{ Program Notes
Cl ai r e M cAdams
Andrew Grams last performed with the
BSO in December 2013, conducting The
Nutcracker at the Modell Performing Arts
Center at the Lyric.
Lauren Snouffer
A recent graduate of
the Houston Grand
Opera Studio,
American soprano
Lauren Snouffer has bowed at the
Company as Elvira in L’ italiana in
Algeri, Ellie in Show Boat in a new production by Francesca Zambello under
the baton of Music Director Patrick
Summers, Lucia in The Rape of Lucretia conducted by Rory Macdonald and
directed by Arin Arbus, Thibault in a
new production of Don Carlos directed
by John Caird and conducted by Patrick
Summers, and as Rosina in student
performances of Il barbiere di Siviglia.
During the 2013-2014 season, she
sings Pamina in The Magic Flute for
a company debut at the Lyric Opera
of Kansas City conducted by Gary
Wedow, and joins the roster of the
Lyric Opera of Chicago in productions
of Rusalka and La clemenza di Tito.
She makes a New York Philharmonic
debut in HK Gruber’s Gloria – A Pig
Tale conducted by Alan Gilbert and
directed by Doug Fitch, and joins Matthias Pintscher for Bach’s Johannes-Passion with the International Beethoven
Project in Chicago. This past summer
she appeared with the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble singing Ligeti’s Mysteries of the Macabre and performed the
role of Agnes in George Benjamin’s
Written on Skin at Tanglewood under
the baton of the composer.
Ms. Snouffer has collaborated
with Houston’s Mercury Baroque,
Juilliard415 and with the AXIOM
Ensemble. She was a grand finalist in the 2012 Metropolitan Opera
National Council Auditions and is a
graduate of Rice University and The
Juilliard School.
Lauren Snouffer is making
her BSO Debut.
14 O v ertur e |
www. bsomusic .org
About the concert:
Johann Strauss II
1825–1899
Franz Lehár
1870–1948
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
1756–1791
Part fantasy and part reality, Old Vienna
was the city devoted to the pleasure principle — a feast for all the senses. Buildings
decorated like wedding cakes dazzled the
eyes. Sugar-spun pastries teased the palate.
And for over a century, if you loved music
you were in paradise: Mozart, Beethoven,
Schubert, Brahms, and the Strauss
family all made their careers in Vienna
between the 1780s and the 1890s. All
the music we’ll hear on this program was
born in this imperial city, which during
that period still reigned over the AustroHungarian Empire, comprising today’s
countries of the Czech Republic, Slovakia,
Hungary, and Austria.
The Voices of Spring Waltz
began its life as a
waltz song in praise of the
coming of Spring
Above all, Vienna was Europe’s premier
ballroom. In 1807, Vienna’s first grand
dance hall, the Sperl, was opened. In the
following decade, Johann Strauss I rapidly
became one of Vienna’s most popular
dance conductor-composers, and when in
1829 he took over the orchestra at Sperl’s,
he became the undisputed king. He
reigned unchallenged until 1844 when his
18-year-old son Johann II began leading
the rival orchestra at