THE

WITHKNIGHTS

The Knights Chamber Orchestra

FEBRUARY 12, 2013 LOEB PLAYHOUSE 7:30 PM

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NANSHAN AMERICA ADVANCED ALUMINUM TECHNOLOGIES, LLC. PROGRAM

Concerto in E-flat (Dumbarton Oaks) Tempo Giusto (1882 - 1971) Allegretto Con moto

Concerto for Pipa and String Orchestra Allegro (1917 - 2003) Bits and Pieces: Troika Bits and Pieces: Three Sharing Bits and PIeces: Wind and Plum Bits and Pieces: Neopolitan Threnody for Richard Locke Estampie

Intermission

Prelude a l’après-midi d’un faune (1862 - 1918) “Vocalise,” Op. 34, No. 14* Arr. Atkinson

Le boeuf sur le toit, Op. 58 Darius Milhaud (1892 - 1974) Arr. The Knights

Blue and Green Wu Man (arranged for Pipa and Orchestra) (b. 1963)

With respect to the musicians and your fellow patrons, we request your participation in the tradition of withholding applause between movements of a selection.

www.theknightsnyc.com

Exclusive Management: OPUS 3 ARTISTS 470 Park Avenue South, 9th Floor North New York, NY 10016 www.opus3artists.com THE KNIGHTS

Eric Jacobsen and Colin Jacobsen, Co-Artistic Directors

Eric Jacobsen, Conductor

VIOLIN Colin Jacobsen, Concertmaster Tomoko Katsura Ariana Kim Yon Joo Lee Yaira Matyakubova Guillaume Pirard

VIOLA Christina Courtin Margaret Dyer Miranda Sielaff

CELLO Alex Greenbaum Eric Jacobsen Julia MacLaine

DOUBLE BASS Zach Cohen

FLUTE Alex Sopp

OBOE Adam Hollander PROGRAM NOTES By James Roe

“Invisible, as music, But positive, as sound” –Emily Dickinson Two themes unite tonight’s Knights program, the incredible creative energy that arises from cross-cultural musical exploration and the subtle notion of musical color.

Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) Concerto in E-flat “Dumbarton Oaks” (1937-1938) Igor Stravinsky’s irresistible Concerto in E-flat “Dumbarton Oaks” decidedly straddles the old and new worlds. Commissioned in America, it was the composer’s last work entirely written in Europe. In 1937, Mildred Barnes Bliss, a leading figure in American arts and culture, approached Stravinsky about writing a work modeled on Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos. The premiere would celebrate her thirtieth wedding anniversary and take place at “Dumbarton Oaks,” the magnificent Federal-style estate just outside Washington, DC that she and her husband, Robert Woods Bliss, owned. In response, Stravinsky immersed himself in Bach’s music, regularly playing it on the piano. “Whether or not the first theme of my first movement is a conscious borrowing from the third of the Brandenburg set, I do not know,” he recalled. “What I can say is that Bach would most certainly have been delighted to loan it to me; to borrow in this way was exactly the sort of thing he liked to do.”

Lou Harrison (1917-2003) Concerto for Pipa and Strings (1997) The pipa is a Chinese lute with a rich, 2000-year history. Its onomatopoetic name describes the instrument’s characteristic sounds. American composer Lou Harrison was introduced to the indigenous musical instruments of Asia while a student at San Francisco State University in the 1930s. Enthralled, he spent the rest of his career integrating Asian musical colors into the European tradition. His Concerto for Pipa and Strings from 1997 is a mature masterpiece, remarkable for the naturalness and joy with which the instruments sing together in a new musical language. Claude Debussy (1862-1918) Prélude à l’áprès-midi d’un faune (1891-1894) Arrangement by Michael P. Atkinson Languid, sensual, and seemingly improvisatory, Claude Debussy’s Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune reveals a new world of musical color. The piece opens with an unaccompanied flute melody. The first note is a sustained c-sharp, which is produced with all the flautist’s fingers raised, no keys depressed. Debussy exploits this note’s characteristic gauzy diffuseness to blend the beginning of the piece with the preceding silence. He described the work as “a very free rendering of Stéphane Mallarmé’s beautiful poem. It is a succession of scenes in which the desires and dreams of the faune pass through in the heat of the afternoon.” Music’s invisible colors would never be seen the same way again.

Darius Milhaud (1892-1974) Le boeuf sur le toit, op. 58 (1919) Unfit for military service in World War I, Darius Milhaud accepted a post as propaganda attaché in Rio de Janeiro in 1916. The music he heard there became a lifelong inspiration for the young French composer. Upon returning to in 1919, Milhaud wrote Le boeuf sur le toit, which showcased the tangos, maxixes, sambas, and Portuguese fado he learned in Brazil. Intended to accompany a Charlie Chaplin film, the piece quickly captured the imagination of the Parisian avant garde. Jean Cocteau created a pantomime-ballet for the music that premiered in February 1920. In December 1921, an iconic Paris cabaret reopened under the name, Le boeuf sur le toit. Its habitués included Cocteau, Milhaud, Pablo Picasso, Sergei Diaghilev, Maurice Chevalier and the young Igor Stravinsky. Milhaud’s score perfectly embodies the effervescent Bohemian milieu that thrived in Paris between the wars.

Wu Man (b. 1963) Blue and Green for Pipa and Orchestra Wu Man chose her two favorite colors as the inspiration for this work. “Blue” represents the peaceful and meditative mind, which Wu Man represents with a traditional Chinese folk tune beautifully sung by pipa and strings. “Green” is based on a melody her son sang as a child. “When I first heard him sing it, he was four years old,” she explained, “I asked him where he heard the tune.” “I don’t know, Mommy,” he answered, “I make it up ... really.” The pipa sets up perpetual motion figurations while the orchestra imitates the vigorous sounds of Chinese wind instruments. Musical colors join hands across cultures. ABOUT THE KNIGHTS

Praised for their “polished The Knights 2012-2013 season performances and imaginative began with a return to the Ravinia programming” (New York Times) Festival, where the orchestra was The Knights are a “supremely joined by three classical music talented” (Gramophone) orchestra superstars–cellist Yo-Yo Ma, violinist of friends from a broad spectrum Itzhak Perlman and soprano Dawn of the New York music world Upshaw–in three concerts that who cultivate collaborative music concluded the prestigious festival. making and creatively engage Other season highlights for The audiences in the shared joy of Knights include the release of an all- musical performance. Led by an Beethoven disc for Sony Classical, open-minded spirit of camaraderie their third project with the label and exploration, they expand the and a U.S. tour with pipa virtuoso orchestral concert experience with Wu Man in February, making stops programs that encompass their in Madison, Austin, Houston, and roots in the Classical tradition and Southern California. In May, The their passion for musical discovery. Knights travel to Berlin to team up For their inspired programming, again with American composer Lisa innovative formats and “crusading Bielawa for “Tempelhof Broadcast,” musical mission,” The Knights have leading hundreds of musicians in been hailed as “the future of classical a large-scale spatial/acoustic work music in America” (Los Angeles to be performed on the tarmac of Times). the former Tempelhof Airport (now Tempelhofer Park), site of the Berlin The Knights perform in a wide Airlift in 1948. range of concert venues, including , , 92nd Last season’s highlights included Street Y, Baryshnikov Arts Center, high-profile appearances at Ravinia, Brooklyn Lyceum, Central Park, Le Central Park and the 92nd Street Y, Poisson Rouge, The Stone, Tonic, the a tour of Germany in March, and Whitney Museum and Mass MoCA. their first U.S. tour in April 2012. Also in demand on the international Additionally, The Knights launched stage, they have appeared at the the Ensemble-in-Residence program Dresden Musikfestspiele, Cologne at New York Public Radio’s WQXR, Philharmonie, Dusseldorf Tonhalle, giving two concerts at New York’s and the National Gallery in Dublin, Greene Space and producing the and have toured Germany with “Found Sound Project,” inviting cellist Jan Vogler. Their expanding listeners across the country to submit presence on the music festival scene original audio samples for use in has included performances at the their performance of ’s Ravinia Festival, the Stillwater Christian Zeal and Activity. We Are Music Festival in Minnesota, and The Knights, a documentary film Caramoor’s Fall Festival. produced by WNET/Thirteen, made its broadcast debut in September , violinists Itzhak 2011 and was rebroadcast nationwide Perlman and Gil Shaham, flutist throughout the year. In April 2012, Paula Robison, singer-songwriter the ensemble released A Second in (and Knights violinist) Christina Silence on Ancalagon, a “smartly Courtin, Iranian ney (Persian programmed” (NPR) album that bamboo flute) virtuoso Siamak joins music by , Erik Satie Jahangiri, pianist Steven Beck, and Morton Feldman with Schubert’s fiddler Mark O’Connor, and Syrian “Unfinished” Symphony. clarinetist/composer Kinan Azmeh. Previous Sony Classical albums Dedicated to the music of our time, include a live recording from New The Knights have served as the York’s cutting edge concert venue resident orchestra of the MATA Le Poisson Rouge, which showcases Festival for young composers, cellist Jan Vogler in the Shostakovich premiering new works by Cello Concerto No. 1 alongside Christopher Tignor and Prix-de- arrangements of Shostakovich Rome winner Yotam Haber. The waltzes and Jimi Hendrix’s “Machine ensemble has worked closely Gun;” and New Worlds, featuring with composer , works by Copland, Dvorak, Ives, performing his Passion According , and Osvaldo to St. Mark in the Canary Islands in Golijov. In 2010, Orange Mountain May 2009 and several of his works Music released Lisa Bielawa’s Chance with soprano Dawn Upshaw. Encounter with The Knights and soprano Susan Narucki. Mozart, the The roster of The Knights boasts an ensemble’s collaboration with Lara unprecedented diversity of talents. and Scott St. John in the Sinfonia Included are composers, arrangers, Concertante and Violin Concertos singer-songwriters and improvisers Nos. 1 and 3 for Ancalagon, received who bring a range of cultural a 2010 JUNO Award for Classical influences to the group, from jazz Album of the Year. Strings magazine and klezmer to pop and indie rock proclaimed, “These gifted young music. The musicians are graduates players have created a flawless of Juilliard, Curtis, and other leading recording.” The Knights also can be music schools, and members have heard on the soundtrack for Francis performed as soloists with the New Ford Coppola’s filmTwixt. York Philharmonic, Chicago and orchestras, The orchestra’s extensive as well as the Israel Philharmonic repertoire features traditional and and Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart contemporary masterworks of orchestra. Equally successful as classical, popular, and world music chamber and orchestral musicians, in collaboration with such leading they participate in the world’s most artists as cellist Yo-Yo Ma, soprano prestigious music festivals, including Marlboro, Tanglewood, Verbier, Jacobsen and cellist Eric Jacobsen. Lucerne and Salzburg, and perform The Jacobsen brothers, who are with the Royal Concertgebouw also founding members of Brooklyn Orchestra, Metropolitan Rider, serve as artistic directors of Orchestra, , The Knights, with Eric Jacobsen as Milwaukee Symphony, Toronto conductor. The unique camaraderie Symphony, , within the orchestra retains the and Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble. intimacy and spontaneity of chamber music in performance. The formation of The Knights evolved from late night chamber music reading parties with friends at the home of violinist Colin ABOUT ERIC JACOBSEN

Conductor and cellist Eric Jacobsen Alabama Symphony in music by is dedicated to imaginative Schubert, Higdon and Feldman. Mr. programming and projects, which Jacobsen will returns to Columbus invite audiences into a shared Ohio to work with Pro Musica experience. As Music Director for Chamber Orchestra. In the summer The Knights, an orchestra formed of 2013 Mr. Jacobsen will conduct by brothers Eric and Colin Jacobsen, the Moritzburg Festival Academy in Mr. Jacobsen has led the orchestra Dresden, Germany. in numerous performances, tours, and recording projects. Mr. Jacobsen Under Mr. Jacobsen’s baton, The and the orchestra strive to foster Knights have released two albums the intimacy and camaraderie of on SONY Classical. The first – Jan chamber music on the orchestral Vogler and The Knights, Experience stage. Mr. Jacobsen and The Live from New York – pairs Knights opened the 2009 Dresden Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 1 Musikfestspiele with soloist Dawn and Waltzes with the music of Jimi Upshaw. In September of 2010 Mr. Hendrix. New Worlds, released Jacobsen conducted The Knights in 2010, celebrates music of the at The Caramoor Festival with Yo- Americas, including Copland’s Yo Ma as soloist. In 2010 he led Appalachian Spring along with The Knights in their first tour of works by Ives, Dvorak, Golijov and Germany with cellist Jan Vogler, Gabriela Lena Frank. In 2012, The the experience begged another, so Knights toured the United States The Knights took on Germany for a performing works from their New second tour in 2012. Mr. Jacobsen Worlds album. and the orchestra’s interpretation of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony Mr. Jacobsen’s most recent album is delighted and inspired the audiences on the Ancalagon label dedicated to of Beethoven’s homeland. After Schubert and Minimalism; including wildly successful performances in two Schubert symphonies paired 2010 and 2011, Mr. Jacobsen and with music by Erik Satie, Morton The Knights were invited again in Feldman and Philip Glass. 2012 to perform at Chicago’s Ravinia Festival. The 2012 programs feature Mr. Jacobsen has collaborated with three performances each with Gil Shaham and Adele Anthony soloists; Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, in the music of Pablo de Sarasate and Dawn Upshaw. performing at Le Poisson Rouge in New York. He has also led This season Mr. Jacobsen conducts Camerata Bern in the first European the Detroit Symphony Orchestra performance of Mark O’Connor’s with soloist Wu Man in music of American Seasons, with the Beethoven, Debussy and Harrison. composer as soloist. He will also make is debut with the Mr. Jacobsen is a member of Yo- An avid educator, Mr. Jacobsen is on Yo Ma’s Silk Road Project. He the New York University faculty. He has participated in residencies conducts the NYU Orchestras and and performances in Azerbaijan, teaches chamber music and cello. He China, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, has also led collaborative concerts Switzerland and across the USA with students of the Children’s including The Art Institute of Orchestra Society sitting alongside Chicago and The Hollywood Bowl. musicians from The Knights. As a founding member of the Brooklyn Rider, Mr. Jacobsen The Knights with Mr. Jacobsen and has toured extensively in North Brooklyn Rider are both represented America and Europe. He can be by Opus 3 Artists. heard on many albums recorded by both of these ensembles. ABOUT WU MAN

Recognized as the world’s be heard outside these regions, and premier pipa virtuoso and leading who represent the very beginnings of ambassador of Chinese music, the pipa’s musical tradition. Grammy Award-nominated musician Wu Man has carved out a career as Wu Man traveled to Singapore a composer, soloist, and educator in June 2012 to collaborate on a giving her lute-like instrument – theatrical project by TheatreWorks’ which has a history of over 2,000 artistic director Ong Keng Sen years in China – a new role in both called Lear Dreaming. Based on traditional and contemporary Shakespeare’s “King Lear,” the music. Through numerous trips work presented an Asian-inspired to her native China, Wu Man has interpretation of the drama that premiered hundreds of new works culminated in two sold-out world for the pipa, while spearheading premiere performances during multimedia projects to both preserve the 2012 Singapore Arts Festival, and create awareness of China’s and required Wu Man to both act ancient musical traditions. Her and play the pipa. In August 2012 adventurous spirit and virtuosity Wu Man released a documentary have led to collaborations across DVD titled Discovering a Musical artistic disciplines allowing Wu Man Heartland: Wu Man’s Return to China to reach wider audiences as she as part of her ongoing Return to the works to break through cultural and East project. In the film, Wu Man musical borders. travels to little-explored regions of China to uncover ancient musical In May 2012 Wu Man released traditions that have rarely been Borderlands her album , the final documented before. installment of her acclaimed ten- volume “” The 2012-13 season has Wu Man ethnographic series tracing the touring with the Silk Road Ensemble history of the pipa in China. With and separately as a soloist across the support of the Aga Khan Trust the United States. She will perform for Culture and the Smithsonian ’s Pipa Concerto with the Institution Center for Folklife and Arkansas Symphony and participate Cultural Heritage, the project led in a U.S. tour with ’s her to the outskirts of the country The Knights, with whom she will to collaborate with musical cultures premiere her own composition Blue along the Silk Road including and Green. Wu Man tours to Hong Tajikistan and China’s Xinjiang Kong to perform a program titled Uyghur Autonomous Region in “Wu Man and Aboriginal Friends northwestern China. The result is from Taiwan,” another installment a DVD and sound recording of folk of her Return to the East project. musicians who would not otherwise Wu Man will also perform at the 2013 Auckland Arts Festival in New to perform at the White House. She Zealand both in a solo recital and has performed with major orchestras together with the in around the world and frequently a performance of “A Chinese Home.” premieres works by today’s leading composers including Tan Dun, Philip Glass, the late Lou Harrison, Terry Brought up in the Pudong school of Riley, , and . pipa playing, Wu Man became the Since moving to the U.S. in 1990, first person to receive a master’s Wu Man’s role as an ambassador degree in pipa performance from the and advocate for Chinese music was Central Conservatory of Music in recognized when she was made a Beijing. She is a frequent collaborator United States Artists Broad Fellow in with the Kronos Quartet and was 2008. also the first artist from China ever