Guest Artist Biographies
Hough’s extensive discography of over 60 CDs on the Hyperion label has garnered international awards including the Diapason d’Or de l’Année, several Grammy nominations, and eight Gramophone Awards including Record of the Year and the Gold Disc. His recording of Mompou’s Musica callada will be released in 2023.
As a composer, Hough has written for orchestra, choir, chamber ensemble, and solo piano. Recent commissions include the commissioned work for the 2022 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition and his String Quartet No. 1 Les Six Recontres commissioned by the Takacs Quartet. The quartet was recorded by Hyperion and is to be released in January 2023.
As a writer, Hough’s memoir Enough: Scenes from Childhood, will be published by Faber & Faber in Spring 2023. It follows his collection of essays Rough Ideas: Reflections on Music and More, published by Faber & Faber in London and Farrar, Straus and Giroux in New York, which won a 2020 Royal Philharmonic Society Award. He has also been published by the New York Times and in London in The Telegraph, The Times, The Guardian, and the Evening Standard, and for seven years, he wrote more than six hundred articles for his blog in The Telegraph.
Hough resides in London and is an honorary member of the Royal Philharmonic Society, a visiting professor at the Royal Academy of Music and at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford University, holds the International Chair of Piano Studies at the Royal Northern College of Music, and is on the faculty of The Juilliard School in New York.
Visit uwm.edu/freshwater to learn about our research or to support freshwater programs. ADVANCING SCIENCE. TRAINING FRESHWATER PROFESSIONALS. The UW-Milwaukee School of Freshwater Sciences is the premier academic and research institution on the Great Lakes. Our students and faculty scientists address challenges in sustainable fisheries, water-related climate change, water pollution and invasive species to promote healthy freshwater systems worldwide.
ACROSS BORDERS • • ACROSS TIME S E A S O N EARLYMUSICNOW.ORG Our 36 th season of concerts performed in landmark Milwaukee venues SEQUENTIA Words of Power: Charms, Riddles and Elegies of the Medieval Northlands St.
Chapel, 1501 S. Layton Blvd. RACHEL BARTON PINE & JORY VINIKOUR All Bach! St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 914 E. Knapp St.
OF TIME Angels & Demons St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 914 E. Knapp St. MAR 4 5:00pm APR 29 5:00pm FEB 4 5:00pm
Thallis Hoyt Drake, Founder | Charles Grosz, Executive & Artistic Director
Joseph
HOUSE
Program notes by J. Mark Baker
SERGEI RACHMANINOFF
Born 1 April 1873; Semyonovo, Russia
Died 28 March 1943; Beverly Hills, California
Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Opus 18
Composed: 1900-01
First performance: 9 November 1901; Moscow, Russia
Last MSO performance: September 2018; Ken-David Masur, conductor; Boris Giltburg, piano
Instrumentation: 2 flutes; 2 oboes; 2 clarinets; 2 bassoons; 4 horns; 2 trumpets; 3 trombones; tuba; timpani; percussion (bass drum, cymbals); strings
Approximate duration: 33 minutes
Rachmaninoff’s exquisitely tuneful Opus 18 is loved by concertgoers the world over. Several of its melodies have been used for popular songs, and its music as a whole is often heard in movie soundtracks. Given this acclaim, it’s a bit surprising to realize that the composer penned this concerto at a low point in his life. In 1897, the St. Petersburg premiere of his First Symphony was an unmitigated disaster, largely due to Alexander Glazunov’s poor conducting.
Rachmaninoff fell into a deep depression and for almost three years was unable to set pen to paper. He made a living by conducting, teaching, and playing the occasional piano recital. In 1900, Rachmaninoff was urged by his aunt Varvara to seek the help of Nicolai Dahl, a doctor who had studied hypnosis. The composer later wrote in his memoirs: “Day after day I heard the same hypnotic formula while I lay half asleep in Dahl’s armchair: ‘You will begin to write your concerto. You will work with great ease. The music will be excellent.’ Incredible as it may sound, this cure really helped me.”
Following his successful recovery, Rachmaninoff set to work on his long-delayed Piano Concerto No. 2, a work he had promised to write for a concert tour to England. Its Moscow premiere, with the 28-year-old composer as soloist, was favorably received. The top of the first page bears the simple dedication: À Monsieur N. Dahl
Following a series of solemn chords in the piano, the first of Rachmaninoff’s beguiling melodies – characterized by a palpable Russian soulfulness – is heard in the strings. This theme both stands out against, and blends with, the passionate warmth of the one that follows, introduced by the soloist. A mood of gentle introspection opens the Adagio sostenuto, as the pianist lends elegant accompaniment to the dreamy melody of the flute and clarinet. Near the movement’s end, a whirlwind of notes by the pianist leads to an affecting cadenza. The movement concludes with the same almost-religious tranquility with which it began.
The vigorous first theme of the Allegro scherzando is preceded by a march-like orchestral introduction and brilliant passages from the soloist. The composer has reserved an ace up his sleeve, however: a voluptuous melody “sung” by the orchestra. In 1945, this theme was popularized as the hit song “Full Moon and Empty Arms.” After a protracted development of the first theme, this familiar tune returns to bring Rachmaninoff’s much-loved Opus 18 to its rapturous close.
BÉLA BARTÓK
Born 25 March 1881; Nagyszentmiklós, Hungary (now Sînnicolau Mare, Romania) Died 26 September 1945; New York, New York Dance Suite, Sz 77
Composed: 1923
First performance: 19 November 1923; Budapest, Hungary
Last MSO performance: MSO premiere Instrumentation: 2 flutes (1st and 2nd doubling on piccolo); 2 oboes (2nd doubling on English horn); 2 clarinets (2nd doubling on bass clarinet) 2 bassoons (2nd doubling on contrabassoon); 4 horns; 2 trumpets; 2 trombones; tuba; timpani; percussion (bass drum, cymbals, glockenspiel, snare drum, tam tam, tenor drum, triangle); celeste; piano; harp; strings Approximate duration: 16 minutes
Without question, Béla Bartók is an eminent force in the history of 20th-century music, the most important musical figure to have come out of Eastern Europe. His works comprise core repertoire in numerous genres – orchestral music, piano works, string quartets and other chamber music, concertos, ballets, songs and choral music, and an astounding opera (Bluebeard’s Castle) – and have earned him a reputation as Hungary’s greatest composer. An accomplished pianist and an ethnomusicologist as well as a composer, Bartók was responsible – with his friend Zoltán Kodály (1882-1967) – for revitalizing scholarly interest in Hungarian folk music. With his Edison gramophone in tow, he traveled throughout the provincial areas of his native land, recording the peasantry as they sang the old songs. These were, of course, duly set down in musical notation. As a result, his music became infused with the rural culture of both Hungary and Romania, even as he simultaneously engaged with the Western art music tradition.
Bartók’s Dance Suite was commissioned to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the union of the Danube-straddling cities of Buda and Pest. Completed in August 1923, its melodies are original, but the influence of his musicological research is apparent. The composer stated that the first and fourth movements show an Arabic character, the second and third have a Hungarian personality, the fifth is “primitive” Romanian; the finale gathers the five dances together. Music scholar Paul Griffiths has suggested that the Suite carries the weight of a symphony, and that its six main sections might be perceived as follows: introduction, first movement, scherzo, slow movement, second scherzo, finale.
When Bartók sat down to write the Suite, it had been several years since he had contributed to the orchestral concert repertoire. Nevertheless, it was a smashing success at its premiere, instantly becoming one of his most popular works. In its first year, Sz 77 received over 50 performances in Germany alone and continues to be an audience favorite to this very day.
GEORGES BIZET
Born 25 October 1838; Paris, France
Died 3 June 1875; Bougival, France
Carmen Suite
Composed: 1873-74 (opera); 1882 & 1889 (suites)
First performance: 3 March 1875; Paris, France (opera)
Last MSO performance: October 2019; Jun Märkl, conductor Instrumentation: 2 flutes (2nd doubling on piccolo); 2 oboes (2nd doubling on English horn); 2 clarinets; 2 bassoons; 4 horns; 2 trumpets; 2 trombones; bass trombone; tuba; timpani; percussion (bass drum, castanets, cymbals, snare drum, tambourine, triangle); harp; strings
Approximate duration: 20 minutes
Georges Bizet was something of a musical prodigy. At age four, his mother – herself a talented pianist – taught him to read music even as she taught him the alphabet. Soon after, he formed the habit of listening through the door while his father taught voice lessons. By age nine, young Georges had ingested all the musical instruction his parents had to offer and was granted a special dispensation to enter the Paris Conservatoire. While there, he wrote his Symphony in C (1855) – at age 17 – and the following year he won the Prix de Rome, for his one-act operetta Le Docteur Miracle (1856).
Throughout his too-short life, Bizet composed songs, choral music, and piano music. (An exceptional pianist, he could have had a concert career, had he chosen that path.) We remember him today chiefly as an opera composer, and then only through two stage works, The Pearl Fishers and Carmen. At the time of their premieres, they were poorly received. Carmen’s failure before the public cast Bizet into a deep depression, one that probably contributed to his early death, by heart attack, at age 36. Nowadays, Carmen is one of the most popular works in the operatic canon. With its eminently hummable tunes, its exotic setting (Seville, 1820), and its well-known story of love, lust, betrayal, and murder, it never fails to please.
Years after Bizet’s death, his close friend Ernest Guiraud (1837-1892) compiled two suites of excerpts, retaining the composer’s original orchestration. On today’s concert, we’ll hear excerpts from both, beginning with music from the opera’s prelude, sounding the ominous “fate” theme. The swirling Aragonaise is taken from the prelude to Act 4, as crowds arrive for a parade and a bullfight. The Intermezzo, with its lyrical woodwind solos, opens Act 3; the curtain rises on the smugglers’ camp in a picturesque spot among rocks on a mountain. An orchestral arrangement of Carmen’s Act 1 Seguidille follows; in it, she convinces Don José to set her free – she has been arrested for fighting with another woman, and he has been tasked with taking her to jail – and to join her later at the tavern of her friend Lillas Pastia.
The Nocturne is a transcription of Micaëla’s Act 3 aria, “Je dis que rien ne m’épouvante” [I say that nothing frightens me], here beguillingly sung by the concertmaster’s violin. Les Toréador is the music that opens the opera, preceding the “fate” motif; those two themes will be heard again at the end of the opera, jarringly juxtaposed. Here, we also get a whiff of the bullfighter Escamillo’s song, one of the best-known melodies in all opera. Another of “opera’s greatest hits” follows, Carmen’s seductive Habañera, “L’amour est un oiseau rebelle” [Love is a rebellious bird]. Act 2 begins with Danse Bohème, as two gypsy girls dance before a crowd of soldiers in Lilias Pastia’s tavern, accompanied by the sound of the guitar and the tambourine. What fun!
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)
Alexander Ayers Yuka Kadota
Ji-Yeon Lee**
Dylana Leung Allison Lovera Lijia Phang Margot Schwartz Alexandra Switala**
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 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 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
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, Associate Principal Nash Tomey, Assistant Principal (3rd Chair) Brittany Conrad 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
E FLAT CLARINET
Benjamin Adler
BASS CLARINET
Taylor Eiffert
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 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 Robyn 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 Constance Aguocha, Assistant Personnel Manager
LIBRARIAN
Paul Beck, Principal Librarian, Anonymous Donor, Principal Librarian Chair
PRODUCTION
Tristan Wallace, Technical Manager & Live Audio Supervisor Paolo Scarabel, Stage Technician & Deck Supervisor
* Leave of Absence 2022.23 Season
** Acting member of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra 2022.23 Season
2022.23 SEASON
