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University of Florida Performing Arts
presents
Jacksonville Symphony
Orchestra
Steven Smith, Conductor
Gabriela Martinez, Piano
Sunday, January 11, 2015, 2 p.m.
Curtis M. Phillips, M.D. Center for the Performing Arts
Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra
Beethoven’s Emperor
Steven Smith, conductor
Gabriela Martinez, piano
Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat, Op. 73, Emperor
Allegro
Adagio un poco mosso
Rondo: Allegro
Ludwig van Beethoven
Gabriela Martinez, piano
Intermission
A Midsummer Night’s Dream Overture, Op. 21
King Lear Overture, Op. 4 Emperor Waltz, Op. 437
Felix Mendelssohn
Hector Berlioz
Johann Strauss, Jr.
Program Notes
Ludwig van Beethoven
German composer
Born: 1770, Bonn; died: 1827, Vienna.
Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat, Op. 73, Emperor
Composed in 1809.
Premiered on November 28, 1811 in Leipzig; performed by the Gewandhaus orchestra, Friedrich
Schneider, piano.
We have passed through a great deal of misery. I tell you that I have brought into
the world little that is connected—only here and there a fragment. The whole course
of events has affected both my body and soul ... what a destructive and desolate life
surrounds me! Nothing but drums, cannons, and human suffering in every form!”
That is Beethoven’s report to his publisher Gottfried Christoph Härtel, written on July
26, 1809, recounting the terrifying and sustained French assault on Vienna. At one point
during the invasion Beethoven sought shelter in a friend’s cellar, covering his head with
pillows in the hope of protecting the remaining shreds of hearing. It is hard to imagine
the Emperor Concerto as the outcome of this horrific experience. But of course nobody
would have expected the Eroica Symphony in response to the composer’s oncoming
deafness either. It must have pained Beethoven not to be able to premiere the work. His
deafness had progressed to the point that public performances were no longer possible.
Instead, after the Leipzig premiere, Beethoven’s student Carl Czerny gave the first Vienna
performance three months later.
Beethoven’s last piano concerto is his most innovative and expansive. Instead of opening
with the usual orchestral exposition, he begins the concerto with a pianistic flourish,
indicating its intense nature and preparing the listener for the martial opening theme.
But it is the second, lyrical theme that actually takes center stage over long stretches
of the movement. Beethoven explores a wide range of interactive textures between the
piano and orchestra, as he carefully controls the musical narrative of this movement
of epic proportions. For the remaining two movements, Beethoven uses the chorale
(Protestant hymn) and the dance as reference points to focus the audience’s attention.
The chorale in the slow movement creates a sense of beautiful serenity, before the last
movement bursts forth with an exuberant rondo.
Felix Mendelssohn
German composer
Born: 1809, Hamburg; died: 1847, Leipzig, Germany.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream Overture, Op. 21
Composed in 1826.
Premiered on February 20, 1827, in Stettin.
In 1803, the English music lexicographer Sir George Grove called this overture “the
greatest marvel of early maturity that the world has ever seen.” Considering the
innovative and inventive quality of this work, composed by a 17-year old, Sir Grove might
have a pretty strong case.
Of course, the young Felix did not set out to influence the path of music history with
this work. In fact, as typical for most teenagers, Felix wanted to have a fun, relaxing
summer, just hanging out with his friends in the backyard. But that is where the normal
teenage stuff ends. Felix and friends were enthralled by the new German translations
of some of Shakespeare’s plays, including A Midsummer Night’s Dream. As the friends
channeled their creativity through writing verses, staging scenes with props, and playing
games, Mendelssohn wanted to capture the essence of the play in music. Since he had
no intention of writing an opera, Mendelssohn decided to remake the overture as an
independent, single-movement orchestral composition with definite lyrical content,
thus creating in the process the concert overture genre, which became the model
for the Romantic symphonic poem. At the same time, Mendelssohn solved various
compositional issues regarding the musical representation of narrative by creating a
musical language and expression unlike any that came before. Not bad for a summer
spent in the backyard with friends and family!
Upon request from his publisher, Mendelssohn explained the basic concept of the work:
I believe it will suffice to remember how the rulers of the elves, Oberon and Titania,
constantly appear throughout the play with all their train, now here and now there;
then comes Prince Theseus of Athens and joins a hunting party in the forest … then
the two pairs of tender lovers, who lose and find themselves; finally the troop of
clumsy, coarse tradesmen, who ply their ponderous amusements; then again the elves,
who entice all — and on this the piece is constructed. When at the end all is happily
resolved … the elves return and bless the house, and disappear as morning arrives. So
ends the play, and also my overture.
Hector Berlioz
French composer
Born: 1803, La Côte-Saint-André, Isère; died: 1869, Paris.
King Lear Overture, Op. 4
Composed in 1831.
Premiered on December 22, 1833, at Paris Conservatoire.
The circumstances of this overture are unusual to say the least. On his way back from
Rome to assassinate his fiancée and her mother for braking off their engagement in order
to marry the piano manufacturer Pleyel, Berlioz stopped in Nice, where his hot temper
had cooled enough to abort his murderous plan. He ended up staying there for what he
called the happiest period in his life. Having followed the advice for a mind in turmoil
by the director of the French Academy in Rome, Horace Vernet, Berlioz decided to busy
himself with music for Shakespeare’s King Lear, about which George Bernard Shaw once
wrote, “No man will ever write a better tragedy than Lear.” Apparently, that did the trick!
Berlioz’s Opus 4 is the perfect companion piece to Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s
Dream, as both concert overtures attempt to capture elements of a Shakespeare play. As
it turns out, the two composers had spent a few weeks in Rome together before and after
Berlioz’s stay in Nice. Meeting almost daily to explore Rome and discuss musical trends,
they surely played through Mendelssohn’s overture. As is the case with A Midsummer
Night’s Dream, Berlioz adapted traditional sonata form to introduce the main characters
of the play, whom the composer identified in his memoirs as Lear and Cordelia. Unlike
Mendelssohn, however, Berlioz focuses on the emotional outbursts of the protagonists,
expressing presumably also his own rage along the way.
The overture opens eerily similar to the last movement of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony
with the low strings expressing distress in a recitative-like manner. The entrance of the
king is then announced with timpani, based on the tradition of French courts. Cordelia’s
pure character is then expressed first by the oboe and then by the rest of the woodwinds.
Apparently, the King of Hanover understood the ensuing narrative of the overture
especially well, as Berlioz has quoted the King’s reading approvingly:
Magnificent, M. Berlioz, magnificent! Your orchestra speaks, and you do not need any
words. I followed all the scenes: the king’s entry to the council chamber, the storm
on the heath, the terrible prison scene, and the lament of Cordelia! Oh this Cordelia!
How you have portrayed her--her humility and tenderness! It is heartrending, and so
beautiful!
Johann Strauss, Jr.
Austrian composer.
Born 1825, Vienna; died 1899, Vienna.
Emperor Waltz, Op. 437
Composed in 1889.
Premiered on October 21, 1889, Strauss, Jr., conductor.
Ever since the 1830s the name Strauss has been synonymous with waltzes, and of this
family of musicians, Johann Strauss, Sr. and Jr. were the “Waltz Kings” of their respective
generation. Their waltzes dominated not only the popular ball scene but they became
part of general culture far beyond Vienna. For the historic 1889 visit by Kaiser Franz
Joseph I of Austria to Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany in Berlin, Johann Strauss, Jr.
composed the Emperor Waltz. Strauss initially offered the title Hand in Hand as a toast
of friendship to the to Austrian and German emperors. Eventually his publisher Fritz
Simrock came up with the much catchier title of Kaiser-Walzer.
Written for the concert hall to commemorate this momentous occasion musically, Strauss
presents four waltzes in symphonic fashion. After all four tunes have been introduced
and developed, Strauss not only recapitulates them briefly, but he creates a brilliant coda
featuring a cello solo that leads toward a ceremonial ending.
© 2014 Siegwart Reichwald
Siegwart Reichwald is the author of The Genesis of Felix Mendelssohn’s “Paulus.” He
also edited Mendelssohn in Performance, a collection of essays that, according to Choice,
“does a superb job explaining the 19th-century sound environment of Felix Mendelssohn.”
Reichwald has published articles on the music of Brumel, Mendelssohn, and Poulenc. He
is Professor of Music History at Converse College in Spartanburg, S.C., and serves on the
faculty of Brevard Music Center in North Carolina.
From the Podium
By Guest Conductor Steven Smith
Musical Royalty
The idea of royal personages, real or imagined, is the connecting thread of this program.
The first half is devoted to Beethoven’s monumental Piano Concerto No. 5, the Emperor,
a title not Beethoven’s himself, but bestowed by his publisher because of the work’s
grand scale and display of virtuosity. The contrasting rhythmic playfulness of the third
movement and the hushed beauty of second come as brilliantly imaginative contrasts to
the majesty of the first, in which Beethoven tricks us into thinking that the piano soloist
will begin (as was unusually the case in the case of his Concerto No. 4), interrupting the
strong chords of the orchestra with cadenza-like flourishes.
After intermission comes the Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream composed
by Mendelssohn when he was only 17 years of age as a concert overture based on
Shakespeare’s play. It remains a gem of the repertoire with its capturing of the stillness
of evening giving way to the quietly flitting music depicting the fairy realm. The royalty
in this case is not of the real world, but that of Titania and Oberon, with musical portraits
including the sly Puck and Bottom the ass, whose braying is clearly heard.
Shakespeare also held a great fascination for Hector Berlioz, who composed his concert
overture King Lear around the time of his journey to Italy as a winner of the Prix de Rome.
Coincidentally, during that time in Italy Berlioz and Mendelssohn met each other for
the first time. While enjoying each other’s company personally, neither understood nor
appreciated the other’s music.
The greatest waltzes of Johann Strauss, Jr. are like miniature orchestral tone poems, with
a wide variety of instrumental solos, infectious dance rhythms and the atmosphere of
imperial Vienna. What a royal way to conclude!
About the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra
The Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra ranks among the nation’s top regional orchestras.
From September through May, the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra performs at the
Times-Union Center for the Performing Arts and in community venues throughout the
First Coast and statewide.
The Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra’s 2014-15 season features the debut of Courtney
Lewis as music director designate. Courtney begins his first full season as music
director in 2015-16. Highlights in 2014-15 include featured artists Audra McDonald and
Paul Williams and productions of Gershwin’s opera Porgy and Bess and Tchaikovsky’s
Sleeping Beauty ballet.
As a not-for-profit cultural and educational organization, the Jacksonville Symphony
Orchestra’s mission is to create experiences that enrich the human spirit and inspire a
lifelong love of music. Its programming reflects the diversity of the community and is
relevant to today’s audience, offering live symphonic variety – from classic masterpieces
and new works, to ballet, opera, theater and popular styles. Each season nearly
70,000 young people and adults benefit from the Orchestra’s diverse educational and
community engagement opportunities including Young People’s Concerts, Classroom
Concerts by visiting ensembles, the Jacksonville Symphony Youth Orchestra, Jump Start
Strings, Cover the Town With Sound, and Symphony 101.
Founded in 1949, the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra has hosted some of the most
renowned artists of the past century, including Isaac Stern, Benny Goodman, Duke
Ellington, Marilyn Horne, Luciano Pavarotti, Itzhak Perlman, Kathleen Battle and
Mstislav Rostropovich. Acclaimed for its “superior quality” by the Toronto Star, the
Jacksonville Symphony has performed twice at Carnegie Hall and has been broadcast
nationally on Performance Today.
An American orchestra with its own dedicated concert hall, the Jacksonville Symphony
Orchestra’s home is the acoustically superb Robert E. Jacoby Symphony Hall. As
reported by the Palm Beach Daily News, “… we surely deserve and need to have a full
time orchestra [in south Florida]. We can only hope that it would be as good as the
Jacksonville Symphony.”
Beyond the stage, the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra serves four county school
districts and collaborates with a wide range of organizations. And close to 2,000 music
lovers in the community are members of Symphony volunteer groups.
For more information, log on to JaxSymphony.org, for tickets call 904.354.5547, like us on
Facebook (facebook.com/jaxsymphony) or follow on Twitter (@jaxsymphony).
Gabriela Martinez, piano
With a reputation as a versatile, daring and
insightful artist, Venezuelan pianist Gabriela
Martinez’s career continues to expand. An
international musician, she has appeared as
soloist with such distinguished orchestras
as San Francisco, Chicago, Houston, and
Fort Worth, Stuttgarter Philharmoniker,
MDR Rundfunkorchester, Nurnberger
Philharmoniker, and with Venezuela’s Simon
Bolivar Symphony Orchestra, to name a few.
Festival credits include Italy’s Festival dei
Due Mondi, Switzerland’s Verbier Festival,
the Mostly Mozart, Ravinia, and Rockport
festivals in the United States, France’s
Festival de Radio France et Montpellier and
Japan’s Tokyo International Music Festival.
Highlights of Ms. Martinez’s 2014-15 season
include debuts not only with the Jacksonville
Symphony, but with the Boulder and Buffalo
philharmonics, and the Delaware Symphony
Orchestra. Later this season, she will release
her first solo recording.
Equally at home with both established and contemporary repertoire, Gabriela Martinez
has given world premieres of works by composers including Mason Bates, Stephen
Wood, Samuel Zyman, and Liduino Pitombeira. American composer Dan Visconti is
currently writing a piece for her.
A First Prize winner of the Anton G. Rubinstein International Piano Competition in
Dresden and a semi-finalist at the 12th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition,
where she also received the Jury Discretionary Award, Gabriela Martinez began her
piano studies in Caracas with her mother Alicia Gaggioni, making her orchestral debut
at age seven. She came to the United States to attend The Juilliard School, where
she earned her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees as a full scholarship student of
Yoheved Kaplinsky. She then worked on her doctoral studies with Marco Antonio de
Almeida in Halle, Germany.
www.gabrielamartinezpiano.com
Steven Smith
Steven Smith begins his fifth season as music director of
the Richmond Symphony and has served as music director
of Santa Fe Symphony & Chorus from 1999 to 2013. He also
serves as music director of the Grammy Award-winning
Cleveland Chamber Symphony. Since arriving in Richmond
Mr. Smith has collaborated with the Virginia Opera in its
recent production of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro and
the Richmond Ballet for its 30th anniversary gala.
From 1997 to 2003, Steven Smith served as the assistant
conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra and also served as
music director of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra
for five years. While also serving on the faculty of the
Oberlin Conservatory, he led both orchestral and operatic
performances.
Mr. Smith’s recent guest conducting activities include appearances with the San
Francisco, Richmond, Puerto Rico, Kalamazoo, Milwaukee and Akron symphonies and
a return to Mexico’s Orquesta Sinfónica de Xalapa. In addition, he has conducted the
Carnegie-Mellon Philharmonic and several programs at Indiana University, including
a production of Carlisle Floyd’s Susannah. Other recent opera productions include The
Magic Flute and Carmen at the Brevard Music Festival, and Mozart’s Abduction from the
Seraglio with Lyric Opera Cleveland. Orchestral guest conducting has included several
seasons with New Zealand’s Auckland Philharmonia, the Detroit, Houston, New Mexico
and Taiwan symphonies, and the Hong Kong Philharmonic among many others.
JACKSONVILLE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Courtney Lewis, Music Director Designate
Haskell Endowed Chair
Michael Butterman, Resident Conductor
Jim Van Vleck Endowed Chair
Michael Krajewski, Principal Pops Conductor
Calvin and Ellen Hudson Charitable Trust Endowed Chair
Fabio Mechetti, Conductor Laureate
VIOLIN
Philip Pan, Concertmaster*
Isabelle Davis Endowed
Chair
Melissa Barrett
Associate Concertmaster*
Christopher Chappell
Acting Principal Second* Aurelia Duca, Acting
Assistant Principal Second* Andrew Bruck* Clinton Dewing* Patrice Evans* Anna Genest* Lois Elfenbein Gosa* Max Huls* Ilana Kimel* Jeanne Majors* Annie Morris
George V. Grune Endowed
Chair* Glynda Newton* Piotr Szewczyk*
Bernie Vaughn*^ Naira Cola+^
Lela LaBarbera+ Stephanie Lindsay +^
Karen Pommerich+#
Marguerite Richardson+ Jenny Lee Vaughn+^
Carol Whitman+ VIOLA
Merryn Ledbetter Corsat
Principal* Karen Bair Boling* Cynthia Kempf* Colin Kiely* Susan Pardue* Jorge A. Peña Portillo* Ellen Caruso Olson+ CELLO
Alexei Romanenko
Principal* Hovhannes Alanakyan*^
Laurie Casseday* Betsy Federman* Vernon Humbert* Kathy Dennis+ Shannon Lockwood+^
BASS
John Wieland, Principal* Patrick Bilanchone* Kevin Casseday* Todd Lockwood*
Jason Lindsay+
Paul Strasshofer+ FLUTE
Les Roettges, Principal* Rhonda Cassano
Dr. Hugh A. Carithers
Endowed Chair* Deborah Heller+
PICCOLO
Deborah Heller+
OBOE
Eric Olson, Principal* Claudia Minch*
ENGLISH HORN
Claudia Minch* CLARINET
Peter Wright, Principal* Marci Gurnow* BASS CLARINET
Marci Gurnow*
BASSOON
Anthony Anurca* CONTRABASSOON
Anthony Anurca*
HORN
Kevin Reid, Principal* Debra Fialek*^ Aaron Brask* Mark Knowles*
TRUMPET
Julian Kaplan, Principal* Brian Osborne*^ Jonathan Stites+^
TROMBONE
Jeffrey Peterson, Principal* Jason Stein*^
BASS TROMBONE
Louis Bremer*^
TUBA
James Jenkins, Principal*
TIMPANI
Kenneth Every, Principal*
PERCUSSION
Steve Merrill, Principal* Kevin Garry*
Joel Panian+
Charlotte Mabrey+ HARP
Kayo Ishimaru, Principal*
KEYBOARD
Ileana Fernandez, Principal*
JACKSONVILLE
SYMPHONY CHORUS
Donald McCullough, Director
Tom Zimmerman Endowed
Chair
Ileana Fernandez,
Rehearsal Pianist
The Musicians of the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra are proudly represented by
the American Federation of Musicians, Local 444.
Backstage Employees are proudly represented by the International Alliance of
Theatrical Stage Employees (I.A.T.S.E.) Local 115, Saul Lucio, Business Agent.
KEYBOARD TECHNICIANS
Skip Becker, RPT, Concert Piano Technician
Vernon Humbert, Harpsichord Technician
KEY
* Core Orchestra Member + Full Orchestra Member ^ One-year Position # On Leave