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February 24 & 26, 2011
Important Notice:
There will be no intermission for this concert.
Thursday-7:30pm | War Memorial Auditorium - Scout Night!
Saturday-8:00pm | Dana Auditorium
Paris: City of Light
Ignat Solzhenitsyn, piano
Dmitry Sitkovetsky, conductor
Jacques Offenbach
Overture to Orpheus in the Underworld
Gabriel Fauré
Pavane
Maurice Ravel
Piano Concerto in G major
Allegremente
Adagio assai
Presto
Ignat Solzhenitsyn, piano
Claude Debussy
Prélujde á l’après-midi d’un faune (Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun)
Georges Bizet
L’Arlésienne Suite
Prelude, Allegro deciso (March of the Kings)
Minuet, Allegro giocoso
Adagietto
Farandole
February 24 sponsor February 26 sponsor
Recognized as one of today's most gifted artists, Ignat Solzhenitsyn's lyrical and poignant interpretations have won him critical acclaim throughout the world.
In recent seasons, his touring schedule in the United States and Europe has included concerto performances with major orchestras, including those of Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, Saint Louis, Los Angeles, Seattle, Baltimore, Washington, Montreal, Toronto, London, Paris, Israel, and Sydney, and collaborations with such conductors as Herbert Blomstedt, James Conlon, James DePreist, Charles Dutoit, Lawrence Foster, Valery Gergiev, Krzysztof Penderecki, André Previn, Mstislav Rostropovich, Gerard Schwarz, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Maxim Shostakovich, Yuri Temirkanov and David Zinman. He has given numerous recitals in Europe and the Far East in such major musical centers as London, Milan, Zurich, Moscow, Tokyo, and Sydney.
An avid chamber musician, Mr. Solzhenitsyn has collaborated with the Emerson, Borodin, Brentano, St. Petersburg and Lydian String Quartets, and in four-hand recital with Mitsuko Uchida. He frequently appears at international festivals, including Salzburg, Evian, Ludwigsburg, Caramoor, Ojai, Marlboro, Nizhniy Novgorod and Moscow’s famed December Evenings.
Ignat Solzhenitsyn is in his sixth season as Music Director of the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia and also serves as Principal Guest Conductor of the Moscow Symphony Orchestra. He is in demand as guest conductor, having recently led the orchestras of Baltimore, Dallas, Toronto, Seattle, Indianapolis, Buffalo, North Carolina, Toledo, New Jersey, Virginia, and Nashville.
A winner of the Avery Fisher Career Grant, Ignat Solzhenitsyn serves on the piano faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music. He has been featured on many radio and television specials, most recently CBS Sunday Morning and ABC’s Nightline. Born in Moscow, Mr. Solzhenitsyn resides in New York City with his wife and three children. You can learn more about Solzhenitsyn on his website at http://www.ignatsolzhenitsyn.com/welcome/home.html and through an article in The Times in London by clicking here.
Program Notes:
Jacques Offenbach (1819-1880)
Overture to Orpheus in the Underworld
Offenbach’s operetta Orpheus in the Underworld is rarely performed todau, but its overture is known around the world. The composer had written quite a few shorter, one-act operettas, and then decided to parody the Orpheus legend from Greek mythology in a full-length stage work. That it was a success is evidenced by a run of 228 performances after its Parisian premiere on October 21, 1858. The most recognizable music from the overture is the galop infernal, which most people know as the can-can.
Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924)
Pavane, Op. 50
In 1887, when Fauré began work on his Pavane, he imagined that it would be performed in some light summer concerts. But after he dedicated the work to Princess Elizabeth, he thought it would be better to add a chorus and have the whole work used as a ballet. Both the orchestral and orchestral/choral versions were first given in November 1888, but the ballet was not added until three years later. Today, the Pavane – in all its forms – is one of Fauré’s most frequently performed compositions.
Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)
Piano Concerto in G major
In 1928, Maurice Ravel made a four-month concert tour of North American where he both conducted many of the United State’s leading orchestras and performed as a solo pianist. While in New York, he met George Gershwin who took him to hear jazz in some of Harlem’s clubs, and he also heard Dixieland in its birthplace, New Orleans. The Frenchman was taken by these new sounds and began to use them in some of his works, notably his two piano concertos.
Of the typical three-movement form for a concerto – fast, slow, fast – the first movement contains most of the jazz influence, and even suggests connections to Gershwin and his Rhapsody in Blue. But Ravel was careful not to deviate too much from his own personal style, and commented, “My Concerto… uses certain effects from Jazz, but only in moderation”.
Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
Prélujde á l’après-midi d’un faune (Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun)
The “Impressionistic” movement in music began in the late 19th century, mainly in France. A composer would take an idea or story and write music that would be suggestive of that theme, rather than a literal depiction of that story.
Debussy’s Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun is one of music’s best examples of impressionism and was inspired by Stéphane Mallarmé’s poem L'Après-midi d'un faune. Debussy described his work as follows:
“The music of this prelude is a very free illustration of Mallarmé's beautiful poem…there is a succession of scenes through which pass the desires and dreams of the faun in the heat of the afternoon. Then, tired of pursuing the timorous flight of nymphs and naiads, he succumbs to intoxicating sleep.”
Georges Bizet (1838-1875)
L’Arlésienne Suite
Best known for his opera “Carmen”, Bizet also wrote many other works for the stage, including incidental music for Alphonse Daudet’s play L’Arlésienne (“The Girl from Aries”). The play, with 27 musical numbers for a small orchestra, was first performed in 1872. Unfortunately for Bizet, the music was very poorly received, but the composer apparently believed that some of the music was worthy of future performances and arranged several of the pieces a suite for full orchestra. After Bizet’s death, Ernest Guiraud took several other original themes and arranged them into a second suite. Tonight’s performance will include three movements from Suite No. 1 and the final movement, the famous Farandole, of Suite No. 2.
Preludes
Learn more about the evening’s music with Dr. Sonia Archer-Capuzzo, Music for a Great Space . The Prelude on Thursday, February 24 begins at 6:45 p.m. on the Mezzanine level of the War Memorial Auditorium. The Prelude on Saturday, February 26 begins at 7:00 p.m. in the Moon Room at Dana Auditorium.
Meet the Artists
Join us after the Thursday evening concert for a brief question and answer session held at the front of the stage with our guest artists and Dima.
Radio Broadcast
WFDD will broadcast this concert on Sunday, March 27 at 8:00 pm.
“Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music.”
SERGEI RACHMANINOV
