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Classic Exchange!
Friday, September
14, 2007
at 7:30pm
At Lakeland Baptist Church,
Lewisville
(Directions)
Adults $25, Seniors (60+) $20,
Students $10
Families $60 no matter how large the family.
Special UNT student rate $5
New! Post-concert
dining discounts!
Details
Two conductors
each travel more
than 15,000 miles
to conduct the
other's orchestra
(25,000 km. - and
that's as the crow flies!)
Aikuang Sun
from Taiwan,
conducts the
Lewisville Lake Symphony
AdronMing
conducts
Taipei Sunshine Symphony Orchestra
in Taiwan
Featuring cellist
Grace Ho
Beethoven:
Overture to
'The
Creatures of Prometheus'
Beethoven: Symphony No. 4
Saint-Saëns: Cello Concerto
Beethoven and Saint-Saëns
More on Grace Ho |
Aikuang Sun
More on Beethoven
| Saint-Saëns
More on
'Prometheus' |
Symphony No. 4 |
Cello Concerto
Post concert dining
The concert starts at 7:30pm
and will end around 9:00.
Capriccio's
Ristorante offers a 20%
discount on post concert dinners. You can make
a reservation at our box office during intermission. Just show your
program to your waiter to get your discount on the fabulous Italian
menu. (Wine and liquor excluded.)
Capriccio's, 420 Parker
Square, Flower Mound.
(Directions)
Grace Ho, an 18-year-old cellist, began
studying the piano at the age of eight. However, at the age of nine,
she began playing the
 cello
and immediately fell in love with its beautiful sound. Grace has been
studying for the past four years under the direction of Eugene Osadchy,
the Principal cellist of the Plano Symphony Orchestra and the cello
professor at the University of North Texas.
Grace had been in the All-State and
All-Region Orchestras for all 4 years in high school. She was also in
the Greater Dallas Youth Orchestra (GDYO) as the Principal cellist for 3
years and had always enjoyed playing in the organization. She was also
a member of DAAYO, the Dallas Asian American Youth Orchestra, and
performed Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations with them in May, 2004
and Beethoven’s Triple Concerto in October,
2006.
Grace was selected as an “Outstanding
Performer” at the State UIL Solo & Ensemble in 2003 and 2004 and was a
finalist in the 2004 and 2006 Lynn Harrell Concerto Competition. In
2005, Grace was selected to receive the Dallas Chinese Lions Club
Scholarship for her musical capacity. That summer, with a scholarship,
Grace attended the ENCORE School for Strings, one of the most
prestigious music camps in the nation.
In the 2006 GDYO Concerto Competition,
Grace was awarded First Place winner and performed the first movement of
Shostakovich Cello Concerto No.1 with them in March at the Meyerson
Symphony Center. In summer 2006, Grace attended the Boston University
Tanglewood Institute with a scholarship for six weeks and enjoyed it
very much. Grace is now a freshman at the University of North Texas,
majoring in cello performance. Besides winning the 2007 UNT concerto
competition, Grace also got 2nd place, Silver Medal, in the
2007 Crescendo Music Awards.
A native of Taiwan, Grace came to the
United States at the age of 14. Over the past four years, she has put
a lot of effort into her school work, overcoming her language
disadvantage.
Aikuang Sun
has extensive orchestral and choral conducting experience. Her
appearances include the Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra (People’s Republic
of China), the
 Russian Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, the Hong Kong
Oratorio Society, the Taipei County Symphony Orchestra, the Kaohsiung
City Symphony Orchestra, the University of North Texas Symphony
Orchestra, the Taipei Century Symphony Orchestra, the Taipei YMCA
Symphony Orchestra and Oratorio Choir, and the National Taipei Medical
University Orchestra.
Dr. Sun has received awards from the National Science Council for Music.
Her published works include several articles in “The Journal of Music
Study”, the book “Tchaikovsky Symphony No.5 op.64”, three music
textbooks, and the recording “Taiwanese Folk Songs” at the invitation of
The Egret Cultural and Educational Foundation.
 Dr. Sun received her Doctor of Musical Arts in Orchestral Conducting
from the University of North Texas, where she studied with Maestro Anshel Brusilow, and served as a Teaching fellow. In addition to being
the Music Director of Dallas Asian American Youth Orchestra, she is an
Associate Professor at National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei.
Upcoming appearances include concerts in Japan with with National Taiwan
Normal University Female Choir in Kyoto's Ritsumeikan University and
Tokyo's Gakugei University. She will also conduct the Golden Sunshine
Youth Orchestra in Taipei and National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra Summer
Camp in Taichung.
There is more information about Dr. Sun at
www.ai-kuang.com
Overture to “The
Creatures of Prometheus”,
Op. 43
Ludwig van Beethoven
Beethoven worked on the composition of the ballet,
The Creatures of Prometheus, in 1800 and early 1801. The composition
of the ballet occurred, among other works, in the period between his
first and second symphonies, and though there can be no mistaking
Beethoven’s style, the overture has quite a different character from
either of the symphonies.
The overture opens with a short slow introduction,
followed by a fast Allegro section in C major. The Viennese
expectations for a ballet score around 1800 would have been for an
entertaining dramatic work, but one that did not have the seriousness
that is found in Beethoven’s later incidental music. This lighter
character and orchestral brilliance is especially clear in the fast
section of the overture.
Ludwig van Beethoven
I. Adagio – Allegro vivace
II. Adagio
III. Allegro vivace
IV. Allegro ma non troppo
 The year 1806 was an extremely busy one for Beethoven
with a burst of incredible creativity on his part. Eight major
masterpieces were taking shape almost simultaneously in his mind: his
Sonata Appasionata, all three of the epochal string quartets, his
Fourth Piano Concerto, his Fourth and Fifth Symphonies, and his Violin
Concerto.
Regarding the Fourth Symphony, Robert Schumann
compared it with a “Greek maiden between two Norse giants – the giants
being the Eroica (his Third Symphony) and the Fifth Symphony. In
addition, many people have commented upon the contrast between
Beethoven’s more passionate odd-numbered symphonies and the lighter
moods of the even-numbered.
Adagio – Allegro vivace. The first movement
opens with a slow, thoughtful introduction. This pensive mood is
interrupted by six rhythmic repetitions of the same chord, which launch
a carefree allegro. A group of contrasting ideas begin with a
three-way melodic conversation in the woodwinds. This material is
developed until the traditional return to the opening theme occurs
followed by an exhuberant coda.
Adagio. The theme of this nocturne-like slow
movement consists of little more than the slow descending E-flat major
scale. This placid melody is enhanced by a gentle accompaniment figure,
first very softly in the second violins, later in a variety of
instruments, and finally dying to a pianissimo whisper for
tympani.
Allegro vivace. This scherzo contains a
variety of moods, beginning with an upside-down reference to the
Symphony’s opening theme. Mysterious whisperings among strings and
woodwinds alternate with loud gusts of orchestral response.
Allegro ma non troppo. The finale opens with
figurations in the violins that are almost a “perpetual-motion” rhythm
rather than a clear-cut theme. This movement is one of Beethoven’s
merriest conclusions.
Concerto for Cello and
Orchestra
in A minor, Op. 33
Camille Saint-Saëns
I. Allegro non troppo
II. Allegretto con moto
III. Allegro non troppo; Un peu moins vite
IIf Saint-Saens had written nothing for the ‘cello but
that familiar melody portraying The Swan in his delightful
Carnival of Animals
 we could sense from that single example the
composer’s perfect empathy with the “tenor” of the string choir. As it
happens the French composer scored on many occasions for the melodious
sensitivity of this instrument.
Saint-Saens composed two cello concerti with a thirty
year time lapse between them. The one heard this evening, composed in
1873, is the first and the most often performed. The three movements of
this work are played without pause.
Allegro non troppo. There is no orchestral
introduction: one sharp chord by the orchestra introduces the solo
instrument in a sweeping theme which is to dominate the score. The
theme is repeated with greater and greater variation. Gradually the
rhythmic drive relaxes and the music passes imperceptibly into the
second movement.
Allegretto con moto. This is a delicate
interlude based on a dance-like theme heard in the muted strings. Once
the dance rhythm has been established, the solo cello enters alone very
softly. Under the last tone of the cello phrase, the orchestra resumes
its delicate dance that leads to a free cadenza for cello alone. As the
movement concludes the solo instrument forms the connecting link to the
finale.
Allegro non troppo; Un peu moins vite. The
finale picks up the development of the Concerto’s principal theme. As
the orchestra presents this new melody, the soloist begins to develop
more and more virtuoso brilliance and an ascent into the tonal
atmosphere with precarious harmonics. The tempo increases with the
excitement of the music as the work concludes.
Ludwig van
Beethoven
Born on December 17, 1770 in Bonn
Died on March 26, 1827 in Vienna
Ludwig van Beethoven was born in Bonn in 1770. His
father, a music enthusiast, dreamed of molding his son into the next
Mozart.
 Beethoven never exhibited the astonishing prodigy
characteristics of his predecessor, but he was unusually talented,
learning the piano, organ and violin at an early age. At 14, he was
already proficient enough on the organ to receive a professional
appointment. His family life was chaotic which compelled him to leave
home in 1790 and travel to Vienna to study with Haydn, and where he
remained for the rest of his life.
Beethoven was a master symphonist – the
master symphonist in the eyes of most performers and composers. His
orchestral compositions were revolutionary in his day; while he adhered
to Classical musical forms, his melodies and orchestration were of such
unprecedented power and beauty that they astonished even the most
hardened listeners. Always profound, inspiring and essentially tragic,
his music defined the limits of human expressiveness in sound.
In 1799 he felt the first symptoms of deafness which
his doctors could do nothing to halt. By 1820 he was completely deaf.
Despite this, and mounting personal problems, Beethoven had a creative
outburst after 1818 that produced some of his greatest works, including
the Ninth Symphony. At the premier performance of the Ninth Symphony in
1824 he was completely deaf and could neither hear the music as it was
performed nor the enthusiastic applause from the audience. A friend
turned him around and the audience responded by waving handkerchiefs,
hats and hands in the air so Beethoven could see their ovation gestures.
Camille Saint-Saëns
Born on October 9, 1835 in Paris
Died on December 16, 1921 in Algiers
 Camille Saint-Saëns showed musical aptitude as a
child almost comparable with that of Mozart. He began piano lessons
when he was two-and-a-half years old, composed music when he was three
years of age, and studied with a composition teacher by the time he was
seven.
At age ten he performed a recital which included
Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3, Mozart’s Piano Concerto in B-flat, K.
460, along with other works by Bach, Handel and Hummel. When he was
thirteen he entered the Paris Conservatory where he studied organ and
composition.
By his early twenties he had significant success as a
composer which won him the admiration of his contemporaries, such as
Berlioz and Rossini. He had a highly successful career as an organist
and composer.
As a composer Saint-Saëns wrote in virtually all
genres including opera, symphony, concerto, choral music, piano and
chamber music. He was a traditionalist and is probably best remembered
for his symphonic poem, Danse Macabre, the opera Samson and Delilah, and
the Carnival of the Animals.
Program notes by Dr. John Green |
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