Details

About this Concert Barber’s haunting Adagio for Strings and Tchaikovsky’s beloved First Piano Concerto – performed by the winner of the Montréal International Piano Competition, Beatrice Rana – anchor a program of stunningly exquisite music. Featured Repertoire BARBER: Adagio COPLAND: A Lincoln Portrait ESTACIO: A Farmer’s Symphony TCHAIKOVSKY: Piano Concerto No. 1 Add this concert to my calendar

Additional Activities Join us at 1:15pm in the Third Level (Upper Circle) Lobby for Sunday Prelude, an informative half-hour examination of the works to be heard that afternoon. Stick around after the concert to meet guests artists and conductors in the main lobby. Next Sunday Showcase May 26, 2013 Violin & Marimba Thank you to our sponsor! Series Sponsor

Ticket Information $69 Dress Circle (A) $57 Terrace (B) $43 Orchestra (C) $25 Upper Circle (D) $20 Orchestra Front (F) All tickets for youths under 18 are only $20! Tickets subject to applicable service charges.

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Program Info

Program

ESTACIO
A Farmer’s Symphony (1994 ESO commission) (19’)*
  Seeds of Spring: Misterioso
  Summer Nocturne: Adagio
  The Harvesters: Vivace

BARBER
Adagio for Strings, Op.11 (8’)*

COPLAND
A Lincoln Portrait (16’)*

INTERMISSION

TCHAIKOVSKY
Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor, Op.23 (34’)*
  Allegro non troppo e molto maestoso – Allegro con spirito – Tempo I
  Andante semplice – Prestissimo – Tempo I
  Allegro con fuoco – Molto meno mosso – Allegro vivo

Program subject to change.
*Indicates approximate performance duration.

Program Notes

A Farmer’s Symphony (1994 ESO commission)
John Estacio (b. Newmarket, Ontario, 1966)

Program note by the composer:
When I was young and growing up on a vegetable farm in Newmarket, Ontario, it always amazed me how one small box of seeds sitting in the corner of my dad's storage shed could fill up the entire barn five-fold in the autumn. Just as a farmer begins with a seed, I chose to start my symphony with one single pitch. Consequently the first movement, The Seeds of Spring, begins with one single reiterated pitch, an "A". The gentle sounds of rain and wind are created in the percussion section. After a couple of minutes, the harp begins to accelerate the tempo and the piece takes on a more defined shape. A perpetual motion pattern in the harp and vibraphone provides a subtle harmonic backdrop to a solo clarinet which creates a melody from the first few pitches introduced in the opening. The brass choir builds the movement to its loudest point which encompasses the entire range of the orchestra. The movement ends with a return to the ambience of the opening.

Summer Nocturne is slow and lyrical and was inspired by warm, quiet summer evenings and the sound of the crops rustling in a gentle breeze. The lower strings begin this movement by playing a theme in their dark, lower registers. This theme, derived from the previous movement, undergoes a maturing process through the second movement. Among other instruments featured in the score, the harp has a prominent role.

The final movement, The Harvesters, begins with the sound of a large engine winding up to life. In this movement I attempt to depict machine and man by contrasting mechanical discordant chattering against bold intrepid melodies. Unabating in energy and speed, this movement drives the composition to its conclusion, not unlike the human stamina required to bring the farming season to a close.

Listen to Robert Rival's interview with John Estacio about A Farmer's Symphony in this podcast:


Adagio for Strings, Op.11
Samuel Barber (b. West Chester, Pennsylvania, 1910 / d. 1981)

The famous conductor Arturuo Toscanini was one of the first to use the new medium of radio to bring classical music to millions of American homes. A champion of young American composers, Toscanini commissioned Samuel Barber to write a work for a radio broadcast by the NBC Symphony Orchestra, which Toscanini led. Barber, 28 at the time, took the slow movement from his String Quartet, Op.11, and arranged it for full string orchestra. In this setting, the Adagio for Strings has become a work performed at many solemn occasions, and is one of the most recognizable works of American concert music.


A Lincoln Portrait
Aaron Copland (b. Brooklyn, 1900 / d. New York, 1990)

In 1942, shortly after U.S. involvement in the Second World War, conductor André Kostelanetz commissioned patriotic works from a number of prominent American composers – pieces inspired by great Americans. Aaron Copland chose Abraham Lincoln, and the enormity of his task became apparent right away: how to sum up, in purely orchestral terms, the man considered by many as the greatest American who ever lived. It was Copland’s friend and fellow composer Virgil Thomson who suggested that Copland bring Lincoln himself “into the work,” by including some of Lincoln’s own words. The quotes used by Copland are, for the most part, from lesser-known speeches by Lincoln. It is not until the work’s climax that the famous Gettysburg Address is cited.

A Lincoln Portrait is divided into three parts, beginning with a musical depiction of the man himself, which Copland says features, "the mysterious sense of fatality that surrounds Lincoln's personality, and near the end of the first section, something of his gentleness and simplicity of spirit." The second part of the work illustrates the time in which Lincoln lived, with snippets of the folk song Camptown Races amid the insouciance of an idealized young America. The final section features quotes from the December 1, 1862 annual Message to Congress, as well as a quote from one of the famous Senatorial debates Lincoln had with Stephen Douglas in 1858. The work concludes with the moving finale of the Gettysburg Address, and a recollection of music from the opening.


Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor, Op.23
Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (b. Kamsko-Votinsk, 1840 / d. St. Petersburg, 1897)

So, you write a concerto for someone, hoping he’ll play it, and he writes of it, “The music is vulgar…unplayable…unworthy of its composer,” among other things. Chances are, you’d remove the dedication, and find someone else. That’s exactly what Tchaikovsky did with his First Piano Concerto, crossing out Nikolai Rubinstein’s name, and adding Hans von Bülow’s, as the German musician praised the music highly. Completed in late 1874, the concerto was finally premiered on October 25, 1875, in Boston.

The concerto’s remarkable and very famous opening begins with strong horn pronouncements, followed by a rich, romantic melody for strings, punctured by powerful piano chords, and that followed by the piano taking up the rich melody itself. The real surprise is, following that sweeping opening, that lush melody never shows up in the work again. Instead, a secondary theme, based on a Ukrainian folksong, becomes the basis for the direction the music takes for the rest of the movement. Using a technique often employed in Russian concertos, Tchaikovsky uses repeated statements of the folksong theme to add decorative elements, growing more ornate, while the orchestra – which seldom plays along with the soloist – handles many of the movement’s dramatic flourishes.

The second movement’s A-B-A format combines a slow movement with a Scherzo. The A section is a lovely Andantino in D-flat Major first presented by the flute, then taken up by the piano. That is contrasted by a Prestissimo B section in a quick waltz tempo, the theme of which Tchaikovsky said was based on a French song, Il faut s’amuser, danser et rire. The finale is dominated by two main thematic ideas. A strongly Russian-flavoured dance introduced by the piano alternates with a passionately romantic secondary idea – one of those gorgeously rapturous melodies at which Tchaikovsky excelled.

As a footnote, it’s worth mentioning that, following the concerto’s enthusiastic reception at its first performances, Nikolai Rubinstein had a change of heart, and became one of the work’s greatest champions, performing it several times in his career.

Program notes © 2013 by D.T. Baker, except as noted

Artist Info

William Eddins, conductor

Now in his eighth season as Music Director of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, William Eddins has a captivating energy, a magnetic stage presence, and an adventurous musical curiosity that continues to propel the orchestra to unique, new and exciting achievements. His commitment to the entire spectrum of the ESO audience brings him to the podium for performances in every subscription series, as well as for a wide variety of galas and specials.

A distinguished and versatile pianist, Bill was bitten by the conducting bug while in his sophomore year at the Eastman School of Music. In 1989, he began conducting studies at the University of Southern California with Daniel Lewis, and Assistant Conductorships with both the Minnesota Orchestra and the Chicago Symphony (the latter under the leadership of Daniel Barenboim) followed.

Bill has many non-musical hobbies including cooking, eating, discussing food and planning dinner parties. He is also quite fond of biking, tennis, reading and pinball. He recently complete building a state-of-the-art recording studio at his home in Minneapolis, where he lives with his wife Jen (a clarinetist), and their sons Raef and Riley.

While conducting has been his principal pursuit, he continues to perform as pianist, organist and harpsichordist. He has conducted the ESO from the keyboard on many occasions, and in 2007, joined then-ESO concertmaster Martin Riseley and cellist Yo-Yo Ma in Brahms' Piano Trio No. 1 at a gala concert celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Winspear Centre. In 2008, he conducted Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess for Opéra de Lyon, leading to repeat performances in Lyon, London and at the Edinburgh International Festival in 2010. Other international highlights include a 2009 tour of South Africa, where Bill conducted three gala concerts with soprano Renée Fleming and the kwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic Orchestra. On May 8, 2012, Bill made his Carnegie Hall debut conducting the ESO at a memorable concert featuring four Canadian soloists, and music by three Canadian composers alongside Martinů's rarely-performed Symphony No. 1.

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Beatrice Rana, piano

Though barely 20 years old, Beatrice Rana has aroused the admiration and interest of concert presenters, conductors, critics, and audiences in many countries. She is already a guest of prestigious concert series and festivals throughout the world, such as Zurich’s Tonhalle, London’s Wigmore Hall, Radio-France Festival in Montpellier, Lanaudière Festival in Montréal, the Vancouver Recital Society, Busoni Festival in Bolzano, and Milan’s Società dei Concerti. As a soloist she has been invited to perform with the Orchestra Internazionale d’Italia, the Kuala Lumpur Philharmonic, the Aarhus Symfoniorkester, the Südwestdeutsche Philharmonie Konstanz, the Winnipeg Symphony, the Saskatoon Symphony, the Orchestre de Pau Pays de Bearn in France, the Québec Symphony,  and Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s Orchestre métropolitain de Montréal.

In June 2011, at only 18, Beatrice Rana won First Prize at the Montréal International Music Competition and thus became one of its youngest winners ever. She also won all the other special prizes. A recipient of an impressive number of first prizes in international piano competitions, Ms. Rana was selected in 2010 among 60 participants as one of the six pianists allowed to take part in the “Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli Prize,” where she has attended a masterclass with Arie Vardi and performed a recital. She now studies with Arie Verdi in Hannover. Born to a family of musicians in 1993, Ms. Rana made her debut as a soloist with orchestra at the age of nine. She began her musical studies at four and achieved her Piano Degree at the age of sixteen with top marks, laude and honourable mention under the guidance of Benedetto Lupo at the Nino Rota Conservatory of Music in Monopoli, where she also studied composition with Marco della Sciucca. At 12, she was awarded the scholarship of the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research for her great musical talent.

This is Ms. Rana’s debut with the ESO.

Multimedia

Barber's Adagio for Strings: