Slutsky Delmar Stewart Jeffrey Stewart Mary Woehr

Cellos Chang Woo Lee Associate Principal Dariusz Skoraczewski Assistant Principal Bo Li Susan Evans Seth Low Esther Mellon Kristin Ostling* Paula SkolnickChildress

Basses Robert Barney Principal, Willard and Lillian Hackerman Chair Hampton Childress Associate Principal Owen Cummings Arnold Gregorian Mark Huang Jonathan Jensen David Sheets* Eric Stahl

Flutes Emily Skala Principal, Dr. Clyde Alvin Clapp Chair Marcia Kämper

Piccolo Laurie Sokoloff

Oboes Violas Richard Field Principal, Peggy Meyerhoff Pearlstone Chair Noah Chaves Associate Principal Christian Colberg* Assistant Principal Peter Minkler Karin Brown

Katherine Needleman Principal, Robert H. and Ryda H. Levi Chair Shea Scruggs Assistant Principal Michael Lisicky

English Horn Jane Marvine Kenneth S. Battye and Legg Mason Chair

Clarinets

Tuba

Steven Barta Principal, Anne Adalman Goodwin Chair Christopher Wolfe Assistant Principal William Jenken Edward Palanker

David T. Fedderly Principal

Bass Clarinet

Percussion

Edward Palanker

Christopher Williams Principal, Lucille Schwilck Chair John Locke Brian Prechtl

E-flat Clarinet Christopher Wolfe

Bassoons Julie Green Assistant Principal Fei Xie

Contrabassoon

Timpani Dennis Kain Principal Christopher Williams Assistant Principal

Piano Sidney M. and Miriam Friedberg Chair Jonathan Jensen Mary Woehr

David P. Coombs

Horns Philip Munds Principal, USF&G Foundation Chair Gabrielle Finck Associate Principal Beth Graham Assistant Principal David Bakkegard Mary C. Bisson Bruce Moore

Trumpets Andrew Balio Principal, Harvey M. and Lyn P. Meyerhoff Chair Rene Hernandez Assistant Principal Jonathan Kretschmer

Trombones Christopher Dudley* Principal, Alex. Brown & Sons Chair Mark Davidson Acting Principal James Olin Co-Principal John Vance

Bass Trombone Randall S. Campora

The musicians who perform for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra do so under the terms of an agreement between the BSO and Local 40-543, AFM.

Director of Orchestra Personnel Marilyn Rife

Assistant Personnel Manager Christopher Monte

Librarians Mary Carroll Plaine Principal, Constance A. and Ramon F. Getzov Chair Raymond Kreuger Associate

Stage Personnel Ennis Seibert Stage Manager Frank Serruto Stagehand Todd Price Electrician Larry Smith Sound *on leave

p ro g r a m notes

Saturday, September 11, 2010 8:30 p.m.

Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall

B ALTIMORE S YMPHONY O RCHESTRA MARIN ALSOP MUSIC DIRECTOR • HARVEY M. AND LYN P. MEYERHOFF CHAIR

Gala Concert Marin Alsop Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg Jennifer Edwards Edwin Aparicio Anna Menendez Gonzalo Arias Contreras Petrit Çeku Jeremy Lyons Marco San Nicolas

Alberto Ginastera Georges Bizet

Heitor Villa-Lobos

Joaquin Rodrigo

Conductor Violin Soprano Flamenco dancer Flamenco dancer Guitar Guitar Guitar Guitar

“Malambo” from Estancia “Aragonaise” from Carmen Suite No. 1 “Chanson du Toreador” from Carmen Suite No. 2 “Danse Bohème”from Carmen Suite No. 2 EDWIN APARICIO ANNA MENENDEZ “Aria” from Bachiana Brasileira No. 5 JENNIFER EDWARDS “Allegretto” from Concierto Andaluz GONZALO ARIAS CONTRERAS PETRIT ÇEKU, JEREMY LYONS, MARCO SAN NICOLAS

continued on pg. 18

Marin Alsop Nadja SalernoSonnenberg One of the leading violinists of our time, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg is best known for her exhilarating performances, passionate interpretations, musical depth and unique

CHRISTIAN STEINER

For Marin Alsop’s bio, please see p. 16.

charisma. After serving for two highly successful seasons as music director of the New Century Chamber Orchestra, she leads this 19-member string orchestra into its third season, which includes a January/February 2011 U.S. tour. Performing works by

Wolf, Bartók, Piazzolla and Tchaikovsky, it will travel to San Francisco, Cleveland, Granville, Ann Arbor, Evanston, Santa Monica, San Diego and Davis. New Century’s 2010-2011 season also includes four subscription series, two of which highlight the 2010-2011 featured composer Mark O’Connor, whose world premiere commission will be performed in May 2011. In Fall 2011, Ms. SalernoSonnenberg’s record label, NSS Music, releases a highly-anticipated second recording of New Century featuring Strauss’s Metamorphosen, Barber’s Adagio for Strings and Mahler’s “Adagietto” from Symphony No. 5. Ms. Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg started NSS Music in 2005.The label continues to grow, with the most recent release being Schubert’s Echo featuring the American String Quartet released in August 2010. Additionally, she has more than 20 releases on the EMI and Nonesuch labels.

Jennifer Edwards Soprano Jennifer Edwards was a 2009 district winner of the Metropolitan Opera’s National Council Auditions. Recent performances include Echo with Seattle Opera in Ariadne auf Naxos, Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte with Peabody Opera, Despina in Così fan tutte with Chesapeake Chamber Opera and scenes from Bellini’s Norma with Maryland Concert Opera. As a recitalist, she presented four art song recitals as part of the 2010 Art Song Discovery Series. She is a student at the Peabody Institute where she is a recipient of the Lydia Richard Gillespie Endowed Scholarship and in the studio of internationally acclaimed soprano Phyllis Bryn-Julson.While at Peabody, she has performed as soprano soloist in Mozart’s Mass in C Minor, Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass and Mahler’s Fourth Symphony as well as Violetta in La traviata and The Woman in TheYellow Wallpaper. She has been a recipient of prizes in numerous competitions, including the 2009 Russell C.Wonderlic Voice Competition, the 2008 Rhode Island Bel Canto Competition and the 2008 Sylvia Green Competition. September 11, 2010 – November 28, 2010

p ro g r a m notes

Gala Concert continued from pg. 17

Astor Piazzolla Arranged by Leonid Desyatnikov

Manuel de Falla

Four Seasons of Buenos Aires (Las Cuatro Estaciones Porteñas) Primavera porteña (Spring in Buenos Aires) Verano porteño (Summer in Buenos Aires) Invierno porteño (Winter in Buenos Aires) Otoño porteño (Autumn in Buenos Aires) NADJA SALERNO-SONNENBERG “Spanish Dance No. 1” from La Vida Breve NADJA SALERNO-SONNENBERG, EDWIN APARICIO, ANNA MENENDEZ, GONZALO ARIAS CONTRERAS, PETRIT ÇEKU, JEREMY LYONS, MARCO SAN NICOLAS

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

Edwin Aparicio Edwin Aparicio is one of the most sought-after flamenco performers, teachers and choreographers.Trained by the world-renowned flamenco artists Tomás de Madrid and La Tati, Mr.Aparicio made his debut at Casa Patas in Madrid in 2001. He has performed as a soloist throughout the U.S. and has shared the stage with such internationally celebrated artists as La Truco, Elena Andújar, Carmela Greco, Pastora Galván and José Luis Rodríguez. He is the artistic director and choreographer of Al Andalús, Camino/al flamenco and Encuentros; the co-director and choreographer of Bailes Inéditos, Íntimo with Carmela Greco and Entresueño. In 2007, he produced and presented Flamenco: Sol y Luna in Portland, Ore., Edwin Aparicio: Selected Works in Washington, D.C. and performed in Las Vegas as part of the production Spanish Nights on the Lake that 18

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featured the top echelon of the U.S.-based flamenco artists. He is the resident coordinator and a featured performer of GALA Hispanic Theatre’s annual Fuego Flamenco Festival. In 2008, he joined the faculty of the Washington School of Ballet. Most recently, he was one of the featured performers in the first annual Velocity DC Dance Festival.

Anna Menendez Anna Menendez is a Washington, D.C.based flamenco dancer. She has appeared in Edwin Aparicio’s productions of Bailes Ineditos, Encuentros, Camino/al flamenco, Entresuenos, Dos Mundos and Intimo with Carmela Greco. She has performed in more than 50 children’s concerts with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra from 2004-2005. In 2008, she co-founded Suite Hispania and most recently performed in its production of Amores Quebrados: the Songs of Federico Garcia Lorca at the Repertorio Español in

New York City and at the Teatrul Bulandra in Bucharest, Romania. She is a 2003 recipient of the Artistic Fellowship Award from the D.C. Council for the Arts and Humanities for excellence in flamenco dance. She has taught at the American Dance Institute in Rockville, Maryland, since 2001 and continues to work with her apprentice company Pastora. She is a graduate of Trinity College in Hartford, Conn.

Gonzalo Arias Contreras Gonzalo Arias Contreras was born in 1989 in Los Andes, Chile. He started working towards his bachelor’s degree in classical guitar at the age of 14 at the University of Chile in Santiago, studying under Romilio Orellana. He has received multiple awards and top prizes in national and international competitions including the Parkening Young Guitarists Competition, Split Guitar Festival and Competition, Jose Tomas Guitar Competition,Youth Liliana Perez Corey competition, Concerto Competition, Concurso Juvenil Momento Musical Op. 2009, Guitar Foundation of America International Youth Guitar Solo Competition and Fondo de la Música 2010. He has played with the Pepperdine Symphonic Orchestra, in the Ventura Music Festival in California and at the Allberville Conservatory in France. He has participated in master classes with guitarists Elliot Fisk, Zoran Dukic, Carlo Marchione and Hubert Kappel. In 2007 and 2008, he won a scholarship to study at Pepperdine University in California under Christopher Parkening. He is currently studying at the Peabody Institute with Manuel Barrueco.

Petrit Çeku, Petrit Çeku was born in 1985 in Prizren, Kosovo, where he received instruction from Luan Sapunxhiu. In 2002, he moved to Zagreb, Croatia, where he studied under the instruction of Xhevdet

p ro g r a m notes Sahatxhija and later entered Darko Petrinjak’s class at the Music Academy in Zagreb, from where he graduated in 2008. He currently studies with guitarist Manuel Barrueco at the Peabody Institute. Mr. Çeku won a silver medal in The Parkening Competition in Malibu and second prize in the 2006 Printemps de la guitare in Charleroi, Belgium. He established himself as one of the leading young guitarists after winning the 2007 Pittaluga Competition in Italy. In 2008, he released his first solo CD on Naxos and was awarded the “The Best Young Musician of the Year” by The Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra.

Jeremy Lyons Jeremy Lyons began studying the classical guitar at a young age with his father, Glenn Lyons, a classical guitar professor at West Chester University of Pennsylvania. He also studied the cello with his father’s colleague Ovidiu Marinescu, professor of cello and orchestral conductor. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in music and guitar performance from Florida State University (FSU) where he studied with Bruce Holzman. He was a member of the FSU Viols, the FSU Chinese Ensemble and accompanied the FSU Early Music Ensembles under the direction of Dr. Jeffery Kite-Powell. Recently, he appeared as a guest artist for the Harford Community College Sunday Afternoon Recital Series, performed a solo recital at the 2010 Philadelphia Classical Guitar Society Festival and won first prize in the collegiate division at the 2009 Philadelphia Classical Guitar Society Student Competition. He is completing his master’s degree in music, guitar performance and pedagogy at the Peabody Institute where he studies with Manuel Barrueco and is a member of the Peabody Consort of Viols.

Marco San Nicolas Marco San Nicolas was born in Murcia, Spain, where he completed his musical studies at the Rafael Orozco Superior Conservatory

of Music with honors, in addition to his private lessons with the Spanish master, Jose Tomas. He has performed in master classes with Manuel Barrueco, David Russell and Leo Brouwer. He has earned top prizes at major national and international competitions including first prizes in the Isaac Albeniz National Competition, Ruperto Chapi Competition (string division), Francisco Tarrega International Guitar Competition, Cantabria International Guitar Competition and Cordoba International Guitar Festival Competition. He has performed in concert throughout Europe and his recitals have been broadcast on Spanish radio and television. At the Cordoba International Guitar Festival, he shared top billing with B. B. King, Pat Metheny, George Benson and Manuel Barrueco. He attends the Peabody Institute in the graduate performance diploma program with Manuel Barrueco. NOTES ON THE PROGRAM “Malambo” from Estancia

Alberto Ginastera Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, April 11, 1916; died Geneva, Switzerland in June 25, 1983

Until recently, Latin American classical composers have had difficulty winning international celebrity, but over the course of his nearly 70 years, Argentinean Alberto Ginastera became one of the most widely performed of contemporary composers. He was completely trained in his native country and first came to prominence with his ballet score Panambi, written when he was 20. In 1941 when Lincoln Kirstein came on tour to South America with George Balanchine’s American Ballet Caravan (the forerunner of the New York City Ballet), he heard Panambi, and commissioned Ginastera to create a ballet score on Argentinean life for the company. Ginastera responded with Estancia, named for the great cattle ranches that dot the Argentinean pampas (plains).The ballet is a South American counterpart to Aaron Copland’s Rodeo, written at exactly the same time for Agnes DeMille (although Ginastera wouldn’t have known that work). Its plot is almost Rodeo’s exact opposite. In Rodeo, a

tough cowgirl learns how to dress up and become a lady to win her man; in Estancia, a country girl, who despises effete city men, finally falls for one when he proves he can handle the rough tasks on the estancia just as well as the gauchos. The Ballet Caravan folded in 1942 and the planned production never took place. On May 12, 1943, the score of Estancia was first heard in concert at Buenos Aires’ Teatro Colón; a full production of the ballet waited until August 1952, also at the Colón. Four of the dances from Estancia have become a popular concert extract, and they brilliantly express the energy and vitality of Argentinian folk music.We’ll hear the propulsive final dance,“Malambo”: a virtual dance orgy, showcasing the brilliant sounds of piccolo, trumpets, xylophone and a hyperactive percussion section. “Aragonaise” from Carmen Suite No. 1 “Chanson du Toreador” from Carmen Suite No. 2 “Danse Bohème” from Carmen Suite No. 2

Georges Bizet Born in Paris, France, October 25, 1838; died in Bougival, France, June 3, 1875

Georges Bizet’s life was as ill-fated as those of his unforgettable operatic lovers Carmen and Don José. A child prodigy who wrote his enchanting Symphony in C at age 17, he was dogged by illness and bad luck throughout his brief career. Even his masterpiece Carmen, was a relative failure at its first performance on March 3, 1875 at Paris’ Opéra-Comique. Worn down by the controversies surrounding its production, Bizet’s health collapsed, and on June 3, exactly three months after the premiere, he died of a heart attack at age 36. If Bizet had lived only another year, he would have watched his gypsy heroine triumph on stages throughout Europe. Today, Carmen is considered one of the most perfect of all operas: an ideal blending of spellbinding story, vivid characters, expert pacing and, above all, nonstop musical inspiration. Bizet had found a compelling libretto in Prosper Mérimée’s gritty novella about an untamed gypsy who makes her own rules, chooses her own lovers and welcomes death without a tremor. But the managers of the OpéraComique—purveyors of light-hearted September 11, 2010 – November 28, 2010

p ro g r a m notes family entertainment—and the Parisian music critics were horrified by this “obscene” story. Carmen seduces an upright young soldier, Don José, away from the army and his fiancée into a nefarious life of smuggling, then jilts him for the glamorous toreador, Escamillo. Maddened by jealousy, Don José stalks her at the bullfights in Seville and, as the crowds cheer Escamillo, stabs her to death outside the arena. Because the opera contains a number of wonderfully scored orchestral entr’actes as well as brilliant arias and dances, it proved ideal for arrangement for the concert hall. After Bizet’s death, his friend Ernest Guiraud devised two orchestral suites of excerpts; tonight we’ll hear three selections drawn from both. First we’ll hear the graceful “Aragonaise” with its prominent oboe solo; in the opera, it sets the stage for Act IV’s festive but fatal bullfight. Escamillo’s famous “Toreador Song” from Act II comes next: this is the macho, swaggering aria that he introduces himself to both the audience and Carmen herself. Finally, we’ll hear the whirling “Danse Bohème” that opens Act II. Carmen and her friends await Don José at Lilias Pasta’s tavern and entertain themselves with a song and dance that grows progressively faster and wilder with each verse. “Aria” from Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5

Heitor Villa-Lobos Born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, March 5, 1887; died in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, November 17, 1959

Born into a musical family in Rio de Janeiro—his father was a amateur cellist— Heitor Villa-Lobos was an extraordinary original: flamboyant in temperament and prodigious in his creative energy.Though he mastered his father’s instrument, he showed little inclination for formal musical training and was largely self-taught as a composer. He developed an early passion for the music of Bach from his pianist aunt, who delighted him with her playing of the Well-Tempered Clavier.At 18,Villa-Lobos headed for the Brazilian jungles and absorbed indigenous music of his vast homeland, including Afro-Brazilian and Amerindian strains. He returned with musical memories that would inspire his life’s work—and colorful tales of narrow escapes from Amazonian cannibals. 20

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By the 1920s,Villa-Lobos was recognized as Brazil’s foremost composer, and when he traveled to Paris in 1923, he took that sophisticated musical capital by storm. Suddenly, propulsive Brazilian dance rhythms and soulful modhinas became very chic.A few years later, the United States would also fall under Villa-Lobos’ spell. Extraordinarily prolific, he wrote between 600 and 700 compositions in all genres. He also found time to reorganize the system of musical education in both Rio and São Paulo and to establish the Brazilian Academy of Music. Between 1930 and 1945,Villa-Lobos composed nine works he called Bachianas Brasileiras, in which some of the techniques of J. S. Bach were mingled with the dance and song styles of Brazil.They were written for a variety of ensembles and loosely followed the form of Baroque dance suites. Of these Bachianas, the most popular is the Fifth, scored for soprano and an orchestra of eight cellos, an earthy ensemble unique to this composer.And in the opening Aria/Cantilena—in the haunting style of the Brazilian modhina—the soprano is also treated like an instrument: singing and humming a wordless vocalise, doubled by the first cello, over a guitar-like plucked accompaniment. In the middle, she chants a poem in praise of the evening sky written by Ruth Valadares Corrêa, the Brazilian soprano who sang this song’s premiere. The second movement, Dansa/Martelo, is a fleet song imitating, with its melodic patterns and onomatopoetic words, birdsongs Villa-Lobos had notated in northeastern Brazil.The song’s rhythms follow the embolada folk-song style of the same region.“Martelo” probably refers to the fast “hammering” rhythmic pattern with which the song opens. “Allegretto” from Concierto Andaluz

Joaquín Rodrigo Born in Sagunto, Valencia, November 22, 1901; died in Madrid, Spain, July 6, 1999

Spanish composer Joaquín Rodrigo, whose life spanned the 20th century, died in 1999 at the age of 97. His Concierto de Aranjuez has become one of the best-loved works of the past century, and this along with his 25 other compositions for classical guitar has contributed enormously to the instrument’s prominence in concert halls today.

Blind since 3, Rodrigo in his 20s became a pupil of the Frenchman Paul Dukas, and a French refinement and sensitivity to color mingles with the prominent Spanish influences in his music. He lived in exile in Paris during the Spanish Civil War, but returned home to become the dean of Spanish composers. His great mastery of melody and atmosphere made him popular well beyond the boundaries of Spain. In 1992, King Juan Carlos of Spain honored Rodrigo with the hereditary title “Marquesa de los Jardines de Aranjuez.” Not as well-known but just as appealing as the Concierto de Aranjuez for solo guitar and orchestra is the Concierto Andaluz for four guitars and orchestra, which Rodrigo composed in 1967 for the Los Romeros Guitar Quartet: Celedonio Romero and his three sons Celin, Angel and the now very famous Pepe Romero.A much brighter work than Aranjuez, (which was written during the tragic days of the Civil War), Andaluz is inspired by the folk rhythms and melodies of Andalusia, Spain’s southernmost province.The captivating melodies, however, are all Rodrigo’s own inventions.We will hear its vivacious, dancing finale in a quick Allegretto tempo. Four Seasons of Buenos Aires

Astor Piazzolla Born in Mar del Plata, Argentina, March 11, 1921; died in Buenos Aires, Argentina, July 4, 1992

Historians disagree about whether the passionate dance known as the tango originated in Spain, Africa or Cuba. But it definitely came of age in the poor urban neighborhoods of Argentina and Uruguay, and by the early 20th century was established as the soul of both dance and song for Buenos Aires. By the 1920s, this sensual two-beat couple dance had crossed the Atlantic to become the sensation of Europe and later North America. With their proprietary interest, Argentineans were not at first very happy with the tango innovations of their countryman Astor Piazzolla.The son of Italian immigrants who had spent a good part of his growing-up years in New York’s Greenwich Village, Piazzolla always remained a bit of an outsider in his native land and an artistic maverick. In his late teens, he finally resettled in Argentina, and

p ro g r a m notes his skills playing the bandoneon, a variety of accordion that is the signature instrument of authentic Argentinean tango, won him a place in the traditional tango orchestras that were at their height during the 1940s. But Piazzolla was no traditionalist, and he had a restless musical mind.After studying with Alberto Ginastera, in 1954 he won a scholarship to study with the great French pedagogue Nadia Boulanger in Paris.There he soaked up French impressionism, contemporary atonality and improvisatory jazz. Nevertheless, Boulanger urged him to stay close to his roots; while playing one of his own tangos for her, he recalled her saying, “Here is the true Piazzolla—do not ever leave him.” Piazzolla returned to Argentina and developed what he called “tango nuevo”: an invigorating contemporary form of tango for serious concert music. However, while Piazzolla’s tango compositions won fans abroad, the Argentineans resisted his innovations nearly up until the time of his death in 1992.And, in fact, Piazzolla’s domestic and international fame blossomed after his death, as such renowned musicians as Daniel Barenboim,Yo-Yo Ma, Emanuel Ax and the Kronos Quartet began championing his music in the concert hall. The four tangos of Piazzolla’s Quatro estaciones porteñas (“porteño” is the Argentinean name for a citizen of Buenos Aires) were composed between 1965 and 1970.The composer originally wrote these dances for the typical tango ensemble of bandoneon (played by himself), piano, violin, double bass and electric guitar, but, as with most of his music, he sanctioned arrangements for other combinations as well. We will hear an arrangement for solo violin and small string orchestra made by Leonid Desyatnikov for the great Russian violinist Gidon Kremer; this arrangement matches the instrumentation for Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons written 250 years earlier in Italy. Remember when listening to Piazzolla’s Four Seasons: that the seasons are reversed from what they are in Europe and America since Buenos Aires is south of the equator. “Spanish Dance No. 1” from La Vida Breve

Manuel de Falla Born in Cadiz, Spain, November 23, 1876; died in Alta Gracia, Argentina, November 14, 1946

Created in 1904–1905 when he was still in

his 20s, the opera La Vida Breve (The Short Life) was the first masterpiece of Manuel de Falla, the greatest Spanish composer of the 20th century (his most popular works include The Three-Cornered Hat, Nights in the Gardens of Spain and El Amor Brujo), and it became his ticket to fame. But first he had to endure nearly a decade of delays before it was produced on stage. De Falla had originally composed it for a Spanish competition for one-act operas, but though it took the prize, the competition organizers reneged on their promise of a professional production. La Vide Breve’s premiere finally came in a French translation in Nice, France on April 1, 1913.The opera didn’t make its way to Madrid and back to its native language until a year and a half later. However, de Falla used those years of delay to good advantage. He moved from Spain to Paris for study with Ravel and Debussy, and their influence, along with the specific suggestions of composer Paul Dukas (The Sorcerer’s Apprentice), helped him to make his novice opera even better. But La Vida Breve’s main inspiration remained the

folk music of Andalusia, Spain’s southern province, and specifically the gypsy-flavored traditions of flamenco. The opera’s story is set in Granada, the home of the Alhambra Palace. Salud, a fragile young Gypsy woman, has fallen in love with Paco, a wealthy Spaniard. But he is merely stringing her along, for, unbeknownst to her, he is actually engaged to Carmela, a woman of his own class. Soon after he makes love to Salud for the last time, Paco celebrates his marriage in grand style, and Salud, drawn by the festive music, learns the truth. She confronts Paco at the wedding party and then falls dead at his feet, her life cut short by his treachery. We will hear La Vida Breve’s most famous number,“Spanish Dance No. 1” from the wedding-party scene. Accented by castanets, it is in the style of the traditional three-beat Spanish dance the jota. Its subtly colorful orchestration reveals de Falla’s work with the French impressionists. Notes by Janet E. Bedell, copyright 2010

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September 11, 2010 – November 28, 2010

p ro g r a m notes

Friday, September 24, 2010 8 p.m.

Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall

B ALTIMORE S YMPHONY O RCHESTRA MARIN ALSOP MUSIC DIRECTOR • HARVEY M. AND LYN P. MEYERHOFF CHAIR

Mahler’s Seventh Symphony Presenting Sponsor:

Marin Alsop

Johann Sebastian Bach Arranged by Gustav Mahler

Conductor

Suite Overture Rondo and Badinerie Air Gavotte I and Gavotte II

INTERMISSION

Gustav Mahler

Symphony No. 7 in E Minor Langsam - Allegro Nachtmusik I Scherzo: Schattenhaft Nachtmusik II Rondo - Finale

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

Support for this program generously provided by:

Marin Alsop For Marin Alsop’s bio, please see p. 16. NOTES ON THE PROGRAM Suite

Johann Sebastian Bach Born in Eisenach, Germany, March 21, 1685; died in Leipzig, Germany, July 28, 1750 Arranged by Gustav Mahler

Gustav Mahler revered Johann Sebastian Bach above all composers.As each volume of the complete works of Bach 22

Overture

was published during his lifetime, he poured over it with fascination—and with an eye to improving his own compositional mastery, especially his writing of counterpoint. He was astonished by “this miraculous freedom of Bach’s, which probably no other musician has ever attained and which is based on his unparalleled skill and command of technique.” To his close friend Natalie Bauer-Lechner, he wrote:“Bach teaches me something every day, for my method of composing is innately ‘Bachic’!” In 1909, Mahler—temporarily self-exiled from Vienna and serving as music director of

the New York Philharmonic—embarked on a series of concerts by the older musical masters with that orchestra. Naturally, Bach would figure among them. But for Mahler, conducting was a creative activity as much as a re-creative one: he was not content to simply reproduce what was in the original score, but instead utilized his own mastery of the orchestra to edit the music and to enhance it in light of the advances in instrumental construction since Bach or Beethoven’s day, as well as his own taste.And for his Bach Suite, he took further liberties. Cobbled together from both the Orchestra Suite No. 2 in B Minor and the Orchestra Suite No. 3 in D Major, this music represents the “greatest hits” from the two, including the spectacular Overture of the Second Suite and the beloved “Air” from the Third. How did Mahler alter this music from what we usually hear? Since Mahler considerably expanded the numbers of string players from the usual Baroque forces, he also replaced the delicate harpsichord with beefier organ and piano parts (Marin Alsop will use a “prepared” piano that is altered to sound more like a harpsichord). Especially in the Overture, he added more elaborate inner parts for the second violins and violas. For the “Air” (famous as the “Air on a G String”) of the Third Suite, he made no musical changes, but filled his edition with the explicit dynamic and expressive marks he used in his own works. The Third Suite’s “Gavotte I” gains some showy coloratura for its piano part. Scholars are not sure when and where Bach’s four orchestral suites were written. Their secular nature and courtly style suggest the period of 1717 to 1723 when Bach served as kapellmeister at the princely court of Cöthen and created many of his secular instrumental works, including the Brandenburg Concertos. But recent scholarship suggests he may have written some of them at a later time during his long service in Leipzig. In addition to his duties providing music for St.Thomas Church in Leipzig, from 1729 to 1737 and again after 1739, Bach directed the city’s Collegium Musicum, a voluntary association of professional musicians and university students.The Collegium gave weekly concerts—in summer in an outdoor garden and in winter at Zimmermann’s coffee house.

p ro g r a m notes The Second Suite is the most intimate of the four and the only one written in a minor key, B minor, a key Bach particularly favored for flute music.And indeed this Suite often sounds like a flute concerto. With its brilliant use of trumpets and timpani, the Third Suite in D Major must have been intended for festive occasions and most likely for outdoor performance. Instrumentation: Flute, two oboes, three trumpets, timpani, doctored piano, organ and strings. Symphony No. 7 in E Minor

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

Throughout his career, Gustav Mahler made many provocative remarks about his music, but probably the most famous of all is:“The Symphony is the world—it must embrace everything!”This dictum seems to apply especially to his Seventh Symphony, for this is a work of enormous emotional range that challenges us to move from dread to elation, from childlike innocence to worldly cynicism not only over its 80minute span but from moment to moment. Its mercurial quality seems to reflect its creator. Mahler’s close associate, the great conductor Bruno Walter, and other friends have described the rapid changes they often observed in Mahler’s mood and facial expressions. In a provocative mixture that was unique to this composer, the Seventh juxtaposes sublime, serious music—what we think of as “proper” classical music— with elements of popular song and dance: “vulgar” military brass-band episodes, Viennese waltzes gone awry. Its first movement contains some of his most adventurous and forward-looking harmonic writing, including daring and rapid modulations and even passages of bitonality.All its movements and especially its controversial finale (many critics dislike what they hear as empty musical bombast or a forced “happy ending” here) display a richness of contrapuntal writing inspired by Mahler’s love of Bach and close study of his Art of the Fugue. The Seventh is Mahler’s most brilliantly orchestrated symphony: in Deryck Cooke’s words,“the most wildly fantastic [scoring] ever conceived by this most wildly fantastic of orchestrators—a continual feast for the ear.”Although Mahler employs a large

orchestra, he rarely—and then only in the outer movements—throws the whole apparatus at us. Instead, he prefers to spotlight unexpected combinations of instruments in chamber-music groupings.Throughout the work, there is more pungency and color in the sound than lushness. Mahler explained that the Seventh should be heard as a journey from night (the first movement and the three middle movements, two of which are explicitly labeled Nachtmusik or “Night Music”) to blazing C-major day (the finale).And he had to undertake a journey of his own before he could complete it. Movements 2 and 4 (the two called “Nachtmusik”) were written quite easily during his summer composing holiday in 1904; they immediately followed completion of his Sixth Symphony (movement two even includes a subtle quote of the Sixth’s principal motive). But in the summer of 1905 when Mahler returned to complete the work at his holiday villa in Maiernigg on the shores of the beautiful Wörtersee in Austria’s Carinthian Alps, he was stricken with an uncharacteristic fit of writer’s block. Desperate for inspiration, he fled over the border to Italy to another retreat in the Dolomite Mountains. But the block persisted. In a letter to his wife,Alma, he described how it was finally lifted:“I plagued myself for two weeks until I sank into a gloom...then I tore off to the Dolomites.There I was led the same dance, at last gave it up and returned home, convinced that the whole summer was lost...I got into the boat to be rowed across.At the first stroke of the oars, the theme (or rather the rhythm and character) of the introduction to the first movement came into my head—and in four weeks, the first, third and fifth movements were done.”Although he would continue to revise details of the Seventh until near the end of his life, Mahler was fundamentally pleased:“It is my best and predominantly of a cheerful character.” “Predominantly of a cheerful character”—it’s important to remember those words when listening to the Seventh. Even though it deals with the shadows and fears of night—and of death, which night often represented to Mahler—the composer is telling us not to approach this work with furrowed brow. He had just written his Sixth Symphony, the most tragic and

harrowing of all his works. Recoiling from the painful vision of the Sixth’s final movement, he was now in the Seventh creating a literal march away from the tragic view to a world of sunshine and affirmation of life. Listening to the Music

The slow dipping of the oars that launched Mahler into the writing of the first movement can be heard in the slow, dotted-rhythm chords that open its introduction; they provide a funeral march tread, but this movement is not destined for mourning. March themes of different character will propel the entire movement. An important theme is immediately announced by an unusual orchestral instrument, the mellow-toned yet powerful tenor horn;“Here Nature roars!” wrote Mahler of this theme.The pace quickens slightly, and the woodwinds play a feisty new march tune.Already the funeral is over: this theme resembles the tradition of a New Orleans jazz band playing lively music as it exits the cemetery. The main Allegro section of this sonata-form movement in E minor is announced by the four horns shouting in unison an aggressively macho melody. Contrasting with it is a very feminine second theme in C major: a yearning, leisurely theme for the violins that is quintessential Mahler. Toward the end of the succeeding development section comes a passage of uncanny beauty heralded by distant, ghostly trumpet fanfares and an upward swoop of the harp: this is a heavenly vision voiced by soaring first violins over chorale-like chords in the winds and low strings.The vision dissolves abruptly into the recapitulation of the funeral tread and the tenor horn theme. Then Mahler transforms the woodwinds’ feisty march into a brash brass band, glittering with triangle and tambourine and sounding very much like football half-time music. By the movement’s conclusion in E major, all thoughts of funerals have been banished. Movement two: Marches also dominate the first “Nachtmusik,” but what a different character they have in this atmospheric nocturne of horns calls, trilling woodwind birds and subtle scoring.This is mysterious music of night patrols. An opening horn call in C major is answered September 11, 2010 – November 28, 2010

p ro g r a m notes by a distant horn in C minor. Soon all the horns take up a stately march melody over a military-tattoo rhythmic ostinato that will underpin the movement.The horn march alternates with two even more lightly scored trio sections: the first a flowing dance led by the cellos, the second a pastoral idyll featuring woodwinds.The orchestration throughout this movement is of exquisite beauty and imagination.

The third-movement Scherzo in D minor shows a very different aspect of night. Marked “Schattenhaft” (“Shadowy”), it plays with our fears about what might be lurking in the darkness.Timpani thumps juxtaposed against pizzicato snaps in the low strings conjure up goblins, and the violins soon launch a crazy nightmare waltz. A gentler trio section in the major mode is proposed by the woodwinds, but

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Instrumentation: Four flutes, two piccolos, three oboes, English horn, three clarinets, bass clarinet, piccolo clarinet, three bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, two harps, guitar, mandolin, tenor horn and strings.

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they are soon unhinged by fragments of the waltz. Mahler’s orchestration throughout is remarkable: lean, edgy, skeletal. The Andante amoroso fourth movement, Nachtmusik II, has always been this symphony’s most popular section. It is a serenade of rare enchantment that breathes the atmosphere of a warm summer’s night. In a setting of chamber-music delicacy (brass and drums sit this movement out), Mahler uses two traditional serenading instruments: the guitar and the mandolin. The two singers are the solo horn and solo violin. Here night wears her most beneficent face. Finale: “Variety and contrast! That is...the secret of effectiveness!” Mahler has already demonstrated his words throughout this symphony and never more so than in the raucous brass fanfares that replace the diaphanous sounds of Nachtmusik II. Day has finally broken in a blaze of C major, and the entire orchestra wakes up to greet it. Mahler’s grandiloquent main theme, which will keep returning in various transformations throughout this lengthy rondo form, bears a strong resemblance to the famous march theme of Wagner’s Prelude to Die Meistersinger. Another operatic allusion occurs as the oboes, flutes and clarinets slyly quote The Merry Widow waltz at the opening of the first rondo episode; in 1905, this operetta made its debut and became the rage of Vienna. Not only does the main theme resemble Wagner’s melody but it also possesses a strong kinship to the first movement’s striding macho theme, as we will hear when the latter returns late in this movement. Mahler combines it triumphantly with the finale theme and other motives in a dazzling fantasia of counterpoint, demonstrating that he had truly learned well from his many hours pouring over the scores of his beloved Bach.

Overture

p ro g r a m notes

Saturday, October 2, 2010 8 p.m. Sunday, October 3, 2010 3 p.m. Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall

B ALTIMORE S YMPHONY O RCHESTRA MARIN ALSOP MUSIC DIRECTOR • HARVEY M. AND LYN P. MEYERHOFF CHAIR

Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto Presenting Sponsor:

Marin Alsop Stefan Jackiw

John Adams Felix Mendelssohn

Conductor Violin

Doctor Atomic Symphony Violin Concerto in E Minor, Op. 64 Allegro molto appassionato Andante Allegretto non troppo Allegro molto vivace STEFAN JACKIW

INTERMISSION

Antonín Dvorˇák

Symphony No. 9 in E Minor, Op. 95, “From the New World” Adagio - Allegro molto Largo Molto vivace Allegro con fuoco

The concert will end at approximately 10:05 p.m. on Saturday and 5:05 p.m. on Sunday.

Orchestra on a West Coast tour. In recent seasons, he has appeared with the Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra and New York Philharmonic. This past summer, he reunited with The Philadelphia Orchestra led by Marin Alsop at the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival following sold out tours in Korea and Japan as a member of Ensemble Ditto. In the 2010-2011 season, he performs with the London Philharmonic on tours of Europe and Asia. Other season highlights include recitals in Aspen, San Diego, Santa Fe, Sarasota and Vancouver, residencies with the Seattle Chamber Music Society and solo appearances with the Nashville and Kansas City symphonies, among others. He is also an active recitalist and chamber musician. He has performed in numerous festivals and concert series including the Ravinia Festival, Caramoor International Music Festival, Celebrity Series of Boston, Mostly Mozart Festival, and the Louvre Recital Series in Paris. He is also a founding member of the Tessera Quartet, an emerging New York-based ensemble formed under the guidance of the Juilliard String Quartet. Born in 1985 to physicist parents of Korean and German descent, Stefan Jackiw began playing the violin at age 4. His teachers have included Zinaida Gilels, Michèle Auclair and Donald Weilerstein. He holds a bachelor’s degree in music from Harvard University, as well as an artist diploma from the New England Conservatory. In 2002, he was awarded the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant. NOTES ON THE PROGRAM Doctor Atomic Symphony

Support for the appearance of Stefan Jackiw is provided by the Ruth Blaustein Rosenberg Guest Artist Fund.

For Marin Alsop’s bio, please see p. 16.

Stefan Jackiw Violinist Stefan Jackiw is recognized as one of his generation’s most significant artists. Last season he debuted with The

LISA-MARIE MAZZUCCO

Marin Alsop

Philadelphia Orchestra and the Cincinnati, Montreal, Pittsburgh and Toronto symphony orchestras, and appeared with the Russian National

John Adams Born in Worcester, Massachusetts, February 15, 1947; now living in Berkeley, California

Music journalists have dubbed John Adams the “CNN composer,” a term he heartily dislikes.True, he has won fame with a number of works that feature events in recent American history, notably his operas Nixon in China (inspired by Richard Nixon’s breakthrough visit to China in 1972), The Death of Klinghoffer (about the 1985 hijacking of the cruise September 11, 2010 – November 28, 2010

p ro g r a m notes ship Achille Lauro), I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky (touching on the Los Angeles earthquake of 1994), Doctor Atomic (the testing of the first atomic bomb in 1945) and his 9/11 memorial piece On the Transmigration of Souls. But Adams has never chosen his subjects in an effort to be relevant or trendy. Instead, he has sought to bring out the universal and timeless elements in these stories—even their mythic qualities.

provocative director Peter Sellars, a frequent Adams collaborator, not only staged the opera, but also fashioned its libretto from original source materials, including the characters’ first-hand accounts in newspapers and journals, their memoirs and declassified government documents. Enlarging these factual materials is a rich trove of poetry from the Hindu Bhagavad Gita, John Donne and Charles Baudelaire that Oppenheimer—

“Mythology abounded in stories of hubris, of the arrogant human or god who through cleverness makes an invention that unleashes powers that eventually turn on their inventor and destroy him. The manipulation of the atom, the unleashing of that formerly inaccessible source of densely concentrated energy, was the great mythological tale of our time.”

In the complex figure of American physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, (1904–1967), director of the Manhattan Project that built the first atomic bomb, Adams found a classical tragic protagonist. In the events of the summer of 1945 in the New Mexico desert, the composer discovered a story that he calls “ripe for mythic treatment. Mythology abounded in stories of hubris, of the arrogant human or god who through cleverness makes an invention that unleashes powers that eventually turn on their inventor and destroy him.The manipulation of the atom, the unleashing of that formerly inaccessible source of densely concentrated energy, was the great mythological tale of our time.” The idea of turning the momentous events of 1945 into an opera came from Pamela Rosenberg, the then-general director of the San Francisco Opera, who suggested to Adams that he compose an “American Faust” opera based on Oppenheimer’s story.The opera received its world premiere to great acclaim on October 1, 2005 at the San Francisco Opera, then moved on to performances in Amsterdam, London, and at the Metropolitan Opera in 2008.The 26

Overture

an immensely cultivated and well-read man who wrote sonnets as relaxation from his scientific work—personally loved. The opera’s first act takes place on a June 1945 evening in Los Alamos, New Mexico at the Manhattan Project headquarters. As the scientists prepare for the test explosion one month ahead, they argue about the morality of using the bomb on a civilian population in Japan, as the government intends. Divided between the desert test site at Alamogordo and Los Alamos, the final scene of the first act and the entire second act takes place on the fateful night of July 15-16 as the scientists ready the bomb for its 5:30 a.m. test.The drama becomes an agonizingly tense and protracted countdown, and the opera ends with the explosion. Following the opera’s success, Adams decided to create a symphonic treatment of some of its musical material, whose development he felt had been overly restricted by the needs of the drama. The resulting 25-minute symphony was co-commissioned by the Carnegie Hall Corporation, the Saint Louis Symphony and its music director David Robertson (to whom the work is dedicated) and BBC Radio 3 for the popular BBC Proms

series. It was premiered by the BBC Symphony under Adams’ baton on August 21, 2007 at London’s Royal Albert Hall. Though in one long, continuous movement, the Doctor Atomic Symphony is divided into three distinct sections— “The Laboratory,” “Panic” and “Trinity.” As does the opera, the Symphony opens with a violent onslaught of sound. The timpani pound relentlessly: a monster clock counting off the moments to ignition. Brass roar, bells toll, heralding imminent apocalypse. Eventually, this violence subsides into an eerie quiet and a melancholy modal melody for woodwinds, but the mood remains foreboding. A frenzied string ostinato and wild cries from the brass propel the music into the second section, “Panic,” which is the Symphony’s longest. On the night of July 15-16, powerful thunderstorms menaced the test site, risking a premature detonation of the bomb and the lives of the scientists making final preparations. Gigantic, terrifying brass chords pierce this nervous whirlwind. Adams uses the trombone to represent the bass voice of Gen. Leslie Groves, the military commander of the project, as he refuses to postpone the test and barks orders. A quieter section carries us back to Los Alamos, where that same night, the Oppenheimers’ Native American maid, Pasquelita, expresses her own Delphic warnings, here in the voices of the cellos and solo horn.The music grows progressively softer, slower: time stands still waiting for the moment that will change humankind forever. Part 3, “Trinity”: The music gradually crescendos into a frantically pulsing, rhythmically complex ostinato that, like Adams’ earlier minimalist scores, obsesses on one pitch, the note D. D minor is the key of the powerful, emotionally anguished aria Oppenheimer sings at the close of the first act: “Batter my heart, three-person’d God,” a poem from the Holy Sonnets of John Donne, the great 17th-century English mystical poet whom Oppenheimer treasured. Between returns of the frantic ostinato, we hear a solo trumpet singing the verses of this aria, which is set in the style of a solemn Baroque chaconne. At this moment in the opera, Oppenheimer is face to face with

p ro g r a m notes the awesome “Gadget” he has created and asks God to “break, blow, burn and make me new”: to destroy his contaminated inner being and restore his moral balance. Comments Adams: “He is alone—a rare moment of solitude for him—and feels a very deep dissonance within himself over the fact that here he is bringing forth this terrible weapon, something that is going to introduce an unknowable amount of pain and destruction into the world.The Donne sonnet, which Oppenheimer later said prompted him to name the test site Trinity, is a poem of almost unbearable self-awareness, an agonistic struggle between good and evil, darkness and light.” Instrumentation: Two flutes, piccolo, three oboes, English horn, three clarinets, bass clarinet, piccolo clarinet, three bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, four trumpets, piccolo trumpet, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, harp, celesta and strings. Violin Concerto in E Minor, Op. 64

Felix Mendelssohn Born in Hamburg, Germany, February 3, 1809; died in Leipzig, November 4, 1847

During the years he served as director of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Felix Mendelssohn was blessed with an outstanding concertmaster, Ferdinand David, one of the 19th century’s finest and most versatile violinists. As early as 1835, the composer promised David a concerto to show off his remarkable abilities. But the promised concerto did not appear for nearly a decade, despite the violinist’s frequent reminders preserved in some charmingly wheedling letters. This delay was uncharacteristic of Mendelssohn, usually a man who promptly fulfilled his obligations, musical or otherwise. But the early 1840s were particularly trying times for him. Already in demand all over Europe as composer and performer, Mendelssohn in 1841 was summoned to Berlin (his family’s home) by King Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia to be his court musician and establish a grandiose new conservatory. For three years, the composer dutifully served the king’s constantly changing whims while longing to return to Leipzig. The enchanting incidental music to A Midsummer Night’s Dream was one of

the few good things to come out of this frustrating period. As soon as he could gracefully extricate himself from Berlin, Mendelssohn turned to the long-delayed concerto and completed it in September 1844. It was premiered by David, with the Leipzig Gewandhaus, conducted by Niels Gade (Mendelssohn was ill), on March 13, 1845. Generations of violinists and audiences can attest that the concerto— one of the most perfect ever written for this instrument—was worth the wait. As Brahms would later do with his Violin Concerto for Joseph Joachim, Mendelssohn constantly sought David’s advice and scrupulously tailored his concerto to the violinist’s skills and musical personality. Mendelssohn is usually regarded as a conservative composer, who despite his allegiance to Romanticism, followed the classical forms and feeling of Mozart and Haydn more closely than did his contemporaries. But, as Sir Donald Francis Tovey has pointed out, Mendelssohn was also

a true Romantic, who felt free to break the rules of the classical concerto. First Movement: The most famous examples of Mendelssohn’s Romantic concerto style are the bridge passages that seamlessly link each movement to the next.The breaking of old rules, however, begins immediately as the violinist launches the buoyant principal theme in the second measure, dispensing with the customary orchestral exposition.The key of E minor adds a touch of poignancy to this expansive, openhearted melody. The most magical moment of this sonata-form movement comes at the end of the development section when in a hushed, mysterious passage the soloist begins searching for the home key. Just as he seems to have found it, Mendelssohn pulls a surprise: launching the soloist’s cadenza, which is customarily placed after the recapitulation just before the movement ends. It concludes with chains of rapid arpeggios that continue as the orchestra reprises the principal theme, thus binding cadenza seamlessly to recapitulation.

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S EPTEMB ER 19 , 2010 Joel Fan, piano

CHAMBER MUSIC BY CANDLELIGHT

OC TOB ER 3 1, 2010 Lura Johnson and Friends

Featuring members of the BSO

NOVEMB ER 7 , 2010 Emily Skala, flute

SEPT 26, 2010 OCT 24, 2010 NOV 21, 2010

J A N UA RY 3 0, 2011 Aspen String Trio

JAN 23, 2011

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September 11, 2010 – November 28, 2010

p ro g r a m notes At movement’s end, we hear a lone bassoon holding onto the note B. That note then rises a half step for the new key of C major for the secondmovement Andante, which the soloist begins after a brief orchestral bridge passage.This movement is in three-part song form—most appropriate here because Mendelssohn has given the soloist one of his “songs without words.” The middle section interjects passionate agitation amid the lyricism. Another bridge provides harmonic and tempo transition to the E-major finale. Here we have one of Mendelssohn’s celebrated scherzos: a joyous, scampering romp for the soloist. Conjuring up the world of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the woodwinds are agile companions to the violin’s gambols. Instrumentation: Two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, timpani and strings. Symphony No. 9 in E Minor, Op. 95 “From the New World”

Antonín Dvorˇák Born in Nelahozeves, Bohemia (now Czech Republic), September 8, 1841; died in Prague, May 1, 1904

At its premiere in the newly opened Carnegie Hall on December 16, 1893, Dvorˇák’s last symphony, “From the New World,” was perhaps the greatest triumph of the composer’s career, and it has continued to rank among the most popular of all symphonies.Yet from its first reviews, commentators have asked the question: “Is this symphony really American?” In other words, how much is it “from the new world” and how much “from the old world”? In 1892, Mrs. Jeannette Thurber, a devoted music patron and wife of an American multimillionaire businessman, had lured Dvorˇák to New York City to become director of her new National Conservatory of Music. She chose well, for not only was Dvorˇák one of Europe’s most celebrated composers, but more importantly he brought fine teaching skills and an openness to the potential of American music. “I did not come to America to interpret Beethoven or Wagner for the public,” he stated. “I came to discover what young Americans had in them and to help them express it.” 28

Overture

A man who drew on his Czech peasant roots both for personal values and artistic inspiration, Dvorˇák found much to treasure in American folk traditions. While white Americans were inclined to undervalue the spirituals of black Americans, Dvorˇák was enraptured by them. One of his students was Harry T. Burleigh, an African American with a fine baritone voice who was to become an important arranger of spirituals and writer of American art songs. As Burleigh remembered, Dvorˇák “literally saturated himself with Negro song ... I sang our Negro songs for him very often, and before he wrote his own themes, he filled himself with the spirit of the old Spirituals.” Although pointing out the resemblance between the second theme in the first movement of the “New World” and the opening of “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot,” Burleigh stressed, as did Dvorˇák himself, that the Czech did not actually quote from American tunes but used them to inspire his own original themes. Later the process came full circle when another Dvorˇák pupil,William Arms Fisher, created a popular quasi-spiritual, “Goin’ Home,” from Dvorˇák’s magnificent English horn melody in the “New World’s” slow movement. With his sensitive antennae, Dvorˇák absorbed the vitality and brashness of America in the 1890s (“The enthusiasm of most Americans for all things new is apparently without limit. It is the essence of what is called ‘push’—American push,” he observed) as well as the soulfulness of spirituals, and all this influenced his new symphony of “impressions and greetings from the New World.” “I should never have written the symphony as I have if I hadn’t seen America,” he declared. The drive of the first and last movements as well as the syncopated rhythms and melodic shapes of many of the themes did indeed give this symphony a unique voice. But, as Burleigh wrote, “the workmanship and treatment of the themes…is Bohemian”—Dvorˇák is here, as always, the proud Czech patriot. The fruitful mixture of American inspiration and Czech sensibility is best summed up by the fact that both Americans and Czechs consider this symphony their own.

The first movement’s slow introduction hints at the principal theme, which, as the tempo quickens to Allegro molto, is introduced by the horns. Motto-like, this theme will recur in all movements. Dvorˇák seems to capture the spirit of “American push” in this driving, optimistic music. Listen for the hints of “Swing Low” in the second theme, a merry tune for flutes and oboes. A prodigal melodist, Dvorˇák also offers a third theme, bright and full of “can-do” spirit, in the solo flute. The Largo slow movement is one of the most beautiful Dvorˇák ever wrote. Here is the great “Goin’ Home” melody for English horn, an instrument chosen by the composer because it reminded him of Burleigh’s baritone voice.The composer loved Longfellow’s poem “Song of Hiawatha” and claimed that this music was inspired by the death of Hiawatha’s bride, but many, including Dvorˇák’s sons, heard more of his homesickness for his native land here. A poignant middle section in the minor presents two hauntingly wistful melodies for woodwinds above shuddering strings. Dvorˇák also cited “a feast in the woods where the Indians dance” from “Hiawatha” as influencing the third-movement scherzo. But it is fareasier to detect European influences in this spirited dance movement, which summons memories of the composer’s greatest idols, Beethoven and Schubert: Beethoven for the opening recalling the Ninth Symphony’s scherzo and Schubert for the ebullient trio section, sparkling with triangle. The finale boasts a proudly ringing theme for the brass that propels its loose sonata form. But its development section brings back the first movement “motto” theme as well as the Largo’s “Goin’ Home” and a snatch of the scherzo. At the end, the home key of E minor brightens to E major. Dvorˇák’s final magical touch in a loud, exuberant close is a surprise last chord that fades to silence. Instrumentation: Two flutes, piccolo, two oboes, English horn, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion and strings. Notes by Janet E. Bedell, copyright 2010

Sunday, October 10, 2010 3 p.m. Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall

B ALTIMORE S YMPHONY O RCHESTRA MARIN ALSOP MUSIC DIRECTOR • HARVEY M. AND LYN P. MEYERHOFF CHAIR JACK EVERLY PRINCIPAL POPS CONDUCTOR

BSO SUPERPOPS

Gotta Dance! Presenting Sponsor:

Jack Everly

Conductor

The program will be announced from stage. The concert will end at approximately 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and at approximately 5 p.m. on Sunday.

Jack Everly Jack Everly is the principal pops conductor of the Baltimore and Indianapolis symphony orchestras, Naples Philharmonic Orchestra and National Arts Centre Orchestra (Ottawa), and the newly named music director of the “National Memorial Day Concert” and “A Capitol Fourth” on PBS.This season, he returns to The Cleveland Orchestra and appears as guest conductor in Pittsburgh, Milwaukee,Toronto, Cincinnati, Edmonton and Detroit. Mr. Everly is the music director of Yuletide Celebration, now a 25-year tradition. These theatrical symphonic holiday concerts are presented annually in December in Indianapolis and are seen by more than 40,000 concertgoers. Originally appointed by Mikhail Baryshnikov, Mr. Everly was conductor of the American Ballet Theatre for 14 years,

where he served as music director. In addition to his ABT tenure, he has teamed with Marvin Hamlisch in Broadway shows that Mr. Hamlisch scored including The Goodbye Girl, They’re Playing Our Song and A Chorus Line. He conducted Carol Channing hundreds of times in Hello, Dolly! in two separate Broadway productions. In television and film, Jack Everly has appeared on “In Performance at the White House” and conducted the songs for Disney’s animated classic The Hunchback of Notre Dame. He has been music director on numerous Broadway cast recordings, and conducted the critically praised Everything’s Coming Up Roses:The Complete Overtures of Broadway’s Jule Styne. Daniel Rodriguez’s In the Presence with the Czech Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra of Prague conducted by Mr. Everly was released in 2005. In 1998, Jack Everly created the Symphonic Pops Consortium, serving as music director.The Consortium, based in Indianapolis, produces a new theatrical pops program each season.

It’s Fun. It’s Laid Back.

Saturday, October 9, 2010 8 p.m.

It’s Off the Cuff.

Friday, October 8, 2010 8 p.m.

Visit BSOmusic.org to learn more about this innovative concert series. September 11, 2010 – November 28, 2010

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p ro g r a m notes

Thursday, October 14, 2010 8 p.m. KULTUROP

Friday, October 15, 2010 8 p.m. Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall

B ALTIMORE S YMPHONY O RCHESTRA MARIN ALSOP MUSIC DIRECTOR • HARVEY M. AND LYN P. MEYERHOFF CHAIR

Beethoven and Shostakovich Presenting Sponsor: Young Artist Sponsor: The Peggy & Yale Gordon Trust

Johannes Brahms Ludwig van Beethoven

Conductor Piano

Academic Festival Overture, Op. 80 Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-Flat Major, Op. 19 Allegro con brio Adagio Rondo: Molto allegro MARKUS GROH

INTERMISSION

Gustav Mahler

Dmitri Shostakovich

“Blumine” from Symphony No. 1 in D Major Symphony No. 1 in F Minor, Op. 10 Allegretto - Allegro non troppo Allegro Lento Allegro molto - Lento

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

Support for this program generously provided by:

Ilyich Rivas Ilyich Rivas was born in Venezuela in 1993 into a distinguished musical family—his 32

Overture

father is also a conductor and was music director of the Metro State Symphony Orchestra in Denver. He frequently returns

Markus Groh JORG WEBER

Ilyich Rivas Markus Groh

to Venezuela to conduct the youth orchestra in his native city, the Orquesta Simón Bolívar del Táchira. In 2009, he was selected as one of seven young conductors from around the world to participate in the prestigious Cabrillo Festival Conductors Workshop in California, where he made a significant impression on both Marin Alsop and Gustav Meier.After an audition in front of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, he was awarded the position of BSO-Peabody Conducting Fellow starting in September 2009.This two-year position permits him to study conducting at the Peabody Institute under Meier’s guidance and to work closely with Marin Alsop and the BSO. In the 2009-2010 season, he made his professional debut in the U.S. conducting the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in a summer festival concert to great critical acclaim. More recently, he debuted with the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra which resulted in an immediate re-invitation.This season, he will make his debut with the Lucerne Symphony.

In addition to recent debuts with the National Symphony and the Cleveland Orchestra, Markus Groh has also appeared with the symphony orchestras of Colorado, Detroit, Florida, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Milwaukee, New Jersey, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Seattle.Among his worldwide engagements are the Beijing Symphony, Berlin Symphony, Hague Residentie Orkest, Helsinki Philharmonic, London Symphony, MDR Orchestra at the Leipzig Gewandhaus, New Japan Philharmonic, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Royal Scottish National Orchestra and the St. Petersburg Philharmonic. Upcoming concerts include debuts with the Cincinnati Symphony, Houston Symphony, Mozarteum Orchestra, Rochester Philharmonic and the Vancouver Symphony. A spellbinding recitalist, he recently appeared at the Friends of Chamber Music

p ro g r a m notes Denver, Friends of Chamber Music Kansas City,Vancouver Recital Society and at The Frick Collection in New York.A frequent guest at international festivals, he is also the founder and artistic director of the Bebersee Festival near Berlin. Widely acclaimed for his interpretations of Liszt, he released an all-Liszt CD by AVIE in 2006. Showered with rave reviews, it was named “Editor’s Choice” in Gramophone Magazine. Other recordings include an all-Brahms CD and Liszt’s Totentanz with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande conducted by Fabio Luisi. NOTES ON THE PROGRAM Academic Festival Overture, Op. 80

Johannes Brahms Born in Hamburg, Germany, May 7, 1833; died in Vienna, Austria, April 3, 1897

A child of the Hamburg slums, Johannes Brahms was never comfortable with pomp and circumstance, medals and honorary degrees. He even found personal praise hard to stomach. He usually countered it with self-deprecating humor as when an effusive woman fan gushed, “How do you write such divine Adagios?” and he responded, “Well, you know my publisher orders them that way.” So when England’s Cambridge University proferred an honorary doctorate, he refused to show up (deathly afraid of water, he also didn’t want to cross the English Channel). And when in March 1879 the University of Breslau announced it was making him an honorary doctor of philosophy, he initially fired off a postcard to his friend in Breslau, the conductor Bernard Scholz, asking him to convey to the university faculty his acceptance, hoping that would take care of the matter. Scholz promptly informed him that the University expected him to appear in person to receive the degree and to create a musical work for them in appreciation. “Wouldn’t you like to write a doctoral symphony for Breslau?” Schulz wrote. “At the very least, we expect a solemn ode.” Brahms agreed and dipped into his irreverent humor for inspiration. In its doctoral citation, Breslau had proclaimed him “artis musicae serverioris in Germania nunc princeps”—“present leader in Germany of music

of the more serious sort.” With his boisterous Academic Festival Overture based on undergraduate drinking songs, Brahms set out to stand this pompous phrase on its head. Raised in poverty, Brahms had never enjoyed a university or even a conservatory education. His only contact with student life had come in the summer of 1853 when he spent two months with his friend the great violinist Joseph Joachim (for whom he wrote his Violin Concerto) while Joachim studied at the University of Göttingen. It was an experience he remembered fondly. Only 20, he mingled with his wealthier peers in the taverns without having to undertake any heavier duties in library or classroom.The songs he learned then filled the Academic Festival. Even the Overture’s opening is a spoof of “artis musicae severioris”: music in C minor full of earnestly chugging strings, spooky woodwind arpeggios and portentously dramatic chords. But this impression slips away as the key moves to C major and the brass peal forth the student hymn “We Had Built a Stately House” in marching-band style over a drum roll. Soon the strings soar upward with the nostalgic “High Festival Song.” And Brahms fully reveals his mischief by making his third theme the freshman hazing song “Fuchsenritt” (“Fox Ride”), tootled comically by two bassoons; he even uses this tune for his development section. For the Overture’s Maestoso conclusion, he picks a song known in universities worldwide, “Gaudeamus igitur,” and he tarts it up with all the clashing cymbals and brass and percussion bombast his very large orchestra can muster. Instrumentation: Two flutes, piccolo, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion and strings. Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat Major, Op. 19

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

When Beethoven arrived in Vienna in November 1792 under the patronage of Count Waldstein to study with Haydn and, in Waldstein’s words,“with the help of assiduous labor...receive Mozart’s spirit from

Haydn’s hands,” he brought with him a portfolio of compositions written in Bonn, several of them already in “Mozart’s spirit.” One of them was to become his Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat, which he probably began in the late 1780s, making this a much earlier work than his First Piano Concerto (published before No. 2 and thus winning the honor of being “No. 1”). As Beethoven’s composing talents developed rapidly in Vienna’s stimulating environment, he kept returning to revise this most charming of his concertos. Scholars believe he made extensive revisions—including a new finale—in 1793, in 1795 before its first public performance, and in 1801 when he finally published it. Although the Beethoven-Haydn relationship turned out to be a mismatch between two incompatible geniuses— Haydn was a greater composer than teacher and found Beethoven’s arrogant personality and some of his music so shocking that he dubbed him “the Grand Mogul”— Beethoven was soon taken up by the Viennese aristocracy and became Mozart’s heir as the most popular pianist in Vienna. Contemporary accounts marveled at his new, proto-Romantic style. Far luckier than Mozart, in the words of his pupil Carl Czerny, he “received all manner of support from our high aristocracy and enjoyed as much care and respect as ever fell to the lot of a young artist.” The first movement, an Allegro con brio sonata form, opens with a split-personality first theme: a crisp, staccato fanfare followed by a gracefully flowing response from the violins. Beethoven will break these components apart and make much imaginative use of them throughout the movement. In fact, the violin response is soon developed by the strings and woodwinds to take the place of a contrasting lyrical theme.We don’t hear the true second theme until after the piano makes its entrance: a smooth descending melody that the orchestra introduces and the piano embroiders.The development section is surprisingly tame by the standards of later Olympian Beethoven developments. The second movement in E-flat major is the first of Beethoven’s marvelous slow movements.A noble, hymn-like meditation is presented by the orchestra and elaborated by the soloist; it forms the substance of the entire movement.This interlude is crowned September 11, 2010 – November 28, 2010

p ro g r a m notes with a remarkable coda in which the soloist spins out a delicate reverie in single notes with orchestral punctuations.A high flute gives coloration to the last measures. Beethoven probably created a new finale for the work sometime in the 1790s. This witty, vivacious rondo with its shortlong rhythm refrain bears the composer’s personal stamp more than the rest of the concerto. In ebullient 6/8 meter, it allows the soloist to show off his fleet finger work and features a very engaging middle episode in the minor mode, sparked by syncopated rhythms. Instrumentation: Flute, two oboes, two bassoons, two horns and strings. “Blumine” from Symphony No. 1 in D Major

Gustav Mahler Born in Kalischt, Bohemia (now Czech Republic), July 7, 1860; died in Vienna, Austria, May 18, 1911

With his First Symphony—which he began composing in 1883 and did not finish revising until 1906, more than two decades later—Gustav Mahler struggled mightily with the type of symphonic expression he wanted to create. Should it be a more or less conventional four-movement symphony using the hallowed forms of sonata, rondo and so forth? Or should it be more of a freely constructed symphonic poem with a story-telling program? Initially, he leaned toward the second approach and built the work into a fivemovement structure in two parts whose overall title,“Titan,” and individual movement titles were drawn from the popular Romantic writer Jean Paul.The original second movement, a lyrical, lightly scored Andante in C major, was called “Blumine” (“Flowers”) after Jean Paul’s collection of essays “Herbst-Blumine” (“Autumn Flowers”). Mahler included this movement in early performances of the First in Budapest in 1889 and in Weimar in 1894. But eventually he decided against issuing programs for his symphonies, and he expunged the titles he had given the First’s movements.At about the same time, for reasons that are unclear, he also eliminated the “Blumine” movement from his score, reducing the First Symphony to the four movements we know today. For years, musical scholars believed that “Blumine” had been lost. It finally turned 34

Overture

up at Sotheby’s Auction House in 1959. It seems that in 1897 Mahler had given the score to Jenny Feld, a favorite student of his at the Vienna Conservatory; she in turn had married an American named Perrin and moved to Seneca Falls, New York.After her son inherited the score, he auctioned it off. It was bought by Mrs. James M. Osborn of New Haven, Connecticut who gave the first performance rights to the New Haven Symphony, which presented the first modern performance of the First Symphony in its five-movement form on April 9, 1968. The Orchestra also permitted Benjamin Britten to lead the first performance of “Blumine” alone at England’s Aldeburgh Festival in June 1967. This lovely music, scored for a much smaller orchestra than the rest of the First Symphony, features a haunting trumpet solo singing a melody Mahler had created earlier as incidental music for “Der Trompeter von Säkkingen,” a then-popular verse drama used for tableaux-vivant. Mahler described it as “a moonlight serenade on the trumpet blown across the Rhine.” Instrumentation: Two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, one trumpet, timpani, harp and strings. Symphony No. 1 in F Minor, Op. 10

Dmitri Shostakovich Born in St. Petersburg, Russia, September 25, 1906; died in Moscow, August 9, 1975

Listening to Dmitri Shostakovich’s First Symphony is an experience that makes one’s jaw drop in amazement. How could this astonishingly original, imaginative and technically assured four-movement score have been written by an 18-year-old still studying at the Leningrad Conservatory? Shostakovich began writing this ambitious work in October 1924 and had largely finished it by June of the following year.The Symphony was intended as a graduation test piece, but at its premiere on May 12, 1926 by the Leningrad Philharmonic under the baton of its music director Nikolai Malko, it proved to be something far more. The audience responded ecstatically to the new Symphony and demanded that its second-movement Scherzo be encored. Malko himself was deeply impressed:“It was immediately clear that this First Symphony by Shostakovich was the vibrant, individual

and striking work of a composer with an original approach.The style of the Symphony was unusual; the orchestration sometimes suggested chamber music in its sound and its instrumental economy.” Several of the leading conductors of the day were equally impressed. Bruno Walter gave the Symphony its Berlin debut the next year. In 1928, Leopold Stokowski and The Philadelphia Orchestra introduced it to America, and Arturo Toscanini put it into his repertoire.Today it still holds a firm place in symphonic canon, even in competition with Shostakovich’s 14 later symphonies. Who was this young Wunderkind? Shostakovich was then studying piano at the Conservatory, with hopes of matching Prokofiev’s dual success as a piano virtuoso and composer, while also studying composition with Rimsky-Korsakov’s son-in-law, Maximilian Steinberg.The conservative Steinberg drilled him hard in the principles of that leader of the Russian nationalists, but his pupil had a strong independent streak. And he was inspired by the contemporary music he was hearing around him in Leningrad: works by Prokofiev, Stravinsky and Western masters Bartók, Hindemith and Mahler.With the Soviet system still in its infancy, the 1920s were a lively period of artistic experimentation in the U.S.S.R. Only at the end of the decade would the Soviet iron fist clamp down on the arts. Though we think of Shostakovich as a tragic figure oppressed by his society, as a teenager he was quite a different personality: a free and antic spirit who loved satire and was always ready to laugh.And that’s the personality we hear throughout much of this Symphony, especially in its opening two movements. Initially, Shostakovich thought of calling the work a “symphonygrotesque.” In the opening movement, there are suggestions of Stravinsky’s Petrouchka and of Prokofiev’s acerbic humor as well.And in the crazy, piano-dominated energy of the second movement, we hear reminiscences of Shostakovich’s moonlighting career as a pianist improvising sound tracks to silent films in Leningrad’s movie houses. Throughout the Symphony, Shostakovich shows an astonishing mastery of the sound possibilities of a large modern orchestra. There is a chamber music-like delicacy and refinement throughout that suggests a seasoned master at work, not an eager adolescent.

p ro g r a m notes Movement one, in F minor, opens with a tongue-in-cheek prelude that conjures a carnival, with Pétrouchka’s muted trumpet peaking out from behind the curtain. Finally, a clarinet steps forward to sing a jaunty, comic tune: the movement’s principal theme. For a contrasting second theme, the flute dances a wry, undulating waltz; the snickering orchestra finds this just as amusing as the first melody. The development section begins in a conspiratorial mood, but is suddenly invaded by a crashing circus band, which also intrudes on the recapitulation. The second-movement scherzo is made up of two contrasting ideas. First we hear antic, cinema-chase music featuring a glittering piano solo, probably played by Shostakovich himself at the premiere. Then comes a pensive, very Slavic-sounding procession of pilgrims dominated by woodwinds. Later Shostakovich manages to combine these two disparate musics brilliantly, with the pilgrims’ march shouted out by the brass.The closing coda, with its tolling chords and shimmering percussion, is a bit of unexpected magic. In the Lento third movement, the carnival mood abruptly vanishes. Instead of the bright sound of the clarinet, now we hear a plangent-toned oboe singing a mournful melody full of large, yearning intervals.A solo cello adds to the elegiac mood.A threatening tattoo on trumpet and drums intrudes several times and finally succeeds in crushing this lament. Now the oboe sings a new, march-like melody, sounding like a plucky, undaunted soldier. Dogged still by the threatening brass/drum motive, the original theme returns, now even more heartbreakingly beautiful in the solo violin. In the closing coda, the menacing tattoo is transformed into something almost consoling in the strings.Young as he was, Shostakovich had already known grief. His father had died when he was 15, one of his best friends was dying of tuberculosis as he wrote this and he had suffered from that disease himself. Without a pause, a drum crescendo ushers in the finale. Keening high woodwinds and brooding cellos maintain the previous movement’s mood through a slow introduction.All this is suddenly chased away by a mad scramble of clarinets, piano and strings, followed by some of the

Symphony’s loudest and most violent music. But in a movement of extreme mood shifts, this passage is succeeded by slower, quieter music of melancholy tenderness led off by solo violin and intensified by the eerie shimmer of piano. In a stunning timpani solo, the slow movement’s menacing tattoo returns.Then in a moving solo, the cello reprises the melancholy second theme, and the music builds to a powerful, passionate

climax. But Shostakovich has not lost his sense of humor, and in a brazen Presto coda, he wraps up his first masterpiece with an emphatic “Take that!” Instrumentation: Three flutes, two piccolos, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, alto trumpet, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, piano and strings. Notes by Janet E. Bedell, copyright 2010

September 11, 2010 – November 28, 2010

p ro g r a m notes with The Philadelphia Orchestra. He works regularly with orchestras such as Atlanta, St Louis, Dallas, Milwaukee and Indianapolis. In 2010, he will debut in Seattle and Baltimore. In Europe, he works regularly with the Oslo Philharmonic, Berlin Radio Symphony, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, MDR Leipzig, Gürzenich, Hungarian National Philharmonic, Spanish National, Frankfurt Museumgesellschaft and the Berlin Konzerthaus Orchestra. In South East Asia, he recently made his debuts with the Taipei Symphony Orchestra and with the Malaysian Philharmonic. In the earlier part of his conducting career, Mr.Varga concentrated on work with chamber orchestras, particularly the Tibor Varga Chamber Orchestra, before rapidly developing a reputation as a symphonic conductor. He was chief conductor of the Hofer Symphoniker (1980-1985) and chief conductor of the Philharmonia Hungarica in Marl (1985-1990), conducting its debut tour to Hungary with Yehudi Menuhin. In 1991, he became permanent guest conductor of the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra until 1995, and from 19972000 was principal guest of the Malmö Symphony. From 1997–2008, he was music director of the Basque National Symphony Orchestra, leading them through 10 seasons, including tours across the U.K., Germany, Spain and South America. His discography includes recordings with ASV, Discover Records,Tring (The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra’s Collection), Koch International (Munich Chamber Orchestra and Bamberg Symphony) and Claves Recordings (The Basque National Orchestra).

Friday, October 22, 2010 8 p.m. Saturday, October 23, 2010 8 p.m. Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall

B ALTIMORE S YMPHONY O RCHESTRA MARIN ALSOP MUSIC DIRECTOR • HARVEY M. AND LYN P. MEYERHOFF CHAIR

Midori Plays Shostakovich Presenting Sponsor:

Gilbert Varga Midori

Mikhail Glinka Dmitri Shostakovich

Conductor Violin

Overture to Ruslan and Ludmilla Violin Concerto No. 1 in A Minor, Op. 99 Nocturne: Adagio Scherzo: Allegro non troppo Passacaglia: Andante Burlesca: Allegro con brio MIDORI

INTERMISSION

Igor Stravinsky

Pétrouchka

The concert will end at approximately 9:45 p.m.

Gilbert Varga Gilbert Varga, son of the celebrated Hungarian violinist Tibor Varga, studied under three very different and distinctive maestros: Franco Ferrara, Sergiu Celibidache and Charles Bruck. Renowned for his commanding and 36

Overture

elegant baton technique, Mr.Varga has held positions with and guest conducted many of the major orchestras throughout the world. In North America, he made his debut with the Minnesota Orchestra in 2002 and has since developed a flourishing and long-standing relationship with the Orchestra, returning there every season. In 2005, he made a highly successful debut

TIMOTHY GREENFIELD-SANDERS

Support for the appearance of Midori is provided by the Willard and Lillian Hackerman Guest Artist Fund.

Midori Since her debut at the age of 11 with the New York Philharmonic more than 25 years ago, Midori has established a record of achievement that sets her apart as a master musician, an innovator and a champion of the developmental potential of children. Named a “messenger of peace” by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in 2007, she has created a new model for

p ro g r a m notes young artists who seek to balance the joys and demands of a performing career at the highest level with a hands-on investment in the power of music to change lives. Midori's performing schedule includes recitals, chamber music performances and appearances with the world's most prestigious orchestras. Her 2010-2011 season includes new music recitals and workshops; tours of the U.S., Europe and Asia; and increasing her already extensive commitment to music education as chair of the strings department at the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music. Among the conductors with whom Midori will collaborate in the 2010-2011 season are Christoph Eschenbach, Sir Donald Runnicles, Alan Gilbert, Antonio Pappano, Kent Nagano and Edo de Waart. In 1992, Midori founded Midori & Friends, a non-profit organization in New York that brings music education programs to thousands of underprivileged children each year. She also works with Music Sharing (Japan) and Partners in Performance (U.S.) to bring music closer to the lives of people who may not otherwise have involvement with the arts. In 2010-2011, Midori will conduct community engagement programs in Tennessee, New York, Maine, Iowa, Japan, Bulgaria and Laos. Midori’s two most recent recordings are an album of sonatas by J.S. Bach and Béla Bartók, and The Essential Midori, a 2-CD compilation, both issued by Sony Masterworks. NOTES ON THE PROGRAM Overture to Russlan and Ludmilla

Mikhail Glinka Born in Novospasskoy, Russia, June 1, 1804; died in Berlin, Germany, February 15, 1857

When Mikhail Glinka was born in a provincial Russian town in 1804, there was no such thing as Russian classical music. Beethoven was as much the musical model for St. Petersburg as he was for Vienna, and Russian folk melodies were strictly for peasants. Glinka changed all that and became revered by the generations that came after him as the “father of Russian music.” The scion of a wealthy land-owning family, Glinka showed modest musical

aptitude as a child. However, when he moved to St. Petersburg to study in 1817, he became enthralled by the Western European music he heard around him. His musical training was anything but rigorous, but that may have actually helped his originality. Always sickly, in 1830 Glinka decided to move to Italy for his health; there he became friends with the great bel canto opera composers Bellini and Donizetti. But he soon realized that “I could not sincerely be an Italian... A longing for my own country led me gradually to the idea of writing in a Russian manner.” His father’s death in 1834 brought him back to St. Petersburg. There, Glinka made his dreams of a distinctively Russian music a reality with his first opera, A Life for the Tsar. Its 1836 premiere in Petersburg was such a triumph that he promptly began a second opera in 1837. But though Russlan and Ludmilla would become the greater work, it had a rocky genesis. It was set to a colorful and fantastic fairytale by the great Russian poet Alexander Pushkin, another friend of Glinka’s.The tale tells of the beautiful Ludmilla, pursued by three suitors and abducted by the evil dwarf Chernomor; finally after many trials and the undoing of assorted magical spells, she is rescued and won by her true love, the noble Russlan. Pushkin promised he would turn this into a suitable libretto for Glinka, but was killed in a duel before he could accomplish that.Thus Glinka ended up with a messy stew of a libretto, and this contributed to the tepid response at its premiere in St. Petersburg on December 9, 1842. But Glinka’s musical score was beautiful and imaginative, and Russians soon embraced it. In the West, the opera is known only for its dazzling overture. In a well-crafted sonata form, it is above all a brilliant showcase for the violins who must fly through their many notes at a fierce Presto pace.The warmly romantic second theme, sung by the violas and cellos, is taken from Russlan’s second-act aria as he dreams of Ludmilla on the battlefield. A vivacious coda tells us this opera will have a happy ending. Instrumentation: Two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, timpani and strings.

Violin Concerto No. 1 in A Minor, Op. 99

Dmitri Shostakovich Born in St. Petersburg, Russia, September 25, 1906; died in Moscow, August 9, 1975

During his long career under the Communists, Dmitri Shostakovich seesawed between being the pride of Russian music and a pariah one step away from the Siberian Gulag. His lowest moments came in 1936, when he was denounced for his seamy opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (he restored himself to favor with his Fifth Symphony), and again in 1948. In that year, Stalin, aging and crazier than ever, attacked musicians, writers, scientists and scholars, denouncing the most prominent figures to cow the masses. A party resolution condemned composers for “formalistic distortions and anti-democratic tendencies alien to the Soviet people.” Black lists were drawn up, and heading the composers’ list were the names of Shostakovich and Prokofiev. In one of those periods that show human nature at its worst, musicians scrambled to get their names off the list and replace them with those of their rivals. But Shostakovich remained “enemy number one”; his Eighth Symphony had offended because of its “unhealthy individualism” and pessimism, and his frivolous Ninth, supposedly a tribute to Stalin’s war victory, had personally outraged the leader. In 1948, Shostakovich had just completed his First Violin Concerto, but locked it away in a desk drawer; this probing and sometimes sarcastic work might seal his doom with the Soviet authorities. After Stalin’s death in 1953, times were more auspicious.The concerto came out again and was dedicated to the phenomenal Russian violinist David Oistrakh, who played the premiere on October 29, 1955 with the Leningrad Philharmonic. A packed hall gave the composer and soloist ovation after ovation.Taking it on his first American concert tour two months later, Oistrakh with the New York Philharmonic introduced it to equally enthusiastic New York audiences, who realized they were simultaneously meeting a supreme virtuoso and a masterful new work, soon to be established as one of the 20th century’s greatest concertos. September 11, 2010 – November 28, 2010

p ro g r a m notes Composed in four movements of symphonic weight, this is a true “iron man” concerto, calling on everything in the violinist’s technical arsenal as well as vast physical and emotional stamina. Even the redoubtable Oistrakh begged the composer to give the opening of the finale to the orchestra so that “at least I can wipe the sweat off my brow” after the daunting solo cadenza that concludes the third movement.The composer readily complied. Defying first-movement conventions, movement one is a quiet, meditative Nocturne. It gradually rises from the lower depths of orchestra and violin, though dark instrumental colors will be emphasized throughout.This is profoundly melancholy, even anguished music: an aria for violin with the soloist as a lonely insomniac singing to a sleeping, indifferent world. Darkest woodwinds—clarinets with bass clarinet, bassoon with contrabassoon—paint deep shadows around him.The bleak ending, with tolling harp and celesta accompanying the violin floating on a fragile high harmonic note, is unforgettable. The savage second-movement Scherzo is a Fellini-esque circus of the absurd. “Scherzo” means “joke,” and this is a harshly sarcastic joke indeed.This mood is so common in Shostakovich that it seems the composer’s mocking, selfprotective response to the regime he lived under. And in fact, we hear his famous signature motive DSCH: the notes D, S (the German designation for E-flat), C and H (German usage for B-natural). About a minute into the movement, a malicioussounding ensemble of woodwinds mocks the violinist with this motive, and later the violinist bitterly echoes it.The beleaguered soloist flies through a crazed, driven dance of exacting virtuosity. As he would in other major works, Shostakovich turned to the Baroque passacaglia form for his powerful F-minor third movement, the Concerto’s emotional center. (This was the movement the composer was writing at the peak of his 1948 trials.) The passacaglia is a repeating melodic-harmonic pattern, usually in the bass. Shostakovich’s theme, which we hear at the outset in cellos and basses accented by timpani, is 17 measures 38

Overture

long and broken into choppy two-measure phrases. Gradually, this pattern travels through the orchestra; even the soloist eventually takes it up in fierce doublestopped octaves. Over it, the soloist and other instruments weave heartbreakingly expressive melodies.The movement concludes with one of the longest and most taxing (both physically and emotionally) cadenzas ever written for a violinist. It is almost a movement in itself and constitutes the soloist’s commentary on the entire concerto. During its course, we hear reminiscences of the first-movement Nocturne and the Scherzo.The cadenza gradually accelerates into the final movement. The spirit of mockery returns in the Allegro con brio finale, titled “Burlesca.” But here the mood seems less bitter than earlier: more a wild folk dance over a driving rhythmic ostinato. Midway, the passacaglia theme makes a brief, mocking appearance in clarinet, horn and the hard-edged clatter of xylophone. Again, shrill woodwinds dominate this finale, while the soloist hurtles through a non-stop display of virtuosity, culminating in a final acceleration to Presto. Instrumentation: Three flutes, piccolo, three oboes, English horn, three clarinets, bass clarinet, three bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, tuba, timpani, percussion, harp, celesta and strings. Pétrouchka

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

The tremendous success of The Firebird, Igor Stravinsky’s first ballet score for Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, in Paris in June 1910 suddenly made the young Russian the most talked about composer in Europe. Naturally, Diaghilev asked for another score post-haste, and the two agreed it would be about a pagan ritual sacrifice in prehistoric Russia—what would eventually become The Rite of Spring. However, when Diaghilev visited the composer in Lausanne, Switzerland that September, he found Stravinsky caught up in a totally different work, something he thought might be a concert piece for piano and orchestra. Stravinsky called it “Pétrouchka’s Cry” and said it was inspired by his vision of a carnival puppet-like

Punch or Pulcinella: “the immortal and unhappy hero of every fair in all countries.” Diaghilev quickly spotted the dance potential of this story idea and music and urged Stravinsky to develop the material into a ballet, sending in Alexandre Benois, his set designer, to assist the composer in creating the scenario. The Rite of Spring could wait. Stravinsky and Benois fashioned what they called a “burlesque in four scenes.”The two outer scenes conjure the swirling crowds and colorful Russian atmosphere of a Shrovetide (Mardi Gras) fair in St. Petersburg around 1830.The more intimate scenes two and three tell a bittersweet tale of a love triangle between three puppets appearing at the fair: the hapless clown Pétrouchka, the pretty Ballerina he loves and the sinister Blackamoor who wins her affections. With the legendary Russian danseur Nijinsky playing the title role, Pétrouchka matched The Firebird’s success at its premiere in Paris on June 13, 1911. It was Stravinsky’s last unqualified triumph. For although Pétrouchka sounded more bitingly contemporary than The Firebird, it still stayed within the audience’s comfort level. Its fair scenes are crammed with actual Slavic folk melodies and the kind of dazzling orchestral writing that Rimsky-Korsakov (Stravinsky’s teacher) had made a hallmark of Russian style. In a musical version of cinematic crosscutting, Stravinsky jumps rapidly from one crowd vignette to another, showing us hurdy-gurdy players, dancing coachmen and a peasant with a lumbering bear. The composer concentrated his most daring music in the middle scenes, especially in scene two, which introduces us to Pétrouchka’s melancholy yet feisty character and his sense of oppression under the Magician/Charlaton. Here, both orchestration and harmony are more astringent. Carried over from the composer’s original conception, the piano plays a very prominent role as one of the voices of Pétrouchka. As Stravinsky wrote: “I had in my mind a distinct picture of a puppet suddenly endowed with life, exasperating the patience of the orchestra with diabolical cascades of arpeggios.The orchestra in turn retaliates with menacing trumpetblasts.” Stravinsky probably created the

p ro g r a m notes dissonant bitonal (F-sharp major versus C major) harmony that became famous as the “Pétrouchka chord” from playing on black keys in the left hand against white keys in the right.We hear it first in two wailing clarinets, prominently in the piano and sassily outlined in Pétrouchka’s signature trumpet fanfares. The original ballet score was created for an enormous orchestra. In 1947, Stravinsky revised its concert version, slightly reducing the instrumental forces. The revised score included the following succinct guide to the ballet’s action. Four times, you will hear a loud drum tattoo; this first signals the raising of the curtain at the puppet theatre and subsequently the changes from one scene to the next. Scene 1: “In the midst of Shrovetide rejoicings, an old Charlaton of oriental appearance produces before an amazed crowd: the puppets Pétrouchka, the Ballerina and the Moor, who execute a wild [and very Russian] dance.The magic of the Charlatan [his spell represented by a sinuous flute melody] has imbued them with all the human emotions and passions. Scene 2: “Pétrouchka is better endowed than the others...He feels bitterly the cruelty of the Charlatan, his slavery, his exclusion from ordinary life, his ugliness...He seeks consolation in the love of the Ballerina and is on the point of believing himself successful. But the lovely creature only flees in terror before his extraordinary behavior. Scene 3: “The Moor’s life is quite different. He is foolish and evil, but his rich appearance seduces the Ballerina, who seeks by every means to captivate him and finally succeeds. Just as the love scene begins, Pétrouchka, mad with jealousy, arrives, and is at once thrown out by the Moor. Scene 4: “The Shrovetide fair is at its height...Coachmen are dancing with nurses, a bear-tamer arrives with his animal and finally a troupe of masqueraders leads everyone in a mad whirlwind. Suddenly, cries burst from the little theatre of the Charlatan.The rivalry between the Moor and Pétrouchka has [taken] a tragic turn.The marionettes escape from the theatre, and the Moor kills Pétrouchka with one blow from his sabre.The wretched Pétrouchka dies in the snow

surrounded by the festive crowd.The Charlatan...hastens to quiet everyone, and in his hands Pétrouchka becomes the doll once again. He begs those about him to be reassured that the head is wooden and the body filled with sawdust.The crowd disperses.The Charlaton, now alone, sees to his great terror, on the roof of the little theatre, the ghost of Pétrouchka [represented by his brash trumpet fanfares]

who threatens him and leers mockingly at everyone whom the Charlaton has fooled.” Instrumentation: Three flutes, piccolo, two oboes, English horn, three clarinets, bass clarinet, two bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, harp, piano, celesta and strings. Notes by Janet E. Bedell copyright 2010

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September 11, 2010 – November 28, 2010

p ro g r a m notes

Thursday, November 4, 2010 8 p.m.

Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall

B ALTIMORE S YMPHONY O RCHESTRA MARIN ALSOP MUSIC DIRECTOR • HARVEY M. AND LYN P. MEYERHOFF CHAIR

The Unfinished Symphonies Marin Alsop Sasha Cooke

Ludwig van Beethoven Arranged by Gustav Mahler Alma Mahler Orchestrated by David and Colin Matthews

Conductor Mezzo-soprano

Leonore Overture No. 3, Op. 72b

Seven Songs Die stille Stadt Laue Sommernacht Licht in der Nacht Waldseligkeit In meines Vaters Garten Bei dir ist es traut Erntelied SASHA COOKE

INTERMISSION

Ludwig van Beethoven Arranged by Barry Cooper Gustav Mahler Arranged by Deryck Cooke

First Movement from Symphony No. 10

“Adagio” from Symphony No. 10 in F-sharp Major

The concert will end at approximately 9:45 p.m.

Marin Alsop For Marin Alsop’s bio, please see p. 16.

NICK GRANITO

Sasha Cooke Radiant American mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke caused a sensation as Kitty Oppenheimer in the Metropolitan Opera premiere of John Adams’s Doctor Atomic. The NewYorker praised her “fresh, vital portrayal, bringing a luminous tone, a generously supported musical line, a keen sense of verbal nuance and a flair for seduction.” 40

Overture

The 2010-2011 season brings several notable debuts including the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Houston Symphony, Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, Kansas City Symphony, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and the Edmonton Symphony. She also performs Mahler’s “Resurrection” Symphony with the San Francisco and Seattle symphony orchestras; returns to Carnegie’s Zankel Hall with James MacMillan’s Raising Sparks; and gives recitals at the Kennedy Center, Merkin Concert Hall and the University of Minnesota. Ms. Cooke held the Lindemann Vocal

Chair of Young Concert Artists, where in 2007 she won first prize in their international auditions, as well as the Rhoda Walker Teagle Prize, the Fergus First Prize, the Swiss Global Foundation Award and the Embassy Series Concert Prize. In 2010, she won first place and the American Prize in the 2010 José Iturbi International Music Competition, as well as the Kennedy Center’s Marian Anderson Award. NOTES ON THE PROGRAM Leonore Overture No. 3, Op. 72b

Ludwig van Beethoven Born in Bonn, December 16, 1770; died in Vienna, March 26, 1827 Arranged by Gustav Mahler

Beethoven wrote just one opera, Fidelio, but it probably cost him more effort than all nine of his symphonies combined. Unsatisfied with his creation, he composed three versions over the decade 1804–1814 and wrote four overtures for it, all of which are now in the symphonic repertoire.The most famous of them is Leonore No. 3 (the opera was originally called Leonore), which Beethoven composed for the premiere of the opera’s second version in 1806. Based on a French drama, Jean Nicolas Bouilly’s Leonore or Conjugal Love, the story was drawn from real incidents during the French Revolution. It tells of the plight of Florestan, unjustly thrown in prison by a political rival Don Pizarro. Florestan’s resourceful wife, Leonore, discovers where he has been hidden and, disguising herself as a young man, becomes a trustee at the prison.At gunpoint, she faces down the evil Pizarro, and her heroism is rewarded by the sound of a distant trumpet signaling the arrival of the Minister of Justice, Don Fernando. Fernando frees Florestan and the other political prisoners, and they join in a triumphant chorus hailing their freedom and Leonore’s courageous love. Essentially, the Leonore Overture No. 3 tells this whole story in music before the curtain even goes up, and that is exactly why Beethoven finally rejected it for the shorter, lighter Fidelio Overture.With the two trumpet calls heralding Don Fernando‘s timely arrival embedded in the music and the concluding victory coda, the opera’s denouement has already been given away. But if it fails as a curtain raiser, Leonore

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p ro g r a m notes No. 3 triumphs as a concert piece.The slow introduction paints a vivid picture of Florestan in his cell, and the wistful melody sung immediately by clarinets and bassoons comes from his despairing Act II aria, recalling his past joys with Leonore.When the music quickens to Allegro, Leonore appears before us with all her determination.The middle development section becomes a struggle between the forces of good and evil, ended by the offstage trumpet calls. After a hymn of hope and thanksgiving, the work ends in a mighty dance of victory. We will hear Leonore No. 3 as arranged by Gustav Mahler, which he used when conducting this work with the Vienna Philharmonic and other orchestras. Not content to simply recreate what was on the score page, he increased the instruments from Beethoven’s original requirements and gave them some additional melodic material to play. But more important are the sensitive expressive markings he added, as well as the use of a broader range of dynamics, ranging from a whisper to a tremendous roar. Instrumentation: Four flutes, four oboes, four clarinets, four bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, timpani and strings. Seven Songs

Alma Mahler Born in Vienna, Austria, August 31, 1879; died in New York City, December 11, 1964

The daughter of a prominent Austrian painter,Alma Schindler Mahler began composing at the age of 9. In 1897, she began studying composition seriously with the composer Alexander von Zemlinsky, who—like so many men over her lifetime—fell in love with this beautiful, highly intelligent, but willful young woman. Under his tutelage, she created some 100 songs, a piano sonata and an unfinished opera. In November 1901,Alma met Gustav Mahler, and by December, their whirlwind courtship had progressed to marriage discussions. In an astonishingly dictatorial and arrogant letter written on December 19, Mahler presented his fiancée with an ultimatum: give up your composing or there will be no marriage.“Would it be possible for you, from now on, to regard my music as yours?...How do you picture the married life of a husband and wife who are both composers? Have you any idea how ridiculous 42

Overture

and, in time, degrading for both of us such a peculiarly competitive relationship would inevitably become?...But one thing is certain and that is that you must become ‘what I need’ if we are to be happy together, i.e., my wife, not my colleague...The role of ‘composer,’ the ‘worker’s’ role, falls to me—yours is that of the loving companion and understanding partner.” Alma was initially horrified at Mahler’s request and briefly considered calling off the relationship. But ultimately, her passion for him won out and they married in March 1902. But Alma’s resentment over her sacrifice continued to simmer and she insisted on bringing her compositions along with her wherever they moved. In 1910, the Mahlers’ marriage encountered a crisis as the architect Walter Gropius (whom Alma would eventually marry after Mahler’s death) began courting her. Mahler was so devastated by the prospect of losing Alma that he consulted the famed psychiatrist Sigmund Freud.And he began to make amends in his relationship with his wife. Coming back to the house one day,Alma found him playing her songs at the piano. She reported that he exclaimed:“What have I done? These songs are good—they’re excellent. I insist on your working on them, and we’ll have them published. I shall never be happy until you start composing again. God, how blind and selfish I was in those days!”And Mahler made good on his promise: he took five of the songs to his publisher, and they were duly brought out in 1910.We will hear four of these early songs, probably written around 1900 or 1901. After Mahler’s death,Alma continued composing and published a set of four songs in 1915 (of which we will hear “Licht in der Nacht,”“Waldseligkeit” and “Erntelied”) and a further five songs in 1924. During World War II, most of her compositions were lost and only 16 songs survived. A commonality shared by most of the seven songs we will hear is their focus on nighttime settings and themes, some positive (“Laue Sommernacht,”“Waldseligkeit,” “Bei dir ist es traut”), some negative (“Licht in der Nacht”) and one ambiguous (“Die stille Stadt”).The fairytale-flavored “In meines Vaters Garten” is also named “French Cradle Song” relates to night.“Erntelied” is set at sunrise and heralds the coming of day.Alma

wrote all the songs for voice and piano, but we will hear them in orchestral arrangements by David and Colin Matthews. Alma shows herself to be very sensitive to the nuances of the poetry she sets—by contemporary poets including the highly regarded Richard Dehmel and Rainer Maria Rilke—and very skillful at translating them expressively into music.The songs are in a quite advanced Late Romantic style, often with unconventional harmonies. The three later songs of 1915 show a considerable advance in sophistication and originality compared to the earlier four: “Licht in der Nacht” (“Light in the Night”) capturing an extraordinary atmosphere of hope mingled with despair,“Waldseligkeit” (“Woodland Bliss”) a mood of uncanny ecstasy and “Erntelied” (“Harvest Song”) a gradual ascent—matching the rising sun— to rapturous, wordless praise. Instrumentation: Two flutes, piccolo, two oboes, English horn, two clarinets, bass clarinet, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, timpani, percussion, harp and strings. First Movement from Symphony No. 10

Ludwig van Beethoven Arranged by Barry Cooper

The curse of the Tenth Symphony is one of the legends of classical music. Several prominent composers—among them Beethoven, Schubert, Bruckner, Dvorˇák and Mahler—did not live to either begin or finish their tenth symphonies, and the superstition—which Mahler certainly believed—that the Tenth Symphony represented death for its creator kept growing in power. Death did prevent Mahler from completing his Tenth, but when we come to Beethoven and the fragments he left of a Tenth Symphony, the situation turns out to be much less romantic. Beethoven worked fitfully on his Tenth for many years before his death in 1827, but it was always pushed aside for a more urgent project.And it was not alone: Beethoven had many ideas for new works that he never brought to fruition in his later years. Ill health forced him to make ruthless decisions about what to work on.The Ninth Symphony, premiered in 1824, absorbed his energy.And then, he became obsessed with the string quartet, creating five extraordinary late quartets

p ro g r a m notes during the closing years before his death. There simply wasn’t any time for the Tenth. But Beethoven did leave behind some tantalizing sketches created in 1822 and 1824 for the first movement of the Tenth, and a friend Karl Holz remembered hearing him play some version of this movement on the piano. It was unlike any other movement in his symphonies, although its opening theme bears a strong resemblance to the slow movement of the Ninth Symphony. Its form was most unusual: a calm and lovely Andante in E-flat major, followed by a stormy, combative Allegro in Beethoven’s favorite C minor (the key of the Fifth Symphony) and closing with a return to the almost otherworldly serenity of the Andante. The British Beethoven scholar Barry Cooper began assembling these sketches and decided that there was enough material for him to prepare a performing edition of the movement in 1988. But when we listen to it, keep in mind that we’re hearing some Beethoven and also a lot of Barry Cooper endeavoring to write in Beethoven’s style. As Cooper explained:“All the basic thematic material is Beethoven’s, but appropriate harmony has had to be added in places where it is missing, the movement has had to be orchestrated in Beethoven’s style (with the aid of only a few clues in the sketches), and linking passages based on Beethoven’s themes have been inserted where necessary.”The resulting movement is a very intriguing example of “What if?” Instrumentation: Two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, timpani and strings. “Adagio” from Symphony No. 10 in F-sharp Major

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

The summer of 1910, the last summer of Gustav Mahler’s life, was one of tremendous strain—the worst possible situation for a man with a bad heart. Since 1907, the composer had known that his condition would end his life.As he celebrated his 50th birthday, even his marriage to the beautiful and much younger Alma seemed in jeopardy. Alma Mahler was being ardently pursued by architect Walter Gropius (whom

she would marry after Mahler’s death), and Gropius was begging her to leave her husband. In an act of stunning Freudian carelessness, he wrote her a letter to this effect, but addressed it to Mahler.The ensuing crisis sent the composer to Vienna briefly to consult with Sigmund Freud. Ultimately, the marriage survived, but Mahler’s feelings are revealed in the series of anguished cries he inscribed on the sketches of his latest work, the Tenth Symphony he would never complete: “Farewell, my lyre...Almshili, to live for you, to die for you...Have mercy, O Lord, why hast thou forsaken me?” With his marriage shakily back on its feet, Mahler finished a sketch of the Tenth, including all its themes, its sequence of events and copious indications about its scoring. Its opening Adagio movement and part of its third movement,“Purgatorio,” were essentially done. He had no doubt that during the summer of 1911, he would bring the Symphony to completion. But in February 1911, the terrible heartrelated streptococcal infections resumed, and Mahler was forced to quit the New York Philharmonic and return to Vienna where died on May 18.The composer had considered destroying the incomplete score of the Tenth, but decided to leave it in Alma’s care to use her discretion as to its fate. For another 12 years,Alma guarded the score from all eyes. But in 1923, the widow relented a bit and allowed her son-in-law, the young composer Ernst Krenek, to prepare performing editions of the Adagio and the “Purgatorio” movements, which— with additional scoring by Franz Schalk and Alexander von Zemlinsky—were revealed to the world in October 1924. In 1960, British musicologist Deryck Cooke determined to honor the centennial of Mahler’s birth with a realization of the full five-movement score, built as faithfully as possible on the composer’s surviving sketches and instructions.Alma, now in her eighties, objected, but eventually her consent was won and this completed version was premiered in London on August 13, 1964. Versions by other musicians have followed, but Cooke’s is still the most often performed. Many conductors, however, believe that only the Adagio first movement should be played, because it is virtually all Mahler’s. Mahler’s last three symphonic works—

and the orchestral song cycle Das Lied von der Erde should be included here with the Ninth and Tenth symphonies—all revolve around the composer’s struggle to reconcile himself to a fast-approaching death. This struggle achieves its most agonizing expression in the Ninth Symphony, which ends with an Adagio finale in which all attachment to life seems to be relinquished. The Tenth’s opening Adagio takes up the pessimistic emotional state of the Ninth’s last movement and pushes it in a new direction. Crafted as a double variations form with a prolonged closing coda, it is built from two contrasting themes, the first of which seems to stand as a representation of Mahler’s own inner state of mind and the other as the unconcerned world of nature and daily life that will carry on after he has gone. The movement opens with a haunting recitative sung by the violas alone; the mood of resignation seems to come directly from the Ninth. But then the Adagio itself begins, in the home key of F-sharp major: a glorious, upward-vaulting melody full of large, yearning intervals that proclaims a powerful attachment to life. It is succeeded by the second theme, in F-sharp minor: a charming, dancing melody belonging to the rural Austrian world of many of Mahler’s scherzos, but without their sarcastic bite.After the viola recitative reprises, Mahler explores and expands his first theme, with expressive counterpoint intensifying the rapture and stinging dissonances the pain.The bucolic theme also undergoes expansion, with woodwind birdcalls and violin solos conjuring up the life around Toblach in the Italian Dolomites, Mahler’s final composing retreat. Suddenly a great, explosive brass chorale interrupts,“like some awe-inspiring cosmic revelation,” in Deryck Cooke’s words.Then comes the crisis: a loud, shattering discord of nine clashing pitches answered by screaming solo trumpet and violins that surely represents the arrival of Death. (This moment will return again in the Symphony’s finale.) The bucolic theme resumes, but now sadder, frailer and attacked by dissonance. The first theme fragments, and the music dies slowly away. Instrumentation: Four flutes, piccolo, four oboes, four clarinets, bass clarinet, four bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, four trumpets, four trombones, tuba, harp and strings. Notes by Janet E. Bedell, copyright 2010

September 11, 2010 – November 28, 2010

Friday, November 5, 2010 8 p.m.

Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall

B ALTIMORE S YMPHONY O RCHESTRA MARIN ALSOP MUSIC DIRECTOR • HARVEY M. AND LYN P. MEYERHOFF CHAIR

SPECIAL PRESENTATION

Ravi Shankar Ravi Shankar

Sitar

The program will be announced from stage. Please note: the BSO does not perform on this program.

The concert will end at approximately 10 p.m.

VINCENT LIMONGELLI

Ravi Shankar

Overture

Ravi Shankar, the legendary sitarist and composer, is India’s most esteemed musical ambassador and a singular phenomenon in the classical music worlds of East and West. As a performer, composer, teacher and writer, he has done more for Indian music than any other musician has and is well known for his work in bringing Indian music to the West after long years of dedicated study under his illustrious guru Baba Allaudin Khan and after making a name for himself in India. Ravi Shankar has written three concertos for sitar and orchestra, the last composed in 2008. He has also authored violin-sitar compositions for Yehudi Menuhin and himself; music for flute virtuoso Jean Pierre Rampal; music for Hosan Yamamoto, master of the Shakuhachi, and Koto virtuoso Musumi Miyashita; as well as collaborated with Phillip Glass (Passages). George Harrison produced and participated in two of Shankar’s albums: Shankar Family & Friends and Festival of India. Shankar has also composed for ballets and films in India,

Canada, Europe and the United States— the latter of which includes the films Charly, Gandhi and the Apu trilogy. Ravi Shankar is an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and is a member of the United Nations International Rostrum of composers. He has received many awards and honors including 14 doctorates, the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan, Desikottam, Padma Bhushan of 1967, the 1975 Music Council UNESCO Award, the Magsaysay Award from Manila, two Grammy’s, the Fukuoka grand prize from Japan, the Polar Music Prize of 1998 and the Crystal Award from Davos. In 1986, he was nominated as a member of the Rajya Sabha, India’s upper house of Parliament. Deeply moved by the plight of more than eight million refugees who came to India during the Bangladesh Freedom struggle from Pakistan, Ravi Shankar wanted to help in any way he could. He planned to arrange a concert to collect money for the refugees.This humanitarian concern from Shankar sowed the seed of the concept for the Concert for Bangladesh.With the help of George Harrison, this concert became the first magnus effort in fundraising, paving the way for many others to do charity concerts.

B ALTIMORE S YMPHONY O RCHESTRA MARIN ALSOP MUSIC DIRECTOR • HARVEY M. AND LYN P. MEYERHOFF CHAIR

OFF THE CUFF

Analyze This: Mahler and Freud Presenting Sponsor:

Marin Alsop Didi Balle

Conductor Writer and stage director

Please see insert for additional program information.

The concert will end at approximately 8:30 p.m.

Support for this program generously provided by:

Marin Alsop For Marin Alsop’s bio, please see p. 16.

MICHAEL STADLER

Didi Balle Didi Balle’s writing and directing credits include commissions, broadcasts and productions of her work spanning symphonic stage shows, radio, theatre, song cycles, musical theater and opera. Her work has been performed by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, City of London Sinfonia, New York City Opera and Manhattan Rhythm Kings, in venues ranging from the Lincoln Center to the Barbican Center for the Arts in London. She is the founding director of a new production company, Symphonic Stage Shows, which offers orchestras and audiences a new experience of classical

music theater. In collaboration with Music Director Marin Alsop, Ms. Balle was commissioned by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra to write and direct the highly successful CSI Beethoven, which was presented in Feb. 2008.Their collaborations also include Radio Rhapsody, which premiered at Lincoln Center, and Analyze This: Mahler and Freud. Ms. Balle served as a contributing editor for The NewYork Times syndicate for 13 years. She received her master’s degree in fine arts from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, where she was awarded the Oscar Hammerstein Scholarship as a playwright-lyricist. Her first writing job was co-writing a weekly radio musical comedy with Garrison Keillor called “The Story of Gloria, A Young Woman of Manhattan.”

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Saturday, November 6, 2010 7 p.m.

BSOmusic.org/choose September 11, 2010 – November 28, 2010

p ro g r a m notes

Thursday, November 11, 2010 8 p.m. Friday, November 12, 2010 8 p.m. Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall

B ALTIMORE S YMPHONY O RCHESTRA MARIN ALSOP MUSIC DIRECTOR • HARVEY M. AND LYN P. MEYERHOFF CHAIR

Beethoven’s “Eroica” Symphony Marin Alsop Simon Trpcˇeski

Samuel Barber Sergei Prokofiev

Conductor Piano

Essay No. 2, Op. 17 Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Major, Op. 26 Andante - Allegro Andantino Allegro ma non troppo SIMON TRPCˇESKI

INTERMISSION

Ludwig van Beethoven Arranged by Gustav Mahler

Symphony No.3 in E-Flat Major, Op. 55, “Eroica” Allegro con brio Marcia funebre: Adagio assai Scherzo: Allegro vivace Finale: Allegro molto

The concert will end at approximately 10 p.m.

Support for this program generously provided by:

Support for the appearance of Simon Trpcˇeski is provided by the Alvin and Fanny Blaustein Thalheimer Guest Artist Fund.

Mr.Trpcˇeski is praised not only for his impeccable technique and delicate expression, but also for his warm personality and commitment to strengthening Macedonia’s cultural image. In North America, Mr.Trpcˇeski has performed with The Cleveland Orchestra, the NewYork and Los Angeles philharmonic orchestras,The Philadelphia Orchestra, the Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Chicago, Toronto and Baltimore symphony orchestras. In Europe, he is a frequent soloist with the London and City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestras. He has also performed with the Royal Concertgebouw, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and the Rotterdam, Strasbourg and St. Petersburg philharmonics. During the 2010-2011 season, Mr.Trpcˇeski makes his Carnegie Hall debut with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and Marin Alsop and performs with the Montreal,Atlanta and Boston symphony orchestras, along with numerous ensembles worldwide. Recital appearances include New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C.,Atlanta, Seattle, San Francisco,Toronto,Vancouver, London, Paris, Munich, Hamburg,Amsterdam, Prague, Milan and Tokyo. Simon Trpcˇeski has received much praise for his four EMI recital recordings, including Gramophone’s Editor’s Choice and Debut Album awards. March 2010 saw his debut concerto recording with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and Vasily Petrenko (Rachmaninoff Piano Concertos Nos. 2 and 3), which debuted in the top 10 on the UK’s specialist classical chart. In addition to his international engagements, Simon Trpcˇeski is a faculty member at his alma mater, the School of Music at the University of St. Cyril and St. Methodius in Skopje. NOTES ON THE PROGRAM Essay No. 2, Op. 17

Samuel Barber Marin Alsop Simon Trpcˇeski With the ability to perform a diverse range of repertoire—from Haydn and Chopin to Debussy and Stravinsky—Macedonian 46

Overture

JILLIAN EDELSTEIN

For Marin Alsop’s bio, please see p. 16.

pianist Simon Trpcˇeski has captivated audiences worldwide and established himself as one of the most remarkable young musicians to have emerged in recent years.

Born in West Chester, Pennsylvania, March 10, 1910; died in New York City, January 23, 1981

By 1942, Samuel Barber, barely into his 30s, was one of the most sought-after composers in America.The world’s leading conductors—Ormandy,Toscanini, Szell, Koussevitzky—vied to perform his latest orchestral works. Barber’s music appealed

p ro g r a m notes to them for the same reasons that audiences love him today.An unashamed Romantic, he gloried in those musical qualities that most listeners yearn for: lyrical, expansive melodies; emotional expressiveness; conservative, solidly tonal harmonic language and elegant exploitation of the unique beauties of whatever instrument he was writing for, be it a violin, oboe or soprano singer. But now Barber was also sought after by his draft board.Waiting to be called up for service, he turned his mind to a new work requested by conductor Bruno Walter to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the New York Philharmonic.A composer with a deep interest in literature, he had enjoyed a major success with his Essay No. 1 in 1937 (created for Toscanini) and he would conclude his career in 1978 with a third Essay. In explaining his choice of the word “essay” for a musical work, Barber cited its definition in the Oxford Dictionary: “a composition of moderate length on any particular subject...more or less elaborate in style, though limited in range.” But Barber’s essay subjects would be purely musical, not involved with any extra-musical subject; about the Second Essay, he explained: “Although it has no program, one perhaps hears that it was written in wartime.” Less austere than his First Essay, the Second Essay follows an overtly emotional and dramatic path over its 10-minute span. It begins with a gentle pastoral theme passed among a colorful group of woodwind soloists: flute, bass clarinet and English horn. This theme seems quintessentially American with its syncopated rhythms and “wideopen-spaces” melodic intervals of the fourth and fifth (Aaron Copland favored them, too).Then the violas offer a more urgent and sweeping second theme. Midway through the piece, an abrupt loud chord for full orchestra introduces an elaborate fugal section built on a sped-up version of the opening theme and eventually draws in the second theme as well. Finally, from a fivenote descending pattern in the horns, Barber builds an eloquent chorale, which soars to a passionate, openhearted close. Instrumentation: Two flutes, piccolo, two oboes, English horn, two clarinets, bass clarinet, two bassoons, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion and strings.

Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Major, Op. 26

Sergei Prokofiev Born in Sontsovka, Ukraine, April 23, 1891; died in Moscow, March 5, 1953

When Sergei Prokofiev fled the Russian Revolution by train across Siberia and by steamer across the Pacific to San Francisco in 1918, he had high hopes that America would be the land of opportunity for him as it had been for so many others.American audiences and critics were initially fascinated by this bold young pianist/composer whom they saw as embodying the proletarian spirit of the new Soviet Union—never mind that he was in reality a refugee. The NewYork Times gushed:“His fingers are steel, his wrists steel, his biceps and triceps steel...He is a tonal steel trust...He is blond, slender, modest as a musician and his impassability contrasted with the volcanic eruptions he produced on the keyboard.” Heartened by this enthusiasm, Prokofiev spent the summer of 1921 on the Brittany coast of France completing both his Third Piano Concerto and his opera The Love for Three Oranges for December premieres in Chicago, by the Chicago Symphony and the Chicago Lyric Opera, respectively.The Piano Concerto, however, had had a long gestation period back in Russia, with some of its ideas dating back as far as 1911. It grew into a work of remarkable unity and power, which embodied all five elements Prokofiev listed in his autobiography as characteristics of his music: the “classical,” the “modernistic,” the “dynamic,” the “lyrical” and the “humorous.” This concerto is one of the great tests of a pianist’s technical virtuosity. Even its composer found it formidable.“My Third Concerto has turned out to be devilishly difficult. I’m nervous and I’m practicing hard three hours a day,” he wrote before the Chicago premiere.To his surprise, the work drew only a lukewarm response in an America still uncomfortable with “modern” music. But audiences in Europe loved it, and soon Prokofiev moved to Paris, ruefully acknowledging that the U.S. wasn’t ready for him. In creating a bravura work for piano, Prokofiev did not slight the orchestra. Its colorful writing is nearly equally demanding, and its pungent woodwinds and soaring strings add a characteristically Prokofievian blend of irony and romance.

This is a concerto without a true slow movement; instead the composer weaves slower, more lyrical episodes into all three movements. The first movement opens with a slow introduction in which solo clarinet, then two clarinets sing a melancholy Russian melody.Then the orchestra swings into a fast tempo, and the piano presents the brilliant, twisting principal theme. Even more exotic is the second theme, sung by the oboe above clattering castanets and featuring crisp, percussive writing for the piano. On its later return, this second theme will become harsher, almost grotesque, with thick piano chords topped by a shrieking piccolo. Midway through, the tempo returns to a slower Andante as the piano rhapsodizes over the opening Russian theme. In the second movement, a droll dance theme in the woodwinds over a 4/4 march in the strings forms the basis of five contrasting variations.These range from fast virtuoso outings for the piano to a slow, mysterious reverie by the soloist over light woodwind and string accompaniment. The quiet conclusion of this movement is especially intriguing. The finale is a mixture of rhythmic drive and soaring lyricism. It is dominated by some of the most relentlessly difficult piano writing ever devised. But relief comes in the big central lyrical section, featuring one of Prokofiev’s signature high-arching melodies tossed from woodwinds to violins. The drive to the finish ranks among the most exciting in the concerto literature, with virtuosity, speed and pitch all raised to the very zenith. Instrumentation: Two flutes, piccolo, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, timpani, percussion and strings. Symphony No. 3 in E-flat Major, Op. 55, “Eroica”

Ludwig van Beethoven Born in Bonn, Germany, December 16, 1770; died in Vienna, Austria, March 26, 1827 Arranged by Gustav Mahler

Although the responses to Beethoven’s music are as varied as the individuals who listen to it, virtually everyone seems to agree that it often embodies an ethical or spiritual quest.And this epic quest is most forcefully expressed in the works Beethoven wrote during the first decade September 11, 2010 – November 28, 2010

p ro g r a m notes of the 19th century: what we now call his “Heroic Period.” Historically, this was also an era of heroism and aspiration.The American and French revolutions had recently acted out humankind’s desire for freedom and self-determination and thrust forward leaders such as Washington and Bonaparte. The contemporary German dramas of Goethe and Schiller celebrated historical freedom fighters like Egmont and Wallenstein and mythical ones like William Tell. Beethoven translated this aspiring spirit into music. Living in Vienna under the autocratic Hapsburg regime and protected only by his genius, he acted out his dream of individual liberty in his daily life. His career revolved around two heroic quests: his struggle against encroaching deafness and his creative battle to forge a new musical language within a conservative and often hostile environment.And this musical language was itself heroic: with its audacious harmonic procedures, epic expanded forms, virile themes, assaulting rhythms and pronounced military character. Beethoven launched his Heroic Period with his Third Symphony, a work he subtitled “Sinfonia eroica, composed to celebrate the memory of a great man.” The question of exactly who that “great man” was has provided fertile grounds for commentators to till ever since.The chief candidate, of course, is Napoleon. Beethoven himself told his publisher that “the subject is Bonaparte,” but he also reportedly tore off the work’s title page to expunge Napoleon’s name upon hearing in 1804 that the Frenchman had crowned himself emperor. Others have suggested the noble Trojan prince Hector, Homer’s hero in the Iliad, or because of Beethoven’s use of a theme from his Creatures of Prometheus ballet score in the finale, the mythical Prometheus. Many believe the hero to be Beethoven himself. In any case, the “Eroica” was itself a heroic act: shocking its first audiences and setting a new symphonic template for future composers to emulate.A contemporary critic spoke for many when he described it as “a very long drawn-out, daring and wild fantasy…very often it seems to lose itself in anarchy.” In a work twice the length of previous symphonies, Beethoven had expanded 18th-century symphonic structures beyond his contemporaries’ powers 48

Overture

of comprehension. Even more challenging was the “Eroica’s” harmonic daring and overall tone of aggression. It did not seek to please and amuse its listeners but to challenge and provoke them. We hear the challenge in the two loud E-flat chords that open the first movement. More than introductory gestures, they are the germinal motive of the symphony. From them Beethoven builds the repeated sforzando chords, with their arresting dislocation of the beat that we hear a few moments later. Just before the end of the exposition, he adds teeth-grinding dissonance to this mix, and in the development section, this concoction explodes in a shattering crisis. The movement’s principal theme is a simple swinging between the notes of an E-flat-major chord that quickly stumbles on a dissonant C-sharp. It will take the rest of this giant movement, with its expanded development and coda sections, to resolve this stumble. So intense is Beethoven’s forward propulsion that his themes never have time to blossom into melody. In fact, the most compelling theme waits until the development, when oboes and cellos introduce it as part of the recovery from the hammering dissonant chords. As the development trails off into an eerie passage of trembling violins, the horns anticipate the principal theme (early listeners interpreted this as a mistake by the players!) and push the orchestra into the recapitulation. After an outsized coda, Beethoven wraps up his heroic journey with the opening hammer blows. The second-movement funeral march in C minor is in rondo form; Beethoven here converts a form often used for light-hearted Classical finales to a tragic purpose. Over imitation drum rolls in the strings, the famous threnody unfolds its majestic course. It is succeeded by an episode in C major that injects rays of sunshine and hope, with fanfares proclaiming the greatness of the fallen hero. Then, the dirge melody returns and swiftly becomes an imposing fugue: counterpoint intensifying emotion. In the movement’s remarkable closing measures, the march theme disintegrates into sobbing fragments. The third-movement scherzo provides relief after the weight and drama of the opening movements.Yet it too retains

intensity in the midst of light-heartedness. Beethoven re-introduces a gentler variant of the off-the-downbeat hammer blows from the first movement; eventually they briefly throw the three-beat meter into two beats. The trio section features virtuoso writing for the three horns. After the struggle, the finale brings us joy in the form of sublime musical play. It is an imposing set of variations on a theme Beethoven had used three times before: in an early set of Contredances, in The Creatures of Prometheus and for the piano variations now known as the Eroica Variations.Actually, these are double variations because Beethoven first isolates the bass line of his theme as a witty little tune in its own right, only later giving us the theme itself in the woodwinds. Elaborate fugal passages and a grandly martial episode culminate in a sublime apotheosis: a group of variations in a slower tempo that proclaims the hero’s immortality.The Presto climax is capped by the symphony’s opening E-flat hammer blows, now triumphant rather than tragic. At these concerts, we will hear the “Eroica” in Gustav Mahler’s arrangement, which he created for his concerts with the Vienna Philharmonic and elsewhere.As a great composer as well as a conductor, Mahler took a highly creative approach to performing Beethoven’s symphonies, rather than being content with simply recreating what was on the score page. In keeping with late-Romantic taste, he enlarged the sections of the orchestra, adding additional strings, brass and even a second timpani.And he sometimes added new countermelodies for these musicians to play. But the most striking change is the use of a much broader range of dynamics than Beethoven had called for: everything from pppp to ffff. These changes were controversial; Brahms called Mahler “the most incorrigible revolutionist.” But Mahler insisted that he was doing no violence to Beethoven’s intentions and that he “was determined not to sacrifice one iota of what the Master demands.” Instrumentation: Four flutes, four oboes, four clarinets, piccolo clarinet, four bassoons, six horns, four trumpets, timpani and strings. Notes by Janet E. Bedell, copyright 2010

p ro g r a m notes

Sunday, November 21, 2010 3 p.m.

Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall

B ALTIMORE S YMPHONY O RCHESTRA MARIN ALSOP MUSIC DIRECTOR • HARVEY M. AND LYN P. MEYERHOFF CHAIR

Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto Presenting Sponsor:

Günther Herbig Tianwa Yang

Conductor Violin

Maurice Ravel

Mother Goose Suite Pavane of the Sleeping Beauty Tom Thumb Laideronette, Empress of the Pagodas Conversations of Beauty and the Beast The Enchanted Garden

Sergei Prokofiev

Violin Concerto No.1 in D Major, Op. 19 Andantino Scherzo:Vivacissimo Moderato TIANWA YANG

INTERMISSION

Dmitri Shostakovich

Symphony No. 10 in E Minor, Op. 93 Moderato Allegro Allegretto Andante - Allegro

The concert will end at approximately 10 p.m.

Support for this program generously provided by:

Günther Herbig Günther Herbig left behind the challenging political environment of East Germany and moved to the United States in 1984.

He became music director of the Detroit Symphony and later the music director of the Toronto Symphony. He has also held posts that include principal guest conductor of both the Dallas Symphony and the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, and general music director of both the Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra and Berlin

Symphony Orchestra. Currently, he is artistic advisor of the National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan and principal guest conductor of Las Palmas in the Grand Canaries, Spain. He toured extensively with the Detroit and Toronto symphony orchestras, including tours to Europe and the Far East. Conducting all of the major orchestras, he has recorded more than 100 works, some of which were with the East German orchestras with whom he was associated prior to moving to the West in 1984. He has made recordings with several of the London orchestras, the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and the Saarbrücken RSO. Key figures in his training include Hermann Abendroth, Hermann Scherchen and Herbert von Karajan. England’s Manchester Evening News calls Herbig “one of the greats,” adding “Herbig brings life and distinction to everything he touches.”

Tianwa Yang Of Beijing descent, Tianwa Yang started studying the violin at age 4, soon winning six out of the seven violin competitions she entered. At age 10, she was accepted into Central Conservatory of Music in Bejing. Following her performance at the 1999 Beijing Music Festival, Isaac Stern invited her to study with him in the U.S. In 2000, at age 13, she recorded the 24 Caprices of Paganini, making her the youngest interpreter of this composition worldwide. She made her European debut at age 14 performing the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto with the Czech Broadcasting Symphony Orchestra. Ms.Yang gave her North American debut in 2008 at the Virginia Arts Festival with the Virginia Symphony. She has since performed with the Seattle, Detroit and Nashville symphonies. She toured Germany with Klassische Philharmonie Bonn, performed at the Montpellier and Schwetzingen festivals and appeared in recital at the Berlin Philharmonic Hall and Wigmore Hall, London. Highlights this season include debuts with Buffalo Philharmonic and at the Ravinia Festival; as well as performances with the Royal September 11, 2010 – November 28, 2010

p ro g r a m notes Liverpool, BBC, Hong Kong and Warsaw philharmonic orchestras, Sinfonia Finlandia, Orchestre National d’ille de France and MDR-Sinfonieorchester. NOTES ON THE PROGRAM Mother Goose Suite

Maurice Ravel Born in Ciboure, Basses-Pyrenées, France, March 7, 1875; died in Paris, December 28, 1937

Although a bachelor, Maurice Ravel adored children.Two of his small friends were Mimie and Jean Godebski, the offspring of a Polish-born couple whose Paris apartment and country house, La Grangette, was a gathering place for Ravel and many of his colleagues. Ravel told them stories, invented ingenious toys and games and sent them funny postcards when he was away.And his ultimate gift—completed at La Grangette in 1910—was a five-part piano work for four hands entitled Ma Mère l’oye, or Mother Goose after Charles Perrault’s 17th-century collection of fairy tales. He hoped they would learn it for performance, but Jean and Mimie found the work a bit too advanced for their modest skills. Instead Jeanne Leleu, age 6 (who would have a successful career as a pianist) and Geneviève Duroy, age 7, premiered Mother Goose in Paris on April 20, 1910. Everyone was charmed, and by 1911 Ravel had turned it into a ballet, orchestrated with the consummate skill that was one of his greatest talents. Ravel wrote of this enchanting music, “My intention of awaking the poetry of childhood...naturally led me to simplify my style and thin out my writing.” And nothing could be simpler than “Pavane of Sleeping Beauty,” with which the suite opens.This is a dream-like dance with a slowly circling theme played by various woodwind soloists, delicately punctuated by plucked and muted strings. “Tom Thumb” (or “Petit Poucet” in French), is a nightmare for its tiny hero lost in the woods. Ravel quotes Perrault in the score: “He thought he would easily find his way thanks to the bread he had scattered wherever he had passed, but he was quite surprised when he couldn’t see even a single crumb. Birds had come along and eaten every bit.”Wandering lines in muted strings—their pace changing meter every few measures—grope their way 50

Overture

through the forest, while the oboe and English horn evoke the child’s tears. In 1889 at the Paris World Exhibition, Ravel first heard a Javanese gamelan orchestra, and it inspired a lifelong fascination with the Orient. In “Laideronnette, Empress of the Pagodas,” he conjures up the bell-like magic of gamelan music using the sparkling high timbres of Western instruments and the Asian pentatonic scale (the scale using the five black notes of the piano). Laideronnette, meaning “the little ugly one,” has been made ugly by an evil spell, but the happy ending will restore her beauty. “Conversations of Beauty and the Beast”: In this romantic waltz, Beauty is portrayed by a silky-voiced clarinet and the Beast by the ungainly contrabassoon. Eventually, their jarringly different voices unite in a love duet. A sweep of the harp marks the undoing of the spell, and the Beast is transformed into a handsome prince, nobly sung by the cello. The Mother Goose Suite ends with a glorious apotheosis: a child’s vision of paradise, “The Enchanted Garden.” Instrumentation: Two flutes, piccolo, two oboes, English horn, two clarinets, two bassoons, contrabassoon, two horns, timpani, percussion, harp, celesta and strings. Violin Concerto No. 1 in D Major, Op. 19

Sergei Prokofiev Born in Sontsovka, Ukraine, April 23, 1891; died in Moscow, March 5, 1953

The year 1917 was a momentous one in Russian history. In March, the Czar was deposed and a moderate parliamentary government was installed, led by Alexander Kerensky; in October, this regime fell to Lenin’s Bolshevik Revolution. Like many artists, Prokofiev was more interested in music than in politics, and he did his best to ignore it all. In fact, 1917 became the most prolific year of his life, bringing forth the First Violin Concerto, the First or “Classical” Symphony, the “Visions fugitives” for piano, the Third and Fourth Piano Sonatas and the beginning of his Third Piano Concerto. Prokofiev managed to accomplish all this by distancing himself from St. Petersburg’s upheavals and retreating to remote corners of the country. He actually orchestrated the Violin Concerto while traveling through western Siberia.

Ultimately the country’s chaotic situation became too much, and in May 1918, he fled across Siberia to settle in the West. Fascinatingly, none of the music he wrote in 1917 reflected the massive transformations Russia was undergoing. Indeed, the First Violin Concerto represented a dramatic departure from the earlier aggressive, in-your-face style that had earned him the reputation as Russian music’s enfant terrible. Here, for the first time, Prokofiev revealed the lyrical side of his genius that would become more prominent as he grew older. New, too, was the delicacy of the orchestral writing: a surprise coming from the composer who had recently deafened audiences with his savage Scythian Suite. We hear this work’s lyricism and delicacy immediately in the first movement as the soloist launches an expansive, soaring melody in flowing 6/8 meter against hushed string tremolos and the misty colors of high woodwinds. For more than two minutes, this rapturous melody wafts over us until abruptly the meter shifts to 4/4 and the cellos introduce an incisively rhythmic march theme as contrast.The soloist responds with a burst of energetic virtuosity. (This Concerto challenges the soloist throughout with writing of fearsome difficulty.) The development section is a steady buildup of intensity in terms of solo bravura, orchestral force and increasing speed. Ultimately, a poignant passage of double-stopped notes by the soloist eases the accumulated tension and leads to the reprise of the lyrical song, now slower than before.This time it is sung by solo flute with the muted violin weaving an ethereal obbligato around it, supported by the soft pattering of harp. Here is one of Prokofiev’s most beautiful passages. The composer’s abrasive bad-boy style returns for the whirlwind Scherzo second movement, in which the soloist is required to dig deeply into her technical arsenal and deliver it all at a break-neck Vivacissimo pace. Prokofiev’s trademark sarcasm fuels the orchestra’s shrill, edgy sounds and rhythms. Lyricism returns for the slower finale, and here Prokofiev finds subtler ways to challenge his soloist. Against a ticking accompaniment (another Prokofiev

p ro g r a m notes trademark), the bassoon launches a droll melody that the violin immediately mellows with the aid of warmly romantic harp chords.The violas maintain this romantic mood in the smooth second theme while the violinist energizes it with brisk staccato double stops. In the concluding coda, Prokofiev recaptures the radiance of movement one as the violin floats the first movement’s song on high over shimmering woodwinds and violins playing the finale’s own first theme. Instrumentation: Two flutes, piccolo, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, tuba, timpani, percussion, harp and strings. Symphony No. 10

Dmitri Shostakovich Born in St. Petersburg, Russia, September 25, 1906; died in Moscow, August 9, 1975

On March 5, 1953, Joseph Stalin died. He had ruled over the Soviet Union for nearly 30 years, and his brutal purges had killed millions of Russians from peasants to generals, many of them dying in the harsh Siberian camps of the Gulag. Shostakovich, too, had suffered under the Stalinist Terror. In 1936 and again in 1948, his music had been denounced as an affront to the State, and he had lain awake waiting for the nocturnal visitors summoning him to exile or death. For eight years, he had not written a symphony, and since the 1948 denunciation, he had hidden away any serious works, such as his somewhat subversive First Violin Concerto. With Stalin’s death began a cultural thaw that lasted through the Khrushchev era. Shostakovich was among the first to test the waters of what was now permissible.Working at a fierce pace through the spring and summer of 1953, he composed his Tenth Symphony, considered by many to be the greatest of his family of 15.The Russian music scholar Boris Schwarz called it “a work of inner liberation,” while Shostakovich biographer Ian MacDonald declared it “a musical monument to the fifty million victims of Stalin’s madness.” But at the Symphony’s premiere in Leningrad on December 17, 1953, Soviet critics, not sure which way the political winds were blowing, waffled between denunciation and praise.The Tenth became the topic of hot debate at the Composers

Union Conference the following April. Having learned through bitter experience to keep his head down, Shostakovich gave only the blandest comments on the symphony:“In this composition, I wanted to portray human emotions and passions.” When asked if the symphony had a program, he replied,“No, let them listen and guess for themselves.” Many at the conference criticized the work as too pessimistic and tragic in tone. A young composer named Volkonsky came up with an artful compromise, calling it “an optimistic tragedy!” Ultimately, the Tenth received the official stamp of approval, and Shostakovich was awarded the highest Soviet artistic honor,“People’s Artist of the U.S.S.R.” But this symphony—with its powerful mixture of mourning, anguished protest and sardonic celebration and its incorporation of Shostakovich’s own initials into a musical motive for the third and fourth movements—has a very personal program. In Solomon Volkov’s controversial “Testimony,” reputed to be the dictated memoirs of the composer, Shostakovich explained:“I did depict Stalin in music in...the Tenth. I wrote it right after Stalin’s death, and no one has yet guessed what the symphony is about. It’s about Stalin and the Stalin years.The second [movement] is a musical portrait of Stalin, roughly speaking. Of course, there are many other things in it, but that’s the basis.” Tragic in tone and comprising nearly half the length of the symphony, the first movement, in the home key of E minor, seems a remembrance of the suffering of the Russian people under Stalin. It is generated by three themes, each growing out of the previous one. First we hear a six-note idea rising darkly from the orchestral cellar; this theme is hesitant and fearful, frequently halting in its tracks. It gradually rises through the strings until the solo clarinet enters, intoning the poignant second theme atop the first. Klaus Roy, The Cleveland Orchestra’s former annotator, has persuasively identified this theme as a borrowing from Mahler’s “Resurrection” Symphony; it is sung by the contralto soloist in that work’s fourth movement, “Urlicht,” and significantly set to the words:“Man lies in direst need! Man lies in greatest pain!” After this sequence concludes, the flute introduces the third

theme: a nervous, stuttering idea coiled tightly within a narrow range. More dark sounds, this time from an ensemble of bassoons and clarinets, introduce a searing development that is essentially one long crescendo culminating in a shattering climax, intensified by blows of the tam-tam (gong).Then the movement gradually winds down and closes in a weeping duet of two piccolos grieving for the dead. The second-movement Scherzo is Shostakovich’s portrait of Stalin, set to the 2/4 rhythm of the gopak dance from the dictator’s native Georgia. Blaring brass and military snare drums intensify the mood of maniacal energy and brutality. In C minor, the third movement is the Symphony’s most enigmatic and personal.Violins open with a nervously creeping theme asking “Is it safe to come out yet?”Then to a rat-ta-tat rhythm, Shostakovich introduces himself via a motive of four notes spelling his initials: D-E-flat (E-flat is S in German notation)C-B (B-natural is spelled as H)—D-S-C-H. In a later reappearance, the DSCH motif becomes a puppet-like dance driven by a half-crazy (jangling tambourines), halfmenacing orchestra: a powerful image of the composer trapped by the whims of the Soviet machine.A mysterious middle section brings a change of mood as a repeated Mahlerian horn call summons music of reflective gravity. After a brooding minor-mode slow introduction, the finale emerges in E major for a chirpy, bustling,“lets-get-on-with-life” theme.This movement has been criticized for its frivolous, vulgar tone, deemed by some as unworthy of the preceding three movements. But it is an authentically Russian finale—crazy, even a little vodkadrunk—that captures the mood of a people who have been beaten and tormented and still retain their capacity to laugh.With a loud orchestral shout of the DSCH motive, complete with mocking drum roll and crashing gong, the composer rejoices that he, too, is among Stalin’s survivors. Instrumentation: Three flutes, two piccolos, three oboes, English horn, three clarinets, piccolo clarinet, three bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion and strings. Notes by Janet E. Bedell, copyright 2010

September 11, 2010 – November 28, 2010

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Friday, November 26, 2010 8 p.m. Saturday, November 27, 2010 8 p.m. Sunday, November 28, 2010 3 p.m. Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall

B ALTIMORE S YMPHONY O RCHESTRA FA S H I O N • H O M E • G A R D E N • F O O D • T R A V E L • P E O P L E • E N T E R TA I N I N G

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Overture

The concert will end at approximately 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and at approximately 5 p.m. on Sunday.

Chris Botti Since the release of his 2004 critically acclaimed CD, When I Fall In Love, Chris Botti has become the largest selling American jazz instrumental artist. His success has crossed over to pop music and his association with PBS has led to four number one jazz albums, as well as multiple Gold, Platinum and Grammy awards.

Over the past three decades, he has recorded and performed with Frank Sinatra, Sting, Josh Groban, Michael Buble, Paul Simon, Joni Mitchell, John Mayer,Andrea Bocelli, Joshua Bell and Steven Tyler. Hitting the road for more than 250 days per year, Mr. Botti and his band have performed with many of the finest symphonies and at some of the world’s most prestigious venues, including performances at the World Series and Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony. People Magazine voted him one of the “50 Most Beautiful People” in 2004.

SYMPHONY FUND HONOR ROLL T

May 23, 2009 – July 23, 2010 WE ARE PROUD to recognize the BSO’s Symphony Fund Members whose generous gifts to the Annual Fund between May 23, 2009 – July 23, 2010 helped the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra further its mission: “To make music of the highest quality, to enhance Baltimore and Maryland as a cultural center of interest, vitality and importance and to become a model of institutional strength.”

Pianist André Watts and guests attend a BSO event at the Ritz-Carlton Residences, Inner Harbor.

The Century Club Mayor and City Council of Baltimore City Baltimore County Executive & County Council Joseph and Jean Carando* Adalman-Goodwin Foundation Hilda Perl and Douglas* Goodwin, Trustees Hecht-Levi Foundation Ryda H. Levi* and Sandra Levi Gerstung Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development Maryland State Arts Council

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Joseph & Harvey Meyerhoff Family Charitable Funds Robert E. Meyerhoff and Rheda Becker Mr. and Mrs. Arthur B. Modell Montgomery County Arts and Humanities Council PNC Henry and Ruth Blaustein Rosenberg Foundation and Ruth Marder The Whiting-Turner Contracting Company Mr. and Mrs. Willard Hackerman

$50,000 or more

$25,000 or more

The Charles T. Bauer Foundation Jessica and Michael Bronfein Mr. and Mrs. George L. Bunting, Jr. Frances Goelet Charitable Trust Dr. and Mrs. Philip Goelet Rifkin, Livingston, Levitan and Silver, LLC Mr. and Mrs. Alan M. Rifkin Esther and Ben Rosenbloom Foundation Michelle G. and Howard Rosenbloom Dr. and Mrs. Solomon H. Snyder

Herbert Bearman Foundation, Inc. Dr. Sheldon and Arlene Bearman Caswell J. Caplan Charitable Income Trusts Constance R. Caplan Mr. and Mrs. H. Chace Davis, Jr. Chapin Davis Investments Dr. Perry A. Eagle,* Ryan M. Eagle, and Bradley S. Eagle Deborah and Philip English Mr. and Mrs. Kingdon Gould Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin H. Griswold, IV Mr. and Mrs. H. Thomas Howell

The Huether-McClelland Foundation Mr. and Mrs. David Modell Margaret Powell Payne* Dr. and Mrs. Thomas Pozefsky Bruce and Lori Laitman Rosenblum Mr. and Mrs. Richard Rudman The Honorable Steven R. Schuh Dorothy McIlvain Scott Ida & Joseph Shapiro Foundation Diane and Albert Shapiro Jane and David Smith Ellen W.P. Wasserman

The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra is deeply grateful to the individual, corporate, foundation and governmental donors whose cumulative annual giving of $100,000 or more plays a vital role in sustaining the Orchestra’s magnificent tradition of musical excellence.

Marin Alsop The Baltimore Orioles Georgia and Peter Angelos The Baltimore Symphony Associates Winnie Flattery, President

Individuals Founder’s Circle

Maestra’s Circle $15,000 or more Anonymous (1) Donna and Paul Amico Ellyn Brown and Carl J. Schramm Richard Burns The Cordish Family Fund Suzi and David Cordish Mr. and Mrs. Robert Coutts The Dopkin-Singer-Dannenberg Foundation, Inc. Mrs. Margery Dannenberg Mr. Kenneth W. DeFontes, Jr. George and Katherine Drastal Carol and Alan Edelman Ms. Susan Esserman and Mr. Andrew Marks Anne B. and Robert M. Evans

Judi and Steven B. Fader Family Foundation Mr. Mark Fetting Venable Foundation Mr. and Mrs. Jan K. Guben Mr. and Mrs. Douglas Hamilton Mr. and Mrs. Richard E. Hug Beth J. Kaplan and Bruce P. Sholk Sarellen and Marshall Levine Jon and Susan Levinson Susan and Jeffrey* Liss Ruth R. Marder Mr. and Mrs. Michael P. Pinto Gar and Migsie Richlin Mr. and Mrs. George A. Roche Mr. and Mrs. Stephen D. Shawe

Shepard Family Foundation Donald J. and Rose Shepard Joanne Gold and Andrew A. Stern

$10,000 or more Anonymous (1) Mr. and Mrs. Edward J. Adkins Jean and John Bartlett Kenneth S. Battye The Legg & Co. Foundation Mr. and Mrs. Douglas Becker Eric and Jill Becker Mr. and Mrs. Ed Bernard Mr. and Mrs. A.G.W. Biddle, III Robert L. Bogomolny and Janice Toran

September 11, 2010 – November 28, 2010

Special Thanks to

for its generous support! Jan Guben and James Wood at a BSO Event.

Governing Members Susan and David Hutton enjoy a Candlelight Conversation.

Individuals Maestra’s Circle (continued) $10,000 or more Ms. Kathleen A. Chagnon and Mr. Larry Nathans Chesapeake Partners Judith and Mark Coplin Rosalee C. and Richard Davison Foundation Mr. L. Patrick Deering, Mr. and Mrs. Albert R. Counselman, The RCM&D Foundation and RCM&D, Inc. Mr. Steve Dollase and Ms. Shari Wakiyama Sara and Nelson Fishman The Sandra and Fred Hittman Philanthropic Fund

Individuals (continued) Governing Members Platinum $7,500 or more Deborah and Howard M. Berman Mr. Robert H. Boublitz Mr. Andrew Buerger Mr. and Mrs. Arthur J. Glatfelter Mr. and Mrs. Bill Nerenberg Dr. and Mrs. Anthony Perlman Alison and Arnold Richman Mr. and Mrs. W. Danforth Walker

Governing Members Gold $5,000 or more Anonymous (1) Barry D. and Linda F. Berman John and Bonnie Boland The Bozzuto Family Charitable Fund Ms. Mary Catherine Bunting Mr. and Mrs. Robert Butler Nathan and Suzanne Cohen Foundation Dr. and Mrs. Stephen P. Cohen Mr. and Mrs. William H. Cowie, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. William F. Dausch Faith and Marvin Dean Ronald E. Dencker Dr. Susan G. Dorsey and Dr. Cynthia L. Renn in honor of Doris A. and Paul J. Renn, III Mr. and Mrs. James L. Dunbar Drs. Sonia and Myrna Estruch Ms. Margaret Ann Fallon Andrea and Samuel Fine John Gidwitz Sandra and Barry Glass Betty E. and Leonard H. Golombek Mr. and Mrs. Stewart Greenebaum Mrs. Anne Hahn Mrs. Catharine S. Hecht* Miss Frances A. Kleeman* Dr. and Mrs. Yuan C. Lee Eileen A. and Joseph H. Mason Dan and Agnes Mazur Norfolk Southern Foundation Mr. and Mrs. Gerald V. McDonald Paul Meecham and Laura Leach Mr. and Mrs. Neil Meyerhoff Margot and Cleaveland Miller Mr. and Mrs. John O. Mitchell, III Drs. Virginia and Mark Myerson

Overture

John P. Hollerbach Riva and Marc Kahn Dr. and Mrs. Murray M. Kappelman Mrs. Barbara Kines Therese* and Richard Lansburgh John A. MacColl Mr. and Mrs. Samuel G. Macfarlane Louise D. and Morton J. Macks Family Foundation, Inc. / Genine Macks Fidler and Josh Fidler Sally S. and Decatur H. Miller Mr. and Mrs. Charles O. Monk, II Number Ten Foundation Mrs. Violet G. Raum Dr. Scott and Frances Rifkin

Dr. and Mrs. David Paige Linda and Stanley Panitz Mrs. Margaret Penhallegon Dr. Todd Phillips and Ms. Denise Hargrove Helene and Bill Pittler Jane S. Baum Rodbell and James R. Shapiro Mr. and Mrs. William Rogers Mike and Janet Rowan Ms. Tara Santmire and Mr. Ben Turner Mr. and Mrs. J. Mark Schapiro Mr. Greg Scudder Ronald and Cathi Shapiro Francesca Siciliano and Mark Green Mr. and Mrs. Harris J. Silverstone Ms. Patricia Stephens Ms. Loretta Taymans* Dr. and Mrs. Carvel Tiekert Mr. and Mrs. Peter Van Dyke David and Chris Wallace Mr. and Mrs. Loren Western Mr. and Mrs. LeRoy A. Wilbur, Jr. Wolman Family Foundation Laurie S. Zabin

Governing Members Silver $2,500 or more “In memory of Reverend Howard G. Norton” Anonymous (2) Diane and Martin* Abeloff Dr. Marilyn Albert Julianne and George Alderman Dr. and Mrs. Thomas E. Allen Mr.* and Mrs. Alexander Armstrong Jackie and Eugene Azzam Mr. and Mrs. Thomas H.G. Bailliere, Jr. Dr. and Mrs. Wilmot C. Ball, Jr. Ms. Penny Bank Donald L. Bartling Hank Bauer Dr. and Mrs. Theodore M. Bayless Dr. Neil W. Beach and Mr. Michael Spillane Mr. and Mrs. John W. Beckley John C. and Rosemary F. Beers Lynda and Kenneth Behnke Dr. and Mrs. Emile A. Bendit

Ms. Arlene S. Berkis Max Berndorff and Annette Merz Alan and Bunny Bernstein Randy and Rochelle Blaustein Mr. Gilbert Bloom Dr. and Mrs. Paul Z. Bodnar Carolyn and John Boitnott Mr. and Mrs. John M. Bond, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. Charles R. Booth Dr. and Mrs. Stuart H. Brager Dr. Rudiger and Robin Breitenecker Mr. and Mrs. Leland Brendsel Mrs. Elizabeth A. Bryan Dr. Robert P. Burchard Loretta Cain Mr. and Mrs. S. Winfield Cain James N. Campbell M.D. and Regina Anderson M.D. Michael and Kathy Carducci Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Chomas Ms. Susan Chouinard Corckran Family Charitable Foundation Mr. and Mrs. John C. Corckran, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. David S. Cohen Mr. Harvey L. Cohen and Ms. Martha Krach Mrs. Miriam M. Cohen Joan Piven-Cohen and Samuel T. Cohen Mr. and Mrs. Elbert Cole Mr. and Mrs. Kerby Confer Mr. and Mrs. John W. Conrad, Jr. Jane C. Corrigan Mr. and Mrs. Charles C. Counselman, Jr. Mrs. Rebecca M. Cowen-Hirsch Alan and Pamela Cressman Dr. and Mrs. George Curlin Mr. and Mrs. Edward A. Dahlka, Jr. Richard A. Davis and Edith Wolpoff-Davis James H. DeGraffenreidt and Mychelle Y. Farmer Kari Peterson, Benito R. and Ben DeLeon Arthur F. and Isadora Dellheim Foundation, Inc. Mr. and Mrs. Mathias J. DeVito Mr. and Mrs. A. Eric Dott Dr. and Mrs. Daniel Drachman Mr. and Mrs. Larry D. Droppa Bill and Louise Duncan

Rona and Arthur Rosenbaum Terry M. and James Rubenstein Lainy LeBow-Sachs and Leonard R. Sachs Dr. and Mrs. John H. Sadler M. Sigmund and Barbara K. Shapiro Philanthropic Fund Dr. and Mrs. Charles I. Shubin Mr. and Mrs. Gideon N. Stieff, Jr. The Louis B. Thalheimer and Juliet A. Eurich Philanthropic Fund Mark and Mary Vail Walsh Mr. and Mrs. William Yeakel The Zamoiski-Barber-Segal Family Foundation * Deceased

Dr. and Mrs. Donald O. Fedder Dr. and Mrs. Bruce Feldman Mr. and Mrs. Maurice R. Feldman Mr. Stephen W. Fisher Winnie and Bill Flattery Dr. and Mrs. Giraud Foster Mr. and Mrs. John C. Frederick Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth Freed Jo Ann and Jack Fruchtman, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. Frank Gallagher John Galleazzi and Elizabeth Hennessey Ms. Ethel W. Galvin Dr. Joel and Rhoda Ganz Mr. Ralph A. Gaston Mr. and Mrs. Ramon* F. Getzov Mrs. Ellen Bruce Gibbs Mr. and Mrs. Joseph S. Gillespie, Jr. Mr. Robert Gillison and Ms. Laura L. Gamble Evee and Bertram Goldstein Mr. Mark Goldstein, Paley Rothman Brian and Gina Gracie Mr. and Mrs. Leonard L. Greif, Jr. Mrs. LaVerne Grove Ms. Mary Therese Gyi Ms. Louise A. Hager Ms. Margaret Halstead Carole B. Hamlin Thomas Hasler and Patricia Robinson Melanie and Donald Heacock Dale C. Hedding Mr. and Mrs. Edward Heine Mr. and Mrs. John Heller Sandra and Thomas Hess Mr. Thomas Hicks Betty Jean and Martin S. Himeles, Sr. Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Himmelrich Ms. Marilyn J. Hoffman Betsy and Len Homer Mr. and Mrs. Jack Hook Mr. and Mrs. J. Woodford Howard, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. A.C. Hubbard, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. William Hughes Elayne and Benno Hurwitz Susan and David Hutton Susan and Stephen Immelt Dr. Richard Johns Richard and Brenda Johnson

Nelson and Brigitte Kandel Mary Ellen and Leon Kaplan Barbara and Jay Katz Susan B. Katzenberg Louise and Richard Kemper Mr. and Mrs. E. Robert Kent, Jr. Ms. Suzan Kiepper Dr. and Mrs. Richard A. Kline Kohn Foundation Mr. and Mrs. Steven S. Koren Barbara and David Kornblatt Ms. Patricia Krenzke and Mr. Michael Hall Miss Dorothy B. Krug Mr. William La Cholter Marc E. Lackritz and Mary B. DeOreo Sandy and Mark Laken Ms. Delia Lang Dr. and Mrs. Donald Langenberg Mr. and Mrs. Luigi Lavagnino Dr. David Leckrone and Marlene Berlin Mr. and Mrs. Howard Lehrer Claus Leitherer and Irina Fedorova Ruth and Jay Lenrow Dr. and Mrs. Harry Letaw, Jr. C. Tilghman Levering Bernice and Donald S.* Levinson Mr. and Mrs. Vernon L. Lidtke Dr. Frances and Mr. Edward Lieberman Darielle and Earl Linehan Mrs. June Linowitz and Dr. Howard Eisner Dr. James and Jill Lipton Dr. Diana Locke and Mr. Robert E. Toense Dr. Frank C. Marino Foundation Diane and Jerome Markman Mr. and Mrs. Abbott Martin Donald and Lenore Martin Maryland Charity Campaign Mr. Thomas Mayer Dr. Marilyn Maze and Dr. Holland Ford Mrs. Kenneth A. McCord Mrs. Marie McCormack Ellen and Tom Mendelsohn Sandra L. Michocki Mrs. Anne Miller Mrs. Mildred S. Miller

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$75 BACH LEVEL MEMBERS Guests listen to a performance at a Major Gift dinner. Judy and Martin Mintz Northern Pharmacy and Medical Equipment Jacqueline and Sidney W. Mintz Mr. and Mrs. Humayun Mirza Ms. Patricia J. Mitchell Drs. Dalia and Alan Mitnick Dr. and Mrs. C.L. Moravec Dr. Mildred Zindler Mr. and Mrs. Peter Muncie Mrs. Joy Munster Mr. John and Dr. Lyn Murphy Louise* and Alvin Myerberg Mr. and Mrs. H. Hudson Myers, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. Rex E. Myers Drs. Roy A. and Gillian Myers Howard Needleman Phyllis Neuman, Ricka Neuman and Ted Niederman David Nickels and Gerri Hall Mr. and Mrs. Kevin O’Connor Dr. A. Harry Oleynick Mrs. Bodil Ottesen Olive L. Page Charitable Trust Dr. and Mrs. Lawrence C. Pakula Mr. and Mrs. Stephen Pattin Beverly and Sam Penn Jan S. Peterson and Alison E. Cole Peter E. Quint Reverend and Mrs. Johnny Ramsey Nancy E. Randa and Michael G. Hansen Mr. and Mrs. Frederick Rheinhardt Nathan and Michelle Robertson Mr. and Mrs. Richard Roca Stephen L. Root and Nancy A. Greene Mr. and Mrs. Charles Rowins T. Edgie Russell Mr. and Mrs. Neil J. Ruther Dr. John Rybock and Ms. Lee Kappelman Dr. and Mrs. Marvin M. Sager Dr. Henry Sanborn Ms. Doris Sanders Dr. Jeannine L. Saunders Mr. and Mrs. David Scheffenacker Lois Schenck and Tod Myers Marilyn and Herb Scher* Dr. and Mrs. Horst K.A. Schirmer Mrs. Roy O. Scholz Alena and David M. Schwaber Mr. Jack Schwebel Carol and James Scott Cynthia Scott Ida & Joseph Shapiro Foundation and Diane and Albert* Shapiro Mr. Stephen Shepard Mrs. Suzanne R. Sherwood Francine and Richard Shure The Sidney Silber Family Foundation Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Silver Drs. Ruth and John Singer Mr. David Punshon-Smith Ms. Leslie J. Smith Ms. Nancy E. Smith Ms. Patricia Smith Mr. Turner B. Smith Mr. and Mrs. Lee M. Snyder Dr. and Mrs. Charles S. Specht Joan and Thomas Spence Melissa and Philip Spevak Anita and Mickey Steinberg Mr. Edward Steinhouse Mr. and Mrs. Dale Strait Mr. Alan Strasser and Ms. Patricia Hartge Susan and Brian Sullam Mrs. Janis Swan Mr. and Mrs. Robert Taubman Dr. Bruce T. Taylor and Dr. Ellen Taylor

Lyn Murphy, Susan Dorsey, John Murphy and Marla Oros at a fundraising dinner. Dr. Ronald J. Taylor Mr. and Mrs. Terence Taylor Sonia Tendler Ms. Susan B. Thomas Paul and Karen Tolzman Dr. Jean Townsend and Mr. Larry Townsend Donna Triptow and Michael Salsbury In Memory of Jeffrey F. Liss, Dr. and Mrs. Henry Tyrangiel Mr. and Mrs. Charles L. Wagandt, II Mr. and Mrs. Semmes G. Walsh John and Susan Warshawsky Martha and Stanley Weiman Peter Weinberg Mr. and Mrs. Christopher West Mr. Edward Wiese Dr. and Mrs. Donald E. Wilson Mrs. Phyllis Brill Wingrat and Dr. Seymour Wingrat* Mr. and Mrs. T. Winstead, Jr. Judy M. Witt Laura and Thomas Witt Mr. and Mrs. Richard Wolven Charles and Shirley Wunder Drs. Yaster and Zeitlin Charles and Carol Yoder Mr. and Mrs. Michael Young Paul A. and Peggy L. Young NOVA Research Company Dr. and Mrs. Robert E. Zadek

Symphony Society Gold $1,500 or more Anonymous (1) Mr. and Mrs. Robert R. Bair The Becker Family Fund Mr. Edward Bersbach Steven Brooks and Ann Loar Brooks Dr. and Mrs. Donald D. Brown Mr. Charles Cahn, II Donna and Joseph Camp Mr. and Mrs. Claiborn Carr Mr. Robert M. Cheston Mr. and Mrs. Howard Cohen Dr. and Mrs. David Cooper Dr. and Mrs. Cornelius Darcy Dr. and Mrs. Thomas DeKornfeld Dr. and Mrs. Jerome L. Fleg Mr. and Mrs. Stanford Gann, Sr. Ms. Jean Goldsmith Mrs. Ellen Halle Ms. Gloria Hamilton Dr. Mary Harbeitner Mr. Gary C. Harn Mr.* and Mrs. E. Phillips Hathaway Mr. and Mrs. George B. Hess, Jr. Donald W. and Yvonne M. Hughes Betty W. Jensen Mr. Henry Kahwaty Gail and Lenny Kaplan Mr. Harry Kaplan Gloria B. and Herbert M. Katzenberg Fund Harriet* and Philip Klein Andrew Lapayowker and Sarah McCafferty Mr. and Mrs. Jeffrey Legum Ms. Susan Levine Dr. and Mrs. Michael O. Magan Mr. and Mrs. Luke Marbury Howard and Linda Martin Mr. and Mrs. Jordan Max Carol and George McGowan Drs. William and Deborah McGuire Bebe McMeekin Alvin Meltzer Mr. Hilary B. Miller Ms. Patricia Normile Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Parr Mrs. J. Stevenson Peck The Pennyghael Foundation, Inc. Mr. and Mrs. James Piper Mr. and Mrs. John Brentnall Powell

Mr. Larry Prall Mr. Joseph L. Press Dr. and Mrs. Richard Radmer Mr. and Mrs. Michael Renbaum Margaret and Lee Rome Martha and Saul Roseman Mr. and Mrs. William Saxon, Jr. The Honorable William Donald Schaefer Ms. Phyllis Seidelson Mr. Jeffrey Sharkey Mr. Thom Shipley and Mr. Christopher Taylor Dr. and Mrs. Frederick Sieber Marshall and Deborah Sluyter Mr. and Mrs. Edgar Smith Mr. and Mrs. Richard D. Spero Mrs. Ann Stein Mr. James Storey Harriet Stulman Mr. and Mrs. Albert Sun Ms. Sandra Sundeen Dr. Martin Taubenfeld Dr. Robert E. Trattner Ms. Elyse Vinitsky Ms. Joan Wah and Ms. Katherine Wah Ms. Janna P. Wehrle Dr. Edward Whitman Dr. Richard Worsham and Ms. Deborah Geisenkotter Ms. Anne Worthington Ms. Jean Wyman

Symphony Society Silver $1,000 or more Dr. John Boronow and Ms. Adrienne Kols “In memory of John R.H. and Charlotte Boronow” Mrs. Frank A. Bosworth Jr. “In honor of Marin Alsop” Mr. Kevin F. Reed “In honor of Steven R. Schuh” Anonymous (10) Mrs. Rachael Abraham Mr. and Mrs. Ronald Abrams Dr. and Mrs. Robert J. Adams Virginia K. Adams and Neal M. Friedlander, M.D. Charles T. and Louise B. Albert George and Frances Alderson Mr. Owen Applequist Mr. Paul Araujo Dr. Juan I. Arvelo Leonard and Phyllis Attman Mr. William Baer and Ms. Nancy Hendry Mrs. Jean Baker Mr. George Ball Mr. and Mrs. L. John Barnes Dr. and Mrs. Bruce Barnett Mr. and Mrs. Edward Barta Monsignor Arthur W. Bastress Mr. and Mrs. Charles Berry, Jr. David and Sherry Berz Mr. and Mrs. Edwin and Catherine Blacka Dr. and Mrs. Mordecai P. Blaustein Nancy Patz Blaustein Mr. James D. Blum Nina and Tony Borwick Mr. and Mrs. David E. Brainerd Drs. Joanna and Harry Brandt Dr. Helene Breazeale Dr. and Mrs. Mark J. Brenner The Broadus Family Ivy E. Broder and John F. Morrall, III Barbara and Ed Brody Dr. Galen Brooks Mr. Gordon Brown Ms. Jean B. Brown Ms. Elizabeth J. Bruen Ms. Jeanne Brush Ms. Ronnie Buerger Bohdan and Constance Bulawka Mrs. Edward D. Burger Ms. Jennifer Burgy Mrs. Mary Jo Campbell Russ and Beverly Carlson Jonathan and Ruthie Carney Mr. Richard Cerpa Mr. Mark Chambers

• Two complimentary tickets to a Donor Appreciation Concert or event (R) • BSO Membership Card • Opportunity to purchase tickets prior to public sale* • 10% discount on music, books and gifts at the Symphony Store and An Die Musik • Invitation to one Open Rehearsal (R)

$150 BEETHOVEN LEVEL MEMBERS All benefits listed above, plus… • Invitation to an additional Open Rehearsal (R) • Two complimentary drink vouchers

$250 BRAHMS LEVEL MEMBERS All benefits listed above, plus… • 10% discount on tickets to BSO performances* • Two additional complimentary tickets to a Donor Appreciation Concert or event (R)

$500 BRITTEN LEVEL MEMBERS All benefits listed above, plus… • Invitation to the Premium Evening Open Rehearsal (R) • Donor recognition in one issue of Overture magazine • Two additional complimentary drink vouchers • Four complimentary dessert vouchers • Invitation to the Opening Night Celebration Cast Party

$1,000 SYMPHONY SOCIETY All benefits listed above, plus… • Invitations to additional Cast Parties, featuring BSO musicians and guest artists (R) • Year-long donor recognition in Overture magazine • Two complimentary passes to the Baltimore Symphony Associates’ Decorators’ Show House • Two one-time passes to the Georgia and Peter G. Angelos Governing Members Lounge • Invitation to Season Opening Gala (R/$) • Invitation for two to a Musicians’ Appreciation event • Opportunity to attend one Governing Members Candlelight Conversation per year • Reduced rates for select BSO events

$2,500 GOVERNING MEMBERS All benefits listed above, plus… • Invitation to exclusive On-Stage Rehearsals (R) • Governing Member Allegretto Dinners (R/$) • Complimentary parking upon request through the Ticket Office • Season-long access to the Georgia and Peter G. Angelos Governing Members Lounge • Invitation to the BSO’s Annual Electoral Meeting • VIP Ticket Concierge service including complimentary ticket exchange • Opportunity to participate in exclusive Governing Member trips and upcoming domestic tours (R/$) • Invitation to all Candlelight Conversations (R/$) • Priority Box Seating at the Annual Donor Appreciation Concert

$5,000 GOVERNING MEMBERS GOLD All benefits listed above, plus… • Complimentary copy of upcoming BSO recording signed by Music Director Marin Alsop (one per season) • Exclusive events including meet and greet opportunities with BSO musicians and guest artists

$10,000 MAESTRA’S CIRCLE All benefits listed above, plus… • Exclusive and intimate events catered to this special group including post-concert receptions with some of the top artists in the world who are performing with the BSO • One complimentary use of the Georgia and Peter G. Angelos Governing Members Lounge facilities for hosting personal or business hospitality events ($) (R) Reservation required and limited to a first-come basis. ($) Admission fee *Some seating and concerts excluded.

LEGATO CIRCLE Legato Circle recognizes those patrons who have included the BSO in their Estate Plans. If you have questions or wish to explore these arrangements, please call 410.783.8010.

Support your BSO and make a donation today!

September 11, 2010 – November 28, 2010

Corporations

$100,000 or more

Musicians perform for a BSO benefit at the American Visionary Art Museum. Individuals (continued)

$50,000 or more

$25,000 or more

Overture

Bradley Christmas and Tara Flynn Dr. Mark Cinnamon and Ms. Doreen Kelly Jane E. Cohen Mr. and Mrs. Jonas M.L. Cohen Mrs. Wandaleen Cole Mr. and Mrs. Alan Colegrove Ms. Patricia Collins Ms. Kathleen Costlow Mr. Michael R. Crider Mr. and Mrs. Jeffrey Crooks John and Kate D’Amore Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Darr Joan de Pontet Mr. and Mrs. Anthony Deering Ms. Priscilla Diacont Mr. Duane Calvin DeVance Jackson and Jean H. Diehl Ms. Maribeth Diemer Nicholas F. Diliello Mrs. Marcia K. Dorst Mr. and Mrs. Robert Duchesne Ms. Lynne Durbin Mr. Laurence Dusold Donna Z. Eden and Henry Goldberg Mr. Terence Ellen and Ms. Amy Boscov Mr. and Mrs. Stuart Elsberg and the Elsberg Family Foundation Dr. and Ms. Jerry Farber Dr. and Mrs. Marvin J. Feldman Mr. and Mrs. Edward Feltham, Jr. Mrs. Sandra Ferriter Joe and Laura Fitzgibbon Dr. Charles W. Flexner and Dr. Carol Trapnell Ms. Lois Flowers Dr. and Mrs. Nicholas J. Fortuin Dr. and Mrs. William Fox Dr. Neal M. Friedlander Mr. and Mrs. R. Friedlander Mr. and Mrs. Roberto B. Friedman William and Carol Fuentevilla Mr. Ron Gerstley and Ms. Amy Blank Mr. Peter Gil Mr. and Mrs. Frank A. Giargiana, Jr. Mr. Louis Gitomer Dr. and Mrs. Sanford Glazer Mr. Jonathan Goldblith William R. and Alice Goodman Barry E. and Barbara Gordon Drs. Ronald and Barbara Gots Dr. and Mrs. Sheldon Gottlieb Mr. Alexander Graboski Larry D. Grant and Mary S. Grant Erwin and Stephanie Greenberg Mr. Robert Greenfield Dr. and Mrs. Geoffrey Greif Mr. Charles H. Griesacker Mr. Ronald Griffin and Mr. Shaun Carrick Mark and Lynne Groban Mary and Joel Grossman Mr. and Mrs. Stuart Grossman Mr. and Mrs. Donald Gundlach Mr. and Mrs. Norman M. Gurevich Mr. and Mrs. J.M. Dryden Hall, Jr. Dr. Jane Halpern and Mr. James B. Pettit Ms. Lana Halpern Ms. Carole Finn Halverstadt Mr. Joseph P. Hamper, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. John Hanson Mr. and Mrs. James A. Harris Dr. and Mrs. S. Elliott Harris Mr. and Mrs. Robert Helm Ms. Doris T. Hendricks Mrs. Ellen Herscowitz David A. and Barbara L. Heywood Nancy H. Hirsche Mrs. Joan M. Hoblitzell Edward Hoffman Mr. and Mrs. John Hornady, III Mr. Herbert H. Hubbard Mrs. Madeleine Jacobs Carol Jantsch and David Murray Mrs. Janet Jeffein Dr. Helmut Jenkner and Ms. Rhea I. Arnot Mrs. Kathy Johnson Mr. R. Tenney Johnson

Dr. Richard T. Johnson Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert Jones Mr. J. Lee Jones Mrs. Helen Jordahl Mr. Max Jordan Dr. Robert Lee Justice and Marie Fujimura-Justice Ann and Sam Kahan Mrs. Harry E. Karr Mr. and Mrs. William E. Kavanaugh Dr. and Mrs. Haiq Kazazian, Jr. Mr. Frank Keegan Mr. John P. Keyser Mr. Andrew Klein George and Catherine Klein Paul and Susan Konka Dr. and Mrs. Jeffrey Kremen Mr. Charles Kuning Richard and Eileen Kwolek Mr. and Mrs. Charles Lamb Susan and Stephen Langley John and Diane Laughlin Melvyn and Fluryanne Leach Colonel William R. Lee Mr. and Mrs. Charles F. Legters Mr. and Mrs. Jeffrey Lemieux Mr. Ronald P. Lesser Sara and Elliot* Levi Dr. and Mrs. Bernard Levy Mr. Leon B. Levy Mr. Richard Ley Mrs. E.J. Libertini Ms. Joanne Linder Mr. Dennis Linnell George and Julie Littrell Dr. and Mrs. Peter C. Luchsinger Ms. Louise E. Lynch Michael and Judy Mael Ms. Joan Martin Jane Marvine Mr. Joseph S. Massey Dr. and Mrs. Robert D. Mathieson Dr. and Mrs. Donald E. McBrien Mrs. Linda M. McCabe Mr. Thomas B. McGee Mr. Richard C. McShane Mr. and Mrs. Scott A. McWilliams Mr. and Mrs. David Meese Mr. Timothy Meredith Mr. and Mrs. Abel Merrill Daniel and Anne Messina Dr. and Ms. John O. Meyerhoff Drs. Alan and Marilyn Miller Mr. Charles Miller Mr. and Mrs. Charles R. Miller Mr. and Mrs. Gary Miller Mr. and Mrs. J. Jefferson Miller, II Mr. and Mrs. James D. Miller Mr. Lee Miller Mr. Louis Mills Dr. and Mrs. Stanley R. Milstein Ms. Adrianne Mitchell Lloyd E. Mitchell Foundation Mr. Nathan Mook Mr. Edwyn Moot Dr. and Mrs. Hugo W. Moser Mr. and Mrs. M. Peter Moser Mr. Howard Moy Teresa and Don Mullikin Mr. and Mrs. Gregory Murray Ms. Marita Murray Mr. Harish Neelakandan and Ms. Sunita Govind Mr. and Mrs. Robert C. Neiman Mr. Irving Neuman Mr. and Mrs. Roger F. Nordquist Carol C. O’Connell Anne M. O’Hare Drs. Erol and Julianne Oktay Mr. Garrick Ohlsson Ms. Margaret O’Rourke and Mr. Rudy Apodaca Mrs. S. Kaufman Ottenheimer Mr. and Ms. Ralph Ottey Ms. Judith Pachino Mr. and Mrs. Richard Parsons Mr. and Mrs. William Pence Jerry and Marie Perlet

Donors enjoy a post-concert Cast Party. Mr. and Mrs. Stephen Petrucci Dr. and Mrs. Karl Pick Ms. Mary Carroll Plaine Mr. and Mrs. Morton B. Plant Robert E. and Anne L. Prince Captain and Mrs. Carl Quanstrom Ted and Stephanie Ranft Dr. Tedine Ranich and Dr. Christian Pavlovich Dr. and Mrs. Jonas R. Rappeport Mr. and Mrs. William E. Ray Mr. Charles B. Reeves, Jr. Mr. Thomas Rhodes Mr. and Mrs. Thomas P. Rice Mr. and Mrs. Carl Richards David and Mary Jane Roberts Drs. Helena and David Rodbard Dr. and Mrs. Gerald Rogell Joellen and Mark Roseman Ann and Frank Rosenberg Mr. and Mrs. Robert Rosenberg Joanne and Abraham Rosenthal Mr. and Mrs. Randolph* S. Rothschild Mr.* and Mrs. Nathan G. Rubin Robert and Leila Russell Mr. and Mrs. John Sacci Beryl and Philip Sachs Ms. Andi Sacks Mr. Norm St. Landau Peggy and David Salazar Ilene and Michael Salcman Ms. Carolyn Samuels Ms. Vera Sanacore Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert Sandler Mr. and Mrs. Nathaniel Sandler Mr. and Mrs. Ace J. Sarich Mr. Thomas Scalea Mrs. Barbara K. Scherlis Mr. and Mrs. Eugene H. Schreiber Estelle D. Schwalb Ken and Nancy Schwartz Mr. Bernard Segerman Mr. and Mrs. Norman A. Sensinger, Jr. Mr. Sanford Shapiro Mr. and Mrs. Brian T. Sheffer Dr. and Mrs. Ronald F. Sher Reverend Richard Wise Shreffler Mr. Richard Silbert Mr. Donald M. Simonds Mr. Richard Sipes Mr. and Mrs. Robert Smelkinson Richard and Gayle Smith Mr. and Mrs. Scott Smith Mr. and Mrs. William J. Sneeringer, Jr. Laurie M. Sokoloff Ms. Diane Sondheimer Dr. and Mrs. John Sorkin Ms. Jennifer Stern Dr. and Mrs. F. Dylan Stewart Dr. John F. Strahan Ms. Jean M. Suda and Mr. Kim Z. Golden Ms. Dianne Summers Mr. and Mrs. Richard Swerdlow Mr. Tim Teeter Mr. Harry Telegadas Mr. Marc J. Teller Patricia Thompson and Edward Sledge Mr. Peter Threadgill Mr. and Mrs. David Traub Mr. and Mrs. Israel S. Ungar Ms. Mary Frances Wagley Mr. and Mrs. Guy T. Warfield Mr. and Mrs. Jay Weinstein Dr. and Mrs. Matthew Weir Mr. and Mrs. David Weisenfreund Drs. Susan and James Weiss Ms. Lisa Welchman David Wellman and Marjorie Coombs Wellman Ms. Beverly Wendland and Mr. Michael McCaffery Mr. and Mrs. Sean Wharry Ms. Camille B. Wheeler and Mr. William B. Marshall Dr. Barbara White Mr. and Mrs. Stephen Wilcoxson

Mr. Barry Williams

BSO Board of Directors 2010-2011 Season OFFICERS Michael G. Bronfein* Chairman Kathleen A. Chagnon, Esq.* Secretary

Todd Phillips and Denise Hargrove at a Governing Members Allegretto Dinner. Mrs. Gerald H. Williams Mr. and Mrs. Peter Winik Mr. Orin Wise Marc and Amy Wish Dr. and Mrs. Frank R. Witter Mr. John W. Wood Mr. Alexander Yaffe H. Alan Young and Sharon Bob Young, Ph.D. Andrew Zaruba

Corporations $10,000 or more American Trading & Production Corporation Beltway Fine Wines IWIF Saul Ewing LLP Stanley Black & Decker SunTrust Bank, Greater Washington / Maryland Travelers Foundation Venable LLP WJHU Radio

$5,000 or more Corporate Office Properties Trust D. F. Dent & Company P. Flanigan & Sons, Inc. Georgetown Paper Stock of Rockville, Inc. Kramon & Graham, P.A. RBC Wealth Management Valley Motors Zuckerman Spaeder LLP

$2,500 or more Cavanaugh Financial Group Charitable Foundation Downtown Piano Works Eagle Coffee Company Inc. Federal Parking, Inc. Kann S. Sons Company Foundation Macy’s Foundation P&G Fund of the Greater Cincinnati Foundation

Musicians perform of a Major Gift dinner. $10,000 or more Anonymous (1) Bunting Family Foundation The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation Degenstein Foundation Hoffberger Foundation Harley W. Howell Charitable Foundation The Abraham and Ruth Krieger Family Foundation League of American Orchestras John J. Leidy Foundation, Inc. The Letaw Family Foundation Macht Philanthropic Fund of the AJC The Rouse Company Foundation The Salmon Foundation Bruno Walter Memorial Foundation

$5,000 or more Anonymous (1) The Arts Federation Margaret O. Cromwell Family Fund The Charles Delmar Foundation Betty Huse MD Charitable Trust Foundation Edith and Herbert Lehman Foundation, Inc. The John Ben Snow Memorial Trust Cecilia Young Willard Helping Fund Wright Family Foundation

$2,500 or more The Campbell Foundation, Inc. The Harry L. Gladding Foundation Israel and Mollie Myers Foundation Judith and Herschel Langenthal Jonathan and Beverly Myers The Jim and Patty Rouse Charitable Foundation, Inc. Sigma Alpha Iota

$1,000 or more ALH Foundation, Inc. Balder Foundation Baltimore Community Foundation Ethel M. Looram Foundation, Inc. Rathmann Family Foundation

$1,000 or more Ellin & Tucker, Chartered Eyre Bus, Tour & Travel The Harford Mutual Insurance Company Independent Can Company J.G. Martin Company, Inc. Nina McLemore, Inc. Pro Video Group Rosenberg Martin Greenberg, LLP Sandy Spring Bank Semmes, Bowen & Semmes Target Von Paris Moving & Storage Wachovia Wells Fargo Foundation

Foundations $50,000 or more William G. Baker, Jr. Memorial Fund The Hearst Foundation, Inc. Hecht-Levi Foundation Ryda H. Levi* and Sandra Levi Gerstung The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Joseph & Harvey Meyerhoff Family Charitable Funds Henry and Ruth Blaustein Rosenberg Foundation and Ruth Marder

Government Grants Anne Arundel County Mayor and City Council of Baltimore and the Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts Baltimore County Executive, County Council, and the Commission for the Arts and Sciences Carroll County Government & the Carroll County Arts Council The Family League of Baltimore City, Inc. Howard County Government & the Howard County Arts Council Maryland State Arts Council Maryland State Department of Education Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County National Endowment for the Arts

Endowment

$25,000 or more

The BSO gratefully acknowledges the generosity of the following donors who have given Endowment Gifts to the Sustaining Greatness and/or the Heart of the Community campaigns.

Jacob and Hilda Blaustein Foundation The Buck Family Foundation Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation The Goldsmith Family Foundation, Inc. Peggy & Yale Gordon Trust Young Artist Sponsor Ensign C. Markland Kelly, Jr. Memorial Foundation Zanvyl & Isabelle Krieger Fund

* Deceased Anonymous (6) Diane and Martin* Abeloff AEGON USA Alex. Brown & Sons Charitable Foundation Dr. and Mrs. Thomas E. Allen Eva and Andy Anderson

Anne Arundel County Recreation and Parks Department William G. Baker, Jr. Memorial Fund Mr. H. Furlong Baldwin Baltimore Community Foundation Baltimore County Executive, County Council and the Commission on Arts and Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts The Baltimore Orioles/ Georgia and Peter Angelos The Baltimore Symphony Associates, Winnie Flattery, President Patricia and Michael J. Batza, Jr. Henry and Ruth Blaustein Rosenberg Foundation The Jacob and Hilda Blaustein Foundation Mr. and Mrs. Bruce I. Blum Dr. and Mrs. John E. Bordley* Jessica and Michael Bronfein Mr. and Mrs. George L. Bunting, Jr. Dr. and Mrs. Oscar B. Camp Carefirst BlueCross BlueShield CitiFinancial Constellation Energy Mr. and Mrs. William H. Cowie, Jr. Richard A. Davis and Edith Wolpoff-Davis Rosalee C. and Richard Davison Foundation Mr. L. Patrick Deering, Mr. and Mrs. Albert R. Counselman, The RCM&D Foundation and RCM&D, Inc. DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary US LLP Carol and Alan Edelman Dr. and Mrs. Robert Elkins Deborah and Philip English Esther and Ben Rosenbloom Foundation France-Merrick Foundation Sandra Levi Gerstung Ramon F.* and Constance A. Getzov John Gidwitz The Goldsmith Family Foundation, Inc. Joanne Gold and Andrew A. Stern Jody and Martin Grass Louise and Bert Grunwald H&S Bakery / Mr. John Paterakis Harford County Hecht-Levi Foundation Ryda H. Levi* and Sandra Levi Gerstung Betty Jean and Martin S. Himeles, Sr. Hoffberger Foundation Howard County Arts Council Harley W. Howell Charitable Foundation The Huether-McClelland Foundation Mr. and Mrs. Richard E. Hug Independent Can Company Laura Burrows-Jackson Beth J. Kaplan and Bruce P. Sholk Dr. and Mrs. Murray M. Kappelman Susan B. Katzenberg Marion I. and Henry J. Knott Scholarship Fund The Zanvyl and Isabelle Krieger Fund Anne and Paul Lambdin Therese* and Richard Lansburgh Sara and Elliot* Levi Levi-Gerstung Family Bernice and Donald S. Levinson Darielle and Earl Linehan Susan and Jeffrey* Liss Lockheed Martin E. J. Logan Foundation M&T Bank Macht Philanthropic Fund of the AJC Mrs. Clyde T. Marshall Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development The Maryland State Arts Council MD State Department of Education McCarthy Family Foundation McCormick & Company, Inc. Mr. Wilbur McGill, Jr.

Bruce E. Rosenblum* The Honorable Steven R. Schuh Stephen D. Shawe, Esq. Solomon H. Snyder, M.D.*

Lainy LeBow-Sachs* Vice Chair

Mark Walsh

Paul Meecham* President & CEO

LIFE DIRECTORS Peter G. Angelos, Esq.

Richard E. Rudman* Vice Chair

Willard Hackerman

Andrew A. Stern* Vice Chair & Treasurer BOARD MEMBERS A.G.W. Biddle III

H. Thomas Howell, Esq. Yo-Yo Ma Harvey M. Meyerhoff Decatur H. Miller, Esq.

Robert L. Bogomolny

Patricia B. Modell

Ralph A. Brunn

Linda Hambleton Panitz

Andrew A. Buerger

The Honorable William Donald Schaefer

Richard T. Burns

Dorothy Mc Ilvain Scott

Constance R. Caplan Kenneth W. DeFontes, Jr.

DIRECTORS EMERITI Margaret D. Armstrong

Steve Dollase

Barry D. Berman, Esq.

George A. Drastal

L. Patrick Deering

Alan S. Edelman

M. Sigmund Shapiro

Robert B. Coutts

Ambassador Susan G. Esserman* Winnie Flattery ^ President, Baltimore Symphony Associates John P. Hollerbach Richard E. Hug* Beth J. Kaplan*

CHAIRMAN LAUREATE Calman J. Zamoiski, Jr. BOARD OF TRUSTEES BALTIMORE SYMPHONY ENDOWMENT TRUST Benjamin H. Griswold IV Chairman

Murray M. Kappelman, M.D.

Terry Meyerhoff Rubenstein Secretary

Jon H. Levinson

Michael G. Bronfein

Susan M. Liss, Esq.*

Mark R. Fetting

John A. MacColl

Paul Meecham

David O. Modell

W. Gar Richlin

Michael P. Pinto

Andrew A. Stern

Margery Pozefsky

Calman J. Zamoiski, Jr.

Scott Rifkin, M.D. Ann L. Rosenberg

*Board Executive Committee ^ex-officio

Upcoming Member-Only Event! > Governing Members Trip to New York City November 13-14, 2010

Don’t miss this exclusive trip to New York City to see Music Director Marin Alsop conduct the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. This two-day, one-night excursion includes: • Bus transportation to and from NYC • Accommodations at the 4-Star hotel Le Parker Meridien • Private pre-concert dinner and post-concert reception • A ticket to the Saturday concert at Carnegie Hall featuring Barber’s Essay No. 2, Beethoven’s “Eroica” Symphony and Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with pianist Simon Trpcˇeski • The opportunity to attend a BSO rehearsal for Too Hot To Handel at Carnegie Hall To enjoy this event or to receive more information, please call Jennifer Barton at 410.783.8122 or email jbarton@BSOmusic.org.

September 11, 2010 – November 28, 2010

Baltimore Symphony Staff Paul Meecham President and CEO Barbara Kirk Executive Assistant Terry A. Armacost Vice President and CFO Dale Hedding Vice President of Development Eileen Andrews Jackson Vice President of Marketing and Communications Matthew Spivey Vice President of Artistic Operations ARTISTIC OPERATIONS Toby Blumenthal Manager of Facility Sales

FACILITIES OPERATIONS Shirley Caudle Housekeeper Bertha Jones Senior Housekeeper Curtis Jones Building Services Manager Ivory Miller Maintenance Facilities FINANCE AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY Jim Herberson Manager of Information Systems Janice Johnson Senior Accountant Evinz Leigh Administration Associate

Tiffany Bryan Manager of Front of House

Sandy Michocki Controller and Senior Director of Business Analytics

Erik Finley Assistant to the Music Director

Carol Rhodes Payroll and Benefits Administrator

Alicia Lin Director of Operations

MARKETING AND PUBLIC RELATIONS Rika Dixon Marketing Manager

Chris Monte Assistant Personnel Manager Steven Parker Food and Beverage Operations Manager Marilyn Rife Director of Orchestra Personnel

Laura Farmer Public Relations Manager Deborah Goetz Senior Director of Marketing Sarah Haller PR and Publications Coordinator

Donors and guests with pianist André Watts at a Cast Party. Endowment (continued) MIE Properties, Inc. / Mr. Edward St. John Mercantile-Safe Deposit & Trust Joseph & Harvey Meyerhoff Family Charitable Funds Sally and Decatur Miller Ms. Michelle Moga Louise* and Alvin Myerberg / Wendy and Howard Jachman National Endowment for the Arts Mr. and Mrs. Bill Nerenberg Mrs. Daniel M. O’Connell Mr. and Mrs. James P. O’Conor Stanley and Linda Hambleton Panitz Cecile Pickford and John MacColl Dr. Thomas and Mrs. Margery Pozefsky Mr. and Mrs. T. Michael Preston Alison and Arnold Richman The James G. Robinson Family Mr. and Mrs. Theo C. Rodgers Mr. and Mrs. Randolph* S. Rothschild The Rouse Company Foundation Nathan G.* and Edna J. Rubin The Rymland Foundation S. Kann Sons Company Foundation, Inc. / B. Bernei Burgunder, Jr. Dr. Henry Sanborn Saul Ewing LLP Mrs. Alexander J. Schaffer Mr. and Mrs. J. Mark Schapiro

Eugene Scheffres and Richard E. Hartt* Mrs. Muriel Schiller Dorothy McIlvain Scott Mrs. Clair Zamoiski Segal and Mr. Thomas Segal Ida & Joseph Shapiro Foundation and Diane and Albert Shapiro Mr. and Mrs. Earle K. Shawe The Sheridan Foundation Richard H. Shindell and Family Dr. and Mrs. Solomon H. Snyder The St. Paul Companies Barbara and Julian Stanley T. Rowe Price Associates Foundation, Inc. The Alvin and Fanny Blaustein Thalheimer Guest Artist Fund Alvin and Fanny B. Thalheimer Foundation, Inc. TravelersGroup The Aber and Louise Unger Fund Venable LLP Wachovia Robert A. Waidner Foundation The Whiting-Turner Contracting Company / Mr. and Mrs. Willard Hackerman Mr. and Mrs. Jay M. Wilson / Mr. and Mrs. Bruce P. Wilson The Zamoiski-Barber-Segal Family Foundation

EDUCATION Cheryl Goodman OrchKids Director of Fundraising and Administration

Derek A. Johnson Marketing Coordinator, Advertising and Media

Lisa A. Sheppley Associate Director of Education

Theresa Kopasek Marketing and PR Associate

Nick Skinner OrchKids Site Manager

Samanatha Manganaro Direct Marketing Coordinator

Larry Townsend Education Assistant

Kristen Pohl Group Sales Manager

Dan Trahey OrchKids Director of Artistic Program Development

Jamie Schneider Marketing Manager, E-Commerce and Digital

Bequests and planned gifts are the greatest source of security for the BSO’s future! The Symphony depends on lasting gifts such as these to help fund our diverse musical programs and activities. Members of The Legato Circle play a vital and permanent role in the Symphony’s future.

DEVELOPMENT Jennifer Barton Development Program Assistant

TICKET SERVICES Amy Bruce Manager of Special Events and VIP Ticketing

If you have named the BSO in your estate plans, please contact Joanne Rosenthal at 410-783-8010 or jrosenthal@bsomusic.org to join the Legato Circle.

Margaret Blake Development Office Manager Allison Burr-Livingstone Grant Writer Sarah Chrzanowski Annual Fund Coordinator Alana Morrall Director of Individual and Institutional Giving Rebecca Potter Corporate Relations Coordinator Joanne M. Rosenthal Director of Major Gifts, Planned Giving and Government Relations Elspeth Shaw Individual Giving Coordinator Richard Spero Community Liaison for BSO at Strathmore Emily Wise Donor Relations Manager, BSO at Strathmore

Overture

Gabriel Garcia Ticket Services Agent

In 1986, the Board of Directors of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra established The Legato Circle in recognition of those individuals who have notified the BSO of a planned gift, including gifts through estate plans or life-income arrangements.

We gratefully acknowledge the following Donors who have included the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in their Estate Plans.

(F) Founding Member (N) New Member

Timothy Lidard Assistant Ticket Services Manager

* Deceased

Peter Murphy Ticket Services Manager Michael Suit Ticket Services Agent Zoë Whiting Ticket Services Agent BALTIMORE SYMPHONY ASSOCIATES Larry Albrecht Symphony Store Volunteer Manager Louise Reiner Office Manager

Baltimore Symphony Associates Executive Committee Winnie Flattery, President Linda Kacur, Recording Secretary Vivian Kastendike, Corresponding Secretary Charles Booth, Treasurer Kitty Allen, Vice President, Communications Marge Penhallegon, Vice President, Education Larry Townsend, Vice President, Meetings and Programs Sandy Feldman, Vice President, Recruitment and Membership Deborah Stetson, Vice President, Special Services and Events Larry Albrecht, Vice President, Symphony Store LaVerne M. Grove, Parliamentarian Barbara C. Booth, Past President

The Legato Circle

Adrian Hilliard Senior Ticket Services Agent, Strathmore

Kathy Marciano Director of Ticket Services

Dale and Roma Strait attend a BSO event at the Ritz-Carlton Residences, Inner Harbor.

Anonymous (5) Donna B. and Paul J. Amico Hellmut D.W. “Hank” Bauer Deborah R. Berman Mrs. Alma T. Martien Bond* Mrs. Phyllis B. Brotman (F) W. George Bowles* Dr. Robert P. Burchard Mrs. Frances H. Burman* Joseph and Jean Carando* Mrs. Selma Carton Clarence B. Coleman* Mr. and Mrs. William H. Cowie, Jr. James Davis Roberta L.* and Richard A. Davis L. Patrick Deering (F) Ronald E. Dencker Freda (Gordon) Dunn

Dr. Perry A. Eagle* (F) H. Lawrence Eiring, CRM Carol and Alan Edelman Anne “Shiny” and Robert M. Evans Mr. and Mrs. Maurice R. Feldman Winnie and Bill Flattery Haswell M. and Madeline S. Franklin Mr. Kenneth J. Freed Douglas Goodwin* Samuel G*. and Margaret A. Gorn (F) Robert E. Greenfield Sue and Jan K. Guben Carole B. Hamlin Miss M. Eulalia Harbaugh Ms. Denise Hargrove Gwynne and Leonard Horwits Mr. and Mrs. H. Thomas Howell Mr. and Mrs. Richard E. Hug Judith C. Johnson*

Dr. and Mrs. Murray M. Kappelman Miss Dorothy B. Krug Ruth and Jay Lenrow Joyce and Dr. Harry Letaw, Jr. Robert and Ryda H. Levi* Bernice S. Levinson Estate of Ruby Loflin-Flaccoe* Mrs. Jean M. Malkmus Ruth R. Marder Mrs. George R. McClelland Mr. Roy E.* and Mrs. M. Moon Robert and Marion Neiman Mrs. Daniel M. O’Connell Stanley and Linda Hambleton Panitz Margaret Powell Payne* Beverly and Sam Penn (F) Mrs. Margery Pozefsky G. Edward Reahl, Jr. M.D. Mr. William G. Robertson, Jr.* Randolph S.* and Amalie R.* Rothschild Dr. Henry Sanborn Eugene Scheffres* and Richard E. Hartt* Mrs. Muriel Schiller (F) Dr. Albert Shapiro* Dr. and Mrs. Harry S. Stevens Howard A. and Rena S. Sugar* Roy and Carol Thomas Fund for the Arts Dr. and Mrs. Carvel Tiekert Leonard Topper Ingeborg B. Weinberger W. Owen and Nancy J. Williams Charles and Shirley Wunder Mr. and Mrs. Calman J. Zamoiski, Jr.

KIRSTEN BECKERMAN

THE FIRST TIME KRISTIN OSTLING heard that she “shredded” on the cello, she didn’t know if it was a compliment or an insult. Shredding, the rock ‘n’ roll term for playing a string instrument skillfully and fast, was a foreign word to the classically trained musician. Now, after several months of performing heavy metal music with the cello rock band Primitivity, Ostling knows how to respond when a fan greets her this way. “Cool,” she says. Ostling, who joined the BSO as a cellist in 1995, didn’t know much about the hard driving guitar-heavy genre of rock known as heavy metal when Primitivity founder Loren Westbrook-Fritts invited her to join the band last year. She jumped at the opportunity. “It’s all music to me,” Ostling explains. “It’s just a different style. Like Debussy would be a different style from Bach. Well, this is Metallica-style.” The cello’s versatile range makes it compatible with rock ‘n’ roll, says Ostling, who recorded an album with the surf punk band Cashmere Jungle Lords in 1998. “One thing I have to do in the Metallica song ‘Master of Puppets’ is play a very low bass line, then I jump way up and play a guitar solo, then jump back down and start doing bass riffs again,” she says. “I think the cello lends itself to that better than any other instrument.”

impromptu

Westbrook-Fritts composes and plays lead in Primitivity, which covers songs by Megadeth, Metallica and the Finnish cello rockers Apocalyptica. He’s joined onstage by Ostling, percussionist Robby Burns and cellists David Teie of the National Symphony (formerly of the BSO) and Mauricio Betanzo of the Maryland Symphony. The Washington, D.C.-based group released its first album, Plays Megadeath for Cello, in February to glowing reviews by classical and heavy metal fans alike. Next on their agenda? Recording a CD of Westbrook-Fritts’ original compositions. Ostling says someday she’d like to hear Primitivity take on Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd. Until then, she’ll be working on perfecting her heavy metal stage presence, a task that could involve a fair amount of head banging. She is looking to Westbrook-Fritts—who has the wardrobe and a head of heavy-metal-worthy hair of his own— for guidance. “How do you deal with head banging when your hair gets caught in your strings?” Ostling asked him. His advice was simple. “You just have to learn to work it in.” —Maria Blackburn

September 11, 2010 – November 28, 2010

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