WI Philharmonic_EnglishElegance

L E T T E R F R O M T H E E X E C U T I V E D I R E C TO R Thank you for joining us for the penultimate concert of our historic 65th Anniversary Season, The British Spirit. Today’s concert brings a bit of a twist to our season by transporting us to the quaint English countryside with small orchestra works by some of the greatest British composers. We couldn’t think of a better place to perform these works than at Waukesha’s very own St. Luke’s Lutheran Church.

Joining us for a taste of English Elegance this afternoon, tenor Vale Rideout and The Wisconsin Philharmonic’s very own principal horn Kelly Hofman will provide a special touch as they perform Britten’s Serenade. We are grateful to the Dorothy Goff Frisch Memorial Fund for sponsoring Mr. Rideout and Ms. Hofman today, providing our community with professional, world class soloists year after year.

If you have not reserved your spot for the Mad Hatter’s Ball this upcoming Saturday, March 16th, be sure to stop by our table in the lobby before you leave today. You won’t want to miss this unique evening of music and merriment featuring The Terry Smirl Band, pianist Abby Lorenz, and the many festive, creative characters of Alice in Wonderland.

Thank you, again, for joining us for today’s concert. Please feel free to join us immediately following the performance for a brief talkback with Maestro Alexander Platt and our guest artists.

Andrea Rindo Executive Director

Getting Better while Growing Older Congratulations to The Wisconsin Philharmonic on 65 Successful Years

Celebrating our 96th year English Elegance

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Founded 1947

presents

English Elegance Sunday, March 10th, 2013 - 3 pm St. Luke’s Lutheran Church Alexander Platt, Conductor Vale Rideout, Tenor Kelly Hofman, French Horn

Fantasia on “The Dargason”, from the St. Paul’s Suite........................... Gustav Holst (1874-1934) Serenade for Strings, Op. 20...................................................................Sir Edward Elgar (1857-1934) Allegretto piacevole -- Larghetto -- Allegretto Serenade for Tenor, Horn, & Strings, Op. 31....................................Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) In honor of the Benjamin Britten Centenary Year Prologue -- Pastoral(Cotton) -- Nocturne(Tennyson) -- Elegy(Blake) Dirge(Anon.) -- Hymn(Jonson) -- Sonnet(Keats) -- Epilogue ~ Intermission ~ Two Aquarelles for Strings, arr. Eric Fenby........................................ Frederick Delius (1862-1934) Lento, ma non troppo -- Gaily, but not quick Simple Symphony, Op. 4........................................................................Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) Boisterous Bourree Playful Pizzicato Sentimental Sarabande Frolicsome Finale The Wisconsin Philharmonic gratefully acknowledges the assistance of Mstro. Pasquale Laurino in the preparation of this performance.

Today’s performance by Vale Rideout and Kelly Hofman is sponsored by the Dorothy Goff Frisch Memorial Fund.

The Country Springs Hotel is the official hotel of The Wisconsin Philharmonic.

Please turn off all cellular phones and other digital devices. We respectfully request members of the audience to refrain from the use of camera equipment or recording devices during the performance.

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THE WISCONSIN PHILHAR MONIC Violin I Robin Petzold, Concertmaster Catherine Bush, Assistant Concertmaster Andrea Buchta Marvin Suson Violin II Christopher Ruck, Principal Christine Annin Hauptly, Assistant Principal Catherine Kolb Hilary Mercer

Viola Mary Pat Michels, Principal Ellen Gartner-Phillips, Assistant Principal Cello Trischa Loebl, Principal Braden Flanagan-Zitoun, Assistant Principal Bass Charles Grosz, Principal

A L E X A N D E R P L AT T, M U S I C D I R E C TO R Alexander Platt has forged a unique career among the younger American conductors, combining a true commitment to regional orchestras and their communities with an ability to lead cutting-edge projects on the international scene. Building on his bedrock experience as Apprentice Conductor of the Minnesota Orchestra, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and the Minnesota Opera (1991-93), Alexander is now in his third highly successful season as Music Director of both the La Crosse Symphony and the Greater Grand Forks Symphony, his seventeenth as Music Director of the Marion, Indiana Philharmonic, and his sixteenth as Music Director of The Wisconsin Philharmonic. This follows twelve seasons as Music Director of the Racine Symphony (1993-2005), which he transformed from a struggling community orchestra to an artistically and fiscally thriving institution, and three seasons (2007-10) as Principal Conductor of the Boca Raton Symphonia—an assignment born of his debut with the orchestra and Sir James Galway at the International Festival of the Arts Boca on 48 hours’ notice, where he led the ensemble (in the opinion of The Palm Beach Post) into becoming the finest of the orchestras to emerge from the collapse of the Florida Philharmonic.

Mozart’s DON GIOVANNI), and was appointed Resident Conductor and Music Advisor in 2001. Over the next twelve seasons, he led the Chicago premieres of Britten’s DEATH IN VENICE, John Adams’ NIXON IN CHINA, the Bizet/Peter Brook LA TRAGEDIE DE CARMEN, and the Britten/Shakespeare A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM; the double-bill

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Following acclaimed assignments with the Minnesota Opera and the Skylight Opera Theatre, Alexander Platt made his debut with Chicago Opera Theater in 1997 (conducting English Elegance

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A L E X A N D E R P L AT T, M U S I C D I R E C TO R of Schoenberg’s ERWARTUNG and Bartok’s BLUEBEARD’S CASTLE, with Samuel Ramey and Nancy Gustafson; the world premiere of the Tony Kushner/Maurice Sendak version of Hans Krasa’s BRUNDIBAR; the premiere of his own version for young people of Tchaikovsky’s IOLANTA; and the world-premiere recording of Kurka’s THE GOOD SOLDIER SCHWEIK—all to high acclaim in Opera News, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times of London, and both the great Chicago papers. In 2007 he made his Canadian debut at the Banff Festival, leading the co-premiere in conjunction with Calgary Opera of John Estacio’s FROBISHER, to accolades from Opera Canada. In Spring 2012 Alexander concluded his tenure at COT with the Chicago premiere of the Dmitri Shostakovich Moscow, Land of the Cherry-Bird Trees, to unanimous praise in the media.

As a guest conductor Alexander Platt has led the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the City of London Sinfonia, the Freiburg Philharmonic in Germany and for three years the Aalborg Symphony in Denmark, as well as the

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Minnesota Contemporary Ensemble, Camerata Chicago, the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, the Illinois, Lexington, Riverside California and Hudson Valley Philharmonics, and the Houston, Charlotte, Columbus, Flagstaff, Sioux City, El Paso and Indianapolis Symphonies. In 2012-13 he makes his debut with the ChampaignUrbana Symphony, as well as a return visit to Boca Raton. Alexander Platt made his New York debut in 2007 with the Brooklyn Philharmonic before thousands in Central Park, the first of several appearances with the orchestra.

In addition to all these activities, Alexander Platt spends his summers in the Hudson Valley as the sixth Music Director of the Maverick Concerts in Woodstock, New York – the oldest summer chamber-music festival in America, where he follows in the footsteps of legendary maestrias Leon Barzin and Georges Barrere.

Under his direction the concert series has become a thriving, eclectic festival. A recent highlight of his work there was his leading the world premiere of his chamber-orchestra version of David Del Tredici’s landmark

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A L E X A N D E R P L AT T, M U S I C D I R E C TO R music-drama FINAL ALICE (1976). The 2007 performance won accolades in The New York Times, which praised it as a workable version of Del Tredici’s masterpiece.

Alexander Platt has been devoted to the music of our time. Over the last three decades he has led the U.S. premieres of concert works of Britten, Shostakovich, Ned Rorem, Colin Matthews and Judith Weir, and has been an advocate for composers as diverse as Michael Torke, Libby Larsen, Joan Tower, and Simon Holt. In 2010 and 2011, with The Wisconsin Philharmonic, he led Aaron Jay Kernis’ Simple Songs, the world premiere of Daron Hagen’s Third Symphony, and the co-premiere of Joseph Schwantner’s symphony Chasing Light; at the Maverick Concerts, he led the world premiere of the chamber version of Hagen’s Seven Last Words for piano and orchestra; and while in Grand Forks and La Crosse he directed the North American premiere of both the Britten Temporal Variations for oboe and strings, and the reconstruction of his unfinished Clarinet Concerto for Benny Goodman. In summer 2012 at the Maverick Concerts, he leads the premieres of works by Harold Meltzer and Russell Platt, and in the autumn, with the La Crosse Symphony and The Wisconsin Philharmonic, he leads the

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world premiere of his commission of John Corigliano’s Sonata for Violin and Orchestra, with violinist Lara St. John.

A research scholar for the National Endowment for the Humanities before he entered college, Alexander Platt was educated at Yale University, as a conducting fellow at both Aspen and Tanglewood, and then at King’s College Cambridge under a British Marshall Scholarship. At Cambridge he led all of the important musical societies, deputized in the legendary King’’s College Choir, and as conductor of the Cambridge University Opera Society led revivals of both Britten’s OWEN WINGRAVE and Berlioz’s BEATRICE AND BENEDICT, to high praise in the London press.

During this time he also made his professional conducting debut at Aldeburgh, his London debut at the Wigmore Hall, and reconstructed the lost chamber version of the Mahler Fourth Symphony which has gone on to become a classic of the repertoire. In addition to recording for National Public Radio, Minnesota Public Radio, the South-West German Radio and the BBC, his 2004 recording of Max Bruch’s Scottish Fantasy with violinist Rachel Barton Pine still appears frequently on radio stations across America.

VA L E R I D E O U T, T E N O R American tenor Vale Rideout has garnered critical acclaim for his musical artistry and superb stagecraft throughout the United States and Europe.

Possessed of both a beautiful instrument and an ability to consistently deliver passionate, energetic performances, he is equally in demand for leading tenor roles from the standard repertory to contemporary works.

The Colorado native can be heard on recently released live recordings of Rio de sangre (Albany Records) and Elmer Gantry (on Naxos, winner of two Grammy awards (2012), and voted No. 1 by Opera News “Best of the Year”), both produced by Florentine Opera. He is the tenor soloist in a live recording of Carmina Burana with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. He can also be heard on the

Newport Classics recording of The Ballad of Baby Doe, the world premiere recording of Kurt Weill’s The Eternal Road and David Schiff’s Gimpel the Fool (both on Naxos). He is featured on upcoming recordings including The Inspector by John Musto and, singing the role of Robert MacNamara, in Steven Stucky’s August 4th, 1964, with Jaap Van Zweden and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra.

Vale Rideout’s 2011-12 season includes singing the title role in Faust with Opera Coeur d’Alene; Nadir in Les pêcheurs de perles with Hawaii Opera Theatre; as soloist in Messiah with Nashville Symphony Orchestra, also with Pacific Symphony Orchestra; in Haydn’s The Creation in a return to Highland Park United Methodist Church; in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with Greenville Symphony; as the Duke in selections from Rigoletto with Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra; Count Almaviva in Il English Elegance

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barbiere di Siviglia in a fully staged production with Imperial Symphony Orchestra; as Prologue/Peter Quint in The Turn of the Screw in a return to Central City Opera; and as soloist in Berlioz’ Te Deum with Colorado’s “Summer Choralfest.” In 2010-11 he returned to Florentine Opera as Igneo in the world premiere of Don Davis’ Rio de Sangre; sang Camille in The Merry Widow with Opera Tampa; Tamino in Die Zauberflöte with Phoenix Opera, also Chautauqua Opera; Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni with Tulsa Opera; Male Chorus in The Rape of Lucretia for Cal Performances under Lorin Maazel; created the role of Tancredi in the world premiere of John Musto’s The Inspector at Wolf Trap Opera; appeared in concert as soloist inMessiah with the Louisiana Philharmonic; and in Stucky’s August 4, 1964 with the Dallas Symphony at Carnegie Hall.

Recent highlights include Peter Quint in The Turn of the Screw with Boston Lyric Opera; Roderick in Glass’ The Fall of the House of Usher with Nashville Opera; Alfredo in La traviata with Pacific Opera Victoria; Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni with Palm Beach Opera; Egeo in Cavalli’s Giasone with Chicago Opera Theater; soloist with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra in “A Christmas Celebration;” in Vaughan Williams’“Hodie” with Highland Park United Methodist Church; Almaviva in Il barbiere di Siviglia with Sugar Creek Festival; Haydn’s Paukenmesse with the Berkshire Choral Festival; his debut with the New York Philharmonic and the continuation of his ongoing collaboration with Lorin Maazel in Britten’s War Requiem; Nadir in Les Pêcheurs des perles with Opera Columbus; the title role in Faust with Opera Tampa; Sam in Susannah with Mobile Opera; Gernando in Haydn’s L’isola disabitata with Gotham Chamber Opera; Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor with Central City Opera; Frederic in The Pirates of Penzance at the Chautauqua Institution; as soloist in Carmina Burana with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra; the world premiere of Steven Stucky’s August 4, 1964 with Dallas Symphony; and Messiah with the ProMusica Chamber Orchestra.

Performances of note include Ferrando in Così fan tutte with Boston Baroque; Atis in Keiser’s

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Croesus with Minnesota Opera; Tamino in Die Zauberflöte with Tulsa Opera; the Male Chorus in The Rape of Lucretia and Sam in Susannah, in re-engagements with Central City Opera; and as soloist in Britten’s War Requiem with Maestro Maazel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic as well as with the Grand Rapids Symphony. Following performances as Peter Quint at Lorin Maazel’s Chateauville Foundation in Virginia, Mr. Rideout returned the following summer to appear as Male Chorus conducted by Maestro Maazel. He was soon after invited to perform Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with Maazel’s Symphonica Toscanini in both Rome and Brussels.

Concert highlights include appearing as soloist in Messiah with the Seattle and Pensacola symphonies as well as with the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra, Carmina Burana with the Virginia Symphony Orchestra, Mozart’s Mass in C Minor with the Huntsville Symphony, and in an evening of opera arias and ensembles with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra. He made his Carnegie Hall debut singing Bach’s Magnificat and later returned to sing Mozart’s Requiem. Other concert highlights include his American Symphony Orchestra debut in a program of Hindemith one-act operas, and his return to the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra as soloist in Mozart’s Requiem and Haydn’s The Creation. Mr. Rideout has been a featured soloist with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields Chorus, Naples Philharmonic (FL), BBC Singers, and symphonies in California, Colorado, and New York.

An avid recitalist, Vale Rideout has appeared most recently in a recital at UNC, his alma mater, a recital of British song at Vassar College and a recital benefiting the Loveland Opera Theater in Colorado where he performed Schubert’s Winterreise. He has also appeared at the Middle Collegiate Church in New York City. Mr. Rideout was awarded first prize in Savannah Music Festival’s 2006 American Traditions Competition and was a 2003 regional finalist in the Metropolitan National Council Auditions.

K E L LY H O F M A N , H O R N Kelly Hofman holds the positions of Principal Horn with the Wisconsin Philharmonic, 2nd Horn with the Fox Valley Symphony, 3rd Horn with the Kenosha Symphony, and 4th horn with the Festival City Symphony. She is an alumna of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, and performs regularly with the Green Bay Symphony, Oshkosh Symphony, and the Milwaukee Ballet Orchestra. She has also played with the Southwest Michigan, Kansas City, Milwaukee, Chicago, and Tucson Symphonies.

home and is also the horn instructor at Falls Baptist Academy and College of Ministry in Menomonee Falls, WI.

As soloist, Ms. Hofman has performed with the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music Orchestra and the Landon Symphonette (Washington, DC). In January she was the horn soloist for the Britten Serenade with the Fox Valley Symphony in Appleton, and in February she performed on the regional artists’ recital for the 2013 Midwest Horn Workshop at the University of WisconsinOshkosh. As a chamber musician, Kelly has performed with the Eastern Chamber Players, the International Chamber Artists, the Fifth House Ensemble Woodwind Quintet, and the Tanglewood Music Center.

Kelly and her husband reside in Whitefish Bay, WI. Away from the horn, Kelly is an avid swimmer and is the music coordinator for her church.

In addition to performing, Ms. Hofman maintains a private teaching studio in her

During the summer, Kelly is on faculty at the Eastern Music Festival (EMF) in Greensboro, NC where she teaches and performs as 3rd horn in the Eastern Festival Orchestra. Prior to joining the EMF faculty eight years ago, she participated in the Chautauqua, MasterWorks, and Tanglewood Music Center summer festivals. Ms. Hofman attended the New England Conservatory, and Northwestern University. Her primary teachers were Dick Mackey, Gail Williams, and Ted Thayer.

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English Elegance

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ENGLISH ELEGANCE : PROGR A M NOTES Fresh from our experience this Christmas in the English choral tradition, we welcome you now to another glorious feast - that of the equally great English tradition of writing for string orchestra.

Gustav von Holst (1874-1934): St. Paul’s Suite for Strings, Op.29/2 Gustav von Holst, an Englishman of Swedish descent (the “von” was dropped during the First World War), is one of the quieter geniuses of British music. His early career, round the turn of the 20th century, was spent as a trombonist in what is now called the Scottish National Orchestra. During this time, he also developed an altogether healthy obsession with British folk music, precisely when those who produced it were disappearing due to inexorable growth of the Industrial Revolution and urbanized modern life. It was also during this time that he developed a lifelong friendship with an equally great composer, Ralph Vaughan Williams, who would go on to be one Britain’s “national treasures” in a way that Holst would have shunned; but their mutual experience of tromping up and down the English countryside, recording folk musicians in the days before the First World War, was an experience which would musically and morally mark them for life. In the same spirit of British musical enterprise, Holst’s only daughter, the wonderfully industrious all-round musician, scholar and conductor Imogen Holst (1907-1984) would spend most of her own career as the devoted assistant to the composer Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) -- whose centenary this year is being celebrated worldwide, and who carried Holst’s all-embracing idealism to its full conclusion.

A sensitive, contrarian artist throughout his life, Holst made his living as an educator, serving as Director of Music at St. Paul’s School for girls in London from 1905 to the year of his death. In 1912, in thanks for their furnishing him with a soundproof workroom, Holst wrote what we now call the St. Paul’s Suite for the school’s string orchestra to play. The piece became so popular that he eventually added optional wind parts so more students could join in. Not published until 1922, the Suite, like The Planets, indeed became instantly and deservedly popular. Its four brief movements -- a jig, a gossamer scherzo, an heartfelt intermezzo, and a boisterous finale,“The Dargason”, in Scottish style -- make it easy to see why.

Sir Edward Elgar (1857-1934): Serenade for Strings, Op.20 Elgar, an almost exact contemporary of Holst, was everything Holst was not: the British Public Composer extraordinaire, lover of the grand gesture, bestowed with dozens of honors and accepting them all with tweed-suited aplomb. To be fair, though, Elgar really was the first British composer of truly international stature since the 17th-century master Henry Purcell, and one who inherited, via the Anglo-German George Frederick Handel, that peculiarly English genius of knowing how to write for string orchestra. When the young Elgar, self-taught, had an afternoon off from working in his father’s music shop, he would go out into the West Country hillsides, his pockets stuffed with bread and cheese, and study pocket scores of Handel’s works.

Elgar’s Serenade for Strings is his first truly notable work, modest in scope as it is, and like Holst’s equally beloved St. Paul’s Suite, it was a work composed in modest circumstances. Like Holst, Elgar was a man who made his own career from the bottom up, and his Serenade, composed for his Worcester Ladies’ Orchestral Class, was the fruit of one of his many, many jobs as a young and struggling freelance musician. During those years working in his father’s Worcester music shop, he had taught himself how to play almost every instrument. However, in spite of its many charms, the Serenade for Strings was rejected summarily by a publisher to whom the young Elgar had sent this dreamy score, with the rejoinder that “we find that this class of music is practically unsalable.” Strange then, that from its first public performance in 1896, the Serenade became one of Elgar’s most popular works, quietly beginning the career trajectory that would lead to international triumph with his Enigma Variations a few years later.

Elgar’s Serenade is a miniature masterpiece, as only an Englishman could write. In its three short movements, two gently swaying allegrettos (Elgar tellingly uses here the Italian word for “comfortably” -- piacevole) frame a central Larghetto of a quiet tenderness, evoking the gentle sunsets of Elgar’s West Country childhood, as well as his profound affection for his devoted wife, Caroline Alice -- who was there for Elgar as he was a young, down-and-out composer, and there for him as a knight of the realm.

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Benjamin Britten (1913-1976): Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings, Op.31 One could argue that Benjamin Britten combined Elgar’s sense of grandeur with Gustav Holst’s solitary, contrarian spirit. A tortured, complicated man, he remains in a triumvirate with Elgar and Purcell as the greatest English composer of all time. Long regarded as one of his greatest masterpieces, Britten’s Serenade for the unique combination of solo tenor, French horn, and strings comes from that era which saw so many of Britten’s most beloved works come to life -- the World War II years, an era when he also began to write specifically for the voice of his companion, Sir Peter Pears.

That said, the direct inspiration for the Serenade was a request from the amazing British horn virtuoso Dennis Brain, who was the first artist to bring that instrument to solo prominence.

As with Elgar and Holst, Britten here displays that curiously English knack at conveying the beauty of the pastoral and countryside. Yet, with the eerie horn solo that begins the work, we are in for a shock.

This is not the traditional English country-garden pastoral atmosphere that was, up through the 1940’s, a British composer’s stock-and-trade, but rather something more ancient and mysterious -- the England of the Druid rituals, of Glastonbury and Stonehenge. The solo horn’s otherworldly sound here emanates from Britten’s specific instruction for the hornist to play using no modern valves, but only the instrument’s natural harmonics, giving the music a distinctly primeval tone.

Following that unforgettable Prologue, Britten proceeds to set six of the very greatest English poets -from Blake and Tennyson in the Romantic era, to the more “rational” 17th-century masters Ben Jonson and Charles Cotton; from a frightening, anonymous 15th-century dirge, to a heartbreaking Sonnet of John Keats -- all on the subject of Night, in all its aspects; one needs to be reminded that the idea of night was especially relevant in the England of the early 1940’s, when evening brought with it fear, and violence from the skies. Following the tragic hush of Keats’ farewell -- “Turn the key deftly in the oiled wards/And seal the hushed casket of my soul” -- Britten instructs the hornist to repeat the opening Prologue, but now seated far offstage: a unique effect in the musical canon, symbolizing Britten’s desire to take his audience back not just to some “green and pleasant land” but to the beginning of music itself.

Frederick Delius (1862-1934): Two Aquarelles, for string orchestra (arr. Eric Fenby) There is no more cosmopolitan figure in the history of British music than Frederick Delius. Born in Bradford, England, the son of a prosperous German wool merchant of Dutch descent, the young Delius soon rebelled against his father’s wish to follow him into the family business by throwing himself into a life in music. While in his early twenties and thirsting for adventure, Delius convinced his father to let him run the family’s orange plantation in Florida. There, under the tutelage of a local church organist and under the spell of the rich folk music of the local African-American culture in those days after the Civil War, he found both his calling and the origins of his uniquely Impressionist musical style. After travelling to Germany for studies at the great Leipzig Conservatory, and Norway, where he became a protégé of Edvard Grieg, he finally settled down in Paris, where he immersed himself in the rich, brilliant, and decadent atmosphere of La Belle Epoque.

By now, blind and confined to a wheelchair, Delius in his final years was befriended by a shy and brilliant young English musician, Eric Fenby, who came eventually to live in the house of Delius and his wife. Fenby would become the great and difficult old man’s “amanuensis”, sitting down at the piano and somehow turning Delius’ barked-out musical orders into the composer’s final masterworks. Those masterpieces ranged from the great to the small, including today’s Two Aquarelles, which are Fenby arrangements (for strings) of two miniatures Delius had composed for wordless choir in 1916-17. At that time, the composer directed them “To be sung at night, upon the water”: from his French retreat, old Delius takes us back to his youthful days in the Florida Everglades with haunting effect.

Benjamin Britten (1913-1976): Simple Symphony for Strings, Op.4 Since 2013 is the centenary of Benjamin Britten’s birth, this leads us to finish this afternoon’s survey of English gems for string orchestra with that early masterpiece of an almost Mozartian freshness, Britten’s Simple Symphony -- by now played countless times across the globe by string orchestras English Elegance

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student, amateur and professional.

Written by a brilliant young composer of twenty in 1934, and freely based on piano pieces he had written as a child, the Simple Symphony has never lost its sense of youthful innocence. Though even here, one can sense the seeds of an early Britten style that would inspire many a London music critic in the 1930’s to proclaim that Britten spoke more with his head than his heart. Dedicated to his childhood viola teacher, the piece’s four surprisingly spacious movements are based on quite a few different piano pieces and songs, ranging from little country dances to a full-blown Piano Sonata, written by Britten between the ages of nine and twelve. In that spirit of British musical practicality -- and it must be said, of those similarly youthful “Salzburg Symphonies” of the child Mozart -- Britten’s Symphony may be played by a full string orchestra, or by a string quartet.

Simple Symphony received its first performance in the East Anglian city of Norwich, England, in 1934, with Britten himself, in the spirit of today’s works by Elgar and Holst, conducting a small amateur orchestra. It would mark the start of Britten’s extraordinary career as not only one of the great composers of the 20th century, but one of its great conductors as well. In this sense, Britten was following in a path of composer-conductors going back to J.S. Bach and Mozart, continued by Mendelssohn, Wagner and Liszt, and then onward with Mahler and Rachmaninov. If there was a last star in that tradition, it would be one of our great musicians, Leonard Bernstein -- who, as a budding young maestro himself, would conduct the very first performances of Britten’s landmark opera Peter Grimes in the safety of the Boston Symphony’s summer home of Tanglewood, in the depths of the Second World War. © 2012 Alexander Platt

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S TA F F Music Director...................................................................................................................... Alexander Platt Executive Director.................................................................................................................. Andrea Rindo Personnel Manager/Librarian......................................................................................Mary Pat Michels Stage Manager.............................................................................................................................Glen Lunde C O N T R I B U TO R S Organizations Maestro $5,000 and up Century Fence Don L. & Carol G. Taylor Family Foundation Harken Family Foundation United Performing Arts Fund Waukesha County Community Foundation – Early Hill Fund Waukesha State Bank Virtuoso $2,500-$4,999 Anonymous Frisch Memorial Fund General Electric Foundation Employee Matching Hess & Helyn Kline Foundation United Performing Arts Fund Concertmaster $1,000-$2,499 Anonymous Arts Waukesha

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C O N T R I B U TO R S Quad/Graphics Employee Matching R&R Insurance Services, Inc. Waukesha Music Study Club AT&T-United Way Employee Giving Waukesha County Community Foundation – William M & Michele A Holcomb Family Fund

Bonnie Birk & Dave Helling Theodore & Noelle BryantNanz Gerald & Donna Gerndt John & Sue Hoaglund Michael R. & Mary Ellen McCormick William McDevitt Howard & Sara Miller Ellen Strommen Sara Toenes

Individuals Maestro $5,000 and up Anthony & Andrea Bryant Robert & Patricia Kern Don & Carol Taylor Virtuoso $2,500-$4,999 Tom & Martha Kelpin Concertmaster $1,000-$2,499 John & Mary Almasi Anonymous Virginia Buhler Doug & Meg Haag Doug & Nancy Hastad George & Edith Love Drake & Evie Reid Jane McIntosh Seel George Kuchler & Anita Ransome-Kuchler Principal $500-$999 Anonymous Suzanne Frank Dave & Barb Hammer Olaf & Ruth Harken David & Darlene Lange Glen R. & Sally Lunde Dick & Carol Richards Everett & Kay Stone Roger & Sandy Stuckmann Associate $300-$499 Anonymous DeAnne Blazek Frank & Mary Ann Brazelton 12

The Wisconsin Philharmonic

Patron $150-$299 Anonymous (2) Ron & Mary Beckman Elfred Bloedel Ed & Helen Brady Theodore & Noelle BryantNanz Bevery Chappie Sune & Jean Ericson Dr. & Mrs. R. Feulner Gerald & Rebecca Gapinski Frieda Hart Peter & Karol Kennedy Bruce & Rose Larkin Thomas & Patricia Miller Mary Jo Nevermann Fritz & Sally Ruf James & Ina Scheel Stephen & Gale Schmiedlin Ellen Strommen Tom & Laura Wanta Dennis & Mary Unterholzner Bruce Larkin Supporter $50-$149 Anonymous (3) May 6, 2012 Audience Ron & Pat Anders Dr. & Mrs. R.H. Bibler Elfred Bloedel John & Kay Boesen John & Mary Boie Helen Bressler John Buckley Joseph & Karen Burzinski Karen & Robert Calhoun Susanne Carman Joan Clausz JoAnne Crooks

Sune & Jean Ericson Sue Evenson Gail Fischer Darrell & Sally Foell Elaine Haberichter Russ & Mary Hanson Larry Harper Diane Hatchell Peter & Joan Haupert Carolyn Heidemann Germaine Hillmer Richard & Jeanne Hyrniewicki Edwin & Ann Johnson William & Ruth Jones Dr. Elizabeth Jones & Richard Schwartz Thomas & Jean Klein Ramon & Doris Klitzke Mary Knudten Dale A. & Gay G. Knutson Thelma LaConte Ena Mollie Lantz Sharon & Tom Leair John P. Macy & Sandi Brand Ken & Jeanne Menting George & Bonnie Morris Doris Murphy Lisa Nevins Elizabeth Orozco Jean O’Donnell Illingworth Geraldine Pari Timothy & Charmaine Reynolds Andrea Rindo Norman & Joanne Seeger William D. Smith, M.D. John & Rita Stevens Terry Stevens Sara Toenes Jim & Pat Toft Robert Vrakas Nancy Walkoe Darlene Weis John Wellford Miriam Wellford Donald & June Wischer Theodore Youngquist Allen & Marcia Weidler John P. Macy & Sandi Brand Doris & Richard Bibler Dr. Cathleen A Morris Mark & Mary Potts

C O N T R I B U TO R S Friend Up to $49 Anonymous Janet Allen Greg & Pam Bisbee Robert Breese Alan & Carol Carlson Shirley Gugin Thomas Halloran Betty Henderson Esther Hofmann Dennis & Kathleen Hulen Ellen Jakab Mary Jervis Lois Kaplan Roger & Margaret Kegel Thomas & Jean Klein David and Ann Lang Robert & Donna Lucht Elizabeth Orozco Mark & Angela Penzkover John & Leona Peters Karen Pierce Paul & Cathy Riedl Cheryl Scheurman Ksenija Wasielewski

John & Lynn Wellinghoff Barbara Woerner Jeff & Rebecca Zuhlke In Honor of Sune & Jean Ericson Ellen Strommen Norman & Joanne Seeger Anthony & Andrea Bryant Anonymous Suzanne Frank Gerald & Susanne Carman Suzanne Frank George & Edith Love Suzanne Frank Drake & Evelyn Reid Suzanne Frank Don & Carol Taylor Suzanne Frank Ellen Strommen

In Memory of Richard Anderson Heidi Pagel Hilary Bryant Anonymous Don & Carol Taylor Marty Frank Suzanne R. Frank Geth Galloway Anonymous Joan Newman Chet & Helen Goff Anonymous Dorothy Goff & Jim Frisch Charlie Goff McIntosh Helen Pavlovics Robert Malm Fred Portz JoAnn Portz Clara Saler Richard & Bernard Saler Maestro Milton Weber Susanna Weber-Gadd

The Contributor Listing includes all contributions from the last twelve months received through February 7, 2013. Those who contributed after that date have our thanks and the assurance that your names will appear in the April 28, 2013 program. If you note an error in this list, please contact The Wisconsin Philharmonic at 262-547-1858 so that we may correct it for our next program.

THE WISCONSIN PHILHAR MONIC : GIVING OPPORTUNITIES Frugality and creativity have always been part of The Wisconsin Philharmonic’s history.

Special efforts like the Annual Gala generate substantial funds which are deeply appreciated.

In addition to special events, other fund development efforts add pivotal revenue to The Wisconsin Philharmonic’s bottom line.

The Individual Campaign is conducted in the fall of each season. It is an opportunity for individuals to support The Wisconsin Philharmonic at a level that is meaningful to them. Contributors receive valuable benefits based on the level of their donation. For a complete list of donor levels and benefits, visit The Wisconsin Philharmonic’s web site (www. wisconsinphilharmonic.org).

The Wisconsin Philharmonic also offers Planned Giving Programs, designed to ensure that The Wisconsin Philharmonic will continue for future generations. Options include Wills and Bequests, Trusts (like a Charitable Remainder Trust), Insurance (an old cash value policy), Appreciated Stock and Retirement Plan Proceeds.

In-kind donations are also accepted. For more information about any of these options, contact The Wisconsin Philharmonic office at 262-547-1858.

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T H E W I S C O N S I N P H I L H A R M O N I C : E N D OWM E N T F U N D S The Wisconsin Philharmonic offers four Endowment Funds that are open and accept additional donations.

The Wisconsin Philharmonic Endowment Fund provides income to support general operations. Gifts to this permanent fund help to preserve the future of classical music in our communities.

The James and Dorothy Goff Frisch Endowment Fund was created to honor these founding members of The Wisconsin Philharmonic and is used to sponsor a soloist during the season.

The Wisconsin Philharmonic Education Investment Fund provides funding for the educational programs of The Wisconsin Philharmonic.

The Anthony W. Bryant Scholarship Fund honors businessman and philanthropist, Tony Bryant, who has been an advocate of The Wisconsin Philharmonic for many years.

The scholarship is awarded by competitive audition to a graduating high school senior who declares an intention to major in music while in college.

Assisted Living Apartments 427 N. University Dr • Waukesha • 60 private apartments with a full bath & kitchenette • Friendship of other residents with activities to suit varied interests • Personal assistance available 24/7 • Eden Alternative registered home

Apartments Available!

Please call to schedule a personal tour with Director Nancy Madden, R.N. (262) 524-1180 On the campus of 14

The Wisconsin Philharmonic

T H E W I S C O N S I N P H I L H A R M O N I C E D U C AT I O N P R O G R A M S The Wisconsin Philharmonic education programs are an example of the Orchestra’s steadfast commitment to providing programs that serve the entire community and provide opportunities to help students achieve success and enrichment through classical music.

Chapman Piano Competition – This biennial piano competition is open to all Waukesha County piano students age 14 through 20. The student prepares a selection from the repertoire list to perform by memory. The award to the winner includes cash and an opportunity to perform with The Wisconsin Philharmonic as a featured soloist.

Shining Stars Scholarships – Annual auditions each March are open to string, wind and percussion Waukesha County students. The students play before Philharmonic musicians and receive the judges written evaluations. Winners are presented to the audience at The Wisconsin Philharmonic’s Season Finale concert and receive a cash award to be used for continuing music studies.

Clinics by the Maestro – Maestro Alexander Platt, Music Director of The Wisconsin Philharmonic, offers free clinics once per year to four selected high schools. The purpose of Clinics with the Maestro is to encourage high school string players to continue making beautiful music.

Major Classic for Minors – Chamber ensembles from The Wisconsin Philharmonic present programs in elementary schools throughout Waukesha County. Each presentation is about 45 minutes long and includes a demonstration of the instruments and their unique sounds, themes in music, conducting, and a question-and-answer period. For many students, this is the first experience with classical music and up-close exposure to musical instruments and performers.

These programs are offered free to the schools.

Masterworks Chamber Music Coaching – This project promotes the study of chamber music by assigning a Wisconsin Philharmonic musician to a high school as an ensemble coach. The group spends five sessions with its coach and is expected to practice outside classroom time. At the end of the program, groups perform their works at an annual chamber music festival. Additionally, students are given a writing assignment that can vary from self-reflection to a music critique.

Middle School Orchestra Workshops – A new program for this season, the Middle School Orchestra Workshops open with a performance by a Wisconsin Philharmonic string quintet. Following the performance, students are split into sections to receive coaching from the professional musicians.

The workshop ends with the Philharmonic musicians listening to a concluding performance and offering suggestions for improvement.

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VISIT OUR OFFICE The Wisconsin Philharmonic 234 W. Main Street Suite 9 PO Box 531 Waukesha, WI 53187-0531 Phone: (262) 547-1858 Fax: (262) 547-5440 Website: www.wisconsinphilharmonic.org Email: info@ wisconsinphilharmonic.org

PLEASE HELP US THANK OUR GENEROUS SPONSORS

Concerts Harken Family Foundation

Guest Artists Arts Waukesha Don L. & Carol G. Taylor Family Foundation Hess & Helyn Kline Foundation James and Dorothy Goff Frisch Endowment Fund Season Partners Thrivent Financial for Lutherans

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The Wisconsin Philharmonic