February 24, 2012
Friday-8:00pm | University of North Carolina School of Music Recital Hall
Dmitry Sitkovetsky, violin
Program
Sergei Prokofiev
Quintet, Op.39
Theme and Variations: Moderato
Andante energico
Allegro sostenuto, ma con brio
Adagio pesante
Allegro precipitato, ma non troppo presto
Andantino
Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904)
Serenade in D Minor, Op.44
Moderato, quasi marcia
Minuetto. Tempo di minuetto
Andante con moto
Finale. Allegro molto
Sponsor
Dmitry Sitkovetsky is an
artist whose creativity defies categorizing. He has built up an active
and successful career as a violinist, conductor, arranger, chamber
musician & festival director. Born in Baku, Azerbaijan, he grew up
in Moscow studying at the Moscow Conservatory and after his emigration
in 1977, at the Juilliard School in New York. Sitkovetsky has
performed as a soloist with a number of the world’s leading orchestras
including the Berlin, New York and LA Philharmonic Orchestras, Leipzig
Gewandhaus, Concertgebouw Orchestra, all of the major London orchestras,
NHK, Chicago, Philadelphia and Cleveland orchestras. He has performed
at a number of high-profile festivals including Salzburg, Lucerne,
Edinburgh, Verbier, Istanbul, Newport, and the IMG Tuscan Sun and Napa
Valley Festivals.
Sitkovetsky has built a flourishing career as a conductor. In 1996, he was appointed Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor of the Ulster Orchestra for five years, in 2001, was appointed Conductor Laureate, and from 2002-2005 held the position of Principal Guest Conductor of the Russian State Orchestra. From 2006 – 2009, he was the Artist-in-Residence at the Orquesta Sinfonica de Castilla y Leon (Spain) a position that involved conducting, solo playing, touring, chamber music and masterclasses. In 2003, Sitkovetsky was appointed Music Director of the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra, a position he holds to this day. As a guest conductor, he has worked with leading orchestras including the London & Royal Philharmonic Orchestras, Academy of St Martin in the Fields, BBC, San Francisco, St. Louis, Seattle and Dallas Symphony Orchestras, Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, Santa Cecilia and the St Petersburg Philharmonic.
Sitkovetsky is also the founding director of the New European Strings Chamber Orchestra (NES CO), established in 1990, which is comprised of distinguished string players from Eastern & Western Europe. Since his successful transcription of Bach’s Goldberg Variations for string trio, he has transcribed more than 30 works mostly for string orchestra by Haydn, Beethoven, Brahms, Dohnanyi, Bartók, Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich, Stravinsky and Schnittke. He has been a member of ASCAP since 1985 and his transcriptions are published by Doblinger, Sikorski and Schirmer.
Between 1983 and 2002 Sitkovetsky was the Artistic Director of a number of music festivals including the Korsholm Music Festival in Finland (1983-1993 and 2002), Seattle International Music Festival (1992-1997), “The Silk Route of Music” Festival in Baku, Azerbaijan (1999) and worked with a diverse range of artists such as Argerich, Ashkenazy, Bashmet, Davidovich, Harrell, Kissin, Maisky, Ohlsson, Penderecki, Repin, Schnittke and Shchedrin. In May 2007, Sitkovetsky was the Artist-in-Residence at the Bodensee Festival in Germany where he performed a wide variety of activities: soloist, conductor, chamber musician, recitalist, masterclasses and conducted the NES Chamber Orchestra in residence.
He has an active and varied recording career with an extensive discography which includes all the major violin concerti, numerous chamber music works as well as orchestral recordings that he’s conducted. In July 2010, Hänssler Classic released a boxed set of the complete Mozart Violin Sonatas with Antonio Pappano and Konstantin Lifschitz. The same label, recently released Sitkovetsky’s string orchestra transcriptions of works by Shostakovich and Stravinsky with the NES CO as well as Piano Trios of Rodion Shchedrin and Peteris Vasks (Hänssler). His most recent concerto release is Dutilleux’s L'Arbre des Songes with the Concertgebouw Orchestra and Mariss Janssons (Concertgebouw Live). Forthcoming releases include a new recording of the Goldberg Variations for String Trio to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the transcription.
Sitkovetsky’s increasing involvement in contemporary music shows a keen interest in performing new repertoire. He premiered the violin concerti written for him by John Casken (1995) and Krzystof Meyer (2000) and often performs works by Dutilleux, Penderecki, Schnittke, Pärt and Shchedrin who has written several works for Sitkovetsky both as violinist and conductor. In 2005, he performed two major works by John Corigliano - his Second Symphony and the Red Violin Suite in a play/conduct concert. Sitkovetsky’s latest premiere was The Gifts of the Magi written by Jakov Jakoulov after O’Henry’s famous story and narrated by Peter Coyote with the Greensboro Symphony. He also played a unique solo recital of contemporary music at the Verbier Festival in 2009 with a programme by Schedrin, Vasks, Auerbach and Ali-Zadeh.
Recent engagements include conducting the Komische Oper Berlin orchestra, Weimar Staatskapelle, Orchestre National de Lille, New Zealand, Adelaide and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestras, Macau Symphony as well as the Tenerife Symphony. Concerto engagements include the Czech Philharmonic, Berlin Symphony Orchestra, Galicia Symphony, Vienna Symphony, Cincinnati Orchestra, NHK Symphony, Hamburg Philharmonic and the Russian State Orchestra. Recitals include Seattle, Brussels, Seville, Cape Town, London (Wigmore Hall) and performances in the London Philharmonic’s Schnittke Festival. Play/directing engagements included return invitations to the Ensemble Orchestral de Paris and Orchestre National de Lille, the Komische Oper Berlin orchestra as well as the St Petersburg Philharmonic.
Future engagement highlights throughout Europe, USA and Asia include concerto engagements with the Seattle Symphony (Inkinen), Concertgebouw (Janssons) and the Symphony Orchestra of India (Leaper) as well as play/directing the Netherlands Radio Chamber Orchestra, Tokyo Metropolitan Orchestra, Geidai Philharmonic, Symphony Orchestra of New Russia, Minnesota Orchestra, Tonkünstler Orchestra, Württembergisches Kammerorchester Heilbronn and the San Francisco Symphony’s prestigious New Year’s Eve concert.
Since 1987 he has resided in London with his wife, Susan, and their daughter, Julia.
Program
Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953)
Quintet, Op.39
Most quintets are for like instruments, all winds or strings, with piano sometimes included. Prokofiev’s Quintet, Op.39 is a hybrid with two winds (oboe and clarinet) and three strings (violin, viola, and bass rather than cello). In 1923, a touring ballet company, with only these instruments, asked Prokofiev to write a ballet score, and the composer took this opportunity to write the quintet on tonight’s program.
The quintet has six movements, starting with a theme and variations, and then alternating slow and fast movements.
Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904)
Serenade in D Minor, Op.44
Dvořák’s Serenade, Op.44 is one of the masterpieces in the repertoire for chamber winds. It was written in 1878 and premiered that year in an all Dvořák concert with the composer conducting. The work owes an inspiration to Mozart’s Serenade, K.361 (370a), the “Gran Partita” with its grandeur and similar instrumentation for wind instruments.
The first movement begins with a stately march. A lyrical theme follows and the movement concludes with a return of the opening music. The second movement sounds as if it will be a graceful minuet, but the “trio” is anything but graceful. Here, Dvořák relies on his Czech roots and gives us a fast Bohemian dance called a “furiant” with lots of accents and cross rhythms. The only thing missing here is a tambourine! The movement ends with a return of the more refined minuet. The third movement begins lyrically, and, after an impassioned central section, ends with the opening music.
Each of the three first movements have three sections with the opening music returning after a contrasting section. In the finale, Dvořák takes this one step further. After an energetic opening and lyrical “second” melody, the composer brings back not the opening music of the movement, but the opening theme of the entire piece in all its grandeur. A rousing coda ends the work.
After Hours with Dima!
Immediately following the Chamber concerts, join us at the Green
Valley Grill Bar with Dmitry Sitkovetsky and the Chamber Concert
Musicians.
Complimentary appetizers provided by the Green Valley Grill.
Sponsored by the O. Henry Hotel | 622 Green Valley Road
