David Alexander Rahbee leads the UW Symphony in a program of works by Ludwig van Beethoven and Akira Ifukube. With Percussion Studies Chair Bonnie Whiting, marimba.
Program
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1828): Fidelio overture, op.72c
Akira Ifukube (1914-2006): Lauda concertata, for marimba and orchestra
Bonnie Whiting, marimba
Beethoven: Symphony No. 5 in C minor, op. 67
I. Allegro con brio
II. Andante con moto
III. Allegro
IV. Allegro
Program Notes
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827): Overture to Fidelio, op. 72 (1814)
Beethoven wrote four overtures for this only opera Fidelio before he chose this one as its permanent opening. The three previous overtures bear the name Leonore; named after the protagonist of the story. A woman called Leonore disguises herself as a man named Fidelio in order to break her wrongfully accused husband out of jail. The composer was dissatisfied with his versions of the Leonore overtures and wrote a completely new overture to Fidelio. This overture captures the intense emotional landscape of the opera, blending dramatic tension with moments of hope and triumph. Even though the emotion from Fidelio is captured in the overture, Beethoven stayed away from explicitly referencing musical themes from the body of the opera. The overarching impression of the piece is that of a determined journey; and its rousing finale foreshadows the triumph of the opera’s forces for good.
-Mica Weiland
Akira Ifukube (1914-2006) is renowned for his vast catalog of film scores: especially his work on Studio Toho’s iconic kaiju (giant monster) films. His relentless, lurching mixed-meter Godzilla March propelled the monster forward in the 1954 classic film and reprised in many subsequent iterations, including last year’s thrilling Godzilla Minus One. Ifukube’s own writings and legacy, however lean pointedly away from this wildly popular film work, focusing instead on his long tenure at Tokyo University, and his expansive list of concert works. Many of his pieces simultaneously utilize his early musical immersion in the rural Ainu traditions of his native Hokkaido, his studies in the Eurocentric classical tradition with Alexander Tcherepnin, and his decades of positionality near the center of musical culture in Tokyo. Tonight’s offering blends all three of these elements, with some added movie magic: the disjunct melody that begins this concerto is a transposed version of his theme from the main title in 1964’s Mothra vs. Godzilla.
Lauda Concertata (1976) was originally written for xylophone virtuoso Yoichi Hiraoka (1907–1981): a musician renowned for technical fluidity and blisteringly fast “novelty” arrangements. He commissioned the work to celebrate his fifty-year career, but ultimately found that the concerto did not fit his unique playing style. Ifukube filed the work away, along with many sketches and drafts, until 1979, when marimbist Keiko Abe premiered it with the Japan Shinsei Symphony Orchestra (today, the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra.) In many ways, Abe has been the individual most responsible for the international export of the marimba as a solo instrument. When she brought the piece to Carnegie Hall for the American Symphony Orchestra’s Music of Japan concert in 1981, she helped to solidify the place of this larger, lower marimba in a virtuosic orchestral context. In addition to her active performance career, she composes and commissions for the instrument, and continues to maintain a vibrant teaching life into her eighth decade. In the mid-1980’s her close relationship with the Yamaha corporation led to the construction of the first commercially-available five-octave marimba, now considered the industry standard solo instrument. Abe wrote about her first rehearsal of Lauda Concertata in Tokyo, when she tried to play the original xylophone concerto on her larger marimba:
While I was waiting for my entrance I was overwhelmed by the formidable sound of the music and the emotion of the conductor. When my entrance came, I played the first chords full of energy. But then I became startled and my head went blank. I realized that the sound of my marimba was so poor and its timbre seemed almost ridiculous to me, so much so that I nearly wanted to cry.
After the rehearsal, she brought Ifukube back to her studio, and they worked together to rearrange the piece so that she could use her marimba’s expressive range to the fullest extent. In the spirit of this revision, tonight’s performance will use the full range of the five-octave marimba, adding extra notes that didn’t exist on the instrument until 1984 in the opening and cadenza sections.
In the notes from the premiere in 1979, Ifukube wrote: "The gentle, ode-like musical hymn is mainly played by the orchestra, while the marimba is treated strictly as a percussion instrument, sometimes almost barbaric, rather than a keyboard instrument. By combining these two different elements, so to speak, through the coexistence of prayer and entertainment, I tried to evoke my experience of humanity."
-Bonnie Whiting
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827): Symphony No. 5 in C minor, op. 67 (1807-1808)
Premiered in Vienna on December 22nd, 1808, Beethoven’s 5th symphony has retained its place as one of the most recognizable pieces in the western classical repertory. This symphony has the shortest first movement out of any of Beethoven’s symphonies, but it is constantly bursting with energy despite its compact form. Premiered three years after Napoleon seized Vienna, the fifth symphony can be viewed as an allegory for the emotional journey of the Viennese people during that time.
The first movement builds upon the famous four-note opening to create an atmosphere of angst and turmoil before the second theme, which incorporates hope and innocence into otherwise stormy music. Near the middle of the movement, we hear a dialogue between the woodwinds and strings, getting softer and softer before re-approaching the opening theme. The opening movement ends with a raucous coda that leaves a feeling of unrest with the listener.
The second movement is a set of variations on two themes. The first is a hymn-like song in the violas and cellos; the second is an eager march that brings in the trumpets and timpani. These two themes can be thought of as ways to approach the impending political strife. The hymn represents prayer, and the march represents the militia. The opening melody returns in the violins, with the rest of the orchestra joining in to envelop the room in hope and beauty.
Movement three is a scherzo that mixes mystery and comedy masterfully. It starts in the cellos with a secretive melody, then explodes into a variation of the opening four-notes. The music returns to the opening motif before disappearing into a jaunty fugue, hinting at the triumph to come. Linked to the scherzo with a seamless transition that creates massive tension, this piece is the first major symphony to musically lead to the opening of its own finale. From the downbeat, the entire fourth movement emanates heroism and excitement. This is also the first time that the piccolo, contrabassoon and trombone were given parts in a symphony, thus being a major step towards the enlargement of the orchestra in the decades to follow. After an especially driving coda, the symphony ends with elation and grandeur.
-Mica Weiland
University of Washington Symphony OrchestraDavid Alexander Rahbee, Music Director and Conductor Flute Piccolo English Horn Clarinet Bass Clarinet Bassoon Contrabassoon Horn Bass Trombone Tuba Timpani Percussion Harp Violin I Grace Pandra, Violin Performance/Business Administration (Concertmaster) Violin II Viola |
Biographies
David Alexander Rahbee is an Associate Professor at the University of Washington School of Music in Seattle, where he is Director of Orchestral Activities and Chair of Orchestral Conducting. He is Music Director and Conductor of the University of Washington Symphony Orchestra and founder of the UW Campus Philharmonia Orchestras. He is a recipient of the American-Austrian Foundation's 2003 Herbert von Karajan Fellowship for Young Conductors, the 2005 International Richard-Wagner-Verband Stipend, a fellowship the Acanthes Centre in Paris (2007), and is first prize winner in conducting from The American Prize national non-profit competitions in the performing arts for 2020. His work at UW has earned national recognition. In 2021 he was praised by The American Prize as “Consistently one of the most courageous and comprehensive [orchestral] programmers working in higher education in the U.S. today…”
Dr. Rahbee has appeared in concert with orchestras such as the Seattle Symphony, RTE National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, Kammerphilharmonie Berlin-Brandenburg, Guernsey Symphony Orchestra, Chattanooga Symphony, National Chamber Orchestra of Armenia, Orchestre de la Francophonie, Orchesterakademie der Bochumer Symphoniker, the Dresden Hochschule orchestra, Grand Harmonie, the Boston New Music Initiative, Seattle Modern Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfónica de Loja (Ecuador), Savaria Symphony Orchestra (Hungary), Cool Opera of Norway (members of the Stavanger Symphony), Schönbrunner Schloss Orchester (Vienna), the Whatcom Symphony Orchestra, the Kennett Symphony, and the Divertimento Ensemble of Milan. His collaborations with the Seattle Symphony include assistant conductor for the performance and recording of Ives’ Fourth Symphony, and as guest conductor for their Native Lands project and the North American premiere of Páll Ragnar Pallson's Quake with faculty cellist Sæunn Thorsteinsdóttir. He has collaborated with several prominent soloists such as Sarah Chang, Jon Kimura Parker, Yekwon Sunwoo, Glenn Dicterow and Jonathan Biss. He has been a guest rehearsal conductor for numerous young orchestras, such as the New England Conservatory Symphony Orchestra, The Symphony Orchestra of the Hall-Musco Conservatory of Music at Chapman University, and the Vienna University of Technology orchestra. He has served on faculty of the Pierre Monteux School as Conducting Associate, has been resident conductor of the Atlantic Music Festival and guest conductor at the Hawaii Performing Arts Festival.
Dr. Rahbee was an assistant at the Vienna State opera from 2002-2010. As part of his fellowship and residency at the 2003 Salzburg Festival, Dr. Rahbee was assistant conductor of the International Attergau Institute Orchestra, where he worked with members of the Vienna Philharmonic. He has been selected to actively participate in masterclasses with prominent conductors such as Kurt Masur, Sir Colin Davis, Jorma Panula, Zdeněk Mácal, Peter Eötvös, Zoltán Peskó and Helmut Rilling, and counts Nikolaus Harnoncourt to be among his most influential mentors. From 1997-2001, David Rahbee was founder and conductor of the Fidelio Chamber Orchestra in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Dr. Rahbeeʼs principal conducting teachers were Charles Bruck and Michael Jinbo at the Pierre Monteux School. He holds a Bachelor of Music degree in violin and composition from Indiana University, a Master of Music degree from the New England Conservatory in orchestral conducting, and a Doctorate of Musical Arts from the University of Montreal in orchestral conducting. He has also participated in post-graduate conducting classes at the Universität für Musik und Darstellende Kunst, Vienna. His brass arrangements are published by Warwick Music, and his articles on the music of Mahler have appeared in journals of the International Gustav Mahler Gesellschaft, among others.
In addition to being awarded first prize in conducting from The American Prize for 2020, he was awarded 2nd place in 2019. He has also placed among winners for five consecutive years for The American Prize Vytautas Marijosius Memorial Award for Orchestral Programming, recognizing his programming with the UW Symphony and its affiliated ensembles for every season since he joined the faculty. The UWSO has also been a finalist in the category of orchestral performance in 2018, 2019 and 2020.
Dr. Rahbee is co-editor of Daniels’ Orchestral Music (6thedition) and Daniels’ Orchestral Music Online (DOMO), the gold standard among conductors, orchestral administrators, orchestra librarians as well as other music professionals and students researching for orchestral programming.
Bonnie Whiting (she/her) performs, commissions, and composes new experimental music for percussion. She seeks out projects involving the speaking percussionist, non-traditional notation, improvisation, and interdisciplinary performance. Her debut album, featuring an original solo-simultaneous realization of John Cage's 45' for a speaker and 27'10.554” for a percussionist, was released by Mode Records in April 2017. Her sophomore album Perishable Structures, launched by New Focus Recordings in 2020, places the speaking percussionist in the context of storytelling and features her own music as well as works by Vinko Globokar, Frederic Rzewski, Richard Logan-Greene, and Susan Parenti.
Her recent season highlights include onstage work in the multimedia chamber opera The Ritual of Breath Is the Rite to Resist, featuring productions at Lincoln Center’s Summer for the City, at The Hopkins Center at Dartmouth College, and at Stanford Live; a reprise of composer Wang Lu’s Stages for solo speaking/singing percussionist at New York’s Performance Spaces for the 21st Century (PS21); and four performances of a new concerto written for her by Jonathan Bingham with the National Symphony Orchestra for the family pops series at the Kennedy Center alongside renowned children’s book author Mo Willems. Whiting also creates original, improvised music with clarinetist James Falzone and pianist Lisa Cay Miller; their first album was released on Allos Documents in 2024, and the trio performs this season in Seattle, Vancouver, and Portland.
In 2022 she premiered Through the Eyes(s): an extractable cycle of nine pieces for speaking/singing percussionist collaboratively developed with composer Eliza Brown and ten artists and writers incarcerated at the Indiana Women’s Prison. The project was featured on NPR’s nationally-syndicated Slingshot, and locally via Seattle’s ClassicalKING radio station. Whiting has an ongoing relationship as a soloist with the National Orchestra of Turkmenistan via the U.S. Embassy Cultural Affairs Office, playing concerti in Ashgabat in 2017 and 2018. She performs frequently with percussionist Jennifer Torrence, giving concerts of new experimental work for speaking percussionists throughout Norway and the US. Her collaboration with multimedia artist Afroditi Psarra generated the album <null_abc>, released on the Zero Moon label in 2018, and their project with designer Audrey Desjardins on transcoding data from IoT devices as performance received a 2019/20 Mellon Creative Fellowship. The project was explored in a workshop at the 2020 Transmediale Festival in Berlin, and currently lives as an interactive net art installation. She spent four years performing music for voice and percussion with the Harry Partch Ensemble on the composer’s original instrumentarium while the instruments were in residence at the UW. Whiting has presented solo and small ensemble shows at The Stone in New York, the Brackish Series in Brooklyn, The Lilypad in Boston, The New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival, at Hallwalls in Buffalo, the Tiny Park Gallery in Austin, The Wulf in LA, the Carl Solway Gallery in Cincinnati, The Grove Haus in Indianapolis, on the Wayward Music Series in Seattle, on tour throughout New Zealand, and at colleges and universities around the country.
Whiting is the Co-Artistic Director and core percussionist of the Seattle Modern Orchestra, the Pacific Northwest’s only large ensemble solely dedicated to music of the 20th and 21st Centuries, and she plays vibraphone with the Torch Quartet. As a chamber musician, she has collaborated with many of today's leading new music groups, including red fish blue fish percussion group, (George Crumb's Winds of Destiny directed by Peter Sellars and featuring soprano Dawn Upshaw for the Ojai Festival), eighth blackbird (the “Tune-in” festival at the Park Avenue Armory), the International Contemporary Ensemble (on-stage featured percussionist/mover in Andriessen's epic Die Materie at the Park Avenue Armory, and the American premiere of James Dillon's Nine Rivers at Miller Theatre), Talea Ensemble (Time of Music Festival in Finland), Bang on a Can (Steve Reich's Music for 18 Musicians for the LA Philharmonic's Green Umbrella Series) and Ensemble Dal Niente (the Fromm Concerts at Harvard.) She attended Oberlin Conservatory (BM), the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (MM), and the University of California San Diego (DMA). She is an Associate Professor of Music at the University of Washington, where she has been Chair of Percussion Studies since 2016.