BEACH CITIES SYMPHONY NEWSLETTER
Vol. XIII, No. 1 -
October 2005
THE BEACH CITIES SYMPHONY
BARRY BRISK, MUSIC DIRECTOR
WE KNEW
HIM WEN---
by Pat Chavez
~~~~~~~ Ordinary life vanished with the arrival
of Wen Yu Shen and his mother, Ping, on June 1st, here for the second
tri-annual Rachmaninoff Piano Competition, to be held at the Walt Disney
Concert Hall Complex, June 6-18.
~~~~~~~ Only
days before his arrival, my husband, Al, and I~ had volunteered to host a
competitor. The requirements were outlined as follows: we were to provide
transportation from the airport~ and~ at least three times to and from REDCAT
Theater at Disney Hall, and I would need to prepare simple meals. No problem. I
know how to get to the airport and Disney Hall, and simple meals are ALL I
prepare.
~~~~~~~ Our
guests proved to be a joy from the moment we retrieved them from the chaos at
the airport. Wen Yu was born in Chongqing, China, but for the last eight years
he and his mother have been living in Hannover, Germany, where he has been
studying under Professor Karl-Heinz Kaemmerling. Both Wen Yu and Ping are
nearly fluent in German, and over the next three weeks they made great progress
with their English. They had to. Our Chinese didn’t improve at all.
~~~~~~~~ Wen
Yu’s arrival coincided with the arrival of a baby grand piano, courtesy of
Kawai Pianos. His four hours of daily practice began almost immediately.
~~~~~~~~ Our
first journey to REDCAT was for Wen Yu to practice on the actual competition
piano and to familiarize himself with the acoustics. The next visit was for the
host family orientation and the opening ceremonies, which included the
contestants’ drawing of numbers to determine the order in which they would perform
for the first and subsequent (if they were not eliminated) rounds. Wen Yu was
pleased that he drew number 25 and would not be one of the first to compete; I
would have preferred to get it over with. His performance was scheduled for the
third of four days of competition. We had been listening to his beautiful piano
artistry for several days by now, and felt if all the contestants were as good
as he was, the judges would have a difficult time choosing a winner. For his
first round, each contestant presented a 45-minute performance. Pity the poor
judges having to sit through thirty~ 45-minute performances in four days.
~~~~~~~~~~~ From
the first round, 18 were eliminated. It was a tension-filled evening at home as
we awaited the e-mail announcing the contestants who would continue into the
second round. Al took Wen Yu and Ping to the nearest video store, where he
rented Chinese and Chinese-subtitled movies to keep Wen Yu’s mind off the
impending news. I sat by the computer (reading a murder mystery) and checked
the e-mail every few minutes. By 11:45 pm, there was still no word. We surmised
that the fatigued judges had decided to call it a day, but just as I was
turning off the computer, the announcement came: ~ Wen Yu and 11 others were
now scheduled for round two.
~~~~~~~~~ This
time Wen Yu’s one-hour performance of works by Rachmaninoff, Liszt, and
Stravinsky was on the third and last day. We thought he played superbly, and
apparently the judges concurred because he was one of~ the four chosen as
finalists.
~~~~~~~~~ The
following morning found us at Walt Disney Concert Hall for a rehearsal with the
orchestra. The next evening Wen Yu performed Rachmaninoff’s Concerto No. 3 in D
minor in the final round. There was much excitement in the lobby after the
concert as we awaited the decision of the judges. About an hour later the
announcements were made by Anli Lin Tong, a member of the Beach Cities Symphony
Association board and a tireless worker for the competition. Our guest had
captured the first prize!
~~~~~~~~~ Wen Yu
and Ping are now back in Hannover, gone but certainly not forgotten. They
called to wish Al a happy birthday and to say how much they enjoyed their stay
and how much they appreciated all the time we had spent with them. It was
mutual. We met many people that we hope will remain in our lives. Also we
sampled many Chinese dishes that we would never have ordered on our own. While
we may never again eat them, the experience was worth seeing the amused and
appreciative glances of our Chinese hosts.
~~~~~~~~ The
Rachmaninoff Competition will be held again in three years. Would I volunteer
to host another contestant? Ask me in three years. Like the pains of
childbirth, one forgets the agony and remembers the joy. ~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~
~(Pat Chavez is
Second Vice Chairman of the Beach Cities Symphony Board of Directors and former
owner of Manhattan Repro.)
Photo caption:
Wen Yu Shen (foreground) with his mother, Ping (far right), and hosts Al and
Pat Chavez. (Photo by Margaret McWilliams)
Chinese pianist
Wen Yu Shen takes a bow onstage after his winning performance at the second
tri-annual Rachmaninoff Piano Competition held at Disney Hall in June.
Sebastien
Koch
Praised by Marc Swed of the Los Angeles Times as a “Fine pianist with great
immediacy,” and winner of the prestigious 2005 Lili Boulanger award, Sebastien
Koch has been hailed as one of the most promising pianists of his generation.
Since his debut with Tchaikowsky's First Piano Concerto at Berlin Philharmonic
Hall, Mr. Koch has given recitals at some of the world's most famous concert
halls, including the Concertgebouw and Beurs Van Berlage in Amsterdam, the Beethoven
Saal in Germany, the Arsenal and the Salle Cortot in France, the Seoul Recital
Hall in Korea, and the Crystal Cathedral in Los Angeles.
As a soloist, Mr. Koch has appeared with the Orchestre National de Lorraine in France,
the Orchestre du Luxembourg, the Zwickau Philharmonic, and the Berlin Symphony
Orchestra. He has performed several
times at the Schleswig Holstein Music Festival, the Sarasota Music Festival,
the Holland Music Festival, and many others. Locally he has performed with the
Peninsula and Marina del Rey Symphonies, and in March of 2005, he soloed with
the Beach Cities Symphony in Saint Saëns’ Piano Concerto No. 5. He was invited
to perform on the USC Master Artists Series and has appeared frequently on the
radio series “Sundays Live at the LACMA” as a performer as well as a composer.
In recent seasons, Mr. Koch has concertized in over thirty cities throughout
the United States, giving highly praised performances in the Community Concerts
Series. He has been featured on many nationally televised broadcasts including
France 3, RTL Television, and the BBC. He has recorded for Radio France, Sender
Freies Berlin, Radio Klassik Amsterdam, Suedwestfunk, and both KUSC and KMZT in
Los Angeles. An outstanding chamber musician, Mr. Koch has collaborated in
diverse chamber music formations with world-renowned artists. His recordings of
chamber music works by Saint-Saëns, Grieg, and Janacek are available on
Amazon.com.
Mr. Koch was a pupil of Mireille Krier and Jean Micault at the Ecole Normale de
Musique de Paris;Vitaly Margulis, Michel Beroff, and Vitaly Berzon at the
Freiburg Musikhochschule; and Klaus Hellwig at the Berlin Academy of Arts. He
was the only recipient of the prestigious French Lavoisier Scholarship in piano
performance in 1997. Mr. Koch holds three Premiers Prix and a Premier Prix
Superieur Interregional from the Conservatoire National de Region de Metz, a
Licence de Concert a l’unanimité avec felicitations du jury from the Ecole
Normale de Musique de Paris Alfred Cortot, and a Master’s and a Music
Teacher/Pedagogy degree from the Freiburg Musikhochschule in Germany. Mr. Koch
received a full scholarship at the USC Thornton School of Music, where he
completed his Artist Diploma with John Perry.
Photo
caption: 
Internationally
renowned pianist Sebastien Koch, who appeared with the Beach Cities Symphony in
March, returns on October 21, 2005, for a performance of Beethoven’s Piano
Concerto No. 5, the “Emperor.” It was
written in 1809, when Vienna was under siege by Napoleon’s armies, and reflects
an energetic, military character. (The subtitle was not the composer’s and was
added later.)
“I chose this
concerto because it is one of Beethoven’s greatest masterpieces,” Mr. Koch
says. “I thought its noble and heroic form of expression would resonate well
given the acoustics and size of Marsee Auditorium.” Mr. Koch’s impressive
accomplishments as a performer and composer are detailed above.
PROGRAM NOTES: October 21,
2005
Suite algérienne, Op. 60 by Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921)
In 1878 Saint-Saëns’ two-year-old son fell out of a fourth-floor window and was instantly killed. Overcome with grief, the composer’s wife, Marie, was unable to feed their six-month-old baby boy. The infant was sent to Marie’s mother for care but failed to thrive; he died only six weeks after his brother. Saint-Saëns considered Marie’s carelessness to be the cause of the tragedies. While on vacation in 1881, he wrote advising her that he was simply no longer able to live with her. They never divorced but lived for the rest of their lives apart, and he never saw or communicated with her again.
It was during this traumatic period that Saint-Saëns wrote Suite algérienne in Boulogne-sur-Mer, in northern France. The suite shows no sign of his emotional strife but rather his love for postcards and their images of exotic places. The suite, in four movements, begins with the Prélude in 9:8 meter, which musically captures the rocking of the ship as it approaches Algiers. Noises of the dock become more intense, and finally trumpets announce the French military presence. The Rhapsodie Mauresque, in three parts, is based on Arab melodies; the meters vacillate between 2:4 and 3:4. The Rêverie du Soir (Evening Dream) is a nocturne inspired by sunset at the majestic fortress at Blidah. Finally, Marche Militaire Français reflects the patriotism of the French occupiers and has no Arab influence whatsoever (it is frequently performed as a separate concert work).
Inspiration from Moorish melodies heard while spending many winters in sunny Algeria are also found in Saint-Saëns’ other works; Africa fantasy for piano and orchestra, and the Fifth Piano Concerto (performed in last year’s season by tonight’s soloist, Sebastien Koch), to name a few. Saint-Saëns died in Algeria in the winter of 1921.
--Bill Malcolm
Concert Suite by Burton Goldstein
Arnold Schoenberg, respected and vilified for his ‘atonal’ music, is widely quoted as having written, “There’s plenty of good music still to be written in the key of C. “ Until now, I have disregarded the common practice, major-minor tonal system. Living composers who neglect to compose their own harmonic language seem to me to be neglecting to invent their own style.
The Concert Suite is my return to common practice harmony – to do something old was, for me, to do something new. Limiting tonal invention perhaps freed me to work on rhythmic structure. For example, the second movement is written in six beats to the bar (6/8). Although the violins and violas play in six, the celli are playing in five-beat patterns (5/8).
The 6/8 part itself is not without complexity since only the violas accent beats 1 and 4, the typical accents in 6/8.The first violins accent beats 2 and 5, and the second violins accent the beats 2, 4, 6 in one bar and then beats 1, 3, 5.in the next. Later, the tuba and bass trombone play a low line consisting of short notes in 7/8.
I did not write this rhythmic complexity because numbers fascinate me (although they do) but for the hypnotic effect that they produce in this context, an effect lacking when using a less elaborately composed rhythmic pattern.
--Burton Goldstein
Piano Concerto No. 5 in E Flat Major, Op. 73: “Emperor” by Ludwig van Beethoven
(1770-1827)
Between 1795 and 1809, Beethoven wrote five piano concertos. The last is known in English-speaking countries as the “Emperor,” although the composer himself did not give it that title. Beethoven began work on this concerto in Vienna in May of 1809, while Napoleon’s army was besieging the city, and dedicated it to his exiled friend and benefactor Archduke Rudolph. The first performance was in Leipzig the following year with Friedrich Schneider as soloist; the Vienna premiere in 1812 featured the renowned virtuoso Carl Czerny. Although Beethoven wrote his other piano concertos for himself as soloist, he was by this time too deaf to perform with an orchestra.
Herbert Glass has said that the “Emperor” is “a truly symphonic concerto.” The first movement, which is longer than the second and third movements combined, begins with three riveting orchestral chords interrupted by a series of solo arpeggios. Written in the key of E-flat major, this music has been described as “heroic” and “military” because of its energetic, triumphal rhythms. The second movement, in the key of B major, provides an interlude of tranquil dialogue between woodwinds, strings, and piano before launching into the pulsating Rondo Allegro that concludes the work.
A central figure of the Romantic Age, Beethoven became the exemplar of music written not just as entertainment but also as an elevating force, a way of reconciling us to one another and to a spirit greater and higher than ourselves. His fifth and last concerto shows him at the apex of his powers.
--Toni Empringham
BURTON GOLDSTEIN
COMPOSER, CONCERT SUITE
Dr. Goldstein received his Ph.D. from UCLA, where he studied composition with
Henri Lazarof. He has taught composition, electronic music and music theory,
and harpsichord at UC Santa Barbara, UCLA, El Camino College, Scripps College
Claremont, and the California State University Campuses at Long Beach,
Fullerton and Los Angeles.
Dr. Goldstein served as president of the Independent Composers Association, a
non-profit corporation. He has been published in Perspectives of New Music,
Electronic Musician, the L.A. Reader, and Keyboard Magazine.
He wrote the mini-tutorial on orchestration for Steinberg’s Halion String
Edition and he has been the technical editor for several Prentice Hall computer
books. His awards have included the Brandenburg Chamber Music Prize in
Composition, the Aaron Copland Award, the Lee Ettelson Award from Composers
Inc., a commission sponsored by the S. Mark Taper Foundation, and American
Music Center Grants. He has also earned Fellowships at the Ernest Bloch
Festival in Oregon under Chinary Ung, at the Aspen Institute for Advanced
Compositional Studies under Druckman and Rands, and at the Schoenberg Institute
under Leonard Stein, sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
WELCOME
TO OUR NEW BEACH CITIES ASSOCIATION MEMBERS:
Edith
Garvey Charlie Jackson Sylvia Lee
Ethel & John
Sellars Eugene Turner Gordon Wireman
Thank you for
supporting our organization!
PRIZE
WINNERS
Tom Shoebotham
and Toni Steele won CDs in our members’ drawing at the May 13 concert, while
Barry Forman won the floral display. Harriet Miseyko of Asheville, North
Carolina, won the special raffle prize: a one-day family pass to Disneyland.
Mrs. Miseyko is the mother of Beach Cities Symphony violinist Dawn Shepard.
BEACH CITIES
SYMPHONY 2005-2006 CONCERT SEASON
October 21, 2005
Burton Goldstein: Concert Suite, world première
Camille Saint-Saëns: Suite Algérienne
Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 5 in E
flat Major, op. 73. Sebastien Koch, soloist
January 27, 2006
Virgil Thomson: Suite from “The Plow That Broke the
Plains”
Aaron Copland: Clarinet Concerto. Bradley Cohen,
soloist
Howard Hanson: Symphony No. 2, “Romantic”
March 24, 2006
Carl Maria von Weber: Euryanthe Overture
Jean Sibelius: Violin Concerto in D, op. 47. Elmer Su,
soloist
Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 7 in A, op.
92
May 12, 2006
Gioachino Rossini: Barber of Seville Overture
MTAC Artists of the Future soloists: to be announced
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov: Capriccio espagnol, op. 34
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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Updated with Program Notes on October 9, 2005.