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Event
Young People's Symphony Orchestra Spring Concert
Program:
Beckel - Musica Mobilis
Rathje - The Midpoint (World Premiere) and featuring viola soloist Helen Callus
Berlioz - Harold in Italy, First Movement, Helen Callus, soloist
Mahler - Symphony no. 1 "Titan"
Young People's Symphony Orchestra (YPSO) Spring Concert will feature internationally acclaimed violist Helen Callus and music director/conductor David Ramadanoff, and 103 young musicians in a program of Beckel's Musica Mobilis, YPSO alumni Greg Rathje's The Midpoint (world premiere), a selection from Berlioz's Harold in Italy, and Mahler's Symphony No. 1.
The concert will open with James Beckel's Musica Mobilis. James Beckel has been principal trombonist with the Indianapolis Symphony since 1969, and is on the music faculty at DePauw University and the University of Indianapolis. Musica Mobilis was written in 1996 for brass choir, commissioned by the Indianapolis Museum of Art to honor an exhibit by Alexander Calder. Calder, the son and grandson of sculptors, gained world renown for his experiments with large mobiles, or as he called them, "moving sculptures." Beckel drew his specific inspiration from Calder's "Five Pieces Suspended," centering his composition on five basic notes, while simultaneously setting each of them in motion. In a brief but eventful span, the music morphs, mobile-like, through a variety of moods, alternately dramatic, contemplative, and exuberantly energetic.
Greg Rathje is an alumnus of Young People's Symphony Orchestra and was the orchestra's principal violist in his final season in 2011. Rathje is completing his Bachelor of Music in Viola Performance and Composition at University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), and will graduate in June 2015. Currently, he is studying Viola Performance with Professor Helen Callus and Composition with Professors Joel Feigin and Jeremy Haladyna.
Rathje's The Midpoint is an eight-minute piece for solo viola and orchestra. Originally composed for a UCSB ensemble in 2013, the piece didn't get its scheduled premiere, so Rathje contacted his former conductor at YPSO, David Ramadanoff, who agreed to give the world premiere of it. "I was happy to give the world premiere of Greg's piece. He was an excellent instrumentalist during his three years with YPSO, so it's great to be able to show another side of him," says Ramadanoff.
Rathje and Ramadanoff have met several times to go over the piece. "I'm really looking forward to having my old youth orchestra perform it," says Rathje, who grew up in Mill Valley and graduated from Tamalpais High School.
The Midpoint evokes the soul's journey as it transitions from the earthly to the heavenly realm. The solo viola depicts the soul's depth and character by the diversity of register and variations of the main theme in the key of D minor. Inspired by The Divine Comedy by Dante Allegheri, Rathje weaves in elements from the poem.
Rathje, who's won an honors project in composition for The Midpoint, wrote the piece with his viola teacher, Callus, in mind. They have been rehearsing and working on the piece for a couple of months. "She asks questions and respects the process and the idea of what the piece is looking for," says Rathje.
Callus says The Midpoint is a work that showcases the viola beautifully and pushes the limits of virtuosic writing "It is very romantic writing, evocative of its subject but in a style very much individual to Greg and his personality. He has aspirations of becoming a film score composer and there are elements of that genre in this piece too which I think will be obvious to the audience," she says.
Hailed as "one of the world's greatest violists" (American Record Guide), and "one of the foremost violists of her generation" (Fanfare magazine), Helen Callus continues to captivate audiences with her lyrical tone, technical command, and profound artistry. Sought after as a recitalist, chamber musician, and concerto soloist, Ms. Callus has performed with such world-class ensembles as the Tokyo and Juilliard String Quartets and the BBC Concert Orchestra. While maintaining an international concert calendar, Ms. Callus's career also includes distinguished work as an award-winning recording artist. Ms. Callus currently holds the appointment of Professor of Viola at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Ms. Callus
graduated from London's Royal Academy of Music.
Callus will also join YPSO to play the first movement of Berlioz's Harold in Italy. Composed in 1834 at the urging of the virtuoso violinist and composer, Nicholas Paganini, Harold in Italy is a symphony in four movements with solo viola, but is not a virtuoso piece. As a result, Paganini didn't like it and he never played it. Even though it's not virtuosic or a concerto, the piece does demand great skill and sensitivity from the soloist. The music has a youthful vigor to it combined with a Romantic sensibility.
The final work on the program will be Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 1 ("Titan"). This nearly hour-long work that Mahler completed in 1888 is based upon his Songs of a Wayfarer (1885). The poems in the cycle tell a story of a man who, having lost in love, wanders around until at last achieving solace in death expressed metaphorically as falling asleep under a Linden tree. Musically the Wayfarer cycle is crucial to the First Symphony because Mahler reused two of its songs in the symphony. In early performances he referred to the work as a "Symphonic Poem" or "Tone Poem," making certain that listeners remain open to verbal explanations. For one early performance he actually wrote out a specific "program." He named the symphony "Titan" after the novel by Jean Paul because it contained similar moods of gushing youthful Romanticism. He also specified the content of each movement. Overall, Mahler's story took shape as a sequence of experiences: the first two movements progress from youthful springtime to confident adulthood; the last two progress from death to a battle against sorrow.
Celebrating his 26th season as Music Director/Conductor, David Ramadanoff conducts 103 YPSO young musicians who range in age from 12 to 18 and hail from 25 Bay Area cities in five counties.
Founded in Berkeley in 1936, and now in its 78th season, YPSO is the oldest youth orchestra in California and the second oldest in the nation.
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LocationWalnut Creek Presbyterian Church (View)
1801 Lacassie Avenue
Walnut Creek, CA 94596
United States
Categories
| Kid Friendly: Yes! |
| Dog Friendly: No |
| Wheelchair Accessible: Yes! |
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