Credit: Harald Hoffmann New Horizons September 21-24, 2017 MESSAGE FROM THE BOARD PRESIDENT & EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR elcome to the his evening marks the opening concerts beginning of Daniel Wof New Century’s THope’s second season 2019-2020 Season! We open as New Century’s Music this season on the heels of New Director. In just one short year Century’s successful European at the helm, Daniel has made an debut tour. Our musicians indelible impact on the scope charmed European audiences of our activities, our artistic during sold-out concerts at some partnerships, and orchestral of Europe’s most celebrated music festivals, including the sound. Just three months ago, Daniel led New Century Leonard Bernstein-founded Schleswig-Holstein Music on its debut tour of Europe, where our musicians Festival, and three concerts at the massive Festspiele played to enthusiastic sold-out crowds across Germany Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. and Poland. It was a moving experience to hear our wonderful orchestra play at some of the most important I was delighted to join the tour with an enthusiastic festival venues in Europe—truly an incredible milestone fan club of Bay Area patrons and members of the New for our Bay Area orchestra. This first European tour Century Board of Directors. It was a proud moment for was just the beginning of a new chapter for us as an all of us to witness our brilliant musicians and Music internationally recognized ensemble. Director Daniel Hope received with wild applause and standing ovations at these storied European festivals. We open the 2019-2020 season with a program that We have all known for years that we have a very special features the sensational young pianist Maxim Lando. At musical treasure in the Bay Area, and we have now seen just 14 years of age, Maxim famously performed with its thrilling impact on the international music scene. superstar pianist Lang Lang for the opening night gala Plans are underway for a return to Europe, so stay tuned! at Carnegie Hall. That debut performance catapulted the young pianist into an international concert career This evening, we kick off a season filled with some that has included debuts with leading orchestras around of the world’s most celebrated artists, including New the world. It is a thrill to present Maxim at this exciting Century debut artist, pianist Maxim Lando, and time in his young career. He will, no doubt, be counted GRAMMY Award-winners, mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie as one of the great pianists of his generation. von Otter, cellist Lynn Harrell, and the San Francisco Girls Chorus. Returning to New Century after her We look forward to seeing you during the rest of our triumphant premiere of Philip Glass’s Piano Concerto, 2019-2020 season! We are particularly looking forward No. 3, pianist Simone Dinnerstein assumes the role of to our first performances at the newly restored and New Century’s first Artist-in-Residence. Simone will lead renovated Presidio Theatre in January 2020. Over an evening of J.S. Bach, share her artistry in Bay Area two days, New Century will celebrate Beethoven’s schools, and celebrate Beethoven’s 250th birthday during 250th birthday with concerts featuring pianist Simone our “Beethoven in the Presidio” festival. Dinnerstein, cellist Lynn Harrell and our Music Director Daniel Hope. In June 2019, Daniel Hope was appointed Thank you for everything you do to make New as the President of the Beethoven House, Memorial Century’s vision of a self-conducted chamber orchestra site, Museum and Cultural Center. In this role, Daniel a reality. We look forward to seeing you at all of this will oversee the global celebrations of Beethoven@250 season’s concerts and events as Daniel Hope leads his celebrations, with New Century’s “Beethoven in the second year as Music Director. Presidio” as a centerpiece. Most sincerely, Thank you for your support and patronage of our self- conducted orchestra! You are each an integral part of creating this collaborative musical experience. Sincerely yours, Mark Salkind President Philip Wilder Executive Director NEW CENTURY CHAMBER ORCHESTRA 1 SEPTEMBER 26, 2019, 7:30PM FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, BERKELEY SEPTEMBER 28, 2019, 7:30PM HERBST THEATRE, SAN FRANCISCO SEPTEMBER 29, 2019, 3:00PM OSHER MARIN JCC, SAN RAFAEL FIN DE SIÈCLE Daniel Hope, Music Director and Concertmaster Maxim Lando, Piano Simos Papanas, Guest Concertmaster EDWARD ELGAR Introduction and Allegro, Op. 47 (1857-1934) CHRISTIAN SINDING Adagio from Suite im alten Stil, Op. 10 (1856-1941) Daniel Hope, violin JULES MASSENET Méditation from Thaïs (1842-1912) Daniel Hope, violin ARNOLD SCHOENBERG Notturno for Violin, Strings and Harp (1874-1951) Daniel Hope, violin RICHARD STRAUSS Morgen! Op. 27 No. 4 for Violin and Strings (1864-1949) Daniel Hope, violin EDWARD ELGAR Chanson de Matin Daniel Hope, violin INTERMISSION ERNEST CHAUSSON Concert for Violin, Piano and Strings (1855-1899) I. Décidé – Calmé II. Sicilienne III. Grave IV. Finale. Très animé Daniel Hope, violin Maxim Lando, piano New Century’s 2019-20 Season is made possible by the generous ongoing support of Gordon P. and Ann G. Getty. NEW CENTURY CHAMBER ORCHESTRA 2 THE ORCHESTRA VIOLIN I VIOLIN II CELLO Daniel Hope, Iris Stone, Zhou Yi, Music Director & Principal Guest Principal Concertmaster Dawn Harms Michelle Djokic Simos Papanas, Robin Mayforth Robin Bonnell Guest Concertmaster Kayo Miki Eric Gaenslen Deborah Tien Price, Stephanie Bibbo Associate Concertmaster DOUBLE BASS Karen Shinozaki Sor VIOLA Anthony Manzo, Hrabba Atladottir Anna Kruger, Principal Jory Fankuchen Principal Jenny Douglass HARP Cassandra Lynne Richburg Meredith Clark Elizabeth Prior NEW CENTURY CHAMBER ORCHESTRA 3 PROGRAM NOTES The 1890s—variously called fin de siècle (end of the opening of the introduction. Instead of the century), la belle époque (the beautiful era), a development section, Elgar wrote what he or the Gilded Age—were a time where Europe called “a devil of a fugue” (another nod to the enjoyed an unusually long period of peace and Baroque), followed by a full recapitulation and economic growth. Britain and France were an emphatic return of the Welsh tune to crown expanding their colonial empires, while newly- the entire piece. unified Germany was eager to get its share of the booty and the Habsburgs in Austria- Hungary, with no ambitions overseas, ruled SUITE IM ALTEN STIL (“SUITE IN over many nations in Central Europe. Norway, still dominated by Sweden, was asserting its THE OLD STYLE”), OP. 10 (1888) cultural identity and independence, which BY CHRISTIAN SINDING came in 1905, was not far off. Keeping most of (Kongsberg, Norway, 1856 – Oslo, 1941) their conflicts offshore, these countries enjoyed a level of prosperity seldom seen before. All It may have been Edvard Grieg’s Holberg Suite, this was reflected in the music of the time—in written in 1884-85, that inspired Grieg’s younger general elegant, refined, and well-balanced. Few compatriot Christian Sinding to compose a Suite would have predicted that in a few years, all in the Old Style a few years later. Sinding, best this beautiful world would go up in flames in known for his piano piece Frühlingsrauschen World War I. Likewise, few signs of the radical (“Rustle of Spring)”, had started his career as stylistic changes of 20th-century music could be a violinist, and composed a great deal for his anticipated in tonight’s selection of seven works instrument. Suite in the Old Style was first from five European countries, all from the years written for violin and piano and orchestrated between 1888 and 1905. later. It is a virtuoso piece that used to be part of Jascha Heifetz’s repertoire and anticipates the lovely faux Baroque pieces of Fritz Kreisler in the early 20th century. Of its three movements, INTRODUCTION AND ALLEGRO, the first is a perpetuum mobile filled with broken OP. 47 (1905) chords, the second an Adagio with an expansive BY EDWARD ELGAR lyrical melody, and the third a stately dance with (Broadheath, nr. Worcester, England, 1857 – powerful double, triple and quadruple stops in Worcester, 1934) the violin part. The work was dedicated to Adolf Brodsky (1851-1929), the Russian violinist who The novelty in Elgar’s Introduction and Allegro gave the first performance of the Tchaikovsky lies, paradoxically, in the fact that the composer Violin Concerto. chose to revive an old musical form: the Baroque concerto grosso. The British composer appears here as a forerunner of neo-classicism, MÉDITATION FROM THAÏS (1894) incorporating as he does certain Baroque BY JULES MASSENET elements in his essentially late Romantic idiom. (Montaud, France, 1842 – Paris, 1912) His solo group, the string quartet, is of course not a Baroque formation, and after an “archaic” This universally popular violin solo—an opening, the music moves to a very different instrumental song of exquisite lyrical beauty— source of inspiration. A Welsh tune heard during comes from an opera based on an 1887 novel by a 1901 holiday at Ynys Lochtyn brings a lyrical, Anatole France, which is a new take on an old nostalgic element into the piece, appearing at story. Thaïs was a famous courtesan in ancient crucial moments at the beginning, in the middle Alexandria, Egypt, a lady with a long-standing and at the end. The tune is superimposed over literary pedigree. She first appears as a character a classical sonata form that introduces three in a play by the Roman playwright Terence (2nd more themes: one gracefully moving, the second century BCE) and shows up in Dante’s Inferno extremely busy and patter-like, and the third as well. In the novel and the opera, a saintly broad and “noble” in an Elgarian way, recalling monk, dwelling in the desert, persuades Thaïs NEW CENTURY CHAMBER ORCHESTRA 4 PROGRAM NOTES to abandon her sinful life and go to a convent seashore.