The Dallas Morning News Symphony Series

Symphonic Treasures

Featuring

Shannon Lee, Violin

Friday, September 22, 2006 at 8:00pm at Lakeland Baptist Church  (Directions)

Adults $20, Senior $ (60+) $18, student $8
Special Group Rates - click here

Weber:  Oberon Overture
Schubert:  Symphony No 8 (Unfinished)
Sibelius:  Violin Concerto in D Minor

  Adron Ming, Music Director/Conductor

You can hear Shannon performing, when 12 years old, on the From the Top program, regularly  broadcast on Public Radio International stations across the United States. 

Saint-Saens: Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, Op. 28
Dinicu: Hora Staccato (arr. Heifetz) (closing of program)

Shannon Lee
Last year, young Canadian-born violinist Shannon Lee made a stunning orchestral debut at the age of twelve with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra when she played Waxman’s fiendishly difficult Carmen Fantasy, originally written for Jascha Heifetz.  In a front page article, The Dallas Morning News exclaimed, “When she started to play, her maturity and skill suddenly placed her artistic age far beyond her calendar one.”

Shannon opened last season’s the Lewisville Lake Symphony’s International Chamber Music Series and earned a prolonged standing ovation our local audience. Maestro Adron Ming invited her back to open this year’s Dallas Morning News Symphony Series.

Shortly after her performance here, she toured Texas as soloist with the DSO. She was immediately engaged by the tour’s conductor, Giancarlo Guerrero, for solo performances of Prokofiev D major Concerto with his orchestra next spring. Charlotte’s Maestro Perick also heard Shannon while conducting in Dallas and invited her to North Carolina to perform the Sibelius Concerto. 

Shannon moved to Plano, TX when she was two and began studying the violin at the age of four. Multiple local awards and prizes followed, and at the age of eleven she won her first national award: top prize among bowed instruments in the American String Teachers Association (ASTA) Biennial National Solo Competition’s junior division. Subsequent awards have included the Bayard H. Friedman Award for Outstanding Student in Performing Arts, the Texas’ Young Master Scholarship, the Asian American Alliance for the Arts Outstanding Achievement Award, a Silver Medal in the Stulberg International String Competition, and several top prizes in the Kingsville Competition.

Shannon has studied privately with Jan Mark Sloman since 2000 and has performed privately and in master class for artists such as Itzhak Perlman, Jaime Laredo, Elmar Oliveira, and Arnold Steinhardt. An avid chamber musician, Shannon’s summer activities have included Mr. Sloman’s Institute for Strings in Dallas, the Heifetz International Music Institute in New Hampshire, and, this summer, the ENCORE School for Strings in Cleveland, where Shannon studied with David and Linda Cerone. Shannon was started on violin with the Suzuki method and teachers Paul Landefeld and Ann Grosshans.

Shannon attends Spring Creek Academy, a school for gifted young artists and athletes attended by several Olympic medalists. She enjoys her many friends, swimming, reading, and computers. Recently Shannon was loaned her first full-sized violin, a great instrument from 1737 by the legendary Italian master Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesu, very generously made available to her by Michael Selman of the famed British firm J and A Beare.
 

Overture to “Oberon” 

Carl Maria von Weber

The composition and performance of Oberon turned into a race with death.  When Weber accepted the invitation to write and produce an opera for the Covent Garden Theater in London he was seriously ill with tuberculosis.  Against his physician’s advice, Weber accepted the commission for the opera.  He reached London on March 5, 1826 and the premiere performance on April 12 was a resounding success.  True to his doctor’s concern, Weber’s physical condition worsened and he died in London on June 5, 1826.

Like most of Weber’s operatic overtures this one takes its thematic material from the opera.  It opens with an introduction (adagio sostenuto) in which the magic horn of Oberon is heard.  In the main body of the Overture the tempo changes to allegro con fuoco.  A return of the horn call separates the principal theme – a song-like melody scored as a clarinet solo, and then a more vigorous melody occurs played by the violins.  The traditional development section and the recapitulation of the musical themes complete the work.

Carl Maria von Weber

Born on November 18, 1786 in Eutin, Germany

Died on June 5, 1826 in London, England

Carl Maria von Weber was born to musical parents.  Weber was a feeble child, having inherited tuberculosis from his mother, and he had hip-joint disease which lamed him all of his life.  His father saw to his having a comprehensive education, which however was frequently interrupted because of the family’s constant moves. Weber was a student of recognized musicians in Munich, Salzburg and Vienna.  His father was dazzled by the success of the prodigy Mozart, but Weber’s early attempts at composition were not notable although records remain of his first opera which was written when he was thirteen.

His first musical appointment was as conductor of the Opera at Breslau.  He held a post at the court of the Duke of Wurttemberg in Stuttgart for three years, followed by a three-year stint as director of the Opera in Prague.  In time he became the director of the prestigious Opera at Dresden, and it was there that he wrote the opera “Der Freischutz,” the work which brought him fame.  Weber’s works, especially his operas, greatly influenced the development of the romantic opera in German music.  He is best remembered for the operas Der Freischutz, Euryanthe and Oberon.

 Symphony No. 8 in B minor, “Unfinished”

Franz Schubert  

          I.  Allegro moderato

          II. Andante con moto

Schuberts “Unfinished” is perhaps the best known of all symphonies, one that many music-lovers almost know by heart.  One is always struck by Schubert’s genius for melody and his lucid orchestration.  The Symphony No. 8 was composed in 1822.  It was first performed thirty-seven years after the composer’s death at a concert in Vienna in 1865.  Why the work remained unfinished is an enigma, because Schubert composed numerous other works until his death in 1828.

I.  Allegro moderato.  The symphony opens with a sad, almost foreboding theme for the low strings.  The violins then provide a background for a haunting melody for oboe and clarinet.  Strong chords are heard and after a modulation a singing melody is scored for the cellos.  The mood shifts from lyrical to dramatic with a string counterpoint supported by wind harmonies.  The development and recapitulation underline the lyrical content and lead to a Coda based on the opening theme.

II.  Andante con moto.  Violins and winds state the first subject while the second subject, of dream-like beauty, is sung first by the clarinet and later by flute and oboe.  A passage for full orchestra then intervenes, but a calm mood is preserved throughout the development.  At the end the Coda gently recalls the first subject against a slow descending pizzicato accompaniment.

Franz Schubert

Born on January 31, 1797 in Vienna

Died on November 19, 1828 in Vienna

Franz Schubert was the son of a schoolmaster who showed an extraordinary childhood aptitude for music, studying the piano, violin, organ, singing and harmony, and composition by the age of sixteen. Historically he is looked upon as the last master of the Viennese Classical school and one of the earliest proponents of musical Romanticism.  Although he died at the young age of 31, he wrote some six hundred romantic songs (lieder) as well as many symphonies, sonatas, string quartets, and other works.

Schubert is counted among the most gifted composers of the 19^th century, and the one who effectively established the German lied as a new art form. Public appreciation of his work during his lifetime was thought to be limited, but when he died at just 31 years of age over one hundred of his compositions had already appeared in print.  He was never able to secure adequate permanent employment and for most of his life was supported by friends or employed by his father.

Concerto for Violin

in D minor, Op. 47

Jean Sibelius

(1865-1957)

          I.  Allegro moderato

          II.  Adagio di molto

         III.  Allegro, ma non tanto

This, the only concerto for any instrument by Sibelius, was written in 1903 and revised in 1905.  When this work first appeared it seemed revolutionary to many.  The first movement abandons the rules of the sonata form.  The music is rooted in simple but deep emotions, stimulated by human experience, especially in his northern homeland.  This concerto ranks with the other great works in this field.

I. Allegro moderato.  This work does not contain the opening orchestral exposition associated with the classical concerto.  Instead the violins provide four measures of harmonic preparation for the entrance of the solo violin with a broad melody.  The subject becomes more elaborate, with brief responses from the orchestra, and ends in a cadenza.  The orchestra then introduces a theme which is taken over and elaborated upon by the soloist.  There is no real development and no recapitulation.  The soloist has a second cadenza, after which the orchestra and solo violin engage in a dialogue.  After a gentler passage in the solo instrument the movement draws to a climactic close.

II. Adagio di molto.  The movement opens with quiet but intense phrases for orchestra.  The soloist enters with a simple subject, growing in eloquence, against an orchestral background.  The strings and winds take over and the soloist replies with a different passage, marked by double stops, after which the orchestra reverts to the first solo theme.

III. Allegro, ma non tanto.  The dance-like finale is based on two subjects, an exciting theme for soloist, followed by a melody for the orchestra.  The soloist develops the first subject and then joins with the orchestra in a powerful section.  The second theme returns with the soloist and orchestra in dialogue.  The close features octave sweeps for the soloist and a strong climax.    

Jean Sibelius

Born on December 8, 1875 in Hameenlinna, Finland

Died on September 20, 1957 in Ainola, Finland

Jean Sibelius was born in Finland  to a Swedish-speaking family.  His father, a doctor and amateur musician, died when he was two years old.  His mother, a member of the musical Borg family, was left in dire financial straits with her children.  Sibelius learned Finnish at high school in his hometown. He planned to study law, but the power of music emerged and he went on to enroll at the Music Institute of Helsinki.

The path of music was to be his destiny, leading to his composing classics such as Finlandia and Valse Triste, as well as the substantive Violin Concerto in D minor and his highly-regarded Seventh Symphony.  For the most part he devoted all of his time to composition, although he did return on two occasions to teach at the Music Institute of Helsinki from 1892-1900 and 1907-1910.  In the final thirty-two years of his life he wrotevery little music, except for a few incidental songs for the piano.

As a gift for his 50^th birthday, Sibelius received a grand piano, his most important furnishing, and with the creation of a Frazer confectionary in his honor.  Later he was commemorated with postage stamps, currency, and competitions.