We stch es te r Philhar moni c - Onstage PublicationsRobinson Trio releases include complete trios and sonatas of Shostakovich, complete chamber works of Maurice Ravel, a 4-disc set

WestchesterPhilharmonic2018 – 2019 Season

2018–2019 Season Welcome

elcome to the 2018–2019 season!It has become a hallmark of the Westchester Philharmonic that we introduce

new faces and new music, side-by-side with familiar artists and great masterworks of the classical canon.

This season, our 36th, opens with just such masterwork: Ravel’s heart-wrenching Pavane, Haydn’s famed “Drumroll” symphony, and the towering First Symphony of Johannes Brahms, all led by Principal Conductor Jaime Laredo.

December’s Winter Pops will be one big music party, as we introduce four artists who are new to Westchester audiences but much in-demand everywhere else: The esteemed conductor (and Rockland County native) Rachael Worby, with the genre-defying trio Time for Three, featuring violinists Nicolas Kendall and Charles Yang, and bassist Ranaan Meyer.

Our Friends & Family concert in February is designed to reach younger minds while remaining utterly stimulating and satisfying for seasoned concert-goers. This year, Maestra Worby will take you on a special journey through the mind of Leonard Bernstein, without playing a single note composed by him. This being the 101st anniversary of Bernstein’s birth, we’ve dubbed it “Lenny 101.” Joining Worby and the Phil is Savion Glover, a bona fide legend of tap dance, for Gould’s Tap Dance Concerto and a rollicking, other-worldly rendition of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. Fasten your seatbelt.

Our April finale uses a far simpler idea: All-Beethoven, with Pamela Frank joining Maestro Laredo for the composer’s famed violin concerto, and ending with the iconic Fifth Symphony.

If you love music and adventure, fun and pathos, a chance to learn, or just a chance to listen with no other purpose…you have come to the right place.

Welcome to today’s concert. And welcome to the “Phil Family”.

Board of DirectorsNeil Aaron – Tony Aiello – Millicent Kaufman, Chair – Christina Maurillo

Mary Neumann, Vice Chair – Numa Rousseve, Treasurer – Hannah ShmerlerMurray Stahl, Vice Chair – Lisa A. Tibbitts – Ruth Toff – Joshua Worby

WESTCHESTERPHIL.ORG | 914-682-3707 3

Meet the ORCHESTRA

Musicians of the Westchester Philharmonic

Jaime Laredo, Principal Conductor

VIOLINRobert Chausow, Concertmaster

Michael Roth, Principal Second Violin

Robin Bushman, Associate Concertmaster

Martin Agee Diane BruceVictor HeifetsElizabeth KleinmanBarbara LongWende NamkungElizabeth NielsenLaura OattsDorothy StrahlSander Strenger Moira TobeyCarlos VillaCarolyn Wenk-GoodmanDeborah WongD. Paul Woodiel VIOLAKyle Armbrust, PrincipalSandra RobbinsLiuh Wen TingAh Ling NeuLeslie TomkinsJessica Troy

CELLOEugene Moye, PrincipalRoberta CooperLanny PaykinSarah CarterEliana MendozaMaureen HynesMaxine Neuman BASSJordan Frazier, PrincipalJack WengerGregg AugustJered Egan FLUTE Laura Conwesser, PrincipalRie SchmidtSheryl Henze OBOEMelanie Feld, PrincipalKathy Halvorson CLARINETJohn Moses, PrincipalStephen Hart

BASSOONFrank Morelli, PrincipalHarry Searing

FRENCH HORNPeter Reit, PrincipalWill De VosLarry DiBelloNancy Billmann TRUMPETLowell Hershey, PrincipalLorraine CohenWayne duMaine TROMBONEHugh Eddy, PrincipalMike Seltzer

TUBAMarcus Rojas, Principal PERCUSSIONBen Herman, TimpaniJim Saporito, Principal HARPSara Cutler, Principal KEYBOARDChris Oldfather, Principal LIBRARIANKristen Butcher

PERSONNEL MANAGERJonathan Hass & Neil Balm

2018–2019 Season


Jaime Laredo, Principal Conductor

erforming for over six decades before audiences across the globe,

Jaime Laredo has excelled in the multiple roles of soloist, conductor, recitalist, pedagogue, and chamber musician. Since his stunning orchestral debut at the age of eleven with the San Francisco Symphony, he has won the admiration and respect of audiences, critics and fellow musicians with his passionate and polished performances. That debut inspired one critic to write: “In the 1920’s it was Yehudi Menuhin; in the 1930’s it was Isaac Stern; and last night it was Jaime Laredo.” His education and development were greatly influenced by his teachers Josef Gingold and Ivan Galamian, as well as by private coaching with eminent masters Pablo Casals and George Szell. At the age of seventeen, Jaime Laredo won the prestigious Queen Elisabeth of Belgium Competition, launching his rise to

international prominence. With 2009 marking the 50th anniversary of his prize, he was honored to sit on the Jury for the final round of the Competition.

In the 2017-18 Season, Mr. Laredo tours the United States as conductor, soloist and as a member of the award-winning Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio, which continues its 40th Anniversary celebration. This season on violin, he reprises André Previn’s Double Concerto for Violin and Cello, with his wife, cellist Sharon Robinson in Vermont. Performances of this work have received raves since its 2016 premiere. It was commissioned specifically for the duo by the Cincinnati, Kansas City, Austin, Detroit, Pacific and Toronto symphony orchestras, as well as the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra.


A new double concerto by Chris Brubeck is their next collaboration. Additionally, Laredo’s remarkable sound can be heard on viola in Mozart Sinfonia Concertante on tour throughout Vermont and at Carnegie Hall with Pamela Frank, his friend and onetime student.

Mr. Laredo continues to tour and record as a member of the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio. Founded by Mr. Laredo, Sharon Robinson, and pianist Joseph Kalichstein in 1976, the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio recently celebrated their 40th Anniversary with Beethoven Cycles and a specially commissioned work entitled, “Pas de Trois” written for them by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Ellen Taaffe Zwilich; this season’s performances of the work include the La Jolla Music Society SummerFest and Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in New York. The Trio performs regularly at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, the 92nd Street Y, and Town Hall in New York, and at the Kennedy Center where they are the ensemble in residence. They have toured internationally to cities that include Lisbon, Hamburg, Copenhagen, London, Paris, Amsterdam, Vienna, Helsinki, Buenos Aires, Tokyo, Seoul, Sydney, and Melbourne. Among, its numerous awards, the Trio was named Musical America’s Ensemble of the Year in 2002. In addition to his performing work, Mr. Laredo’s season includes conducting engagements with the Vermont Symphony, and at Carnegie Hall with the New York String Orchestra. 2017 also marks the sixth year of Laredo’s tenure as a member of the violin faculty at the Cleveland Institute of Music.

In past seasons, Mr. Laredo and Ms. Robinson performed in recital in the U.S., Canada and on tour in Bolivia, including performances of Richard Danielpour’s Inventions on a Marriage. The 2011 work was commissioned specifically for the duo and was dedicated to and inspired by their marriage, and explores in “musical snapshots” the bond of long-term relationships.

Recent conducting and solo engagements have taken Mr. Laredo to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Detroit Symphony, the New World Symphony and Scottish Chamber Orchestra in addition to the New York String Orchestra at Carnegie Hall and the Vermont Symphony. Festival engagements have taken him across the globe from the Chautauqua Music Festival in New York to Seoul Spring Festival in Korea.

A recent project titled Two x Four celebrated the relationship between the teacher and the student through music. With his colleague and former student Jennifer Koh, Mr. Laredo and Ms. Koh performed the Double Concerti for Two Violins by J.S. Bach, works by Philip Glass, and two newly commissioned concerti by composers Anna Clyne and David Ludwig with the Delaware Symphony, the IRIS orchestra, Chicago Symphony, Vermont Symphony, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and with the Curtis Orchestra on tour at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, Kennedy Center and The Miller Theater of Columbia University. The recording of this acclaimed project was released by Cedille Records in 2014.

Other conducting and performing highlights include the Chicago Symphony, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, Detroit Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra and Philadelphia Orchestra, among many others. Abroad, he has performed with the London Symphony, the BBC Symphony, the English Chamber Orchestra, the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, the Royal Philharmonic and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, which he led on two American tours and in their Hong Kong Festival debut. His numerous recordings with the SCO include Vivaldi’s Four Seasons (which stayed on the British best-seller charts for over a year), Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Italian and Scottish symphonies, Beethoven’s Violin Concerto and recordings of Rossini overtures and Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll.

Jaime Laredo

8 WESTCHESTER PHILHARMONIC | 2018–2019 SEASON

For fifteen years, Mr. Laredo was violist of the piano quartet consisting of renowned pianist Emanuel Ax, celebrated violinist Isaac Stern, and distinguished cellist Yo-Yo Ma, his close colleagues and chamber music collaborators. Together, the quartet recorded nearly the entire piano quartet repertoire on the SONY Classical label, including the works of Beethoven, Mozart, Schumann, Fauré, and Brahms, for which they won a Grammy Award.

Mr. Laredo has recorded close to one hundred discs, received the Deutsche Schallplatten Prize, and has been awarded seven Grammy nominations. Mr. Laredo’s discs on CBS and RCA have included the complete Bach Sonatas with the late Glenn Gould and a KOCH International Classics album of duos with Ms. Robinson featuring works by Handel, Kodaly, Mozart and Ravel. His releases on the Dorian label include Schubert’s complete works for violin and piano with Stephanie Brown, and Virtuoso!, a collection of favorite violin encores with pianist Margo Garrett. Other releases include Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante and Concertone with Cho-Liang Lin for Sony. Acclaimed Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio releases include complete trios and sonatas of Shostakovich, complete chamber works of Maurice Ravel, a 4-disc set of the complete Brahms Piano Trios, a set of complete Beethoven Piano Trios and complete Schubert Piano Trios. The Trio’s most recent release on Azica, Passionate Diversions, includes the piano trio, septet and quintet written for them by Ellen Taaffe Zwilich. Mr. Laredo has also released an album with Sharon Robinson and the Vermont Symphony entitled Triple Doubles, which includes three double concertos dedicated to the duo: Daron Hagen’s Masquerade; a new, fully-orchestrated version of Richard Danielpour’s A Child's Reliquary (originally written as a piano trio for the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio); and David Ludwig’s Concerto for Violin, Cello and Orchestra. Both albums were released by BRIDGE in November 2011.

Recognized internationally as a sought-after violin teacher, Mr. Laredo has fostered the education of violinists that include Leila Josefowitz, Hillary Hahn, Jennifer Koh, Ivan Chan, Soovin Kim, Pamela Frank and Bella Hristova. After 35 years of teaching at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, and seven years at Indiana University’s Jacob School of Music, Mr. Laredo began teaching at the Cleveland Institute of Music in 2012, where his wife cellist Sharon Robinson also holds a teaching position. Additionally, Mr. Laredo is the conductor of the New York String Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, which brings young musicians from around the world to the stage every December.

In demand worldwide as a conductor and a soloist, in addition to serving as Principal Conductor of the Westchester Philharmonic, Mr. Laredo has held the position of Music Director of the Vermont Symphony Orchestra since 1999 and. In 2009, Mr. Laredo and his wife were named the artistic directors of the Linton Chamber Music Series in Cincinnati, Ohio.

During his 39 years as Artistic Director for New York’s renowned Chamber Music at the Y series, Mr. Laredo created an important forum for chamber music performances, and developed a devoted following. Further, his stewardships of the annual New York String Orchestra Seminar at Carnegie Hall and the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis have become beloved educational pillars of the string community. A principal figure at the Marlboro Music Festival in years past, he has also been involved at Tanglewood, Aspen, Ravinia, Mostly Mozart, and the Hollywood Bowl, as well as festivals in Italy, Spain, Finland, Greece, Israel, Austria, Switzerland and England.

Born in Bolivia, Jaime Laredo resides in Guilford, VT and Cleveland, OH, with his wife, cellist Sharon Robinson.

Jaime Laredo


Did You Know?

Young people who participate in the arts

for at least three hours on three days each

week through at least one full year are:

• 4 times more likely to be

recognized for academic achievement

• 3 times more likely to be elected

to class office within their schools

• 4 times more likely to participate

in a math and science fair

• 3 times more likely to win an award

for school attendance

• 4 times more likely to win an award

for writing an essay or poem



Joshua Worby, Executive & Artistic Director

ppointed as Executive Director in 2006, Joshua

Worby oversees the Westchester Philharmonic’s programming, administration, operations, educational programs, and fundraising. Since 2008 he has also been chief architect of the Philharmonic’s concert seasons, programming repertoire and engaging and collaborating with conductors and soloists including Jaime Laredo, Ted Sperling, Raymond Leppard, Jeremy Denk, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, Kazem Abdullah, Edgar Meyer, Andrew Litton, Jahja Ling, Marvin Hamlisch, Cho-Liang Lin, George Manahan,

Jorge Mester, Tomomi Nishimoto, and Itzhak Perlman. Soloists he has engaged notably include Jennifer Koh, Leon Fleisher, Ann-Marie McDermott, Julia Bullock, Alisa Weilerstein, Dawn Upshaw, Eliot Fisk, Cho-Liang Lin, Lynn Harrell, Ann Hobson Pilot, Leila Josefowicz, Anthony McGill, Michelle DeYoung, Tai Murray, Peter Schickele, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Barbara Cook, Kelli O’Hara, Norm Lewis, and Branford Marsalis.

Prior to the Phil, Mr. Worby was the Executive Director of the Princeton Symphony Orchestra from 2001-2006, where he effected nearly double overall


Joshua Worby

growth in attendance, contributions, and musicians’ wages.

Before entering the orchestra field, Mr. Worby worked in the for-profit business arena. At the National Basketball Association he managed licensing and sponsorships, including the roll-outs of the inaugural 1992 “Dream Team,” the WNBA, and the NBA Store on Fifth Ave. He later co-founded one of the earliest e-commerce businesses, Justballs! a sporting goods website for which he and his partners were accorded numerous industry honors and awards, including Forbes Magazine’s “Best of the Best.”

A former clarinetist, Mr. Worby received his Bachelor of Arts in Music Theory and Composition from the Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam with interdisciplinary studies in theater and dance. As a graduate theater student at Columbia University he studied directing

and acting with Jose Quintero and Bernard Beckerman, while also composing and performing live sound scores Off-Broadway for Richard III, Slaveship, and the U.S. debut of Cao Yu’s Peking Man, a collaboration with Arthur Miller. At the Roundabout Theatre he composed and performed as an onstage musician-actor in Enrico IV and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.

Mr. Worby serves on the New York State Council for the Arts special diversity task force, and, in 2016 was nominated as one of 40 exceptional “Diversity Champions” by the Westchester & Fairfield County Business Journals chosen for his unique accomplishments, community involvement and diversity advocacy. He serves as a panelist on NYSCA’s Regional Economic Development Council and has served on the boards of the League of American Orchestras, the New School for Music Study, New Jersey Tap Ensemble, and New Jersey Opera.



CONCERT I

Sunday, October 21, 2018, at 3 pmThe Eugene and Emily Grant Opening Concert

Jaime Laredo, conducting

This season is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

This season is made possible by ArtsWestchester with support from Westchester County Government.

MAURICE RAVEL (1875–1937)Pavane pour une infante défunte

FRANZ JOSEPH HAYDN (1732–1809)Symphony No.103 in E-flat major, Hob. I:103, “Drumroll” I. Adagio — Allegro con spirito II. Andante più tosto allegretto III. Menuetto IV. Finale: Allegro con spirito

Intermission

JOHANNES BRAHMS (1833–1897)Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op.68 I. Un poco sostenuto — Allegro II. Andante sostenuto III. Un poco allegretto e grazioso IV. Adagio — Più andante — Allegro non troppo, ma con brio — Più allegro


Program Notes - CONCERT I

Pavane pour une infante défunteMAURICE RAVELBorn 7 March 1875 in Ciboure, Basses-Pyrenées, FranceDied 28 December 1937 in Paris

• This modest piece was Ravel’s first “big hit”• Like many of his works, it was originally for piano• A Pavane is a slow, procession- like dance, originating in the Italian Renaissance

Ravel’s Pavane pour une infante défunte (“Pavane for a dead princess”) is a salon piece that made good. Written in 1899 for solo piano, it became enormously popular among the French bourgeoisie, considerably boosting Ravel’s then slender reputation. His earliest surviving compositions date from 1893; this one was thus the first major success. In later years, he was critical of the Pavane, writing in 1912:

Alas, its faults I can perceive only too well: the influence of Chabrier is much too glaring, and the structure rather poor. The remarkable interpretations on this inconclusive and conventional work have, I think, in great measure contributed to its success.

His reference to “remarkable interpretations” alludes to the title, which spurred countless romantic and literary fancies among its interpreters and listeners at the turn of the century. Ironically, Ravel confessed that his evocative title was primarily chosen because of its mellifluous alliterative appeal in his native tongue.

The Pavane, which Ravel orchestrated in 1910, shares with many of his other pieces a loose association with Spain (whose royal

princesses are called “infantas”). Otherwise it is rather atypical of his music. The style is deliberately archaic, a concession to the slow, processional sixteenth-century Italian dance from which it takes its name. Major sevenths and ninths give it its rich harmonic aura. Even at age 24, Ravel knew how to establish and maintain a magical mood.

Ravel transcribed the Pavane for a small orchestra of two flutes, oboe, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, harp and muted strings.

Symphony No.103 in E-flat major, Hob. I:103, “Drumroll”FRANZ JOSEPH HAYDNBorn 31 March, 1732 in Rohrau, AustriaDied 31 May, 1809 in Vienna, Austria

• One of the celebrated “London” Symphonies, the “Drumroll” represents mature Haydn• The famous drumroll launches Haydn’s slow introduction• Three of the four movements adapt Central European folk songs as themes • Listen for horn calls and clever use of one tune in the finale

The moment this symphony begins, you will understand how it acquired its nickname. A dramatic solo timpani roll calls us to order, inaugurating a mysterious slow introduction. Just for the record, however, the subtitle is not Haydn’s, nor does it even date from its first audience. Although German and Austrian listeners identified this symphony as “mit dem Paukenwirbel” (with the kettledrum roll) shortly after its composition, the familiar name is a nineteenth-century concoction. This 103rd symphony, Haydn’s penultimate symphonic essay, came to


fruition during his second London sojourn in 1794 and 1795.

Travel challenges in the 18th centuryTravel from the European continent to England was arduous and time-consuming in the late eighteenth century. The entrepreneur Johann Peter Salomon had first persuaded Haydn to travel to London in 1790, then again in 1793. Two years later, Salomon was having difficulty luring singers to England for his concert series. Political chaos in the wake of the French Revolution made it even more difficult to attract suitable vocal soloists. Salomon was forced to cancel his February 1795 concert season.

Concert life in 1790s LondonLondon was still rich in musical resources. Notably, the Opera’s sizeable orchestra of sixty players was available. Its leader was Giovanni Battista Viotti, an Italian-born violinist and composer who had fled Paris during the Terror for the safety of London in 1793. The ever-pragmatic Salomon pooled his resources with Viotti, thereby salvaging part of his investment. Haydn, who liked Viotti, was happy to compose three symphonies for Viotti’s 1795 Opera Concerts. The première of the new one in E-flat major took place in London on 2 March, 1795.

Musicians’ cornerAt nearly half an hour, this is one of Haydn’s longest and grandest symphonies. The famous drumroll inaugurates a slow introduction like none other in Haydn’s or anyone else’s symphonies. Unison bassoon and low strings state the first idea, a romantic notion not echoed until Schubert’s “Unfinished” Symphony three decades later. Presently the Allegro con spirito lightens the mood, with a waltz-like lilt. Haydn’s irrepressible good

nature pervades most of this movement, interrupted briefly toward the end by a restatement of the portentous drumroll and some music from the slow introduction before resuming the Allegro for a spirited close.

The slow movement is a remarkable set of alternating variations, a form Haydn favored and in which he excelled. He switches between minor and major modes, using Croatian folk songs that he knew from Eisenstadt for his themes. The second variation in major mode features an elegant solo for the concertmaster, lending an element of concerto within the framework of a symphony and doubtless saluting Haydn’s friend Viotti. In a splendid coda, Haydn fuses together his two Croatian melodies in a masterpiece of counterpoint and surprising key changes. At the climax, the timpani executes another prominent drumroll, reminding us of the symphony’s moniker.

The minuet is stately and grand, with some surprising modulations that look forward to Beethoven, as do its sudden dynamic changes. Haydn closes the symphony with a joyous romp and a frisson of dazzlement. The opening horn call introduces, then accompanies, a lively violin tune – coincidentally another folk song from Eisenstadt. We have in this simple opening the material for the entire splendid movement. The technique is another Haydn signature, called monothematicism. Basically, one tune generates all the music we hear. The idea is that each successive theme is a restatement or variant of the opening. In this case, the violins’ repeated rhythmic idea dominates, binding the music together with ingenious logic. If you listen carefully to the first measures, you’ll enjoy the ride even more!



Haydn scored the symphony for woodwinds, horns, and trumpets in pairs, timpani, and strings.

Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op.68JOHANNES BRAHMSBorn 7 May 1833 in Hamburg, GermanyDied 3 April 1897 in Vienna, Austria

• Slow introductions precede the first and last movements — very unusual for Brahms• Like Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, this work moves from tragedy to triumph • Listen for a horn call echoed by flute at the beginning of the finale• Brahms’ majestic chorale melody is clearly descended from Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy”

The moniker “Beethoven’s Tenth” has been attached to Brahms’s First Symphony almost since before it was completed in 1876. Hans von Bülow (1830-1894), the eminent conductor, pianist and composer, is responsible for thus dubbing the C-minor Symphony. He was recognizing Brahms’ fulfillment of a prophecy articulated nearly a quarter century before, when Robert Schumann hailed then 20-year-old Johannes Brahms as the great Beethoven’s successor.

Brahms took the legacy of Beethoven very seriously, and the spectre of Beethoven lay heavily on his shoulders. He was a brutal critic of his own compositions, and destroyed a large number of sketches and completed works that did not satisfy him. Nowhere was his self-criticism more merciless than in the realm of orchestral music, because he was keenly aware that his first symphony would be compared to Beethoven. “You do not know what it is like hearing his footsteps constantly behind one,” Brahms wrote.

In that sense, everything orchestral that Brahms composed up until the First Symphony was a form of preparation for him to fulfill the daunting legacy Schumann had bequeathed to him. He produced four large, symphonic works while he honed his orchestral skills: the D-minor Piano Concerto, Op. 15 (1854-58), the two Serenades, Opp.11 (1857-58) and 16 (1858-59, revised 1875), and the Variations on a Theme by Haydn, Op.56a (1873). The orchestral fabric of the major choral works he worked on during the 1860s and early 1870s was also significant in strengthening Brahms’ command of symphonic resources. A German Requiem, Op.45 (1857-68), was followed by the dramatic cantata Rinaldo, Op.50 (1869), the Alto Rhapsody, Op.53 (1869), Schicksalslied, Op.54 (1868-71), and Triumphlied, Op.55 (1870-71). Each of them became a repository for important instrumental as well as vocal ideas.

All along, Brahms had the goal of a symphony in mind. As early as 1854, probably with Robert Schumann’s encouragement, Brahms was at work on symphonic sketches. Two decades elapsed before that music found its way into any permanent form. Clara Schumann and Albert Dietrich both saw a draft of the first movement in 1862, in a version not yet preceded by slow introduction. Some five years later, Brahms wrote a letter to Clara including the famous horn theme that became the transition to the hymn of the finale. Not until 1873, however, did he concentrate seriously on the completion of his First Symphony. He waited until the age of 43 to contribute to the symphonic canon.

Brahms completed his Opus 68 at Lichtenthal during the autumn of 1876.



The premiere took place at Karlsruhe in November. Brahms chose the smaller town because it was a less politically stressful musical community than Vienna or Leipzig. He wrote to Otto Dessoff, conductor of the Karlsruhe orchestra:

It was always my cherished and secret wish to hear the thing first in a small town which possessed a good friend, a good conductor, and a good orchestra.

Dessoff was delighted by the honor accorded his orchestra. Brahms foresaw that the symphony might not have direct popular appeal, writing to Carl Reinecke of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra:

And now I have to make the probably very surprising announcement that my symphony is long and not exactly amiable.

He need not have worried. Dessoff ’s first rendition was successful enough to warrant repeat performances under the composer’s direction in Mannheim and Munich shortly thereafter. The First Symphony cured Brahms’s orchestral writer’s block. For the next 11 years, his orchestral harvest was bountiful: three additional symphonies, three more concerti, and two overtures.

Von Bülow had good reason to hail the symphony as “the Beethoven Tenth.” Because of its heroic stance and C-minor tonality, the work is most often compared with Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. Both pieces have a general progression from tragic struggle to triumph and victory. Brahms’s First bears equal comparison to the Beethoven Ninth (Beethoven’s other minor mode symphony), primarily because of the obvious parallel in hymn-like finales.

Brahms’ good friend Theodor Billroth likened the C-minor symphony’s first movement to “a kind of Faustian overture” that might be thought of as a grand introduction to the whole work. Indeed, its complicated chromatic themes and inexorable timpani at the opening are hardly the stuff of which popular “singable” tunes are made. Hans Gál offers an insightful commentary as to why Wagner and his followers would have experienced impatience listening to the opening movement.

The nobility of this first movement rests on qualities that were alien to the dramatic composer: a thematic interplay worked out to the smallest detail and based on polyphonic structure; a delicate balancing, from beginning to end, of tonal relationships; – and a formal design whose grandiose dimensions only become apparent when one experiences the whole movement as a single, great continuum.

The perspective is significant because Wagner’s followers comprised a major portion of the listening public in the 1870s.

One unusual feature of this very large symphony is the presence of two slow introductions, one for each of the outer movements. Slow introductions are rare in Brahms’s music in any case, and this double occurrence is unique among his compositions. Both introductions signal something portentous and monumental. It is a measure of Brahms’s genius that the effect is entirely different in the two: ushering in heroic conflict in the opening movement; introducing serene exaltation in the conclusion. By contrast, the inner movements are both shorter and lighter in emotional weight. In the slow movement, Brahms indulges in some orchestral



decoration, embroidering his already rich music with a rare, breathtakingly lovely violin solo. Here and in the graceful Un poco allegretto we have a welcome emotional breather between the mighty pillars of the outer movements.

If there were any shortage of melodies early on, Brahms compensates with abundance in the expansive finale. From the magical horn call to the majestic closing chords, unforgettable tunes vie

with one another, providing this noble movement with some of his most beloved original themes.

Brahms scored his First Symphony for woodwinds in pairs, contrabassoon, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, timpani, and strings.

Program notes by Laurie Shulman © 2018First North American Serial Rights Only



Winter Pops!




Sunday, December 16, 2018, at 3 pm

Rachael Worby, conductingSpecial guests: Time for Three

Popular standards, American Songbook gems, plus classical and holiday favorites.

Winter Pops!

CONCERT II


orby is one of the first highly successful

female conductors of national and international

renown, a preëminent figure in American arts education, and an innovative force in reimagining traditional performance formats. A dedicated orchestra builder, she is credited with the remarkable growth of organizations under her leadership.

Worby rose to fame during her 17-year tenure as Music Director and Conductor of the Symphony Orchestra in Wheeling, West Virginia. Her previous posts also include that of Music Director and Conductor of the Young People’s Concerts at Carnegie Hall and Music Director and Conductor for the Pasadena POPS. She received a presidential appointment to the National Council of the Arts, on which she served for four years.

Distinguished as a visionary in the orchestral world, she is celebrated internationally for her extraordinary talents and exuberant style, as well as her versatile command of all musical genres. She is in demand as a guest conductor and has led orchestras throughout Europe, South America, Australia and Asia.

Rachael Worby, conductor


he groundbreaking, category- shattering trio Time for Three

(Tf3) transcends traditional classification, with elements of

classical, country western, gypsy and jazz idioms forming a blend all its own. The members — Nicolas (Nick) Kendall, violin; Charles Yang violin; and Ranaan Meyer, double bass — carry a passion for improvisation, composing and arranging, all prime elements of the ensemble playing.

To date, the group has performed hundreds of engagements as diverse as its music: from featured guest soloists on the Philadelphia Orchestra subscription series to Club Yoshi’s in San Francisco to residencies at the Kennedy Center to Christoph Eschenbach’s birthday concert at the Schleswig-Holstein Festival in Germany. Recent highlights included their Carnegie Hall debut, appearances with the Boston Pops, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, a sell-out concert at the 2014 BBC Proms, and

an appearance on the ABC prime time hit show “Dancing with the Stars.”

Tf3’s high-energy performances are free of conventional practices, drawing instead from the members’ differing musical backgrounds. The trio also performs its own arrangements of traditional repertoire and Ranaan Meyer provides original compositions to complement the trio’s offerings.

In 2014 Time for Three released their debut Universal Music Classics album, Time for Three, which spent seven consecutive weeks in the Top 10 of Billboard Classical Crossover Chart. The ensemble has also embarked on a major commissioning programs to expand its unique repertoire for symphony orchestras including Concerto 4-3, written by Pulitzer- Prize winning composer Jennifer Higdon, Travels in Time for Three by Chris Brubeck in 2010, co-commissioned by the Boston Pops, the Youngstown Symphony, and eight other orchestras, and Games and Challenges by William Bolcom, commissioned by the Indianapolis Symphony. Their latest project, a three-year residency with the Sun Valley Summer Symphony, includes commissions for three new works. Time for Three premiered the first of these works, Elevation: Paradise, in Sun Valley in August, 2015 and the second, Free Souls, in July, 2016.

On March 25, 2016 PBS premiered the Emmy-winning show “Time for Three in Concert” nationwide. “Time for Three in Concert” is an hour-long program in collaboration with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Universal Music Classics and WFYI Public Media, that brings together diverse artists and unique arrangements to create a one-of-a-kind concert experience.

To date, the group has performed hundreds of engagements, from sell-out concerts at the 2014 BBC Proms, to Christoph Eschenbach’s birthday concert to residencies at the Kennedy Center and g with Thers’, and an Emmy-winning show “Time for Three in Concert” premiered by PBS. In 2016 Time for Three traveled throughout Europe as a highlight act of the NOTP (Night of The Proms) tour.

Time For Three

Sunday, February 10, 2019, at 3 pmThe Phil’s Friends & Family Concert: “Lenny 101”

Rachael Worby, conducting

Special guest: Savion Glover

JED FEUER (B. 1948)Harambe (East Coast Premiere)

THELONIUS MONK (1917–1982)Misterioso‘Round Midnight

MORTON GOULD (1913–1996)Tap Dance Concerto I. Toccata II. Pantomime III. Minuet IV. Rondo

Mr. Glover

Intermission

AARON COPLAND (1900–1990)Rodeo: Four Dance Episodes I. Buckaroo Holiday II. CorralNocturne III. Saturday Night Waltz IV. Hoe Down

CONCERT III




ANTONIO VIVALDI (1678–1741)The Four Seasons [Le quattro stagioni], Op.8, Nos. 1-4

Spring (La primavera) I. Allegro II. Largo e pianissimo sempre III. Allegro pastorale

Summer (L’estate) I. Allegro non molto II. Adagio e piano - Presto e forte III. Presto

Autumn (L’autunno) I. Allegro II. Adagio molto III. Allegro

L’inverno (Winter) I. Allegro non molto (in F minor) II. Largo (in Ex major) III. Allegro (in F minor)

Mr. Glover

CONCERT III


From the conductor:Today’s program celebrates the life and work of Leonard Bernstein, without playing a single note composed by him, but rather through examining his influences – those who influenced him and those he influenced. This year marks the 101st anniversary of Bernstein’s birth, and in the spirit of today’s “Friends & Family” program and the opportunity to learn something new, we’ve dubbed this concert “Lenny 101.” Enjoy!

Tap Dance ConcertoMORTON GOULDBorn 10 December 1913 in New York CityDied 21 February 1996 in Orlando, Florida

• Morton Gould was a “Jack of all musical trades”• He delighted in combining American vernacular music with a classical approach• His innovative approach celebrates rhythm in all its complexity

Morton Gould was a populist. His best known composition is An American Salute, a free set of variations on “When Johnny Come Marching Home.” Gould had his finger in a lot of pies. He was a conductor and pianist as well as a composer. During the Depression years, his vaudeville talents kept him going. Later, he collaborated on ballets with several of America’s most distinguished choreographers: Jerome Robbins, Eliot Feld, Agnes de Mille, and George Balanchine. On Broadway, he developed Billion Dollar Baby (1945) with Adolph Green and Betty Comden, who were later Leonard Bernstein’s creative teammates for On the Town.

Gould also wrote scores for film, radio, and television, and was an early success story in the developing genre of jingle writing. By the time of his death, he was one of the most beloved and revered of all American

composers, earning a Pulitzer Prize in music in 1995 — at the age of 82 — for his String Music.

Americana is a recurrent theme in Gould’s music (there’s even an orchestral piece called Americana.) Works about this country, its culture, and its soul were at the heart of his musical contributions. He acknowledged that the vernacular fired his imagination, particularly jazz, spirituals, and folk music.

Gould’s Tap Dance Concerto is sui generis: the only work of its kind in the literature. It did much to elevate tap dance as an art form. Tap has roots in various types of ethnic percussion from both Africa and Western Europe. In America, it is believed to have evolved through minstrel shows in the 19th century. By the late 1930s, virtually every Broadway show or Hollywood film musical included a tap dance sequence. Gould’s movement titles – Toccata, Pantomime, Minuet, and Rondo – relate the piece both to classical forms and to the heritage of vaudeville.

A prefatory note in Gould’s score explains the idea of the Tap Dance Concerto:

The concept of this work is in the classical concerto tradition, with the Tap Dancer as soloist. Gould has utilized the tap dance medium as an integrated rhythmic and dynamic part of the orchestral texture. The notated tap dance patterns may be elaborated upon by the individual tap dance soloist, however, it is important to keep the basic rhythmic designs so that the work has an organized and formal consistency. The soloist must also coordinate his individual choreography and body movement to fit the musical moods and style.

In a 1990 interview, Gould said, “For a long time people used to think of tap dancing as something frivolous and not particularly

Program Notes - CONCERT III


important. Now I think it has become obvious that it has become part of our language: a component of our cultural heritage.”

He composed the Tap Dance Concerto in 1952 for Danny Daniels, who did the original choreography and performed the premiere with Gould conducting.

The score calls for two flutes (one doubling piccolo), two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, two trombones, timpani, solo tap dancer, and strings.

Four Dance Episodes from RodeoAARON COPLANDBorn 14 November, 1900 in Brooklyn, New YorkDied 2 December, 1990 in North Tarrytown, New York

• Aaron Copland had a flair for Americana and patriotic music• Rodeo traces the heroine’s transformation from tomboy to belle of the ranch • Syncopation, ragtime, and traditional American cowboy tunes populate this music

Aaron Copland was over 40 when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in December, 1941. Too old for military service, he contributed to the war effort by writing patriotic music. In the broadest sense, he celebrated Americana, evoking through music the small wonders that helped the United States develop into the great country it is.

Although this may sound a tad hokey today, during the Second World War Copland’s music did a great deal to boost morale. His approach was both well-placed and effective. The founding

fathers’ principle that all men are created equal found expression in Fanfare for the Common Man (1943). In praise of a great and inspiring president, Copland wrote Lincoln Portrait (1942). The pioneer spirit surfaced in Appalachian Spring (1944). He immortalized the lore of the western cowboy in Billy the Kid (1938) and Rodeo (1942).

Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo commissioned Rodeo on the heels of Billy the Kid ’s success; the impresario wanted to capitalize on the market for another “cowboy” ballet. Thanks to Copland’s exuberant score and Agnes de Mille’s lively choreography, the production was a huge hit. Copland promptly excised its four big moments as a suite, so that Rodeo could be programmed in the concert hall as well as on the ballet stage.

Rodeo is the story of a tomboy/cowgirl who tries to get her man by outdoing the guys at their macho thing: lassoing broncos, pitching hay, toughing it out on the ranch. She is bewildered when the ranch hands, including the head wrangler and champion roper she’s after, are more interested in a group of pretty girls in frilly dresses than in her considerable — but unladylike — accomplishments.

Each of the four episodes has its own personality. Copland uses syncopations and ragtime riffs in “Buckaroo Holiday” to establish the ballet’s flirtatious yet wholesome atmosphere. Copland combines a simple descending C major scale with two old American tunes, “If he’d be a buckaroo on his trade” and “Sis Joe,” in a saucy pastiche that captures the flavor of the ranch. “Corral Nocturne” is the thinking woman’s movement. The heroine is hurt and confused by what she perceives as rejection. Copland’s nostalgic music provides the backdrop to her thoughts




about resolving the romantic situation in her favor.

“Saturday Night Waltz” opens with the sound of fiddles tuning, actually incorporating that pre-concert exercise into the score. Copland’s waltz is clever, merging European elegance with down-home simplicity. The music is sentimental without being cloying, and somehow we know that our tale will have a happy ending. The concluding episode, “Hoe Down,” is the most famous part of Rodeo: a lively square dance that uses two traditional dance tunes, “Bonyparte” and “McLeod's Reel.”

Originally subtitled The Courting at Burnt Ranch, the ballet Rodeo was first produced at New York’s Metropolitan Opera House on 16 October, 1942. Copland extracted the Four Dance Episodes shortly afterward. Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops first performed three of the Episodes on 28 May, 1943. The entire suite was premiered by Alexander Smallens at the Stadium Concerts with the New York Philharmonic Symphony in July 1943. Copland’s score calls for 3 flutes (2nd and 3rd doubling piccolo), 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion (xylophone, glockenspiel, suspended cymbal, bass drum, snare drum, wood block, slap stick, and triangle), celesta, harp, piano, and strings.

The Four Seasons [Le quattro stagioni], Op.8, Nos. 1-4ANTONIO VIVALDIBorn 4 March, 1678 in Venice, ItalyDied 27 or 28 July 1741 in Vienna, Austria

• Vivaldi was ordained as a priest but spent most of his life as a professional musician• The Four Seasons are part of a larger set of twelve concerti• Each concerto has abundant references to the sounds of nature and the outdoors• Listen for strong contrasts of piano (quiet) and forte (loud)• Other choreographers have set dance to this work, notably Jerome Robbins/ NYCBallet

Vivaldi spent most of his career in the capacity of musical director and violin teacher at a Venetian conservatory and orphanage for girls, the Seminario Musicale dell’Ospedale della pietà. During his lifetime, he achieved more renown as a violinist than as a composer. His propensity for the instrument is evidenced by the astonishing number of solo concerto he wrote for it: more than 230 of his 500-odd surviving concerti are for violin.

Each concerto is in the three movement, fast-slow-fast sequence that Vivaldi standardized as concerto form. The orchestral sections are almost exclusively ritornelli (a recurring musical idea for the full ensemble, restated in various keys). Vivaldi takes his virtuosic flights in the solo passages, evoking the seasonal images of each poem. His imaginative writing in the solo sections is characterized by strong rhythmic vitality and highly idiomatic passage work. Nearly three centuries after they were composed, The Four Seasons still present a formidable challenge to the virtuoso violinist.

Program Notes by Laurie Shulman © 2018First North American Serial Rights Only


orby is one of the first highly successful

female conductors of national and international

renown, a preëminent figure in American arts education, and an innovative force in reimagining traditional performance formats. A dedicated orchestra builder, she is credited with the remarkable growth of organizations under her leadership.

Worby rose to fame during her 17-year tenure as Music Director and Conductor of the Symphony Orchestra in Wheeling, West Virginia. Her previous posts also include that of Music Director and Conductor of the Young People’s Concerts at Carnegie Hall and Music Director and Conductor for the Pasadena POPS. She received a presidential appointment to the National Council of the Arts, on which she served for four years.

Distinguished as a visionary in the orchestral world, she is celebrated internationally for her extraordinary talents and exuberant style, as well as her versatile command of all musical genres. She is in demand as a guest conductor and has led orchestras throughout Europe, South America, Australia and Asia.

Rachael Worby


avion Glover is an American dancer and choreographer

who became known for his unique pounding style of tap

dancing, called “hitting.” He brought renewed interest in dance, particularly among youths and minorities.

As a young child, Glover displayed an affinity for rhythms, and at age four he began taking drumming lessons. Deemed too advanced for the class, however, he then enrolled at the Newark Community School of the Arts and soon became the youngest person in the school’s history to receive a full scholarship. At age seven he began taking tap lessons and quickly developed a passion for rhythm tap, a form that uses all parts of the foot to create sound. His talent attracted the attention of a choreographer for the Broadway musical The Tap Dance Kid, and Glover served as an understudy before taking the lead role in

1984. He returned to Broadway in 1989, performing in the musical revue Black and Blue, and was nominated for a Tony Award. A role in the motion picture Tap (1989) followed. Glover, who had long made a point of learning as much as he could from old tap masters, soon began teaching tap classes. He also developed his own tap style, which he christened “free-form hard core,” while working with dancers such as Gregory Hines, Henry Le Tang, and Sammy Davis, Jr.

In 1990 Glover created his first choreography, for a festival at New York City’s Apollo Theater. Two years later he became the youngest ever recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts grant. He portrayed a young Jelly Roll Morton in the musical Jelly’s Last Jam, which debuted in Los Angeles in 1991 before opening on Broadway the following year and touring in 1994. In 1995 Bring in ’Da Noise, Bring in ’Da Funk opened Off-Broadway. Glover choreographed and starred in the musical, which featured a series of vignettes that chronicled African American history. A huge success, the show soon moved to Broadway, and in 1996 it won four Tony Awards, including a best choreographer award for Glover.

His numerous other appearances included a regular role (1990–95) on the children’s television show Sesame Street. In 2000 Glover appeared in director Spike Lee’s film Bamboozled and in 2001 made an appearance in Bojangles, a television biopic of tap dancer Bill (“Bojangles”) Robinson starring Gregory Hines. He premiered “Classical Savion,” a production that featured him tapping to classical music, in New York City in 2005; the show later toured the United States. In 2006 Glover choreographed the tap dances performed by the penguin Mumble in the computer-animated Happy Feet. That year he also formed his own production company, which oversaw his HooFeRzCLuB School for Tap and produced later shows, including “Sole Power” (2010).

Savion Glover



CONCERT IV

Sunday, April 7, 2019, at 3 pmAll-Beethoven Season Finale

Jaime Laredo, conducting

Pamela Frank, violin



LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770–1827)Concerto in D major for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 61 I. Allegro ma non troppo II. Larghetto III. Rondo. Allegro

Ms. Frank

Intermission

Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op.67 I. Allegro con brio II. Andante con moto III. Scherzo. Allegro IV. Allegro


Concerto in D major for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 61LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVENBorn 16 December, 1770 in Bonn GermanyDied 26 March, 1827 in Vienna, Austria

• Five majestic timpani strokes set the tone for the concerto • That rhythm recurs numerous times in the course of the first movement• The Larghetto steers a course that is both lyrical and noble • Beethoven’s writing at once transparent and richly layered• The spirit of dance dominates the buoyant finale

The Violin Concerto and the “Emperor” Concerto: a comparisonIf the Fifth Piano Concerto is Beethoven’s “Emperor,” Op. 61 is its royal analogue among violin concertos: the king of them all. Like the “Emperor,” it dates from Beethoven’s middle period. The two works are by any standard the pinnacle of his achievement during these richly productive years, and certainly his two finest concerti. Beyond that distinction, the Violin Concerto holds a special place in the hearts of violinists, orchestral players, and music lovers. Yet how different in spirit it is from the “Emperor.” Instead of extroversion we have thoughtfulness; instead of display and inventive methods of exploring virtuoso technique, Beethoven gives us subtle explorations of what the violin’s E-string can deliver. In fact, one of the most astonishing aspects of this concerto is Beethoven’s instinctive understanding of both soloist and orchestra, despite the fact that he was a keyboard player.

Forgotten virtuosoBeethoven wrote the concerto for Franz Clement (1780-1842), an Austrian violinist, conductor, and composer who

led the violin section at the Vienna Opera. Clement is said to have sight-read the piece at the premiere, because Beethoven finished writing it only at the last minute. If that apocryphal story is true, it may account in part for the fact that this concerto took a long time to win friends, so surprising in light of the staple it has become on today’s concert programs.

A struggle to enter the canonAfter its premiere in 1806, the Violin Concerto received only one additional documented performance during Beethoven’s lifetime, and that in Berlin rather than Vienna, Beethoven’s adopted city. The nineteenth century favored flashy showpieces for its concerto soloists, and this one does not focus on the violinist’s brilliant technique. Beethoven did study repertoire by his contemporaries Giovanni Battista Viotti, Rodolphe Kreutzer, and Jacques-Pierre Rode to become more conversant with the violin’s expressive and technical possibilities.

But display for its own sake never overtakes the broader musical architecture of his mighty work. Among Beethoven’s own compositions, the Violin Concerto’s closest spiritual sibling is not the “Emperor,” but rather the Fourth Piano Concerto, Op.58, with which it shares serenity, absolute conviction in its own inherent balance, and a lack of need for overt display.

About the musicA timpani pattern of five gentle taps opens the concerto and become its leitmotif. From this pattern springs the entire first movement: its leisurely, unhurried pace, its emphasis on internal examination rather than external show, and of course the minimal motivic cells from which Beethoven develops his ideas so incomparably. These five beats are a stable foil to the woodwind theme, marked dolce, that answers them and eventually

Program Notes - CONCERT IV


emerges as the principal melody of the movement. The same five strokes, understated yet inexorable, firmly anchor the Allegro, ma non troppo in the tonic key of D; they are a welcome homing point in light of the disorienting and unexpected D-sharps (significantly, repeating the same rhythm of the opening timpani strokes) that the first violins interject as early as the tenth measure.

The first movement has a sense of expansiveness. Beethoven takes subtle liberties with form; for example, he reserves the cantabile second theme for the orchestra until the coda, when his soloist finally has the opportunity to express that lovely melody as a single violin line.

Intimate slow movement and foot-tapping finaleBuilt on variation principles, the Larghetto is sheer embroidery. It is lovingly scored: only muted strings and pairs of clarinets, bassoons, and horns accompany the soloist. The mood is comfortable, intimate, friendly. Beethoven’s geniality carries through to the Rondo finale, a foray into near-irresistible foot-tapping that wields its power even on those who have heard the music dozens of times. The double-stopped episodes are the only such occurrence in the concerto. Taking unusual and beguiling advantage of the violin’s upper register, the finale provides wonderful opportunities for a soloist to display discerning taste and polished execution.

For these performances, Ms. Frank has chosen the cadenzas by Joseph Joachim.

The score calls for flute, pairs of oboes, clarinets, bassoons, horns and trumpets, timpani, solo violin and strings.

Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op.67

• That famous opening motive is the grist for the entire first movement – and recurs in the third!• Beethoven counters the turbo-charged opening with a poetic and refined slow movement• Notice the importance of the cellos as a melody instrument, particularly in the third movement• C major, the Viennese key of sunlight, brightens the finale: triumph over adversity• This was the first symphony in which Beethoven used piccolo, contrabassoon, and trombones, all in the finale

In his landmark study, The Classical Style, Charles Rosen has observed that Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, like Mozart’s D minor Piano Concerto, is almost as much myth as work of art. “When listening to it,” he writes, “it is difficult at times to say whether we are hearing the work or its reputation.”

That reputation developed almost immediately; it is not anything that subsequent generations had to reassess and discover. As early as 1810, the eminent critic E.T.A. Hoffmann reviewed the Fifth Symphony in the Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung, an important musical newspaper:

This particular symphony, more than any other of his works, unfolds Beethoven’s romantic spirit in a climax rising straight to the end and carries the listener away irresistibly into the wondrous world of the infinite… The whole work storms past some people like an ingenious rhapsody; but the soul of every sensitive listener will surely be deeply and intimately seized right up to the final chord by an enduring feeling which is exactly that inexpressible prophetic longing…



It is conceived with genius, carried out with profound thoughtfulness, and expresses in the highest degree the romantic spirit in music.

Hoffmann’s review places a territorial claim on Beethoven as the embodiment of musical romanticism. The romantic idealism of his description is partly responsible for the idea of heroic struggle that has become associated with this legendary symphony.

Tradition has assigned to the Fifth Symphony the musical metaphor of artist as hero. Pitted against an unsympathetic society, he emerges triumphant after a victory over internal strife. Hoffmann was one of the earliest critics to explore the symphony’s remarkable programmatic potential, but the composer himself planted the seeds for the ensuing harvest of rhetoric. Beethoven’s amanuensis Anton Schindler reported that Beethoven:

…pointed to the beginning of the first movement and expressed in these words the fundamental idea of his work: “Thus Fate knocks at the door!”

Strengthening that idea is the tonality of C-minor, which has been called both the “key of fate” and the “heroic key” in Beethoven’s music. There is no question that certain tonalities carried deep significance for Beethoven. Several other works in C-minor share the terse drama of the Fifth Symphony. The “Pathétique” Sonata, Op.13 (1798/99) and the Third Piano Concerto, Op.37 (1800) are early examples. His “Coriolan” Overture, Op.62 (1807) is another C-minor work contemporary with the Fifth Symphony.

Both the Fifth and Sixth Symphonies were completed during the period 1807-1808,

years of remarkable productivity when Beethoven was producing a succession of masterpieces. Ideas for a symphony in C-minor, however, have been traced to the “Eroica” sketchbook of 1803/4. Considering that E-flat major, the key of the “Eroica” symphony, is the relative major of C-minor, it is not all that surprising that Beethoven generated ideas for both works at the same time.

The French ConnectionRobert Schumann detected French influence in the music of the Fifth Symphony, particularly that of Etienne-Nicolas Méhul (1763-1817). Much French music at the turn of the century, especially opera, bore the imprint of the revolution. France was in a state of political and social upheaval for Beethoven’s entire creative life, and the strong presence of a growing military culture made its impact felt in the arts.

Wartime symbolismDuring the Second World War, BBC shortwave broadcasts were preceded by the opening four notes of Beethoven’s Fifth. The gesture was symbolic: dot-dot-dot-dash is the Morse code for “V,” as in victory. At the opposite end of the spectrum, Peter Schickele satirized the Fifth Symphony in a mock sports broadcast from the University of Southern North Dakota at Hoople. The “PDQ Bach on the Air” recording is a surprisingly accessible — and hilariously funny — lesson in sonata form for the non-specialist.

Military elementsObviously this work has “spoken” to listeners in a variety of ways since its première, and, as Charles Rosen points out, has transcended its own reputation into the realm of legend. From a musical standpoint, the overriding characteristic that unifies the Fifth Symphony is military flavor.



March rhythms figure prominently, sometimes even when the music is in triple time, as in the C-major sections of the slow movement. Beethoven’s emphasis on the brass section underscores the martial quality of the symphony. So too does his expansion of the orchestra to include piccolo (redolent of military band flavor), contrabassoon, and trombones for the finale. His letter to his patron Count Franz von Oppersdorff in March 1808 shows that he wanted the bigger sound.

The last movement of the symphony has three trombones and flautino — and not three timpani, but will make more noise than six timpani, and better noise than that.

Only the beginning of the scherzo, with its spooky, menacing lower strings outlining the opening arpeggios, eludes the military overtones. Beethoven’s allusion to “better noise” makes one wonder whether there is an undertone of glee in his close. He takes

a whopping 54 measures to hammer home the final C-major cadence, just to make certain we get his message. More than two centuries later, the rhetoric retains its power undiminished.

The Fifth Symphony was premiered at the Theater-an-der-Wien on December 22, 1808. It shared the program with the Sixth Symphony and the Choral Fantasia, Op.80, both of which also received first performances. When it was published in April 1809, the score bore an unusual joint dedication to Beethoven’s patrons Prince Lobkowitz and Count Rasoumovsky. The symphony is scored for piccolo, pairs of flutes, oboes, clarinets and bassoons, contrabassoon, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, timpani, and strings.

Program notes by Laurie Shulman © 2018First North American Serial rights Only



amela Frank has established an outstanding

international reputation across an unusually varied range of

performing activity. As a soloist she has performed with leading orchestras including the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the San Francisco

Symphony, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, the Berlin Philharmonic and the St. Petersburg Philharmonic. Pamela performed regularly with the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra, recording the complete Mozart Violin Concertos with them and David Zinman and has also recorded a Schubert album and the Beethoven sonata cycle, both with her father Claude Frank. Pamela is a sought-after chamber musician and has performed at many international festivals including Aldeburgh, Verbier, Edinburgh, Salzburg, Tanglewood, Marlboro and Ravinia.

Aside from her devotion to works of the standard repertory, Pamela has performed and recorded a number of contemporary works. Her accomplishments were recognized in 1999 with the prestigious Avery Fisher Prize. Pamela is professor of violin at the Curtis Institute of Music and teaches and coaches annually at the Tanglewood, Ravinia and Verbier Festivals. Since 2008 she has been the Artistic Director of the Evnin Rising Stars, a mentoring program for young artists at Caramoor Center for the Arts. Her newest venture is the formation of Fit as a Fiddle Inc., a collaboration with physical therapist Howard Nelson in which they use both their expertise for injury prevention and treatment of musicians.

Pamela Frank


Chamber Music with the Westchester Phil

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November 14, 2018 January 16, 2019

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WestchesterPhilharmonic

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Jeff & Frederique ZachariaDavid & Madeleine ArnowDr. & Mrs. Gerald GreitzerDorothy & Fred HaasLee and Jacqueline Bellsey StarrMr. & Mrs. Raina LindholmRene & Kirsti ProchelleMr. & Mrs. Numa RousseveLisa TibbittsMr. & Mrs. John WernerMr. & Mrs. William WhiteCheryne & David McBrideMr. & Mrs. Lawrence J. NokesMr. & Mrs. John Werner

$500–$999Jane Bridges & Robert Dennard

Vivian MilsteinRena FinkelsteinIrwin & Vivienne LevensonIBM Matching Gifts ProgramDr, & Mrs. Harold KeltzFaith SaundersMrs. Ann ScheuerLinda & Paul LandesmanDenise A. RempeJoan & Robert MeyerMr. & Mrs. Robert S. OlsenMr. & Mrs. Tony AielloMr. Thomas GraceLowell Hershey

Thank you…for your vision and generosity in supporting the Westchester Philharmonic. The following list represents gifts totaling $75 or more made between March 1, 2017 and October 4, 2018. We thank all of our donors for gifts at any level. To make a contribution, call (914) 682-3707, or mail your gift using the envelope included in this program.

Our Supporters


Our Supporters

Marjorie LeeMary Ann & Peter S. Liebert, M.D.

Jean & Henry PollakLucille Werlinich

$250–$499Carole M. BoccuminiIrving & Sharon PicardElaine & Joshua Jay KaufmanMr. Todd Lao & Mrs. Iris LoMs.Harriet LeibowitzLenore & Robert HerbstMarcella KahnHelmut and Barbara NorpothDaniel Politi & Cecily GottlingInge TresserJoel & Sandy MeyersDorothy J. YoungEllen & Jonathan LittElihu & Minette GorelikElon & Patrice Schwartz

$125–$249Mr. & Mrs. Robert KearneyMr. & Mrs Seth JacobsMs. Marie LacerraMarion LauTony Russo & Andrea KishMr. Alan StahlLawrence TsaoMr. & Mrs. Julian L. CohanMiriam and Paul DouglasMs. Valerie Dalwin EtraLouella GottliebRita KaplanDonald & Margaret MahaneyHarold & Sandra SamuelsSara A. SheperdProfessor Karen P. SmithLucille SmithAnne & Ronald SwitzerMs. Barbara WenglinRita Wexler

Ms. Andrea RitchinPhilip & Ellen HeidelbergerShawn AmdurCarl & Lynn BloomMr. Richard Bobbe & Ms. Jocelyn Schuman

Dr. Ruth GreerMr. & Mrs. George HaussElinor KoeppelRichard & Diane LertCarmen NeuMrs. Elaine Petschek Marianne and Arnold I. RichJoan & Mills RipleyMs. Frances RosenfeldDr. & Mrs. Bernard Schwartzberg

Anton & Eileen StenzlerDale TodaroFred & Beth WeilerBella WeissmanMr. Stanley JosephsonMr. Martin RubensteinMr. & Mrs. Stephen BearMr. Pedro MaymiMr. Jaime Laredo & Ms. Sharon Robinson

Susan & Larry Tolchin

$75–$124Ms. Karen RaginsRobert & Millie RosenbergMr. & Mrs. Anthony Bloomberg

James Aucone & Joanne McGrath

Mr. & Mrs. Richard BemporadBarbara Birshtein & Howard Steinman

Ronald CohenPhyllis ColeMr. Allan ColinGloria Fields & Andy SeligsonMr. & Mrs. Bruce Gavril

Carol GoldbergDr. & Mrs. Arnold J. GordonJoann GrahamPatricia A. HammerMr. Richard IndenbaumAndrew & Deborah JagodaMr. David KaufmanRuth & Martin KestMrs. Rosemarie LanzaMark & Ann LewisPeggy G. MarxDr. Ben RomneyMr. & Mrs. Robert SamuelsStan & Barbara SelbstMr. & Mrs. William SpiroAnnonymousMr. & Mrs. Henri Van DamMrs. Janet C. CrohnMr. & Mrs. James J. FloodMs. Madeleine MacIntyreJudy & Martin Cohen Roslynne ReichgottMs. Therese M. NagaiMr. & Mrs. Myron WinsonMs. Carol BaretzJack Billig & Judy NorthMr. Felipe Cabello & Ms. Lieselotte Hott

Mr. & Mrs. Patrick CahillMrs. Patricia CoteGeorge & Theresa EdwardsJohn & Karolyn FavaMrs. Sally KellockMr. & Mrs. Thomas LocastroMrs. Jeanette LoringJay MeltzerHiro SakataRichard & Ann Marie Schneeman

David & Moira TobeyMargot Elkin


Our Supporters

Richard & Diane Lert in honor of Neil & Gayle Aaron

Lynn Bloom in memory of Carl Bloom

Mrs. Patricia Cote in honor of Caparelli & Cote families

Neil & Gayle Aaron in memory of Richard Dannenberg

Mr. & Mrs. Richard Bemporad in memory of Richard Dannenberg

Ronald Cohen in memory of Richard Dannenberg

Mrs. Joy Henshel in memory of Richard Dannenberg

Marty & Millicent Kaufman in memory of Richard Dannenberg

Mr. & Mrs. Lawrence J. Nokes in memory of Richard Dannenberg

Hannah & Walter Shmerler in memory of Richard Dannenberg

Ruth B. Toff in memory of Richard Dannenberg

Yvonne Tropp & Alan Epstein in memory of Richard Dannenberg

Neil & Gayle Aaron in memory of Paul Dunkel

Barbara & Dick Dannenberg in memory of Paul Dunkel

Hannah & Walter Shmerler in memory of Paul Dunkel

Ruth B. Toff in memory of Paul Dunkel

Marty & Millicent Kaufman in memory of Teicei Fusco

Elinor Koeppel in honor of Emily Grant

Marty & Millicent Kaufman in memory of Eugene Grant

Barbara & Dick Dannenberg in memory of Paul Hershenson

Marjorie Lee in honor of Millicent Kaufman

Ruth B. Toff in honor of Millicent Kaufman

Lida Keltz in memory of Harold Keltz

Mrs. Jeanette Loring in memory of Morton Loring

Mr. Pedro Maymi in memory of Rosalind Mariani

Mr. Richard Indenbaum in honor of Dorothy & Howard Muson

Marianne & Armold I. Rich in memory of Kenneth E. Rich

Dr. Ben Romney in memory of Seymour & Shirley Romney

Ms. Angela Ranellone in memory of Netti Smith

Marty & Millicent Kaufman in memory of Edward Sperling

Ms. Holly Cohen in honor of Russel Watsky

JoAnn & Michael Stern in honor of Russel Watsky

Mr. & Mrs. Myron Winson in memory of Helene Winson

Rena Finkelstein in honor of Diana Worby

Irwin & Vivienne Levenson in memory of Louis Worby

In Tribute…


Our VolunteersA hearty bravo to the following individuals and organizations for in-kind donations of items or services:Martin OppenheimerDeborah WongD. Paul Woodiel

Ardsley Musical Instrument Service

Aries Fine Wines & SpiritsCaptain Lawrence Brewing Company

Doral ArrowwoodFairway MarketFrank Soriano/ House of Flowers

Joseph Richard FloralsNew York PostNew York Power AuthorityRoyal Press

Serendipity MagazineToday Media/ Ralph Martinelli

WAG MagazineWestchester MagazineWGCH Radio & Pamela Kuhn

What To DoWHUD RadioWQXR Radio

––––––––––––––––––––––

Special thanks to photographers Matt Dine, Susan Farley, Kenji Mori, Sandy Shertzer & Louis Vaccaro.

Gayle AaronSusannah AndersonMelissa AlelesMadeline LukeYama OgeEmily PolitiRoslynne ReichgottNuma RousseveHelios TavioStephen UckoThomas VaughanAndrea WorbyRory Worby

Our Supporters


ow in its 36th season, the Westchester

Philharmonic is the oldest, continuously

running professional symphony orchestra and largest group of performing artists in Westchester County. The Philharmonic’s main stage concert series makes its home at the 1,300 seat Concert Hall at the Purchase Performing Arts Center, with outdoor concerts, chamber concerts, children’s programs, and special events throughout the area, attracting savvy music-lovers from across the Hudson Valley, New York City, and beyond.

Founded in 1983 as the New Orchestra of Westchester under the leadership of Music Director Paul Lustig Dunkel (who became Music Director Emeritus in 2008), the orchestra was later re-named the Westchester Philharmonic. Renowned artists who have

performed with the Phil include Joshua Bell, Jeremy Denk, Branford Marsalis, Midori, Garrick Ohlsson, Itzhak Perlman, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, Gil Shaham, Isaac Stern, and André Watts. For four seasons the Philharmonic has been led by Principal Conductors Jaime Laredo and Ted Sperling.

Among the many new works commissioned and premiered by the Westchester Philharmonic is Melinda Wagner’s Concerto for Flute, Strings and Percussion, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1999. A new commission by Christopher Theofanidis, Dreamtime Ancestors, made its NY-area debut in October 2015 and, in 2016, the Phil presented a violin concerto by David Ludwig, composed for violinist Bella Hristova in celebration of their recent marriage.

The Westchester Philharmonic has a rich history of supporting artists of diverse

Our Thirty-sixth Season

Soprano Julia Bullock with the Phil in 2017.


backgrounds and is setting a new standard for how mid-size regional symphony orchestras can have an impact on the face of classical music. Many of the composers whose works have been commissioned or premiered with the Philharmonic are women, or are of diverse ethnic backgrounds. In just the past ten seasons the Phil has engaged 30 conductors or guest soloists of African-American, Hispanic, and Asian backgrounds. Women conductors and composers have appeared in seven of the last ten seasons.

The orchestra’s award-winning education program reaches thousands of elementary school students each year and culminates in a full orchestra concert. The Phil also partners with local organizations to present free and low-cost chamber concerts, as well as to provide subsidized seating at main stage concerts, welcoming hundreds

of area residents each year who might not otherwise have an opportunity to attend.

The orchestra is comprised of the finest professional free-lance musicians from the greater metropolitan area, who also perform regularly with the New York City Ballet, Orchestra St. Luke’s, Orpheus, Mostly Mozart, and for many Broadway shows. Members of the Phil hold faculty positions at Juilliard, Mannes, Manhattan School of Music, Purchase Conservatory, Vassar and Bard Colleges, and at local public schools.

For thirty-five years the Westchester Philharmonic has made the musical arts accessible to the community, providing the highest quality educational programming in the classroom; enhancing the quality of life in the region through innovative professional performances; and showcasing the finest new artistry in the concert hall.

About The Westchester Philharmonic

Executive and Artistic Director Joshua Worby leads a pre-concert discussion with Principal Conductor Jaime Laredo, violinist Bella Hristova and composer David Ludwig on the 2016 premiere of Ludwig’s Violin Concerto.

Jaime Laredo leads Bella Hristova in the premiere of David Ludwig’s Violin Concerto, written especially for Ms. Hristova on the occasion of her wedding to the composer.

Summer music with the Phil in the picturesque Lasdon Park.


Students anticipate the Young People’s Concert, which is the culminating experience for the 1,300 children participating in the Phil’s annual classroom music education program.

Partnerships with organizations like the Greyston Child Care Center in Yonkers bring music to young listeners, introducing them to the limitless world of music through regular interactive programs.

Youngsters enjoy a pre-concert Instrument Petting Zoo with Phil musicians (and free concert tickets!) at the February Friends & Family Concert each season.

About The Westchester Philharmonic

The Phil’s thriving student internship program provides future arts leaders with an opportunity to experience the inner workings of a symphony orchestra. Interns have gone on to employment at Sony Music, the Buffalo Philharmonic and the Moab Music Festival, among others.


General InfoThe use of recording devices or photographs in The Concert Hall is strictly forbidden.

As a courtesy to other concert-goers, please turn off all electronic devices and do not talk during the performance. Kindly unwrap any candy or lozenges before the performance begins.

Latecomers will be seated at the discretion of the management.

Smoking is not permitted in any area inside The Performing Arts Center. Smoking is also no longer permitted by the lobby doors in the underpass, or in the plaza areas around the theater building.

Emergency exits are indicated by red signs above the doorways. For your safety, please check the location of the exit nearest your seat.

All programs, artists, dates, times and prices are subject to change.

Unable to attend a concert?We welcome subscribers to exchange their tickets for any alternate main stage performance. Kindly contact the Performing Arts Center box office 48 hours in advance of the concert you’d like to attend. Tickets may also be donated back. We will provide you with a written acknowledgement allowing the value of returned tickets as a tax- deductible contribution. Exchanges and donations cannot be made at The Performing Arts Center box office on the day of the performance. You must call (914) 251-6200 48 hours in advance.

Important Contact InfoPhilharmonic Administrative Offices & General Info: 123 Main Street, 9th Floor, White Plains, New YorkPhone: (914) 682-3707Email: [email protected]

Performing Arts Center Box Office: (914) 251-6200

Performing Arts Center Lost & Found: (914) 251-6209

Visit us at westchesterphil.org

General Information

PROGRAM PRODUCED BY:

AdvertisingOnstage Publications937-424-0529 | 866-503-1966e-mail: [email protected] program is published in association with Onstage Publications, 1612 Prosser Avenue, Kettering, OH 45409. This program may not be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission from the publisher. JBI Publishing is a division of Onstage Publications, Inc. Contents © 2018-19. All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A.

Program Notes: Laurie Shulman

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We stch es te r Philhar moni c - Onstage PublicationsRobinson Trio releases include complete trios and sonatas of Shostakovich, complete chamber works of Maurice Ravel, a 4-disc set