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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250510T193000
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SUMMARY:Something BIG!
DESCRIPTION:Sponsored by the Ernest and Joan Trefz Foundation \nThis is it!   Maestro Eduardo Leandro’s grand inaugural concert as GBS’ new Music Director and Principal Conductor!  We’ve promised an amazing night of music and the concert on May 10 will live up to the show’s name\, Something Big!   Pianist Andrew Armstrong\, a perennial favorite of GBS who got his professional start here some 20+ years ago\, will play Rachmaninoff’s “Piano Concerto No. 2\,” and the orchestra will also render Mendelssohn’s “Midsummer Night’s Dream” overture and Brahms’ “Symphony No. 4. “.  “I want to present music that the audience will really enjoy\, and that the orchestra will love to play\,” Maestro Eduardo said.  \nThis concert is on the eve of Mother’s Day.  What a great way to spend the night out with family! \n“Something Big” honors the late Fairfield philanthropists Herbert F. Harrington Jr.\, founder of Rotair Aerospace Corp.\, and wife\, Doris Demonkos Harrington\, former vice president of Rotair\, who for many years served as GBS president and board chairwoman. Both\, in their 90s\, passed away  recently. Pianist Andrew Armstrong was a long-time friend of the Harringtons. His appearance is being offered in honor of “Herb\,” and supported by friends of his wife.  \nAndrew Armstrong\, Piano\n \nPraised by critics for his passionate expression and dazzling technique\, pianist Andrew Armstrong has delighted audiences across Asia\, Europe\, Latin America\, Canada\, and the United States\, including performances at Alice Tully Hall\, Carnegie Hall\, the Kennedy Center\, London’s Wigmore Hall\, the Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatory\, and Warsaw’s National Philharmonic. \nThis season\, all kids under 19 years old will be admitted FREE when accompanied by an adult; accompanying adults will get 15% off their single ticket prices.  Please note that our concerts will begin one half hour earlier this season\, at 7:30 PM. \nPre-Concert Talk presented by Russell Fisher\nUniversity of Bridgeport\, Associate Chair – Music Department\, Assistant Professor of Music\n6:30 PM \nPROGRAM NOTES: \n \nFelix Mendelssohn  (1809 -1847)\nA Midsummer Night’s Dream\nOverture \nMendelssohn’s music for A Midsummer Night’s Dream was written in two parts. The overture dates from 1826 when he was seventeen years old. It was inspired by a translation of the play into German\, and was intended as a concert piece rather than as incidental music. It is generally regarded as one of Mendelssohn’s finest works for the brilliance of his orchestration and scene painting. It follows the classical sonata form used extensively by Haydn Mozart and Beethoven\, with the main sections punctuated by four chords on the woodwinds\, heard at the outset. The music describes the fairies\, the grandeur of the court of Thesius\, the four lovers and the rustics including the braying of Bottom with the asses head. It was premièred in Szczecin on 20 February 1827. This was Mendelssohn’s first appearance at a public concert and he had to travel eighty miles through a snowstorm to get it. In the same concert he appeared as soloist\, playing one of the pianos in his own Concerto in A-flat major for 2 pianos\, followed by Weber’s Konzertstück in F minor. To demonstrate his versatility further he joined the first violins for the last work of the concert: Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. \n– Duncan Gilles \n \nSergei Rachmaninoff  (1873 -1943)\nPiano Concerto No. 2 in C minor\, op. 18  \n	Moderato\n	Adagio sostenuto\n	Allegro scherzando \nAndrew Armstrong\, Piano \nThe gaunt 24-year-old Sergei Rachmaninoff lies on a couch\, repeating a mantra: “You will begin to write your concerto. You will work with the greatest of ease. The concerto will be of excellent quality.” \nRewind three years\, to the chaotic premiere of Rachmaninoff’s First Symphony. The orchestra was scrappy\, the conductor drunk\, the critics savage. Rachmaninoff felt “a paralyzing apathy. Half my days were spent on a couch\, sighing over my ruined life.”  Today\, he might be diagnosed with clinical depression. Rachmaninoff wrote nothing for three years\, but continued to tour as a concert pianist. After a successful London performance\, he found himself promising a new piano concerto. “A second and better one.”  \nRachmaninoff wasn’t confident he could deliver. Friends recommended a psychiatrist who specialized in hypnotherapy and the repetition of positive mantras. Rachmaninoff responded well to these sessions\, and was able to move forward with the new work.  \nThe Second Piano Concerto breathes with the air of Rachmaninoff’s childhood. The concerto opens with evocations of the deep bells of the orthodox church. The orchestra answers with a slow\, step-wise chant melody.  \nIn the slow movement we might feel the cooling breeze of Rachmaninoff’s beloved family residence\, Ivanovka. “This steppe was like an infinite sea where the waters are actually boundless fields of wheat\, rye\, oats\, stretching from horizon to horizon.”  \nAt Ivanovka\, he found happiness\, motivation. “The smell of the Earth\, mowed rows and blossoms. I could work—and work hard. Every Russian feels strong ties to the soil. Perhaps it comes from an instinctive need for solitude.”  \nThe finale\, despite its minor mode\, brims with the crackle of electricity. The premiere of this concerto ushered in Rachmaninoff’s most productive period. In the next fifteen years\, he would write many of his most beloved works. \n – Tim Munro \n \nJohannes Brahms  (1833 – 1897)\nSymphony No. 4 in E minor\, Op. 98  \nAlthough his catalog lists just four symphonies\, Brahms wrote several other works that come close to that genre: his First Piano Concerto was indeed planned as a symphony\, and the Second (which is in four movements) has been called a symphony with piano obbligato. Although the Second and Third Symphonies were introduced in Vienna\, Brahms decided to give his Fourth Symphony an out-of-town tryout. He himself conducted the premiere (in October 1885) with the Meiningen Court Orchestra\, where the audience was enthusiastic. Vienna was not so receptive when the work was introduced there a few months later. As it turned out\, a mere ten years after his First Symphony had been given its premiere\, Brahms had written his last symphony. Two years later came the Double Concerto\, whose two solo parts (violin and cello) remind us of the old sinfonia concertante form\, but there were to be no more symphonies. \nFor his final essay in symphonic form\, Brahms produced a monumental work whose first movement grows from the simplest of materials\, a simple rising and falling interval\, out of which he develops long lines of powerfully emotional\, yet unsentimental grandeur. The relentless organic development\, which begins even as themes are being stated\, leads to a complex interaction of motives and melodic fragments. The composer’s friend Elisabeth von Herzogenberg wrote to him of her fears that he was dwelling too much on creating intricate thematic connections that would obscure his musical communication for the untrained listener: “…one rejoices with all the excitement of an explorer or scientist on discovering the secrets of your creation! But there comes a point where a certain doubt creeps in…that its beauties are not accessible to every normal music-lover.” \nWhat makes the music so compelling\, in fact\, may be the way the longer lines ebb and flow with great urgency and lyrical beauty\, while at the same time the contrapuntal complexities lend substance and richness to the texture. As an example of how the opposing camps of Wagnerites and Brahmsians always seemed to have something nasty to say about each other\, note the comment of composer Hugo Wolf – one of the Symphony’s detractors – that Brahms was “composing without ideas.” Schoenberg\, although he followed in the wake of Wagner’s progressive chromatic proclivities\, was a strong supporter of what he described as Brahms’ technique of “developing variation.” Certainly Beethoven had proved that minimal materials could be the source of substantial music. \nAfter the powerful conclusion of the first movement\, Brahms introduces the second movement with a forceful statement by two horns\, followed by a ravishing passage in which all of the strings play delicate pizzicato chords supporting a sustained melody in the winds. As in the famous finale (in which Brahms looks to earlier musical models for his structure)\, there is an archaic quality to this music\, which is the result\, in part\, of the composer’s use of the medieval Phrygian mode. This rather mournful meditation is interrupted by more animated passages\, but there is an overriding tone of “the shadow of an inevitable fate.” (Karl Geiringer) \nIn the other Brahms symphonies\, there is no movement that could be said to fulfill the role of the scherzo in the Beethoven mold; that is not true in the Fourth Symphony. Here the third movement overflows with high spirits and raw energy\, with the piccolo and triangle added to the performing forces for extra sizzle. The structure\, though\, is not that of a traditional scherzo with a contrasting middle section; in fact\, this movement is in sonata form\, and it includes material that prompted Hermann Kretschmar (writing in 1887) to note “its hastening\, restless rhythms…its suddenly pulsing energy\, and…the predominant harshness of its character.” \nBrahms\, a diligent student of musical history\, was always ready to draw on the styles and forms of earlier ages. The final movement of the Fourth Symphony is the best-known such instance\, and it is usually characterized as a passacaglia\, with reference to Bach. Although the theme which recurs throughout is drawn from Bach’s Cantata No. 150\, conductor and Baroque specialist Nikolaus Harnoncourt feels strongly that the form itself is more typical of the concluding movements in French operas from the Baroque era (especially Rameau). What is undeniable is the sense of cumulative power Brahms creates with his “old-fashioned” methods. The theme is repeated some 30 times\, but the musical material is organized (texturally\, dynamically\, and above all emotionally) into a sonata-like structure: The extended opening section is followed by more relaxed (but still troubled) passages of a lyrical\, yearning character (in which a solo flute is prominently featured). A renewed energy marks the beginning of a kind of development\, culminating in three variations that recall the opening ones. The concluding pages of the Symphony are relentlessly charged with defiance and bristling with slashing intensity. For once\, there is no coda. No triumph\, no joy\, no radiant string chords. The rest… is silence. \n— Dennis Bade
URL:http://staging.gbs.org/event/something-big/
LOCATION:Klein Memorial Auditorium\, 910 Fairfield Avenue\, Bridgeport\, CT\, 06605\, United States
CATEGORIES:Season 79
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DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20241214T213000
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SUMMARY:Countdown 1... Waddell
DESCRIPTION:At this festive concert\, you will hear the last of the four candidates* being considered as GBS’ new Music Director: Guest Conductor Rachel Waddell. \nThemed “Story-Telling Time\,” this concert is thrilling\, enlightening and family-friendly all at once. Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf featuring special guest narrator Jamie Bernstein along with Rimsky-Korsakov’s Sheherazade to anchor the evening\, which will also highlight the musical version of ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas and a new piece by Chickasaw composer Jerod Tate: Chokfi. \nRachel L. Waddell\, an American conductor\, has garnered acclaim for her innovative concert programming\, commitment to new music\, education\, and collaboration. She was named a finalist for the American Prize’s 2019 Vytautas Marijosius Memorial Award in Orchestral Programming due to her outstanding concert programs.  Rachel serves as the newly appointed Director of Orchestras at Colorado State University. Previously she was the Director of Orchestral Activities and Assistant Professor with the Arthur Satz Department of Music at the University of Rochester in New York. She has conducted orchestras around the world and in August 2022 she made her Vienna debut conducting Così fan tutte as part of the Vienna Opera Academy. \nIn July 2023 she made her Canadian debut with the Orchestre Métropolitain\, after being selected to conduct by Yannick Nézet-Séguin at Le Domaine Forget de Charlevoix.  Rachel’s interest in the constantly evolving role and responsibility of orchestras within their communities led her to co-found Conductors for Change\, Inc.\, a 501(c)(3) for anyone reimagining the future of the American orchestras. \n  \n     \nPre-Concert Talk:  Begins at 6:30 pm with JAMIE BERNSTEIN \nJamie Bernstein will give a talk before the concert at 6:30pm about her book Famous Father Girl written about living with the great composer/ conductor father.  Ms. Bernstein will autograph copies at the concert’s intermission for those bringing a copy of the book to the show. Leonard Bernstein performed with GBS at The Klein in the 1970s. \nMeet our Narrator   (Peter and the Wolf)   JAMIE BERNSTEIN \nJamie Bernstein is an author\, narrator\, director\, broadcaster\, and filmmaker. Her 2018 memoir\, Famous Father Girl\, is about growing up with composer-conductor Leonard Bernstein\, and pianist and actress Felicia Montealegre in an atmosphere bursting with music\, theatre and literature. Jamie has written and narrated concerts about Mozart\, Aaron Copland\, and Stravinsky\, as well as “The Bernstein Beat\,” a family concert about her father modeled after his groundbreaking Young People’s Concerts. She appears worldwide performing her own scripted narrations as well as standard concert narrations\, such as Copland’s “A Lincoln Portrait” and her father’s Symphony No. 3\, “Kaddish.” Jamie has produced and hosted the New York Philharmonic’s live national radio broadcasts\, as well as many summer broadcasts from Tanglewood. She recently narrated the podcast “The NY Phil Story: Made in New York.” Jamie is the co-director of Crescendo: the Power of Music\, an award-winning documentary film focusing on children in struggling urban communities\, who participate in youth orchestra programs for social transformation. Jamie’s articles and poetry have appeared in such publications as Symphony\, Town & Country\, and Opera News. She also edits “Prelude\, Fugue & Riffs\,” a newsletter pertaining to her father’s legacy. \n \nMeet our Narrator (‘Twas the Night Before Christmas)  ANTHONY WELLMAN \nLong time friend of GBS Anthony “Tony” Wellman has numerous television and radio commercials\, corporate videos and radio programming in his CV\, and has interviewed hundreds of business owners for American Express commercials. He’s also done voice over work for the World Almanac\, ASME\, Random House\, DK publishing\, General Electric\, Audio Book Club\, and others. Tony has co-hosted The Dick Cavett Radio Show and is annually a live announcer for many trade events since 2007. GBS fans may remember him best from his narratives of la Boheme at GBS’ December 2016 Holiday Concert. Tony is also a fixture at GBS events where his stentorian voice is in demand as host. \n  \nProgram Notes  \nDecember 14\, 2024 \nRachel Waddell\, Guest Conductor\nJamie Bernstein\, Narrator\nAnthony Wellman\, Narrator \n  \nChokfi’ for String Orchestra and Percussion  (2018)              Jerod Tate   (b. 1968) \nPeter and the Wolf                                                                          Sergei Prokofiev  (1891-1953) \n‘Twas the Night Before Christmas                                               Bill Holcombe   (1924-2010) \nINTERMISSION \nScheherazade  (1888)                                                                     Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov   (1844-1908) \nOp. 35 \n  \nPlease join us at the Cross Aisle (Row K\, Main Level) after the concert for a Q and A with Maestra Rachel Waddell. \nThe GBS welcomes you and wishes you the happiest of holiday seasons. Our program this evening includes two beloved\, well-known masterpieces\, an exquisite setting of a favorite Christmas poem\, Clement Moore’s immortal The Night Before Christmas and a new piece composed in 2018. \n \nJerod Tate is a composer and citizen of the Chickasaw Nation in Oklahoma\, dedicated to the development of American Indian classical composition. He is a 2022 Chickasaw Hall of Fame inductee and a 2022 Distinguished Alumni Award recipient from The Cleveland Institute of Music. In 2021\, he was appointed a Cultural Ambassador for the U. S. Department of State. Among many recent premieres\, Tate’s highlights include commissions from the New York Philharmonic\, American Composers Orchestra\, Cantori NY and Turtle Island Quartet. Tate is a three-time commissioned recipient from the American Composers Forum\, a Chamber Music America Classical Commissioning Program recipient\, a Cleveland Institute of Music Alumni Achievement Award recipient\, a governor-appointed Creativity Ambassador for the State of Oklahoma and an Emmy Award-winner for his work on the Oklahoma Educational Television Authority documentary The Science of Composing. His music was also featured in the HBO series Westworld.  His middle name\, Impichchaachaaha’\, means “their high corncrib” and is his inherited traditional Chickasaw house name. Tate’s Chokfi for String Orchestra and Percussion was commissioned by the Oklahoma Youth Orchestras\, and premiered on May 6\, 2018. Says the composer: \nChokfi’ (choke-fee) is the Chickasaw word for rabbit\, who is an important trickster legend within Southeast American Indian cultures. \nInspired by a commission for youth orchestra I decided to create a character sketch that would be both fun and challenging for the kids. Different string and percussion techniques and colors represent the complicated and diabolical personality of this rabbit person. \nIn honor of my Muscogee Creek friends\, I have incorporated a popular tribal church hymn as the melodic and musical base. \n  This unique experience is followed by Bill Holcombe’s setting of Clement Clark Moore’s The Night Before Christmas. Holcombe was an arranger and composer of music for films\, recording dates and symphony orchestras and a performer on saxophones\, clarinet\, and flute. He studied composition and flute at the University of Pennsylvania and The Julliard School. Notably\, he was a staff arranger and player for the Tommy Dorsey Band. He also played for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer at their New York radio station\, WMGM\, as well as in Broadway pits. Listen for your favorite carols incorporated into this fun piece! \n Prokofiev loved children’s imaginative nature\, and children enjoyed his making them laugh. His beloved Peter and the Wolf was part of a collaboration with Natalia Satz\, director of the Moscow Childen’s Musical Theater. After they discussed the project\, Prokofiev wrote the original story. As a composer working in the Soviet Union\, Prokofiev needed to observe certain pieties. Tim Munro points out that: \nAt the center is “pioneer” Peter. Pioneers were Russian boy scouts\, but had a political edge: joining the pioneers was the first stepping-stone to becoming a member of the Communist party\, a required rite of passage. Even so\, Prokofiev’s story doesn’t line up with any political belief system. Peter is curious and strong-willed. His world is small\, but he isn’t afraid to challenge authority. His goal is simple: to right the wrongs he sees in the world. \nProkofiev wrote detailed notes in English and Russian\, telling us that an instrument symbolizes each character: the bird by a flute\, the duck by an oboe\, the cat by a clarinet playing staccato in a low register\, the grandfather by a bassoon\, the wolf by three horns. Additionally\, all instruments played Peter\, and the hunters were symbolized by the timpani and bass drum. This piece is a wonderful introduction\, for all ages\, to the contrasting colors of the orchestra. According to Prokofiev\, “If you listen very carefully at the end of the story\, you’ll hear the duck quacking inside the wolf’s belly\, because the wolf in his hurry had swallowed her alive.” \n \nI am indebted to Hugh McDonald for excerpts from his excellent notes on Rimsky-Korsakov’s masterful Scheherazade.   \nThe “Mighty Handful\,” the group of five forward-looking Russian composers of which Rimsky-Korsakov was the youngest member\, were particularly suspicious of such techniques as fugue and counterpoint\, as taught in Germany\, and they argued that it was more instructive to listen to peasants singing than to professors teaching. So it is ironic that without ever losing his interest in folk music\, Rimsky-Korsakov became one of the great teachers of his generation\, in charge of composition at the St. Petersburg Conservatory from 1871 until 1905. \nScheherazade\, his largest orchestral work\, is carefully constructed\, full of melody and brilliantly orchestrated. In addition\, it evokes the exotic world of sultans and harems whose popularity spread widely with the Arabian 1001 Nights. These tales were known in Europe since the 18th-century\, but were most enthusiastically read during Rimsky-Korsakov’s time when they were adapted for all forms of entertainment. \nAlthough the suite’s four movements give it some resemblance to a symphony\, Rimsky-Korsakov wanted a freer intermingling of speeds and themes than would have been normal in a symphony\, so he brings back his tunes at will. Most obviously\, he assigns the voice of Scheherazade herself to a solo violin\, whose obsessive doodling on a group of shapely themes recurs throughout\, often signaling a change of tempo and mood that transitions into a new story. There are images of Sinbad’s ship tossing on the waves\, an echo of Rimsky-Korsakov’s years as an officer in the Imperial Russian navy. The stern resolution of the Sultan is heard at the beginning in an angular unison theme that prominently features the trombones. Although Rimsky-Korsakov mentioned in his autobiography certain episodes illustrated in the music\, he ultimately preferred his listeners to think of the work as a more general evocation of the stories\, since characters from different stories appear across movements. \nThe first movement is largely taken up by a gentle rocking theme\, with some of the slippery key changes of which Rimsky-Korsakov was a master. The second movement presents a curly tune on a bassoon supported by four double-basses. This is passed around the woodwinds before more dramatic events intervene. The third movement is beautifully relaxed\, free of such disturbances\, while the finale brings back most of the themes\, linked by frenetic movement as if for a dancing dervish. In the end a great sense of calm is restored\, since Scheherazade has been spared and can now look forward to the permanently warm regard and patient ears of the Sultan Shahriah. \n—Frank Martignetti\, PhD \nSacred Heart University \n  \nThis season\, all kids under 19 years old will be admitted FREE when accompanied by an adult; accompanying adults will get 15% off their single ticket prices.  Please note that our concerts will begin one half hour earlier this season\, at 7:30 PM.
URL:http://staging.gbs.org/event/countdown-1-waddell/
LOCATION:Klein Memorial Auditorium\, 910 Fairfield Avenue\, Bridgeport\, CT\, 06605\, United States
CATEGORIES:Season 79
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20241109T193000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20241109T213000
DTSTAMP:20260415T144535
CREATED:20250108T143111Z
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SUMMARY:Countdown 2... Dunner
DESCRIPTION:Our search for a new Music Director continues\, with our third of four candidates*: Leslie B. Dunner. \nHailed as “dazzling\, elegant\, polished\, and riveting” by critics for his electrifying concert performances\, guest conductor Leslie B. Dunner comes to perform a program that is sure to stir concertgoers. Lauded for his world premiere performances of Anthony Davis’s opera “The Central Park Five” winning the 2020 Pulitzer Prize in Music\, and his “March to Liberation” subscription series concerts with the New York Philharmonic as part of their 2023 Inaugural Season in the new David Geffen Hall. The New York Times “Critic’s Pick” wrote Dunner’s performances had ” … a streak of urgency and plenty of orchestral splendor… dive-bombing phrases with terrific energy and articulation… style\, sagaciously managed\, suave\, with bursts of piquant personality\,” and a concert finale which “came across as grandly cosmic.” Maestro Dunner is joined by Indiana University’s Dean Charles H. Webb Chair in Music\, Norman Krieger in Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in F major\, a work shimmering with orchestrational brilliance. \nJoin the GBS\, Dunner and Krieger\, performing masterworks of Haydn\, Ginastera\, and Gershwin in music that “echoes within for a lifetime!” \nThis stylishly unique program affords the audience an opportunity to compare and contrast differing viewpoints of one of the most iconic forms of music utilized in classical culture: the Concerto\, in novel and inventive ways. \nThe evening builds around Haydn’s Symphony No. 6\, recognized as the first “Concerto for Orchestra” ever composed. “Papa” Haydn wrote this dazzling work to showcase both his compositional prowess and the excellent musicianship of the orchestra to his new employer\, the Prince of Esterhazy. \nGinastera’s Variaciones Concertantes (Concertante Variations) models itself\, like Haydn’s work\, on being a showcase for the excellence of the orchestral musicians. And\, like Haydn\, it uses the Baroque “Concerto Grosso” or “Big Concert[o]\,” passing the work’s main musical theme from one soloist to another\, and finally to the full orchestra. Like Haydn\, the string bass appears prominently as a featured solo instrument. \nThis concert also features – for the first time in decades – Gershwin’s Concerto in F\, with Norman Krieger at the piano. \n \nNorman Krieger \nA native of Los Angeles\, Norman Krieger is one of the most acclaimed pianists of his generation and is highly regarded as an artist of depth\, sensitivity and virtuosic flair. As the Los Angeles Times put it\, “Krieger owns a world of technique-take that for granted. He always knows exactly where he is going and what he is doing. He never for instant miscalculates. He communicates urgently but with strict control. He is alert to every manner of nuance and at every dynamic level his tone flatters the ear.” \nMyung -Whun Chung\, Donald Runnicles\, Leonard Slatkin\, Michael Tilson Thomas\, Jaap van Zweden and Zubin Mehta are just a few of the conductors with whom Krieger has collaborated. Krieger regularly appears with the major orchestras of North America\, among them the New York Philharmonic\, Los Angeles Philharmonic\, the Chicago Symphony\, Minnesota Orchestra and the National Symphony. He has performed throughout Europe\, Asia and South America including tours of Germany\, France\, Poland\, Holland Scandinavia\, Korea\, China\, New Zealand and Israel. \n  \nProgram Notes  \nNovember 9\, 2024 \nLeslie Dunner\, conductor \nNorman Krieger\, piano \n  \nSymphony No. 6 in D Major\, Hob. I:6\, “Le Matin”               Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) \nAdagio; Allegro \n            Adagio; Andante; Adagio \n            Menuet e Trio \n            Finale:  Allegro \n  \nVariaciones Concertantes                                                        Alberto Ginastera (1916-1983) \n  \n-Intermission- \n  \nConcerto in F for Piano and Orchestra                                   George Gershwin (1898-1937) \nAllegro \n            Adagio; Andante con moto \n            Allegro agitato \n  \n \nHaydn\, Symphony No. 6\, Hob. I:6\, “Le Matin” \nFranz Josef Haydn composed symphonies across most of his long life–104 in all–and is rightfully called “father of the symphony.”  Tonight’s example comes from the early years of his engagement with the genre and shows characteristics both rooted in older music and pointing toward forward developments.  Written in 1761\, just after his appointment as music director to the wealthy and prominent Esterhazy family\, Haydn was beginning his dream job for a composer at that time.  Among his first assignments was the charge to compose three symphonies representing morning\, noon\, and night:  hence the nickname “Le Matin.” \nIn No. 6 we see elements of the earlier Italian concerto grosso\, a genre that was well known to the Esterhazy establishment (think Vivaldi’s Four Seasons\, or Corelli’s Christmas Concerto).  Haydn displays the instruments as soloists rather than sections\, a feature which would have allowed him to assess the abilities of his new collaborators.  Yet the work is in four movements\, a pattern that would later become the norm for a symphony\, and it opens with a slow introduction depicting the sunrise of the title. \nThe lively first movement features the solo flute and oboe in conversation with the strings.  Next comes a serene and profound slow movement for solo violin and cello\, accompanied by strings\, in a three-part Adagio-Andante-Adagio form.  Solo winds return in the minuet\, and in an astonishing turn\, we hear the solo double bass paired with bassoon in the trio section.  In the finale the solo violin returns\, along with other soloists\, in a tribute to the older concerto grosso\, described by Haydn scholar H. C. Robbins Landon as “a brilliantly original way of pouring new wine into old bottles.” \n \nGinastera\, Variaciones Concertantes \nTema per violoncello ed arpa \n            Interludio per corde (strings) \n            Variazione giocosa per flauto \n            Variazione in modo di Scherzo per clarinetto \n            Variazione drammatica per viola \n            Variazione canonica per oboe e fagotto \n            Variazione ritmica per tromba e trombone \n            Variazione in moto di Moto perpetuo per violino \n            Variazione pastorale per Corno \n            Interludio per fiati (winds) \n            Ripresa dal tema per contrabasso \n            Variazione finale in modo di Rondò per orchestra \nAlberto Ginastera was an Argentine composer who spent some years in the United States and the last part of his life in Europe.  Composed in 1953\, the Variaciones Concertantes fall under the composer’s own designation of “subjective nationalism\,” in which elements of folklore are treated in new ways.  In the composer’s own words accompanying the score\, “These variations have a subjective Argentine character. Instead of using folkloristic material\, I try to achieve an Argentine atmosphere through the employment of my own thematic and rhythmic elements. The work begins with an original theme followed by eleven variations\, each one reflecting the distinctive character of the instrument featured. All the instruments of the orchestra are treated soloistically. Some variations belong to the decorative\, ornamental or elaborative type\, others are written in the contemporary manner of metamorphosis\, which consists of taking elements of the main theme and evolving from it new material.” \n \nGershwin\, Concerto in F for Piano and Orchestra \nWritten in 1925\, only a year after the acclaimed Rhapsody in Blue\, Gershwin took up a challenge to follow up on the earlier success:  “Many persons had thought that the Rhapsody [in Blue] was only a happy accident. Well\, I went out\, for one thing\, to show them that there was plenty more where that had come from.”  Unlike Rhapsody\, the Concerto in F follows the traditional three-movement\, fast-slow-fast concerto structure.  But the language of the concerto is jazz\, from the Charleston dance rhythm of the first movement\, through the blues and muted trumpet of the second movement\, to the “orgy of rhythms” (Gershwin’s own words) in the last movement.  While some contemporary critics were at a loss as to how the concerto should be categorized\, Gershwin’s fusion of jazz and classical idioms has engaged the audience from the beginning to the present day. \nAlice M. Caldwell PhD \n  \n  \nThis season\, all kids under 19 years old will be admitted FREE when accompanied by an adult; accompanying adults will get 15% off their single ticket prices.  Please note that our concerts will begin one half hour earlier this season\, at 7:30 PM.
URL:http://staging.gbs.org/event/countdown-2-dunner/
LOCATION:Klein Memorial Auditorium\, 910 Fairfield Avenue\, Bridgeport\, CT\, 06605\, United States
CATEGORIES:Season 79
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20241005T193000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20241005T213000
DTSTAMP:20260415T144535
CREATED:20240624T174605Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250108T201109Z
UID:504-1728156600-1728163800@staging.gbs.org
SUMMARY:Countdown 3... Gersen
DESCRIPTION:GBS begins its 79th Season continuing the search for a new Music Director with the second of four candidates*: Joshua Gersen. \nMr. Gersen is definitely the most local of candidates\, having grown up in Monroe\, performing with GCTYO (formerly the Greater Bridgeport Youth Orchestras) and conducting for them at age 11.  This is not his first time on the GBS podium; Maestro Gustav Meier invited him to conduct at age 16\, Later in his storied career\, he became Music Director of the New York Youth Symphony. \nMr. Gersen recently concluded his tenure as Assistant Conductor of the New York Philharmonic. The New York Times calls his conducting “Impassioned and incisive; the performance earned a standing ovation and prolonged applause from his colleagues in the orchestra.” \nThe concert program will center around Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4\, Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 in G minor and will include a modern work by Carlos Simon: Fate Now Conquers. \n  \nClick here then click “Subscriptions” for subscriptions at deep discounts. \nThis season\, all kids under 19 years old will be admitted FREE when accompanied by an adult; accompanying adults will get 15% off their single ticket prices.  Please note that our concerts will begin one half hour earlier this season\, at 7:30 PM. \n  \nPROGRAM NOTES \nOctober 5\, 2024 \nJoshua Gersen\, conductor \n  \nFate Now Conquers                                                         Carlos Simon (b. 1986) \nSymphony No. 40 in G minor\, K. 550                        Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) \nMolto allegro \n            Andante \n            Menuetto.  Allegretto \n            Finale.  Allegro assai \n  \n-Intermission- \n  \nSymphony No. 4 in F minor                                         Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) \nAndante sostenuto \n            Andantino in modo di canzona \n            Scherzo:  Pizzicato ostinato \n            Finale:  Allegro con fuoco \n  \n  \nSimon\, Fate Now Conquers \nAmerican composer Carlos Simon\, a native of Atlanta\, Georgia\, is currently Composer-in-Residence at the Kennedy Center in Washington\, D.C.  His widely performed Fate Now Conquers was commissioned in 2019 by the Philadelphia Orchestra and premiered online in 2020 due to the pandemic.  In notes by the composer himself\, he attributes the title to a quote from The Iliad in one of Beethoven’s notebooks: \nThis piece was inspired by a journal entry from Ludwig van Beethoven’s notebook written in 1815: \n“Iliad. The Twenty-Second Book \nBut Fate now conquers; I am hers; and yet not she shall share\nIn my renown; that life is left to every noble spirit\nAnd that some great deed shall beget that all lives shall inherit.”  \nUsing the beautifully fluid harmonic structure of the 2nd movement of Beethoven’s 7th symphony\, I have composed musical gestures that are representative of the unpredictable ways of fate. Jolting stabs\, coupled with an agitated groove with every persona. Frenzied arpeggios in the strings that morph into an ambiguous cloud of free-flowing running passages depict the uncertainty of life that hovers over us. \nWe know that Beethoven strived to overcome many obstacles in his life and documented his aspirations to prevail\, despite his ailments. Whatever the specific reason for including this particularly profound passage from the Iliad\, in the end\, it seems that Beethoven relinquished to fate. Fate now conquers.  -Carlos Simon \n \nMozart\, Symphony No. 40\, K. 550 \nThe second of Mozart’s three last\, path-breaking symphonies written in the summer of 1788\, No. 40 in G minor is perhaps one of the best-known of all symphonies.  Composed during a time of financial and personal stress\, the relatively unusual minor tonality itself announces a seriousness and intensity of purpose.  The first movement is a perennial favorite of music theory and appreciation analysis because of its clear-cut adherence to the outline of sonata form:  the major divisions of exposition\, development\, and recapitulation\, with easily recognizable themes\, transitions\, and closings.  Yet the working-out of themes\, harmonies and motives is anything but simplistic. \nThe second movement contrasts with the first in its major key\, lyrical melodies marked by the stylized “sigh” figure.  We hear gently pulsing strings\, dissonances that resolve\, and dialogue of strings and winds. \nNext comes a conventional minuet-trio movement\, but in a non-traditional minor key and with unsettling\, syncopated accents on weak beats.  A relaxed\, lyrical trio section contrasts in the parallel major key\, providing a break from the intensity of the minuet. \nThe fourth movement balances the first in minor-key seriousness\, which gives way to a gentle\, major-key second theme.  The development works the main theme through new harmonies and in counterpoint.   With the return of the second theme in the minor tonic\, the symphony concludes in a resounding statement of G minor.  Does the grim intensity of this symphony reflect Mozart’s state of mind during a troubled period?  Does it point the way toward the deeper personal expression that would become a guiding force in the Romantic era?  We may presume see this work as Mozart’s wrestling with Fate at a difficult point in his life. \n \nTchaikovsky\, Symphony No. 4 \nTchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony displays both sides of the supposedly rival currents in 19th-century Russian music:  on the one hand\, allegiance to the Western European symphonic tradition as cultivated at the St. Petersburg and Moscow conservatories\, and on the other\, a love for Russian folk music.  Composed during 1877-78\, this was a time when Tchaikovsky was struggling with deep personal sadness over his sexual orientation\, exacerbated by a brief\, disastrous marriage.  Finding security in the distanced\, epistolary relationship with his patron\, Nadezhda von Meck\, he wrote to her of the concepts underpinning his newest symphony: “The introduction is the seed of the whole symphony\, undoubtedly the central theme. This is Fate\, i.e.\, that fateful force which prevents the impulse to happiness from entirely achieving its goal\, forever on jealous guard lest peace and well-being should ever be attained in complete and unclouded form\, hanging above us like the Sword of Damocles\, constantly and unremittingly poisoning the soul. Its force is invisible and can never be overcome. Our only choice is to surrender to it\, and to languish fruitlessly.” \nIndeed\, the opening “Fate” motive is unforgettable and relentless\, punctuating the first movement and recurring in the fourth movement as well.  The first movement continues beyond the fate motive\, marked with a waltz tempo\, but the jittery\, highly syncopated theme is anything but a smooth and elegant waltz for dancing.  A contrasting idea moves among the woodwinds\, bringing some relief to the intensity of the waltz\, complemented by gentle strings\, but the brightness is overshadowed by the return of the fate theme. \nIn the second movement a haunting minor melody is passed among winds and strings\, continuing the mood of melancholy in a more subdued way. \nThe third movement\, a scherzo\, lightens the mood with a study in timbres\, starting with lively pizzicato strings\, followed by contrasting sections for woodwind and brass choirs before returning to the strings.  A short coda gives the different choirs one last dialogue with each other. \nThe finale opens with a burst of optimistic-sounding high energy before introducing the theme of The Birch Tree.  The folk tune undergoes several transformations\, heading toward a climax that is wrenched away by the thunderous Fate theme.  A return of the opening idea\, layered with fragments of the Birch Tree\, races headlong to a joyful conclusion.  Has Fate had the last word\, or not? \nAlice M. Caldwell PhD \n 
URL:http://staging.gbs.org/event/season-premiere/
LOCATION:Klein Memorial Auditorium\, 910 Fairfield Avenue\, Bridgeport\, CT\, 06605\, United States
CATEGORIES:Season 79
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240907T193000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240907T213000
DTSTAMP:20260415T144535
CREATED:20240728T193454Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250108T201245Z
UID:1273-1725737400-1725744600@staging.gbs.org
SUMMARY:Countdown 4...Leandro - Last Season
DESCRIPTION:Note:  Eduardo’s audition concert took place on April 13\, 2024 \nEduardo Leandro is also a candidate under consideration as GBS’ new Music Director.  Not a stranger to the GBS stage\, he was principal guest conductor leading the orchestra through our 78th season in programs that range from Mozart and Beethoven through Prokofiev\, Debussy and Ginastera\, all the way up to Schonfield and Bernstein. He championed music education through community outreach\, connecting with Bridgeport’s diverse\, underserved students as a Brazilian-born musician who speaks five languages fluently. \nLeandro studied with the late Maestro Gustav Meier\, who for more than four decades led the Greater Bridgeport Symphony.  Among his extensive list of current positions is associate music professor at Stony Brook University in New York and teaching percussion at the University of Montreal in Canada\, conductor of the New York New Music Ensemble and percussionist with the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society. \nEduardo has conducted Camerata Aberta in Brazil\, Talea and Sequitur Ensembles in the United States\, Ensemble Lemanic in France\, and the New Music Ensembles in the conservatories of Geneva and Lausanne. He recently served as the music director for the premiere of “The Scarlet Professor”\, an opera composed by Eric Sawyer and produced by the Five Colleges Consortium. He has conducted chamber music concerts at Radio France in Paris\, in Milan and Torino with MDI and Sentieri Musicali\, at Pacific Rim Music Festival in California\, and at Festival Archipel in Switzerland.
URL:http://staging.gbs.org/event/countdown-4-leandro/
LOCATION:Klein Memorial Auditorium\, 910 Fairfield Avenue\, Bridgeport\, CT\, 06605\, United States
CATEGORIES:Season 79
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