2008-2009 Philharmonia No. 4

PROGRAM Saturday, Jan. 31, 2009 Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 77 Allegro non troppo Adagio Allegro giocoso, ma non troppo vivace - Poco piu presto GarethJohnson, violin INTERMISSION Aaron Copland ( 1900-1990) Clarinet Concerto Stojo Miserlioski, clarinet Franz Liszt (1811-1886) Concerto No. I in E-flatMajor, S.124 Allegro maestoso Quasi adagio Allegretto vivace -Allegro animato Allegro marziale animato Jose Menor, piano PROGRAM Gareth JOHNSON Gareth Johnson is a graduate student at He has helped students throughout the Lynn University Conservatory of America understand that with hard work, Music studying with violin artist-faculty commitment and focus, they, too, can Elmar Oliveira. He has been invited to achieve their dreams. Many people are perform throughout the United States, astonished at the fact that in addition to Europe, Asia and the Caribbean- not his talents as a classical violinist, he is a only rendering recitals and being pre devoted composer I arranger and per sented as soloist with major orchestras, former of New Age/ Classical styles of but also as an articulate, enthusiastic and music. creative presenter for the purpose of "keeping the classics alive and well into In November, Johnson's new CD, the 21st century." Storytelling, will be marketed throughout the United States. JOHNSON stojo MISERLIOSKI Stojo Miserlioski was born in Prilep, private lessons with world-renowned clar Macedonia. He first started playing inetists: Nicolas Balderou; Petko Radev; clarinet at 11 with Professor Buzeski Franc Cohen; Gregory Smith; Jonathan Dragoljub at the Primary School of Cohler; Ante Grgin; and Daniel Silver. Music in Prilep. He continued his studies with Professor Tatarcevski Pande at the In 2003 Miserlioski attended Interlachen High School for Musical Alts in Bitola, Summer Camp in Michigan. Macedonia. Miserlioski joined the Lynn University During his four years of high school, he Conservato1y of Music in 2005, and is won many national and international cmTently working toward an undergrad competitions both for solo clarinet and uate degree in music pe1f01mance with chamber music, namely: National clarinet artist-faculty Jon Manasse. Clarinet Competition 2002 (Skopje, Macedonia); National Chamber Music Competition 2003 (Shtip, Macedonia); Sofia International Chamber Music Competition 2003 (Sofia, Bulgaria); and International Clarinet Competition 2004 (Lazarevac, Serbia). He also has pa1ticipated in many master classes and MISERLIOSKI Jose MENOR Born in Sabadell, Spain, Jose Menor Barcelona in 1996 as a first-prize winner at studied piano, composition and conduct - the "El Primer Palau" series. ing in Barcelona, and then pursued studies at the Royal College of Music in London, Recent engagements include perfo1m Yale University and the Aspen Music ances with the Barcelona Symphony Festival. He has worked with renowned Orchestra, and Orquestra Simfonica de! professors and concert pianists including Valles, and recital tours in the United Ann Schein, Claude Frank, Stephen Kingdom, Spain, the United States and Hough, Kevin Kenner and Cristina Ortiz. Canada. His performances have been recorded by Spanish national radio and At age 15, Menor perfo1med at New television, Radio Canada, CNN, Finnish York's Carnegie Hall (Weill Recital Hall) Broadcasting Company, ABC Classics as a first-prize winner of The World Piano FM (Australia) and others. Competition, young artists division. Finalist of the YCAT auditions in London He is enrolled in the Professional (2004) and winner of both national and Performance Certificate program at Lynn international competitions, Menor has University studying with piano artist appeared as a soloist both in Europe and faculty Roberta Rust. the United States, since he made his recital debut at the Palau de la Musica in MENOR PROGRAM NOTES By Dr. Barbara Barry, Head of Musicology Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 77 Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) Brahms' violin concerto is the outcome of followed by the violin conce1to for Joachim a remarkable long fiiendship and musical in 1878. collaboration with the violinist Joseph Joachim. Like the contrast of intensity and lyiicism between the first and second symphonies, Brahms first met Joachim on a concert tour the first movement of the violin conce1to of northem Geiman cities in 1853- a captures that same internal contrast of momentous year in Brahms' life, as it mood and keys. After an opening unhar brought him to a wider public awareness monized layout of the D major chord, the through the publication of Robert orchestra presents a synopsis ofthe musical Schumann's famous review of Brahms as ideas that will be developed in the move the most impmtant new composer. ment- the unexpected tum to the key of B-flat major; a full, broadly scored first Brahms' fiiendship with Schumann and his subject based on the t:Iiad; and a second wife Clara was to be another vital strand in subject group consisting of twu ideas: a his personal relationships and professional contrasting, softer lyiical melody and a work, as Brahms wrote one of the move strongly aiticulated dotted figure. ments in the violin sonata for Joachim on the motto F-A-E ( frei aber einsam - free The slow movement opens with one of but lonely), the other two movements Brahms' most beautiful and lyiical lines, written by Schumann and Albeit Dietrich. presented by oboes and bassoons, then taken up by the violin solo in the strato In the 1870s Brahms turned his attention sphere, floating above, then descending to to the major instmmental forms of sym exchange phrases of dialogue with the phony, string qua1tet and conce1to1 the orchestra. At the center of the movement is forms to which Beethoven had made such an elegiac nan-ative in the minor mode, powerful conttibutions, and now Brahms, which gradually dissolves out to allow the in turn, was ready to ·write his own large return of the expressive opening line, spun scale works. After the "Variations on out with graceful decoration in the solo a Theme by Haydn" (also known as the violin. By an exquisite symmetry, at the "St Anthony Chorale Va1iations") Brahms end of the movement the violin ascends to wrote the first two symphonies in 1876 and its highest register and is suspended there 1877- a contrasting pair of dark, brooding till the music dies away. intensity and more open, relaxed style- r\JOTES The finale is in Brahms' "gypsy style" that drives the movement and impels it ("style hongrois") also found in the toward the coda, which is the final section Hungarian Dances and the finale of the G of the movement. ln the coda solo violin minor piano quartet, op. 25. Whereas the and orchestra combine forces for an slow movement of the con~erto empha exciting conclusion, but surprisingly, just sized the violin's l)'lical qualities, in the before the last bars of the movement, finale the solo violin emphatically leads Brahms pulls back the tempo to end the with a strongly aiticulated rhythmic figure, work with two magisterial chords. repeated by the orchestra. This figure provides a sense of forward momentum Clarinet Concerto Aaron Copland (1900-1990) Aaron Copland was a major 20th century composer who, like Leonard Bernstein The Concerto for Clarinet and String and George Gershwin, wrote in a range of Orchestra with Harp and Piano (1950), to different styles- Broadway, ballet, film as give it its full title, is another crossover well as classical genres- in an eclectic mix work. Commissioned by the f.unous jazz of energy and vitality that would be charac clarinetist Benny Goodman, Copland teristic of American composers. incmporated jazz elements into the work. It has an unusual form- unlike the Born to Russian Jewish pai·ents who had customary three movements for a moved to New York, Copland showed concerto, it is in two movements, the first early talent at the piano. At age 17, he slow and reflective, followed by an exten began theory and composition lessons sive unaccompanied cadenza- a long, with Rubin Goldmark, but the main influ improvisatory section which traditionally ence on his development was his study in occurs near the end of a first movement of Paris with Nadia Boulanger, who helped a concerto, but here is both the link Copland develop his own style and also between the slow first movement and the provided opp01tunities for Copland to fast second movement, and also a written meet other composers and study the music out rhapsody which is part reflection, part of Faure, Mahler and Stravinsky, whom he anticipation ofmusical ideas that will come particularly admired. in the second movement, and part demon ln the late 1930s and '40s, Copland started stration of the surprisingly different writing his popular American ballets sounds of the clarinet's lower and upper Billy the Kid (1938), Rodeo (1942) and registers. Appalachian Spring ( 1944 )- with their combinations of American popular The first movement's character is reflec melody, pounding dance rhythms and tive, with a slow harmonic rhythm, and the modern tonal language. suspensions across the barline and use of NOTES the harp recall the sound of the French altemating bars of 3/ 4 and 2/ 4, the final composer Etic Satie in his Gymnopedies. section - Ritmico Vigoroso - dtives for After the free-ranging cadenza, the second ward in a complex interplay between the movement is faster and more rhythmically clarinet and the orchestra, but Copland pointed, using the clatinet'~ shaiper pulls back the tempo in the last pages ofthe sounding upper register, which is used in movement for the strong, declai·atory jazz, and with the use of pizzicato strings in flourish -with which the work ends. the middle of the movement. Using Piano Concerto No. 1 in E-flat Major, S. 124 Franz Liszt (1811-1886) Liszt was one of the key figures of the heard another musician who would Romantic petiod, with connections to make a profound impression on him, Chopin and Berlioz, and later in the 19th the acclaimed violin virtuoso Niccolo century, to Wagner.

Load more