Overture Magazine - 2014-2015 September-October 2014 | Page 38

{ program notes Conrad Tao last appeared with the BSO in July 2010 for Summerfest. Andrew Balio Wisconsin native Andrew Balio was appointed principal trumpet of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in 2001 by Yuri Temirkanov. Prior orchestral appointments include principal trumpet of the Israel Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta and the Orquesta Sinfonica del Estado de Mexico. Starting September of 2014, he begins a one-year appointment as principal trumpet of the Oslo Philharmonic. His solo debut was at age 15 with the Milwaukee Symphony, playing the Haydn Concerto and he made his Carnegie Hall solo debut in 2013 with the Moscow Chamber Orchestra. His teachers included Charles Schlueter, Adoph Herseth, Roger Voisin and Gene Young. Mr. Balio has appeared as a soloist throughout Europe and South America under such conductors as Mehta, McGeegan, Temirkanov, Rozdestvensky and Herbig. In 2006, he founded Future Symphony Institute, a think tank that brings together the best minds to solve orchestras challenges to be financially viable while preserving their artistic mission. Andrew Balio last appeared as a soloist with the BSO in March 2014, performing Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 with Concertmaster Jonathan Carney conducting. About the concert: Leonore Overture No. 3 Ludwig van Beethoven Born in Bonn, Germany, December 16, 1770; died in Vienna, Austria, March 26, 1827 Beethoven wrote just one opera, Fidelio, but it probably cost him more effort than all nine of his symphonies combined. Unsatisfied with his creation, he composed three versions over the decade 1804–1814 and wrote four overtures for 36 O v ertur e | www. bsomusic .org it, all of which are now in the symphonic repertoire. The most famous and surely the greatest of them is Leonore No. 3 (the opera was originally called Leonore), which Beethoven composed for the premiere of the opera’s second version in 1806. Based on a French drama, Jean Nicolas Bouilly’s Leonore or Conjugal Love, the story was drawn from real incidents during the French Revolution. It tells of the plight of Florestan, unjustly thrown in prison by a political rival Don Pizarro. Florestan’s resourceful wife, Leonore, discovers where he has been hidden and, disguising herself as a young man, becomes a trusty at the prison. At gunpoint, she faces down the evil Pizarro, and her heroism is rewarded by the sound of a distant trumpet, signaling the arrival of the Minister of Justice, Don Fernando. Fernando frees Florestan and the other political prisoners, and they join in a triumphant chorus hailing their freedom and Leonore’s courageous love. Essentially, the Leonore Overture No. 3 tells this whole story in music before the curtain even goes up, and that is exactly why Beethoven finally rejected it for the shorter, lighter Fidelio Overture. With the two trumpet calls heralding Don Fernando’s timely arrival embedded in the music and the concluding victory coda, the opera’s denouement has already been given away! But if it fails as a Shostakovich curtain raiser, Leonore No. 3 triumphs as a concert piece. The slow introduction paints a vivid picture of Florestan in his dungeon cell, and the wistful melody sung immediately by clarinets and bassoons comes from his despairing Act II aria, recalling his past joys with Leonore. When the music quickens to Allegro, Leonore, with all her courage and determination, appears before us. The middle development section becomes a struggle between the forces of good and evil, ended by the offstage trumpet calls. After a hymn of hope and thanksgiving, the work ends in a mighty dance of victory. Instrumentation: Two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, three trumpets (one of which is offstage), three trombones, timpani and strings. Piano Concerto No. 1, opus 35 Dmitri Shostakovich Born in St. Petersburg, Russia, September 25, 1906; died in Moscow, August 9, 1975 Dmitri Shostakovich began his career as famous for his skills as a pianist as for his composing. After the success of his First Symphony in 1926, written when he was only 19, he was off to Warsaw the next year to compete in the renowned International Chopin Competition for pianists. Winning only an honorable mention there was a blow that stung him for many years afterward. By 1930, Shostakovich had virtually given up his solo career; highly strung and sensitive to a fault, he suffered agonies before each performance. Such refined sensitivity was far better suited to a creative than a recreative career. However, Shostakovich’s successes as a composer in the early 1930s brought renewed demand for live appearances. Putting hours into regaining his technical facility, in 1933 he composed two new works to show it off: the 24 Piano Preludes, opus 34 and his First Piano Concerto, opus 35. Brilliant and playful, the Concerto was warmly received at its first performance on October 4,