BRAHMS & HAYDN WITH HEYWARD
Knife of Dawn. He has also conducted Kurt Weill’ s Lost in the Stars with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and the world premiere of Giorgio Battistelli’ s opera, Wake for the Birmingham Opera Company.
Born in Charleston, South Carolina, Jonathon studied conducting at the Boston Conservatory of Music and London’ s Royal Academy of Music. In 2023, he was named a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music; an honour reserved for Academy alumni.
Simone Lamsma
Dutch violinist Simone Lamsma is respected and celebrated by critics, peers, and audiences as one of classical music’ s most striking and captivating musical personalities.
A sought-after soloist with an extensive repertoire, Simone has graced the stages of many of the world’ s leading ensembles, including the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestras, Chicago, Detroit, Pittsburgh,
Simone Lamsma
Dallas, Cincinnati, San Francisco and National Symphony Orchestras, London Symphony and Philharmonic, BBC Symphony and Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw, Rotterdam, Oslo and Seoul Philharmonic Orchestras. She has collaborated with an impressive roster of esteemed conductors such as van Zweden, Pappano, Nezét-Séguin, Payare, Järvi, Cannelakis, Denève, Noseda, Heyward, Young, Poga, Bignamini, and Gimeno, among others, enjoying frequent repeat engagements.
In the 2025-26 season, Simone will return, among several engagements, to the Orchestre Symphonique
Otto van den Toorn de Montréal( Payare), Seoul Philharmonic( van Zweden), Rotterdam Philharmonic( Peltokoski), Sydney Symphony( Young), RAI Symphony( Chauhan), Baltimore Symphony( Heyward), Antwerp Symphony at the Enescu Festival( Tjeknavorian), BBC Philharmonic( Storgårds), Royal Liverpool Philharmonic( Hindoyan) and debut with Singapore Symphony( Lintu), Seattle Symphony( Zhang), and Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana( Bleuse). She will also play recitals with pianist Jonathan Fournel at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Wigmore Hall and Heidelberger Frühling Festival.
Her discography includes her 2024 release, Pärt über Bach with the Amsterdam Sinfonietta, featuring double concertos, and in 2022, her recording of late works by Rautavaara, including world premieres, with the Malmö Symphony and Robert Treviño for Ondine.
Simone Lamsma plays the 1703 ‘ Aurora ex-Foulis’ Stradivarius, on generous loan to her by a benefactor.
NOTES ON THE PROGRAM
By James M. Keller
Marianne Martines
Born May 4, 1744, in Vienna, Austria Died December 13, 1812, in Vienna, Austria
SINFONIA IN C MAJOR [ 1770 ]
Marianne Martines came of age in a Vienna that was on the verge of seizing primacy as Europe’ s nonpareil music capital. Her father, son of a Spanish military man, had moved there from Naples and held a post at the Papal Embassy. The Martines family( the surname is sometimes spelled Martinez or Martínez, and Marianne is sometimes referred to as Marianna) owned a large residence where they also housed the poet Pietro Metastasio, the leading opera librettist of that time, who became
Marianne’ s foster father. Other residents at the same address were the acclaimed composer and singing teacher Nicola Porpora and, in the attic( unheated, with a leaky roof), his pupil Joseph Haydn. Newly released from the choir school of St. Stephen’ s Cathedral when his voice changed, young Haydn was scraping by accompanying Porpora’ s students, of which Martines was one of the best. Even as a child she attracted attention for her exceptional voice and her skill at the keyboard, and after study with Porpora, Giuseppe Bonno, and perhaps Johann Adolphe Hasse, she began attracting attention as a composer, making a splash when the third of her four Masses was performed in 1761 at Vienna’ s St. Michael Church, which shared a wall with her home. In 1773, she was elected to membership in the prestigious Accademia Filarmonica of Bologna, the first woman so honored.
Metastasio made the Martineses heirs to his substantial estate, and when he died in 1782, they became wealthy, with Marianne personally inheriting the poet’ s instruments and music collection in addition to 20,000 florins. She hosted a musical salon that attracted many of Vienna’ s notables, including her friend Haydn and Mozart, who played his four-hand sonatas with her. Sixty-five of her compositions, including piano pieces, sacred choral works( including two oratorios), chamber cantatas, three keyboard concertos, and her C-major Symphony survive.
The Symphony is cast in three movements, typical of Italianate symphonies and of the early symphonies of Haydn and Mozart. The first is a lively Allegro con spirito with strongly etched themes. The Andante ma non troppo is lyrical and affecting, with muted strings, and the
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