Welcome to the Oklahoma City Philharmonic! We are delighted to welcome our loyal season subscribers, our generous philanthropic partners, and our first-time attendees. The magic of tonight’s concert is made possible by year-round effort, dedicated volunteers, and numerous donors. Since ticket sales only cover a portion of our concert expenses, we extend our deepest gratitude to our donors and volunteers for their invaluable support of our mission.
This year marks the 36th season of the OKCPHIL, where we continue to inspire and bring joy to the community through the beauty of orchestral music. We take pride in our legacy and look forward to an exciting future. A crucial part of our vision is to enrich the cultural fabric of our community and to educate future generations about the profound value of music. In pursuit of this vision, the OKCPHIL is more committed than ever to creating programs and concert experiences that unite our entire community.
Thanks to the expertise and passion of our Music Director, Maestro Alexander Mickelthwate, and our dynamic and dedicated staff led by Executive Director, Brent Hart, this season promises something for everyone. Our Classics, Pops, and Discovery concerts are sure to delight audiences of all ages and tastes. We encourage you to invite someone new to join us at a future concert and help us cultivate the audiences of tomorrow. On behalf of the entire Oklahoma City Philharmonic family, thank you for being here. We invite you to say “hello” to someone you haven’t met before and look forward to seeing you again soon!
GEETIKA VERMA, President Oklahoma City Orchestra League
On behalf of the Oklahoma City Orchestra League, we are thrilled to welcome you to another inspiring year of music.
It is an honor to address you as the President of the Orchestra League. Our league is a testament to the power of music to inspire, unite, and elevate the human spirit. As we embark on this new season, we are committed to fostering a community that celebrates excellence, innovation, and passion in orchestral music. Where words fail, music begins. It touches us emotionally and spiritually, uniting us in shared feeling and experience.
We invite you to join the league and support our musicians, promote educational initiatives, and bring the joy of orchestral performances to audiences far and wide. Thank you for being a part of this vibrant community. Let’s create harmonious and unforgettable experiences in the year ahead.
JAMES HULSEY, President Associate Board
On behalf of the Associate Board, welcome to the OKC Philharmonic’s 2024-2025 Season! This season promises a rich tapestry of musical styles that celebrate diverse cultures and geographies, performed by world-class musicians. We are thrilled to present a lineup that ensures every concert is a journey through community and culture, leaving you with a smile each time!
At the OKCPHIL, the Associate Board is dedicated to fostering community, culture, and connectivity, especially among young professionals. We achieve this through the Overture Society, offering concert packages that includes 3-4 concerts paired with engaging social events. Stay connected with us on social media, explore our Overture web page, and join us for what promises to be an exhilarating season!
Thank you for joining us! Your presence and support at our concerts contribute significantly to the vibrant orchestral music scene in our thriving city. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the show!
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Dear Friends of the OKCPHIL,
BRENT HART
On behalf of the entire OKCPHIL family, welcome to our 2024-25 Season! We are thrilled to present another year of incredible performances and programs as we continue to serve our mission of bringing joy and inspiration through orchestral music to our community.
This season’s Classics Series features an array of inspiring programs, showcasing some of the most beloved works in the classical repertoire. Our concerts will feature a diverse range of instruments, including the organ, bagpipes, and sitar, along with beautiful violin performances by the renowned Midori and Sarah Chang. These compositions draw inspiration from nature, various cultures, and the unique sounds of the instruments themselves. We are excited to welcome Misha Dichter at the piano and Cameron Carpenter at the organ, performing extraordinary concertos. To learn more about the Classics programs, join us in the Concert Hall at 7:00 p.m. before each concert.
A highlight of our season is the World Premiere of American Indian Symphony, a new work by Chickasaw composer Jerod Tate. This symphony introduces native stories from different cultural regions across the country. We hope this piece resonates deeply with you and audiences worldwide. Our Classics Series will culminate with Richard Strauss’ Alpine Symphony, promising a breathtaking musical journey for us all.
The Chickasaw Nation Pops Series offers something for everyone, featuring the iconic music of your favorite artists and blockbuster Broadway musicals. Our cherished holiday tradition, A Very Merry Pops, will feature Ashley Brown and Tony DeSare for a soulful celebration of the season. We are also delighted to welcome back the immensely popular Pink Martini, who last captivated us in 2020!
At the Civic Center Music Hall and throughout our region, OKCPHIL remains committed to making music accessible through our Education and Community Engagement programs. From free outdoor orchestral concerts at Scissortail Park to music education programs and Youth Concerts for elementary school students, our initiatives enrich the lives of thousands of Oklahomans of all ages. Our Society of Strings program supports adult amateur string players, and our Young Musician Competition nurtures the talents of budding musicians.
We are deeply grateful for your ongoing loyalty, support, and generosity, which make all of this possible. Your ticket purchases, season subscriptions, and donations of all sizes enable us to deepen our impact on the community in countless ways.
Thank you for listening to our music, believing in our mission, and supporting us. I look forward to seeing you at our concerts throughout the season!
ALEXANDER MICKELTHWATE MUSIC DIRECTOR
As he prepares for his seventh season leading the Oklahoma City Philharmonic, Maestro Alexander Mickelthwate has become part of the community.
“It’s amazing, and also quite humbling,” Mickelthwate said. “My morning routine usually consists of studying at a local coffee shop. Quite often customers will approach me and say they saw me on television or on the side of a bus. To me, that signifies what we are doing at the OKCPHIL is resonating with the community, and making everyone feel welcome.”
The OKCPHIL has been a source of joy and inspiration for 36 years, enriching Oklahoma and its communities through orchestral music. When Mickelthwate came on board, he brought with him an eagerness to build on the successes of the past and pave the way for the future.
“Oklahoma City should be known as a breeding ground for fun and creativity,” he said. “That’s my thing. In our first season, we were always surprised how the audiences were really open to the contemporary. It’s crazy how embracing the audience is for adventurous, fun new things.”
Born and raised in Frankfurt, Germany, Mickelthwate grew up in a home filled with classical music. He received his degree from the Peabody Institute of Music, and has worked with orchestras in Atlanta, Winnipeg and Los Angeles. He is Music Director Emeritus of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra in Canada, and in 2022, accepted the position of Music Director for the prestigious Bear Valley Music Festival in Bear Valley, California. In early 2023, Mickelthwate traveled to Hanoi where he was Guest Conductor at the Vietnam National Symphony Orchestra.
Since he’s been in Oklahoma, Mickelthwate has received numerous awards and honors, including being named three time “The Face of Music” by 405 Magazine. Newspaper OKC Friday named him one of the “Top 50 Most Powerful,” and the Ladies Music Club of Oklahoma City lauded him “Musician of the Year.”
Accolades aside, one of Mickelthwate’s goals is to tell Oklahoma stories through music.
“When I first came to Oklahoma City, I read Sam Anderson’s book, ‘Boom Town,’ and from there I began studying Oklahoma’s colorful history,” he said. “We have so many great stories, and seeing them come to life through music is awe-inspiring. This season, we’ve programmed “World Premiere!” American Indian Symphony by Native American composer Jerod Tate. I want to continue bringing more of these stories to our audiences.”
When he’s not studying music or planning future OKCPHIL concerts, Mickelthwate is Artist in Residence at the University of Central Oklahoma where he enjoys working with the next generation of musicians, and conducting UCO’s symphony orchestra. After the music is over Mickelthwate loves spending time with his two sons, trying to beat them at ping pong, creating adventurous new recipes or improvising together on piano and guitar.
“My personal philosophy is that music has a way of reaching us in a way nothing else does,” Mickelthwate said. “It goes deep inside, creating and facilitating beauty in a harsh world. We want the Oklahoma City Philharmonic to be meaningful, to be fun and a place where we are all one. I have often said we feel the love, Oklahoma City. And we are giving it right back.
DR. SHANTI SIMON ASSOCIATE CONDUCTOR
Associate Conductor Dr. Shanti Simon joined the OKCPHIL team in September 2023, programming and conducting the Discovery Family Series concerts. Her engaging personality and lively programming resonate with children of all ages. She also conducts Youth Concerts for elementary school field trips at the Civic Center Music Hall, where thousands of students are captivated by hearing familiar songs performed by a live orchestra. Dr. Simon captures their full attention. This season, she will make her Pops debut conducting “Defying Gravity: Stephen Schwartz & Friends.”
“The OKCPHIL is a world-class orchestra and it is an honor to join this team of engaging professional musicians. We love sharing music with young people in a setting that resonates with their world view. Kids naturally move and engage with music in an uninhibited, inspiring way. They remind us professionals why we got into music in the first place – because music speaks to our souls deeply beyond the boundaries that words can reach. Music makes us want to move, to dance, and to sing. We are looking forward to an exciting season with you and the kids of all ages in your lives!,” said Simon.
In addition to her work with the OKCPHIL, Dr. Simon is the Director of Bands at the University of Oklahoma where she conducts the Wind Symphony and leads the graduate wind conducting program. Prior to joining the faculty at OU, Dr. Simon was the Flight Commander and Associate Conductor with The United States Air Force Academy Band in Colorado Springs. Before moving to Colorado, Simon served as Flight Commander and Associate Conductor with The United States Air Force Band in Washington, D.C., where she conducted performances in the national capital region and around the country including the 2011 National Tree Lighting Ceremony with the Airmen of Note, hosted by President Obama and the First Family. Dr. Simon was on the faculty of Shenandoah Conservatory as the Associate Director of Bands for the 20132014 academic year. In 2016, she deployed to the Middle East with the United States Air Force Central Command bands as the Officer-In-Charge, overseeing musical troop-support, community-outreach and partnership-building missions in seven countries.
Before joining the Air Force, Dr. Simon earned her MM and DMA degrees in conducting from the University of Minnesota where she studied with Craig Kirchhoff. She received her BME and BM degrees from Stetson University with Bobby Adams. Hailing from Florida, Simon served as the Associate Director of Bands at Vero Beach High School for four years, where her ensembles consistently earned top ratings in all areas of district and state assessment. Simon is active nationally and internationally as a guest conductor and clinician.
PROVIDING INSPIRATION AND JOY THROUGH ORCHESTRAL MUSIC
THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS
OFFICERS
Jerrod Shouse
President
Jim Roth President Elect
Debbie McKinney Vice President
Louise Cleary Cannon Treasurer
Jennifer Schultz Kouandjio Secretary
Jane Jayroe Gamble Immediate Past President
ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF
John Allen General Manager
Jose Batty Music Librarian
Austin Bewley Data Analyst
Mason Board Graphic Design and Digital Marketing Coordinator
Blossom Crews
Development Director
Jared Davis Patron Services Lead
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Classical KUCO 90.1 Morningstar Properties
PHOTOGRAPHERS:
LIFETIME DIRECTORS
Jane B. Harlow
Patrick Alexander
DIRECTORS
Tracey Budz
Robert Clements
Lawrence H. Davis
Kevin Dunnington
Joy Hammons
Kirk Hammons
Honorable Jerome A. Holmes
James Hulsey
Debra Kos Kate Furney Marketing Associate
Daniel Hardt Finance Director
Brent Hart Executive Director
Judy Hill Office Manager
Chase Kerby Education Manager
Joel Levine Archivist/Historian
Kristian Kos
Tom Lerum
Matt Paque
Craig Perry
Sam Rainbolt
Robert Ruiz
Kelly Sachs
Amalia Miranda Silverstein
Doug Stussi
Geetika Verma
Evan Walter
Travis Weedn
Wendi Wilson
Clint Moore Guest Artist Liaison
Cassie Pastor Events and Stewardship Associate
Jenni Shrum Marketing and Public Relations Director
Hannah Stewart Development Manager
Valorie Tatge Orchestra Personnel Manager
Oklahoma City Police Association George Ryan
Michael Anderson, Jesse Edgar Photography, Simon Hurst, and Shevaun Williams and Associates
THE OKLAHOMA PHILHARMONIC SOCIETY, INC.
424 Colcord Drive, Ste. B • Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73102
The Oklahoma City Philharmonic Foundation was established to provide leadership and endowment expertise to help ensure a stable financial base for orchestral music and musical excellence in Oklahoma City for generations to come. Distributions from the Oklahoma City Philharmonic Foundation provide a meaningful and secure source of annual income for the Philharmonic’s operations, continually confirming the importance of endowment in an organization’s long-range planning and overall success.
Current officers and directors of the Oklahoma City Philharmonic Foundation are:
OFFICERS
Douglas J. Stussi, President
Charles E. Wiggin, First Vice President
Jeff Starling, Second Vice President
Louise Cleary Cannon, Treasurer
Alice Pippin, Secretary
DIRECTORS
Steven C. Agee
Patrick B. Alexander
J. Edward Barth
L. Joe Bradley
Andre’ B. Caldwell
Teresa L. Cooper
Paul Dudman
Jane Jayroe Gamble
Mischa Gorkuscha
Jane B. Harlow
Jean A. Hartsuck
Michael E. Joseph
Duke R. Ligon
Penny McCaleb
Erik Salazar
Patrick E. Randall, II Richard Tanenbaum
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
Geetika Verma President
Debra Kos
Immediate Past President
Rachael Geiger President-Elect
Orchestra League Office
424 Colcord Dr., Ste. B
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73102
Phone: (405) 232-7575
Fax: (405) 232-4353
e-mail: league@okcphil.org
OFFICERS
James Hulsey President
Desiree Singer
Immediate Past President
Mady Hendryx President-Elect
Daniel Karami
Secretary
Kelsey Karper
Marketing Chair
Ashleigh Robinson
Social Chair
Members:
Piper Allred
Ragan Franklin
Mya Reid
Rebecca Ward
THE ORCHESTRA
THIRTY-SIXTH SEASON
ALEXANDER MICKELTHWATE, Music Director and Conductor
Chandler Fadero, Principal, McCasland Foundation Chair
Angélica Pereira, Assistant Principal
Sophia Ro
Sarah Sanford Brown
Corbin Mace
Catherine Reaves, Assistant Principal Emeritus
Audrey Lee
Yajing (Cindy) Zhang
Paulo Eskitch
VIOLA
Royce McLarry, Principal
Mark Neumann, Assistant Principal
Joseph Guevara
Kelli Ingels
Steve Waddell
Donna Cain
Brian Frew
CELLO
Jonathan Ruck, Principal, Orchestra League Chair
Kevin Flynn, Assistant Principal
Valorie Tatge
Emily Stoops
Jim Shelley
Angelika Machnik-Jones
Jean Statham
Samantha Kerns
BASS
Anthony Stoops, Principal
Larry Moore, Assistant Principal
Christine Craddock
Mark Osborn
Taylor Dawkins
DoYoun Kim
FLUTE
Valerie Watts, Principal
Parthena Owens
Nancy Stizza-Ortega
PICCOLO
Nancy Stizza-Ortega
OBOE
Lisa Harvey-Reed, Principal
Rachel Maczko
Katherine Casto
ENGLISH HORN
Rachel Maczko
CLARINET
Bradford Behn, Principal
Tara Heitz
James Meiller
BASS/E-FLAT CLARINET
James Meiller
BASSOON
Rod Ackmann, Principal
James Brewer
Tyler Van Zuiden
CONTRABASSOON
Tyler Van Zuiden
HORN
Kate Pritchett, Principal, G. Rainey Williams Chair
James Rester*
Mirella Gable*
Matt Reynolds
TRUMPET
Karl Sievers, Principal
Jay Wilkinson
Michael Anderson
TROMBONE
Philip Martinson, Principal
Hope Bellows
John Allen, Bass Trombone
TUBA
Ted Cox, Principal
TIMPANI
Jamie Whitmarsh, Principal
PERCUSSION
Patrick Womack, Principal
Stephanie Krichena
Roger Owens
HARP
Gaye LeBlanc, Principal
PIANO
Peggy Payne, Principal *on leave for 2024-25 season
PRODUCTION STAFF
John Allen, General Manager
Valorie Tatge, Personnel Manager
Jose Batty, Librarian
Clint Moore, Guest Artist Liaison
Ken Dines, Stage Crew Leader
PLANNED GIVING
The Oklahoma Philharmonic Society, Inc. is honored to recognize its EncoreSociety members — visionary thinkers who have provided for the future of the Oklahoma City Philharmonic through their estate plans.
Anonymous (3)
Steven C. Agee, Ph.D.
Linda and Patrick Alexander
Gary and Jan Allison
Louise Cleary Cannon
Mr. and Mrs. Robert H. Clements
Thomas and Rita Dearmon
Dr. and Mrs. James D. Dixson
Dr. Ralph and Lois Ganick
Hugh Gibson
Pam and Gary Glyckherr
Carey and Gayle Goad
Ms. Olivia Hanson
Jane B. Harlow
Dr. and Mrs. James Hartsuck
Mr. and Mrs. Michael E. Joseph
THANK YOU
Joel Levine and Don Clothier
John and Caroline Linehan
Mr. and Mrs. Marvin C, Lunde, Jr.
Mrs. Jackie Marron
Mr. and Mrs. John McCaleb
Mrs. Jean McLaughlin
W. Cheryl Moore
Carl Andrew Rath
Mrs. Cathy Reaves
Mrs. Lil Ross
Dr. Lois Salmeron
Mr. and Mrs. William F. Shdeed
Susie and Doug Stussi
Larry and Leah Westmoreland
Mr. John S. Williams
Mrs. Carolyn Zachritz
The Oklahoma Philharmonic Society, Inc. is grateful for the support of caring patrons who want to pass on a legacy of extraordinary music to future generations. You can join this special group of music enthusiasts by including a gift for the OKC Philharmonic’s future in your own will or estate plan. For more information on how to become an Encore Society member, contact the Philharmonic’s Development Office at (405) 232-7575.
MEET OUR FAMILY
THE PEOPLE BEHIND THE MUSIC
always held a special place in my heart, encouraging me to pursue my passion through education and performance opportunities.
Throughout my career, I’ve been fortunate to collaborate with distinguished orchestras such as the Oklahoma City Philharmonic Orchestra, Tulsa Symphony Orchestra, and San Antonio Orchestra. For chamber music, I’ve also contributed to groups like the New Texas Sinfonia and the Dallas Chamber Symphony Orchestra.
In addition to performing, I am passionate about teaching. Currently, I serve as an Orchestra Director at Longfellow Middle School and a faculty member at the Oklahoma Conservatory of Music. I love sharing my knowledge and helping students cultivate their musical talents.
I’m excited to continue my musical journey with the OKC Philharmonic and look forward to connecting with our wonderful patrons. Thank you for your support, and I hope to see you at our next performance!
Born and raised in Oklahoma City, I attended Putnam City Schools where I was involved in band, choir, and leadership. Having a father as a member of Canterbury Choral Society, I began going to performances at the Civic Center at a very early age. In my twenties I was a touring musician while also finishing my degree in Music Production and Sound Engineering from UCO and working at my mother’s candy store, 42nd Street Candy Co. I’ve worked in art non-profit for the past 7 years as a director at Arts Council Oklahoma City and an event manager/designer for Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition, as well as serving on various committees. In my free time I like writing, photography, producing and performing music, being out in the community, and helping where I can. I’m honored to be a part of the OKC Phil family!
DO-YOUN KIM
CHASE KERBY
GIFTS TO THE PHIL
The Oklahoma City Philharmonic gratefully acknowledges the commitment and generosity of individuals, corporations, foundations, and government agencies that support our mission. To help us provide inspiration and joy to the community through live orchestral performances and a variety of education and community engagement programs, please contact the Philharmonic’s Development Office at (405) 232-7575.
This Annual Fund recognition reflects contributions made in the 2024-25 Season through November 15, 2024.
If your name has been misspelled or omitted, please accept our apologies and inform us of the error by calling the phone number listed above. Thank you for your generous support!
UNDERWRITER
$25,000 - $49,999
E.L. and Thelma Gaylord Foundation
Dr. Margaret Freede-Owens and Daniel Owens
Dr. Amalia Silverstein
Oklahoma City Philharmonic Foundation
Robert Glenn Rapp Foundation
The Ann Lacy Foundation
GUARANTOR
$10,000 - $24,999
Ad Astra Foundation
Linda and Patrick Alexander
American Fidelity Foundation
Providing leadership support.
Lawrence H. & Ronna C. Davis
Devon Energy Corporation
Jayne Jayroe Gamble and Gerald Gamble
Jane B. Harlow
Barbara and Edward Krei
Joel Levine and Don Clothier
Larry and Polly Nichols
OGE Energy Corp.
Oklahoma City Community Foundation
Dr. Lois Salmeron
Susie and Doug Stussi
W&W | AFCO Steel
John Walker
Mr. Chuck Wiggin
BENEFACTOR
$5,000 - $9,999
Steven C. Agee, Ph.D.
Bank of Oklahoma
Margaret and John Biggs
Dr. and Mrs. L. Joe Bradley
Martha and Ronnie Bradshaw
Louise Cleary Cannon and Gerry Cannon
Mr. and Mrs. Robert H. Clements
Clements Foods Foundation
Terri Cooper
Mr. David Daugherty
Darleene Harris
Ruth Mershon Fund
Mekusukey Oil Company, LLC
Donald Rowlett
Linda and Steve Slawson
Glenna and Dick Tanenbaum
CORPORATIONS, FOUNDATIONS & GOVERNMENT AGENCIES
SUSTAINERS
$2,500 - $4,999
Oklahoma Allergy & Asthma Clinic
Oklahoma Craft
Omni Hotels
ASSOCIATES
$1,500 - $2,499
AEIOU Foundation
Dr. Elliott Schwartz and Pam Shanklin
M.V. Williams Foundation Inc.
GIFTS TO THE PHIL
INDIVIDUALS
Providing essential support for the Annual Fund.
SUSTAINER
$2,500-$4,999
Anonymous
Albert and Virginia Aguilar
Dr. and Mrs. Dewayne Andrews
Dr. and Mrs. John C. Andrus
Mrs. Betty D. Bellis-Mankin
Nels and Donna Bentson
Dr. and Mrs. Philip C. Bird
Robert and Karen Browne
Family Fund
Phil G. and Cathy Busey
Mari Cook Medley
Mr. and Mrs. David C. DeLana
Mr. Sidney G. Dunagan
Druanne and David Durrett
Dr. Thurma J. Fiegel
Mr. and Mrs. Joseph M. Fleckinger
Karen and Fred Hall
Kirk Hammons
Dr. James Hartsuck
Colonel (ret.) Dean and Mrs. Jeanne Jackson
Tom and Cindy Janssen
Kathy and Terry Kerr
Tom and Jane Lerum
Mr. Charles Oppenheim
Gayle and Richard Parry
Phil and Alice Pippin
Jerry and Jan Plant
Mr. H.E. Rainbolt
Mr. Larry Reed
Mrs. Lil Ross
Ernesto and Lin Sanchez
Dr. and Mrs. Hal Scofield
Pam and Bill Shdeed
Jeff and Kim Short
John and Katherine Spaid
Mr. and Mrs. John E. Stonecipher
John Stuemky and James Brand
Billie Thrash
Janie Pryor Tubb
Mrs. June Tucker
Mr. Donald Wiggin
Dr. James and Mrs. Elizabeth Wise
Ms. Jeanise Wynn
ASSOCIATE
$1,500 - $2,499
Fatima Abrantes-Pais
Nancy and Louis Almaraz
Ms. Beth M. Alonso
Ms. Zonia Armstrong
Dr. Mary Zoe Baker
Dr. and Mrs. Sterling S. Baker
Mr. J. Edward Barth
Dr. and Mrs. William L. Beasley
Mr. William Beck
Dr. and Mrs. Jack Beller
Nick and Betsy Berry
Dr. and Mrs. Charles Bethea
Bart Binning
Dr. Robert and Kristin Blakeburn
Ms. Pamela Bloustine
Mike and Dawn Borelli
Mr. and Mrs. Del Boyles
Mrs. Phyllis L. Brawley
Mrs. Carole S. Broughton
Mr. and Mrs. Pete Brown
J. Christopher and Ruth Carey
Ms. Janice B. Carmack
Drs. Fong Chen and Helen Chiou
Mrs. Nancy Coleman
Cynthia Cortright
Patricia Czerwinski
Mr. Chuck B. Darr, III
William E. Davis and Margaret H. Davis - Charles and Libbi Davis Legacy Fund
Tony and Pam Dela Vega
Ms. Vickie Dennis
Gary and Fran Derrick
Mr. Joel Dixon
Dr. Matthew Draelos and Mrs. Jenie Draelos
Nancy Payne Ellis
Dr. and Mrs. Royice B. Everett
Mrs. Ann Felton Gilliland
Paul and Debbie Fleming
Mr. and Mrs. Kelly George
Natalie Kurkjian and Christopher Geyer
Mr. Kent Graham
Dr. Stephen Hamilton and Dr.
Pamela Craven Hamilton
David and Sandra Haskett
Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence K. Hellman
Walt and Jean Hendrickson
Frank and Bette Jo Hill
Mr. and Mrs. Joe R. Homsey, Jr.
Thomas and Elizabeth Hrubik
Leslie and Cliff Hudson
David and Vicki Hunt
Ms. Ashley Hurley
Mary Lu Jarvis
Mr. and Mrs. Carlos Johnson
Zach Johnson
Kim and Michael Joseph
Mike and Kay Kellogg
Drs. Daniel and Diana Kennedy
Aaron and Jennifer Ketter
Claren Kidd
David Kinnard
Debra Klinghoffer
Debra and Kristian Kos
Mike and Kay Lacey
Richard and Dr. Barbara Masters
William and Oxana Matthey
Mr. and Mrs. John A. McCaleb
Cindy and Johnny McCharen
Debbie McKinney
John and Anna McMillin
Mr. Herman Meinders
Robert and Kathy Mendez
Deann Merritt Parham
Sandra Meyers
Tom and Katherine Milam
Peggy and Tom Miller
Betsy Mitschke and Steven Helt
Dustin and Krystal Murer
Dr. Gene L. Muse
Steven Newell and Deborah Naylor
Edward Oliver and Harriet Lord
Kathleen Oliver
Mrs. Pat Potts
Patrick and Amy Randall
Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth R. Rees
Tracey Romberger
Patricia and Larry Sanford
Maria and Fred Schmitt
Mary and John Seward
Emma and John Shelton
Robert and Susan Shoemaker
Jamie and Jerrod Shouse
Rick and Amanda Smith
Donald J. Smock, M.A.
HOUSE NOTES
RESTROOMS are conveniently located on all levels of the theater. Please ask your usher for guidance.
LATECOMERS and those who exit the theater during the performance may be seated during the first convenient pause, as determined by the management.
ELECTRONIC DEVICES must be turned off and put away during the performance (no calling, texting, photo or video use please).
BEVERAGES: Bottled water is permitted in the theater at the Classics Series concerts. Beverages are permitted in the theater at the Pops Series concerts; however, bringing coffee into the theater is discouraged due to the aroma.
SMOKING in the Civic Center Music Hall is prohibited. The Oklahoma City Philharmonic promotes a fragrance-free environment for the convenience of our patrons.
FIRE EXITS are located on all levels and marked accordingly. Please note the nearest exit for use in case of an emergency.
ELEVATORS are located at the south end of the atrium lobby of the Civic Center Music Hall.
CHILDREN of all ages are welcome at the Philharmonic Discovery Family Series and Holiday Pops performances; however, in consideration of the patrons, musicians and artists, those under five years of age will not be admitted to evening Classics and Pops concerts unless otherwise noted.
BOOSTER SEATS for children are available in the Civic Center lobby. Please inquire at the Box Office.
STUDENT RUSH TICKETS are available with a high school or university I.D. and email address at the box office 1 hour prior to the start of each Philharmonic performance. Or may be purchased online the Wednesday prior to each concert for $11. Limit: 2 tickets per I.D. Tickets are offered based on availability only and seats may be located throughout the theatre.
VIDEO MONITORS are located in the lobby for your convenience.
WHEELCHAIR AVAILABLE SEATING – Persons using wheelchairs or with walking and climbing difficulties will be accommodated when possible. Those wishing to use the designated wheelchair sections may purchase the wheelchair space and a companion seat. Please inform the Philharmonic or Civic Center Box Office staff of your need when ordering tickets so that you may be served promptly and appropriately. Please request the assistance of hall ushers to access wheelchair seating.
HEARING LOOPS have been installed. Ask your audiologist to activate the telecoil in your hearing aid or cochlear implant. Due to the mechanics of the stage, the hearing loops do not reach the pit section but are available at the Box Office and the Thelma Gaylord Performing Arts Theatre. The copper wire in the floor and telecoil work together to connect the hearing device to the theater’s sound system using a magnetic field which dramatically improves sound clarity for patrons using hearing devices.
LOST & FOUND is located in the Civic Center office (405-594-8300) weekdays 8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
PHILHARMONIC TICKET OFFICE may be contacted by calling 405-TIC-KETS (405-842-5387) or you can visit the Philharmonic Ticket Office located on the first floor of the Arts District Garage at 424 Colcord Drive in Suite B. The Philharmonic Ticket Office is open Monday through Friday, 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and by phone on concert Saturdays from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
CIVIC CENTER BOX OFFICE hours are Monday through Friday, 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and two hours prior to each performance. (405-594-8300)
ARTISTS, PROGRAMMING, AND DATES SUBJECT TO CHANGE.
CONCEPTS FROM THE Maestro
This season, we’re celebrating our “classical” repertoire—music that is tried and true, resonating deeply with audiences over time and embodying a deeply romantic spirit, cherished by many. Join us as we explore these beloved classics!
DICHTER PLAYS GRIEG
Every season, we’re excited to welcome a guest conductor, and this year, we’re honored to have Gerard Schwarz. Formerly the co-principal trumpet of the New York Philharmonic and the former music director of the Seattle Symphony, Maestro Schwarz brings a wealth of experience. Joining him is pianist Misha Dichter, an artist with a remarkable international career spanning over 60 years. I’m thrilled that both accepted our invitation!
DICHTER PLAYS GRIEG
JANUARY 11, 2025 • 8:00 P.M.
CLASSICS
GERARD SCHWARZ, GUEST CONDUCTOR
MISHA DICHTER, PIANO
Langsamer Satz*
Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 16
Allegro molto moderato
Adagio
Allegro moderato molto e marcato— Quasi presto—Andante maestoso
Misha Dichter, piano
Intermission
Maestro Schwarz has chosen to conduct Dvořák’s Symphony No. 7, a true classic. Dvořák, discovered by Brahms, composed a total of nine symphonies, with the seventh written in direct response to Brahms’ Symphony No. 3, which he heard in 1884.
We’ll also feature Grieg’s Piano Concerto, another classic and one of the most popular works in its genre. Grieg was deeply influenced by Robert Schumann’s Piano Concerto, which he heard Clara Schumann perform in 1858, and this inspiration shines through in his own composition.
Don’t miss this exciting evening of timeless music!
For a deeper understanding of concert programming, please, join Maestro Mickelthwate for his Preconcert Talk at 7pm in the auditorium. Open seating.
0:35 DVO Ř ÁK . ......................
Symphony No. 7 in D minor, Op. 70
Allegro maestoso
Poco adagio
Vivace—Poco meno mosso
Allegro
*First Performance on this Series
In Memory of Bill and Helen Cleary
OKCPHIL Spotlight School: Southeast High School
Listen to a broadcast of this performance on KUCO 90.1 FM on Thursday, February 6, at 8 pm and Saturday, February 8, at 8 am on “Performance Oklahoma”. Simultaneous internet streaming is also available during the broadcast.
GUEST CONDUCTOR
DICHTER PLAYS GRIEG
GERARD SCHWARZ
Internationally recognized for his moving performances, innovative programming and extensive catalogue of recordings, American conductor Gerard Schwarz serves as Music Director of the All-Star Orchestra, Eastern Music Festival, Palm Beach Symphony and Mozart Orchestra of New York, and is Conductor Laureate of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra and Conductor Emeritus of the Mostly Mozart Festival. He is Distinguished Professor of Music; Conducting and Orchestral Studies of the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami and Music Director of the Frost Symphony Orchestra.
His considerable discography of over 350 albums showcases his collaborations with some of the world’s greatest orchestras including The Philadelphia Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National de France, Tokyo Philharmonic, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, New York Chamber Symphony and Seattle Symphony Orchestra among others. In 2017 The Gerard Schwarz Collection, a 30-CD box set of previously unreleased or limited release works spanning his entire recording career was released by Naxos.
Schwarz began his professional career as co-principal trumpet of the New York Philharmonic and has held Music Director positions with the Mostly Mozart Festival, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and New York Chamber Symphony. As a guest conductor, he has worked with many of the world’s finest orchestras and has led the San Francisco, Washington National and Seattle Opera companies on many occasions. He is also a gifted composer and arranger with an extensive catalogue of works that have been premiered by ensembles across the United States, Europe and Korea.
Schwarz is a renowned interpreter of 19th century German, Austrian and Russian repertoire in addition to his noted work with contemporary American composers. He completed his final season as Music Director of the Seattle Symphony in 2011 after an acclaimed 26 years - a period of dramatic artistic growth for the ensemble. In his nearly five decades as a respected classical musician and conductor, Schwarz has received hundreds of honors and accolades including Emmy Awards, GRAMMY nominations, ASCAP Awards and the Ditson Conductor’s Award. He was the first American named Conductor of the Year by Musical America and has received numerous honorary doctorates. The City of Seattle named the street alongside the Benaroya Hall “Gerard Schwarz Place” in his honor. His book, Behind the Baton, was released by Amadeus Press in March 2017. He has been married to his wife Jody for 37 years, has four children and lives in Florida.
GUEST ARTIST
DICHTER PLAYS GRIEG
MISHA DICHTER
Now in the sixth decade of a distinguished global career, Misha Dichter remains one of America’s most popular artists, extending a musical heritage from the Russian Romantic School, as personified by Rosina Lhevinne, his mentor at The Juilliard School, and the German Classical style that was passed on to him by Aube Tzerko, a pupil of Artur Schnabel. He also studied composition and analysis with Leonard Stein, a disciple of Arnold Schoenberg.
Misha Dichter has performed and recorded with some of the most illustrious conductors of the 20th and 21st centuries, among them Leonard Bernstein, Pierre Boulez, Colin Davis, Lawrence Foster, Valery Gergiev, Carlo Maria Giulini, Bernard Haitink, Mariss Jansons, Kiril Kondrashin, Erich Leinsdorf, James Levine, Lorin Maazel, Neville Marriner, Kurt Masur, Riccardo Muti, Eugene Ormandy, Carlos Prieto, André Previn, Simon Rattle, Gerard Schwarz, Robert Shaw, Leonard Slatkin, Robert Spano, William Steinberg, Michael Tilson Thomas, Hans Vonk, Edo de Waart, David Zinman and Pinchas Zukerman, while notable chamber music collaborations have included violinists Itzhak Perlman, Mark Peskanov and Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, cellists Lynn Harrell and Yo-Yo Ma and the American, Argus, Cleveland, Emerson, Guarneri, Harlem, St. Petersburg, Tesla and Tokyo string quartets.
Misha Dichter’s discography on the Philips, RCA, MusicMasters and Koch Classics labels are legendary, iconic and musically omnivorous, encompassing the major scores of Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, Gershwin, Liszt, Mussorgsky, Schubert, Schumann, Stravinsky and Tchaikovsky. A noted exponent of Liszt’s piano works and a champion of the composer’s forward-looking contributions to the development of music, Mr. Dichter was honored in 1988 with the “Grand Prix International du Disque Liszt,” presented for his Philips recording of the master’s piano transcriptions.
In 2007, Misha Dichter took a three-month hiatus from the concert stage to deal with the onset of Dupuytren’s Disease, a contracting of one or more fingers. After totally successful surgery and physical therapy, Mr. Dichter returned to public performance and became a supporter of, and spokesperson for, the American Society for Surgery of the Hand. A brief audio/video presentation, “Dupuytren’s Contracture: Misha Dichter - A Pianist Reborn,” is accessible on YouTube.
Misha Dichter and his wife, Cipa Dichter, reside in New York City, in a household ruled over by Baxter, their amiable Springer Spaniel. They have two sons and five grandchildren. He remains an avid tennis player and jogger.
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DICHTER PLAYS GRIEG
WEBERN
Langsamer Satz
Work premiered: May 26, 1962, in Seattle, Washington, by the
Arrangement: by Gerard Schwarz, premiered July 27, 2019, conducted by Schwarz at the Eastern Music Festival in Greensboro, North Carolina
Instrumentation: Two flutes (second doubling piccolo), two oboes (second doubling English horn), two clarinets (second doubling bass clarinet), two bassoons, two horns, trumpet, three trombones, timpani, percussion (suspended cymbal and crash cymbal), and strings
Of the extraordinary bunch of composers who came of age at the dawn of the 20th century, Anton von Webern— he dropped the aristocratic “von” in 1918, when Austria declared such distinctions illegal—must have seemed the most enigmatic. The compositions of Berg, Stravinsky, and Bartók were certainly groundbreaking, but Webern’s coeval works surpass even theirs in the audacity with which they depart from received traditions. (Only Ives can have been as radical, but his music went mostly unheard at the time.) Before the century’s opening decade had passed, he reached an advanced modernism that combined harmonic freedom, melodic severity, and an apparent sparseness of material that earned his scores the description “aphoristic,” the signature sound that has made him irreplaceable in posterity. The styles of radical composers tend to evolve gradually, but even in Webern’s early pieces one glimpses a mastery of musical processes. Works from the outset of his career display at least the lushness, and sometimes traces of the decadence and neuroticism, that were rampant in fin-de-siècle Vienna.
Webern received a thorough training in harmony, counterpoint, and musicology at the University of Vienna, which in 1906 awarded him a Ph.D. (for which he wrote a dissertation on the Renaissance composer Heinrich Isaac). But the most decisive step in his musical upbringing came in the autumn of 1904, when, along with Alban Berg, he began studying composition with Arnold Schoenberg, who was just nine years older that he was. Though Schoenberg was not yet famous, his work had attracted the notice of the eminent Gustav Mahler, who had alerted the musicologist Guido Adler to the young composer’s exceptional talent. Adler in turn referred to Schoenberg a number of his students at the University, including Webern.
Schoenberg stopped offering formal classes after a year, frustrated that most of his pupils showed no aptitude for composition. But the talented students, including both Webern and Berg, stuck with him. Webern’s singlemovement Langsamer Satz (Slow Movement, but for some reason it seems always to be referred to with its German title) dates from just then, written as a piece for string quartet in June 1905, near the end of his first season of work with Schoenberg. The music of Brahms was often invoked during lessons, and his shadow hovers over this piece, not only in its generally expansive spirit but also in the integrity of its polyphonic lines and some of its rhythmic gestures. But this is more than an exercise in Brahmsism; it is a well-executed example of the soulful style of lush, last-gasp Romanticism but with a sweet sense of serenity. At the top of the score Webern writes Langsam, mit bewegtem Ausdruck (Slow, with moving expression). It is hard to resist connecting this piece to the fact that he had gone on a hiking vacation that spring with his cousin Wilhelmine Mörtl, with whom he had fallen in love and whom he would marry in 1911. His biographer Hans Moldenhauer called it “pure and exalted love music.”
The Langsamer Satz was probably played privately within the Schoenberg circle; it’s hard to think why else Webern would have gone to the trouble of copying out the four string parts, which still survive. However, the parts and score went missing for decades and were recovered in the early 1960s by Moldenhauer and his wife, Rosaleen. It therefore did not receive its public premiere until May 26, 1962, when the University of Washington String Quartet presented it in Seattle, Washington. It was finally published in 1965.
The conductor Gerard Schwarz arranged the Langsamer Satz twice. In the early 1980s he made a setting for string orchestra, enlarging the violin, viola, and cello lines and adding a part for double basses; he recorded it in 1994
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with the Seattle Symphony. In 2019 he made a second arrangement, this time for full orchestra—strings, winds, and two touches of percussion—titling it Adagio for Orchestra; and he led that version’s premiere on July 27, 2019, at the Eastern Music Festival in Greensboro, North Carolina, where he serves as music director. He conducts the latter in this concert.
Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 16
Born: June 15, 1843, in Bergen, Norway
Died: September 4, 1907, in Bergen
Work composed: Begun in June 1868 and provisionally completed in early 1869; revised substantially in 1872, 1882, 1890, 1895, and 1907 Work premiered: April 3, 1869, with Edmund Neupert as soloist and Holger Simon Paulli conducting the Orchestra of the Royal Theatre, Copenhagen
Instrumentation: In its final version, played here, two flutes (second doubling piccolo), two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, timpani, and strings, in addition to the solo piano
Edvard Grieg was not at his most comfortable when writing in large forms. His Four Symphonic Dances are as close as he came to a proper symphony (apart from a very early student exercise) and he composed only five sonatas (one for piano, one for cello, three for violin) and two string quartets (of which the first, a student work, is lost; of a third string quartet he finished only two movements). Grieg’s Piano Concerto therefore stands as an exception in his catalogue, but even its very protracted creation testifies to his difficulty coming to terms with large-scale structure.
He was certainly trained in the textbook forms through the curriculum of the Leipzig Conservatory, which resolutely instilled in its pupils an appreciation for tried-and-true ways of creating music. His piano teacher during his upper-class years there was a certain Ernst Ferdinand Wenzel, who had been a friend of Mendelssohn’s and Schumann’s; he inspired in Grieg a particular passion for the music of the latter. Grieg heard Clara Schumann perform her husband’s Piano Concerto and for decades he continued to cite that as a deeply affecting musical experience. In a 1903 article in The Century magazine, Grieg wrote of that concerto: “Inspired from beginning to end, it stands unparalleled in music literature and astonishes us as much by its originality as by its noble disdaining of an ‘extravert, virtuoso style.’ It is beloved by all, played by many, played well by few, and comprehended in accordance with its basic ideas by still fewer—indeed, perhaps by just one person—his wife.” In an article published in 1905 by the American journal The Independent, Grieg recalled that he was so captivated by that piece that he traded the only manuscript of his early string quartet (which he considered mediocre) to acquire a copy of the Schumann score:
One day a fellow student who admired my creative efforts led me into temptation. He had a complete score of Schumann’s piano concerto, which he had written out himself, and which at that time had not yet been published except for a piano reduction and separate orchestral parts. “If you will give me your quartet,” he said one day, “I will give you the score of Schumann’s concerto.” I could not resist the offer. I still think with secret dread about the fact that my abortive early work very likely still exists somewhere in one of the countries of southern Europe.
Possibly Grieg was embroidering his tale, or at least he had his chronology off, since shortly after he returned to Bergen as a newly minted conservatory graduate, he rented a performance space in which to present a concert that included his own String Quartet in D minor. In any case, his reminiscence accurately conveys his infatuation with the music of Schumann and, specifically, with Schumann’s Piano Concerto. It is perfectly normal for audience members hearing Grieg’s Piano Concerto to remark on how very much it reminds them of Schumann’s Piano Concerto—in both cases in the key of A minor and representing each composer’s only entry in the genre. The similarities continue at the level of specifics: both begin with a wallop from the orchestra and a descending flourish from the piano, leading to the hushed enunciation of the
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DICHTER PLAYS GRIEG
principal theme by the orchestra (stressing woodwinds) ... and on and on.
And yet, it would not be accurate to characterize Grieg’s Concerto as a mere parody of Schumann’s. Without trying to hide his admiration of its model, Grieg produced a work of considerable originality that displays the uniqueness of his own voice, nowhere more than in the folk-inflected finale, the details of which were particularly admired by Liszt and Tchaikovsky. Liszt offered Grieg some advice about orchestral scoring; and although Grieg adopted some of those suggestions, he ended up weeding out most of them as he returned to revise this concerto over nearly three decades.
Grieg’s Fingerprint
Grieg’s Piano Concerto opens with a crescendo roll on the timpani that leads to a forceful A-minor chord from the orchestra and then a flourish from the piano that descends through several octaves, repeating its motif seven times as it cascades downwards. The three-note melodic germ behind this is widely viewed as Grieg’s melodic fingerprint, the falling interval connecting the tonic to the fifth below by way of the seventh— “do-ti-sol” for the solfeggists among us. This motif plays a prominent role in Norwegian folk music, and it certainly was part of Grieg’s musical DNA, showing up— sometimes in the foreground, sometimes not—in a great many of his compositions.
—JMK
Symphony No. 7 in D minor, Op. 70 Antonín Dvořák
First Performance: 12/13/1960
Conductor: Guy Fraser Harrison
Last Performance: 2/3/2018
Conductor: Joel Levine
Born: September 8, 1841, in Mühlhausen (Nelahozeves), Bohemia (now Czechia)
Died: May 1, 1904, in Prague (now Czechia)
Work composed: December 13, 1884, to March 17, 1885; slightly revised just after its premiere
Work premiered: April 22, 1885, with the composer conducting a concert of the Royal Philharmonic Society at St. James’s Hall in London Instrumentation: Two flutes and piccolo, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, timpani, and strings
During Antonín Dvořák’s formative years his musical training was modest and he was a competent, but hardly distinguished, pupil. As a teenager he managed to secure a spot as violist in a dance orchestra. The group prospered, and in 1862 its members formed the founding core of the Provisional Theatre orchestra in Prague. Dvořák would play viola in that orchestra for nine years, in which capacity he sat directly beneath the batons of such composerconductors as Bedřich Smetana and Richard Wagner.
During that time Dvořák also honed his skills as a composer, and by 1871 he felt compelled to leave the orchestra and devote himself to composing full-time. In 1874 he received his first real break as a composer: he was awarded the Austrian State Stipendium, a grant newly created by the Ministry of Education to assist young, poor, gifted musicians—which perfectly defined Dvořák’s status at the time as well as when he received the same prize in four ensuing years. In 1877, the powerful music critic
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Eduard Hanslick, who chaired the Stipendium committee, encouraged him to send some scores directly to Johannes Brahms, who had served on the competition jury. Brahms in turn recommended Dvořák to his own publisher, Fritz Simrock, who contracted a first option on all of the composer’s new works.
The spirit of Brahms hovers over many pages of Dvořák’s Seventh Symphony, which is undoubtedly the darkest and potentially the most intimidating of his nine. His Sixth Symphony in D major, composed four years earlier, had also seemed to be a reaction to Brahms, its pastoral mood emulating to some extent Brahms’ recent Second Symphony (1877), also in D major. Since then Brahms had released a further symphony—his confident, sinewy Third, which Hans Richter (who conducted its premiere in December 1883) dubbed “Brahms’ Eroica.” A month later, in January 1884, Dvořák traveled to Berlin to hear it performed and was appropriately impressed by its powerful effect. By the end of that year, he began to write his Seventh Symphony, which echoes some of the storminess and monumental power of Brahms’ Third. What’s more, he kept in touch with Brahms about the new symphony he was working on, and apparently his mentor offered encouragement for Dvořák to grapple with this symphony of serious mien. In February 1885, Dvořák wrote to Simrock, “I have been engaged on a new symphony for a long, long time; after all it must be something really worthwhile, for I don’t want Brahms’ words to me, ‘I imagine your symphony quite different from this one [i.e. Dvořák’s Sixth],’ to remain unfulfilled.”
As his reputation grew in the early 1880s, Dvořák gained a particularly staunch following in England, and the rapturous reception of his Stabat Mater when it was performed in London in 1883 made him a true celebrity there. On the heels of that triumph, the Royal Philharmonic invited him to conduct some concerts in 1884, in the course of which his Sixth Symphony made such an impression that the orchestra immediately extended a commission for Dvořák to provide one specifically for them, which he was to conduct the following season. As one might have predicted, the new work scored another English success for its composer. Just after the premiere he wrote to a friend in Mirovice, Bohemia: “Before this letter reaches Mirovice you will perhaps know how things turned out here. Splendidly, really splendidly. This time, too, the English again welcomed me as heartily and as demonstratively as always heretofore. The symphony was immensely successful and at the next performance will be a still greater success.”
Following the English performances, Dvořák edited a passage of about 40 measures out of the symphony’s second movement and communicated the emendation
to Simrock with the assurance, “Now I am convinced that there is not a single superfluous note in the work.” It would be hard to disagree with him; from a composer who was sometimes given to leisurely rhapsody, the Seventh Symphony is remarkably taut and rigorous throughout.
Deepest Admiration
Donald Francis Tovey, the distinguished early20th-century musical analyst and professor at the University of Edinburgh, blew hot and cold on the subject of Dvořák’s symphonies, but he was overwhelmed by this one. In the 1920s (perhaps early ’30s) he wrote:
I have no hesitation in setting Dvořák’s [Seventh] Symphony along with the C major Symphony of Schubert and the four symphonies of Brahms, as among the greatest and purest examples in this art-form since Beethoven. ... There were three obstacles to the appreciation of this symphony when it was published in 1885. First, it is powerfully tragic. Secondly, the orthodox critics and the average musician were, as always with new works, very anxious to prove that they were right and the composer was wrong, whenever the composer produced a long sentence which could not be easily phrased at sight. ...The third obstacle to the understanding of this symphony is intellectually trivial, but practically the most serious of all. The general effect of its climaxes is somewhat shrill .... His scores are almost as full of difficult problems of balance as Beethoven’s.
—JMK
JAMES M. KELLER
Now in his 25th season as Program Annotator of the San Francisco Symphony, James M. Keller is the former Program Annotator of the New York Philharmonic and the author of Chamber Music: A Listener’s Guide (Oxford University Press).
MUSIC OF THE KNIGHTS
SIR ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER, SIR ELTON JOHN, & SIR PAUL MCCARTNEY
JANUARY 24-25, 2025, 8:00 P.M.
JAN MCDANIEL, GUEST CONDUCTOR
Program will be announced from the stage
Brought to you by Spot On Entertainment
Featuring:
Scott Coulter (vocalist)
Campbell Walker Fields (vocalist)
THIS CONCERT IS GENEROUSLY SPONSORED BY:
John Boswell (pianist)
Blaine Krauss (vocalist)
GUEST CONDUCTOR
JAN MCDANIEL
Jan McDaniel is equally at home on the podium and at the keyboard—as his appearances with the Oklahoma City Philharmonic demonstrate. Since 2021, he has appeared regularly as a guest conductor, including two concerts in 2021: a special recorded concert with Kelli O’Hara which he led from the piano, followed a day later as conductor with a pops concert of Broadway favorites with Scott Coulter, Jessica Hendy, and John Boswell. McDaniel appeared as pianist with Kelli O’Hara in late February 2023, and returned to the Philharmonic in an advisory capacity for a concert performance of Puccini’s Tosca in May 2024.
He is in his twenty-fifth year on the faculty of the Bass School of Music at Oklahoma City University, where he is Professor of Vocal Coaching and a conductor of the Oklahoma City University Opera and Musical Theater Company. In the latter capacity, McDaniel has served as musical director and conductor for over thirty productions, including the world premiere of Edward Knight’s Night of the Comets and the regional premiere of Thomas Pasatieri’s The Hotel Casablanca, along with works such as Puccini’s La rondine and Suor Angelica, Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Verdi’s La traviata, Moore’s The Ballad of Baby Doe, Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore, Nicolai’s Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor, Floyd’s Susannah, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific, Flaherty and Ahren’s Seussical, Loesser’s The Most Happy Fella, Sklar’s The Wedding Singer, Schwartz’s Children of Eden, and Gershwin’s Of Thee I Sing. His 2013 production of Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia was chosen as the Best Opera Production for Division III in the National Opera Association’s annual competition, two of his productions won similar NOA awards in January 2017, and has had at least one winner in almost every year since then. McDaniel also serves as musical director for Painted Sky Opera, Oklahoma City’s professional opera company, where he has led productions such as Verdi’s La traviata and Rigoletto, Puccini’s Tosca and La Bohème, Heggie’s Three Decembers, Cipullo’s Glory Denied, Kaminsky’s As One, Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors and The Medium, Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti and Arias and Barcarolles, Chabrier’s L’éducation manqué, and the Bizet-Brook La tragédie de Carmen. Most recently, McDaniel led the 2023 season of PSO, which included La Bohème, Don Giovanni, and The Turn of the Screw.
GUEST ARTIST
MUSIC OF THE KNIGHTS
SCOTT COULTER
Scott Coulter is one of New York’s most honored vocalists having received five MAC Awards (Manhattan Association of Cabarets & Clubs), five Bistro Awards and two Nightlife Awards for Outstanding Vocalist. He’s performed at most of NYC’s top rooms including Birdland, 54 Below, The Oak Room at the Algonquin, and Feinstein’s at The Regency where he spent a record-setting eight months performing the revue 11 O’CLOCKNUMBERS AT 11 O’CLOCK which he also co-created, directed and musically arranged. His self-titled debut CD won the 2003 MAC Award for Outstanding Recording and was chosen as the best recording of the year by TheatreMania and Cabaret Scenes magazines. Scott was director and star of A CHRISTMAS CAROL: THE SYMPHONIC CONCERT in its world premiere with the Baltimore Symphony and reprised his performance in the Emmy-nominated PBS production. He is an Emmy nominee himself for his performance in AMERICAN SONG at NJPAC and a Grammy nominee as a featured vocalist on the album “Sondheim Unplugged: The NYC Sessions.” Scott regularly performs in concert both as a solo artist and with a variety of legendary performers including Sheena Easton and Academy Award-winning composer Stephen Schwartz. Schwartz has said “One of the greatest things that can happen to a composer is to have his music interpreted by Scott Coulter.”
Scott is creator, arranger and director of several touring shows (symphonic and non-) including MUSIC OF THE KNIGHTS, THE WONDERFUL MUSIC OF OZ, BLOCKBUSTER BROADWAY!, and, for The ASCAP Foundation, JERRY HERMAN: THE BROADWAY LEGACY CONCERT. Along with Michael Kerker and ASCAP, he’s a regular producer/director of Michael Feinstein’s STANDARD TIME at Carnegie Hall. Scott recently wrote the book for the new musical GOT TO BE THERE which celebrates the life and music of songwriter Elliot Willensky. Scott, along with Dave Gaebler, is a co-producer of the Jessica Hendy/Brianna Barnes musical “Walking with Bubbles” which received a 2023 Drama Desk Award nomination and won an Off-Broadway Alliance Award. The show’s cast album is produced by Coulter and Vibecke Dahle Dellapolla. Coulter and Gaebler are also on the producing teams of the Broadway musicals “Water for Elephants” and “Suffs” (Tony Award-winner for Best Book of a Musical and Best Score).
Scott is founder/owner of Spot-On Entertainment and Spot-On Arts Academy and is a resident director of programming at 54 Below (Broadway’s Supper Club) in NYC. He is the artistic director of the Pocono Mountains Music Festival and founder of the Pocono Pops! Scott is a proud graduate of the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music which honored him with the CCM Young Alumni Award in 2010 and CCM’s Distinguished Service Award in 2020.
SPOT-ON ENTERTAINMENT
Scott Coulter’s Spot-On Entertainment is a concert production/booking company based in New York City. Owner and founder Scott Coulter is a multi-award-winning performer, director, musical arranger and producer whose creations for theaters, performing arts centers and symphonies include Music of the Knights, Bette Babs & Beyond, The Wonderful Music of OZ. You’ve Got a Friend and Blockbuster Broadway! Special composer tribute shows include Defying Gravity: Stephen Schwartz & Friends and Jerry Herman: The Broadway Legacy Concert (which is co-produced by Spot-On and The ASCAP Foundation). Spot-On concerts often feature an education component that result in local artists appearing on stage with members of the Spot-On family. It is our goal to inspire and pass the torch to the next generation.
GUEST ARTISTS
MUSIC OF THE KNIGHTS
JOHN BOSWELL
John Boswell has served as musical director for Judy Collins, Andy Williams, Bob Newhart, Scott Coulter, Maude Maggart, Faith Prince, Carmen Cusack, Babbie Green, Jason Graae and a host of other fine talents. John played the role of “Moose” in the national tour of Crazy for You and has appeared on The Tonight Show, Today Show, CBS This Morning, Regis and Kathie Lee, General Hospital and was the piano playing hands of Nancy McKeon on the sit-com THE FACTS OF LIFE. Recent concerts with symphonies have included Jerry Herman: The Broadway Legacy Concert, BLOCKBUSTER BROADWAY!, Sheena Easton and Scott Coulter: The Spy Who Loved Me and MUSIC OF THE KNIGHTS. John has been heard singing in the shows THREE MEN AND A BABY...GRAND, CINEMA TOAST, BROADWAY TODAY, WISEGUYS and the New York cult hit CASHINO. Broadway/Off Broadway credits include Crazy for You, The Secret Garden, LIZA! Steppin’ Out at Radio City Music Hall, Back to Bacharach and David and The Kathy and Mo Show: Parallel Lives. His monthly concerts in 2017 at The Gardenia in Los Angeles have been crowd pleasers. John has eight CDs of original piano music and a ninth on the way. While a student at UCLA, John received the Frank Sinatra Award for popular instrumentalists.
CAMPBELL WALKER FIELDS
Campbell Walker Fields is a versatile singer and keyboardist with equal comfort on concert, musical theatre and arena stages. His professional career began when he was cast at the age of nine as the Artful Dodger in Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma’s 2011 production of “Oliver!”. The following summer he was cast as Foo (Lost Boy) in the world premiere, seven-week run of the musical “FLY” at Dallas Theatre Center. Other Lyric productions included “Oklahoma!”, “Big Fish”, “Mary Poppins” and “Les Miserables”.
While still in high school he began appearing frequently with symphony orchestras. He recently debuted with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and enjoyed return engagements with the Jacksonville Symphony and Camerata Mazatlan. He has appeared with the Florida Orchestra, Tulsa Signature Symphony, Abilene Philharmonic, Dearborn Symphony, Gainesville (FL) Orchestra, Western Piedmont Symphony, Pocono Pops, as well as multiple appearances with the Oklahoma City Philharmonic.
In the summer of 2016 he was seen competing in season 11 of NBC’s America’s Got Talent, making it to the middle judges’ cuts round. He has performed at Cast Party/Birdland in NYC, and his commercial work includes the feature film “Home Run” and print and TV ads for SandRidge Energy. Beginning in the summer of 2018 he has been part of the all-star faculty of the Pocono Mountains Performing Arts Camp.
GUEST ARTISTS
BLAINE KRAUSS
Blaine Krauss is currently starring in “Hamilton” as Alexander Hamilton after a year on tour as the standby for both Hamilton and Burr. He was thrilled to be part of the second season of “Pose” while appearing in “The Cher Show” on Broadway. Prior to that he was seen as ‘Lola’ in “Kinky Boots” shortly after making his Broadway debut in the smash hit “Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812.” He traveled the world as ‘Simba’ in “The Lion King” and starred in the Radio City Summer Spectacular. Blaine regularly performs with symphonies around the globe and is a regular performer at Feinstein’s/54 Below where his acclaimed solo show “From the Soul” garnered him a Bistro Award. His talents led him in 2011 to be a feature performer for the largest Commemoration of 9/11 outside of the U.S at the Trocadero in Paris, France. In 2010 he was selected to be 1 of 20 Presidential Scholars in the Arts by the White House and Presidential Scholar Commission. This venture led to having met President Obama and concluded with a performance at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. He was selected to be the Feature Vocalist at the 2010 July 4th Celebration at the US National Archives; was a selected participant at the International Fringe Festival in Edinburgh Scotland. His theatrical credits include Godspell and Spelling Bee at the West Virginia Public Theatre, Evita, Into the Woods, Civil War, Make Me A Song, Chess and Jean Valjean in CCM’s Les Misérables. Blaine is a proud graduate of the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.
CONCEPTS FROM
THE
Maestro
This season, we’re celebrating our “classical” repertoire—music that is tried and true, resonating deeply with audiences over time and embodying a deeply romantic spirit, cherished by many. Join us as we explore these beloved classics!
SYMPHONIES EAST & WEST
Ahead of America’s 250th birthday, I’m excited to feature the most important American symphony ever written: Copland’s Symphony No. 3. It has never been performed by the OKCPHIL, making this a historic occasion. We’ll pair it with music from India, a nod to the Spanish delegation that sailed west in search of new lands.
SYMPHONIES EAST & WEST
FEBRUARY 22, 2025 8:00 P.M.
Aaron Copland, a Jewish immigrant from Brooklyn, is often regarded as the father of the American sound. In the 30s and 40s, he recognized the power of radio broadcasts and aimed to create music for the “common man,” in contrast to the increasingly atonal and inaccessible works from European composers.
Composed at the end of World War II, Copland’s Symphony No. 3 draws inspiration from his iconic “Fanfare for the Common Man.” It fuses his ballet style with the Americana sound that defines his symphonic works.
We’ll also feature a work by Ravi Shankar, a renowned sitar player who famously inspired the Beatles. A year before his death, he composed “Symphony” for sitar and orchestra that is exuberant, alien, and beautiful.
Our soloist for this extraordinary performance, Arjun Verma, studied under the legendary Ali Akhbar Khan. Don’t miss this unique evening of musical exploration!
For more details about the program, please, join Maestro Mickelthwate for his preconcert talk at 7 pm in the auditorium. Open seating.
Listen to a broadcast of this performance on KUCO 90.1 FM on Thursday, March 20, at 8 pm and Saturday, March 22, at 8 am on “Performance Oklahoma”. Simultaneous internet streaming is also available during the broadcast.
OKCPHIL
GUEST ARTIST
SYMPHONIES EAST & WEST
ARJUN K. VERMA
Arjun K. Verma, sitarist, was trained by the legendary Maestro Ali Akbar Khan. With over three decades of performance experience, at venues including the United Nations (Geneva), the Fillmore (San Francisco), Fox Theater (Oakland), Pattee Arena (Monterey), the New School (New York), Birmingham Museum of Art (Birmingham), Prague Castle (Prague), and NBC Bay Area television (San Jose), Arjun has emerged with a unique voice on the sitar—both within the tradition of North Indian Classical Music, and through his innovative crossgenre collaborations.
Arjun has spent his entire life steeped in the tradition of North Indian Classical Music. The son of internationally performing sitarist Roop Verma, who was a disciple of Ali Akbar Khan and Ravi Shankar, Arjun began learning sitar from his father at age five.
As a teenager, Arjun was deeply inspired by the preeminent sarode maestro, Ali Akbar Khan, and he ultimately moved to the San Francisco Bay Area to study directly with Ali Akbar Khan for eight years. Since the Maestro’s passing in 2009, Arjun has continued his training under the able guidance of Ali Akbar Khan’s son, Alam Khan. Arjun has also received guidance from Smt. Annapurna Devi.
As a musician of the Maihar Gharana (style) of Hindustani classical music, Arjun’s playing is based on the music of Maestro Ali Akbar Khan. He has developed innovative sitar techniques inspired by the Maestro’s style, and is also influenced by sitarist Nikhil Banerjee. Arjun’s playing also incorporates musical elements drawn from his long apprenticeship with his father, Roop Verma. The combination of these influences results in a style encompassing the deeply contemplative as well as the exhilarating elements of Indian Music.
In 2022, Arjun collaborated with the London Symphony Orchestra, Chinese composer Yu-Peng Chen, HOYO-MiX and an international team of musicians to record as a featured soloist for the soundtrack to Genshin Impact - Sumeru. Arjun was also the featured sitar soloist for the world premieres of Jack Perla’s River of Light (2014—Houston Grand Opera), Shalimar the Clown (2016—Opera Theatre St. Louis), and Arjun’s own Bach in Bengal (2022—Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra).
As a composer, Arjun has written commissioned works for documentary film, opera, and live performing arts, and has arranged numerous works of Indian classical music for ensembles of both Indian and non-Indian instrumentation.
In addition to performing, Arjun teaches sitar and North Indian Classical Music at the Ali Akbar College of Music and the East-West School of Music.
PROGRAM NOTES
SYMPHONIES EAST & WEST
SHANKAR
Work premiered: July 1, 2010, at Royal Albert Hall, London, with David Murphy conducting the London Philharmonic Orchestra and sitar-player Anoushka Shankar
Instrumentation: Two flutes (second doubling piccolo), two oboes (second doubling English horn), two clarinets and bass clarinet, two bassoons and contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion (vibraphone, woodblock, xylophone, marimba, cymbals, triangle, bongos, bass drum, whip), harp, and strings, with solo sitar
For listeners in the Western world, Ravi Shankar was the face of Indian music. He not only conveyed Indian classical music with personal flair but also experimented with ways to bridge cultural divides and discover points of contact among musicians of differing aesthetic traditions. He spent much of his youth in Paris, where he participated in a dance troupe directed by his older brother, Uday Shankar. There he encountered the Bengali musician Allauddin Khan, who oversaw the musical activities for the Court of the Maharaja of Maihar. Khan offered to teach Shankar according to the demanding traditions of Indian classical music. Shankar accordingly spent almost seven years as a member of Khan’s household, beginning in 1938, absorbing the essential principles and skills of Indian music-making.
Although he studied various instruments during his apprenticeship, Shankar became most associated with the sitar, a large plucked-string instrument with about twenty strings, depending on the construction of the particular instrument. Six or seven of the strings run along the instrument’s neck. Some are used to emit drones and
others are devoted to melody, the performer determining their pitch by depressing the strings at frets—not unlike those of a guitar, although in the case of the sitar, the frets can be moved to predetermined positions to allow for tiny gradations of tuning. The remaining strings are “sympathetic”; instead of being plucked directly by the player (using a plectrum), they resonate on their own in acoustic response to the plucked notes. The sound is amplified by at least one gourd-shaped resonating chamber, more commonly two. Shankar consulted with a leading sitar-builder to develop a customized form of the instrument that supported the considerable developments he brought about in sitar-playing.
Having mastered the principles of his art, Shankar became director of music for All-India Radio (1949-56), where he served as composer-conductor for the network’s instrumental ensemble. After that, he embarked on world tours as a soloist and ensemble player. He was not stodgy about proclaiming the “purity” of classical systems of music-making, and this liberal attitude allowed him to present his music not as an academic sort of exotica but rather as a living form of expression that might transcend boundaries. In the 1960s, he became famous for his collaborations with violinist Yehudi Menuhin and his influence on such rock bands as The Byrds and The Beatles, developing a particularly close musical relationship with the latter’s George Harrison. This outreach led Shankar to explore composing largescale works that would amalgamate Indian and European classical styles. He wrote three concertos for sitar and orchestra, playing the premiere of the first in 1971 (with the London Symphony Orchestra) and of the second in 1981 (with the New York Philharmonic). His daughter, Anoushka Shankar, was the soloist at the premiere of his Third Sitar Concerto, in 2009, and the London Philharmonic introduced his Symphony (including solo sitar) in 2010. In 2020, the London Philharmonic also unveiled a realization of his uncompleted opera Sukanya.
Shankar attempted not only to fuse disparate aesthetic styles but also to apply the essentially improvised matter of Indian music to the notated approach of European classical composition. The Symphony adheres to the time-honored structure of the Western symphony: fast first and fourth movements surrounding a lyrical second movement and a bouncy third (plotted as a scherzo-andtrio). The notes themselves, as opposed to the structure, are imbued with classical Indian procedures of raga and tala, which refer respectively to the melodic and metric structures of music (see sidebar). In Shankar’s Symphony,
PROGRAM NOTES
the opening movement is largely based on the raga Kafi Zila, which resembles a Western minor scale. The second movement uses Ahir Bhairav, a devotional raga appropriate for morning hours. The third is based on Kalyan, a raga invented by Shankar; this is a rhythmically complex movement, parts of it reflecting a 10-beat tala, each reiteration of that metric cycle divided by phrasing and accents of 2+3+2+3 beats. The finale also uses a raga of Shankar’s invention: Banjārā, its name referring to a nomadic group in India with a rich folk tradition.
About raga
Raga lies at the heart of Indian classical music. Western listeners can approach it by understanding that the most essential element of Indian music is melody (unlike European music, which emphasizes harmony). Indian musicians draw melodic material from a large repertoire of ragas. Ragas do not constitute the complete pieces, but they are the starting points and building blocks from which vocal or instrumental improvisations or compositions are constructed. In that sense, a raga has some resemblance to the idea of a scale in Western music: it furnishes a pattern that inspires the ultimate composition. Like a scale, a raga comprises a group of ascending and descending notes from which melodies can be assembled, but it also involves rules about how those notes are to behave in relation to each other, what their sequence must be (which does not necessarily mirror the simple up and down of a Western scale), and ways in which certain notes might be ornamented or elaborated in specific contexts. Ragas can have extra-musical meaning and are assumed to convey specific emotional qualities. Many are connected to times of the day and seasons of the year, or at least they were historically. Not infrequently, individual ragas have been explicitly associated with spirits or deities, and they may be considered to have particular therapeutic or even magical properties. Asked how many ragas exist, Indian classical musicians may respond with a number in the hundreds, thousands, or tens of thousands; some will say they are countless. Shankar reported that “as many as thirty different ragas are my own creations.”
—JMK
Work composed: 1944 to September 29, 1946, drawing on some material written in 1942
Work premiered: October 18, 1946, at Boston’s Symphony Hall, with Serge Koussevitzky conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra Instrumentation: Piccolo and three flutes (one doubling second piccolo), two oboes and English horn (doubling third oboe), two clarinets plus E-flat clarinet and bass clarinet, two bassoons and contrabassoon, four horns, four trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion (tenor drum, bass drum, snare drum, tam-tam, cymbals, suspended cymbal, xylophone, glockenspiel, wood block, triangle, slapstick, ratchet, anvil, claves, tubular bells), two harps, celesta, piano, and strings
Aaron Copland had already produced two symphonies, in 1924 and 1934, when in March 1944 the conductor Serge Koussevitzky extended a commission for another major orchestral work, which he hoped to introduce at the outset of the Boston Symphony’s 1946 season. In Copland: Since 1943, the second volume of the impressive oral history prepared by Vivian Perlis with the composer, Copland discussed the genesis and early history of this work.
“While in Bernardsville [New Jersey] in the summer of 1945,” he said, “I felt my Third Symphony finally taking shape. I had been working on various sections whenever I could find time during the past few years. My colleagues had been urging me to compose a major orchestral work. ... Elliott Carter, David Diamond, and Arthur Berger reminded me about it whenever they had the opportunity. ... They had no way of knowing that I had been working on such a composition for some time. I did not want to announce my intentions until it was clear in my own mind
PROGRAM NOTES
SYMPHONIES EAST & WEST
what the piece would become (at one time it looked more like a piano concerto than a symphony). The commission from Koussevitzky stimulated me to focus my ideas and arrange the material I had collected into some semblance of order.”
Copland, by the way, employed the locution Third Symphony as a specific title for this work, preferring it to the more generic implication of “Symphony No. 3.” In the summer of 1944, he retreated to the remote village of Tepoztlán, Mexico, to work on the symphony’s first movement in relatively uninterrupted isolation. The second movement waited until the following summer, which he spent in Bernardsville. “By September, I was able to announce to [the composer] Irving Fine, ‘I’m the proud father—or mother—or both—of a second movement. Lots of notes—and only eight minutes of music—such are scherzi! It’s not very original—mais ça marche du commencement jusqu’au fin—which is a help.’ Having two movements finished gave me the courage to continue, but the completion seemed years off.”
In the fall of 1945, he retreated to a rented property in Ridgefield, Connecticut. “Again, I told almost no one where I could be found. I felt in self-exile, but it was essential if I was to finish the symphony. By April I had a third movement to show for it. With Tanglewood reopening in the summer of 1946, and an October date set for the premiere, I headed to the MacDowell Colony for the month of June to work on the last movement.” Copland enjoyed a bit of a head start in that he had decided that the finale would incorporate the Fanfare for the Common Man, which he had written three years before. Here, however, it serves as little more than an introduction to the rest of the movement, although its general contours do seem to pervade a fair amount of the symphony’s material. Copland made progress at the MacDowell Colony but did not complete his work before being again distracted by his teaching obligations at Tanglewood. “After Tanglewood, I stayed on in the Berkshires to work on the orchestration. It was a mad dash! The finishing touches were put on the score just before rehearsals were to start for the premiere, 18 October 1946. It was two years since I had started working on the piece in Mexico.”
Copland’s Third Symphony was warmly received at its premiere, and it was awarded the New York Music Critics Circle Prize as the best orchestral work by an American composer played during the 1946-47 season. Koussevitzky, George Szell, and Leonard Bernstein all championed the work early on, although Copland’s feathers were considerably ruffled when Bernstein decided to cut eight measures from the finale without discussing the
matter with him first. Copland eventually came around to Bernstein’s point of view on the cut and declared that “his conducting of the Third Symphony is closest to what I had in mind when composing the piece.”
Wartime Roots
During World War II, Copland produced several works specifically related to the war effort. In 1942, he participated in a project instigated by the Cincinnati Symphony’s music director, Eugene Goossens, who commissioned 18 composers to write fanfares for brass and percussion. “It is my idea,” Goossens said, “to make these fanfares stirring and significant contributions to the war effort.” Most of the pieces celebrated a single ally nation or military unit, but Copland chose a more general topic. “It was the common man, after all, who was doing all the dirty work in the war and the army,” he later explained. “He deserved a fanfare.”
So was born the Fanfare for the Common Man, whose contours became instantly popular: stark trumpets proclaiming a proud, unhurried theme born of optimistically rising intervals, leisurely expanding from a unison statement to two-part harmony and then fully harmonized texture of the entire brass section. It continues to be heard regularly in its standalone form as well as in its adaptation in the finale of Copland’s Third Symphony.
—JMK
JAMES M. KELLER
Now in his 25th season as Program Annotator of the San Francisco Symphony, James M. Keller is the former Program Annotator of the New York Philharmonic and the author of Chamber Music: A Listener’s Guide (Oxford University Press).
PINK MARTINI AND CHINA FORBES
30TH ANNIVERSARY SEASON
MARCH 7-8, 2025, 8:00 P.M.
Program will be announced from the stage
THIS CONCERT IS GENEROUSLY SPONSORED BY:
SUSIE AND DOUG STUSSI
In Memory of William “Bert” Cooper
A special Thank You to Bo Taylor for providing musicians’ catering services.
GUEST ARTIST
PINK MARTINI AND CHINA FORBES
PINK MARTINI
In 1994 in his hometown of Portland, Oregon, Thomas Lauderdale was working in local politics, attending every political fundraiser under the sun... but was dismayed to find the music at these events underwhelming and lackluster. Drawing inspiration from music from all over the world – crossing genres of classical, jazz and old-fashioned pop – and hoping to appeal to conservatives and liberals alike, he founded the “little orchestra” Pink Martini in 1994 to provide more beautiful and inclusive musical soundtracks for political fundraisers for causes such as civil rights, affordable housing, the environment, libraries, public broadcasting, education and parks.
One year later, Lauderdale called China Forbes, a Harvard classmate who was living in New York City, and asked her to join Pink Martini as the lead singer, and collaborator. Their first song “Sympathique (Je ne veux pas travailler)” became an overnight sensation in France, was nominated for “Song of the Year” at France’s Victoires de la Musique Awards, and is still the band’s number one song. Says Lauderdale, “We’re very much an American band, but we spend a lot of time abroad and therefore have the incredible diplomatic opportunity to represent a broader, more inclusive America... the America which remains the most heterogeneously populated country in the world...composed of people of every country, every language, every religion.”
Featuring a dozen musicians, with songs in 25 languages, Pink Martini performs its multilingual repertoire on concert stages on six continents. After making its European debut at the Cannes Film Festival in 1997 and its orchestral debut with the Oregon Symphony in 1998, the band has gone on to play with more than 50 orchestras around the world. In 2014, Pink Martini was inducted into both the Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame and the Oregon Music Hall of Fame.
Pink Martini has released 11 studio albums on its own independent label Heinz Records (named after Lauderdale’s dog), selling over 3 million albums worldwide. In 2019, the band released two EPs featuring the vocals of Pink Martini’s newest members Jimmie Herrod and Edna Vazquez. Both vocalists have toured with the band for the past year and are officially part of the group with the release of Herrod’s EP Tomorrow and Vaquez’s Besame Mucho, both of which were co-produced by Thomas Lauderdale and China Forbes. The band is celebrating its 30th anniversary.
GUEST ARTISTS
PINK MARTINI AND CHINA FORBES
CHINA FORBES
China Forbes was born and raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts and graduated cum laude from Harvard, majoring in Visual Arts and English, with a minor in Theater. After graduation, and before being lured West to sing with Pink Martini by Harvard friend and classmate Thomas Lauderdale, China lived performed off Broadway, in New York regional theatre and as a singer/ songwriter in NYC clubs.
China became the lead singer for Pink Martini in 1995 and has co-written many of the bands most beloved songs with Lauderdale, starting with “Sympathique”, and continuing to the most recent singles “Lemonade Song” and “Let’s Be Friends”. Her original song “Northern Line” plays over the end credits of sister Maya Forbes’ directorial debut film Infinitely Polar Bear (Sony Pictures Classics). In May of 2024, China released The Road, her first solo album in 15 years, which feature all original songs including the single “Full Circle” and “Rise”, a deeply hopeful and personal song highlighting mental health challenges and suicide prevention. She is the recipient of the 2022 Ella Fitzgerald Award at the Montreal International Jazz Festival; previous winners include Diana Ross, Etta James, and Liza Minelli.
THOMAS LAUDERDALE
Active in Oregon politics since college, Thomas Lauderdale founded Pink Martini in 1994 to play political fundraisers for progressive causes such as civil rights, the environment, affordable housing, and public broadcasting. In addition to his work with Pink Martini, he has appeared as a soloist with numerous orchestras and ensembles, including the Oregon Symphony, the Seattle Symphony, the Portland Youth Philharmonic, Chamber Music Northwest, and several collaborations with Oregon Ballet Theatre. Most recently, Thomas completed a decades-in-the-making album Thomas Lauderdale Meets the Pilgrims. He is back in the studio working on a collaboration with the iconic Iranian singer Googoosh.
Thomas currently serves on the boards of the Oregon Symphony, Pioneer Courthouse Square, the Oregon Historical Society, Confluence Project with Maya Lin and, the Derek Rieth Foundation. He lives in Portland with his partner, pianist Hunter Noack.
GUEST ARTISTS
PINK MARTINI AND CHINA FORBES
EDNA VAZQUEZ
Born in Jalisco, Mexico, and currently based in Portland, Oregon, Edna Vazquez is a fearless singer, songwriter and guitarist whose powerful voice and musical talent transcend the boundaries of language to engage and uplift her audience. Her original music crosses the genres of alternative rock, folk, pop, and R&B seamlessly and delivers a message of light, love and cultural healing. Her passion for music and education have led her to empower youth and the community through workshops and projects with the Bravo Youth Orchestras, Young Audiences and the Lullaby Project by Carnegie Hall through the Oregon Symphony. After releasing her album, Sola Soy, Edna Vazquez began to perform at venues nationwide that include, the Lincoln Center, and the Kennedy Center. She has also performed at the MGM in Las Vegas, in a special performance with Latin Grammy award-winner Flor de Toloache and Natalia Lafourcade. Vazquez received the Most Influential Latina Award in 2019 and Pink Martini’s album with Edna Vazquez, Bésame Mucho, was released that same year. Officially becoming part of the band after the album release, she tours regularly as a vocalist with Pink Martini.
JIMMIE HERROD
Jimmie Herrod is a Pacific Northwest-based artist and performer who is based in Portland, Oregon. He holds a Bachelors of Music degree in music composition and performance from Cornish, and a Masters of Music in Jazz Studies from Portland State University. While he currently serves as an adjunct professor of jazz voice, he remains and active performer, both as soloist and collaborator. Jimmie has worked in Seattle’s lauded musical theater scene at ArtsWest and the 5th Avenue Theater. Recent performance highlights include being a featured soloist with the Oregon Symphony’s showcase in the 2018 TedX series, working with international acts such as ODESZA as well as being a regular vocalist with Pink Martini, touring throughout the US, Canada and Europe. In 2018 Jimmie recorded “Exodus”, his first single with Pink Martini. In 2019 Jimmie Herrod released an EP with Pink Martini, entitled Tomorrow.
In spring of 2021, Jimmie was requested to audition for the current season of the hit NBC show America’s Got Talent, where he quickly became both a judge and fan favorite, winning a coveted Golden Ticket for his incredible vocal performance of “Tomorrow”.
CONCEPTS FROM THE Maestro
This season, we’re celebrating our “classical” repertoire—music that is tried and true, resonating deeply with audiences over time and embodying a deeply romantic spirit, cherished by many. Join us as we explore these beloved classics!
SARAH CHANG RETURNS
MARCH 15, 2025 • 8:00 P.M.
CLASSICS
Sarah Chang is one of our illustrious soloists this season, and we’ve crafted a program centered around German composers, which raises the question: What is German music? When we think of German composers, we encounter a vast array of styles—from Beethoven’s powerful symphonies to Bruch’s poignant violin concertos and Wagner’s monumental operas. So, what unites them as “German”?
I once read that Germany is a country of philosophers, and whether or not that’s entirely true, it is certainly home to great thinkers like Martin Luther, Immanuel Kant, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Einstein. The music of Beethoven, Bruch, and Wagner reflects these philosophical depths, exploring themes of human struggle and the glorification of the Almighty. Their works seek a spiritual substance, delving deep into the essence of existence.
Join us as we explore this rich tapestry of German music, led by the exceptional talent of Sarah Chang!
For a deeper understanding of concert programming, please, join Maestro Mickelthwate for his Preconcert Talk at 7pm in the auditorium. Open seating.
ALEXANDER MICKELTHWATE, CONDUCTOR
SARAH CHANG, VIOLIN
Die Meistersinger
Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op. 26
Prelude: Allegro moderato
Adagio
Finale: Allegro energicoo
Sarah Chang, violin
Intermission
0:39 BEETHOVEN . ... Symphony No. 6 in F major, Op. 68, Pastoral
Allegro ma non troppo: Awakening of Cheerful Feelings upon Arrival in the Country
Andante molto moto: Scene by the Brook
Allegro: Merry Gathering of Country Folk
Allegro: Thunderstorm
Allegretto: Shepherd’s Song; Happy and Thankful Feelings after the Storm THIS CONCERT IS GENEROUSLY SPONSORED BY:
CHUCK WIGGIN
In Loving Memory of Renate W. Wiggin
Listen to a broadcast of this performance on KUCO 90.1 FM on Thursday, April 10, at 8 pm and Saturday, April 12, at 8 am on “Performance Oklahoma”. Simultaneous internet streaming is also available during the broadcast.
SARAH CHANG RETURNS
GUEST ARTIST
SARAH CHANG RETURNS
SARAH CHANG
Recognized as one of the foremost violinists of our time, Sarah Chang has performed with the most esteemed orchestras, conductors, and accompanists in an international career spanning more than two decades. Since her debut with the New York Philharmonic at the age of eight, Ms. Chang has continued to impress audiences with her technical virtuosity and refined emotional depth.
In 2006, Ms. Chang was listed in the 20 Top Women in Newsweek Magazine’s “Women and Leadership,” and in 2008, Ms. Chang was named a Young Global Leader for 2008 by the World Economic Forum (WEF).
In 2012, Sarah Chang received the Harvard University Leadership Award, and in 2005, Yale University dedicated a chair in Sprague Hall in her name. In 2004, Ms. Chang carried the Olympic Torch in New York for the Olympic games, became the youngest person ever to receive the Hollywood Bowl’s Hall of Fame award, and was awarded Internazionale Accademia Musicale Chigiana Prize in Sienna, Italy.
Other previous distinctions include the Avery Fisher Career Grant, Gramophone’s “Young Artist of the Year” award, Germany’s “Echo” Schallplattenpreis, “Newcomer of the Year” honors at the International Classical Music Awards in London, and Korea’s “Nan Pa” award. In 2011, Ms. Chang was named an official Artistic Ambassador by the United States Department of State.
PROGRAM NOTES
SARAH CHANG RETURNS
Wagner’s earliest operas amalgamated more-or-less standard traditions of German Romantic opera (as codified in the works of Weber, Marschner, and others) and French Grand Opera (a large-scale enterprise typified by Meyerbeer and his contemporaries in Paris). As Wagner’s career progressed, he moved increasingly toward realizing his ideal of a Gesamtkunstwerk, a work synthesized from disparate artistic disciplines, including music, literature, the visual arts, ballet, architecture, and stagecraft. The operas of Wagner’s maturity are so distinct in this way that they are often referred to not as operas at all, but rather as “music dramas,” in an attempt to underscore the singularity of his esthetic goals. Nonetheless, Wagner himself was not averse to extracting sections from these closely woven works to present apart from their operatic context. During his lifetime he conducted orchestral extracts from his operas as standalone concert works on numerous occasions, as did quite a few other conductors.
Born: May 22, 1813, in Leipzig, Saxony (Germany)
Died: February 13, 1883, in Venice, Italy
Work composed: 1862
Work premiered: The opera Die Meistersinger was first performed in 1868, but the Prelude had already been introduced in a concert performance on November 1, 1862, at the Leipzig Gewandhaus, with the composer conducting.
Instrumentation: Two flutes and piccolo, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, triangle, cymbals, harp, and strings
Richard Wagner is known to music-lovers almost exclusively through ten compositions, all of them operas: Der fliegende Holländer (premiered in 1843); Tannhäuser (1845); Lohengrin (1850); Tristan und Isolde (1865); Die Meistersinger (1868); Das Rheingold (1869); Die Walküre (1870); Siegfried (1876); Götterdämmerung (1876); and Parsifal (1882). It would not do to refer to this list as a “mere ten compositions,” since there is nothing mere about any of them; they stand, with very few rivals, among the longest and in some ways the most imposing pieces in the active operatic repertoire. They do not represent the entirety of Wagner’s creative output. Apart from these operas he wrote three others (early works rarely visited today) and about a hundred further pieces, not all of them complete or extant, for various vocal and/or instrumental forces, not to mention a numbingly extensive outpouring of essays and other prose works on a variety of topics, many of them bizarre and contradictory in their content, that in published form occupy several shelf-feet of library space.
Die Meistersinger represents Wagner’s only mature attempt at comic opera, although clocking in at fourand-a-half hours its comic elements are possibly diffuse to a point where levity may not strike a listener as the over-riding feature. (Then there is the matter of Wagner’s anti-Semitism and his emphasis on the primacy of German tradition, which some find particularly disquieting in the details of this opera.) Set in 16th-century Nuremberg, Die Meistersinger tells the story of the dashing young nobleman Walther von Stolzing and Eva, the lovely daughter of a goldsmith. Learning that Eva is to be married to the winner of an upcoming song contest sponsored by the tradesmen’s Guild of the Mastersingers, Walther applies for membership in the Guild (a prerequisite for participating in the contest), but he is denied admission due to backstage politics—principally the scheming of the town clerk Beckmesser, who hopes to win the contest, and Eva’s hand, himself. The wise cobbler Hans Sachs comes to the assistance of the lovers and helps Walther pen a song that may triumph all the same. Beckmesser steals a copy of the song (not realizing that Walther was the author) and performs it himself at the competition—dismally. Walther then sings it so beautifully that he wins the contest by popular acclaim and thus gains entry into the Guild as well as betrothal to Eva.
The opening music from the opera, the Prelude to Act I, is one of Wagner’s most immediately irresistible pieces. In this Prelude we hear five principal themes that will recur in the ensuing opera, attached to specific characters or events: the opening march of the Mastersingers Guild, some gentle rhapsodizing signifying the love between
PROGRAM NOTES
SARAH CHANG RETURNS
Walther and Eva, a theme relating to the banner of the Mastersingers, the song with which Walther will win his bride, and another melody suggesting the lovers’ ardor. In the movement’s development section, Wagner interlaces all five themes in ingenious and somewhat comical counterpoint before moving on to a blazing, triumphant conclusion.
From the Peanut Gallery
Wagner’s operas failed to convince every listener when they were new. In 1870 alone, interested parties could have encountered these assessments of Die Meistersinger published by respected authorities:
“With scrupulous avoidance of all closing cadences, this boneless mollusk, self-restoring, swims ever on into the immeasurable.” — music critic Eduard Hanslick
“A more horrendous discordancy (Katzenjammer) than Wagner achieves in his Meistersinger could not be accomplished even if all the organ grinders in Berlin were locked up in Renz’s Circus, each grinding out a different tune.” — conductor Heinrich Dorn
“The debauchery of Die Meistersinger is the maddest assault ever made upon art, taste, and poetry.” — composer Ferdinand Hiller —JMK
BRUCH
Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op. 26
Violin: Albert Spalding
Last Performance: 2/1/2014
Violin: Sarah Chang
Born: January 6, 1838, in Cologne, Prussia (Germany)
Died: October 2, 1920, in Friedenau, near Berlin, Germany
Work composed: 1864-66, drawing on material produced as early as 1857; revised in 1867
Work premiered: April 24, 1866, in Coblenz, with the composer conducting and Otto von Königslow as soloist; in its revised version on January 5, 1868, in Bremen, with Joseph Joachim as soloist and Karl Martin Rheinthaler conducting
Instrumentation: Two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, timpani, and strings, in addition to the solo violin
It would not quite be accurate to label Max Bruch a “one-work wonder,” but his G-minor Violin Concerto does account for almost all of his exposure in modern concert life. Two other Bruch pieces for solo instrument with orchestra appear occasionally on programs: his Kol Nidrei for cello, and his Scottish Fantasy for violin. In fact, he wrote quite a few pieces for violin and orchestra, including two further full-fledged violin concertos, and we might do well to revisit his three symphonies from time to time, in addition to his chamber works and choral compositions. Still, if his production were reduced to the single work performed in this concert, his reputation would change hardly at all.
It was a relatively early piece, begun tentatively in 1857 but mostly composed from 1864 to 1866, while Bruch was serving as music director at the court in Coblenz. It was premiered in April 1866, with Otto von Königslow as soloist,
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but Bruch immediately decided to rework it. He accordingly sent his score to the more eminent violinist Joseph Joachim, who responded that he found the piece “very violinistic”; but that didn’t keep him from offering a good deal of specific advice pertaining to the solo and the orchestral parts. Bruch adopted many of Joachim’s suggestions, and the two soon tried out the piece in a private orchestral reading. Further emendation ensued, and finally the concerto was unveiled in its definitive form in Bremen in January 1868. Some years later Bruch wrote to his publisher, “Between 1864 and 1868 I rewrote my concerto at least a half dozen times, and conferred with x violinists before it took the final form in which it is universally famous and played everywhere.” He may have been exaggerating, but not by much. Word started to circulate about the new concerto, and soon it made its way into the repertoires of other leading violinists of the day, including Ferdinand David (who had premiered Mendelssohn’s E-minor Violin Concerto), Henri Vieuxtemps, and Leopold Auer, who not only performed the work himself but also championed it among such of his students as Mischa Elman, Efrem Zimbalist, and Jascha Heifetz.
The correspondence between Bruch and Joachim during the revisions makes interesting reading. Bruch expressed insecurity about calling the piece a concerto at all, and he toyed with naming the work a “fantasy” instead. “As to your doubts,” responded Joachim, “I am happy to say that I find the title ‘concerto’ fully justified; for the name ‘fantasy’ the last two movements are actually too completely and symmetrically developed.” In truth, the first movement is far from orthodox in the context of 19th-century concertos. It opens with a solemn prelude in which the soloist, playing in a somewhat improvisational style, alternates with the orchestra. Then the movement proceeds in moreor-less “proper” sonata-form fashion until the point where one would expect the development section to begin. There the movement ends—or rather, it elides without a break into the hushed, rapturous slow movement.
Bruch’s G-minor Concerto helps fill a curious gap that exists in our exposure to 19th-century Germanic music, which stresses A-list composers at the total expense of lesser masters. (What have you heard recently by Hermann Goetz, Otto Nicolai, or Ferdinand Hiller—to pull the names of three very estimable composers out of the hat?) Bruch was inherently conservative, and it was accordingly his fate to remain in the shadow of Brahms, who was five years his elder. Brahms was surely the greater composer, but Bruch was often inspired and frankly original. It is hard to mistake the similarity between the openings of the third movements of Bruch’s G-minor and Brahms’ D-major Violin Concertos, and it is only fair to
point out that Bruch’s preceded Brahms’ by a full decade. Joachim would premiere that work, too, but when he was asked to characterize the four most famous German concertos in his repertoire—by Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Bruch, and Brahms—he insisted that Bruch’s was “the richest and the most seductive.”
Bad Business
Although Bruch’s G-minor Violin Concerto became a concert-hall evergreen, its composer profited little from it as he had sold it to a publisher for a flat fee with no provision for royalties. He lived to the age of 82, and near the end of his life, after German currency was eroded in the aftermath of World War I, he decided to raise much-needed funds by selling the concerto’s manuscript. In April 1920, he gave it to a pair of American sisters, Rose and Ottilie Sutro (a duo-piano team), who were supposed to sell it in the United States and send him the proceeds. Fifty years later, Bruch’s son Ewald recalled, “I was rather skeptical about the matter, but my father reassured me: ‘My boy, soon I shall be free of all worries when the first dollars arrive.’ The unsuspecting man just smiled. My father sustained this good faith until his death in October 1920. He had neither received the promised dollars, nor had he seen the score of his G-minor Concerto again. In December 1920 my brother, sister, and I received the ostensible proceeds from the score: we were paid out in worthless German paper money. Where from, we could not find out—some bank somewhere paid us the worthless money. For years experts tried to find out the whereabouts of the score in America, but in vain.” It finally came to light that the Sutro sisters, who had refused to communicate with the Bruchs on this matter, sold the manuscript in 1949 and that in the late 1960s it ended up in the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York, where it has resided ever since.
—JMK
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BEETHOVEN
Symphony No. 6 in F major, Op. 68, Pastoral Ludwig van Beethoven
First Performance: 2/12/1948
Conductor: Victor Alessandro
Last Performance: 4/5/2008
Conductor: Joel Levine
Born: December 16, 1770 (probably, since he was baptized on the 17th), in Bonn, Germany
Died: March 26, 1827, in Vienna, Austria
Work composed: Principally in the spring and summer of 1808, though sketches for the second and third movements date to as early as 1803-04
Work premiered: December 22, 1808, in an all-Beethoven concert at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna
Instrumentation: Two flutes and piccolo, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, two trombones, timpani, and strings
When Beethoven comes to mind many of us may think first of monumental power and even violent ferocity, but in the Pastoral Symphony we glimpse a very different side of the composer. Beethoven had reason to feel ferocious, having tasted more than his fair share of disarray and anguish. As early as October 1802 he was losing his hearing—a great adversity for anyone, but a catastrophe for a musician. In the six years since, his deafness had increased dramatically. What’s more, in March 1808 a raging infection threatened the loss of a finger, which would have spelled further disaster for a composer who was greatly attached to the keyboard. He was surrounded by a nervous political climate; Vienna had been occupied by Napoleon’s troops since November 1805, and the civic restlessness would erupt into violence within months of the Pastoral Symphony’s premiere. Whatever confusion
these circumstances engendered in Beethoven’s personal life could only have been exacerbated by his habit of constantly moving from one lodging to another. In the course of 1808 alone—the year of the Sixth Symphony—he hung his hat at no fewer than four addresses.
On the other hand, this was not Beethoven’s whole life. Like many modern urbanites, he drew important sustenance from the city—in his case, Vienna—but complained incessantly about its inconveniences. He enjoyed escaping to the suburban parks and countryside when he was able, and he spent his summers mostly in rural areas surrounding Vienna, which is why he found himself installed in the village of Heiligenstadt in the summer of 1808. Sometimes he went farther afield, dropping in at the country residences of well-to-do friends in Hungary or visiting spas in Bohemia. “How delighted I shall be to ramble for a while through bushes, woods, under trees, through grass, and around rocks,” he wrote in 1810 to Therese Malfatti (a future object of his affections), looking forward “with childish excitement” to a getaway a year after the Sixth Symphony was published. “No one can love the country as much as I do. For surely woods, trees, and rocks produce the echo which man desires to hear.” Beethoven was not one to speak more than necessary of his compositional methods and intentions, and he voiced the opinion that listeners were generally restricted in their experience of a work if they expected in advance to hear some image depicted. His sketches for the Pastoral Symphony are littered with jottings that reinforce such ideas: “The hearers should be allowed to discover the situations,” “All painting in instrumental music is lost if it is pushed too far,” and so on. Nonetheless, there is no question that tone-painting and “situations to discover” exist bountifully in this symphony, and Beethoven clearly condoned the use of the title Pastoral in its connection even as he clung to arguments downplaying the music’s mimetic or depictive qualities. At the head of a violin part used in the first performance (and only parts were available at that time, since the orchestral score was not published until 1826) we read the words “Sinfonia Pastorella / Pastoral-Sinfonie / oder / Erinnerung an das Landleben / Mehr Ausdruck der Empfindung als Malerei” (Sinfonia Pastorella / Pastoral Symphony/ or / Recollection of Country Life / More an Expression of Feeling than Painting”). Each of the symphony’s five movements also carries an individual motto: “Awakening of Cheerful Feelings upon Arrival in the Country,” “Scene by the Brook,” “Merry Gathering of Country Folk,” “Thunderstorm,” and “Shepherd’s Song; Happy and Thankful Feelings after the Storm.” Numerous compositions have been cited as
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prefiguring the programmatic bent of Beethoven’s Pastoral, including Haydn’s early Symphonies No. 6 (Le Matin), No. 7 (Le Midi), and No. 8 (Le Soir); a piano fantasia by Franz Jakob Freystädtler called A Spring Morning, Noon, and Night; and a five-movement symphony by Justin Heinrich Knecht titled Le Portrait Musical de la Nature. Such pieces were characteristic of the age, an epoch nursed by the back-tonature philosophy of Rousseau and Herder. In Beethoven’s Sixth, nature found its supreme musical mirror.
Rustic Winds
The “Merry Gathering of Country Folk” section includes some peasant humor. Beethoven’s acolyte Anton Schindler was not always a reliable source, but his reminiscence about the nature of this third movement does sound plausible. “Beethoven,” he wrote, “asked me if I had noticed how village musicians often played in their sleep, occasionally letting their instruments fall and keeping quite still, then waking up with a start, getting in a few vigorous blows or strokes at a venture, although usually in the right key, and then dropping to sleep again. Apparently he had tried to portray these poor people in his Pastoral Symphony.” Here we have the oboe “falling awake” and entering off the beat, taking a couple of measures to get in sync with the violins’ oom-pahs. Not many measures later, the second bassoon enters momentarily; the conductor Henry Hadow remarked of this comical interruption that the bassoonist never seems quite certain how many notes to play. Horns and other winds also pitch in to do their bit for the spirit of befuddlement.
—JMK
JAMES M. KELLER
Now in his 25th season as Program Annotator of the San Francisco Symphony, James M. Keller is the former Program Annotator of the New York Philharmonic and the author of Chamber Music: A Listener’s Guide (Oxford University Press).
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THE MAESTRO’S BALL
The OKCPHIL would like to thank the following people who believe in our mission by providing support through the 2024-25 Maestro’s Ball as we honor our beloved Maestro’s Circle inductees Robert and Sody Clements.
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Rachel Gieger, Mady Hendryx, Daniel Karami, Debra Kos, Desiree Singer, Geetika Verma, and Wendi Wilson
