AUGUST 4, 2015 @ 7:30 PM

ECCO, East Coast Chamber Orchestra

Judd Greenstein, (1979- ), Four on the Floor, 2006

Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber, (1644-1704), Battalia à 10 in D Major, C.61, (1673)

I. Sonata
II. Die liederliche Gesellschaft von allerley Humor
III. Presto
IV. Der Mars
V. Presto
VI. Aria
VII. Die Schlacht
VIII. Adagio. Lamento der Verwundten Musquetirer

Francesco Geminiani / Michi Wiancko, (1687-1762) / (1976 – ), “La Follia” Variations for String
Orchestra

INTERMISSION

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, (1840-1893), Serenade for Strings in C Major, Op. 48, (1880)

I. Pezzo in forma di Sonatina: Andante non troppo – Allegro moderato – Andante non
troppo
II. Waltz: Moderato
III. Elégie: Larghetto elegiaco
IV. Finale: (Théma russe): Andante – Allegro con spirit – Molto meno mosso –
Allegro con spirit

**The performance of ECCO has been made possible by a generous grant from Andrea and Guillaume Cuvelier.**
WQXR HOST: Naomi Lewin

WQXR will broadcast every concert in this series live on 105.9 FM and via live stream at www.wqxr.org

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

ECCO
In 2001, a group of musicians – colleagues and friends from leading conservatories and music festivals across the country – collectively envisioned the creation of a democratically‐run, self-conducted chamber orchestra that would thrive on the pure joy and camaraderie of classical music making. This organic approach and high level of passion and commitment resulted in ECCO, a dynamic collective that combines the strength and power of a great orchestral ensemble with the personal involvement and sensitivity of superb chamber music.

ECCO is comprised of some of today’s most vibrant and gifted young string players — soloists, chamber musicians, principals of major American orchestras, and GRAMMY award winners. ECCO members play with the symphony orchestras of Minnesota, San Francisco, Chicago, St. Louis, Seattle and Boston among others. Members also play with the Enso, Jasper, Johannes, Jupiter, and Parker Quartets, as well as the Horszowski Trio, Trio Cavatina, Sejong Soloists, Time for Three, and Chamber Music Society II.  For a few concentrated periods of time each year, the members of ECCO meet for rehearsal and musical exploration. Cooking, eating, enjoying close friendships and now sharing tips for raising the next generation of ECCO are important aspects of their gatherings. Along with musical exploration, there is always an intense discussion to be had about the joys and challenges of maintaining a truly communal creative organization.

In 2012 ECCO celebrated its first decade of friendship and discovery with the release of its first commercial recording. It includes Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings in C Major Op. 48, Shostakovich’s Chamber Symphony in C minor, Op. 110a and the exuberant and surprising “La Follia” Variations for String Orchestra, arranged by ECCO’s own Michi Wiancko after Francesco Geminiani’s Concerto Grosso No. 12 in D minor.

ECCO’s 2015-16 season includes the premieres of two commissioned works by composers Christopher Theofanidis and Pierre Jalbert. This season they will make their debuts at the Naumburg Orchestral Concerts in New York’s Central Park and the Nasher Series of the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas, TX along with return visits to the Skaneateles Festival, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, and Peoples’ Symphony Concerts. For more info see: eccorchestra.org

THE NEW YORK TIMES

All Together Now, No Leader Needed
East Coast Chamber Orchestra at Tishman Auditorium

By ZACHARY WOOLFE

MARCH 17, 2014
There is a warm glow to the sound of the East Coast Chamber Orchestra, a conductorless ensemble made up of members of a variety of American orchestras and quartets.

That tonal radiance was there throughout the wide range of repertory the orchestra played in a concert on Sunday afternoon at the New School’s Tishman Auditorium, from the noble harmonies of Gesualdo’s “Tristis Est Anima Mea” to a Mozart divertimento to work by the players’ contemporaries, including a recent commission, David Ludwig’s “Virtuosity: Five Microconcertos for String Orchestra” (2013). Everything the group touched felt balanced and bright.

The poise of the sound was all the more remarkable given that, of the six works, only Mr. Ludwig’s was composed for string orchestra; the others were heard in generally persuasive arrangements. Only the violinist and composer Michi Wiancko’s version of Satie’s “Gymnopédie No. 1,” originally for solo piano, seemed to gain clotted textures as it was ramped up for 18 string players.

Without the voices for which it was written, Gesualdo’s music seemed, if anything, overly polished and polite, its dissonances more distant than dangerous. The orchestra played the delicate and gauzy passages beautifully — it was impressive throughout the concert to hear so many people reduce their collective sound to a sliver — but I was left with a muted impression in a work that can terrify.

Most effective were three arrangements of works originally written for string quartet. Mozart’s Divertimento in B flat (K. 137) opened the concert with silky grace. The first movement of Ravel’s String Quartet in F, in the orchestra’s own arrangement, was as gentle and agile as the original, but was also shot through with new thickets of complexity. The meatiness of the group’s sound brought a new savagery to the second movement: Written in 1903, the work began to seem like a premonition of Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring” from a decade later.

The ingratiating bustle of Judd Greenstein’s quartet “Four on the Floor” (2006) transferred well to this larger group. But it was about as bland as Mr. Ludwig’s “Virtuosity,” which sends a solo part traveling around the orchestra as it alternates benignly between frenetic and relaxed passages.

But there are piquant moments. At one point, cellos and violas whisper underneath a soulful solo cello melody, and neo-Baroque unanimity near the end dissolves into clever snaps, slaps and slides under a stern double bass solo. And the orchestra, as always, played luminously.

SEE ALSO
http://www.franksalomon.com/ecco

Their program includes Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings in C Major Op. 48 and the exuberant and surprising “La Follia” Variations for String Orchestra, arranged by ECCO’s own Michi Wiancko after Francesco Geminiani’sConcerto Grosso No. 12 in D minor.

Michi Wiancko, comppser:
Sculpting a diverse musical life for herself as a violinist, composer, arranger, and song-writer, Michi Wiancko has been described in Gramophone magazine as an “alluring soloist with heightened expressive and violinistic gifts.” She made her solo debuts with the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonics, and in 2011 she released an album on Naxos of the virtuosic violin works of Émile Sauret.

As a composer, Michi’s most recent projects include commissions from the Enso String Quartet and Sybarite5. In 2014, Michi’s work was premiered at the Ecstatic Music Festival by the electro-acoustic composer collective, Bright Wave. In November 2015, she will be premiering a new work on the Liquid Music Series in St. Paul, MN.

As an arranger, Michi’s re-composition of Geminiani’s “La Follia” has been performed by orchestras across the country, and recorded by the East Coast Chamber Orchestra on E1 Records. Michi is currently working with The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra as their “resident arranger,” and creating several substantial works for them over the course of the season. She has also arranged her own works for the Silk Road Ensemble and The Knights.

As a song-writer and singer, Michi has performed her own brand of chamber pop under the name Kono Michi throughout the east coast and the UK. She premiered her critically-acclaimed album, “9 Death Haiku,” at Symphony Space’s Thalia Theater in New York, and The Strad described her sound as “intriguing and exquisitely beautiful…music that breaks through the pop classical barrier.”

Michi started playing the violin at the age of 3. She holds a B.Mus. in performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music and a master’s degree from The Juilliard School, where she studied with the Donald Weilerstein and Robert Mann, respectively.

JULY 21, 2015 @ 7:30 PM

Orpheus Chamber Orchestra

Franz Joseph Haydn, (1732-1809), Symphony No. 1 in D Major, 1759, Hoboken l/1
I. Presto
II. Andante
III. Presto

Richard Wagner, (1813-1883), Siegfried Idyll, 1870, WWV. 103

INTERMISSION

Ludwig Van Beethoven, (1770-1827), Symphony No. 7 in A Major, Op. 92, 1813
I. Poco sostenuto- Vivace
II. Allegretto
III. Presto-Assai meno presto (trio)
IV. Allegro con brio

WQXR HOST: Annie Bergen

WQXR will broadcast every concert in this series live on 105.9 FM and via live stream at www.wqxr.org

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

MUSICAL NOTES
Notes on the Program – By Aaron Grad

Siegfried Idyll [1870]
RICHARD WAGNER
Born May 22, 1813 in Leipzig, Germany
Died February 13, 1883 in Venice, Italy

For orchestra consisting of flute, oboe, 2 clarinets, bassoon, 2 horns, trumpet, and strings. Approximately 18 minutes.

Cosima Wagner was the illegitimate daughter of Franz Liszt and his longtime mistress, a French-German countess. Raised in Paris by her grandmother, Cosima went on to marry her former piano teacher, the conductor Hans von Bülow. She was unhappy in her marriage, and neither her Catholic faith nor concerns over her two young children were enough to deter her from pursuing her infatuation with Richard Wagner, twenty-four years her senior and also married at the time the two met. They consummated their affair in 1864, and Cosima gave birth in April 1865 to Wagner’s daughter Isolde. The birth coincided with rehearsals for the premiere of Wagner’s opera Tristan und Isolde, conducted by none other than Cosima’s cuckolded husband.

Cosima spent long periods living in Wagner’s house at Tribschen, overlooking Lake Lucerne in Switzerland, and she bore him a second daughter, Eva, in February 1867. She finally asked von Bülow for a divorce and moved in with Wagner permanently in 1868. She gave birth to her third child by Wagner in June 1869, a boy they called Siegfried in honor of Wagner’s opera-in-progress by that name. The divorce was finalized in July 1870, and Richard and Cosima Wagner were married a month later.

Wagner capped that momentous year with an extraordinary birthday present for his thirty-three-year-old bride. On Christmas morning (she was actually born on the 24th, but she celebrated her birthday a day later), he woke up Cosima with the sounds of a fifteen-piece chamber orchestra piled onto the staircase outside her bedroom. She described the experience in her diary:

When I woke up I heard a sound, it grew ever louder, I could no longer imagine myself in a dream, music was sounding, and what music! After it had died away Richard came in to me with the five children and put into my hands the score of his Symphonic Birthday Greeting. I was in tears, but so, too, was the whole household; Richard had set up an orchestra on the stairs and thus consecrated our Tribschen forever! The Tribschen Idyll—thus the work is called!

The title Wagner inscribed on the original score was Tribschen Idyll with Fidi-Birdsong and Orange Sunrise, presented as a symphonic birthday greeting to his Cosima by her Richard. “Fidi-Birdsong and Orange Sunrise” were references to the sights and sounds Wagner remembered from the early morning birth of their son, nicknamed Fidi. The familiar title Siegfried Idyll came later, when the cash-strapped Wagner offered this private memento for publication.

The opening melody of the Siegfried Idyll comes from a sketch Wagner made in 1864, not long after he began his affair with Cosima. The same theme appears in Act III of Siegfried, sung by Brünnhilde to the words, “Eternal I was, eternal I am, eternal in sweet, Yearning bliss, yet eternal for your sake!” The Idyll also incorporates a traditional lullaby, Schlafe, Kindchen, schlaf, which Wagner transcribed in 1868. Most of the work retains a sweet, dreamy quality; it makes only one powerful surge, with triumphant music fashioned after a leitmotif associated with the title character in Siegfried. (For the premiere, family friend and conductor Hans Richter taught himself to play trumpet just for that thirteen-measure passage.) A gentle version of the same Siegfried motive brings this magical Idyll to a hushed conclusion.

Symphony No. 1 in D Major [c. 1757-59]
FRANZ JOSEPH HAYDN
Born March 31, 1732 in Rohrau, Austria
Died May 31, 1809 in Vienna, Austria

For orchestra consisting of 2 oboes, bassoon, 2 horns, and strings. Approximately 11 minutes.

Joseph Haydn did not come from a particularly musical family, but he showed early promise when he began singing for the church choir in Rohrau, a small village in lower Austria. At six he moved to a nearby town to live and study with a relative who ran a school and choir, and at eight he was recruited for the choir school at St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna, where he also studied keyboard and violin. His education ended when his voice broke at seventeen, and he left school to scrape by as a freelancer in Vienna, giving lessons and performing while continuing to teach himself composition.

Haydn’s first stable job was to serve as Kapellmeister to one Count Morzin, possibly starting in 1757, which is also the date Haydn later assigned to his Symphony No. 1. Other sources dispute the ordering of the symphonies and cite 1759 as the start of the Morzin tenure; regardless, the Symphony in D Major was among Haydn’s earliest efforts in the fledgling genre, at a time when Baroque heroes Handel and Telemann were still alive, and when the Classical style was in its infancy.

The man we would come to call “the father of the symphony” was not the first to write such a work. Haydn’s model was the Italian opera overture, or Sinfonia, typically constructed in three sections. The Symphony No. 1 in D Major resembles that Italian model, with fast outer movements surrounding a slow movement. The first movement, set in a spry Presto tempo, launches with a rising, drawn-out crescendo, a type of effect popularized by the crack orchestra in Mannheim, Germany. The movement maintains the balance, proportion and lightness we expect from a Haydn symphony, and there are hints of his signature wit in the surprising shifts of momentum and harmonic detours.

The Andante (“Walking”) tempo and energizing triplets propel the slow movement forward with distinctive gusto. The telltale motive is a falling arpeggio outlining a triad—usually major triads, but also some well-timed minor triads that amplify the drama. The closing Presto movement, set in a rollicking triple meter, is a forerunner of Haydn’s many hunt-inspired finales. The frequent scooping into melodic notes from a half-step below gives the movement a folksy, chuckling attitude.

Symphony No. 7 in A Major, Op. 92 [1812]
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN
Born December 1770 in Bonn, Germany
Died March 26, 1827 in Vienna, Austria

For orchestra consisting of 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, and strings. Approximately 36 minutes.

In 1811, the ailing Beethoven took his doctor’s advice and summered in the Bohemian spa town of Teplitz. The trip succeeded in refreshing Beethoven’s health and spirits, and soon he started on a new symphony, his first in three years. He completed the Symphony No. 7 the following spring, and began work immediately on his Eighth Symphony. His return visit to Teplitz in 1812 was a more heartbreaking affair: He penned unsent love letters to his mysterious “Immortal Beloved,” possibly Antonie Brentano, a married woman from Frankfurt; he also had a disappointing introduction to his literary hero, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, about whom Beethoven complained, “He delights far too much in the court atmosphere, far more than is becoming in a poet.”

With the Napoleonic Wars disrupting concert life in Vienna, the Seventh Symphony did not reach the public until the end of 1813. On December 8, Beethoven conducted a benefit concert for wounded soldiers from the Battle of Hanau, featuring the premiere of Wellington’s Victory, or, the Battle of Vitoria, a bombastic orchestral account of the conflict, complete with six trumpets, ten percussionists creating martial sound effects, and triumphant variations on God Save the King. Beethoven’s “Battle Symphony” stole the show, but the debut of the Seventh Symphony made an impression, too, with the audience demanding an encore of the Allegretto movement.

The symphony begins with an introduction, the structure favored by Haydn in his late symphonies. Typically this would be a slow introduction, but Beethoven’s Poco sostenuto tempo has unusual forward drive, its momentum reinforced by repeated notes and rising scales. The introduction is also of an unprecedented length, lasting nearly four minutes before a single repeated pitch links into the lively Vivace continuation, set in a triple meter infused with the snap of dotted rhythms.

The second movement again defies the expectation of slow music, appearing as a nimble Allegretto in A minor. It explores a distinctive rhythmic stamp (long, short-short, long, long), advancing a simple theme while expanding the scoring from lower strings to the full orchestra. A contrasting major-key section with broad phrases and pulsing pizzicato intervenes twice, but variants of the opening figure return each time as the heartbeat of the music, even when it is reduced to a skeletal final statement.

The Presto third movement is a Scherzo in all but name, Beethoven’s supercharged answer to Haydn’s minuets. It features cheeky rhythmic play and sudden dynamic contrast, as would be expected from a palate-cleansing third movement; more surprising is the strangely earnest trio section, with winds intoning a hymn-like chorale over droning violins. Instead of the typical three-part structure in which the trio appears once as a central departure, here it enters twice and then echoes again in the movement’s coda.

The Allegro con brio finale ushers in more foot-stomping rhythmic drive, pounding hard on the accented off-beats. It is no wonder that Richard Wagner called this symphony “the apotheosis of the dance”—each movement is a celebration of relentless, infectious rhythms.
© 2015 Aaron Grad.

Orpheus is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts; the NY State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the NY State Legislature; and the NY City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
Orpheus is represented in North America exclusively by Baker Artists, LLC, and in Europe by Konzertdirektion Schmid. Orpheus has recorded for Deutsche Grammophon, Sony Classical, EMI Classics, BMG/RCA Red Seal, Decca, Nonesuch, Verve, Avex Classics, and its own label Orpheus Chamber Orchestra Records.

Orpheus Chamber Orchestra
A standard-bearer of innovation and artistic excellence, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra is one of the world’s foremost chamber orchestras. Orpheus was founded in 1972 by Julian Fifer and a group of like-minded young musicians determined to combine the intimacy and warmth of a chamber ensemble to the richness of an orchestra. With 71 albums, including the Grammy Award-winning Shadow Dances: Stravinsky Miniatures, and 42 commissioned and premiered original works, Orpheus rotates musical leadership roles for each work and strives to perform diverse repertoire through collaboration and open dialogue.
Performing without a conductor, Orpheus presents an annual series at Carnegie Hall and tours extensively to major national and international venues. The 2014-2015 Season will include debut appearances by pianist Fazil Say and violinists Jennifer Koh and Augustin Dumay, and also includes three newly commissioned works. The season will also continue an ongoing exploration of Beethoven in performance with pianist Jonathan Biss, while new looks at favorites from the Orpheus catalog of recordings, including Haydn’s Symphony No. 80, Grieg’s Holberg Suite, and Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll, demonstrate how these musicians have evolved over decades of playing together.
Orpheus has trademarked its signature mode of operation, the Orpheus Process™, an original method that places democracy at the center of artistic execution. It has been the focus of studies at Harvard and Stanford, and of leadership seminars at Morgan Stanley and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Hospital, among others. Two unique education and engagement programs, Access Orpheus and Orpheus Institute, aim to bring this approach to students of all ages.
Access Orpheus, Orpheus’ educational initiative, shares the orchestra’s collaborative music-making process with public school students from all five boroughs in New York City. Because of declining resources for arts education, many public schools do not have access to fulltime arts teachers to provide music instruction and exposure to art and culture. Access Orpheus helps to bridge this gap with in-class visits, attendance at working rehearsal, and free tickets for performances at Carnegie Hall.
Orpheus Institute brings the Orpheus Process and the orchestra’s musicians to select colleges, universities, and conservatories to work directly with musicians and leaders of tomorrow. Students in all fields of study learn from Orpheus’ creative process and in areas of collaboration, communication, creative problem solving, and shared leadership. In the coming seasons Orpheus will continue to share its leadership methods and performance practices as the ensemble provides its audiences with the highest level of musicianship and programming.

JULY 14, 2015 @ 7:30 PM

Boston Symphony Chamber Players

WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756-1791), Quartet in F for oboe, violin, viola, and cello, K.370 (1781)

I. Allegro
II. Adagio
III. Rondeau. Allegro
Players: Ferrillo, Lowe, Ansell, Eskin

CARL A. NIELSEN (1865-1931), Quintet for Winds, Op. 43 (1922)

I. Allegro ben moderato
II. Menuet
III. Praeludium (Adagio)—Tema con variazioni
Players: Rowe, Ferrillo, Hudgins, Svoboda, Sommerville

INTERMISSION

JOHANNES BRAHMS (1833-1897), Serenade No. 1 in D, Op. 11 (1857-58), arranged for chamber ensemble by Alan Boustead

I. Allegro molto
II. Scherzo: Allegro non troppo; Trio: Poco più mosso
III. Adagio non troppo
IV. Menuetto I; Menuetto II
V. Scherzo: Allegro
VI. Rondo: Allegro
Players: Rowe, Hudgins, Wayne, Svoboda, Sommerville, Lowe, Ansell, Eskin, Barker

WQXR HOST: Terrance McKnight

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

MUSICAL NOTES

BOSTON SYMPHONY CHAMBER PLAYERS
will perform in the Naumburg Orchestral Concerts for the first time this summer.  The BOSTON SYMPHONY CHAMBER PLAYERS celebrated their 50th Anniversary Season in 2013-14. To mark that milestone anniversary, the Boston Symphony Orchestra commissioned new works for the Chamber Players from Gunther Schuller, Yehudi Wyner, Sebastian Currier, Kati Agócs, and Hannah Lash, and reissued as downloads on BSO Classics (in association with Sony Music, current copyright owners of the recordings) the historic recordings made by the ensemble’s original membership for RCA between 1964 and 1968, including works central to the chamber music repertoire, as well as music by some of the leading composers of that time.

One of the world’s most distinguished chamber ensembles sponsored by a major symphony orchestra and made up of principal players from that orchestra, the Boston Symphony Chamber Players include first-chair string and wind players from the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Founded in 1964 during Erich Leinsdorf’s tenure as BSO music director, the Chamber Players can perform virtually any work within the vast chamber music literature, expanding their range of repertoire by calling upon other BSO members or enlisting the services of such distinguished artists as pianists Leif Ove Andsnes, Emanuel Ax, André Previn, and Jean-Yves Thibaudet. The Chamber Players’ activities include an annual four-concert series in Boston’s Jordan Hall at the New England Conservatory, regular appearances at Tanglewood, and a busy touring schedule. In addition to their appearances throughout the United States, they have performed in Europe, Japan, South America, and the former Soviet Union. In September 2008, sponsored by Cunard® Line, the Boston Symphony Chamber Players performed on the Queen Mary 2’s transatlantic crossing from New York to Southampton, England.

Among the ensemble’s many recordings are the Brahms string quintets and works by John Harbison, Aaron Copland, and Leon Kirchner, all on Nonesuch; and the quintets for clarinet and strings by Mozart and Brahms with former BSO principal clarinet, the late Harold Wright, on Philips. Their most recent recordings, on BSO Classics, include an album of Mozart chamber music for winds and strings; an album of chamber music by American composers William Bolcom, Lukas Foss, Michael Gandolfi, and Osvaldo Golijov; and “Profanes et Sacrées,” a disc of 20th-century French chamber music by Ravel, Debussy, Tomasi, Françaix, and Dutilleux nominated for a Grammy Award in the category “Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance.”

In tonight’s program, the Boston Symphony Chamber Players perform three contrasting works by three great masters. Mozart’s Oboe Quartet in F (1781), the archetype of its genre, is one of his masterpieces of chamber music. Particularly worth noting is its aria-like middle movement, which displays the extraordinary communicative depth for which oboist Friedrich Ramm, for whom Mozart wrote it, was famed. Danish composer Carl Nielsen’s Wind Quintet (1922) is an amiable serenade geared by the composer to its original players, whom Nielsen knew well, thus enabling him to provide a charming series of character portraits in his writing for the nervously sensitive flutist, charmingly ingratiating oboist, irascible clarinetist, easygoing bassoonist, and bluff horn player. Brahms’s seldom-heard Orchestral Serenade No. 1 (1857-58) was his first completed orchestral score; its predecessor was a chamber work that no longer survives, but which numerous commentators believe to have been a nonet for winds and strings. Alan Boustead’s deft chamber-ensemble arrangement provides a welcome opportunity to hear this music of Brahms that is filled with youth and vitality, but rarely played in the definitive form ultimately published by the composer.

The Boston Symphony Chamber Players can be heard on BSO Classics, Nonesuch, Deutsche Grammophon, Philips, RCA, New World, Arabesque, and Sony recordings.

JUNE 30, 2015 @ 7:30 PM

Ensemble LPR
Simone Dinnerstein, piano

John Adams, (1947-), Shaker Loops, 1983

I. Shaking and Trembling
II. Hymning Slews
III. Loops and Verses
IV. A Final Shaking

W. A. Mozart, (1756-91), Piano Concerto No 23 in A, K488  (1786)

I. Allegro
II. Adagio
III. Allegro assiai
(Simone Dinnerstein, piano)

INTERMISSION

Arnold Schoenberg, (1874-1951), Verklarte Nacht (Transfigured Night), Op. 4 [1899 revised 1943]

I. Sehr langsam
II. Etwas bewegter
III. Schwer betont
IV. Sehr breit und langsam
V. Sehr ruhig

David Handler, (1980), Solstice [World Premiere]

WQXR HOST: Elliott Forrest

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Musical Notes:

Solstice is written for a divided or double string orchestra and explores the polarity and ultimately the congruity of light and dark, sacred and profane. Pastoral dance, hard work and ethereal stasis are ideas represented in distinct musical material that are recurring and assigned almost without exception to the same instruments with each iteration.

The incongruity of these ideas is accentuated early in the piece. After a convergence and build to the piece’s only unified effort by the total ensemble, the ideas are reintroduced one by one, not as disparate items as they once were but as complementary parts to a greater and triumphant whole.

Derived from the Latin sol (sun) and sistere (to stand still), the solstice is the moment when the seasonal movement of the Sun’s path comes to a stop before reversing direction. This is experienced on most of earth as the longest (in summer) and shortest (in winter) days of the year. The idea of this momentary stasis and the perceived extremes that result was a way of understanding the death of a dear relative, whose life and passing were the genesis of the piece.

Ensemble LPR
Born out of the acclaimed New York City venue, Le Poisson Rouge, Ensemble LPR is an assemblage of New York’s finest musicians personifying the venue’s commitment to aesthetic
diversity, artistic excellence and true musical ambassadorship. Ensemble LPR performs an eclectic spectrum of music – from works by the finest living composers, to compelling interpretations of the standard repertoire and collaborations with distinguished artists from classical as well as non-classical backgrounds. The Ensemble has partnered with such extraordinary artists as Timo Andres, San Fermin, Daniel Hope, Taka Kigawa, Jennifer Koh, Mica Levi, David Longstreth (of Dirty Projectors), John Lurie, Ursula Oppens, Max Richter, André de Ridder, Christopher Rountree, and Fred Sherry.

In January of this year Ensemble LPR made its recording debut on Deutsche Grammophon, with Follow Poet. The album features the music of Mohammed Fairouz and the words of Seamus Heaney and John F. Kennedy.

In 2008 Le Poisson Rouge changed the classical music landscape, creating a new environment
in which to experience art music. In doing so, Le Poisson Rouge expanded the classical music listenership and pushed the popular palette in all directions. The New York Times heralds Le
Poisson Rouge as “[a] forward-thinking venue that seeks to showcase disparate musical styles under one roof…artistically planned eclecticism” and “[the] coolest place to hear contemporary music.” The Los Angeles Times raves “[the] place isn’t merely cool…the venue is a downright musical marvel.” With Ensemble LPR, Founding Executive & Artistic Director David Handler brings this same ethos to the creative forefront, channeling the venue’s curatorial daring and merit to the group’s own artistry.

Simone Dinnerstein
American pianist Simone Dinnerstein is a searching and inventive artist who is motivated by a desire to find the musical core of every work she approaches. NPR reports, “She compels the listener to follow her in a journey of discovery filled with unscheduled detours . . . She’s actively listening to every note she plays, and the result is a wonderfully expressive interpretation.” The New York-based pianist gained an international following because of the remarkable success of
her recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations, which she raised the funds to record. Released in 2007 on Telarc, it ranked No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Classical Chart in its first week of sales and was named to many “Best of 2007” lists including those of The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and The New Yorker.

The four solo albums Dinnerstein has released since then – The Berlin Concert (Telarc), Bach: A Strange Beauty (Sony), Something Almost Being Said (Sony), and Bach: Inventions & Sinfonias (Sony) – have also topped the classical charts. Dinnerstein was the bestselling instrumentalist of 2011 on the U.S. Billboard Classical Chart and was included in NPR’s 2011 100 Favorite Songs from all genres. In spring 2013, Simone Dinnerstein and singer-songwriter Tift Merritt released an
album together on Sony called Night, a unique collaboration uniting classical, folk, and rock worlds, exploring common terrain and uncovering new musical landscapes. Dinnerstein was among the top ten bestselling artists of 2014 on the Billboard Classical Chart.

In February 2015, Sony Classical released Dinnerstein’s newest album Broadway-Lafayette, which celebrates the time-honored transatlantic link between France and America and includes
Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G Major, Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and Philip Lasser’s The Circle and the Child: Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, written for Dinnerstein. The album was
recorded with conductor Kristjan Järvi and the MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra by Grammy-winning producer Adam Abeshouse.

Dinnerstein’s performance schedule has taken her around the world since her triumphant New York recital debut at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall in 2005 to venues including the Kennedy
Center for the Performing Arts, Vienna Konzerthaus, Berlin Philharmonie, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and London’s Wigmore Hall; festivals that include the Lincoln Center Mostly Mozart Festival, the Aspen, Verbier, and Ravinia festivals, and the Stuttgart Bach Festival; and performances with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Dresden Philharmonic, Staatskapelle Berlin, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Czech Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Minnesota Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Kristjan Järvi’s Absolute Ensemble, Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, and the Tokyo Symphony.

Dinnerstein has played concerts throughout the U.S. for the Piatigorsky Foundation, an organization dedicated to bringing classical music to non-traditional venues. She gave the first
classical music performance in the Louisiana state prison system when she played at the Avoyelles Correctional Center, and performed at the Maryland Correctional Institution for Women in a concert organized by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Dedicated to her community, in 2009 Dinnerstein founded Neighborhood Classics, a concert series open to the public hosted by New York public schools which raises funds for the schools.

Dinnerstein is a graduate of The Juilliard School where she was a student of Peter Serkin. She also studied with Solomon Mikowsky at the Manhattan School of Music and in London with Maria Curcio. Simone Dinnerstein lives in Brooklyn, New York with her husband and son. She is managed by Ekonomisk Mgmt and is a Sony Classical artist.

John Adams began composing relatively early; at ten he started composing, and by 14 he had heard his works performed. Entering Harvard University in 1965, Adams became the conductor for the Bach Society Orchestra. At Walter Piston’s Clarinet Concerto world premiere, Adams performed on the clarinet as the soloist. He moved to San Francisco in 1972 to teach at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music until 1984.

While at the conservatory, Adams worked in an electronic music studio and was the conductor of the New Music Ensemble. It was in San Francisco that he heard the minimalist works of Philip Glass, Steve Reich and Terry Riley for the first time, and was immediately drawn to its sound. However, he soon felt that although minimalism was “the most important stylistic development in Western art music since the Fifties”, the genre had its limits, since repetition was its foundation.

Adams coined the term “post-minimalism” starting with his piece for string septet Shaker Loops (1978). This style is characterized by greater dynamic contrasts and a more fluid and layered sound. The completion and premiere of Harmonium in 1981 was well-received by critics and the public, establishing Adams as a major American composer. In 1987, he made yet another impact on the music scene with his opera Nixon in China. Another major opera work followed in 1991, titled The Death of Klinghoffer, which, like Nixon in China, detailed a historic event.

At the turn of the century, Adams composed El Niño (2000), an oratorio based on the Christmas story of Jesus Christ. With the tragic events that transpired on September 11, 2001, Adams was commissioned by the New York Philharmonic and Lincoln Center’s Great Performers to compose a piece in memory of the victims. The result, On the Transmigration of Souls (2002), is a work for orchestra, chorus and children’s choir on pre-recorded tape, earning Adams a 2003 Pulitzer Prize.

John Adams continues to compose to this day, with his most recent work being The Gospel According to the Other Mary (Oratorio for Chorus, Orchestra and Soloists) in 2013.

David Handler is a composer of acoustic and electronic music. His work has been described by The New York Times as “eerie” and “superbly wrought,” and has been characterized by its use of familiar, often tonal relics within a narrative structure and polytonal language that seek to explore the notions of incongruity and deconstruction.

Commissions include the transcription and orchestration of Riceboy Sleeps by Alex Somers & Jónsi Birgisson of Sigur Rós, commissioned by Lincoln Center in 2011, and premieres by The
Ossia Symphony and The Manhattan School of Music Symphony. Prominent performances include a Composer Portrait curated by Orange Mountain Music’s Richard Guérin at Barbez, the 2013 21c Liederabend festival at BAM, and the world premiere of Celtic Verses at the launch of Ensemble LPR’s Follow Poet, release on Deutsche Grammophon earlier this year.

Handler began studying the violin at age three and attended the Manhattan School of Music as both a violin and composition major. As a violinist and violist, Handler collaborates regularly with Horacio Gutiérrez and has played under the baton of Kurt Masur, Zdeněk Mácal, and Jerzy Semkow, with whom he studied conducting.

Handler is the co-founder of (Le) Poisson Rouge and the Founding Executive & Artistic Director of Ensemble LPR. The venue’s mission is to revive the symbiotic relationship between art and revelry, thus invigorating the musical landscape for artists and audiences alike. In its six years of operation the venue has received numerous awards and accolades, from ASCAP, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Rolling Stone and The New Yorker.

Speaking Engagements include: The North American Critics Alliance at Lincoln Center, University of Missouri – Kansas City, New York University, Syracuse University, Hunter College, The New School, and The Manhattan School of Music.
Handler sits on the advisory boards of CavanKerry Press, The David Lynch Foundation, and The Mount Sinai Department of Psychiatry. He lives in New York City with his wife Marlene May
Handler.

JUNE 23, 2015 @ 7:30 PM

The Knights
Eric Jacobsen, conductor
Ariana Kim and Tessa Lark, violins

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

*Tessa Lark, violin – is the 2012 winner of the Walter W. Naumburg International Competition.

Support for The Knights’ performance has been provided by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

THE KNIGHTS
The Knights are an orchestral collective, flexible in size and repertory, dedicated to transforming the concert experience. Engaging listeners and defying boundaries with programs that showcase the players’ roots in the classical tradition and passion for musical discovery, The Knights have, as the New Yorker observes, “become one of Brooklyn’s sterling cultural products…known far beyond the borough for their relaxed virtuosity and expansive repertory.”

The Knights’ 2014-15 season kicks off with a performance at Brooklyn’s Roulette, marking the first of a series of New York City residencies to be undertaken by the group over the next three seasons with support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Other highlights include the Caramoor Fall Festival, where The Knights serve as curators and give three performances featuring saxophonist Joshua Redman and violinist Gil Shaham; the ensemble’s debut at Carnegie Hall in the New York premiere of the Steven Stucky/Jeremy Denk opera The Classical Style; a collaboration with The National’s Bryce Dessner, broadcast on WNYC’s New Sounds Live; and a residency at the University of Georgia. In the new year, The Knights tour the East Coast with banjo virtuoso Béla Fleck before embarking on a European tour with soprano Dawn Upshaw, featuring performances in Salzburg, Baden-Baden, Darmstadt, and at Vienna’s legendary Musikverein.
Recent season highlights include The Knights’ debut at the Tanglewood and Ojai Music Festivals, and collaborations with Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, Dawn Upshaw, Jeremy Denk, the Mark Morris Dance Group, the Joshua Redman Quartet, santur player Siamak Aghaei, and pipa virtuoso Wu Man, and the creation of the ensemble’s first original group composition. Recordings include the ground beneath our feet, a live album released in January 2015 on Warner Classics featuring Stravinsky’s Dumbarton Oaks and original works by members of the ensemble, an all-Beethoven disk released in 2013 on Sony Classical (the orchestra’s third project with the label), and 2012’s “smartly programmed” (NPR) A Second of Silence on Ancalagon Records.

The Knights evolved from late-night chamber music reading parties with friends at the home of violinist Colin Jacobsen and cellist Eric Jacobsen. The Jacobsen brothers, who are also founding members of the string quartet Brooklyn Rider, serve as artistic directors of The Knights, with Eric Jacobsen as conductor. In December 2012, the Jacobsens were selected from among the nation’s top visual, performing, media, and literary artists to receive a prestigious United States Artists Fellowship.

The Knights’ roster boasts remarkably diverse talents, including composers, arrangers, singer-songwriters, and improvisers, who bring a range of cultural influences to the group, from jazz and klezmer to pop and indie rock music. The unique camaraderie within the group retains the intimacy and spontaneity of chamber music in performance.

Learn more at theknightsnyc.com.

ERIC JACOBSEN
Hailed by the New York Times as “an interpretive dynamo,” conductor and cellist Eric Jacobsen has built a reputation for engaging audiences with innovative and collaborative projects. As co-founder and Artistic Director of the adventurous orchestra The Knights and a founding member of the genre-defying string quartet Brooklyn Rider, Jacobsen, along with his brother, violinist Colin Jacobsen, was awarded a prestigious United States Artists Fellowship in 2012.

Jacobsen founded The Knights with his brother, Colin, to foster the intimacy and camaraderie of chamber music on the orchestral stage; as the New Yorker reports, “few ensembles are as adept at mixing old music with new as the dynamic young Brooklyn orchestra.” As Music Director, Jacobsen has led the “consistently inventive, infectiously engaged indie ensemble” (New York Times) at New York venues ranging from Carnegie Hall to the Ojai Music Festival, and international hot spots such as the Dresden Musikfestspiele and Cologne Philharmonie. Recent collaborators include cellists Yo-Yo Ma and Jan Vogler, violinists Itzhak Perlman and Gil Shaham, and soprano Dawn Upshaw.

Under Jacobsen’s baton, The Knights have an extensive recording collection that includes January’s release of the ground beneath our feet, the ensemble’s first for Warner Classics. The Knights previously issued three albums for Sony Classical- Jan Vogler and The Knights Experience: Live from New York, New Worlds, and all-Beethoven album partnering the Triple Concerto and Fifth Symphony- and the “smartly programmed” (NPR) A Second in Silence on the Ancalagon label. We Are The Knights, a documentary film produced by Thirteen/WNET, premiered in September 2011.

Also in demand as a guest conductor, Jacobsen has recently led the Camerata Bern, the symphonies Detroit and Alabama and ProMusica Chamber Orchestra. In the 2014-15 season Jacobsen celebrates his first season as Music Director of the Greater Bridgeport Symphony and Artistic Partner with the Northwest Sinfonietta. He also looks forward to guest conducting the Orlando Philharmonic, Deutsche Philharmonie Merck, and Silk Road Ensemble, besides touring with The Knights in the U.S. and Europe. A dedicated chamber musician, Jacobsen is a member of Yo-Yo Ma’s venerated Silk Road Project and as a founding member of Brooklyn Rider, he has taken part in a wealth of world premieres and toured extensively in North America and Europe.

ARIANA KIM
Noted by the New York Times for giving “the proceedings an invaluable central thread of integrity and stylishness,” violinist Ariana Kim made her New York recital debut at Carnegie’s Weill Hall in 2008 and is a newly appointed professor at Cornell University. At sixteen, Ariana made her debut with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and at twenty-four was appointed acting concertmaster of the Louisiana Philharmonic in New Orleans. She went on to receive her doctorate from The Juilliard School under the tutelage of Robert Mann and was shortly thereafter appointed as a professor at the University of Indianapolis. Ariana’s work as a soloist has included many of the preeminent violin concertos with orchestras such as the Richmond Symphony (VA), Indianapolis Symphony Festival Orchestra, Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, and Orbón Chamber Orchestra (Spain), among others.

An avid chamber musician of both the contemporary and traditional literature, Ariana marks her ninth season as a member of the New York contemporary music ensemble Ne(x)tworks, with whom she improvises, performs, composes, and records. The ensemble made their European debut at the John Cage Centennial Festival in Berlin in 2012. Ariana also marks her ninth season with The Knights and her tenth with the Chamber Music Society of Minnesota, where recent collaborations have included performances with Leon Fleisher, Fred Sherry, Charles Neidich, Samuel Rhodes, and Nobuko Imai. Ariana currently co-resides in Ithaca and New York City, where she loves to be surrounded by family, friends, and great food.

TESSA LARK
Winner of the prestigious Naumburg International Violin Award in 2012, Tessa Lark is one of the most captivating artistic voices of her time. She has been consistently praised by critics and audiences alike for her astounding range of sounds, technical agility and musical elegance.
Tessa was recently named the Silver Medalist of the 2014 International Violin Competition of Indianapolis, making her the highest-ranked American-born winner in the Competition’s history.

At age 16, Lark was soloist with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and has since then performed concerti with the Louisville Orchestra; Santa Fe, Indianapolis, Cheyenne, Santa Cruz, Cape Ann, Melrose, Westchester and Peninsula Symphonies; Gettysburg and Mission Chamber Orchestras; Chinese Opera and Ballet Symphony Orchestra, and New England Conservatory’s Symphony Orchestra as a result of winning the school’s Violin Concerto Competition in 2010 with the Walton Violin Concerto. Lark has given many solo recitals, including her Carnegie Hall debut recital in Weill Hall and other concerts for the San Francisco Performances series, the radio broadcasted Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert series, Troy Chromatics, Ravinia’s Bennett -Gordon Classics series, Chamber Music Tulsa series, and the Caramoor Wednesday Morning Concert series. A passionate chamber musician, she has been invited to many summer festivals including Marlboro, Yellow Barn, Steans Institute for Young Artists at the Ravinia Festival, the Perlman Music Program’s Chamber Music Workshop, and Music@Menlo. Keeping in touch with her Kentucky roots, Tessa enjoys playing bluegrass and Appalachian music. She collaborates frequently with Mark O’Connor and is included in his CD “MOC4,” released in June 2014.