PROGRAM NOTES
SEASON OPENING CONCERT
ABOUT THE ARTIST Itzhak Perlman
Undeniably the reigning virtuoso of the violin, Itzhak Perlman enjoys superstar status rarely afforded a classical musician. Beloved for his charm and humanity as well as his talent, he is treasured by audiences throughout the world who respond not only to his remarkable artistry, but also to his irrepressible joy for making music.
Having performed with every major orchestra around the globe, Perlman was granted a Presidential Medal of Freedom— the Nation’ s highest civilian honor— by President Obama in 2015, a Kennedy Center Honor in 2003, a National Medal of Arts by President Clinton in 2000, and a Medal of Liberty by President Reagan in 1986. Perlman has been honored with 16 Grammy ® Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and a Genesis Prize.
In 2021-22, Perlman brings his new program entitled“ An Evening with Itzhak Perlman,” capturing highlights of his career through multi-media elements intertwined with performance, to San Francisco, Seattle, East Lansing, West Palm Beach, Ft. Myers, and Tallahassee. Perlman recently launched a series of classes with Masterclass. com, the premier online education company that enables access to the world’ s most brilliant minds.
ABOUT THE PROGRAM
BY AARON GRAD
Johann Sebastian Bach
Born March 21, 1685 in Eisenach, Germany Died July 28, 1750 in Leipzig, Germany
VIOLIN CONCERTO NO. 2 IN E MAJOR, BWV 1042 [ C. 1730 ]
In 1723, after six years of working for a musically inclined prince, Bach landed a prestigious church job in Leipzig. He was consumed at first by the enormous task of writing and rehearsing sacred music for weekly services( as well as training the young choristers who would sing it), but over time he reclaimed enough leisure time to take on a side job leading the Collegium Musicum, a group of talented amateurs who performed at a local coffee house.
Bach reveled in the opportunity to present instrumental music again. He dusted off old scores from earlier jobs, and he also created a whole new body of compositions for large ensemble, including his two surviving violin concertos from around 1730.
Bach’ s greatest inspiration for his violin concertos came from the Italian master of the form, Antonio Vivaldi. When Bach started his E-major concerto with three chords and a pause, for instance, he was rehashing a stock opening that can be found in some two dozen of Vivaldi’ s concertos. Where Bach excelled was in taking such simple material on unimaginable journeys through surprising keys and sophisticated counterpoint, all while making the most of the violin’ s technical capabilities. As his son and onetime Collegium member C. P. E. Bach later wrote,“ From his youth up to fairly old age,…[ Bach ] played the violin purely and with a penetrating tone and thus kept the orchestra in top form, much better than he could have from the harpsichord. He completely understood the possibilities of all stringed instruments.”
Instrumentation Harpsichord and strings.
Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Born May 7, 1840 in Kamsko-Votkinsk, Russia Died November 6, 1893 in Saint Petersburg, Russia
ROMEO AND JULIET, FANTASY-OVERTURE [ 1869, REVISED 1880 ]
When the young and insecure Tchaikovsky was trying to find his place in the Russian music community, he sought out Mily Balakirev, an influential composer and critic best known today as the ringleader of“ The Russian Five.” After conducting an early score of Tchaikovsky’ s, Balakirev took the budding composer under his wing. He proposed that Tchaikovsky should write a new orchestral overture based on Shakespeare’ s Romeo and Juliet, and he even went so far as to outline a particular way the themes should be organized. Tchaikovsky sought feedback from Balakirev on the work-inprogress in 1869, and after the premiere the next year he honored him with the score’ s dedication.
The Romeo and Juliet, Fantasy-Overture, as it became known after an 1880 revision, features three main themes, representing Friar Laurence, the struggle between the Montagues and the Capulets, and Romeo and Juliet’ s love. The“ Friar Laurence” music, in a hymn-like setting, fills the slow introduction, while the faster“ struggle” material serves as the primary theme for the ensuing body of the overture, its bellicosity emphasized by crashing cymbals.
The contrasting theme that represents“ love” is an early example of Tchaikovsky’ s special talent for concocting timeless melodies, drawing on his deep affection for Viennese symphonies and Parisian ballets. Such cosmopolitan influences would eventually separate Tchaikovsky from the die-hard nationalists who made up“ The Five,” and he remained an outsider in Russian music even while crafting some of the greatest symphonies and ballets his country would ever produce.
Instrumentation Two flutes, piccolo, two oboes, English horn, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, harp, and strings.
SEP-OCT 2021 / OVERTURE 13