ROSSINI/WERDE: Overture to William Tell

Overture to William Tell (1828-1829)

GIOACHINO ROSSINI (1792-1868)

In 1824, Rossini moved to Paris to direct the Théâtre Italien and there became aware of the revolutionary artistic and political trends that were then gaining popularity. Rossini was too closely attuned to public fashion to ignore the changing audience tastes, and he began to cast about for a libretto that would keep him abreast of the latest developments in the musical theater while solidifying his new position in Paris. Schiller’s play William Tell, based on the Swiss struggle against tyranny in the 14th century, had recently created much interest when it was introduced to Paris in a French translation, and Rossini decided that the drama would make a fine opera (or, at least, a saleable one). He seems to have taken special care to incorporate the emerging Romantic style into this epic work, as evidenced by its subject matter, symphonic scope, and attention to dramatic and poetic content. The four sections of the Overture, virtually a miniature tone poem, represent dawn in the mountains, a thunderstorm, the pastoral countryside, and the triumphant return of the Swiss troops.

PROKOFIEV: Peter and the Wolf

Peter and the Wolf, Op. 67 (1936)

SERGEI PROKOFIEV (1891-1953)

The suggestion to create Peter and the Wolf came to Prokofiev from Natalie Satz, director of the Moscow Children’s Theater. The Theater produced operas, concerts and ballets for and with children, and Prokofiev was familiar with its work through taking his sons there. Soon after the Theater moved into a new home in March 1936, Satz asked Prokofiev to write a piece demonstrating the orchestral instruments by associating them with images. “How about the flute as a little bird?” she suggested. “Absolutely,” Prokofiev agreed. “Perhaps a number of animals and birds, and at least one person,” Satz urged. He devised his own tale about a boy and a wolf and completed the music for it in just two weeks. Peter and the Wolf was an immediate success.

A few days after the premiere, Sergei Prokofiev, the famed “children’s composer,” was approached by Anastas Mikoyan, Soviet Commissar of Supplies, with an interesting proposal. Would he participate in a program to popularize children’s songs, poems and fairy tales by writing a little tune that would be printed on wrappings of chocolates, toys and sweets? Prokofiev agreed as soon as he learned that his new song would be used for the wrapper of the chocolates that were his childhood favorite.

JOHN WILLIAMS: Selections from Harry Potter

Selections from Harry Potter

JOHN WILLIAMS (B. 1932)

Wonder is one of the most powerful human emotions, and the ability to inspire it one of the greatest gifts of creative genius. Certainly J.K. Rowling tapped a deep vein of wonder and magic and mystery in millions of readers with her books about the boy wizard Harry Potter and the forces of good and evil ranged around him at Hogwarts, the fantastic academy Harry attends as a student. The first production of what has now become a franchise encompassing not just books and films but video games, theme parks and countless other spin-offs — Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone — scored a phenomenal success upon its release in November 2001 with Harry’s fans (not to mention studio executives and merchandisers). Harry’s cinematic world was brought to life in Sorcerer’s Stone by fine acting, superb design and special effects, and John Williams’ Oscar-nominated score. “Williams’ music captures the soul of Harry Potter’s world,” said the film’s director, Chris Columbus. “It liberates your imagination, and gives you the freedom to dream, to dream of magic.”

BRITTEN: The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra

The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra (Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Purcell), Op. 34 (1946)

BENJAMIN BRITTEN (1913-1976)

Early in 1945, the British Ministry of Education approached Benjamin Britten with a request to compose music for a film they were preparing to introduce the orchestra to children, and he agreed to the project. He cast his work as a series of variations with a concluding fugue based on the Hornpipe from Purcell’s incidental music to Abdelazar, or The Moor’s Revenge (1695), and gave it the dual title of The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra and Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Purcell. (He is said to have preferred the former.) The film, titled simply The Instruments of the Orchestra, was first shown on November 2, 1946, but Britten’s music had already been heard in a concert by the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Malcolm Sargent on October 15th.

The Young Person’s Guide is in three large sections. The first presents the full orchestra and then “the four teams of players,” as the instrumental choirs are called in the preface to the score: woodwinds, brass, strings and percussion. The work’s second section is a series of variations introducing the instruments individually. The concluding section is a fugue whose theme is loosely based on Purcell’s melody, with each of the instruments joining the fugue in the order in which it was introduced in the variations. Just as the fugue seems about to burst from its own complexity, Purcell’s original theme is recalled in a gloriously majestic proclamation by the brass while the rest of the orchestra continues the fugue as accompaniment. This masterful essay on orchestral tone color comes to a rousing close with a splash of percussion and a full-throated cadence from the assembled instruments.

Stéphane Denève, Conductor

Stéphane Denève is currently in his fifth season as principal guest conductor of The Philadelphia Orchestra, a position that runs through the 2019-20 season. He spends multiple weeks each year with the ensemble, conducting subscription, tour, and summer concerts. His 2018-19 subscription season appearances include three weeks of concerts, two of which are devoted to a Barnes/Stokowski Festival, a celebration of the artistic passion Albert Barnes and Leopold Stokowski shared. Mr. Denève has become very well known to audiences at Verizon Hall, the Mann Center, the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, and the Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater in Vail, having appeared as guest conductor numerous times since making his debut in 2007. He has led more programs than any other guest conductor during that time period, in repertoire that has spanned more than 100 works, ranging from Classical through the contemporary, including presentations with dance, theater, film, and cirque performers. 

Mr. Denève is also music director of the Brussels Philharmonic and director of its Centre for Future Orchestral Repertoire (CffOR), and with the 2019-20 season will become music director of the St. Louis Symphony. He was previously chief conductor of the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra and music director of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. 

Recent engagements in Europe and Asia include appearances with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Orchestra Sinfonica dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, the Vienna Symphony, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the NHK Symphony, the Munich Philharmonic, the Orchestre National de France, the Czech Philharmonic, and the Rotterdam Philharmonic. In North America he made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2012 with the Boston Symphony, with which he has appeared several times, both in Boston and at Tanglewood. He regularly conducts the Cleveland Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the San Francisco Symphony, and the Toronto Symphony. He is also a popular guest at many of the U.S. summer music festivals, including Bravo! Vail, the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, the Hollywood Bowl, the Blossom Music Festival, and Festival Napa Valley. Summer 2018 saw his debuts at the Grand Teton Music Festival and the Music Academy of the West, and the 2018-19 season will see him lead a major U.S. tour with the Brussels Philharmonic. 

Mr. Denève enjoys close relationships with many of the world’s leading artists, including Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Yo-Yo Ma, Nikolaj Znaider, James Ehnes, Leif Ove Andsnes, Leonidas Kavakos, Nicholas Angelich, Lang Lang, Frank Peter Zimmermann, Gil Shaham, Emanuel Ax, Renaud and Gautier Capuçon, Lars Vogt, Nikolai Lugansky, Paul Lewis, Joshua Bell, Hilary Hahn, and Augustin Hadelich. 

In the field of opera Mr. Denève has led productions at the Royal Opera House, the Glyndebourne Festival, La Scala, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Saito Kinen Festival in Japan, the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, Netherlands Opera, La Monnaie in Brussels, the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, and the Opéra National de Paris. 

As a recording artist, Mr. Denève has won critical acclaim for his recordings of the works of Poulenc, Debussy, Ravel, Roussel, Franck, and Connesson. He is a triple winner of the Diapason d’Or de l’Année, was shortlisted for Gramophone’s Artist of the Year award, and won the prize for symphonic music at the International Classical Music Awards. His most recent releases are discs of Prokofiev suites and the works of Connesson with the Brussels Philharmonic (awarded the Diapason d’Or de l’Année, the Caecilia Award, and Classica magazine’s CHOC of the Year) and a disc with the piano duo Lucas and Arthur Jussen and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, all for Deutsche Grammophon. 

A graduate of, and prizewinner at, the Paris Conservatory, Mr. Denève worked closely in his early career with Georg Solti, Georges Prêtre, and Seiji Ozawa. He is committed to inspiring the next generation of musicians and listeners and has worked regularly with young people in the programs of the Tanglewood Music Center, the New World Symphony, the Colburn School, and the Music Academy of the West, among others. 

Photo: Jessica Griffin

Bruce Adolphe, Director of Family Concerts, The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center

Bruce Adolphe is a composer, educator, performer, and author whose music is performed worldwide by renowned artists, including Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, Fabio Luisi, Joshua Bell, Sylvia McNair, Carlo Grante, the Washington National Opera, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Jeffrey Kahane and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, the Zürich Philharmonia, the IRIS Orchestra, the Beaux Arts Trio, the Chicago Chamber Musicians, the Brentano String Quartet, the Miami Quartet, the Cassatt Quartet, the Currende Ensemble of Belgium, and over 60 symphony orchestras.

Some career highlights include: Itzhak Perlman’s world premiere performances of Adolphe’s solo violin music at The Kennedy Center and Avery Fisher Hall; Yo-Yo Ma playing the world premiere of Self Comes to Mind, a work based on a text written for the project by neuroscientist Antonio Damasio, at the American Museum of Natural History; violinist Daniel Hope performing the violin concerto I Will Not Remain Silent with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra conducted by Jeffrey Kahane in 2017; Joshua Bell performing world premiere of Einstein’s Light with pianist Marija Stroke at UNESCO in Paris as the finale of the United Nations Year of Light, 2015; the Washington National Opera performances of Let Freedom Sing: the story of Marian Anderson (libretto by Carolivia Herron); an evening of Adolphe works at The Kennedy Center; two full-length operas on Jewish subjects at The 92^nd Street Y (Mikhoels the Wise and The False Messiah); nine world premieres at The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.

Highlights of the 2015-16 season include the world premiere of Chopin Dreams at Alice Tully Hall, played by Italian pianist Carlo Grante, who also gave the European premiere at the Brahms-saal of the Musikverein, Vienna. This season also sees the release of the film Einstein’s Light by Nickolas Barris, featuring Adolphe’s score, which reflects Einstein’s devotion to playing violin and his love of the music of Mozart and Bach. The soundtrack features violinist Joshua Bell and pianist Marija Stroke, who also performed the work live at the Institute for Advanced Studies, Princeton. Sony Masterworks has released a recording of Einstein’s Light with Joshua Bell and Marija Stroke, available as a download or streaming from all the major music sites. This July (2016)  Fabio Luisi conducted the world premiere of Adolphe’s Piano Concerto with soloist Carlo Grante and the Zürich Philharmonia. In June,  by Eliot Fisk played the world premiere of Suite for Pete, dedicated to the memory and humanitarian work of Pete Seeger, at the Off the Hook Arts Festival in Colorado.

Highlights of the 2014-15 season included the world premiere of Musics of Memoryat the Brain and Creativity Institute at USC in LA on October 27 and 28, 2014.  The work — scored for piano, marimba, harp, and guitar — is structured to reflect the way memory works in the brain. After the performance, there was a discussion about memory, brain, and music with Antonio Damasio, Assal Habibi (director of music research at BCI), and Bruce Adolphe. Also that season, the IRIS Orchestra conducted by Michael Stern gave the world premiere of I Will Not Remain Silent, a violin concerto based on the life of Joachim Prinz, with Sharon Roffman, soloist.  On January 19th, 2015, Joshua Bell and Marija Stroke performed highlights of the Einstein’s Light soundtrack live with scenes from the film projected on a screen for the finale of the opening ceremony of The International Year of Light at UNESCO in Paris.

Highlights of the 2013-14 season included performances by the LA Chamber Orchestra, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Cassatt Quartet at the Crystal Bridges Museum and the Institute for Advanced Studies at Princeton, and the premiere of The End of Tonight (poems by Nathalie Handal) for three female voices, three cellos, and piano at the Greene Space in New York. The 2012-13 season included a premiere commissioned for the opening ceremony of MoMath, the only museum of mathematics in America, and a premiere in Lucerne performed by the Human Rights Orchestra, as well as performances from Santa Fe to Lisbon.

Over the past 25 years, Mr. Adolphe has served as composer-in-residence at many festivals and institutions throughout the United States for which he has also created and led educational concerts and workshops for all ages and levels of musical accomplishment. A key figure at The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center since 1992, Mr. Adolphe is the founder and director of the Society’s Meet the Music family concert series as well as the Society’s resident lecturer. He has appeared as a commentator on Live From Lincoln Center television and as a regular lecturer at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The author of three books on music, he has taught at Yale, Juilliard, and New York University. Since 2002, he performs his Piano Puzzlers weekly on public radio’s Performance Today, hosted by Fred Child. With Julian Fifer, Mr. Adolphe co-founded The Learning Maestros, a company dedicated to creating new works and related curricula that integrate music with other disciplines, including science, literature, history, and issues of social conscience. His book The Mind’s Ear: Exercises for Improving the Musical Imagination was published in a second edition in October 2013 by Oxford University Press. Mr. Adolphe’s music is recorded on many labels, including Bridge, Delos, Telarc, PollyRhythm, Albany, CRI, New World, and Naxos (American Masters series).

Mr. Adolphe was recently appointed composer-in-residence at the Brain and Creativity Institute in Los Angeles, where he works with neuroscientists Antonio and Hanna Damasio and Assal Habibi. He lives in New York City with his wife, the pianist Marija Stroke, their daughter Katja, and Polly Rhythm, the opera-singing parrot.