Vocalise, Op. 34, No. 14 Piano Concerto No. 2 in C Minor, Op. 18 Featuring Sean Botkin, Piano Conducted by Henry Duitman, founding Conductor of NISO Symphonic Dances, Op. 45 Christopher Stanichar, HENRY DUITMAN, SEAN BOTKIN, Principal Conductor CONDUCTOR piano WELCOME Good evening, ROGRAMPROGRAM Welcome to the Spring Concert “Rocky! An P __________________ All-Rachmaninoff Program.” I am pleased that THE NORTHWEST IOWA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Henry Duitman, founding NISO conductor, Christopher Stanichar, Principal Conductor is back to conduct a piano concerto featuring Henry Duitman, Guest Conductor Sean Botkin, Piano Sean Botkin. I know that you will enjoy the concert this evening! This is the grand finale of the 30th 11 April 2017 anniversary season. We say a big thank you to people who played in the symphony, people who served on the NISO board, and people who were part of the Friends organization over the past 30 years. Your contributions have made NISO successful! RACHMANINOFF Vocalise, Op. 34, No. 14 Before intermission our principal conductor Christopher Stanichar will introduce our 2017- 2018 season “Symphonic Treasures.” We have RACHMANINOFF Piano Concerto No. 2, in C Minor, Op. 18 an excellent roster of concerts for next year. I. Moderato This evening there is opportunity to purchase season tickets at a reduced price.WELCOME________________________ Also remember II. Adagio sostenuto – Più animato to buy coffee, truffles, Dearand NISO 30th friends, anniversary III. Allegro scherzando Celebrating 30 years: Welcome to the opening concert of our 30th Anniversary season, "Musical CDs to continue your supportGems of." Tonight NISO. we Wehear aremusic telling stories and creating visual images, music considered looking forward to anothersome fantastic of the most well season-known and well-liked program music. This is just the beginning of our celebratory season with outstanding guest artists, reunion of former players and board and further success in the future.members, and welcoming back to the stage the NISO founder, Dr. Henry Duitman conducting Rachmaninoff. Presentation of 2017-2018 NISO Concert Season Tonight I also say farewell as my fourth term on the Board of Directors concludes January 1, Best Regards, 2017; of those twelve years, I have served seven years as board chair. What an amazing experience and outstanding organization to lead! I'm convinced the next 30 years will be filled Rhonda Pennings with strong players, fabulous music, and joy that only the arts can contribute. Thank you to so NISO Board Chairperson many who have helped me, thank you for all the generous financial support, and thank you to the players and conductors for sharing their talents. Intermission Enjoy the Friends' truffles at intermission and look into purchasing the new (don't miss it!) NISO 30th Anniversary CD. NISO 30TH ANNIVERSARY CD Musically yours, Norma Snyder Jones, Board Chairperson NISO is excited to present our very first CD as part of the celebration of our 30th Anniversary. The RACHMANINOFF Symphonic Dances, Op. 45 NISO releases 30th Anniversary CD CD is a sampler of performance highlights from I. Non allegro past years. It includes twelve NISO is excited to present our very first CD as part of the celebration of our 30th Anniversary. The CD is II.a samplerAndante of performance con highlightsmoto pieces by twelve different from past years. It includes twelve pieces by twelve different composers composers from eleven from eleven different concerts conducted by Henry Duitman, Tim McGarvey, Henry Charles SmitIII.h, JunghoLento Kim, assai and –Christopher Allegro vivace – Lento assai different concerts conducted Stanichar. The compositions include the lovely Pavane by Fauré, the “Triumphal March” from Aida by Verdi, theCome dramatic prima Pines of – Rome Allegro by vivace by Henry Duitman, Tim Respighi, and nine other concert favorites. McGarvey, Henry Charles The CD will debut TONIGHT and will be for sale at all NISO concerts this season. It will also be available in the NISO office; requests for Smith, Jungho Kim, and mail orders can be submitted by e-mail. The CD costs $15.00, with Christopher Stanichar. The proceeds going toward 2016-2017 season expenses. Further information, including a complete listing of the titles and ordering information, is available at compositions include the www.niso.dordt.edu. lovely Pavane by Fauré, the “Triumphal March” from Aida by Verdi, the dramatic Pines of Rome by Respighi, and nine other concert favorites. The CD will be for sale at all NISO concerts this season. It is also available in the NISO office; requests for mail orders can be submitted by e-mail. Please Note: The CD costs $15.00, with proceeds going toward Flash photography and the use of recording 2016-2017 season expenses. devices is prohibited during NISO concerts. Further information, including a complete Please disable all cell phones and pagers. listing of the titles and ordering information, is available at www.niso.dordt.edu. 2017-2018 Season Tickets will be available for purchase at Pre-Season Sale Prices - TONIGHT ONLY! PROGRAM NOTES_________________ PROGRAM NOTES__________________ “[Rachmaninoff’s] music is well constructed and effective, but monotonous in texture, which consists in essence mainly of artificial and gushing tunes accompanied by a variety of figures derived from arpeggios. The enormous popular success some few of Rachmaninoff’s works had in his lifetime is not likely to last, and musicians never regarded it with much favor.” Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 5th edition (1954) In an age when futurists yearned for a brave new horizon of endless dissonance, musicians and critics alike found the tuneful, appealing music of Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff dated. In fairness, it perhaps was. And this should come as no surprise: he composed the majority of his music when quite young, when names such as Schönberg and Stravinsky were still unknown. After emigrating to America in 1917, Rachmaninoff enjoyed such success as a pianist and conductor that his busy schedule left him little time for composing. Indeed, in the final 25 years of his life, he completed only six new works. Ultimately and with hindsight’s clarity, we may today appreciate Rachmaninoff as one of the great musical figures of the 20th century. Though renowned as a towering giant of the keyboard, he wrote fluently for choir, orchestra, opera, and chamber ensembles. He worked as a recording artist during the earliest days of commercially recorded sound. Even the editors at Grove’s finally got around to changing their minds in 1980, favorably describing Rachmaninoff as “the last great representative of Russian late romanticism.” Vocalise, Op.34, No.14 In February of 1912, the Armenian poet Marietta Shaginyan began writing letters to Rachmaninoff under the pseudonym “Ré”. The two corresponded for five years and Rachmaninoff asked Ré for recommendations on poetry that might go well with music; she suggested works by the likes of Pushkin, Korinfsky, and Tyutchev. By the end of that year, Rachmaninoff had completed his op. 34, a collection of fourteen “Romances” for voice and piano. Ironically, though the project began with a shared love of poetry, it is the collection’s closing movement, a wordless Vocalise, which has garnered lasting acclaim. Rachmaninoff dedicated this movement to the Ukrainian soprano Antonina Nezhdanova, who performed the work with orchestra in 1916. Since then, the work’s dreamy spiral of mordents floating on a pillow of repeated chords has enchanted musicians and listeners alike. Rachmaninoff’s Vocalise has been arranged and rearranged for countless combinations by countless artists, even appearing as a background melody in the Pet Shop Boys’ 1999 song, “Happiness is an Option.” Piano Concerto No. 2 in C Minor, Op. 18 1. Moderato 2. Adagio sostenuto 3. Allegro scherzando After three years of work and revision, Rachmaninoff’s first symphony was ready for its premiere. Rachmaninoff had called in favors from fellow composers to persuade philanthropist Mitrofan Belyayev to include the work on one of the Russian Symphony concerts in St. Petersburg. The premiere on March 28th, 1897 is remembered in musical infamy: The orchestra was under-rehearsed, the conductor was incompetent and rumored to be drunk, the audience was appalled, the critics were savage...and the young composer himself walked out, heartbroken, before the final movement. Rachmaninoff sank into profound depression. He moped through insignificant work as a piano teacher and conductor for three years until undergoing hypnosis by psychotherapist and amateur violist Nikolai Dahl. At last he was able to resume composing, completing the present concerto (dedicated to Dahl) in 1901. Premiered in its entirety by Rachmaninoff in April, 1901, the concerto was a resounding success. With swirling pianism and soaring lyricism, it remains a favorite of audiences worldwide and has crossed gracefully into vernacular circles: excerpts are heard regularly in figure skating and gymnastics; several of Rachmaninoff’s melodies have found their way into popular songs by artists such as Eric Carmen and Frank Sinatra. Symphonic Dances, Op.45 1. Non allegro 2. Andante con moto (Tempo di valse) 3. Lento assai—Allegro vivace “Last week I finished a new symphonic piece, which I naturally want to give first to you and your orchestra. It is called ‘Fantastic Dances’. I shall now begin the orchestration.” Rachmaninoff, writing to Eugene Ormandy in August, 1940 In 1915 Rachmaninoff began working out ideas for a ballet to be titled “The Scythians.” Celebrated choreographer Mikhail Folkine rejected the material as unpromising for ballet; Rachmaninoff shelved the ideas and the project never materialized. Half a lifetime later and half a world away, Rachmaninoff recast these earlier themes as purely orchestral music, maintaining the moniker “dances” as a nod to the work’s origin. Rachmaninoff cultivated a close relationship with the Philadelphia Orchestra. It was in Philadelphia that he gave his American conducting debut. He collaborated with Philadelphia’s new Hungarian-American director, Eugene Ormandy, in a recording of three of his concerti in 1939.