Videos, DVDs & CDs
The Evanston Symphony Orchestra is proud to provide videos to educate you about the pieces we perform and, at times, the soloists who will be performing. The video(s) below are examples only and do not represent performances by the Evanston Symphony Orchestra unless noted.
JANÁČEK
Sinfonietta: Finale (fifth movement)
Pierre Boulez, BBC Symphony Orchestra, 2008 Proms concert in Royal Albert Hall
ESO Recommended
Purchase
The spectacular trumpets (and tenor tubas) start playing at 4:40. Watch it to the end!
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS
Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis (beginning)
Sir Andrew Davis, BBC Symphony Orchestra
ESO Recommended
Purchase
The first half of this deeply spiritual string work, taped by the BBC in Gloucester Cathedral in England. The second part is also on youtube.
ALTENBURG
Concerto for Seven Trumpets and Timpani
Members of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Trumpet Studio
ESO Recommended
Purchase
If this sounds familiar, that's because it's one of the brass pieces played over the speakers at Ravinia to warn that the concert is about to begin.
Our Soloist
Don Cagen, trumpet
Trumpeter, conductor, shofar soloist and
electronic wind synthesist Don Cagen has enjoyed
a professional music career than spans over
25 years.
Don has performed as principal trumpet of the Evanston Symphony Orchestra since 2001. He has also performed as solo cornet and was a founding member of the Chicago Brass Band.
While attending Northwestern University School of Music, Don studied trumpet with legendary teachers Vincent Cichowicz and Arnold Jacobs of the Chicago Symphony, and conducting with John Paynter and Don Owens. Don also studied trumpet for two years with Philip Smith of New York Philharmonic, and recently performed at master classes with James Thompson, Jens Lindemann, and the Summit Brass.
In 1993, Don performed as a soloist with pianist and composer Dave Brubeck. In 2007, Don was a soloist in the world premier of “Antiphon” by Jonathon Berger, with the Fulcrum Point New Music Project directed by Stephen Burns. Don is a lecturer at Columbia College in the Department of Audio Arts and Acoustics.
Don is grateful for the high quality of his early music education, especially his teachers John Apollo, Ted Kaitchuck, and Charles Groeling. As a high school student, Don was a member of The Chicago Youth Symphony for two years, and was solo trumpet in the Illinois All-State Band.
As trumpeter and bandleader with the "Don Cagen Orchestra," Don has performed at over 4,000 corporate events, weddings and charity galas nationwide, including the 2009 Inaugural Ball of President Barack Obama in Washington DC. Don resides in Northbrook, Illinois with his wife, vocalist Becky Cagen, and their Australian Labradoodle, Ella.
Concert Two
Sunday, February 7, 2010
2:30 pm
TRUMPET SPECTACULAR
Pick-Staiger Concert Hall
50 Arts Circle Drive, Evanston
Buy Tickets
INDIVIDUAL CONCERT TICKETS:
Advance Sales:
$25 Adult, $20 Seniors
Children 12 and younger are admitted absolutely FREE.
Please call 847.864.8804 or email tickets@evanstonsymphony.org for all orders with
children’s tickets.
Box Office Sales:
$28 Adult, $23 Seniors
Children 12 and younger are admitted absolutely FREE.
$5.00 Student Tickets, subject to availability, at the box office with ID.
Group discounts are available for parties of 10 or more. Please call 847.864.8804 for further information
Eleven trumpets and two tenor tubas join an augmented ESO in the blockbuster Sinfonietta of Janáček, inspired by Czech folk music and village bands. Don Cagen, ESO principal trumpet, who played at a Presidential inaugural ball, performs the Haydn trumpet concerto. Tuneful favorites by Vaughan Williams and Dvořák round out this spectacular program.
ALTENBURG
- Concerto for 7 Trumpets and Timpani
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS
- Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis
HAYDN
- Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra in E Flat Major
- Don Cagen, Trumpet
DVOŘÁK
- Scherzo Capriccioso, Op. 66
JANÁČEK
- Sinfonietta
Friday, February 5, 2010 at 1:30 PM
FREE.
.
Program Notes
CONCERTO FOR 7 TRUMPETS AND TIMPANI
Johann Ernst Altenburg (1734—1801)
Johann Ernst Altenburg was born into a family of German musicians whose connection with the Baroque trumpet began at least as early as the 18th century. For 35 years, Johann’s father, Johann Caspar, served the dukes of Weissenfels as court trumpeter. His son followed family tradition, learning the Baroque trumpet during an apprenticeship under his father. Johann Ernst also studied the organ, and was a field trumpeter during the Seven Years War.
During the latter half of the 18th Century, the popularity of the Baroque trumpet gradually faded away and Johann Ernst Altenburg was never able to find a good job on either the trumpet or the organ. He died in poverty.
Altenburg’s works for two to seven trumpets and timpani, which appear in his treatise, are excellent examples of the heroic military style. The brass instruments of this Concerto are divided into two choirs of three trumpets each and one solo trumpet. The three movements follow the general pattern of the Classical concerto – that is, the first and last movements are fast, while the inner movement is slow.
FANTASIA ON A THEME OF THOMAS TALLIS
Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)
Vaughan Williams grew up in a vicarage in Gloucestershire and emerged as one of England’s most eminent composers since Purcell and Handel. While he was engaged in editing the English Hymnal, he reviewed collections of English folk and church music. He wrote, “This meant two years with no ‘original’ work except a few hymn tunes. I wondered then if I was wasting my time. But I know now that two years of close association with some of the best — as well as some of the worst — tunes in the world was a better musical education than any amount of sonatas and fugues.” Vaughan Williams discovered nine melodies contributed to the 1567 English psalter by the great English composer, Thomas Tallis, and selected one of them as the basis for this fantasia, which was introduced in 1910 at the annual Three Choirs Festival in Gloucester Cathedral.
The Fantasia is scored for two string orchestras and instrumental soloists. It was clearly composed with the Cathedral’s vast acoustical spaces in mind. Tallis’ theme and an original melody by Vaughan Williams are presented during the quiet introduction. Then, the Tallis theme is fully stated and the two orchestras begin a dialogue followed by violin and viola solos. The three groups build to an impassioned climax. Recalling the introductory material, the work then settles into mystic silence.
CONCERTO FOR TRUMPET AND ORCHESTRA IN E-FLAT MAJOR
Franz Josef Haydn (1732-1809)
Haydn spent much of his life in or around Vienna. For 30 years he was in the service of the Esterhazy household, which was headed by a great musical patron. At a time when court musicians often were considered in the same class as servants, Haydn’s patron gave him considerable freedom and apparently recognized that Haydn was a brilliant innovator. His influence as a composer touched nearly every aspect of the music of his time, from chamber music to symphonies. He earned the nickname of “Papa Haydn” for his unfailing good nature, which shines through his music.
SCHERZO CAPRICCIOSO, OP. 66
Antonin Dvořák (1841-1904)
During Dvořák’s lifetime, nationalism in music became an important force in composition. Czech folk music, which had remained isolated from other European musical traditions, was introduced by Dvořák and his compatriot, Smetana. Their music is suffused with beautiful melodies and a sturdy vigor. It also is characteristically moody – a sudden shift in key from major to minor, a quick rhythmic change. The Scherzo Capriccioso reflects the healthy temperament of a composer whose life was mainly happy, and who became a national hero. The French horns sound a call at the beginning of the work, which soon becomes a joyous dance. A lilting waltz is introduced and these themes are varied. Dvořák gives a lyric melody to the English horn, and we are led back to the waltz section. It is bright, pleasant music, which exhibits a jocular humor.
SINFONIETTA
Leoš Janáček (1854-1928)
Leoš Janáček ranks with Smetana and Dvořák for importance in the history of Czech music. However, his music (other than opera) is much less frequently performed; in fact, this is the first ESO performance of any of Janáček’s works. He achieved little success until the final decade of his life, during which he composed four major operas and three concert pieces which are now repertory staples.
The Sinfonietta, the most popular of Janáček’s works, was composed and premiered in 1926 when he was 72. It grew out of a commission for a brass fanfare for the Sokol Gymnastics Festival in the same year which he then expanded into the first movement “Fanfare.” Janáček titled this 25-minute piece “Military Sinfonietta” for its premiere, which places it as a direct descendent of the Altenburg military fanfares that open this concert. The orchestral forces required by the Sinfonietta reflect its fanfare origin; in addition to the normal large Romantic orchestra including four horns, four trombones, three trumpets, and bass tuba, there is an extra brass contingent of nine trumpets, two bass trumpets, and two tenor tubas. The opening fanfare uses only these extra brasses plus the timpani; they join the full orchestra in the second half of the fifth movement finale to provide one of music’s most spectacular endings. The three intervening movements provide contrasting folk-influenced vignettes with varied orchestration; no two movements use exactly the same group of players, and the grand finale omits the bassoons and the bass tuba!
Program notes by Lilias Circle. Program notes for Janacek’s Sinfonietta by David Ellis, ESO General Manager.
