Overture Magazine - 2015-2016 Season September-October 2015 | Page 16

… the sweetness
of the sound ...
cast quite a spell.
—Tim Smith, The Baltimore Sun

Handel Choir
of Baltimore
Arian Khaefi
Artistic Director & Conductor

{ program notes
“The work derives its material from
two melodies. For the main theme
[which follows a descending, then
ascending shape], I imagined a chorus
welcoming the audience and inviting
them into their imaginary world. The
second theme, ‘Juice of Barley,’ is an
old English country dance melody and
drinking song.”
This performance of Masquerade is its
East Coast premiere.
Instrumentation: Two flutes, piccolo, two oboes,
English horn, two clarinets, bass clarinet, two
bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, three
trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani,
percussion, two harps and strings.

music to move you

R HAPSODY ON A THEME OF PAGANINI

2015-2016 Concert Season

Born in Oneg, Novgorod, Russia,
April 1, 1873; died in Beverly Hills, California,
March 28, 1943

Handel

Messiah

Sergei Rachmaninoff

With period instrument orchestra

Sat & Sun Dec 12 & 13
Karen Vuong soprano
Carla Jablonski alto
Ian McEuen tenor
Andrew Pardini bass

$47, $37, $10 student

Joby Talbot

Path of Mir acles
Sat Mar 5, 2016

$37, $27, $10 student

The Heart’s Age

With Children’s Chorus of Maryland

Sat May 7, 2016

$37, $27, $10 student

SUBSCRIBE and SAVE
$100, $75, $25 student

handelchoir.org
667.206.4120

14

O v ertur e

| WWW. BSOMUSIC .ORG

FY16 Overture 08.07.2015.indd 1

8/7/15 2:14 PM

One of the proudest moments in Baltimore’s musical history came on November
7, 1934, when Sergei Rachmaninoff played
the world premiere of his newly composed
Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini with The
Philadelphia Orchestra on the stage of the
Lyric Opera House. Rachmaninoff was in
Baltimore because the Russian Revolution
of 1917 had forced him to flee his native
land at age 44 and begin his career again
in the West. Once primarily a composer
and conductor, he now became a touring
piano virtuoso — one of the 20th century’s
greatest— in order to support his family.
America, with its insatiable demand for his
concert appearances, made him richer than
he’d ever been in Russia. But he never got
over his homesickness.
His music, too, remained rooted in Russia. And while audiences loved his lushly
Romantic melodies, many musicians and
critics scorned him as out of date. Pondering his predicament, he wrote: “Perhaps I
feel that the kind of music I care to write
is not acceptable today. … For when I
left Russia, I left behind me the desire to
compose: losing my country I lost myself
also. To the exile whose musical roots,
traditions, and background have been

annihilated, there remains no desire for
self-ex