“a confession of the soul”: sibelius’...
TRANSCRIPT
Adam Stern, Music Director and Conductor
Please turn off all cell phones and pagers.No audio/video recording or flash photography is allowed during the performance.
Adam Stern, conductor
Cristina Valdés, piano
RICHARD STRAUSS Serenade for Winds, Op. 7
LUDWIG VAN BEE THOVEN Piano Concerto No. 3 in c, Op. 37
Allegro con brio
Largo
Rondo – Allegro
Cristina Valdés, piano
I N T E R M I S S I O N
JEAN SIBELIUS Symphony No. 2 in D, Op. 43
Allegretto
Tempo andante, ma rubato
Vivacissimo
Finale: Allegro moderato
SUNDAY, JUNE 9, 2019, 2:00 P.M. EASTLAKE PERFORMING ARTS CENTER
THURSDAY, JUNE 13, 2019, 7:30 P.M.MEYDENBAUER THEATRE
“A CONFESSION OF THE SOUL”:
Sibelius’ Second
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Orchestra Management
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
FOUNDING DIRECTORJoyce Cunningham
MUSIC DIRECTOR & CONDUCTORAdam Stern
PRESIDENTShelby Eaton
VICE PRESIDENTMark Wiseman
TREASURERMichael Wennerstrom
SECRETARYFran Pope
DIRECTORS-AT-LARGEKathy Boudreau
Andy HillHeather RaschkoMiranda Thorpe
Melissa Underhill
HONORARY BOARD MEMBERSDon Gerend
Council Member, City of Sammamish
Skip RowleyChairman, Rowley Properties
Nancy WhittenFormer Council Member, City of
Sammamish
PERSONNEL
Kathryn Boudreau, Ensemble Coordinator
Armand Binkhuysen, Grants
Adam Stern and Marla Zylstra, Concert Program
Haley Schaening, Librarian
Barbara Ethington, Logistics
Loryn Bortins, Personnel
GFCW Cascade Lobby Management
Renee Kuehn, Ticket Sales
Jayne Marquess, Logistics
Lynne Martinell, Member Communications Liaison
Barbara Ethington, PR & Marketing
Mark Wiseman, Webmaster
Jason Frazier and Phillip Chance, Sound Recording
A Note from the Conductor. . .In lieu of second-guessing what the three exemplary composers on today’s concert might have to say about music and composing, I gratefully cede the way to some of their own eloquent statements.
New ideas must search for new forms.
— Richard Strauss
Music is a higher revelation than all the wisdom and philosophy, it is the wine of a new procreation, and I am Bacchus who presses out this glorious wine for men and makes them drunk with the spirit.
— Ludwig van Beethoven
If I could express the same thing with words as with music, I would, of course, use a verbal expression. Music is something autonomous and much richer. Music begins where the possibilities of language end. That is why I write music.
— Jean Sibelius
The Sammamish Symphony, its members, board, staff, and I all wish you the happiest of summers. We look forward to seeing you in the fall.
Warmest regards, Adam Stern
Cristina Valdés, piano
Considered one of today’s foremost interpreters of contemporary music, Cristina Valdés is known for presenting innovative concerts with repertoire ranging from Bach to Xenakis. She has performed across four continents and in venues such as Lincoln
Center, Le Poisson Rouge, Miller Theatre, Jordan Hall, and the Kennedy Center. Ms. Valdés has appeared both as a soloist and chamber musician at festivals worldwide including New Music in Miami, the Foro Internacional de Música Nueva in Mexico City, Brisbane Arts Festival, the Festival of Contemporary Music in El Salvador, Havana Contemporary Music Festival, and the Singapore Arts Festival.
An avid chamber musician and collaborator, Ms. Valdés has toured extensively with the Bang On a Can “All Stars”, and has performed with the Seattle Chamber Players, the Mabou Mines Theater Company, the Parsons Dance Company, and Antares. She has also been a featured performer on both the Seattle Symphony’s Chamber Series and [UNTITLED] concerts.
Cristina has appeared as concerto soloist with the Seattle Philharmonic, the Lake Union Civic Orchestra, Johns Hopkins Symphony Orchestra, the Binghamton Philharmonic, NOCCO, Philharmonia Northwest, the Eastman BroadBand, and the
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Orchestra MembersFIRST VIOLINLea Fetterman ConcertmasterTim Strait Associate ConcertmasterDarrin CookKristin EdlundBarbara EthingtonAimee KamstraLynne MartinellHeather RaschkoHaley SchaeningOlivia Wang
SECOND VIOLINShelby Eaton PrincipalMeMe BirchfieldAlan BleischZakary ColeElizabeth HeitkampPaula LibesFran PopeSophia SchifferMiranda Thorpe
VIOLADennis Helppie PrincipalSarah AldiabKathryn BoudreauJessica JohnsonDan PopeLoraine TerpeningZann Tipyasothi
CELLOShiang-Yin Lee PrincipalJuha Niemisto Assistant PrincipalGail RatleyLoryn BortinsHannah Chernin (On Leave)Andy Hill (On Leave)Michelle Miller (On Leave)Joyce SanfordJoan SelvigKathleen SpitzerSandra Sultan
BASSJarod Tanneberg PrincipalJeremy AtkinsNatalie Schlichtmann
FLUTEMelissa Underhill PrincipalTori BerntsenElana Sabovic-Matt
PICCOLOElana Sabovic-Matt
OBOESusan Jacoby PrincipalJim Kobe
ENGLISH HORNDennis Calvin
CLARINETJayne Marquess PrincipalKathy Carr
BASS CLARINETLinda Thomas
BASSOONBruce Carpenter PrincipalSean Steck
CONTRABASSOONGordon BrownJeff Eldridge FRENCH HORNEvelyn Zeller PrincipalWilliam FarmerDan CherninNels Magelssen
TRUMPETAbram Sanderson PrincipalMichael CroanJoe GrezMike HerbKevin Slota (On Leave)
TROMBONEJohn Ochsenreiter PrincipalRob Birkner
BASS TROMBONEMatt Clegg
TUBAMark Wiseman Principal
TIMPANIEric Daane
PIANOQuennie Nguyen
HARPBethany Man Principal
Section members are listed in alphabetical order.
Stony Brook Symphony Orchestra. In 2015 she performed the piano solo part of the Ives 4th Symphony with the Seattle Symphony under the direction of Ludovic Morlot, which was later released on CD to critical acclaim. Her most recent recording is of Orlando Garcia’s “From Darkness to Luminosity” with the Málaga Philharmonic on the Toccata Classics label. She can also be heard on the Albany, Newport Classics, and Urtext labels.
Highlights of the 2018-2019 season include the world-premiere performance of Carlos Sanchez-Guttierez’s “Short Stories” for piano and string orchestra with the Orquesta de Cámara de Bellas Artes in Mexico City, and the US Premiere
of “Under Construction” for solo piano and tape playback by Heiner Goebbels at Octave 9. Next season Cristina will be performing Bartok’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with the UW Symphony, and Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with the Skagit Symphony.
Ms. Valdés received a Bachelor of Music from the New England Conservatory, and a Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts from SUNY Stony Brook. She is currently an Artist-in-Residence at the University of Washington, where she teaches piano and is the Director of the UW Modern Music Ensemble.
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Program Notesby Adam Stern
Before Richard Strauss (1864-1949) stormed the musical world with operas whose librettos were condemned in some circles for their outright indecency, and vast symphonic poems that took on subject matter ranging from the afterlife (Death and Transfiguration) and the futile quest for ideal love (Don Juan) to a day in the life of Richard Strauss (no kidding: Sinfonia Domestica), the composer wrote several scores that are almost surprising for their relative conservatism and modest scope. The lovely Serenade for Winds is a case in point: Strauss, at age 17, was not yet inflamed by musical radicalism and produced a charming miniature that bespeaks his admiration for Brahms far more than it points the way to his shockers to come. In one continuous movement, the piece begins and ends in tranquility, with a particularly potent climax marking its midpoint. The piece is also remarkable for the young Strauss’ already-perfectly-gauged sense of sonority; the array of colors drawn from the small ensemble is truly noteworthy.
Despite Ludwig van Beethoven’s (1770-1827) occasional grousing about Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (which may have arisen from the notoriously thin-skinned and grudge-holding Beethoven’s perceived rejection by Mozart as a potential pupil), he paid homage to his senior colleague on several occasions in his own works. The third movement of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 begins with the same melody as the finale of Mozart’s Symphony No. 40; there is a comical nod to Leporello’s Notte e giorno faticar from Don Giovanni in Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations for piano. It could also be said that Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3, Op. 37 is a tribute to Mozart, in that Mozart’s C-minor piano concerto (No. 24) serves as a model for Beethoven’s in the same key. Beethoven knew this concerto intimately; it was in his own repertoire as a pianist, and he seems to have absorbed more than a little of the stormy mood and tragic atmosphere of Mozart’s earlier masterpiece. One important difference lies in the works’ outcomes: Mozart’s darkness reigns supreme at the end (his concerto ends in a surge of minor-key violence rare in his catalogue), whereas Beethoven, in another of his wondrous triumphs over adversity, vanquishes his demons and
ends on a note of victory and healthy spirits, with a little jaunty good humor thrown in for good measure.
Jean Sibelius (1865-1957) was internationally lionized during his lifetime, achieving the status of national hero in Finland and one of the most beloved and oft-performed of living composers. He had many fans amongst his colleagues, including Ralph Vaughan Williams, who dedicated his Symphony No. 5 to a grateful Sibelius, and Howard Hanson, who cited Sibelius as the greatest influence on his own work as a composer. Sibelius remained steadfastly modest about his honors and accomplishments; he was, for example, almost painfully aware of the great disparity between his fame and that of his contemporary Carl Nielsen, whose works he greatly admired. At their only meeting, the Finnish composer, in a touching and revealing show of humility, told his Danish colleague, “I don’t understand why they make such a fuss over me...I don’t come up to your shoetops.”
Sibelius’s prestige didn’t mean that he was immune to criticism; his popularity rankled certain musical “progressives” who likely resented his traditional music’s unwavering popularity. The Arnold Schönberg adherents Theodore Adorno and René Leibowitz famously panned him, the former stating, “If Sibelius is good, this invalidates the standards of musical quality that have persisted from Bach to Schönberg”, while the latter penned a famous essay in 1955 entitled “Sibelius: The Worst Composer in the World.” (Dare I ask: when was the last time you heard a composition by either Adorno or Leibowitz?) The American composer Virgil Thomson, longtime music critic Richard Strauss Ludwig van Beethoven
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Summer Pops Concert
for the New York Herald Tribune, described the Symphony No. 2 as “vulgar, self-indulgent and provincial beyond all description”, and topped all by averring that he had never met a Sibelius enthusiast “among educated professional musicians.” (Had I had the opportunity, I would gladly have introduced him to some.) Sibelius summed up his attitude towards such slights with a delicious snub of his own: “Pay no attention to what critics say. No statue has ever been put up to a critic.”
Examined chronologically, the seven symphonies Sibelius composed between 1898 and 1924 (there are a few sketches for an unfinished eighth) reveal a composer ever-concerned with the ideal of saying more with less. The first two symphonies are big, expansive, and very self-consciously romantic in a manner reminiscent of Tchaikovsky (which no doubt accounts for their enduring popularity). Beginning with the third, Sibelius begins to compress his materials ever more compactly; sweeping effusiveness gives way to an almost blunt (but no less expressive) terseness; movements frequently end with a “that’s all” concision. The Symphony No. 7 actually compresses everything into one single movement, albeit one of constantly shifting moods, tempi and varying usages of the orchestra.
Symphony No. 2 in D, Op. 43, was written between the years 1901-02. It was immediately embraced by audiences, who responded not only to the music’s epic grandeur but to what they also perceived as a depiction of Finland’s yearning for independence (the country was still under Russian rule at the time of composition). Following its premiere, Sibelius subjected it to some revisions; the first performance of this revised and final
Join us for
Summer Night in the ParkAugust 15 at 6:30
version was on November 10, 1903 (fourteen years before the Finnish Declaration of Independence was adopted by the Parliament of Finland). To this day, it remains the most popular of Sibelius’ symphonies.
Richard Strauss
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