(Photo by Casey A. Cass/University of Colorado)
By David Amos
SAN DIEGO — The 70 member Tifereth Israel Community Orchestra, now on its 42nd year, will be giving two concerts featuring two orchestral masterpieces. They will be presented on Sunday, June 7, 3:00 p.m., and Tuesday, June 9, 7:30 p.m. Both concerts will be at Tifereth Israel Synagogue, 6660 Cowles Mountain Boulevard, San Diego.
Johannes Brahms wrote his Piano Concerto No. 1 at a crucial time in his life. He was living with Robert and Clara Schumann, learning from the master composer and helping to care for the couple’s seven children , while Clara, a distinguished pianist in the international circuit was away concertizing, and Robert continued to suffer from his various ills. When Robert died, Brahms was devastated, and during these difficult times he composed his First Piano Concerto. Many musicologists and pianists find a direct relationship between the music and the lives of these three great artists. This work is filled with pathos, great warmth, a musical eulogy, and even a tender theme for Clara. The last movement is a brilliant Hungarian Dance, typifying optimism and hope for the future.
This work demands a lot of technique, musicianship, and understanding, and as the conductor, I am pleased to feature as guest artist David Korevaar. You will enjoy hearing his crisp and direct approach, together with sweeps of glistening sentimentality and lyricism. His mastery of the piano is joined with a large and varied repertoire, and enhanced by his work with living composers and his own experience in writing music. Recently, he released a recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations. He successfully balances an active performance career as a soloist and chamber musician, with teaching at the University of Colorado, Boulder, where he is the Peter Weill Professor of Piano.
Originally from San Diego, Korevaar began his piano studies at the age of six, and at 13, became a student of the great American virtuoso Earl Wild. He has a Bachelor’s, Master’s and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from the Juilliard School of Music. He and I have known each other and performed together from the late 1970’s, while he was a teenager.
Serge Prokoffiev wrote his Fifth Symphony in late 1944, during the concluding months of World War II, under the watchful eye of Josef Stalin. It is a compact work, very direct and even economical, but full of rich melodies, nostalgia, and humor. You can summarize the work as having two somber movements (1 and 3), and two sarcastic, entertaining, and hilarious ones (2 and 4). Some critics point to this pattern as a mockery of the Soviet system, but not graphic enough to irritate the Russian leader.
It will remind listeners of the composer’s earlier works, Romeo and Juliet Ballet, and the popular Peter and the Wolf. The Fifth Symphony is considered by most music critics and serious listeners as being one of the ten greatest orchestral compositions of the Twentieth Century. After all, it is the creation of one of the master melodists of the century.
For more information on the concerts, individual or group rates, reservations, directions, or a season brochure, call (619) 697 6001, or you can buy your tickets on line www.tiferethisrael.com/TICO.
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Amos is conductor of the Tifereth Israel Community Orchestra (TICO) and has guest conducted professional orchestras around the world. You may comment to david.amos@sdjewishworld.com or post your comment on this website provided that the rules below are observed.
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