CARLOS CHÁVEZ (1899-1978)
Symphony No. 2, “Sinfonía india”
Carlos Chávez’s name is synonymous with Mexican music. He came of age during the Mexican Revolution—an event that dominated his life as an artist and identified him as a Mexican nationalist composer. Unlike the music written by his countrymen, steeped in the European classical traditions, Chávez’s interest lay in indigenous music and culture as a way of invigorating Mexican music and bringing it to the attention of the wider world. “We have found ourselves by going back to the cultural traditions of the Indian racial stock that still accounts for four-fifths of the people of Mexico,” he said. His Second Symphony, composed in one movement and subtitled “Sinfonía india,” harks back to the melodies collected from Yaqui, Seri, and Huichol Indians (Aztecs), though his understanding of the latter was less literal than inspirational. A skilled orchestrator, his scoring of the symphony includes native percussion instruments, such as Indian drum, water gourd or tenor drum, soft rattle called Tenabari (a string of butterfly cocoons), Teponaxtle or xylophone, hard rattle called Grijutian (a string of deer hoofs), Tlapanhuehuetl (bass drum), and Raspador Yaqi or rasping stick. The music itself is an exciting mix of cross-rhythms, irregular meters, duple and triple rhythms, motoric drive—primitive and earthy. In the final section, listen for a theme that’s repeated over and over with different and increasing numbers of voices in the orchestra (think Ravel’s Bolero) propelling it to a spectacular conclusion.

ANTONÍN DVORÁK (1841-1904)
Violin Concerto (1879, rev. 1880 and 1882)
A beloved staple of the repertoire today, Dvorák’s masterpiece had a difficult birth. He had decided to undertake a violin concerto, inspired by Brahms’s Violin Concerto, premiered by Joseph Joachim in 1879. Both Brahms and Joachim were among the young Dvorák’s champions, along with Brahms’ publisher Simrock, and the critic Eduard Hanslick. As had been the case with Brahms, Joachim was actively involved in the creation of Dvorák’s concerto—no doubt to the ultimate frustration of the composer. Though Dvorák had studied violin and even performed as a member of the Czech National Theater orchestra, he welcomed the virtuoso’s input—hoping that this would put his stamp of approval on the work. Several revisions stretching over three years were undertaken at Joachim’s behest, yet, to Dvorák’s great disappointment, Joachim was never more than lukewarm in his assessment and never performed the concerto. Despite this, when František Ondrícek premiered the concerto in Prague in 1883, it was an instant success. The composition is a product of the period when the composer was weaving elements of his Bohemian heritage into his music (his Slavonic Dances of the previous year had been wildly successful), resulting in a lyrical tapestry of folk melodies that mix melancholy with rustic joy and vitality. Listen especially for a dazzling furiant (a dance rhythm in alternating duple and triple meters) and a Slavic folk ballad known as a dumka (whose generally melancholy character is interrupted by contrasting cheerful sections) in the final movement.

SERGEI PROKOFIEV (1891-1953)
Symphony No. 5 (1944)
Prokofiev composed his Fifth while living at the Composer’s Union’s House of Creative Work in Ivanovo, where he had been evacuated along with other composers from wartime Moscow and Leningrad. “When the Second World War broke out, I felt that everyone must do his share, and began composing songs and marches for the front,” Prokofiev said in a post-war interview, “but soon events assumed such gigantic and far-reaching scope as to demand larger canvasses...” And that brought him to his Fifth Symphony, which “was a very important composition to me, as it marked my return to the symphonic form after a long interval. I regard it as the culmination of a large period on my creative life.” When Prokofiev conducted the premiere with the USSR State Symphony Orchestra at the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, distant gunfire celebrated the Red Army’s crossing the Vistula River in its final advance to Berlin. The symphony was very well received, and has remained one of the composer’s most popular works. (Following its American premiere by Serge Koussevitzky and the Boston Symphony Orchestra Serge Prokofiev appeared on the cover of Time Magazine.) Even though the symphony was awarded the Stalin Prize, Prokofiev was hounded by the Central Committee of the Communist Party, led by Stalin’s henchman Andrei Zhdanov. His already compromised poor health continued to deteriorate. Ironically, Prokofiev died just minutes before Stalin in 1953. The symphony follows the pattern of slow-fast-slow-fast movements, but is definitely a product of 20th century sensibilities: angular, powerful instrument combinations, spicy harmonies. Big climaxes alternate with haunting melodies, brass and percussion explosions with exquisite lyricism, tragedy with triumph. And in the final movement, he turns up the volume—quite literally—and brings the work to a thrilling conclusion. When Sergei Prokofiev described his most popular symphony as “a symphony of the greatness of the human spirit, a song of praise of free and happy mankind, his strength, his generosity, and the purity of his soul,” was he speaking the truth, or was it, as was often the case with Shostakovich, mere rhetoric to appease and keep at bay the powers of the Stalinist regime? We may never know.

Gustavo Dudamel is music director of the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, and will become music director of Los Angeles Philharmonic in the 2009–10 season, as well as entering his tenth year as music director of the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela. Mr. Dudamel’s 2008–09 season opened in October with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra tour of Europe. In November 2008 he toured the U.S. with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, bringing the ensemble to Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center, and Disney Hall in Los Angeles, followed by two weeks of subscription concerts with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. In December 2008 he takes the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra on a debut tour to Japan, China, and Korea. He will make additional appearances this season with the Berlin Staatskapelle, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, and Berlin Philharmonic, among others.

Born in 1981 in Barquisimeto, Venezuela, Mr. Dudamel studied violin at the Jacinto Lara Conservatory with José Luis Jiménez and, later, with José Francisco del Castillo at the Latin American Academy of Violin. In 1996 Mr. Dudamel began his conducting studies with Rodolfo Saglimbeni and that same year he was named music director of the Amadeus Chamber Orchestra. In 1999, in addition to assuming the music director position of the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra, he began conducting studies with José Antonio Abreu, that orchestra’s founder. In May 2007 Mr. Dudamel was awarded the Premio de la Latindad by the Union Latina, an honor given for outstanding contributions to Latin cultural life, which is presented by the 37 Latin American and African member states of the Union Latina organization. In 2008 the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra was granted Spain’s prestigious Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts, given annually by the Principle Foundation of Asturias in Spain. Most recently, Mr. Dudamel was awarded the 2007 Royal Philharmonic Society Music Award for Young Artists.

Gustavo Dudamel has been an exclusive Deutsche Grammophon artist since 2005. His debut recording, of Beethoven’s Fifth and Seventh Symphonies with the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra, was released worldwide in September 2006, and he received the 2007 Echo Award (Germany) for New Artist of the Year. His second recording with the orchestra, Mahler’s Symphony No. 5, was released in May 2007, and was chosen as the only classical album on iTunes’s Next Big Thing. His third album, Fiesta, was released in May 2008 and is a collection of Latin American works. Mr. Dudamel made his New York Philharmonic debut in November 2007.

GIL SHAHAM, violin, born in 1971 in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois
In November 2008, Gil Shaham won the coveted Avery Fisher Prize, a $75,000 award for classical musicians at the peak of their career. As reported by CBC News, the violinist stepped back in astonishment. “Oh my God,” was all he could say. He had already won the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant in 1990. Gil Shaham’s natural modesty and warmth, combined with his dazzling technique and infectious love of music, continue to endear him to audiences. He was born in the United States of Israeli parents, moved to Israel with them in 1973, and began violin lesson at the age of 7. He made debuts with the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra and the Israel Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta, and also began his training with Dorothy DeLay at Juilliard. He graduated from Columbia University in 1993. His big “break” came in 1989, when he stepped in for an indisposed Itzhak Perlman. “It was really like a dream, something out of the movies.” A highlight of Gil Shaham’s 2009-2010 season was his “Violin Concertos of the 1930s” project, highlighting masterpieces by influential composers in that decade and featuring 35 performances of works by Barber, Berg, Prokofiev, Stravinsky, and Walton’s, which he is performing with the Philharmonic. “I love playing these pieces and I love hearing these pieces. As we entered the 21st century I started thinking back to the great music of the last century—thinking specifically about violin concertos—and I realized that many of my personal favorite concertos were written in the 1930s.” He plays the 1699 “Countess Polignac” Stradivarius violin. “I think it’s the most powerful Strad I’ve played on…I fell in love with it instantly.”

“…innate musicality and beautiful, expressive tone, which can glow like bronze and shimmer like gold. …He revels in his dazzling, effortless, but completely unobtrusive virtuosity and radiates an infectious enjoyment of the music.” Strings Magazine

“Gorgeous, spontaneously passionate and deeply-felt playing.” Los Angeles Times

“The virtuosic violinist Gil Shaham was in inspired form, playing with lustrous tone, brilliant technique and sweeping energy.” The New York Times

Find additional upcoming performances with Gil Shaham