Performance Magazine Fall_3

Profiles

Thomas Wilkins

Leonard Slatkin, Music Director

Neeme Järvi, Music Director Emeritus

Classical Series Friday, December 2, 2011 at 10:45 a.m.

Saturday, December 3, 2011 at 8 p.m.

Sunday, December 4, 2011 at 3 p.m. in Orchestra Hall Thomas Wilkins, conductor Branford Marsalis, alto saxophone

Béla Bartók Rumanian Folk Dances (1881-1945) Jocul cu bâta (Stick Dance)

Brâul (Sash Dance) Pe loc (In One Spot) Buciumeana (Horn Dance) Poarga româneasca (Romanian Polka) Măruntel (Fast Dance) Măruntel (Fast Dance)

Alexander Glazunov Concerto for Saxophone and String Orchestra

(1865-1936) in E-flat major, Op.109

Branford Marsalis, alto saxophone

Erwin Schulhoff Hot-Sonate for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra (1894-1942) Moderato orch. Richard Rodney Bennett Vivo

Andante

Molto vivo

Branford Marsalis, alto saxophone

I ntermission

Ludwig van Beethoven Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92 (1770-1827) Poco sostenuto - Vivace

Allegretto Presto Allegro con brio

This Classical Series concert is generously sponsored by

PVS Chemicals, Inc.

Get the most out of each concert by attending pre-concert presentations, one hour prior to performances (excluding Coffee Concerts). The presentations are informal and may include special guests, lectures and music that reveal interesting facts about the program and provide a behind-the-scenes look at the art of making music.

Non-flash photography and video recording by silenced hand-held devices are allowed during DSO performances.

The DSO can be heard on the DSO, Chandos, London, RCA and Mercury Record labels.

www.dso.org

In addition to his role as Music Director of the Omaha Symphony, a post he’s held since 2005, Thomas Wilkins is Principal Guest Conductor of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra and holds wilkins the Germeshausen Family and Youth Concert Conductor chair with the Boston Symphony. Past positions have included Resident Conductor of the DSO as well as the Florida Orchestra in Tampa Bay and Associate Conductor of the Richmond Symphony in Virginia. He served on the music faculties of North Park University in Chicago, the University of Tennessee and Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond.

Committed to promoting a life-long enthusiasm for music, Wilkins brings energy and commitment to audiences of all ages. For his significant contribution to the children of Tampa Bay, the Pinellas County Music Educators Association named him 1998 Friend of the Arts and the Hillsborough County Elementary Music Educators recognized him as 1998 Music Educator of the Year. In the 2007-2008 season, the DSO awarded Mr. Wilkins the Classical Roots Musical Achievement Award.

During his conducting career, he has been featured with orchestras throughout the United States, including the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, The Cleveland Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra (ISO), Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Houston Symphony, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C. He is also a frequent guest conductor of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, ISO, San Diego Symphony and the Philadelphia Orchestra.

Recent debuts include appearances with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, the Utah Symphony and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Future engagements include returns to Boston as well as the symphonies of Atlanta, Detroit, San Diego and New Jersey.

Wilkins also serves as a director at large for the Greater Omaha chamber of Commerce, and has served on the board of directors of such organizations as the Center Against Spouse Abuse in Tampa Bay, the Museum of Fine Arts and the Academy Preparatory Center for Education, Performance / Vol . X X / Fall 201 1

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both in St. Petersburg. Currently, he serves as chairman of the board for the Raymond James Charitable Endowment Fund.

A native of Norfolk, Va., Wilkins earned his Bachelor of Music Education degree from the Shenandoah Conservatory of Music in 1978. In 1982, he was awarded the Master of Music degree in orchestral conducting from the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston.

Branford Marsalis

National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master, renowned Grammy Awardwinning saxophonist and Tony Award nominee Branford Marsalis is one of the most revered marsalis instrumentalists of his time. Leader of one of the finest jazz quartets today, and a frequent soloist with classical ensembles, Marsalis has become increasingly sought after as a featured soloist with such acclaimed orchestras as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, DSO, Düsseldorfer Symphoniker, North Carolina Symphony and the Boston Pops. His growing repertoire includes compositions by Copland, Debussy, Glazunov, Ibert, Mahler, Milhaud, Rorem and Vaughn Williams.

After making his first appearance with the New York Philharmonic in the summer of 2010, Marsalis was again invited to join them as a soloist in their 2010-2011 concert series where he unequivocally demonstrated his versatility and prowess, bringing what The New York Times called “a gracious poise and supple tone…and an insouciant swagger” to the repertoire. Whether on the stage, in the recording studio, in the classroom or in the community, Marsalis embodies a commitment to musical excellence and a determination to keep music at the forefront.

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Program Notes Rumanian Folk Dances, Sz. 68, BB 76 Béla [Viktor János] Bartók

B. March 25, 1881 D. September 26, 1945)

Béla Bartók’s Rumanian Folk Dances are scored for two flutes (second flute doubling on piccolo), two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns and strings (approximately 7 minutes).

B

artók’s father, also Béla Bartók, was a keen amateur musician; he played the piano and the cello, composed short dance pieces, and founded a music society and an amateur orchestra in Nagyszentmiklós, where he lived. The composer’s mother, Paula Voit, who was a teacher, also played the piano. In such a musical environment, Bartok’s budding musical gifts were quickly noticed. He had already shown a talent for rhythm and memory when, on his fifth birthday, his mother gave him his first piano lesson.

The premature death of Bartók’s father left the family in a precarious financial situation. His mother supported the children by giving piano lessons, and in 1889 she took a teaching position in Nagyszőllős. It was there that, at the age of 9, Bartók produced his first compositions, mostly short dances, some of which were named after members of the family (e.g.the ‘Irma’ polka, of 1891, was written for his aunt Irma).

In 1899, the composer enrolled at the Budapest Academy of Music, where he met István Thomán, the former teacher of Ernst von Dohnányi. In Thomán, one of the most gifted of Liszt’s pupils, Bartók found not only a great teacher but also a humane and supportive father figure. He provided the relatively impoverished student with scores, concert tickets, grants and recommendations (which helped to establish Bartók’s career as a pianist), and introduced him to celebrated artists and musicians.

During his Budapest years, Bartók broadened his musical interests. He became acquainted with Wagner’s works, studying the Ring, Tristan and Meistersinger; he also studied Liszt’s scores. None of his studies, however, suggested a new compositional direction to him.

Bartók’s discovery of the music of Richard Strauss marked a decisive change in his career as a composer. He was so struck by Strauss’ tone poem Also sprach Zarathustra, the Budapest première of which

he attended in February of 1902, that he began a systematic study of Strauss’ scores.

The other great influence on his music at this time was the increasingly nationalist feeling of Hungarian independence, which caused him to wear national dress and oppose the everyday use of German by members of his family.

In 1904, Bartók made his first notation of a Hungarian peasant song, which he had heard sung by a young girl. This discovery drew his attention to the wealth of indigenous song which he felt could contain ideas for ‘serious’ composition. In 1905 he met Zoltán Kodály, who had just published his first study of folk music. He found in Kodály an expert on the subject and a helpful colleague. Their lifelong collaboration would later lead them to devise a scientific research method and a system of analysis of folksongs. From 1906, using an Edison phonograph, Bartók took annual trips across Hungary doing research and making recordings.

In 1909 Bartók married his pupil Márta Ziegler, who was later to be the dedicatee of his opera Duke Bluebeard’s Castle. Their son Béla was born in 1910.

One of the most familiar of Bartók’s works is the Rumanian Folk Dances, written for the piano in 1915 and orchestrated two years later. The work makes use of seven melodies collected in 1910-1912 for six dances from four regions of Transylvania: Bihar, Tordi-Aranyos, Maros-Torda and Torontála. Originally played on a violin or shepherd’s flute, the dances vary greatly in tempo and character; though the original melodies are almost unaltered in themselves, they are treated with a wide range of harmonic freedom and orchestration.

The Dances are as follows: I. Jocul cu bâtă (“Stick Dance” | Allegro moderato, A minor) II. Brâul (“Sash Dance” | Allegro, D minor) III. Pe loc (“In One Spot” | Andante, B minor) IV. Buciumeana (“Horn Dance” | Moderato, A major) V. Poarga Româneasca (“Romanian Polka” | Allegro, D major) VI. Mărunțel (“Fast Dance” | Allegro, D major) VII. Mărunțel (“Fast Dance” | Più allegro, A major) In both the orchestral version and the original piano version, the last two dances are typically played without a noticeable pause.

The DSO last performed Bartók’s www.dso.org

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SO Shop @ The Ma x D recommends:

Bartók – Rumanian Folk Dances: Yuli Turofsky conducting I Musici de Montréal, Chandos 10094.

Saxophone Concerto in E-flat major, Op. 109

Alexander Konstantinovich Glazunov

B. August 10, 1865, St. Petersburg, Russia D. March 21, 1936, Neuilly-sur-Seine, near Paris

Glazunov’s Saxophone Concerto is scored for solo alto saxophone and strings (approximately 13 minutes).

R

ussian composer Alexander Glazunov was born in St. Petersburg to a publisher father and a pianist mother.

Possessed of an exceptional ear and musical memory, he began to study piano at the age of 9, and to compose at the age of 11.

At the age of 14, Glazunov began composition studies with Rimsky-Korsakov.

Despite their wide difference in age, a lifelong friendship would develop between

www.dso.org

248-439-6733 INFO@ELEGANTEPRODUCTIONS.COM

the two. Even though his studies with the elder composer lasted less than two years, Glazunov made rapid progress, “not from day to day, but from hour to hour,” in Rimsky-Korsakov’s words.

At age 16, Glazunov completed his First Symphony, which was given a successful première on March 29, 1882 under Balakirev’s direction. In November of that same year the composer’s First String Quartet was also performed. Glazunov’s talent was so prodigious that it soon aroused the interest of the art patron Belyayev, who devoted his immense fortune to furthering the young composer’s career, as well as the younger generation of Russian composers.

After the sudden death of Borodin in 1887, Glazunov became deeply involved with completing and revising the late composer’s unfinished works. Glazunov’s exceptional memory enabled him to write down the overture to Prince Igor as he had heard it played by the composer on the piano; he also completed Act III from sketches and orchestrated the incomplete Third Symphony.

In 1905, when Glazunov was elected director of the St. Petersburg Conservatory, he was at the height of his creative powers, but the time and energy he spent on revitalizing the institution took their toll on his creativity, and there was a decided

decline in productivity in later years.

During his long tenure at the Conservatory, Glazunov showed paternal concern for the welfare of needy students such as Shostakovich, and he was a great friend to Jewish musicians such as Jascha Heifetz, Nathan Milstein and Mischa Elman, all of whom received his support.

Glazunov’s music is important because it succeeded in reconciling nationalist Russian music with broader European trends.

Younger composers such as Prokofiev and Shostakovich turned away from his music, considering it to be old-fashioned. However, he is regarded today as a composer of stature and is recognized for having been a stabilizing influence during a time of transition.

Glazunov’s Saxophone Concerto shares the same opus number with his Saxophone Quartet in B flat major. It was Glazunov’s last work, composed during his sojourn in Paris. While there, the composer had the occasion to hear the brass band of the Garde Républicaine, a band that maintained the tradition of including the entire saxophone family within its ensemble. Upon its completion, the Quartet would be dedicated to the musicians of the Garde, and soon after, on March 17, 1934, Glazunov started work on the Concerto, completing it just a few weeks later on June 4.

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Glazunov wrote the concerto for the great German saxophonist Sigurd Rascher, who gave the work its première the following winter. It was written for the alto saxophone, an instrument remarkable for its full and mellow tone. While composing the work, Glazunov followed Rascher’s advice, while the French musician Petiot supplied the fingering and breathing scheme.

In this last concerto, the composer weaves brief epic, scherzo and dramatic episodes into an overall lyrical texture to create a unified, one-movement work. In spite of these contrasting elements, a meditative, sometimes melancholy mood permeates the work.

By utilizing a string orchestra as accompaniment, Glazunov effectively sets off the velvet timbre of the solo saxophone.

At the same time, the composer gives the soloist numerous opportunities to display all the resources of the instrument by demonstrating the breadth of its register and by featuring the full gamut of its expressive qualities, from tender cantilena to different virtuosic devices, including intricate figurations and brief but highly refined passages, trills and glissando.

The saxophone repertoire is not replete with concerto works, so it is somehow especially fitting that Glazunov’s last concerto (and final composition) has

emerged as a classic for the instrument.

These performances of Glazunov’s Concerto for Saxophone and String Orchestra in E-flat major are the DSO premiere of this work.

SO Shop @ The Ma x D recommends:

Glazunov – Concerto for Alto Saxophone: Marc Chisson, saxophone; José Serebrier conducting the Russian National Orchestra, Warner Classics 2564679465.

Hot-Sonate for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra Erwin Schulhoff

B. June 8, 1894, Prague, Czechoslovakia D. August 18, 1942, Weissenburg, Bavaria)

UPCOMING CONCERTS: 2011-2012 SEASON Saturday, November 12, 2011, 8 PM

Sergey Khachatryan, Violin Lusine Khachatryan, Piano Beethoven: Sonata No. 2 in A major for Violin and Piano, Op. 12, No. 2 J.S. Bach: Partita No. 2 in D minor, BWV 1004 Shostakovich: Sonata for Violin and Piano, Op. 134 ✦Pre-Concert Talk with Dr. Steven Rings at 6:45 PM

Saturday, December 3, 2011, 8 PM

Steven Isserlis, Cello Connie Shih, Piano

Mendelssohn: Sonata for Cello and Piano No. 1 in B-flat major, Op. 45 Liszt: Romance oubliée, La Lugubre gondola Schumann: Stücke im Volkston Franck: Sonata in A major With support from the Beverly Franzblau Baker Endowment Fund and from Andrea Ziegelman in memory of Isabelle and Erwin Ziegelman

Saturday, January 7, 2012, 8 PM

Tokyo String Quartet wth Eugene Izotov, Oboe Haydn: String Quartet in G major, Op. 77, No. 1 Mozart: Oboe Quartet in F major, K. 370 Takemitsu: Entre-temps Debussy: String Quartet in G minor Sponsored by

To purchase tickets and for more information about upcoming concerts, please call (248) 855-6070 or visit www.ComeHearCMSD.org.

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Orch. Richard Rodney Bennett Scored for two flutes (second doubling on alto flute and piccolo), two oboes (second doubling on English horn), two clarinets (second doubling on bass clarinet), two bassoons (second doubling on contrabassoon), two horns, two trumpets, tenor trombone, bass trombone, tuba, drum set, and jazz bass (approximately 15 minutes).

E

rwin Schulhoff was a Czech composer and pianist. He was one of the brightest figures in a generation of European musicians whose careers were prematurely ended by the rise of the Nazis in Germany.

On the advice of Dvořák, Schulhoff studied first at the Prague Conservatory, before going on to complete his musical education at the conservatories of Leipzig and Cologne. He also studied privately with both Max Reger and Claude Debussy.

After serving in World War I, Schulhoff returned to Prague before settling in Germany, where he lived for nearly five years, and where he had close links with the contemporary avant-garde, particularly with the Dadaists. He associated with new artistic groups, with painters George Grosz and Paul Klee, the German Dadaists and also with many leading young musicians.

In 1919, he wrote the first Dadaist cycle of jazz pieces, the Fünf Pittoresken, which he dedicated to the “painter and Dadaist George Grosz.” This set of pieces was the beginning of a whole series of provocative compositions, including the Sonata erotica and Symphonia germanica (1919), Bassnachtigall and Die Wolkenpumpe (1922), and the jazz-inspired Suite for Chamber Orchestra (1921).

A pianist of unusual technical ability, Schulhoff gave many recitals with an emphasis on new music. He was the first to www.dso.org

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play the quarter-tone pieces of Alois Hába and his pupils. From the early 1920’s he was also active as a jazz pianist and used jazz idioms in his compositions.

In the 1930s, Schulhoff encountered mounting personal and professional difficulties. Due to his Jewish descent and his radical political beliefs, he and his compositions were labeled as entartete, or ‘degenerate,’ by the Nazi regime. He could no longer give recitals in Germany, nor could his works be publicly performed.

His Communist leanings, increasingly obvious in his works, also brought him trouble in Czechoslovakia. In 1932, he composed a musical version of The Communist Manifesto (Op. 82). Taking refuge in Prague, Schulhoff found work as a radio pianist, but he earned barely enough to survive. When the Nazis invaded Czechoslovakia in 1939, he was forced to perform using a pseudonym. The Soviet Union approved his petition for citizenship in 1941, but he was arrested and imprisoned before he could escape Czechoslovakia. In June of 1941, he was transported to the Wülzburg concentration camp, not far from Weissenburg, Bavaria. He died there on August 18, 1942, from tuberculosis.

Schulhoff ’s works fall into no fewer than four distinct stylistic periods. His earlier pieces show the influence of composers from the preceding generation, such as Scriabin, Richard Strauss and Claude Debussy. During his Dadaist phase, Schulhoff composed works with distinct ‘absurdist’ elements (one movement of the Fünf Pittoresken, “In futurum,” is a completely silent piece made up entirely of rests that anticipates John Cage’s 4’33’’ by more than thirty years). His third period (1923/32) integrates modernist vocabulary, neoclassical elements, jazz and dance elements. The final period of his career could be classified as socialist realism, with elements of Communist ideology in the foreground.

Schulhoff ’s Hot-Sonate was originally written for alto saxophone and piano in 1930, and falls squarely into Schulhoff ’s third stylistic period. It is Schulhoff in full jazz/cabaret mode, complete with fauxjazz syncopations and occasional rhythmic surprises. The work is in four parts, with the third part functioning as a bluesy slow movement.

The ‘hot’ reference in the title comes from the improvisatory or ‘jazz’ element that is part of the fabric of the work, which requires soloist and accompaniment to exercise a great deal of freedom while still remaining in sync with each other.

Schulhoff ’s Hot-Sonate was premiered in 1930 its original version for saxophone and piano during a broadcast of the Berlin 18

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Radio Hour. The composer was at the piano, and jazz saxophonist Billy Barton was the soloist.

These performances of Erwin Schulhoff ’s Hot-Sonate for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra (orchestrated by Richard Rodney Bennett) are the DSO Première.

SO Shop @ The Ma x D recommends:

Schulhoff – Hot-Sonate for Alto Saxophone: Johannes Thorell, saxophone; Magnus Sköld, piano, DB Productions 138.

(No orchestral version currently available.)

Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92 Ludwig van Beethoven

B. December 15 or 16 (baptized, December 17), 1770, Bonn, Germany D. March 26, 1827, Vienna, Austria)

Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony was composed in 1812. The première took place on December 8, 1813, at the concert hall of the University of Vienna. The work is scored for two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, timpani and strings (approximately 36 minutes).

O

f all of Beethoven’s Symphonies, the Seventh is one of the most resistent to external explanation; yet it has received many poetic evaluations. The most famous of these comes from composer Richard Wagner, for whom it was “the apotheosis of the dance.” Wagner went on to say: “…it belongs to the Night Spirit and his crew, and if anyone plays it, tables and benches, cans and cups, the grandmother, the blind and the lame, aye, the children in the cradle, fall to dancing.”

Isadora Duncan danced the work complete except for the opening Vivace in 1908. In 1938, Léonide Massine choreographed the entire work and even titled the movements: The Creation; The Earth; The Sky; and The Bacchanale and Destruction.

With the opening chord, Beethoven marks out a vast musical space and defines the colors and textures that will characterize the symphony as a whole: light, transparent, with no unnecessary doubling of parts.

Having abandoned the Haydnesque device of a slow introduction for the Fifth and Sixth Symphonies, Beethoven returns to it here, perhaps with the awareness that the vital, highly propulsive first movement had to begin from something.

Taking Wagner’s remark about the dance to heart, it is possible to hear the first movement as a gigue on a grand scale.

However, as Baroque composers knew,

pure dance forms could be extended only so far in time; even when melodically elaborate and with added harmonic interest, they could not easily be extended beyond their original sixteen or thirty-two bar framework. Here, Beethoven has not elaborated but rather simplified, reducing the dance rhythm to its most basic element, with accompanying harmonies in broad, sweeping arcs. In the Sixth Symphony, he had discovered the cumulative power of harmonic repetition; wedding this earlier technique to a repeated, vital, rhythmic unit created an irresistible force.

If the first movement is the dance apotheosized, the second is a set of variations moved far beyond the realm of mere decoration. Beethoven had mastered this technique as early on as the Eroïca, and here his craft is seen at its subtlest, simplest and most effective. Rather than being added onto the theme, the variations seem instead to grow organically out of it. Thinking back, the astute listener realizes they were present all the time.

Nothing remains of the traditional minuet in the third movement; it has been replaced by a peasant dance that sweeps the spectators along in its wake. It opens with a rhythmic springboard that sets the underlying meter and which sticks in the listeners’ mind even when Beethoven contradicts it. The middle trio section is said to have been based on an Austrian pilgrims’ hymn; it is repeated twice, according to the scheme Beethoven devised (and then abandoned) in the Fifth Symphony.

The last movement inevitably seems fast, regardless of the tempo that is taken, but this sense of speed is somewhat deceptive.

Beneath all the activity on the surface, the harmonies move quite slowly, sometimes holding in place for bars at a time. Here Beethoven applies the same formula that worked so well in the first movement, keeping an obsessively repeated rhythm firmly in place with strong harmonic anchors. The movement may be a workout for the orchestra, but the listener comes away feeling refreshed, without knowing exactly why.

The DSO first performed Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony in a concert given at the Arcadia Auditorium on April 24, 1919, with Ossip Gabrilowitsch conducting. The most recent DSO performance of the work was given at Meadow Brook Music Festival in July of 2007, with Leonard Slatkin conducting.

SO Shop @ The Ma x D recommends:

Beethoven – Symphony No. 7: Carlos Kleiber conducting the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Deutsche Grammophon 447400. www.dso.org

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Ho n

Profiles Leonard Slatkin, Music Director

Neeme Järvi, Music Director Emeritus

DSO Presents Monday, December 5, 2011 at 8 p.m. in Orchestra Hall Natalie MacMaster Christmas in Cape Breton Natalie MacMaster, fiddle Mac Morin, piano Nathaniel Smith, cello Shane Hendrickson, bass JD Blair, drums Detroit Children’s Choir, Carol Schoch, director Program to be announced from the stage.

Special Thanks to Accusound Microphones

MacMaster (with whom Natalie recorded the 2005 gem “Traditional Music From Cape Breton Island”); her cousin Andrea Beaton and the late, great Canadian folk icon John Allan Cameron.

However, MacMaster forged her own sound, debuting her fiddling prowess at the age of 9 at a concert in Glendale, Cape Breton. She delivered her first album, “Four On The Floor,” at just 16.

“I was incredibly shy on stage until I was in my early-to-mid 20s,” she explains.

MacMaster has performed with The Chieftains, Paul Simon, Faith Hill and Luciano Pavarotti in front of millions on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” “Late Night with Conan O’Brien,” the ABC 2002 New Year’s Eve Special and “Good Morning America.”

Her performances have thrilled audiences throughout Europe and North America, especially in her native Canada, enabling MacMaster to passionately perform and promote the universal language of her Cape Breton sound.

Detroit Children’s Choir Non-flash photography and video recording by silenced hand-held devices are allowed during DSO performances.

The DSO can be heard on the DSO, Chandos, London, RCA and Mercury Record labels.

Natalie MacMaster

Natalie MacMaster’s signature sound has resonated with world audiences through 10 albums, multiple gold sales figures and 27 years. She has been awarded numerous Juno and East Coast Music MacMaster Awards, two honorary degrees, an honorary doctorate, the Order Of Canada, and a reputation as one of Canada’s most captivating performers.

She also has the respect and admiration of top-notch musicians such as master violinist Mark O’Connor, whose camp MacMaster frequents as a guest instructor; legendary cellist Yo-Yo Ma, who recently invited her to prominently participate as a guest performer on his 2008 holiday-themed album “Songs Of Joy & Peace;” banjo prodigy Béla Fleck; fellow fiddling marvel Alison Krauss; and spiritually electrifying superstar guitarist Carlos Santana.

But to MacMaster, her family now shapes and informs her musicianship as much as the jigs, reels, airs, waltzes, strathspeys, marches and traditional folk 20

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that feed her spiritual soul.

“I am a mom now. I am a wife. Those things are my priorities in life, and I think people get a sense of that, of that part of who I am, through my show. But my music itself hasn’t changed.”

If anything, family has reinvigorated MacMaster’s commitment to the stage and her audience.

“I like being on stage even more,” she enthuses. “When I appear onstage, that’s my departure from momhood and I transform into Natalie MacMaster the entertainer, the fiddler, the performer.

MacMaster was 16 years old when she started focusing on step dancing, a skill she incorporates into her performance.

“As the years went on, people came to expect it, so I still do a little of that – even when I’m pregnant.”

But it’s her majesty with the bow and her intricate technique in making the fiddle sing and championing the Cape Breton tradition that floors her admirers for over 100 shows per year.

Born in Troy, Inverness County, Nova Scotia, MacMaster’s impressive musical lineage includes a cadre of amazing fiddlers, including her uncle, fiddle prodigy Buddy

The mission of the Detroit Children’s Choir is to use the power and discipline of singing to bring together Detroit’s children in grades 3-8 – from urban and suburban communities, representing a wide range of ethnicities, religions and socio-economic levels – in a way that strengthens team building, creativity, social interaction, understanding, and connection. We believe that our children are not just the ‘future’ of Detroit, they are the PRESENT! Through their united performances, they bring their respective communities together, spread joy and inspiration and lift up our collective spirit.

Founded in 2006, DCC is a citywide program which offers in-school and neighborhood choir opportunities in an effort to reach all 8 - 14 year old children in the Detroit area who have a desire to sing. More information about the various neighborhood choir locations and registration can be found on DCC’s website at www. detroitchildrenschoir.org In addition, DCC is always searching for school administrators who would like to bring an in-school choir program into their school.

The members of the DCC Touring Choir are selected by audition and many of them got started in one of our in-school or neighborhood choir programs. These singers — and their supportive families — commit to year-round participation and they serve as good-will ambassadors for the young people of our city. www.dso.org

Profiles Matthew Halls

Leonard Slatkin, Music Director

Neeme Järvi, Music Director Emeritus

DSO Presents Thursday, December 8, 2011 at 7:30 p.m.

Saturday, December 10, 2011 at 8 p.m. in Orchestra Hall Matthew Halls, conductor Nicola Benedetti, violin

Johann Sebastian Bach Suite No. 3 in D major for Orchestra,

(1685-1750) BWV 1068 Overture Air Gavotte I Gavotte II Bourrée Gigue

George Frideric Handel Suite No. 1 in F major from Water Music

(1685-1759) Overture Adagio e staccato Allegro Air Minuet Bourrée Hornpipe Andante

I ntermission

Antonio Vivaldi The Four Seasons for Violin and Orchestra,

(1678-1741) Op. 8, Nos. 1-4 Concerto in E Major, “La primavera” (Spring) Concerto in g minor, “L’estate” (Summer) Concerto in F major, “L’autunno” (Autumn) Concerto in f minor, “L’inverno” (Winter)

Nicola Benedetti, violin

Matthew Halls has made his mark as one of today’s leading young conductors, having made significant debuts with the Houston Symphony, Tonkünstler halls Orchestra, Bach Collegium Stuttgart, Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo, Berlin Radio Symphony, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Iceland Symphony, and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. His 2011 season includes engagements with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, DSO, Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra, and the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C. In August 2011 he was named Artistic Director designate of the Oregon Bach Festival, to replace founding director Helmuth Rilling following the 2013 Festival.

Halls’ eclectically designed orchestral programs span centuries, juxtaposing composers as diverse as Byrd and Britten, Gesualdo and Schoenberg. Yet, he has an avowed passion for the 19th century Germanic and 20th century British repertoires.

His opera pedigree ranges from the Renaissance and Baroque to modern works. In addition to European and Asian engagements, he’s been a guest conductor with Colorado’s Central City Opera the last three summers, directing a premiere of his own edition of Handel’s opera Amadigi di Gaula in 2011, Puccini’s Madame Butterfly in 2010, and Handel’s Rinaldo for his 2009 debut.

He is the founding director of the Retrospect Ensemble, already in the vanguard of performance-practice groups with an annual series in London’s famed Wigmore Hall and appearances ranging from the Edinburgh International Festival to the Krakow Festival of Polish Music and a relationship with the Korean National Opera.

Get the most out of each concert by attending ConcerTalks, one hour prior to performances (excluding Coffee Concerts). ConcerTalks are informal and may include special guests, lectures and music that reveal interesting facts about the program and provide a behind-the-scenes look at the art of making music.

Non-flash photography and video recording by silenced hand-held devices are allowed during DSO performances.

The DSO can be heard on the DSO, Chandos, London, RCA and Mercury Record labels.

www.dso.org

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Nicola Benedetti

Nicola Benedetti has captivated audiences and critics alike with her musicality and poise. Throughout her career, her desire to perform new works has shown her to be one of Britain’s most benedetti innovative and creative young violinists. She has recorded newly commissioned works by John Tavener and James MacMillan, worked on jazzinfluenced repertoire with Wynton Marsalis and others, and explored authentic baroque performance.

As word of Benedetti’s immense musicality and ability to reach audiences has spread, she has performed with an ever-growing list of international orchestras in Europe, Asia and North America. In July, Benedetti made her South American debut with the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela and during her

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week-long visit, taught masterclasses with the revolutionary El Sistema program.

Highlights of the 2011–12 season include a New York Philharmonic performance in Central Park led by Alan Gilbert with Andrea Bocelli and her debut with the London Symphony at the Enescu Festival in Bucharest. Elsewhere, she debuts with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Zurich Chamber Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, DSO and the Hallé orchestra in Manchester. She will also tour the U.K. with the Czech National Symphony, perform a series of recitals for the BBC, visit Italy with the Mantova Chamber Orchestra and perform with the Stuttgart Philharmonic and Scottish Chamber Orchestra. She also embarks on a tour of South America.

Benedetti has captivated audiences with recitals across Europe and North America and performs in chamber music concerts throughout the U.K. and Europe with her regular trio, including cellist Leonard Elschenbroich and pianist Alexei Grynyuk.

Winner of the Classical BRIT Award for Young British Classic Performer in 2008, Benedetti has released five CDs with Universal/Deutsche Grammophon. She has also taken part in many prestigious events, including performances at Windsor Castle for Her Majesty the Queen, opening of the Scottish Parliament, the G8 Summit at Gleneagles and for Comic Relief ’s “Classic Relief ” concert. Benedetti has also devoted herself to humanitarian and educational causes, including the U.K.’s CLIC Sargent Practice-a-thon, El Sistema Scotland’s Big Noise project and UNICEF. Born in Scotland of Italian heritage, Benedetti began violin lessons at just age 5.

In 1997, she entered the Yehudi Menuhin School, where she studied with Natasha Boyarskaya, and then continued her studies with Maciej Rakowski in London. She is currently taking lessons from Pavel Vernikov in Vienna.

Benedetti plays the Earl Spencer Stradivarius (circa 1712), courtesy of Jonathan Moulds.

www.dso.org

Program Notes

B

Suite No. 3 in D major for Orchestra, BWV 1068

ach made use of dance rhythms in various ways, sometimes incorporating them subtly, challenging the listener to recognize them and identify their origins; at other times, presenting courtly or folk dances almost in their original guise, only a step or two removed from the ballroom or the stage. If the dances in his keyboard suites are removed from their sources by several degrees, those in the four orchestral suites show their lineage more clearly.

The orchestral suite is closer to actual dance music than the keyboard suite if only

Johann Sebastian Bach

B. March 31, 1685, Eisenach, Germany D. July 28, 1750, Leipzig, Germany)

Bach wrote his Suite No. 3 in D major in Leipzig between 1729 and 1731. It is scored for two oboes, three trumpets, timpani, continuo and strings (approximately 20 minutes).

201 1

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GRAND VALLEY STATE UNIVERSITY PRESENTS

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“A Night in Hapsburg Vienna: From the Marriage of Figaro to Fidelio as arranged for Wind Harmonie”

Poetry Night

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Distinguished Academic Lecturer

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“The Spanish Tradition: Manuel de Falla, El Corregidor y la Molinera” Monday, oCtober 24, 8 p.M. LouiS arMStrong theatre perforMing artS Center aLLendaLe CaMpuS

thurSday, SepteMber 22, 7 p.M. L.V. eberhard Center, 2nd fLoor robert C. pew grand rapidS CaMpuS

A Fall Arts Celebration Holiday Gift

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“Gloria: Music of the Holiday Season from Grand Valley”

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for CoMpLete SCheduLe and More detaiLed inforMation ViSit WWW.GVSU.EDU/FALLARTS/.

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for the fact that it had its origins as a set of extracts from an opera or ballet. In imitation of these recycled suites, Baroque composers wrote new ones, usually following the same format, beginning with an overture and continuing with a series of dances. Such a format was favored in Germany, where music for entertainment was constantly in demand at the many courts across the land. Bach was by no means the most prolific composer of suites; Telemann may have composed as many as 1,000, of which only 135 are extant.

Scholars are unsure of the origin of Bach’s four suites. He first became familiar with the French style during his years in Cöthen; the First and Fourth suites probably date from around this time. The Second and Third Suites were more likely written during Bach’s time in Leipzig, where in addition to providing sacred music for the city’s two main churches, Bach also wrote for the Collegium Musicum, a regular gathering of knowledgeable musical amateurs. The Leipzig Suites combine the two leading national styles of the time, French and Italian; if the differences are less than apparent today, Bach’s contemporaries would have been keenly aware of them.

Like all of Bach’s orchestral suites, the Third opens with an Overture, here a majestic procession with trumpets and drums, alternating with a faster fugal section.

Even more familiar is the Air, which enjoyed a particular success in the virtuoso violin arrangement by August Wilhelm under the title “Air, for the G String.” The original, scored for string orchestra, is sheer Italian melody, the first violins spinning their limpid tune against a backdrop of steadily shifting bass. An Italian composer might have left the melodic line unadorned, trusting the performers to ornament it, but Bach left nothing to chance, writing out in full the ornamentation as he heard it.

Three traditional dance movements round out this Suite: two animated Gavottes, a Bourrée (with its trademark upbeat), and a Gigue. The last of these is not in the French style, in spite of its orthography; rather, it is an Italian giga, running breathlessly from start to finish, with trumpets and drums joining in the fray at the close.

The DSO last performed Johann Sebastian Bach’s Suite No. 3 in D major for Orchestra, BWV 1068 in December 2002, with Robert King conducting.

SO Shop @ The Ma x D recommends:

Bach – Orchestral Suite No. 3: Neville Marriner conducting the Academy St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Decca 430378.

Performance / Vol . X X / Fall 2011

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Suite No. 1 in F major from Water Music

George Frideric Handel

B. February 23, 1685, Halle, Germany D. April 14, 1759, London, England)

Overture Adagio e staccato Allegro Air Minuet Bourrée Hornpipe Andante

Handel’s Suite No. 1 in F major from Water Music is scored for two oboes, bassoon, two horns, continuo and strings (approximately 25 minutes)

G

eorge Frideric Handel was born in 1685 to Georg Händel and Dorothea Taust. Handel’s father, who was 63 when he was born, was an eminent barber-surgeon who served two royal courts. According to Handel’s first biographer, John Mainwaring, “he had discovered such a strong propensity to music, that his father, who always intended him for the study of the Civil Law, had reason to be alarmed. He strictly forbade him to meddle with any musical instrument but Handel found means to get a little clavichord privately convey’d to a room at the top of the house. To this room he constantly stole when the family was asleep.”

Handel’s Water Music was composed in 1717 for a particularly spectacular royal event. King George I, recognizing political unrest in his country following a dispute with his son, organized a royal water trip along the Thames River, in order to be more visible to his subjects. He offered Handel, newly arrived in the country and under the King’s patronage, the opportunity to compose music to accompany the trip.

The three resulting suites are comprised of Baroque dances, and include bourrées, hornpipes and minuets, as well as overtures, allegros, arias and choruses. Although these pieces were grouped into three separate suites, it was only at the time of publication that the movements were organized by key as separate and distinct works. Handel maintains an atmosphere of majesty and mirth throughout, reflecting the power and magnificence of his King.

On Wednesday, July 17, 1717, King George I and a large gathering of the English nobility boarded open barges on the Thames at Whitehall and sailed up the river to Chelsea, where they dined and stayed on until 3 a.m. The party then returned, the King arriving at St. James’s Palace at about 4:30 a.m. Throughout the

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whole of this spectacular evening, Handel’s majestic music was to be heard. According to the Daily Courant, one of the barges “was employed for the Musick, wherein were 50 instruments of all sorts who play’d – the finest Symphonies, compos’d express for this Occasion, by Mr. Handel; which His Majesty liked so well, that he caus’d it to be plaid over three times in going and returning.”

Handel made no attempt to publish the Water Music at the time of its premiere, but it soon began to circulate in manuscript

copies. About half of the suite was published as a set of orchestral parts in 1734, and a nearly complete harpsichord transcription of the work appeared in 1743. By this time, the movements had been grouped into “key order,” with the F major and D minor movements first, then the D major movements, and finally the movements in G major and G minor. The once widely held notion that the music was conceived in this form, as three separate suites, is doubtful.

It is possible that Handel did use some pre-existing movements when he created the

THE VALUE OF TRUE ARTISTRY CAN’T BE MEASURED. WE SHOULD KNOW.

www.dso.org

Water Music, but the movements containing brass instruments are likely to have been newly composed. The use of French horns was a significant innovation: the instruments had never before been used in any English musical work, and they proved to be ideal for outdoor music, particularly in combination with trumpets. The whole suite reflects the confidence Handel had acquired in the country in which he had chosen to settle and, some ten years later, to become a naturalized citizen.

The First Suite opens in the style of a French overture, connoting the majesty and importance of the King. The Adagio that follows is a beautiful oboe lament in D minor which contrasts perfectly with the celebratory feel of the first movement.

The horns are featured in the next Allegro section, lending an air of grandeur to Handel’s expansive orchestration. The final movement is a dialogue between the winds and strings, with oboes and bassoon introducing a theme that is then taken up by the strings, which after being passed between the two sections culminates in a final tutti statement.

The DSO last performed Handel’s Suite No. 1 from the Water Music in February of 2009, with Nicholas Kraemer conducting.

SO Shop @ The Ma x D recommends:

Handel – Water Music Suite No. 1: Neville Marriner conducting the Academy St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Decca 414596.

The Four Seasons, Op. 8 Antonio Vivaldi

B. Venice, March 4, 1678 D. Vienna July 28, 1741)

Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons is scored for solo violin, continuo and strings (approximately 39 minutes).

T

he four concertos that the great Venetian composer Antonio Vivaldi titled The Four Seasons are actually part of a larger set of 12 concertos that he called collectively The Strife between Harmony and Invention (Il Cimento dell’ Armonia e dell’ Inventione).

Vivaldi was one of the early exponents of orchestral program music. Since the concerto was the principal type of orchestral music in the early 18th century, his programmatic efforts are usually in concerto form. Vivaldi’s work in the area of concerto composition was extensive, experimental, and, as a whole, one of the major landmarks of baroque orchestral repertoire.

Two types of concerto format were prevalent in Vivaldi’s lifetime: the concerto www.dso.org

grosso, based upon the juxtaposition between unequal instrumental groups (concertino being the small solo group and grosso the larger mass of strings), and the solo concerto, based upon the opposition between one instrument and the orchestra.

Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons are pure examples of neither type of concerto. Occasionally, there is a concertino grouping (usually consisting of three solo violins), but more often, a violin solo is featured in the manner of a solo concerto. This mixture of concerto types fits better with what we know of Vivaldi’s personality and practice than does a rigid adherence to one formula for concerto construction.

Scholars have pointed out the appropriateness of Vivaldi’s title for the entire Opus 8 set, in which armonia (in other words, traditional form) is reconciled with invenzione (or pictorialism). Vivaldi does just that, retaining the traditional ritornello scheme while making the solo episodes occasions for both virtuoso display and for scene painting. Others before him had indulged in passages of similar imitation; however, The Four Seasons has the distinction of being the most sustained programmatic work prior to Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony.

In The Four Seasons, each concerto is set to a sonnet describing one of the seasons of the year, and the individual movements, as well as passages from within each movement, are keyed to the specific lines of poetry that they are intended to suggest or imitate. The poems follow below: Spring Spring has come, and joyfully the birds welcome it with cheerful song, and the streams and the breath of zephyrs, flow swiftly with sweet murmurings.

But now the sky is cloaked in black and thunder and lightning announce themselves; when they die away, the little birds turn afresh to their sweet song.

Then on the pleasant flower-strewn meadow, to the gentle rustle of the leaves and branches the goatherd rests, his faithful dog at his side.

To the rustic bagpipe’s gay sound nymph and shepherd dance beneath the fair spring sky in all its glory.

Summer In the torrid heat of the blazing sun, man and beast alike languish, and even the pine trees scorch; the cuckoo raises his voice, and soon after the turtledove and finch join in song.

Sweet zephyrs blow, but then the fierce north wind intervenes; the shepherd weeps, anxious for his fate from the harsh, menacing gusts; He rouses his weary limbs from rest in fear of the lightning, the fierce thunder and the angry swarms of gnats and flies.

Alas! his fears are justified, for furious thunder irradiates the heavens, bowing down the trees and flattening the crops.

Autumn The peasant celebrates with song and dance his joy in a fine harvest and with generous draughts of Bacchus’ cup his efforts end in sleep.

Song and dance are gone; the gentle, pleasant air and the season invite one and all to the delights of the sweetest sleep.

At first light the huntsman sets out with horns, guns and dogs, putting his prey to flight and following its tracks; Terrified and exhausted by the great clamour of guns and dogs, wounded and afraid, the prey tries to flee, but is caught and dies.

Winter To shiver icily in the freezing dark in the teeth of a cruel wind, to stamp your feet all the time, so chilled that your teeth chatter; To remain in quiet contentment by the fireside while outside the rain pours in torrents; to walk on the ice, with slow steps in fear of falling, advance with care.

Then to step forth strongly, fall to the ground, and again run boldly on the ice until it cracks and breaks; To listen as from the iron portals rush winds from south and north, and all the winds in contest; such is winter, such the joys it brings.

The DSO last performed Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons in December of 2007, with Nicholas McGegan conducting.

SO Shop @ The Ma x D recommends:

Vivaldi – The Four Seasons: Alan Loveday, violin; Neville Marriner conducting the Academy St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Decca B0006627.

Performance / Vol . X X / Fall 201 1

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Profiles

Christopher Warren-Green Leonard Slatkin, Music Director

Neeme Järvi, Music Director Emeritus

DSO Presents

Saturday, December 10, 2011 at 3 p.m.

Sunday, December 11, 2011 at 3 p.m. in Orchestra Hall Christopher Warren-Green, conductor • Klara Ek, soprano# Christopher Ainslie, counter tenor^ • Mark Tucker, tenor* • Douglas Williams, bass-baritone+ University Musical Society Choral Union, chorus • Jerry Blackstone, conductor

George Frideric Handel

Messiah

(1685-1759) 1. Sinfonia

PART I 2. Accompagnato: “Comfort ye, my people”* 3. Air: “Ev’ry valley shall be exalted”* 4. Chorus: “And the Glory of the Lord” 5. Accompagnato: “Thus saith the Lord, the Lord of Host”+ 6. Air: “But who may abide the day of His coming”^ 7. Chorus: “And he shall purify” 8. Recitative: “Behold, a virgin shall conceive”^ 9. Air and Chorus: “O thou that tellest good tidings of Zion”^ 10. Accompagnato: “For behold, darkness shall cover the earth”+ 11. Air: “The people that walked in darkness”+ 12. Chorus: “For unto us a child is born” 13. Pifa (Pastoral Symphony) 14a. Recitative: “There were shepherds abiding in the field”# 14b. Accompagnato: “And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them” 15. Recitative: “And the angel said unto them”# 16. Accompagnato: “And suddenly, there was with the angel”# 17. Chorus: “Glory to God in the highest” 18. Air: “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion”# 19. Recitative: “Then shall the eyes of the blind be open’d”^ 20. D uet: “He shall feed his flock like a shepherd”#^ 21. Chorus: “His yoke is easy, and His burden is light” INTERMISSION PART II 22. Chorus: “Behold the Lamb of God” 23. Air: “He was despised”^ 24. Chorus: “Surely, He hath bourne our griefs and carried our sorrows” 25. Chorus: “And with His stripes we are healed” 26. Chorus: “All we like sheep, have gone astray” 27. Accompagnato: “All they that see Him, laugh Him to scorn”* 28. Chorus: “He trusted in God” 29. Accompagnato: “Thy rebuke hath broken His heart”* 30. Arioso: “Behold and see if there be any sorrow”* 31. Accompagnato: “He was cut off out of the Land of the living”* 32. Air: “But Thou didst not leave His soul in hell”* 33. Chorus: “Lift up your heads” 37. Chorus: The Lord Gave the Word 38. Air: “How beautiful are the feet of him”# 39. Chorus: Their sound is gone out 40. Air: “Why do the nations so furiously rage together”+ 41. Chorus: “Let us break their bonds asunder” 42. Recitative: “He that dwelleth in heaven”* 43. Air: “Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron”* 44. Chorus: “Hallelujah”

PART III 45. Air: “I know that my Redeemer liveth”# 46. Chorus: “Since by man came death” 47. Accompagnato: “Behold, I tell you a mystery+ 48. Air: “The trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be rais’d”+ 53. Chorus: “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain” #^*+

UMS Chorale Union Non-flash photography and video recording by silenced hand-held devices are allowed during DSO performances.

The DSO can be heard on the DSO, Chandos, London, RCA and Mercury Record labels.

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Music Director of the Charlotte Symphony and London Chamber orchestras, this season Christopher WarrenGreen will make his debut with the DSO, the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra warren-green and the Zürcher Kammerorchester, and will return to the London Philharmonic, Sapporo Symphony and the Royal Philharmonic orchestras.

In North America, Warren-Green has worked with the Minnesota Orchestra on several occasions, and made an acclaimed debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra in 2007. He has also performed with the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C., Houston Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, Seattle Symphony Orchestra and Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.

Last season he conducted the Philharmonia Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall, made his debut with the Orchestre National de Belgique, and performed with the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra in Dublin. He also conducted the London Chamber Orchestra in the closing concert of the Berlin International Music Festival in August 2011.

Elsewhere in the United Kingdom, Warren-Green has worked with the BBC Concert, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and Royal Scottish National orchestras. Further afield, he has appeared at the Bucharestbased Enescu Festival with the Chamber Orchestra of the Romanian National Radio Society and has conducted concerts with the Orquestra Metropolitana de Lisboa, Iceland Symphony Orchestra and Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra. Previous orchestral appointments have included Principal Conductor of the Camerata Resident Orchestra of the Megaron Athens, taking over from Sir Neville Marriner; Chief Conductor of the Nordiska Kammar Orkestern, and Chief Conductor of the Jönköpings Sinfonietta.

Warren-Green has been personally invited to conduct on many occasions for the Royal Family in the last 30 years. In April 2011, Warren-Green conducted the London Chamber Orchestra during the marriage ceremony of HRH Prince William Duke of Cambridge and HRH Duchess of Cambridge at Westminster Abbey. www.dso.org

University Musical Society Choral Union

The University Musical Society (UMS) Choral Union was formed by a group of Ann Arbor citizens and university students who gathered together for the study of Handel’s Messiah. The group has performed with many of the world’s distinguished orchestras and conductors in its 133-year history.

Originally named The Choral Union, the ensemble was first led by Professor Henry Simmons Frieze and conducted

by Professor Calvin Cady. Since its first performance of Handel’s Messiah in December 1879, the oratorio has been performed by the UMS Choral Union in Ann Arbor annually. Based in Ann Arbor under the aegis of UMS, the 175-voice Choral Union is known for its definitive performances of large-scale works for chorus and orchestra. The UMS Choral Union further enriched that tradition 16 years ago when it began appearing regularly with the DSO. Led by Grammy Award-winning conductor and music director Jerry Blackstone, the UMS Choral Union was a participant chorus in a rare performance and recording of William Bolcom’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience in Hill Auditorium in April 2004 under the baton of DSO Music Director Leonard Slatkin.

Naxos released a three-disc set of this recording in October 2004, featuring the UMS Choral Union and University of Michigan School of Music ensembles. The recording won four Grammy Awards in 2006, including “Best Choral Performance” and “Best Classical Album.” The recording was also selected as one of The New York Times “Best Classical Music CDs of 2004.”

The UMS Choral Union’s 2011-2012 season begins with its annual performances of Handel’s Messiah at Hill Auditorium with the Ann Arbor Symphony and at Orchestra Hall with the DSO in December.

The chorus will join forces with the DSO and Slatkin in February for performances of Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem and Adams’ On the Transmigration of Souls and again in April for performances of Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy and Bolcom’s Prometheus.

www.dso.org

Program Notes Messiah

George Frideric Handel

B. February 23, 1685, Halle, Germany D. April 14, 1759, London, England)

Messiah was first performed in Dublin on April 13, 1742.

The score calls for two oboes, two bassoons, timpani, strings and continuo, with vocal soloists and choir. The vocal roster varied at each of Handel’s performances; on this occasion, the solo parts are allotted to soprano, counter-tenor, tenor and bass-baritone (approximately 2 hours).

H

andel first appeared on the London scene in 1711 with his opera Rinaldo, the first opera conceived for the English stage to be in the Italian language. Over the next 30 years, Handel’s fortunes would ebb and flow along with opera’s rise and fall in favor among the English people. By 1741, his last opera, Deidamia, had failed, and Handel began to think about returning to his native Germany.

By the time he wrote Messiah, Handel had survived a serious illness (1737) and had sunk to the low point of his career, physically, psychologically, emotionally and financially.

Scholars have debated over who assembled the texts for Messiah, but the man who sent them to Handel was one Charles Jennens, a rich and somewhat pompous dilettante who had a high opinion of his own literary gifts. If Jennens did not assemble the libretto, he accepted the credit given him for doing so. The entire text is Biblical (from the Authorized Bible of 1611), and each of the three parts is devoted to a main idea, somewhat like the body of the Church Year itself. Part I concerns Prophecy and Fulfillment (Advent and Christmas); Part II, Suffering and Redemption (Lent); Part III, the Fruits of the Resurrection (Easter).

During Handel’s years in London, he had shown generosity to several charities (including the Foundling Hospital), so it was natural that he would accept an invitation from the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland to give a series of charity performances in Dublin in 1741. No doubt Handel also realized that accepting the invitation could only help his financial status.

Handel lost himself in work on Messiah, composing almost constantly and with extraordinary speed. He began work on the score on August 22 and finished it on September 14. It is alleged that he refused food and did not sleep for much of the time. It is said that he exclaimed, upon completing the “Hallelujah” chorus, “I did think I did see all Heaven before me and the great God himself!”

Even if one discounts these stories, the

sheer speed of composition is remarkable, especially since (as Christopher Hogwood points out in his book on Handel) the composer borrowed relatively little music when he wrote Messiah.

Handel left for Dublin in November, taking with him his copyist and the scores of works to be performed in Ireland in the following months. He reached the Irish capital on November 18, and quickly became a celebrity in a city that was more hospitable to his talents than London.

Handel gave a dozen concerts before unveiling Messiah on April 13, 1742, having helped to ensure the new work’s success by admitting those who had purchased advance tickets to the première to rehearsal. Some 700 people packed “Mr. Neal’s Music Hall” on Fishamble Street for the momentous occasion. The hall was only intended to hold 600, but the demand for tickets was so great that it inspired an advertisement in Faulkner’s Journal asking the ladies to please come without hoops and the gentlemen without swords. Hundreds of hopeful listeners were turned away that day.

The oratorio was, according to a review in the Dublin Journal, “the most finished piece of Musick…The Sublime, the Grand, and the Tender, adapted to the most elevated, majestick, and moving Words, conspired to transport and charm the ravished Heart and Ear.” An additional performance of Messiah was given in June, after which Handel returned to England.

With this success behind him, Handel was determined that Messiah would be heard in London, and the first performance there was given in March, 1743. Two more performances were given in London that season. Though the work was initially quite successful, Messiah was slow to catch on in England.

Beginning in 1750, annual performances at the Foundling Hospital were conducted

by Handel. The London performance of April 6, 1759, was Handel’s final public appearance; he conducted, now completely blind, from the harpsichord. Eight days later, he died.

The first DSO performance of Messiah was given in the Arcadia Auditorium on January 16, 1919. Julius Sturm conducted the Detroit Festival Chorus (director, William Howland), and the soloists were Mrs. Charles Welker, Miss Helen Kennedy, Thomas C. Muir and Milton Snyder.

SO Shop @ The Ma x D recommends:

Handel – Messiah: Nicolas McGegan conducting the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Harmonia Mundi 907050/2.

Performance / Vol . X X / Fall 201 1

27

Profiles

Leonard Slatkin Leonard Slatkin, Music Director

Neeme Järvi, Music Director Emeritus

pops series Home for the holidays Friday, December 16, 2011 at 10:45 a.m.

Saturday, December 17, 2011 at 3 p.m. & 8 p.m.

Sunday, December 18, 2011 at 3 p.m. in Orchestra Hall Leonard Slatkin, conductor Daniel Slatkin, piano^ Andover High School Choir*, Bruce Snyder, director Grosse Pointe South High School Pointe Singers‡, Ellen Bowen, director

Leroy Anderson A Christmas Festival Jerry Herman We Need A Little Christmas* ‡ arr. Robert Wendel John Williams “Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas” Lyrics by Leslie Bricusse from Three Holiday Songs from Home Alone* ‡ Eddie Pola & George Wyle It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year * ‡ arr. James Kessler arr. Dana Friedman & A Chanukah Overture Robert Wendel Maoz Tzur

Rock of my Security (Rock of Ages) Al HaNisim I Have A Little Dradle S’vivon

arr. Leonard Slatkin Holidays for Piano and Strings^

Silent Night Pat-A-Fum Carol of the Kings

I ntermission

Georges Bizet “Farandole” from L’Arlésienne Suite No. 2 Ralph Vaughan Williams Fantasia on Greensleeves adapted by Ralph Greeves Christopher Rouse Karolju

Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Suite from The Nutcracker, Op. 71a

Ob vix abdurat (Latin) Je son de la feuli que l’aime (French) Siempre los mascara (Spanish) Procession of the Three Kings (Percussion) O die zimmer dank (German) Ob vix abdurant (reprise, Latin)* ‡

Dance of the Reed Flutes Arabian Dance Russian Dance

James Stephenson III A Holly Jolly Sing-Along!

Intro Deck the Hall Jingle Bells The Holly and the Ivy Jolly Old St. Nicholas Frosty the Snowman Up on the Housetop Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Joy to the World We Wish You a Merry Christmas* ‡

Leroy Anderson Sleigh Ride Non-flash photography and video recording by silenced hand-held devices are allowed during DSO performances.

The DSO can be heard on the DSO, Chandos, London, RCA and Mercury Record labels.

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Performance / Vol . X X / Fall 201 1

Internationally acclaimed American conductor Leonard Slatkin began his critically-acclaimed tenure as Music Director of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in September of 2008. In addition to his post at the DSO, he slatkin serves as Music Director of the Orchestre National de Lyon (ONL) in France, an appointment which began in August 2011. Slatkin also continues to serve as Principal Guest Conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, a post that began in the fall of 2008.

Following a 17-year post as Music Director of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, Slatkin became Music Director of the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C. in 1996. Other positions in the United States have included Principal Guest Conductor of the Minnesota Orchestra, where he founded their “Sommerfest;” first Music Director of the Cleveland Orchestra’s summer series at the Blossom Music Festival, an appointment he held for nine years; Principal Guest Conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra at the Hollywood Bowl for three seasons; and additional positions with the New Orleans Philharmonic and the Nashville Symphony Orchestra.

Throughout his career, Mr. Slatkin has demonstrated a continuing commitment to arts education and to reaching diverse audiences. He founded the Saint Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra, and was founder and director of the National Conducting Institute, an advanced career development program for rising conductors. This year, he spearheaded the DSO’s Soundcard initiative, an all-access student pass to every Classical, Pops and Jazz concerts at Orchestra Hall, all season long.

Maestro Slatkin’s more than 100 recordings have been recognized with seven Grammy awards and 64 nominations. He has recorded with the DSO, National Symphony Orchestra, Saint Louis Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Nashville Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and the New York Philharmonic.

His engagements for the 2011-2012 include Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Seoul Philharmonic, NHK Symphony, a tour of Germany with the Deutsches SymphonieOrchester Berlin, the New World and National Symphony Orchestras in Washington, D.C. www.dso.org