NEWS, PROGRAM NOTES and
BIOS
January 2012 Concert
Beach Cities Symphony
PROGRAM NOTES
27 January 2012 
Polonaise
from Eugene Onegin
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)
A polonaise is a festive dance in 3/4 rhythm which originated in the seventeenth century Polish court and was later adopted by Bach, Handel, Mozart, Beethoven, and, most famously, Chopin. Tchaikovsky opens Act Three of his opera Eugene Onegin with the high-spirited polonaise heard tonight; the occasion is a dazzling birthday ball for Princess Tatiana, whom the hero Onegin now desires but can no longer have. The opera premičred in 1879 at the Moscow Malďy Theater. Within a year Franz Liszt had made an enthusiastically received piano transcription of Tchaikovsky’s Polonaise, ensuring its popularity for future generations.
--Toni Empringham
Cello
Concerto in E Minor, Opus 85
Edward Elgar (1857-1934)
The English composer Sir Edward Elgar has become an important part of American tradition thanks to his Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1 (1901); no graduation ceremony would be complete without its grand processional chords. The Cello Concerto, written some eighteen years later at the end of a richly varied composing career, is a similar example of the way Elgar was not afraid to wear his musical heart on his sleeve. Completed less than a year after the conclusion of World War One, this deeply Romantic concerto resonates with maturity and emotion, showcasing the full range of the solo instrument in four relatively short movements. It was first performed on October 26, 1919, with the composer conducting the London Symphony Orchestra, and was not at first well received. Like other great and enduring masterpieces, it broke with tradition and was not fully appreciated until the 1960s, when twenty-year-old Jacqueline du Pré recorded it, with Sir John Barbirolli conducting the LSO. Since that time this concerto has become an audience favorite and part of the standard repertoire for cello and orchestra.
T. E.
Symphony
No. 8 in F, Opus 93
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
In 1812, Beethoven completed two new symphonies in four months. The first, the incomparable Seventh, overshadowed its successor then and has done so ever since. When Beethoven's student, Carl Czerny, noted that the Eighth wasn't as popular as the Seventh, Beethoven is said to have replied, “Because the Eighth is so much better.” He felt paternal to all of his compositions and wouldn’t tolerate hearing anything even slightly construed as negative, even if it was in comparison to another of his own works. Yet although the Eighth is certainly less influential than the Seventh, it remains unmistakably the work of Beethoven and rewarding to both performer and listener. It also marks a turning point, for following its completion, the master would not return to the symphonic form for twelve years, after which he abandoned the classical symphonic style.
Beethoven is well-known for his tempestuous music and raging personality. But he also possessed a well-developed sense of humor, and the Eighth shows this throughout. Shortly before he began composing it, he was introduced to Johann Mälzel, inventor of the metronome. Beethoven was rather taken with Mälzel, even composing a second-rate piece (Wellington's Victory) at his suggestion. The Eighth Symphony also contains a tribute to the man, a bit of an “in-joke” appearing in the second movement, where heavily orchestrated winds keep a steady staccato beat in imitation of the regular ticking of a metronome.
However, Beethoven saved his best joke for last. For centuries, composers had been writing overblown endings, pounding the last few chords into the ground with a finality that seemed to state, “I'm done with my piece, and I'm going to repeat the last note ten times just in case you're not sure of it.” Perhaps annoyed with this tradition, Beethoven lampooned it by drawing his finish out for 23 measures, during which the penultimate C-major chord makes only six appearances, but the final F-major chord is repeated no fewer than 45 times. And so, in the best tradition of his teacher, Haydn, the master simultaneously skewers the silliness of the form while raising it to perfection. Yet, if Beethoven were here to evaluate my assessment of his coda, I might get a reply similar to what he gave Czerny.
--Bill Malcolm
BIOGRAPHIES
JEROME KESSLER
Cello Soloist
Jerome Kessler is one of the most versatile musicians on the West Coast, where he is active on the concert stage and in commercial music venues. The Principal Cellist of the Los Angeles Cello Quartet, he is the founder and conductor of the cello octet I Cellisti. He appears widely as a soloist, in chamber music and symphonic events and is prominent in the orchestras of the Los Angeles television and motion picture studios.
He has performed under Pierre Boulez, toured and recorded with Frank Zappa. Well-known to concert audiences across the country, he has appeared throughout the United States. In addition, he has recorded as soloist or conductor for Everest, Orion, Cambria, and Arnaeus Records and was a charter member of the American Symphony Orchestra under Leopold Stokowski. An exponent of American music, Mr. Kessler has commissioned and premičred numerous works for cello, multiple celli and orchestra by such composers as Fred Katz, Lee Holdridge, Robert Linn, Bill Marx, JAC Redford, Nelson Riddle, and Eugene Zador. His own compositions include works for solo and multiple celli, orchestra, brass ensemble and voice. A longtime devotee of cello ensemble music and performance, he was a founding director of the Los Angeles Violoncello Society. He has appeared as soloist, chamber player and conductor at American and International Cello Congresses.
Mr.
Kessler is Music Director and Conductor of the Topanga Symphony and a former
Music Director of the Beach Cities Symphony and the Congress of Strings. His
activities as an instructor and clinician have included visiting assignments at
numerous universities, as well as private teaching and coaching. He is a
frequent judge of solo, chamber music and composition competitions.
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. He has conducted works by more than 80 composers, more than a dozen of whom are living. Two of his own compositions premičred at our concerts: Serenade for Orchestra (May, 2007) and Kaleidoscope (January, 2010). On November 20, 2011, the Topanga Symphony presented the world premičre of his Andante and Allegro for Strings, composed when he was a student in Vienna, and on March 23, 2012, the BCSO will perform his 1984 Trombone Concerto, featuring Andrew Malloy as soloist.
Maestro Brisk’s wife, Cathy, is an internationally recognized expert on ancient Greek coins. Their first grandchild, Philip Anderson Grell-Brisk, was born July 7, 2010. 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.
This page last modified on
January, 9, 2012.