BOSTONUNIVERSITYSYMPHONYORCHESTRA

Wednesday, October 2, 2019

Tsai Performance Center

BOSTON UNIVERSITY Founded in 1839, Boston University is an internationally recognized institution of higher education and research. With more than 33,000 students, it is the fourth-largest independent university in the United States. BU consists of 16 schools and colleges, along with a number of multi-disciplinary centers and institutes integral to the University’s research and teaching mission. In 2012, BU joined the Association of American Universities (AAU), a consortium of 62 leading research universities in the United States and Canada.

BOSTON UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF FINE ARTS Established in 1954, Boston University College of Fine Arts (CFA) is a community of artist-scholars and scholar-artists who are passionate about the fine and performing arts, committed to diversity and inclusion, and determined to improve the lives of others through art. With programs in Music, Theatre, and Visual Arts, CFA prepares students for a meaningful creative life by developing their intellectual capacity to create art, shift perspective, think broadly, and master relevant 21st century skills. CFA offers a wide array of undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral programs, as well as a range of online degrees and certificates. Learn more at bu.edu/cfa.

BOSTON UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF FINE ARTS SCHOOL OF MUSICFounded in 1872, Boston University College of Fine Arts School of Music combines the intimacy and intensity of traditional conservatory-style training with a broad liberal arts education at the undergraduate level, and elective coursework at the graduate level. The school offers degrees in performance, conducting, composition and theory, musicology, music education, and historical performance, as well as artist and performance diplomas and a certificate program in its Opera Institute.

PERFORMANCE VENUESCFA Concert Hall • 855 Commonwealth AvenueMarsh Chapel • 735 Commonwealth AvenueTsai Performance Center • 685 Commonwealth AvenueBoston Symphony Hall • 301 Massachusetts Avenue

Siegfried’s Rhine Journey from Götterdämmerung

Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes, Op. 33a

I. DawnII. Sunday MorningIII. MoonlightIV. Storm

Tamara Dworetz, conductor

Intermission

Symphony No. 1 in G minor, Op. 13, “Winter Daydreams”

I. Dreams of a winter journey: Allegro tranquilloII. Land of desolation, land of mists: Adagio cantabile ma non tantoIII. Scherzo: Allegro scherzando giocosoIV. Finale: Andante lugubre—Allegro maestoso

BOSTON UNIVERSITY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Joshua Gersen, conductor

October 2, 2019Tsai Performance Center

Richard Wagner (1813–1883)Arr. Engelbert Humperdinck

Benjamin Britten (1913–1976)

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840–1883)

PROGRAM NOTES

Siegfried’s Rhine Journey from Götterdämmerung

On October 4, 1848, the thirty-five-year-old Second Court Conductor at the Dresden Opera, who was also the composer of several stage works, among them Rienzi, The Flying Dutchman, Tannhäuser, and Lohengrin, jotted down a brief sketch for a music-drama on the Nibelungen myth. It would be five years before he composed the first note of music for this project, twenty-six years before it was finished, and twenty-eight years before it was staged in its entirety.

Complex in subject and execution, Der Ring des Nibelungen—four evenings in the theater and something like seventeen hours of music altogether—is one of the stupendous achievements of Western art. For the rest of the nineteenth century and into the present, composers would struggle to find their own artistic identities outside the long shadows cast by such works as the Ring cycle, Tristan und Isolde, and Parsifal.

In the excerpt from Götterdämmerung [the final opera of the Ring cycle] that we hear, Siegfried and Brünnhilde have awakened from their first night together. In recognition of their union, Siegfried has taken a gold ring off his own finger and placed it on Brünnhilde’s: This is in fact the ring of the title, the ring about whose changing ownership the whole saga revolves. But Siegfried is not about to settle down in domestic bliss. Leaving Brünnhilde on the rock where he found her and where they consummated their marriage, Siegfried descends the mountain to the Rhine (along the way passing through the ring of fire he had braved to reach Brünnhilde). He is searching for a new adventure and finds it, but it will be his last. The music we hear as he makes his way along the river is the interlude that links Siegfried’s and Brünnhilde’s heroic duet and the scene at the court of the Gibichungs, where Siegfried will meet his death. The jubilant outburst with which the Rhine Journey begins is a grand transformation of Siegfried’s horn call. The music proceeds vigorously, recalling Brünnhilde, the swirling water of the Rhine, and the hymn of the Rhinemaidens to the gold they failed to protect.

—Michael Steinberg for San Francisco Symphony (exerpted)

Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes

“For most of my life,” Benjamin Britten wrote, “I have lived closely in touch with the sea. My parents’ house in Lowestoft directly faced the sea, and my life as a child was colored by the fierce storms that sometimes drove ships on our coast and ate away whole stretches of neighboring cliffs. In writing [my opera] Peter Grimes, I wanted to

express my awareness of the perpetual struggle of men and women whose livlihood depends on the sea—difficult as it is to treat such a universal subject in theatrical form.”

For Peter Grimes, the leading character of the opera, life was more than a struggle against the sea. Endowed with a surly nature and explosive temper, Grimes, an outsider, was feared and distrusted by the people in a fishing village on the bleak Suffolk coast of England. Unjustly accusing him of murdering his two apprentices, the townspeople finally force Grimes to sail out to sea where he purposely sinks his boat and perishes.

The premiere of the opera in London on June 7, 1945 was a triumphant success. Exactly one week later, Britten conducted the London Philharmonic Orchestra in the Four Sea Interludes from the opera to equally enthusiastic acclaim.

Dawn. This section is heard between the Prologue, a coroner’s inquest into the death at sea of Grimes’ first apprentice, and Act I, in which the fishermen express their common fears as they prepare to go to sea. The cold and forbidding music, pervaded with suggestions of sea gull cries and crashing waves, comes to a close as the rising sun majestically ushers in another day.

Sunday Morning. In the opera, this prelude to Act II is set in front of the church as the villagers, in a festive mood, gather for services. Despite the joyous pealing of the church bells—suggested by French horns and high woodwinds—there is a growing sense of tragedy as Grimes appears on the scene with his new apprentice.

Moonlight. The introduction to Act III takes place outside the warm, brightly-lit hall where the townspeople are dancing, but somehow the music casts a dark, ominously forbidding mood.

Storm. Played between the two scenes of Act I, this interlude conjures up a storm at sea that erupts with terrifying violence and fury.

—Melvin Berger for Long Island Philharmonic

Symphony No. 1 in G minor, Op. 13, “Winter Daydreams”

Probably no other work ever cost Tchaikovsky as much effort as his first symphony. At the beginning of 1866, the 26-year-old composer moved from St. Petersburg to Moscow to teach harmony at the newly founded Conservatory. He wrote his symphony nights and between classes, often working until exhaustion. This first major orchestral work caused him such anguish that he soon suffered from nervous

PROGRAM NOTES

PROGRAM NOTES

disorders and hallucinations. But when he thought the symphony was finally finished, the drudgery was by no means over.

Nikolai Rubinstein, the despotic director of the Conservatory (and Tchaikovsky’s landlord as well), demanded extensive changes before he would even consider performing it. In December 1866, the Scherzo, at least, found his approval; two months later, he accepted the second movement. But it wasn’t until February 15, 1868 that Rubinstein performed the work in its entirety. After further revisions, a first edition was published in 1874; in 1888, 22 years after Tchaikovsky had begun the composition, its final version came out. Despite all of these problems, Tchaikovsky still retained a positive attitude towards his first symphony. “Although it is immature in some respects, I consider it to be fundamentally better and richer than many other, more mature works,” he wrote in a letter.

Tchaikovsky’s poetic imagination can be seen in his sub-titles. He named the entire piece “Winter Daydreams.” The first movement is entitled “Dreams of a winter journey” and the second is called “Land of desolation, land of mists.” But these titles are presumably only general associations and do not point to the musical realization of any concrete “story.” The opening “Allegro tranquillo,” for example, is a conventional sonata-form movement with two contrasting themes —while mostprogram music uses unconventionalforms. Both themes are introduced by the woodwinds, the first by the flute and bassoon and the second by the clarinet. The second movement is based on a traditional melody first presented by an oboe, then taken up by various instrumental groups and expanded upon. Oddly enough, the last two movements no longer have any titles. Tchaikovsky took the Scherzo from a piano sonata in C-sharp Minor that he had composed one year before the symphony, changing only very little. The Trio of this movement, however, is new. It seems almost to be a prototype for the later orchestral waltzes of Tchaikovsky’s that would become so successful. Like the first movement, the Finale is also a sonata-form movement with two themes. It is based on the Russian folksong Flowers bloom, which Tchaikovsky later published in an arrangement for piano. This melody is heard both in the slow introduction as well as in the lively second theme of the movement.

—Jürgen Ostmann for Deutsche Radio Philharmonie (Translation: Elizabeth Gahbler)

JOSHUA GERSEN, CONDUCTOR

Joshua Gersen recently concluded his tenure as the Assistant Conductor of the New York Philharmonic, where he most notably made his subscription debut in 2017 on hours notice to critical acclaim. Previous conducting posts include the Music Director of the New York Youth Symphony, and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation Conducting Fellow of the New World Symphony. He made his conducting debut with the San Francisco Symphony in the fall of 2013 and has been invited back numerous times, most recently replacing Michael Tilson Thomas on short notice for a subscription series in June 2019. Other recent guest conducting appearances include performances with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Hannover Opera, New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, San Antonio Symphony Orchestra, Phoenix Symphony Orchestra, and the North Carolina Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Gersen was the recipient of a 2015 and 2016 Solti Foundation U.S. Career Assistance Award. He won the Aspen Music Festival’s prestigious 2011 Aspen Conducting Prize and their 2010 Robert J. Harth Conducting Prize, and served as the festival’s assistant conductor for the 2012 summer season under Robert Spano.

Also a prolific composer, both Mr. Gersen’s String Quartet #1 and Fantasy for Chamber Orchestra have been premiered in Jordan Hall. His works have been performed by the New Mexico Symphony and the Greater Bridgeport Symphony. His work as a composer has also led to an interest in conducting contemporary music. He has conducted several world premieres of new works by young composers with New York Youth Symphony’s esteemed First Music Program and New York Philharmonic’s Very Young Composers program. He has collaborated with many prominent composers including John Adams, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Christopher Rouse, Steven Mackey, Mason Bates, and Michael Gandolfi. He was principal conductor of the Ojai Music Festival in 2013, leading works by Lou Harrison and John Luther Adams, among others.

Mr. Gersen made his conducting debut at age 11 with the Greater Bridgeport Youth Orchestra, and made his professional conducting debut with them five years later in the performance of his own composition, A Symphonic Movement. Mr. Gersen is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied conducting with Otto Werner Mueller, and the New England Conservatory of Music, where he studied composition with Michael Gandolfi. As an educator himself, Mr. Gersen has worked often with students and ensembles at the Juilliard School, the Manhattan School of Music, Boston University, and the Curtis Institute of Music. He serves as the interim Director of Orchestral Activities at Boston University for the 2019-20 school year.

TAMARA DWORETZ, CONDUCTOR

Second prize winner in the Boston Pops’ Bernstein-inspired conducting competition, Tamara Dworetz recently served as assistant conductor to Bramwell Tovey, Principal Conductor of the BBC Concert Orchestra, at the 2019 Proms in London. Tamara was selected as one of 6 conductors to participate in the Dallas Opera’s prestigious Hart Institute for Women Conductors to take place in October of this year. Previously, Tamara served for 2 years as Assistant Conductor for the Austin Symphony Orchestra, and was a Conducting Fellow for the 2019 Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music for which she received the Bruno Walter Conducting Fellowship. In various capacities, Tamara has conducted the Moscow Symphony Orchestra, Boston Pops, New Symphony Orchestra, Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, Butler Opera Center, DeKalb Symphony Orchestra, Indiana University Brass Choir, University of Texas Symphony Orchestra, and Boston University Symphony Orchestra. A dedicated and enthusiastic music educator, Tamara has served as the conductor for the Austin Youth Orchestra, the co-music director/conductor of the University of Texas University Orchestra, as well as Director of Orchestras of the 150-student orchestra program at Lakeside High School in Atlanta, Georgia. Tamara has additionally conducted numerous rehearsals with the Emory Youth Symphony Orchestra, Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra Repertory & Junior Repertory Orchestras, and Boston University All-Campus Orchestra. Additionally, Tamara is currently organizing a consortium for regional and collegiate orchestras to commission a new symphonic work by composer Adeliia Faizullina. This new composition will be written in commemoration of the end of WWII and in honor of the Tatar poet and Nazi resistance fighter, Musa Jalil. The work is set to be premiered during the 2021-22 season.

1st ViolinMichael Duffett, concertmasterHuiying Ma Isabel OliartXinyuan WangAva FigliuzziKa Chun LeungJessica ToveyClara MontesSandya KolaSamuel ChungReyna FloresJacqueline Bensen

2nd ViolinSarah Elert, principalFreya LiuAllie WeiSean LeeAnna HarrisCatherine MillerAna-Sofia PozoMaya LynnWilliam Peltz SmalleyStella FauxGrace WodarcykNoah Smith

ViolaDeberly Kauffman, principalYonsung LeeBenjamin BurgdorfHyojin KimCelia DaggyChloe AquinoYen-Chi ChenTeresa BloemerMaurya DickersonHannah HoovenCarlos Parra Suarez

CelloYeji Yoo, principalYu-Ning HuangMichael D’ArrigoEsther BenjaminAllen MaracleAnnalise SchlaugMinyung SuhMolly FarrarJewel KimSofia PuccioChristina HanJoel Osinga

BassNoëlle Marty, principalJohn DeMartinoSarah WagerPablo KennedyAlyssa BrownNicholas CauxLillian Young Lindy Billhardt

FluteCasey Dumford lHayden TuttyMadeleine Horvat ªOlivia IversonJisun Oh v

PiccoloMadeleine Horvat lOlivia Iverson ªHayden Tutty v

OboeAlessandro Cirafici lªHannah StaudingerKatrina KwantesRodion Belousov v

English HornKatrina Kwantes

ClarinetTinghua Wu lªLorena AcostaMeghan Davis vGhazal Faghihi

E-flat ClarinetLorena Acosta

Bass ClarinetMeghan Davis

BassoonZijie Cai lªJulia KlaussKatherine Muñoz v

ContrabassoonJulia Klauss

continued

BOSTON UNIVERSITY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

HornChristian Gutierrez lSarah Gagnon vMitchell ParusJessica Young ªSophia AddiJustin Gaskey

TrumpetPeter Everson lDoug McCurdyZoe RonenKyra Hulligan ªJohn P. JohnsonCheryl Przytula v

TromboneAdam Hanna lªKar-Chun ChiuJulio RiveraSkye Dearborn vTianyu Xue

Bass TromboneAlek Mansouri lª Kar-Chun Chiu v

TubaBen Vasko lv Colin Laird ª

HarpRuth Mertens lCaroline Mellott ª

TimpaniJeffrey Sagurton lJack Barry ªJake Darnell v

PercussionJeffrey Sagurton ªvJack Barry lJake Darnell

Personnel ManagersKatrina Kwantes, leadKar-Chun ChiuAllen Maracle

l Principal in Wagner

ªPrincipal in Britten

v Principal in Tchaikovsky

BOSTON UNIVERSITY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

SCHOOL OF MUSICSTRINGSSteven Ansell viola *Edwin Barker double bass * Heather Braun violinLynn Chang violinHye Min Choi violaCarolyn Davis Fryer double bassDaniel Doña pedagogy, chamber * Franziska Huhn harpMihail Jojatu celloBayla Keyes violin *Danny Kim violaHyun-Ji Kwon celloMichelle LaCourse viola * ++Warren Levenson guitarBenjamin Levy double bass Lucia Lin violin *Dana Mazurkevich violinYuri Mazurkevich violin * Richard Nangle guitarMichael Reynolds cello * SAB F’19Rhonda Rider celloTodd Seeber double bass Thomas Van Dyck double bass Michael Zaretsky violaPeter Zazofsky violin *Jessica Zhou harp

PIANOTanya Gabrielian *Gila Goldstein * ++Linda Jiorle-Nagy *Pavel Nersesiyan *Boaz Sharon *

COLLABORATIVE PIANOJavier Arrebola * ++ Shiela Kibbe * SABRobert Merfeld

ORGANPeter Sykes * ++

VOICEPenelope Bitzas *Sharon Daniels * James Demler *Lynn Eustis *Phyllis HoffmanBetsy Polatin (SOT)Tara Stadelman-Cohen pedagogyDouglas Sumi * vocal coaching and repertoireKevin Wilson pedagogy

WOODWINDS, BRASS & PERCUSSIONKen Amis tubaJennifer Bill saxophoneKyle Brightwell percussion Geralyn Coticone flute Terry Everson trumpet * John Ferrillo oboeTimothy Genis percussionNancy Goeres bassoonBruce Hall trumpetJohn Heiss flute Renee Krimsier fluteGabriel Langfur tenor/bass tromboneKai-Yun Lu clarinetDon Lucas trombone * ++ David Martins clarinet *Mark McEwen oboeToby Oft tromboneElizabeth Ostling fluteRobert Patterson *Margaret Phillips bassoonAndrew Price oboeKenneth Radnofsky saxophoneMike Roylance tuba/ euphoniumEric Ruske horn * Robert Sheena English hornSamuel Solomon percussionRichard Stoltzman clarinetLinda Toote flute *

HISTORICAL PERFORMANCE Aldo Abreu recorderSarah Freiberg Ellison celloGreg Ingles sackbutLaura Jeppesen viola da gambaChristopher Krueger baroque flute Catherine Liddell luteRobinson Pyle natural trumpetGonzalo Ruiz baroque oboe Aaron Sheehan voiceJane Starkman baroque violin/violaPeter Sykes harpsichord * ++

MUSICOLOGY ANDETHNOMUSICOLOGYMarié Abe * Michael Birenbaum Quintero*Victor Coelho * ++ SAB S’20Brita Heimarck * Miki Kaneda * Joshua Rifkin * Andrew Shenton * (STH) Rachana Vajjhala *Jeremy Yudkin *

COMPOSITIONAND THEORYVartan AghababianMartin Amlin * ++Deborah Burton * Justin CasinghinoRichard Cornell *Joshua Fineberg *Samuel Headrick *David Kopp * SAB F’19Rodney Lister *Mary Montgomery KoppelKetty Nez * Andrew SmithJohn H. Wallace * SAB S’20Steven Weigt *Jason Yust * SAB S’20

MUSIC EDUCATIONKevin CoyneDiana Dansereau *Ruth Debrot *André de Quadros * ++ Andrew Goodrich *Karin Hendricks *Ronald Kos *Tavis Linsin *Tawnya Smith *Kinh Vu *

ENSEMBLESJennifer BillLeland Clarke *Joshua Gersen *Aaron Goldberg *Genevieve LeClairWilliam Lumpkin * ++David Martins *Mark MillerJason SaettaMariah Wilson

OPERA INSTITUTERita CoteGary DurhamAngela GoochMelodie Jeffery CassellMatthew Larson *William Lumpkin * Emily RaniiNathan TroupAllison Voth *

EMERITUSDavid Hoose conductingAnn Howard Jones conductingMark Kroll historical performanceJoy McIntyre voiceWilliam McManus music educationSandra Nicolucci music education

STAFF PIANISTSMichelle Beaton voiceAnna Carr voiceSiu Yan Luk stringsClera Ryu voiceLorena Tecu * strings

* Full-time faculty ++ Department Chairs

LOA Leave of Absence(SAB) Sabbatical

(SOT) School of Theatre(STH) School of Theology

ADMINISTRATIVEGregory Melchor-Barz DirectorOshin Gregorian Managing Director, Opera Institute and Opera ProgramsJill Pearson Business ManagerCami Sylvia, Staff Assistant

ADMISSIONS AND STUDENT SERVICESLaura Conyers Director of AdmissionsMegan Anthony Admissions CoordinatorBarbara Raney Student Services ManagerBenjamin Court Administrative Coordinator, Performance & Applied Studies, and EnsemblesGilberto Cruz Administrative Coordinator, Composition/Theory, Music Education, and Musicology/Ethnomusicology Departments

PRODUCTION AND PERFORMANCEChristopher Dempsey Director, Production and PerformanceMeredith Gangler Librarian, Music Curriculum LibraryMary Gerbi Ensembles Manager Alexander Knutrud Stage ManagerXiaodan Liu Senior Piano Technician/Restorer John Langston Piano TechnicianDaniel Vozzolo Administrative Coordinator

UNIVERSITY ENSEMBLESMichael Barsano Director, University EnsemblesSharif Mamoun Assistant Director, Athletic Bands