NEWS AND PROGRAM NOTES
January 2010 Concert
Beach Cities Symphony
PROGRAM
NOTES
29 January
2010
OVERTURE TO THE
MAGIC FLUTE, K. 620
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
Mozart
had finished writing almost all of The
Magic Flute during the spring and early summer of 1791 when, in July, he
was invited to compose La Clemenza di
Tito for the festivities surrounding the coronation in Prague of Emperor
Leopold II as King of Bohemia. La Clemenza enjoyed only a moderate
reception at first, but audiences gradually warmed to it, and its final
performance, on September 30, was a resounding success.
Mozart
had to enjoy this triumph from a distance, since he had returned to Vienna two
weeks earlier to oversee final preparations for the première of The Magic Flute. This opera marked an
important new path for the composer. It was the first stage work he had written
for the commercial theater, rather than on commission from an aristocratic
court. Mozart was badly in need of income, and the best way to earn serious
money was through an imperial appointment (which was not likely) or a
successful opera. He was already teaching music lessons, playing keyboard
recitals, and writing a great deal of instrumental music, but none of this
provided him economic stability. Mozart’s wife was not in good health (and
pregnant) and considered it necessary to spend the summer at the spa in
Baden-Baden with their five-year-old son. The composer had begun to borrow
substantial sums and, although his condition wasn’t desperate, his questionable
financial judgment could easily escalate into economic disaster.
Considering
the frantic pace of events, Mozart’s workload, and his financial pressures, it
is not surprising that his health failed. The
Magic Flute opened in Vienna on the evening of September 30, 1791. Mozart
conducted the first two performances, when he was overtaken by illness. He
lingered on while the opera had an unprecedented run of more than one hundred
consecutive performances. It is said that in his sick bed, watch in hand, he
would follow in imagination the performance of The Magic Flute in the theater. He died on December 5, 1791, after
its 67th performance.
For
today’s audiences, the libretto of The
Magic Flute seems to contain a good deal of hocus-pocus; much of it, we are
told, makes sense only when one understands that the work is an allegory for
Masonic beliefs and rites. The librettist, Emanuel Schikaneder, was a
Freemason, and Mozart had also joined a Masonic lodge in 1784. The number three
is said to hold mystical significance for Freemasons. Although there is no
mention of Freemasonry per se in The
Magic Flute, the overriding key is E-flat major, with three flats in the
key signature, and the overture opens with a grand proclamation of each of the
three notes of the tonic triad. Following this grave introduction, the
orchestra darts off in a gleeful, fugal Allegro, only to be interrupted by
another solemn proclamation of the three chords, this time in the dominant key
of B-flat. The remainder of the overture is notable for Mozart’s brilliant use
of counterpoint and dynamic contrasts, building a considerably more complex
piece than one might expect from what is really only a single theme.
--Bill Malcolm
PIANO CONCERT NO. 2 IN C MINOR, Op. 18
Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943)
In
his entry on Rachmaninoff for the New
Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (2nd ed., 2003), Geoffrey Norris
refers to the composer’s “predilection for sumptuous harmonies and broadly
lyrical, often intensely passionate melodies.” No work by Rachmaninoff
illustrates that description better than the concerto we are hearing tonight.
After a long, difficult period of doubt and depression following the negative
reception of his First Symphony in 1897, Rachmaninoff began a course of
psychiatric treatment, involving hypnotherapy, with Dr. Nikolai Dahl. His
confidence and sense of well-being restored, Rachmaninoff completed several
important works in the year immediately following his sessions with Dr. Dahl,
including the Second Piano Concerto, which premièred in November of 1901 with
the composer as soloist.
Although
he is frequently acknowledged as one of the greatest exemplars of the Russian
Romantic school in the tradition of Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakoff,
Rachmaninoff himself described his music in more personal terms as he
approached the end of his life: “In my own compositions, no conscious effort
has been made to be original, or Romantic, or Nationalistic, or anything
else. I write down on paper the music I
hear within me . . . . to make [the music] say simply and directly that which
is in my heart when I am composing.” One of the best illustrations of his
approach, as well as one of the best introductions to Rachmaninoff’s Second
Piano Concerto, is the 1946 film Brief
Encounter (available on DVD), in which the music becomes a virtual narrator
to the unconsummated affair between two ordinary middle-class people, each
overcome at times by passion and desire, at other times by guilt and
responsibility, against the drab background of post-war suburban England. What
better way to reinforce tonight’s performance than to rent this classic tribute
to Rachmaninoff and the power of his invention.
--Toni Empringham
KALEIDOSCOPE
Barry Brisk
Kaleidoscope is an
abstract piece of music. That means it contains only musical concepts. There is
no attempt to depict things from the real world, such as a sunset, a love
story, the sound of a factory, etc. I started toying with certain chords right
after I finished my Serenade, which
the Beach Cities Symphony performed several years ago. There was a certain
three-note chord which appealed to me. I added a fourth note, and it became a B
flat minor 7th chord. From this I developed a set of five chords, four of them
minor seventh chords, and one quite different, which doesn’t have a convenient
label. With this material I tried to create a kaleidoscope of musical colors.
Color in music can’t exist without emotion, so it also became a kaleidoscope of
emotions.
--B. Brisk
PROGRAM BIOGRAPHIES
29 January 2010
BARRY BRISK
Music Director and Conductor
Barry Brisk first conducted in public at the age of 14, when he performed selections from South Pacific at his graduation from Webster Junior High School in West Los Angeles. As a student he also conducted the orchestra at University High School, Mount St. Mary’s College, and the University of Music (formerly Academy of Music) in Vienna, Austria, where he studied with the prominent conductor/teacher Hans Swarowsky. Professionally, Brisk has conducted many orchestras in Southern California, as well as in Mexico and Austria.
Maestro Brisk has been Music Director of the Beach Cities Symphony since 1994 and is particularly proud of having expanded the orchestra’s repertoire. In 15 years he has repeated only two compositions. He has conducted works by more than 80 composers, 11 of whom are living. Kaleidoscope, which will receive its world première tonight, is the second orchestral suite that Maestro Brisk has written for the BCSO. His Serenade for Orchestra premièred in May of 2007.
Barry Brisk’s wife, Cathy, is an internationally recognized expert on ancient Greek coins. Their son, Philip, is an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the University of California, Riverside. Philip’s wife, Marilyn, received her master’s degree in political science from the University of Lausanne in Switzerland and will be pursuing her Ph.D. in the Southern California area.
ESTHER KEEL
Piano Soloist
Born and raised in Los Angeles, California, Esther Keel began playing the piano at the age of three with her concert pianist mother, Mihyang Keel. In 1998 she was one of four Beach Cities Symphony Artists of the Future Competition winners, and she won numerous other awards as a young musician. Ms. Keel received her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the Juilliard School, where she studied with Yoheved Kaplinsky and Robert McDonald, and she has served as an instructor for the Piano Minor Department in the college division of the Juilliard School.
Ms. Keel made her debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the age of thirteen. Since then, she has played concerts throughout the United States and Canada, as well as in Germany, Italy, Austria, Ireland, and Russia. She has performed concertos with the Jacksonville Symphony, Korean American Symphony, Juilliard Orchestra, Young Musicians Foundation Orchestra, San Bernardino Symphony, Mozart Festival Orchestra, and the San Francisco State Symphony, among others. She has worked with notable conductors such as Esa-Pekka Salonen, Otto-Werner Mueller, Fabio Mechetti, and Bundit Ungrangsee. Ms. Keel has also appeared in prestigious concert halls including Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theatre in Washington D.C, Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall in New York, Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, and abroad at the Kurhaus Bad Aussee in Austria, Teatro Guglielmi in Italy, and the Poland Embassy in Moscow. Ms. Keel’s numerous competition honors include top prizes in the Moscow International Chopin Competition, Washington International Piano Competition, Kingsville International Piano Competition in Texas, Ostra International Piano Competition in Italy, Juilliard Concerto Competition, Korean International Music Foundation Competition, and the Cleveland International Piano Competition.
An avid chamber musician, Ms. Keel has participated in the Young Musicians Foundation Chamber Music Series, which was broadcast live on the classical music station KUSC-FM. Her chamber groups have frequently performed in Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall. She is currently in the Artist Diploma program under the tutelage of John Perry at the Colburn Conservatory in Los Angeles. Her upcoming engagements include a five-city tour of Switzerland.
Audience Survey
There will be an anonymous audience survey distributed during the January concert. Everybody is encouraged to list his or her musical preferences. Some demographic data will also be requested to help BCSA in obtaining grants. Everybody who turns in his or her Survey Form at concert intermission will be eligible for a prize raffle with the winner selected immediately after intermission.
Beach
Cities Symphony Volunteers Give Musical Holiday Cheer at Target in Torrance
Beach Cities Symphony
volunteers (left to right: Bob Scott, Margaret Otell,
Margaret McWilliams, Joanne Satterburg, and Mary Mok) played Christmas carols at Target in Torrance during
the early morning shopping party held December 8. 2009.
Another shot of the merry Christmas band
(l to r: Bob Scott, Margaret Otell, Margaret McWilliams, and Bill Malcolm).
Photos courtesy of Bill Malcolm and Mary Mok.
IN MEMORIAM: LIONELLO FORZANTI (1913-2009)
Lionello Forzanti, who joined the Beach Cities Symphony’s viola section in 2004, passed away on December 5, 2009. Mr. Forzanti had a long and distinguished musical career on three continents. Born in Venice, he earned diplomas in violin, viola, chamber music, and composition in his native Italy. He also studied orchestral conducting in Siena, Salzburg, and at La Scala in Milan. Maestro Forzanti then organized the string orchestra of Venice and toured throughout Europe; at the same time, he was engaged as guest conductor by numerous European orchestras. These successes brought him an invitation from the Opera House "La Plata" in Buenos Aires and later appointment as orchestra director of the Córdoba Symphony in Argentina. He taught viola, violin, and chamber music and served as guest conductor throughout South America.
In 1964 Maestro Forzanti immigrated to the United States with his wife and family. After four years of teaching at the University of Hartford in Connecticut and two years at the University of Cincinnati in Ohio, he joined the Dallas Symphony Orchestra as Assistant Conductor and became its principal violist soon thereafter. He retired from that position in 1999. In June of 2004, Mr. Forzanti came to live with his daughter and her husband, John Cather, Principal Trumpet of the Beach Cities Symphony. Lionello Forzanti honored and enriched our orchestra by his experience and presence.
The January 29, 2010
Beach Cities Symphony concert is dedicated to almost 96 year old BCS violist
Lionello Forzanti. More information about Lionello’s long and impressive
musical career is available if you click
here (large 5.7 MB PDF file).
John Cather writes: The PDF biography was done last minute by his
grandson, Ricardo, for his memorial service. They just did an article of him in
the Amadeus publication in Europe. They are also producing a couple of CDs
of the early days of the "Quarteto Italiano" - the famous group he
founded. I have pictures of him conducting orchestras, as well as other things
that might also be of interest.
Lionello and BCS trumpet player John Cather
taken after the January 2009 BCS concert.
Young Lionello earlier in his
career.
BCS Newsletter Mailing
Below is a picture taken at the newsletter mailing for the January concert. Pictured at the mailing for the January 29 concert (left to right) are: Anna Jung, Toni Empringham, Brian Jung, Ruth MacFarlane, Jenn Floto, Pat Chavez, Margaret McWilliams, Bob Scott, and Bob Peterson.
This page last modified on
January 19, 2010.