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Playbill - Eugenia Zukerman with the The University of Iowa Symphony Orchestra

Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Tonight's Program
  3. Eugenia Zukerman
  4. Dr. William LaRue Jones
  5. The University of Iowa Symphony Orchestra
  6. Program Notes

Introduction

Eugenia Zukerman, Flutist, with The University of Iowa Symphony Orchestra (Dr. William LaRue Jones, Conductor)

Wednesday, September 22, 2004-8:00 p.m.

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Tonight's Program

WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART
OVERTURE TO DON GIOVANNI, K. 527

ANTONIN DVORAK
SYMPHONY NO. 7 IN D MINOR, OP. 70
Allegro maestoso
Poco adagio
Scherzo: Vivace-Poco meno mosso
Finale: Allegro

CARL NIELSEN
CONCERTO FOR FLUTE AND ORCHESTRA
Allegro moderato
Allegretto

RICHARD RODNEY BENNETT
SIX TUNES FOR THE INSTRUCTION OF SINGING BIRDS (SOLO FLUTE)
For the Starling
For the Woodlark
For the Canary-bird
For the Garden Bullfinch
For the East India Nightingale
For the Starling

KENT WHEELER KENNAN
NIGHT SOLILOQUY

Supported by The Gazette

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Eugenia Zukerman

Acclaimed by the Boston Globe as "one of the finest flutists of our time," Eugenia Zukerman is a consummate musician. Her elegant sound, referred to as "finely articulated cascades of classical grace," along with her lyrical phrasing, extraordinary agility and compelling stage presence have contributed to her popularity as an international performer with orchestra, in solo and duo recitals, and in chamber music ensembles in North America, Europe and Asia for over 25 years.

A versatile artist, Zukerman is respected for her innovative programming as well as for her performances. She has been praised as ". . . a bona fide phenom. Few major instrumentalists offer anything comparable to the intelligence and breadth of programming that she brings to her concerts." She has been artistic director of the international Vail Valley Music Festival in Colorado's Rocky Mountains since 1998. The festival has grown artistically under her guidance and includes residencies with the New York Philharmonic, the Rochester Philharmonic and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. The festival has presented such ensembles as eighth blackbird, the Shanghai Quartet, the Rossetti String Quartet, as well as solo artists such as Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, Garrick Ohlsson, Jean-Yves Thibaudet and Alisa Weilerstein.

Zukerman's 2004-05 season includes orchestral and collaborative performances. This season she can be heard with the Jacques Thibaud String Trio, harpist Yolanda Kondonassis, violinist Henry Gronnier, violist Thomas Diener and soprano Arianna Zukerman. Her performances take her to Iowa, New Jersey, California, Oregon, Virginia, South Dakota, New York and Colorado, among others.

As a recording artist, Zukerman has recorded for Delos, CBS Masterworks, Pro Arte, Vox Cum Laude and Newport Classics. Recent recordings for Delos include: ChinaSong with the Shanghai Quartet, on which she guest performs Pictures from Bashu-6 Sichuan Folk Songs; an acclaimed performance/live recording of American composer Lowell Liebermann's Concerto for Flute and Orchestra with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra; Aria, a collection of opera favorites; and her successful solo flute recording, Incantation.

The multi-faceted Zukerman also enjoys successful careers as an author and television commentator. She has been the arts correspondent for "CBS Sunday Morning" since 1981 and has done over 300 artist profiles in her 24 years on the program. She has appeared on a variety of other television programs as a guest, including PBS' "Charlie Rose Show," NBC's "Today" and A&E's "Breakfast with the Arts." As a writer, Ms. Zukerman has been published in a number of periodicals, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, Esquire and Vogue.

Zukerman's newest book, In My Mother's Closet (Sorin Books), an anthology of essays about accomplished women and their thoughts on the mother/daughter relationship, including such noted personalities as Renée Fleming, Carrie Fisher, Joy Behar, Judy Collins, Erica Jong and Claire Bloom, was published in April 2003. The book has met with national acclaim, including coverage by People Magazine, O the Oprah Magazine, and More to name a few, and she continues to tour the country doing book signings and readings. Ms. Zukerman has also published two novels, Deceptive Cadence (Viking, 1981) and Taking The Heat (Simon & Schuster, 1991). For St. Martin's Press, she co-authored a non-fiction book, Coping With Prednisone (1997), with her sister, Dr. Julie R. Ingelfinger.

Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Zukerman entered Barnard College as an English major, but soon transferred to The Juilliard School, where she studied with the renowned flutist Julius Baker. Early in her career, she won the Young Concert Artists Award and made her formal New York debut to rave reviews.

www.eugeniazukerman.com

Management
ICM Artists, Ltd.
40 West 57th Street
New York, NY 10019

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Dr. William LaRue Jones

Dr. William LaRue Jones is one of the most active and versatile symphonic conductors in America today, possessing a unique ability to work effectively with musicians at all levels of performing capability and experience. His conducting schedule includes a wide array of professional, festival, collegiate and student ensembles throughout North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia, ranging from the Minnesota Orchestra and the Minneapolis Pops to the Penang (Malaysia) Symphony, the Antofagasta (Chili) Symphony and the Symphony Orchestra of Lucerne (Switzerland). Jones has conducted over 70 All-State orchestras with additional festival/clinics in most of the 50 states and Canadian provinces.

He has served extended conducting residencies at the North Carolina School for the Arts, the University of Miami, Interlochen Academy for the Arts and Kansas City Conservatory. Recognition of Jones' outstanding gestural skills and score analysis has made him a sought-after teacher of conducting. He is a member of the conducting faculty at the International Workshops where he also serves as conductor of the International String Orchestra. He also is the founding artistic director of the critically acclaimed Conductors Workshop of America. In addition, Jones is a guest clinician for numerous conducting seminars for professional/educational associations internationally. A Texas native, Jones holds degrees from the University of Wisconsin, University of Iowa and Kansas State University, with additional studies at The Juilliard School of Music and the University of North Texas.

In 1972, Jones founded the Greater Twin Cities' Youth Symphonies which he guided to international acclaim during a 25-year tenure. An independent organization comprised of eight full orchestras involving over 1,000 students annually, GTCYS became a model for youth orchestra structures worldwide.

For his untiring work on behalf of music and arts education, he has been honored with the David W. Preuss Leadership Award, the American String Teachers Associations Exceptional Leadership and Merit Award, the Sigma Alpha Iota Musician of the Year Award, WCCO Radio "Good Neighbor Award" and the State of Minnesota Governors' Proclamation of Dr. William LaRue Jones Day. He is listed in the International Who's Who in Music.

Jones is Music Director/Conductor of the Oshkosh Symphony Orchestra and Director of Orchestral Studies and Graduate Conducting at The University of Iowa. In addition, he holds the titles of Founder and Conductor Laureate of Greater Twin Cities' Youth Symphonies and Conductor Emeritus of the 3M Symphony.

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The University of Iowa Symphony Orchestra

Dr. William LaRue Jones, Director of Orchestral Studies

*Principal player

1first for Mozart

2first for Dvorak

3first for Nielsen

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Program Notes

Program notes by Arthur Canter

Overture to Don Giovanni

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

Don Giovanni, the second of the three Mozart/Da Ponte collaborative operas following Le Nozze di Figaro, was even a greater success than its predecessor. The overture to the opera is said to have been written in haste before the opera had its première performance in Prague on October 29, 1787. Several stories have been proposed to account for this. One had it that Mozart was partying the night before the opera première and had to be reminded that he had no overture, forcing him to leave the festivities to write it. Another had it that he wrote it in three hours before the performance and had it sent to the performance hall with its ink still wet! Whatever the truth, it is apparently true that the overture was the last thing Mozart wrote for the opera, perhaps sometime during the rehearsal period.

The overture is rather brief and consists of an andante section that reproduces the music of the opera's final banquet scene in which the Stone Guest appears and drags the Don to hell, thus foretelling how the opera will end. This is followed by an allegro that characterizes the impetuous nature of the licentious Don. In actual opera performance the opening scene follows the overture without pause.

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Symphony No. 7 in D minor, Op. 70

Antonín Dvorak (1841-1904)

The New World Symphony (Symphony No. 9) has become so celebrated and established as the Dvorak symphony that it seems to have blinded audiences to the broad extent of the composer's symphonic writings until about the middle of the 20th century. Outside of Czechoslovakia performances of any of the nine Dvorak symphonies other than the New World were and continue to be rare. For years it was believed that Dvorak had written only five symphonies, with the New World being listed as Number 5, and the one we will hear tonight, the D minor, as Number 3. The composer, his publisher, Simrock, and their conflicts and failures to assign opus numbers appropriately are all contributing factors to the confusion. However, if Smetana can be called the "father" of Czech music, then Dvorak can be called the founder of the Czech symphony. As noted by Otokar Sourek (1883-1956), the eminent authority on Czech musical history, this position of Dvorak as creator of the Czech symphony is "not so much in respect of its form as of its content. . . He created works which, by having their roots deep in Czech soil, sing its praises, its beauty and its joys!"

It was not until the early 1870s, when the young Dvorak turned away from the New German School of German Romanticism, that his fortunes began to change. It was the right time to use elements of Czechoslovakian folk music in his works in keeping with the surge in Czech nationalism as had been done by his mentor Smetana. Now Czech nationalism could be more openly expressed without fear of censorship or reprisals since Austria had been defeated by Hungary in a recent revolt. This had weakened Austrian dominance not only in the politics of the non-German subsidiaries of the Hapsburg Empire but also in their cultural life.

Dvorak had been earning his living chiefly as a viola player in the Czech National Symphony and Opera Orchestras. In 1873 he left his post for a less demanding position as a church organist to pursue a career in composition. This same year his patriotic work Hymnus For Mixed Chorus and Orchestra (Op. 30) attracted wide attention in Czechoslovakia. By the end of the decade he was gaining the recognition he had sought. He had won the Austrian State Prize four years in succession, helped in his endeavors by Brahms and the Austrian critic/writer, Hanslick. Brahms persuaded his own publisher, Simrock, to publish the Moravian Duets. This was followed by the first set of Slavonic Dances, a work that caught the attention of music circles in Berlin and England to the music of Dvorak. His subsequent compositions, in particular the Stabat Mater (Op. 58), drew rave notices abroad. His fame spread to New York, St. Louis and Cincinnati, cities in America where there were settlements of German musicians and music-lovers.

In 1883 the first performance of Brahms Symphony No. 3 made such a strong impression upon Dvorak that it aroused him to consider writing a symphony of comparable value. In June 1884 the London Philharmonic society nominated Dvorak an honorary member and commissioned him to write a new symphony for them. Thus was the instigation for Dvorak's Symphony in D minor, Op. 70. He began to sketch the new symphony in December 1884 and completed the score on March 17, 1885. He conducted its première at a concert by the Royal Philharmonic Society at St. James Hall, London on April 22, 1885. He made a few revisions in June 1885.

The D minor symphony of 1885 was a remarkable change for Dvorak at the time. It differs markedly from the light-hearted, full-of-sunshine predecessors (the fifth and sixth symphonies). The scope and rather dark yet passionate character of the symphony were not only determined by the composer's need to match Brahms but also the amount of distress he had been through before he reached the point of writing the symphony. His mother, to whom he was very close, died in 1882. Smetana, to whom he owed much inspiration, was in deteriorating health and died in 1884. There were pressures on Dvorak to move to Vienna. Brahms and Hanslick were giving him conflicting advice with respect to what he should write and whether he should deny his own linguistic and ethnic heritage. In addition, there was the rising Bohemian nationalism, and the turmoil caused by the presence in Prague of hundreds of Hungarians patriots who were constantly adding to the anti-Hapsburg sentiment.

The Symphony No. 7 in D minor has only a few traces of the Czech folksong character one associates with Dvorak's orchestral works. It is in four movements. The first, marked Allegro maestoso, develops contrasting moods expressed by a complexity of interlocking themes. The contents have been variably described as dark, ominous and stormy, with occasional outbursts of passion. Among the themes is one taken from the main theme of Hussite Overture (Op. 67) depicting the soldiers of the Hussite wars of the fifteenth century and their songs of defiance that have remained popular in Czech music even to modern times.

The Poco adagio brings to mind the adagio movement of Brahms third symphony with the depth of its feeling and beauty of expression. Sourek notes that the main theme of the adagio, "which like a prayer bringing peace and consolation, is the framework in which the whole movement is set."

The scherzo, marked Vivace-Poco meno mosso, opens up with a passionate outpouring of emotion with its complex cross-rhythms suggestive of the Bohemian furiant dance so favored by Dvorak for a scherzo but with a sense of darkness to counter its exuberance. The mood of the middle section, calm, even pastoral in nature, is like a gentle intermezzo before the agitation of the first part of the scherzo returns and ends in a strident manner.

The finale (Allegro) reveals Dvorak with all his inimitable glorious color harmonies. The sense of tension, the cloudiness of moods, the longings that were never met and the need to prove himself are dispelled. The very opening of the finale explodes into shouts of triumph and victory with reminders of the composer's Bohemian origin. There are brief reflections of the darker moments interwoven with the rich harmonies as the tempestuous climax culminates with a solemn chorale-like phrase.

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Concerto for Flute and Orchestra

Carl Nielsen (1865-1931)

Nielsen, the Danish composer, is best known outside his native land for his cycle of six symphonies. These gained wide attention in the 1960s when championed and recorded by Leonard Bernstein and Eugene Ormandy. Nielsen, the son of a humble housepainter whose large family lived on the Isle of Fyn, first began his musical training on the violin with lessons from his father, augmented by the local schoolteacher. He became proficient enough to play the second violin in his village orchestra.

As a boy he was always fascinated by wind instruments and thus took trumpet lessons. By the time he was 14 years of age he was playing the cornet in the Odense military band. While in Odense he developed an interest in composition and wrote a quartet for cornet, trumpet and two trombones, and a few other chamber pieces.

A string quartet he wrote qualified him to apply for admission to the Royal Conservatory in Copenhagen. In 1884, at age 19, with the financial help of friends Nielsen was able to attend the Conservatory where he studied composition with O. Rosenhoff, violin with V. Tofte and musical history with Niels Gade. From 1889 to 1905 he played violin in the Royal Chapel Orchestra in Copenhagen. Thus began a rewarding musical career centered in Copenhagen that included composing, conducting, teaching and finally, a few months before his death, appointment as Director of the Royal Conservatory.

Nielsen's compositions include two operas, incidental music to plays, six symphonies, symphonic poems, dramatic overtures, concerti, chamber music, works for piano and for organ, many original songs, and a series of commemorative cantatas as well as other choral pieces. His most often heard works, other than his six symphonies, are the flute concerto, which we will hear tonight, a clarinet concerto and a quintet for wind instruments. Nielsen's two operas, Saul and David and Maskarade, have been staged in this country in recent years, and his string quartets have also begun to be heard more widely.

The inspiration for the Concerto for Flute and Orchestra arose from Nielsen's love for wind instruments and his friendship with the five members of the Copenhagen Wind Quintet. In 1922 he wrote and published the acclaimed Wind Quintet (Op. 43) for his friends. The individuality of each instrument in the ensemble impressed him markedly. As he mulled over the possibilities to exploit this individuality, he vowed to compose a concerto for each of the five instruments. However, he was distracted from this goal by the task to complete the Sixth Symphony (Sinfonia semplice) and meet other professional demands upon his time. It was not until 1926 that he could return to the concerto-writing.

By this time, Paul Hagemann, the flutist for the Copenhagen Wind Quintet, left the group. This left his successor, the flutist Holger Gilbert-Jespersen, to be the one to receive the new concerto. Nielsen worked on the flute concerto while visiting Italy in the summer of 1926. The first of its two movements was completed in Florence on September 6, and the other on October 1. The concerto received its première in the Salle Gaveau in Paris on October 21, 1926, with Gilbert-Jespersen as soloist and the orchestra conducted by Nielsen's son-in-law, violinist Emil Telmanyi.

The work, well received in Paris, was praised by the composer Arthur Honegger who noted: "It is small in dimensions, but full of lovely combinations, such as dialogues between the flute and timpani or bassoon . . . It is piquant, fluent, and with no dearth of humor."

Nielsen was dissatisfied with the concerto's original ending and made some minimal changes to resolve his concern about its tonality. In this revised form it was performed at a Danish concert in Oslo a few weeks later. The first Copenhagen performance took place in 1927. The flute concerto was not published by Nielsen himself and his original "pencil score" has been lost, but an "ink score," not entirely written down by Nielsen, remains. Telmanyi collated the available sources and had the score published in 1952. While he retained the revised ending there have been arguments about the "amusing trombone glissandi" in the final measures. As a result there are conductors who have omitted them in performances.

The flute concerto is unconventional in its small orchestral scoring, calling for oboes, clarinets, bassoons and horns, all in pairs, one bass trombone, timpani and strings. Its form is also unconventional, being set in only two movements. The improvisatory style for the flute and the "progressive tonality" in the structure of the work increase the likelihood of highly personalized reactions to the work. A common reaction has been to describe the concerto as a combination of delicacy and rude humor.

The first movement (Allegro moderato) opens in a rather strident, dissonant vein before moving into what Nielsen described as "its gentler zone." There are solo passages, dialogues between flute and orchestra, then "a conversation" with solo clarinet and bassoon. Moments of vigorous crescendo measures fade into a pastoral setting with the flute warbling like a bird. Things get interrupted by the timpani followed by the trombone engaging the flute in a stormy exchange. Everything subsides again to a peaceful atmosphere. The movement winds down with a pair of free cadenzas and a duet with the clarinet to end peacefully in contrast to the way it began.

The second movement (Allegretto) opens with a few strident notes but changes to the quiet mode as the flute enters with a simple gentle solo. There follow alternations of sharply biting episodes with exchanges between the flute and other instruments. A mournful sounding melody by the solo flute is picked up by the orchestra. A little march motive lightens things up for the flute and then the "rude" trombone interrupts several times before the work ends with the flute seemingly back in control of the dialogue. However, the orchestra, supported by the raucous sounding trombone, has its last say as the flute closes the conversation.

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Six Tunes for the Instruction of Singing Birds

Richard Rodney Bennett (b. 1936)

Richard Rodney Bennett, the prolific English composer and pianist, started to write music as a very young child. His precocious musical aptitude was aided by the fact that he had an acutely sensitive ear for sounds. Mostly self-educated, his interests ranged from the early 20th century English music of his childhood to show tunes he heard on recordings and the music of new composers he heard over weekly broadcasts following World War II. He was granted a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music where he studied with Howard Ferguson and Lennox Berkeley from 1953-1956. A scholarship award from the French Government provided him the opportunity to study as a student of Poulenc in Paris from 1957-59. He returned to London where he was engaged to teach at the Royal Academy from 1963-65, and from there to the U.S. as visiting professor at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore from 1970-71.

Bennett's compositions include works for the stage, orchestra, brass, winds, the voice, chamber ensembles, solo instrument, instrumental duos, and films. To say his productivity reveals eclectic tastes in style and form is an understatement. Thus his music has an appeal to a wide range of concert goers.

In 1981, inspired by Debussy's Syrinx for solo flute, he wrote the work to be played by the soloist in tonight's concert: Six Tunes for the Instruction of Singing Birds. It had its première public performance on August 15, 1981, by flutist Susan Milan.

It is a delightful brief piece (about eight minutes), that shows off the colors and shading possible with the flute.

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Night Soliloquy (1936)

Kent Wheeler Kennan (1913-2003)

Kent Kennan, the American composer and teacher, studied composition with Hunter Johnson at the University of Michigan from 1930-32. Then he completed his education at the Eastman School of Music where he received the B.M. degree in 1934 and M.M. degree in 1936. Among his teachers in composition at Eastman were Howard Hanson and Bernard Rogers. After winning the American Prix de Rome he spent three years in Europe where he studied for a short period with Lidebrando Pizzetti in Rome. Returning to the U.S. in 1939, Kennan taught at Kent State University (Ohio) and the University of Texas. His position at Texas was interrupted by World War II during which time he served as bandleader in the U.S. Army (1942-45).

He returned to teach again at the University of Texas for one year followed by a two-year teaching stint at Ohio State University before accepting a permanent position at Texas. In 1964 he was appointed chairman of the music department there and remained at the University of Texas until he retired in 1983. During his career as a teacher and composer he wrote a variety of orchestral pieces, keyboard pieces, art songs, choral pieces and works for instrumental ensembles. He published useful teaching manuals, workbooks on orchestration and counterpoint that have undergone several editions each. Toward the end of his career, Kennan's music was said to be mainly in the neo-classical style although he demonstrated Romantic, impressionistic and jazz influences in his earlier music.

Night Soliloquy, composed in 1936 originally for flute, strings and piano, has become a staple of flute repertoire. It is also available in arrangements for flute and winds, and as a duo for flute and piano. Toscanini was so taken with the pleasant, easy-to-listen-to piece that he chose to conduct Kennan's Night Soliloquy (listed as for "flute and orchestra") with the NBC Symphony Orchestra on February 26, 1943. Night Soliloquy has a hauntingly translucent quality to it, with the strings acting as an underlying tension.

Professor emeritus Arthur Canter is a retired clinical psychologist on the faculty of the UI Department of Psychiatry. An amateur music historian, he has been a long-time contributor of program notes for Hancher concerts and participant in the musical life of Iowa City.

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