{ program notes
Ms . Montero is celebrated for her ability to improvise . In recital and following a concerto performance , she frequently invites audiences to choose themes on which she composes and plays new works in real time .
An award-winning recording artist , Ms . Montero ’ s Bach and Beyond held the top spot on the Billboard classical charts and won two Echo Klassik Awards . Her follow-up recording , Baroque , received a Grammy ® nomination . In 2010 , Ms . Montero released Solatino , inspired by her Venezuelan homeland and devoted to works by Latin American composers .
Ms . Montero ’ s “ Ex Patria ,” a tone poem for piano and orchestra about Venezuela ’ s descent into corruption and violence was recorded and released internationally with the YOA Orchestra of the Americas and conductor Carlos Miguel Prieto .
Ms . Montero was recently named an Honorary Consul by Amnesty International and was also a nominee for Outstanding Work in the Field of Human Rights by the Human Rights Foundation , in recognition of her commitment to human rights in Venezuela and beyond . She was awarded the 2012 Rockefeller Award and was a featured performer at Barack Obama ’ s 2008 Presidential Inauguration .
Born in Venezuela , Ms . Montero gave her first public performance at the age of 5 . At 8 , she made her concerto debut in her hometown of Caracas , which led to a scholarship from the government to study in the USA .
Gabriela Montero is making her BSO debut .
About the concert :
Piano Concerto No . 24 in C minor , K . 491
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Born in Salzburg , Austria , January 27 , 1756 ; died in Vienna , Austria , December 5 , 1791
Even in the midst of its glorious partners , Mozart ’ s Piano Concerto in C minor reduces sober analysts to awe — and superlatives . Beethoven loved this concerto and took inspiration from it for his own
Third Piano Concerto , also in C minor . At a performance of the work , he exclaimed to a colleague , “ Oh , my friend , we shall never get any idea like this !” The British scholar Sir Donald Francis Tovey called this concerto “ perhaps the most sublime of all Mozart ’ s instrumental works .”
Mozart traverses all 12 tones of the chromatic scale , an act of harmonic daring extraordinary indeed for 1786 .
Mozart seldom wrote in the minor mode ; only one other piano concerto , the fiery No . 20 , is in the minor . Minor keys seemed to have held a powerful personal meaning for him , and he used them to explore his inner demons : grief , anger , frustration , the specter of death . Yet despite its frequently disturbing tone , K . 491 was written at a time of great artistic and professional success . It was completed on March 24 , 1786 , just three weeks after Mozart composed his sunny Concerto No . 23 , and while he was finishing his ebullient operatic comedy The Marriage of Figaro . Yet with Mozart ’ s art there always seemed to be a delicate balancing act , and after so much joyous music , perhaps he felt a need to explore life ’ s darker side .
What could be more disturbing than the stark unison theme opening the first movement ? In just 11 bars , Mozart traverses all 12 tones of the chromatic scale , an act of harmonic daring extraordinary indeed for 1786 . Against the intensity of the orchestra ’ s exposition , the piano enters with a gentler , more diatonic theme : an octave leap and turn figure plus three repeated notes . But soon the soloist is caught up in the chromatic turbulence .
Much later in the movement , after the customary solo cadenza , comes a haunting closing coda in which , unusually , the pianist continues to play with the orchestra ; thus , soloist and orchestra are fully integrated throughout the concerto .
The second movement , in E-flat Major , provides an island of peace in this sea of turbulence . In a straightforward rondo form , it features a refrain theme of naive simplicity . Woodwinds dominate the two episodes between the returns of the refrain ; blessed with a full wind complement of flute , and pairs of oboes , clarinets , bassoons and horns , Mozart gives us his most colorful , intricate woodwind writing .
A lightweight rondo finale would not have served Mozart ’ s big vision for this concerto ; instead , he chose an imposing theme-and-variations form . The theme , presented in two parts with each repeated , is oddly ambiguous ; Girdlestone suggests it is both “ a march and a hymn ” – Mozart used both as inspiration . Variation 3 exploits the march in an assertively martial treatment , worthy of Beethoven . Variation 4 , on the other hand , suggests Bach in the soloist ’ s elegant four-part counterpoint . After another solo cadenza , Mozart switches to a bouncing meter for his final variation , but refuses to give us the expected “ happy ending ” in C Major . The tragic vision persists to the end , with stinging chromatic writing for the soloist and a heroic close that awards victory to C minor .
Instrumentation : Flute , two oboes , two clarinets , two bassoons , two horns , two trumpets , timpani , strings .
Symphony No . 4 in E-flat Major , “ Romantic ”
Anton Bruckner
Born in Ansfelden , Austria , September 4 , 1824 ; died in Vienna , October 11 , 1896
Labeled by his contemporaries “ the Wagner symphonist ,” Anton Bruckner did indeed , like Richard Wagner , emphasize majestic brass and lusciously chromatic harmonies in his music somewhat like his older colleague , whom he enormously admired . Nevertheless , Bruckner ’ s symphonies embody something quite different from the Wagnerian operatic celebration of self ; instead , they are spiritual quests , homages to God in whom he fervently believed and whom he sought to glorify in his music .
The man Bruckner was as unusual as his music . Born in rural Upper Austria to a family of sturdy peasant origins , he was the latest bloomer of all the major
January – February 2017 | Overture 29