BACH FEST

BACH FEST I: BRANDENBURG

Friday, March 22, 2024 at 7:30 pm

Saturday, March 23, 2024 at 2:30 pm

BACH FEST II: MAGNIFICAT

Saturday, March 23, 2024 at 7:30 pm

Sunday, March 24, 2024 at 2:30 pm

BACH FEST I: BRANDENBURG

Friday, March 22, 2024 at 7:30 pm

Saturday, March 23, 2024 at 2:30 pm

ALLEN-BRADLEY HALL

Ken-David Masur, conductor

Mahan Esfahani, harpsichord & leader

Rachell Ellen Wong, violin & leader

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH

Concerto No. 2 in E major for Violin and String Orchestra, BWV 1042

I. Allegro

II. Adagio

III. Allegro assai

Rachell Ellen Wong, violin & leader

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH

Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 in D major, BWV 1050

I. Allegro

II. Affettuoso

III. Allegro

Mahan Esfahani, harpsichord & leader

Rachell Ellen Wong, violin

Sonora Slocum, flute

INTERMISSION

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH

Brandenburg Concerto No. 1 in F major, BWV 1046

I. [No tempo indication]

II. Adagio

III. Allegro

IV. Menuetto

Mahan Esfahani, harpsichord & leader

Ilana Setapen, violin

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH

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

I. Overture

II. Air

III. Gavotte I — Gavotte II

IV. Bourrée

V. Gigue

The 2023.24 Classics Series is presented by the UNITED PERFORMING ARTS FUND and ROCKWELL AUTOMATION. The Bach Festival is sponsored by the WE ENERGIES FOUNDATION and the SCHOENLEBER FOUNDATION.

The length of this concert is approximately 1 hour and 45 minutes. Guest artist biographies and program notes begin on page 24.

BACH FEST II: MAGNIFICAT

Saturday, March 23, 2024 at 7:30 pm

Sunday, March 24, 2024 at 2:30 pm

ALLEN-BRADLEY HALL

Ken-David Masur, conductor

Mahan Esfahani, harpsichord & leader

Rachell Ellen Wong, violin & leader

Jen Sanders, soprano

Ashley Suresh, soprano

Olivia Pogodzinski, soprano

Mary Rafel, alto

Scott Bass, countertenor

Nicholas Lin, tenor

Darwin Sanders, bass

Milwaukee Symphony Chorus

Cheryl Frazes Hill, director

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH

Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G major, BWV 1048

I. [No tempo indication]

II. Adagio

III. Allegro

Jinwoo Lee, violin & leader

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH

Concerto No. 4 in A major for Harpsichord and String Orchestra, BWV 1055

I. Allegro

II. Larghetto

III. Allegro ma non tanto

Mahan Esfahani, harpsichord & leader

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH

Concerto No. 1 in A minor for Violin and String Orchestra, BWV 1041

I. [No tempo indication]

II. Andante

III. Allegro assai

Rachell Ellen Wong, violin & leader

INTERMISSION

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH

Magnificat in D major, BWV 243

I. Magnificat anima mea Dominum

II. Et exultavit spiritus meus

III. Quia respexit humilitatem

IV. Omnes generationes

V. Quia fecit mihi magna

VI. Et misericordia

VII. Fecit potentiam

VIII. Deposuit potentes

IX. Esurientes implevit bonis

X. Suscepit Israel

XI. Sicut locutus est

XII. Gloria Patri

Ken-David Masur, conductor

Jen Sanders, soprano

Ashley Suresh, soprano

Olivia Pogodzinski, soprano

Mary Rafel, alto

Scott Bass, countertenor

Nicholas Lin, tenor

Darwin Sanders, bass

Milwaukee Symphony Chorus

The 2023.24 Classics Series is presented by the UNITED PERFORMING ARTS FUND and ROCKWELL AUTOMATION. The Bach Festival is sponsored by the WE ENERGIES FOUNDATION and the SCHOENLEBER FOUNDATION.

The length of this concert is approximately 1 hour and 45 minutes.

Guest Artist Biographies

MAHAN ESFAHANI

Mahan Esfahani has made it his life’s mission to rehabilitate the harpsichord in the mainstream of concert instruments, and to that end, his creative programming and work in commissioning new works have drawn the attention of critics and audiences across Europe, Asia, and North America. He was the first and only harpsichordist to be a BBC New Generation Artist (2008-2010), a Borletti-Buitoni prize winner (2009), and a nominee for Gramophone’s Artist of the Year (2014, 2015, and 2017). In 2022, he became the youngest recipient of the Wigmore Medal, in recognition of his significant contribution and longstanding relationship with Wigmore Hall.

His work for the harpsichord has resulted in recitals in most of the major series and concert halls, among them London’s Wigmore Hall and Barbican Centre, Oji Hall in Tokyo, the Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing, Shanghai Concert Hall, Carnegie Hall in NYC, Sydney Opera House, Melbourne Recital Centre, Los Angeles’s Walt Disney Concert Hall, Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival, Berlin Konzerthaus, Zürich Tonhalle, Wiener Konzerthaus, San Francisco Performances, the 92nd Street Y, Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, Cologne Philharmonie, Edinburgh International Festival, Aspen Music Festival, Aldeburgh Festival, Madrid’s Fundación Juan March, Bergen Festival, Festival Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Al Bustan Festival in Beirut, Jerusalem Arts Festival, and the Leipzig Bach Festival, and concerto appearances with the Chicago Symphony, Ensemble Modern, BBC Symphony, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Seattle Symphony, Melbourne Symphony, Auckland Philharmonia, Czech Radio Symphony, Orquesta Sinfónica de Navarra, Malta Philharmonic, Orchestra La Scintilla, Aarhus Symphony, Montreal’s Les Violons du Roy, Hamburg Symphony, Munich Chamber Orchestra, Britten Sinfonia, the Royal Northern Sinfonia, and Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, with whom he was an artistic partner for 2016-2018. His richly-varied discography includes seven critically-acclaimed recordings for Hyperion and Deutsche Grammophon — garnering one Gramophone award, two BBC Music Magazine awards, a Diapason d’Or and “Choc de Classica” in France, and two ICMAs.

Esfahani studied musicology and history at Stanford University, where he first came into contact with the harpsichord in the class of Elaine Thornburgh. Following his decision to abandon the law for music, he studied harpsichord privately in Boston with Peter Watchorn before completing his education under the celebrated Czech harpsichordist Zuzana Růžičková. Following a three-year stint as artist-in-residence at New College, Oxford, he continues his academic associations as an honorary member at Keble College, Oxford, and as professor at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. He can be frequently heard as a commentator on BBC Radio 3 and Radio 4 and as a host for such programs as Record Review, Building a Library, and Sunday Feature, as well as in live programs with the popular mathematician and presenter Marcus du Sautoy; for the BBC’s Sunday Feature, he is currently at work on his fourth radio documentary following two popular programs on such subjects as the early history of African-American composers in the classical sphere and the development of orchestral music in Azerbaijan. Born in Tehran in 1984 and raised in the United States, he lived in Milan and then London for several years before taking up residence in Prague.

Guest Artist Biographies

RACHELL ELLEN WONG

Violinist Rachell Ellen Wong made history in 2020 when she was awarded the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant, becoming the only Baroque artist in the program’s history to receive the honor. A star on both the modern and historical performance violin stages, she is also the Grand Prize winner of the inaugural Lillian and Maurice Barbash J.S. Bach Competition. With performances across five continents, Wong has established herself as one of the leading historical performers of her generation, collaborating with esteemed ensembles such as the Academy of Ancient Music, Jupiter Ensemble led by lutenist Thomas Dunford, Bach Collegium Japan, Ruckus Early Music, and Les Arts Florissants, among others. Equally accomplished on the modern violin, Wong made her first public appearance with Philharmonia Northwest at age 11 and has since performed as a soloist with orchestras such as Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Panamá, Orquesta Sinfónica de Costa Rica, and the Seattle Symphony. In 2020, Wong made her conducting debut with the Seattle Symphony, leading a performance of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons from the violin. Currently, she serves as concertmaster of the Seattle Baroque Orchestra.

Notable concerto performances from Wong’s 2023.24 season include appearances with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, New World Symphony, Reno Chamber Orchestra, and the Northwest Sinfonietta. Highlights from last season included performances of Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto with the Auburn Symphony (WA), Beethoven’s Violin Concerto with the Richmond Symphony (IN), Sarasate’s Carmen Fantasy with the American Classical Orchestra (NYC), as well as debuts for UC Berkeley’s Cal Performances, the Edinburgh Music Festival, the Washington Bach Consort in D.C., and a recital for the Starling-DeLay Symposium at The Juilliard School. Additionally, Wong is a faculty member at the Valley of the Moon Music Festival in Sonoma, California, and an American Fellow of The English Concert.

Alongside acclaimed keyboardist David Belkovski, Wong is co-founder of Twelfth Night.

Founded in 2021, Twelfth Night’s notable engagements include Music Before 1800, Reno’s Apex Concert Series, Arizona Early Music, and Chatham Baroque. The ensemble is set to make its Carnegie Hall debut during the 2023.24 season.

Wong holds a Master of Music in historical performance from The Juilliard School, where she was a Kovner Fellowship recipient. She also holds a Master of Music degree from Indiana University and a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Texas at Austin. Originally from the Pacific Northwest, she divides her time between New York City and Seattle. Wong performs on a baroque violin from the school of Joachim Tielke circa 1700, as well as a violin made by Carlo de March in 1953. Her exceptional blend of technical virtuosity, expressive musicianship, and deep understanding of period performance practices has garnered critical acclaim and a dedicated following.

Guest Artist Biographies

JENNY SANDERS

Jenny E. Sanders is a student at Maranatha Baptist Seminary, where she will graduate in May 2024 with a master’s degree in biblical counseling. She earned her bachelor’s degree in music with a vocal proficiency, and during her undergraduate years was immersed in all things music: as a first soprano in the university’s chamber choir and a second violin in the symphony orchestra, participating in choral recording projects and music camps. After teaching elementary music for three years, she pursued a counseling degree to help her interact with students from a more holistic standpoint. She writes, “as a musician, I see that music makes a direct connection to the soul. I have seen so many students helped through difficult situations because of the healing nature of music. I hope to use my counseling tools to help make that connection in the music classroom.” She has continued to be active in music while in graduate school, directing a small community children’s choir, teaching voice at the Maranatha Music Preparatory School, and as a member of the Milwaukee Symphony Chorus.

ASHLEY SURESH

Ashley Suresh, soprano, has performed in numerous operas and musicals from a young age. She recently debuted with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra as a soloist in Handel’s Messiah and performed with the Milwaukee Ballet’s production of Dracula with The Florentine Opera Company. As a soloist, she has performed works such as Strauss’s Four Last Songs with the Beloit Symphony Orchestra and Kenneth Frazelle’s The Motion of Stone. While obtaining her Master of Music degree in vocal performance from Northwestern University, she sang the role of Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte with Northwestern Opera Theater and performed in a master class with the renowned Renée Fleming. She has performed with the A.J. Fletcher Opera Institute in productions of La rondine, The Merry Wives of Windsor, and Maria Stuarda. She debuted with Piedmont Opera in 2012 as Bridget Booth in Robert Ward’s The Crucible and is a recipient of the William R. Kenan Jr. Excellence Scholarship Award from University of North Carolina School of the Arts. She currently resides in Wisconsin with her husband and son.

OLIVIA POGODZINSKI

Olivia Pogodzinski is an operatic soprano based in Milwaukee. She has a degree in vocal performance from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she studied under Professor James Doing. Notable performances include singing the role of the Queen of the Night in University Opera’s production of The Magic Flute and appearing as the soprano soloist in the University’s performance of Brahms’s German Requiem

She sings with numerous ensembles in the Milwaukee area, including the Milwaukee Symphony Chorus, The Florentine Opera Company, Brew City Opera, and Grace Presbyterian Church.

When she is not performing, Pogodzinski stays busy working as a dentist at her nearby office.

Guest Artist Biographies

MARY RAFEL

Mary Rafel has over 17 years of experience as a professional musician and choral singer. Having always been passionate about music, Rafel pursued it academically in her undergraduate studies at St. Norbert College in De Pere, Wisconsin, earning her Bachelor of Music degree in voice. She continued her studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where she earned her Master of Music degree with an emphasis in musicology and voice. It was then her journey began as an alto in the Milwaukee Symphony Chorus. Rafel has enjoyed being part of this incredible group for over 12 years. In that time, she has had the opportunity to sing a wide range of repertoire, from the Baroque to the 20th century. She currently studies under the tutelage of Dr. Tanya Kruse-Ruck.

SCOTT BASS

Scott Bass (he/they) is a countertenor, songwriter, and multiinstrumentalist based out of Chicago, Illinois. Receiving a Bachelor of Music degree in vocal performance from the Chicago College of Performing Arts in 2019, Bass has built up a vast portfolio of vocal, instrumental, composition, and production work. Praised for the versatility of a wide-spanning vocal range and performing with ensembles from the secular to the sacred, with multiple albums of original music recorded and released under their name and their solo project, base., Bass takes pride in the diversity of their musical language, taking influence from a vast pool of musical history from the sacred, popular, Baroque, and beyond. This is Bass’s first year singing with the Milwaukee Symphony Chorus, and they were previously featured in the semi-chorus of Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy and as a soloist in Handel’s Messiah. Outside of the MSO, Bass is a featured soloist with Kol Zimrah Jewish Community Singers, performing works by Jewish composers including Bernstein, Janowski, and more. Bass is also the cantorial soloist for Beth Chaverim Humanistic Jewish Community, and has been featured singing with the Evanston Chamber Opera in Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel as the Sandman and leading the tenor section on the album Max Janowski - Great Works for the Max Janowski Society.

Guest Artist Biographies

NICHOLAS LIN

Nicholas Lin is a tenor based out of Milwaukee and the greater Chicagoland area. Groups he has performed with include The Florentine Opera Company (chorus member in Rigoletto, L’enfant et les sortilèges, Il barbiere di Siviglia, and L’elisir d’amore), Music of the Baroque, Opera for the Young (Count Almaviva in Il barbiere di Siviglia), and the Chicago Symphony Chorus. In 2023, he joined the Milwaukee Symphony Chorus as a paid core member. As a soloist, Lin has sung the Mozart Requiem’s tenor solo for the Northwestern Summer Chorus and the role of Colas in South Loop Symphony’s semi-staged production of Bastien und Bastienne. He is a graduate of Northwestern University’s voice and opera program, where he studied under Karen Brunssen. At Northwestern, Lin performed the roles of Orfeo (L’Orfeo), Frank (Die Fledermaus), The Keeper of the Madhouse (The Rake’s Progress), The Lord Chancellor (Iolanthe), the Learned Judge (Trial and Error), and chorus work in Don Giovanni, Theodora, and Béatrice et Bénédict. In the fall of 2019, he directed OPUS’s production of Arthur Honegger’s operetta, Les aventures du roi Pausole at Northwestern. Music Festivals he has performed in include Atlantic Music Festival in Waterville, Maine; Classical Lyrical Arts in Novafeltria, Italy; and International Lyric Academy in Vicenza, Italy. This is his second appearance as a soloist for the MSO, and he is extremely excited to be singing with such a fantastic orchestra and chorus.

DARWIN SANDERS

Darwin Sanders has been actively involved in Milwaukee’s classical music scene for over 25 years. He is both a member of the Milwaukee Symphony Chorus and its diction coach. He began working as the diction coach for the Milwaukee Symphony Chorus under the baton of chorus foundress Margaret Hawkins. He has continued in that capacity, coaching the chorus in numerous works in the choral repertoire.

Through private vocal study, he refined his musical and vocal skills and was trained in the bel canto singing technique. Continuing his private vocal study led him to develop operatic singing techniques while completing French, German, Italian, and Russian language studies at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Sanders formerly served as a chorister, comprimario role singer, and diction coach for The Florentine Opera Company, where he coached nearly 70 staged operas and three recorded contemporary operas. These include the 2012 two-time Grammy Award-winning recording of Elmer Gantry, the 2013 recording of Rio de Sangre, and the 2021 Grammy Award-nominated recording Prince of Players.

Program notes by Elaine Schmidt

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH

Born 31 March 1685; Eisenach, Germany

Died 28 July 1750; Leipzig, Germany

In 1985, Johann Sebastian Bach’s fame was such that church bells around the world rang at noon on his 300th birthday. But in the years following his death in 1750, most of Bach’s music and even his name were largely forgotten. The vast majority of his music had been written to be played just once, and only a tiny bit of it had been published during his lifetime. In 1823 or 1824, young Felix Mendelssohn’s grandmother gave him a copyist’s version of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion as a birthday gift. Transfixed by the work, he later used it to reintroduce the name and music of Bach to the world.

Thank you, Felix.

BRANDENBURG CONCERTOS

Bach’s six Brandenburg concertos were something of a musical resume, or job application of sorts. He sent them to the Margrave of Brandenburg (a title used mostly by princes), in part at the request of the Margrave and in part, or so it seems, in hopes of landing a job. Bach had met the Margrave in 1719 while he was in Berlin to purchase a harpsichord on behalf of his employer at the time, the Prince of Anhalt-Köthen. He apparently played for the Margrave on this trip. The Margrave, impressed by Bach, asked him to send some music. About two years later, Bach got around to honoring that request. Bach was looking for a new position, so sending music to a member of the nobility who had been impressed when he heard his playing must have seemed like a good idea.

Unfortunately, it would seem that Bach did not think the situation all the way through. He sent the Margrave a newly reworked version of what we now call the Brandenburg Concertos. Each piece was actually a concerto grosso, meaning a concerto that featured a group of soloists instead of a single player. The flaw in this plan lay in the fact that over the course of the six pieces, Bach included a violino piccolo, which was a bit of an oddity, even in 1719, wrote some virtuoso horn parts at a time when horns were rather new in orchestras, wrote a terrifically difficult trumpet solo, and made other instrumental requirements the Margrave would be hard-pressed to meet in order to have the pieces performed. Bach included a note asking for employment.

The Margrave never acknowledged receiving pieces or the note and never heard the concertos performed. The pieces may not have landed Bach a new gig, but they did advance the development of the concerto significantly, in part through the creative instrumentation and variety of different sounds Bach created in them, and in part through the inventive structures of the six pieces — no two are alike. Although the pieces failed to land Bach a new job, they are widely regarded today at some of the finest concertos of the Baroque era. The autograph copy of the six Brandenburg concertos was very nearly lost to the world during World War II. The concertos were on a train, having been removed from the Berlin library where they were housed to keep them safe from Allied bombing raids. When the train itself came under aerial attack, a librarian fled into the nearby woods, clutching the manuscript under his coat.

Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 in D major, BWV 1050 (Friday evening/Saturday afternoon)

Composed: Unknown; earliest arrangement dates from 1720-1721

First performance: Unknown; collection dedicated on 24 March 1721

Last MSO performance: 24 October 1982; Lukas Foss, conductor and piano; Edward Mumm, violin; Glenda Lathrop, flute

Instrumentation: flute; harpsichord; strings

Approximate duration: 21 minutes

The fifth of Bach’s six Brandenburg concertos stands out for its virtuosic use of the harpsichord. History tells us that Bach was a phenomenal improviser at the keyboard. In Bach’s day, a musician was not considered complete, or “finished,” without being able to improvise fluidly. Even in a time when improvising skills were a given, Bach’s improvising was astonishing. Legendary jazz pianist George Shearing, who improvised on themes by Bach at a concert in New York City celebrating the composer’s 300th birthday in 1985, commented afterwards that if Bach had been alive in modern times, he would have been “one hell of a jazzer.”

Most historians believe the harpsichord writing in the fifth Brandenburg is a transcription of an improvisation by Bach. Some add that it is likely very similar to what he played for the Margrave two years prior to sending him the six Brandenburg concertos, and that he included it to remind the Margrave how impressed he had been with Bach at that encounter. Bach was hoping for a job, after all. Whatever the case, the harpsichord writing in this piece certainly gives us a glimpse of Bach’s incredible keyboard prowess.

Brandenburg Concerto No. 1 in F major, BWV 1046 (Friday evening/Saturday afternoon)

Composed: Unknown; possibly as early as 1713

First performance: Unknown; collection dedicated on 24 March 1721

Last MSO performance: 2 April 2000; Nicholas McGegan, conductor; Frank Almond, violin

Instrumentation: 3 oboes; bassoon; 2 horns; harpsichord; strings

Approximate duration: 21 minutes

The first of Bach’s Brandenburg concertos, and the only one of the set of six concertos that is built of four movements, features a solo violin, two horns, three oboes, and a bassoon, along with strings and harpsichord. The piece has its roots in the opening section of Bach’s “Hunt” cantata. Written in 1713, the cantata is quite famous today for the aria “Sheep May Safely Graze,” which has taken on a life of its own as a wedding processional.

The first movement presents what might be a conversation, or perhaps an argument, between sections of instruments. The second movement finds the oboe playing a melody that unfolds like an engrossing story. The third movement places the solo violin in the spotlight, while the final movement is built of what amount to dance vignettes.

Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G major, BWV 1048 (Saturday evening/Sunday afternoon)

Composed: Unknown; autograph score dates from 1718

First performance: Unknown; collection dedicated on 24 March 1721

Last MSO performance: 10 February 2007; William Eddins, conductor

Instrumentation: harpsichord; strings

Approximate duration: 10 minutes

Bach’s third Brandenburg concerto owes some credit to the four concertos for four violins found in Antonio Vivaldi’s first published collection of concertos. The collection of 12 concertos, entitled L’estro armonico (“The Harmonic Inspiration”), was published in 1711. Bach borrows a page from Vivaldi’s playbook, writing the third of his Brandenburg concertos for sections of three violins, three violas, and three cellos, plus bass and harpsichord continuo.

Throughout the two fully notated movements of the concerto, Bach alternately treats the soloists as members of the orchestra, or treats the members of the orchestra as soloists, a sort of glass-half-full or glass-half-empty scenario. Over the course of the piece, the players function as sections, with each section made up of three players. The sections seem to converse at times. But the players also function as individual soloists, breaking out of their sections occasionally. Eventually, all of the players come together as a unified orchestra as well.

In place of a fully notated middle movement, Bach merely included two chords. Some modern performances play the two chords as connections between the two outer movements, while others turn the two chords into an improvised center movement.

CHORAL

Magnificat in D major, BWV 243 (Saturday evening/Sunday afternoon)

Composed: 1723; revised 1733

First performance: 25 December 1723; Leipzig, Germany

Last MSO performance: 5 November 2017; Yaniv Dinur, conductor; Sherezade Panthaki, soprano; Yulia Van Doren, soprano; Daniel Taylor, countertenor; Dominic Armstrong, tenor; Alexander Dobson, baritone

Instrumentation: 2 flutes; 2 oboes (both doubling on oboe d’amore); bassoon; 3 trumpets; timpani; organ; strings

Approximate duration: 16 minutes

Bach was a Lutheran, who signed his church music and some other pieces with the initials S.D.G. accompanying his name. The initials stand for the words Soli Deo gloria (“Glory to God alone”). Several other composers of his era, including George Frideric Handel, used the same words with their signatures on at least some of their music. But it was Bach who wrote more than 300 cantatas — 150 of them in his first four years in Leipzig.

Bach and his family arrived in Leipzig in July of 1723. He, his second wife, Anna Magdalena, and their children moved into an apartment in the Saint Thomas School, where he would be teaching. The school was beside the Saint Thomas Church, where he would play the organ, write music for services, and prepare and conduct the choir and orchestra. A Leipzig newspaper reported on the Bach family’s arrival, saying that four wagonloads of household goods arrived, followed by two wagonloads of Bachs. It was very shortly after his arrival that Bach began writing his Magnificat.

About 200 years before the Bach family arrived in Leipzig, the Protestant Reformation resulted in a ban on the use of Latin in Protestant liturgy, but the text of the Magnificat was exempt from that ban. The Magnificat relates what Mary said to her cousin Elizabeth when telling her that her unborn child was the son of God. Meanwhile, Elizabeth had her own miraculous-pregnancy story to relate, as she was long past child-bearing age but was pregnant herself. Elizabeth was carrying John the Baptist. The Magnificat is based on the Gospel of Luke, 1:46–55, with the title of the piece coming from Mary’s statement, “My soul magnifies the Lord.”

Lutheran churches in Germany sang the Magnificat in German fairly often during the church year in Bach’s time, but reserved the Latin text for high holidays. We know that Bach used his 12-movement, Latin-language Magnificat at Christmas in 1723, with the insertion of four German Christmas hymns. A decade later, he reworked it, possibly for the Feast of the Visitation, which commemorates Mary’s visit to Elizabeth and is celebrated in July in Germany. He removed the Christmas hymns and changed the key signature from E-flat major to D major to suit the trumpets that he also added at this point.

VIOLIN CONCERTOS

Concerto No. 2 in E major for Violin and String Orchestra, BWV 1042 (Friday evening/Saturday afternoon)

Composed: Unknown; possibly between 1717-23 in Köthen

First performance: Unknown

Last MSO performance: 22 September 2002; Andreas Delfs, conductor; Hilary Hahn, violin

Instrumentation: harpsichord; strings

Approximate duration: 19 minutes

Concerto No. 1 in A minor for Violin and String Orchestra, BWV 1041 (Saturday evening/Sunday afternoon)

Composed: Unknown; possibly between 1717-23 in Köthen

First performance: Unknown

Last MSO performance: 27 January 1996; Neal Gittleman, conductor; Pinchas Zukerman, violin

Instrumentation: harpsichord; strings

Approximate duration: 16 minutes

We know very little about the history of Bach’s Violin Concertos No. 1 and No. 2. We know Bach wrote out the parts for the first concerto after moving to Leipzig, but we do not know where, when, or why he wrote the two concertos. Bach was a fine violinist and often conducted while playing violin. He owned a Stainer violin — a brand more popular than Stradivarius violins at the time. We don’t even know which concerto he wrote first. The numbers are perfectly arbitrary.

We do know that while Bach was in Leipzig, he made new versions of both of the violin concertos, changing the solo instrument to harpsichord. He did this in 1730 for the Collegium Musicum he led at the St. Thomas School. But this tells us nothing other than that the violin concertos were written before 1730. Some historians think that the second of the concertos, or at least the one that is called No. 2, bears a resemblance in tone and energy to the Brandenburg Concertos that Bach wrote in Köthen. Unfortunately, there is nothing conclusive there either. Happily, we do know that Bach wrote both concertos. So there’s really only one thing to do now: sit back, enjoy the music, and relish the fact that both concertos have survived the 300-odd years since Bach wrote them.

ORCHESTRAL SUITE & HARPSICHORD CONCERTO

Suite No. 3 in D major for Orchestra, BWV 1068 (Friday evening/Saturday afternoon)

Composed: Unknown; earliest known autograph score dates from 1730

First performance: Unknown

Last MSO performance: 10 April 2004; Nicholas McGegan, conductor

Instrumentation: 2 oboes; 3 trumpets; timpani; harpsichord; strings

Approximate duration: 20 minutes

One of the most interesting things about Bach’s orchestral suites is the small number of them that he is known to have composed. He wrote four suites over the course of several years, numbering them 1– 4 at some point. Historians do not believe they were written as a set or ever intended as a set. Bach wrote a handful of other suites as well, but that’s the interesting thing — he wrote just a handful of suites, while other composers were churning out copious numbers of them. The 135 of Georg Philipp Telemann’s suites that have survived to the present day are just the tip of the iceberg for him. He is known to have written many more than that. Many

composers of the era wrote dozens, in some cases hundreds, of such suites. But Bach wrote just a handful beyond the four previously mentioned.

Bach referred to his orchestral suites as “Ouvertures,” the term many musicians used for such pieces in his day. The word comes from the fact that the suites all began with a French overture, which was really a style of overture borrowed from French opera. A French overture opens with a slow section, built of dotted rhythms, before moving to a fast section, after which the slow opening material returns. The rest of the suite, or “ouverture,” consists of dance movements. The small number of orchestral suites written by Bach may be one of the most interesting things about this suite, written in D major, but the hands-down, most interesting thing about it is that it contains what may well be the most famous 18 measures of Baroque-era music: Bach’s “Air on the G String.” Although the term “G string” has taken on a rather different meaning in the modern era than it had in the Baroque era, back then the term referred simply to the string on the violin that was tuned to G. The English term “air” is related to the Italian term “aria.” An air is a song, or a very lyrical piece of instrumental music. Nested in the dance movements of an orchestral suite, the lyrical air is a delightful, transporting surprise.

Concerto No. 4 in A major for Harpsichord and String Orchestra, BWV 1055

(Saturday evening/Sunday afternoon)

Composed: 1838 – 1844

First performance: Unknown

Last MSO performance: MSO Premiere

Instrumentation: strings

Approximate duration: 14 minutes

Bach was not only a composer of keyboard concertos — he is actually credited with inventing the genre of the keyboard concerto. When Bach began his career, the harpsichord in an instrumental ensemble was largely relegated to the role of continuo playing, basically accompanying, joined by a low string instrument. Bach changed the role of the harpsichord with his Brandenburg Concerto No. 5, which can be heard on the other Bach Festival concert this weekend, in which he gave the harpsichord a wonderfully virtuosic solo role. The harpsichord was not the single solo instrument in that piece, but was one of three solo instruments. It was not long after he wrote the Brandenburgs that Bach began reworking concertos he had written for other instruments to create keyboard concertos.

Many music historians believe that Bach’s Keyboard Concerto No. 4 in A major began its life as a concerto for oboe, or oboe d’amore (a member of the oboe family, slightly larger than the oboe, and somewhat mellower in sound). The problem with that theory is that we do not have an oboe concerto that corresponds to the A major keyboard concerto. Historians believe the oboe or oboe d’amore concerto upon which the keyboard concerto was based has been lost over the course of history. One the reasons that theory works is that Bach essentially taught himself to write keyboard concertos by making organ transcriptions of concertos from Vivaldi’s L’estro armonico collection of string concertos.

Bach eventually turned to his own concertos for other instruments and began transcribing them for keyboard and orchestra. Like many composers of his era, Bach recycled his music quite often — sometimes a phrase or two, sometimes entire movements or works. In 1729, six years after he took the post at the Saint Thomas Church and School in Leipzig, Bach also became the conductor of Leipzig’s Collegium Musicum, a group of amateur and professional musicians that Georg Philipp Telemann had founded 25 years earlier. Many of the concertos Bach transcribed and composed after he took over the Collegium Musicum were written for that group, and by extension for his sons, who were still students and played in the group. So, although the Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 was not technically a keyboard concerto, it was the jumping-off point from which Bach began his invention of the genre.

2023.24 SEASON

KEN-DAVID MASUR

Music Director

Polly and Bill Van Dyke

Music Director Chair

EDO DE WAART

Music Director Laureate

RYAN TANI

Assistant Conductor

CHERYL FRAZES HILL

Chorus Director

Margaret Hawkins Chorus Director Chair

TIMOTHY J. BENSON

Assistant Chorus Director

FIRST VIOLINS

Jinwoo Lee, Concertmaster, Charles and Marie Caestecker Concertmaster Chair

Ilana Setapen, First Associate Concertmaster

Jeanyi Kim, Associate Concertmaster

Alexander Ayers

Yuka Kadota

Elliot Lee**

Ji-Yeon Lee

Dylana Leung

Kyung Ah Oh

Lijia Phang

Yuanhui Fiona Zheng

SECOND VIOLINS

Jennifer Startt, Principal, Andrea and Woodrow Leung Second Violin Chair

Timothy Klabunde, Assistant Principal

John Bian, Assistant Principal (3rd chair)

Glenn Asch

Lisa Johnson Fuller

Paul Hauer

Hyewon Kim

Alejandra Switala**

Mary Terranova

VIOLAS

Robert Levine, Principal, Richard O. and Judith A. Wagner Family Principal Viola Chair

Georgi Dimitrov, Assistant Principal (2nd chair), Friends of Janet F. Ruggeri Viola Chair

Samantha Rodriguez, Assistant Principal (3rd chair)

Alejandro Duque, Acting Assistant Principal (3rd chair)

Elizabeth Breslin

Nathan Hackett

Erin H. Pipal

Helen Reich

CELLOS

Susan Babini, Principal, Dorothea C. Mayer Cello Chair

Nicholas Mariscal, Assistant Principal*

Shinae Ra, Acting Assistant Principal (2nd chair)

Scott Tisdel, Associate Principal Emeritus

Madeleine Kabat

Peter Szczepanek

Peter J. Thomas

Adrien Zitoun

BASSES

Jon McCullough-Benner, Principal, Donald B. Abert Bass Chair*

Andrew Raciti, Acting Principal

Nash Tomey, Acting Assistant Principal (2nd chair)

Brittany Conrad

Teddy Gabrieledes**

Peter Hatch*

Paris Myers

HARP

Julia Coronelli, Principal, Walter Schroeder Harp Chair

FLUTES

Sonora Slocum, Principal, Margaret and Roy Butter Flute Chair

Heather Zinninger, Assistant Principal Jennifer Bouton Schaub

PICCOLO

Jennifer Bouton Schaub

OBOES

Katherine Young Steele, Principal, Milwaukee Symphony League Oboe Chair

Kevin Pearl, Assistant Principal

Margaret Butler

ENGLISH HORN

Margaret Butler, Philip and Beatrice Blank English Horn Chair in memoriam to John Martin

CLARINETS

Todd Levy, Principal, Franklyn Esenberg Clarinet Chair

Benjamin Adler, Assistant Principal, Donald and Ruth P. Taylor Assistant Principal Clarinet Chair*

Taylor Eiffert*

Madison Freed**

E-FLAT CLARINET

Benjamin Adler*

BASS CLARINET

Taylor Eiffert*

Madison Freed**

BASSOONS

Catherine Van Handel, Principal, Muriel C. and John D. Silbar Family Bassoon Chair

Rudi Heinrich, Assistant Principal

Beth W. Giacobassi

CONTRABASSOON

Beth W. Giacobassi

HORNS

Matthew Annin, Principal, Krause Family French Horn Chair

Krystof Pipal, Associate Principal

Dietrich Hemann, Andy Nunemaker French Horn Chair

Darcy Hamlin

Kelsey Williams**

TRUMPETS

Matthew Ernst, Principal, Walter L. Robb Family Trumpet Chair

David Cohen, Associate Principal, Martin J. Krebs Associate Principal Trumpet Chair

TROMBONES

Megumi Kanda, Principal, Marjorie Tiefenthaler Trombone Chair

Kirk Ferguson, Assistant Principal

BASS TROMBONE

John Thevenet, Richard M. Kimball Bass Trombone Chair

TUBA

Robyn Black, Principal, John and Judith Simonitsch Tuba Chair

TIMPANI

Dean Borghesani, Principal

Chris Riggs, Assistant Principal

PERCUSSION

Robert Klieger, Principal

Chris Riggs

PIANO

Melitta S. Pick Endowed Piano Chair

PERSONNEL MANAGER

Françoise Moquin, Director of Orchestra Personnel

LIBRARIANS

Paul Beck, Principal Librarian, Anonymous Donor, Principal Librarian Chair

Matthew Geise, Assistant Librarian & Media Archivist

PRODUCTION

Tristan Wallace, Production Manager/ Live Audio

* Leave of Absence 2023.24 Season

** Acting member of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra 2023.24 Season