BEACH CITIES SYMPHONY NEWSLETTER
NEXT BEACH
CITIES SYMPHONY CONCERT
Pianist SYLVIA HO began her early musical training in Hong
Kong, where she appeared in concerts and on television beginning at age six.
After immigrating to the United States, she received a scholarship to study
with Alexander Fiorillo (a student of Vladimir Horowitz) at Temple University
while earning her Bachelor and Master of Music Degrees. She later attended the
Juilliard School of Music as a postgraduate scholarship student of Josef
Raieff.
Miss Ho made her formal debut at Carnegie Recital Hall after
winning the Artists International Competition. She has performed extensively as
soloist, duo-pianist, and accompanist on both coasts, including at Lincoln
Center’s Alice Tully Hall. Formerly a faculty member of the University of Texas
at El Paso, she is listed in the World Who’s Who of Women, the International
Who’s Who of Music, and the American Keyboard Artists.
In 1995 Miss Ho was invited to perform at the International Chopin
Music Festival. That same year, she was interviewed by WFLN in Philadelphia,
where she also performed live on the air. Other radio stations in Hong Kong,
Texas, Washington, and New Jersey have aired tapes of her recitals as well as
interviews with her. In the fall of 2002, she toured the People’s Republic of
China to perform and give master classes. Currently an applied music piano
faculty member at Riverside Community College, she will be presented by Artists
International in an alumni-winners recital in New York City during its
2005-2006 season.
In addition to concertizing and teaching, Miss Ho gives master
classes and frequently adjudicates in piano competitions. Her students have
been winners in many local and international competitions, including the Beach
Cities Symphony’s annual Artists of the Future Concerto Competition. Since 1995
she has had seven Artists of the Future winners, most recently Monica Liu, who
played the first movement of the Grieg Piano Concerto in May of 2004.
On January 21, Miss Ho will be performing Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody
on a Theme of Paganini, a set of 24 variations based on Nicoli
Paganini’s Twenty-fourth Caprice for solo violin. The word “rhapsody” is
defined in the Oxford English Dictionary “an exaggeratedly enthusiastic or
ecstatic expression of feeling, often disconnected or lacking sound argument,”
and in music as a piece somewhat akin to a spontaneous emotional outburst. The
Rachmaninoff Rhapsody, however spontaneous some of its variations seem, is
actually a careful reworking of Paganini’s melody in which control is apparent
throughout. Miss Ho comments on the “ingenious” way in which the famous 18th
variation turns the opening theme upside down, as well as the way the
variations are arranged in three groupings corresponding to the movements of a
concerto. Don’t miss the opportunity to hear a live performance of this great
work.
An
appreciative audience of nearly 1,000 gave a warm reception to both soloists
and to the orchestra under Barry Brisk’s direction. Daily Breeze
reviewer Kari Sayers praised the way Mr. John Cather played the
Arutunian Trumpet Concerto “with zest and tenderness. Especially beautiful were
the muted passages, but impressive also was the long cadenza at the end.” She also praised Miss Jessica Tunick’s
“unaffected sweet lyrical soprano” in the final movement of Mahler’s Symphony
Number Four.
For concert pictures
by James Lee, Peter Coffee, and Peter Landecker of this and previous concerts,
visit: http://BeachCitiesSymphony.org/photos.htm.
At a
recent Beach Cities Symphony rehearsal, violinists Way Wong and Wendy Chow
were with four of their students. Way and Wendy, who are husband and wife,
believe the experience of being part of a community orchestra is especially
valuable for young musicians. “They learn to read and play real music” as
opposed to the simplified versions often used in school ensembles, says Wendy.
They also benefit from playing with more advanced musicians, especially wind
and brass players, under a professional conductor like Barry Brisk. Wendy goes
to the first or second rehearsal before each concert and then helps students
with orchestra music as part of their weekly lessons. She and Way also come to
the dress rehearsal and play in as many concert performances as their
professional schedules will allow.
Beach Cities
Symphony violinist Laurel Gutierrez was profiled in the entertainment
supplement of the Daily Breeze on Friday, November 12. Music critic Jim Farber
compared and contrasted Laurel, an integrated systems engineer, wife, and
mother of two, with Barry Socher, a full-time musician who plays violin in the
L.A. Philharmonic as well as in other orchestras and ensembles. While Laurel
chose a career in math and science, she has stayed involved in music despite
the demands of her work and family. She told Farber, “I think of the music as a
privilege. Every time I leave [rehearsal], I never regret that I took the time.
It gives me so much energy that everything else just disappears.” You can
purchase the full text of Jim Farber’s story at http://www.dailybreeze.com/rave/articles/1180791.html.
HOW TO SPEND MONEY AND MAKE MUSIC AT THE SAME TIME:
When you swipe
your Preferred Savings card at Albertson’s and Sav-On, you can support the Beach
Cities Symphony at no extra cost to you. Just register your card and phone
number by calling our information number: (310) 379-9725 or email info@BeachCitiesSymphony.org.
Based on your individual monthly expenditure, the Symphony will receive 1% of
purchases up to $250, 2% from $250 to $400, 3% from $400 to $500, and 4% for
amounts above $500.
By accessing
the Amazon web site through the Beach Cities Symphony link, you will
automatically donate 5% of all purchases to this organization. An added benefit
to you is that on most Amazon.com orders over $25 the shipping is free, so you
will save time and money while providing us with much-needed donations. If you
are a novice to Internet shopping, Amazon’s web site is a good way to start
because it is very easy to navigate. You can store the link as a preference in
your Internet browser: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect-home/beachcitiessymph.
PLEASE LET US
KNOW if you are aware of any other fundraising options that might
benefit the Symphony. Call (310) 379-9725 or e-mail info@BeachCitiesSymphony.org.
And thanks for helping.
OUR REMAINING CONCERTS FOR THE 2004-2005 SEASON:
W. A.
Mozart: Don Giovanni Overture, K. 527
Camille
Saint-Saens: Piano Concerto in F Major, Op. 103; Sebastian Koch, soloist
Antonin
Dvorak: Symphony No. 7 in D Minor, Op. 70
Georges
Bizet: Carmen Suite No. 1
MTAC
Artists of the Future soloists: to be announced
Paul
Dukas: The Sorcerer’s Apprentice
WELCOME TO OUR NEW BEACH CITIES
ASSOCIATION MEMBERS:
John
& Marion Bauer
Janet
Brown
Roger
& Dorothy Clapp
Kendra
Diamond
Linnea
Eades
Dan
& Hilda Fleischman
Glass
Family Foundation
Patricia
Hammond
Ken
Hunter
G.
Kalman
PDP
Services
Paul
Senior
Richard
Shaffer
Glenn
Singleton
Thank you for supporting our organization!
Hannah Mickelson of Redondo
Beach and Pat Hammond of El Segundo won CDs in our members' raffle at the
October 29 concert. Ruth Singleton of Torrance was the flower arrangement
winner. Sayaka Jacobson, one of our young lobby volunteers, astounded everyone
and most of all herself when she won the Classic Kids Photo package by drawing
her own ticket number.
PROGRAM NOTES
by Toni Empringham and Bill
Malcolm
Traume
Richard
Wagner (1813-1883)
Traume (Dreams) is one of five songs
that Wagner wrote during a period of personal and political turmoil. After
aligning himself with revolutionary insurrectionists in Dresden, the composer
fled to Switzerland to avoid a warrant for his arrest. There he met and was
generously supported by Otto Wesendonck, a wealthy silk merchant who also
arranged for the composer's living accommodations next door to the family
villa. Wagner was attracted to his benefactor's young wife, Mathilde, sharing
with her the text draft of Tristan und Isolde. Mathilde responded with a series
of poems in the Romantic tradition that Wagner set to music under the title
Five poems for female voice with pianoforte accompaniment. He then orchestrated
the fifth of these, Traume, for small ensemble and solo violin in the style of
the second act love duet from Tristan as a present for Mathilde's 29th birthday
in 1858.
--Toni
Empringham
Serenade,
Opus 7
Scored for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 4 horns, 2 bassoons, and contrabassoon or tuba
Richard Strauss (1864-1949)
Strauss was a musical child
prodigy on the level of Mendelssohn or Saint-Saëns. His father, a professional
hornist, gave him piano and violin lessons, and Richard began composing at age
six. By the time he completed the Serenade at age 17, he had written well over
a hundred pieces in just about every contemporary genre. This was the first
work by Strauss to be introduced outside his hometown, Munich; it remains the
earliest of his pieces to maintain a place in concert repertory. The premiere
was given in Dresden on November 27, 1882, a few months after Strauss graduated
from high school.
In 1883, the influential
pianist, conductor, and composer Hans von Bylow, after seeing the score,
declared Strauss to be "by far the most striking personality since
Brahms," and programmed the Serenade when his own Meiningen Orchestra
toured in Berlin, in February 1884. Bylow told Strauss he was one of those
musicians who "have the stuff in them to occupy the highest positions at
once," and ensured his own prophecy by hiring Strauss as co-conductor of
the Meiningen Orchestra on October 1, 1885. A month later he became its sole
music director. He was just 21, on the threshold of a meteoric musical career
which to a large degree was launched by the Serenade.
Strauss's Serenade is a single
movement in sonata form. Most likely influenced by the wind partitas of Mozart,
this composition does not strongly portend the operas and tone poems that
became the works for which he is best remembered. Strauss in later life
dismissed the Serenade as "respectable work of a music student."
However, as late as July 1947, two years before his death, he conducted the
Serenade for a Swiss radio broadcast, of which a recording survives.
--Bill
Malcolm
Rhapsody
on a Theme of Paganini
Sergei
Rachmaninoff (1873-1943)
A pianist and conductor as well
as a composer, Rachmaninoff early on developed a musical style described by
Geoffrey Norris in The Oxford Companion to Music as "a sure gift for
soaring melody" combined with "a taste for succulent harmony and rich
textures." His later works, which include the Rhapsody on a Theme of
Paganini (1934) are also characterized by "a new, invigoratingly pungent
bite to the harmonies, a new urgency in the rhythmic thrust . . . ." Rachmaninoff's
musical legacy has enriched romantic film scores and has made him the favorite
classical composer of countless moviegoers who don't even know his name, but
who have been drawn to explore classical music through his beautiful works for
piano and orchestra.
The Rhapsody is a set of 24
variations on Nicol Paganini's 24th Caprice for solo violin. Variations One
through Eleven comprise a fast opening movement with cadenza and include the
Dies Irae (Day of Wrath) motif in Variations Seven and Ten. The slow movement
consists of the Twelfth through Eighteenth Variations, the last containing the
famous "big tune," an upside-down version of the Paganini motif. The
last six Variations accelerate to a forceful crescendo with horns and brass loudly
reiterating the Dies Irae before the orchestra drops out. The soloist quietly
brings the work to a close in a clever salute to the original theme.
--T.E.
Romeo
and Juliet, Suite II, Opus 64
Sergei
Prokofiev (1891-1953)
Prokofiev became interested in
composing for ballet through the influence of the innovative choreographer
Sergei Diaghilev, with whom he worked in London and Paris beginning in 1914. In
1934 Prokofiev was commissioned by the Kirov Theater to write the music for a
new ballet based on Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. The project was taken over
by the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, and Prokofiev completed the score in 1935,
one year before he took up permanent residence in that city. Performance was
delayed as the composer made large-scale revisions at the choreographers'
requests. In the meantime, he wrote two orchestral suites using music from the
ballet and adding other material. Suite II premiered on April 15, 1937, in
Leningrad, with Eugeni Mravinsky conducting the Leningrad Philharmonic.
Prokofiev studied Shakespeare's
play carefully and wrote detailed notes for the ballet. He used many musical
techniques to represent the emotions of the drama. For example, the opening
movement of Suite II vividly portrays through dissonance the strife between the
Montagues (Romeo's family) and Capulets (Juliet's). Juliet is represented
throughout by the solo flute, while the slow-moving Father Lawrence is
introduced by the bassoon and double basses in the third movement. In 1936
Prokofiev wrote, "When I am asked to write music for a play or film, . . .
it takes me from 5-10 days to 'see' it, that is, to visualize the characters,
their emotions, and their actions in terms of music." The result of his
visualization of Romeo and Juliet is a tribute to the original story and an
unforgettable contribution to its lasting appeal.
--T.E.
Beach
Cities Symphony News
Text:
Toni Empringham Graphics: Ralph
Dame Editor-in-Chief: Margaret
McWilliams
BCSA,
P.O. Box 248, Redondo Beach, CA 90277-0248
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