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Ruth Blaustein Rosenberg Series Peabody Symphony Orchestra H a j i m e T e r i Mur ai, Mus i c Dir e c to r Guest Artist Zuill Bailey, cello S at u r day, O c t o b e r 2 5, 2 0 1 4 M i r i a m A . F r i e d b e r g Co n c e r t H a l l 8: 0 0 p. m . And night by the streams of the city John Belkot (b. 1981) Winning work in the Macht Orchestral Composition Competition Cello Concerto in B minor, Op. 104 Allegro Adagio ma non troppo Allegro moderato Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904) Zuill Bailey, cello, guest artist (BM, Cello, 1994) Intermission Presentation of the Johns Hopkins University Distinguished Alumni Award to Zuill Bailey by Fred Bronstein, Dean, Peabody Institute Matthew Rupcich, President, Society of Peabody Alumni David Yaffe, Vice President, Johns Hopkins Alumni Association Mathis der Maler (Symphony) Angelic Concert Entombment The Temptation of Saint Anthony Paul Hindemith (1895-1963) Please disable all electronic devices including phones, E-readers, and tablets during performances. The use of cameras and sound recorders during performances is strictly prohibited. Notice: For your own safety, LOOK for your nearest EXIT. In case of emergency, WALK, do not RUN to that EXIT. By order of the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore. -7- Program Notes Concerto for Cello and Orchestra, Op. 104 Antonín Dvořák And night by the streams of the city Born September 8, 1841, in Nelahozeves, Bohemia Died May 1, 1904, in Prague, Czech Republic John Belkot The gestation period for And night lasted many months - a long period of time for a piece just over six minutes in length. I had been battling the notion of setting a poem by Matt Reeck for soprano and orchestra, but, as the material developed and I continued to process the text, certain truths began to reveal themselves. For composers, there’s a tendency to observe the sanctity of text verbatim. However, once text is lifted from the page it becomes a new art form. An oration or setting in song can never recreate the truths of viewing the same text in print. This sets up a rather post-modern paradox: to be authentic to the deeper meaning of written text, one needs to consider stripping away the filigree to allow the core to shine. In a conversation with Matt (the poet), I learned that he shared similar views. In singing, words and time are augmented; therefore, too often more emphasis is placed on articles or non-structural words only utilized for the greater prosody or schema. It became clear to me that the emotional core of Matt’s poem was better achieved purely in sound. When And night was selected by the BSO for a composer reading, Marin Alsop said to the orchestra, “This piece is all about G; so if you have a G, bring it out.” There I was: my first time with a major orchestra talking about love, and cities, and grit, and loss - stripping away words into sounds… and in all of the maestra’s wisdom, she had reduced my “repoem” down to a new “core.” In this piece the non-essential has been removed. The story begins with the fanfare of night, and the only pitch used for minutes is G. Large silences carry time forward rather than a myriad of notes blazing past the listener, which typically get lost in the wash. The trumpet continues to sound G throughout the piece as it descends into the stillness of night, desperately at times, attempting to hold on to known comforts. Eventually, the G pulls higher and higher, gasping to be heard over the streams of anonymity. -John Belkot a city down the hills amidst love the streams broken through cities by love we had taken the leaving the streams long the city used but was through the hills the love you had not put the stream amidst the true night her city put down our hills & they took having could they quickly the love took streams had had the nights love streams the red night being soft her love down the night by night the late city took the hills through the long love & night by the streams of the city - Matt Reeck Dvořák completed this work on June 11, 1895. It was premiered on March 19, 1896, in London with cellist Leo Stein as soloist and the composer conducting. It is scored for piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, three horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, triangle, and strings. Antonín Dvořák spent three years in the United States between 1892 and 1895. Invited by the president of the National Conservatory of Music in America, located in New York City, Dvořák could not refuse the offer of becoming its director. His annual compensation of $15,000 was very impressive for the time, representing twenty-five times the salary he had received at the Prague Conservatory. In today’s currency, his salary represents nearly $400,000. During Dvořák’s American period, he conducted many concerts and composed several works. His first summer was spent in the idyllic Czech village of Spillville, Iowa. Dvořák’s last American work was his thoroughly Czech-flavored Cello Concerto. However, its inspiration was thoroughly American. The motivation came from Victor Herbert, later known as the composer of delightful operettas (Naughty Marietta and Babes in Toyland are the most popular of his more than fifty stage works), who performed his own Second Cello Concerto in 1894 to an audience that included Dvořák. The Czech composer, having been pressed for years by his countryman Hanuš Wihan to compose a cello concerto, was duly impressed and decided to begin composing a new work. The result is more Czech than American, probably due to the homesickness he felt while vacationing in Spillville. Dvořák’s first movement begins quietly with a woodwind passage. From this gentle whisper, the texture builds to a towering climax. Before the cellist enters, both of the main themes are introduced by the orchestra alone, as is the custom in traditional concertos. The soloist is finally heard with an ornamented version of the first theme, proceeding to a more straightforward reading of the second melody. One of the most interesting aspects of the first movement is the reversal of the two main themes when they return after the development section. Marked Adagio non troppo, the second movement shows the Bohemian side of Dvořák’s work. First played by the clarinet, the first theme bears the hallmarks of Czech folk music. The second theme is derived from the composer’s own art song, “Let me wander alone in my dreams,” which was a favorite of his sister-inlaw (and first love), Josefine Kauric. He decided to quote this work when he received word that she was ill. His treatment of the theme is almost that of a conversation between woodwind soloists and the cellist. The first theme returns, this time with a flute obbligato. Matt Reeck is a writer living in Los Angeles. He has won a Fulbright Fellowship for creative writing to India, as well as NEA and PEN Translation Grants. As an undergraduate, he studied oboe with Alex Klein at the University of Washington. After receiving his MFA in Poetry from Brooklyn College, he founded the experimental poetry and art journal Staging Ground. Other successful collaborations include those with visual artists, dramatists, puppeteers, and photographers. -8- The finale is a fiery rondo built upon martial rhythms. Near the center of the movement, the tempo relaxes and a series of musical reminiscences begins. One account, probably accurate, claims that the return of Josefine’s theme, near the end of the sequence, was added after Dvořák’s eventual return to Prague, where he found that she had died. Regardless of the inspiration, the effect is one of exquisite beauty, occurring just before the final restatement of the march theme. ©2014 Orpheus Music Prose & Craig Doolin www.orpheusnotes.com Hajime Teri Murai music director, conductor Symphony: Mathis der Maler Paul Hindemith Born November 16, 1895 in Hanau, near Frankfurt, Germany Died December 28, 1963 in Frankfurt, Germany This work was premiered on March 12, 1934, by the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Wilhelm Furtwängler. It is scored for piccolo, pairs of woodwinds, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, and strings. German composers in World War II walked a fine line between acceptance and blacklisting. Hitler’s Nazi regime, in its quest for German racial purity, found fault with many innocent composers just because of their associations with those of Jewish descent. In a 1938 exhibition in Düsseldorf entitled Entartete Musik (Degenerate Music), the Nazi party accused Paul Hindemith of consorting with Jewish artists. Hindemith and his Jewish wife fled Germany four months later, settling for a short time in Switzerland before continuing to the United States in 1940. While in Switzerland, Hindemith enjoyed the premiere of his opera Mathis der Maler. However, the process that led to this important work began six years earlier in Germany. Hindemith had been known as an iconoclast in the 1920s, but as he approached forty his approach began to soften. He developed an affinity for Baroque contrapuntal techniques, which began to infuse his music. His operas turned from subjects of murder and jealousy to social commentary and aesthetic philosophy. As early as 1932, Hindemith received a request from his publisher to look closely at the life of the Renaissance painter Matthias Grunewald. The two shared remarkable artistic similarities, making Hindemith’s subsequent opera loosely autobiographical. Grunewald became involved in the sixteenth-century Peasant Revolt against the feudal system of serfdom in Germany, while Hindemith was a leader in the musical avant-garde four centuries later. Both men, after their struggles, realized the importance of the human condition. Interestingly, Grunewald’s path returned him to the Church, but Hindemith’s final chapter would not be written until after the premiere of Mathis der Maler. He fled the Nazi regime only to return to Germany after the war. He had to rebuild his faith in his homeland. Before the premiere of Mathis der Maler, the great German conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler, feeling that the work-in-progress could benefit from advance promotion, convinced the composer to assemble a symphony from themes found in the opera. Therefore, the title Mathis der Maler refers to two separate works in Hindemith’s vast catalogue – a 1938 opera and a 1934 symphony. The opera is organized around three instrumental segments, which are found at key moments during the work to reinforce the drama. These represent the famous altarpiece at the monastery of Isenheim, which bears three of Grunewald’s most famous paintings – “Engelkonzert” (Angelic Concert), “Grablegung” (Entombment), and “Versuchung des heiligen Antonius” (The Temptation of Saint Anthony). Hindemith chose these segments from which to derive the music for his symphony, retaining their titles. “Angelic Concert” depicts a flight of angels performing for the Madonna and Child. Hindemith provides an amazingly detailed depiction of this scene by using ethereal string textures that he builds to grand climaxes. For those interested in even deeper symbolism, it warrants mention that the composer’s choice of keys for the earthly and heavenly elements is separated by the interval of the tritone (exactly half of an octave) – known during the Middle Ages as diabolus in musica (the devil in music). Grunewald’s estrangement from religion is depicted in music as well as on stage. “Entombment” is based on Grunewald’s representation of Christ being laid to rest. In the opera, this music accompanies the painter’s preparation for his own death. “The Temptation of St. Anthony” is a depiction of the demonic scene of the Isenheim altarpiece. In the opera, this is a dream through which dissonances arise but are conquered by a sacred chorale that rises in a blaze of pious exultation. ©2014 Orpheus Music Prose & Craig Doolin www.orpheusnotes.com -9- Hajime Teri Murai was appointed in 1991 as the Ruth Blaustein Rosenberg Director of Orchestral Activities and serves as the Music Director of the Peabody Symphony and Concert Orchestras. This endowed position was established in the summer of 1990 as a result of a significant leadership gift to the Peabody Endowment Fund from the Blaustein-Rosenberg-Thalheimer Family Group in memory of Ruth Blaustein Rosenberg. Mr. Murai has made guest conducting appearances with the Baltimore Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Florida Symphony, Phoenix Symphony, Fort Wayne Philharmonic, San Jose Chamber Orchestra, Indiana Chamber Orchestra, the Diablo Music Festival, and the Summer Opera Theatre Company of Washington, D.C. He served on the faculty of the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati from 1976-1991 and was Music Director and Conductor of the Cincinnati Youth Orchestra from 1979-1991. Mr. Murai has been awarded eleven ASCAP Awards for the Adventuresome Programming of Contemporary Music, including six awards with the Peabody Symphony and Concert Orchestras. In addition to premiering many new works, Mr. Murai gave the first performance in English of Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No.13, “Babi Yar” (translation by Dr. Robert Evans). In 1987, he was a semi-finalist in the Leopold Stokowski Conducting Competition. Mr. Murai was born in San Francisco and began his conducting studies while attending Lowell High School. He received his BA and MA degrees from the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he studied with Ronald Ondrejka. He attended the California Institute of the Arts to study with Gerhard Samuel and has also worked with Richard Lert. zuill bailey, cello Zuill Bailey is a distinguished American classical cellist, soloist, chamber musician, recitalist, Artistic Director, and teacher. His rare combination of celebrated artistry, technical wizardry, and engaging personality has secured his place as one of the most sought after and active cellists today. A consummate concerto soloist, Mr. Bailey has been featured with the symphony orchestras of Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Detroit, Indianapolis, Dallas, Louisville, Honolulu, Milwaukee, Nashville, Toronto, Minnesota, Utah, Israel, Cape Town, and the Bruckner Orchestra in Linz, Austria. He has collaborated with such conductors as Itzhak Perlman, Alan Gilbert, Andrew Litton, James DePriest, Jun Markl, Carlos Kalmar, Jacques Lacombe, Grant Llewellyn, and Stanislav Skrowaczewski. He also has been featured with musical luminaries Leon Fleisher, Jaime Laredo, the Juilliard String Quartet, Lynn Harrell, and Janos Starker. Mr. Bailey has appeared at Disney Hall, the Kennedy Center, the United Nations, Alice Tully Hall, the 92nd St. Y, and Carnegie Hall, where he made his concerto debut performing the U.S. premiere of Miklos Theodorakis’ Rhapsody for Cello and Orchestra. In addition, he made his New York recital debut in a sold-out performance of the complete Beethoven Cello Sonatas at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Bailey also presented the U.S. premiere of the Nico Muhly Cello Concerto (2012) with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. His international appearances include notable performances with the Moscow Chamber Orchestra in its 50th anniversary tour of Russia as well as concerts in Australia, the Dominican Republic, France, Israel, Spain, South Africa, Hong Kong, Jordan, Mexico, South America, and the United Kingdom. Festival appearances include Ravinia, the Interlochen Center for the Arts, Manchester Cello Festival (UK), Wimbledon (UK), Consonances- St. Nazaire ( France), Australian Festival of Chamber Music, Deia Music Festival- Mallorca (Spain), Montreal (Canada), Santa Fe, Caramoor, Chautauqua, Bravo!, Vail Valley, Maverick Concert Series, Brevard, and the Music Academy of the West. In addition, he was the featured soloist performing the Elgar cello concerto at the Bard Festival in the World Premiere of the Doug Varone Dance Company performance of Victorious. Zuill Bailey is an exclusive recording artist on Telarc International. His celebrated Bach Cello Suites and recently released Britten Cello Symphony/Sonata CDs immediately soared to the number one spot on the Classical Billboard Charts. Other critically acclaimed recordings on Telarc include his live performances with the Indianapolis Symphony of the Elgar and Dvořák Cello Concertos, described by Gramophone magazine as one that “sweeps the board.” Additional Telarc releases include Brahms complete works for cello and piano with pianist Awadagin Pratt and Russian Masterpieces showcasing the works of Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich performed with the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra. Mr. Bailey is featured on Concord Music’s chart topping Quincy Jones-produced Diversity with pianist/ composer Emily Bear. Other releases include his innovative Spanish Masters CD for Zenph Studios, where he forms a unique duo blending with recordings of composer Manuel de Falla and an all-American recital program with pianist Lara Downes on the Steinway and Sons label. His discography also includes a debut recital disc for Delos, Cello Quintets of Boccherini and Schubert with Janos Starker, SaintSaen’s Cello Concertos No. 1 and 2 “Live,” and the Korngold cello concerto with Kaspar Richter and the Bruckner Orchestra Linz for ASV. Zuill Bailey was named a 2014 Johns Hopkins University Distinguished Alumnus and was awarded the Classical Recording Foundation Award for 2006 and 2007 for Beethoven’s complete works for cello and piano. The highly touted two-disc set with pianist Simone Dinnerstein was released on Telarc worldwide. In celebration of his recordings and appearances, Kalmus Music Masters has released Zuill Bailey Performance Editions, which encompass the core repertoire of cello literature. Network television appearances include a recurring role on the HBO series Oz, NBC’s Homicide, A&E, NHK TV in Japan, a live broadcast and DVD release of the Beethoven Triple Concerto performed in Tel Aviv with Itzhak Perlman conducting the Israel Philharmonic, and a performance with the National Symphony Orchestra of Mexico City. Mr. Bailey is also featured in the televised production of the Cuban premiere of Victor Herbert’s -10- Cello Concerto No. 2 with the National Orchestra of Cuba. He has been heard on NPR’s Morning Edition, Tiny Desk Concert, Performance Today, Saint Paul Sunday, BBC’s In Tune, XM Radio’s Live from Studio II, Sirius Satellite Radio’s Virtuoso Voices, the KDFC Concert Series, KUSC, Minnesota Public Radio, WFMT and RTHK Radio Hong Kong. Mr. Bailey received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Peabody Conservatory and the Juilliard School. His primary teachers include Loran Stephenson, Stephen Kates, and Joel Krosnick. Mr. Bailey performs on a 1693 Matteo Gofriller Cello, formerly owned by Mischa Schneider of the Budapest String Quartet. In addition to his extensive touring engagements, he is the Artistic Director of El Paso Pro-Musica (Texas), the Sitka Summer Music Festival and Series (Alaska), the Northwest Bach Festival (Washington), guest Artistic Director of the Mesa Arts Center (Arizona) and Professor of Cello at the University of Texas at El Paso. For more information please visit www.zuillbailey.com john belkot, composer John Belkot’s “juxtapositions of timbre, time and space carry listeners into aesthetic regions at the intersection of preconceived boundaries of musical expectation to find unexpected moments of beauty,” (Classical Guitar Magazine). The composer, whose aesthetic is often poly-stylistic, ultimately weaves cohesive threads balancing sound and silence equally. By augmenting the music with negative space, Belkot creates a unique sense of structure and narrative in his works. Over the past several years, Belkot has enjoyed continued commissions and performances of his music throughout the United States. His works have been featured at the College Music Society’s 54th National Conference, The LIVEWIRE Festival, the Havertown New Music and Art Series, the David Oppenheim Concert Series at the Stella Adler Studio, and the National Gallery of Art. In addition to tonight’s performance as the recipient of the 2014 Macht Prize for Orchestral Composition, Belkot has been recognized with awards from the Baltimore Classical Guitar Society, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (Marin Alsop), the Baltimore Choral Arts Society (Tom Hall), and Pi Kappa Lambda Honor Society. Belkot’s compositions have been championed by the harp/sax duo Pictures on Silence, SONAR New Music Ensemble, Charm City Collegium, and Canticum Novum. Belkot has served as Composer-in-Residence for the Johns Hopkins University and treasurer for the Baltimore Composers Forum. He is a member of the music theory faculty at the Peabody Preparatory, affiliate faculty at Loyola University of Maryland, and is the Director of Music at Mt. Calvary Church. Belkot holds degrees from Susquehanna University and the Peabody Conservatory, where he was the recipient of the Randolph S. Rothschild and the Eugene Scheffres & Richard E. Hartt Scholarships, and served as the Composition Graduate Assistant. He lives in Charles Village with his wife, Adri and their two dogs. www.johnbelkot.com