MOZART’ S JUPITER
CHRISTIAN COLBERG
Roy; J. S. Bach’ s complete piano concertos with Alexandre Tharaud, both by Virgin Classics; and Haydn’ s piano concertos with Marc-André Hamelin as soloist, released by Hyperion in April 2013.
The Canadian government has honored Bernard Labadie with the appointment as“ Officer of the Order of Canada” in 2005. His home province named him a“ Chevalier de l’ Ordre National du Québec” in 2006.
Bernard Labadie makes his BSO debut.
Emily Skala
Emily Skala is principal flutist of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. During her career, she has held three principal positions, performed as guest principal in orchestras throughout the world and has appeared at top music festivals in Aspen, Edinburgh and Brazil. As a soloist, she has worked with internationally renowned conductors including Marin Alsop, Juanjo Mena, Mario Venzago and David Zinman. After being appointed principal flutist of the BSO in 1988, Skala became a faculty member of the Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University in 1989. She has taught masterclasses at the National Orchestral Institute, the Eastman School of Music, Oberlin Conservatory and George Mason University; in Suanbo, South Korea; and for the National Flute Associations’ annual conventions.
As a soloist with the BSO, Skala has tackled the most demanding repertoire for the flute, including works by Bach, Corigliano, Rouse and Takemitsu. She has performed on numerous recordings( including Grammy ®-nominated and Grammy ®-winning CDs) for the Decca, Telarc, Sony and Naxos labels. During her time with the BSO, Skala released a solo CD of Brahms and Schubert with Summit Records, which received much critical acclaim.
Emily Skala last appeared with the BSO in June 2016, performing Bach ' s Brandenburg Concerto No. 5, Jonathan Carney, leader.
ROY COX
Sarah Fuller
Sarah Fuller has been acting as principal harpist with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra since 2007. Additionally, she is the principal harpist with the Delaware Symphony Orchestra. Her playing has been hailed by The Baltimore Sun as both“ refined” and an“ impressive flash” that“ stood out” from the orchestral texture, and The News Journal of Delaware described her solo Debussy performance as“ exquisite.”
Outside of the orchestra, Fuller leads an active musical life. As a soloist, she has performed concertos by Debussy, Ravel and Mozart with the Delaware Symphony Orchestra, and as a chamber musician she frequently performs on series such as Chamber Music by Candlelight in Baltimore. She also collaborates with notable groups such as the Philadelphia contemporary ensemble, Network for New Music( with whom she has made several recordings, including two world premieres) and Dolce Suono. In January 2009, Fuller was the solo artist on an evening of harp music for the Delaware Symphony Orchestra’ s Champagne Chamber Series, which was broadcast on Philadelphia’ s NPR station WHYY.
A native of Philadelphia, Fuller holds a master’ s degree in music from Indiana University. She studied at the New England Conservatory and the Royal Conservatory of Music’ s Glenn Gould School for her bachelor’ s degree.
Fuller has been on the faculty of the University of Maryland since 2011 and in the summers, teaches at the National Orchestral Institute.
Sarah Fuller makes her BSO solo debut.
About the Concert
EINE KLEINE NACHTMUSIK
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Born in Salzburg, Austria, January 27, 1756; died in Vienna, Austria, December 5, 1791
Eine kleine Nachtmusik( A Little Night Music) has always enjoyed hit status among Mozart’ s works, to the point that overexposure may blind us to its gemlike perfection. It is one of the finest examples of the special-occasion music he composed throughout his career under various titles: serenade, divertimento, cassation or nocturne. These works, usually in many movements, were created for princely soirées or weddings of wealthy merchants( like Mozart’ s“ Haffner” Serenade) and frequently for outside and / or evening performance. They were intended to be light, festive background music to accompany social chatter and plenty of eating and drinking.
Although Mozart usually wrote such works only on commission( they were an excellent source of quick cash for the often financially strapped composer), we have no record of why this piece— dated August 10, 1787— was written or even whether it was ever performed in his lifetime. Could he have written it for his own pleasure? The title in Mozart’ s native German, rather than the Italian he customarily used for such works, suggests that this might well have been a personal piece. Mozart biographer Alfred Einstein came up with the ingenious suggestion that Mozart might have composed it as a corrective to his A Musical Joke, K. 522, written shortly before. In A Musical Joke, Mozart gleefully thumbed his nose at all the hallowed rules of musical composition of his day, while in Eine kleine Nachtmusik, he followed those rules meticulously to create a work of ideal refinement and charm.
This composition originally contained another minuet movement; it is listed in Mozart’ s catalogue as a five-movement work, but the first minuet was inexplicably torn from the manuscript. What is left is a miniature four-movement symphony for string orchestra, with a sonata-form first movement, a slow movement in rondo form, the surviving minuet and a sonata-rondo finale. The second movement“ Romance” introduces a few nocturnal shadows in its C-minor middle section to a work that is otherwise an ideal musical expression of the relaxed pleasures of a balmy summer evening.
Instrumentation: String orchestra.
12 OVERTURE / BSOmusic. org