MOZART & SCHUBERT
Philharmonic, and the BBC Singers. She is the author of the critically acclaimed books Mozart’ s Women, Handel in London, and Mozart in Italy. In 2020 she was awarded the Royal Philharmonic Society’ s Gamechanger Award for her work in breaking new ground for other female conductors.
Harrison Miller
Harrison Miller was appointed principal bassoon of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in 2021 by Music Director Marin Alsop, after having joined the BSO as acting principal bassoon in 2017. Additional orchestral experience includes guest work with the New York Philharmonic, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, American Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra of St. Luke’ s, Louisville Orchestra, American Ballet Theatre, and the Symphony in C in Haddonfield, New Jersey.
Harrison Miller
Harrison received his Bachelor of Music from The Juilliard School in May 2017, where he studied with Judith LeClair. In addition to receiving a Kovner Fellowship, Harrison was the winner of Juilliard’ s 2017 Peter Mennin Prize for outstanding achievement and leadership in music.
Born in Greenwich, Connecticut, Harrison began his formal musical education studying with Joyce Kelley before going on to attend the Juilliard Pre-College as a student of Marc Goldberg in 2010. The first bassoonist in Juilliard’ s history to win concerto competitions in two divisions, Harrison performed as soloist with both the Juilliard Pre-College Orchestra and the Juilliard Orchestra.
Summer festivals include participation at the Lakes Area Music Festival, Aspen Music Festival and School as a New Horizons Fellow, the Tanglewood Music Center, the Music Academy of the West, and the Sarasota Music Festival.
Harrison currently serves as bassoon faculty of the Hidden Valley Festival of Winds, and has been on faculty at the Sarasota Music Festival, Philadelphia International Music Festival, and the Interlochen Center for the Arts Camp. He has presented masterclasses at The Julliard School, University of Toronto, University of Maryland, and the University of North Carolina Greensboro.
NOTES ON THE PROGRAM
By James M. Keller.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Born: January 27, 1756 in Salzburg, Austria Died: December 5, 1791 in Vienna, Austria
SYMPHONY NO. 34 IN C MAJOR, K. 338 [ 1780 ]
By 1780, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart had been fêted in cities across Europe and was fed up with what he considered the provincialism of his native Salzburg. He would break free and settle in Vienna in 1781, but in 1780 he was still employed by Salzburg’ s Prince-Archbishop Colloredo, whom he despised. He didn’ t allow his unhappiness to color his compositions of that year, which included his opera Idomeneo and three notable works in C major: the Mass( K. 337), the Vesperae solennes de Confessore( K. 339), and the Symphony No. 34( K. 338). Knowing that this was last symphony Mozart wrote before his definitive break with Salzburg, we may be inclined to hear it as a piece that has expanded beyond earlier confines, a musical chick well along in pecking its way out of its shell. Whereas Mozart’ s Salzburg symphonies typically display what has been fairly adjudged a chamber style, this one is large in both form and content. C major was a key congenial to the wind instruments of that time, and Mozart often used it for pieces he wanted to enliven with the brilliant timbre of trumpets, their military majesty typically underscored with timpani. We know this“ Mozart C-major sound” from such later works as his Piano Concertos K. 415, K. 467, and K. 503, as well as his final symphony, the Jupiter( K. 551); and here we find it already in the fanfare-like outbursts of the first and third movements of his Symphony No. 34, with the brass texture reinforced by a pair of horns. The brilliance of the outer movements subsides for the second movement,
but the orchestral fabric remains plush, with the deep-timbred violas divided into two sections, yielding an unusual-for-Mozart string texture of five parts.
Instrumentation: Two oboes, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, timpani, and strings.
Nino Rota
Born: December 3, 1911 in Rome, Italy Died: April 10, 1979 in Rome, Italy
CONCERTO FOR BASSOON AND ORCHESTRA [ 1974 – 77 ]
Nino Rota is revered among cinephiles for having created the sound of Federico Fellini. He was first hired by the eminent director in 1952, and by the time Rota died 27 years later, the two had collaborated on no fewer than 16 films, including such top-drawer classics as La strada( 1954), Le notte di Cabiria( 1957), La dolce vita( 1960), Otto di mezza( a. k. a.
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