My Program: Bernstein: Serenade after Plato’s “Symposium”

Andriessen: De Staat

INTERMISSION

Cage: Cheap Imitation for orchestra

Satie: Socrate

The case for my program: Four very different 20th-century responses to the writings of a Greek philosopher who lived 2300 years before their time, but whose influence continues into our century. Bernstein’s violin concerto is a tone poem on Plato’s discussion of love, from which the term “Platonic love” is derived. Satie’s cantata is an eerily calm and beautiful meditation on Socrates, as described by Plato. Cage’s Cheap Imitation was indirectly influenced by Plato in that it is a remix of Socrate; in this program, Cage’s wisps and strands of unanchored melody serve as the flickering shadows cast on the wall of Plato’s metaphorical cave, revealing a distorted glimpse of Socrate. In Andriessen’s De Staat, Plato’s text describes the dangers of certain types of music; Andriessen writes “dangerous music” by bouncing music back and forth virtuosically between a divided orchestra, and by invoking the energy and fury of rock music, the “dangerous music” of Andriessen’s time.

My Program: Gioacchino Rossini – Overture to `The Barber of Seville`
Peter Maxwell Davies – Mavis in Las Vegas
Ernö von Dohnanyi – Variations on a Nursery Tune Op. 25
intermission
Igor Stravinsky – Jeu de Cartes
Maurice Ravel – La Valse

The case for my program: Dohnanyi`s Variations on a Nursery Tune, for piano and orchestra is subtitled, For the enjoyment of humorous people and for the annoyance of others. The same could be said of much of the rest of program. There are links between several of the works. Two pieces are quoted in a third. Two are themes with variations and all except the Rossini are eclectic in style.

My Program: – Vaughan Williams: Fantasia on a theme by Thomas Tallis
- Edward Elgar: Cello Concerto.

Intermission

- Gustav Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde

The case for my program: In my view this program features three of our great XIX century composers who knew how to survive the many changes art went throught in the transition it had to make into de XX century. Williams, Elgar and Mahler kept the essence of the romantic music making them three of the great post romantic composers ever lived.

My Program: STRAVINSKY: Agon
SCHNITTKE: Concerto Grosso No.1
IVES: Three Places in New England
ROCHBERG: Transcendental Variations

The case for my program: Long before the iPod’s shuffle mode, these composers mixed and borrowed various styles of music within a single work, juxtaposing moods and genres in order to create a larger narrative. The sacred and profane, ancient and modern, all stand side by side in these compositions that call into question the very nature of authenticity and personal expression in symphonic music.

My Program: PIANO CONCERTO #1 (Keith Emerson)

Intermission

TARKUS (Emerson, Lake & Palmer)
Orchestral adaptation as performed by the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra

The case for my program: In my opinion the genius and talent of Keith Emerson has either been often overlooked and/or not truly appreciated.
Too often great pieces of music do not get their just deserts or are not taken seriously because of their association with another genre (in this case Rock).
I believe that both these compositions are brilliant in their own right and can stand alone on their own merit and could be considered true classical masterpieces, if only given the opportunity!

My Program: Edward Elgar – Sea Pictures (25:00)

Edward Elgar – Organ Grinder’s songs from The Starlight Express (15:00)

“To the Children”

“The Blue-Eyes Fairy”

“My Old Tunes”

Intermission

Hector Berlioz – Sara la baigneuse (7:00)

Hector Berlioz – Les nuits d’ete (30:00)

Hector Berlioz – Duet “Vous soupirez, madame” from Beatrice et Benedict (10:00)

The case for my program: This program features two of the greatest orchestral song cycles in Sea Pictures and Les nuits d’ete, along with several comparatively neglected vocal pieces. Nothing evokes for me the image of Elgar, eternally youthful composer of the Wand of Youth, more than My Old Tunes: “Now I am a constellation, free from every earthly care, playing nightly at my station for the Big and Little Bear.” Sara la baigneuse is a choral piece, but I can’t resist including it, and nothing could end the program more beautifully than the duet from Beatrice et Benedict.