YOUNGSTOWN SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Final Masterworks concert features guest piano soloist
The YSO's director has close ties to the program's works.
By L. CROW
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
The Youngstown Symphony Orchestra will present "Classically Yours," the last Masterworks concert of the season Saturday, with guest piano soloist Fabio Bidini.
The program contains many works with personal meaning for director Isaiah Jackson.
The concert will begin with the Leopold Stokowski's orchestral transcription of Johann Sebastian Bach's "Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565," originally written for organ.
"This great work demonstrates the timelessness of Bach's music," said Jackson. "Stokowski conducted the orchestra for the music in 'Fantasia,' of which this was included, and I was also privileged to act as his assistant while he was the music director of the American Symphony in New York, from 1970-71. This was one of the works he performed during the season, giving wonderful authenticity to this piece."
Jackson also remarked that this style of performing Bach had faded during the second half of the 20th century, when scholars became intent on performing Bach as it would have sounded during the 1700s. "We really don't know how Bach's music sounded in 1730," he said. "Fortunately, orchestral transcriptions are coming back into style again, which broadens the possibilities to experience this wonderful music."
Debussy
Claude Debussy's prelude to "The Afternoon of a Faun" is next on the program, and Jackson simply describes this one as "perfect." This French Impressionistic composer is known for his lush, rich harmonies and beautiful melodies. He wrote the work as a prelude to the reading of Mallarm & eacute;'s poem. "The piece does what it sets out to do, then departs," said Jackson. "The poem is about a faun, thinking about two nymphs, one blonde and one brunette."
"Vintage Barber" is how Jackson describes the next piece, "Medea's Meditation and Dance of Vengeance," written as a ballet, first called "The Serpent Heart," and later, "Cave of the Heart." Both versions were premiered by the Martha Graham Dance Company. "It is the story of Jason and Medea," says Jackson. "First she reflects on events, then you feel her resolution and madness, as she does the terrible deeds."
Soloist
Pianist Bidini will then join the orchestra in a performance of Richard Addinsell's "Warsaw Concerto."
The work was written for the 1941 British film "Dangerous Moonlight," about a Polish pianist living in America who is called to England during World War II and becomes a pilot in a bomber squadron. Addinsell, also British, is known as a composer of film music.
A native of Italy, Bidini has performed with orchestras throughout Europe and North America, and last appeared in Youngstown during the 2003-04 season.
He made his American debut in 1993 at the Atlanta Symphony Orchestral Beethoven Summer Festival, with Yoel Levi conducting the Atlanta Symphony. He has won top awards in 11 piano competitions in Italy and eight international competitions. He is also active as a chamber musician. Jackson describes him as "a fantastic pianist, and warm and engaging person."
Bidini will also perform Franz Liszt's "Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in E-flat Major, No. 1."
"Those who grew up in the midpart of the century were taught to have certain attitudes toward Liszt," said Jackson. "He was considered too flashy and lacking in substance. But we now recognize him as a remarkable innovator and an inspiration to the legacy of virtuosity. This concerto features the triangle, which was revolutionary."
Ballet
The concert will end with two ballet pieces taken from operas: "Dance of the Hours" (dawn, day, evening, night) from Amilcare Ponchielli's "La Gioconda, and the "Bacchanal" (drunken revelry, celebration of heathens) from Camille Saint-Sa & euml;ns' "Sampson and Delilah."
"Audiences in the 19th century expected a ballet somewhere in the course of an opera," Jackson noted. "It was either there as part of the entertainment within the opera, for a reason, or sometimes just stuck in."