BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Seiji Ozawa, Music Director Grant Llewellyn and Robert Spano, Assistant Conductors One Hundred and Tenth Season, 1990-91 ^"" G~'^-' <> SUPPER CONCERT VIII Thursday, March 28, at 6 Friday, March 29, at noon JENNIE SHAMES, violin TODD SEEBER, bass AZA RAYKHTSAUM, violin JULIE VAVERKA, clarinet ROBERT BARNES, viola ROLAND SMALL, bassoon RONALD FELDMAN, cello JONATHAN MENKIS, horn SCHUBERT Octet in F for winds and strings, D.803 Adagio—Allegro Adagio Allegro vivace; Trio Andante Menuetto: Allegretto; Trio Andante molto Allegro Baldwin piano Please exit to your left for supper following the concert. The performers appreciate your not smoking during the concert. Week 21 Franz Schubert Octet in F for clarinet, bassoon, horn, two violins, viola, cello, and double bass, D.803 Schubert composed his Octet for winds and strings in February 1824 on a commission from Ferdinand, Count Troyer, who was a clarinetist in the musical establishment of Beethoven's friend and pupil Archduke Rudolph. Troyer evidently requested that Schubert model the work on Beethoven's famous Septet, which at that time was still, in all likelihood, the most popular of Beethoven's instrumental works, far outdistancing the symphonies and concertos. Schubert followed instructions, mimicking the older master's work so closely in scoring, layout of movements, and musical character that it must have been obvious to everyone who heard the piece. And they would have enjoyed it all the more for that very reason. Schubert began with the same instrumental ensemble as Beethoven, augmented only by the addition of a second violin. He planned his Octet in six movements, fashioned like the old classical divertimento, just as Beethoven had done. He wrote an Adagio (a tempo marking he rarely used) following Beethoven, and an Andante theme-and-variation set. He imitates Beethoven, too, in preparing the finale with a slow introduction in the minor mode. And the harmonic relationship between successive movements in the two works is absolutely identical. Yet no work shows more clearly the truth of the notion that the originality of a genius becomes most apparent precisely when he is copying someone else, especially a great older master. Though the spirit of the classical divertimento remains, Schubert's music is nonetheless absolutely his own in color, harmony, and melodic character. The characteristic classical gestures of the martial and the pastoral, which were still very much alive when Beethoven wrote his Septet, are here subsumed into a new spirit. The Andante theme that serves as the basis of the variation set is from a love duet, "Gelagert unter'm hellen Dach der Baume," in his Singspiel Die Freunde von Salamanka. Despite the obvious "symphonic" possibilities of the large chamber ensemble, the Octet remains utterly and deliciously a work of chamber music throughout. -Steven Ledbetter A multi-faceted musician, violinist Jennie Shames was invited to join the Boston Symphony the season after her cum laude graduation from Harvard University in 1979. As a member of the orchestra, she has performed frequently on the BSO's Supper Concert series and in Prelude Concerts at Tanglewood. She has appeared as soloist with the Boston Pops Orchestra under John Williams and Ronald Feldman and has also played concertos with the New England Philharmonic and other orchestras in the New England area. In May 1987 Ms. Shames was invited by Sergiu Comissiona to be concertmaster of the Houston Symphony for two weeks, during which time the orchestra recorded Dvorak's Carnival Overture and Slavonic Dances. More recently, she served as acting concertmaster of the St. Louis Symphony under Leonard Slatkin. Also in demand as a recitalist and chamber musician, Ms. Shames is a member of the Diaz-Shames-Diaz String Trio with former BSO violist Roberto Diaz and cellist Andres Diaz. Ms. Shames is on the faculty of the Boston Conservatory of Music. BSO violinist Aza Raykhtsaum was born in Leningrad and began studying the piano when she was five, taking up the violin a year later at the suggestion of her teacher. Ms. Raykhtsaum majored in violin at the Leningrad Conservatory, where she studied with the renowned Ryabinkov; she became concertmaster of the Leningrad Conservatory Orchestra and a first violinist in the Leningrad Philharmonic. In 1980 she emigrated to the United States, after which she joined the Houston Symphony as a first violinist and then became a member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1982. She has appeared as soloist in the Glazunov Violin Concerto with the Boston Pops Orchestra under the direction of John Williams. Ms. Raykhtsaum teaches privately and performs chamber music frequently in the Boston area with her husband, BSO principal cellist Jules Eskin. Violist Robert Barnes was born in Lexington, Kentucky, and grew up in Detroit, Michigan. He began studying violin when he was five and gained extensive chamber music experience from his earliest years, both with his musician-parents and as a student of Michael Bistritzky. As a young man he attended the summer program at Interlochen and the Congress of Strings in Puerto Rico. In 1961, while a freshman at Wayne State University, Mr. Barnes joined the Detroit Symphony Orchestra as a violinist. In 1966, after performing chamber music as a violist, he decided to take up the viola permanently; he played his last year in the Detroit Symphony as a member of the viola section. Mr. Barnes joined the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1967. He has continued to be active in chamber music in various ensembles; in 1984 he joined BSO colleagues Sheila Fiekowsky, violin, and Ronald Feldman, cello, in forming the Copley String Trio. Besides maintaining a class of private students, Mr. Barnes has coached viola students and chamber groups at Lowell State College, Brown University, Wellesley College, and the Boston University Tanglewood Institute. Since joining the Boston Symphony Orchestra's cello section in 1967 at the age of nineteen, Ronald Feldman has received critical acclaim for a wide variety of musical achievements. Increasingly in demand as a conductor, Mr. Feldman was appointed Assistant Conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra in 1989. He is currently conductor of the Boston new music ensemble Extension Works. Formerly music director and conductor of the Worcester Symphony Orchestra, he was also music director and conductor of the New England Philharmonic for five seasons. In 1988 he and the New England Philharmonic were awarded the American Symphony Orchestra League's ASCAP Award for Adventuresome Programming of Contemporary Music. Beginning with the 1989-90 season, Mr. Feldman became conductor of the Berkshire Symphony. Born in Brooklyn and a graduate of Boston University, Mr. Feldman has taught at Brown University and Brandeis University. His own cello teachers included Claus Adam, Harvey Shapiro, Joseph Emonts, Leslie Parnas, and John Sant'Ambrogio. He currently teaches at the Tanglewood Music Center and at the Boston Conservatory, where he is conductor of the orchestra and chairman of the string department. Todd Seeber joined the BSO's double bass section in May 1988; from January 1986 until he joined the Boston Symphony he was principal bass of the Buffalo Philharmonic, which he joined when he was twenty and with which he appeared frequently as a soloist. Born in Spokane, Washington, Mr. Seeber grew up in Canada, Hawaii, and Australia. He began playing the double bass when he was eleven and attended high school in Portland, Oregon, where he studied with Herman Jobelmann. Mr. Seeber won first prize in the American String Teachers National Solo Competition in 1983 and was a 1984 winner of the Boston University Concerto-Aria Competition; in May 1985 he graduated from Boston University, where he studied with Henry Portnoi. Mr. Seeber was a fellowship student at the Tanglewood Music Center in 1983 and 1984. Before joining the Buffalo Philharmonic, he was assistant principal bass of the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra and of the Handel and Haydn Society Orchestra. A former member of the Oklahoma City Symphony, Julie Vaverka is currently principal clarinet of the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra of Boston and a member of the Springfield and New Hampshire symphony orchestras. She is also a member of the newly formed Boston Wind Octet. A former student of Harold Wright, Ms. Vaverka is a faculty member at Wellesley College and at the New England Conservatory of Music. Bassoonist Roland Small grew up in Dayton, Ohio, began his musical training when he was nine, and continued his studies at Indiana University; he also studied privately, with Leo Reines, Roy Houser, Ralph Lorr, and Sol Schoenbach. After holding positions with the Dallas Symphony, the National Symphony, the Portland (Oregon) Symphony, and the Yomiuri Orchestra of Tokyo, he began an eight-year tenure with the Vancouver Symphony in 1967, then joined the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1975. A student at the Tanglewood Music Center in 1952, Mr. Small participated at the summer festivals in Marlboro, Vermont, under Rudolf Serkin's direction, from 1956 to 1962. Originally from West Orange, New Jersey, and now living in Brookline, Jonathan Menkis received his bachelor's degree from Ithaca College in 1981, then joined the Sacramento Symphony Orchestra as its associate principal horn. He became assistant principal horn with the New Orleans Philharmonic the following season and was appointed to the Boston Symphony Orchestra's horn section in 1984. Mr. Menkis has been a member of the Colorado Philharmonic Orchestra, the Colorado Music Festival Orchestra, and the American Wind Symphony Orchestra. He is on the faculty of the New England Conservatory of Music and the Boston Conserva- tory. Mr. Menkis is an occasional soloist in the Boston area and performs chamber music frequently..