BEACH CITIES SYMPHONY NEWSLETTER
JOHN
CATHER plays as
a freelance artist throughout Southern California and is a regular artist for
numerous bands and orchestras, including several of his own groups. He
specializes in Renaissance and Baroque music as played on authentic instruments
including the Baroque trumpet, cornetto, and sackbut. He began playing with the
Beach Cities Symphony in 1974.
John started
playing trumpet at age 7. He was first taught by his father and mentor, George
Cather, who was an accomplished trombone player and music teacher and also one
of the first members of the Beach Cities Symphony. John later studied with the
late James Stamp; Juilliard professor Raymond Mase; Dr. Edward Tarr of Basel, Switzerland;
and Donald Green, Ralph Sauer, and Jeffrey Reynolds of the L.A. Philharmonic,
among others.
On October
29, John will be performing the one-movement Trumpet Concerto in A-flat
major by the Armenian composer Alexander Arutunian. This concerto
was written in 1950 for Aikaz Mesiayan, who premiered the piece. The famed
Russian trumpeter Timofei Dokschitzer later edited the work and introduced it
to the United States when he immigrated to this country. John attended a master
class given by Dokschitzer in California and found him to be a dramatic and
spectacular player. Arutunian’s concerto, according to Jason Sundram, is an
energetic powerhouse of Eastern European lyricism and harmonic textures. John
describes the work as a three-part
roller coaster of emotions. He will be
playing it on a B-flat F.E. Olds & Son opera model trumpet, which he chose
for its dark, yet focused sound.
JESSICA
TUNICK graduated
from the California Institute of the Arts with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in vocal
performance. She began studying voice, as well as dance and theater, at age 8
at the Conservatory of Fine Arts in Los Angeles, where she later became an
assistant teacher of beginning and intermediate voice. She is also an
accomplished violinist and a past member of the Beach Cities Symphony. She has
performed solo at the Ojai Music Festival, the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, the
Greek Theater, the Lake Placid Institute in New York, and the American
Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria, where she was a finalist in the
prestigious Meistersinger Competition. Her operatic roles include Susanna in The
Marriage of Figaro, Feline in Mignon, Gretel in Hansel and
Gretel, Fire in L’Enfant et les Sortileges, and Adele in Die
Fledermaus. Jessica’s father, Larry Tunick, is principal oboe of the Beach
Cities Symphony.
Jessica will
be featured in the fourth movement of Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 4,
first performed in 1901. She describes how Mahler weaves the voice seamlessly
into the symphonic texture, treating it as an orchestral rather than a solo
instrument. The lyrics are from Des Knaben Wunderhorn (The Boy’s Magic
Horn), a collection of over 700 German folksongs published between 1804 and
1807. Mahler set nine of these to music for voice and piano and incorporated an
additional 13 for voice and orchestra. The song he used in the Fourth Symphony
is Das himmlische Leben (The Heavenly Life), a description of paradise from a
child’s--or a sybarite’s--bedazzled perspective.
At the
opening of the fourth movement, Jessica explains, the voice mimics first the
simple, lilting line of the clarinet which is then taken over by the flute, and
later on [the composer] mirrors the voice exactly with the melody line in the
violins and then the winds. She finds evidence of Mahler’s profound humanism
and humor in the lyrics, which she paraphrases here: There is no earthly comparison to how delicious the apples,
pears, and peaches are in heaven, how aromatic the herbs; the asparagus salad
is a delight to the palate, and in the heavenly cellar the wine is always free.
The lyrics also describe the sublime music of the angel choir and court
musicians and the 11,000 dancing virgins. The combination of Mahler’s witty
text, fluid phrasing and beautiful melodies makes this piece an absolute joy to
sing.
A LETTER FROM BOB PETERSON,
Congratulations to all who
support the Beach Cities Symphony Orchestra, musicians, Association volunteers,
contributing members, program advertisers, our great audience, and in all cases
the families who back us. It takes a lot of people to make these concerts
happen. As a charter playing musician who has missed just one concert, I
remember the thousands of supporters, including you in the audience and many,
many hard workers over the years. This season we all benefit from their and
your pioneering efforts in creating this organization.
Some
of you have been coming to our concerts for many years, but as far as I know,
my wife, Ada Belle Peterson, is perhaps the person who has attended the most
concerts. The membership list in our programs has scores of familiar names,
many who have been with us a long time. It’s dangerous to select, but Ruth
Purdon, Yvonne Tressel, Donna Clarke, Frank O’Leary, David Bradburn, Bob
Brigham, and Carole Ellis are among these long-term members and supporters.
Those of you I missed may call me at 310-539-4649 so that I may apologize.
This
55th season will also honor and recognize musicians who have performed with us
for many years. These loyal friends of the orchestra express their love of
music by sharing their talents, and we thank them for being here. We also thank
those who prepared the way by playing with us in the early days. We have
planned for a grand 55th season with four wonderful concerts which you will see
listed later in this newsletter. Once again Maestro Barry Brisk will lead us
with exceptional programming and inspiring musicianship.
All
of the above is a prelude to our necessary encouragement to use the enclosed
envelope for your annual contribution to the orchestra. If you have already
done so, many thanks. If not, we hope you will make your gift now before laying
this letter aside. Through all these years we have had many high spots and a
few tough times. Because of you, we still offer four free concerts each year.
Join us at El Camino College’s Marsee Auditorium for another season of
outstanding music, and bring lots of friends.
WELCOME TO OUR NEW BEACH CITIES
ASSOCIATION MEMBERS:
Jui-Mei
Hsieh
Joseph
Manfredo
Denton
Vilhauer
Thank you for supporting our organization!
Winners of CDs in our members raffle at the May 28 concert were Ralph Dame (Hermosa Beach) and John Kittbeck (Redondo Beach). Pauline Dobson of Torrance won the floral centerpiece, and Robert Torres of Redondo Beach won the Disneyland family pass.
Make sure your membership is current for the 2004-2005
season. Benefits include this newsletter, eligibility for door prizes and the
reception following every concert.
http://BeachCitiesSymphony.org for
the BCS Web Page
info@BeachCitiesSymphony.org for
BCS information
PROGRAM NOTES
Fidelio Overture, Opus 72B
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Beethoven's only opera, Fidelio, was originally titled Leonore, or the Triumph
of Married Love. It was first performed in 1805 and revised three times, most
extensively in 1814. Beethoven wrote four versions of the overture; the third
version, Leonore III (Opus 72A), is generally performed between Acts One and
Two of the drama. The Fidelio Overture, unlike its predecessors, uses none of
the opera's themes. Also unlike Leonores I through III, it is composed in the
key of E Major, anticipating the heroine's most thematically significant aria.
The new overture was not ready for the opening production in Vienna on May 23,
1814. Instead it received its debut at the second performance on May 26 and has
become one of the composer's most popular short symphonic works.
Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra
Alexander Arutunian (1920- )
The Armenian composer and pianist Alexander Arutunian graduated from the
Komitas Conservatory of Music in 1941 and studied at the Moscow Conservatory
from 1946-48. He has received numerous awards in Armenia, the United States,
and elsewhere and recently celebrated his 84th birthday. His works draw on
Armenia's cultural heritage and are notable for an emotional intensity and
colorful style in the tradition of Aram Khachaturian. The Concerto for Trumpet,
composed in 1950, is in three movements played without breaks. Arutunian wrote
the work for Aikaz Mesiayan, who gave the piece its premiere. It was later
edited and performed by Timofei Dokshitzer, solo trumpet with the Bolshoi
Theater Orchestra for over 40 years. With the composer's permission, Dokshitzer
wrote a cadenza for the concerto which is still used today and will be played
by tonight's soloist. Dokshitzer introduced the Trumpet Concerto to the United
States, and it has become a standard audition piece for the instrument.
Symphony No. 4 in G Major
Gustav Mahler (1860-1911)
Although Mahler's reputation today is for exceedingly long, large-scale
symphonic works, his Symphony No. 4 presents neither of those traits. Of
moderate length (fifty minutes, four movements) and reduced orchestra size,
this work has been described as "neo-rococo" in style, harkening back
to Haydn, Mozart, Schubert, and early Beethoven. However, its late-Romantic
personal vision eventually outweighs those traditional roots. One of the most
striking features is that instead of building, movement by movement, to an
increasingly huge, forceful finale, the symphony travels backwards from
sophistication to simplicity. According to musicologist Donald Mitchell,
"The most concentrated and intricate musical thinking [is] assigned to the
first movement." The second movement scherzo features an aggressively
strident violin solo played in the style of a 19th century Middle European
street fiddler. Mahler himself described the effect as "the gruesome dance
of death, led by a figure of popular demonology, Freund Hein. It is the
mistuned fiddle of the skeletal figure of death . . . your hair will stand on
end when you hear it." Then comes the pensive and stately third movement
with its emotional string crescendos. The finale introduces the soprano voice
as a solo instrument describing a child's vision of heaven. The lyrics of
"The Heavenly Life," originally written as an epilogue to Mahler's
Third Symphony, describe a paradise in which angels bake the bread, bowls are
always full of food, wine is free and free-flowing, 11,000 maidens dance, and
the air is filled with music and laughter. The symphony ends quietly on the low
E of the harp and string basses, far from the restless intensity with which it
began.
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