Francesco Milioto, Music Director and Conductor Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op. 26 (1866) ..............................................................Max Bruch I Vorspiel: Allegro moderato (1838 – 1920) II Adagio III Finale: Allegro energico Alexandra Switala, Violin First Place Winner of the 31 st Young Artist Competition Overture to Oberon (1826) ...................................................................Carl Maria von Weber (1786 – 1826) INTERMISSION
1 Skokie Valley Symphony Orchestra Francesco Milioto, Music Director and Conductor SKOKIE VALLEY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Sunday, October 16, 2011 3:00 PM North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie Valse Triste (1906) ..................................................................................................... Jean Sibelius In memory of SVSO members Eric Chapman and Noreen Giles (1865 – 1957) Overture to Oberon (1826) ................................................................... Carl Maria von Weber (1786 – 1826) Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op. 26 (1866) ..............................................................Max Bruch I Vorspiel: Allegro moderato (1838 – 1920) II Adagio III Finale: Allegro energico Alexandra Switala, Violin First Place Winner of the 31 st Young Artist Competition INTERMISSION Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Op. 64 (1888) ................................. Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky I Andante (1840 – 1893) II Andante cantabile III Valse: Allegro moderato IV Finale: Andante maestoso Skokie Valley Symphony Orchestra gratefully acknowledges the Village of Skokie, Niles Township, the Illinois Arts Council (a state agency), the Bruning Foundation, and the Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice Foundation.
Transcript
1Skokie Valley Symphony Orchestra
Francesco Milioto, Music Director and Conductor
SKOKIE VALLEY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Sunday, October 16, 2011 3:00 PM
North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie
Valse Triste (1906) .....................................................................................................Jean Sibelius In memory of SVSO members Eric Chapman and Noreen Giles (1865 – 1957)
Overture to Oberon (1826) ...................................................................Carl Maria von Weber (1786 – 1826)
Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op. 26 (1866) ..............................................................Max Bruch I Vorspiel: Allegro moderato (1838 – 1920) II Adagio III Finale: Allegro energico
Alexandra Switala, ViolinFirst Place Winner of the 31st Young Artist Competition
INTERMISSION
Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Op. 64 (1888) ................................. Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky I Andante (1840 – 1893) II Andante cantabile III Valse: Allegro moderato IV Finale: Andante maestoso
Skokie Valley Symphony Orchestra gratefully acknowledges the Village of Skokie, Niles Township, the Illinois Arts Council (a state agency), the Bruning Foundation,
and the Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice Foundation.
2 Skokie Valley Symphony Orchestra
CARL M ARIA VON WEBER (1786 - 1826)
Carl Maria von Weber was a multi-talented musician with a number of diverse compositions to his credit, yet he devoted much of his professional career to the composition and production of operas. As a result, he became the leading figure in the development of German opera after Mozart, helping to establish the Romantic style and paving the way for the groundbreaking works of Richard Wagner. His greatest success came in 1821 with the completion and premier of Der Freischutz (The Sharpshooter), a work steeped in German folklore that was calculated to appeal to German audiences grown tired of the Italian works that then dominated the stage. In 1825 Weber was invited to compose a work for London’s prestigious Covent Garden. Against his doctor’s advice (he was already suffering from tuberculosis), Weber took the commission and traveled to London to complete the music and oversee the production. Given a choice between Faust and Oberon for the subject of the new work, Weber chose the latter, crafting a three-act “fairy opera” in English with the title Oberon or the Elf King’s Oath. The libretto was prepared by English playwright James Place after the German poem Oberon, which itself was based on a French medieval epic. The story is complex, involving Oberon, king of the elves, his loyal assistant Puck, dozens of fairies, a magic horn, exotic locales (Baghdad and Tunis), sex, intrigue, and magical machinations.
In brief, Oberon has quarreled with his Queen, Titania, and vowed not to be reconciled with her until a pair of lovers can
be found who have been faithful to each other through all life’s trials and tribulations. After much searching, it is decided that Sir Huon, a knight of the Emperor Charlemagne, and the Persian princess Reiza will be this couple. With the assistance of Puck, Sir Huon is sent out to win the princess. The misadventures that follow are the basis for the colorful, if convoluted, plot that was characterized by eminent scholar Sir Donald Francis Tovey as, “not even a bad drama…but the merest twaddle for regulating the operations of scene-shifters.” Weber himself was unhappy with the story and not at all satisfied with his own music, vowing to make revisions upon his return to Germany. Sadly, he was not to complete the task. He died in London only weeks after Oberon’s first performance.
The Overture opens the opera, not with a mere potpourri of themes, but with a carefully crafted sonata-form structure that shows Weber to be a consummate musical architect and a deft orchestrator. After a slow, atmospheric introduction resembling the opening bars of Mendelssohn’s Overture to a Midsummer’s Nights Dream, a robust main theme is introduced for the first time. A second, lyrical theme is added and both combine for an exciting development section. The recapitulation of the main theme is given added excitement by the addition of a rollicking coda which brings the work to an impressive close. The same Tovey who dismissed the libretto as “twaddle” hailed the Overture as “a gorgeous masterpiece of operatic orchestration.”
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4 Skokie Valley Symphony Orchestra
M A X BRUCH (1838 - 1920 )
Max Bruch was a master of melodic charm and fine craftsmanship. He wrote many concertos (for violin, cello, and even one for two pianos) as well as three symphonies and some excellent choral works.
Like Mendelssohn, Bruch links the first two movements of this concerto. The first movement has a free form which made Bruch want to call it a fantasy rather than a concerto. The violinist Joachim persuaded Bruch to call it a concerto because of its contrasts and because the last two movements were symmetrically developed.
After the timpanist plays a couple of bars, the dialogue between orchestra and soloist begins. A short orchestral phrase is answered by the soloist with an emotionally strong lyrical passage. As the lower strings, playing pizzicato, then give us a characteristic rhythm, the solo violin sings the grand first theme. After the entire orchestra has restated the initial rhythm of the pizzicato strings, the expressive second
theme is played. The movement feels like endless melody with the discursive weaving of the two basic themes and the emotive beautiful violin passages. There is a final orchestral outburst of the opening idea and then a dwindling to a soft ending which leads and merges into the second movement.
The second movement, a beautiful Adagio, has three main themes and is in a more conventional form. The third theme is introduced by the lower strings as the solo violin plays exquisite contrapuntal passages against it.
The energetic finale presents a brilliant theme contrasting with subsidiary themes in rondo-like fashion. There is mounting excitement until the final flourish. This is justifiably one of the most popular and lush of the romantic violin concertos.
By Robert Komaiko (reprinted from our 3/25/84 program)
Violin Concerto in G Minor, Op. 26
PETER I I Y ICH TCHAIKOVSK Y (1840 - 1893)
Like Weber, Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s central pursuit was the composition of opera. Yet, however important these ten works may have been to him and to audiences of his native Russia, he is best known elsewhere by his orchestral music, particularly the concertos for violin and piano, the ballet music, and the six symphonies. The symphonies were composed at intervals throughout his career, from 1866 to 1893, the year of his death. In these works he struggled ceaselessly with the opposed demands of formal traditions, structures and techniques he had learned during his rigorous, German-influenced conservatory training and his own predilection for an emotional and expressive progression of brief ideas, often corresponding to an unspoken program or carrying hidden meaning. It is this latter tendency that brought Tchaikovsky success in the world of ballet, where his tendency towards a rapid succession of unrelated, contrasting musical events provided brilliant accompaniment to the ever-shifting stage action that typically unspooled as a series of dramatic tableaux rather than a cohesive narrative. By contrast,
these traits were not necessarily desirable in symphonic composition, where logical architecture and strict formalization were stressed.
Tchaikovsky’s Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth symphonies – though composed separately and years apart – form something of a cycle, in which three differing aspects of the composer’s dark and mysterious personality are revealed. Tchaikovsky was a man of morbid sensitivity, with leanings toward melancholy and a habit of introspection that contributed heavily to his gloomy and often pessimistic outlook on life.
The Fifth Symphony was written in the summer of 1888, more than ten years after the Fourth. As was his habit, Tchaikovsky made only cursory notes about the meaning of the piece, but the one clear thing is that he associated the work, particularly the opening slow introduction, with “complete resignation before fate.” The Fifth Symphony may, therefore, be interpreted as addressing a conflict between freedom and predestination.
Symphony No. 5
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6 Skokie Valley Symphony Orchestra
TCHAIKOVSK Y (c o n t.)
(Several scholars have suggested that for Tchaikovsky, this meant the conflict between will and natural inclination, particularly the homosexual inclination that brought him so much anguish.)
The theme associated with fate is heard immediately in the slow introduction to the first movement, played initially by the clarinets. This theme becomes a motto or motif, present throughout the symphony in all four movements. This motto technique was not new and was, in fact, a fairly common means of providing unity within an extended composition. However, Tchaikovsky’s use of this repeating theme is exceedingly dramatic. It is more than a technical device of cohesion and structure, becoming instead a personal statement that has an almost narrative quality.
The second movement is an emotional andante, beginning with a richly somber introduction based upon the harmonic outlines of the fate motive. From this comes a poignant, melancholy melody of yearning and languishing, yet one tinged with courage and hope in the midst of sadness. The feeling of utter longing is expressed
eloquently, without complete surrender to despair, while the noble intimation of hope renders the sadness even stronger. Throughout the movement, the fate theme continues to interrupt, providing drama and contrast.
The emotional intensity of the second movement is relaxed in the third, with the introduction of a lilting waltz, perhaps evocative of the carefree state of mind Tchaikovsky longed to attain. Nonetheless, this reprieve is short-lived, as the final movement brings about a return to the motto motive of the first two movements. However, the character has now changed. The once menacing theme has taken on a brighter tone, partially affected by the transposition from the minor to the major mode. What once suggested despair and desolation at the hands of fate now proclaims a triumphant joy. Has Tchaikovsky, like Beethoven, found power in the human soul to prevail over the trials of life? Has he found light in the darkness? As he so often did, Tchaikovsky once again holds out hope, but does he grasp it?
By Michael Vaughn, PhD
FR ANCESCO MIL IOTO, MUSIC D IRECTOR AND CONDUCTOR
The Chicago Tribune names Francesco Milioto “one of the best young conductors working in the Chicago area.” Since his debut in the Chicago area just over a decade ago, he now balances a busy career conducting a wide range of orchestral and operatic repertoire while maintaining a full schedule as a pianist and vocal coach. He currently holds the positions of Music Director of the Skokie Valley Symphony Orchestra as well as the Chicago Cultural Center Summer Opera, Co-founder/Conductor of the New Millennium Orchestra, Principal Conductor of the Highland Park Strings, and Artistic Director/Conductor of Access Contemporary Music. Mr. Milioto is an assistant conductor/rehearsal pianist/prompter for the Ravinia Festival where he works closely with Maestro James Conlon. This season Mr. Milioto will return to the Los Angeles Opera
as first assistant conductor following a successful debut last season. During both the 2009 and 2010 Chicago Opera Theater
seasons he served as an assistant conductor/rehearsal pianist, and also chorus master. Mr. Milioto makes regular appearances as a guest conductor with Opera Elgin and Opera on the James in Lynchburg, VA.Now in his fifth season as Music Director of the Skokie Valley Symphony Orchestra, Mr. Milioto will lead programs celebrating the organizations 50th Anniversary. This season will feature repertoire played by the SVSO in its first year of existence. Our
next two programs will feature Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto, Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 4 “Italian”, and an entire program of Spanish-flavored repertoire with soprano Michelle Areyzaga. The 50th Anniversary season will end with two
7Skokie Valley Symphony Orchestra
The Skokie Valley Symphony Orchestra looks forward to celebrating its 50th Anniversary Season (2011-2012) with Maestro Milioto.
MIL IOTO (c o n t.)
concerts, one featuring Mahler’s Fourth Symphony, with soprano Stacey Tappan, and a final Symphonic Jazz program featuring legendary Chicago blues man Corky Siegel on harmonica and piano playing “Symphonic Blues,” a piece commissioned by the San Francisco Symphony. Mr. Milioto
has enjoyed an enthusiastic response to his unique musicianship and wide range of repertoire. In addition to building on the history of high quality performances, the past seasons have seen a successful return to concert opera, and the creation of free concerts for local school children.
ALEX ANDR A SWITAL AI , V IOLIN SOLOIST
Alexandra Switalai is the First Prize Winner of the 2011 SVSO Young Artist Competition. She began her violin studies at age four with Jan Mark Sloman in Texas and is currently an Academy Fellowship recipient at the Music Institute of Chicago’s Academy program for gifted pre-college musicians where she studies privately with Roland and Almita Vamos. She has also studied with Catherine Cho at the Juilliard School.
Alexandra has also won first prize in Detroit’s Sphinx Competition and third prize in the Blount-Slawson Competition in Montgomery, Alabama. She is the recipient of both the Bayard H. Friedman award for Outstanding Student in the Performing Arts in Fort Worth and the Texas Commission on the Arts Young Master Award. Alexandra has been featured on the nationally syndicated PBS television show “From the Top at Carnegie Hall”, as well as on NPR radio shows such as “From the Top” and “Performance Today.”
As a soloist, Alexandra has performed with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra and Ars Viva Symphony Orchestra. She was also a chamber musician at the Embassy of the United States of America in Canada. Her 2012 performances will include the Florida Orchestra, Northbrook Symphony, New World Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic, and Ann Arbor Symphony. Alexandra has been both a chamber musician and a soloist at the Perlman Music Program in Shelter Island, NY, the ENCORE School for Strings, the Aspen Music Festival, and the National Arts Centre Young Artists’ Program in Ottawa, Canada. At these
festivals, she has worked in-depth with David Cerone, Masao Kawasaki, Patinka
Kopec, Itzhak Perlman, and Pinchas Zuckerman. She has participated in master
classes led by Ida and Ani Kavafian, Midori, Pamela
Frank, and Joel Smirnoff.
In her free time, Alexandra enjoys reading, exploring
modern art museums, instant photography, and opera.
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