Anchorage Symphony Presents BACH & BEYOND

On November 12th, award-winning guest conductor Yaniv Attar takes the podium and presents a program of Baroque and Baroque-inspired music. ASO Music

Director Elizabeth Schulze gives her full endorsement. "I hand over the baton to my respected colleague Yaniv Attar. I know the ASO musicians will be in good hands when he takes the podium and introduces Anchorage to Dimitri Murrath, a violist who has been making a name for himself around the globe."

Israel native Attar currently holds the position of Music Director with the Pennsylvania Chamber Orchestra and Bellingham Symphony Orchestra. He is also an Artistic Partner with the Northwest Sinfonietta. With conducting in his sight from an early age, Attar studied worldwide with accomplished mentors, including Israel Edelson in Jerusalem, Virginia Allen at the Juilliard School, and Neil Thomson at the Royal College of Music in London.

Attar isn't the only international star to make his Atwood Concert Hall debut on November 12th. Belgian-American violist Dimitri Murrath has performed around the world; now, he is adding Anchorage to his list.

2014 Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient, Murrath has also received first prize at the Primrose International Viola Competition, second prize at the First Tokyo International Viola Competition, a special award for contemporary work at the ARD Munich Competition, and a fellowship from the Belgian American Educational Foundation. In 2012, he was named laureate of the Juventus Festival, an award recognizing young European soloists.
While Murrath performs repertoire extending from Bach to contemporary music, he is also an avid chamber musician and member of the Boston Chamber Music Society and the Mistral Music. He joins Attar and the Anchorage Symphony for the ASO premiere of Dobrinka Tabakova's Suite in Old Style.

Tabakova's suite was written as an homage to French composer and music theorist Jean-Philippe Rameau and was inspired by a visit to Versailles. Featuring solo viola, string ensemble, and harpsichord, Suite in Old Style depicts glimpses from the everyday life of an 18th-century aristocratic household: hunting, courting in the gardens, dancing, and entertaining in opulent surroundings.

From the sounds of an 18th-century party to the sounds of...bees? This evening of Baroque-inspired music opens with an interesting idea. Arvo Pӓrt answers the question, what would Bach's music have sounded like with bees as the theme? To achieve this effect, Pӓrt combines a new sound with traditional techniques. The piece builds on the letters B-A-C-H (in German, "H" is b-flat). String tremolos imitate the buzzing of bees, with each string section playing a different chord. What we hear is a buzzing cloud of insects that spell out Bach's name.

No Baroque concert can leave off the master himself, Johann Sebastian Bach, this concert includes his Orchestral Suite No. 2 in B minor. Bach was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is consistently listed as one of the greatest composers of all time, and considered a representation of the best of the Baroque era.

Like many of Bach's compositions, the original manuscripts for his four suites have disappeared to time and neglect, leaving it unknown exactly when they were composed. Based on what is known, it is believed he wrote then while living in Cothen, Germany and working for Price Leopold. Under the sponsorship of the appreciative Prince, Bach was the director for an orchestra of 18 musicians while also composing several solo and chamber works. He describes his favorable working conditions as "There I had an amiable prince who knew and loved music and I thought I should end my days with him." However, that wasn't to be. The Prince married a young woman who didn't like music, leaving Bach to move on.

Bach's Orchestral Suite No. 2 includes a virtuosic flute solo which will be performed by the ASO's principal flute, Roxann Berry. The ASO will be performing only the first movement, which opens with a hauntingly elegant rhythm, then moves on to brilliantly display the "butterfly lightness" of the flute. This is Bach's only surviving work for solo flute and orchestra.

Closing out the evening is Franz Schubert's "Mozartian" Symphony No. 5. The twelfth child of a schoolteacher, Franz Schubert grew up in a house filled with music; family members constantly playing one instrument or another. As a young child, Schubert earned a spot in the prestigious Imperial Chapel Boys' School and played the viola. He went on to follow in his Dad's footsteps and became a teacher, a job he hated. Instead of teaching, Schubert spent most days at his desk writing music, completely ignoring his students. After two years of unhappiness he quit teaching and decided to devote his time to composing. Having the time to devote to his passion, Schubert became a prolific composer! Before his 20th birthday, Schubert wrote five symphonies, over one hundred songs, two string quartets, three violin sonatas, and much more!

Even though Mozart had been dead for 25 years, his music was still very popular, and Schubert was obsessed with it. While composing his Symphony No. 5, Schubert wrote, "As from afar the magic notes of Mozart's music still gently haunts me." Characterized as "a pearl of a great piece", Schubert's fifth symphony is filled with beautiful melodies, emotion, and harmonic surprises.

It is hard to believe that this treasure was almost lost to the world. After the initial read-through in 1816, it vanished for over 50 years until two music scholars traveled from Great Britain to Vienna on a quest to find missing Schubert scores. The fifth symphony received its official premiere in 1873 and was finally published in 1885. We can thank this intrepid musical detective duo for finding Schubert's masterpieces, allowing audiences to continue to discover and experience them in concert halls around the world.

Anchorage Symphony's Bach & Beyond, Saturday, November 12, 2022, (7:30pm) in the Atwood Concert Hall, Alaska Center for the Performing Arts. Infrared headphones for the hearing impaired are available concert night from the House Manager on the Orchestra Level. Tickets: Adult, $52-$27; Youth, $24.75-$12.50; Senior, $46.50-$24.50; Streaming Only $39 (prices include all surcharges and fees). Military, student and group discounts available. To purchase tickets, go to www.centertix.com or call 263-ARTS (2787), toll free at 1-877-ARTS- TIX.

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