Santa Rosa Symphony

Return to a Galaxy Far, Far Away
2024-01-18 00:00 (America/Los_Angeles)
Pre Concert Talk

Join Principal Pops Conductor Michael Berkowitz one hour prior to every concert for a discussion of the afternoon’s concert, along with personal anecdotes and memories from his storied career working on Broadway and with Liza Minelli, Henry Mancini, and Marvin Hamlisch among many others.

Information on LBC’s Covid Policies per Ca State Guidelines

How to Purchase Tickets for The Pops!

Although the Santa Rosa Symphony is performing, the Luther Burbank Center for the Arts is selling the tickets for this concert.

To purchase tickets, click here.LBC Box office: (707) 546-3600Tues – Sat, 10am – 6pm | closed Sunday and Monday(Open 2 hours before performances on Sundays and Mondays)

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This performance generously made possible by

The Heck FoundationThe Alan and Susan Seidenfeld Charitable Trust

Holly Jolly Pops
2024-01-18 00:00
Pre Concert Talk

Join Principal Pops Conductor Michael Berkowitz one hour prior to every concert for a discussion of the afternoon’s concert, along with personal anecdotes and memories from his storied career working on Broadway and with Liza Minelli, Henry Mancini, and Marvin Hamlisch among many others.

Information on LBC’s Covid Policies per CA State Guidelines

How to Purchase Tickets for The Pops!

Although the Santa Rosa Symphony is performing, the Luther Burbank Center for the Arts is selling the tickets for this concert.

To purchase tickets, click here.LBC Box office: (707) 546-3600Tues – Sat, 10am – 6pm | closed Sunday and Monday(Open 2 hours before performances on Sundays and Mondays)

There are no program notes available for this concert.

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Fiedler's Favorites
2024-01-18 00:00
About the Concert

The Santa Rosa Pops celebrates the tradition started by the Boston Pops with its exciting and accessible mix of light classics and popular hits made famous by the incomparable Arthur Fiedler! This festive tribute features pianist Bill Cunliffe playing George Gershwin’s iconic “Rhapsody in Blue,” Marvin Hamlisch’s “Music and the Mirror” and a jazz piano feature with Maestro Michael Berkowitz on drums. Also, Santa Rosa’s own Mark Wardlaw will be featured playing a “Tribute to Benny Goodman,” originally written for the Boston Pops. Enjoy this homage to Arthur Fiedler, iconic former conductor of the Boston Pops. Celebrating the 50 years of Fiedler on the Podium, the concert features delectable bites of musical joy: “Seventy-Six Trombones,” “Jalousie,” Leroy Anderson’s” The Typewriter,” “Strike Up the Band,”” Love Is A Many Splendored Thing,” excerpts from Bizet’s “Carmen” and “Mambo” from West Side Story and more.

Arthur Fiedler began his career with the Boston Pops in 1915 as a violinist. After filling in as conductor for four years, he officially became the first American-born conductor to lead the orchestra in 1930. on July 4, 1929, Fiedler inaugurated a series of concerts that continues to this day. He made his mark on the Boston Pops by programming the kind of music that was then known as “symphonic jazz,” compiling an enormous collection of marches, overtures, suites, symphonies, rhapsodies, show tunes and novelty songs. In addition, he showcased the work of young American composers and arrangers, and featured young American soloists.

Pre-Concert Talk

Join Principal Pops Conductor Michael Berkowitz one hour prior to every concert for a discussion of the afternoon’s concert, along with personal anecdotes and memories from his storied career working on Broadway and with Liza Minelli, Henry Mancini, and Marvin Hamlisch among many others.

Information on LBCs COVID Policies Per CA State Guidelines

How To Purchase Tickets For The Pops!

Although the Santa Rosa Symphony is performing, the Luther Burbank Center for the Arts is selling the tickets for this concert.

To purchase tickets, click here.LBC Box office: (707) 546-3600Tues – Sat, 10am – 6pm | closed Sunday and Monday(Open 2 hours before performances on Sundays and Mondays)

This performance generously made possible by

Gordon BlumenfeldThere are no program notes available for this concert.

Remember When Rock Was Young - The Elton John Tribute
2024-01-18 00:00
The previous performance date was Sunday, May 23, 2021 at 3pm

If you have any questions, please contact our remote ticket office at 707-546-3600 (Tue-Sat, 10am-6pm, closed Sunday and Monday) or email patronservices@lutherburbankcenter.org for a refund or credit towards a future performance. Or, it would be welcome and greatly appreciated if you would consider turning your ticket into a donation; your gift will help to enrich, educate and entertain our community through the arts, particularly under these unprecedented times. There are certain deadlines to request a refund, please contact our ticket office for specific dates.

Pre Concert Talk

Join Principal Pops Conductor Michael Berkowitz one hour prior to every concert for a discussion of the afternoon’s concert, along with personal anecdotes and memories from his storied career working on Broadway and with Liza Minelli, Henry Mancini, and Marvin Hamlisch among many others.

Information on LBC’s COVID policies per CA State guidelines

How to Purchase Tickets for the Pops!

Although the Santa Rosa Symphony is performing, the Luther Burbank Center for the Arts is selling the tickets for this concert.

To purchase tickets, click here.LBC Box office: (707) 546-3600Tues – Sat, 10am – 6pm | closed Sunday and Monday(Open 2 hours before performances on Sundays and Mondays)

Plan Your Visit

Learn more about the Discovery Rehearsal Series

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Before the Concert

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This concert was generously underwritten by:

With additional support by Anonymous

There are no program notes available for this concert.

Francesco at Bat
2024-01-18 00:00
Instrument Petting Zoo

Pre-concert fun for kids of all ages. Come for the FREE Instrument Petting Zoo one hour prior to performances.

Covid Protocols for Family Concerts at the Green Music Center

Masks are no longer required however they are encouraged.

One of the following is required for adults 18 years of age and over:

Proof of vaccination and photo I.D.

Negative COVID PCR test (48 hours prior to performance) The test must be conducted by a laboratory. Photo I.D.

There are no requirements for children 17 years of age and younger.

Please stay home if…

You are sick or have any of the following symptoms: fever, sore throat, chills, cough, shortness of breath, congestion, nausea, or vomiting.

You’ve been in close contact with an individual diagnosed with COVID-19 or exhibiting COVID-19 symptoms within the past 14 days.

You’ve been directed to self-isolate or quarantine by a health care provider or public health official.

You are awaiting the results of a COVID-19 PCR test.

Plan Your Visit

Learn more about the Discovery Rehearsal Series

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Seating Map

Before the Concert

At the Concert

Dining & Hotels

We gratefully acknowledge the generous contributions from the following:

Family Series sponsored by The Alan and Susan Seidenfeld Charitable Trust and Victor and Karen Trione

Programs, dates, artist, prices and COVID-19 protocols are subject to change without notice. Tickets are subject to availability.

There are no program notes available for this concert.

Gershwin's Magic Key
2024-01-18 00:00
This concert has been rescheduled from January 23, 2022 to June 5, 2022. If you hold tickets for the January 23 date, your tickets will automatically be transferred to the new date and will work. No further action needed.

Program

Overture from Catfish Row: Symphonic Suite in Five Parts: ISwanee (Gershwin – Wodehouse)Fugue subject from Catfish Row: Symphonic Suite in Five Parts: II Got Plenty O’Nuttin from Catfish Row: Symphonic Suite in Five Parts: IIStrike Up The Band (Gershwin – MacPherson)Take Me Out to the Ball Game (Norworth and Tilzer)I’ll Build a Stairway to ParadiseNice Work If You Can Get It (Gershwin – Bennett)Period Medley: Oh, You Beautiful Doll (Ayer) & “Baby Face” (Akst)Rialto Ripples (Gershwin – Tyzik)Humoresque op. 101 no. 7 (DvoÅ™Ã¡k – Trinkaus)Second Rhapsody (New York Rhapsody)Promenade (Gershwin – Berkowitz)An American in ParisSummertime & Bess, You Is My Woman Now from Catfish Row: Symphonic Suite in Five Parts: I & II Oh Lord, I’m On My Way from Catfish Row: Symphonic Suite in Five Parts: VConcerto in F: IIIMedley from Oh, Kay! (Gershwin – Warner)Second Prelude (Blue Lullaby)Cuban OvertureI Got Rhythm (Gershwin – Bennett)Fascinating Rhythm (Gershwin – Warner)Rhapsody in Blue

Music by George Gershwin | Lyrics by Ira Gershwin | Created and Directed by Paul Pement Written by Will Martin, Elizabeth Wheeler and Paul Pement Production Advisor: Kevin Cole | Music Copyist/Engraver: John Blane Lighting Design: Paul Pement | Projections: Scott Fairchild | Music Supervisor: Will Martin Associate Director: Steve Hiltebrand Costumes: Alex Meadows | Props/Wigs: Kevin Barthel

Instrument Petting Zoo

Pre-concert fun for kids of all ages. Come for the FREE Instrument Petting Zoo one hour prior to performances.

Thank you to our Community Partner for supporting this concert:

Plan Your Visit

Learn more about the Discovery Rehearsal Series

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Covid Protocols for Family Concerts at the Green Music Center

Please note: COVID-19 protocols are subject to change.

Masks are optional, but recommended.

Adults 18 +:Photo I.D. and one of the following:

Proof of vaccination

Negative COVID PCR test (taken by a laboratory within 72 hours prior to performance).

The name on the document must match the photo I.D.

Ages 7-17:No requirements.

Please stay home if…

You are sick or have any of the following symptoms: fever, sore throat, chills, cough, shortness of breath, congestion, nausea, or vomiting.

You’ve been in close contact with an individual diagnosed with COVID-19 or exhibiting COVID-19 symptoms within the past 14 days.

You’ve been directed to self-isolate or quarantine by a health care provider or public health official.

You are awaiting the results of a COVID-19 PCR test.

We gratefully acknowledge the generous contributions from the following:

Family Series sponsored by The Alan and Susan Seidenfeld Charitable Trust and Victor and Karen Trione

Programs, dates, artist, prices and COVID-19 protocols are subject to change without notice. Tickets are subject to availability.

There are no program notes available for this concert.

Classical Rocks! - May 1
2024-01-18 00:00
Thank you to our Community Partner for supporting this concert:

Instrument Petting Zoo

Pre-concert fun for kids of all ages. Come for the FREE Instrument Petting Zoo one hour prior to performances.

Covid Protocols for this Concert

Please note: COVID-19 protocols are subject to change.

Masks are optional, but recommended.

Adults 18 +:Photo I.D. and one of the following:

Proof of vaccination

Negative COVID PCR test (taken by a laboratory within 72 hours prior to performance).

The name on the document must match the photo I.D.

Ages 7-17:No requirements.

Please stay home if…

You are sick or have any of the following symptoms: fever, sore throat, chills, cough, shortness of breath, congestion, nausea, or vomiting.

You’ve been in close contact with an individual diagnosed with COVID-19 or exhibiting COVID-19 symptoms within the past 14 days.

You’ve been directed to self-isolate or quarantine by a health care provider or public health official.

You are awaiting the results of a COVID-19 PCR test.

Plan Your Visit

Learn more about the Discovery Rehearsal Series

Directions & More

Seating Map

Before the Concert

At the Concert

Dining & Hotels

We gratefully acknowledge the generous contributions from the following:

Family Series sponsored by The Alan and Susan Seidenfeld Charitable Trust and Victor and Karen Trione

Programs, dates, artist, prices and COVID-19 protocols are subject to change without notice. Tickets are subject to availability.

There are no program notes available for this concert.

Visions of Hope
2024-01-18 00:00
Ticket Information

Ticket holders: If you had tickets to the original May 2020 date, your tickets were reissued in February 2022. Please contact Patron Services, if you did not receive yours or if you have a question or wish to make a change. (707) 546-8742

Concert Conversations with Francesco Lecce-Chong

Concert Conversations are general seating and free to Classical Series concert ticket holders. Approximately 30 minutes in Weill Hall.

Saturday, June 11, 2022 at 6:30 PM

Sunday, June 12, 2022 at 2:00 PM

Monday, June 13, 2022 at 6:30 PM

Plan Your Visit

Learn more about the Discovery Rehearsal Series

Directions & More

Seating Map

Before the Concert

At the Concert

Dining & Hotels

Covid Protocols for This Concert

Please note: COVID-19 protocols are subject to change.

Masks are optional, but recommended.

Adults 18 +:Photo I.D. and one of the following:

Proof of vaccination

Negative COVID PCR test (taken by a laboratory within 72 hours prior to performance).

The name on the document must match the photo I.D.

Ages 7-17:No requirements.

Please stay home if…

You are sick or have any of the following symptoms: fever, sore throat, chills, cough, shortness of breath, congestion, nausea, or vomiting.

You’ve been in close contact with an individual diagnosed with COVID-19 or exhibiting COVID-19 symptoms within the past 14 days.

You’ve been directed to self-isolate or quarantine by a health care provider or public health official.

You are awaiting the results of a COVID-19 PCR test.

Click here for Ticket Policies regarding COVID-19.

We gratefully acknowledge the generous contributions from the following:

Classical Concert Series underwritten by Anderman Family Foundation Supporting Sponsors: County of Sonoma & Creative SonomaConductor Francesco Lecce-Chong underwritten by Norma Person, in memory of Evert PersonGuest Artist Mariachi ChampaÃ±a NevÃn Supporting Sponsors: Pacific Gas and Electric and Nancy and Robert NovakWorld premiere underwritten by The Clarence E Heller Charitable Foundation and The National Endowment for the ArtsComposer Enrico Chapela Barba underwritten by Pam and Tim ChanterDiscovery Open Rehearsal Series sponsored by The Stare Foundation and David Stare of Dry Creek VineyardPre-concert Talks sponsored by Jamei Haswell and Richard GrundySeason Media Sponsor: The Press Democrat

Programs, dates, artists, and prices are subject to change without notice. Tickets are subject to availability.

Visions of Hope Program Notes by Steven Ledbetter

Arturo Márquez
Danzón No. 2 for OrchestraArturo Márquez was born in Alamos, Sonora, Mexico, on December 20, 1950. He composed his Danzón No. 2 in 1994. Francisco Savin conducted the first performance in Mexico City’s Netzahaucoyotl Hall on March 5, 1994. The score calls for pairs of flutes, oboes, clarinets and bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, four percussionists, piano and strings.ESTIMATED DURATION: 10 minutes.Arturo Márquez studied the violin, piano and trombone in his teens, then piano and theory at the National Conservatory in Mexico from 1970 to 1975. After that, he studied privately in Paris and completed a master’s degree at the California Institute of the Arts in 1990. His major teachers were Federico Ibarra and Morton Subotnick.

The majority of his early works were multi-media creations, uniting music with theater, dance, cinema and photography, for which the music was often electro-acoustic combinations of an avant-garde character.

In the early 1990s, he stepped aside from the modernist track to play with popular dance styles in a series of seven compositions, for different instrumental combinations, under the generic title Danzón, which refers to a formal couple dance that grew out of 19th-century Cuban traditions of the contredanse and the habanera. By the 20th century, it began to interact with other Cuban dance types, and its popularity spread to Mexico as well. The couple undertaking the danzón performed an elaborate set of footwork on syncopated beats, sometimes stopping completely, in elegant frozen positions, to listen to an instrumental section. Gradually the danzón was involved in the mambo and the cha cha cha. The danzón continues to be danced in its traditional form by members of the older generation.

Arturo Márquez composed his first Danzón in 1992 for pre-recorded tape with optional saxophone. Soon the dancer Irene Martinez and the painter Andres Fonseca persuaded him to compose a Danzón for full orchestra. In preparation for the work, he traveled to Veracruz, where, in the port city saloons, the dance had first conquered Mexico. Then he continued his research in the dance saloons of Mexico City. The resulting lively dance composition, combining French, African, Cuban and Mexican elements in a rondo pattern of tremendous vigor and color, is Marquez’s best-known work.

Enrico Chapela Barba
Braceros, Cantata for Mariachi and OrchestraEnrico Chapela Barba was born on January 29, 1974, in Mexico City, where he still lives. The work is a commission from the Santa Rosa Symphony, designed to draw upon his wide range of musical interests. These are the first performances.ESTIMATED DURATION: 30 minutesChapela’s music has frequently fused widely diverse traditions, including rock and electronic music as well as popular mariachi traditions from his native Mexico, which will be heard in this new piece with the Santa Rosa Symphony. His studies have ranged as widely as his musical interests. After receiving his Bachelor’s degree in composition from the Centro de Investigación y Estudios Musicales, he studied classical guitar in England and received a Master’s from the University of Paris Saint-Denis.His work has been widely performed in the Americas, Europe and Asia. He absorbed the major Mexican composers of the 20th century, Carlos Chavez and Silvestro Revueltas, but also studied electronic music in Paris. At the same time, he admires the philosophical-musical ideas of John Cage. He continues to teach at his alma mater in Mexico City.Regarding his new mariachi-laced composition, the composer writes: When America was forced into the Second World War, workers were drafted into battle, leaving farm fields unattended. To prevent crops from rotting, the Mexican Farm Labor Program was signed in 1942. Also known as the “bracero” program, this binational treaty summoned Mexican workers to pick American crops. More than three million Mexicans entered the US to labor in the agricultural fields as guest workers under the agreement. The benefits of the program led to its annual renewal until 1964, when an excess of migrant labor and the introduction of the mechanical cotton harvester, along with the Farm Workers Association’s movement, led by Cesar Chavez, and the civil rights movement, rendered the program unviable. The plot takes place in 1964, the last year of the treaty.

Pedro wants to marry Consuelo. Her father Jorge, who needs to know more about how they plan to pay the bills, learns that Pedro will join the bracero program, and save his earnings for the wedding. This does not sit well with Jorge, who, when he was young, was one of the first workers to be hired at Pecos, Texas. He had a bad experience, given the existing segregation culture in Texas, as well as the meager working conditions. He gives voice to those workers that were mistreated by Mexican officials and agricultural bosses, and has little more to say than resentful complaints. In contrast, his wife Dolores points to the positive aspects he is ignoring in his bitter account, and has a kinder approach to parenthood towards their daughter Consuelo.

Nevertheless, Jorge is reluctant to let his little girl get married to a bracero worker, or even worse, to an illegal wetback, if the program gets canceled and the plan deteriorates into a life-threatening-desert-crossing undertaking. So, he recounts his own misfortunes as a young bracero, 20 years earlier. But Jorge’s story fails to discourage Pedro, who after learning from his own words that Jorge was a cotton-picking champion, and that he ran into significant troubles because of his addictive betting habits, Pedro challenges Jorge to a bet: if he comes back from the fields to beat the old man in a sun-to-sun-cotton-picking match, the reluctant father will have to consent to the wedding. Consuelo, who is not thrilled about watching her boyfriend bet their future with her seasoned father, finds his resolve very romantic and reads with passion the adventurous letters describing his progress at the agricultural farms of California… The term “bracero” comes from the Spanish word brazo (arm), and describes someone who works with his arms.

Ottorino Respighi
The Fountains of RomeOttorino Respighi was born in Bologna, Italy, on July 9, 1879, and died in Romeon April 18, 1936. He composed his Fontane di Roma (Fountains of Rome) in 1916. The first performance took place in March 1917 at the Augusteo (Mausoleum of Augustus) in Rome, conducted by Antonio Guarnieri. The score calls for two flutes and piccolo, two oboes and English horn, two clarinets and bass clarinet, two bassoons, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, triangle, cymbals, chimes, glockenspiel, two harps, celesta, piano, organ and strings.ESTIMATED DURATION: 15 minutesRespighi wrote music of extraordinary color and orchestral brilliance, partly, no doubt, a consequence of his having studied orchestration with Rimsky‑Korsakov during the years he served as principal violist in the orchestra of the St. Petersburg opera. After returning, he made composition his principal activity. Respighi wrote eight operas, as well as other stage works. He was interested in early music, and this led to a number of “archaizing” works like the Piano Concerto in the mixolydian mode and a Concerto gregoriano for violin, not to mention his better-known arrangements of Ancient Airs and Dances and The Birds, both derived from older lute and keyboard compositions.

But the works that remain far and away the best known of Respighi’s entire output are the three orchestral suites depicting aspects of his adopted city, Rome. He composed The Fountains of Rome in 1916, The Pines of Rome (the most popular of them all) in 1924 and the Festivals in 1928‑1929. In the course of the dozen images presented musically in these three scores, Respighi draws inspiration from the Rome of classical antiquity, of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, and the modern day. Some movements depict natural beauties, others paint the customs and life of the Roman streets and plazas.

From the days of the ancient Romans, the provision of water into a city the size of Rome has been one of the civil engineering wonders of the world. Different regions of the city received their water via aqueducts coming from mountains in various directions from the city, often dozens of miles away, and to this day Romans argue cheerfully among themselves about the advantages of their various “waters,” which surge forth from a series of exquisite fountains. Respighi’s musical tribute to this aspect of Roman life is also a character piece tracing the Roman day from dawn to sunset, the composer having chosen to present each linked with “the hour in which their character is most in harmony with the surrounding landscape, or in which their beauty appears most impressive to the observer.”

The four “scenes” run directly from one to another. The Fountain of the Valle Giulia at dawn, or Julia Valley, is a pastoral scene. The breezes cause the leaves in the trees to rustle as a herd of cattle passes slowly by. A sudden summons on the horns immediately conjures up The Fountain of Triton in the morning. The triton, in Bernini’s great 17th-century stature, is seated on an open scallop shell, his head far back as he drinks from a conch shell. The sheer virility of the figure is celebrated in the horn calls, while the fantasy that envelops it figures in the lively main theme in the woodwinds. The Trevi fountain in the afternoon evokes the most famous of all the Roman fountains, the one into which visitors throw coins with the wish to return to Rome. Respighi’s music takes us to a site that, even when Nathaniel Hawthorne visited more than a century ago, was one of the liveliest daytime scenes in Rome:for the piazza is then filled with stalls of vegetable and fruit dealers, chestnut-roasters, cigar venders, and other people whose patter and wandering traffic is transacted in the open air. It is likewise thronged with idlers, lounging over the iron railing, and with forestieri [foreigners], who come hither to see the famous fountain.The music grows quieter as evening falls, and we end the day strolling to the Fountain of the Villa Medici at sunset. The fountain in front of the Villa Medici is a modest broad basin, spurting a single jet of water upwards, but it rests high above the city (not far from the Spanish Steps and the Piazza del Popolo with a spectacular view to the west). At sunset, the water in the fountain will mirror Michelangelo’s great cupola on St. Peter’s, across the Tiber in the Vatican. Oboe and English horn recall the pastoral mood of the opening, a tranquility that seems unlikely in one of the world’s great capitals, yet one attainable here, where the sunset view has changed surprisingly little in four centuries. Birdsong dies away, and the stillness of the dark closes the day.

© Steven Ledbetter (stevenledbetter.com)

American Rhapsody
2024-01-18 00:00
Health Order C19-35

Recently Sonoma County issued Health Order C19-35—requiring postponing or canceling large gatherings of more than 50 people indoors where social distancing is not feasible from January 12 through February 11, 2022. The County has announced this ban will be lifted on February 10, 2022 at 11:59 PM. American Rhapsody will be performed as planned. Please note: this concert will not be filmed.

Concert Conversations

Concert Conversations are general seating and free to Classical Series concert ticket holders. Approximately 30 minutes in Weill Hall.

Saturday, February 12, 2022 at 6:30 PM

Sunday, February 13, 2022 at 2:00 PM

Monday, February 14, 2022 at 6:30 PM

2021-2022 Season Brochure

Plan Your Visit

Learn more about the Discovery Rehearsal Series

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Before the Concert

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Covid Protocols for this concert

Ages 7 & up;

Masks are required and must cover the mouth and nose at all times.

Photo ID is required (not required for children under 12 if accompanied by parent.)

And one of the following:

Proof of vaccination – name on card must match photo ID.

Negative COVID PCR test (taken within 48 hours prior to performance) – name on the test results must match photo ID.

No one will be admitted without a mask, photo ID and either proof of vaccine or negative COVID-19 PCR test. No exceptions.

Please stay home if…

You are sick or have any of the following symptoms: fever, sore throat, chills, cough, shortness of breath, congestion, nausea, or vomiting.

You’ve been in close contact with an individual diagnosed with COVID-19 or exhibiting COVID-19 symptoms within the past 14 days.

You’ve been directed to self-isolate or quarantine by a health care provider or public health official.

You are awaiting the results of a COVID-19 PCR test.

We gratefully acknowledge the generous contributions from the following:

Classical Concert Series underwritten by Anderman Family Foundation

Concerts sponsored by Viking CruisesGuest Artist Michelle Cann underwritten by Willow Creek Wealth Management Guest Conductor Aram Demirjian underwritten by David and Corinne ByrdDiscovery Open Rehearsal Series sponsored by The Stare Foundation and David Stare of Dry Creek VineyardPre-concert Talks Sponsored by Jamei Haswell and Richard GrundySeason Media Sponsor: The Press Democrat

Programs, dates, artist, prices and COVID-19 protocols are subject to change without notice. Tickets are subject to availability.

February 2022 Program Notes by Elizabeth Schwartz

William Grant Still
Darker America (symphonic poem) for Orchestra COMPOSER: born May 11, 1895, Woodville, Mississippi; died December 3, 1978, Los AngelesWORK COMPOSED: 1924WORLD PREMIERE: Eugene Goosens led the first performance at Aeolian Hall in New York on November 22, 1926INSTRUMENTATION: 2 flutes, oboe, English horn, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, horn, trumpet, trombone, cymbal, bass drum, piano and stringsESTIMATED DURATION: 12 minutes Known as “the dean of African American composers,” William Grant Still composed music in a wide variety of genres: symphonies, opera, chamber music, choral works, solo songs and concertos. As a young man, he made his living playing commercial music on violin, oboe and banjo. Over his six-decade career, Still worked as a performer, arranger, orchestrator, conductor and composer.

Still’s childhood and teen years were filled with music. He studied violin and taught himself to play a number of other instruments before graduating high school at 16. Still went on to attend Wilberforce College and Oberlin College, where he studied composition with George Whitefield Chadwick. During the 1920s, Still also worked privately with the French modernist composer Edgar VarÃ¨se. Under VarÃ¨se’s mentorship, Still met influential musicians and conductors, had his own works performed and expanded his compositional horizons.

Darker America, Still’s first work for orchestra, introduced the young man to audiences as a composer of formidable ability and intent. In his own detailed program note, Still wrote, “Darker America, as its title suggests, is representative of the American Negro. His serious side is presented and is intended to suggest the triumph of a people over their sorrows through fervent prayer. At the beginning the theme of the American Negro is announced by the strings in unison. Following a short development of this, the English horn announces the sorrow theme, which is followed immediately by the theme of hope, given to muted brass accompanied by string and woodwind. The sorrow theme returns, treated differently, indicative of more intense sorrow as contrasted to passive sorrow indicated at the initial appearance of the theme. Again hope appears and the people seem about to rise above their troubles. But sorrow triumphs. Then the prayer is heard (given to oboe); the prayer of numbed rather than anguished souls. Strongly contrasted moods follow, leading up to the triumph of the people near the end, at which point the three principal themes are combined.”

George Gershwin
Rhapsody in Blue for Piano and Orchestra COMPOSER: born September 26, 1898, Brooklyn; died July 11, 1937, HollywoodWORK COMPOSED: Gershwin wrote Rhapsody in Blue in the first three weeks of 1924.WORLD PREMIERE: Gershwin was at the piano when Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra premiered Rhapsody in Blue at Aeolian Hall in New York on February 12, 1924.INSTRUMENTATION: solo piano, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, 3 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drum, cymbals, gong, glockenspiel, snare drum, celesta, triangle, banjo and strings.ESTIMATED DURATION: 15 minutes

Rhapsody in Blue occupies a special place in American music: it introduced jazz to classical concert audiences, and simultaneously made an instant star of its composer. From its iconic opening clarinet glissando, right through its brilliant finale, Rhapsody in Blue epitomizes the Gershwin sound, and transformed the 25-year-old songwriter from Tin Pan Alley into a composer of “serious” music.

The story of how Rhapsody in Blue came about is as captivating as the music itself. On January 4, 1924, Ira Gershwin showed George a news report in the New York Tribune about a concert put together by jazz bandleader Paul Whiteman, grandiosely titled “An Experiment in Modern Music,” that would endeavor to trace the history of jazz.

The report concluded with a brief announcement: “George Gershwin is at work on a jazz concerto.” This was certainly news to Gershwin, who was then in rehearsals for a Broadway show, Sweet Little Devil. Gershwin contacted Whiteman to refute the Tribune article, but Whiteman eventually talked Gershwin into writing the concerto. Whiteman also sweetened the deal by offering to have Ferde GrofÃ© do the orchestrations. Gershwin completed Rhapsody in Blue in three weeks, and was at the piano when Paul Whiteman and his Jazz Orchestra premiered Rhapsody in Blue at Aeolian Hall in New York on February 12, 1924.

In 1931, Gershwin described to biographer Isaac Goldberg how the ideas for Rhapsody in Blue came to him during a train trip to Boston: “It was on the train, with its steely rhythms, its rattle-ty bang, that is so often so stimulating to a composer – I frequently hear music in the very heart of the noise … And there I suddenly heard, and even saw on paper – the complete construction of the Rhapsody, from beginning to end … I heard it as a sort of musical kaleidoscope of America, of our vast melting pot, of our unduplicated national pep, of our metropolitan madness. By the time I reached Boston I had a definite plot of the piece, as distinguished from its actual substance.”

At the premiere, Gershwin’s unique realization of this “musical kaleidoscope of America,” coupled with his phenomenal abilities at the keyboard wowed the audience as much as the novelty of hearing jazz idioms in a “classical” work.

The original opening clarinet solo, written by Gershwin, got its trademark jazzy glissando from Whiteman’s clarinetist Ross Gorman. This opening unleashes a floodgate of colorful ideas that blend seamlessly. The pulsing syncopated rhythms and showy music later give way to a warm, expansive melody that suggests the lush romanticism of Sergei Rachmaninoff.

Florence Price
Concerto in D minor in One Movement for Piano and Orchestra COMPOSER: born April 9, 1887, Little Rock, Arkansas; died June 3, 1953, ChicagoWORK COMPOSED: 1932-1934. Dedicated to Helen Armstrong Andrews.WORLD PREMIERE: Frederick Stock led the Chicago Symphony with Price at the piano in 1934INSTRUMENTATION: solo piano, flute, oboe, 2 clarinets, bassoon, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, 2 trombones, timpani, bass drum, crash cymbals, snare drum, suspended cymbal and stringsESTIMATED DURATION: 18 minutes The first female African-American composer to earn a national reputation, and to have a symphony performed by a major orchestra, Florence Price enjoyed considerable renown during her lifetime. Sadly, both she and her music dropped into obscurity for decades after her death in 1953, but in recent years performers and audiences alike have begun to discover her rich legacy.

The daughter of a musical mother, Price was a prodigy, giving her first recital at age 4 and publishing her first composition at 11. During her childhood and teens, Price’s mother was the guiding force behind her piano and composition studies. Young Florence entered New England Conservatory in 1903, at 16, where she double majored in organ performance and piano pedagogy. While at NEC, Price also studied composition with George Whitefield Chadwick. Chadwick was an early champion of women as composers, which was highly unusual at the time, and he believed that American composers should incorporate the rich traditions of Native American and “Negro” styles in their own works. Price, already inclined in this direction, was encouraged by Chadwick, and many of her works reflect the expressive and distinctive sounds of “Negro” traditions: spirituals, ragtime and folkdance rhythms, whose origins trace back to Africa.

In 1933, Frederick Stock, conductor of the Chicago Symphony, programmed Price’s Symphony in E minor, on a concert titled “The Negro in Music,” which was performed in conjunction with the Chicago World’s Fair. The following year, Stock asked Price to write a piano concerto, which she premiered with him and the Chicago Symphony in 1934.

Price’s musical style combines European late-Romantic aesthetics with folk and popular music from the African-American tradition. The single movement of the concerto features three sections performed without breaks. It begins with slow introduction and a rhapsodic folk-like theme, in which the piano executes both the main melody and a dizzying display of virtuosic elaborations. In the quieter central section, we hear a more intimate facet of Price’s voice. The tonality shifts to D major; the piano presents a theme redolent of both blues and gospel hymns, while the orchestra provides understated accompaniment. The closing section features a juba, an up-tempo folk dance with strong ragtime elements, including a powerful left-hand stride piano bass line.

Aaron Copland
Appalachian Spring (complete ballet) for Orchestra COMPOSER: born November 14, 1900, Brooklyn; died December 2, 1990, North Tarrytown, New YorkWORK COMPOSED: 1943-1944. Copland won a Pulitzer Prize for the ballet score in 1945. Dedicated to Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge.WORLD PREMIERE: Copland conducted the premiere of the ballet at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. on October 30, 1944, the birthday of arts patron Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge.Instrumentation: 2 flutes (1 doubling piccolo), 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, 2 trombones, timpani, bass drum, claves, cymbal, glockenspiel, orchestra bells, snare drum, tabor, triangle, wood bloc, xylophone, piano, harp and strings.Estimated duration: 35 minutes Shortly before the debut of Ballet for Martha, Aaron Copland’s working title for the ballet Martha Graham had commissioned from him, the choreographer announced she had decided on the name Appalachian Spring. Graham, who borrowed the words from Hart Crane’s poem, The Dance, admitted she had chosen it simply because she liked the sound of the words together. The spring in Crane’s poem is a mountain creek, but Graham seems to have understood it to mean the season of spring, as she explained in her brief description of the ballet’s narrative: “Part and parcel of our lives is that moment of Pennsylvania spring when there was ‘a garden eastward of Eden.’ Spring was celebrated by a man and woman building a house with joy and love and prayer; by a revivalist and his followers in their shouts of exaltation; by a pioneering woman with her dreams of the Promised Land.”

“Over and over again,” Copland recalled in 1981, “people come up to me after seeing the ballet on stage and say, ‘Mr. Copland, when I see that ballet and when I hear your music I can just see the Appalachians and I just feel spring.’ Well, I’m willing if they are!”

In Appalachian Spring, Copland’s interest in folk melodies and idioms reaches its zenith. The Shaker hymn “Simple Gifts,” which Copland discovered in a 1940 book on Shaker culture, and the celebratory variations of its melody, form the climax of Appalachian Spring. As scholar William Brooks notes, “In this context the Shaker melody came to serve as a kind of paradigm for the simplicity and authenticity of frontier America: mythical music for a mythical past.” In similar fashion, Copland’s music, particularly Appalachian Spring, became the paradigm for the “American” sound of the mid-20th century.

Copland explained his musical conception: “When I wrote Appalachian Spring, I was thinking primarily about Martha and her unique choreographic style, which I knew well. Nobody else seems quite like Martha: she’s so proud, so very much herself. And she’s unquestionably very American: there something prim and restrained, simple yet strong about her, which one tends to think of as American.”

Edwin Denby, a noted dance critic, provided program notes: “A pioneer celebration in spring around a newly-built farmhouse in the Pennsylvania hills in the early part of the last century. The bride-to-be and the young farmer-husband enact the emotions, joyful and apprehensive, that their new domestic partnership invites. An older neighbor suggests now and then the rocky confidence of experience. A revivalist and his followers remind the new householders of the strange and terrible aspects of human fate. At the end the couple are left quiet and strong in their new house.”

© 2022 Elizabeth SchwartzElizabeth Schwartz is a writer and music historian based in the Portland area. She has been a program annotator for more than 20 years, and works with music festivals and ensembles around the country. Ms. Schwartz has also contributed to NPR’s “Performance Today” (now heard on American Public Media). NOTE: These program notes are for Santa Rosa Symphony patrons and other interested readers. Any other use is forbidden without specific permission from the author, who may be contacted atclassicalmusicprogramnotes.com.

Beethoven a la Kern
2024-01-18 00:00
Concert Conversations with Francesco Lecce-Chong

Due to an abundance of caution, the pre-concert talk has been cancelled for this concert weekend.

2021-2022 Season Brochure

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Learn more about the Discovery Rehearsal Series

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Ages 7-11:

Masks are required. Must cover nose and mouth at all times.

Negative COVID PCR test (taken within 48 hours prior to performance).

â€‹Photo ID is required unless accompanied by parent.

Ages 12 & up;

Masks are required. Must cover nose and mouth at all times.

Photo ID is required

And one of the following:

Proof of vaccination – name on card must match photo ID.

Negative COVID PCR test (taken within 48 hours prior to performance) – name on the test results must match photo ID.

No one will be admitted without a mask, photo ID and either proof of vaccine or negative COVID-19 PCR test. No exceptions.

Please stay home if…

You are sick or have any of the following symptoms: fever, sore throat, chills, cough, shortness of breath, congestion, nausea, or vomiting.

You’ve been in close contact with an individual diagnosed with COVID-19 or exhibiting COVID-19 symptoms within the past 14 days.

You’ve been directed to self-isolate or quarantine by a health care provider or public health official.

You are awaiting the results of a COVID-19 PCR test.

For more information about COVID-19 protocols, please click here.

We gratefully acknowledge the generous contributions from the following:

Classical Concert Series underwritten by Anderman Family Foundation

Concerts sponsored by Judith M. GappaConductor Francesco Lecce-Chong underwritten by David and Corinne ByrdGuest Artist Olga Kern underwritten by Sara and Edward KozelWorld Premiere underwritten by First Symphony Project commissioners: Nancy and David Berto, Gordon Blumenfeld, Chuck and Ellen Wear, Creighton White in loving memory of Dorothy Bristow White, and Chloe Tula and Francesco Lecce-ChongWorld Premiere Supporting Sponsor: Women’s Philharmonic AdvocacyDiscovery Open Rehearsal Series sponsored by The Stare Foundation and David Stare of Dry Creek VineyardPre-concert Talks Sponsored by Jamei Haswell and Richard GrundySeason media sponsor: The Press Democrat

Programs, dates, artist, prices and COVID-19 protocols are subject to change without notice. Tickets are subject to availability.

January 2022 Program Notes by Elizabeth Schwartz

Richard Wagner
RICHARD WAGNERLohengrin: Prelude to Act 1, WWV 75 COMPOSER: born May 22, 1813, Leipzig; died February 13, 1883, VeniceWORK COMPOSED: 1848WORLD PREMIERE: Franz Liszt premiered Lohengrin in Weimar on August 28, 1856.INSTRUMENTATION: 3 flutes, 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 3 bassoons, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, cymbals and divisi strings.ESTIMATED DURATION: 10 minutes Today Richard Wagner is considered one of the most influential composers of the 19th century, but during his lifetime he did not enjoy such universal esteem. At the time he conceived and wrote Lohengrin, for example, Wagner’s reputation was at a low ebb. Wagner’s rapidly-evolving music and aesthetic ideas were too new and unusual for mid-19th-century audiences to comprehend or appreciate. Thus, when Wagner completed Lohengrin, he could not convince anyone to publish it or mount a production. In despair, Wagner wrote to Franz Liszt, head of the Weimar Opera, asking him to conduct the opening production of Lohengrin. Wagner hoped that Liszt’s strong reputation would lend credibility to Lohengrin and win audiences over. Wagner proved prescient; the mere fact that Liszt took on Lohengrin elevated its importance in the eyes of many, and both audiences and critics were favorably impressed with what they heard. After its premiere, Liszt wrote to Wagner, “The public interest in Lohengrin is rapidly increasing. You are already very popular at the various Weimar hotels, where it is not easy to get a room on the days when your operas are given.”

Lohengrin is Wagner’s last opera written in the 19th-century Romantic style; all his later works came to be known as “music dramas.” Wagner was much concerned with the relationship of music to literature, and believed the two must combine to form a new genre. In his 1850-1851 book, Oper und Drama (Opera and Drama), Wagner laid out his ideas for this new and singularly distinct genre, one he hoped would displace conventional operas with their frivolous plots and emphasis on recitatives and arias. According to Encyclopedia Britannica, “This new type of work was intended as a return to the Greek drama as Wagner understood it – the public expression of national human aspirations in symbolic form by enacting racial myths and using music for the full expression of the dramatic action.” All words would be sung, rather than mixing spoken and sung text; arias would not be the focus of the music or narrative, nor would they serve as vehicles to show off the singers’ virtuosity; libretto and music would be created by one person, rather than two or more, to insure unity between dramatic and musical concepts; short, distinctive musical fragments would be assigned to each of the characters, and these would sound each time the character appeared or was the focus of the narrative.

Although Lohengrin is not technically a music drama, several elements of its construction foreshadow Wagner’s mature style found in later works such as the Ring Cycle. Beginning with Lohengrin, Wagner wrote his own libretto. We can also hear the evolution of Wagner’s concept of leitmotif, the association of characters with specific themes and musical keys. Although Wagner did not apply the term leitmotif to Lohengrin, the beginnings of the idea are evident in the music.

The Prelude to Act I presents one of these proto-leitmotifs, the theme of the Holy Grail, which features – atypically for Wagner – a restrained, almost Minimalist quality. In the opera, Lohengrin is a knight who lives in the Temple of the Holy Grail with his father Parsifal. Elsa, unjustly accused of murdering her brother, dreams of a knight who will come to her defense. Her prayers summon Lohengrin, who arrives in a swan boat. Lohengrin jousts with Elsa’s accuser, Telramund, and defeats him, thus proving Elsa’s innocence.

Wagner splits the violin sections into eight parts, all of which play in an extremely high register. These divisi violins present the delicate ethereal music of the Grail, the mythical cup into which the blood of Jesus flowed while he was on the Cross. The music expresses both Elsa’s star-crossed love for Lohengrin (and his for her), as well as the exquisitely unattainable perfection of the Grail.

Gabriella Smith
ONE for Orchestra COMPOSER: born December 26, 1991, Berkeley, CaliforniaWORK COMPOSED: 2021WORLD PREMIERE: January 8-10, 2022 by the Santa Rosa Symphony, under the direction of Francesco Lecce-Chong, at the Green Music Center’s Weill Hall in Rohnert Park, CaliforniaWORK COMMISSIONED: First Symphony Project donors from the Santa Rosa and Eugene symphoniesINSTRUMENTATION: 3 flutes (1 doubling piccolo), 3 oboes (1 doubling English horn), 3 clarinets (1 doubling bass clarinet), 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 2 trombones, bass trombone, tuba, timpani, bass drum, 2 suspended cymbals, glockenspiel, marimba, 3 resonant metal objects pitched in F, several metal objects with varying degrees of resonance, tala wands (or hot rods), vibraphone and strings.ESTIMATED DURATION: 30 minutes Composer/environmentalist Gabriella Smith has made an international name for herself with music hailed by the Philadelphia Inquirer as “high-voltage and wildly imaginative.” Clive Paget, writing for Musical America, declares Smith possesses “the coolest, most exciting, most inventive new voice I’ve heard in ages.”

In June 2021, Smith released her first full-length album, Lost Coast, with cellist Gabriel Cabezas. The Santa Rosa Symphony performed her 2016 work, Rust, on its October 2021 concert.

In a recent interview, Smith expressed her gratitude for Music Director Francisco Lecce-Chong’s First Symphony Project, which has afforded her the rare chance to write a large-scale multi-movement orchestral work that will be performed by the Santa Rosa and Eugene symphonies. “It’s challenging to get a commission for an orchestra piece generally,” she explains. “I’ve never had the opportunity to write a symphony before.”

Smith originally planned to write one large movement “because I like building big arcs,” but as the work proceeded, “the idea of four movements started to appeal to me more.” Structurally, ONE is similar to a typical 19th-century symphony; the opening and closing movements are large and expansive. Smith has also included a slow movement and “a kind of scherzo,” which references the scherzo from Beethoven’s Eroica.

“I really like the Eroica and the energy of that movement,” Smith explains. “My third movement takes the character of Beethoven’s scherzo and makes it even more manic; the music distorts and comes back to it constantly throughout.”

Nods to Beethoven and symphonic architecture notwithstanding, the sound of this music is wholly Smith’s own. “I like the idea of constantly playing with references to older forms while also being new.”A decidedly “new” component of ONE is the list of unconventional percussion instruments Smith requires. In the score, she calls for “metal objects with varying degrees of resonance,” and encourages players to be creative. A suggested list includes metal mixing bowls, pots, pans, lids, cheese graters, metal water bottles, machine parts or tin cans.

“This piece is called ONE, which is both a reference to Symphony No. 1, but also the culmination of a lot of what I spent time thinking about last summer,” says Smith. “The title is a reminder that we humans are only one of millions of species on this planet – each of which plays an important role in the functioning of a healthy ecosystem – and we need to come together as one in order to fix the imbalance humans have created. We forget that we’re only one part of this amazing ecosystem. It’s about the whole and all the parts and how they interact. When I think about the connection between environmentalism and my music, the orchestra itself is a good metaphor.“This piece is about climate change and climate solutions, but I wanted to write something that was about getting excited about being involved in the climate movement and the climate solutions,” Smith continues. “I wanted to bring the joy of environmentalism to the music, not the despair.”

While Smith’s music is inspired by environmental concerns, it is not programmatic; there are no depictions of storms or floods or fires. “I write emotions rather than specific ideas of environmentalism in my music,” says Smith.

Since the music evokes emotional states rather than specific images, each listener will experience the music differently. “Listening can be so personal; it becomes about the listener’s journey rather than the composer’s intent. I’d like people to take away the bigger concept, rather than a specific moment.”

Ludwig Van Beethoven
Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major for Piano and Orchestra, Opus 73, Emperor COMPOSER: born December 16, 1770, Bonn; died March 26, 1827, ViennaWORK COMPOSED: 1809. Dedicated to Beethoven’s patron and student, Archduke Rudolph.WORLD PREMIERE: Johann Philipp Christian Schulz led the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig on Nov. 28, 1811, with Friedrich Schneider at the piano.INSTRUMENTATION: solo piano, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani and strings.ESTIMATED DURATION: 38 minutes In May 1809, Napoleon’s troops attacked the city of Vienna, and throughout the following summer, the city shook with mortar fire. Ludwig van Beethoven, whose hearing was severely impaired, suffered both the stress of living under attack and constant painful assaults on his ears. In July, he wrote his publisher, “Since May 4th I have produced very little coherent work, at most a fragment here and there. The whole course of events has in my case affected both body and soul … What a destructive, disorderly life I see and hear around me: nothing but drums, cannons, and human misery in every form.” Despite the traumatic conditions, Beethoven continued to compose, producing what is arguably the most popular piano concerto ever written.

It is not clear how “Emperor” came to be associated with Beethoven’s final piano concerto, although there is an apocryphal story about a French officer who, upon hearing the work performed in Vienna in 1812, exclaimed, “C’est l’Empereur!” If, as many have assumed, the emperor in question refers to Napoleon, Beethoven, suffering under Napoleon’s continuous bombardment, would certainly have disapproved.

By this point in his compositional career, Beethoven’s penchant for innovation in the opening measures of his concertos had become a signature, and the Fifth is no exception. After an introductory orchestral chord, the piano enters with a cadenza. Cadenzas, unaccompanied virtuoso passages filled with scales and trills created from fragments of thematic material, usually appear at the close of a movement. By opening the concerto with a cadenza full of musical foreshadowing, Beethoven telegraphs the themes and ideas of the opening movement to the listener. The seamlessness of the opening movement gives listeners a sense of inevitability, as if the music could unfold in no other way. This semi-subversive cadenza acts as a subliminal suggestion, planting the basic elements of later themes in our ears without our noticing.

In the Adagio un poco mosso, listeners may recognize the opening notes of Leonard Bernstein’s song Somewhere from West Side Story. We can picture Beethoven, surrounded by aural and emotional chaos, escaping from the turmoil of his surroundings into an ethereal sound world. All too soon Beethoven brings us back to earth as the whole orchestra drops down a half-step, from B to B-flat; it sustains that note while the piano storms into the Rondo with renewed vigor. Piano and orchestra execute a series of variations on this theme, each more elaborate than the next. The playful, humorous aspects of Beethoven’s personality reveal themselves here in the “false ending,” abrupt key changes and generally buoyant mood throughout.

In the review of its premiere, the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung reported that “[the audience] could hardly content itself with the ordinary expressions of recognition” in their excitement at hearing Beethoven’s greatest piano concerto.

© 2022 Elizabeth Schwartz Elizabeth Schwartz is a writer and music historian based in the Portland area. She has been a program annotator for more than 20 years, and works with music festivals and ensembles around the country. Schwartz has also contributed to NPR’s “Performance Today,” (now heard on American Public Media). NOTE: These program notes are for Santa Rosa Symphony patrons and other interested readers. Any other use is forbidden without specific permission from the author, who may be contacted at classicalmusicprogramnotes.com.

Showcasing Our Own
2024-01-18 00:00
Concert Conversations with Francesco Lecce-Chong

Concert Conversations are general seating and free to Classical Series concert ticket holders. Approximately 30 minutes in Weill Hall.

Saturday, December 4, 2021 at 6:30 PM

Sunday, December 5, 2021 at 2:00 PM

Monday, December 6, 2021 at 6:30 PM

2021-2022 Season Brochure

Plan Your Visit

Learn more about the Discovery Rehearsal Series

Directions & More

Seating Map

Before the Concert

At the Concert

Dining & Hotels

Covid Protocols for this concert

Ages 7-11:

Masks are required

Negative COVID PCR test (taken within 72 hours prior to performance).

â€‹Photo ID is required unless accompanied by parent.

Ages 12 & up;

Masks are required

Photo ID is required

And one of the following:

Proof of vaccination – name on card must match photo ID.

Negative COVID PCR test (taken within 72 hours prior to performance) – name on the test results must match photo ID.

No one will be admitted without a mask, photo ID and either proof of vaccine or negative COVID-19 PCR test. No exceptions.

Please stay home if…

You are sick or have any of the following symptoms: fever, sore throat, chills, cough, shortness of breath, congestion, nausea, or vomiting.

You’ve been in close contact with an individual diagnosed with COVID-19 or exhibiting COVID-19 symptoms within the past 14 days.

You’ve been directed to self-isolate or quarantine by a health care provider or public health official.

You are awaiting the results of a COVID-19 PCR test.

For more information about COVID-19 protocols, please click here.

We gratefully acknowledge the generous contributions from the following:

Classical Concert Series underwritten by Anderman Family Foundation

Concerts sponsored by Jim Lamb Conductor Francesco Lecce-Chong underwritten by David and Corinne ByrdGuest Artist Kathleen Lane Reynolds underwritten by Dr. Larry Schoenrock Endowment FundGuest Artist Laura Reynolds underwritten by Karen Brodsky and Mark DierkhisingGuest Artist Carla Wilson underwritten by Gregory SprehnGuest Artist Roy Zajac underwritten by Chuck and Ellen WearSRS@Home Series underwritten by Gregory SprehnDiscovery Open Rehearsal Series sponsored by The Stare Foundation and David Stare of Dry Creek VineyardPre-concert Talks sponsored by Jamei Haswell and Richard GrundySeason Media Sponsor: The Press Democrat

Programs, dates, artist, prices and COVID-19 protocols are subject to change without notice. Tickets are subject to availability.

Photo of Francesco Lecce-Chong by Susan and Neil Silverman PhotographyPhoto of Roy Zajac by Colin Talcroft

Program Notes by Elizabeth Schwartz

Ralph Vaughan Williams
Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis for Orchestra COMPOSER: born October 12, 1872, Down Ampney, England; died August 26, 1958, LondonWORK COMPOSED: 1910; rev. 1913, 1919WORLD PREMIERE: Vaughan Williams conducted the London Symphony Orchestra in the premiere performance at Gloucester Cathedral on September 6, 1910, for the Three Choirs FestivalINSTRUMENTATION: Two string orchestras of unequal size, the first consisting of approximately 40 players, including a solo string quartet. The second orchestra is more like an expanded string quartet, with 2 first violins, 2 second violins, 2 violas, 2 cellos and a double bass. Vaughan Williams also specified in his score that the second orchestra should be physically separate from the first and from the solo quartet.ESTIMATED DURATION: 17 minutes In 1906, Ralph Vaughan Williams was asked by Percy Dearmer, secretary of the London branch of the Christian Social Union, to undertake a revision of the Anglican hymnal. A life-long atheist, Vaughan Williams was startled by this invitation but nonetheless agreed. During this time, Vaughan Williams was also developing an interest in the English musical tradition, and he knew the best examples of this tradition lay in the wealth of English folk and religious music. Dearmer assured Vaughan Williams the job would take about two months and would probably only cost him a few pounds in expenses. In reality, Vaughan Williams spent over two years and 250 pounds – a considerable amount of money in early 20th-century England – before the revised hymnal was completed.

Despite the length and expense of the assignment, Vaughan Williams considered it time and money well spent. As a young composer, he had studied composition with Max Bruch and Maurice Ravel, from whom he learned valuable compositional techniques. However, Vaughan Williams realized he would need to develop his own musical language if he were ever to be successful. He remarked, “I know now that two years of close association with some of the best (as well as some of the worst) tunes in the world was a better musical education than any amount of sonatas and fugues.”

As he worked on the hymnal, Vaughan Williams discovered Renaissance composer and organist Thomas Tallis’ setting of “When Rising from the Bed of Death.” Vaughan Williams was taken by the gentle lyricism and quiet melancholy of the music, and used its main themes to craft his own set of variations. These Variations became the first of Vaughan Williams’ works to definitively establish him as a composer with a unique voice. Critics and audiences warmed to the unusual modal sonorities of the music and its rich expansiveness. At its premiere, the London Times music critic wrote, “The work is wonderful because it seems to lift one into some unknown region of musical thought and feeling … one is never sure whether one is listening to something very old or very new … it cannot be assigned to a time or a school, but it is full of visions.”

Paul Hindemith
Concerto for Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Bassoon, Harp and Orchestra COMPOSER: born November 16, 1895, Hanau, near Frankfurt; died December 28, 1963, FrankfurtWORK COMPOSED: 1949. Commissioned by the Alice M. Ditson Fund at Columbia University in New York for the fifth annual Festival of Contemporary American Music.WORLD PREMIERE: Thor Johnson led the CBS Symphony Orchestra on May 15, 1949, at Columbia UniversityINSTRUMENTATION: solo flute, solo oboe, solo clarinet, solo bassoon, solo harp, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, solo trombone, timpani and stringsESTIMATED DURATION: 15 minutes Paul Hindemith had an unusual ambition: to write a solo concerto for every instrument in the orchestra. The overall lack of concertos for non-traditional solo instruments provided an opportunity for Hindemith to create concerto literature for these often-overlooked instruments. Hindemith eventually completed concertos for violin, viola, cello, clarinet, horn, trumpet, organ and piano, as well as a concerto for full orchestra and several concerto grosso works for small ensembles (woodwinds and brass), with chamber orchestra.

Hindemith pursued several successful musical careers. He was an excellent violist, and as a young man supported himself with orchestra section work and extensive concert tours. He was also a noted pedagogue who taught at Berlin’s prestigious Hochschule fÃ¼r Musik. Hindemith and his wife fled Germany in the late 1930s and eventually came to America, where he taught at several universities, most notably Yale and Cornell. Hindemith’s students at Yale included Lukas Foss, Norman Dello Joio and Mitch Leigh, among many others.

For most of his musical life, Hindemith championed the concept of Gebrauchsmusik (utility music). The term has several meanings, including music written for a specific purpose or occasion, and music written for talented amateurs rather than virtuosos. At the root of this meaning is the belief that making music should be an inclusive activity, rather than something only for top-level professional musicians. To this end, Hindemith’s style of Gebrauchsmusik incorporates old genres (like the Baroque concerto grosso) with clear contrapuntal writing and the harmonic language of his own time.

Hindemith’s Concerto for Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Bassoon, Harp and Strings exemplifies this style. As with Baroque versions of the concerto grosso, Hindemith features a small group of soloists who play with – and sometimes against – the full orchestra.

When Hindemith found out the Festival of Contemporary American Music coincided with his 25th wedding anniversary, he asked that the premiere take place on May 15, the exact date. As a surprise for his wife Gertrude, Hindemith based the third movement on the opening phrase of Mendelssohn’s famous “Wedding March” from A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Throughout the brief final movement, we hear this delightful musical homage, first in the clarinet and later in other instruments.

Dmitri Shostakovich
Symphony No. 5 in D minor, Opus 47

COMPOSER: born September 25, 1906, St. Petersburg, Russia; died August 9, 1975, Moscow, U.S.S.R.WORK COMPOSED: Shostakovich began writing his fifth symphony on April 18, 1937, and finished it on July 20 of that yearWORLD PREMIERE: Yevgeny Mravinsky led the Leningrad Philharmonic on November 21, 1937, in Leningrad, as part of a concert commemorating the Bolshevik RevolutionINSTRUMENTATION: piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, E-flat clarinet, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drum, cymbals, orchestra bells, snare drum, tambourine, tam-tam, triangle, xylophone, celeste, piano, 2 harps and stringsESTIMATED DURATION: 46 minutes

Everyone in the concert hall in Leningrad on that chilly night in November 1937 knew that Dmitri Shostakovich’s artistic reputation, and very possibly his life, were on the line. They were there to hear the premiere of Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony. Before the night was over, they also witnessed the dramatic rehabilitation of Shostakovich as the Soviet Union’s preeminent composer.

Earlier in the decade, Shostakovich had been fÃªted as the darling of Soviet cultural critics, but in 1936 the Soviet newspaper Pravda published a vicious denunciation of Shostakovich’s opera, Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District. Shostakovich’s response to the Pravda review was to immediately withdraw his Fourth Symphony, which he was then rehearsing. (He did not perform it in public until 1961, eight years after Joseph Stalin’s death.) This was not an overreaction; Shostakovich had many friends and associates who were “disappeared” or executed for reasons far less public. Any response Shostakovich made to his critics had to be meticulously planned, lest he suffer the same fate. With his Fifth Symphony, which a reviewer famously called a “Soviet artist’s response to just criticism,” Shostakovich both mollified government critics and simultaneously reasserted his artistic integrity.

Although the Fifth Symphony is an “absolute” piece of music (i.e., there is no extra-musical story or narrative attached to it), Shostakovich did include a brief description of “a lengthy spiritual battle, crowned by victory” in the program notes. The Moderato sets the tone for that “spiritual battle,” beginning with the strings’ menacing theme. Its dotted rhythms suggest a bitter march toward an implacable foe. Later, the violins introduce a lyrical second theme, in contrast to the angular rhythmic quality of the first.

The playful Allegretto juxtaposes frisky winds with stentorian brasses. In the trio section a solo violin teases and flirts, before being interrupted by the full orchestra, which transforms the violin’s merry tune into a pompous, galumphing parody of itself. A whiff of something grotesque permeates this music.The Largo is the emotional core of the Fifth Symphony, and its power lies in its poignant melodies. Here Shostakovich gives the brass section a rest and showcases other instruments: first strings, then a solo flute and finally the full orchestra, sans brasses. Wistful cries from the oboe, a sobbing upwelling of notes from the clarinet and a brief comment from the flute follow before the whole orchestra comes together, amidst quivering string tremolos, in heart-wrenching sadness.

The Allegro non troppo opens with a firestorm, announced by pounding timpani and a blazing brass fanfare. Shostakovich returns to this theme again and again, and unleashes his seemingly endless power of invention with defiant abandon. In a quiet interlude that directly precedes the coda, Shostakovich quotes a song in the violins (later in the harp) that he set to words of the Russian poet Alexander Pushkin: “And the waverings pass away / From my tormented soul / As a new and brighter day / Brings visions of pure gold.” Despite this quotation and the blast of brassy triumph that ends the Fifth Symphony, Shostakovich, perhaps enigmatically, called the conclusion an “irreparable tragedy.”At the end of the premiere, a member of the audience remembered: “The whole audience leapt to their feet and erupted into wild applause – a demonstration of their outrage at all the hounding poor Mitya had been through. Everyone kept saying the same thing: ‘That was his answer, and it was a good one.’ [Shostakovich] came out white as a sheet, biting his lips. I think he was close to tears.”

The Fifth Symphony also succeeded as a musical work, despite negative responses from some critics who saw it as a musical capitulation to the restrictions placed on artists’ works, or a shameful compromise by a world-class composer with the dictatorial political system in which he worked. Pravda, unsurprisingly, termed it “a farrago of chaotic nonsensical sounds.” However, audiences both within and outside the Soviet Union hailed the Fifth Symphony as a masterpiece, and it has become Shostakovich’s most popular and most frequently performed symphony.

© Elizabeth Schwartz

Klezmer & Krakauer
2024-01-18 00:00
Concert Conversations with Francesco Lecce-Chong

Concert Conversations are general seating and free to Classical Series concert ticket holders. Approximately 30 minutes in Weill Hall.

Saturday, November 6, 2021 at 6:30 PM

Sunday, November 7, 2021 at 2:00 PM

Monday, November 8, 2021 at 6:30 PM

2021-2022 Season Brochure

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Covid Protocols for this concert

Ages 7-11:

Masks are required

Negative COVID PCR test (taken within 72 hours prior to performance).

Photo ID is required unless accompanied by parent.

Ages 12 & up;

Masks are required

Photo ID is required

And one of the following:

Proof of vaccination – name on card must match photo ID.

Negative COVID PCR test (taken within 72 hours prior to performance) – name on the test results must match photo ID.

No one will be admitted without a mask, photo ID and either proof of vaccine or negative COVID-19 PCR test. No exceptions.

Please stay home if…

You are sick or have any of the following symptoms: fever, sore throat, chills, cough, shortness of breath, congestion, nausea, or vomiting.

You’ve been in close contact with an individual diagnosed with COVID-19 or exhibiting COVID-19 symptoms within the past 14 days.

You’ve been directed to self-isolate or quarantine by a health care provider or public health official.

You are awaiting the results of a COVID-19 PCR test.

We gratefully acknowledge the generous contributions from the following:

Classical Concert Series underwritten by Anderman Family Foundation

Concerts sponsored by The Peggy Anne Covington Fund
Conductor Francesco Lecce-Chong underwritten by David and Corinne Byrd
Guest Artist David Krakauer underwritten by Sigmund Anderman, in memory of Susan Anderman
The Fretless Clarinet: Concerto for Klezmer and Orchestra co-commissioned by the Santa Rosa Symphony, the Eugene Symphony and the Adele and John Gray Endowment Fund
with additional support from Karen Brodsky & Mark Dierkhising
SRS@Home Series underwritten by Gregory Sprehn
Discovery Open Rehearsal Series sponsored by The Stare Foundation and David Stare of Dry Creek Vineyard
Pre-concert Talks sponsored by Jamei Haswell and Richard Grundy
Season Media Sponsor: The Press Democrat

Programs, dates, artist, prices and COVID-19 protocols are subject to change without notice. Tickets are subject to availability.

Program Notes by Elizabeth Schwartz

David Krakauer, Arranger
Traditional Klezmer melodies arranged for Clarinet and Orchestra Klezmer is the traditional secular music of Ashkenazic Jews (Jews who trace their ancestry to Eastern Europe). This swinging, swaggering, virtuosic, improvisatory and deeply emotional instrumental music was an essential accompaniment for Jewish celebrations throughout the shtetls of Europe. Stylistically, klezmer combines the cantorial chanting of synagogue music and non-Jewish Eastern European folk traditions, particularly those of Romania, Ukraine, Poland, Russia and the Roma people. Weddings in particular featured a variety of klezmer tunes that served practical purposes: stately processionals to accompany the bridal couple and their families through the streets; up-tempo dances for celebrating after the ceremony; and mournful melodies to facilitate weeping. What is a wedding without tears, after all? The music was an essential part of the event, as it connected people with their emotions. Players, responding to the mood of the crowd, would make their instruments imitate human sounds, particularly laughter, sighs and sobs. In addition, elaborate melodic improvisation was and remains an essential facet of klezmer sound. Klezmer – the name comes from two Hebrew words: “kley” (vessel or instrument) and “zemer” (song) – originally referred to the musicians who played it. Over time, like the music itself, the word has evolved and today denotes an instantly recognizable and wholly distinctive instrumental style. When Jews began emigrating en masse to the United States at the end of the 19th century, klezmorim brought their music with them. In America, klezmorim quickly absorbed the musical influences of their new environs. With the advent of sound recording, traditional klezmer instruments such as violin, bass, drum, and zimbl (cymbalom) were augmented by the clarinet, accordion and various brass instruments. At the same time, klezmer and a newly emerging American music called jazz cross-pollinated. Some of jazz’s greatest stars, like Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw, shaped jazz with their Jewish musical sensibilities, and some traditional klezmer tunes became crossover jazz hits. Der Shtiler Bulgar morphed into the Johnny Mercer hit song And the Angels Sing, for example. Klezmer music has been enjoying a revival since the mid-1970s, when musicians interested in folk and roots music rediscovered it. Today, klezmer sounds infuse a wide variety of genres, from traditional to jazz, fusion, rock, folk, hip-hop, avant-garde, classical and punk.

David Krakauer and Kathleen Tagg The Fretless Clarinet: Concerto for Klezmer Clarinet and Orchestra
COMPOSER: David Krakauer was born on November 22, 1956, in New York City; Kathleen Tagg was born on August 16, 1977, in South Africa WORK COMPOSED: 2021. Co-commissioned by the Santa Rosa Symphony (lead commissioner), the Eugene Symphony and the John and Adele Gray Endowment Fund and dedicated to Francesco Lecce-Chong and the two symphonies. WORLD PREMIERE: Performed by the Santa Rosa Symphony at the Green Music Center’s Weill Hall in Rohnert Park, California, November 6-8, 2021. Instrumentation: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, solo tuba, timpani, percussion and strings. Estimated duration: 20 minutes “We are the sum of our parts – it’s my greatest strength, but it also makes it hard to categorize me as a musician,” clarinetist David Krakauer acknowledges. Acclaimed for his unique sound and approach, Krakauer has received international praise as a key innovator in modern klezmer as well as a major voice in classical music. Krakauer is an endlessly curious musician; over the years he has collaborated with top musicians from the worlds of klezmer, hip hop, classical, avant-garde and jazz. In recent years, he has focused on his creative collaborations with pianist, composer and producer Kathleen Tagg. Tagg has presented her music on four continents in leading venues such as Carnegie Hall, had her original music performed in world-class venues such as New York’s Lincoln Center, appeared on a host of classical, world music and multi-genre recordings, and produced numerous CDs and inter-disciplinary musical programs from South Africa to Los Angeles. In 2004, Krakauer and Tagg met at the Manhattan School of Music, where Krakauer is a member of the faculty, and began working together in 2012. “We started off playing standard classical repertoire together, Brahms and Debussy,” Krakauer remembers, “but we wanted to do something more creative, so we started working on folk material and original compositions.” Tagg and Krakauer bring distinct and complimentary musical skills and experiences to their creative partnership. “I’m an omnivorous listener,” Tagg explains. “I was a cellist, street musician, church organist, session musician and wrote music for the theatre. I was also deeply influenced by the environment in post-apartheid Capetown in the 1990s. I got to study African traditions and learn music from around the continent – marimbas, interlocking patterns, dances. There are 11 official languages in South Africa, and many diverse cultures. I appreciate the different cultures, but I’m not an expert in any one of them. For me, the lasting legacy I took away from that time when I was in conservatory doing counterpoint in the morning and marimba music in the afternoon was an essential openness and the desire to connect on a human level.” The jazz and funk Krakauer grew up listening to flavors and sometimes dictates the direction of his own klezmer-oriented compositions. Tagg came to klezmer as an adult in her early 30s. “Each time we collaborate in a different way,” says Tagg. “This concerto is a piece for David to perform. It’s his world and it’s very personal to him. Every originating impetus was from David, while I brought form and structure and construction to it.” Krakauer adds, “I gave Kathleen a simple clarinet melody and a primitive bass line, which she sculpted into a composition for clarinet and orchestra. She suggested structures and modulations. She was able to work with the form so that it retained a kind of ‘required simplicity,’ but still made it a work that felt good in the context of a clarinet and symphony orchestra.” The concerto’s title comes from Krakauer’s reputation for virtuoso glissandi (sliding up or down a scale, like the opening of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue). A friend, listening to Krakauer’s effortless riffs, remarked, “You play a fretless clarinet,” by which he meant Krakauer’s ability to gliss seamlessly, with no rests or glitches.

Krakauer provided the following notes:
“Sanctuary City is informed by immigration struggles and the Black Lives Matter movement. New York City has been a sanctuary city for a long time; it provides opportunity for cultures to come together. I used material from a suite I’d written as an imaginary meeting between [jazz clarinetist] Sidney Bechet and [klezmer clarinetist] Naftule Brandwein, who have influenced my musical personality more than anyone else – I thought of them as immigrants coming from different places to meet in New York. This movement channels the intense feelings of fear, rage, worry, exhaustion and anger that were bubbling over during COVID lockdowns in summer of 2020. The orchestra is sliding around all over the place. On top it’s cantorial, melismatic, and the orchestra is very turbulent, and then it starts to resolve with a Terkisher beat that gains momentum and cohesion. You hear Bechet’s growling quality throughout.

“Mozart on the Judengasse – When I was a teen, I started playing Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet. The fourth movement is a theme and variations, and I heard Jewish underpinnings in the viola variation. In Salzburg, I visited Mozart’s birthplace and found the nearby Judengasse – the Jewish street. Mozart must have passed by as a kid and heard Jewish prayer when he lived there. I wrote a whole movement based on this viola variation, and Kathleen did her magic on it. It uses the same orchestration as Mozart’s clarinet concerto, and the structure is a traditional klezmer tune in form and proportion. Klezmer fans will hear the influence of the famous klezmer tune ‘Der Gasn Nign’ (Street Song).

“Ancestral Grooves [also the name of David’s current working band] – We were playing in Siena, Italy, and then in England for a wedding, and we had a week in between, so we rented an Airbnb on Lago Como [in northern Italy outside Milan]. There was an amazing storm on the lake – very driving and stormy – that gave birth to the beginning of this movement. The central melodic idea evolved from klezmer doinas – modal, monophonic, melismatic improvisations. Then I wrote an original bulgar based on that doina material – so the music goes from storm to doina to bulgar. The movement ends in a joyous romp.

“This concerto is about my world from the past 30 years. It’s a big part of my legacy.”

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov Scheherazade (Symphonic Suite) for Orchestra, Opus 35
Composer: born March 18, 1844, Tikhvin, near Novgorod, Russia; died June 21, 1908, Lyubensk [now Pskov district], near St. PetersburgWork composed: during the summer of 1888 World premiere: Rimsky-Korsakov conducted the premiere in St. Petersburg on November 3, 1888 Instrumentation: solo violin, 2 flutes (one doubling piccolo), 2 oboes (one doubling English horn), 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drum, cymbals, snare drum, tam-tam, tambourine, triangle, harp and strings Estimated duration: 42 minutes Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade, inspired by alluring images from the Tales from the Arabian Nights, established the Russian composer as a brilliant orchestrator. Rimsky-Korsakov described Scheherazade as an Eastern “narrative of … varied fairy-tale wonders.” The solo violin, as Scheherazade, stitches the exotic stories together. The literary inspiration for Rimsky-Korsakov’s orchestral masterpiece is a collection of folk tales from Egypt, India and Persia that includes stories dating back over 1,000 years. In 1704, French translator Antoine Galland began publishing the Tales from the Arabian Nights in a series of installments, beginning with “Sinbad the Sailor.” The otherness of the East captured the imaginations of Westerners. In their minds it became a quasi-magical realm tinged with mystery, the scent of foreign perfumes and spices, beguiling music and other sensual delights. Galland’s translations created a frenzy among Europeans for all things Eastern and contributed to the rise of turquerie, an interest in the culture, art and style of the Turkish Ottoman Empire. Rimsky-Korsakov capitalized on listeners’ instant association of Scheherazade with the East when he immortalized the legendary storyteller and her fantastic tales in music. According to legend, Scheherazade’s stories were invented to prevent her execution at the hands of her brutal husband. Sultan Shakriar believed all women were naturally deceptive and had each of his wives killed after one night. Scheherazade escaped this fate by telling stories that spun themselves out over 1,001 nights. Her stories were an ingenious amalgam of poems, folk songs and fairy tales. Infected by the universal desire to find out “what happened next,” the sultan deferred her execution each morning and eventually commuted her death sentence. In his memoir My Musical Life, Rimsky-Korsakov wrote, “I meant these hints to direct but slightly the hearer’s fancy on the path which my own fancy had traveled. All I desired was that the hearer, if he liked my piece as symphonic music, should carry away the impression that it is beyond doubt an oriental narrative of some numerous and varied fairy-tale wonders, and not merely four pieces played one after the other and composed on the basis of themes common to all four movements.” More specifically, Rimsky-Korsakov indicates the solo violin, which opens the first two movements, the intermezzo of the third movement and the conclusion of the fourth all correspond to Scheherazade herself. (The forbidding theme in the brasses that opens the whole work and is sometimes associated with the Sultan is perhaps better perceived as a metaphor for Scheherazade’s death sentence. Postponed as long as she continues to beguile the Sultan with her inventive stories, it is always present as a threatening, if unspoken, reminder.) Rimsky-Korsakov’s student, composer Anatoly Lyadov, suggested the names by which each of Scheherazade’s four sections are known to most audiences. Although Rimsky-Korsakov approved them initially, he had them removed from subsequent editions of the score, in keeping with his conception that Scheherazade was not a linear narrative. Instead, Rimsky-Korsakov described it as a “musical kaleidoscope” of images: the ocean carrying Sinbad’s ship from one near-escape to the next; the roguish exploits of a Kalendar Prince (Rimsky-Korsakov does not specify which prince tale he is illustrating but presents a lighthearted composite of mischief-making); an enchanting love story of a young prince and princess, possibly Aladdin and the princess Badur; and a vastly different ocean, now storm-tossed and deadly, which finally wrecks Sinbad’s ship against the rocks.

© Elizabeth Schwartz

Elgar & Mozart
2024-01-18 00:00
Health & Safety

Ages 12 & up;

Masks are required

Photo ID is required

And one of the following:

Proof of vaccination – name on card must match photo ID. Click here acceptable forms of proof.

Negative COVID-19 PCR test (72 hours prior to performance) – name on test results must match photo ID.

No one will be admitted without a mask, photo ID and either proof of vaccine or negative COVID-19 PCR test result. No exceptions.

Please stay home if…

You are sick or have any of the following symptoms: fever, sore throat, chills, cough, shortness of breath, congestion, nausea, or vomiting.

You’ve been in close contact with an individual diagnosed with COVID-19 or exhibiting COVID-19 symptoms within the past 14 days.

You’ve been directed to self-isolate or quarantine by a health care provider or public health official.

You are awaiting the results of a COVID-19 test.

Discovery Rehearsal at 2:00 pm: Children between 7-11 years of age may attend and will be required to wear a mask.

Concert Conversations with Francesco Lecce-Chong

Concert Conversations are general seating and free to Classical Series concert ticket holders. Approximately 30 minutes in Weill Hall.

Saturday, October 2, 2021 at 6:30 PM

Sunday, October 3, 2021 at 2:00 PM

Monday, October 4, 2021 at 6:30 PM

Plan Your Visit

Learn more about the Discovery Rehearsal Series

Directions & More

Seating Map

Before the Concert

At the Concert

Dining & Hotels

Classical Concert Series underwritten by Anderman Family Foundation

Concerts sponsored by Marcia Wagner, in memory of Hap WagnerConductor Francesco Lecce-Chong underwritten by David and Corinne ByrdGuest Artist Julian Rhee underwritten by Ava and Sam GuerreraSRS@Home Series underwritten by Gregory SprehnDiscovery Open Rehearsal Series sponsored by The Stare Foundation and David Stare of Dry Creek VineyardPre-Concert Talks sponsored by Jamei Haswell and Richard GrundySeason Media Sponsor: The Press Democrat

Program Notes by Elizabeth Schwartz

Libby Larsen – Deep Summer Music for Orchestra
COMPOSER: born December 24, 1950, Wilmington, DE WORK COMPOSED: 1982; commissioned by the Terrace Mill Foundation for the Minnesota Orchestra WORLD PREMIERE: Joseph Giunta led the Minnesota Orchestra on July 2, 1982, in an outdoor concert in Terrace, MN INSTRUMENTATION: piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, trumpet, 3 trombones, timpani, marimba, orchestra bells, triangle and strings ESTIMATED DURATION: 8 minutes

Over the course of her prolific career, Libby Larsen has helped shape the sound of contemporary American music. Larsen’s catalogue of over 500 works includes music for virtually every genre, and her music has been commissioned by major artists and ensembles around the world.

In 1983, Larsen was appointed Composer-in-Residence with the Minnesota Orchestra, making Larsen the first woman composer to hold this position with a major American orchestra. “Panorama and horizon are part of the natural culture of the plains states,” Larsen observes in her notes for Deep Summer Music. “On the plains, one cannot help but be affected by the sweep of the horizon and the depth of color as the eye adjusts from the nearest to the farthest view. The glory of this phenomenon is particularly evident at harvest time, in deep summer, when acres of ripened wheat, sunflowers, corn, rye and oats blaze with color. In the deep summer, winds create wave after wave of harvest ripeness which, when beheld by the human eye, engender a kind of emotional peace and awe: a feeling of abundance combined with the knowledge that this abundance is only as bountiful as nature will allow . . . Built into the score are modulating percussion and string patterns over which soar a broad string melody. A solo trumpet recalls the presence of the individual amidst the vastness of the landscape.”

Deep Summer Music premiered at an outdoor concert by the Minnesota Orchestra in the tiny rural community of Terrace, population approximately200. The concert drew an audience of more than 8,000 people from both Minnesota and neighboring South Dakota. “There was the most beautiful blanket of quiet,” Larsen recalled “… and as one trumpet solo happened, a ‘V’ formation of geese flew over and honked, seeming to echo the music. It was a lovely and peaceful experience – and you couldn’t have cued the geese any better!”

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Violin Concerto No. 5 in A major, K. 219, Turkish
COMPOSER: born January 27, 1756, Salzburg, Austria; died December 5, 1791, Vienna WORK COMPOSED: Mozart wrote all five of his violin concertos between April and December 1775, probably for violinist Antonio Brunetti, who took over as concertmaster for the Archbishop of Salzburg’s court orchestra after Mozart resigned his post there in 1776. WORLD PREMIERE: December 1775 in Salzburg INSTRUMENTATION: solo violin, 2 oboes, 2 horns, and strings ESTIMATED DURATION: 31 minutes

Today, we think of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart as a composer and virtuoso pianist, but he was also a prodigally skilled violinist. When Mozart was a boy, he traveled throughout Europe displaying his virtuosity on both violin and keyboard, but he also absorbed the musical styles of Italy, with its emphasis on lyricism and bravura technique. Both qualities infuse Mozart’s music for violin, particularly his five violin concertos, most of which he wrote over a few months in 1775.

The A Major Violin Concerto is the most mature of the five; the overall mood, even in the Adagio, is one of optimism and joyous expression. In the first movement, the soloist explores the violin’s highest notes in graceful arabesques. In the tender, intimate E major Adagio, both orchestra and soloist play passages of exquisite transparency. The closing Rondeau combines Mozart’s deceptively simple melodies with adventures in minor keys and folk music flourishes; these account for its “Turkish” nickname (in Mozart’s time, any vaguely Easternsounding music was referred to as Turkish, although in the case of this concerto, Mozart’s inspiration was actually Hungarian folk music).

Gabriella Smith – Rust
COMPOSER: born December 26, 1991, Berkeley, CA WORK COMPOSED: 2016 as a commission from the Tucson Symphony Orchestra, which premiered it in March 2017 INSTRUMENTATION: 2 flutes (1 doubling piccolo), 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, 2 trombones, tuba, piano and strings ESTIMATED DURATION: 8 minutes

Composer/environmentalist Gabriella Smith has made an international name for herself with music hailed by the Philadelphia Inquirer as “high-voltage and wildly imaginative.” Clive Paget, writing for Musical America, declares Smith possesses “the coolest, most exciting, most inventive new voice I’ve heard in ages.”

Smith grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area playing and writing music, hiking, backpacking and volunteering on a songbird research project. Her music grows out of a love of play, exploring new sounds on instruments and connecting listeners with the natural world. Recent highlights include the LA Philharmonic’s performances of Tumblebird Contrails, conducted by John Adams, and the Aizuri Quartet’s recording of Carrot Revolution on their Grammy-nominated debut album Blueprinting. In June of this year, Smith released her first full-length album, Lost Coast, with cellist Gabriel Cabezas.
“In the summer of 2016, I spent three weeks at a music festival in the mountains of New Mexico, climbing peaks in the morning and attending concerts at night,” Smith writes. “Rust weaves those two experiences together. One of the final performances of the festival was Vivaldi’s Concerto for Four Violins in B minor. For weeks afterwards, the final bars looped in my head, repeating over and over, mingling with the mountains until they became a minimalist metamorphosis of Vivaldi rusting away into the landscape.”

Smith’s specific soundscape incorporates minimalism (music restricted to a limited palette of timbres, tonalities or rhythms) and aleatoric qualities (some aspect of the music occurs by chance; e.g., performers may choose how many times to repeat a given phrase). In the opening of Rust, we hear the closing phrases from the Vivaldi concerto rising by quartertones in a slow, inexorable progression, much as rust slowly consumes its original metal.

Edward Elgar – Variations on an Original Theme for Orchestra, Opus 36, Enigma Variations
COMPOSER: born June 2, 1857, Broadheath, near Worcester, England; died February 23, 1934, Worcester WORK COMPOSED: October 21, 1898 through the spring of 1899; dedicated “to my friends pictured within.” WORLD PREMIERE: Hans Richter conducted the first performance on June 19, 1899, at St. James’ Hall in London. INSTRUMENTATION: 2 flutes (1 doubling piccolo), 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 3 bassoons, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drum, cymbals, snare drum, triangle, organ, and strings ESTIMATED DURATION: 29 minutes

Elgar’s Variations on an Original Theme for Orchestra, Op. 36, better known as the Enigma Variations, poses an intriguing mystery, which to this day has never been solved. There are two enigmas in the Variations: one opens the piece; the other is silent but present throughout. Much has been written about the Variations, including lengthy discussions of their actual title. Elgar called them simply Variations for Orchestra on an Original Theme, and later added the word “Enigma” in the manuscript.

The Variations marked a new phase in Elgar’s career. His previous works, primarily for chorus and orchestra, had brought him fame within England, but he remained largely unknown elsewhere. When renowned conductor Hans Richter agreed to premiere the Variations, he also became their champion, introducing them to audiences throughout England and Europe.

With the success of the Variations, English music itself, which had languished in relative obscurity since the death of Henry Purcell some 300 years earlier, also received a much-needed boost. The work immediately intrigued audiences with its thirteen portraits of Elgar’s friends and family, and his own self-portrait finale. However, Elgar intended this loving tribute to his circle of friends to be enjoyed as pure music. He wrote, “There is nothing to be gained in an artistic or musical sense by solving the enigma of any of the personalities; the listener should hear the music as music, and not trouble himself with any intricacies of ‘programme.’ To me, the various personalities have been a source of inspiration, their idealisations a pleasure – and one that is intensified as the years go by.”

“The enigma I will not explain – its ‘dark saying’ must be left unguessed, and I warn you that the apparent connection between the Variations and the Theme is often of the slightest texture; further, through and over the whole set another and larger theme ‘goes’ but is not played,” Elgar wrote in the notes for the first performance. This silent second enigma sparked much speculation, from “Rule Britannia” and “God Save the King” to “Auld Lang Syne” or even “Ta Ra Ra Boom Dee Ay.” Some scholars suggest the second enigma is not musical at all but an abstract concept, such as friendship or love.

The audible enigma theme is Elgar himself (he felt it embodied the loneliness of the creative artist). It came to him one evening in October of 1898 while he was improvising at the piano.

In a letter to his friend and publisher August Johann Jaeger, Elgar wrote, “I have sketched a set of Variations (orkestra) on an original theme: the Variations have amused me because I’ve labeled ’em with the nicknames of my particular friends – you are Nimrod. That is to say I’ve written the variations each one to represent the mood of the ‘party’ – I’ve liked to imagine the ‘party’ writing the var: him (or her) self and have written what I think they wd. have written – if they were asses enough to compose – it’s a quaint idee & the result is amusing to those behind the scenes & won’t affect the hearer who ‘nose nuffin.’ What think you?”

Elgar indicated with initials and a few names each character pictured in his music:

C.A.E. Caroline Alice Elgar, Elgar’s wife.

H.D.S-P. Hew David Steuart-Powell, an amateur pianist with whom Elgar played in chamber ensembles.

R.B.T. Richard Baxter Townshend, an eccentric scholar/author whose caricature of an old man is the subject of the variation.

W.M.B. William Meath Baker, the squire of Hasfield Court, whose habit of slamming doors upon exiting rooms is heard in this variation.

R.P.A. Richard Penrose Arnold, son of poet Matthew Arnold, known as a daydreamer.
Ysobel Isabel Fitton, an amateur violist.

Troyte Arthur Troyte Griffith, an artist and architect and a pianist of limited skill, hence the bombastic quality of his variation.

W.N. Winifred Norbury, secretary of the Worcestershire Philharmonic Society (this variation is actually a portrait of her stately house, the scene of numerous musical gatherings; it also captures her ready laugh).

SRS @ Home
2024-01-18 00:00

SRS @ Home
2024-01-18 00:00
Ways to Watch

YPCO - Through the Looking Glass
2024-01-18 00:00
Ticket Information

Pre-concert Door$15 Adult $20 Adult$5 Youth $10 Youth

Please note: pre-concert price is valid until 11 AM of the Friday preceeding the concert. After that, tickets can only be purchased at the door.

To purchase group tickets, please contact the Santa Rosa Symphony Patron Services Office at 707-546-8742 or click here.

Group sale tickets (10+) are not available at the door. They must be purchased in advance and before the 11 AM deadline on the Friday preceeding the concert.

Ticket fees apply for online and phone orders. Tickets are non-refundable and subject to availability.

SRS Patron Services Hours: M-F: 9 AM- 5 PM | W: 10:30 AM- 5 PM | Closed Saturday & Sunday | 50 Santa Rosa Ave, 1st Floor, Santa Rosa

Plan Your Visit

Learn more about the Discovery Rehearsal Series

Directions & More

Seating Map

Before the Concert

At the Concert

Dining & Hotels

YPCO - From Folk to Fugue
2024-01-18 00:00

DOAO
2024-01-18 00:00
Ticket Information

Pre-concert Door$15 Adult $20 Adult$5 Youth $10 Youth

Please note: pre-concert price is valid until 11 AM of the Friday preceeding the concert. After that, tickets can only be purchased at the door.

To purchase group tickets, please contact the Santa Rosa Symphony Patron Services Office at 707-546-8742 or click here.

Group sale tickets (10+) are not available at the door. They must be purchased in advance and before the 11 AM deadline on the Friday preceeding the concert.

Ticket fees apply for online and phone orders. Tickets are non-refundable and subject to availability.

SRS Patron Services Hours: M-F: 9 AM- 5 PM | W: 10:30 AM- 5 PM | Closed Saturday & Sunday | 50 Santa Rosa Ave, 1st Floor, Santa Rosa

Plan Your Visit

Learn more about the Discovery Rehearsal Series

Directions & More

Seating Map

Before the Concert

At the Concert

Dining & Hotels

We gratefully acknowledge the generous contributions from the following:

Aspirante Youth Orchestra sponsored by Jennifer & Donavon AmmonsDebut Youth Orchestra sponsored by Norm Claus and Leona BiddleSavannah Hill Music Scholarship Fund

All photos by Susan & Neil Silverman Photography

ALL YE Showcase
2024-01-18 00:00
-Important Information-

This concert has been canceled to protect public health and slow the rate of transmission of COVID-19.

Please check back for updates.

This is a performance in a relaxed, inclusive setting, sensitive to sensory needs. Adults and children with physical and developmental challenges are encouraged to attend. Please limit fragrances, and be prepared for an active audience.

Ticket Information

Pre-concert Door$15 Adult $20 Adult$5 Youth $10 Youth

Please note: pre-concert price is valid until 11 AM of the Friday preceeding the concert. After that, tickets can only be purchased at the door.

To purchase group tickets, please contact the Santa Rosa Symphony Patron Services Office at 707-546-8742 or click here.

Group sale tickets (10+) are not available at the door. They must be purchased in advance and before the 11 AM deadline on the Friday preceeding the concert.

Ticket fees apply for online and phone orders. Tickets are non-refundable and subject to availability.

SRS Patron Services Hours: M-F: 9 AM- 5 PM | W: 10:30 AM- 5 PM | Closed Saturday & Sunday | 50 Santa Rosa Ave, 1st Floor, Santa Rosa

Plan Your Visit

Learn more about the Discovery Rehearsal Series

Directions & More

Seating Map

Before the Concert

At the Concert

Dining & Hotels

We gratefully acknowledge the generous contributions from the following:

All photos by Susan & Neil Silverman Photography

SRSYO - Great Composers Revisited
2024-01-18 00:00
Repertoire subject to change

Ticket Information

Pre-concert Door$15 Adult $20 Adult$5 Youth $10 Youth

Please note: pre-concert price is valid until 11 AM of the Friday preceeding the concert. After that, tickets can only be purchased at the door.

To purchase group tickets, please contact the Santa Rosa Symphony Patron Services Office at 707-546-8742 or click here.

Group sale tickets (10+) are not available at the door. They must be purchased in advance and before the 11 AM deadline on the Friday preceeding the concert.

Ticket fees apply for online and phone orders. Tickets are non-refundable and subject to availability.

SRS Patron Services Hours: M-F: 9 AM- 5 PM | W: 10:30 AM- 5 PM | Closed Saturday & Sunday | 50 Santa Rosa Ave, 1st Floor, Santa Rosa

Plan Your Visit

Learn more about the Discovery Rehearsal Series

Directions & More

Seating Map

Before the Concert

At the Concert

Dining & Hotels

We gratefully acknowledge the generous contributions from the following:

Santa Rosa Symphony Youth Orchestra sponsored by the George L. Smith Jr. M.D. and Nancy Doyle M.D. Fund of the Community Foundation Sonoma CountySavannah Hill Music Scholarship Fund

Photos by Susan & Neil Silverman Photography

Bond and Beyond
2024-01-18 00:00
Free Pre-Concert Talks

Included with your ticket purchase, join Principal Pops Conductor Michael Berkowitz one hour prior to every concert for a discussion of the afternoon’s program, along with personal anecdotes and memories from his storied career working on Broadway, and with Liza Minnelli, Henry Mancini, and Marvin Hamlisch, among many others.

All Carlton Senior Living Symphony Pops Series performances are at the Luther Burbank Center for the Arts. Tickets can only be purchased from the Luther Burbank Center Box Office, (707) 546-3600 or lutherburbankcenter.org

Plan Your Visit

Learn more about the Discovery Rehearsal Series

Directions & More

Seating Map

Before the Concert

At the Concert

Dining & Hotels

We gratefully acknowledge the generous contributions from the following:

Gordon BlumenfeldFreeman Lexus-Toyota

Banner photo by Susan and Neil Silverman Photography

Holly Jolly Pops
2024-01-18 00:00
Free Pre-Concert Talks

Join Principal Pops Conductor Michael Berkowitz one hour prior to every concert for a discussion of the afternoon’s concert, along with personal anecdotes and memories from his storied career working on Broadway and with Liza Minelli, Henry Mancini, and Marvin Hamlisch among many others.

All Carlton Senior Living Symphony Pops Series performances are at the Luther Burbank Center for the Arts. Tickets can only be purchased from the Luther Burbank Center Box Office, (707) 546-3600 or lutherburbankcenter.org

Plan Your Visit

Learn more about the Discovery Rehearsal Series

Directions & More

Seating Map

Before the Concert

At the Concert

Dining & Hotels

Symphonic Sinatra
2024-01-18 00:00
Free Pre-Concert Talks

Included with your ticket purchase, join Principal Pops Conductor Michael Berkowitz one hour prior to every concert for a discussion of the afternoon’s program, along with personal anecdotes and memories from his storied career working on Broadway, and with Liza Minnelli, Henry Mancini, and Marvin Hamlisch, among many others.

All Carlton Senior Living Symphony Pops Series performances are at the Luther Burbank Center for the Arts. Tickets can only be purchased from the Luther Burbank Center Box Office, (707) 546-3600 or lutherburbankcenter.org

Plan Your Visit

Learn more about the Discovery Rehearsal Series

Directions & More

Seating Map

Before the Concert

At the Concert

Dining & Hotels

We gratefully acknowledge the generous contributions from the following:

Freeman Lexus-Toyota

Banner photo by Susan and Neil Silverman Photography

Raiders of the Lost Ark In Concert
2024-01-18 00:00
Tickets available through the Green Music Center ONLY

To purchase tickets, please call 707-664-4246 or visit their websiteTickets starting at $25

Concert-goers may bring in food (but no beverages) to enjoy a picnic on the lawn or at terrace tables outside Sonoma State University’s Green Music Center. Food and beverages may also be purchased on site. Water bottle filling stations will also be available.

Seating on the lawn is general admission and filled first come, first serve. Patrons are permitted to bring blankets and/or lawn chairs. We request patrons bring low lawn chairs that sit a few inches off the ground, however, we understand this may not be feasible for all patrons and therefore do not have a height limit on chairs. All patrons are asked to be considerate of those around them and the Front of House staff reserves the right to request patrons with higher chairs to move to areas that do not obstruct the view of the hall/screen for those around them.

For the safety of all guests, all items brought into the Green Music Center including coolers, picnic baskets, bags, backpacks and purses are subject to search upon entry. Patrons who choose not to subject their personal belongs to a security search will not be permitted to enter the grounds. For more information regarding these SSU policies, visit https://gmc.sonoma.edu/go/.

Plan Your Visit

Learn more about the Discovery Rehearsal Series

Directions & More

Seating Map

Before the Concert

At the Concert

Dining & Hotels

We gratefully acknowledge the generous contributions from our sponsors:

Bruce and Susan Dzieza
