55 minute read
Transformational Support
Jeffery Zook & David Assemany: Living Legacy
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An acclaimed musician and educator, DSO Flute and Piccolo Jeffery Zook (Shari and Craig Morgan Chair) is currently in his 30th season with the orchestra. Together with his husband, DSO Governing Member Chair David Assemany, the pair gives back to the organization that has given them so much. It was within the DSO universe that they first met in 1996 and fell in love. Since then, the DSO has been a constant presence in their lives— evolving from a patron and musician-only based relationship to high-level donor status. The harmonious oneDSO culture initially cultivated by DSO Chair Emeritus Phillip Fisher inspired Zook and Assemany to deepen their investment in the prosperity of the DSO. Assemany became a Governing Member from the beginning and is now serving in his third year as Chair of the When the Musicians Fund Governing Members. His ambaswas established, I immediately knew I wanted us to contribute because I feel sadorial role is essential to the artistic and cultural health and strategic direction of the DSO. strongly that excellence is the most Living at the intersection of important one of the DSO’s core values. music and community, the sociaWithout excellence, nothing is going to ble duo impacts everyone they be successful. It was also important to us to give a gift to the Anne Parsons meet. They open their home as an entertainment venue for student recitals, open mics, Leadership Fund while Anne was still workshops, musical feasts, and alive. We respected her immensely and fundraisers. As DSO advocates, were grateful that we were able to do their legacy gifts to the DSO that before she passed away.” Musicians Fund for Artistic Excellence and the Anne Parsons —David Assemany, Leadership Fund contribute to
Governing Member Chair the future sustainability of Detroit’s world-class orchestra. Within their world of music, advocacy, and community-building through the arts, Dave and Jeff are building a living legacy with their purposeful generosity.
The DSO is grateful to the donors who have made extraordinary endowment investments through the DSO Impact Campaign or multi-year, comprehensive gifts to support general operations, capital improvements, or special programs.
FOUNDING FAMILIES
Mr. & Mrs. Lee Barthel Julie & Peter Cummings APLF The Davidson-Gerson Family and the William Davidson Foundation The Richard C. Devereaux Foundation Erb Family and the Fred A. and Barbara M. Erb Family Foundation The Fisher Family and the Max M. & Marjorie S. Fisher Foundation Stanley & Judy Frankel and the Samuel & Jean Frankel Foundation Danialle & Peter Karmanos, Jr. Mort & Brigitte Harris Foundation APLF Linda Dresner & Ed Levy, Jr.APLF James B. & Ann V. Nicholson and PVS Chemicals, Inc. APLF Bernard & Eleanor Robertson Mrs. Richard C. Van Dusen Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation Clyde & Helen Wu◊
VISIONARIES
Mr. & Mrs. Richard L. AlonzoAPLF Penny & Harold BlumensteinAPLF Mr. & Mrs. Phillip Wm. FisherAPLF, MM Alan J. & Sue Kaufman and Family MM Shari & Craig Morgan APLF, MM
CHAMPIONS
Mandell & Madeleine Berman Foundation APLF Mr. and Mrs. Raymond M. Cracchiolo Joanne Danto & Arnold Weingarden Vera and Joseph Dresner Foundation DTE Energy Foundation Ford Motor Company Fund Mr. and Mrs. Morton E. Harris ◊ John S. & James L. Knight Foundation The Kresge Foundation Mrs. Bonnie Larson APLF Brian Meer & Lisa Keramedjian Meer The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Ms. Deborah Miesel Dr. William F. Pickard The Polk Family Stephen M. Ross Family of Clyde and Helen
Wu APLF
LEADERS
Applebaum Family Philanthropy Charlotte Arkin Estate Marvin & Betty Danto Family Foundation APLF Adel & Walter Dissett MM Herman & Sharon Frankel Ruth & Al◊ Glancy Mary Ann & Robert Gorlin APLF Ronald M. & Carol◊ Horwitz Richard H. & Carola Huttenlocher MM John C. Leyhan Estate Bud & Nancy Liebler Richard & Jane Manoogian Foundation David & Valerie McCammon Mr. & Mrs. Eugene A. Miller Pat & Hank◊ Nickol Jack & Aviva Robinson◊ Martie & Bob Sachs Mr. & Mrs.◊ Alan E. Schwartz Drs. Doris Tong & Teck Soo Paul & Terese Zlotof
BENEFACTORS
Mr.◊ & Mrs. Robert A. Allesee Mr. David Assemany & Mr. Jeffery Zook APLF, MM W. Harold & Chacona W. Baugh
APLF
Robert & Lucinda Clement Lois & Avern Cohn MM Jack, Evelyn, and Richard Cole Family Foundation Mary Rita Cuddohy Estate Margie Dunn & Mark Davidoff
APLF, MM
DSO Musicians MM Bette Dyer Estate Marjorie S. Fisher Fund MM Dr. Marjorie M. Fisher & Mr. Roy Furman Ms. Mary D. Fisher Mr. & Mrs. Aaron Frankel MM Barbara Frankel & Ronald Michalak MM Victor◊ & Gale Girolami Fund The Glancy Foundation, Inc. APLF Herbert & Dorothy Graebner◊ Richard Sonenklar & Gregory Haynes MM Mr. & Mrs. David Jaffa Renato & Elizabeth Jamett MM Allan & Joy Nachman MM Ann & Norman◊ Katz Dr. Melvin A. Lester◊ Florine Mark Michigan Arts & Culture Council Dr. Glenda D. Price Ruth Rattner Mr. & Mrs.◊ Lloyd E. Reuss Mr. & Mrs. Fred Secrest◊ Jane & Larry Sherman Cindy McTee & Leonard Slatkin Marilyn Snodgrass Estate Mr. and Mrs. Arn Tellem APLF Nancy Schlichting & Pamela Theisen APLF Mr. James G. Vella MM Eva von Voss and Family MM
Key: MM DSO Musicians Fund for
Artistic Excellence APLF Anne Parsons Leadership Fund ◊ Deceased
The Detroit Symphony Orchestra is an inclusive and culturally relevant community where all people can experience their world through music. Each season, the DSO holds Relaxed Open Rehearsals and sensory-friendly events for individuals who may not feel comfortable in a traditional concert environment. Special focus is given to audience members on the autism spectrum and those with other sensory sensitivities.
The culture of attending live performances can be unforgiving for those who are unable to conform to the standard concert etiquette of quietly sitting still for extended periods, including those who may express emotions such as joy or excitement through vocalization. The DSO’s Relaxed Open Rehearsals aim to remove barriers, enabling participants to be themselves and enjoy a musical experience in a safe and judgement-free environment.
Kiersten Alcorn, the DSO’s Community Engagement Manager, is passionate about the organization’s commitment to advancing accessibility measures. “This programming is so important because it embodies our mission of cultivating an inclusive community and musical experiences that are accessible to all,” said Alcorn. “Through this work, more people can enjoy the magic of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in ways that empower our community and prioritize comfort and safety.”
On September 22, 2022, 50 attendees enjoyed a Relaxed Open Rehearsal as DSO musicians prepared for a weekend of DTE Community Concerts under the baton of DSO Assistant Conductor Na’Zir McFadden (Phillip & Lauren Fisher Community Ambassador). Attendees had access to resources to prepare for the event including a program guide, social story, and Spotify playlist to hear selections in advance. The DSO removed barriers to this event by hosting a limited number of audience members and providing other accommodations including noisereducing headphones and fidgets, a quiet area to take a break from the rehearsal if needed, and the opportunity to see and touch instruments beforehand.
The event was well received by those who attended, and filled a community need that is sometimes overlooked. “It is an environment where it feels safe to enjoy the music/experience in the way each of us enjoys it—some clapping, some singing, some helping the conductor, and some just listening in a way not usually available to us,” said one attendee.
The DSO looks forward to hosting more Relaxed Open Rehearsals in the future and continuing efforts to promote accessibility throughout The Max and community venues. Thanks to a donation from the Mid-Michigan Autism Association, the DSO now offers sensory toolkits (including noise-cancelling headphones and fidget toys) and a quiet room, available for patrons to use at every performance, beyond the dedicated sensory-friendly events. Visit the Accessibility tab at dso.org/yourexperience to learn more.
Karisa Antonio, the DSO’s Director of Social Innovation, guides participants as they interact with instruments ahead of the Relaxed Open Rehearsal on September 22
A COMMUNITY-SUPP JORTED ORCHESTRAJADER BIGNAMINI, Music Director ADER BIGNAMINI MUSIC DIRECTOR
Music Directorship endowed by the Kresge Foundation
NA’ZIR MCFADDEN
Assistant Conductor, Phillip & Lauren Fisher Community Ambassador JEFF TYZIK
Principal Pops Conductor TERENCE BLANCHARD
Fred A. Erb Jazz Creative Director Chair LEONARD SLATKIN
Music Director Laureate NEEME JÄRVI
Music Director Emeritus
TITLE SPONSOR:
TWIST & SHOUT: THE MUSIC OF THE BEATLES – A SYMPHONIC EXPERIENCE Friday, January 6, 2023 at 10:45 a.m. & 8 p.m. Saturday, January 7, 2023 at 8 p.m. Sunday, January 8, 2023 at 3 p.m. in Orchestra Hall
JEFF TYZIK, conductor PAUL LOREN, vocals • COLIN SMITH, vocals RICK BRANTLEY, vocals • OSCAR RODRIGUEZ, guitar BRIAN KILLEEN, bass • JORDAN ROSE, drums
arr. Jeff Tyzik She Loves You Please Please Me Drive My Car And I Love Her Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) Do You Want To Know A Secret Eight Days A Week Michelle Eleanor Rigby If I Fell I Feel Fine Rock ‘N Roll Music You Really Got A Hold On Me Twist and Shout
INTERMISSION
Day Tripper We Can Work It Out Love Me Do Yesterday Nowhere Man Can’t Buy Me Love A Hard Day’s Night Here, There and Everywhere Yellow Submarine You Can’t Do That All You Need Is Love
ALL ARRANGEMENTS AND IMAGERY LICENSED BY SCHIRMER THEATRICAL, LLC
All music under license from Sony/ ATV Music Publishing LLC and MPL Music Publishing. All photos under license from The Beatles Book Photo Library. The show is not endorsed by or connected to Apple Corps or The Beatles. Program subject to change
PROGRAM AT-A-GLANCE | TWIST AND SHOUT
Ticket to Ride
The Beatles’ major legacy and revolutionary impact on popular music cannot be overstated. The group made their first appearance in Detroit on September 6, 1964 at Olympia Stadium, and appeared at the stadium once more just two years later in 1966. The Beatles’ unique name was influenced by Buddy Holly and The Crickets in that the band was interested in naming themselves after an insect. John Lennon applied his tongue-in-cheek humor to devise a punnier moniker, and thus “The Beatles” was born. Although Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr are widely known as the band’s rhythm section, they were not the original members. At first, the rhythm section consisted of Stu Stucliffe on bass—one of John Lennon’s friends from art school—and Pete Best on drums, a Liverpool contemporary who left after being angered by one of their record contracts. Paying tribute to the band’s legendary discography, this program will make you get up and dance, with popular tunes that will be stuck in your head “Eight Days a Week.”
PROFILES
Jeff Tyzik biography, see page 7.
A native New Yorker, singer-songwriter Paul Loren feels most at home in the rich legacy of soul, classic pop, and the Great American Songbook. Taking elements from early R&B, jazz, and Brill Building pop, he crafts his music with an ear towards timelessness. He completed his first headline tour in 2019, and has performed with artists including The Temptations, Brendan James, and American Idol winner Taylor Hicks.
Irish born vocalist Colin Smith has led a musical life as varied as it is impressive. While signed on RCA Records, Smith’s former band, Mrnorth, toured with the likes of The Who, Van Halen, Sheryl Crow, and Journey. As a solo artist, he has collaborated with Alicia Keys and Christina Aguilera, and performed on Saturday Night Live.
A dynamic performing artist and songwriter, Rick Brantley has toured the world with artists including John Hiatt, Kiefer Sutherland, Zac Brown, and Brandy Clark, as well as headlining his own solo shows. Brantley continues to add to his impressive portfolio, producing acclaimed records with artists like Rob Baird and Justin Halpin, and directing music videos in his down time.
Guitarist Oscar Rodriguez has produced projects including Jukebox The Ghost, Jon The Guilt, and Rikki Will, in addition to hundreds of songs for the YouTube Audio Library, the Facebook Sound Collection, Marmoset Music, and Premium Beat. He is a co-founder of Track Tribe, a music and media collective, and often collaborates with drummer and vocalist Zach Jones.
Bassist Brian Killeen studied with the great Avishai Cohen and attended William Paterson University’s jazz program, and has since worked with artists including Rachel Platten, A Great Big World, Liz Longley, Barnaby Bright, and Caleb Hawley. He has served as the long-time bass chair for the Big Apple Circus, and has performed on The Today Show and in the Broadway production of The Cher Show.
Drummer Jordan Rose has worked with artists including Theo Katzman, Cory Wong, Caleb Hawley, Darren Criss, Charlie Puth, Pomplamoose, Charlie Hunter, Jeff Coffin, Joe Louis Walker, Louis Cato, Rufus Wainwright, Ruel, SZA, and Maddie Poppe, and has performed in Dear Evan Hansen on Broadway.
“Not only have I been inspired by the stellar performances given by the DSO through the years, but also by its commitment to preserving the highest of artistic standards while imagining a new bright future for classical music. I am eager to work and learn alongside Music Director Jader Bignamini and the many guest conductors who
will visit the DSO.” —Na’Zir McFadden
MEET NA’ZIR MCFADDEN
Assistant Conductor, Phillip & Lauren Fisher Community Ambassador, and Music Director of the Detroit Symphony Youth Orchestra
Commencing with the 2022-2023 season, American conductor Na’Zir McFadden is the Assistant Conductor and Phillip & Lauren Fisher Community Ambassador of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.
In this role, he works closely with Music Director Jader Bignamini and guest conductors on both the PVS Classical Series and William Davidson Neighborhood Concert Series. He also leads pre-concert lectures at Orchestra Hall and conducts a variety of programs on the Educational Concert Series, Young People’s Family Concert Series, and PNC Pops Series.
In fall 2022, he led DTE Community Concerts at five venues across Metro Detroit, powered by the DTE Energy Foundation. The yearly tradition signaled the start of the new season, and for McFadden, the start of his role with the DSO.
Previously, McFadden was the inaugural Apprentice Conductor of the Philadelphia Ballet Orchestra from 2020 to 2022, where he worked with Music Director Beatrice Jona Affron. He also served as the Robert L. Poster Conducting Apprentice of the New York Youth Symphony from 2020 to 2021.
SEE NA’ZIR IN ACTION AT ORCHESTRA HALL
Get tickets at dso.org
PVS Classical Series
CLASSICAL ROOTS
March 3-4 Young People’s Family Concert Series
SYMPHONIC SUPERHEROES
March 11
YOUNG PERSON’S GUIDE TO THE ORCHESTRA
May 20 PNC Pops Series
THE MUSIC OF ELTON JOHN FEATURING MICHAEL CAVANAUGH
May 13
RESPECT: A TRIBUTE TO ARETHA FRANKLIN
May 26-28
A COMMUNITY-SUPP JORTED ORCHESTRAJADER BIGNAMINI, Music Director ADER BIGNAMINI MUSIC DIRECTOR
Music Directorship endowed by the Kresge Foundation
NA’ZIR MCFADDEN
Assistant Conductor, Phillip & Lauren Fisher Community Ambassador JEFF TYZIK
Principal Pops Conductor TERENCE BLANCHARD
Fred A. Erb Jazz Creative Director Chair LEONARD SLATKIN
Music Director Laureate NEEME JÄRVI
Music Director Emeritus
PVS CLASSICAL SERIES
Title Sponsor:
SIBELIUS’ FIRST SYMPHONY & PROKOFIEV
Thursday, January 19, 2023 at 7:30 p.m.
Friday, January 20, 2023 at 10:45 a.m.
TABITA BERGLUND, conductor EDGAR MOREAU, cello
Anna Thorvaldsdottir Metacosmos (b. 1977)
Sergei Prokofiev Sinfonia concertante for (1891 - 1953) Cello and Orchestra, Op. 125 I. Andante II. Allegro giusto III. Andante con moto - Allegretto - Allegro marcato Edgar Moreau, cello
Intermission
Jean Sibelius Symphony No. 1 in E minor, Op. 39 (1865 - 1957) I. Andante, ma non troppo - Allegro energico II. Andante, ma non troppo lento III. Scherzo: Allegro IV. Finale (quasi una fantasia): Andante Allegro molto
Saturday’s performance will be webcast via our exclusive Live From Orchestra Hall series, presented by Ford Motor Company Fund and made possible by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
PROGRAM AT-A-GLANCE | SIBELIUS & PROKOFIEV
Forces of Nature
Metacosmos sets the tone for a thrilling experience where audiences will encounter a great depth of emotion and symphonic mastery. This piece is constructed around the natural balance of chaos and beauty, contemplating how elements can come together in utter chaos to create a unified, structured whole. Despite a long period of dismay from the criticism received upon the premiere of his Cello Concerto No. 1, Prokofiev joined forces with Mstislav Rostropovich to compose the masterpiece of a concerto that is his Sinfonia Concertante for Cello & Orchestra. The work channeled the energy of critics to fuel production of this now-standard component of the solo cello repertoire. Sibelius’s Symphony No. 1 is a symphonic gem, created from the chaos of breaking free of tradition and following a flight of inspiration to channel and assert pride in his Finnish culture. Each of these unique pieces is a force to experience in Orchestra Hall, harnessing the chaos of the outer world into symphonic masterpieces.
PROGRAM NOTES
Metacosmos
Composed 2017 | Premiered 2017 ANNA THORVALDSDOTTIR
B. July 11, 1977, Iceland Scored for 2 flutes, piccolo, alto flute, 2 oboes, english horn, 3 clarinets, bass clarinet, 4 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 2 trombones, 2 tubas, percussion, and strings. (Approx. 14 minutes)
On Metacosmos, composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir writes the following: “Metacosmos is constructed around the natural balance between beauty and chaos—how elements can come together in (seemingly) utter chaos to create a unified, structured whole. The idea and inspiration behind the piece, which is connected as much to the human experience as to the universe, is the speculative metaphor of falling into a black hole—the unknown— with endless constellations and layers of opposing forces connecting and communicating with each other, expanding and contracting, projecting a struggle for power as the different sources pull on you and you realize that you are being drawn into a force that is beyond your control.
As with my music generally, the inspiration behind Metacosmos is not something I am trying to describe through the piece—to me, the qualities of the music are first and foremost musical. When I am inspired by a particular element or quality, it is because I perceive it as musically interesting, and the qualities I tend to be inspired by are often structural, like proportion and flow, as well as relationships of balance between details within a larger structure, and how to move in perspective between the two— the details and the unity of the whole.”
This performance marks the DSO premiere of Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s Metacosmos.
Sinfonia Concertante for Cello & Orchestra
Composed 1950-1951 | Premiered February 18, 1952
SERGEI PROKOFIEV
B. April 23, 1891, Sontsivka, Ukraine D. March 5, 1953, Moscow, Russia
Sergei Prokofiev’s Sinfonia Concertante for Cello and Orchestra is a major work—and one of his only two cello concertos in existence. Divided into three movements, the cello part is virtuosic, giving the soloist a great task of endurance with few breaks throughout the piece. Prokofiev’s first cello concerto, premiered in Moscow in 1938, was not well-received by the audience. This was partially due to its level of difficulty compared to Prokofiev’s other works, as well as the soloist’s interpretation of the piece during the premiere. The aftermath of this performance caused Prokofiev to remove the concerto from his repertoire completely—and the work was never officially published. In fact, Prokofiev never heard the piece again until it was performed by cellist Mstislav Rostropovich in the Small Hall at the Moscow Conservatory in 1947—a performance that Prokofiev attended, moving him to the point of offering to revise the concerto for Rostropovich.
Prior to the concerto revisions, Prokofiev wrote a cello sonata for Rostropovich, and upon hearing its premiere immediately began re-working his first concerto for the cellist. Prokofiev was so enthralled by Rostropovich’s playing that the collaboration between the two of them became transformational in developing new (soon-to-be) standard repertoire for the cello.
Rostropovich spent a few summers with the composer reworking and revising the concerto. In essence, Prokofiev’s second cello concerto was a complete re-working of his first, with Rostropovich giving its premiere in February of 1952 under the temporary title of “Cello Concerto No. 2.” Despite a successful premiere, Prokofiev was still not entirely happy with the work and continued to revise both the score and the title. The piece’s final form was presented with the Russian title “Sinfonia-Kontster,” meaning “Symphony Concerto” or “Sinfonia Concertante,” as it is known today. This title is representative of a genre present in the late-18th and early-19th centuries where more than one instrument carried the solo parts throughout—essentially a form of a “group concerto.” Although this piece is a concerto for solo cello and orchestra, it includes solos and melodies arising from within different sections of the orchestra, all supporting the work as a whole and intertwining with the solo cello lines.
Although he initially composed his first cello concerto during a happier part of his life—he was returning home to Moscow after several years of living in Paris—its success was largely due to Rostropovich’s input on the second version. During the time of its premiere in 1952, Prokofiev’s health was failing, and he was growing profoundly distraught and depressed by the severity of the censorship of his compositions by the Central Committee of the Communist Party and Stalin’s regime. With Rostropovich’s help, the initial passion and enthusiasm of the first cello concerto continued to shine through this work, despite the many hardships Prokofiev faced at the time. Prokofiev died a year after the premiere in 1953, ironically one hour before Stalin’s passing—an ironic twist of fate that remained true to the unfortunate narrative Prokofiev had suffered with Stalin during his final years.
This performance marks the DSO premiere of Prokofiev’s Sinfonia Concertante for Cello and Orchestra.
Symphony No. 1 in E Minor, Op. 39
Composed 1898-1899 | Premiered April 26, 1899
JEAN SIBELIUS
B. December 8, 1865, Tavastehus, Finland D. September 20, 1957, Jarvenpää, Finland Scored for 2 flutes (both doubling piccolo), 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, harp, and strings. (Approx. 38 minutes)
Sibelius began work on his First Symphony in 1898. After its premiere a year later, critic Richard Faltin, writing in the Nya Pressen, remarked that Sibelius moved in symphonic form “with remarkable freedom, following the flight of his inspiration and permitting himself such departures from its discipline as he considers fitting. Few specifically Finnish characteristics are to be found in the symphony: the composer speaks the language of all mankind, yet a tongue that is none the less his own.” A month later, Sibelius was awarded a grant of 2,500 marks from the State Fund for the encouragement of Finnish composers.
Still more significant was the fact that, a year after its premiere, the First Symphony was taken on a European tour by the Helsinki Orchestra, culminating in an appearance at the World Exposition in Paris. This came at a time when Russia had tightened its grip on Finland, and the issue of Finnish nationalism had become acute. The crowds at the Paris concerts may have been small, but Sibelius’s music had been well received in other cities on the tour. He had asserted, however quietly, that Finland was a land with a culture of its own.
The similarities between the principal theme of the first movement and the corresponding one in Borodin’s First Symphony have been pointed out. Indeed, the scholar Cecil Gray sees in the symphony a struggle of Finland against Russia, the principal themes being Russian and the subsidiary ones Finnish. In fact, the resemblance to Borodin is more apparent on paper than in performance, and the only movement that sounds strongly Russian is the Andante, with its drooping main theme, reminiscent of Tchaikovsky.
Apparent at once is Sibelius’s mastery of symphonic structure, not in the sense of pouring his own materials into a preset outline, but in taking possession of the symphonic tradition and turning it to his own purposes. His achievement is most unassailable in the first movement, which moves surely, without a hint of padding or stitching. Already, there is a hint of his characteristic telescoping of form, in a development that is blended so unobtrusively into a shortened reprise that the listeners are hardly aware when they have crossed the border.
The melodic material of the Andante may belong to the era of overstuffed furniture and high collars, but Sibelius’s treatment of it is anything but commonplace. The Scherzo is energetic but never in haste.
The last movement is less secure, its main subject not quite distinctive enough for extensive treatment, and the second subject is too sentimental for some tastes. Especially welcome are the parallels between the first and last movements: the introductory clarinet theme of the first movement transformed into a cry of the full orchestra in the finale, and the same quiet ending for both, on a pizzicato chord. —Michael Fleming
The DSO most recently performed Sibelius’s Symphony No. 1 in March 2016, conducted by Thomas Dausgaard. The DSO first performed the work in January 1928, conducted by Georg Schneevoigt.
TABITA BERGLUND
Tabita Berglund is one of today’s most exciting, talented young conductors who is fast gaining a reputation for her alert, charismatic and inspiring style. Berglund is currently Principal Guest Conductor of the Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra, appointed to this post following her debut engagement with the orchestra in 2020.
Highlights of 2022-23 include Berglund’s London debut with the Philharmonia (Royal Festival Hall) and season-opening debut concerts with Germany’s Sinfonieorchester Wuppertal. Berglund also makes her debut with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Malmö Symphony Orchestra and Orquesta Sinfonica de RTVE in Madrid, while return visits include the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Finnish Radio Symphony, and Bergen Philharmonic orchestras, as well as her fourth guest appearance each with the Hallé and Royal Scottish National Orchestra.
Berglund graduated in 2019 from the Orchestral Conducting Masters course at the Norwegian Academy of Music and originally trained as a cellist before switching her focus to conducting. She was the 2018–20 star of the Talent Norway program and is a past recipient of the Gstaad Conducting Academy’s Neeme Järvi Prize. Berglund’s debut CD, on which she conducts the Oslo Philharmonic with violinist Sonoko Miriam Welde, was released in 2021 (LAWO) and subsequently nominated for a Norwegian Grammy (Spellemann) in the 2022 Classical Music category.
EDGAR MOREAU
Celebrated cellist Edgar Moreau won First Prize in the 2014 Young Concert Artists International Auditions and was awarded six Special Prizes after capturing Second Prize and the prize for Best Performance of the Commissioned Work at the International Tchaikovsky Competition under the chairmanship of Valery Gergiev. At the Rostropovitch Cello Competition in Paris in 2009, he received the Prize for the Most Promising Contestant.
Moreau regularly performs with acclaimed conductors and world-renowned orchestras including the Roma Santa Cecilia Orchestra, Filarmonica della Scala, London Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Seattle Symphony, The Philadelphia Orchestra, and others. He is frequently invited to notable festivals including Verbier, Salzburg, Gstaad, Montreux, and others.
An Erato exclusive artist, Edgar Moreau released his debut album, Play, in 2014 with pianist Pierre-Yves Hodique. His follow-up, Giovincello, featured baroque concertos with the ensemble Il Pomo d’Oro and Riccardo Minasi and won an ECHO Klassik Award in 2016. He has also recorded Debussy’s sonatas and trios and a duo album with David Kadouch with works by Franck, Poulenc, Strohl, and De la Tombelle. His latest release is a recording of Gulda and Offenbach concertos with Les Forces Majeures and Raphaël Merlin.
Moreau plays on a David Tecchler cello from 1711. His bow was made by Dominique Peccatte.
A COMMUNITY-SUPP JORTED ORCHESTRAJADER BIGNAMINI, Music Director ADER BIGNAMINI MUSIC DIRECTOR
Music Directorship endowed by the Kresge Foundation
NA’ZIR MCFADDEN
Assistant Conductor, Phillip & Lauren Fisher Community Ambassador JEFF TYZIK
Principal Pops Conductor TERENCE BLANCHARD
Fred A. Erb Jazz Creative Director Chair LEONARD SLATKIN
Music Director Laureate NEEME JÄRVI
Music Director Emeritus
PVS CLASSICAL SERIES
Title Sponsor:
BRAHMS’ FIRST PIANO CONCERTO & BARTÓK
Friday, February 3, 2023 at 10:45 a.m. Friday, February 3, 2023 at 8 p.m.
Saturday, February 4, 2023 at 8 p.m. in Orchestra Hall
LEONARD SLATKIN, conductor GARRICK OHLSSON, piano
Igor Stravinsky Symphonies of Wind Instruments (1882 - 1971)
Béla Bartók Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta (1881 - 1945) I. Andante tranquillo II. Allegro III. Adagio IV. Allegro molto
Intermission
Johannes Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor, Op. 15 (1833 - 1897) I. Maestoso II. Adagio III. Rondo: Allegro non troppo Garrick Ohlsson, piano
Saturday’s performance will be webcast via our exclusive Live From Orchestra Hall series, presented by Ford Motor Company Fund and made possible by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
Stay True to Your Roots
One thing that Stravinsky, Brahms, and Bartók all had in common was an unshakeable sense of confidence. Although each composer dealt with occasional self-doubt, they never failed to honor their roots and remain true to themselves. Brahms’s Piano Concerto No. 1—played here by Garrick Ohlsson, who this season celebrates 50 years of performing with the DSO—masterfully demonstrates the composer’s ability to capture and convey deep, human emotions. The orchestral accompaniment is structured with an intention to “deepen and intensify his arguments” within the music. Although Bartók’s influences came almost exclusively from his Hungarian heritage, he was criticized by his home country for his modern interpretations. Nevertheless, he clung to these folk melodies and showcased them, especially in his Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta. Stravinsky’s Symphonies of Wind Instruments was not intended to please audiences, rather to pay tribute, in his own way, to composer Claude Debussy. Stravinsky was no stranger to criticism, and he knew that this piece would receive the respect and appreciation it deserved in due time. It is because of the strong conviction and determination of these composers that we are afforded the opportunity to perform and enjoy their masterful works today.
PROGRAM NOTES
Symphonies of Wind Instruments
Composed 1920 | Premiered 1921
IGOR STRAVINSKY
B. June 17, Oranienbaum (now Lomonosov), Russia D. April 6, 1971, New York, New York Scored for 3 flutes, 2 oboes, english horn, 3 clarinets, 3 bassoons (one doubling contrabassoon), 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, and tuba. (Approx. 9 minutes)
Like many composers of his time, Igor Stravinsky’s compositional style shifted after the conclusion of World War I. This post-war period prompted a transition from late Romanticism to Neoclassicism, where the inflated musical ideas of Romanticism were contrasted, questioned, and distorted.
The concept of Stravinsky’s Symphonies of Wind Instruments stemmed from a piece he initially wrote in memorium of Claude Debussy two years after his death upon request by La Revue Musicale. This piece was to appear in a tribute volume of the Revue magazine for Debussy alongside contributions by other prominent composers of the time. Stravinsky enthusiastically accepted this request, stating that “the musicians of my generation and I myself owe the most to Debussy.”
Stravinsky’s memorial piece was initially submitted as a chorale arranged for piano solo, which he re-orchestrated and expanded shortly after its submission into a larger body of work that consisted of a series of contrasting musical episodes. Some of these episodes were newly composed, and others were drawn from the composer’s previous compositional renderings. This expansion formulated the Symphonies of Wind Instruments, and the original chorale he wrote for Debussy’s memorial tribute can be heard at the end of this piece.
Although this piece is now widely referred to as the most important work for a large wind ensemble from the 20th century, its premiere in 1921 was very poorly received. Stravinsky’s intention for this composition was as follows: “The homage that I intended to pay to the memory of the great musician ought not to be inspired by his musical thought. On the contrary, I desired rather to express myself in a language essentially my own... [this work was] not meant ‘to please’ an audience or rouse its passions. I had hoped however, that it would appeal to
those in whom a purely musical receptivity outweighed the desire to satisfy emotional cravings.” However, the London premiere led by conductor Serge Koussevitzky sparked disgust and disapproval from both the crowd and the critics—the audience laughed, complained, hissed, and sniffed at the phrases throughout the initial performance.
Although Stravinsky anticipated some backlash following this premiere, the strong reaction prompted him to re-orchestrate the initial scoring, substituting flute and clarinet with its original alto flute and basset horn instrumentation to enhance the effects of sharper articulations and “bitier” abrupt chords throughout. This updated instrumentation reflects a wind section that has been pulled from a symphony orchestra rather than that of a standard wind ensemble.
This piece consists of only three tempi with a precise relationship to one another: slow, medium, and fast presented in 2:3:4 ratios of speed increasing from mm. 72, to 104, to a final 144, indicative of Stravinsky’s meticulate and mathematical methodology in his compositions. As the musical episodes continue to alternate and evolve throughout the piece, the final chorale begins to trickle in, with a full-clarity presentation at the end, bringing the tribute to Debussy to a serene conclusion.
This performance marks the DSO premiere of Stravinsky’s Symphonies of Wind Instruments.
Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta
Composed 1936 | Premiered January 21, 1937
BÉLA BARTÓK
B. March 25, 1881, Nagyszentmiklós, Hungary D. September 26, 1945, New York, New York Scored for piano, harp, timpani, percussion, xylophone, celesta, and strings. (Approx. 32 minutes)
By the mid-1930s, Bartók had established himself as one of the most important composers of his time. He remained little known in his native Hungary, where his works were infrequently performed, but regularly attacked for their cosmopolitan modernity. (Surprisingly, Bartók, who often referred to Hungarian folk music in his compositions, was chided in his homeland for failing to produce “nationalist” music.) Elsewhere in Europe, however, the composer was winning admirers, particularly among other musicians.
One of these was Paul Sacher, conductor of the excellent chamber orchestra in Basle, Switzerland. Sacher, was—and remained for many years—a devoted advocate of modern music. He commissioned works from several of the century’s leading composers, including Bartók, who wrote his masterful Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta for the Basle Chamber Orchestra in 1936.
Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta combines the energy and rhythmic drive of Bartók’s early music with a bracing sense of compositional rigor and formal unity. Much of the work springs from a single germinal motif, and thematic cross-references bind together its four movements. In fashioning this score, Bartók dispensed with the variegated aural colors of the wind instruments in favor of the more homogeneous timbre offered by a double string orchestra; to this he added piano, harp, timpani, xylophone, celesta, and various percussion instruments. From this ensemble he extracted strikingly original aural colors.
The first of the work’s four movements opens with a sinuous theme given out by the violas. This subject is taken up by the other strings in turn, each entrance adding a strand to an increasingly dense and intricate web of echoic counterpoint. The music expands to a riveting central climax, whereupon Bartók quite literally reverses course. Inverting the theme— that is, reversing its contours, so that the melodic line falls where it formerly
ascended, and vice versa—he leads the music back to its point of origin. Slowly the textures thin out, the dynamics levels fade toward silence, and the range of melody and counterpoint constrict at last to a single tone. The movement thus describes a broad formal arch, at once simple and beautiful in shape.
In contrast to the narrow thematic focus and austere contrapuntal discourse of this opening, the second movement presents an extraordinarily energetic and varied surface. Bartók calls forth seemingly all the instrumental colors and textures at his disposal and enlivens the proceedings with antiphonal statements and answers between the orchestra’s two string choirs.
The third movement provides an example of the atmospheric “night music” that Bartók occasionally composed. Here the nocturnal air seems mysterious, even eerie. And amid its clicks, rustling, and other unusual sonorities, we hear numerous recollections of the writhing theme that opened the work.
The finale begins as a lively and rhythmically complex peasant dance and climaxes with a reappearance of the theme from the first movement, which Bartók proceeds to clothe in rich chorale harmonies. Apart from this, the composer presents a generous succession of melodic ideas, most of them evoking the sound of the Hungarian folk dances he knew and loved so well.
The DSO most recently performed Bartók’s Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta in November 2003, conducted by Philippe Jordan. The DSO first performed the work in December 1956, conducted by Paul Paray.
Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor, Op. 15
Composed 1858 | Premiered January 22, 1859
JOHANNES BRAHMS
B. May 7, 1833, Hamburg, Germany D. April 3, 1897, Vienna, Austria Scored for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, and strings. (Approx. 42 minutes)
Like Brahms’s C minor Symphony, the D minor Concerto had an extended gestation period that involved a considerable metamorphosis. Brahms conceived the work as a symphony in 1854, but set himself the exercise of writing a preliminary draft for two pianos. (He followed the same procedure with the Haydn Variations nearly 20 years later.) However, he could not easily adapt the piano texture of the work to an orchestral style, so he decided to turn it into a concerto. In doing so, he set aside the funeral march he had composed for the work, using it later in the German Requiem, and wrote a vigorous new rondo as the concerto’s closing movement.
The concerto opens with a chilling timpani roll, introducing a strident, trillladen theme in the strings. Two subsidiary themes relieve some of the tension, but a more insistent return of the trill theme announces the second and more complete thematic exposition, this one featuring the piano in an even-flowing Bach-like theme set against the cutting orchestral trills. Once this thematic material has been worked out, the key changes to a sunnier F major and the piano blooms forth in a broad, expressive, and quite Romantic second theme.
The piano leads off the stormy development, thundering down the keyboard in leaping octaves. When this section has run
its course, a series of loudly-hammered chords announces the recapitulation. With the thorough craftsmanship and unfailing invention that is a Brahmsian trait, all six themes presented in the two expositions are again heard, but in different relationships between the piano and orchestra.
The serene slow movement originally bore the inscription (in Latin): “Blessed is he who cometh in the name of the Lord.” Brahms first met Robert and Clara Schumann in 1853, the year before he commenced work on the concerto, and some early writers associated the Latin inscription with Schumann, who was called “Dominus” (“Lord”) by his circle of admirers. However, modern scholars see it as a reference to the composer’s semi-suppressed love for Clara Schumann, citing Brahms’s statement in a letter to her: “I am also painting a lovely portrait of you; it is to be the Adagio.” Indeed, this movement is a very personal, intimate outpouring of beautiful music: reverent, song-like and interrupted only once by a passionate outburst.
Three themes—in D minor, F major, and B-flat major, respectively—alternate throughout the spirited closing rondo, whose rough humor shines through Brahms’s frowning visage. The second theme sounds like a variation of the first, while the third turns into a short fugato at the center of the movement. Following a lengthy solo cadenza (the first of two), the first theme is transformed into a jolly D major march.
The DSO most recently performed Brahms’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in February 2015, conducted by Leonard Slatkin and featuring pianist Hélène Grimaud. The DSO first performed the work in January 1922, conducted by Ossip Gabrilowitsch and featuring pianist Richard Buhlig.
PROFILES
LEONARD SLATKIN
Internationally acclaimed conductor Leonard Slatkin is Music Director Laureate of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO), Directeur Musical Honoraire of the Orchestre National de Lyon (ONL), and Conductor Laureate of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. He maintains a rigorous schedule of guest conducting throughout the world and is active as a composer, author, and educator.
Slatkin has received six Grammy Awards and 35 Grammy Award nominations. His latest recording is the world premiere of Alexander Kastalsky’s Requiem for Fallen Brothers, commemorating the 100th anniversary of the armistice ending World War I. Other recent Naxos releases include works by Saint-Saëns, Ravel, and Berlioz (with the ONL) and music by Copland, Rachmaninoff, Borzova, McTee, and John Williams (with the DSO). In addition, he has recorded the complete Brahms, Beethoven, and Tchaikovsky symphonies with the DSO (available online as digital downloads).
A recipient of the prestigious National Medal of Arts, Slatkin also holds the rank of Chevalier in the French Legion of Honor. He has received the Prix Charbonnier from the Federation of Alliances Françaises, Austria’s Decoration of Honor in Silver, the League of American Orchestras’ Gold Baton Award, and the 2013 ASCAP Deems Taylor Special
Recognition Award for his debut book, Conducting Business. His second book, Leading Tones: Reflections on Music, Musicians, and the Music Industry, was published by Amadeus Press in 2017. He is working on a third volume, Classical Crossroads: The Path Forward for Music in the 21st Century.
Slatkin has conducted virtually all the leading orchestras in the world. As Music Director, he has held posts in New Orleans; St. Louis; Washington, DC; London (with the BBCSO); Detroit; and Lyon, France. He has also served as Principal Guest Conductor in Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, and Cleveland.
GARRICK OHLSSON
Pianist Garrick Ohlsson has established himself worldwide as a musician of magisterial interpretive and technical prowess. Although long regarded as one of the world’s leading exponents of the music of Chopin, Ohlsson commands an enormous repertoire ranging over the entire piano literature and he has come to be noted for his masterly performances of the works of Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert, as well as the Romantic repertoire. To date, he has at his command more than 80 concertos, ranging from Haydn and Mozart to works of the 21st century.
A frequent guest with the orchestras in New Zealand and Australia, Ohlsson accomplished a seven-city recital tour across Australia just prior to the closure of the concert world due to COVID-19. Since that time and as a faculty member of San Francisco Conservatory of Music, he has kept music alive for several organizations with live or recorded recital streams. Since the re-opening of concert activity in summer 2021, he has appeared with the Indianapolis, Atlanta, Dallas, Seattle, Toronto, and Cleveland orchestras; in recital in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Houston; at the Ravinia and Tanglewood summer festivals; and in a tour in the US with Kirill Gerstein. The 2022-23 season includes orchestra performances in Boston, Minneapolis, San Diego, Spain, Poland, and the Czech Republic.
An avid chamber musician, Ohlsson has collaborated with the Cleveland, Emerson, Tokyo, and Takacs string quartets, and began the 2022-23 season with a US tour with Poland’s Apollon Musagete quartet. Together with violinist Jorja Fleezanis and cellist Michael Grebanier, he is a founding member of the San Francisco-based FOG Trio. Ohlsson has appeared in recital with such legendary artists as Magda Olivero, Jessye Norman, and Ewa Podleś. Ohlsson can be heard on the Arabesque, RCA Victor Red Seal, Angel, BMG, Delos, Hänssler, Nonesuch, Telarc, Hyperion, and Virgin Classics labels.
A native of White Plains, NY, Ohlsson began his piano studies at the age of 8, at the Westchester Conservatory of Music; at 13 he entered The Juilliard School. He has been awarded first prizes in the Busoni and Montreal Piano competitions, the Gold Medal at the International Chopin Competition in Warsaw (1970), the Avery Fisher Prize (1994), the University Musical Society Distinguished Artist Award in Ann Arbor, MI (1998), the Jean Gimbel Lane Prize in Piano Performance from the Northwestern University Bienen School of Music (2014), and the Gloria Artis Gold Medal for cultural merit from the Polish Deputy Culture Minister.
A COMMUNITY-SUPP JORTED ORCHESTRAJADER BIGNAMINI, Music Director ADER BIGNAMINI MUSIC DIRECTOR
Music Directorship endowed by the Kresge Foundation
NA’ZIR MCFADDEN
Assistant Conductor, Phillip & Lauren Fisher Community Ambassador JEFF TYZIK
Principal Pops Conductor TERENCE BLANCHARD
Fred A. Erb Jazz Creative Director Chair LEONARD SLATKIN
Music Director Laureate NEEME JÄRVI
Music Director Emeritus
TITLE SPONSOR:
FRANK & THE GREAT LADIES OF SONG Friday, February 10, 2023 at 10:45 a.m. & 8 p.m. Saturday, February 11, 2023 at 8 p.m. Sunday, February 12, 2023 at 3 p.m. in Orchestra Hall
ENRICO LOPEZ-YAÑEZ, conductor TONY DESARE, piano & vocals CAPATHIA JENKINS, vocals
Program to be announced from the stage
PROGRAM AT-A-GLANCE | FRANK SINATRA & THE GREAT LADIES OF SONG
Sinatra Takes the Motor City
Frank Sinatra, affectionately known as “Ol’ Blue Eyes,” dazzled audiences across the world with his charisma, silky smooth and effortless voice, good looks, and hit songs. Sinatra is among the world’s best-selling musical artists, having recorded well over 1,200 songs. While Sinatra traveled the world throughout his career, he only visited Michigan three times—in 1946 and 1965 for performances, and again in 1980 when he was presented with a brand-new 1981 Chrysler Imperial by his friend Lee Iacocca, Chrysler’s Chairman at the time. This presentation was in gratitude for Sinatra’s agreement to help promote the car. And promote the car he did—through the song “It’s Time” and with the collaboration of a specialty “Glacier Blue Crystal” Imperial edition to match the color of his signature blue eyes. In this performance, the DSO brings Sinatra hit songs back to the Motor City, featuring critically-acclaimed vocalists Tony DeSare and Capathia Jenkins.
ENRICO LOPEZ-YAÑEZ
Enrico Lopez-Yañez is Principal Pops Conductor of the Nashville Symphony, where he leads the symphony’s pops and family series. Lopez-Yañez is quickly establishing himself as one of the nation’s leading conductors of popular music and becoming known for his unique style of audience engagement. An active composer and arranger, Lopez-Yañez has been commissioned to write for the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, Houston Symphony, San Diego Symphony, and Omaha Symphony, and has had works performed by orchestras including the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Florida Orchestra, Ft. Worth Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic, Seattle Symphony, and Utah Symphony, among others.
In the upcoming season, Lopez-Yañez will collaborate with artists including Aida Cuevas, The Beach Boys, Ben Folds, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Vanesa Williams, and Pink Martini. Lopez-Yañez will appear with the Baltimore Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic, Pittsburgh Symphony, The Philadelphia Orchestra, Phoenix Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, and Seattle Symphony as well as make return appearances with the Dallas Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, Omaha Symphony, Pacific Symphony, San Diego Symphony, and Utah Symphony.
As Artistic Director and Co-Founder of Symphonica Productions, LLC, LopezYañez curates and leads programs designed to cultivate new audiences. Symphonica’s productions have been described as “incredibly special–and something that needs to become the new norm” (Lima Symphony). Symphonica Productions is also a sheet music publishing house, representing a diverse range of genres and composers including Grammy Award nominee Clarice Assad, Andres Soto, Charles Cozens, and Vinicio Meza.
As a producer, composer, and arranger, Lopez-Yañez’s work can be heard on numerous albums including the UNESCO benefit album Action Moves People United and children’s music albums including The Spaceship that Fell in My Backyard and Kokowanda Bay.
TONY DESARE
Tony DeSare performs with infectious joy, wry playfulness, and robust musicality. Named a Rising Star Male Vocalist in DownBeat magazine, DeSare has lived up to this distinction by winning critical and popular acclaim for his concert performances throughout North America and abroad. From jazz clubs to Carnegie Hall, to Las Vegas—headlining with Don Rickles—and major symphony orchestras, DeSare has brought his fresh take on old school class around the globe. DeSare has four top ten Billboard jazz albums under his belt and has been featured on the CBS Early Show, NPR’s A Prairie Home Companion, and The Today Show. DeSare has also collaborated with YouTube icons Postmodern Jukebox. DeSare’s Lush Life recording debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard Traditional Jazz Chart and he released Song Diaries Vol. 2 in early 2022, now streaming on all platforms.
DeSare is also an award-winning composer who won first place in the USA Songwriting Contest. He also wrote the theme song for the motion picture, My Date With Drew, several broadcast commercials, and has composed the full soundtracks for the Hallmark Channel’s Love Always, Santa, Lifetime’s Nanny Nightmare, and Lifetime’s new A Welcome Home Christmas. His sound is romantic,
swinging and sensual, but what sets DeSare apart is his ability to write original material that sounds fresh and contemporary, yet pays homage to the Great American Songbook. Tony DeSare is a Yamaha Artist.
CAPATHIA JENKINS
Brooklyn-born and raised actress and vocalist Capathia Jenkins most recently starred as Medda in the hit Disney production of Newsies on Broadway. She made her Broadway debut in The Civil War, where she created the role of Harriet Jackson. She then starred in the Off-Broadway 2000 revival of Godspell, where she wowed audiences with her stirring rendition of Turn Back, O Man, which can still be heard on the original cast recording. She returned to Broadway in The Look of Love and was critically acclaimed for her performances of the Bacharach/David hits. Jenkins then created the roles of The Washing Machine in Caroline, or Change and Frieda May in Martin Short’s Fame Becomes Me, where she sang “Stop the Show” and brought the house down every night.
In 2007, she went back to Off-Broadway and starred in (mis) Understanding Mammy: The Hattie McDaniel Story, for which she was nominated for a Drama Desk Award. She was also seen in Nora Ephron’s Love, Loss, and What I Wore.
An active concert artist, Jenkins has appeared with orchestras around the world including the Cleveland Orchestra, Houston Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony (with Marvin Hamlisch), National Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Utah Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, and others. In 2011, Jenkins had the great honor of performing in the “Broadway Ambassadors to Cuba” concert as part of the Festival De Teatro De La Habana. Jenkins has been a guest soloist with Peter Nero and the Philly Pops and with the Cincinnati Pops.
Her television credits include 30 Rock, The Practice, The Sopranos, and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. She can be seen in the 2012 film Musical Chairs, directed by Susan Seidelman, and heard on film soundtracks including Nine, Chicago, and Legally Blonde 2.
LIVE FROM ORCHESTRA HALL
This season, Live from Orchestra Hall is back with more programming than ever before! View free, live webcasts of PVS Classical Series, Paradise Jazz Series, and Classroom Edition performances, plus Civic Youth Ensembles presentations.
WATCH NOW AT DSO.ORG/LIVE
A COMMUNITY-SUPP JORTED ORCHESTRAJADER BIGNAMINI, Music Director ADER BIGNAMINI MUSIC DIRECTOR
Music Directorship endowed by the Kresge Foundation
NA’ZIR MCFADDEN
Assistant Conductor, Phillip & Lauren Fisher Community Ambassador JEFF TYZIK
Principal Pops Conductor TERENCE BLANCHARD
Fred A. Erb Jazz Creative Director Chair LEONARD SLATKIN
Music Director Laureate NEEME JÄRVI
Music Director Emeritus
PVS CLASSICAL SERIES
Title Sponsor:
SHOSTAKOVICH’S FIFTH SYMPHONY & SAXOPHONE CONCERTO WORLD PREMIERE
Saturday, February 18, 2023 at 8 p.m.
HAN-NA CHANG, conductor JESS GILLAM, saxophone
Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture (1840 - 1893)
Anna Clyne Glasslands (World Premiere) (b. 1980) Jess Gillam, saxophone
Intermission
Dmitri Shostakovich Symphony No. 5 in D minor, Op. 47 (1906 - 1975) I. Moderato II. Allegretto III. Largo IV. Allegro non troppo
Sunday’s performance will be webcast via our exclusive Live From Orchestra Hall series, presented by Ford Motor Company Fund and made possible by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
PROGRAM AT-A-GLANCE | SHOSTAKOVICH’S FIFTH SYMPHONY & ANNA CLYNE’S GLASSLANDS
Go Where There Are No Guarantees
Many great orchestral works have blossomed out of a fearless leap of faith. Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony was an attempt for rehabilitation in Stalin’s regime, where he was at risk of facing persecution due to his lack of compliance in conservative musical traditions. Shostakovich brilliantly parodied a sense of rejoicing in a traditional Romantic-era style—a risky move that would have proved dangerous had it not been flawlessly executed. After a long period of selfdoubt, Tchaikovsky sought guidance from composer Mily Alexeyevich Balakirev, leading to the writing of his renowned Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture. Ironically, Balakirev was unhappy with the work after its premiere, claiming it lacked depth and emotion. Tchaikovsky lived to see his work pay off, and its love theme is now present in countless films, advertisements, TV shows, and more. Composer Anna Clyne has been described as “fearless” by NPR and as a “composer of uncommon gifts and unusual methods” by The New York Times, and the world premiere of her saxophone concerto by Jess Gillam will showcase these critically acclaimed traits. The works on this program demonstrate that through fearlessness and resilience, one may find wild and wonderful success.
PROGRAM NOTES
Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture
Composed 1880 | Premiered May 1, 1886 PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY
B. May 7, 1840, Votkinsk, Russia D. November 6, 1893, Saint Petersburg, Russia Scored for 2 flutes, piccolo, 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, harp, and strings. (Approx. 21 minutes)
Though he is enormously celebrated today, Tchaikovsky was plagued throughout his life by doubts about his talent and the worth of his music. Occasionally, he would suffer periods of malaise and selfdoubt that prevented him from composing at all, and a particularly acute episode hit him in the summer of 1869. Tchaikovsky had recently suffered scathing receptions of several major works and was so dejected by their failure that he destroyed most of the music. “Not one passable musical idea has entered my head in months,” he wrote that October.
But Tchaikovsky found a new ally and mentor, one whose encouragement prompted him to resume working. Mily Alexeyevich Balakirev was a composer of comparatively modest talent, but he had an enormous impact on the development of 19th-century Russian music. He became the leader and spokesman of a group of nationalist composers that would eventually include Borodin, Rimsky-Korsakov, and Mussorgsky, and he was tireless in arguing for a new kind of music, one based on dramatic ideas rather than abstract classical modes imported from Western Europe. Tchaikovsky, whose training had steeped him in the classical tradition, was at first mistrustful of Balakirev’s school of thought. But the two men took a liking to each other when they met in person, and soon began a fruitful exchange of musical ideas.
Balakirev suggested that Tchaikovsky consider an overture based on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. The tale of the tragic, star-crossed lovers would have been particularly inviting to Tchaikovsky, who was highly sensitive and very well-read. In devising music for the play, Tchaikovsky focused on three principal elements of the drama. The long introductory section conveys a sense of
resigned spirituality, very much in character with Shakespeare’s Friar Laurence. A violent episode follows this, complete with cymbal crashes, to represent the clash of Montague and Capulet swords. Finally, the love of Romeo and Juliet is presented in a soaring melody—the one we all know from countless films, television shows, advertisements, and so on.
Balakirev, ironically, was not happy with the work. The opening was too tame, he said, and the love theme lacked ardor! Early audiences evidently agreed. The overture was received with indifference at its first performance in Moscow and fared no better (and sometimes far worse) in the West. But Tchaikovsky lived to see that judgment reversed, and today his Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture is among the most popular works in the orchestral repertory.
The DSO most recently performed Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture during the Tchaikovsky Festival in February 2015, conducted by Leonard Slatkin. The DSO first performed the piece in January 1916, conducted by Weston Gales.
Glasslands
Composed 2022 | Premiered 2022
ANNA CLYNE
B. March 9, 1980, London, United Kingdom Scored for solo saxophone, 2 flutes (one doubling on piccolo), 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, trombone, tuba, percussion, and strings. (Approx. 25 minutes)
Grammy Award nominee Anna Clyne is one of the most in-demand composers today, working with orchestras, choreographers, filmmakers, and visual artists around the world. She currently serves as Composerin-Residence with the Philharmonia Orchestra and the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra, and will serve in the same role with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra next season.
Clyne has been commissioned and presented by the world’s most dynamic and revered arts institutions, including the Barbican, Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, Los Angeles Philharmonic, MoMA, Philharmonie de Paris, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, San Francisco Ballet, and the Sydney Opera House; and her music has opened such events as the Edinburgh International Festival, The Last Night of the Proms, and the New York Philharmonic’s 2021–2022 season.
Clyne often collaborates on creative projects across the music industry, including Between the Rooms, a film with choreographer Kim Brandstrup and LA Opera, as well as the Nico Project at the Manchester International Festival, a stage work about pop icon Nico’s life that featured Clyne’s reimagining of The Marble Index for orchestra and voices. Clyne has also reimagined tracks from Thievery Corporation’s The Cosmic Game for the electronica duo with orchestra, and her music has been programmed by such artists as Björk.
Several recent projects have explored Clyne’s fascination with visual arts, including Color Field, inspired by the artwork of Mark Rothko; Abstractions, inspired by five contemporary artworks; and Woman Holding a Balance, a film collaboration with artist Jyll Bradley. Other recent collaborators include such notable musicians as Martin Fröst, Pekka Kuusisto, and Yo-Yo Ma.
Clyne’s music is represented on several labels and her works Prince of Clouds and Night Ferry were nominated for Grammy Awards in 2015. Her cello concerto, DANCE, recorded by soloist Inbal Segev, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and Marin Alsop, has garnered more than seven million plays on Spotify. Clyne’s music is published exclusively by Boosey & Hawkes.
Clyne’s Glasslands conjures an
imaginary world of three realms governed by the banshee—a female spirit who, in Irish folklore, heralds the death of a family member, usually by wailing, shrieking, or keening in the silence of the night.
This performance marks the world premiere of Glasslands by Anna Clyne, with Jess Gillam as soloist.
Symphony No. 5 in D minor, Op. 47
Composed 1937 | Premiered November 21, 1937
DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH
B. September 25, 1906, St. Petersburg, Russia D. August 9, 1975, Moscow, Russia Scored for 2 flutes, piccolo, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, E-flat clarinet, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drum, cymbals, orchestra bells, snare drum, tam-tam, triangle, xylophone, two harps, piano, celeste, and strings. (Approx. 46 minutes)
ASoviet composer at the height of communist rule in his native Russia, Shostakovich is the prime example of a creative artist forced to operate within a totalitarian system. Though subject matter and style were often dictated by the government, he managed to produce works of great strength and beauty. During the notorious Stalinist purges of the 1930s, when more than 10 million people were executed or exiled, Shostakovich was severely rebuked for his experimental Fourth Symphony, which the State deemed not to be proper music. The composer was forced to make a difficult decision: either face artistic (and possibly personal) persecution or compromise his standards in favor of “rehabilitation.” After several years of political anonymity, he staked his entire salvation on a single work, the Fifth Symphony. With this work, composed between April 18 and July 20, 1937, Shostakovich produced a broad, expansive fourmovement symphony very much in the 19th-century Romantic tradition. Dissonance gave way to a firmly rooted tonality, and experimentation to strict symphonic form. The composer said that his Fifth Symphony was conceived “lyrically from beginning to end,” to suggest the progress of a life’s journey from tragedy to a climactic finale of optimism and joy. Throughout history, artists have thumbed their noses at authorities who were too dense to see through parody and satire, and Shostakovich was no different. Of the finale, Shostakovich wrote in his memoirs (smuggled out of Russia after the composer’s death): “The rejoicing is forced, created under threat...It’s as if someone were beating you with a stick and saying, ‘Your business is rejoicing, your business is rejoicing,’ and you rise, shaky, and go marching off, muttering, ‘Our business is rejoicing, our business is rejoicing.’ What kind of apotheosis is that? You have to be a complete oaf not to hear that.” Critical and popular reaction to the Fifth Symphony, however, was almost hysterically enthusiastic and the piece has since become one of Shostakovich’s most popular works, a favorite of audiences around the globe.
The DSO most recently performed Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5 in May 2015, conducted by Hannu Lintu. The DSO first performed the piece in February 1945, conducted by Karl Krueger.
HAN-NA CHANG
Han-Na Chang is Artistic Leader and Chief Conductor of the Trondheim Symfoniorkester & Opera in Norway since 2017, and newly appointed Erste Gastdirigentin (Principal Guest Conductor) of the Symphoniker Hamburg—Laeiszhalle Orchester. She first gained international recognition for her precocious musical gifts at the age of 11, when she won the First Prize and the Contemporary Music Prize at the Fifth Rostropovich International Cello Competition in Paris in 1994, awarded unanimously by the jury led by Mstislav Rostropovich. Her international career took off, and she became an in-demand recitalist and soloist with the world’s top orchestras. Having developed an intense interest in and deep passion for the symphonic repertoire during her late teens and early twenties, she made her formal conducting debut in 2007, at the age of 24, and has since then focused her artistic output exclusively on conducting.
Chang started her tenure as the Artistic Leader and Chief Conductor of the Trondheim Symfoniorkester & Opera in 2017. Prior to this appointment, she served as the orchestra’s Principal Guest Conductor from 2013-2017. She also served as the Music Director of the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra during the 20132014 season, culminating in their successful and critically acclaimed performance at the 2014 BBC Proms in London. In 2009, she founded and launched the Absolute Classic Festival at Sungnam Arts Center in South Korea and served as its Artistic Director until 2014.
As a guest conductor, Chang’s upcoming appearances include the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Rotterdam and Oslo philharmonic orchestras, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Singapore, Atlanta, Vancouver, Detroit, and Milwaukee symphony orchestras, and others. She has worked with orchestras including the Oslo Philharmonic, Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, Bamberger Symphoniker, the Toronto, Hamburg, Singapore, Tokyo, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Indianapolis, Seattle, Gothenburg, Malmo and Iceland symphony orchestras, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, and others. As a cellist, Chang has performed with all the major orchestras including the Berliner Philharmoniker, New York and Los Angeles philharmonics, London Symphony Orchestra, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Münchner Philharmoniker, The Philadelphia Orchestra, and others. Her cello recordings, exclusively for the Warner Music label, have recieved Grammy Award nominations and won two ECHO Klassik awards, the Caecilia and Cannes Classical awards, and a Gramophone Concerto of the Year accolade, among others, and remain world-wide bestsellers.
Chang was born in Suwon, South Korea in December 1982. At the age of 6, she received her first cello lesson. Her family moved to New York in 1993 in order to support her continuing studies at The Juilliard School, and she has lived in New York since. At the age of 10, she also started studying with Mischa Maisky, who remains her most important influence, and she counts Mstislav Rostropovich and Giuseppe Sinopoli among the most influential mentors of her formative years. Chang read Philosophy at Harvard University.
Hailing from Ulverston in Cumbria, Jess Gillam is animating the music world with her outstanding talent and infectious personality. She has been forging her own adventurous path since she shot to fame as the first saxophonist to reach the finals of BBC Young Musician and became the youngest ever soloist to perform at the Last Night of the Proms. Passionate about inspiring and bringing joy to people through music, Gillam invites audiences on journeys of musical discovery through her electrifying performances and eclectic programming.
As well as performing around the world, Gillam is a presenter on television and radio. She became the youngest ever presenter for BBC Radio 3 with the launch of her own weekly show, This Classical Life. She has also been a guest presenter for BBC Radio 2 and co-hosted a miniseries for BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme. Keen to explore the creative output of her home county, Gillam presented a series of Cumbrian Chats on BBC Radio Cumbria.
Gillam is the first ever saxophonist to be signed exclusively to Decca Classics and both of her albums reached No.1 in the UK Classical Music Charts. Her debut album was listed in The Times Top 100 albums of 2019. She has been the recipient of a Classic BRIT Award, has been nominated for The Times Breakthrough Award and was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list 2021 for Services to Music.
A free spirit in style and character, Gillam is an advocate for the power of music in society. She is passionate about inspiring and bringing joy to people through music and during lockdown, she formed her “Virtual Scratch Orchestra,” inviting musicians of any standard to come together to play music virtually with her. Over 2,000 people from around 30 different countries took part in the two projects. Gillam is a patron for Awards for Young Musicians and London Music Fund and enjoys working and performing with young musicians.
She has performed in prestigious concert halls and with world-class orchestras around the globe including the NDR Hannover, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Symphony Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, Lahti Symphony Orchestra, and others. She also enjoys touring with her newly formed Jess Gillam Ensemble, bringing together a group of brilliant musicians who share her bold, uplifting, and open-minded approach. Gillam has performed live at the BAFTAs to millions of viewers at home.
Gillam is currently Artist in Residence at the Wigmore Hall, a European Concert Hall Organisation (ECHO) Rising Star which sees her performing at many of the top concert halls across Europe, and she continues to promote her own concert series, bringing international talent to her hometown of Ulverston.
Gillam is a Vandoren UK Artist and became the youngest ever endorsee for Yanagisawa Saxophones at age 13.
