GEORGE GERSHWIN (1898 – 1937)
“Strike Up the Band” from the musical Strike Up the Band (1927; rev. 1930)
Cheese or chocolate? Strike Up the Band gave you your choice, depending on whether you saw the 1927 or 1930 version of this zany political satire. The songs of legendary creative geniuses George and Ira Gershwin, perfectly show that the more things change, the more they stay the same. The musical is all about the influence of big business on government, when Horace J. Fletcher (the man in cheese) bankrolls a war with Switzerland—over, what else?—a cheese tariff! When his daughter falls in love with a journalist who criticizes both war and the quality of the milk in Fletcher’s product, the cheese magnate sends him off to the Swiss front. Fortunately all’s well that ends well, and the lovers are reunited. Next up for Fletcher? A new war with Russia…over the tariff on caviar. The unsuccessful run of Strike Up the Band in 1927 led to a 1930 rewrite—with chocolate replacing cheese as the center of the controversy—and a Broadway run. Memorable hits from the show include “The Man I Love,” “I’ve Got a Crush on You,” and the appropriately march-infused Overture you’ll hear at these concerts.

GEORGE GERSHWIN (1898 – 1937)
Rhapsody in Blue (1924)
Could there be anything more American than Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue? Starting with the wailing, octave-jumping glissando/scale on the clarinet, the Rhapsody unfurls like an American flag. Commissioned by the renowned jazz band leader Paul Whiteman, this was to be a “serious” piece for piano and jazz band, to be performed at a formal concert—a task the Gershwin found challenging at first. But, he said, “it was on a train…that I suddenly heard—and even saw on paper—the complete construction of the Rhapsody in Blue from beginning to end. I heard it as a sort of musical kaleidoscope of America—of our vast melting pot, of our unduplicated national pep, of our metropolitan madness.” George Gershwin was the soloist at the premiere, featuring Ferde Grofé’s (of Grand Canyon Suite fame) orchestration. In the great tradition of jazz, however, the self-taught Gershwin improvised many sections of the piano score, waiting till after the premiere to put on the finishing touches. The audience responded with wild enthusiasm, propelling this jazz concerto to icon status in the music of America.

AARON COPLAND (1900-1990)
Appalachian Spring (1944)
We think of Aaron Copland’s music as quintessentially, idiomatically American—optimistic, vital, confident, with an underlay of tenderness and nostalgia. Yet he was a composer of many styles. Like other artists of his generation, he spent some of his formative years in Paris, then a hotbed of revolutionary ferment, under the influence of the remarkable pedagogue Nadia Boulanger and in the company of icons like Stravinsky, Hemingway, Joyce, and Picasso. Upon his return to America in 1925 he wanted to create uniquely distinctive American music—a goal he successfully achieved. Of his four stylistic periods, he is loved most for his “Americana” phase (1936-1949), which includes El salón México, Billy the Kid, Rodeo, and of course, the ballet on this program. He composed Appalachian Spring for Martha Graham, the legendary American dancer, realizing their long-held dream of a collaboration. The dancer named the ballet Appalachian Spring, after a Hart Crane poem. Graham and Copland provide the scenario: “a pioneer celebration in spring around a newly-built farmhouse in the Pennsylvania hills in [the 1830s]. The bride-to-be and the young farmer-husband enact the emotions, joyful and apprehensive, that their new domestic partnership invites. An older neighbor suggests now and then the rocky confidence of experience. A revivalist and his followers remind the new householders of the strange and terrible aspects of human fate. At the end the couple is left quiet and strong in their new house.” Though originally scored for just 13 instruments, most audiences know and love the suite that Copland arranged for full orchestra that perfectly preserves the simplicity, immediacy, and gentleness of the original. The Philharmonic introduced this music in 1945, the year it won the Pulitzer Prize. You’ll hear dance and fiddle tunes, and of course the beloved “Simple Gifts,” based on a Shaker hymn.

Bramwell Tovey is acknowledged around the world for his artistic depth, and warm, charismatic personality on the podium. He has been the popular host and conductor of the New York Philharmonic’s Summertime Classics series at Avery Fisher Hall since its founding in 2004. Mr. Tovey’s tenures as music director of the Vancouver Symphony, Luxembourg Philharmonic, and Winnipeg Symphony orchestras have been characterized by his work in the opera, choral, and British repertoire. He is also a composer and pianist, and has received three Juno Awards — two for Classical Album of the Year, and one for Classical Composition of the Year (Requiem for a Charred Skull) — in addition to a 2007 Grammy Award. He is the first artist to win a Juno in both conducting and composing.

Last year Bramwell Tovey was named principal guest conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl. He also works frequently with the Toronto Symphony, Montreal Symphony, Royal Philharmonic, and Bournemouth Symphony orchestras, among many others. A champion of contemporary music, Mr. Tovey developed the highly regarded New Music Festival in Winnipeg during his tenure as music director. In the summer of 2008 he conducted the world premiere of his latest piece, Urban Runway, a co-commission of the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonics. He is currently writing a full-length opera, The Inventor, for the Calgary Opera, to be premiered in January 2011.

Bramwell Tovey has been awarded numerous honorary degrees, including a fellowship from the Royal Academy of Music in London; honorary doctorates of law from the universities of Winnipeg and Manitoba, and Kwantlen University College; and a music fellowship from the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. In 1999 he received the M. Joan Chalmers National Award for Artistic Direction, a Canadian prize awarded to artists for outstanding contributions in the performing arts. Mr. Tovey last conducted the New York Philharmonic in July 2008 at the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival, following his conducting/hosting duties at the Orchestra’s Summertime Classics series.

Pianist Marc-André Hamelin’s 2008–09 season includes a return to London’s Wigmore Hall for the London Pianoforte Series, and recitals in Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Turkey. His North American recitals include the opening of the 126th season of the Schubert Club in St. Paul, Minnesota, as well as recitals for the Columbus Chamber Music Society, Texas Tech, Cornell Concert Series, Music Toronto, Wheaton College, Harvard Musical Association, Savannah Music Festival, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Orchestral engagements include appearances with the Montreal, St. Louis, Seattle, New Jersey, and North Carolina symphony orchestras, and returns in Europe to the Helsinki Philharmonic and Lahti Symphony Orchestras. In March 2009 the Pro Musica Society of Montreal marks its 60th anniversary season celebrating the art of Marc-André Hamelin, with Mr. Hamelin collaborating with violinist Lara St. John, the Leipzig String Quartet, soprano Karina Gauvin, and Les Violins du Roy with Bernard Labadie. He completes the celebration with a solo recital.

Throughout the season Marc-André Hamelin and the Takács String Quartet will perform the Schumann Piano Quintet in North America at the University of Chicago; University Musical Society in Ann Arbor, Michigan; Club Musical de Québec; Wake Forest University; Brown University; Carlsen Center in Overland Park, Kansas; and in Europe in Bilbao, Pamplona, Bristol, and London at Queen Elizabeth Hall. Under exclusive contract with Hyperion Records, Marc-André Hamelin has received 8 Grammy nominations, including a 2009 nomination for Marc-André Hamelin in a State of Jazz, released in May 2008. His latest release is Godowsky-Strauss Transcriptions and Other Waltzes. He was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2003 and a Chevalier de l’Ordre du Québec in 2004. Mr. Hamelin last appeared with the New York Philharmonic in July 2005 during Summertime Classics, performing Liszt’s Totentanz, conducted by Bramwell Tovey.