Overture Magazine: 2016-2017 Season May-June 2017 | Page 36

{ program notes
America-Israel Cultural Foundation. In
1981, he made debuts with the Jerusalem
Symphony and the Israel Philharmonic,
and the following year, took the first
prize in Israel’s Claremont Competi-
tion. He then became a scholarship
student at Juilliard, and also studied
at Columbia University.
Mr. Shaham was awarded an Avery
Fisher Career Grant in 1990, and in 2008,
received the coveted Avery Fisher Prize.
In 2012, he was named “Instrumentalist
of the Year” by Musical America. He plays
the 1699 “Countess Polignac” Stradivar-
ius, and lives in New York City with his
wife, violinist Adele Anthony, and their
three children.
The BSO
Gil Shaham last appeared with the BSO
in September 2012, performing Barber’s
Violin Concerto, Marin Alsop, conductor.
About the concert:
T he G ame
Christoper Theofanidis
Born in Dallas in 1967.
Composer’s statement: “One of my
favorite series of all time is The Wire by
David Simon — a work that I consider to
be absolutely literary in its sophistication
and depth. It is an amazing look at a cross
section of lives that, while seeming to
exist in their own corners, are all actually
very interconnected. The series examines
motivations through the lens of character
and circumstance, and has its storytelling
roots in Simon’s many years of writing for
The Baltimore Sun and in the writing of
the fascinating 19 th -century French writer,
Honoré de Balzac. For all these reasons, I
chose to dedicate this short work to David
Simon and the cast and team of The Wire.
“One of the many brilliant details of
this series is that the song, ‘Down in
the Hole,’ by Tom Waits, is used as the
theme song for each season, but it is real-
ized very differently by different artists:
in season one by The Blind Boys of Ala-
bama, season two by Tom Waits, season
three by The Neville Brothers, season
four by DoMaJe and season five by Steve
34 O v ertur e |
bsomusic.org
Earle. In tribute to David Simon and
all the people that made that incredible
series happen, my piece, The Game, is an
orchestral take on that song; in my mind
anyway, it is a kind of orchestral theme
song for an imaginary sixth season.
Many thanks go to Tom Waits for the
permission to dream a little….”
Instrumentation: Two flutes, piccolo, two
oboes, English horn, two clarinets, bass
clarinet, two bassoons, contrabassoon,
four horns, three trumpets, three trombones,
tuba, percussion, strings.
Violin Concerto in D Major
Ludwig van Beethoven
Born in Bonn, December 16, 1770; died in
Vienna, March 25, 1827
We tend to think that great musical
masterpieces — especially when they
come from the pen of the fist-shaking
Beethoven — should embody tragedy, a
struggle against obstacles, and perhaps
hard-won victory. However, Beethoven’s
Violin Concerto demonstrates that a work
can be predominantly conflict-free, serene