Irreverent Reverence Saturday, February 6, 2016 • 7:30 PM First Free Methodist Church
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Irreverent Reverence Saturday, February 6, 2016 • 7:30 PM First Free Methodist Church Orchestra Seattle Seattle Chamber Singers Clinton Smith, conductor JOHANNES BRAHMS (1833 – 1897) Academic Festival Overture, Op. 80 Allegro — L’istesso tempo, un poco maestoso — Animato — Maestoso JEAN SIBELIUS (1865 – 1957) Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 47 I. Allegro moderato — Largamente — Allegro molto — Moderato assai — Allegro moderato — Allegro molto vivace Adrian Steele, violin — intermission — GABRIEL FAURE´ (1845 – 1924) Requiem in D minor, Op. 48 Introitus et Kyrie Offertorium Sanctus Pie Jesu Agnus Dei Libera me In paradisum Karina Brazas, soprano Ryan Bede, baritone Please silence cell phones and other electronics, and refrain from the use of cameras and recording devices during the performance. Special thanks to First Free Methodist Church for all of their assistance in making OSSCS’s 46th season possible, and for providing refreshments during intermission. Donations left at the refreshments tables help support FFMC and its programs. Orchestra Seattle • Seattle Chamber Singers Clinton Smith, music director • George Shangrow, founder PO Box 15825, Seattle WA 98115 • 206-682-5208 • www.osscs.org Violin Bassoon Pamela Ivezicˇ Bass Lauren Daugherty+ Jeff Eldridge Jan Kinney Timothy Braun Dean Drescher Judith Lawrence* Lorelette Knowles Greg Canova Karen Frankenfeld+ Theodora Letz Andrew Danilchik Alexander Hawker Contrabassoon Lila Woodruff May Douglas Durasoff Stephen Hegg Michel Jolivet Laurie Medill x Daniel Hericks Jason Hershey Cathrine Morrison Stephen Keeler Horn Manchung Ho+ Annie Thompson Dennis Moore Barney Blough Maria Hunt Brittany Walker Steven Tachell Laurie Heidt* Fritz Klein** Skip Viau Jim Hendrickson Pam Kummert Tenor Richard Wyckoff x Sue Perry Mark Lutz Ron Carson Davis Reed Trumpet Alex Chun Theo Schaad Rabi Lahiri Ralph Cobb x Lily Shababi Oscar Thorp Jon Lange Janet Showalter* Janet Young* German Mendoza Jr. ** concertmaster Kenna Smith-Shangrow Tom Nesbitt ** principal June Spector Trombone Victor Royer *+ Faur´eviola Cuauhtemoc Escobedo* David Zapolsky *x section leader Viola Chad Kirby Lauren Lamont Jim Hattori Chyna Mapel Katherine McWilliams* Tuba Emily O’Leary David Brewer OSSCS presents: Stephanie Read Chamber Music at Unique Venues Robert Shangrow Percussion Chamber Music II Karoline Vass Ginny Bear Kathie Flood Sunday, February 28, 2016 • 6:00 – 8:00 p.m. Cello Dan Oie* Woodhouse Wine Estates in Woodinville Peter Ellis Amy Vandergon Max Lieblich Schumann String Quartet in F, Op. 41, No. 2 Patricia Lyon Harp Orchestra Seattle String Quartet Katie Sauter Messick Sophie Baird-Daniel Maslanka Quintet for Winds No. 4 Annie Roberts Valerie Ross Organ Spiritus Winds Paul Tegels Carrie Sloane Ewald Brass Quintet No. 2 in E[, Op. 6 Matthew Wyant* Soprano Olympic Brass Ensemble Bass Barb Anderson Ticket price ($25) includes one glass of Woodhouse’s signature Ries- Jo Hansen* Sue Cobb Crissa Cugini ling and hors d’oeuvres, with dedicated bartender for Woodhouse Ericka Kendall wine tasting by the glass. Fewer than 25 tickets remain! Kevin McCarthy Olivia Davis Chris Simison Joan Dirska Chamber Music III Cinda Freece Sunday, April 3, 2016 • 6:00 – 8:00 p.m. Flute Lindsey Hittmeier Shafer Baillie Mansion on Capitol Hill Virginia Knight Kiki Hood Schubert Shari Muller-Ho* Ashley Hussman Octet in F major, D. 803 Jill Kraakmo Steven Noffsinger, clarinet • Laurie Heidt, horn Piccolo Peggy Kurtz x Judith Lawrence, bassoon • Karen Frankenfeld, violin Melissa Underhill Kathleen Sankey Jason Hershey, violin • Katherine McWilliams, viola Peter Ellis, cello • Jo Hansen, bass Oboe Alto Rebecca Rice* Sharon Agnew Ticket price ($25) includes one glass of wine and hors d’oeuvres, Derek Stephenson Julia Akoury-Thiel with dedicated bartender for wines by the glass. Fewer than 10 Cheryl Blackburn tickets remain! Clarinet Jane Blackwell Tickets (advance purchase only) available in the lobby during inter- Steven Noffsinger* Deanna Fryhle mission or after this evening’s performance. Also available online at Chris Peterson Rose Fujinaka www.ossscs.org or by phone at 1-800-838-3006. About the Violin Soloist written them to express his gratitude for the honor, saying that he wanted to come to Breslau for some “doctoral beer Violinist Adrian Steele, winner of the 2015–2016 OSSCS and skittles.” Concerto Competition, is a student of Ron Patterson, having The overture, which to me exemplifies Brahms’ com- previously studied with Mihoko Hirata and Tracy Helming. mand of and commitment to musical form, opens in the A sophomore at Garfield High School in Seattle, he is a mem- tavern with a tune intimately associated with beer mugs. ber of Garfield’s Symphonic Orchestra and also pursues mu- Although this serves as the principal theme, constantly re- sical studies at the Seattle Conservatory of Music. Adrian curring, it does not hold the leading place in the overture, as has received awards at numerous festivals and competitions, the student songs that follow clearly outshine it. First comes most recently winning the 2015 Coeur d’Alene National the student hymn “Wir hatten gebauet ein stattliches Haus” Young Artists’ High School competition and the 2014 Seattle (“We Have Built a Stately House”) played by the strings, Young Artists’ Music Festival Concerto Competition. As a then brass and woodwinds, after which — with full orches- soloist, he has performed with several orchestras, including tra — the principal theme returns in altered form. Another the Eastside Symphony, Philharmonia Northwest and Coeur student song appears in the second violins and violas: “Der d’Alene Symphony. Adrian has spent summers at the Bow- Landesvater” (“The Father of Our Country”). Instead of a doin Music Festival in Brunswick, Maine, and the Music development section, Brahms takes a ribald turn with a fun in the Mountains Conservatory in Durango, Colorado, and orchestration (led by bassoons) of a song that ridicules fresh- has participated in masterclasses with Ida Kavafian, Robert men: “Was kommt dort von der Hoh’¨ ” (“What Comes from Lipsett, Cyrus Forough, Grigory Kalinovsky and Paul Kan- Afar,” known as The Fox-Ride). There is wonderful playing tor. In his free time, he enjoys playing soccer, hiking, busk- about with all these themes until finally the great medieval ing at Pike Place Market and collecting vinyl records. student song “Gaudeamus igitur” (“Therefore, Let Us Be Merry”) is shouted in an orchestral splendor and richness Program Notes for which Brahms is so famous. — George Shangrow Johannes Brahms Academic Festival Overture, Op. 80 Jean Sibelius Brahms was born in Hamburg on May 7, 1833, and died in Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 47 Vienna on April 3, 1897. He composed this overture at Bad Ischl, Sibelius was born in Tavestehus, Finland, on December 8, Austria during the summer of 1880 and conducted its first perfor- 1865, and died at J¨avenp¨a¨aon September 20, 1957. He began writ- mance in Breslau, Germany (now Wrocław, Poland) on January ing this concerto in September 1902, completing a preliminary 4, 1881. The score calls for pairs of woodwinds plus piccolo and version in early 1904 and conducting the premiere in Helsinki contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, on February 8, 1904, with Victor Nov´aˇcekas soloist. Sibelius percussion and strings. then made extensive revisions to the concerto, which debuted in The following is adapted from notes George Shangrow wrote its final form in Berlin on October 19, 1905, with Karl Hal´ıˇras for a November 1996 Orchestra Seattle performance. soloist and Richard Strauss conducting. The accompaniment uses By the time Brahms was in his 40s, honors began to pairs of woodwinds, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, timpani pour in from abroad, including the offer of an honorary doc- and strings. torate from Cambridge in 1876 — which the composer de- “Sibelius was not merely the most famous composer clined, due to his aversion to traveling across salt water. (He Finland ever produced,” writes Alex Ross in The Rest Is declined a second offer from the same institution in 1892!) Noise, “but the country’s chief celebrity in any field.” The Brahms did, however, accept such an honor from the Uni- son of a Swedish-speaking doctor (who died of typhus be- versity of Breslau in 1879 and, while he did not attend the fore the boy reached age three), Sibelius learned Finnish in ceremony hailing him as “first among contemporary mas- school, changing his given name of Janne to the French Jean. ters of serious music,” he did eventually thank them with At age 14 he began formal violin lessons, later writing, the slightly mocking Academic Festival Overture. Although “the violin took me by storm, and for the next 10 years it was Brahms never attended college, he had spent a month dur- my dearest wish, my overriding ambition, to become a great ing 1853 socializing with his friend Joseph Joachim, then virtuoso.” An ill-fated audition for the Vienna Philharmonic enrolled at the University of Gottingen,¨ and he likely drew on January 9, 1891, put an end to that dream: “when he got upon those happy memories to create what he called “a very back to his room Sibelius broke down and wept,” reported jolly potpourri of student songs.” biographer Erik Tawaststjerna. “Afterwards he sat at the Brahms premiered the work in early 1881 at the Konz- piano and began to practice his scales.” erthaus in Breslau, somewhat to the consternation of the Sibelius now focused wholeheartedly on composition. university officials — many an academic head was shaken He would make a far greater contribution to the art of violin as they watched the composer conducting his “tribute” to playing through his one and only concerto for the instru- higher education. I am not convinced that the use of “stu- ment than he could ever have hoped to do as a performer. dent beer-hall” songs in the overture was as much of a slight A decade later, after the success of his first two sym- as the academics thought — after all, Brahms had previously phonies, Sibelius began to gather ideas for a violin con- certo.