ALEXANDER GLAZUNOV (1865-1936)
Concerto for Alto Saxophone in E-flat Major Op. 109A (1934)
Glazunov was in his early 60s when he left Russia for good. He had worked at the famed St. Petersburg Conservatory, but in 1928 decided to travel—including to the United States—and settled finally in Paris in 1932—a hotbed of the avant-garde and a mecca for artists. Still, Glazunov shared updates on progress he was making on a saxophone quartet and a saxophone concerto with his colleagues “back home.” His post at the Conservatory had been kept open for him for two years, but before long, he fell afoul of the Soviet authorities. They claimed he was not being productive enough, ascribing this to the influence of Western culture, as demonstrated by composing for “bourgeois” instruments like the saxophone. Though he was considered one of the great Russian Romantics—and perhaps even a bit too conservative in his musical creations—he was intrigued by jazz and in 1934 completed his Alto Saxophone Concerto for the Danish saxophonist Sigurd Rascher, who, Glazunov said, practically attacked him for, rather than request, such a work. Rascher premiered the concerto in Sweden in 1934, and Glazunov expected to hear it played in Paris the following year. Sadly, Glazunov probably never heard it performed; he died in 1936, possibly succumbing to bronchitis, infections of the inner ear, and other ailments that he had suffered from throughout his life. It was to be Glazunov’s last major work. The one-movement concerto, a brief 18-or-so minutes long with three continuous sections marked Allegro moderato, Andante, and Fugato, makes its first appearance at the Philharmonic at these performances.

ERWIN SCHULHOFF (1894-1942)
Hot-Sonate for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra (1930) (arranger TBD)
Erwin Schulhoff is a name not generally known to American audiences. He was born in Prague into a musical family of German-Jewish origins, for whom the rise of Nazism proved to be career-and eventually life-ending. Though not taken to Theresienstadt like his father, Schulhoff was arrested and placed in the Wülzburg internment camp, where he died of tuberculosis in 1942. He had freed himself from the post-Romantic idiom of his earlier works and allied himself with avant garde trends and people in post-World War I Europe (including Dadaism and composers like Berg, Webern, and Hindemith). Illustrating in the extreme his stepping away from traditional forms, there was his Dada-inspired In Futurum, a silent work that predates John Cage’s notorious 4’33 by more than 30 years. “Unlike Cage’s blank musical score, Schulhoff confronts the pianist with a succession of wildly precise instructions, including rests of all sizes and durations, that nevertheless add up to unbroken silence for the listener [and] admonishes the performer to play this soundless piece ‘with as much expression and emotion as you wish, continuously, right to the finish!’” (Jewish Daily Forward) He later became a Socialist and a Soviet citizen in 1939 (championing Soviet Realism and even setting parts of the Communist Manifesto as a cantata). Schulhoff was also a virtuoso pianist who concertized throughout Europe and performed live on the radio. He was one of the earliest classical composers influenced by American popular music, like ragtime and jazz, with the Hot-Sonate being a popular example. It premiered in 1930 in its original “chamber incarnation” as a piece for saxophone and piano during a broadcast of the Berlin Radio Hour. Schulhoff played piano, and jazz saxophonist Billy Barton played sax.

SERGEI PROKOFIEV (1891-1953)
Romeo and Juliet (selections) (1935)
Shakespeare’s timeless tragedy of the “star-cross’d lovers,” Romeo and Juliet, and their warring families has stirred the imagination of countless composers. Prokofiev’s sumptuous ballet is arguably the most ravishing musical retelling. But the story of its genesis was star-crossed too. Prokofiev had been visiting, composing, and performing in the United States and Europe for some nine years with mixed success. In the year before his official return to his native Russia (in 1936) he had discussed writing a lyrical ballet for the Kirov in Leningrad, but the theater withdrew, and he signed a contract with the Bolshoi Theatre for Romeo and Juliet. Complications—including comments that the ballet was undanceable—so frustrated Prokofiev that he decided to compose an orchestral suite in 1936 (two years before the ballet was finally staged—not in Russia, but in Czechoslovakia.). Two years later, in 1940, Romeo and Juliet was finally produced at the Kirov. Another bump along the road was the rather odd idea Prokofiev and stage manager Sergei Radlov had of letting the lovers survive. In a much-cited recollection, Prokofiev writes: “There was quite a fuss about our attempt to give Romeo and Juliet a happy ending. The reason for this bit of barbarism was purely choreographic: the living can dance, the dying cannot…What really caused me to change my mind about the whole thing was a remark someone made to me. ‘Your music does not express real joy at the end.’ That was quite true. After several conferences with the choreographer, it was found that the tragic ending could be expressed in dance after all, and in due course the music for that ending was written.” Prokofiev’s ability to capture the changing moods and feelings of the drama is nothing short of miraculous. The music is powerful and tender, virile and heart-breaking, passionate and anguished, and filled with the ardor of the doomed young lovers. Its powerful emotions are sure to sweep you away.

ANDREY BOREYKO, conductor, born in 1957 in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), Russia
Andrey Boreyko is one of the most exciting and dynamic conductors to emerge from Eastern Europe in recent years. His strong interest in music of the first half of the 20th century, as well as that of more recent years, has led him to collaborations with composers such as Henryk Górecki, Sofia Gubaidulina, and Arvo Pärt, among many others, and his discography includes the music of Ginastera, Takemitsu, and Pärt. Studying new scores, or scores new to him, is an important part of his life. This dedication to music of our time was recognized by the German Music Critics Union while he was chief conductor of the Jenaer Philharmonie between 1998 and 2003: he received the prize for most innovative concert programming in three consecutive seasons—an unprecedented achievement in the history of this award. He is currently Chief Conductor of the Berner Symphonie Orchester as well as Principal Guest Conductor of the Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart and the Orquesta Sinfónica de Euskadi, and General Music Director of the Düsseldorfer Symphoniker. He has guest-conducted the great orchestras of Europe and Australia, as well as the Chicago Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the New York Philharmonic. His discography includes Arvo Pärt’s Lamentate and Silvestrov’s Symphony No. 6, both recorded with the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra. In 2006 Hänssler Classic released a live recording, again with Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra, of Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 4 and the world premiere recording of his original version of the Suite Op. 29a from the opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk. Despite his busy schedule, he finds time for other activities: “I enjoying reading, researching, finding and listening to all types of music that I have not previously encountered. I spend time thinking about new programs and am always keeping in touch with people by e-mail.”

“Mr. Boreyko seemed intent on … playing the work for all its breadth and passion. The Philharmonic responded with dazzling and often ferocious brass and woodwind playing, full-throttle percussion and a plangent, flexible string sound that could evoke a howling wind one moment and dark-hued smoldering the next.” The New York Times

“The music seemed to spring from his quivering fingertips in tiny electric arcs.” The Chicago Tribune

“He leads with an easy flair and natural musicianship.” Cincinnati Enquirer

“Maestro Boreyko gave his orchestra the chance to give a brilliant performance in all aspects. Boreyko certainly set a new benchmark. Standing ovations and stamping for him and his absolutely splendid orchestra.” Hamburger Abendblatt

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BRANFORD MARSALIS, saxophone, born in 1960 in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana
To say Branford Marsalis comes from a musical family is an understatement: there’s trumpeter Wynton, drummer Jason, trombonist Delfeayo, and their pianist-father Ellis Marsalis, Jr., all jazz musicians of renown. When Branford was very young, his mother gave him Classical Lullabies, a recording that included music by Brahms, Beethoven, and Bach. His father Ellis made sure that all of his children acquired thorough musical knowledge and technical and theoretical training. Branford Marsalis started on piano at age 4 and later took up the clarinet. But at 15 he began focusing on the saxophone. While a student at Berklee College of Music, he toured Europe in 1980as part of a large group led by drummer Art Blakey. Branford also performed with Wynton in Blakey’s Jazz Messengers and with other jazz greats, like Lionel Hampton, Clark Terry, Miles Davis, and Dizzy Gillespie. From 1992-1995 Branford Marsalis led the The Tonight Show with Jay Leno band. In the last 15 years he has worked with his own quartet, and has expanded into classical performances, including a 2008 US tour with Philarmonia Brasileira. Following the devastation of New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina, in a project undertaken by the New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity, Branford Marsalis and Harry Connick, Jr. created a Musicians’ Village in the Upper Ninth Ward, including the Ellis Marsalis Center for Music. With both musicians’ active involvement, the project has been one of the most successful recovery efforts in the region, enabling scores of musicians of modest means to purchase decent, affordable housing. These performances are Branford Marsalis’s debut with the Philharmonic. In NPR’s program, Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me’s “Not My Job” segment, he stated categorically that the saxophone is the sexiest instrument.

“Marsalis’ playing was dynamic…at times crisp and confident, with motorlike virtuosity, but more often he was elegant and enchanting, with a sincere, round tone.” San Francisco Classical Voice

“Branford Marsalis plays entirely and knowingly within the classical style—very polished and urbane.” All Music Guide

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