My Program:
Detailed Instructions – Nico Muhly
An American in Paris – George Gershwin
Glagolitic Mass – Leos Janacek

The case for my program: A good program is similar to that of a good relationship- it finds common threads between the separate entities, but all parties involved posses their own unique identity.

My Program: Part 1: Exoticism

Rameau: Suite from Les Indes Gallantes – Les Sauvages

Rossini : Overture from Il Turco en Italia

Rimsky-Korsakov: The Festival at Bagdad from Scheherezade

Saint-Saens: Bacchanale from Samson & Delilah

Part 2: Contact

Ravel: Empress of the Pagodas from Mother Goose Suite

Colin McPhee: Tabuh-Tabuhan

Bernstein: Halil

Kevin Puts: Falling Dream

The case for my program: This is a program that looks at Western music that was inspired by the Eastern culture.

The first half is made up of pieces from the standard orchestral repertoire that claimed inspiration from Arab culture, based on little or no actual research or contact by the composer.

The second half is made up of pieces by composers that, one way or another, actually encountered eastern cultures and were influenced by them.

The first five pieces need little introduction.

Colin McPhee was born in Toronto and moved to New York. In the 1930s he travelled to Bali and became a crucial voice in the preservation of Balinese indigenous music. Tabuh-Tabuhan fuses Balinese rhythm and melody with American orchestration.

Leonard Bernstein wrote Halil in memory of a young Israeli flutist who was killed in the 1973 Yom Kippur war.

The American composer Kevin Puts’ says this about his piece Falling Dream:

“The piece was written in the months immediately after 9/11. Its composition was initially inspired by news footage I saw in which a couple leaped from one of the burning towers holding hands. For months I was incapable of getting the image out of my head. It was so poetic in both its horror and beauty that I almost couldn’t justify a musical reaction to it. However I eventually found a way to illustrate the experience in extreme slow motion by creating a counterpoint of two slowly descending melodies, heard first at the beginning of the work. Episodes fade in and out of this slow descent like memories, but the illusion I wanted to create is that the falling never really ceases.”

My Program: WAGNER – Siegfried Idyll
ROY HARRIS – Symphony No. 3
WAGNER – Grosser Festmarsch (American Centennial March)
intermission
DAUGHERTY – Le Tombeau de Liberace for piano and chamber orchestra
DAUGHERTY – Dead Elvis
PETER MAXWELL DAVIES – Mavis in Las Vegas

The case for my program: A transatlantic musical meditation on the contradictions of fame, the value of celebrity and transience of greatness.

My Program:

Manuel De Falla – The Magic Circle at Midnight from El Amor Brujo

Toru Takemitsu – A String around Autumn

Thomas Ades – Concentric Paths
Rings
Paths
Rounds

Hans Zimmer – The Lord of the Rings Suite

The case for my program: Wagner is awesome, but sometimes you want a different ring!

My Program:
RIMSKY-KORSAKOV- Russian Easter Overture, Op. 36 BRUCH – Concerto for Violin No. 1, Op. 26 intermission VAUGHAN WILLIAMS – Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis RESPIGHI – Church Windows

The case for my program: VW was a student of Bruch. Respighi was a student of Bruch and Rimsky-Korsakov. RK, VW and Respighi works share religious elements. An appealing combination of beauty and bombast, familiar and less familiar.

My Program: WALTON – Portsmouth Point VILLA LOBOS- Bachianas Brasilieras No. 2 (last mvt. – “Little Train of the Caipira’)
GERSHWIN – Rhapsody in Blue intermission Hindemith – Overture: News of the Day HONEGGER – Pastorale d’Ete 7′ RAVEL – Bolero

The case for my program: A mix of familiar and less familiar works from the 1920s.

My Program:
REGER – Böcklin Suite (Four Tone-Poems after Arnold Böcklin) Op. 128 STRAUSS – Burlesk, AV 85 intermission
STRAUSS – Concerto for Horn No. 1, Op. 11
ELGAR – Three Bavarian Dances
WAGNER – Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg: Overture

The case for my program: Two Bavarians, Reger and Strauss, plus excerpts from an opera set in Bavaria and souvenirs from vacations in the Bavarian Highlands.
Economical use of musicians in excess of 2222 4231 timp+1 hp str. Title refers to popular song.

My Program: Claude Debussy: La Mer

Missy Mazzoli: The Diver

Bedrich Smetana: The Moldau

Intermission

Benjamin Britten: Four Sea Interludes

Dominick Argento: Four Seascapes

The case for my program: Water has inspired lots of composers, and the list is too long to fit in one program…but here is a nice look and listen to some gorgeous sounds. Take a dip!

My Program: Henry Purcell: If Music be the food of love

Joan Tower: Breakfast Rhythms

Richard Danielpour: Feast of Fools

Intermission

Walton: Belshazzar’s Feast

The case for my program: Something old (Purcell), something new (Tower), something borrowed (Danielpour would be expanded to full strings) and something blue (They are in exile in the first part of the Walton)! Offers for dinner before or after – maybe a snack at intermission, could be so much fun!