PROGRAM NOTES
MARIN CONDUCTS BEETHOVEN ’ S FIFTH
ABOUT THE ARTISTS Marin Alsop
One of the foremost conductors of our time , Marin Alsop represents a powerful and inspiring voice . The first woman to serve as the head of a major orchestra in the US , South America , Austria , and Britain , she is the first to receive a MacArthur Fellowship . She holds positions as Chief Conductor of the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra ; first Music Director of the University of Maryland ’ s National Orchestral Institute + Festival ; Conductor of Honour of Brazil ’ s São Paulo Symphony Orchestra ; and Chief Conductor and Curator of Chicago ’ s Ravinia Festival , where she conducts the Chicago Symphony Orchestra ’ s summer residencies . After an outstanding 14-year tenure as its Music Director , she assumes the title of Music Director Laureate and OrchKids Founder of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra . She is also the founder of the Taki Alsop Conducting Fellowship , which promotes and nurtures the careers of fellow female conductors .
Augustin Hadelich
Augustin Hadelich is one of the great violinists of our time . Often referred to by colleagues as a musician ' s musician , he is consistently cited worldwide for his phenomenal technique , soulful approach , and insightful interpretations .
2022 – 23 season highlights included include return engagements with the Baltimore , Atlanta , Cincinnati , Pittsburgh , Philadelphia , Boston , and Toronto Symphony Orchestras ; Vienna Symphony ; Danish National Orchestra ; Dresden Philharmonic , and London Philharmonic Orchestra . He will also make his debut with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and play a European tour with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra .
Hadelich has appeared with every major orchestra in North and South America , including the Chicago , San Francisco , and Cleveland Symphony Orchestras ; Los Angeles and New York Philharmonics ; L ’ Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal ; and the Symphony Orchestra of São Paulo ( OSESP ) in Brazil .
Augustin is on the violin faculty of the Yale School of Music at Yale University . He plays the violin " Leduc , ex-Szeryng " by Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesù of 1744 , generously loaned by a patron through the Tarisio Trust .
Marin Alsop
Experience the Performance Again A livestream of this program is available for a limited time .
Augustin Hadelich
Suxiao Yang
FROM THE PODIUM
by Marin Alsop
This concert is about personal perseverance and triumph in the face of huge obstacles . The specifics were different for William Grant Still , Dmitri Shostakovich , and Ludwig van Beethoven , but all three composed under daunting circumstances , both personal and political . A phenomenally talented American composer , Still was not afforded the opportunities he deserved simply because he was Black . His In Memoriam : The Colored Soldiers Who Died for Democracy embodies the dichotomy of so many Black people who gave their hearts and lives for America but were nonetheless denied the freedoms they deserved . Up to the time of World War II , there was huge skepticism that Americans — let alone people of color — could produce art competitive with the European tradition . A piece like Still ’ s challenges such thinking .
Shostakovich suffered brutally under the totalitarian regime of the Soviet Union , slapped down by Stalin ’ s enforcers over and over .
His wonderful Violin Concerto No . 1 fell at one of the worst times of political censure , and it waited quite a few years before it could be premiered . The question that looms over Shostakovich ’ s whole career was how he could remain true to himself as an artist while appeasing powerful people who didn ’ t really know anything about music .
Beethoven similarly wrote his towering Fifth Symphony against a fraught political background , with Vienna occupied by Napoleon ’ s forces , but he was also beset by deafness and other physical ailments . All he wanted was to connect with people , but he became more and more cut off . He has always been a hero of mine , but during Covid times I grew to appreciate him all the more as a symbol of tenacity in the face of adversity . The Fifth Symphony has been a beacon for every age , and it certainly speaks to the times we have all been struggling though .
NOV-DEC 2022 / OVERTURE 19