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On Tonight’s Program VAUGHAN WILLIAMS The Lark Ascending P. HERBERT Elegy: In Memoriam—Stephen Lawrence MENDELSSOHN Violin Concerto in E minor, Opus 64 I. Allegro molto appassionato—Presto II. Andante III. Allegretto non troppo—Allegro molto vivace
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VAU G H A N WILLIAMS THE LARK ASCENDING
RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS COMPOSER (1872–1958) • Ralph Vaughan Williams’s The Lark Ascending is based on a poem written in 1907 by George Meredith, also titled The Lark Ascending. The violin part is meant to evoke a wild bird, an English lark, in flight. • Vaughan Williams originally wrote this piece for violin and piano. He orchestrated it for solo violin and orchestra in 1919, shortly after returning from serving in the army during World War I. • As a pioneer in the English Folk Song Revival in the early 20th century, Vaughan Williams collected and preserved folk songs from numerous English counties, either transcribing them by hand or using a phonograph to record them. • Vaughan Williams’s style of composition was shaped by the British choral tradition, as well as Tudor and Elizabethan composers, such as Thomas Tallis whose psalm melody is incorporated into one of Vaughan Williams’s most famous string orchestra works, Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis. His style was also shaped by his involvement with hymn tunes as Musical Editor of the English Hymnal from 1904 to 1906.
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P. H E R B E R T E L E G Y: I N M E M O R I A M — S T E P H E N L AW R E N C E
PHILIP HERBERT COMPOSER (b. 1975) • Philip Herbert is a British composer, choral conductor, and educator. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, he has had works commissioned by the Royal Academy of Music and has been featured on BBC Radio and BBC TV. • Elegy was written as a gesture of empathy for Stephen Lawrence, a black British teenager from southeast London who was murdered in 1993 in a racially motivated attack while waiting for a bus. • Herbert wrote this piece in 1999 and it was premiered, by invitation from the Princes’ Foundation, for the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust’s first Annual Memorial Lecture in September 2000. • Herbert’s style of composition could be compared to that of Ralph Vaughan Williams, another British composer on this program. Even though they stand on the opposite ends of the twentieth century, they both search for memorable and sweeping melodies surrounded by a lush harmony that invites the listener to imagine a particular atmosphere.
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MENDELSSOHN VIOLIN CONCERTO IN E MINOR
FELIX MENDELSSOHN COMPOSER (1809–1847) • The Violin Concerto in E minor was the last large orchestral work that Mendelssohn composed. He finished it in 1844 and it was premiered the following year by Mendelssohn’s close friend, the Leipzig concertmaster Ferdinand David, to whom the piece was dedicated. • In a letter dated July 1838, Mendelssohn wrote to David: “I should like to write a violin concerto for you next winter. One in E minor runs through my head, the beginning of which gives me no peace.” It took Mendelssohn six years to complete the piece, and David advised him on the violin solo part throughout the entire compositional process. • This concerto is regarded as one of the most important violin concertos of the Romantic era and is still one of the most often-performed concertos today. • Notice how the first and second movements are linked by a sustained note played by the bassoon. Mendelssohn wanted as little space as possible in between movements, which would have surprised the audience in his day who usually applauded in between movements. • Felix Mendelssohn (1809–1847) was a German composer, pianist, organist, and conductor of the early Romantic period. He wrote many of his most famous works while still in his teens, including the overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
ARTIST BIOS JAMES EHNES VIOLIN
James Ehnes has established himself as one of the most sought-after violinists on the international stage. Gifted with a rare combination of stunning virtuosity, serene lyricism, and an unfaltering musicality, Ehnes is a favorite guest of many of the world’s most respected conductors including Vladimir Ashkenazy, Marin Alsop, Andrew Davis, Stéphane Denève, Mark Elder, Iván Fischer, Edward Gardner, Paavo Järvi, Juanjo Mena, Gianandrea Noseda, David Robertson, and Donald Runnicles. Ehnes’s long list of orchestras he has worked with include the Boston, Chicago, London, NHK, and Vienna symphony orchestras, the Los Angeles, New York, Munich, and Czech philharmonic orchestras, and the Cleveland, Philadelphia, Philharmonia, and DSO Berlin orchestras. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent closure of concert halls, Ehnes announced the launch of a new online recital series entitled Recitals from Home in June 2020. Ehnes recorded the six Bach Sonatas and Partitas and six Sonatas of Ysaÿe from his home with state-of-the-art recording equipment and released six episodes over the period of two months. These recordings have been met with great critical acclaim by audiences worldwide and Ehnes was described by Le Devoir as being “at the absolute forefront of the streaming evolution.” Recent orchestral highlights include the MET Orchestra at Carnegie Hall with Gianandrea Noseda, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig with Alexander Shelley, San Francisco Symphony with Marek Janowski, Frankfurt Radio Symphony with Andrés Orozco-Estrada, London Symphony with Daniel Harding, and Munich Philharmonic with Jaap van Zweden. In 2017, Ehnes premiered the Aaron Jay Kernis Violin Concerto with the Toronto, Seattle and Dallas symphony orchestras, and gave further performances of the piece with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester and Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. Throughout the 20–21 season, Ehnes is named as Artist in Residence with the National Arts Centre of Canada. Alongside his concerto work, Ehnes maintains a busy recital schedule. He performs regularly at the Wigmore Hall, Carnegie Hall, Symphony Center Chicago, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Ravinia, Montreux, Chaise-Dieu, the White Nights Festival in St. Petersburg, Verbier Festival, Festival de Pâques in Aix, and in 2018 he undertook a recital tour to the Far East, including
ARTIST BIOS performances in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore, and Kuala Lumpur. As part of the Beethoven celebrations, Ehnes was invited to perform the complete cycle of Beethoven Sonatas at the Wigmore Hall in 2019–20 and throughout 20–21 will perform the Grieg sonatas on tour with Orion Weiss. In 2016, Ehnes undertook a cross-Canada recital tour, performing in each of the country’s provinces and territories, to celebrate his 40th birthday. As a chamber musician, he has collaborated with leading artists such as Leif Ove Andsnes, Renaud Capuçon, Louis Lortie, Nikolai Lugansky, Yo-Yo Ma, Antoine Tamestit, Jan Vogler, Inon Barnatan, and Yuja Wang. In 2010, he formally established the Ehnes Quartet, with whom he has performed in Europe at venues including the Wigmore Hall, Auditorium du Louvre in Paris, and Théâtre du Jeu de Paume in Aix, amongst others. Ehnes is the Artistic Director of the Seattle Chamber Music Society. Ehnes has an extensive discography and has won many awards for his recordings, including a Grammy Award (2019) for his live recording of Aaron Jay Kernis Violin Concerto with the Seattle Symphony and Ludovic Morlot, and a Gramophone Award for his live recording of the Elgar Concerto with the Philharmonia Orchestra and Andrew Davis. His recording of the Korngold, Barber, and Walton violin concertos won a Grammy Award for ‘Best Instrumental Soloist Performance’ and a JUNO award for ‘Best Classical Album of the Year.’ His recording of the Paganini Caprices earned him universal praise, with Diapason writing of the disc, “Ehnes confirms the predictions of Erick Friedman, eminent student of Heifetz: ‘there is only one like him born every hundred years’.” Recent releases include sonatas by Beethoven, Debussy, Elgar, and Respighi, and concertos by Walton, Britten, Shostakovich, Prokofiev, and Strauss, as well as the Beethoven Violin Concerto with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Andrew Manze, which was released in October 2017 on Onyx Classics. Ehnes began violin studies at the age of five, became a protégé of noted Canadian violinist Francis Chaplin at age nine, and made his orchestra debut with L’Orchestre symphonique de Montréal at age 13. He continued his studies with Sally Thomas at the Meadowmount School of Music and The Juilliard School, winning the Peter Mennin Prize for Outstanding Achievement and Leadership in Music upon his graduation in 1997. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and in 2010 was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada. Ehnes was awarded the 2017 Royal Philharmonic Society Award in the Instrumentalist category. Ehnes plays the “Marsick” Stradivarius of 1715.