Francesco Milioto, Music Director and Conductor
Sunday, October 6, 2013 3:00 PM North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie
So U Think U H8 Classical Music?
Bugler’s Dream/Olympic Fanfare........................................................................................... Leo Arnaud (1904-1991) What’s Up at the Symphony?.................................................................................... Arr. Jerry Brubaker (2005) Romeo and Juliet (fantasy-overture)............................................................ Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) INTERMISSION Rhapsody in Blue............................................................................................................. George Gershwin (1898-1937) Orchestrated by Ferde Grofé Anthony Molinaro, pianist Bolero......................................................................................................................................... Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) The Skokie Valley Symphony Orchestra gratefully acknowledges the Village of Skokie, and Niles Township Government for their support. To make a donation, please visit www.svso.org and click on support or call the symphony office 847.679.9501 x 3014 So U Think U H8 Classical Music?
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PROGR A M NOTES Leo Arnaud – Bugler’s Dream/Olympic Fanfare French composer Leo Arnaud studied composition at the conservatories in Lyon and Paris under Vincent D’Indy and Maurice Ravel. Despite his impressive pedigree, he found little success in his homeland and, in 1931, immigrated to the United States, where he was employed as a trombonist and arranger with the Fred Waring Orchestra. In 1936 he moved to Hollywood and began a lengthy career at MGM as a composer, arranger, and orchestrator of motion picture scores. With over 70 film projects to his credit he was a prolific and well-respected musician, yet he is remembered today primarily for “Bugler’s Dream”, a brief composition that gained fame as the musical theme of the Olympic Games. In 1958 Arnaud was commissioned by conductor Felix Slatkin (father of Leonard) to compose a piece for his album Charge! The result was “The Charge Suite,” consisting of several movements including one entitled “Bugler’s Dream.” In 1968 representatives of ABC Television heard the piece and sought to use it during their coverage of that year’s Olympic Games. Arnaud and his publisher agreed, and “Bugler’s Dream” went on to become the unofficial theme of the Olympics, having been heard in every subsequent broadcast of the Games by ABC and, later, NBC. It was, for a time, also heard as the theme music for ABC’s Wide World of Sports. For the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, John Williams wrote “Olympic Theme and Fanfare” which incorporates Arnaud’s original melody along with newly composed material. “Bugler’s Dream” was loosely based on cavalry bugle calls of the Napoleonic era. The angular main melody, resulting from large, open intervals, is, indeed, reminiscent of those produced by the natural horns used by French military troops in the 1800s. Dotted rhythms and fanfare figures, common features of bugle calls, are also heard, lending “Bugler’s Dream” a stately, majestic quality. George Gershwin – Rhapsody in Blue George Gershwin’s most famous work was commissioned by the bandleader Paul Whiteman for a concert he hoped would prove that jazz and other forms of popular music merited serious attention. Initially, Gershwin was reluctant to take the commission because the concert was only five weeks away and he was already involved in the preparation of his latest musical comedy. However, Whiteman was insistent, and the 25year-old composer was finally persuaded to write a concerto-like composition for piano and jazz band. An accomplished pianist, he also agreed to appear as the piano soloist in the work. During a trip to Boston Gershwin decided on the form for the Rhapsody. “It was on the train, with its steely rhythms, its rattlety-bang, that I suddenly heard–and even saw on paper–the complete construction of the Rhapsody. I heard it as a sort of musical kaleidoscope of America. By the time I reached Boston I had a definite ‘plot’ of the piece.” In less than three weeks of work, Gershwin finished a two-piano version of the score. Since he, as a songwriter, had little experience writing/scoring for a dance band, Whiteman’s arranger, Ferde Grofé, took over the orchestration. The well-publicized concert, entitled Experiments in Modern Music, took place in New York City at Aeolian Hall on February 12, 1924, before an audience of celebrities that included Jascha Heifetz, Fritz Kreisler, Leopold Stokowski, and Serge Rachmaninoff. The earlier pieces on the program were received with indifference, but the Rhapsody electrified the crowd with its novelty, its memorable melodies, its distinctive American flavor, and 2
Skokie Valley Symphony Orchestra
So U Think U H8 Classical Music?
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Skokie Valley Symphony Orchestra
PROGR A M NOTES
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Gershwin’s brilliant piano playing. (Gershwin hadn’t had time to fully complete the piano parts so he improvised some of them). So great was the success of the piece that it was soon re-orchestrated by Grofé for full symphony orchestra and heard in concert halls around the world. The title Rhapsody in Blue was suggested by the composer’s brother Ira, who was inspired by the paintings “Harmony in Gray and Green” and “Nocturne in Blue and Green” by James Whistler. Rhapsody also reflects the music’s free, rhapsodic form and its jazz/ blues flavor. Critics have argued that the work is not true jazz; rather it employs jazz-like rhythms and melodies, and the orchestration suggests the distinctive sounds of jazz by effects such as the famous opening clarinet glissando and the muting of the brass instruments. Nonetheless, in an era when composers such as Stravinsky, Ravel, Milhaud, and Copland were incorporating jazz elements into their own compositions, this concert work by a popular songwriter had the most lasting impact and the widest appeal. Rhapsody is a one-movement work consisting of three main sections and a coda. Each main section includes at least one extended piano solo in which varied repetitions of the main themes are combined with virtuoso passages. The solos reflect Gershwin’s own pianism and his skills as an improviser. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky – Romeo and Juliet (fantasy-overture) Around 1869, Tchaikovsky came under the influence of Mily Balakirev, a leading figure in Russian music and mentor to a group of promising young composers that included Modest Mussorgsky and Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov. Balakirev, though appreciative of Tchaikovsky’s youthful compositions and cognizant of the young man’s immense natural talents, felt that his music lacked focus and direction. Hoping to assist him, Balakirev suggested that Tchaikovsky compose an overture based on the subject of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, and offered his own overture to King Lear as a model. Tchaikovsky, eager to please his respected friend, embraced the idea and was immediately drawn to the subject matter of the tragic play, having only recently been left heartbroken by a Belgian soprano. His brother (and first biographer), however, suggested that the composer’s true emotional inspiration for Romeo was his unrequited feeling for an old school friend, Vladimir Gerard. In either case, Romeo and Juliet stands as a sublime example of romantic, passionate music. Structurally, Tchaikovsky benefited from Balakirev’s tutelage and cast his overture in the same large tripartite design Balakirev had used for King Lear. Each of the three main sections alludes to an episode or theme from the story. The first, written in the dark key of F#-minor, represents Friar Laurence with its somber, hymn-like melody filled with foreboding and doom. The second, more agitated theme introduces the warring Capulets and Montagues through forceful, irregular rhythms, an angular melody, and a repeated phrase intended to suggest dueling swords with its nervous punctuations and rapid syncopations. The action slows at the first hint of the famous love theme, calling to mind the couple’s first meeting and the scene on Juliet’s balcony. Romeo is portrayed by the English horn while the flutes represent Juliet. The three main themes, having been individually introduced, are now developed and interwoven before an epilogue, in the form of a dirge, moves the work towards its conclusion. A final reiteration of the love theme, heard over a dark, chromatic bass line, provides a powerful climax.
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PROGR A M NOTES
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Maurice Ravel – Bolero Maurice Ravel was no stranger to the world of dance, having composed or arranged a number of works for the ballet, including Daphnis et Chloé for the Ballet Russes, Ma Mère l’Oye, and La Valse. In 1928 he received a commission from the Russian ballerina Ida Rubenstein for a Spanish-flavored ballet and immediately set to work on a piece he originally called Fandango. However, he soon realized his music was not, in fact, strictly in the style of the lively, joyous fandango but more akin to that of the slow, sultry dance known as the bolero. The title was changed, and Ravel’s most famous composition was born. The composition was a sensational success when it was premiered at the Paris Opera in November of 1928. The following scenario by Rubenstein and choreographer Bronislava Nijinska appeared in the program: “Inside a tavern in Spain, people dance beneath the brass lamp hung from the ceiling. In response to the cheers to join in, a female dancer has leapt onto the long table and her steps become more and more animated.” The mounting sexual tension and lust-driven jealousy finally erupt into a flurry of violence as the music reaches its fearsome climax. According to one writer, “…so viscerally stirring was the combination of the powerful music and the ballerina’s suggestive dancing at the premiere that a near-riot ensued between audience and performers, and Miss Rubinstein narrowly escaped injury.” When told that a woman at the Paris premiere had pointed in his direction and cried out, “He is mad,” Ravel smiled, and said that she truly understood the work. For all of the accolades – and criticisms – that came to be heaped upon it, Bolero is an extremely straightforward composition. Ravel himself remarked, “I have written but one masterpiece: the Bolero. Unfortunately, there is no music in it.” Though a selfdeprecating exaggeration, the statement is not altogether incorrect; Bolero is the essence of minimalism in which a strikingly small amount of musical material is manipulated over the space of seventeen minutes. It is essentially a study in rhythm and orchestral sonority. The bolero rhythm, heard insistently in the snare drum, provides a steady, unchanging underpinning to the entire piece. Above this ostinato pattern two simple melodies are heard, each of 18 measures duration, and each played twice. This may be represented as AA BB. This entire structure is repeated four times, meaning that both melodies are played a total of eight times. Interest is maintained by constant re-orchestration of the theme, leading to a variety of timbres, and by a steady crescendo. At the climax, the first theme is repeated a ninth time, then the second theme takes over and breaks briefly into a new tune in E major before finally returning to the tonic key of C major. Perhaps the piece can best be explained by Ravel himself. In an interview in 1931 he said: “I am particularly desirous that there should be no misunderstanding about this work. It constitutes an experiment in a very special and limited direction, and should not be suspected of aiming at achieving anything different from or anything more than it actually does achieve. What I have written is a piece lasting about seventeen minutes and consisting wholly of ‘orchestral tissue without music’ - of one long, very gradual crescendo. There are no contrasts, there is practically no invention except the plan and the manner of execution. The themes are altogether impersonal ... folk tunes of the usual Spanish-Arabian kind, and the orchestral writing is simple and straightforward throughout, without the slightest attempt at virtuosity.... I have carried out exactly what I intended, and it is for listeners to take it or leave it.” Program notes by Michael Vaughn 2013. No reproduction of notes permitted without author’s consent. 6
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F R A N C E S C O M I L I O TO, M U S I C D I R E C TO R Since his debut in Chicago just over a decade ago, Mr. Milioto has balanced a busy career conducting a wide range of orchestral and operatic repertoire while maintaining a full schedule as a pianist and vocal coach. He currently holds the positions of Cofounder/Conductor of the New Millennium Orchestra, Music Director of the Skokie Valley Symphony Orchestra, Principal Conductor of the Highland Park Strings, and Artistic Director/ Conductor of Access Contemporary Music. The 2013-14 season will see Mr. Milioto debut with Chicago Opera Theater conducting Verdi’s rarely performed Giovanna d’Arco in collaboration with his New Millennium Orchestra. Immediately following his work with COT, he will join the staff at Lyric Opera of Chicago as cover conductor for Verdi’s masterpiece La Traviata. Mr. Milioto is particularly proud of his work with the New Millennium Orchestra of Chicago, which he co-founded in 2005. Known for its innovative programming, this young, dynamic group has successfully debuted on both the Ravinia Festival Kraft Kid’s Series and the Harris Theater’s Family Series. This season the orchestra will cooperate with the Chicago Opera Theater for performances of Verdi’s Giovanna d’Arco. As Principal Conductor of the Highland Park Strings, Mr. Milioto’s repertoire ranges from the earliest string music to masterpieces of the Romantic and contemporary orchestral literature. His critically acclaimed work with this ensemble has also afforded him the opportunity to work with members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra as well as international soloists. As Artistic Director and Conductor of Access Contemporary Music, Milioto leads the ensemble Palomar, which has been featured on radio broadcasts and in performances throughout the Chicagoland area and abroad. Mr. Milioto is very proud of the work ACM does in promoting the works of living composers, and performing new works by composers in Chicago. As an opera conductor, last season included his debut with Opera Santa Barbara in Don Pasquale, as well as New Millennium Orchestra’s presentation of Der Kaiser von Atlantis on the Pritzker Pavillion stage in Chicago’s Millennium Park. Mr. Milioto has also recently made his debut with Opera Southwest in a production of La Traviata, and led his sixth production with Opera on the James in Virginia. As Music Director of the Chicago Cultural Center Summer Opera he has led nine productions to critical acclaim. Now in his seventh season as Music Director of the Skokie Valley Symphony Orchestra, Mr. Milioto leads the 51-year old ensemble as it embarks on a new path of creative and collaborative programming. This year, the SVSO will present concerts featuring a wide variety of repertoire and styles, while utilizing new and innovative ways to engage audiences and the community at large. Performances will include multimedia, dance, and theater, and feature partnerships with musicians from local schools as well as the talented winners of the SVSO’s Young Artist Competition.
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A N T H O N Y M O L I N A R O, P I A N I S T Since his victory at the 1997 Naumburg International Piano Competition in New York City, Anthony Molinaro’s stunning performances and unique versatility have captivated audiences and critics alike. Acclaimed for his “edge-of-the-seat brilliance” and “musically imaginative mind,” Mr. Molinaro’s performances have taken him to major music centers throughout the country including Boston, Cleveland, Dallas, Indianapolis, Los “Genre-defying... an original, often iconoclastic thinker Angeles, Miami, Philadelphia, New York’s equipped with a leonine technique.” – Chicago Tribune Alice Tully Hall, and Chicago’s Symphony Center. He has been featured on Ravinia’s Rising Stars Series, the Young Artist Series at the Kravis Center, the Irving S. Gilmore Festival, the Charles Vanda Master Series in Las Vegas, and at The Santa Fe Jazz Festival, the Toronto Jazz Festival, the Grand Teton Music Festival, and Eastern Music Festival among many others, and he has appeared as a guest soloist with nearly 50 symphony orchestras. Outside of the U.S., Mr. Molinaro has concertized in France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Italy, Switzerland, Austria and Canada. As a club artist for improvised music, he has performed at Chicago’s Green Mill, Toronto’s the Rex Hotel and Jazz Bar, Vienna’s Porgy and Bess, Amsterdam’s Bimhuis, Munich’s Unterfahrt, and Zurich’s Moods to name a few. Mr. Molinaro is a gifted composer, arranger and Improviser, giving him a musical dimension uncommon to artists of his generation. He often plays his own cadenzas in Mozart and Beethoven concerti, and his “free-wheeling” and “unconventional” rendition of Rhapsody in Blue features improvised cadenzas. In November 2005, he premiered his Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Catskill Symphony, and later that year debuted his big band arrangement of Rhapsody in Blue with the Chicago Jazz Orchestra. Mr. Molinaro records exclusively for Nineteen-Eight Records, a label he founded in 2001 to support creative music of all genres. His debut CD, The Bach Sessions, features the Goldberg Variations and the F Minor and A Major Concertos with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields Chamber Orchestra conducted by Andrew Litton. His wildly popular follow-up recording, New Blue, is a Gershwin album featuring his own solo version of Rhapsody in Blue, as well as arrangements and improvisations on the Gershwin classics. His highly anticipated solo piano album exploring music of The Beatles, Here, There and Everywhere, will release in the fall of 2013. Mr. Molinaro lives in his native Chicago where he is an Asst. Professor of Music at Loyola University. He studied at the University of North Texas and Northwestern University, and has won several awards in addition to the Naumburg Prize, most notably the William C. Byrd International Piano Competition and the 1995 National Piano Fellowship from the American Pianists’ Association. When not concertizing, Molinaro devotes considerable time to music education beyond Loyola University and for three summers coordinated a music program for physically challenged children in South Hampton, New York. Mr. Molinaro is a Yamaha Artist and an avid runner and triathlete. 8
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S K O K I E VA L L E Y S Y M P H O N Y O R C H E S T R A 1st Violin Jeff Yang, Concertmaster Margarita Solomensky, Assistant Concertmaster Milan Miskovic Hansuh Rhee, Mittenthal String Chair Iris Seitz Azusa Tashiro Violetta Todorova Wally Pok Hon Yu 2nd Violin Michael Kleinerman, Principal Warren Grabner Alysa Isaacson Eugene Kaler Isabelle Rozendaal Mary Stoltz Gwen Weiner Viola Michael Rozental, Dr. Lee Malmed Chair Jonas Benson Lee Malmed Rick Neff Jason Rosen Sid Samberg Desi Tantchev
Cello Marcia Chessick Bonnie Malmed Howard Miller Sheryl Nussbaum Mike Taber Tess Van Wagner Bass Doug Johnson, Principal Brett Benteler Bev Schiltz Flute Karen Frost, Principal Barb Austin Oboe Jennifer Stucki, Principal Ben Carithers Clarinet Walter Grabner, Principal Irwin Heller Scott Thomas Saxophones Jeremy Zimmer
Bassoon Elizabeth Heller, Principal Jen Speer Trumpet Jordan Olive, Principal Kyle Upton French Horn Julia Filson, Principal, Jack Shankman Chair Erika Hollenback Laurel Lovestrom Trombone Adina Salmahnson Tom Park Bass Trombone John Alberts Tuba Beth Lodal Timpani Jay Renstrom Percussion Barry Grossman Paul Betz Harp Phyllis Adams
C H A I R E N D OWM E N T A N D S P O N S O R S H I P S Kathryn J. Canny, Chair Endowment – Concertmaster Chair The Leo Krakow Community Endowment Fund – Concert Elizabeth and E. Harris Krawitz Endowment – Concert Harvey E. Mittenthal Scholarship Fund – Mittenthal String Chair Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice Foundation Charles and Cyd Sandleman Chair Endowment – Assistant Concertmaster Chair
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2 013 - 2 014 S V S O D O N AT I O N S Sustaining: $2500+ Kathryn J. Canny Dr. Lee & Bonnie Malmed Niles Township Government Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice Foundation Rice Foundation Special Fund Village of Skokie Benefactor: 1,000 - $2,499 Steven Jay Blutza Patron: $500 - $999 Esther Sabbah Korn Ruth Sharps
Sponsors: $250 - $499 John Alberts Carol & Roger Hirsch Richard A. Mittenthal Donors: $100 - $249 Phyllis Adams Louis & Loretta Becker Annette & Sydney Caron Dr. & Mrs. Richard Chessick Bernard & Marilyn Friedman Sandor Jankovich Ronald & Shirley Pregozen George Rimnac Mr. & Mrs. Henry Rosenbaum Harold & Rita Selz Thelma Soletsky Peter P. Thomas
Mrs. Henry Wolf Friends: $25 - $99 Ada Barrach Ruth Barrash Sherwin Chapman Debra Feldman Warren Grabner Terese Klinger Sharon & Sol Levin Rochelle Magid Edward & Phyllis Merkin Gloria Messerschmidt Michael Modica Sheldon Mostovoy Judy Rosenbaum Wes Skidgel Anita Stein Merle D. Warshausky Izzie Weinzweig Janice Ross & Martin Zabin
Supporting the Symphony The concert you hear today was made possible by the generous donors you see listed in our program. To find out how you can contribute, please contact the SVSO office or go to our website at www.svso.org
Julia Hagwood
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Skokie Valley Symphony Orchestra
2 013 - 2 014 B OA R D O F D I R E C TO R S Kathryn J. Canny, President Karen L. Frost, Artistic Vice President � David F. Eccles, Administrative Vice President � Steven Jay Blutza, Ph.D., Treasurer Heather Hill, Secretary John Alberts � Roger Hirsch Bonnie Malmed �
Lee Malmed, M.D. � Randy Micheletti Ethel Mittenthal
James K. O’Neal Michael Vaughn, PhD.
Honorary Board Members Barbara Brown Lucinda Kasperson Thomas Rosenwein J.D. Jack Shankman, J.D. � Denotes member of the orchestra Francesco Milioto, Conductor and Music Director Valerie Simosko, Office Manager Office address: 9501 Skokie Blvd., Skokie, IL 60077 Phone: 847-679-9501 x3014 SVSO Office E-mail: info@svso.org Website: www.svso.org
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Skokie Valley Symphony Orchestra