Rolston and Fewer play Brahms

November 27, 2010, 8:00 pm

Enmax Hall, Winspear Centre

Rolston and Fewer play Brahms

2010-11 Landmark Classic Masters

  • Mei-Ann Chen, conductor
    Lucas Waldin, conductor
    Mark Fewer, violin
    Shauna Rolston, cello
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Brahms’ final concerto, a warm and affectionate work of rekindled friendship, will be performed by two of Canada’s most accomplished young string players. Schumann’s sunny “Spring” Symphony, written by a composer intoxicated with love, is complemented by Vaughan Williams’ mystical meld of old and new.

This concert is dedicated to the memory of Thomas Rolston, Concertmaster of the ESO beginning in 1958, and Associate Conductor from 1960-64. He taught at the U of A until 1979, and was one of the cornerstones of the ESO and Edmonton's musical life.

Learn more about the performance at Symphony Prelude: 7:15 pm in the Upper Circle (Third Level) Lobby.

Brahms: Concerto for Violin and Cello “Double”
Schumann: Symphony No. 1 "Spring"
Vaughan Williams: Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis

click for detailed seating mapTicket Information

$71 Dress Circle (A)
$61 Terrace (B)
$52 Orchestra (C)
$38 Upper Circle (D)
$28 Gallery (E)
$20 Orchestra Front (F)
Tickets subject to applicable service charges.

The next Landmark Classic Masters performance is Saint-Saëns' Second Piano Concerto on January 8, 2011.

Thank you to our series sponsor: landmark classic homes
Thank you to our series media sponsor: ckua
enbridgeOur Resident Conductor Lucas Waldin appears in part thanks to the support of Enbridge.
 

Program Information

Vaughan Williams: Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis (15')*

Schumann: Symphony No. 1 "Spring" (31')*

Intermission

Brahms: Concerto for Violin and Cello “Double” (34')*
Mark Fewer, violin
Shauna Rolston, cello

*Indicates approximate performance duration

Program Notes

Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis
Ralph Vaughan Williams (b. Down Ampney, Gloucestershire, 1872 / d. London, 1958)
 
First performed: September 6, 1910 in Gloucester
Last ESO performance: September 2002
 
Thomas Tallis (c.1505-1585) was an important English Renaissance composer. Ralph Vaughan Williams was avidly interested in the music of Britain’s past. He dedicated much of his time to rediscovering and archiving traditional music of his native land, preserving it for posterity. But he also genuinely enjoyed ancient music, and its influence colours more than a few of his pieces.
 
In 1910, he received a commission from The Three Choirs Festival for a work to be performed in Gloucester Cathedral. The open, vaulted space, and Tallis’ vast amount of sacred works, inspired him to compose a work for antiphonal strings, based on a hymn from a 1567 psalter by Tallis. It was acclaimed from its first performance, and is still regarded as one of Vaughan Williams’ finest pieces. Tallis, a master of counterpoint, would have admired the structure of the latter composer’s treatment, in which the strings’ counterpoint weaves textures ranging from sturdy to gossamer, in a work that continuously unfolds in lush, warm textures and an ethereal sense of the work’s sacred roots.
 
 
Symphony No. 1 in B-flat Major, Op.38 “Spring”
Robert Schumann (b. Zwickau, Saxony, 1810 / d. Endenich, 1856)
 
First performed: March 31, 1841 in Leipzig
Last ESO performance: March 2001
 
It was Schumann himself who attached the nickname “Frühling” (“Spring”) to his First Symphony, and it is apt for a number of reasons. The most literal of these is that Schumann had originally attached an inscription to the score, citing his work as, “a symphony inspired by a poem of Adolph Böttger,” a poem in praise of spring. Further, the individual movements were originally to be subtitled thusly: “Spring’s Awakening” (first movement), “Evening” (second movement), “Happy Place” (third movement), and “Spring in Full Bloom” (fourth movement). Ultimately, he discarded these prior to the symphony’s publication.
 
But the work also could be said to have originated during the spring of Schumann’s life. The year before the work was first performed, Schumann finally married Clara Wieck, after years of bitter objection from Clara’s father. Flush with this happy occasion, Schumann produced dozens of new works. Indeed, the original sketch for his First Symphony was completed in only four days. Felix Mendelssohn conducted the work’s premiere, at a concert to benefit the musicians’ pension fund in Leipzig.
 
The opening fanfare was intended by Schumann to represent, “a coming from on high, like a call to awaken.” This slow and stately beginning gives way to youthful joy in the movement’s Allegro molto vivace. The second movement, a serene and melodious Larghetto, shows strongly the maturing compositional voice of Schumann, with its lyrical and detailed line.
 
The Scherzo follows without a pause following the second movement. Belying the root of the very word “scherzo” (from the Italian word for “joke” or “jest”), this music has a dark hue to it, though it is everywhere energetic. The movement also features two distinct trio sections. The final movement bursts out with all the life Schumann’s original subtitle suggested. This is music of serenity, joy, and sunshine – evocative of this time in the composer’s life, a time which ultimately was not to last, but is here given full, unbounded vent.
 
 
Concerto for Violin and Cello in A minor, Op.102 “Double”
Johannes Brahms (b. Hamburg, 1833 / d. Vienna, 1897)
 
First performed: October 1887 in Cologne
Last ESO performance: August 2001
 
Joseph Joachim was that rarest of people in the life of Johannes Brahms – a lifelong friend. They encountered each other first in March 1848, when the 14-year-old Brahms heard the 16-year old Joachim perform Beethoven’s Violin Concerto. It was Joachim who accompanied Brahms on his youthful pilgrimage to the home of Robert Schumann, and it was for Joachim – one of the finest violinists in Europe – that Brahms wrote his one and only Violin Concerto. The two even had a signature musical motto they shared – the notes F-A-E, standing for frei aber einsam (“free, but lonely”), which worked its way into several works composed by both men.
 
Yet to be a friend of Brahms was to endure much. Biting sarcasm, an honesty bordering on cruelty, and a moodiness born of intense insecurity – all were deeply-entrenched aspects of Brahms’ personality. So when Joachim’s marriage failed and Brahms took the side of his friend’s estranged wife Amalie over the split, it caused a rift in their relationship which seemed irreparable. “In the sad affair of your wife I could never be on your side,” Brahms wrote Joachim in 1883, “I always had to deplore most profoundly the way you proceeded in the matter.” How could such a gulf be bridged?
 
Not surprisingly given the two protagonists, the answer to that question was a musical one. “The concerto is a work of reconciliation,” wrote Clara Schumann in her journal in 1887, “Joachim and Brahms have spoken to each other again for the first time in years.” The work with which Brahms reached out to his friend was indeed a concerto, but not for violin alone. Brahms had recently written a cello sonata for Robert Hausmann, the cellist who played in Joachim’s string quartet. And so as a gesture toward a new friend, and as an attempt to reconcile with an old one, Brahms took on the, as he put it, “folly,” of writing a double concerto. It was the last orchestral work he wrote.
 
The first movement – as long as the other two combined – opens with a strong orchestral flourish which hints at the main theme, but the soloists appear early to take it up fully. Two main themes dominate this movement; the first is more rhythmic, the second more lyrical, and both first heard in the orchestra. The orchestra, in fact, gets most of the melodramatic material here, the soloists’ parts are more ruminative, taking their cues from orchestral passages and then expanding on them. The demands on the soloists are formidable, with long sustained triplet passages, a daunting rhythmic palette, and a close dialog between violin and cello all challenges in the movement. There is a moment of playfulness just before the coda, but the overall tone is one of seriousness and purpose.
 
The tender second movement also features a brief orchestral statement, then a gorgeous main theme stated by the soloists in octaves – a measured, melancholy tune given a sparse accompaniment. A middle section in F Major provides a contrast before the main theme, given a slightly richer orchestral background, returns. The finale is another of those Hungarian gypsy movements Brahms and Joachim knew so well. It is incisive and urgent, contrasted by a rich C Major song played by the soloists in turn on double stops. The urgent dance closes the concerto which did, in fact, eventually reconcile the two old friends. Brahms dedicated the concerto, “To him for whom it is written – Joseph Joachim.”
 
Program Notes © 2010 by D.T. Baker

Artist Bios

mei-ann chen

Mei-Ann Chen, conductor

Newly appointed Music Director of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra, Mei-Ann Chen is one of America’s most exciting and promising young conductors. The first woman to win the Malko International Conductors Competition (2005), she recently concluded a highly successful tenure as Assistant Conductor of the Atlanta Symphony and is currently serving a one-year appointment as Assistant Conductor of the Baltimore Symphony. Both positions were part of her participation as a conducting fellow sponsored by the League of American Orchestras. 
 
Ms. Chen’s guest conducting engagements include all the principal Danish orchestras, the Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Taiwan National Symphony, Chicago Sinfonietta, Rochester Philharmonic, and the symphonies of Atlanta, Bournemouth, Fort Worth, Honolulu, Memphis, Oregon, Princeton, Seattle, Toledo, Toronto and Trondheim.  Awarded the 2007 Taki Concordia Fellowship, she has appeared jointly with Marin Alsop and Stefan Sanderling in highly acclaimed subscription concerts with the Baltimore Symphony, Colorado Symphony and Florida Orchestra.
 
Among Ms. Chen’s upcoming debuts are the Alabama Symphony, BBC Scottish Symphony, Columbus Symphony, Edmonton Symphony, Pacific Symphony, Phoenix Symphony and the Houston, Grand Teton and Wintergreen festivals. 
 
In 2002, Ms. Chen was unanimously selected as Music Director of the Portland Youth Philharmonic in Oregon, the oldest of its kind and the model for many of the youth orchestras in the United States. During her five-year tenure with the orchestra, she led its sold-out debut in Carnegie Hall, received an ASCAP award for innovative programming, and developed new and unique musicianship programs for the orchestra’s members. She was honored with a Sunburst Award from Young Audiences for her contribution to music education. 
 
Born in Taiwan, Mei-Ann Chen has lived in the United States since 1989. She holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in conducting from the University of Michigan, where she was a student of Kenneth Kiesler. Prior to that, she was the first student in New England Conservatory’s history to receive double master’s degrees simultaneously in violin and conducting.  Ms. Chen has also participated in the National Conducting Institute in Washington, D.C. and the American Academy of Conducting in Aspen.  
 
“Stunning, just stunning… [Tchaikovsky Pathétique] came at the hands – and thanks to the intellect, fastidious preparation and sheer passion – of guest conductor Mei-Ann Chen.  I can't remember a more gripping performance of the piece.”
- Dallas Morning News

Lucas Waldin, conductor

Lucas Waldin

The 2010/11 season marks the second for Lucas Waldin as Resident Conductor for the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra. This mentorship position is made possible through the Canada Council for the Arts and Enbridge. Mr. Waldin graduated in 2006 from the Cleveland Institute of Music with a Masters in Conducting. He has performed with L'Orchestre du Festival Beaulieu-Sur-Mer (Monaco), Staatstheater Cottbus (Brandenburg), and Bachakademie Stuttgart. Lucas was assistant conductor of the contemporary orchestra RED (Cleveland), director of the Cleveland Bach Consort, and a Discovery Series Conductor at the Oregon Bach Festival. In 2007, he was invited to conduct the Miami-based New World Symphony Orchestra in masterclasses given by Michael Tilson Thomas. In Lucerne in 2009, he also participated in a masterclass led by Bernard Haitink, with the Lucerne Festival Strings.

A native of Toronto, Lucas Waldin has spent summers studying in Europe, including studies at the International Music Academy in Leipzig, the Bayreuth Youth Orchestra, and the Acanthes New Music Festival in France. On this continent, he has studied under the renowned Bach conductor Helmut Rilling at the Oregon Bach Festival, and has attended conducting masterclasses with the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra in Toronto. Mr. Waldin received a Bachelor of Music degree in flute performance from the Cleveland Institute, studying with Joshua Smith.

The ESO would like to thank Enbridge Pipelines for their commitment to the arts and this program by matching the funding provided by the Canada Council for the Arts.

Mark Fewer, violin

mark fewerMark Fewer enjoys one of the most varied musical lives of his generation. Known for his relaxed style and honest interpretations, he switches easily between roles as soloist, chamber musician, orchestral leader, jazz musician, artistic programmer, and most recently, teacher. Mr. Fewer was concertmaster of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra from 2004-2008. In recognition of his work with the VSO, he was recognized by the Vancouver Sun as one of the music industry’s top “Movers and Shakers” for 2006. As a soloist, Mr. Fewer has appeared with most of Canada’s major symphony orchestras, and is frequently heard on CBC radio, National Public Radio, the BBC’s Radio 3, and RTVE. As a chamber musician, Mr. Fewer is a regular member of the Duke Piano Trio and Canada’s SuperNova String Quartet. Recent and forthcoming concerts include appearances as director/soloist with l’Orchestre symphonique de Laval, Thirteen Strings of Ottawa, the McGill Baroque Orchestra, Scotia Festival Strings, and the Newfoundland Sinfonia. 
 
Mark Fewer performed as jazz violinist at MusicFest Vancouver’s 2009 tribute to Stephane Grappelli, as well as playing Obsessed, his new arrangement of Miles Davis inspired tunes with the Zapp Quartet at the Festival of the Sound (Parry Sound, Ontario). His most recent recording is a new work, Nine Daies Wonder, for violin and brass band written for him by Bramwell Tovey. Playing the violin and reciting lines from several of The Bard’s great comedies, Mr. Fewer re-enacts the famous publicity stunt of Shakespeare’s comedic actor Will Kemp, who morris-danced his way from London to Norwich in 1600. Mr. Fewer is Artistic Director of the SweetWater Music Festival, and was director of the Scotia Festival of Music from 2005-2009. His most recent appointment is to the Schulich School of Music at McGill University, where he teaches violin, chamber music, and string improvisation.
 
Mr. Fewer last appeared with the ESO in January 2006.

Shauna Rolston, cello

shauna rolstonAward-winning Canadian cellist Shauna Rolston is considered by peers and fans to be one of the most compelling and unique musical voices on the stage today.  Praised for her blazing technique and ability to captivate the imagination and touch the heart of each audience member, Ms. Rolston continues to astonish and delight with concerts, recordings and world premieres. She is a frequent collaborator with leading contemporary composers with whom she enjoys creative partnerships in developing new works and contexts for her artistry. Upcoming projects include multiple recordings, recitals and performances with orchestras, and commissions including cello concertos by Kelly-Marie Murphy, Heather Schmidt, Douglas Schmidt and Vincent Ho, a concerto for cello and jazz orchestra by Darcy James Argue, a whistling concerto by Heather Schmidt, and two groundbreaking double concertos, one by Heather Schmidt and another by Jazz sensation David Braid. 
 
Shauna Rolston holds a BA in Art History and a Master of Music degree from Yale University, where she studied with the distinguished cellist and pedagogue Aldo Parisot. She is Professor of Cello and Head of Strings at the University of Toronto and a Visiting Artist at The Banff Centre. Most recently she was appointed a Canadian Music Centre Ambassador for her commitment to the performance of Canadian music. For more information see www.shaunarolston.com. Ms. Rolston is managed world wide by Michael Dufresne –President, Michael Gerard Management Group www.mgmg.ca.
 
Ms. Rolston last appeared with the ESO in September 2005.

Comments  

 
0 # Mike Gray 2010-11-28 03:57 How was the concert?
My wife and I have tickets for the 2010 11 Masters series. We live out of town and did not realize that the downtown would be full of football fans. Unfortunately when we headed down town to find a parking spot, the Grey Cup thwarted us.Down town was packed and parking places at a premium, so we missed the show. Oh well lesson learned and performance missed, hope it was good. Reply | Reply with quote | Quote
 

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