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Home Podcast Photos Upcoming Events Videos Articles and Reviews Radio Broadcast Schedule History of the EPO Mission and Values Board of Directors 2024-2025 Sponsors 2024-2025 Philharmonic Gives Back Donors 1/17/2023 - 1/17/2024 Thoughtful Tributes 1/17/2023 - 1/17/2024
Program Notes
Written by Bill Hemminger

Dinuk Wijeratne
Tabla Concerto
Duration: 27:00

     Dinuk Wijeratne (b. 1978) was born in Sri Lanka, grew up in Dubai, and later became a Canadian citizen.  He is a conductor, pianist, and composer of culture-crossing musical works, of which tonight’s concerto—for traditional Indian hand drum (tabla) and western concert orchestra—is an excellent example (2011).  His early formal musical formation took place in the United Kingdom and at the Juilliard School in New York City.  He debuted at Carnegie Hall in 2004 with the Silk Road Ensemble (in collaboration with Yo Yo Ma) and has been active in musical circles internationally ever since.  New York Times has labelled the artist “exuberantly creative,” and the composer fashions himself as a musical “disrupter” who is as comfortable as a DJ as he is conducting a symphony orchestra.
     The concerto is divided into three sections.  The first is entitled “Canons, Circles” wherein the composer makes canons (where an initial melody or rhythm is imitated and repeated at a different time) of traditional tabla rhythms.  The following section, “Folk Song,” is a lyrical treatment (in a traditional 14-beat cycle) of the words:  “White in the moon the long road lies (that leads me from my love).”  The final movement is called “Garland of Gems.”  In a typical and traditional tabla recital, the soloist would perform a series of short compositions (“gems”), which are first presented as vocalizations of syllables.  Here, language reaffirms its rhythmic roots, and music adds pitch to that beat.
     Sandeep Das is an Indian virtuoso of the tabla, the principal percussion instrument in Hindustani classical music.  Usually the tabla consists of two hollowed-out wooden drums that are tethered with bands and fitted with dowels that can alter pitch.  The larger drum provides a bass voice while the smaller one can provide a range of pitches.  Sounds are produced variously—with fingers and with the palms of the hands—which gives the instrument a surprisingly large tonal vocabulary.
     Born in India, Das currently resides in the United States.  Among other achievements, he won a Grammy award in 2017 for Best World Music Album.  At the age of 15 he performed with famed Sitar player Ravi Shankar and was already an acclaimed tabla player.  He describes his musical formation like this:  eschewing formal musical education (in India or the west) which features musical notation and analysis in addition to technical performance, he moved in with his musical guru (the ultimate in private education), where he spent 12 years absorbing tabla technique and performance and Hindustani musical tradition.  

Sergei Rachmaninoff
Symphony No. 2 in E Minor, Op. 27
Duration: 50:00

     Sergei Rachmaninoff, one of the greatest figures of late romantic music, was born in Russia in 1873; he died in 1943 in Beverly Hills.  He wrote music in many genres—piano concertos, volumes of piano études and preludes, solo vocal (listen to the enchanting Vocalise for a good example) and choral works (including the magnificent Vespers) to major symphonic works, including tonight’s symphony.   But Rachmaninoff was also a virtuoso pianist, perhaps a 20th century successor to Liszt, and a sought-after conductor.  
     Born into a family of means, Rachmaninoff was able to study piano and composition (and not work on a collective farm), eventually becoming a pupil at the Moscow Conservatory.  His early compositions gained him much fame, particularly the piano Prélude in C-sharp Minor (1892) and later the Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor (1901), both very familiar in today’s musical repertoire.  Not unlike Debussy’s “success” with Clair de lune at about the same time, though, the Prélude came to be popularly identified with the young composer, who aspired to greater musical horizons and chafed at the repeated audience demands for him to perform his youthful work.  
     Though hard to imagine that a person of such great gifts might be plagued with insecurity or self-doubt, Rachmaninoff fought depression throughout his life (which might not be hard to believe when listening to his plaintive, haunting music).  Though not politically active in Russia, Rachmaninoff was shocked with the first of the two major Russian revolutions in 1905 and took his young family to Dresden, Germany in 1906.  After the political upheaval of 1917, he left his homeland for good and divided his time between Switzerland and the United States, finally settling in Beverly Hills, of all astonishing choices.  
     It’s tantalizing to imagine the brooding Russian artist (who never spoke English very well) strolling mournfully amidst all the glitz and tawdry glamor of that city as he missed his fairly frozen and newly communist homeland.  In the States the composer led a rather isolated life, keeping his circle of a few friends close.  His musical output suffered as well:  in his final years he authored only a few compositions, which did however include the delightful Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini (1934). 
     Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 1 in D minor (premiered in 1897) was savaged by critics, which sent the sensitive artist into a serious and protracted depression.  Encouraged by the success of his second piano concerto, Rachmaninoff began work on the formidable Symphony No. 2 in E minor in 1906 while living in Dresden, far from the political chaos of Russia.  It is a composition of grand design—four fully developed movements that, according to the composer, gave voice to his feelings.  
     Though only in his 30s, Rachmaninoff had already mastered symphonic form and had learned to make much of the orchestral palette of instruments.  
The first movement begins with a dolorous section marked Largo but quickly increases its tempo to Allegro moderato.  Two fortissimo outbursts conclude the movement.
     What follows is a Scherzo (Allegro molto), which despite its initial whirlwind tempo, mellows into a lovely slow lyric section.  Orchestral forces regain strength, but the movement melts away into pianississimo (really, really quiet). 
     Audience members who listened to popular radio in the 1970s will recognize the soaring melody that opens the third movement.  This melody—along with at least one other from Rachmaninoff—was “borrowed” by pop singer Eric Carmen in his 1975 hit “Never Gonna Fall in Love Again.”  At least that young Clevelander had the good musical sense to steal a great tune from a great source.  In the symphony this melody, sung in luscious harmony by the strings, gives way to a long and lovely counter melody that is played by the clarinet.  The original melody recurs as the movement comes to a reposeful close.
     The symphony concludes with a carnivalesque movement in E major, a counterpoint to the dour opening of the symphony.  The musical fireworks in this movement soon give way to a lovely, broad melody in the strings.  Bits of the three previous movements appear at times before the movement comes to its electric conclusion.

Program Notes
Written by Bill Hemminger

Dinuk Wijeratne
Tabla Concerto
Duration: 27:00

     Dinuk Wijeratne (b. 1978) was born in Sri Lanka, grew up in Dubai, and later became a Canadian citizen.  He is a conductor, pianist, and composer of culture-crossing musical works, of which tonight’s concerto—for traditional Indian hand drum (tabla) and western concert orchestra—is an excellent example (2011).  His early formal musical formation took place in the United Kingdom and at the Juilliard School in New York City.  He debuted at Carnegie Hall in 2004 with the Silk Road Ensemble (in collaboration with Yo Yo Ma) and has been active in musical circles internationally ever since.  New York Times has labelled the artist “exuberantly creative,” and the composer fashions himself as a musical “disrupter” who is as comfortable as a DJ as he is conducting a symphony orchestra.
     The concerto is divided into three sections.  The first is entitled “Canons, Circles” wherein the composer makes canons (where an initial melody or rhythm is imitated and repeated at a different time) of traditional tabla rhythms.  The following section, “Folk Song,” is a lyrical treatment (in a traditional 14-beat cycle) of the words:  “White in the moon the long road lies (that leads me from my love).”  The final movement is called “Garland of Gems.”  In a typical and traditional tabla recital, the soloist would perform a series of short compositions (“gems”), which are first presented as vocalizations of syllables.  Here, language reaffirms its rhythmic roots, and music adds pitch to that beat.
     Sandeep Das is an Indian virtuoso of the tabla, the principal percussion instrument in Hindustani classical music.  Usually the tabla consists of two hollowed-out wooden drums that are tethered with bands and fitted with dowels that can alter pitch.  The larger drum provides a bass voice while the smaller one can provide a range of pitches.  Sounds are produced variously—with fingers and with the palms of the hands—which gives the instrument a surprisingly large tonal vocabulary.
     Born in India, Das currently resides in the United States.  Among other achievements, he won a Grammy award in 2017 for Best World Music Album.  At the age of 15 he performed with famed Sitar player Ravi Shankar and was already an acclaimed tabla player.  He describes his musical formation like this:  eschewing formal musical education (in India or the west) which features musical notation and analysis in addition to technical performance, he moved in with his musical guru (the ultimate in private education), where he spent 12 years absorbing tabla technique and performance and Hindustani musical tradition.  

Sergei Rachmaninoff
Symphony No. 2 in E Minor, Op. 27
Duration: 50:00

     Sergei Rachmaninoff, one of the greatest figures of late romantic music, was born in Russia in 1873; he died in 1943 in Beverly Hills.  He wrote music in many genres—piano concertos, volumes of piano études and preludes, solo vocal (listen to the enchanting Vocalise for a good example) and choral works (including the magnificent Vespers) to major symphonic works, including tonight’s symphony.   But Rachmaninoff was also a virtuoso pianist, perhaps a 20th century successor to Liszt, and a sought-after conductor.  
     Born into a family of means, Rachmaninoff was able to study piano and composition (and not work on a collective farm), eventually becoming a pupil at the Moscow Conservatory.  His early compositions gained him much fame, particularly the piano Prélude in C-sharp Minor (1892) and later the Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor (1901), both very familiar in today’s musical repertoire.  Not unlike Debussy’s “success” with Clair de lune at about the same time, though, the Prélude came to be popularly identified with the young composer, who aspired to greater musical horizons and chafed at the repeated audience demands for him to perform his youthful work.  
     Though hard to imagine that a person of such great gifts might be plagued with insecurity or self-doubt, Rachmaninoff fought depression throughout his life (which might not be hard to believe when listening to his plaintive, haunting music).  Though not politically active in Russia, Rachmaninoff was shocked with the first of the two major Russian revolutions in 1905 and took his young family to Dresden, Germany in 1906.  After the political upheaval of 1917, he left his homeland for good and divided his time between Switzerland and the United States, finally settling in Beverly Hills, of all astonishing choices.  
     It’s tantalizing to imagine the brooding Russian artist (who never spoke English very well) strolling mournfully amidst all the glitz and tawdry glamor of that city as he missed his fairly frozen and newly communist homeland.  In the States the composer led a rather isolated life, keeping his circle of a few friends close.  His musical output suffered as well:  in his final years he authored only a few compositions, which did however include the delightful Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini (1934). 
     Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 1 in D minor (premiered in 1897) was savaged by critics, which sent the sensitive artist into a serious and protracted depression.  Encouraged by the success of his second piano concerto, Rachmaninoff began work on the formidable Symphony No. 2 in E minor in 1906 while living in Dresden, far from the political chaos of Russia.  It is a composition of grand design—four fully developed movements that, according to the composer, gave voice to his feelings.  
     Though only in his 30s, Rachmaninoff had already mastered symphonic form and had learned to make much of the orchestral palette of instruments.  
The first movement begins with a dolorous section marked Largo but quickly increases its tempo to Allegro moderato.  Two fortissimo outbursts conclude the movement.
     What follows is a Scherzo (Allegro molto), which despite its initial whirlwind tempo, mellows into a lovely slow lyric section.  Orchestral forces regain strength, but the movement melts away into pianississimo (really, really quiet). 
     Audience members who listened to popular radio in the 1970s will recognize the soaring melody that opens the third movement.  This melody—along with at least one other from Rachmaninoff—was “borrowed” by pop singer Eric Carmen in his 1975 hit “Never Gonna Fall in Love Again.”  At least that young Clevelander had the good musical sense to steal a great tune from a great source.  In the symphony this melody, sung in luscious harmony by the strings, gives way to a long and lovely counter melody that is played by the clarinet.  The original melody recurs as the movement comes to a reposeful close.
     The symphony concludes with a carnivalesque movement in E major, a counterpoint to the dour opening of the symphony.  The musical fireworks in this movement soon give way to a lovely, broad melody in the strings.  Bits of the three previous movements appear at times before the movement comes to its electric conclusion.