FRANK ALMOND PLAYS BRUCH Friday, October 15, 2021 at 11:15 am Saturday, October 16, 2021 at 7:30 pm ALLEN-BRADLEY HALL Ken-David Masur, conductor Frank Almond, violin
ANNA THORVALDSDOTTIR Aeriality MAX BRUCH Concerto No. 1 in G minor for Violin and Orchestra, Opus 26 I. P relude: Allegro moderato II. A dagio III. F inale: Allegro energico Frank Almond, violin INTERMISSION
SERGEI RACHMANINOFF Symphonic Dances, Opus 45 I. N on allegro II. A ndante con moto (Tempo di valse) III. L ento assai – Allegro vivace
The 2021.22 Classics Series is presented by the UNITED PERFORMING ARTS FUND. The length of this concert is approximately 1 hour, 30 minutes. Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra can be heard on Telarc, Koss Classics, Pro Arte, AVIE, and Vox/Turnabout recordings. MSO Classics recordings (digital only) available on iTunes and at mso.org. MSO Binaural recordings (digital only) available at mso.org.
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Guest Artist Biographies FRANK ALMOND Frank Almond held the Charles and Marie Caestecker Concertmaster Chair at the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra for 25 seasons. He held similar positions with the Rotterdam Philharmonic and the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Almond regularly performs as a soloist with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and as soloist and chamber musician throughout the U.S. and Europe. He is the founder of Frankly Music, a chamber music series consistently recognized for innovative programming and ability to attract leading performers from around the world. His most recent series of recordings, A Violin’s Life, chronicles the history and lineage of his current violin, the 1715 Lipiński Stradivarius. The instrument has direct ties to Giuseppe Tartini, Edvard Grieg, Johannes Brahms, and Robert and Clara Schumann. Volume 3 of A Violin’s Life will be released on AVIE Records in late 2021. In 2014, the “ex-Lipiński” Stradivarius was stolen from Almond in an armed robbery after a concert. The robbery and recovery are the subject of a documentary film, “Plucked,” which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in April 2019 and he was recently featured from Lincoln Center on The Moth Radio Hour. He is the Johnston Family Artist-in-Residence at the Milwaukee Youth Symphony, one of the largest youth arts programs in the United States. Community outreach is also at the heart of his artistic priorities. He mentors young musicians of all performing levels and backgrounds, and performs in nontraditional venues where classical music is a rare and unusual presence. Almond writes an online column, as he admits, “instead of practicing.” Nondivisi offers his thoughts and expectations for the present and future of classical music. More information about Frankly Music, A Violin’s Life and the Lipiński Stradivarius is available at frankalmond.com.
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Program notes by J. Mark Baker Frank Almond, our current Artistic Advisor and former Concertmaster, returns to the MSO stage to perform Bruch’s beloved Violin Concerto No. 1. After intermission, we’ll hear Rachmaninoff’s final composition, his Symphonic Dances. Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s spellbinding Aeriality opens the concert. Anna Thorvaldsdottir
Born 11 July 1977; Bogarnes, Iceland
Aeriality
Composed: 2010-11 First performance: 24 November 2011; Reykjavik, Iceland Last MSO performance: MSO premiere Instrumentation: 2 flutes; alto flute; 2 oboes, English horn; 2 clarinets; bass clarinet; 2 bassoons; contrabassoon; 4 horns; 2 trumpets; trombone; bass trombone; tuba; timpani; percussion (suspended cymbal, bass bow, 2 high hats, 2 steel plates, 2 almglocken, 2 tom toms, 2 bass drums, 2 large gongs, tam tam, marimba, cymbals); harp; piano; strings Approximate duration: 13 minutes The music of Icelandic composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir is often influenced by landscapes and nature. She earned both master’s and doctoral degrees in composition from the University of Southern California, San Diego, and is the recipient of numerous awards and commissions. Aeriality is one of the latter, having been commissioned by the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, who gave its first performance. The composer has provided the following program notes: Aeriality refers to the state of gliding through the air with little or nothing to hold onto – as if flying… Aeriality is also a play on words, combining “aerial” and “reality,” so as to suggest two different worlds: “reality,” the ground, and “aerial,” the sky or the untouchable. Aerialty can be said to be on the border of symphonic music and sound art. Parts of the work consist of thick clusters of sound that form a unity as the instruments of the orchestra stream together to form a single force – a sound mass. The sense of individual instruments is somewhat blurred and the orchestra becomes a single moving body, albeit at times forming layers of streaming materials that flow between different instrumental groups. These chromatic layers of materials are extended by the use of quarter-tones to generate vast sonic textures. At what can perhaps be said to be the climax in the music, a massive sustained ocean of quarter-tones slowly accumulates and is then released into a brief lyrical field that almost immediately fades out at the peak of its own urgence, only to remain a shadow.
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Max Bruch
Born 6 January 1838; Cologne, Germany Died 2 October 1920; Friedenau, Germany
Concerto No. 1 in G minor for Violin and Orchestra, Opus 26
Composed: 1864-67 First performance: 7 January 1868; Bremen, Germany Last MSO performance: September 2016; Yaniv Dinur, conductor; Itzhak Perlman, violin Instrumentation: 2 flutes; 2 oboes; 2 clarinets; 2 bassoons; 4 horns; 2 trumpets; timpani; strings Approximate duration: 24 minutes The catalog of German composer Max Bruch contains nearly 100 opus numbers, including three operas, melodious and idiomatic choral music (both sacred and secular), songs for voice and piano, and a wide variety of instrumental compositions. Perhaps because of their tunefulness and easy assimilation, many of his works now seem dated, with only first of two violin concertos, the Scottish Fantasy, and Kol nidre (Opus 47, for cello) remaining in the standard repertoire. (The latter gave rise to the mistaken notion that he was Jewish.) Throughout Bruch’s life, the popularity of his Opus 26 was a source of consternation: This early work was completed when the composer was only in his late 20s. The concerto is cast in three movements, but it does not follow the traditional forms we associate with such a layout. The first movement serves as a protracted free-form Prelude to the second. Here, two motives are stated, then concisely developed: the first cantabile melody is played over a soft orchestral background; the second is accompanied by pizzicato basses. The music moves to a high point, then recedes to leave room for the soloist’s cadenza, which connects directly into the Adagio. In the exquisite second movement, set in the key of E-flat major in 3/8 meter, the violinist introduces three slow-moving themes, expounding on each in its turn. Throughout the Adagio, the solo part plays almost without pause, except for a brief orchestral passage in the middle. The Finale is a loose sonata form – we usually expect a rondo here – whose sprightly, Magyarlike main theme employs double stops. The second theme is a bit more staid, but the Gypsyinfluenced mood is predominant throughout, in both the solo violin and the orchestra. At the end, it serves as the material for a flamboyant and high-spirited coda. Bruch dedicated his Opus 26 to the great Austro-Hungarian violinist Joseph Joachim (18311907), who gave its first performance. Almost forty years later, Joachim cited the piece as one of the four great violin concertos, alongside those of Beethoven, Brahms, and Mendelssohn, dubbing Bruch’s the “richest, most seductive” of the four.
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Sergei Rachmaninoff
Born 1 April 1873; Semyonovo, Russia Died 28 March 1943; Beverly Hills, California
Symphonic Dances, Opus 45
Composed: 1940 First performance: 3 January 1941; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Last MSO performance: September 2017; Jeffrey Kahane, conductor Instrumentation: 2 flutes; piccolo; 2 oboes; English horn; 2 clarinets; bass clarinet; alto saxophone; 2 bassoons; contrabassoon; 4 horns; 3 trumpets; 3 trombones; tuba; timpani; percussion (bass drum, chimes, cymbals, glockenspiel, tam tam, tambourine, triangle, xylophone); harp; piano; strings Approximate duration: 35 minutes After war broke out in Europe in 1939, following Hitler’s invasion of Poland, Rachmaninoff and his wife Natalya left that continent for the final time. They settled in the United States, on a rented Long Island estate, near their friends Vladimir and Wanda Horowitz. Rachmaninoff had not composed since 1936, when he had finished his Symphony No. 3; his scores at that time had been greeted lukewarmly, and he was weary of being dismissed as old hat, continually compared to more “modern” giants of the day like Stravinsky and Schoenberg. Nevertheless, in the summer of 1940, as this greatest of pianists was practicing incessantly for his upcoming concert tour, he could no longer ignore his compositional muse. On August 21, he wrote to Eugene Ormandy, the revered conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra, “Last week I finished a new symphonic piece, which I want to give first to you and your orchestra. It is called Fantastic Dances. I shall now begin the orchestration. By October, the dances had become symphonic rather than fantastic, and he had nixed the idea of naming the three movements noon, dusk, and midnight. Premiered by Ormandy and the Philadelphians the next year, Symphonic Dances turned out to be the last music Rachmaninoff would set down. The score was also the only one written in the United States; previously, a good deal of his composing was done at his villa in Switzerland, while on breaks from recital tours. The opening dance features an extensive solo for alto saxophone. Though Rachmaninoff had never before written for the instrument, it demonstrates his interest, in his late orchestral works, in individual instrumental timbres. The movement is notable for its rhythmic vitality and “Prokofiev-like grotesquery” (Geoffrey Norris). In the coda, he covertly quotes the principal theme of his Symphony No. 1, itself derived from Russian Orthodox music. Set in 6/8 time, the Andante con moto is a dolorous waltz that, with its peculiar, fluctuating harmonies, turns pensive and uneasy. Especially in the final movement, the Symphonic Dances reveal Rachmaninoff’s perennial interest in ecclesiastical song. Here, he employs a chant from the liturgy, the Gregorian melody “Dies irae” from the Mass for the Dead, and a quotation from the ninth movement of his a cappella choral work All-Night Vigil, Op. 37 (1915). In its original guise, the latter is a setting of the word “Alleluia;” leaving no one to doubt, the composer wrote the word in the orchestral score at that point. Having completed what ultimately became his final work, Rachmaninoff noted presciently at the time, “It must have been my last spoils.” And on the concluding page of his manuscript he penned, “I thank Thee, Lord.”
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2021.22 SEASON KEN-DAVID MASUR Music Director Polly and Bill Van Dyke Music Director Chair EDO DE WAART Music Director Laureate YANIV DINUR Resident Conductor CHERYL FRAZES HILL Chorus Director Margaret Hawkins Chorus Director Chair TIMOTHY J. BENSON Assistant Chorus Director FIRST VIOLINS Ilana Setapen, Acting Concertmaster Charles and Marie Caestecker Concertmaster Chair Jeanyi Kim, Acting Associate Concertmaster (2nd Chair) Chi Li, Acting Assistant Concertmaster Alexander Ayers Michael Giacobassi Yuka Kadota Dylana Leung Lijia Phang Margot Schwartz SECOND VIOLINS Jennifer Startt, Principal Andrea and Woodrow Leung Second Violin Chair Timothy Klabunde, Assistant Principal Glenn Asch John Bian Lisa Johnson Fuller Paul Hauer* Hyewon Kim Shengnan Li Laurie Shawger Mary Terranova VIOLAS Robert Levine, Principal Richard O. and Judith A. Wagner Family Principal Viola Chair Samantha Rodriguez, Acting Assistant Principal Friends of Janet F. Ruggeri Viola Chair Alejandro Duque, Acting 3rd Chair Assistant Principal Elizabeth Breslin Nathan Hackett Erin H. Pipal Helen Reich
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CELLOS Susan Babini, Principal Dorothea C. Mayer Cello Chair Nicholas Mariscal, Assistant Principal Scott Tisdel, Associate Principal Emeritus Madeleine Kabat Gregory Mathews Peter Szczepanek Peter J. Thomas Adrien Zitoun BASSES Jon McCullough-Benner, Principal Donald B. Abert Bass Chair Andrew Raciti, Associate Principal Scott Kreger Catherine McGinn Rip Prétat HARP Julia Coronelli, Principal Walter Schroeder Harp Chair FLUTES Sonora Slocum, Principal Margaret and Roy Butter Flute Chair Heather Zinninger Yarmel, 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 William Helmers E FLAT CLARINET Benjamin Adler BASS CLARINET William Helmers BASSOONS Catherine Chen, Principal Muriel C. and John D. Silbar Family Bassoon Chair Rudi Heinrich, Assistant Principal Beth W. Giacobassi
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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 TRUMPETS Matthew Ernst, Principal Walter L. Robb Family Trumpet Chair David Cohen, Associate Principal Martin J. Krebs Associate Principal Trumpet Chair Alan Campbell, Fred Fuller 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 Robert Black, Principal TIMPANI Dean Borghesani, Principal Chris Riggs, Assistant Principal PERCUSSION Robert Klieger, Principal Chris Riggs PIANO Melitta S. Pick Endowed Piano Chair PERSONNEL MANAGERS Françoise Moquin, Director of Orchestra Personnel Elizabeth Fairfield, Orchestra Personnel and Artistic Administrator LIBRARIANS Patrick McGinn, Principal Librarian, Anonymous Donor, Principal Librarian Chair Paul Beck, Associate Librarian PRODUCTION TECHNICAL MANAGER Tristan Wallace, Technical Manager & Live Audio Supervisor
