TO BERNSTEIN WITH LOVE
Winner of Best Female Artist at both 2012 and 2013 Classical BRIT Awards , Benedetti records exclusively for Decca ( Universal Music ). Her most recent recording of Shostakovich and Glazunov violin concertos has been met with critical acclaim . Her recording Homecoming : A Scottish Fantasy made her the first solo British violinist since the 1990s to enter the Top 20 of the Official U . K . Albums Chart .
Benedetti was appointed as a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire ( MBE ) in the 2013 New Year Honors , in recognition of her international music career and work with musical charities throughout the United Kingdom .
Benedetti plays the “ Gariel ” Stradivarius ( 1717 ), courtesy of Jonathan Moulds .
Nicola Benedetti makes her BSO debut .
About the Concert
SELECTIONS FROM A BERNSTEIN BIRTHDAY BOUQUET
Any year is a welcome time to hear music by Leonard Bernstein , the most charismatic and multi-talented musician America has ever produced . However , 2018 is an especially fortuitous one because it is the 100 th anniversary of Bernstein ’ s birth in 1918 . And its worldwide celebration will be as prodigious as was Bernstein ’ s personality . In fact , it is lasting not one year but two : beginning with his 99 th birthday on August 25 , 2017 and continuing until that date in August 2019 . The celebration encompasses thousands of concerts and activities in scores of countries , including virtually every nation in North America , Europe , Asia , South America , Australia and New Zealand , as well as South Africa and several others on the African continent .
To begin the BSO ’ s Bernstein celebration , Marin Alsop is remembering another Bernstein anniversary : his 70 th birthday in 1988 held at the Boston Symphony Orchestra ’ s bucolic Tanglewood Festival in the Massachusetts Berkshires . In 1940 , Bernstein had been one of the first students at its Tanglewood
Institute for gifted young musicians , and he subsequently returned there virtually every summer until his death in 1990 to teach the conducting talent of the future . One of his most brilliant pupils was Marin Alsop .
That summer of 1988 there was a fourday mini-festival at Tanglewood featuring both Bernstein ’ s music and the man himself on the podium . On the last day , a remarkable tribute , A Bernstein Birthday Bouquet — Eight Variations on a Theme by Leonard Bernstein , was unveiled under the baton of Seiji Ozawa , music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra at the time . It was the creation of eight famous composers — Luciano Berio , Leon Kirchner , Jacob Druckman , Lukas Foss , John Corigliano , John Williams , Toru Takemitsu and William Schuman — each of them composing a variation on one of Bernstein ’ s most unforgettable themes : the song “ New York , New York ” from his early Broadway triumph On the Town .
The styles of these variations are as diverse as the composers themselves . Maestra Alsop has chosen her favorite three to open this concert . The first is by the Italian avant-garde composer Luciano Berio ( 1925 – 2003 ); the second by John Corigliano ( b . 1938 ), composer of the Pied Piper Fantasy for flute and The Red Violin Fantasy for violin ; and the third by America ’ s most illustrious film composer John Williams ( b . 1932 ). And you won ’ t have to listen very hard to detect another famous tune besides “ New York , New York .”
Instrumentation : Two flutes , piccolo , two oboes , English horn , two clarinets , E-flat clarinet , bass clarinet , alto saxophone , two bassoons , contrabassoon , four horns , four trumpets , three trombones , tuba , timpani , percussion , harp , piano , celesta and strings .
SERENADE
Leonard Bernstein
Born in Lawrence , MA , August 25 , 1918 ; died in New York City , NY , October 14 , 1990
The mid-1950s , along with the mid- 1940s , were the richest periods of
Leonard Bernstein ’ s compositional career . In 1957 , West Side Story followed hard on the heels of Candide ( 1956 ). These two works for Broadway were preceded in 1953 – 54 by one of his finest works for the concert hall : Serenade for Solo Violin , Strings , Harp and Percussion . At its debut in Venice on September 12 , 1954 , with Isaac Stern as soloist and Bernstein himself conducting the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra , it was universally acclaimed by the critics and today is firmly established in the contemporary concerto repertoire .
Serenade was commissioned by the Koussevitzky Music Foundation , founded by Bernstein ’ s mentor , the Boston Symphony Orchestra ’ s revered music director Serge Koussevitzky . Koussevitzky had recently died in 1951 and was still mourned by Bernstein , who for the rest of his life wore “ Koussy ’ s ” cuff links at every concert he conducted and kissed them for good luck before going on stage .
However , Serenade was not a memorial to Koussevitzky ; rather , Bernstein tells us , it was inspired by “ a re-reading of Plato ’ s charming dialogue , The Symposium .” One of Plato ’ s shorter and lighter dialogues , The Symposium takes place at a well-lubricated dinner party at the poet-dramatist Agathon ’ s house , during which Socrates , Aristophanes and the other guests praise the god Eros and discourse on love in all its aspects . Bernstein wrote that “ there is no literal program ” for the work , but by following the basic tone of each speaker , ranging from humorous to elegiac , he created a five-movement work of marvelous variety and momentum . He wrote gorgeously for an unusual ensemble , consisting of string orchestra augmented by harp and a variety of percussion instruments , and equally skillfully for the violin soloist , whose virtuosity never overwhelms expressiveness .
Bernstein provided the following brief guideline to Serenade :
“ I . Phaedrus ; Pausanias ( Lento ; Allegro ). Phaedrus opens the symposium with a lyrical oration in praise of Eros , the god of love . ( Fugato , begun by
12 OVERTURE / BSOmusic . org