Oct. 17 – Nov. 3
By Louisa May Alcott
and Directed by Jessica Robblee
Enemy of the People
By Henrik Ibsen
Nov. 8 – 17
By Michael Hollinger
By Sean Daniels
Adapted by Mark Ragan
Adapted
Dedicated to the Health of Our Community
Whole person care close to home
At AdventHealth Avista, we strive to provide exceptional care with leading-edge treatments that heal your body, ease your mind and comfort your spirit. From our first-rate heart and vascular team, to our Center of Excellence Spine Care Center, to our New Life Birth Center with the area’s largest neonatal intensive care unit, our compassionate experts provide whole-person care for the whole family. Services offered:
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AdventHealth Avista is designated as an Advanced Orthopedic and Spine Center of Excellence by DNV
AdventHealth Avista is proud to be recognized as one of America’s highest-rated hospitals for patient safety by The Leapfrog Group.
Music Director Michael Butterman
Music Director Michael Butterman is acclaimed for his creative artistry and innovative programming. Foundational to his dynamic career is a deep commitment to audience development and community engagement. As Music Director of the Boulder Philharmonic Orchestra, the organization was invited to open the Kennedy Center’s inaugural SHIFT Festival of American Orchestras in 2017. He also leads Shreveport Symphony, Williamsburg Symphony, and Lancaster Symphony, and brings unprecedented artistic growth under his leadership.
As a guest conductor, Mr. Butterman has led many of the country’s preeminent ensembles, including the Cleveland Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, National Symphony, Detroit Symphony and Houston Symphony. Other recent appearances include performances with the Fort Worth Symphony, Colorado Symphony, Oregon Symphony, Phoenix Symphony, Kansas City Symphony, Charleston Symphony, Hartford Symphony, San Antonio Symphony, Syracuse Symphony, New Mexico Symphony, and Santa Fe Symphony. Summer appearances include Tanglewood, the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival, Colorado Music Festival, and the Wintergreen Music Festival in Virginia. He is also a regular guest conductor of Cuba’s renowned Havana Chamber Orchestra, in collaboration with pianist/ composer Aldo López-Gavilán.
A passionate advocate for music education, Mr. Butterman was the founding Music Director of the Pennsylvania Philharmonic, and recently completed a 19-year association with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra as its Principal Conductor for Education and Community Engagement.
Mr. Butterman gained international attention as a diploma laureate in the Prokofiev International Conducting Competition and as a finalist in the prestigious Besançon International Conducting Competition. As the recipient of the Seiji Ozawa Fellowship, he studied at Tanglewood with Robert Spano, Jorma Panula, and Maestro Ozawa, with whom he shared the podium to lead the season’s opening concert. Michael Butterman’s work has been featured in more than a dozen nationwide broadcasts on public radio’s Performance Today. He can be heard on two CDs recorded for the Newport Classics label and on an album in which he conducts the Rochester Philharmonic and collaborates with actor John Lithgow.
PHOTO BY MOLLY SCHLACHTER.
Boulder Phil Orchestra Roster
VIOLIN 1
Ryan Jacobsen, Acting Concertmaster
Becky Roser & Ron Stewart
Annamaria Karacson, Assistant Concertmaster
Virginia Newton
Rinet Erlichman
Christopher Leonard
Gyöngyvér Petheö
Heidi & Jerry Lynch
Veronica Sawarynski
Marion Thurnauer & Alex Trifunac
Takanori Sugishita
Luana Rubin
Malva Tarasewicz
Pamela Walker
Yenlik Weiss
VIOLIN 2
Vacant, Principal
Leah Mohling, Assistant Principal
Stephanie Bork
Hilary Castle-Green
Ryan Jacobsen
Laurie Hathorn
Regan Kane
Kina Ono
Susie Peek
Autumn Pepper
Robyn Sosa
VIOLA
Margaret Dyer Harris, Principal
Patricia Butler
Michael Brook, Assistant Principal
Aniel Cabán
Matthew Diekman
Nancy Clairmont & Bob Braudes
Claire Figel
Nancy McNeill
Stephanie Mientka
Allyson Stibbards
CELLO
Charles Lee, Principal
Christine & Wayne Itano
Andrew Kolb, Assistant Principal
Charles Barnard
Sara Fierer
Joey Howe
Amanda Laborete
Yoriko Morita
Margot & Chris Brauchli
Erin Patterson
Eleanor Wells
BASS
David Crowe, Principal
Lin & Matthew Hawkins
Brian Knott, Assistant Principal
Lin & Matthew Hawkins
Ernie Glock
Isaiah Holt
FLUTE
Vacant, Principal
Pamela Dennis & Jim Semborski
Elizabeth Sadilek
Olga Shilaeva, Piccolo
Paul Weber
OBOE
Sarah Bierhaus, Principal
Eleanor & Harry Poehlmann
Brittany Bonner
Vacant, English Horn
CLARINET
Kellan Toohey, Principal
Margaret & Rodolfo Perez
Michelle Orman
Vacant, Bass Clarinet
BASSOON
Francisco Delgado, Principal in Memory of Joan Ringoen
Joshua Sechan
Wendy La Touche, Contrabassoon
HORN
Michael Yopp, Principal
Ruth & Rich Irvin
Devon Park, Associate Principal
DeAunn Davis, Assistant & Utility
Andrew Miller
Jeffrey Rubin
Alan Davis
Daniel Skib
TRUMPET
Leslie Scarpino, Principal
Nicky Wolman & David Fulker
Noah Lambert
Rebecca Ortiz
TROMBONE
Bron Wright, Principal
Nancy Clairmont and Bob Braudes
Owen Homayoun
Jeremy Van Hoy, Bass Trombone
TUBA
James Andrus, Principal
TIMPANI
Douglas William Walter, Principal
PERCUSSION
Mike Tetreault, Principal
Vacant, Assistant Principal
Nena Lorenz Wright
HARP
Kathleen Wychulis, Principal
PIANO
Vacant
In memoriam Ruth C. Kahn
PERSONNEL MANAGER
Bron Wright
ORCHESTRA LIBRARIAN
Aspen McArthur
Members of string sections are listed alphabetically following titled players.
* On leave this season
Boulder Phil Staff and Board
MUSIC DIRECTOR
Michael Butterman
PRINCIPAL GUEST CONDUCTOR
Gary Lewis
ASSISTANT CONDUCTOR
Renee Gilliland
ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF
Mimi Kruger, Executive Director
Jesse Gilday, Director of Development
Aspen McArthur, Director of Artistic Administration & Librarian
Fernanda Nieto, Director of Education & Community Engagement
Rosie Harris, Marketing & Communications Manager
Nicholas Lussier, Sales and Communications Manager
Sophie Maeda, Artistic Coordinator
Sam Macken, Development Assistant
Chris Martin, Production Manager
Bron Wright, Orchestra Personnel Manager
OFFICERS
Judy Knapp, President
Phyllis Wise, Vice President
Michael Brook
Tom Kinder, Treasurer
Charlotte Roehm, Secretary
BOARD OF TRUSTEES
Mimi Kruger, ex officio
Michael Butterman, ex officio
Claire Figel
David Fulker
Erma Mantey
Harry Poehlman
View,the magazine of the Lone Tree Arts Center, features performing arts highlights and information about the state-of-the-art facility that serves the south metro community.
Marilyn Gallant
Lin Hawkins
2013/2014 highlights
Karyn Sawyer
Leslie Scarpino
South Pacific in Concert • Big River
Yesterday & Today,the All-Request Beatles Tribute
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I t i s t h e m i s s i o n o f t h e B o u l d e r
P h i l h a r m o n i c O r c h e s t r a t o e n r i c h
c o n n e c t i o n s a n d c o m m u n i t i e s t h r o u g h
t h e p o w e r o f o r c h e s t r a l m u s i c .
F Fo u n d e d i n 1 9 5 7 , t h e B o u l d e r P h i l i s
c r e a t i n g a n e w m o d e l fo r A m e r i c a n
o r c h e s t r a s t h r o u g h d y n a m i c p e r fo r m a n c e s
t h a t r e e e c t o u r c o m m u n i t y ’s o w n v a l u e s ,
c r e a t i v i t y, a n d s e n s e o f p l a c e . E a c h s e a s o n
i s a j o u r n e y o f d i s c o v e r y a n d c o n n e c t i o n ,
I t i s t h r o u g h t h e p a s s i o n a n d
d e d i c a t i o n o f y o u , o u r a u d i e n c e ,
t h a t y o u r B o u l d e r P h i l b r i n g s
o r c h e s t r a l m u s i c t o l i f e .
This program is produced for the Boulder Philharmonic Orchestra by The Publishing House, Westminster, CO. For advertising information, please call (303) 428-9529 or e-mail sales@pub-house.com ColoradoArtsPubs.com
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Wilbur
2024/25
Season Announcement
Christmas Oratorio, BWV 248
December 20th, 2024 | 7:00 p.m.
December 21st, 2024 | 7:00 p.m.
December 22nd, 2024 | 1:00 p.m.
St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244
February 21st, 2025 | 7:00 p.m.
February 23rd, 2025 | 2:00 p.m.
Cantata Insights Series
Brich dem Hungrigen dein Brot, BWV 39
September 15th, 2024 | 6:00 p.m.
Sie werden euch in den Bann tun, BWV 44
October 20th, 2024 | 6:00 p.m.
Süßer Trost, mein Jesus kömmt, BWV 151
January 11th and 12th, 2025 | 6:00 p.m.
O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort, BWV 20
March 30th, 2025 | 6:00 p.m.
Wer sich selbst erhöhet, BWV 47
April 27th, 2025 | 6:00 p.m.
Reserve your tickets today! coloradobach.org
FROM THE NEW WORLD
Michael Butterman, Music Director
Tessa Lark, violin
January 12, 2025, 4:00 PM
Macky Auditorium
Stephen Lias
Wind, Water, Sand 10’ (b.1966)
*World Premiere
Michael Torke Sky 24’ (b.1961)
I. Lively
II. Wistful
III. Spirited
Tessa Lark, violin
- INTERMISSION -
Antonín Dvořák
Symphony No. 9 in E minor, op.95, “From the New World” 45’ (1841-1904)
Adagio; Allegro molto Largo
Scherzo: Molto vivace Allegro con fuoco
Special Thanks to our Featured Sponsors:
Program and artists subject to change. There may be professional photographers and recording crew present during our performances. All other photography or recording of any kind is strictly prohibited.
FROM THE NEW WORLD
ABOUT THE ARTIST
TESSA LARK
Violinist, composer, arranger, commissioner, Stradgrasser
Violinist Tessa Lark is one of the most captivating artistic voices of our time, consistently praised by critics and audiences for her astounding range of sounds, technical agility, and musical elegance. Increasingly in demand in the classical realm, in 2020 she was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Classical Instrumental Solo category. She is also a highly acclaimed fiddler in the tradition of her native Kentucky.
Following a busy summer, highlights of Lark’s 2024-25 season include returns to the BBC Symphony Orchestra in London, and the Rochester Philharmonic, and a debut with Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. In recital she will debut with San Francisco Symphony and the University of California at Santa Barbara. She reprises Michael Torke’s violin concerto, Sky – written for her – with the Boulder and Colorado Springs Philharmonic Orchestras, as well as the West Michigan, Williamsburg, Shreveport, and Tallahassee Symphony Orchestras. As a chamber musician, she will tour with her string trio project with composer-bassist Edgar Meyer and cellist Joshua Roman.
Lark’s most recent album, The Stradgrass Sessions, was released in spring 2023, and features an all-star roster of collaborators and composers. Her debut commercial recording was the Grammy-nominated Sky, a bluegrass-inspired violin concerto written for her by Michael Torke and performed with the Albany Symphony Orchestra. Her discography also includes Fantasy on First Hand Records, Invention, the debut album for the violinbass duo made up of Lark and bassist Michael Thurber, and a live performance Piazzolla’s Four Seasons of Buenos Aires by the Buffalo Philharmonic in honour of Piazzolla’s centenary.
Lark is a graduate of New England Conservatory and completed her Artist Diploma at The Juilliard School, She plays a ca. 1600 G.P. Maggini violin on loan from an anonymous donor through the Stradivari Society of Chicago.
PROGRAM NOTES
LIAS: Wind, Water, Sand
World Premiere
Wind, Water, Sand is a new orchestral work written in collaboration with Great Sand Dunes National Park. The music of adventurer-composer Stephen Lias (b. 1966) is regularly performed in concert and recital throughout the United States and abroad by soloists and ensembles including the Arianna Quartet, the Anchorage Symphony, the Oasis Quartet, the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival Orchestra, the Ensamble de Trompetas Simón Bolívar, the Boulder Philharmonic, and the Russian String Orchestra. His music is published by Alias Press, and distributed worldwide exclusively by Theodore Presser. His pieces are regularly featured at major national and international conferences including the International Trumpet Guild, the North American Saxophone Alliance, and the ISCM World Music Days. Lias served for eleven years as Composer in Residence and Music Director at the Texas Shakespeare Festival.
Stephen’s passion for wilderness and outdoor pursuits has led to a sizable series of works about the national parks of the US. He has served as Artist-in-Residence at Rocky Mountain, Glacier, Denali, Glacier Bay, Bering Land Bridge, and Gates of the Arctic National Parks, and has written over a dozen parkrelated pieces that have been performed in such far-flung places as Colorado, New Hampshire, Texas, Alaska, Sydney, and Taiwan. In 2017, his All the Songs that Nature Sings was commissioned by the Boulder Philharmonic with a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and performed at Washington D.C.’s Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Stephen is the creator of The Composers Site (now
FROM THE NEW WORLD
operated by Vox Novus) and the founder and leader of the annual Composing in the Wilderness program offered by the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival and Alaska Geographic.
Stephen Lias currently resides in Nacogdoches, Texas where he is Professor of Composition at Stephen F. Austin State University. When not composing and teaching, Stephen enjoys reading, backpacking, kayaking, skiing, travel, and photography.
TORKE:
Sky
This is the first performance by the Boulder Phil Program note from the composer:
Written in 2018, the inspiration for this concerto came from Tessa Lark, who premiered, recorded, and will be performing the work this year with Boulder Philharmonic, Colorado Springs Philharmonic, West Michigan, Williamsburg, Shreveport, and Tallahassee Symphony Orchestras. Tessa is a unique artist, in that not only is she deeply immersed in the classical field but comes from Kentucky, with a father who is a veteran Bluegrass musician, and has this style in her blood. Tessa and I worked together on an earlier piece of mine, Spoon Bread—a duo for violin and piano commissioned by Carnegie Hall—and it was during that period that the idea to write a concerto for her clicked.
Banjo-picking technique given to the solo violin was the departure point in the first movement. For the second movement my source material was Irish reels, the forerunner of American Bluegrass. The template for the third movement was fiddle licks with a triplet feel. In each case I wrote themes of my own in these styles, and developed the ideas into a standard, “composed” violin concerto. Everything is written out, nothing improvised.
Just as when one looks up and sees the open expanse of the sky, I felt an openness when writing this piece, a renewed freshness to putting notes together. I thank Tessa for opening this door and working so closely with me on this project.
DVOŘÁK: Symphony No. 9 in E minor, op.95, “From the New World”
Last performed by the Boulder Phil April 27, 2019, Gary Lewis conductor
Antonín Dvořák was born in Bohemia, the country we now know as the Czech Republic, and during the 1870s rose to prominence as his homeland’s foremost composer. In the years that followed, his fame speed throughout Europe and even across the Atlantic, where it attracted the notice of Jeanette Thurber, who had established a new conservatory of music in New York. In 1891 she invited Dvořák to the director of this school where he subsequently taught composition from 18921895. During his residence in America, he was outspoken in his views on American music, recommending that composers of the United States would be best served by using African American folk music as raw material for their compositions. The Boston Herald solicited responses to Dvořák’s statements from local composers, whose reactions varied from cautious skepticism to outright dismissiveness. The December 1893 premiere changed the landscape of American music. It immediately captivated American audiences, and it remains popular to this day. The composer Amy Beach noted Dvorak had limited experience of the tragic side of the African American experience, which restricted the emotional range of his composition. To her, the work lacked profundity and seriousness. Her symphony may be surmised in part as a response to Dvořák’s symphony with the use of Irish songs.
Dvořák declared that he intended the subtitle to mean “Impressions and greeting from the New World.” Dvořák told one correspondent: “I do know that I would never have written [it] ‘just so’ had I never seen America.” He frequently asked a Black composition student, Harry T. Burleigh, to sing and play him spirituals and songs by Stephen Foster. Burleigh also served as his copyist and secretary. According to Burleigh, “Dvořák just saturated himself with the spirit of these old tunes.”
The Symphony is remarkable for its sheer number of memorable tunes, nearly all of them are the sort that you hum going home from the concert. For the famous second movement, it has been loosely surmised that the slow movement was inspired by episodes in Longfellow’s Song of Hiawatha, which Dvořák had read in a Czech translation and, at Mrs. Thurber’s suggestion, was considering as the subject of an opera.
From the program notes for the premiere by the Philharmonic Society of New York, “Dvorak found…that the works which he created here [in America] were essentially different from those which had sprung into existence in his native country.
EThey were clearly influenced by the new surroundings and by the new life of which these were the material evidence… he strove in the present symphony to reproduce the fundamental characteristics of the melodies which he had found here, by means of the specifically musical resources which his inspiration furnished” Whatever the actual impact of this material on the “New World” Symphony, the composer believed it to be significant. Whatever he adopted, he did so through the mind of a Czech composer with nationalistic leanings.
Join us as we showcase the exquisite talents of our own orchestra in intimate set tings along with wine and hors d'oeuvres.
BOULDER PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA
Sonata Series
THURSDAY I JAN. 23, 2025 I 6 PM Featuring KELLAN TOOHEY,Principal Clarinet and SUYEON KIM, Piano
THURSDAY I APRIL 24, 2025 I 6 PM Featuring
MARGARET DYER-HARRIS, Principal Viola TICKETS AVAILABLE NOW
RACHMANINOV & STRAVINSKY
Michael Butterman, Music Director Alessio Bax, piano
March 30, 2025, 4:00 PM
Macky Auditorium Sponsored by Marion and Alex Thurnauer
Anna Clyne PIVOT
(b.1956)
Sergei Rachmaninov
(1873-1943)
Igor Stravinsky
(1882-1971)
Piano Concerto No.2, Op.18
I. Moderato
II. Adagio sostenuto
III. Allegro scherzando
Alessio Bax, piano
- INTERMISSION -
Pétrushka (1947)
Work sponsored by Susan Litt
Special Thanks to our Featured Sponsors:
Courtesy recording provided by Galle Studios
Program and artists subject to change. There may be professional photographers and recording crew present during our performances. All other photography or recording of any kind is strictly prohibited.
RACHMANINOV & STRAVINSKY
ABOUT THE ARTIST
ALESSIO BAX
Combining exceptional lyricism and insight with consummate technique, Alessio Bax is without a doubt “among the most remarkable young pianists now before the public” (Gramophone). He catapulted to prominence with First Prize wins at both the 2000 Leeds International Piano Competition and the 1997 Hamamatsu International Piano Competition and is now a familiar face on five continents as a recitalist, chamber musician, and concerto soloist. He has appeared with over 150 orchestras, including the New York, London, Royal, and St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestras, the Boston, Baltimore, Dallas, Cincinnati, Seattle, Sydney, and City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestras, and the Tokyo and NHK Symphony in Japan, collaborating with such eminent conductors as Marin Alsop, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Sir Andrew Davis, Hannu Lintu, Fabio Luisi, Sir Simon Rattle, Ruth Reinhardt, Yuri Temirkanov, and Jaap van Zweden.
Since 2017, he has been the Artistic Director of the Incontri in Terra di Siena Festival, a Summer Music Festival in the Val d’Orcia region of Tuscany. He appears regularly in festivals such as Seattle, Bravo Vail, Salon-de-Provence, Le Pont in Japan, Great Lakes, Verbier, Ravinia, Music@Menlo, Aspen and Tanglewood.
In 2009, he was awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant, and four years later he received both the Andrew Wolf Chamber Music Award and the Lincoln Center Award for Emerging Artists.
At the age of 14, Bax graduated with top honors from the conservatory of Bari, his hometown in Italy, and after further
studies in Europe, he moved to the United States in 1994. He has been on the piano faculty of Boston’s New England Conservatory since the fall of 2019 and serves as co-artistic director of the Joaquín Achúcarro Foundation for emerging pianists.
Bax lives in New York City with pianist Lucille Chung and their daughter, Mila.
PROGRAM NOTES
CLYNE: PIVOT
This is the first performance by the Boulder Philharmonic
Program Note from the composer:
PIVOT is inspired by my experiences at the Edinburgh Festival where I enjoyed an array of fantastic performances across the arts. It is this variety that I have tried to capture in PIVOT which, as the title suggests, pivots from one experience to another. The Pivot is also a former name of the 200-year-old folk music venue and pub in Edinburgh, The Royal Oak.
PIVOT quotes fragments of The Flowers of Edinburgh, a traditional fiddle tune of eighteenth-century Scottish lineage that is also prominent in American fiddle music and thus bridges between Edinburgh and St. Louis, where this music was premiered. Thank you to Aidan O’Rourke for his guidance on folk fiddle bowings and ornaments, which are incorporated into PIVOT.
Described as a “composer of uncommon gifts and unusual methods” in a New York Times profile and as “fearless” by NPR, GRAMMY-nominated Anna Clyne is one of the most in-demand composers today, working with orchestras, choreographers, filmmakers, and visual artists around the world.
RACHMANINOV & STRAVINSKY
Clyne has been commissioned and presented by the world’s most dynamic and revered arts institutions, including the Barbican, Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, Los Angeles Philharmonic, MoMA, Philharmonie de Paris, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, San Francisco Ballet, and the Sydney Opera House; and her music has opened such events as the Edinburgh International Festival, The Last Night of the Proms, and the New York Philharmonic’s 2021–2022 season.
RACHMANINOV: Piano Concert No.2
Last performed by the Boulder Phil September 13, 2015, Michael Butterman, conductor and Gabriela Montero, piano
Concerto No. 2 for Piano and Orchestra was a personal as well as a musical triumph for the composer. It is a piece of unforgettable themes and rhapsodic emotion. During his lifetime Rachmaninoff was prone to depression, and Stravinsky used to speak of his “everlasting six and a half foot scowl.” Rachmaninoff wrote these words about his early years: “Although I had to fight for recognition, as most younger men must, although I have experienced all the troubles and sorrow which precede success, and although I know how important it is for an artist to be spared such troubles, I realize, when I look back on my early life, that it was enjoyable, in spite of all its vexations and bitterness.” The greatest “bitterness” of Rachmaninoff’s career was the total failure of his Symphony No. 1 at its premiere in 1897, a traumatic disappointment that thrust him into such depression that he suffered a complete nervous collapse. An aunt of Rachmaninoff, Varvara Satina, had recently been successfully treated for an emotional disturbance by a certain Dr. Nicholas Dahl, a Moscow physician who was familiar with the latest psychiatric discoveries in France and Vienna, and it was arranged that Rachmaninoff should visit him. Years later, in his memoirs, the composer recalled the malady and the treatment: “[Following the performance of the First Symphony,] something within me snapped. A paralyzing apathy possessed me. I did nothing at all and found no pleasure in anything. Half my days were spent
on a couch sighing over my ruined life. My only occupation consisted in giving a few piano lessons to keep myself alive.” For more than a year, Rachmaninoff’s condition persisted. He began his daily visits to Dr. Dahl in January 1900. “My relatives had informed Dr. Dahl that he must by all means cure me of my apathetic condition and bring about such results that I would again be able to compose. Dahl had inquired what kind of composition was desired of me, and he was informed ‘a concerto for pianoforte.’ In consequence, I heard repeated, day after day, the same hypnotic formula, as I lay half somnolent in an armchair in Dr. Dahl’s consulting room: ‘You will start to compose a concerto — You will work with the greatest of ease — The composition will be of excellent quality.’ Always it was the same, without interruption.... Although it may seem impossible to believe,” Rachmaninoff continued, “this treatment really helped me. I started to compose again at the beginning of the summer.” In gratitude, he dedicated the new Concerto to Dr. Dahl. “Melody is music and the foundation of all music. I do not appreciate composers who abandon melody and harmony for an orgy of noises and dissonances,” Rachmaninoff asserted. Fulfilling this credo, the composer stuffed his Second Piano Concerto with an abundance of emotional, unforgettable tunes. Audiences around the world were delighted. During one of his tours in the United States, Rachmaninoff said, “These Americans cannot get enough of it.”
On October 14, 1901, he premiered his complete Second Piano Concerto in C minor with the Moscow Philharmonic conducted by Alexander Siloti. The outcome was wild, unfettered acclaim. (A partial Moscow premiere had taken place in December of 1900, with the second and third movements.).
Themes from the concerto have been extracted to become long-time favorites and the music was heard in several film scores such as Noel Coward’s Brief Encounter.
RACHMANINOV & STRAVINSKY
STRAVINSKY: Pétrushka
Last performed by the Boulder Phil February 19, 2005, Nicholas Carthy, conductor
Petrushka, Igor Stravinsky’s second ballet, began as a concert piece for piano and orchestra. This was Stravinsky’s second complete score for the Ballets Russes, following the success of The Firebird, premiered at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris in 1911, and arguably his first truly original and forwardlooking work. His initial idea was for a concert piece for piano representing “a puppet suddenly endowed with life, exasperating the patience of the orchestra with diabolical cascades of arpeggios,” as he later wrote. “The outcome is a terrific noise which reaches its climax and ends in the sorrowful and querulous collapse of the poor puppet.” After hearing the piano sketches, Diaghilev urged Stravinsky to recast the music into a ballet. He worked on the project between August 1910 and May 1911, in Lausanne and Clarens, Switzerland; Beaulieu, France; and Rome. Pierre Monteux conducted the premiere, performed by Les Ballets Russes at the Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris, on June 13, 1911. Petrushka was an unqualified success, earning rave reviews from critics and audiences alike. Set in 1830s Saint Petersburg, during Mardi Gras, the scenario hinges on a tragicomic involving three enchanted puppets, in thrall to a magician who has supplied them with human emotions. The action begins at the Shrovetide Fair, a boisterous pre-Lenten street party. Announced by a drum, the magician enters with his three quasi-human puppets: Petrushka, the Ballerina, and the Moor. This motley trio performs a frenzied Russian dance.
Next, the scene shifts to the clown’s meager room, where he weeps and rages over his enslavement before being joined by the Ballerina, who rejects his clumsy advances. In this scene we first hear the famous Petrushka chord: an alarming C over F-sharp that Stravinsky described as a “dual tonality.” In the third tableau, the desperate clown barges into the Moor’s room, where he discovers his nemesis embracing the Ballerina. Petrushka goes berserk, the Ballerina faints and the Moor shoves Petrushka out the door. In the final scene the puppets return to the fair, where, in the chaos of contrasting dances, the Moor slashes at Petrushka with his scimitar and flees with the Ballerina. While the magician tries to reassure the crowd that the dying clown is only a puppet, Petrushka’s ghost shows up to sass them one last time. “I wanted the dialogue for trumpets in two keys at the end to show that [Petrushka’s] ghost is still insulting the public,” Stravinsky wrote. “I was, and am, more proud of these last pages than of anything else in the score.”
In 1946-47 Stravinsky revised the ballet’s instrumentation so that he could copyright the music and make it more dynamic as a concert piece. He corrected several errors that he had noticed in previous performances and score editions, and he reduced the original instrumentation, toning down the brass and woodwinds while boosting the piano’s prominence.
Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875)
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Ms Marilyn Gallant
Lin & Matthew Hawkins
Judy & Steve Knapp
Maihaugen Foundation
Erma Mantey
Marla & Jerry Meehl in memory of Esther Sparn and Eileen Meehl
The Millstone Evans Group
Karyn Sawyer
Lynn Streeter
Westland Development
$2,500+
Center Copy
Alan Davis
Flatirons Bank
Ms. Carolyn Grant
Sara & David Harper
Mr. John Hedderich
Christine Yoshinaga-Itano & Wayne Itano
Mr Jeffrey Kash
John Lichter
Lewis Harvey & Miriam Linschoten
Margaret & Rodolfo Perez
Mark Ragan
Michele & Michael Ritter
Nancy & Gary Rosenthal
Daniel & Boyce Sher
Natalie Springett
$1,000+
Anonymous
Aaron Copland Fund for Music
Debra Brindis
Frances Burton
Michael Butterman & Jennifer Carsillo
Toni & Nelson Chen
Jenny & Terry Cloudman
Create Boulder and Visit Boulder
Pamela Dennis
Gayle C. Ellis
Beverly & Bruce Fest
Fisher Auto
Ruth & Carl Forsberg
Randy & Bill Ganter
Peggy Lemone & Peter Gilman
Elyse Grasso
Tor Hansson
Chuck Hardesty
Laurie Hathorn
Lin & Matthew Hawkins
Janet Hendricks
Constance Holden
Suzanne & David Hoover
Karen & Stewart Hoover
Carolyn & Sam Johnson
Thomas Kinder
Bonnie Kirschenbaum
KUNC
Joyce & Jerry Laiserin
Ray & Margot LaPanse
Susan Litt
Barbara & Peter Loris
Heidi & Jerry Lynch
Robert Lynch
Annyce Mayer
Pamela McKelvey
Cindy & Mark Meyer
Priscilla Newbury
Martha Oetzel
Susan Olenwine & Frank Palermo
Patricia Read & Bill Shunk
James Repjar
Professor Juan Roederer
Luana Rubin in memory of Carolye Johnson
SavATree Boulder
Jane & Ross Sheldon
Gregory Silvus
Simms Family Foundation
Ron Sinton
Carol & Arthur Smoot
Pamela Walker
Rena & Ronny Wells
Ken & Ruth Wright
$500+
Ken Aiken in memory of Irene
Kurzweil
Amy & Terry Britton
Colorado Gives Foundation
Grant Couch
Warren DeHaan
Kathleen Fry
Wes Garland
Susan Graf
Susan & Gustavo Grampp
Joanna Grasso
Jo Ann Joselyn
Eyal Kaplan
Ellen Dale & Buddy Kring
Judith Auer & George Lawrence
Judy & Alan Megibow
Francine & Robert Myers
Otter Island Foundation
Molly Parrish
Thomas Riis
Richard And Joan Ringoen
Family Foundation, Inc.
Charlotte Roehm
William Roettker
Jane & Leo Schumacher
Anne Tapp
Shelby & Nicholas Vanderborgh
Dr Celia & John Waterhouse
Kathy & Ed Wittman
Fran Zankowski
$250+
Anonymous
Patricia Angell
Tamar Barkay
Roshmi & Jaydip Bhaumik
Trudy Bortz & Joe Boyer
Cherilynn Cathey
Norma & Roger Cichorz
Karen Connolly
Charlotte Corbridge
Donabeth Downey
Claire & Art Figel
Andrew Gettelman
Larry Graham
Andrea Grant
Josephine Heath
Jeannette & David Hillery
Eileen Kintsch
Robb & Amy Krenz
Janet & Hunter McDaniel
Jean & Scott Nelson
Barbara & Irwin Neulight
Kathleen Miller & Richard Nishikawa
Linda & Christopher Paris
Jim Pendleton
Monika Rutkowski
Mary Scarpino
Marjorie & Bob Schaffner
Laura & David Skaggs
Linda & Stephen Sparn
Sondra Bland & Robert Spencer
Glen & Bonnie Strand
Elizabeth Tilton
Marianne Van Pelt
Jack Walker
Paul Weber
Wendy & Richard Wolf
The Boulder Phil also expresses its deep appreciation for the donors who supported us with financial and in-kind contributions under $250.
Your Gift Makes Joy Possible
When childcare is affordable, everyone benefits! Children, families and communities thrive when working parents have access to affordable care and children have opportunities to connect with supportive mentors. That’s why the Y works to make childcare accessible to under-resourced families in our communities.
But we need your help!
Donate today to give families access to programs that uplift, empower and nurture.
Give at ymcanoco.org
Takács Quartet: September-April
Hänsel und Gretel: Oct. 25 and 27
Pablo Sáinz Villegas, guitar : Nov. 9
Boston Brass + Brass All-Stars Big Band: Dec. 14
Renée Fleming, soprano : Jan. 31
Sweet Honey in the Rock: Feb. 28
The Pirates of Penzance: March 14-16 Tickets and more
Renée Fleming
Photo by Andrew Eccles/Decca
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