UNLV presents HILARY HAHN, VIOLIN & NATASHA PAREMSKI, PIANO with the UNLV Symphony Orchestra Thursday, September 30, 2010 • 8 p.m. The Artemus W. Ham Concert Hall University of Nevada, Las Vegas Performing Arts Center Hilary Hahn appears by arrangement with IMG Artists, 152 W. 56th St., 5th Floor, New York, NY 10019. Ms. Hahn’s recordings are available on Deutsche Grammophon and Sony Classical/Sony BMG Masterworks. The UNLV Performing Arts Center is committed to sustainable practices. This season, our programs are modestly smaller, allowing us to save paper; we are increasing our recycling efforts; and, we print our programs on paper that is from a Forestry Service Council-certified supplier. The certification ensures conservation, responsible forest management, and even community-level benefits for people near the forests from which the wood for the paper is forested. Thank you for your support of our efforts! Programs and artists are subject to change without notice. 3 TONIGH T ’S PROGRAM Overture to Coriolan, Op. 62 .....................................Ludwig VAN BEETHOVEN (1770-1827) UNLV Symphony Orchestra ~ Taras Krysa, Director of Orchestras Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor, Op. 15................................JOHANNES BRAHMS Maestoso (1833-1897) Adagio Rondo: Allegro non troppo Natasha Paremski, Piano ~~ Intermission ~~ Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35 ........................ PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY Allegro moderato (1840-1893) Canzonetta: Andante Finale: Allegro vivacissimo Hilary Hahn, Violin TO OUR AUDIENCE The Performing Arts Center is delighted to hear your generous appreciation for our artists.Please hold your applause until all of the movements in a particular piece are finished. Generally, a conductor will indicate the time for your applause; you can also count the number of movements in each piece – movements are listed underneath the piece’s title. Thank you for your continued enjoyment and support of the Charles Vanda Master Series. PROGRAM NO T ES Overture to Coriolan, Op. 62 troops against his own people. Nothing Ludwig van Beethoven could persuade him not to destroy Rome, (Born December 15, 1770, in Bonn; died until his wife and mother pleaded with March 26, 1827, in Vienna) him. His mother succeeded where no one else could, wearing down his pride and Although Coriolanus is often identified determination. He then yielded and with- with Shakespeare, Plutarch was the first drew, abandoning his conquest and, in the to tell the story of the legendary Roman end, committing suicide. general, Gaius Marcus Coriolanus, who It was Beethoven’s contemporary, the vanquished the Volscian tribe, captured popular Austrian dramatist, Heinrich their capital city of Corioli and took its Joseph von Collin (1772-1811), who in- name as his, in around 500 B.C. When spired Beethoven to write his Overture to Coriolanus came home from battle to find Coriolan, although Beethoven did know that the privileges of his patrician class had the traditional versions of the tale by Plu- been diminished, he was enraged, went tarch and Shakespeare. The story of Cori- over to the enemy and led the Volscian continued on page 8 7 PROGRAM NO T ES , continued from page 8 olanus appealed to Beethoven because of composer, movements of a symphony he its themes of freedom for the individual, had sketched. They played it at two pia- recklessness, daring, pride, and the power nos, and friends who heard it, suggested of female persuasion; its most predomi- that it could be made into a concerto. nant themes of love and patriotism were For four years, Brahms worked over this qualities for which Beethoven had much music, composed a new third movement respect. The play, Coriolan (in German) (the original one became part of his Ger- was first performed in 1802 and was very man Requiem, Op 45, of 1868) and in popular for several seasons, but when 1858, completed the concerto. It was first Beethoven wrote the Overture in 1807, performed January 22, 1859, with the it was no longer frequently performed; composer as soloist and his friend, Joseph nevertheless, his composition quickly be- Joachim, conducting. came a popular concert piece. It was first Audiences and musicians both resisted performed at a subscription concert in Vi- the fiercely difficult concerto, not a virtu- enna during March 1807, at the palace of oso’s showpiece of the kind favored at the Beethoven’s patron, Prince Lobkowitz. time. In Germany, it was not a success un- Beethoven intended this dark, dramatic til two years before Brahms’s death, and in overture to present a musical portrait of the United States, it was hardly performed the play’s hero. The first theme outlines at all until 1900. Now it is one of the most the impulsive mood of Coriolan’s complex admired and often performed works in the emotions, while the more lyrical second repertoire, a huge, solemn piece of incom- theme may depict the pleading of the gen- parable grandeur. eral’s wife and mother. The quiet ending A substantial work, it was then the lon- mirrors Coriolan’s despair and resignation gest concerto ever published. The first to death. movement, Maestoso, is a majestic and The score calls for two flutes, two oboes, monumental structure without equal in two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, its era except perhaps, on a less grandiose two trumpets, timpani and strings. scale, in Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto. It is tumultuous and dark in the beginning Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor, with a long orchestral passage in which the Op. 15 strings state the main theme over a timpa- Johannes Brahms ni roll, before the piano joins. The piano’s (Born May 7, 1833, in Hamburg; died first entrance is energetic, and it becomes, April 3, 1897, in Vienna) later in the movement, gentle and expres- sive. After the lyrical section, the move- The history of this piano concerto be- ment then fulfills Joachim’s hopes that it be gins in 1854, when Brahms showed Schu- “appropriately magnificent…[and] com- mann’s wife, Clara, who was one of the greatest pianists of the time and also a continued on page 10 9 PROGRAM NO T ES , continued from page 9 mensurately elevated and beautiful.” An garian violinist with whom he first met elaborate development section is followed the Schumanns. Joachim put the spirit of by a brilliant coda. Brahms once suggested the Brahms music into words quite accu- that the grave slow movement, Adagio, was rately when he described this movement’s inscribed Benedictus qui venit in nomine themes as “the pithy, bold spirit of the first Domine (Blessed is he who comes in the theme [and] the intimate and soft B-flat name of the Lord) in memory of Robert major passage.” The movement brings the Schumann, and at another time, he said concerto to an end with a long and bril- that it was a lovely portrait of Clara. To liant coda after a piano cadenza. both, regardless, Brahms has paid homage The orchestra is scored for two flutes, by musically projecting his love (and his two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, pain) in this romanza-like movement. It four horns, two trumpets, timpani and is based on a poetic theme that the piano strings. takes up after its initial statement in the strings and bassoons. The clarinets intro- Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35 duce a subsidiary theme in the contrasting Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky middle section. The final Rondo: Allegro (Born May 7, 1840, in Votkinsk; died No- non troppo recalls the music of gypsies that vember 6, 1893, in Saint Petersburg) Brahms had first learned from the Hun- ABOU T HILARY HAHN Recently named Gramophone magazine’s land, Croatia, China, Japan, and Korea Artist of the Year, violinist Hilary Hahn is as guest soloist with traveling orchestras, a two-time Grammy Award-winning solo- among them the Bavarian Radio Sympho- ist celebrated for her probing interpreta- ny Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, tions, technical brilliance, and compelling San Francisco Symphony, National Sym- presence on stage. For a decade and a half, phony Orchestra (Washington, D.C.), extensive touring and acclaimed record- Detroit Symphony, Montreal Symphony, ings have made Hahn one of the most Milwaukee Symphony, and Royal Scottish sought-after artists on the international National Orchestra. Recent recital tours concert circuit. and solo concert collaborations have taken Hilary Hahn appears regularly with the her throughout the United States, Canada, world’s elite orchestras and on the most Brazil, Peru, Uruguay, Argentina, Colom- prestigious recital series in Europe, Asia, bia, France, Italy, Luxembourg, Belgium, Australasia, and North and South Ameri- Denmark, Switzerland, Vietnam, Cam- ca. In addition, she has toured the United bodia, and Japan. In a special project this States, Russia, Canada, Sweden, Germany, season, Hahn joins baritone Matthias Go- Luxembourg, Spain, Israel, Great Britain, Italy, France, Switzerland, Austria, Scot- continued on page 14 10 ABOU T MS. HAHN , continued from page 10 erne, soprano Christine Schäfer and the and other features a complete live perfor- Munich Chamber Orchestra for a series mance of the Korngold violin concerto. In of European concerts featuring arias from April 2007, she played Mozart’s Concerto their album Bach: Violin and Voice, which 3 as soloist in Pope Benedict XVI’s 80th was released on Deutsche Grammophon birthday celebration at the Vatican – an in January 2010. event subsequently released as a concert In the dozen years since she began re- DVD by Deutsche Grammophon. cording, Hahn has released eleven fea- While primarily a classical musician, ture albums on the Deutsche Gram- Hahn participates in a number of other mophon and Sony labels, in addition to projects and collaborations. In 2004, she three DVDs, an Oscar-nominated movie was the violin soloist on James Newton soundtrack, an award-winning recording Howard’s Oscar-nominated soundtrack to for children, and various compilations.