11/17/97

CONTACT: Diane Manuel, News Service (650) 725-1945;
e-mail dmanuel@leland.stanford.edu

Stanford concerts scheduled for Nov. 21 and Dec. 1

The Stanford Symphony Orchestra and the Alea II New Music Ensemble, under the direction of J. Karla Lemon, associate professor (performance) of music, will present concerts on Friday, Nov. 21, and Monday, Dec. 1.

The Stanford Symphony Orchestra concert begins at 8 p.m. Friday, Nov. 21, in Dinkelspiel Auditorium. It includes Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, by Ralph Vaughan Williams; Concert No. 3 for Piano and Orchestra "Troisième" by Sergei Prokofiev; Tzigane Rhapsody for Violin and Orchestra by Maurice Ravel; and Mathis der Maler by Paul Hindemith. Featured performers are Tiffany Kuo on piano and Donna Kim on violin. Tickets are $8, $4 for students, and available by calling (650) 725-2787.

The Fantasia, composed for two string orchestras, one large and one small, and a string quartet, is based on the work of a Tudor composer who wrote nine psalm tunes, each in a different mode. The theme for Vaughan Williams' Fantasia is written in the Phrygian mode. The Prokofiev concerto was composed over a period of 10 years, in Petrograd, on the Pacific Ocean and in America, and combines the Russian composer's passion for invention with his attraction to the literary works of Tyutchev, whose favorite theme was the idea that life is chaos and that humankind's glory lies in opposing chaos with order. Ravel's Rhapsody is written in Hungarian gypsy style, combining an unaccompanied violin cadenza with a sweeping harp figuration and full orchestra. Set during the Peasants' Revolt of 1524 and the beginnings of Protestantism, the opera Mathis der Maler tells the story of the life and work of the painter Mathias Grünewald. Each movement depicts a panel of Grünewald's altarpiece for the monastery at Isenheim in Alsace, France.

Violinist Donna Kim is a junior majoring in music and biology who has performed with the Seattle Philharmonic, the Northwest Chamber Orchestra and the Port Angeles Symphony. Pianist Tiffany Kuo began studying piano at the age of 4 in her native Taiwan, and has performed with the Pacific Symphony Orchestra and Claremont Young Musicians Orchestra. A double major in music and biology, Kuo also organizes several music groups that support musicians at Stanford and in neighboring communities.

Alea II New Music Ensemble will present the world premiere of a song cycle by Eric Moe in a free concert at 8 p.m. Monday, Dec. 1, in Campbell Recital Hall. Sonnets to Orpheus will be performed by soprano Christine Brandes, for whom it was written, and the program also will include Kotoka Suzuki's Minyo, performed by the Stanford String Quartet, and James Carr's Hochzirl.

Moe's song cycle is a setting of texts by poet Rainer Maria Rilke, translated by Stephen Mitchell. Moe, an associate professor of composition and theory at the University of Pittsburgh, was a founding member of the San Francisco-based EARPLAY ensemble.

Soprano Christine Brandes has performed in programs ranging from recitals and chamber music to opera and oratorio at many of the most distinguished festivals and series in North America, Europe and the Far East, including the Mostly Mozart, Berkeley, Boston Early Music and Hong Kong festivals, as well as Tanglewood and Ravinia. She was a soloist in last April's The Passion According to St. Matthew in Memorial Church.

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By Diane Manuel