Yale in NY Opens Season With THE BEAR

The Yale School of Music opens its 2011-12 YALE IN NEW YORK concert series with a rousing evening of 20th-century vocal music from Britain, featuring two masterpieces: Benjamin Britten's beloved Serenade for tenor, horn, and strings (written for Peter Pears, Britten's partner, and the immortal horn player Dennis Brain, who requested Britten write the work) and a rare performance of William Walton's satirical mini-opera The Bear.

Britten's Serenade will feature the esteemed Yale faculty member William Purvis on horn; alumnus Dann Coakwell, tenor; graduate quartet-in-residence Linden String Quartet; and double-bassist Gregory Robbins.

The piece is a beautiful, haunting exploration of both the mysteries of night and the expressive capabilities of the noble French horn. Purvis returns to the Yale in New York series following the critically acclaimed New York premiere of Penderecki's Horn Concerto at Carnegie Hall in 2010. The Linden String Quartet-winners of the 2010 Concert Artists Guild Victor Elmaleh Competition, among numerous other international competitions-are in their second year of residence studying with the Tokyo String Quartet, and have achieved remarkable success in the three years since their formation. Lyric tenor Dann Coakwell, described by The New York Times as "clear-voiced and eloquent...vivid storyteller," returns to Carnegie Hall following his debut in 2010 in Prokofiev's Dalyekie Morya.

In the second half, Walton scholar and New Haven Symphony Orchestra music director William Boughton conducts Walton's one-act extravaganza The Bear, a farcical opera based on a story by Chekhov, with a libretto by Paul Dehn. In the opera, a landowner heatedly demands money owed him from a widow, but their duel turns into a seduction. Under the artistic direction of Doris Yarick Cross, the performance will feature singers of Yale Opera-alumni as well as current students-and members of the Philharmonia Orchestra of Yale. Mezzo-soprano Annie Rosen plays the role of the widow Yelina; baritone David Pershall plays her late husband's creditor Grigory; and bass-baritone Andrew Craig Brown completes the trio as the household's servant Luka.

The performance also coincides with a 3-year Walton Project co-hosted by the New Haven Symphony and Yale's Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, whose collection includes 98% of Walton's original manuscripts. Under the direction of Boughton, the orchestra's recording of Walton's Violin Concerto and First Symphony was released by Nimbus in 2010 and selected as a Critic's Choice for 2010 by prestigious Gramophone Magazine.

Tickets at $15-$25 can be purchased after October 4 at the Carnegie Hall box office (57th Street and 7th Ave.), by calling CarnegieCharge at 212/247-7800, or at www.carnegiehall.org. Student and senior discounts are available.

YALE IN NEW YORK
Yale in New York is the acclaimed series in which distinguished faculty members-many of them famous soloists-share the limelight with exceptional alumni and students on Carnegie Hall's stages, capturing the intense collaboration found on every level at the Yale School of Music. The upcoming 2011-12 season features a Prokofiev mini-marathon with the complete piano sonatas performed in one evening, celebrating Boris Berman's new performance edition; a concert led by the great early music specialist William Christie; and an extraordinary finale of music for low instruments from Schütz, Mozart, Penderecki and Gubaidulina. The 2010-11 season featured Sleeping Giant, Yale guitarists, the Yale Percussion Group, rarely-performed 20th-century concerti grossi, and Robert Mealy's Yale Baroque Ensemble playing experimental 17th-century music. The series is curated by David Shifrin.

DECEMBER 4, 2011 PROGRAM

Benjamin Britten: Serenade for tenor, horn, and strings (1943)
Dann Coakwell '11 MM, tenor,
William Purvis, horn, Yale faculty
Linden String Quartet, graduate quartet-in-residence
Gregory Robbins '12 MM, double-bass

William Walton: The Bear, An Extravaganza in one act (1967)
Libretto by Paul Dehn, based on the play by Anton Chekhov of the same title
William Boughton, conductor
Yalena: Annie Rosen, mezzo-soprano, '08BA, '12MM
Grigory: David Pershall, baritone, '10MM, '11AD
Luka: Andrew Craig Brown, bass-baritone, '11MM, '12AD
and members of the Philharmonia Orchestra of Yale

LISTEN:
Britten's Serenade
An excerpt from The Bear

BIOGRAPHIES

WILLIAM BOUGHTON
William Boughton began pursuing a career in conducting following cello studies at the New England Conservatory (Boston), Guildhall School of Music (London), and Prague Academy, and a performing career with the Royal Philharmonic, BBS, and London Sinfonietta.

In 1980, he formed the English Symphony Orchestra (ESO) with whom he commissioned more than 20 works from such composers as Peter Sculthorpe, John Joubert, Anthony Powers, Michael Berkeley, John Metcalf, Stephen Roberts, and AdrIan Williams. With the ESO, he collaborated with Sir Michael Tippett in presenting a musical celebration of the composer's eightieth birthday, which became the subject of a BBC "Omnibus" documentary, while also building a significant discography of internationally acclaimed recordings. During his final years with the ESO, Boughton successfully launched the first ESO Elgar Festival in Malvern and Worcester, and celebrated the orchestra's 25th anniversary.

In July 2007, he became the tenth music director of the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, with whom he has instituted a Composer-in-Residence program and undertaken a major recording project of the works of William Walton; the first recording-Walton's Violin Concerto and First Symphony-was released by Nimbus in 2010 and selected as a Critic's Choice for 2010 by prestigious Gramophone Magazine. Under Mr. Boughton's leadership, the NHSO was awarded an ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming in 2010. He currently hosts a monthly program on WMNR and is in demand as a guest speaker and conductor at orchestras around the world, which have included the San Francisco, London, and Helsinki Symphony Orchestras.

WILLIAM PURVIS
A native of Western Pennsylvania, William Purvis pursues a multifaceted career both in the U.S. and abroad as horn soloist, chamber musician, conductor, and educator. A passionate advocate of new music, Mr. Purvis has participated in numerous premieres as hornist and conductor, including horn concerti by Peter Lieberson, Bayan Northcott, and Krzysztof Penderecki; and further works by Steven Stucky, Eliot Carter, Poul Ruders and Paul Lansky.

Mr. Purvis is a member of the New York Woodwind Quintet, the Orchestra of St. Luke's, the Yale Brass Trio, and the Triton Horn Trio, and is an emeritus member of Orpheus. A frequent guest artist with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, he has also collaborated with the Tokyo, Juilliard, Orion, Brentano, Mendelssohn, Sibelius, Daedalus, and Fine Arts string quartets.

Recent recordings include the Horn Concerto of Peter Lieberson on Bridge (which received a Grammy and a WQXR Gramophone Award), works of Schumann, Paul Lansky, the Schoenberg Wind Quintet with the New York Woodwind Quintet, the Quintet for Horn and Strings by Richard Wernick with the Juilliard Quartet and Retracing II for Solo Horn by Elliott Carter. In the past season he performed the Knussen Horn Concerto in Europe and the Penderecki Horn Concerto at Yale and Carnegie Hall, both under the baton of the respective composers.

Since 1999, Mr. Purvis has been a faculty member at the Yale School of Music, where he is also the coordinator of winds and brass and the director of the Yale Collection of Musical Instruments.

UPCOMING 2011-2012 "YALE IN NY" PERFORMANCES

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 11, 5:30PM & 8:30PM • WEILL RECITAL HALL
"THE COMPLETE PROKOFIEV PIANO SONATAS"
This concert marks the publication of a new edition of the Prokofiev Sonatas, edited by Boris Berman,
Professor in the Practice of Piano and Artistic Director of the Horowitz Piano Series at Yale.
The entire cycle of Prokofiev sonatas, in two recitals on one day, in the intimate surroundings of Weill Recital Hall. This day of music will be the culmination of two undertakings: not only Boris Berman's bilingual (English-Chinese) editorial project that corrects numerous errors that have crept in through the legacy of recordings, but of a department-wide, highly competitive contest among the piano students (the winners will perform the sonatas in concert). Boris Berman is chairman of the Yale piano department and one of the world's most significant Prokofiev specialists. He is the founder of the Prokofiev Society of America, the first pianist to record all of the composer's solo works (Chandos), and the author of Prokofiev's Piano Sonatas: A Guide for the Listener and the Performer (Yale University Press).

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 7:30PM • ZANKEL HALL
"WILLIAM CHRISTIE"
William Christie earned his MM degree from the Yale School of Music in 1969. Now the Baroque specialist and founder of Les Arts Florissants returns to conduct students of his alma mater, members of the Philharmonia Orchestra of Yale.
William Christie returns to his alma mater to conduct members of the Yale Philharmonia and other forces. The Philharmonia was last heard at Carnegie Hall on the Yale in New York series when the great Krzysztof Penderecki led them in a concert of his own music, and before that when Reinbert de Leeuw guest conducted them in a brilliant performance of Messiaen's Turangalîla-Symphonie. The New York Times raved, "The performance was sensational: well prepared, solidly and precisely executed, and rippling with high-energy percussion and brass playing and a fluid interplay of polished strings as well as winds."

SUNDAY, APRIL 1, 7:30PM • ZANKEL HALL
"DE PROFUNDIS: THE DEEP END"
The rich sounds of the bass clef; music in the underground hall that will offer a challenge to the rumbles of the subway.
Usually found supporting melody and solo lines in the violins, trumpets and high woodwinds, the cello, bassoon, tuba, and even some exotic instruments now have their day on center stage. Composers through the centuries have relished the expressive sounds of these instruments, and an all-star ensemble of Yale faculty, alumni and students will share the honors: Frank Morelli, bassoon; Ole Akahoshi, Arnold Choi (2011 MM), Ying Zhang (2011 MM) and Mihai Marica (2008 AD), cellos; students from Don Palma's double bass studio, Scott Hartmann's trombone studio, and Mike Roylance's tuba studio; the conductor Ransom Wilson, as well as special guests. The pieces include a Schütz work for four sackbuts and bass voice (rarely performed in the original instrumentation), Mozart's duo for bassoon and cello, the idiomatic Penderecki Capriccio for solo tuba, and Gubaidulina's five-movement Bassoon Concerto (Gubaidulina was awarded an honorary Doctor of Music degree from Yale University in 2009).

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