Tag Archives: Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra
Guest pianist Daniil Trifonov, a rising 21-year-old superstar, performs Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2, Op. 21, in F Minor with the CSO.

Trifonov ‘terrifically exciting’ in guest spot with CSO, Zur; Zemach receives dignified send-off

August 23, 2012 by The Chautauquan Daily 1 Comment

It was a night for beginnings and endings in the Amphitheater on Tuesday. This being the final Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra concert of the season, Institution President Tom Becker was on hand to offer his thanks to the players and also the players’ gratitude to the audience. He drolly introduced himself as “Marty Merkley’s yes man,” which got a nice laugh.

Merkley had a good night, mounting a valedictory program that included two Chautauqua debuts: of the young Israeli conductor Noam Zur (making his North American debut); and of Daniil Trifonov, a pianist whose appearance was a consequence of winning the Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition.

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Guest Critic Reviews
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CSO’s biggest fan reflects on a lifetime of music

August 22, 2012 by The Chautauquan Daily 0 Comments

Warren Hickman’s earliest memory of listening to a musical group in the Amphitheater was in 1926, when his father brought his family to see John Philip Sousa and his band.

“It was such a crowd that we were about the third row of standees,” Hickman said. “I’ll always remember that he put me on his shoulders so that I could see over the crowd, and one of the percussionists for one of the marches took out a black pistol and shot it in the air three times.”

Sousa’s band was a memorable moment, but the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra has been the epicenter of a lifetime of memories at Chautauqua for Hickman and his family.

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The Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra performs its penultimate concert Saturday evening in the Amphitheater. The CSO closes the 2012 Season with its 21st performance at 8:15 p.m. tonight. Photo by Eric Shea.

CSO wraps up 2012 with final performance featuring Trifonov, Zur

August 21, 2012 by The Chautauquan Daily 0 Comments

During a safari in South Africa, guest conductor Noam Zur sat helplessly in a Jeep when a rhinoceros came hurtling toward the vehicle. In that moment, he knew the next time he told an orchestra to play dangerously, he would draw on that moment to remember how real danger felt.

The Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra will perform its last concert of the season tonight at 8:15 p.m. in the Amphitheater. The concert will feature Zur conducting and guest pianist Daniil Trifonov performing Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2. Trifonov won the Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition in 2011, the only first-prize winner since Alexander Gavrylyuk in 2005.

Zur and Trifonov worked together last year, performing the same Chopin concerto, which they chose again for tonight because of the CSO’s notoriously fast rehearsal time.

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Guest violinist Anastasia Khitruk performs in the world-premiere performance of Michael Colina’s “Baba Yaga” with the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra.

CSO, Levin, Khitruk shine Saturday in an evening of debuts

August 20, 2012 by The Chautauquan Daily 1 Comment

Monsters, witches and a devil (well, Stalin, anyway). This was perhaps not a typical program for the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra, but it was in turns electrifying, poignant, lovely and menacing.

In fact, the concert Saturday night in the Amphitheater was an intriguing look at danger set in Russia. It began with the fantastical one of two monsters that abduct the characters Russlan and Ludmilla in the opera of the same name by Glinka, moved to the frightful Slavic legend of Baba Yaga and concluded with Shostakovich’s secret account of the brutality of Stalin’s regime. All led by, with a measure of irony, but a conductor at ease, the American Ira Levin.

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Guest Critic Reviews
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Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra principal cellist Chaim Zemach plays in Thursday’s CSO concert in the Amphitheater. Photo by Lauren Rock.

CSO principal cellist, inspiring musician, man of the world, retires

August 18, 2012 by The Chautauquan Daily 0 Comments

Chaim Zemach said his 44 years of coming to Chautauqua, watching people come and go, observing the changes in the community year after year, have been like an ongoing novel. For any who have met and spoken with Zemach, it could be argued that his life is a bit like a novel itself.

Zemach has been the principal cellist of the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra for 44 years. Zemach will retire at the end of this summer, his 45th season playing with the CSO. Zemach has become an indisputable legend at Chautauqua and a source of admiration from within and outside the orchestra.

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From the President: Column by Thomas M. Becker

August 18, 2012 by The Chautauquan Daily 0 Comments

Welcome to the opening of the closing week in the 2012 Chautauqua Season.

Saturday evening and again Tuesday, the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra will assume the stage in the Amphitheater for their final performances of the season. Those will be the 20th and 21st concerts of their season’s artistic programming. They have been extraordinary in every way. They have played for 17 different conductors and with a wide variety of soloists and choirs. They have supported dance and opera and served as faculty for the School of Music. At the conclusion of Saturday’s performance, you are invited to the back porch of the Amphitheater to help recognize and celebrate the more than 40 years of service to the CSO by its principal cellist, Chaim Zemach. Chaim and his wife, Hildegard, have contributed greatly to the life of this community. I hope you will take the time to express your thanks to these lovely Chautauquans.

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Community
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The Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of guest conductor Andrew Constantine, performs Thursday evening in the Amphitheater. Photo by Lauren Rock.

Evening of enigma and schtick leads to crowd-pleaser of a program from CSO

August 18, 2012 by The Chautauquan Daily 1 Comment

There are several enigmas associated with Sir Edward Elgar’s “Enigma” Variations. Who is the cryptic dedicatee of Variation XIII, identified only by the cypher “***” in the score? Is the enigma a mysterious tune (“Happy Birthday”?) coded into the music? And is there an enigma at all, or was the work’s title Elgar’s hunting call to set future music lovers off on a wild goose chase, a cosmic joke swaddled in Victorian drollery?

To those mysteries, English-born conductor Andrew Constantine added another when he suggested in his podium remarks that at this performance, the coins customarily used in place of the timpanist’s usual sticks in Variation XIII “might be the very coins” Elgar employed more than a century ago.

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Chafetz featured in Lazarus series

August 17, 2012 by The Chautauquan Daily 0 Comments

Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra principal timpanist and frequent guest conductor Stuart Chafetz will be the featured speaker for the Hebrew Congregation’s Shirley Lazarus Sunday Speakers Series at 8 p.m. Sunday in the Hurlbut Church sanctuary.

Chafetz has served as principal timpanist of the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra since 1997. This year, he guest conducted the annual Independence Day concert, which he has done for the past nine years, as well as the Opera Pops concert in August.

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Religion
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