February 23 & 25, 2012
Thursday - 7:30pm | War Memorial Auditorium
Saturday - 8:00pm | Dana Auditorium
Dmitry Sitkovetsky, violin/conductor
1st Prize 1979 Fritz Kreisler International Competition in Vienna
Program
Johann Sebastian Bach
Suite No.2 in B Minor, BWV 1067
Debra Pivetta, flute
Ouverture
Rondeau
Sarabande
Bourrée I/II
Polonaise (Lentement) - Double
Minuet
Badinerie
George Frederic Handel
Suite from Water Music
Overture
Adagio e staccato
Allegro
Andante
Air
Allegro molto
Allegro
Alla Hornpipe
Antonio Vivaldi
The Four Seasons
Dmitry Sitkovetsky, violin
Concerto No. 1 in E major, Op. 8, RV 269, "La primavera" (Spring)
Allegro
Largo
Allegro Pastorale
Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 8, RV 315, "L'estate" (Summer)
Allegro non molto
Adagio e piano – Presto e forte
Presto
Concerto No. 3 in F major, Op. 8, RV 293, "L'autunno" (Autumn)
Allegro
Adagio molto
Allegro
Concerto No. 4 in F minor, Op. 8, RV 297, "L'inverno" (Winter)
Allegro non molto
Largo
Allegro
Dmitri Sitkovetsky, violin
February 23 sponsor February 25 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.
Hailed for her breathtaking technical skill, intoxicating musicality and deep interpretational understanding, flutist Debra Reuter-Pivetta enjoys a diverse career as soloist, chamber artist, orchestral player,
and teacher. A winner in the 1999 Concert Artists Guild Competition,
she was the first ever recipient of the Community Concerts Performance
Prize. Her other honors include top prizes in numerous competitions
including the Louise D. McMahon International Music Competition, the
National Flute Association’s Young Artist Competition and the Flute Talk
Competition.
Ms. Reuter-Pivetta has performed as concerto
soloist with many orchestras including the International Music Program
Orchestra on a tour of Italy, Switzerland and Germany, the Western
Piedmont Symphony Orchestra, the Lawton (OK) Philharmonic, the
Winston-Salem Symphony and the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra. Dedicated
to the performance of contemporary music and rarely-heard works, Debra
Reuter-Pivetta has given many premieres both as soloist and chamber
artist. Most recently she gave the world premiere of a work by Dr.
Thomas Clark. Other premieres include chamber works by Margaret Vardell
Sandresky, Robert Dick and Lawrence Dillon.
Debra Reuter-Pivetta
has recorded works by Böhm, Bozza, Saint-Saëns, Guiot and Burton with
her husband, pianist Federico Pivetta. Their critically acclaimed CD is
entitled “Passion and Romance”, and has aired frequently on public
radio stations across the country. American Record Guide says, “they
play beautifully together.” The couple performs extensively together.
Recent highlights for the Pivetta Duo include the Dame Myra Hess Concert
Series in Chicago, Community Concerts showcases in New York City and
Charlotte, recitals in northern Italy and an extensive concert tour
performing in 75 cities nationwide.
Debra Reuter-Pivetta is the
principal flutist with the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra and the flute
instructor at Salem College. Ms. Reuter-Pivetta is a graduate of the
North Carolina School of the Arts where she studied with Philip Dunigan.
Check out Debra's website - click here.
Program Notes
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Suite No.2 in B Minor, BWV 1067
Bach’s second orchestra suite was probably written around 1720 while we worked for Prince Leopold of Cöthen. During his time in this post, 1717 to 1723, Bach wrote many secular works, including the suites for unaccompanied cello, sonatas and partitas for solo violin, and the first two of his orchestral suites.
The orchestral suites begin with an overture and are then followed by a series of dance movements. The intention, however, was not to have music to dance to, but to create stylized dances that were to be listened to. They were based on existing dances – gigues, sarabandes, gavottes – but contained more intricacy and embellishment than would be found in music that accompanied actual dancing.
The Suite No.2 in B Minor is written for flute, strings and continuo. The prominence of the flute, especially in the last movement, has practically made this piece into a flute concerto.
George Frederic Handel (1685-1759)
Suite from Water Music
Two of Handel’s most popular orchestral works are his two “named” suites: the “Music for the Royal Fireworks” and the “Water Music”. Both are delightful compositions, even though there is nothing about the music in either that relates to fireworks or water. Still, the stories of each are historically rich, and this adds to their musical charm.
In 1717, King George I requested Handel to write music for a unique outdoor concert. On July 17th, two large barges in London’s River Thames held the festivities. Fifty instrumentalists performed on the Musician’s Barge, and the King and many of his friends listened from the Royal Barge. Apparently the King enjoyed the music so much that he ordered the musicians to play the entire work three times that day. This was obviously before the musician’s union was formed.
The music itself has numerous movements and a complete performance is rather lengthy. Today, the Water Music is usually performed as one of three suites that contain different selections of movements. The performance tonight will combine movements from the first and second of these suites.
Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741)
The Four Seasons
Vivaldi was an unusual combination of a priest and virtuoso violinist. For years, he was the string teacher at Venice’s Ospedale of the Pietà, one of that city’s orphanages for girls. But as the reputation of both his teaching and composing spread, wealthy families began sending their daughters to the Pietà to study under Vivaldi.
“The Four Seasons” are actually four concertos in a series of eight which were published as the “Trial of Harmony and Invention” Op.8 in 1725. Each of these concertos is for violin solo, accompanied by strings and basso continuo. They are all in three movements – fast, slow, fast – and each is about ten minutes in length. What is unusual about these first four is that they are accompanied by short sonnets that describe the seasons. Vivaldi molded his composition to these verses, creating musical depictions of the activities of a year.
The first movements of the four concertos have the richest imagery. In the opening movement of “Spring”, Vivaldi gives us bird songs, the trickling of the springs, a thunderstorm, and, after the storm has passed, the return of the bird songs. “Summer” begins with a sense of being exhausted by the heat, three birds (cuckoo, turtledove, and goldfinch), summer breezes that turn into the North Wind, and finally the tears of a village boy. “Autumn” has the dancing and singing of the villagers, and a drunkard who eventually falls asleep. The sounds of “Winter” are particularly easy to hear: a howling wind, attempts to stamp one’s feet to get warm, and the chattering of teeth.
Preludes
Learn more about the evening’s music with Dr. Sonia Archer-Capuzzo. The Prelude on Thursday, February 23 begins at 6:45 p.m. on the Mezzanine level of the War Memorial Auditorium. The Prelude on Saturday, February 25 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, April 29 at 8:00 pm.
“Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music.”
SERGEI RACHMANINOV
