Ravinia 2023 Issue 4

GAIL HADANI PAVILION 8:00 PM WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 9, 2023 CHICAGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA JONATHON HEYWARD, conductor † BENJAMIN BEILMAN, violin LEÓN Pasajes ** BRUCH Violin Concerto No. 1 Prelude: Allegro moderato Adagio Finale: Allegro energico Benjamin Beilman –Intermission– RACHMANINOFF Symphonic Dances Non allegro Andante con moto (Tempo di valse) Lento assai—Allegro vivace † Ravinia debut ** First performance by the CSO and at Ravinia Ravinia expresses its appreciation for the generous support of Season Sponsor the Ravinia Women’s Board . Benjamin Beilman’s appearance is made possible in part by the Nancy & George Goldstein Memorial Guest Artist Fund . TANIA LEÓN (b.1943) Pasajes ( Passages ) Scored for three flutes and piccolo, two oboes, two clarinets and bass clarinet, two bassoons and contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, two tenor trombones and bass trombone, tuba, timpani, three percussionists (I. vibraphone, marimba, wood chimes; II. zurdo [large Brazilian bass drum], tom-toms, bongos, mounted tamborim, large suspended cymbal; III. conga, timbales, roto-toms, maracas, medium cymbal), harp, piano, and strings A native of Havana, Cuba, the highly regard- ed composer, conductor, and pianist Tania León now resides in New York City. After receiving bachelor and master’s degrees from the Conservatorio Peyrellade de La Habana, she came to the United States in 1967 and studied composition at New York University with Ursula Mamlok. León sustained a long career teaching music in higher education and is now Distinguished Professor Emerita at Brooklyn College and the City University of New York. Over the past five decades, she has exerted extraordinary influence on the musical life of her adopted city. A founding member and inaugural music director of the Dance Theatre of Harlem, León established its music department, music school, and or- chestra. She initiated the Brooklyn Philhar- monic Orchestra’s Community Concert Series in 1988 and was named the orchestra’s associate conductor in 1992. León served as New Music Advisor to Kurt Masur and the New York Philharmonic from 1993 until 1997. With fellow composer Laura Kaminsky, she co-founded a weeklong celebration of living composers (“Composers Now”) in 2010. León has performed extensively and received numerous commissions, awards, and critical praise. She has earned awards from the Amer- ican Society of Composers, Authors, and Pub- lishers (ASCAP), Chamber Music America, the Koussevitzky Foundation, and National Endowment for the Arts, among others. The New York Governor’s Lifetime Achievement Award (1998) and honorary doctorates from Colgate University, Curtis Institute of Music, Oberlin College, and SUNY Purchase join the list of honors. León served as US Artistic Ambassador of American Culture in Madrid, Spain, in 2008. Two years later, she received Chamber Music America’s National Service Awards and was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In recent years, the awards and honors have accumulated at an astounding pace. León’s or- chestral composition Stride —a work commis- sioned by the New York Philharmonic to hon- or the centenary of the 19thAmendment to the US Constitution and inspired by Susan B. An- thony and the composer’s grandmother—won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Music. The follow- ing year, she joined a class of honorees at the 45th Kennedy Center Honors that included actor/filmmaker George Clooney, singers Amy Grant and Gladys Knight, and the Irish rock group U2. The Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University awarded León the Nemmers Prize in Music Composition in February 2023. Beginning next September, she will serve as the Debs Composer’s Chair at Carnegie Hall and composer-in-residence with the London Philharmonic. The Arkansas Symphony and a consortium of orchestras (Auburn, Detroit, and Nation- al Symphonies and Orlando Philharmonic) Tania León commissioned Pasajes . Guest conductor Akiko Fujimoto and the Arkansas Sympho- ny gave the world premiere on April 9, 2022. León dedicated the score to the commission- ing orchestras and Amplifying Voices, a proj- ect of New Music USA that “aims to increase the support and promotion of under-rep- resented composers, create space for their contributions to artistic planning at major national orchestras, and make major strides toward transforming the classical canon for future generations.” León has described Pasajes ( Passages ) as a se- ries of nostalgic episodes—scenes from her youth, as viewed with fresh eyes. “The open- ing is like remembering a far-off, serene song which is indicative of the beautiful melodies of Latin American cultures. Then the song of an imaginary bird enters, surrounded by the sounds of nature. This is increasingly inter- twined with rhythmical pulses: the ever-pres- ent pulse of Caribbean culture. Last, we hear the bombastic joy of revelers’ music as they prepare their dances for Carnaval, parading through the neighborhood. This final scene is the joyous flash of rhythm in which the piece culminates.” MAX BRUCH (1838–1920) Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor, op. 26 Scored for two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, timpani, strings, and solo violin The enormous popularity of the Violin Con- certo No. 1 overshadowed all of Bruch’s other compositions, greatly frustrating its creator. As his 50th birthday approached, the concer- to was performed innumerable times while other worthy pieces remained virtually un- played. An endless stream of violinists as- sailed the composer for advice. Bruch wrote to his publisher, Fritz Simrock, “Every fort- night another one comes to me wanting to play the first concerto: I have now become rude, and have told them: ‘I cannot listen to this concerto anymore—did I perhaps write just this one? Go away and once and for all play the other concertos, which are just as good, if not better.’ ” Yet the abundant melodic beauty, naturalness of form, and unaffected Romantic expres- sion ensured the continued popularity of the Concerto No. 1, a bridge between the mon- umental violin concertos of Mendelssohn and Brahms. Later, Bruch’s concerto suffered from comparisons with the work by Brahms. Bruch acknowledged the eminence of his German colleague but found him personally offensive: “If I meet with Brahms in Heaven, I shall have myself transferred to Hell!” This first essay for violin proved a daunting task. Bruch admired the instrument (“the vio- lin can sing a melody better than the piano can, and melody is the soul of music”), but RAVINIA MAGAZINE • JULY 31 – AUGUST 14, 2023 36 I I