Conductor David Atherton leads the Juilliard Orchestra in Stravinsky's "Scherzo a la russe," "Petrushka," and Ginastera's Piano Concerto No. 1 on Thursday, November 20 at 8 PM in Juilliard's Peter Jay Sharp Theater
Juilliard pianist Sean Chen is soloist in the Ginastera Concerto
Conductor David Atherton leads the Juilliard Orchestra on Thursday, November 20 at 8 PM in Juilliard’s Peter Jay Sharp Theater (155 West 65th Street). The mostly-Stravinsky program features the Scherzo à la russe (both original jazz orchestra and symphonic versions will be performed); Petrushka; and Ginastera’s Piano Concerto No. 1. Juilliard pianist Sean Chen is soloist in the Ginastera Concerto.
FREE tickets are available for this concert on November 6 at the Juilliard Box Office located in the newly renovated lobby of Juilliard at 155 West 65th Street. For further information, call (212) 769-7406 or go to www.juilliard.edu.
Stravinsky’s Scherzo à la russe began as a movement for a 1943 film entitled The North Star, produced by Samuel Goldwyn. Stravinsky withdrew from the project, and Goldwyn hired Aaron Copland to complete the project. Meanwhile, Paul Whiteman who led one of the most popular and frequently recorded jazz orchestras of that time, commissioned Stravinsky to compose a crossover work for his band. Stravinsky decided to use the short piece he started for The North Star film and re-orchestrated it for Whiteman’s band. It was introduced on a radio broadcast in 1944 on the Blue Network (a radio network Whiteman was connected to). The following year, the piece was published in its symphony-orchestra orchestration and was performed in March 1946 with the composer conducting the San Francisco Symphony. Both versions of the work will be heard on this concert. A complementary work, Stravinsky’s Petrushka, also will be performed on this program. Petrushka, a ballet in four scenes, was choreographed by Mikhail Fokine for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes (Paris, 1911). Stravinsky turned the work into an orchestral suite in 1947; it is in four parts with 15 movements.
Argentinian composer, Alberto Ginastera, wrote two piano concertos; both received their world premieres in the United States. (Ginastera left Argentina in 1969, exasperated with the political situation in his homeland. He spent the rest of his live in Geneva.) The Piano Concerto No. 1 premiere took place at the Second International Music Festival in Washington, D.C. on April 22, 1961 with Brazilian pianist João Carlos Martins as soloist and the National Symphony Orchestra with Howard Mitchell conducting. The work is in four movements.
David Atherton studied music at Cambridge University where his operatic conducting aroused much interest from the national press. After becoming the youngest conductor ever to appear at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, he spent twelve years there as resident conductor giving more than 150 performances, including a highly successful visit to La Scala, Milan. As a guest conductor he returns there frequently, his most recent engagements having been new productions of operas by Ravel, Stravinsky, and Meyerbeer. Other recent performances for Mr. Atherton include Tosca, Wozzeck, and Salome for the Canadian Opera, The Makropulos Case (in New York) and A Midsummer Night’s Dream for the Glyndebourne Festival Opera, and many new productions for English National Opera, including Turandot, The Love for Three Oranges, Der Rosenklavier, Salome, Peter Grimes, and Billy Budd, a work he has championed with the San Francisco and Metropolitan Operas. Mr. Atherton returns to the Metropolitan Opera on a regular basis.
A co-founder of the London Sinfonietta in 1967 and as its music director, Mr. Atherton gave the first performance of many important contemporary works. The Sinfonietta, widely regarded as one of the world’s leading chamber orchestras, has made countless recordings with him, including highly praised collections of works by Schoenberg, Janácek, and Weill. His work in the recording studio has gained him an Edison Award, many Grammy Award nominations and the sought-after Grand Prix du Disque. He was the youngest conductor in the history of the BBC Promenade Concerts and subsequently appeared in thirty contiguous seasons. Mr. Atherton has opened the Prague Spring Festival and the Berlin Festival with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, and travels widely, in particular to the U.S., where he regularly visits many of the leading North American orchestras.
Sean Chen, 20, is a sophomore at Juilliard, where he studies with Jerome Lowenthal. He has performed with numerous orchestras, including the New West Symphony and Thousand Oaks Philharmonic. As a concerto soloist, he has appeared with various orchestras and most recently performed the Beethoven Triple Concerto with violinist Lindsay Deutsch, cellist Andrew Janns, and the New West Symphony in February 2008. Mr. Chen will be featured on another subscription series concert with the New West Symphony in January 2009. In the summer of 2006, he played Brahms’ Second Piano Concerto in the Thousand Oaks Philharmonic’s Brahms Project. He has played concerts in California and New York and recently performed in the Gotham City Orchestra’s concert featuring Stravinsky’s Sacred Works. In January, he gave two recitals under the auspices of the National Chopin Foundation in Miami. His numerous awards include 1st place at the Glenn Miller Scholarship Competition in Clarinda, Iowa, laureate at the 2006 California Young Artist International Competition, the International Young Artists Peninsula Music Festival Kawai Scholarship Prize, the statewide 2006 California Emerging Young Artist Awards, Grand Prize of the 2005 L.A. Music Center’s Spotlight Awards in Classical Music Instrumental, among others.
FOR LISTINGS:
Thursday, November 20, 8 PM in Juilliard’s Peter Jay Sharp Theater, 155 West 65th Street
David Atherton, conductor, and Sean Chen, piano
Stravinsky Scherzo à la russe (both original and symphonic version will be performed)
Stravinsky Petrushka
Ginastera Piano Concerto No. 1
FREE tickets are available beginning November 6 from the Juilliard Box Office, 155 West 65th Street, open Monday through Friday, from 11 AM to 6 PM. For further information, call (212) 769-7406 or visit www.juilliard.edu.
JUILLIARD ORCHESTRA ADDITIONAL PERFORMANCES – FALL 2008
Monday, November 24, 7:30 PM, Avery Fisher Hall
Bernstein: The Best of All Possible Worlds
Alan Gilbert, conductor
Oratorio Society of New York
Young People’s Chorus of New York
Samuel Pisar, narrator
Beethoven Symphony No. 3 in E-flat Major, Op. 55 (“Eroica”)
Bernstein Symphony No. 3 (“Kaddish”)
Tickets for Avery Fisher Hall concerts are $25 (orchestra level) and $10 (all tiers) and are available at the Avery Fisher Hall Box Office, through CenterCharge at (212) 721-6500, or online at www.lincolncenter.org, approximately 5 weeks prior to the performance. FREE tickets for students and seniors are available at the Avery Fisher Hall Box Office.
Friday, December 12, 8 PM, Carnegie Hall
James DePreist, conductor
(Violin soloist to be announced November 12.)
Enesco Romanian Rhapsody No. 2
Prokofiev Concerto No. 2 in G Minor for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 63
John Corigliano Symphony No. 1
Tickets for Carnegie Hall concerts are $25 (parquet, 1st and 2nd tiers) and $10 (dress circle and balcony) and are available beginning November 14 at the Carnegie Hall Box Office, through CarnegieCharge at (212) 247-7800, or online at www.carnegiehall.org. Half-price tickets for students and seniors are available at the Carnegie Hall Box Office.