Program Notes: January 18, 2009
Adolphus Hailstork's Symphony No.1 was written in 1988 for performance during a summer festival held at Ocean Grove, New Jersey. The festival organizers specified that the scoring of the work had to be limited to the scale commonly used in Haydn's time; thus, the orchestration calls for woodwinds in pairs, two horns, two trumpets, timpani, and strings. This "classical" symphony is in four movements, and follows the traditional design, but incorporates as well some features from a slightly later era. The opening Allegro adds a new theme in the middle section (the "development"), following a practice most famously advanced in Beethoven's Eroica. The Scherzo (Allegretto) adds a touch of Mendelssohn (or perhaps Berlioz) with a mercurial buzzing theme in the woodwinds and strings. The Finale, like the finales of Beethoven's and Dvořák's Ninth Symphonies, recalls themes from each of the first three movements, beginning with the same chords that opened the work. Dr. Hailstork, among the most celebrated African-American composers writing for the concert stage, has received honorary doctorates from Michigan State University and the College of William and Mary, and is Professor of Music and Eminent Scholar at Old Dominion University in Norfolk.
Despite its grand manner, Brahms's Second Piano Concerto is scored for relatively small forces, much in line with that of Hailstork's symphony. As with Brahms's First Piano Concerto, critics dubbed the Second a "disguised symphony," but in this case mainly because of the added movement, the Scherzo that intrudes between the first movement and the Andante. But it is a true concerto, with a broadly scaled and richly evocative first movement, an equally evocative Andante that begins with an extended cello solo--perhaps to remind us of Brahms's unrequited desire to write a cello concerto--and a classically toned finale. As in Beethoven's "Emperor" Concerto, an extensive piano/orchestral introduction substitutes for a formal cadenza in the first movement, and includes some of Brahms's most delicious writing for orchestra. The Andante has an interesting legacy, as its extraordinary opening melody was later "borrowed" by figures as diverse as Leonard Bernstein and Neil Diamond. But the real gem of the concerto is its "extra" movement, a passionate Scherzo with a dramatic "breakthrough" into the major mode in the central trio. In between his two piano concertos, Brahms had acquired a solid business sense along with his famous beard, and launched the new work with a triumphant tour of both concertos, with himself and Hans von Bülow (a former Wagnerian who seems to have originated the phrase "the three B's," appointing Brahms the successor to Bach and Beethoven) alternating between the roles of conductor and soloist.
William Grant Still was the first African American to conduct a white radio orchestra in New York, and his appearance before the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 1936 marked the first time an African American had conducted a major orchestra. His Danzas de Panama, first performed in 1948, is based on Panamian folk themes collected by Elizabeth Waldo. In her program notes for the premiere, she explains their probable lineage: "The first and last of these dances are Negro in origin, probably brought by the first slaves imported into Panama. The Mejorana and Punto are both of Spanish derivation with Indian influence." Even more directly than in his Afro-American Symphony, then, this work blends idioms reflective of Still's own mixed-race background, which included Native American along with African and European roots.
Jovanni De Pedro, pianist
Filipino-American pianist Jovanni-Rey V. de Pedro has been called a "performer of musical depth and exciting virtuosity." Since his debut in 1997, Jovanni's playing has been heard in churches and concert venues throughout the United States, Canada, England, the Czech Republic, Austria, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and the Philippines - recently performing Brahms' First Piano Concerto with the UST Symhony in Manila and Mozart's Concerto K. 466 with the Vienna Residenz Orchester.
Born into a family of musicians, Jovanni studied piano at the age of three with his father, and later attended the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts where he studied piano and conducting. His choirs have won competitions in the United States and he was recently invited to give a choral workshop with the Cebu Chamber Singers, who went on to win the Asian Choral Games in Jakarta last fall.
As a pianist, Jovanni has received scholarships from many distinguished organizations such as the Young Musicians Foundation in Los Angeles and has won all the major prizes at the Vienna Conservatory of Music such as the 2003 Boesendorfer Stipendium, the overall prize of the Fidelio Competition given by the City of Vienna's Cultural Affairs Department, and the 2007 Rotary Club Graben Stipendium. Jovanni has been a prizewinner in numerous national and international competitions; First place - 2000 United States Open Music Competition, First Place - 2002 International Pacific Piano Competition in Canada, Second Place - 2003 Ibiza International Piano Competition in Spain and Second Place in the 2007 Beethoven Society of Europe's Intercollegiate Piano Competition in England.
Jovanni has received invaluable guidance from eminent artists including Igor Kipnis, Robert Lehrbaumer, John Perry, Aries Caces, Pierre Laurent-Aimard, Rudolf Buchbinder, Ronan O'Hora, Martino Tirimo, Bryce Morrison, Boris Berman, Robert Ward and Gerhard Geretschlaeger.
With a scholarship from the ASCAP/Leiber and Stoller Foundations, Jovanni studied six years in Vienna, completing his Artists Diploma in 2007 with high distinction. He is currently studying with Yonty Solomon, Deniz Arman Gelenbe and Mikhail Kazakevich at Trinity College of Music in London, where he is anticipated to receive his Masters of Music this fall.
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