Overture Magazine 2019-20 BSO_Overture_Jan Feb | Page 31

ROMEO AND JULIET
International Piano Academy Lake Como,
she was taught by Naboré, Bashkirov and
Fou Ts’ong. Avdeeva has won several other
prizes including the Bremen Piano Contest,
the Concours de Genève and the Arthur
Rubinstein Competition.
Yulianna Avdeeva makes her BSO debut.
About the Concert
OVERTURE TO THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Born in Salzburg, Austria, January 27, 1756;
died in Vienna, Austria, December 5, 1791
When Beaumarchais’ subversive comedy
Le Mariage de Figaro was premiered in Paris
in 1784, it sent shock waves across Europe.
Everyone wanted to see it, aristocrats read
it on the sly, but the censors guarding
Europe’s shaky monarchies on the eve of
the French Revolution refused to allow
it on the stage. The notion of a barber-
valet, Figaro, and his lady’s maid-fiancée,
Susannah, opposing a count wishing to
exercise the droit du seigneur with the bride
on her wedding night and, worse still,
making their aristocratic boss look like a
fool before his entire household was just too
threatening to the status quo.
There was always a rebellious, irreverent
streak in Mozart, and it may well have
contributed to his difficulty in obtaining
a court post. So it is not surprising that
this scandalous new play should have
fascinated him as a subject for a comic
opera. But how was he to get it past
the censors? Fortunately, in the mid-
1780s Mozart was in the good graces of
Emperor Joseph II of Austria, who had
banned the play from Vienna’s stages. But
somehow the emperor was persuaded to
allow an operatic treatment, particularly
after Mozart’s librettist Lorenzo Da
Ponte expurgated some of Figaro’s more
revolutionary passages.
Joseph II’s leniency made possible
one of Mozart’s greatest achievements.
Instead of stock figures, Mozart’s music
gives us flesh-and-blood, fully rounded
characters: the hot-tempered but wily
Figaro, his quick-witted bride Susannah,
the sorrowing but tolerant Countess
struggling with her husband’s infidelities
and the pompous Count who can’t seem to
get his way as a proper Count should.
The ebullient overture is Mozart’s
most popular. Probably written just a few
days before the premiere, it is generally
descriptive of the plot and characters rather
than a medley of the opera’s highlights.
It exudes a spirit of comic bustle with
prominent use of the orchestra’s comedians,
the bassoons. Much of the music is macho
in spirit, presaging the battle to come
between two hot-blooded men, Figaro and
the Count. But the ladies, Susannah and
the Countess, are not forgotten: a violin
melody expresses their subtler plotting,
which ultimately wins the day.
2019-20 SEASON
AVI AVITAL
Instrumentation: Two flutes, two oboes,
two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns,
two trumpets, timpani and strings.
PIANO CONCERTO NO. 2 IN F MINOR
Frédéric Chopin
Born in Żelazowa Wola, Poland, March 1, 1810;
died in Paris, France, October 17, 1849
Frédéric Chopin was the poet of the
piano. For most of his career, he lavished
his creative genius on this instrument
alone, in the process transforming it—in
effect if not in reality—from a percussion
instrument into a mellifluous singer.
In this quest, he was aided by advances
in piano construction at the beginning
of the 19 th century. The introduction
of pedals to sustain the sound; thicker
strings and heavier hammers to make
it more powerful; and thick felting on
the hammers to make it softer were
enhancements he exploited to the fullest.
Other instruments, except the cello,
did not interest him much. Only at the
beginning of his career did he create works
for orchestra and piano: his two piano
concertos, plus a handful of shorter works.
The 1820s through 1840s was the great era
of the touring virtuoso soloist—the pianists
Liszt, Thalberg, Kalkbrenner; the violinist
Paganini; and a quantity of operatic divas
and divos—and the young Chopin
initially aspired to join their ranks.
Having made a brilliant debut in Vienna

VIVALDI
MANDOLIN
CONCERTO
FRI, MAR 6, 8 PM MEYERHOFF
SAT, MAR 7, 8 PM STRATHMORE
SUN, MAR 8, 3 PM MEYERHOFF
Nicholas McGegan,
conductor and harpsichord
Avi Avital, mandolin
Early-music specialist Nicholas
McGegan leads a vibrant program
of music for chamber orchestra
including Haydn’s effervescent
Symphony No. 80, two sunny
Vivaldi concertos featuring Israeli
mandolinist Avi Avital and Bizet’s
Symphony No. 1, composed when
he was 17 and a student at the Paris
Conservatory.
TICKETS FROM $25
BSOMUSIC.ORG
410.783.8000 | 1.877.BSO.1444
GROUPS OF 10+ CALL 410.783.8170
PRESENTING
SPONSOR:
OFFICIAL INTERNET
PROVIDER OF THE BSO:
JA N – F E B 2020 / OV E R T U R E
29