MASTERWORKS
Unless otherwise noted, performances are at Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall at 8 PM.
All programs are subject to change.
Click on Concert Link below (in blue) for more details.
Saturday, April 6, 2013 - Leif Bjaland, Conductor
Jennifer Frautschi, Violin Soloist
Masterworks 5
April 06, 2013 - 8:00 PM
Saturday, April 6, 2013, 8 PM
Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall
Leif Bjaland, Conductor
Rimsky-Korsakov - Russian Easter Overture
Mozart - Violin Concerto No. 3, K. 216
Jennifer Frautschi, Violin Soloist
Prokofiev - Symphony No. 5
Southwest Florida Symphony Masterworks Series Sponsors:
Rimsky-Korsakov's Great Russian Easter Overture was premiered on December 15, 1888, in St. Petersburg. The work is subtitled "Overture on Liturgical Themes." The composer uses tunes based on Russian Orthodox chants that would have been known to his audience. He also quoted in the score, Psalm 68 and Mark 16.
The work refelcts the time from the gloomy and mysterious Passion Saturday to what the composer described as the "unbridled pagan-religious merry-making of Easter Sunday morning," known as "Bright Holiday."
The Violin Concerto No. 3 in G Major was composed by Mozart in Salzburg in 1775, when the composer was nineteen. It was most likely performed with Mozart himself as the soloist. The work is in three movements - Allegro, Adagio, Rondeau.
Mozart wrote five concertos for violin but the Concerto No. 3 demonstrates a definite jump in maturity over 1 and 2.
The first movement, in sonata form, begins with a bright and bold opening after which melodies are traded between the soloist and the orchestra like a conversation. In the second movement a serene unending melody floats over an elegant accompaniment of bowed and plucked muted strings. The Rondeau is full of surprises. The simple, dance-like principal theme is interupted with a series of episodes, some sad, some raucous, and all amusing to the audience.
Prokofiev composed his 5th Symphony in the summer of 1944, as the Soviet victory over the Nazis in World War II was in sight.
The Symphony was intended as a tribute to the suffering experienced by the Soviet people during the war as well as a celebration of victory. Prokofiev stated that it was "a hymn to free and happy Man, to his might powers, his pure and noble spirit."
The Symphony is in four movements, expressing the traditional symphonic struggle that ends in triumph.
Mvt. 1 - embodies the glory of the human spirit
Mvt. 2 - Scherzo
Mvt. 3 - a dreamy and nostalgic Adagio
Mvt. 4 - a slow introduction then a Rondo
The Symphony was premiered on January 13, 1945, Prokofiev's last appearance as a conductor. He had a heart attack, fell down the stairs and suffered a brain concussion just three weeks later. His health was precarious until his death in 1953.
Avery Fisher career grant recipient violinist Jennifer Frautschi has gained acclaim as an adventurous performer with a wide-ranging repertoire.
Ms. Frautschi has created a sensation with appearances as soloist with Pierre Boulez and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Christoph Eschenbach and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at the Ravinia Festival, and at Wigmore Hall and Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival.She has also soloed in recent seasons with the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Kansas City Symphony, Louisville Orchestra, Orchestra of St. Luke's, San Diego Symphony, and Seattle Symphony, and toured the United States with the Czech Symphony Orchestra.
Selected by Carnegie Hall for its Distinctive Debuts series, she made her New York recital debut in 2004. As part of the European Concert Hall Organization's Rising Stars series, Ms. Frautschi also made debuts that year at ten of Europe's most celebrated concert venues, including London's Wigmore Hall, Salzburg Mozarteum, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Vienna Konzerthaus, and La Cité de la Musique in Paris.
Ms. Frautschi’s 2011-12 highlights include the world premiere of James Stephenson’s Violin Concerto, a piece written for her, with the Minnesota Orchestra and Osmo Vänskä.
Her growing discography includes three widely-praised CDs for Artek: an orchestral recording of the Prokofiev concerti with Gerard Schwarz and the Seattle Symphony, and highly-acclaimed discs of music of Ravel and Stravinsky, and of 20th century works for solo violin. She has also recorded several discs for Naxos, including the Stravinsky Violin Concerto with the Philharmonia Orchestra of London, conducted by the legendary Robert Craft, and two GRAMMY-nominated recordings with the Fred Sherry Quartet, of Schoenberg's Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra [nominated for ‘Best Instrumental Soloist Performance (with Orchestra)’ in 2006] and the Schoenberg Third String Quartet [nominated for ‘Best Chamber Music Performance’ in 2011]. Her most recent releases are a recording of Romantic Horn Trios, with hornist Eric Ruske and pianist Stephen Prutsman, on the Albany label (fall 2010) and Stravinsky Duo Concertant with pianist Jeremy Denk on Naxos (spring 2011).
Born in Pasadena, California, Ms. Frautschi began the violin at age three and was a student of Robert Lipsett at the Colburn School for the Performing Arts in Los Angeles. She subsequently attended Harvard, the New England Conservatory of Music, and The Juilliard School, where she studied with Robert Mann. She also studied the clarinet with Richard Meyer. She performs on a 1722 Antonio Stradivarius violin known as the "ex-Cadiz," on generous loan to her from a private American foundation.
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