BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA ^m

Seiji Ozawa, Music Director

Sir Colin Davis, Principal Guest Conductor

Joseph Silverstein, Assistant Conductor One Hundred and Second Season, 1982-83

PRE-SYMPHONY CHAMBER CONCERTS

Thursday; 10 February at 6 Saturday 12 February at 6

IKUKO MIZUNO, violin JEROME ROSEN, violin NISANNE LOWE, violin RONALD WILKISON, viola MARGARET BACHELDER, piano

DVORAK Sonatina in G for violin and piano, Opus 100

Allegro risoluto Larghetto

Scherzo : Molto vivace Finale: Allegro

Ms. MIZUNO and Ms. BACHELDER

STRAVINSKY Elegy for solo violin

Mr. ROSEN

DVORAK Terzetto in C for two violins and viola, Opus 74

Introduzione. Allegro ma non troppo Larghetto Scherzo: Vivace—Poco meno mosso—Vivace Tema con variazioni

Mr. ROSEN, Ms. LOWE, and Mr. WILKISON

Baldwin piano

Please exit to your left for supper following the concert.

The performers appreciate your not smoking during the concert.

Week 15 Antonin Dvorak Sonatina in G for violin and piano, Opus 100

In the summer of 1893, Dvorak left New York, where he was the director of the National Conservatory, to visit some of America's interior. He spent the summer at a Czech community in Spillville, Iowa, where he felt himself immediately at home (and where, in the space of two weeks during June, he composed his most famous string quartet, adding to it by summer's end a string quintet as well). One of the excursions he made from Spillville was to St. Paul, Minnesota, where he was deeply moved by the beauty of the Minnehaha Falls (named after the Indian princess, "Laughing Water," in Long- fellow's poetic tale of Hiawatha)—so moved that he noted a melody on the starched cuff of his shirtsleeve.

The quartet and quintet composed in Spillville were to be published as his Opus 96 and 97. Once back in the bustle of New York for the fall season, Dvorak began to give thought to what kind of work he would write for his Opus 100. The charming idea struck him to compose something for two of his children, Ottilie and Antonin, who played violin and piano. He created a piece that was simple enough for them to play, but full of warmth and charm, so that it appeals equally to adults (as the composer correctly predicted to his publisher, Simrock).

The works of Dvorak's American years always give rise to the question as to how much actual American influence can be found in them. Possibly the first movement contains a reference to "My Darling Clementine," and the slow movement includes the melancholy tune written on his cuff at Minnehaha Falls, though it yields place to a little mandolin serenade. On balance, the question of national influence should not distract us from the delicacy and charm of this score, crafted from a master's workshop as a loving gift. —Steven Ledbetter

Igor Stravinsky Elegy for solo violin

Stravinsky composed this little piece in 1944 at the request of Germain Prevost for

something to play in memory of Alphonse Onnou, founder of the Quatuor Pro Arte. It was originally composed for unaccompanied viola, but with the option of performance

on a violin by transposing the score a fifth higher,- in either case, the solo instrument is

marked to be played muted throughout. The Elegy is essentially a two-part invention beginning with a chantlike passage over a flowing accompaniment, then turning into clever suggestions of a fugue (though without ever growing to more than two independ- ent lines) before culminating in a repetition of the opening section. -S.L.

Antonin Dvorak Terzetto in C for two violins and viola, Opus 74

Dvorak's Terzetto has been punished for its unusual scoring, punished by neglect.

(Presumably the uncommon title stems from the composer's desire to distinguish between this combination and the more common string trio group of violin, viola, and

cello.) Dvorak wrote the piece in January 1887, which places it about halfway between the Seventh and Eighth symphonies, and just before what has become his most popular piece of chamber music, the Piano Quintet. As a young man, Dvorak had made his living as a string player, progressing from his father's combination of butcher shop and pub to the pit of the Prague Opera House, and now, forty-six and famous, he wanted to write something for himself to play on the viola with two violinist friends, Josef Kruis, a chemistry student, and Jan Pelikan, a professional in the orchestra of the National

Theater. (The first violin part turned out too hard for Kruis, and Dvorak wrote a set of

Bagatelles to fulfill the original intention.) The Terzetto is, in any event, a beautifully made piece, intimate, full of invention, and with no intimations of music-minus-one. The furiant-and-waltz scherzo is especially endearing, and the ten variations that make up the finale—unexpectedly in C minor until almost the end—are inventive and colorful, including even a sweetly pathetic operatic recitative. —Michael Steinberg

Ikuko Mizuno Jerome Rosen

In 1969, Ikuko Mizuno became the first Jerome Rosen started playing violin at five and woman to join the violins of the Boston Sym- piano at six, and majored in mathematics and phony Orchestra. Ms. Mizuno began her stud- philosophy as an undergraduate at Western ies at the Toho-Gakuen School of Music in Reserve University in Cleveland while con- her native Tokyo, making her debut there at a tinuing his musical studies. Before his very early age and capturing first prize in a appointment as assistant concertmaster of the national violin competition. A 1965 Spaulding BSO and concertmaster of the Boston Pops in Award brought her to the United States,- she 1972, Mr. Rosen was associate concertmaster studied with Roman Totenberg at Boston Uni- of the Detroit Symphony, and conductor and versity, where she received a Phi Kappa musical director of the Oak Park Symphony Lambda award and her master's degree in in Michigan. His violin teachers included music, and during this time she was invited to Ivan Galamian, Josef Gingold, and Rafael participate at the Berkshire Music Center at Druian. For seven seasons, Mr. Rosen was a . In 1968, Ms. Mizuno attended violinist, conductor, and keyboard player with the master classes of Franco Gulli and Henryk the , and he was an eight- Szeryng and appeared on radio and television time member of the Casals Festival Orchestra. in Italy and Switzerland; she made her New An active performer of solo and chamber

York solo debut at Carnegie Recital Hall in music, he is now a violinist and keyboard 1972. Ms. Mizuno has appeared as soloist with player with the Boston Symphony. the Boston Pops, the Harvard Musical Associa- tion, and symphony orchestras throughout

New England. She is on the faculty of the Toho School in Japan, and she returns to Japan each year for recital and orchestral performances.

*' Nisanne Lowe Ronald Wilkison

Violinist Nisanne Lowe studied at the Ronald Wilkison joined the Boston Sym- Juilliard School of Music and at the Curtis phony Orchestra as a violinist in 1971 and Institute in Philadelphia; her teachers switched to the viola section at the beginning included Ivan Galamian and Jascha Brodsky. of the present season. Born in Sacramento, First-prize winner in 1973 of the Hudson Val- California, his experience prior to joining the ley Philharmonic Competition in Poughkeep- BSO included membership in the Baltimore sie, New York, Ms. Lowe was a member of Symphony and the Temple Institute String the Chicago Symphony's first violin section Quartet. Before switching to the viola, Mr. for the 1976-77 season and then joined the first Wilkison was second violinist of the Fran- violins of L'Orchestre Symphonique de cesco String Quartet. He is an active performer Quebec. She has been soloist with the Hudson of chamber music, having appeared in numer- Valley Philharmonic, the Rochester Philhar- ous chamber concerts throughout the New monic, the Erie Philharmonic, the New York England area. Christmas String Orchestra, the Quebec Sym- phony, and the CBC Radio Orchestra, under such conductors as Neville Marriner, James De Preist, and Alexander Schneider. Ms. Lowe joined the Boston Symphony Orchestra at the beginning of the present season.

Margaret Bachelder

A graduate of Vassar College, pianist Margaret All Newton Music School, she has performed Bachelder received her master's degree from in many solo and chamber recitals in Boston the New England Conservatory of Music, and throughout" the New England area. Ms. where she held a teaching fellowship, and Bachelder has been a soloist with the Maryl- where she studied with Victor Rosenbaum hurst Orchestra, the Nantucket Bach Festival, and Leonard Shure. Now on the faculty of the and the Northeast Harbor Chamber Festival.