GIOACCHINO ROSSINI (1792-1868)
Overture to La scala di seta (The Silken Ladder) (1812)
Rossini’s theatrical career was launched at the tender age of 18 with his first one-act farsa comica for the Teatro S. Moisè in Venice in 1810. Commission after commission followed, and within three years he had produced five such comic operas: The Silken Ladder and four 2-act operas for theaters in Milan, Florence, Bologna, and Rome. Over a period of about 20 years, he had created more than 40 operas, becoming the undisputed operatic composer of his time. Though La scala di seta is scarcely known outside of Rossini’s hometown of Pesaro, its overture is a popular curtain raiser at symphony concerts. Full of energy and fun, it gives a taste of the merriment to follow. Like all farces, there are secrets, misunderstandings, and dashing in and out of doors—or in this case, windows, with access provided by the silken ladder of the title. Rossini’s music is a guaranteed crowd-pleaser, thanks to its brilliance, wit, and apparently limitless tunefulness. He was quoted as saying: “Give me a shopping list and I’ll set it to music.” Listen for the ubiquitous Rossini crescendo (as the music gets louder it also goes faster), a device he never tired of using to create excitement.

FELIX MENDELSSOHN (1809-1847)
Symphony No. 4, “Italian” (1833)
For artists, poets, and composers, it was virtually de rigeur to make a grand tour at the conclusion of their studies, and for those from the colder climes of Northern Europe in particular, to search out the beauty of Italy’s sun-drenched landscapes and to experience the joie de vivre of its people. Mendelssohn was no exception. He undertook his coming-of-age travels as a 21-year old and fell in love with Italy—an inevitability. The result is this spirited symphony, one of the most beloved in the repertoire. “It will be the jolliest piece I have ever done, especially the last movement,” he wrote to his sisters. He gave it the nickname “Italian,” but also referred to it once as “blue sky in A major,” something that is obvious from the ebullience of the very first measures. Commentators have provided their interpretations of the various sections, yet these are scarcely important, given the appealing nature of the symphony—Italian or not. By the time you get to the last movement, it will be hard to sit still, and you’ll feel like joining in the saltarello, which he indicated should be played “presto.” The saltarello was a rapid 16th century Neapolitan dance that incorporated lively skips and jumps (from the Italian “saltare”—to jump or hop) in its choreography. An interesting sidelight is that musical impressions were not the only thing the young Mendelssohn brought back from Italy: he also created a number of watercolors and sketches on his sojourn. Fun fact: music from the fast-paced fourth movement made it onto the soundtrack of the 1979 film “Breaking Away.”

ALEXANDER GLAZUNOV (1865-1936)
Violin Concerto (1904)
Glazunov’s rhapsodic Violin Concerto was created at the confluence of a number of events and cultural shifts: around the time of his 40th birthday Glazunov was working on this composition when he was invited to become director of the renowned St. Petersburg Conservatory. It was then that the influence of the no-longer-Mighty Five (the nationalist composers Mussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Borodin, Balakirev, and Cui) was waning, and the influence of Western European music with its long tradition, was gaining strength among a new generation of Russians. In addition, the academic and administrative duties that fell on Glazunov at the Conservatory left him little time for composing. And strangely—or perhaps not so strangely—under these circumstances his creativity went into decline after this gloriously Romantic masterpiece, his most frequently performed work. Though cast in one uninterrupted movement, the work’s three sections correspond to the traditional concerto structure. An exquisitely lyrical virtuoso vehicle that puts soloists through their paces, the work is full of technical feats, including a dazzling cadenza in the second section and digital fireworks at the spectacular conclusion. Glazunov composed the concerto for Leopold Auer, his colleague at the Conservatory, but it was premiered by the legendary Mischa Elman in London’s Queen’s Hall. In 1928 Glazunov took a leave from the Conservatory and toured as a conductor, even visiting the United States. He died in Paris in 1936, never to return to his native country; but in 1972 his remains were reburied in St. Petersburg’s Lazarus Cemetery.

JOHANN STRAUSS, JR. (1825-1899)
On the Beautiful Blue Danube Waltz (1867)
An oft-told anecdote about Johann Strauss, Jr. is connected to Brahms. When Adele Strauss (third wife of Johann) asked for Brahms’s autograph, he inscribed her fan with the opening notes of On the Beautiful Blue Danube and the words: “Leider nicht von Brahms” (“Unfortunately not by Brahms”). It shows the esteem in which the Waltz King was held by not just the public, but also fellow composers. Numbering in the hundreds, Strauss’s waltzes had all of Austria Hungary and the crowned heads of Europe waltzing—a dance craze probably never surpassed. The Blue Danube Waltz had been commissioned as a choral waltz (with forgettable lyrics by the Society’s designated poet, Joseph Weyl) by the Vienna Men’s Choral Society. It was premiered by the group with accompaniment provided courtesy of Rudolf Weinwurm conducting the Forty-Second Imperial Infantry Regiment orchestra, which happened to be stationed in Vienna.Though not an immediate success at its 1867 premiere, when it was reintroduced without the silly words at the Paris World Fair later that year, it took le tout monde by storm. And even the crotchety Austrian critic Eduard Hanslick allowed that “we now have a popular hymn that sings the glory of our country to stand beside the national anthem that Haydn wrote.” It is one of the traditional encores performed by the Vienna Philharmonic at its annual New Year’s Day concerts. Like most of Strauss’s waltzes, The Blue Danube Waltz consists of a slow introduction, a series of independent waltzes, and a coda. The introduction shimmers with the sound of violins, above which a French horn hints at the unforgettable melodies to come. One gorgeous tune follows another and leads to the exhilarating conclusion. Curiously, the original text, which was a satirical poem about Austria’s defeat by Prussia, did not mention the Danube River, and Strauss himself created the title from words he found in a different poem. When the waltz is sung today, Franz von Gernerth’s replacement text of 1890 is used. Popular culture has paid homage to Strauss’s masterpiece in three-quarter time: its elegant melody is the music of the spheres in Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Lorin Maazel, who has led more than 150 orchestras in more than 5,000 opera and concert performances, became Music Director of the New York Philharmonic in September 2002. His appointment came 60 years after his debut with the Orchestra at Lewisohn Stadium, then the Orchestra’s summer venue. As Music Director he has conducted seven World Premiere–NewYork Philharmonic Commissions, including the Pulitzer Prize– and Grammy Award–winning On the Transmigration of Souls by John Adams; Stephen Hartke’s Symphony No. 3; and Melinda Wagner’s Trombone Concerto. He has led cycles of works by Brahms, Beethoven, and Tchaikovsky; and he conducted the Orchestra’s inaugural performances in the DG Concerts series — a groundbreaking initiative to offer downloadable New York Philharmonic concerts exclusively on iTunes.

Mr. Maazel has taken the Orchestra on numerous international tours, including the historic visit to Pyongyang, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, in February 2008 — the first performance there by an American orchestra, and an event watched around the world. Other recent tours have included Asia 2008 — to Taipei, Kaohsiung, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Beijing; the May 2007 Tour of Europe; the November 2006 visit to Japan and Korea; the Philharmonic Tour of Italy in June 2006, sponsored by Generali; the two-part 75th Anniversary European Tour to thirteen cities in five countries in the fall of 2005; and residencies in Cagliari, Sardinia, and at the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival in Colorado.

In addition to the New York Philharmonic, Mr. Maazel is music director of the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia in Valencia, Spain. A frequent conductor on the world’s operatic stages, he returned to The Metropolitan Opera in January 2008 for the first time in 45 years to conduct Wagner’s Die Walküre.

Prior to his tenure as New York Philharmonic Music Director, Mr. Maazel led more than 100 performances of the Orchestra as a guest conductor. He served as music director of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (1993–2002), and has held positions as music director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (1988–96); general manager and chief conductor of the Vienna Staatsoper (1982–84); music director of The Cleveland Orchestra (1972–82); and artistic director and chief conductor of the Deutsche Oper Berlin (1965–71). He is an honorary member of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and an honorary member of the Vienna Philharmonic. On February 17, 2009, he will be named a Commander of the Legion of Honor by the government of France.

A second-generation American, born in Paris, Mr. Maazel was raised and educated in the United States. He took his first violin lesson at age five, and first conducting lesson at seven. Between ages 9 and 15 he conducted most of the major American orchestras. In 1953 he made his European conducting debut in Catania, Italy.

Mr. Maazel is also an accomplished composer. His opera, 1984, received its world premiere on May 3, 2005, at London’s Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. It was revived in the 2007–08 season at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, and has been released on DVD by Decca.

JAMES EHNES
Violin, born in 1976 in Brandon, Manitoba/Canada
It’s not everyone who shares a birthday with Mozart, but James Ehnes does. To celebrate the composer’s 250th birthday along with his own 30th, the violinist released a recording of Mozart’s complete works for violin and orchestra: the five Violin Concertos, the Adagio, K. 261, the Rondo K. 269, and the Rondo K. 373. About this “dream project” he says: “I had a lot of help from a lot of people. I was able to put together my own orchestra, order the music—everything, even make the hotel reservations for everyone to come to Toronto!” He’s looking forward very much to playing the Glazunov Violin Concerto and is honored that Maestro Maazel invited him to be the soloist. “I think it’s one of his favorites because it has some very special associations with his own career.” The Concerto is tricky to put together—“it requires a close rapport between soloist and conductor in terms of balances and interpretation, and it has a lot of notes!” Yet the work is “friendly for the audience. It’s immediately appealing, even if you’ve never heard it before.” James Ehnes’s debut with the Philharmonic a couple of years ago was a momentous occasion, because he not only played before an audience of 45,000 people in Central Park, but right afterwards he proposed to his then-girlfriend, now-wife, Kate, in view of TV cameras. In his free time he’s been reading The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro; and Wagner’s Ring is loaded on his CD player. James Ehnes plays the “Ex Marsick” Stradivarius of 1715 and gratefully acknowledges its extended loan from the Fulton Collection.

“James Ehnes makes a simply glorious sound.” The Strad