Colorado Symphony 2016/17 Season Presenting Sponsor:
MASTERWORKS • 2016-2017 KELLOGG’S CONCERTO – WORLD PREMIERE FEATURING YUMI HWANG-WILLIAMS COLORADO SYMPHONY BRETT MITCHELL, conductor YUMI HWANG-WILLIAMS, violin Friday’s Concert Is Gratefully Dedicated To Michael Altenberg and Libby Bortz Saturday’s Concert Is Gratefully Dedicated To Bob and Cynthia Benson
Friday, October 14, 2016, at 7:30pm Saturday, October 15, 2016, at 7:30pm Boettcher Concert Hall
BEETHOVEN
Overture to King Stephen, Op. 117
DANIEL KELLOGG Rising Phoenix (world premiere) Bird of Fire: Adoption by the Sun Search of Immortality Ablaze with Celestial Fire Song of the Phoenix Rebirth: Rising from the Ashes — INTERMISSION —
DVOŘÁK Symphony No. 8 in G major, Op. 88 Allegro con brio Adagio Allegretto grazioso Allegro ma non troppo
SOUNDINGS 2016-2017 | COLORADOSYMPHONY.ORG PROGRAM 1
MASTERWORKS BIOGRAPHIES BRETT MITCHELL, conductor Hailed for delivering compelling performances of innovative, eclectic programs, Brett Mitchell has been named the fourth Music Director of the Colorado Symphony, beginning in the 2017/18 Season. Prior to this fouryear appointment, he will serve as Music Director Designate during the 2016/17 Season. Mr. Mitchell is also currently the Associate Conductor of The Cleveland Orchestra. He joined the orchestra as Assistant Conductor in 2013, and was promoted to his current position in 2015, becoming the orchestra’s first Associate Conductor in over three decades and only the fifth in its 98-year history. In this role, he leads the orchestra in several dozen concerts each season at Severance Hall, Blossom Music Center, and on tour. Mr. Mitchell also serves as the Music Director of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra, which he recently led on a fourcity tour of China. In addition to these titled positions, Brett Mitchell is in consistent demand as a guest conductor. Recent and upcoming guest engagements include the orchestras of Columbus, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Oregon, Rochester, Saint Paul, and Washington (National Symphony Orchestra), among others. He has collaborated with such soloists as Rudolf Buchbinder, James Ehnes, Leila Josefowicz, and Alisa Weilerstein, and has served as cover conductor and musical assistant at The Philadelphia Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, London Philharmonic Orchestra, and Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. Born in Seattle in 1979, Brett Mitchell holds degrees in conducting from the University of Texas at Austin and composition from Western Washington University, which selected him as its Young Alumnus of the Year in 2014. He also studied at the National Conducting Institute, and was selected by Kurt Masur as a recipient of the inaugural American Friends of the Mendelssohn Foundation Scholarship. Mr. Mitchell was also one of five recipients of the League of American Orchestras’ American Conducting Fellowship from 2007 to 2010.
YUMI HWANG-WILLIAMS, violin Yumi Hwang-Williams made her debut at the age of 15 as a soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra, six years after having emigrated from South Korea. A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, her exceptional musicianship has earned her a reputation as an artist who, in addition to her thoughtful and stylish interpretations of the classics, is known for her commitment to exploring and performing the works of contemporary composers. Featured in a Strings magazine cover article in 2008, she was described as a “Modern Prometheus” who has “emerged as a fiery champion of contemporary classical music.” She has been soloist with Basel (Switzerland), Linz (Austria), Indianapolis, Cincinnati Symphonies with Dennis Russell Davis and Paavo Jarvi, among others. Her recent collaboration with the Joffrey Ballet playing Adès concerto “Concentric Paths” ten times garnered much praise. Yumi Hwang-Williams has served as Concertmaster of the Colorado Symphony since 2000 and continues to be very active in the community with solo/chamber concerts. She is a faculty member of the Lamont School of Music, University of Denver. You can learn more about Yumi at www.yumihwviolin.com. PROGRAM 2 SOUNDINGS 2016-2017 | COLORADOSYMPHONY.ORG
MASTERWORKS PROGRAM NOTES LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770-1827): Overture from the Incidental Music to Kotzebue’s Drama King Stephen, Op. 117 Ludwig van Beethoven was born on December 16, 1770, in Bonn and died on March 26, 1827 in Vienna. He wrote this overture and incidental music for the production of Kotzebue’s play King Stephen that opened the National Theater in Budapest on February 9, 1812. The score calls for woodwinds in pairs plus contrabassoon, two horns, two trumpets, timpani, and strings. Duration is about 9 minutes. James Setapen was at the podium when the overture was last performed on January 28 and 29, 1983. In 1811, Beethoven was asked to provide incidental music for two new plays—King Stephen: Hungary’s First Benefactor and The Ruins of Athens, in which the Athenian goddess Minerva reawakens to discover that Budapest has become the modern center of the classical arts—that were being written by the popular German playwright August Friedrich Ferdinand von Kotzebue for the opening of the sumptuous National Theater in Budapest. The titular King Stephen of Kotzebue’s play was one of the most revered of Hungarian national heroes and the country’s first monarch. He was credited with converting the nation to Christianity, and was crowned sometime after the year 1000; he was canonized by the Church in 1083, soon after his death. In his study of Beethoven, Roger Fiske provided a précis of the drama’s plot: “The scene is an open field near Buda. Stephen’s heathen subjects are converted, his Bavarian wife, Gisela, is welcomed by dancing children, and the misty background dissolves to reveal a vision of Buda as it would be in the future.” In addition to its roots in Hungarian history and culture, Kotzebue’s drama was also a thinly-veiled allegory extolling the virtues of the Austrian Emperor Franz, who had built the Theater to try to placate Hungary’s growing unrest and calls for independence from his rule. Beethoven’s incidental music for King Stephen consists of an overture, six choruses, several marches, and a “melodrama,” a rare 19th-century form in which a musical background was provided for a spoken dramatic text. The Overture, built in a considerably modified sonata form into which are woven hints of Hungarian musical color, opens with portentous unison proclamations from the winds and strings which serve as introduction to a surprisingly genteel melody that Beethoven later in the play entrusted to a chorus of Gisela’s serving women. The principal part of the Overture is launched by a spirited, syncopated motive that serves as the main theme; the second theme is a flowing melody in close harmonies played by the winds. Rather than the expected development of the thematic material, the center of the movement is occupied with the restatement and elaboration of the slow introductory gestures. The quick tempo returns for the recapitulation of the main and second themes. The coda briefly recalls the melody of the introduction before bringing the Overture to a rousing conclusion.
SOUNDINGS 2016-2017 | COLORADOSYMPHONY.ORG PROGRAM 3
MASTERWORKS PROGRAM NOTES DANIEL KELLOGG (B. 1976): Rising Phoenix, Concerto for Violin and Orchestra Daniel Kellogg was born on March 22, 1976, in Wilton, Connecticut. He composed Rising Phoenix in 2016 for the Colorado Symphony and its concertmaster, Yumi Hwang-Williams, for premiere at these concerts. The score calls for piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, English horn, two bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, harp, piano, and strings. Duration is about 30 minutes. American composer Daniel Kellogg says that he “is drawn towards musical narrative and creating forms that have a sense of drama and transformation … [which] strive for the transcendent, so sacred themes are of particular interest.” Kellogg, born in Wilton, Connecticut, in 1976, received his bachelor’s degree from the Curtis Institute of Music and his master’s and doctorate from the Yale School of Music, with additional studies at Indiana University, Aspen Music Festival, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, and Czech-American Summer Music Institute in Prague. His teachers have included Don Freund, Ned Rorem, Jennifer Higdon, Joseph Schwantner, Ezra Laderman, and Martin Bresnick. In August 2005, Kellogg was appointed to the faculty of the University of Colorado in Boulder, where he is now Erismann Faculty Fellow and Associate Professor of Composition. Among his honors are two Charles Ives Awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, six ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Awards, an ASCAP Rudolf Nissim Award, a Harvey Gaul Composition Competition Award, and William Schuman Prize from BMI. He has held residencies at the University of Connecticut, Young Concert Artists, South Dakota Symphony, Green Bay Symphony Orchestra, MacDowell Colony, Ucross Foundation, Copland House, and Rocky Mountain National Park. Kellogg’s commissions include works for the Kansas City Symphony, San Diego Symphony, National Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, Philadelphia Orchestra, Takács Quartet, Pacifica Quartet, eighth blackbird, Aspen Music Festival, and Colorado Symphony (Refracted Skies, honoring the new Frederic C. Hamilton Building at the Denver Art Museum, 2006). Daniel Kellogg lives in Colorado with his wife, concert pianist Hsing-ay Hsu, and daughter, Kaela, where he pursues his interests in cooking and photography, and dreams of someday sailing around the world (with a digital piano). Kellogg wrote, “Rising Phoenix was composed in 2016 for violinist Yumi Hwang-Williams and the Colorado Symphony. Ms. Hwang-Williams was an active collaborator in this concerto in creating its theme and structure and interacting over the material for each movement. Her wonderful contributions and beautiful playing are an essential part of Rising Phoenix. “The Phoenix is a magical bird of fire found in thousands of years of mythology in cultures and religions that span the globe. Commonly depicted as a brightly colored large bird of great beauty, the Phoenix sings to the Sun, which has bestowed on it the powers of immortality and rebirth. Because only one bird can live at any time, sightings of the Phoenix are rare and are interpreted as a good omen. “I. Bird of Fire: Adoption by the Sun. The powerful and almighty Sun takes notice of a beautiful and rare bird. The Sun offers it long life as a special gift. The Phoenix accepts the gift and becomes the most precious living bird. “II. Search for Immortality. The Phoenix takes pleasure in long life. It desires immortality and
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MASTERWORKS PROGRAM NOTES renewed youth as its 500-year lifespan comes to a close. The bird experiences great yearning and loneliness as it faces death. In desperation, the bird seeks the Sun to ask for the gift of rebirth. “III. Ablaze with Celestial Fire. The Sun grants the Phoenix’s request and bestows on it an eternal cycle of death and rebirth. At the end of each 500-year cycle, the bird will burn alive in a glorious blaze. “IV. Song of the Phoenix. The Phoenix, filled with immense gratitude, offers a song of thanksgiving to the Sun. Its song is known throughout the world as one of the most beautiful musical offerings. “V. Rebirth: Rising From the Ashes. From the ashes of the celestial fire emerges a new egg, and the Phoenix is born again. The glorious bird rises from its own ashes to soar and sing into eternity.”
ANTONÍN DVOŘÁK (1841-1904): Symphony No. 8 in G major, Op. 88 Antonín Dvořák was born on September 8, 1841, in Nelahozeves, Bohemia, and died on May 1, 1904, in Prague. He composed his G major Symphony in 1889 and conducted its premiere at the National Theater in Prague on February 2, 1890. The score calls for woodwinds in pairs plus piccolo, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, and strings. Duration is about 36 minutes. The Symphony was last performed by the orchestra on November 4-6, 2011, with Scott Yoo conducting. You would probably have liked Dvořák. He was born a simple (in the best sense) man of the soil who retained a love of country, nature, and peasant ways all his life. In his later years he wrote, “In spite of the fact that I have moved about in the great world of music, I shall remain what I have always been—a simple Czech musician.” Few passions ruffled his life—music, of course; the rustic pleasures of country life; the company of old friends; caring for his pigeons; and a child-like fascination with railroads. When he was in Prague during the winters, he took daily walks to the Franz Josef Station to gaze in awe at the great iron wagons. The timetables were as ingrained in his thinking as were the chord progressions of his music, and he knew all the specifications of the engines that puffed through Prague. When his students returned from a journey, he would pester them until they recalled exactly which locomotive had pulled their train. Milton Cross sketched him thus: “To the end of his days he remained shy, uncomfortable in the presence of those he regarded as his social superiors, and frequently remiss in his social behavior. He was never completely at ease in large cities, with the demands they made on him. He was happiest when he was close to the soil, raising pigeons, taking long, solitary walks in the hills and forests of the Bohemia he loved so deeply. Yet he was by no means a recluse. In the company of his intimate friends, particularly after a few beers, he was voluble, gregarious, expansive and good-humored.” His music reflected his salubrious nature and Harold Schonberg concluded, “He remained throughout his entire creative span the happiest and least neurotic
SOUNDINGS 2016-2017 | COLORADOSYMPHONY.ORG PROGRAM 5
MASTERWORKS PROGRAM NOTES of the late Romantics.... With Handel and Haydn, he is the healthiest of all composers.” The G major Symphony, in its warm emotionalism and pastoral contentment, mirrors its creator. It was composed during Dvořák’s annual summer retreat to the country at Vysoká, and his happy contentment with his surroundings shines through the music. Dvořák was absolutely profligate with melodies in the Symphony’s opening movement. The first theme is presented without preamble in the rich hues of trombones, low strings, and low woodwinds in the dark coloring of G minor. This tonality soon yields to the chirruping G major of the flute melody, but much of the movement shifts effortlessly between major and minor keys, lending a certain air of nostalgia to the work. The opening melody is recalled to initiate both the development and the recapitulation. In the former, it reappears in its original guise and even, surprisingly, in its original key. The recapitulation begins as this theme is hurled forth by the trumpets in a stentorian setting greatly heightened in emotional weight from its former presentations. The coda is invested with the rhythm and high good spirits of an energetic country dance to bring the movement to its rousing ending. The second movement contains two kinds of music, one hesitant and somewhat lachrymose, the other stately and smoothly flowing. The first is indefinite in tonality, rhythm, and cadence; its theme is a collection of fragments, and its texture is sparse. The following section is greatly contrasted: its key is unambiguous; its rhythm and cadence points are clear; its melody is a long, continuous span. These two musical antitheses alternate, and the form of the movement is created as much by texture and sonority as by the traditional means of melody and tonality. The third movement is a lilting essay in the style of the Austrian folk dance, the Ländler. The trumpets herald the start of the finale, a theme and variations with a central section resembling a development in character. ©2016 Dr. Richard E. Rodda
PROGRAM 6 SOUNDINGS 2016-2017 | COLORADOSYMPHONY.ORG
Colorado Symphony 2016/17 Season Presenting Sponsor:
INSIDE THE SCORE • 2016-2017 INSIDE DVOŘÁK – SYMPHONY NO. 9 “FROM THE NEW WORLD” COLORADO SYMPHONY CHRISTOPHER DRAGON, conductor Today’s Concert is Gratefully Dedicated To Normie and Paul Voillequé Sunday, October 16, 2016, at 1:00pm Boettcher Concert Hall
DVOŘÁK
Symphony No. 9 “From the New World”
SOUNDINGS 2016-2017 | COLORADOSYMPHONY.ORG PROGRAM 7
INSIDE THE SCORE BIOGRAPHIES CHRISTOPHER DRAGON, conductor Australian conductor Christopher Dragon is in his second season as the Associate Conductor of the Colorado Symphony and commences his position as Principal Guest Conductor with the Denver Young Artists Orchestra. For three years, Christopher previously held the position of Assistant Conductor with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, which gave him the opportunity to work closely with Principal Conductor Asher Fisch. Christopher works regularly in Australia and has conducted the Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, and West Australian Symphony Orchestras. His 2015 debut performance at the Sydney Opera House with Josh Pyke and the Sydney Symphony has been released on CD by ABC Music. In 2017, Christopher returns to the West Australian Symphony Orchestra for a subscription concert. In 2016, he made his Brazilian conducting debut with the Orquestra Sinfônica de Porto Alegre. He has also conducted at numerous festivals including the Breckenridge and Bangalow Music Festivals, both resulting with invitations to return. At the beginning of 2016, Christopher conducted Wynton Marsalis’ Swing Symphony as part of the Perth International Arts Festival alongside Wynton Marsalis and Jazz at the Lincoln Center Orchestra. In 2014, Christopher was selected from 100 international applicants to conduct the Princess Galyani Vadhana Youth Orchestra in Thailand and earlier that year participated in the Jarvi Winter Academy in Estonia where he was awarded the Orchestra’s Favourite Conductor Prize. Christopher began his conducting studies in 2011 and was a member of the prestigious Symphony Services International Conductor Development Program under the guidance of course director Christopher Seaman. He has also studied with numerous distinguished conductors including Leonid Grin, Paavo and Neeme Jarvi at the Jarvi Summer Festival, Fabio Luisi at the Pacific Music Festival, and conducting pedagogue Jorma Panula.
PROGRAM 8 SOUNDINGS 2016-2017 | COLORADOSYMPHONY.ORG