Yale Philharmonia: Rimsky-Korsakov, Walton, Vaughan Williams

THE PHILHARMONIA ORCHESTRA OF YALE ja n ua r y 2 2 , 2 0 10 路 f rid ay, 8 pm 路 wools e y h all

Peter Oundjian guest conductor

nikolai rimsky-korsakov Capriccio espagnol, Op. 34

william walton Violin Concerto I. Andante tranquillo II. Presto capriccioso alla napolitana III. Vivace Katie Hyun violin

Intermission

ralph vaughan williams Symphony No. 5 I. Preludio II. Scherzo III. Romanza IV. Passacaglia

As a courtesy to others, please silence all cell phones and devices. Photography of any kind is strictly prohibited. Please do not leave the hall during musical selections. Thank you.

Robert Blocker, Dean

pro g ra m no tes Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov » 1844-1908 capriccio espagnol Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov was born in 1844 in Tikhvin, a small town outside of St. Petersburg, Russia. He was raised in a musical family but did not pursue music seriously until he met Mily Balarikev, an older composer who encouraged him to pursue composition professionally. As he came to maturity as a composer, Rimsky-Korsakov became more and more interested in creating a national identity for Russian composers. Along with his compatriots Balakirev, César Cui, Alexander Borodin, and perhaps most notably Modest Mussorgsky (a group known as “The Five” or “The Mighty Handful”), Rimsky-Korsakov strove to create a Russian style that was based on native folk music. The Five were not interested in simply imitating their German, French, and Italian counterparts; they were interested in creating music infused with the character of their homeland.

Given this, it is curious that one of RimskyKorsakov’s best-known works is his Capriccio Espagnol, Op. 34, an orchestral fantasy based on Spanish themes. Perhaps this is because the festive and gleeful Asturian music that inspired the work allowed Rimsky-Korsakov to display one of his greatest gifts as a composer—that of a brilliant orchestral colorist.

The Capriccio, which is cast in five sections, opens with vibrant fanfare-like music. Entitled Alborada, this section introduces high clarinets that announce the opening theme. Soon they are joined with a solo violin, which plays a protagonist-like role throughout the piece.

The second section, a set of theme and variations, opens with a gentle melody performed on the French horn. Ever the brilliant orchestrator, RimskyKorsakov’s variations are based on timbre. Each time the melody is repeated, it is performed by new instrument: the English horn, the trombone, and finally the strings.

The third section, again called Alborada, is a nearrepeat of the opening section, except that it has been transposed to a new key– giving the section an even more brilliant sound.

A fourth section, Scena e Canto Gitano (“Scene and Gypsy Song”), is announced by a drum roll and a brass fanfare. In this section, Rimsky’s great skill with instrumentation comes to the fore in five sensuous cadenzas for brass, solo violin, clarinet, and harp.

The Scena e Canto lead seamlessly into the final section, Fandango Asturiano, a wild and intense dance whose exotic use of modes evokes the character of Spanish folk music. The piece closes with a final and brilliant statement of the Alborada.

William Walton » 1902-1983

Ralph Vaughan Williams » 1872-1958

violin concerto

symphony no. 5

William Walton was also born into a musical family, in Lancashire, England. As a youngster, he was a chorister in the famous Christ Church Cathedral at Oxford and later attended Christ Church College at Oxford University. He was largely self-taught as a composer, though he received tutelage from his music professors at Oxford.

Ralph Vaughan Williams studied music at the Royal College of Music in London and at Trinity College, Oxford. However, it was his studies with Maurice Ravel in Paris that were the most formative.

Like Ravel’s work, Vaughan Williams’s music is brilliantly orchestrated while maintaining the clarity in its intentions. And like Ravel, there is a strong interest in folk and popular music. But while Ravel looked to American jazz, Greek melodies, and Spanish rhythms, Vaughan Williams turned to his native English folk music as inspiration. The modal quality of Vaughan Williams’s music is often associated with his work.

While Walton’s earlier works were considered avant-garde, often incorporating dissonance and jazz harmonies (quite radical for the 1920s and ’30s), he soon developed the mature and distinctive voice that characterizes his Violin Concerto of 1939—a voice combining the rhythmic drive of Stravinsky and Prokofiev with the romantic language of his English predecessor Edward Elgar.

The Violin Concerto was written for the great virtuoso Jascha Heifetz and was premiered by the Cleveland Orchestra, conducted by Artur Rodziński.

Cast in three distinct movements, the work opens solemnly, with low clarinets giving way to a romantic and powerful melody performed by the solo violin. The movement slowly grows in intensity until finally the solo violin is overwhelmed by a powerful and emotional orchestral tutti.

The second movement, Presto capriccioso alla napolitana (lively and capricious, in the Neapolitan style) is as light and careless as the first movement is solemn and lyrical. The movement features tarantella-like rhythms that punctuate the opening section. A central slower section briefly interrupts the quick pace, but soon enough the lively motion returns in the solo violin and orchestra and the movement is brought to a raucous climax before drawing to a quiet, if pensive, close.

The third movement, Vivace (lively) opens with a sprightly melody in the cellos and basses. Quickly the violin enters. There are no grand statements to introduce the violin: it enters gently and jovially.

But it soon begins to sing a gentle melody that floats over the orchestra. Throughout the movement, at turns grand and tender, the violin leads the orchestra, bringing together the lyricism of the opening movement with the energy of the second.

The movement’s close is regal, wild, intense.

His Fifth Symphony opens with a Preludio filled with folk-like material. The use of the Mixolydian mode gives the work an almost medieval temperament that immediately separates it from many of the symphonies composed at the time, with a sound that is both traditional and new.

The second movement, Scherzo, is a light and graceful three-part dance characterized by jaunty rhythms and folk-like material. Timpani and brass hits punctuate a central section before returning to more pastoral mood that ends the movement.

The third movement, Romanza, draws heavily on themes from Vaughan Williams’s opera The Pilgram’s Progress. The opening English horn melody is taken from an aria, “He hath given me rest by his sorrow and life by his death.” The intense spirituality suggested by such a line is mirrored by the expressive string ensemble writing, and by the emotional and intense climaxes that proliferate throughout the movement.

The symphony closes with a Passacaglia, a baroque dance form based on a ground bass—that is, a repeated bass line continues while the melodies and harmonies above them evolve. While not gleeful enough to suggest a classical symphonic conclusion (“there was some trouble, but all’s well that ends well”), the work does close with a deep spiritual contentment that is one of the celebrated hallmarks of Vaughan Williams’s work.

—Christopher Cerrone

The manuscript of this work resides in the Frederick R. Koch Collection at Yale’s Beinecke Library.

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Peter Oundjian guest conductor

A dynamic presence in the orchestral world, Peter Oundjian continues to make his mark as one of today’s most exciting faces on the conducting scene. His strong bond with the musicians and community of Toronto continues through his sixth season as music director of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Through his communicative gifts on and off the podium, Mr. Oundjian’s concerts draw capacity audiences. His probing musicality, collaborative spirit, and engaging personality have earned him accolades from musicians and critics alike.

The accomplishments of Mr. Oundjian and the TSO continue to spread worldwide through the acclaimed “TSO Live” recording series, featuring stunning and impassioned performances of Elgar, Mussorgsky and Bruckner, their first appearance together at Carnegie Hall in a powerful program of Strauss and Shostakovich in 2008, and the award-winning Rhombus Media documentary Five Days In September: The Rebirth of An Orchestra, which has been issued on DVD. In addition to his post in Toronto, Peter Oundjian is principal guest conductor of the Detroit Symphony, where he helped to create and launch an innovative multi-disciplinary festival during his tenure as the orchestra’s artistic advisor. In the 2009-10 season, in addition to multiple appearances in Toronto and Detroit, Mr. Oundjian returns to many of the orchestras with which he has built ongoing relationships, including the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Chicago and St. Louis Symphonies, and the Caramoor, Aspen and Music Academy of the West summer festivals. European engagements include the Royal Scottish National and Budapest Festival Orchestras.

Born in Toronto, Peter Oundjian was educated in England, where he studied the violin with Manoug Parikian. Subsequently, he attended the Royal College of Music in London, where he was awarded the Gold Medal for most distinguished student and the Stoutzker Prize for excellence in violin playing.

He completed his violin training at the Juilliard School, where he studied with Ivan Galamian, Itzhak Perlman, and Dorothy DeLay. He was the first violinist of the renowned Tokyo String Quartet for fourteen years. In May 2009 Mr. Oundjian received an honorary doctorate from the San Francisco Conservatory. Mr. Oundjian is now in his twenty-eighth year as a visiting professor at the Yale School of Music. He and his wife Nadine have two children, Lara and Peter.

Katie Hyun violin

Violinist Katie Hyun received her Artist Diploma at the Yale School of Music, studying with Ani Kavafian. She received her master’s degree at the State University of New York in Stony Brook, where she studied with Pamela Frank, Ani Kavafian, and Philip Setzer. She studied with Aaron Rosand and Pamela Frank at the Curtis Institute of Music, where she received her bachelor’s degree.

Katie started violin at the age of five and made her recital debut in 1994. She has performed as a soloist with the Houston Symphony, Dallas Chamber Orchestra, Concerto Soloists Orchestra (Philadelphia), the Philadelphia Orchestra, and “Up Close and Musical,” a string orchestra composed of members of the Colorado Symphony. Winner of the Philadelphia Orchestra Albert M. Greenfield Student Competition, she has also won the 2005 Stony Brook Concerto Competition, 2004 Aspen Academy Orchestra Concerto Competition, 2003 Music Academy of the West Concerto Competition, 2000 Concerto Soloists Young Artists Competition, the 1996 gold medal in the Houston Symphony League Competition, and the Greater Dallas Youth Orchestra Concerto Competition at age 11.

Katie has appeared on the television program “Good Morning Texas,” and on Garrison Keillor’s “Prairie Home Companion” (NPR) with bassist Nathan Farrington. In 2006, she was invited by bassist Edgar Meyer to collaborate with him at the Laguna Beach Chamber Music Festival, and she also participated in his Carnegie Hall Workshop. During the summers, she has attended Encore School for Strings, Kneisel Hall, Music Academy of the West, Aspen, Taos Festival of Music, Music@Menlo, Yellow Barn, and Masterclass at Apeldoorn.

a b o ut yal e p h ilharmonia

w The Philharmonia Orchestra of Yale is one of America’s foremost music school ensembles. The largest performing group at the Yale School of Music, the Philharmonia offers superb training in orchestral playing and repertoire.

shinik hahm Conductor

Performances include an annual series of concerts in Woolsey Hall, as well as Yale Opera productions in the Shubert Theater. The Yale Philharmonia has also performed on numerous occasions in Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, and the Kennedy Center.

The orchestra undertook its first tour of Asia in 2008, with acclaimed performances in the Seoul Arts Center, the Forbidden City Concert Hall and National Center for the Performing Arts (Beijing), and the Shanghai Grand Theatre.

renata steve Librarian

krista johnson Managing Director

roberta senatore Production Assistant farkhad khudyev Assistant Conductor adrian slywotzky Assistant Conductor

The Philharmonia Orchestra of Yale VIOLIN 1 Marjolaine Lambert, concertmaster Ruby Chen Yeseul Ann Igor Pikayzen Sae Rom Yoo Jiyun Han Piotr Filochowski Yoorhi Choi Jane Kim Alissa Cheung Qi Cao Sun Min Hwang Evan Shallcross Edson Scheid de Andrade VIOLIN 2 Hyewon Kim, principal Domenic Salerni Anastasia Metla Youngsun Kim David Southorn Marc Daniel van Biemen Ju Hyung Shin Igor Kalnin Naria Kim Jae-Won Bang Hanna Na Alexander Read Kensho Watanabe VIOLA Janice Lamarre, principal Kristin Chai Amina Myriam Tebini Eve Tang Mathilde Geismar Roussel Vesselin Todorov Eren Tuncer Christopher Williams Raul Garcia Hyun-Jung Lee Minjung Chun Edwin Kaplan

CELLO Sunhee Jeon, principal Philo Lee Jee Eun Song Jung Min Han Wonsun Keem Kyung Mi Anna Preuss Alvin Yan Ming Wong Ying Zhang Yoon Hee Ko Arnold Choi Mo Mo Neena Deb-Sen

HORN Katherine Herman, 2 Christopher Jackson, 2, 3 Timothy Riley, 1, 2* Leelanee Sterrett, 2 Ryan Stewart, 1* Elizabeth Upton, 1, 3* Tianxia Wu, 1, 2 TRUMPET Paul Florek, 1 Douglas Lindsey, 1* Ryan Olsen, 2* Kyle Sherman, 3* Andreas Stoltzfus, 2 David Wharton, 3

BASS Mark Wallace, principal Aleksey Klyushnik Alexander Smith Eric Fischer Nathaniel Chase Michael Levin

TROMBONE Achilleas Liarmakopoulos, 2, 3* Brian Reese, 1, 2* Ruben Rodriguez, 1*, 3

FLUTE Mindy Heinsohn, 1, 2* Itay Lantner, 1 (Piccolo), 3* Christopher Matthews, 2 (Piccolo) Dariya Nikolenko, 1*, 3

BASS TROMBONE Craig Watson, 1, 2, 3

OBOE Alexandra Detyniecki, 2* Emily Holum, 1 (English Horn), 3 (English Horn) Carl Oswald, 1*, 2 (English Horn) Joseph Peters, 3*

HARP Keturah Bixby, 2* Maura Valenti, 1*

CLARINET Jaehee Choi, 1*, 2* Soo Jin Huh, 1, 2 In Hyung Hwang, 3 Sara Wollmacher, 3* BASSOON Micahla Cohen, 1*, 2*, 3 Jennifer Hostler, 1, 2, 3*

TUBA Bethany Wiese

PERCUSSION Yun-Chu Chiu, 1 John Corkill, 1, 2 Leonardo Gorosito, 1 Dennis Petrunin, 1, 2, 3* Ian Rosenbaum 1*, 2* Michael Zell, 1 1- Performer in Rimsky-Korsakov 2- Performer in Walton 3- Performer in Vaughan Williams *- Principal Player

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