McMaster Symphony Orchestra LEE HEPNER, Conductor VALERIE TRYON, Piano HAMILTON PLACE Sunday, February 7, lg82 8:00 p.m. The Performins ""tr' hifs-'" Wry the perlorming arts. But below the surface there is a reason. Persuasive, honest, even No one's work, however worthwhile and satisfying, can fulfillthe need for the refined expression we callarl And fulfilled men and women are npt only more satislied members of a community, they are more idealistic. satisfied individuals. On the surface, there might seem little reason for a big company such as Westinghouse Canada to support Westinghouse Canada A powerful part of your life. PROGRAMME Barber Adagio for Strings Edvard Grieg . Concerto for Piano and Orchestra I Atlegro molto moderato ll Adagio lll Allegro moderato e marcato - Andante maesfoso Samuel INTERMISSIOIN Johannes I ll lll Brahms lV Un poco sostenufo Symphony No. 1 in C minor - Allegro Andante sostenufo Un poco allegretto e grazioso Adagio - Piu Andante Piu Allegro - Allegro non troppo, ma con brio - Tonight's Guest Artist VALERIE TRYON's career as a concert pianist began when she was still a child. Before she was twelve she had broadcast for the BBC, and was appearing regularly before the public on the concert platform. As a scholarship student at the Royal Academy of Music she won many prizes, receiving the highest award that is conferred on a performer and the coveted Boise Scholarship which took her to Paris for study with Jacques Fdvrier. She won a prize at the '1956 Liszt competition in Budapest and since then she has been particularly associated with Liszt's music. Miss Tryon now gives many recitals in Europe and North America and she has appeared with some of the leading orchestras in the world. ln 1967 she was presented with the Harriet Cohen Award in recognition of her service to music. She broadcasts regularly on CBC and BBC radio. ln 1980 she gave recitals at the prestigious CBC Chopin Festival and at the University of Maryland lnternational Piano Festival and Competion. Miss Tryon is Artist-in-Residence at McMaster University. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The f.rlcMaster Syrrrphony Orchestra gratefully acknowledges the support of the Hooker Fund for Cultural Activities, the Ontario Arts Council, the Ministry of Culture and Recreation through a Wintario Grant, the City ol Hamilton, Mohawk College, Dofasco, Westinghouse, Firestone, the Spectator, the McMaster Printing Department, and the Hamilton Musicians' Guild. YOU MAY HAVE WONDERED Patrons who have followed the McMaster Symphony since its early years probably wonder how some of the talented players are faring after moving to other parts of the country and the world. Wecan reportthat French horn playerJlM MOFFAT is presentlywiththe German Opera on the Rhine in Dijsseldorf, West Germany, and was considered one of the top candidates for a chair in the Berlin Philharmonic. Trombonist PAUL HYMAN is with the Symphony Orchestra of Hong Kong while clarinetist PAULINE O'CONNOR HAYWARD is playing with Symphony London, and cellist JEFF GARRETT is artist-in-residence with the lnternational Symphony of Sarnia and Port Huron. Tuba player ARTHUR LAPP was recently joined in the Thunder Bay Symphony by trombonist GEORGE BEHR. KARL SHIER plays viola with the Sault Symphony Orchestra. Now in the ranks of the Hamilton Philharmonic are NANCY BOURDON and MARGOT JEWELL and JULIAN KNIGHT is with the Canadian Opera. We wish these and all other former members success in their careers. Music and medicine often go hand in hand. This year six members of the orchestra are either practicing or studying for the medical profession. They are: CATHERINE EPLETT, KONG ENG KHOO, JANET SAUNDERSON, HOWARD TAYNEN, PAUL WHANG, ANd HOMER YANG. One of the orchestra's busy music teachers, timpanist BONNIE QUINN, is off in Florida conducting a tour of the Westdale Secondary School Band. Along with other new members we welcome ULRICH MAIER-HARTH from Tirbingen, West Germany, who is on a post doctoral fellowship in the Geology Department and has brought his violin as well as his hammer. McMASTER UNIVERSITY ART GALLERY presenfs THANATOPSIS: IMAGES OF DEATH IN EUROPEAN GRAPHICS January 28- February 18,1982 PAINTINGS OF IMPERIAL AND PRINCELY INDIA March 21,1982 February 22 - GALLERY LOCATION: Togo Salmon Hall (East) Room 114 6ALLERY HoURS: yff:|U IH.,l;' '?-3 SundayAfternoon 1-5 Programme Notes Samuel Barber (1910 - 1981) Adagio for Strings, Opus 11 (1936). Many young boys want to leave their music practice and go out and play ball! Samuel Barber was not one of them. Barber began his piano lessons at six and at seven he wrote with his mother's help, his first composition. His parents encouraged him to take part in sports like other boys, but 8-year-old Samuel wrote to them, "To begin with, I was not meant to be an athelet [sic] I was meant to be a composer, and will be, I'm sure. Don't ask me to try to forget this and go and play foot-ball. P/ease. Sometimes l've been worrying about this so much that it makes me mad! (not very)", Samuel Barber took cello lessons for a few years but his first love was the piano. At the age of 14 he was accepted as a charter student of the Curtis lnstitute of Music, an institution founded in 1924 to provide a quality musical education for serious students. At the age of 18 Barber was one of the top students, specializing in the study of piano, composition and singing. Graduating in May 1934 with his Bachelor of Music, he found himself in the predicament ol having to earn a living at the height of the depression. Although he had a fine baritone voice, he discovered that there was no market for the kind of music he liked to sing and teaching involved so much time that liltle was left for composition. Fortunately his special gift for composition won him a Pulitzer Travelling Scholarship and the Prlx de Rome, enabling him to travel to Europe where he spent the years 1935 - 36. His string quartet was written while he was staying at a little lodge in the woods near Salzburg. ln October 1937 theAdagio of the string quartet was arranged for string orchestra, and premiered by Toscanini with the NBC Symphony Orchestra in New York November 5, 1938. Edvard Grieg (1 843-1 907) Concerto in A minor for Piano and Orchestra, Opus 16 (1868). Some youngsters play "hookey". Edvard Grieg was just such a boy. He must have found it difficult to concentrate on the strict, routine lessons of a schoolroom when his constant desire was to make music. He was always surrounded by music for his mother was a talented pianist who frequently played solos for the orchestral concerts at Bergen, the city of his birth. Her favourite music was by the romantic composer Weber, but she played many pieces by Chopin. lt is, perhaps, not surprising that Grieg's own talent for lyricism would earn him the title of "Chopin of the North". He recalls, while exploring the piano at five, how satisfying it was to discover that there was such a wonderful thing as harmony. "My happiness knew no bounds." When he took his first composition to school to show a friend, it was confiscated by his schoolmaster and later burned. He was able to leave school when the celebrated Norwegian violinist, Ole Bull, urged that Grieg be sent to the Leipzig Conservatory which was founded by Mendelssohn and steeped in the teachings of Schumann. He worked hard at the Conservatory, but a severe case of pleurisy which destroyed his left lung left his health in a precarious state for the rest of his life. For his graduation recital in 1862, he played his Four Pieces for piano - and thus he began his career as composer and pianist. Norway had been under the domination of Denmark for three hundred years, but in 1814 Sweden took over its rule and returned many freedoms. During the next century, the Norse tried to eliminate all traces of Danish influence and to build a truly Norwegian culture. ln 1864 Grieg formed a pact with Richard Nordraak, a very talented young composer, to produce a music that embodied the Norwegian spirit. However Nordraak died two yers later leaving Grieg on his own to fulfill this mission. lnthe Piano Concerto Grieg has skillfully combined folk-tune types of melodies and dance rhythms with his own gift of lyricism and harmony to produce a personal work of art that we recognize as authentically Norwegian. The Allegro moderato combines agressive rhythms with the richness of Romantic harmony and melody. The muted-string opening ot lhe Adagio is beautifully expressive. The fiery closing A//egro features two Norwegian dance rhythms: a strongly accentedhalling and a triple-timedspringdans. The closing measures are special, for an absolutely new idea is hammered out on the piano before the final sweeping flourish when piano and orchestra come together for the last emphatic chords. Johannes Brahms Symphony No. 1 in (1 C 833-1 897) minor, Opus 68 (1855- 76) One of Brahms' loves was his tin soldiers. Even at the age of twenty-eight he would parade his childhood collection for interested friends. Much later in life he enjoyed lining up the armies that belonged to his landlady's children. The meticulous concern for detail that this form of play requires is a characteristic found in Brahms' music. His father Jakob, an itinerant double bass and French horn player, barely earned a living by performing in several bands. When Johannes was six, Jakob decided that it was time for his son to learn to play an orchestal instrument. On his lirst attempt to teach Johannes his notes, Jakob discovered that his son had perfect pitch: with his back to the piano he could name the notes as his father played them. Discovering also that his son wanted to play the piano, Jakob sent him to a competent, understanding teacher. Within a very short time Johannes was considered an infant prodigy. An opportunity to tour America was turned down as Eduard Maxsen, the best musician in Hamburg took Brahms as his student. During these years abject poverty haunted Brahms, who supported himself by playing dances in a waterfront beer-hall. ln the meantime Marxsen taught Brahms the works of Bach and Beethoven, masters whose works had the marks of expert craftsmanhip. Because such craft was apparent in his own compositions, Brahms was able to break out of his poverty. He began a tour as accompanist to Remenyi, a famous Hungarian violinist. On this tour he met such renowned and influential people as Joachim, Liszt and Schumann. Schumann rec- ognized Brahms' unusual talents and published an article "New Path", proclaiming his genius. Whenever opportunity presented itself, Brahms played his own works, particulary his First Piano Sonafa. The high praise of Schumann and other critics made the role of composer difficult for Brahms, for he knew his compositions would be compared to those of Beethoven. "You don't know what it feels to be dogged by that Giant", he confided to a friend. After writing other orchestral works to prepare himself for his task, Brahms composed his Flrst Symphony (1855-76), a mastqrpiece combining fate and tragedy with heroism and hope. The first movement, opening with a pounding tympani, is epic in scope and character. The second movement glows warmly as solos for oboe, clarinet and violin rise above the resplendent colours of the orchestra. A gentle respite from the intensity of the firsl two movements is offered by the third, joyous in its simplicity. The opening of the fourth movement is a reminder of the first movement's conflict, but soon an Alpine horn solo leads directly into a confident hymn of victory. Programme notes by Donna Takayesu Looking ahead Hamilton Place Sunday, April 4,1982 MoMASTER SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Lee Hepner, Conductor MOHAWK COLLEGE SINGERS Patricia Rolston, Director Catherine Robbin, Mezzo soprano Beethoven Symphony No. 5 Mahler Elgar Tickets$7.00 Songs of a Wayfarer The Music Makers Studentsandseniors$3.50 MoMASTER SYMPHONY CHAMBER PLAYERS Stanley Saunde ts, Guest Con d u ctot Friday, March 12,8:00 p.m. Convocation Hall, McMaster Universtiy Sunday, March 14,2:00 p.m. Art Gallery of Hamilton Free Admission For information and tickets call 525-9140 Ext. 4701 McMASTER SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Conductor, Lee Hepner VIOLIN Mikhail Brat Concert Master David Arthurs** Susan Bellingham Mariano De Benedictis Jennifer Foster Carol Lynn Fujino-Olga Hencher Alex lnglis Ken Jeffrey Bernard Klein Allan Laurie Lambert Loh Ulrich Maier-Harth Deborah Peace Henry Schwarcz David Shin lan Thompson Helen TobiasHelen Van Geest Susan Van Geest Paul Whang Tom Wilmot CELLO Peggy Butler Agnes Frebold Hendrik Medri Mark Russom Howard Taynen Ann Vallentyne lsaak Zis" Peter Kilpatrick Dennis Rondeau Janet Saunderson Sherri Wakabayashi Sidney Wood Bohdan Wyshniowsky* FLUTE Linda Elder Ryan ScottWendy Wagg Prccolo Norma Beattie-Graydon Nancy Elbeck. CLARINET Gary Cauchi- Principal HORN Michael Hindrichs Geoffrey Leader* Peter Macdonald Shelagh McElroy TRUMPET Mark Dharmaratnam Graham Young* TROMBOME Elizabeth Doull Robin McCubbin. Christopher Murdoch TIMPANI Christopher Winkle PERCUSSION Robert Thorpe Ernest Porthouse Bonnie Quinn MANAGER Agnes Frebold LIBRARIAN Dorothy Farquharson PERSONNEL MANAGER Graham Young PROPERTIES William Rolfe Ralph Frebold -* Assistant Concert Master . CONTRA BASSOON Jeannie Martire TUBA Gordon Maitland Linda Elder OBOE Terry Ball Donna Bird Lorraine Dargavel* Catherine Eplett Kong Eng Khoo Alison Sawatzky Alex Singer Glenn Welbourn Doris O'Dell Mits Takayesu BASS Homer Yang VIOLA BASSOON TilBn Geegt HOUSE OF PIANOS INC. We have a reason For selling Kawai pianos. Its because we like dealing with a manufacturer that's been around for a long, long time. In 1899 Mr. Koichi Kawai made Japan's first piano. Today Kawai has the largest grand piano factory in the world. l2 factories employing 6300 people are building upright and grand pianos with exports to more than 70 countries. Selected woods are used, much of it grown in Canada and bought from the Lemire Lumber Co. in Sherbrooke, Quebec. KAWAI MODEL KG5 6'8" ARTIST GRAND Who buys Kawai pianos? Professional pianists, music teachers, concert halls, universities, schoolboards, music colleges and conservatories, entertainers, churches, etc. Countless homes, many people reading this already own a Kawai piano. Why Should you buy a Kawai piano from us? The Van Geest name has been associated with the pleno_IryrnL ryrvice for over 23 years, longer than any other piano dealer in the greater Hamilton area. KAWAI 0.i,.#?,lT"T"'" HWY. #5 JUST WEST OF WATERDOWN (416) 689-6833 TItGRANDSPIRnoF ^OREAT PERFORMANCE Of{E hundred years ago, Hamilton's first theatre opened. The Grand Opera House (later called The Grenada) was the product of Hamilton's growing love of theatre. The Grand's construction in 1880 at fames and Gore Streets confirmed Hamilton as an important theatre town. From her stage Al folson sang; Oscar Wilde lectured; Tyrone Power Sr., the Barryrmores, Sarah Bernhardt and hun- dreds more performed. The sophistication of our audience may have rivalled New Yorlis in one critic's mind. The curtain lowered in 1961 and the building was demolished. But in this city, curtains have always gone up. The Grand's spirit of great perforrnance lives on. DOFASCO 0ur product is steel. 0ur strength is people.