Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition

Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition Program Notes Like  other  members  of  The  Mighty  Handful  (Rimsky-Korsakoff,  Borodin,  et  al), Modest Mussorgsky  aimed  to  create  a  Russian  musical  sound.  As  a  very  young  child,  he’d  been  drawn  to  the  piano,  musically  retelling  his  nanny’s  Russian  tales.    In  St.  Petersburg,  he  met  composers  Cui Read more…

Beethoven Egmont Overture No.1

Beethoven Egmont Overture Program Notes We  can’t  appropriate  Beethoven’s  exact  politics  (although  thousands  have  tried),  but  we  can  be  certain  he  identified  with  the  concept  of  freedom  (setting  Schiller’s  Ode  to  Joy,  with  its  defeat  to  the  lying  brood  of  undeserving  crowns).  Egmont  is  no  exception,  Beethoven  enthusiastically  writing  incidental  music Read more…

Anthony Mosakowski Concert Overture

Anthony Mosakowski Concert Overture Program Notes It’s  always  exciting  to  introduce  a  piece  of  music  to  an  audience  for  the  first  time,  especially  a  work  like  Anthony  Mosakowski’s  Concert  Overture,  with  its  great  energy,  artistry,  sense  of  melody  and  craft.  The  Overture,  for  an  orchestra  of single  winds,  varied  percussion,  harp,  piano Read more…

Bellini I Capuleti e i Montecchi

Bellini I Capuleti e i Montecchi Program Notes Bellini  is  one  of  the  greatest  composers  in  the  bel  canto  operatic  style  (literally,  beautiful  singing),  alongside  Donizetti  and  Rossini.    Bellini’s  Norma,  I  Puritani,  La  Sonnambula  and  the  present  I  Capuleti  e  i  Montecchi  remain  frequently  performed.    With  long  melodic Read more…

Elgar Cello Concerto

Elgar Cello Concerto Program Notes By  the  time  he  wrote  his  cello  concerto  in  1919,  Edward  Elgar  was  a  celebrated  (and  knighted)  composer  in  his  native  England.  His  works  included  several  of  the  Pomp  and  Circumstance  marches,  a  violin  concerto  commissioned  by  Fritz  Kreisler,  the  oratorio  The  Dream  of  Gerontius, Read more…