Natasha Plays

Beethoven

10:30am

Friday, April 21

The electrifyingly talented pianist Natasha Paremski returns to the

Kleinhans stage with the BPO. In a program that includes Beethoven’s

Piano Concerto No. 3 and Philip Rothman’s energetic “Starsplitter”, the

orchestra presents a concert full of energy.

JoAnn Falletta, conductor

Natasha Paremski, piano

BEETHOVEN The Consecration of the House Overture, Op. 124

PHILIP ROTHMAN Starsplitter

BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 3

KODALY Concerto for Orchestra

Dances of Galanta

REPERTOIRE

The Consecration of the House Overture, Op. 124:

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

Composed in 1822

Page 2

The Consecration of the House Overture was commissioned for

Beethoven by Carl Friedrich Hensler, the director of Vienna’s

new Theater in der Josefstadt. It was first performed at the

theater’s opening on October 3, 1822. This was the first

work that Beethoven composed after his revival of studying

the works of J.S. Bach and Handel and the influence is present

in the piece. It is now often performed as a traditional bless-

ing for new ventures.

Piano Concerto No. 3:

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

Composed in 1800

Piano Concerto No. 3 was first performed on

April 5, 1903 with Beethoven playing as the soloist.

This composition is constructed in standard

concerto form with three movements, Allegro,

Largo, and Rondo. According to a friend of Beethoven’s,

the composition was not complete at the time of it’s first performance and nearly all of the

solo parts were performed by memory. Beethoven then later wrote them down.

Concerto for Orchestra:

Zoltán Kodály (1882-1967)

Composed in 1940

The Concerto for Orchestra was completed for the 50th anni-

versary of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. The piece is con-

structed in three connected movements that are divided into

five contrasting sections and features quotations from Hungarian

folk melodies. Dances of Galánta:

Zoltán Kodály (1882-1967)

Composed in 1933

Dances of Galánta was commissioned for the 80th anniversary of the Budapest Philharmonic

Society. It is based on folk music of a region called Galánta (now part of Slovakia) where

Kodály lived for some time. The composer took his principal themes from old publications of

Hungarian dances. The piece is divided into five sections and evokes the sound of a famous

Gypsy band that he grew up hearing.

Zoltán Kodály

Kodaly is known for his music pedagogy, as well as his ability to evoke his native Hungarian

culture through the use of

folksongs.

Starsplitter:

Philip Rothman (b. 1976)

Composed in 2006

Page 3 FRIDAY, APRIL 21

Natasha Paremski (Pianist):

Now living in New York, Natasha moved to the United

States from Moscow when she was 8 years old. At a

young age she has been awarded many prestigious ac-

knowledgements such as the Gilmore Youth Artists

prize in 2006, the Prix Montblanc in 2007, the Orpheum

Stiftung Prize in Switzerland, and in 2010 she was

awarded the Classical Recording Foundation’s Young

Artist of the Year.

Outside of the traditional concert hall, Natasha has

been the featured pianist in choreographer Benjamin

Millepied’s Danse Concertantes at New York’s Joyce

Theater in 2008. She has also been featured in a major two-part BBC TV film on the life

and work of Tchaikovsky which was shot on location in St. Petersburg. She has performed

along with Simon Keenlyside and Maxim Vengerov in the filming of Twin Spirits, a project

which explored the music and writing of Robert and Clara Schumann starring Sting and

Trudie Styler. Natasha has performed in the project live several times with the co-creators

in New York and the UK, directed by John Caird, the original director/adaptor of the musi-

cal Les Misérables.

Natasha began studying piano at age 4 with Nina Malikova at Moscow’s Andreyev School

of Music. At 15, she debuted with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and recorded two discs

with the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra under Dmitry Yablonsky, the first featuring An-

ton Rubinstein’s Piano Concerto No. 4 coupled with Rachmaninoff’s Paganini Rhapsody

and the second featuring all of Chopin’s shorter works for piano and orchestra.

Hometown musician Philip Rothman graduated from Williamsville East

High School and then went on to study music at Rice University and The

Juilliard School. He composed Starsplitter in 2006. It is a fast-moving, col-

orful soundscape that incorporates each instrument into its vibrant sonic

palette. Rothman came to the title “Starsplitter” by considering different

combinations of celestial terms that would describe the explosive energy

of the piece. Philip Rothman, native

Buffalo composer.

Explore and Learn:

Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra

As Buffalo’s cultural ambassador, the Grammy Award-winning Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, under Music Direc-tor JoAnn Falletta, presents more than 120 Classics, Pops and Youth Concerts each year and reaches more than 42,000 K-

12 students per year across Western New York.

Since 1940, the orchestra’s permanent home has been

Kleinhans Music Hall, a National Historic Landmark designed

by Eliel and Eero Saarinen with an international reputation as

one of the finest concert halls in the United States.

JoAnn Falletta, Conductor

Friday Morning

Concert Series

BUFFALO PHILHARMONIC

ORCHESTRA

education@bpo.org

Before the piano was invented, popular keyboard instruments included

organs and harpsichords. How were pianos different from these in-

struments and how did they change the way musicians and composers

could express music?

Hint: The name ‘piano’ derives from a shortened version of the full

name which is forte piano. What do these two words mean in Italian?