Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Presents Festival Honoring American Composers

The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra will present a four week "American Originals" festival, celebrating music written by American and European composers while living in America. The festival opens with a program of works by Bernstein, Barber and Rachmaninov on Thursday, October 30, 2008, and concludes with the Atlanta debut of a concert-staged production of John Adams' Dr. Atomic on Sunday, November 23, 2008.

In concerts led by Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Music Director Robert Spano, ASO Principal Guest Conductor Donald Runnicles, and guest conductor Leonard Slatkin, returning to the ASO for the first time since 1975, the festival features music by American composers John Adams, John Corigliano, Aaron Copland, and George Gershwin, as well as Barber, Rachmaninov, Bartók, and Dvo?ák.

"Great music has been written in our country by American composers, by visiting composers, and by composers who immigrated here," explains ASO Music Director Robert Spano. "We're tremendously excited to share this rich repertoire of our country's music."

Program I

October 30-31 and November 1, 2008, at 8:00 p.m., Mr. Slatkin will open the festival with a program of Bernstein's "Jeremiah" Symphony with mezzo-soprano Kelley O'Connor, Barber's Piano Concerto with Garrick Ohlsson as soloist, and Rachmaninov's Symphonic Dances.

Repertoire

Leonard Bernstein's "Jeremiah" Symphony is a musical depiction of the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians. The work is in three movements, all featuring references to Jewish liturgical music. The final movement features a mezzo-soprano soloist, reciting text from the Book of Lamentations.

Samuel Barber's Piano Concerto was commissioned by G. Schirmer in celebration of the music publishing firm's 100th anniversary. Barber composed the work for the American pianist, John Browning (1933-2003). Browning was the soloist in the Concerto's premiere, which took place on September 24, 1962, as part of the opening week of New York's Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. Browning played the concerto in Atlanta two years later.

Sergei Rachmaninov initially scored his Symphonic Dances for two pianos, before completing the orchestration in the autumn of 1940. He dedicated the work to conductor Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra, who gave the premiere of the Symphonic Dances on January 3, 1941. The initial critical reception was not enthusiastic. However, in time, Rachmaninov's Symphonic Dances have become widely admired as the composer's finest orchestral work. Rachmaninov himself was rather surprised by his accomplishment, observing, "I don't know how it happened, it must have been my last spark."

Artists

With the 2008-09 season, American conductor Leonard Slatkin became the 12th Music Director of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. He also serves as Principal Guest Conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. Maestro Slatkin completed his 12th and final season as Music Director of the National Symphony Orchestra in 2007-2008. Mr. Slatkin continues as Principal Guest Conductor of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Music Advisor to the Nashville Symphony Orchestra. His performances throughout North America, Europe and the Far East have been distinguished by imaginative programming and highly praised interpretations of both the standard and contemporary symphonic repertoire. Additionally, he is well known for his arts advocacy work on behalf of music education.

Kelley O'Connor is a Grammy® Award-winning mezzo-soprano. During the 2008-09 season, the California native's calendar includes Bernstein's Symphony No. 1, "Jeremiah," with Marin Alsop and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra as well as her ASO performance with Leonard Slatkin; the world premiere of Steven Stucky's August 4, 1964 with Jaap van Zweden and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra; Mendelssohn's Elias with Ingo Metzmacher and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin; Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with James Conlon and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at the Ravinia Festival; and Schubert's Mass No. 6 in E-flat Major with Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. She returns to the New York Philharmonic for L'Enfant et les sortileges, with Lorin Maazel, and to Carnegie Hall for Ainadamar with ASO Music Director Robert Spano and the Orchestra of St. Luke's.

Pianist Garrick Ohlsson has come to be noted for his performances of the works of Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert, as well as the Romantic repertoire. In the 2008-09 season, Mr. Ohlsson will appear in North America with the symphony orchestras of Atlanta, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, and the National Symphony Orchestra, among others. He performs Prokofiev's Fifth Piano Concerto with Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony in San Francisco followed by a west coast tour including Seattle and Los Angeles' Disney Hall. Along with pianist Yoko Nozaki, Mr. Ohlsson will reprise their performances with Mark Morris Dance Group in the critically acclaimed "Mozart Dances"; and with contralto Ewa Podles, he will embark on a tour of North America to be followed by a Winter 2008 release of their live-recorded recital from London's Wigmore Hall. A solo recital project focusing on the piano music of Scriabin and Russian contemporaries which began in San Francisco and San Diego in the spring 2008 will continue through the 08/09 season and includes performances at the 92nd Street Y and London's 02 Arena. In Europe, Mr. Ohlsson performs with the Salzburg Mozarteum and Hugh Wolff, the Halle Orchestra with both Mark Elder and John Elliot Gardener, and the Deutsche Symphony Berlin.

Program II

November 6-7, 2008, at 8:00 p.m., Mr. Spano will lead the Orchestra in Copland's Appalachian Spring. Also on the program is Barber's Violin Concerto with Joshua Bell as soloist, and Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra. Appalachian Spring replaces the previously scheduled world premiere of a new symphonic work by Wynton Marsalis, American Symphony, which has been postponed until the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra's 2009-10 season.

Repertoire

Aaron Copland's ballet score, Appalachian Spring was premiered in October 1944, and achieved widespread popularity as an orchestral suite. The ballet, originally scored for a thirteen-member chamber orchestra, was created at the request of choreographer and dancer Martha Graham and commissioned by Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge. While writing the work over the course of a year, Copland wrote that it was somewhat foolish to do as a ballet and its corresponding scores were historically short-lived. Copland was awarded the 1945 Pulitzer Prize for Music for the ballet. The story told is a spring celebration of the American pioneers of the 1800s after building a new Pennsylvania farmhouse. Among the central characters are a newlywed couple, a neighbor, a revivalist preacher and his followers.

Samuel Barber's Concerto for Violin and Orchestra was the product of the first major commission for the composer. The commission was from Samuel Fels, a wealthy American businessman who served on the board of trustees of Barber's alma mater, the Curtis Institute of Music. Fels intended the Concerto to serve as a vehicle for his protégé, the young Odessa-born violinist Iso Briselli.

Béla Bartók composed his Concerto for Orchestra during a period of overwhelming adversity and despair. In October of 1940, Bartók and his wife left Hungary to escape the Nazis. During the journey to the United States, the composer wrote that the Concerto for Orchestra was the resurrection of a man who had "lost all (his) faith in men, nations, everything. The general mood of the work represents, apart from the jesting second movement, a gradual transition from the sternness of the first movement and the lugubrious death-song of the third, to the life-assertion of the last one."

Artists

Music Director Robert Spano, now in his eighth season as music director of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, is recognized internationally as one of the most imaginative conductors of his generation. Since 2001 he has invigorated and expanded the Orchestra's repertoire while elevating the ensemble to new levels of international prominence and acclaim. Earlier this season, Mr. Spano conducted and recorded the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in Puccini's La Bohème, the first American recording of the opera since 1956. It is slated for release on July 22, 2008 in conjunction with the semi-staged performance he will lead at Verizon Wireless Amphitheater at Encore Park. Mr. Spano also champions the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra's musical atmosphere "Theater of a Concert." Reflecting Mr. Spano's commitment to living composers through the Atlanta School of Composers, he recently conducted John Adams's Dr. Atomic at Chicago Lyric Opera, Osvaldo Golijov's Ainadamar at the Barbican Centre and Michael Gandolfi's Impressions of the Garden of Cosmic Speculation (commissioned and recorded by the ASO) with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and BBC Scottish. Also an accomplished opera conductor, Mr. Spano has appeared with Chicago and Houston, as well as Santa Fe Opera, Royal Opera at Covent Garden and Welsh National Opera. In 2005 he conducted three cycles of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen at the Seattle Opera and was immediately re-engaged to lead the company's next Ring cycles in 2009. Robert Spano was recently named Musical America's 2008 Conductor of the Year.

Joshua Bell came to national attention at the age of 14 in an orchestral debut with Riccardo Muti and the Philadelphia Orchestra. A Carnegie Hall debut, an Avery Fisher Career Grant, and a recording contract further confirmed his presence in the music world. Today he is equally at home as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestra leader and his restless curiosity and multifaceted musical interests have taken him in exciting new directions that has earned him the rare title of "classical music superstar." In addition to his concert career, Bell enjoys chamber music collaborations with artists such as Pamela Frank, Steven Isserlis and Edgar Meyer as well as occasional collaborations with artists outside the classical arena, having shared the stage with Josh Groban, James Taylor and Sting.

Program III

November 13, 14, and 16, 2008. at 8:00 p.m, Mr. Runnicles will lead the Orchestra in the Atlanta premiere of John Corigliano's Percussion Concerto featuring Evelyn Glennie as soloist, for whom the work was written. Also on the program is Dvo?ák's Symphony No. 9 and Gershwin's Cuban Overture.

Repertoire

In February 1932, American composer George Gershwin and some of his friends vacationed in Havana, where they spent "two hysterical weeks in Cuba, where no sleep was had." Gershwin was fascinated by the popular music he heard in Havana, and in particular, its use of exotic percussion instruments. Gershwin took several of these instruments back with him to New York, and incorporated them into an orchestral work he originally entitled Rumba. On August 16, 1932, Rumba premiered at New York's outdoor Lewisohn Stadium, as part of an all-Gershwin concert. For Gershwin, "it was the most exciting night I ever had." Gershwin later renamed Rumba the Cuban Overture.

John Corigliano was the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra's Composer of the Year for the 2007-2008 season. The Pittsburgh Symphony performed the world premiere of Mr. Corigliano's Percussion Concerto, Conjurer. The soloist was Evelyn Glennie, for whom the Pittsburgh Symphony and five other international orchestras commissioned the work.

When Antonin Dvo?ák arrived in America, he began to study the folk traditions of the "New World." Dvo?ák concluded that America's great folk music tradition was based in the music of African-Americans. He said, "The character, the very nature of a race is contained in its national music. For that reason my attention was at once turned in the direction of these native melodies...It is this spirit which I have tried to reproduce in my new Symphony ("The New World")."

Artists

Principal Guest Conductor Donald Runnicles is now in the eighth year of his Creative Partnership with ASO Music Director Robert Spano and ASO President and CEO Allison Vulgamore. Mr. Runnicles's recordings with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra include a concert disc with soprano Christine Brewer singing Strauss and Wagner, and next season, they will work together on a new Strauss disc. With the ASO, Mr. Runnicles has also recorded the Mozart Requiem, Orff's Carmina Burana, and Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. In 2009, Mr. Runnicles becomes General Music Director of the Deutsche Oper Berlin and Principal Conductor of the BBC Scottish Orchestra. Mr. Runnicles has been Music Director and Principal Conductor of the San Francisco Opera since 1992, and is Music Director of the Grand Teton Music Festival. He has ongoing musical relationships with today's finest orchestras and opera companies, most recently conducting the Metropolitan Opera's new production of Peter Grimes. Among the more than 60 productions he has conducted at the San Francisco Opera was the 2005 world premiere of John Adams's Doctor Atomic.

Dame Evelyn Glennie is the first person in musical history to successfully create and sustain a full-time career as a solo percussionist. As one of the most eclectic and innovative musicians on the scene today, she is constantly redefining the goals and expectations of percussion. By combining superb technique, a profound appreciation of the visual and her astonishing musicality, Ms. Glennie creates performances of such vitality that they almost constitute a new type of performance. For the first ten years of her career virtually every performance she gave was in some way a first - the first time an orchestra had performed with a percussion soloist, the first solo percussion performance at a venue or festival or the world premiere of a new piece. Her collaborations have included performances with artists such as Nana Vasoncelos, Kodo, Bela Fleck, Bjork, Bobby McFerrin, Emanuel Ax, Sting and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

Program IV

Closing the festival on November 21 and 23, 2008, at 8:00 p.m., Mr. Spano will lead the Atlanta debut of a new concert-staged production of John Adams's Dr. Atomic starring baritone Gerald Finley (Robert Oppenheimer) with soprano Jessica Rivera (Kitty Oppenheimer), contralto Meredith Arwady (Pasqualita, the nurse), tenor Thomas Glenn (Robert Wilson), tenor Richard Clement (Captain James Nolan), baritone James Maddalena (Jack Hubbard), baritone Richard Paul Fink (Dr. Edward Teller), bass Eric Owens (General Leslie Groves), and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. The director is James Alexander.

This performance marks a long-time collegial relationship between composer John Adams and Mr. Spano who have collaborated on many works and performances over the years, including the recent performance of Dr. Atomic with the Chicago Lyric Opera, during the 2007-2008 season.

Repertoire

Although John Adams was originally characterized as a member of the minimalist school of composition (an approach distinguished by its harmonic consonance and repetition of motifs), his music has developed into an art rich in harmony, rhythm, and instrumental sonorities that are his alone. Dr. Atomic explores the events leading up to the first atomic blast in Los Alamos, and takes us into the minds of Dr. Robert Oppenheimer and his colleagues as they deal with the consequences of their invention.

Music Director Robert Spano, now in his eighth season as music director of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, is recognized internationally as one of the most imaginative conductors of his generation. Since 2001 he has invigorated and expanded the Orchestra's repertoire while elevating the ensemble to new levels of international prominence and acclaim. Earlier this season, Mr. Spano conducted and recorded the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in Puccini's La Bohème, the first American recording of the opera since 1956. It is slated for release on July 22, 2008 in conjunction with the semi-staged performance he will lead at Verizon Wireless Amphitheater at Encore Park. Mr. Spano also champions the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra's musical atmosphere "Theater of a Concert." Reflecting Mr. Spano's commitment to living composers through the Atlanta School of Composers, he recently conducted John Adams's Dr. Atomic at Chicago Lyric Opera, Osvaldo Golijov's Ainadamar at the Barbican Centre and Michael Gandolfi's Impressions of the Garden of Cosmic Speculation (commissioned and recorded by the ASO) with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and BBC Scottish. Also an accomplished opera conductor, Mr. Spano has appeared with Chicago and Houston, as well as Santa Fe Opera, Royal Opera at Covent Garden and Welsh National Opera. In 2005 he conducted three cycles of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen at the Seattle Opera and was immediately re-engaged to lead the company's next Ring cycles in 2009. Robert Spano was recently named Musical America's 2008 Conductor of the Year.

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