December 10, 2004
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Portland, Ore. … The political and social chaos of the 1917 Russian Revolution and its turbulent aftermath are explored through music of its leading composers Shostakovich and Prokofiev as guest conductor Emil de Cou leads the Oregon Symphony in a Front Row Center concert titled “Moscow Before and After” on Friday, Jan. 14, at 7:30 p.m. at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. American Airlines is the airline sponsor for the Symphony’s Front Row Center Series. Media support is provided by Willamette Week.
The concert takes the audience to pre-and post-revolutionary Russia, later the Soviet Union, for a musical history of the societal changes that transformed every aspect of life after 1917. Through the music of Shostakovich, Prokofiev and Alexander Mosolov, de Cou and the Symphony, with pianist Orion Weiss, explore the music that reflects conditions under which composers who lived in the volatile Soviet state had to work. Their lives became a tightrope walk between the artistic integrity of their personal vision and the very real struggle to save their work, reputation and even life (in some cases) from powerfully hostile and capricious authorities.
De Cou, Associate Conductor of the National Symphony, leads the Symphony in excerpts from Shostakovich’s controversial opera “Lady Macbeth of the Mtensk District,” as well as Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3 and Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2, with Weiss at the piano. Weiss, a recipient of the prestigious Gilmore Young Artist Award for gifted young American pianists, is currently studying at Juilliard.
The first half of the concert also features “The Iron Foundry,” the “machine music” of Russian avant-garde composer Alexander Mosolov. Excerpted from his ballet “Steel,” this 1927 work draws on the sounds of heavy industrial machines to create a driving, forceful work.
The second half of the concert features Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 10 in E minor, widely believed to be a musical portrait of Stalin. However, since it would have been politically dangerous even after Stalin’s death for Shostakovich to acknowledge this link, his official statements about it are deliberately ambiguous. In response to the question of whether Symphony No. 10 had an extra-musical program, Shostakovich dissembled, replying “Let them listen and guess for themselves.” The first three movements of Symphony No. 10 range from darkly introspective and powerfully brooding to ominously pessimistic, while the finale lightens the overall mood with its generally hopeful and positive character.
The Front Row Center series is designed to introduce new audiences to symphonic music, utilizing dramatic elements to make the story and the music come alive. Each of this season’s concerts focuses on a different city in Europe that was a center of important musical innovation. The first concert, held last month, explored Vienna and its obsession with the waltz, while the final concert, in March 2005, will look at fin-de-siècle Paris and the connections between Impressionist painters and Impressionist composers.
This performance is scheduled for Friday, Jan. 14 at 7:30 p.m. at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. Tickets range in price from $15 to $53 and may be purchased at the Oregon Symphony Ticket Office (923 S.W. Washington), Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. or charged by phone at (503) 228-1353 or (800) 228-7343. Tickets also may be purchased at all Ticketmaster outlets (503-790-ARTS) or through Ticketmaster Online, via the Symphony’s Web site at www.orsymphony.org. Service fees may apply.
The dynamic American conductor Emil de Cou became Associate Conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) in September 2003 and has been an active participant in a wide range of National Symphony performances and events since his debut at Wolf Trap in 2000. In March 2003, he conducted an all-Russian subscription program with the orchestra, substituting at short notice for Vladimir Fedoseyev.
His NSO concerts during the summer of 2003 included four separate Wolf Trap concerts; Viennese operetta, Big Band, Carmina Burana and an all-Tchaikovsky program. He also conducted the annual Labor Day concert on the West Lawn of the Capitol.
In the 2003-2004 season, de Cou conducted four performances of Handel’s “Messiah” with the National Symphony in addition to his Associate duties and he also guest conducted with the Abilene Philharmonic, Annapolis Symphony and Florida West Coast Symphony. He was the lecturer of the Kennedy Center Tchaikovsky Festival.
de Cou has guest conducted many orchestras, including the symphony orchestras of Detroit, Hartford, Milwaukee, Mobile, Pacific, Sun Valley and Waterbury. His debut with the Montreal Symphony during the opening of its 1998-99 season resulted in a re-engagement to conduct an all-Tchaikovsky program during the orchestra’s opening week in 1999-2000. That season also included concerts with the Boston Pops in Symphony Hall as well as concerts with the Philadelphia Orchestra at both the Mann Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia and at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center; the Houston Symphony in Bayou Place; and the St. Louis Symphony at Queeny Park. He also conducted the closing outdoor concert at the Spoleto Festival in June 1999 and the San Francisco Symphony on July 4th of that year.
de Cou was conductor of the San Francisco Ballet from 1993 until 2001 and Acting Music Director from 1998. Previously he was conductor of the American Ballet Theatre, which he conducted from 1985 to 1993. In his ballet capacity, he has conducted orchestras all over the world, including the English Chamber Orchestra, Ulster Orchestra, Scottish National Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic, Polish Radio Orchestra, Royal Danish Opera Orchestra, Palermo Opera Orchestra, Mexico City Symphony and the national orchestras of Argentina, Holland and Romania.
In 1981, de Cou assumed the post of Assistant Conductor of the Young Musician’s Foundation Debut Orchestra in Los Angeles and entered the graduate program of the University of Southern California. In 1982 he was chosen from 200 candidates to study in Leonard Bernstein’s master class at the Hollywood Bowl.
de Cou was born in Los Angeles. His early training in horn and piano led to studies at age 17 with Herbert Blomstedt after which he entered the Music Academy of Vienna. Along with his studies in conducting and composition, he served as Principal Horn of the Baden State Theatre and of the Mozart Opera of Salzburg on its European tour.
While still a teenager, American pianist Orion Weiss stepped in with less than a day’s notice to replace Andre Watts in a Baltimore Symphony performance of Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 2. Now at age 22 he has won numerous awards, including the prestigious 1999 Gilmore Young Artist Award, an honor granted by the Irving S. Gilmore international Keyboard Festival to promising young American pianists.
A native of Lyndhurst, Ohio, Weiss attended the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he studied with Paul Schenly. Weiss currently studies with Emanuel Ax at the Juilliard School in New York.
Weiss has been represented by IMG Artists, a major artist management firm, since he was 18.
Mr. Weiss has exhibited a keen interest in chamber music repertoire. In 1998, he performed Dvorak’s Piano Quintet in A major with Itzhak Perlman and Pinchas Zukerman at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall as well as in the home of Lorin Maazel.
In 2002, Weiss was a member of the Chamber Music Society Two program of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Weiss has performed with the Oregon Symphony led by Norman Leyden and the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra with Mischa Santora. During the 2002-2003 season, he also performed Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5 with the Phoenix Symphony and the Canton Symphony.
Mr. Weiss has been heard nationwide in the Ravinia Rising Stars Series in Illinois, St. Louis’ Sheldon Concert Hall, and with orchestras including the Baltimore Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, the Oregon Symphony, and the Santa Rosa Symphony.
Mr. Weiss has received first prize honors at the Akron Youth Symphony, Cleveland Philharmonic, Music Academy of the West, Venitia Hall, and the Cleveland Institute of Music concerto competitions. He also was awarded a scholarship at the Interlochen Arts Camp for four consecutive years and has participated in the Sergei Babayan International Piano Academy, the Perlman Music Program and Pianofest. Highlights of Mr. Weiss’ 2002-03 season included performances with the Phoenix Symphony, the Canton Symphony and the Colorado Springs Orchestra, as well as in recitals in El Paso, Texas; Torrance and Malibu, California and Athens, Georgia.
