Jeff rey Kahane, pianoEqually at home at the

keyboard or on the podium, Jeff rey Kahane has estab-lished an international rep-utation as a truly versatile artist, recognized by audi-ences around the world for his mastery of a diverse rep-ertoire ranging from Bach, Mozart and Beethoven to Gershwin, Golijov and John Adams.

Since making his Carnegie Hall debut in 1983, Mr. Kahane has given recitals in many of the nation’s ma-jor music centers including New York, Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Atlanta. He regularly appears as soloist with leading orchestras such as the New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Israel

Nir’s Notes:Dear Friends:

I returned to my homeland Israel during the month of March for a concert with the Israel Philharmonic orchestra. It was in Israel during my childhood that I was mesmerized by a performance by a young, American pianist who dazzled the judges and audience at the

International Arthur Rubinstein Piano Competition. His performance of Rachmaninoff ’s Rhapsody on the Theme of Paganini, accompanied by the Israel Philharmonic, resulted in the young artist walking away with the coveted Grand Prize. At that time, never did I imagine that I would conduct the IPO or would be sharing the same stage with this extraordinary musician a quarter-century later. That extraordinary musician is Jeff rey Kahane.

Jeff rey Kahane is currently the Music Director of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and Colorado Symphony. He has built an international reputation for his artistic excellence both as conductor and pianist. Since I fi rst heard him play Rachmaninoff , I was thrilled that the Maestro chose to play Rachmaninoff ’s Third Piano Concerto with us in Santa Barbara. I am honored to take the podium with Maestro Kahane at my side as soloist.

Like Rachmaninoff ’s Third Piano Concerto, the other two works on the program were also premiered in the U.S. We open with Paul Hindemith’s Concert Music for Strings and Brass. Written in 1930 on the occasion of the Boston Symphony’s 50th Anniversary, this two-part composition demands a very luscious string sound and features a brass choir to create a celebratory atmosphere.

“Chasing Light…” is a newly commissioned piece by American composer Joseph Schwantner as part of the League of American Orchestras’ Ford Made in America initiative. Inspired in part by a poem the composer had written from his time spent in New England, this dynamic composition is Schwantner’s sonorous interpretation of the spirit, colors and inspiration transmitted by the vibrant colors that penetrate the morning mist that wafts through New England’s hills.

April’s program will reveal various orchestral colors and we look forward to sharing them with you at the Granada on April 10 & 11.

Musically yours,

Nir Kabaretti

Nir’s Notes:

On theUpbeatAPRIL 2010 • VOLUME 3, EDITION 6

On theUpbeatAPRIL 2010 • VOLUME 3, EDITION 6

On theUpbeatNir’s Notes:Dear Friends:

the month of March for a concert with the Israel Philharmonic orchestra. It was in Israel during my childhood that I was mesmerized by a performance by a young, American pianist who dazzled the judges and audience at the

International Arthur Rubinstein Piano Competition. His performance

Nir’s Notes:

Join Ramón Araiza for “Music Behind the Music” beginning one hour before each concert! Sponsored by Marlyn Bernard Bernstein

Classic “Rach”Saturday, April 10, 8pm & Sunday, April 11, 3pm

THE GRANADA

Jeffrey Kahane, Piano

HINDEMITH: Concert Music for Strings and Brass, Op. 50JOSEPH SCHWANTNER: Chasing Light...

RACHMANINOFF: Piano Concerto No. 3 in D Minor, Op. 30

TheMomentum Continues...CRESCENDO!

2009-2010 SEASON

CONCERT SPONSOR: ARTIST SPONSORS:

Drs. Fred and Linda Wudl

Joseph Schwantner’s Chasing Light… is part ofFord Made in America

This program is made possible by Ford Motor Company Fund.

Philharmonic and the Leipzig Gewandhaus, and is also a popular fi gure at summer festivals including Ravinia, Blossom, Caramoor, Mostly Mozart, Oregon Bach and the Hollywood Bowl. Mr. Kahane is equally well-known for his collaborations with artists such as Yo-Yo Ma, Dawn Upshaw, Joshua Bell and Th omas Quasthoff and regularly appears with the leading chamber ensembles.

Jeff rey Kahane made his conducting debut at the Oregon Bach Festival in 1988. Since then he has guest conduct-ed orchestras such as the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonics, Philadelphia Orchestra, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Academy of St. Martin’s in the Fields, Camerata Salzburg, and the Chicago, San Francisco, Toronto, Detroit, St. Louis, Houston, Baltimore, Indianapolis, Dallas and New World symphonies among others. Currently in his 13th season as Music Director of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and his fi ft h and fi nal season as Music Director of the Colorado Symphony, Mr. Kahane was also Music Director of the Santa Rosa Symphony for ten seasons. He has received much recognition for his innovative programming and commitment to education and community involvement with all three orchestras and received 2007ASCAP Awards for Adventurous Programming for his work in both Los Angeles and Denver.

In addition to his programs and projects with LACO and the Colorado Symphony, highlights of Mr. Kahane’s 9/10 sea-son include appearances at the Aspen, Mostly Mozart and Oregon Bach festivals; a concerto performance with Houston Symphony; conducting Haydn’s Creation with the Utah Symphony; and a return to the New York Philharmonic to play/conduct three Mozart concertos.

Jeff rey Kahane’s recordings include works of Gershwin and Bernstein with Yo-Yo Ma for SONY, Paul Schoenfi eld’s “Four Parables” with the New World Symphony conducted by John Nelson for Decca/Argo, the Strauss “Burleske” on Telarc with the Cincinnati Symphony under Jesus Lopez-Cobos, and the complete Brandenburg Concerti (on harpsichord) with the Oregon Bach Festival Orchestra under Helmuth Rilling on the Haenssler label. He has also recorded the complete works for violin and piano by Schubert with Joseph Swensen for RCA, Bach’s Sinfonias and Partita #4 in D Major for Nonesuch, and Bernstein’s “Age of Anxiety” for Virgin Records, which was nominated by Gramophone magazine for their “Record of the Year” award.

A native of Los Angeles and a graduate of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Mr. Kahane’s early piano studies were with Ho ward Weisel and Jakob Gimpel. First Prize winner at the 1983 Rubinstein Competition and a fi nalist at the 1981 Van Cliburn Competition, he was also the recipient of a 1983 Avery Fisher Career Grant and the fi rst Andrew Wolf Chamber Music Award in 1987.

Jeff rey Kahane resides in Santa Rosa with his wife, Martha, a clinical psychologist in private practice. Th ey have two children— Gabiel, a composer, pianist and singer/songwriter who lives in Brooklyn, and Annie, a senior at Northwestern University.

Notes FOR APRIL 10 & 11, 2010 by Dr. Richard E. Rodda

PAUL HINDEMITH (1895-1963)

Concert Music for Strings and Brass, Op. 50Composed in 1930.Premiered on April 3, 1931 in Boston, conducted by Sergei Koussevitzky.Four horns, four trumpets, three trombones, tuba and strings.Approximately 17 minutes.

Like most great creative fi gures, Paul Hindemith went through several phases during his compositional career. His fi rst works (including the opera Murder, Hope of Women and Das

Nuschi-Nuschi, a musical play for Burmese puppets), which date from the early 1920s, the most turbulent period of musical iconoclasm in modern times, were expressionistic and self-consciously avant-garde. In the wake of his

appointment to the administrative committee of the Donaueschingen Music Festival in 1923 and his growing con-cern over Germany’s economic and political diffi culties under the government of the tottering Weimar Republic, however, Hindemith adopted what Ian Kemp called “a more responsible outlook” regarding his music, and he formu-lated a style which, Kemp continued, “directed attention to the energy in the human soul rather than to its capacity for introversion or self-advertisement.” Hindemith turned at that time to the music of J.S. Bach for both his inspira-tion and his model, and he devised a neo-Classical (or better, neo-Baroque) language characterized by: propulsive rhythmic constructions generated by the continuous contrapuntal working-out of a few motives; singularity of mood throughout an entire movement or section, without the strong contrasts of 19th-century music; and an expressive objectivity markedly diff erent from the infl ated emotionalism of post-Romanticism. In the mid-1930s, Hindemith added to this neo-Bachian style a stronger feeling for traditional tonality and harmonic progressions, more lyrical melodic writing and a certain fullness of sonority, qualities fi rst seen in the 1934 opera Mathis der Maler. Standing on the cusp of this last creative period, which continued until Hindemith’s death in 1963, is the Concert Music for Strings and Brass of 1930.

Th e Concert Music for Strings and Brass was one of a number of works commissioned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra in celebration of its 50th anniversary (Prokofi ev’s Fourth Symphony, Hanson’s “Romantic” Symphony, Copland’s Symphonic Ode and Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms were the most important of the others), and Hindemith fully exploited the virtuoso capabilities of that great ensemble. He was himself a master string player, giving the premieres of his own concerted works for viola (and of Walton’s Viola Concerto) and serving for many years as a member of the highly regarded Amar Quartet, and his writing for strings in this work, building on his own knowledge and experience, is consistently challenging. For their part, the brasses are called on to negotiate long, breath-taxing arches of melody, rapid staccato passages and the diffi cult intonation problems presented by Hindemith’s complex harmonic language. Th e Concert Music for Strings and Brass is disposed in two large parts, each subdivided. Part I comprises two sections, neither with strong internal contrasts: Moderately fast, with vigorleading directly to Very broad, but constantly fl owing. Th e second part is divided into three portions: Lively, Slowlyand a modifi ed recapitulation of the Lively section.Lively section.Lively

JOSEPH SCHWANTNER (BORN IN 1943)

Chasing Light …Composed in 2008.Premiered on September 20, 2008 in Reno, Nevada, conducted by Theodore Kuchar.Woodwinds in pairs plus two piccolos, two horns, two trumpets, trombone, timpani, percussion, piano and strings.Approximately 18 minutes.

Joseph Schwantner, one of today’s most frequently performed American composers, was born in Chicago on March 22, 1943. While in high school, he learned to play tuba and guitar, studied music theory and history, and composed several pieces for the student jazz ensemble, one of which, Offb eat, won the National Band Camp Award in 1959. Offb eat, won the National Band Camp Award in 1959. Offb eatTwo years later, he enrolled as a composition student at the American Conservatory in Chicago, where he studied with Bernard Dieter. Aft er graduating from the Conservatory in 1964, Schwantner undertook postgraduate work at Northwestern University with Anthony Donato and Alan Stout, receiving his master’s and doctoral degrees from that institution in 1966 and 1968. Following brief tenures teaching at Pacifi c Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington and Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, he joined the faculty of the Eastman School of Music in 1970; from 1999 to 2002, he served as Professor of Composition at Yale. Schwantner’s residencies include the Saint Louis Symphony, Cabrillo Music Festival and Sonoklect New Music Festival. His music has been played extensively throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe and Asia by many leading orchestras, ensembles and soloists. He has re-ceived commissions and grants from the Ford Made in America Consortium, New York Philharmonic, Saint Louis Symphony, National Symphony, Boston Symphony, Dallas Symphony, San Diego Symphony, Los Angeles Chamber

Orchestra, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra, Chamber Music America, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, National Endowment for the Arts, AT&T, American Heritage Foundation and other pres-tigious ensembles and organizations. Among his many honors and awards are the fi rst Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Pulitzer Prize (1979, for Aft ertones of Infi nity), First Prize Aft ertones of Infi nity), First Prize Aft ertones of Infi nityin the Kennedy Center Friedheim Competition, a Guggenheim Fellowship, election to the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and an honorary doctorate from Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea, Ohio. His Magabunda and A Sudden Rainbow, both recorded by the Saint Louis Symphony on Nonesuch, were nominated for Grammy Awards Sudden Rainbow, both recorded by the Saint Louis Symphony on Nonesuch, were nominated for Grammy Awards Sudden Rainbowin the “Best Classical Composition” category. Joseph Schwantner has been the subject of a documentary produced by WGBH, Boston, which was broadcast nationally on public television.

Schwantner composed Chasing Light . . . in 2008 as part of the Ford Made in America partnership program of the League of American Orchestras and Meet Th e Composer. Ford Made in America is made possible by Ford Motor Company Fund, the philanthropic arm of Ford Motor Company. Major support is also provided by the National Endowment for the Arts, with additional funding from Th e Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Francis Goelet Charitable Lead Trusts, and Th e Amphion Foundation.

Th e composer writes of Chasing Light . . . , “One of the special pleasures of living in rural New Hampshire is expe-riencing the oft en brilliant and intense early morning sunrises, reminding one of Th oreau’s words, ‘Morning is when I am awake and there is a dawn in me’ (Walden). Chasing Light . . . draws its spirit, energy and inspiration from the celebration of vibrant colors and light that penetrate the morning mist as it waft s through the trees in the high New England hills. Like a delicate dance, those images intersected with a brief original poem that helped fi re my musical imagination.

Chasing Light . . .

Beneath the sickle moon,sunrise ignites daybreak’s veil

Calliope’s rainbowed songcradles heaven’s arc

piercing shadowy pines,a kaleidoscope blooms

morning’s embraceconfronts the dawn

“Each movement’s subtitle is associated with a pair of lines from the poem. Th e four-movement work, about eigh-teen minutes in duration, proceeds from one movement to the next without pause.

“Sunrise Ignites Daybreak’s Veil (Sunrise Ignites Daybreak’s Veil (Sunrise Ignites Daybreak’s Veil Con forza, feroce con bravura) opens with an introduction containing three force-ful and diverse ideas presented by full orchestra: (1) a low rhythmic and percussive pedal point followed by (2) a three-note triplet fi gure in the brass overlaid by (3) a rapid swirling cascade of arch-like upper woodwind phrases cast in a stretto-like texture [i.e., close imitative entries]. Th ese primary elements form the melodic, harmonic and rhythmic materials developed in the work. Following the introduction, the strings present a theme derived from the pedal-point rhythmic gesture and the brass three-note fi gure leading to an extended series of upward thrusting six-note sonorities and a long, increasingly assertive line (fi rst brass, then strings and woodwinds) divided into two parts. Th e movement ends with a return to the introductory material to provide a link to the next movement.

“Calliope’s Rainbowed Song (Calliope’s Rainbowed Song (Calliope’s Rainbowed Song Lontano [distantly]). Th e rapid, arched woodwind phrases in the introduction to the fi rst movement occur in a variety of divergent contexts throughout the work, not only as small-scale gestures but in larger, more extended designs. Cast in an arch-like palindrome form, this movement begins soft ly, fi rst with solo clarinet followed by a repeated piano sonority that forms the structure of a theme played by solo fl ute. Gradually, this theme builds to an exuberant midpoint, followed by sections that appear in reverse order, fi nally ending quietly and gently with solo clarinet and an ethereal violin harmonic that carries over to the third movement.

“A Kaleidoscope Blooms“A Kaleidoscope Blooms“ (Lacrimoso [tearfully]), a slow, expressive and elegiac movement for oboe, opens with a low, dark repeated pedal note played by piano, contrabass and gong. Sudden rapid woodwind gestures contrast and frame a succession of gradually ascending oboe phrases that accumulate ever-greater urgency as the music ap-proaches its maximum intensity at the end.

“Morning’s Embrace Confronts the Dawn“Morning’s Embrace Confronts the Dawn“ (Lontano . . . leggiero [lightly].) Th e rapid and aggressive woodwind phras-es in the fi rst movement now emerge in delicate and shimmering string textures. Th ese earlier elements prepare for a stately but urgent chorale theme that builds forcefully to the palindromic music of the third movement, the introduc-tory materials of the fi rst, and a fi nal climatic conclusion.”

SERGEI RACHMANINOFF (1873-1943)

Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, Op. 30Composed in 1909.Premiered on November 28, 1909 in New York, conducted by Walter Damrosch with the composer as soloist.Woodwinds in pairs, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion and strings.Approximately 39 minutes.

Th e worlds of technology and art sometimes brush against each other in curious ways. In 1909, it seems, Sergei Rachmaninoff wanted one of those new mechanical wonders—an automobile. And thereby hangs the tale of his fi rst visit to America.

Th e impresario Henry Wolfson of New York arranged a thirty-concert tour for the 1909-1910 season for Rachmaninoff so that he could play and conduct his own works in a number of American cities. Rachmaninoff was at fi rst hesitant about leaving his family and home for such an extended overseas trip, but the generous fi nancial remuneration was too tempting to resist. With a few tour details still left unsettled, Wolfson died suddenly in the spring of 1909, and the composer was much relieved that the journey would probably be cancelled. Wolfson’s agency had a contract with Rachmaninoff , however, and during the summer fi nished the arrangements for his appearances so that the composer-pianist-conductor was obliged to leave for New York as scheduled. Trying to look on the bright side of this daunting prospect, Rachmaninoff wrote to his long-time friend Nikita Morozov, “I don’t want to go. But then perhaps, aft er America I’ll be able to buy myself that automobile . . . . It may not be so bad aft er all!” It was for the American tour that Rachmaninoff composed his Th ird Piano Concerto.

Th e Concerto consists of three large movements. Th e fi rst is a modifi ed sonata form which begins with a haunting theme, recalled in the later movements, that sets perfectly the Concerto’s mood of somber intensity. Th e espressivosecond theme is presented by the pianist, whose part has, by this point, abundantly demonstrated the staggering technical challenge that this piece off ers to the soloist, a characteristic Rachmaninoff had disguised by the simplic-ity of the opening. Th e development is concerned mostly with transformations of fragments from the fi rst theme. A massive cadenza, separated into two parts by the recall of the main theme by the woodwinds, leads to the recapitula-tion. Th e earlier material is greatly abbreviated in this closing section, with just a single presentation of the opening melody and a brief, staccato version of the subsidiary theme.

Th e second movement, subtitled Intermezzo, which Dr. Otto Kinkleday described in his notes for the New York premiere as “tender and melancholy, yet not tearful,” is a set of free variations with an inserted episode. “One of the most dashing and exciting pieces of music ever composed for piano and orchestra” is how Patrick Piggot described the fi nale. Th e movement is structured in three large sections. Th e fi rst part has an abundance of themes which Rachmaninoff skillfully derived from those of the opening movement. Th e relationship is further strengthened in the fi nale’s second section, where both themes from the opening movement are recalled in slow tempo. Th e pace again quickens, and the music from the fi rst part of the fi nale returns with some modifi cations. A brief solo cadenza leads to the coda, a dazzling fi nal stanza with fi stfuls of chords propelling the headlong rush to the dramatic closing gestures.

©2010 Dr. Richard E. Rodda

©On the Upbeat, On the Upbeat, On the Upbeat APRIL 2010 VOL. 3, EDITION 6. Published for Symphony Series concert subscribers by the Santa Barbara Symphony, 1330 State Street, Suite 102, Santa Barbara, CA 93101, (805) 898-9386 —A non-profi t organization.

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MAHLER: Symphony No. 5 in C-sharp Minor

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Concert Saturdays 7pm-7:30pm Concert Sundays 2pm-2:30pm(1 hour prior to each concert)

“ ‘Music Behind the Music’ is one of my favorite parts of the concert! We did not want to miss Ramón!”

– Sandra Lindquist, SB Symphony Subscriber

Concert pianist, composer/arranger and music scholar Ramón Araiza presents “Music…Behind the Music!”These lively, interactive events take you on an insightful (and humorous) journey of discovery, shining light on the music you’re about to hear in the concert hall. Mr. Araiza’s extensive musical background, presentation style and passion bring each work and composer to life. Please join us in The Granada. Arrive early, venture in, and experience Ramon’s unique genius! Plus, make sure to read Ramon’s creative and artistic “Notes Behind the Notes” in The Granada lobby!