VistasA S E A S O N O F

N e a l G i t t l e ma n , A r t i s t i c D i re c to r a n d Con d u c to r

M AY 1 0/ 1 1 ~ M A S T E R W O R K S

Mauceri Meets DaurovADRIAN DAU ROV, CELLO

JOH N MAUCERI , GU EST CON DUC TOR

M AY 3 1 /J U N E 1 - S U P E R P O P S

Hello, Louis! A Tribute to Louis Armstrong

BYRON STRIPL ING , GU EST ARTIST | PATRICK RE YNOLDS ,

CON DUC TOR

S U N DAY, J U N E 2 R E C I TA L S E R I E S

Concertmaster’s ChoiceJ ESS ICA H U NG ,

CONCERTMASTER AN D VIOLIN CECIL IA H U ERTA- L AU F, CELLO FERNAN DO L AN DEROS , P IANO

J U N E 7/ 8 ~ M A S T E R W O R K S

Mozart and MahlerR ACHAEL YOU NG , BASSOON

N E AL G IT TLEMAN , CON DUC TOR

S U N DAY, J U N E 9 S U N DA E C L A S S I C S

Mahler: Symphony No. 1N E AL G IT TLEMAN , CON DUC TOR AN D

PRESENTER

S AT U R DAY, J U N E 1 5 S P E C I A L E V E N T

Video Games LiveDPO WITH

V IDEO GAM E AC TION

Day ton Ph i lha rmon ic O rche s t ra 2018–2019 Season Program Book 5

1819 DPO #5 Program Book Cover.indd 1 11/14/18 12:35 PM

“Your bio’s dull!”

For several years that’s what I heard from my wife, Lisa. Three years ago I decided to listen to her and created a more personal, less formal bio for the DPO program book.

Then the other shoe dropped. Lisa thought I needed a fresh bio each season!

This is now Volume 4 of my “new-style bio”. Last year’s told about the most important teacher in my life, Nadia Boulanger. This one’s about the other important teacher, Charles Bruck.

I studied conducting with Charles Bruck from 1978 to 1983. Six summers at the Pierre Monteux School in Hancock, Maine and two academic years at the Hartt School of Music in Hartford.

The great French conductor Pierre Monteux started his conducting school in 1943 in his wife’s Downeast hometown. I always tell folks it’s easy to get to Hancock. Jump in the water in Bar Harbor and swim due north. If you don’t get swept out to sea, Hancock is where a kind Mainer will hand you a towel!

The school’s set in the woods, in a beautiful rustic building just big enough to hold a 60-piece orchestra and about 250 listeners sitting on wooden folding chairs. For six weeks every summer young conductors rehearse and perform with an orchestra of talented 20- and 30-something musicians.

Pierre Monteux established the school’s four principles: One is down. (That means you mark the first beat of each bar of music with a downward move of your baton.) Beat clearly. (That means the orchestra has to understand what you’re doing.) Don’t put on a show. (That means you conduct for musicians’ sake, not to entertain the audience with your slick

moves.) Know your score. (That means just what it says.)

People who studied with Monteux say he was a demanding but kind teacher. His pupil Charles Bruck, who took over the teaching responsibilities in 1969 after Monteux’s death, was a demanding but difficult teacher. Bruck had a short fuse. He yelled a lot. But he loved his students and put every ounce of his being into his teaching. Most of us figured out after a while that if you stopped making mistakes he’d stop yelling. Not the kindest, gentlest teaching style, but it worked for me.

This past summer I spent a week visiting the school during its 75th anniversary season. I checked out the next generation of young conductors being trained by Michael Jinbo, the Monteux School’s third Music Director. I heard wonderful concerts. I climbed Penobscot and Schoodic Mountains. I ate lobster. I played a little golf. I studied Salome. I reconnected with my musical roots. I refreshed my links to the Monteux School and its principles.

Now I’m ready for another exciting season at the helm of your Dayton Philharmonic!

P.S. Here’s the “dull bio”: www.parkerartists.com/Neal-Gittleman.html

Neal GittlemanArtistic Director & Conductor, Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra

Michael Jinbo gives a pointer to conducting student Duo Shen.

Neal’s Notes How Did I Get Here?

To paraphrase from the Talking Heads song “Once in a Lifetime”… You may find yourself in Southwest Ohio. And you may find yourself on the podium of a wonderful symphony orchestra. And you may find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful wife. And you may ask yourself, “Well…how did I get here?”

I know the answer! I got here because of John Mauceri, guest conductor for our May 10 and 11 Masterworks Series concerts.

Yale, 1972–1974

As a freshman at Yale in the fall of 1972 I knew I wanted to go into music. But I didn’t know what. Maybe composing. Maybe theoretical studies. Maybe violin playing. I wasn’t thinking about conducting.

Then I got in to the Yale Symphony conducted by John Mauceri and all that changed. Senior year of high school I’d had great experiences as Principal Second Violin of the Greater Boston Youth Symphony. It was a really good orchestra. We played Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherezade, Mahler’s First Symphony, Lutoslawski’s Concerto for Orchestra. We toured in England and Scotland. It was fun. But playing in John’s Yale Symphony I learned what a really good orchestra was.

Ask an orchestral player why they chose their instrument, and they’ll almost always say, “I fell in love with the [insert instrument name here].” Playing in the Yale Symphony under John I fell in love with the orchestra. The sound. The music. The community of musicians.

I was a pretty good violinist back then. In the YSO I got better. Sophomore year I found myself sitting in my old youth orchestra chair—Principal Second Violin. But by then I’d actually soured on my violin playing. It wasn’t bad, but I now knew how far it was from being really good. And I knew I’d have to revamp my whole approach to the violin if I was going to dream of pursuing it professionally.

And I realized I didn’t dream of pursuing violin professionally. Because of John Mauceri.

John was the best thing about the Yale Symphony. It was obvious to all of us that he was having the time of his life. He exuded joy on the podium. He inspired us to play way over our heads. That got me thinking: “I love the orchestra but I don’t love my violin playing…so maybe I should explore conducting. Conducting, I could make music with an orchestra but not have to hear myself play!”

So I asked John, “If I was interested in getting into conducting, what should I do?” He was great. He gave me some valuable ideas to help me shape a path forward. Shared his ideas on score study. Let me observe his Candide rehearsals in New York. John helped me turn a corner and helped me figure out what I wanted to do. I wanted to explore conducting as a career.

Lots happened between then and now, but none of it would have happened without John. That’s how I got here.

John Mauceri with the DPO

I’ve wanted to bring John to Dayton as a guest conductor for more than ten years. It took several years to get our calendars in sync. Then we had a slot for him, but budget cuts forced us to eliminate the guest conductor slot. Now the stars have aligned and he’s coming for sure. I’m thrilled. I hope you enjoy his Masterworks concert. I know I will!

Maestros and Their Music

One more important thing about John Mauceri. He’s written the best book explaining to an interested lay reader what conducting is all about: Maestros and Their Music. Every year I give books about music as prizes for DPO musicians’ PhilharMonster costumes. Usually I offer three different books. Winner chooses first. Second place chooses second. Third chooses third. This year everyone got Maestros and Their Music. I’ve also bought many copies as gifts to friends and family. It’s a great book. If you haven’t read it, do yourself a favor. Buy it. Read it. Give it to your music-loving friends!

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Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra Personnel

1ST VIOLINSJessica Hung,

Concertmaster J. Ralph Corbett Chair

Aurelian Oprea, Associate Concertmaster Huffy Foundation Chair

William Manley, Assistant Concertmaster Sherman Standard Register Foundation Chair

Elizabeth Hofeldt Karlton Taylor*Zhe DengMikhail Baranovsky Louis Proske Katherine Ballester*Youjin NaJohn Lardinois Philip Enzweiler Dona Nouné Janet George Audrey Pride*

2ND VIOLINS The Peter and Patricia Torvik 2nd Violin Section

Kirstin Greenlaw, Principal Jesse Philips Chair

Kara Camfield, Assistant Principal

Ann Lin BaerGloria Fiore Scott MooreTom Fetherston Nick Naegele Lynn Rohr Yoshiko Kunimitsu William Slusser Yein JinDavid Goist

VIOLAS Sheridan Currie,

Principal F. Dean Schnacke Chair

Colleen Braid, Assistant Principal

Karen Johnson Grace Counts Finch Chair

Emilio CarloScott Schilling Lori LaMattina Mark Reis Leslie DraganTzu-Hui HungBelinda Burge

CELLOS Christina Coletta,

Acting Principal Edward L. Kohnle Chair in memory of Andra Lunde Padrichelli Principal Cellist 2003–2018

Jonathan Lee, Acting Assistant Principal

Lucas SongMark Hofeldt Nadine

Monchecourt David HuckabyIsaac Pastor-

Chermak*Zoë Moskalew

BASSES Deborah Taylor,

Principal Dayton Philharmonic Volunteer Assn./ C. David Horine Memorial Chair

Jon Pascolini, Assistant Principal

Donald Compton Stephen Ullery Christopher Roberts James Faulkner Bleda Elibal Jack Henning*

FLUTES Rebecca Tryon

Andres, Principal Dayton Philharmonic Volunteer Assn. Chair

Jennifer Northcut Janet van Graas

PICCOLO Janet van Graas

OBOES Eileen Whalen,

Principal Catharine French Bieser Chair

Connie Ignatiou Robyn Dixon Costa

ENGLISH HORN Robyn Dixon Costa

J. Colby and Nancy Hastings King Chair

CLARINETS John Kurokawa,

Principal Rhea Beerman Peal Chair

Robert GrayChristopher Rueda

BASS CLARINET Christopher Rueda

BASSOONS Rachael Young,

Principal Robert and Elaine Stein Chair

Kristen Smith Bonnie Sherman

CONTRABASSOON Bonnie Sherman

FRENCH HORNS Aaron Brant,

Principal Frank M. Tait Memorial Chair

Jessica PinkhamTodd Fitter Amy Lassiter Sean Vore,

Assistant Principal

TRUMPETS Charles Pagnard,

Principal John W. Berry Family Chair

Alan Siebert Daniel Lewis

TROMBONES Timothy Anderson,

Principal John Reger Memorial Chair

Richard Begel Chad Arnow

BASS TROMBONE Chad Arnow

TUBA Timothy Northcut,

Principal Zachary, Rachel and Natalie Denka Chair

TIMPANI Donald Donnett,

Principal Rosenthal Family Chair in Memory of Miriam Rosenthal

PERCUSSION Michael LaMattina,

Principal Miriam Rosenthal Chair

Jeffrey Luft Richard A. and Mary T. Whitney Chair

Gerald Noble

KEYBOARD Joshua Nemith,

Principal Demirjian Family Chair

HARP Leslie Stratton,

Principal Daisy Talbott Greene Chair

*Leave of Absence

Neal Gittleman Artistic Director and Conductor

Patrick Reynolds Associate Conductor and Conductor, DPYO

Hank Dahlman Chorus Director

Jane Varella Personnel Manager

Eric Knorr Orchestra Librarian

Elizabeth Hofeldt Youth Strings Orchestra Director

Kara Camfield Junior Strings Orchestra Director

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At the season’s final Masterworks concerts, 14 members of the Orchestra will be recognized for their years of service, in five-year increments.

Five Years (2014)Jonathan Lee (Cello, Chair 3) is a 2016 graduate of UC’s College-Conservatory of Music (CCM). He began playing the cello at age 4 and made his solo debut at age 16 playing the Saint-Saëns Cello Concerto with the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra, where both parents were members. Isaac Pastor-Chermak (Cello, Chair 8) is a 2010 graduate of UC Berkeley with a Master of Music from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music earned in 2013. In addition to his DPO work, Isaac performs with the Portland Opera, Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony and four orchestras in California. Ten Years (2009)John Lardinois (Violin 1, Chair 9) is also a member of the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra and plays with local bands including The Great Northern String Band, The Repeating Arms, and Lioness. He began classical training at age 4 and completed graduate violin performance studies at CCM, and he is an accomplished fiddler and studio session musician. Twenty Years (1999)Kirstin Greenlaw (Principal Second Violin) is a graduate of the Interlochen Arts Academy and a graduate of DePauw and Florida State Universities. She performs each summer as Principal Second Violin with the Peninsula Music Festival in Door County, Wisconsin. Karen Johnson (Viola, Chair 3) is a graduate of Indiana and Rice Universities. Prior to joining the DPO, she was Associate Principal Viola with the Knoxville Symphony. While in college, she memorized opus numbers by comparing them with Ohio State football jersey numbers. For example, the Schuman Piano Concerto, Opus 53 is known by Karen as “Randy Gradishar, Linebacker.” Lori LaMattina (Viola, Chair 6) is a 1997 graduate of CCM, where she also earned a Master of Performance in 1999. Lori’s “day jobs” involve her son, Andrew, whom she homeschools, and

working with her Norwegian Fjord Horse, WW Rudig. They compete in dressage, the equivalent of ballet. Rudig is the No. 1 Fjord horse in his division. William (Bill) Slusser (Violin 2, Chair 10) is a graduate of Baldwin-Wallace and Catholic Universities. A longtime librarian of the DPO, he retired from the Air Force as Director of the Air Force Strolling Strings and performed for White House State Dinners of Presidents Ford, Carter, Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Clinton. He also performed with the Air Force Orchestra. Twenty-Five Years (1994)Jon Pascolini (Assistant Principal Bass) is a graduate of Indiana University with a Master of Music Degree from Ohio University. He also is Principal Bass of the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra and is a member of the Glimmerglass Opera Orchestra. While at Indiana he rode in the Little 500 Bike Race for three years and was a cyclist in the movie “Breaking Away.” Thirty-Five Years (1984)Rebecca Tryon Andres (Principal Flute) is a graduate of the Ohio State University with a Master’s Degree in Flute Performance from CCM. She is Principal Flute with the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra and a regular substitute with the Cincinnati Symphony, Pops, May Festival and Ballet Orchestras. She currently teaches at both Miami and Northern Kentucky Universities. Todd Fitter (3rd Horn) graduated from the Manhattan School of Music and earned a Master of Music in French Horn performance from CCM. He performs with several other musical organizations, including the DPO’s Concert Band. Four days a week, he performs in Cincinnati area schools with a musical education group called School House Symphony. Lynn Rohr (Violin 2, Chair 8) earned a Bachelor of Music Education Degree from Miami University and retired after 30 years of teaching, 29 in Kettering City Schools. Lynn’s daughters are well-known area swimmers and earned swim scholarships to Miami. In retirement, Lynn plans on continuing to perform with the DPO and traveling.

Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra

Meet Your Orchestra Up Close and “Personnel”

Forty Years (1979)Phillip Enzweiler (Violin 1, Chair 10) studied German Literature at the University of Cincinnati and violin at CCM. He has been both a full-time and part-time member of the Cincinnati Symphony. His hobby is restoring his 1860 house, which is on the National Register. Gloria Fiore (Violin 2, Chair 4) No bio available

Forty-Five Years (1974)Colleen Braid (Assistant Principal Viola) earned Bachelor and Master Degrees from Baldwin-Wallace. She and her husband, Jim, settled in Cincinnati when he joined the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and she became a member of the DPO. She has taught viola at Stivers School for the Arts and Wright State University and currently at the McCutcheon Music Studio in Centerville.

Left to right: John Lardinois, Todd Fitter, Jon Pascolini, Bill Slusser, Philip Enzweiler, Lori LaMattina, Karen Johnson, Colleen Braid, Gloria Fiore, Jonathan Lee, Lynn Rohr, Kirstin Greenlaw. Not pictured: Rebecca Tryon Andres, Isaac Pastor-Chermak

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Friday

May 10,20198:00 PMSchuster Center

DAYTON PERFORMING ARTS ALLIANCEPremier Health

MASTERWORKS SERIESDayton Philharmonic OrchestraNeal Gittleman, Artistic Director and Conductor

Shostakovich 5: Mauceri Meets DaurovJohn Mauceri, guest conductorAdrian Daurov, cello soloist

John Mauceri appears as the Erma R. and Hampden W. Catterton Endowed Guest Artist.Adrian Daurov appears as the Bill and Dianne Schneider Endowed Guest Artist.

Saturday

May 11,20198:00 PMSchuster Center

Series Sponsor

Military Appreciation Program Sponsor: Booz Allen Hamilton

Microphones on stage are for recording purposes only.

Sergei Prokofiev Overture on Hebrew Themes (orchestral version) (1891–1953)

Leonard Bernstein Three Meditations from MASS(1918–1990) 1. Lento assai, molto sostenuto 2. Andante sostenuto 3. Presto Mr. Daurov

Max Bruch Kol Nidrei (1838–1920) Mr. Daurov

– I N T E R M I S S I O N –

Dmitri Shostakovich Symphony No. 5(1906–1975) I. Moderato – Allegro non troppo II. Allegretto III. Largo IV. Allegro non troppo

DP&L Foundation – DPAA Innovation PartnerThe Bob Ross Auto Group – Official Automobile Dealership of the Dayton Philharmonic OrchestraMarriott University of Dayton – Official Hotel of the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra

DPAA INNOVATION PARTNER DP&L FOUNDATION Powering Innovation in the Performing Arts

DataYard – Official Data Provider of the Dayton Opera and the Dayton Philharmonic Season Media Partners: Discover Classical WDPR & WDPG and ThinkTV

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John Mauceri Biography

The distinguished and extraordinarily varied career of John Mauceri has taken him not only to the world’s greatest opera companies and symphony orchestras but also to the musical stages of Broadway and Hollywood as well as the most prestigious halls of academia. For seven years (2006–2013), he served as the Chancellor of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem and is the Founding Director of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra in Los Angeles, which was created for him in 1991 by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association. He conducted over three hundred concerts at the 18,000-seat amphitheater with a total audience of some four million people. From June of 2000 until July of 2006, he conducted 22 productions as music director of the Pittsburgh Opera.

Mr. Mauceri served as music director (direttore stabile) of the Teatro Regio in Torino (Turin) Italy for three years after completing seven years as music director of Scottish Opera (22 productions and three recordings), and he is the first American ever to have held the post of music director of an opera house in either Great Britain or Italy. He previously was music director of the Washington Opera (The Kennedy Center) and was the first music director of the American Symphony Orchestra in Carnegie Hall after its founding director, Leopold Stokowski, with whom he studied. For fifteen years he served on the faculty of his alma mater, Yale University,

returned in 2001 to teach and conduct the official concert celebrating the university’s 300th anniversary, and is the recipient of two awards from the university.

Mr. Mauceri is one of the world’s most accomplished recording artists and is the recipient of Grammy, Tony, Olivier, Drama Desk, Edison, two Emmy, two Diapason d’Or, Cannes Classique, Billboard, and four Deutsche Schallplatten awards. In 1999, Mr. Mauceri was chosen as a “Standard-bearer of the Twentieth Century” for WQXR, the nation’s most listened-to classical radio station. According to WQXR, “These are a select number of musical artists who have already established themselves as forces to be reckoned with and who will be the Standard Bearers of the 21st Century’s music scene.” The recipients were chosen for “their visionary talent and technical virtuosity.” In addition, CNN and CNN International chose Mr. Mauceri as a “Voice of the Millennium.”

Mr. Mauceri is the author of Maestros and Their Music: The Art and Alchemy of Conducting, published by Alfred A. Knopf, in which he presents both historical explanation of and personal insight into the craft and technique of conducting. The book has been praised by such publications as The Boston Globe, The Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker, Opera News, Gramophone, and many others.

Adrian Daurov Biography

A native of St. Petersburg, Russia and now living in New York City, cellist Adrian Daurov is one of the most dazzling artists of his generation.

Adrian Daurov made his debut at the age of 15 as soloist with the St. Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra. Subsequently, he earned top honors at three international competitions—Bulgaria’s 1st International Music Competition “Coast of Hope” (First Prize, 1996); The Netherlands’ Peter De Grote International Music Competition (Grand Prix, 2002); and New York City’s L.I.S.M.A. International Music Competition (First Prize, 2004). In 2004, he toured as soloist with the St. Petersburg Chamber Orchestra, performing in St. Petersburg, Moscow, Warsaw and throughout Germany and was appointed to the dual position of principal cellist and soloist with the Bayreuth Youth Festival Orchestra, under the baton of Peter Gulke. 2008 heard him as a featured participant in a gala Carnegie Hall concert celebrating Russia’s Independence Day, a program that included the distinguished Russian singers Yelena Obratztsova and Vladimir Galouzine.

After studying at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, Adrian Daurov was awarded the Jerome L. Greene Scholarship for advanced studies at The Juilliard School with the renowned cello pedagogue David Soyer (of the Guarneri Quartet). At Juilliard, he completed his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees, graduating in 2009. While

still in school, he was appointed principal cellist of The Chamber Orchestra of New York. Mr. Daurov has also collaborated in chamber music programs with pianists Alexander Ghindin and Olga Vinokur, violinist Mark Peskanov and flutist Eugenia Zukerman. Recent seasons have been highlighted by debuts with the Bozeman, Glacier, Kalamazoo, Longwood, Ridgefield, Westerville and Wyoming symphony orchestras and Long Island’s Massapequa Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2012, he teamed up with the award-winning pianist Spencer Myer to form the Daurov/Myer Duo.

Passionately devoted to the music of our own time, Adrian Daurov has already presented the world premieres of two important works: in 2008, Fountains of Fin for flute, violin and cello by the Persian composer Behzad Ranjbaran and, in 2009, The Epistle, Concerto for Cello and Chamber Choir by the Siberian composer Yuri Yukechev, written for Mr. Daurov and the Russian Chamber Chorus of New York, Nikolai Kachanov, Artistic Director.

Adrian Daurov’s artistry has been heard on several radio and televison stations, including WNYC, WQXR and NTV-America. He is also featured on a recent album by the young New York City-based jazz star Romain Collin.

Adrian Daurov performs on a magnificent 1989 cello crafted by John Terry in Florence, Italy.

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Leonard Bernstein Three Meditations from MASS

Sergei Prokofiev Overture on Hebrew Themes

Instrumentation: Timpani, percussion, piano, organ, harp, strings

This is the first time this work has been performed by the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra.

Leonard Bernstein was one of the most successful composers and musicians of the last half of the twentieth century. He is perhaps most renowned for his work as a prominent conductor, first and most famously with the New York Philharmonic in the 1950s and 1960s and then later as guest conductor of several orchestras, including the Vienna Philharmonic. Besides conducting he also composed, as much as his busy schedule allowed, in both the popular and the classical idioms. Several songs from his score for West Side Story remain an important part of the American songbook, while his symphonies, although not as well known as his works in the vernacular style, are still admired and performed. And he was also a tireless advocate for the arts: through his television broadcast Young People’s Concerts, he introduced a whole generation of listeners to classical music, and he also delivered a significant series of lectures on music aesthetics while serving as the Charles Eliot Norton Professor of Poetry at Harvard.

Bernstein’s MASS was composed at the request of President John Kennedy’s widow, Jacqueline. Mrs. Onassis (she had married the shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis in 1968 and had changed her legal name) wanted Bernstein to compose a work that could serve as a dedicatory piece for the John Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. MASS was premiered in 1971 as part of the Center’s opening. It was one of Bernstein’s most successful—and controversial—works, and it continued to be performed for the rest of the decade. More

recently, several organizations have put on performances of MASS; one particularly notable performance took place right here in Dayton in 2011, in the Schuster Center under the baton of Neal Gittleman.

MASS is an eclectic work. Bernstein based it on the Latin Mass and generally followed the traditional order of that service, but in setting it Bernstein refers to various styles of classical music, alludes to jazz and to the blues, and features a rock ‘n’ roll band, combining all those styles into a sometimes chaotic, sometimes quiet meditation on both religion and conscience.

The Three Meditations are taken from various sections of MASS. The first two are instrumental interludes, with the second being a set of variations based, according to Bernstein collaborator and scholar Jack Gottlieb, on an “eleven-note sequence from the finale of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.” Bernstein would later arrange these two Meditations for cello and piano.

The third Meditation is the longest of the set and is based on three themes. The first theme is from the Epiphany, and has a fantastic quality about it, somewhat dissonant and airy. The second theme is much more dancelike, with asymmetrical rhythms and a melodic sound that might remind listeners of some of Bernstein’s earlier works, his Kaddish Symphony in particular. The third theme is a quiet chorale, alluding perhaps to such pieces that appear in Johann Sebastian Bach’s sacred works. The Meditation ends with a long drone in the orchestra accompanying a recapitulation of the fantastic first theme.

—Dennis Loranger, Lecturer in Music, Wright State University

Instrumentation: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, percussion, piano, strings

This is the first time this work has been performed by the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra.

There is a picture of Sergei Prokofiev taken in 1919, right about the time of the premier of his Overture on Hebrew Themes. He is dressed in a suit and tie, with a well-tailored coat over it all, and he is topped off with a Homburg, a kind of derby with a crease down the middle of the crown. Prokofiev looks stylish and he strides down the street with visible confidence, but his haberdasher might warn him that the Homburg’s days were numbered.

In some ways that hat reflects Prokofiev’s own place in the musical world of the 1910s and 1920s. He was considered avant-garde and, although he had left Russia to avoid the depredations of the Russian Revolution, he was still considered to be under the influence of that political moment; critics were fond of dismissing his works like the Scythian Suite or The Love for Three Oranges for their “Bolshevik trimmings” and for sending up the “red flag of musical anarchy.”

Yet despite Prokofiev’s perceived radicalism, he always had a conservative streak and was inclined to follow the traditions of his musical forebears. His aptly named “Classical Symphony,” while unmistakably twentieth-century in idiom, is just as unmistakably influenced by eighteenth-century western European traditions: Haydn in a Homburg, but Haydn nevertheless.

Prokofiev began working on the Overture right after he had completed the score for his surrealist opera, The Love for Three Oranges. He had been commissioned by a group of Russian musicians, living the émigré life and touring under the auspices of the Russian Zionist Organization, a group dedicated to funding a conservatory in Jerusalem. The group, a sextet, was led by the clarinetist Simeon Bellison, who would go on to become principal clarinetist for the New York Philharmonic.

Bellison gave Prokofiev a book of “Jewish themes” that the composer could use as inspiration. Scholars have been unable to find any other source listing these works as “authentic” and the belief is that Bellison himself had composed the works, perhaps from authentic models, or perhaps from his own inspiration. Certainly listeners will not have any difficulty hearing traditional Jewish sounds in the opening theme. As scholar David Nice remarks, the first theme “unmistakably conjures the centuries-old klezmer tradition of Jewish community music.”

Prokofiev appears for whatever reason to have disliked the piece. He dismissed the Overture, claimed he had composed it “in a day and half,” and said that “its technique is conventional, its form is bad.”

Certainly composers are allowed to dislike their work. Audiences, in turn, are also allowed to disagree with a composer’s opinion, and when it comes to the Overture, they have been strident in their contradiction of Prokofiev’s estimation of his own work. When it was first premiered in its original instrumentation for sextet, the Overture was received with universal acclaim, an acclaim that lasts down to our time and, in that instrumentation, it is now a standard part of the chamber repertory.

Prokofiev was persuaded to write another version of the work in 1934, this time for orchestra. He had written the earlier version waiting out the Russian Revolution, while the revised orchestral version was written after he had returned to Russia. In a letter to his friend Boris Asafiev, he said he was writing it while staying a friend’s dacha outside Moscow. In Prokofiev’s words, the friend “drew an excellent portrait of me at my full height, in the garden, in an armchair, while I was orchestrating the Hebrew Overture.” He makes no mention of what hat he wore.

—Dennis Loranger, Lecturer in Music, Wright State University

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Instrumentation: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, timpani, harp, strings

This work was last performed by the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra in February 1986 with Isaiah Jackson conducting.

Bruch wrote Kol Nidrei in 1880 while he was living abroad in Liverpool, England. Kol Nidrei is a work for orchestra and solo cello: not a concerto exactly, but what Bruch called an “Adagio for Violoncello with Orchestra and Harp.”

Bruch wrote the work for the cellist Robert Hausmann, one of the most important German cellists of the late nineteenth century. Hausmann had first established himself as a performer and teacher in Germany, would go on to join Joseph Joachim’s string quartet, and later also performed chamber music with Johannes Brahms. Brahms must have had a great deal of respect for Hausmann; the cellist premiered Brahms’ Cello Sonata No. 2 and was part of the ensemble premiering Brahms’ Clarinet Trio. Despite Brahms’ opinion of Hausmann’s abilities, Bruch was a little more chary with his respect and complained to a friend that he wrote Kol Nidrei only after Hausmann had “plagued me for so long, until at last I wrote [it].”

The phrase “kol nidrei” is from the Aramaic, meaning “all vows,” and refers to a traditional declaration recited in synagogues before the Yom Kippur evening service. This declaration has been traditionally set to a chant whose origins can be traced as far back as the early sixteenth century. Bruch had become familiar with this service and the music associated with it when he had worked with a Jewish choral society in Berlin.

Bruch uses that traditional chant as the basis for the first melody played by the solo cello. The opening of the melody consists of several groups

of three notes, each separated by a brief pause, as though the cello were quietly sighing after each group. Music scholar Christopher Fifield hears Yom Kippur’s “three stages of repentance: remorse, resolve, and triumph” being given musical form by Bruch’s tripartite treatment of the chant.

The second tune in Kol Nidrei is in a major key. Bruch based the tune, as he said, on “the middle section of a moving and truly magnificent song ‘O weep for those that wept on Babel’s stream’,” and claimed that this tune, like the first melody, had been around for centuries. Bruch so liked this melody that he would use it again in his Three Hebrew Melodies, a choral piece he was working on while he was composing Kol Nidrei.

In describing “O weep for those that wept on Babel’s stream,” Bruch parenthetically mentions a certain “Byron,” implying that this person was responsible for collecting the tune. Oddly enough, the “Byron” Bruch refers to is not some obscure musicologist conducting his research amid dusty tomes and ancient melodies, but instead the famous poet Lord Byron, the English aristocrat who was “mad, bad, and dangerous to know.” Byron had become close to the British-Jewish composer Isaac Nathan, who would set a collection of his poems to music; among the most famous of these poems is “She Walks in Beauty,” which was originally published in Nathan’s setting.

Whatever the provenance of that second tune, Bruch’s Kol Nidrei has remained an important work in the cello and orchestral repertory. It both displays his own considerable melodic talents and gives cellists a moving and substantial work.

—Dennis Loranger, Lecturer in Music, Wright State University

Instrumentation: 2 flutes, piccolo, 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, harp, strings

This work was last performed by the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra in December 2006 with Charles Wendelken-Wilson conducting.

Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony was written at what must have been an emotional and artistic nadir in his life. Beginning in 1934, Stalin unleashed the Great Terror, a series of purges directed against anyone perceived to be an enemy of the Soviet Union. While political figures made up the mass of the victims of this awful episode in Russian history, writers and composers were not immune. Shostakovich himself seems to have understood which way the political winds were blowing and had presented his good citizen bona fides with such works as the 1934 ballet The Limpid Stream, a perfect exemplar of Social Realism (the approved approach to artistic production). But an older work of his, Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, had aroused the ire of Stalin, and Shostakovich was denounced in an article in Pravda in 1936.

Given the bloody-minded practices of Soviet statecraft at the time, anyone with an ounce of sanity must have been in terror of his or her life. And, not insignificantly, a sensitive soul must also have been devastated by the official criticism and the subservient (if understandable) public approval with which it was seconded. In fact several of his friends testified that Shostakovich actually contemplated suicide.

Despite these harrowing circumstances, he gradually crawled his way back to a kind of equanimity. Partly he found some solace in the birth of his daughter, Galina. But he also

threw himself into a composition project that he had been working on since 1934, his Fourth Symphony. He finished the work in 1936 but under official pressure it was withdrawn before its premiere. Shostakovich seems to have accepted the stillbirth of that project and began working on his Fifth Symphony in 1937.

He continued working on the piece up through June of 1937, and the work was premiered in November of that year to great acclaim. The source of that acclaim is perhaps ambiguous. Some of it was no doubt due to the quality of the work itself, generally regarded to be one of the best symphonies by one of the best symphonists of the twentieth century. Some of the clamor must have been owed to the occasion itself, a celebration of the twentieth anniversary of the November Revolution. But some writers have argued that the symphony served as a catharsis for its audience who were now allowed to safely mourn, under cover of the patriotic moment, their murdered friends and relations. And indeed people wept openly during the slow movement.

The Fifth Symphony also served as a document of Shostakovich’s rehabilitation in official eyes. A newspaper reporter described the work as “a Soviet artist’s practical creative reply to just criticism,” possibly using terms Shostakovich had worked up to accommodate political pressure.

But, whatever the official Soviet reception of the work may have been, and however Shostakovich felt he must characterize it, the Fifth Symphony remains a skillfully crafted and emotionally complex piece of music. And, given the circumstances of its composition, maybe it is also heroic.

—Dennis Loranger, Lecturer in Music, Wright State University

Max Bruch Kol Nidrei

Dmitri Shostakovich Symphony No. 5

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