3OAKLAND SYMPHONY

MASON BATESDevil’s Radio (West Coast Premiere)

SERGEI PROKOFIEVViolin Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 63 I. Allegro moderato II. Andante assai III. Allegro ben marcatoKenneth Renshaw, violin

I N T E R M I S S I O N

JOHANNES BRAHMSSelections from Liebeslieder Waltzes, Op. 52(selections conducted by Lynne Morrow, celebrating 10 years as Oakland Symphony Chorus Director) 1- Rede Mädchen, allzu liebes Speak, dear girl, whom I love too much 2- Am Gesteine rauscht die Flut The tide rushes over the rocks 4- Wie des Abends schöne Röte Like the lovely blush of the evening 5- Die grüne Hopfenranke The green hops vine 8- Wenn so lind dein Auge mir When you look at me with those mild, loving eyes 9- Am Donaustrande, da steht ein Haus On the Danube, there stands a house 11- Nein, es ist nicht auszukommen No, there is no getting along with people

SERGEI RACHMANINOFFSymphonic Dances, Op. 45 I. Non allegro II. Andante con moto: tempo di valse III. Lento assai; Allegro vivace

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2015, 8 PMPARAMOUNT THEATRE, OAKLAND

MICHAEL MORGAN, Music Director and Conductor

KENNETH RENSHAW, violin

wells fargo presents

RENSHAW & RACHMANINOFF

Season Media Sponsors: Oakland Magazine, KDFC, East Bay ExpressSeason Guest Artist Accommodations provided by: Oakland Marriott City Center

The 2015/16 season of Oakland Symphony is generously funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation; the California Arts Council, a state agency; the National Endowment for the Arts, a

federal agency; and the City Council and the City of Oakland’s Cultural Funding Program.

4 5OAKLAND SYMPHONYOAKLAND SYMPHONY

FIRST VIOLINBasma Edrees, ConcertmasterVivian Warkentin,

Asst. ConcertmasterKristina AndersonPatrice MayCarla PicchiEllen GronningenDeborah SpanglerEmanuela NikiforovaStephanie BibboDagenais SmileyAntoine van DongenBrian Lee

SECOND VIOLINLiana Bérubé, PrincipalDavid Cheng, Asst. PrincipalCandace SandersonSharon CalonicoBaker PeeplesAdrienne DuckworthSergi Goldman-HullCecilia HuangRobert DonehewAlison Miller

VIOLAMargaret Titchener, PrincipalDarcy Rindt, Asst. PrincipalBetsy LondonStephanie RailsbackLinda GreenTatiana TronoOmid AssadiAlessandra Aquilanti

CELLODaniel Reiter, PrincipalJoseph Hébert,

Asst. PrincipalMichelle KwonRebecca RoudmanElizabeth VandervennetJeff ParishPaul RhodesJan Volkert

STRING BASSPatrick McCarthy, PrincipalCarl Stanley, Asst. PrincipalAndy ButlerDavid ArendAbraham GumroyanJon Keigwin

FLUTEAlice Lenaghan, PrincipalAmy LikarStacey Pelinka

PICCOLOAmy Likar

OBOEAndrea Plesnarski, PrincipalRobin May

ENGLISH HORNLaura Reynolds

CLARINETDiane Maltester, PrincipalJeannie Psomas

E FLAT CLARINETDiane Maltester

BASS CLARINETKaren Wells

ALTO SAXOPHONEDavid Henderson

BASSOONJarratt Rossini, PrincipalRufus D. Olivier

CONTRA BASSOONShawn Jones

HORNKatie Dennis, PrincipalAlison Sawyer, Asst. PrincipalAlicia TelfordMonika WarcholRoss Gershenson

TRUMPETWilliam Harvey, PrincipalLeonard OttJohn Freeman

TROMBONEThomas Hornig, PrincipalDonald Benham

BASS TROMBONEKurt Patzner

TUBAScott Choate, Principal

HARPAnna Maria Mendieta,

Principal

PIANOEllen Wassermann, Principal

TIMPANIKevin Neuhoff, Principal

PERCUSSIONWard Spangler, PrincipalJim KassisArthur StorchMark VereggeStan Muncy

PERSONNEL MANAGERCarl Stanley

LIBRARIANPaul Rhodes

TECHNICAL DIRECTORSeth Ducey

SOPRANOBarbara BerryMayotis CephasSusan ChanJooeun ChoiNancy CotteralJoanne DrummJane EnglishCharmaine FerreraDolores GilchristEllie HahnSusan HendandezCarol HenriBarbara Howard-Johnson*Carol HudsonAlisa JonesElspeth Kersh ^Susan LambertDeborah LewisLinda Manzeck

Helen MehoudarLaura MillerJewelz MoyerDonna OliverErica PeckConnie PhillipSuzanne ReinfranckAbbie RockwellNanci Schneidinger*Chung TaylorCynthia Webb-Beckford ^Gia White

ALTOEva AcreJudith BerlowitzGinny BlumbergBecky Bob-WaksbergKarenlynne BradleyRena DavidRenee Gistand

Margaret HeggNatasha Hull-RichterKaren IvyAmy Kessler ^Jeanne KornShirley LindleyLinda LipnerKatie MooreMary OramSylvia ParkerAnnie ShunMonique StevensonLoni Williams* ^

TENORReuben BoydLavora CopleyBerite JacksonBernie JuatCurtis LawlerArnold Lee+Barbara Miller

Jerry ReynoldsSteve SchultzJim Stenson*Daniella Urban* ^Ted Vorster

BASSJay BeamsCharlie Crane* ^Sheldon GreeneDon HoweBill LeongShakir MackeyKarl Malamud-RoamBill ManleyJohn ManzeckMichael Nathanson*Joe OrrKen Saltzstine ^Mark SlagleCavlin WallBob Wehrman

O A K L A N D S Y M P H O N Y O R C H E S T R A

Michael Morgan, Music Director & ConductorBryan Nies, Assistant Conductor

* Leaders+ Coach

^ Chorus Advisory Committee Members

O A K L A N D S Y M P H O N Y C H O R U S

G U E S T A R T I S T

KENNETH RENSHAW, VIOLIN

Praised for his “round and luminous sound, subtle phrasing, clear articulation, and flawless

intonation” (La Libre Belgique) and for his “natural and honest sense of communication” (Strad Magazine), American violinist Kenneth Renshaw has appeared as soloist with orchestras throughout the world, including the National Orchestra of Belgium, the Orchestre de Chambre de Wallonie, the Lithuanian National Orchestra, the China Philharmonic, the China NCPA Orchestra, the Jenaer Philharmonie, the Staatskapelle Weimar, the California Symphony, the American Philharmonic, and the Orquesta de Festival Ushuaia. He has given sold-out recitals at major European music festivals (the Menuhin Festival Gstaad and the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festspiele) and has repeatedly been featured on the national radio stations of Germany, Belgium, Argentina, Lithuania, and the United States. Kenneth won First Prize and the EMCY Prize for Best Semifinal Recital at the 2012 Yehudi Menuhin International Violin Competition. He also won First Prize, the Mozart Concerto Prize, and the Sonata Prize at the 2010 Spohr International

Violin Competitions, and First Prize at the 2009 Los Angeles Philharmonic competition, and was a Laureate of the 2015 Queen Elisabeth International Violin Competition of Belgium.

A passionate chamber musician, he has collaborated in performances with many esteemed artists, including legendary pianist Leon Fleisher, violinists Shmuel Ashkenasi, Pamela Frank, Cho-Liang Lin, cellists Matt Heimovitz and Ralph Kirschbaum, violist Atar Arad, and flutist Sir James Galway. He was a member of the Soleil Piano Trio from 2008-2010, First Prize winners of the Mondavi Center for the Arts Chamber Music Competition. Kenneth was an Evnin Rising Star at the Caramoor Festival (Katonah, NY) and has participated in the Ravinia Festival’s Steans Institute, the Perlman Music Program’s Residencies in Sarasota (Florida) and Stowe (Vermont), Music@Menlo’s International Chamber Music Institute, and the 2013 Kronberg Academy Violin Masterclasses.

Kenneth was Concertmaster of the internationally-acclaimed San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra from 2008-2010; he made his solo debut in Davies Symphony Hall as winner of the orchestra’s concerto competition in 2010. He has studied with Donald Weilertstein at the New England Conservatory, Itzhak Perlman at the Perlman Music Program, and Li Lin at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. He is currently studying at the Juilliard School with Mr. Perlman and Mr. Lin as a recipient of a Kovner Fellowship. He has been generously loaned violins from the Juilliard School, Bein&Fushi/The Stradivarius Society of Chicago, Reuning&Sons of Boston, Christophe Landon Rare Violins, and the Maestro Foundation of Southern California. Upcoming engagements include a debut recital at the Louvre Museum in Paris, chamber music performances at the Caramoor Center for Performing Arts, and a concerto appearance in the opening night concert of the Oakland Symphony.

6 7OAKLAND SYMPHONYOAKLAND SYMPHONY

ALICIA VENABLES, VIOLIN

Canadian born violinist Alicia Venables, winner of the 2012 National Chamber Class at the Canadian National Music

Festival, has had solo engagements with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Okanagan Symphony Orchestra, and also the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra as a 2011 Morningside Music Bridge Concerto Competition finalist.

She has participated in world-renowned summer music festivals such as the senior Young Artists Programme in Ottawa under the direction of Pinchas Zukerman, Banff Master Class for Strings, as well as Morningside Music Bridge. She has won many top awards at British Columbia Performing Arts Festival as well as Calgary’s Kiwanis Music Festival, and took 1st place in the Senior Violin class at the 2012 Alberta Provincial Music Festival. She has worked with many guest artists and respected musicians from around the world, including James Ehnes, Kim Kashkashian, Pinchas Zukerman, Nicola Benedetti, Leonidas Kavakos, Andres Cardenes, Li Lin, Tadeusz Gadzina, Gerardo Ribeiro, and members of the Miro, Shanghai, Pacifica and Brentano Quartets. Passionate about chamber music, she was a member of a piano trio at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music with cellist and faculty member Jean-Michel Fonteneau, performing Ravel’s piano trio, and was also in a string quartet performing Henri Dutilleux’s Ainsi La Nuit with Jean-Michel.

A native of a small town called Armstrong in British Columbia, Canada, Alicia began piano lessons at the age of 4 and violin at the age of 9. She has studied with Bill Van der Sloot, completing her Diploma in Classical Music Performance at Mount Royal University, and has just completed her Bachelor of Music Degree with Ian Swensen at San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

HEADS UP

Every year, Heads Up hosts a tuition-free summer program and this year, they partnered with Today’s

Future Sound to host a Software Engineering Course.

P R E - C O N C E R T P E R F O R M E R S B R A H M S L I E B E S L I E D E R W A L T Z E S T R A N S L A T I O N

The students performing in the lobby are from the Heads Up Program and represent Oakland public schools!

Officially started in 1987, Heads Up is a Head-Royce School partnership (HRS) with the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD). The program runs year-round academic enrichment for more than 125 students each year, focusing on academic growth and leadership development. Today, Heads Up has served more than 1,000 low-income youth of color from Oakland. “Our mission is to provide underserved middle-school students of color from OUSD with challenging and enriching programming. We do this with the intention of supporting students in their academic success and helping to facilitate a deeper appreciation and commitment to the city of Oakland.”

TODAY’S FUTURE SOUND

Today’s Future Sound (TFS) is a fiscal project of Friends of Oakland Parks and Recreation, a 501c3 based in

Oakland, CA. TFS was founded by producer/beat maker Ben Durazzo in 2010 while teaching in schools in Berkeley and Oakland. Dr. Elliott Gann joined in 2012. TFS currently teaches music production, beat making, and DJ’ing to youth and the general public in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. These services are offered in schools during the school day, after school, and in community settings, both in Oakland and the San Francisco Bay Area, and on a national basis in the United States (New York, Mississippi and Louisiana), as well as internationally. Such activities are used as educational, artistic and therapeutic/wellness interventions primarily targeting under served populations. As an Oakland-based organization, TFS focuses on uplifting, inspiring and empowering the youth of Oakland.

Today’s Future Sound uses music production and media arts as vehicles through which to empower youth as artists and community members while fostering their well-being as individuals.

The texts of the Liebeslieder (“Love Songs”) are taken from “Polydora, ein weltpoetisches Liederbuch,” or “a world poetry song book.” It was written in 1855, by the German poet and philosopher Georg Friederich Daumer (1800-1875). This collection of translations and imitations of folk poetry, primarily Russian, Polish, and Magyar (Hungarian), has as its predominant sentiments the many facets of love.

1. Speak, dear girl, whom I love too much, Who has thrown into my cool heart, with just a look, These wild, hot feelings!

Won’t you soften your heart? Do you want to remain a pious saint, Without sweet bliss? Or do you want me to come?

Live without sweet bliss? I would never suffer so bitterly. I will only come, Dark Eyes, I will come when the stars say hello.

2. The tide rushes over the rocks, Driven violently; Those there, who don’t know how to sigh, Learn it from loving.

4. Like the lovely blush of the evening, I, a poor girl, would glow To please One, one special person, In bliss forever.

5. The green hops vine, It winds down to the earth. The young, lovely girl, Her thoughts are so sad.

Listen, green tendril! Why don’t you lift yourself up to the sky? Listen, lovely girl, Why is your heart so hard?

How would the vine suspend itself If no support offers it strength? How will the girl be happy When her Love is far away?

8. When you look at me with those mild, loving eyes Every last disturbing cloud flies away. The beautiful glow of this love, Don’t let it vanish! Never will another love you as faithfully as I do.

9. On the Danube, there stands a house, There, a rosy girl looks out. The girl is well cared for; Ten bars of iron are placed in front of the door. Ten bars of iron, this is a fun game; I will blast them like glass.

11. No, there is no getting along with people; Everything they know gets a toxic interpretation. If I’m cheerful, they say I cherish loose morals; If I’m quiet, they say I’m going crazy about love.

Did You Know?Young people who participate in the arts for at least three hours on three days each week through at least one full year are:

• 4 times more likely to be recognized for academic achievement • 3 times more likely to be elected to class office within their schools • 4 times more likely to participate in a math and science fair • 3 times more likely to win an award for school attendance • 4 times more likely to win an award for writing an essay or poem

8 9OAKLAND SYMPHONYOAKLAND SYMPHONY

Devil’s RadioMASON BATES (B.1977)

As an undergraduate, Bates studied with John Corigliano, David Del Tredici, and Samuel Adler at the Juilliard

School, then received a doctorate in composition from the University of California, Berkeley, in 2008. He was a DJ and techno artist in Oakland, and is now composer-in-residence with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

Devil’s Radio was commissioned by the Sun Valley (Idaho) Summer Symphony, which gave the world premiere on August 16, 2014, with Alasdair Neale conducting. In his program note, Bates writes: “Rumor is the Devil’s radio, goes an evocative Southern phrase, and ever since hearing it, I’ve fantasized about a fanfare with equal parts darkness and groove. What began life as a brief piano étude quickly swelled way beyond its bounds, and the opportunity to write for a massive orchestra in Sun Valley seemed the perfect chance to give the Devil his due.”

“Sometimes the music is coldly propulsive, as at the opening, which uses a kind of sparkling ‘musical lure’ in the upper woodwinds. But this is soon undercut by a bluesy bass line and energetic percussion, ultimately building into a soaring melody that’s best described as vainglorious. Indeed, the work has ample brightness to counter its dark corners, and in this way it can be heard as a fanfare our villain might write for himself, complete with grandiose flourishes and an infectious swing section. But this lightness quickly evaporates in the work’s final minutes, when thunderous hits in the low brass suggest a Goliath-sized figure throwing his weight around. He bows out with a wink and a nod, ever the gentleman.”

Liebeslieder Waltzes, Op. 52JOHANNES BRAHMS (1833-1897)

“Real family music” was Brahms’ description of the Liebeslieder Waltzes, a collection of 18 settings

of poems from Georg Friedrich Daumer’s Polydora. They were composed and published in 1869 and first performed in Vienna, on January 5, 1870.

“Brahms and waltzes!” exclaimed critic Eduard Hanslick when he saw the score. “The two words stare at each other in positive amazement on the elegant title-page. The earnest, silent Brahms, a true younger brother of Schumann, and just as North German, Protestant, and unworldly as he—writing waltzes!”

Brahms himself was pleased. He wrote to his publisher: “I must confess that it was the first time I smiled at the sight of a printed work—of mine! I will risk being called an ass if our Liebeslieder don’t give pleasure to a few people.”

Originally scored for soprano, alto, tenor and bass, with four-hand piano, the Op. 52 set was joined by Neue Liebeslieder Walzer, Op. 65, in 1874. Conductor Ernst Rudorff persuaded Brahms to arrange a set for voices with orchestra, which included eight pieces from Op. 52 and one that was later included in the Neue Liebeslieder.

Violin Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 63SERGEI PROKOFIEV (1891-1953)

The best account of the origins of Prokofiev’s Second Violin Concerto comes from the composer himself.

In his autobiography, he wrote: “In 1935, a group of admirers of the French violinist Robert Soëtans asked me to write a violin concerto for him, giving him exclusive rights to perform it for one year. I readily agreed, since I had been intending to write something for the violin at that time and had accumulated some material. As in the case of the preceding concertos, I began searching for an original title for the piece, such as ‘concert sonata for violin and orchestra,’ but finally returned to the simplest solution: Concerto No. 2. Nevertheless, I wanted it to be altogether different from No. 1, both as to music and style.”

The premiere took place on December 1, 1935, with violinist Soëtans and the Madrid Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Enrique Fernández Arbós. A special delegation visited Prokofiev afterwards to thank him for choosing Spain for the first performance.

“The Second Violin Concerto,” writes biographer Israel V. Nestyev, “is more serious, more philosophical than the First, which was written twenty years before. Here we no longer find those mocking, grotesque effects which had so astonished listeners…in the First Concerto. There are fewer harsh timbres and harmonies, and a more restrained and gentle play of tone colors. The Second Concerto is written in a simpler, more intimate style…. The virtuoso writing is also more modest, containing fewer unusual technical innovations, even though this time the composer did use some very complicated technical figurations with biting accents.”

Symphonic Dances, Op. 45SERGEI RACHMANINOFF (1873-1943)

A few months before his death in 1943, Rachmaninoff complained of lacking the “strength and fire” to

compose. When friends reminded him of the Symphonic Dances, he replied: “Yes, I don’t know how that happened. That was probably my last flicker.”

Rachmaninoff ’s “last flicker” was begun during the summer of 1940 on an estate in Long Island. By August, he wrote to conductor Eugene Ormandy: “Last week I finished a new symphonic piece, which I naturally want to give first to you and your orchestra. It is called Fantastic Dances.”

Meanwhile, Rachmaninoff had second thoughts about the title. “It should have been called just Dances,” he said, “but I was afraid people would think I had written dance music for jazz orchestras.” At one point he even considered titles for the three movements— “Midday,” “Twilight” and “Midnight”—but abandoned the idea in favor of the Italian tempo designations.

By the time Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra introduced the work on January 4, 1941, Rachmaninoff had settled on the title Symphonic Dances. At the end of the score, Rachmaninoff had written “I thank Thee, Lord!” It was his last major work. Two and a half years after its completion, he died in Beverly Hills, California.

~ Program Notes by Charley Samson, copyright 2015

P R O G R A M N O T E S P R O G R A M N O T E S

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