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Upcoming Concerts

Classics IV: Conflict & Resolution

March 8 & 10, 2012 |

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Classics V: Symphony Supercharged

April 12 & 14, 2012 |

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Pops & Picnic

April 28, 2012 |

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Peter Jaffe's Blog

Ain’t Just Kiddin’ on the Keys

November 10, 2011

The accordion evokes a wonderful nostalgia for me. It takes me back to my undergrad years at the Oberlin Conservatory (where I met my wife!). I had the good fortune of befriending Michael Pisani, who later became assistant conductor of the Houston Grand Opera. Michael was a super accordionist—he played his own arrangement of Mozart’s Figaro Overture at breakneck speed, or the last movement of Brahms’s Violin Concerto, covering the orchestra and the soloist parts on his accordion.

We were poor music students, and Michael and I were lucky enough to land a strolling restaurant job at the Oberlin Inn. While people were eating their roast beef or pasta dinners, Michael and I would serenade them, he on the accordion and myself on the violin. We played our own arrangements of Strauss waltzes, some Kreisler showpieces (imagine the Praeludium and Allegro with those opening chords on the accordion—it’s fantastic!), and even popular stuff—the movie Young Frankenstein had just come out, and the music was great for that kind of swooning crooning stuff that one expects in strolling dining territory.

Of course, the accordion has had its fair (or unfair!) share of jokes leveled at it. “I’ve always wanted to play the accordion badly, and now I do,” or “Play the accordion and go to jail—that’s the law.” But we must take these in stride, and put ’em next to all those viola jokes, drummer jokes, singer jokes, and yes, conductor jokes.

Fast forwarding to the present, I am simply awed by our guest soloist this week. Peter Soave is a true virtuoso—the National Accordion Association calls him “The Great One.” He has mastered Max Simončič’s Accordion Concerto. It’s an exciting world premiere—a novel addition to the repertoire.

And here’s the thing: Peter’s accordion doesn’t have any piano keys, both sides are entirely button-operated. It’s fascinating to watch, and to listen to. Peter really isn’t just kiddin’ on the keys!

Passion at Any Age

October 04, 2011

We know it can be harder to pick up a second language when we’re older, or more difficult to learn how to ride a bike as an adult than as a kid, right? In the same way, the older we get, the more effort and courage it takes to tackle a musical instrument for the first time—which is why I admire the high school kids at Weston Ranch High School who play in their orchestra, led by music teacher Joe Barron. Many of these students—even some seniors—are just beginning to experience the joys and challenges of playing string instruments for the first time. I just visited them today, and was impressed by their enthusiasm and passion, their dedication, and their ability to focus—and a lot of that inspiration comes from Joe, who is tireless in his spirit for promoting the great things music ensembles can do for us.

The experience took me back to when I played violin in a school orchestra for the first time. I was nine, in Berkeley in the 1960s. Our elementary school had an orchestra, and this was a true symphony, not just a string ensemble. We had winds, brass, and percussion along with a healthy string section.

Back then, California used to rank at the very top of our nation in terms of per-capita spending for the arts and for education in general. Now we’re practically at the bottom. Many school systems are no longer offering musical ensembles at the elementary school level, and recent cuts have taken a severe toll on middle school programs as well. Which is where Joe and his school come in. We need music in our curriculum; it’s not just a frill. Joe knows that, and the kids know it, too, so they sign up for orchestra, relishing the musical pursuit, even at the entry level. ’Way to go, Weston Ranch—thanks for keeping it going!

Musical Radar

September 28, 2011

When we’re lucky, it just clicks. We’re so used to the idea of “no pain, no gain” that we’re amazed by those few occasions when we can achieve something wonderful with a minimum of effort—it does happen just once in a while! That’s the way it was working with our recent piano soloist, Martina Filjak, playing beautiful performances of Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G. She just makes it happen, and it was so easy to perform with her.

One of the many fascinating parts of my job is getting to work with quite a few world-class soloists. Sometimes I’ve met and worked with these artists before, but just as often we’re meeting for the first time during a concert set—it’s about 50/50. In this case, I had never met Martina before last week—but it was certainly about time, we’ve been trying to book her with the Symphony for quite a while, and the schedules finally meshed.

Last Monday afternoon, Martina played through her concerto for me in Atherton Auditorium—just the two of us were in the hall. Listening to her, it was obvious right away by her sense of timing what a treasure these performances would be. We made just a couple of suggestions to each other, but she made this difficult work so easy—working in rehearsals and concerts with Martina was a breeze.

All great artists have a great feeling for rubato—when to stretch the tempo, when to push ahead, and so on. But even within that keen sense, there’s what I call musical radar. Some great artists play in such a way that when a stretch is about to happen, she/he telegraphs the ideas in advance. We’ve been so fortunate at the Stockton Symphony to be able to work with so many soloists who possess specifically that gift of creating poetry through musical time. When you’re working with a great artist like Martina, the radar is wonderful. You don’t even have to look at her, you can sense what’s coming. I sometimes think the nonverbal communication you get when collaborating with soloists and with an orchestra is the closest we can get to telepathy.

Vibrant Colors and Rhythms Open Symphony Season

September 20, 2011

’Hard to imagine, but in the early 1930s most of the U.S. had never seen nor heard some percussion instruments we now take for granted—bongos, maracas, claves (wood blocks), and the guiro (notched gourd played with stick). The fascinatin’ dance rhythms of Latin America were just beginning to take hold, and two iconic American composers contributed to that enthusiasm, each traveling south of the border and bringing back a musical souvenir. These inspirations bookend our season opener with the Stockton Symphony: George Gershwin’s catchy Cuban Overture, inspired by the rumba; and Aaron Copland’s vivacious El Salón México, incorporating folk melodies while evoking a dance hall in Mexico City.

This colorful program also explores the intriguing Gershwin-Ravel connection. French composer Maurice Ravel had traveled to New York in the late ’20s, becoming infected with a healthy dose of Gershwin’s current take on jazz. Likewise, Gershwin had traveled to Paris, getting acquainted with Ravel’s music on his home turf, and he began to orchestrate his American jazz elements with a bit of the French master’s sophistication.

Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G continues to show the composers’ mutual admiration, incorporating wonderful elements of jazz harmony and rhythm. Our fabulous soloist, visiting Stockton for the first time, is the international pianist sensation Martina Filjak, winner of the 2009 Cleveland Piano Competition. We’re all eagerly anticipating her performances of Ravel’s virtuoso vehicle, and you may want to check out her accomplishments in detail at http://www.martinafiljak.com/.

The second half of our program explores two very different facets of Aaron Copland. The Orchestral Variations, in the compact space of 12 or 13 minutes, shows a dramatic, powerful, brooding side of the composer that we don’t often get to hear. Rounding out the evening in rousing contrast is El Salón México described above, exhibiting the same exuberance of those familiar Copland “cowboy” ballets, like Rodeo.
What a great way to open the concert season—we look forward to having you join us!

Thursday, September 22, at 8:00 p.m., repeated on Saturday, September 24 at 6:00 p.m. at Atherton Auditorium on the campus of San Joaquin Delta College.

Purchase tickets at 209-951-0196 or visit our website by clicking on the link below.
stocktonsymphony.org

Blockbuster Classics Season Finale—Soloist Back by Popular Demand

April 07, 2011

Pianist Chu-Fang Huang is back! Having taken our breath away a few seasons ago, she has returned to deliver Rachmaninoff's Second Piano Concerto, beloved for its hallmark Romantic tunes and dazzling virtuosity. Just a few weeks ago, Chu-Fang was awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant. This is an amazing honor. One can't even apply for one of these grants—the Avery Fisher talent scouts, after an extensive process, simply select an artist for the award. Chu-Fang now joins the company of other distinguished awardees, including Joshua Bell, Edgar Meyer, and Christopher O'Riley. We're all looking forward to Chu-Fang's stunning performances with the Stockton Symphony, infused by her vivacious personality and consummate musicianship.

Bookending "Rach 2" are two favorites from the Russian symphonic repertoire—Glinka's Overture to Ruslan and Lyudmila, and Stravinsky's Firebird Suite—hence we've entitled our season finale "From Russia with Love." The great Russian composers had a way of creating themes that instantly appeal to us with a folklike character: sometimes these melodies are actually based on folk songs, but more often the composers create a bit of genius by crafting a tune that simply sounds folklike. This is certainly true in Glinka's overture. Once we get past the pyrotechnics of the opening (listen to our orchestra fly!), we hear the lyrical second theme that sounds instantly familiar—even if we've never heard it before. Stravinsky had this same genius in spades. His Firebird suite became so popular during his lifetime that he conducted it almost 1,000 times, and now the music has permeated our global culture so thoroughly that we even hear the music featured in the skating routines of the Winter Olympics.

Our season finale provides a real tour de force for both our guest artist and our symphony—we look forward to seeing you there!

My Invitation to Mr. Forbes

February 24, 2011

In response to Forbes magazine labeling Stockton as our country’s “most miserable” city, I wanted to come up with something positive, which is what prompted me to invite Mr. Steve Forbes to visit us here in Stockton. Following is the invitation letter, which has since been printed in the Record and forwarded to several folks by email.

**********

Mr. Malcolm Stevenson “Steve” Forbes, Jr., Editor-in-Chief February 11, 2011

Forbes Magazine

60 50^th Avenue

New York, NY 10011

Dear Mr. Forbes:

We in Stockton, California—residents of the city again dubbed by your magazine as our country’s “most miserable”—would love to have you visit us! We’d like to show you a great time. We’d be honored to have you as our guest at our season finale of the Stockton Symphony either April 7 or April 9. We’d love it if you could stay a day or two—check out our interesting blend of businesses, visit the Haggin Museum and art galleries, eat at some great and reasonably-priced restaurants, play a round of golf, take in another show, check out the University of the Pacific and San Joaquin Delta College—you name it.

Yes, we know that your magazine has criteria for determining which cities in America will be labeled “most miserable,” so please don’t reply by telling us that’s why we get the prize. Instead, we’d like some frank answers to a couple of questions:

1) Honestly, do you think city residents across our nation measure their relative state of happiness or misery by your criteria?

2) What is your magazine actually accomplishing by coming out with an annual list of “miserable” cities? Is this good business for America?

We’re not deluded here in Stockton. We know we have a big measure of the troubles that afflict practically all cities in the U.S. And yes—we admit it—if you visit we’d go out of our way to make sure you have a good time. But isn’t that the point? Isn’t the real pulse of a city felt by the personalities of the people and what they do?

So please visit us, Mr. Forbes. Give our office a call at (209) 951-0196. We really want to meet you and show you the Stockton we know and love. I’ll bet you a lunch we won’t be the most miserable experience you’ve ever had.

Yours in eager anticipation,

Peter Jaffe

Music Director and Conductor

Stockton Symphony

cc: New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle, Sacramento News and Review, Modesto Bee, Stockton Record

’Lookin’ forward to Holiday Delight!

December 09, 2010

Some of our most memorable moments in live performances happen from the things we don’t plan.

For our upcoming Holiday Pops, I’m told Santa will be making a return appearance. Now, it’s true that many events around this time of year might book some guy wearing a Santa suit, but our show is different—we get the real Santa at ours. :-) Our Visitor From The North Pole always throws us a jolly curve—what surprises has he got in his bag this year?

And how about our soloist, Eric Margiore, who came to our rescue in our Italian Pops, Festa Italiana! in 2006? He came flying in as an emergency replacement and stole the show with his marvelous voice and captivating stage presence. He’s got a great deadpan sense of humor, too. At one point, someone’s cell phone went off. Without missing a beat, Eric chimed in, “Tell her I’m busy.”

Magnificent Mozart

November 08, 2010

How do we love Mozart? When we “count the ways,” we find his genius in practically every Classic genre: symphonies, concertos, chamber music, operas—you name it. Our Classics III concerts present three different facets of Mozart, and the connections are as fascinating as the contrasts.

We begin with one of Mozart’s most intriguing overtures. Influenced by Turkish culture deemed exotic at the time, Mozart’s rescue opera, The Abduction from the Seraglio, was one of his first to feature a German libretto rather than using Italian. Quintessential Italian elements still prevail in the celebrated Overture, though: bubbly fast outer sections frame a slower, more lyrical central episode. The “Turkish” flavor is imparted by piccolo, triangle, cymbals, and bass drum—standards today, but simply not part of the normal symphonic palate at the time!

It was the Italian three-part opera overture, created long before Mozart, that gave birth to the symphony as an independent form. Over the decades, another movement was added, creating the traditional four movements we’re used to. It’s thus quite unusual to find Mozart, at the zenith of his career, circling back to operatic roots with a three-movement design in his elegant Symphony No. 38, written for performances in Prague. There’s another operatic connection—the first movement features a rhythmic figure that’s an unmistakable precursor to his Overture to The Magic Flute.

If you saw the movie Amadeus you may have picked up a creditable portrayal of Mozart’s character, but the notion of Salieri finishing off the Requiem is pure cinematic license. It was actually Franz Süssmayr who finished off the masterpiece Mozart had been working on until his death. There have been other more contemporary reconstructions, but Süssmayr’s dates from Mozart’s time, and has become known and treasured over the centuries—this is the beloved version we shall perform. A few interesting notes:

· The Stockton Chorale will be singing in Germanicized Latin, since Mozart was moving in that direction with his operas at the end of his career. Listen for “Agnus” with a hard “g” or “Requiem” pronounced “Reqviem”!

· Mozart almost never referred to one of his middle names as “Amadeus,” except on occasion as a joke. He usually signed his name “Wolfgang Amadè Mozart”—so we’ve gone to printing his name that way in our programs for the past decade or so.

· The piece calls for two basset horns—they’re a kind of intermediary between the clarinet and contemporary bass clarinet. Often performers can’t get a hold of these relatively rare instruments, but we’ve got ’em! Come to our preconcert discussions (45 minutes before each performance) and enjoy principal Patti Shands deliver some “show and tell” with the basset horn.

Kids Have That Special Knack

November 04, 2010

Our annual Steppin’ Out programs were a smash—six capacity audiences in Hutchins Street Square, Lodi, and Atherton Auditorium, Stockton, for a total of approximately 6,000 youngsters. Our program, “Construction Zone: Musicians at Work!” focused on some of the forms music takes: fugue, theme and variations, sonata form, ABA form, and rondo.

The young audiences were wonderful, and they were really “getting it.” And yet, as any experienced teacher will tell you, even if we feel we’ve accomplished a great “teaching moment,” the kids will soon find a way to bring us back to earth. At one point we had showed how the “A” section returns “in disguise” in Shostakovich’s Scherzo movement from his Fifth. After the demo, we played the piece through and I knew the kids were understanding the architecture of the music. So I turned to them while we were performing and asked “where are we now?” The answer came back—“Lodi.”

Kids have that special knack.

"Eternal Quest" Insights

October 13, 2010

Will we ever discover the answers to all the important questions in life? Perhaps not, but it is the noble search for answers that defines us. Our Classics II concerts, entitled “Eternal Quest,” embody that sense of wondering and exploration.

Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde portrays a search for eternal love, based on the Medieval legend and infused with a healthy dose of Schopenhauer’s 19^th-century philosophy. The drama’s famous Prelude and Love Death, with passages unfolding in beauty yet defying resolution, create the “insatiable longing” of the main characters—the harmonic language and melodic technique that Wagner developed would influence the course of music history.

Bloch was in the process of making a musical setting of King Solomon’s book of Ecclesiastes when he came to an important realization: rather than using sung text, his work could gain an entirely new dimension with the voiceless beauty of the cello. The resulting masterpiece is Schelomo, expressing Solomon’s quest for meaning. Taking on the powerful and compassionate solo role is Israeli cellist Amit Peled, a fast-rising international star.

Charles Ives was one of America’s most forward-looking experimentalists, stretching the imagination and employing concepts way ahead of his time. A brief work written around 1906, The Unanswered Question delivers a novel take on the perennial question of existence, with three independent streams of music separated by space and time.

Elgar’s beloved Enigma Variations is a set of character tributes to dear friends. Here the searching and questioning is our fate rather than the composer’s. Elgar claimed his main theme was based on a famous tune, yet he never revealed his source, and the resulting thematic mystery remains debated to this day! No matter, for the work takes us on a splendid journey in Romantic style, artfully juxtaposing intimate and grandiose effects and leading to an exultant conclusion.

Comin’ Up Aces

October 01, 2010

We came off the stage from our Stockton Symphony season open with a real sense of exhilaration, and loved the satisfaction of communicating with our audience through music. One of the most exciting—and challenging!—aspects of live performance is that we must “be our art” right at the moment. It doesn’t matter how well we did in our rehearsals, or even when it was time for the Saturday performance, how well we did in the Thursday night performance. We have to rise to each occasion with new heights of zeal and artistic excellence, ’cause it counts at that moment. That’s the “elegant risk” of live performance. That’s why it’s so exciting to play for you, our beloved audience, and that’s why live concerts will never die out.

The opening of Beethoven’s Fidelio Overture is notoriously difficult for the horns. The music is so exposed and pure—it’s more than walking on eggshells, it’s like walking on eggshells naked! Our horns aced it.

The Bruch Violin Concerto is a masterpiece combining sweeping lyricism with extremely demanding pyrotechnics. Not only did our guest artist Elena Urioste rise superbly to the occasion, but—here’s a bit of inside news—she did it with a cold. ’Ya know that kind of feeling you get when a cold first sets in—everything in the head gets all congested and it’s hard to think straight, much less hear properly? That’s what Elena was going through. But she’s a real pro and the show must and did go on. And most importantly, nobody could have known—’cause Elena was triumphant.

Prokofiev’s Fifth Symphony is a true masterpiece of the 20^th century, yet for some inexplicable reason, it’s performed much less often than, say, Shostakovich’s Fifth. Many in our orchestra had never performed this glorious work before. On second thought, maybe the reason for its relative infrequency isn’t all that inexplicable—it’s hard! There isn’t a single principal player or instrumental section that doesn’t get some virtuose moment to tackle. The musicians of the Stockton Symphony are fabulous. They scored a real victory.

Do we feel a sense of letdown after a concert set? You bet. But the wonderful thing is, we know there’s always something great waiting for us in the near future: it’s the next concert, it’s the next live moment.

The Start to an Inspiring Season - Insights on "Heroism with Heart"

September 22, 2010

The live symphonic experience captivates us with the same sort of "adventure in our seat" that we get from the movies - taking us on a journey through the emotions. Composers have always been fascinated with a sense of drama and victory, and our season opener, "Heroism with Heart" showcases this inspiration in a powerful trio of pieces.

Launching our adventure is Beethoven's Overture to Fidelio, in which the heroine Leonore disguises herself as a man to rescue Florestan from unjust imprisonment. Beethoven actually composed four overtures to his only opera: the first three were entitled "Leonore" Overtures, and the present curtain raiser was the composer's final word on the subject. We're grabbed by the initial "teaser," moved by the ensuing lyricism, and stirred by the fervent drive to final victory.

In Bruch's celebrated Violin Concerto the soloist becomes our heroine with her sizzling virtuosity and all-encompassing emotional range - and what a fabulous soloist! Young Elena Urioste - of Mexican-Basque heritage, prizewinner of the Sphinx Competition - has been enthralling audiences as she tours the globe.

Near the end of World War II Prokofiev created one of the twentieth century's masterpieces with his Fifth Symphony. Welcome news of a recent victory over the Third Reich came during the premiere, and the audience burst into spontaneous applause. We bring our own experiences of the many guises of heroism to this orchestral epic, as Prokofiev leads us through a dramatic and powerful first movement, shows his witty and sarcastic side in the second, evokes the soaring romanticism of his Romeo and Juliet in the third, and projects sassy ebullience in his infectious finale.

We have a really exciting season in front of us with outstanding guest artists, so as the lights dim, sit back and be transported by the pure inspiration of the music.

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