Program Notes by Yaniv Dinur
What I love about this program is that all three pieces share profound similarities, and yet they could not be more different from one another. Marquez, Bartók and Brahms, each one from a different period and region, all turn to the musical realm that they love as a means to express their own individuality – folk music. Marquez has written an intoxicating homage to the Danzón, a popular Cuban dance, which instantly transports us to the vibrant colors and spice of Latin America. Bartók's Viola Concerto draws inspiration from Hungarian folk music, as well as Arab, Turkish and even Scottish. Written in America in a poor period of his life when he was homesick and ill, it is an intimate and self-reflective piece, full of longing for his motherland, Hungary. This concerto, his swan song, recalls the joyous time he spent among the peasants in the villages, studying their music. Lastly, Brahms is known to have had a special affection for Hungarian music, which has become one of his trademarks. The third movement of his beloved Second Symphony is a collection of dances inspired by folk music, ranging from slow to fast.
What connects these three pieces is that each one of them is deeply personal, built on the memories and experiences that they held close to their hearts. This is also what makes them so different.
Yaniv Dinur
Yaniv Dinur is the winner of numerous international conducting competitions. In September 2009, he won a special Second Prize – an award the jury created especially for him – in the International Eduardo Mata Conducting Competition in Mexico City. In 2005, he won the Yuri Ahronovitch First Prize in the inaugural Aviv Conducting Competition that was held in Tel Aviv. He was chosen to be a featured conductor for the 2011 Bruno Walter National Conducting Preview with the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra by the League of American Orchestras, and he is also a grant recipient of the America-Israel Cultural Foundation and The Zubin Mehta Scholarship Endowment.
Yaniv Dinur started his conducting career at the age of 19 when he was invited to conduct the Israel Camerata Orchestra in Jerusalem, making him the youngest conductor ever invited to conduct an orchestra in Israel. Since then, he has conducted orchestras in Ireland, Portugal, Italy, Russia, Poland, the United States, Mexico and Canada. Yaniv Dinur has worked closely with such world-class conductors as Lorin Maazel, Michael Tilson Thomas, Pinchas Zukerman, Kurt Masur, Kenneth Kiesler, Jorma Panula and Gerhard Markson.
Born in Jerusalem in 1981, Yaniv Dinur began studying the piano at the age of 6 with his aunt, Olga Shachar and later with Prof. Alexander Tamir, Tatiana Alexanderov and Mark Dukelsky. At the age of 16, he began to study conducting with Dr. Evgeny Zirlin. While still in high school, Dinur began his formal studies with Dr. Zirlin at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance. After graduating from the Jerusalem Academy, he studied privately with conductor Mendi Rodan.
Yaniv Dinur holds a Doctorate in Orchestral Conducting from the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre and Dance where he studied with Prof. Kenneth Kiesler.
Arthuro Marquez (born 1950) – Danzón No. 2
Premiere: March 5 1994, Mexico City Filarmonica de la UNAM, Francisco Savin, Conductor
Danzón is a national Mexican dance of Cuban origins that became very popular in Mexico in the first half of the twentieth century. It is a couple dance which contains three different dances with an introduction section to each one of them. The Danzón starts slowly and allows for close contact between the dancers but eventually speeds up and can get quite frenetic toward the end. Marquez’s Danzón No. 2 does not follow the exact structure of the classic Danzón and is more of an homage to its sensual melodies and wild rhythms. Marquez has written eight Danzóns, the second of which became so popular that it is considered to be an unofficial additional national anthem of Mexico.
Bella Bartók (1881-1945) – Viola Concerto
Premiere: December 2 1949, Minneapolis, Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra (today’s Minnesota Orchestra), William Primrose, Violist, Antal Doráti, Conductor
When violist William Primrose approached Bartók about a commission for a viola concerto, Bartók was not interested. However, after hearing Primrose’s performance of the Walton Viola Concerto, Bartók was so impressed with the piece that he finally accepted Primrose’s request. In preparation, he began exploring pieces for viola and orchestra and was strongly influenced by Berlioz's Harold in Italy. In fact, he originally conceived the Viola Concerto in four movements with a main theme to appear in all of them that was similar to Harold, but soon after he decided on a classical three-movement form. Knowing that his days were numbered, Bartók worked feverishly on two pieces simultaneously: the commissioned Viola Concerto and the Third Piano Concerto – intended as a birthday surprise for his wife. Bartók died before orchestrating the final 17 bars of the Piano Concerto. What was left of the Viola Concerto was much rougher – 13 pages of draft written in the form of a reduction. Composer and violist Tibor Serly, Bartók's friend and colleague, took upon himself the task of deciphering Bartók's draft, orchestrating it, and transforming it to what would become one of the most performed viola concertos in the repertoire. The Viola Concerto, Bartók’s last piece, is a personal and intimate one. It is played without pauses between the movements and develops into a virtuosic finale that includes a Scottish, folk-like dance. This theme is Bartók's humorous and affectionate tribute to William Primrose, the commissioner of the piece, who was born in Scotland.
Johannes Brahms (1833–1897) - Symphony no. 2
Premiere: December 30 1877, Vienna, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Hans Richer, Conductor
After working for fourteen years on his First Symphony, it took Brahms only four months to finish his Second. In a mischievous letter to his publisher (something which was quite characteristic of him) Brahms wrote: "The new symphony is so melancholy that you won't stand it. I have never written anything so sad. The score must appear with a black border." Yet the Second Symphony is perhaps the most lively and optimistic of all four of his symphonies. Nevertheless, despite Brahms' sense of humor and exaggeration, there was some truth in his words. Underneath the great joy of the music lies darkness that threatens to erupt. It appears rather quickly in the beginning of the first movement, when the beautiful pastoral atmosphere is interrupted by the timpani, the solemn trombones, and the tuba (which appears only in this symphony of Brahms’). This motif of joy disrupted by darkness appears throughout the piece until its triumphal ending.
Brahms' Second Symphony has been a beloved piece since its very first performance when it charmed the players of the orchestra as well as the audience. At the premiere, the public cheered at the end of each movement and demanded that the third movement be played again before the orchestra could move on to the Finale.