Overture Magazine - 2018-19 Season BSO_Overture_NOV_DEC | Page 14

POULENC CONCERTO FOR TWO PIANOS
2018-2019 CONCERT SEASON
Our BIGGEST & BOLDEST Yet!
Featuring Bach Cantatas and Brandenburg
Concertos, plus works by Handel, Vivaldi,
John Rutter, Leonard Bernstein, and more!
Performed by the renowned
Bach Concert Choir & Orchestra
with vocal soloists in beautiful spaces
throughout the Baltimore area.
Join us the fi rst Sunday of the month
at 4 p.m. through June 2, 2019
Call
410.941.9262
or visit
bachinbaltimore.org
Magnifique
10% o
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with thea eck
ter
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904 N Charles St,
Baltimore, MD 21201
Bistro: 410-385-9946
Catering: 410-385-9956
Fax: [phone]
marielouisebistrocatering. com
12
OV E R T U R E / BSOmusic.org
throughout the globe with the unity
engendered by their mystical musical
communication. As quoted by The Wall
Street Journal, Christina Naughton has
said, “There are times I forget we are two
people playing together.”
The Naughtons have appeared as
soloists with the Philadelphia and
Minnesota orchestras; the Atlanta,
Houston, Baltimore, Detroit, St. Louis,
San Diego, Virginia, Milwaukee and
New Jersey symphonies; the Minnesota
Orchestra; and the Buffalo Philharmonic.
They have also appeared with orchestras
around the world such as the Mahler
Chamber Orchestra, St. Petersburg
Philharmonic, Hong Kong Philharmonic,
Netherlands Philharmonic (at the
Concertgebouw), Royal Scottish National
Orchestra, l’Orchestre Philharmonique de
Strasbourg, New Zealand Symphony and
the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra.
American concert series have had
the Naughton sisters in such venues as
the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater,
New York City’s Lincoln Center, the
Schubert Club in St. Paul, Los Angeles’
Walt Disney Concert Hall, Boston’s
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
and Fort Worth’s Cliburn Concerts.
International recital highlights include
Berlin’s Kammermusiksaal, Munich’s
Herkulessaal, Zurich’s Tonhalle, Beijing’s
Forbidden City Concert Hall and Mexico
City’s Palacio de las Bellas Artes.
They have also appeared at festivals
such as France’s La Roque-d'Anthéron,
Germany’s Kissinger Sommer, Chicago’s
Ravinia Festival, La Jolla Summerfest and
Wyoming’s Grand Teton Festival.
In February 2016, the Naughtons
released their debut record on Warner
Classics, entitled Visions, featuring the
music of Messiaen, Bach and Adams. The
album received much critical acclaim,
with The Washington Post hailing them
as one of the “greatest piano duos of our
time.” The record was chosen as “Editor’s
Choice” in Gramophone magazine.
Born in Princeton, NJ to parents of
European and Chinese descent, the
Naughtons are graduates of the Juilliard
School and the Curtis Institute of Music,
where they were each awarded the
Festorazzi Prize. They are Steinway Artists
and currently reside in New York City.
Christina and Michelle Naughton make their
BSO debut.
About the Concert
SINFONIA NO. 7 FOR STRINGS IN D MINOR
Felix Mendelssohn
Born in Hamburg, Germany, February 3, 1809;
died in Leipzig, Saxony, Germany,
November 4, 1847
Felix Mendelssohn was truly a golden child,
blessed with brains and prodigious talent,
and a near-ideal environment in which to
cultivate them. His grandfather, Moses
Mendelssohn, had risen from poverty
to become an esteemed Enlightenment
philosopher; his father, Abraham, was one
of Germany’s leading bankers and had
made the family fortune.
At age 10, Felix began studying
composition with Carl Friedrich Zelter,
a Berlin composer who drilled him
thoroughly in the Baroque counterpoint of
Bach and the classical style of Haydn and
Mozart. Rapidly, the youngster blossomed
into an even more accomplished composer
than Mozart had been at that age. A series of
13 symphonies for string orchestra, written
between the ages of 12 and 15 for Zelter,
shows Felix’s steady development to mastery.
The Seventh String Symphony in
D Minor was composed sometime
between late 1821 and early 1822. He
was still a child in appearance, not yet very
tall and with long, curly dark hair reaching
to his shoulders. But he was already
creating music with the technical skill
and assurance of an adult.
The vigorous first movement springs
from a wild unison flurry, followed by
a soft, plaintive response in violins and
violas. All this energy is eased by the
lyrical second theme in which the two
violin sections float against each other
in beautiful slow suspensions over a
pattering accompaniment.
Mendelssohn gives the lovely, lilting
second movement the charming marking
amorevole — “loving.” It begins as a
melodious duet between the two violin