STRATHMORE.ORG | 301.581.5100 | Music Center at Strathmore

Strathmore presents

ANNAPOLIS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA 54TH SEASON

SYMPHONIC TITANSSun, March 6, 2016, 3pm

José-Luis Novo, conductorThe Philip Richebourg Chair

Lynn Harrell, cello

Concerto for Violoncello No. 1 in E Flat Major, Op. 107 Dmitri Shostakovich Allegretto (1906–1975) Moderato Cadenza Allegro con moto Last three movements performed without interruption

Lynn Harrell

Intermission

Symphony No. 1 in D Major, “Titan” Gustav Mahler Langsam, schleppend. Immer sehr gemächlich (1860–1911) Kräftig bewegt, doch nicht zu schnell Feierlich und gemessen, ohne zu schleppen Stürmisch bewegt—Energisch

Lynn Harrell appears by arrangement with Columbia Artists Management LLC.

Support for this series is provided by .

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ORCHESTRA

VIOLIN INetanel Draiblate,

Concertmaster, The Peggy Peach Chair

Nicholas Currie, Associate Concertmaster

Susan BenacNikita BorisevichChi-Yin ChenHeather HaughnHanbing JiaKi Won KimJennifer LeeSharon OhSara SchneiderRachael Stockton

VIOLIN IIChristian Tremblay,

PrincipalAlexandra Mikhlin,

Acting Associate PrincipalSally Stallings AmassKristin BakkegardSilva Boletini-HernandezLorraine CombsMegan GrayPaul HermanHa-Young KimNicholas Montopoli

VIOLADerek Smith,

Acting PrincipalDaphne Benichou,

Acting Associate PrincipalLouise Elder ChestnutSusan Taylor DapkunasMichele DeHavenElizabeth GopalRachel HoladayHeidi Remick

CELLOTodd Thiel, Principal, The

Hildegard Strothman Martin Chair

Yoni Draiblate, Associate Principal

Katlyn DeGrawLavena JohansonAlison Bazala KimCatherine MikelsonMary Ann PerkelDan Shomper

BASS Robert Kurz, PrincipalJeremy Barth,

Associate PrincipalPeter CohnAdriane IrvingJoshua LebarLee Philip

FLUTEKimberly Valerio, PrincipalGenevieve EichmanLori KesnerLauren Sileo

OBOEFatma Daglar, PrincipalJoseph DeluccioDavid GarciaAmanda Dusold

CLARINETRobert DiLutis,

Acting PrincipalAdam EbertPatrick PlunkMichael McDonald

BASSOONBenjamin Greanya,

PrincipalPatricia DusoldKari Shea

FRENCH HORNJames Rester, PrincipalDavid Smith,

Associate PrincipalPaul HopkinsMargaret McGillivrayAnthony ValerioSteven BarzalShona Goldberg-LeopoldShane Iler

TRUMPETDrew Fremder, Acting

Principal, The Philip Richebourg Chair

Kevin BusinskyErik RamosKevin Maloney

TROMBONEDavid Perkel, PrincipalDavid Sciannella

BASS TROMBONEJay Heltzer

TUBAEdward Goldstein, Principal

HARPRachel Miller,

Acting Principal

CELESTEKirsten Taylor

TIMPANIMichael Zell,

Acting PrincipalTony Asero

PERCUSSIONDonald Spinelli, PrincipalRobert JenkinsDane Krich

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ABOUT THE ANNAPOLIS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRAThe mission of the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra (ASO) is to produce, present, and promote memorable symphonic music that increases, awareness, enjoyment, and appreciation of music for all ages throughout the region. With a 54-year history of artistic excellence, the ASO is recognized as the largest and most distinguished performing arts organization in Maryland’s capital city. Under the direction of Maestro José-Luis Novo, the ASO continues to rise in excellence and national reputation, performing classic, pops, and family concerts, plus special events. The ASO reaches thousands annually with its free Pops in the Park concert, joint concerts with the US Naval Academy, and collaborative projects with other arts organizations and touring headliners. Additionally, the ASO sponsors numerous award-winning education concerts and outreach programs in community schools, sharing the joy of music-making with thousands of schoolchildren.

ABOUT JOSÉ-LUIS NOVOSince his appointment as music director and conductor of the ASO in 2005, José-Luis Novo, holder of The Philip Richebourg Music Director Chair, has instilled vibrant artistic vision. Novo’s drive for artistic excellence has resulted in unprecedented artistic growth and enthusiastic reviews.

Some of the ASO’s highlights during Novo’s tenure include their return to Strathmore, a 2012 return to the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center with mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves for the ASO’s 50th Anniversary Gala Concert, a 2008 ASCAP Adventurous Programming Award, a national broadcast on NPR’s Performance Today, local broadcasts on Baltimore’s WBJC, and the launch of the ASO’s first commercial album commemorating the 300th anniversary of the Annapolis Royal Charter. Additionally, in 2005, the League of American Orchestras selected the ASO as one of only five participants in the Institutional Vision Leadership Initiative. The successful partnership between Novo and the ASO has received consistent critical acclaim from publications such as The Capital Gazette, The Washington Post, and The Baltimore Sun. In addition to his post with the ASO, Novo has been music director and conductor of the Binghamton Philharmonic since 2003. He previously served as assistant conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra.

After a debut with the Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra in Bangkok in 2015, Novo was reengaged for two additional programs. Other recent and upcoming guest conducting engagements include appearances with the Rochester Philharmonic, Fresno Philharmonic, Baltimore Symphony, Symphoria, and Curtis Institute Orchestra. Prior guest conducting engagements have included the Symphony Silicon Valley; Minnesota Orchestra; Syracuse, Modesto, Tulsa, Windsor, Stamford, and Tallahassee Symphonies; Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra; Cleveland and Abilene Philharmonics; Tenerife, Principado de Asturias, and Castilla y León Symphony Orchestras; City of Granada Orchestra; Andrés Segovia Chamber Orchestra; Vallés Symphony Orchestra; and Echternach Festival Orchestra. An advocate of contemporary music, Novo has led more than a dozen world premieres of commissioned compositions. He made his operatic debut conducting a production of Smetana’s The Bartered Bride in collaboration with Julius Rudel and conducted productions of Britten’s Albert Herring, Menotti’s Old Maid and the Thief, and Vaughan Williams’s Riders to the Sea. Novo has also developed a reputation as an educator of young musicians. He has held the positions of Music Director of the Cincinnati Symphony Youth Orchestra and the Miami University Symphony Orchestra, Associate Conductor of the National Repertory Orchestra, and Assistant Conductor of the National Youth Orchestra of Spain and the Yale Symphony Orchestra. Since 1999, he has been Associate Conductor at the Eastern Music Festival in North Carolina. He has also conducted many noteworthy college and youth orchestras including the Curtis Institute Orchestra, National Repertory Orchestra, University of Maryland Symphony, Cleveland Institute of Music Orchestra, Bard Conservatory Orchestra, Ithaca College Symphony Orchestra, and Portuguesa State Youth Orchestra of the Venezuelan El Sistema. In 1998, he took the National Youth Orchestra of Spain on a concert tour of Spain and Portugal, with performances at the Teatro Real in Madrid and the World Exposition in Lisbon. As a violinist, Novo has appeared in concerts and recitals in Europe and in the United States and has made recordings for the Spanish and Norwegian National Radios. He is a founding member of several important ensembles in which he has held leading positions: as concertmaster and soloist with the Youth Chamber Orchestra of Spain, as principal second violin of the New Amsterdam Sinfonietta, and as concertmaster of the National Youth Orchestra of Spain.

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Novo began his musical studies at the conservatory of Valladolid—his hometown—obtaining the degree of Profesor Superior de Violín with honors in solfege, harmony, and violin. He continued his studies on a Spanish Ministry of Culture scholarship at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Brussels, where he earned a first prize in violin. In 1988, he came to the United States as a Fulbright Scholar, obtaining master’s degrees in music and musical arts from Yale University, where he earned the Frances G. Wickes Award and the Yale School of Music Alumni Association Prize. In 1992, the Spanish foundation La Caixa awarded him a fellowship to study at the Cleveland Institute of Music where he earned a master’s degree in orchestral conducting. He concluded his conducting studies at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. His conducting teachers have included Gerhard Samuel, Carl Topilow, Louis Lane, Edmon Colomer, James Ross, and Charles Bruck. In addition, Novo has attended seminars and master classes with Günther Herbig, Lorin Maazel, Cristoph von Dohnänyi, Leonard Slatkin, Larry Rachleff, Daniel Lewis, and Victor Yampolsky.

Novo is the recipient of a 2010 Annie Award in Performing Arts from the Arts Council of Anne Arundel County, a 2008 American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers Adventurous Programming Award, and a 2005 Broome County Arts Council Heart of the Arts Award.

ABOUT LYNN HARRELLLynn Harrell’s presence is felt throughout the musical world. A consummate soloist, chamber musician, recitalist, conductor, and teacher, his work throughout the Americas, Europe, and Asia has placed him in the highest echelon of today’s performing artists.

Harrell’s half-century career has brought him to many leading orchestras including Boston, Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Detroit, Ottawa, Pittsburgh, and the National Symphony. In Europe, he partners with the orchestras of London, Munich, Leipzig, Berlin, Dresden, Leipzig, Zürich, and Tel Aviv. He has also performed extensively in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. Among others, some esteemed conductor-collaborators throughout Harrell’s career include James Levine, Sir Neville Marriner, Kurt Masur, Zubin Mehta, André Previn, Sir Simon Rattle, Leonard Slatkin, Yuri Temirkanov, Michael Tilson Thomas, and David Zinman.

In the 2015–16 season, Harrell tours Europe with the Mutter-Bronfman-Harrell trio with stops in Berlin,

Madrid, Dresden, Moscow, Milan, Essen, and Munich. He also joins Anne-Sophie Mutter and Yefim Bronfman for Beethoven’s triple concerto at the Salzburg Easter Festival and Dresden Staatskapelle. Orchestral international appearances include those with the Mexico National Symphony, National Taiwan Symphony, and Hangzhou Philharmonic. In the United States, he gives recitals in Washington, DC, and Philadelphia.

In recent seasons, Harrell performed domestically with the symphonies of Atlanta, Sydney, and Detroit, and with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra to close the season at Carnegie Hall. Abroad, he played alongside the Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig, China, and Seoul philharmonics, Duisberg Symphony, and the Orquestra Sinfônica Brasileira. He joined a North American tour with the Mutter-Bronfman-Harrell Trio to venues including Carnegie Hall and the Maison Symphonique de Montreal. His international engagements include adjudicating the XV Tchaikovsky International Competition, concerts with the Seoul Philharmonic and Eliahu Inbal, Mariinsky Orchestra and Valery Gergiev, and performing in the Verbier, Hong Kong International Chamber, Aspen, La Jolla, Eastern Music, and Scotia festivals.

In March 2013, Harrell premiered Augusta Reed Thomas’s cello concerto with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Christoph Eschenbach, which he then reprised at the 2014 Aspen Festival under Christian Arming, and with the Detroit Symphony and Hannu Lintu in 2015. Two months later, the 92nd Street Y featured Harrell with the Tokyo String Quartet in their final New York appearance. Harrell has performed at such music festivals as Grand Teton and Tanglewood, and his ongoing relationship with the Aspen Music Festival spans more than 40 years of summer concerts. In the summer of 1999 Harrell was featured in a three-week “Lynn Harrell Cello Festival” with the Hong Kong Philharmonic.

On April 7, 1994, Harrell appeared at the Vatican with the Royal Philharmonic in a concert dedicated to the memory of the six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust. As the Vatican’s first official commemoration of the Holocaust, this historic event was attended by both Pope John Paul II and the Chief Rabbi of Rome. That year, Harrell also appeared live at the Grammy Awards with Itzhak Perlman and Pinchas Zukerman, performing an excerpt from their Grammy-nominated recording of the complete Beethoven String Trios.

A majorly accomplished recording artist, Harrell’s extensive discography of more than 30 recordings include the complete Bach Cello Suites, the world-premiere recording of Victor

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Herbert’s Cello Concerto No. 1 with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields led by Sir Neville Marriner, the Walton Concerto with Sir Simon Rattle and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, and the Donald Erb Concerto with Slatkin and the Saint Louis Symphony. Together with Itzhak Perlman and Vladimir Ashkenazy, Harrell won two Grammy Awards—in 1981 for the Tchaikovsky Piano Trio and in 1987 for the complete Beethoven Piano Trios. Also with Mr. Ashkenazy and Pinchas Zukerman, Harrell recorded the Schubert Trios, released in February 2000 and the Brahms Trios in 1994. His May 2000 recording with Nigel Kennedy, “Duos for Violin & Cello,” received unanimous critical acclaim. More recently, Harrell recorded Tchaikovsky’s Variations for Cello and Orchestra on a

Rococo Theme, Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 2, and Prokofiev’s Sinfonia Concertante with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Gerard Schwarz conducting.

In June 2010, along with his wife, violinist Helen Nightengale, Harrell founded the HEARTbeats Foundation, a 501(c) charity. Based in Los Angeles, the HEARTbeats Foundation strives to help children in need to harness the power of music to better cope with, and recover from, the extreme challenges of poverty and conflict. Harrell serves as a board officer and artist ambassador, a capacity that allows him to work directly with children in need.Harrell plays a 2008 Dungey cello and lives in Santa Monica, California.

PROGRAM NOTES

CELLO CONCERTO NO. 1 IN E-FLAT MAJOR, OP. 107 ASO Premiere

If ever we needed evidence that art and politics can be a lethal mix, the life of Dmitri Shostakovich provides it. A son of the Russian Revolution, he started off as a true believer. But in his early twenties he got caught up in the Stalinist nightmare, apparently surviving the purges only because Stalin liked his “politically correct” music for propaganda films.

In January 1936, an article appeared in Pravda severely criticizing Shostakovich’s highly successful new opera, Lady Macbeth of the Mtzensk District. Immediately, upon the order of the government, the opera was withdrawn from the stage and performances of all of the composer’s music banned. For the first of many times, Shostakovich was cast into Soviet limbo, his music unperformed, his livelihood taken and his very life in jeopardy. In later years he recalled that he was so certain of being arrested that he used to sleep with his suitcase packed near the front door so that if the secret police were to pick him up, they would not disturb the rest of the family.

World War II brought a breather and an upsurge of patriotism, with the horrors of the ’30s temporarily forgotten. But in 1948 came a resurgence of purges, suppression, and disappearances, orchestrated by the

cultural commissar Andrey Zhdanov, whose decrees permitted only cheerful, uplifting, and folksy art. With Stalin’s death in 1953, however, things began to look up; later in the decade, when Khrushchev’s de-Stalinization program was underway, Shostakovich felt freer to express himself without fear of retribution. Throughout this political roller coaster, he maintained his artistic integrity by continuing to compose “for the drawer.”

Few musicians in the last century inspired more composers to write for them than did cellist and conductor Mstislav “Slava” Rostropovich. A longtime friend of Shostakovich, with whom he frequently performed around the Soviet Union, Rostropovich had long hoped that the composer would write a cello concerto for him. He recalled that when he raised the question of a commission with Shostakovich’s wife, she answered “Slava, if you want Dmitri to write something for you, the only recipe I can give you is this—never ask him or talk to him about it.” True to form, in 1959, the composer surprised his friend with the Cello Concerto in E-flat.

Although the times may have been calmer, the Concerto opens with a grim, four-note theme on the cello that dominates the movement and recurs throughout the work. Not only is there the inherent musical tension in the chromatic theme but also in the cello part, which begins in the low register and gradually ratchets higher and higher,

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transforming the theme into a shriek. The second theme offers less contrast than one might expect in a sonata form, but at least it attenuates the anger; the composer, however, couldn’t resist appending his grim motto.

The lyrical second movement opens with a plaintive theme based on a Jewish folksong. It is one of Shostakovich’s most romantic movements and leads into a huge written-out cadenza that the composer notated as a separate movement. In it, the grim, four-note motive from the opening movement reappears, and the tempo slowly increases until the cadenza transitions into the Allegro finale.

It is characteristic of many of the finales of Shostakovich’s symphonies and concertos to have a playful and often satiric bite. Stalin may have been dead and even discredited, but Shostakovich could not let him off that easily. Hidden in the last movement is a parody of one of the dictator’s favorite sentimental ditties, Suliko, the same one the composer parodied in the satirical cantata Rayok (The Peep Show), lampooning Zhdanov’s and his followers’ decrees. The cantata, probably composed in stages between 1947 and 1967, remained hidden “in the drawer” until after the composer’s death. Shostakovich also brings back and prominently features the four-note motto, concluding with a reprise of the opening of the Concerto. If there is any personal or political significance or symbolism associated with it, none has been determined with any certainty.

SYMPHONY NO. 1 IN D MAJORLast ASO Performance February 2001

In the late 1880s Gustav Mahler was building a reputation as a symphonic and operatic conductor. As he moved from one conducting post to another, usually as the assistant conductor in opera houses, he had only limited time for composing. It took him from 1883 to 1888 to finish the First Symphony for its premiere and another 11 years to have it ready for publication.

During the interval, Mahler made major changes. At its premiere in Budapest in 1889, Mahler had called it a “Symphonic Poem in two parts” with an elaborate literary program that he later repudiated. The origin of the symphony’s subtitle “Titan” is uncertain; some scholars believe it derived from the title of a novel by Jean Paul, a popular literary figure during the heyday of the Romantic period. In its first version, the symphony had five movements, but Mahler immediately discarded the original second movement. He also expanded the size of the orchestra and revised the orchestration drastically. The discarded second movement, an Andante titled “Blumine,”

resurfaced only in 1967 and is now occasionally performed with the symphony.At the time he began the symphony, Mahler was also composing a cycle of four songs with orchestra, titled Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (Songs of a Wayfarer). The themes from two of these songs found their way into the symphony. The second song became the main theme of the first movement, while the fourth song became the middle section of the third movement.

In light of Mahler’s later symphonies, the First is relatively tame. Nevertheless, it was received with hostility and ridicule at the first performance, bewildering the audience and annoying the critics. Its originality lies in the innovative orchestration and harmonies, as well as in the intensity of the emotions it conveys. In 1941 before the resurgence of Mahler’s popularity, Aaron Copland perceived the value of the Mahler’s music: “Of all romantics, this arch-romantic has most to give to the music of the future.”

The first movement begins with an eerie introduction, the first two notes of which later morph into a birdcall, as well as the first two notes of the main theme. It is punctuated by a distant fanfare and a wailing oboe cry. The Allegro section begins in the cellos with the second Wayfarer song, “Ging heut morgen Übers Feld,” (I Walked this Morning Over the Field); the theme is the heart and soul of the symphony serving not only as the main theme of this movement, but also as the basis of the themes of the second and final movements. The music of the introduction recurs in the middle of the movement. Mahler’s genius was his ability to keep all his thematic balls in the air, a feat brilliantly achieved in the coda.

The second movement Scherzo has the rhythm of the Ländler, an Austrian folk dance. Although it conforms to the classic minuet and trio form, Mahler spins out the first section far beyond the standard repeat structure. Both the opening three notes of the Scherzo and the Trio recall the birdcall theme from the first movement.

A macabre timpani ostinato accompanies a lonely double bass introducing the main theme of the third movement, a funeral march based on none other than the nursery rhyme “Frère Jacques” in the minor mode. The spooky parody is said to have been inspired by a popular picture by the French painter Jacques Callot of a dead hunter accompanied to his grave by forest animals. The middle section of the movement is based on the melody from the fourth Wayfarer song, “Die zwei blauen Augen von meinem Schatz,” (My Sweetheart’s Two Blue Eyes) hypnotic and calming. In a third episode, Mahler transforms the theme

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into a dance with more than a hint of Jewish Klezmer music, an aspect of Mahler’s heritage about which he manifested considerable ambivalence. Although a convert to Catholicism, he suffered constant anti-Semitic slights, and, after World War II, Leonard Bernstein had to bully the Vienna Philharmonic to revive Mahler’s music.

The movement leads directly to the stormy Finale, which in the original program notes was titled “Dall’ Inferno al Paradiso” (from Hell to Heaven). It opens with one of the most threatening passages in classical music and is subsequently taken up in the main body of the Allegro. In the Finale, Mahler ties together the themes from the earlier movements, even those from the discarded “Blumine” movement as a gentle, even comforting, second theme. The resolution occurs in a coda of heroic proportions, including a triumphant, full-voiced reprise of the distant fanfare from the opening of the symphony.

—Program notes by Joe & Elizabeth Kahn

UPCOMING ASO PERFORMANCESThese concerts take place at Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts and are not presented by Strathmore.

UNANSWERED QUESTIONSJosé-Luis Novo, conductorMichael Roll, pianoFri & Sat, April 1 & 2, 2016

ORCHESTRAL BRILLIANCEJosé-Luis Novo, conductorFri & Sat, May 6 & 7

ASO FAMILY CONCERTSJosé-Luis Novo, conductorMichael Boudewyns and Sara Valentine ofReally Inventive Stuff StorytellersSat, May 14, 2016

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CALL 410.263.0907 OR VISIT ANNAPOLISSYMPHONY.ORG.

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Fri, April 1

From top: Amanda Woodbury, Sarah Mesko,

Brent Funderburk, Adam Diegel

8 | Strathmore Presents 2015–2016

Coming in April!

I AM ANNE HUTCHINSON/I AM HARVEY MILKSTARRING KRISTIN CHENOWETH& ANDREW LIPPA

Centuries apart, two reluctant prophets stood up for equality and changed the world. This groundbreaking World Premiere Concept Opera combines song and powerful storytelling to bring to life the emotional tales of these American icons.

Starring Broadway luminaries Kristin Chenoweth and Andrew Lippa, this stunning production magically weaves together the lives of 17th century women’s rights activist Anne Hutchinson and 1970s gay rights leader Harvey Milk. The performance—scored for full symphonic orchestra and a cast of 140 actors and singers—celebrates two trailblazing stories of struggle, joy, passion, and ultimately, triumph.

MAKE IT HAPPEN.Help make this milestone production possible by purchasing a Supporter Ticket for $249. This special ticket includes premium seating, a preshow reception, and recognition in the show program.

STRATHMORE.ORG/IAM Strathmore is pleased to partner with Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and the

National Women’s History Museum, who will benefit from the proceeds of these performances.

L–R: Andrew Lippa, Kristen Chenoweth, I Am Harvey Milk by Matthew Murphy.

I AM ANNE HUTCHINSON/ I AM HARVEY MILKSat, April 23, 8pmSun, April 24, 4pmMUSIC CENTER