The Hebrides, “Fingal’s Cave,” Op. 26
Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)

Tabula Rasa
Arvo Pärt (b. 1935)

1. Ludus
2. Silentium

Midori and Moni Simeonov, violins

Intermission

Suite No. 1, BWV 1066, in C Major
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

1. Overture
2. Courante
3. Gavotte I & II
4. Forlane
5. Menuet I & II
6. Bourrée I & II
7. Passepied I & II

Violin Concerto in E Minor, Op. 64
Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)

1. Allegro molto appassionato
2. Andante
3. Allegretto non troppo - Allegro molto vivace

Midori, violin

The Hebrides, “Fingal’s Cave,” Op. 26
Felix Mendelssohn

Born: February 3, 1809, Hamburg
Died: November 4, 1847, Leipzig
Written: 1830
Premiered: May 14, 1832, London
Approximate Duration: 10 minutes
Instrumentation: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, strings

Scotland was an inspiration for nineteenth century art and music in France and Germany.  The location seemed exotic–far away, mysterious, full of picturesque and rugged landscapes, rainy and misty, and inhabited by people wearing kilts and plaids and speaking in the seemingly unintelligible Gaelic language.  Many students, writers, and artists traveled there, seeking inspiration from this beautiful and foreign place.  

In 1829, Mendelssohn’s father sent him on a tour of Europe to complete his education and gain cultural understanding, as was common for young men of fortune at the time.  Mendelssohn and a friend began their travels in England and Scotland.  In Edinburgh, they immersed themselves in the stories of Queen Mary and her personal secretary, David Rizzio.  Mendelssohn wrote, “We went to the palace of Holyrood where Queen Mary lived and loved. There is a little room to be seen there with a winding staircase leading up to it. This, the murderers ascended and, finding Rizzio, drew him out. Three chambers away is where they killed him….  Everything is broken and moldering and the bright sky shines in.  I believe I found today in the old chapel the beginning of my Scottish Symphony.”  As they traveled farther north, Mendelssohn wrote that the Scottish highlands “brew nothing but whiskey, fog, and foul weather.”  Eventually they made their way to the west coast of Scotland and to the island of Jaffa.

Fingal's Cave is on the uninhabited island of Jaffa in the inner Hebrides.  The cave has a giant arched roof and is filled with the eerie sounds produced by the breaking waves. Its Gaelic name means “cave of melody.”  Sir Walter Scott described it as “…one of the most extraordinary places I ever beheld. It exceeded, in my mind, every description I had heard of it….  composed entirely of basaltic pillars as high as the roof of a cathedral, and running deep into the rock, eternally swept by a deep and swelling sea, and paved, as it were, with ruddy marble, baffles all description.”  

After seeing the stunning scenery, Mendelssohn composed the opening bars of his overture and sent it to his sister Fanny, saying, “In order to make you understand how extraordinarily the Hebrides affected me, I send you the following, which came into my head there.”  He continued to work on the overture as he traveled, finally completing it a year later in Rome, with a London premiere in 1832.  Critics, including Wagner and Schumann, praised the overture as a masterpiece. Mendelssohn originally entitled it The Lonely Island, but soon changed the name, rather confusingly using the title Hebrides Overture on the orchestral parts but Fingal’s Cave on the full score. 

Mendelssohn’s work was the first of a new type of overture which emerged during the nineteenth-century, referred to as the concert overture.  These overtures are not drawn from a stage work or opera, but rather, are stand-alone works to be programmed as an opening piece in a concert hall.  Mendelssohn’s Hebrides Overture evokes a seascape including the grandeur of the cave, the swelling of the sea, the light on the water, and the fury of the waves breaking on the cliffs. It was one of the first works of music to evoke nature in this way, a hallmark of the emerging Romanticism of Mendelssohn’s time, and remains one of the greatest of its genre.

To watch a video of Mendelssohn's Hebrides Overture, click here.

Tabula Rasa
Arvo Pärt

Born: September 11, 1935, Paide, Estonia
Written: 1977
Premiered: September 30, 1977, Tallinn, Estonia, with Gidon Kremer and Tatjana Grindenko, violinists, Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, conductor Eri Klas
Approximate Duration: 25 minutes
Instrumentation: two violin soloists (or solo violin and solo viola), strings, prepared piano

In the late twentieth century, composers pushed classical music to its limits by challenging and re-examining conventions of  tonality, structure, and sound quality.  In the midst of that musical exploration, Estonian composer Arvo Pärt emerged with a strikingly new style that he called “tintinnabuli.”  He described this as "an area I sometimes wander into when I am searching for answers–in my life, my music, my work."  Pärt was a person of deep faith who had significant mystical experiences with chanted music and prayer.  He wanted to find a musical language that would invite  listeners to explore silence, simplicity, and spirituality, which musicologists have dubbed holy or mystical minimalism.  Pärt’s style is characterized by distinct voices that move in simple arpeggiated triads, representing bell tones, and stepwise motion, all at a slow and meditative pace.

One of Pärt’s best known tintinnabular pieces is Tabula Rasa, composed in 1977.  The Latin title is translated “blank slate.”  Pärt intends this blank slate to be a fresh start, an invitation to a contemplative journey of clearing one’s mind and soul, allowing the musical experience to transform oneself and awaken a sense of musical rebirth.  

From the first note of the first movement, “Ludus” (Game), Pärt writes for the extreme high and low range of the violin, evoking a wide-open environment.  The movement is structured with increasingly long and complex episodes of activity that seem to invite reflection on the entirety of human experience: from joy, to sorrow, to longing.  These Interludes are interspersed with moments of timeless stillness.  The movement culminates with a cadenza.  “Silentium” (Silence) is sparse and fragile.  In this simplicity, Pärt encourages listeners to meditate on the hushed melodic fragments and the spaces between the sounds.  The piece concludes in the quiet depths of the orchestra, inviting hearers into a final moment of listening and rest.   

Tabula Rasa is written for two violin soloists, string orchestra, and prepared piano.  A prepared piano is a regular piano that has objects such as screws, paper, bolts, or erasers placed between or on the strings to temporarily alter the sound but leave the piano unharmed.  Composers John Cage and Henry Cowell were some of the first to use this technique.  In this piece, 24 screws and some felt are placed between specific piano strings to produce a variety of percussive-sounding notes.  These “unfamiliar” instrumental sounds add to the mystery of this piece. 

To watch a video Pärt's Tabula Rasa, click here.

Suite (Overture) No. 1 in C Major, BWV 1066
Johann Sebastian Bach

Born: March 21, 1685, Eisenach
Died: July 28, 1750, Leipzig
Written: c. 1725
Approximate Duration: 22 minutes
Instrumentation: 2 oboes, 1 bassoon, harpsichord, strings

The origin of J.S. Bach’s four orchestral suites is mysterious!  We don’t know when Bach wrote these pieces–either in his years at Cöthen (1717-1723) or while working in Leipzig (1729-early 1740s) with the Collegium Musicum, a group consisting of university students and a few professional musicians.  Bach never assembled the suites into a finished volume, as he did with the Brandenburg Concertos, and there is no surviving autograph.  We only have instrumental parts copied by various people including Bach’s son and students.

Nevertheless, Bach’s four orchestral suites represent the pinnacle of orchestral writing in the French Overture style, an approach characterized by a stately introduction full of dotted rhythms, trills, and flourishes followed by a faster fugal section before ending with the stately opening music.  The overtures in these suites are proportionally so grand that the suites themselves are sometimes called “overtures.”  The remainder of the suites consist of lighter dance movements.  Bach may have intended these suites to be light and entertaining, but they demand a high level of virtuosity from performers and display a remarkable level of thematic and rhythmic cohesiveness in their composition.

Bach’s first suite probably dates to 1725.   It is lightly scored for two oboes, bassoon, strings, and harpsichord.  With these modest forces, Bach achieves a variety of textures, sometimes using the woodwinds as soloists.  This suite is noteworthy in Bach’s use of paired dance movements, such as Gavotte I & II.  These movements are played in an ABA format, with the second contrasting gavotte between two statements of the first.  

To watch a video of Bach's first suite, click here.

Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64
Felix Mendelssohn

Born: February 3, 1809, Hamburg
Died: November 4, 1847, Leipzig
Composed: 1844, revised 1845
Premiered: March 13, 1845, Leipzig
Approximate Duration: 26 minutes
Instrumentation: two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two French horns, two trumpets, timpani, strings

Music donated by Diane Lewis

In 1838, Mendelssohn wrote to his friend Ferdinand David, one of the leading violinists of the mid-nineteenth century: “I should like to write a violin concerto for you next winter. One in E minor runs through my head, the opening of which gives me no peace.”  Mendelssohn worked closely with David while composing the concerto.  Both men disliked the “empty showpiece concerto” of the early Romantic era that contained little more than what Mendelssohn called “juggler’s tricks and rope dancer’s feats.”  The two sought to produce a serious musical piece in the manner of Beethoven’s Violin Concerto.  The result is a piece wonderfully suited to the violin, both musically and technically. 

Unlike Classical concertos, with long orchestral introductions, Mendelssohn’s work begins with the soloist presenting the initial soaring theme that “haunted” the composer.  This melody is contrasted with a tender second theme, introduced by the woodwinds.  Mendelssohn took an innovative approach to the cadenza; instead of putting it at the end of the movement, he used it as a bridge leading from the development into the restatement of the movement’s opening themes.  Furthermore, instead of leaving it to the soloist to improvise or write his or her own cadenza, Mendelssohn provides a cadenza, probably written by David.

A single thread—a note sustained by one bassoon—provides the seamless bridge to the lyrical second movement, an endearing song.  The melodies are harmonized and scored beautifully—sometimes peacefully, sometimes restlessly.  Another brief transition, which recalls the impassioned first movement, the Finale begins, a brilliant and sunny scherzo that recalls Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night’s Dream.  The soloist is called upon to display light-hearted virtuosity alternating with long, lyrical passages, leading to a rousing conclusion. 

To listen to Mendelssohn's violin concerto, click here.

Program notes by Amanda W. Dykhouse

Midori is a visionary artist, activist and educator who explores and builds connections between music and the human experience. In the four decades since her debut with the New York Philharmonic at age 11, the “simply magical” (Houston Chronicle) violinist has performed with many of the world’s most prestigious orchestras and has collaborated with world-renowned musicians including Leonard Bernstein, Yo-Yo Ma, and many others. Midori is the Artistic Director of Ravinia Steans Music Institute’s Piano & Strings program; summer 2024 is her first year in that role.

This season, she premieres Spirituals — a new work written for her by Che Buford — on a recital program, with pianist Özgür Aydin, at the Edinburgh Festival; the 92nd Street Y, New York; the Celebrity Series of Boston; San Francisco Performances; and the Colburn Celebrity Series. Other highlights of Midori’s 2024–2025 season include appearances with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Louisville Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, and Oklahoma City Philharmonic.

Outside the U.S., she performs with the Vienna Philharmonic under Andris Nelsons in Vienna and on tour in Japan and Korea (Prokofiev’s First Violin Concerto); she appears twice in the spring of 2025 at the Berlin Philharmonic Hall, with the German National Youth Orchestra in May, performing Glanert’s Second Violin Concerto, and with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin (DSO) in June, performing Dvořák’s Violin Concerto. She also joins the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande under Jonathan Nott, performing Sibelius’s Violin Concerto on a tour of Spain, and has concert appearances in Geneva, Köln and Nürnberg, as well as Mumbai, Istanbul, Izmir and Colombo.

Deeply committed to furthering humanitarian and educational goals, Midori has founded several non-profit organizations; the New York City-based Midori & Friends and Japan-based MUSIC SHARING have both been active for over three decades. For the Orchestra Residencies Program (ORP), which supports youth orchestras, Midori commissioned a new work from composer Derek Bermel, Spring Cadenzas, that was premiered virtually during the COVID lockdown and continues to be performed; this season, she is working on creating a video recording of the work to be accompanied by a tutorial. ORP also worked recently with the Afghan Youth Orchestra, which relocated to Portugal in order to continue operating. Midori’s Partners in Performance (PiP) helps to bring chamber music to smaller communities in the U.S.  In recognition of her work as an artist and humanitarian, she serves as a United Nations Messenger of Peace and was named a Kennedy Center Honoree in 2021.

Born in Osaka in 1971, she began her violin studies with her mother, Setsu Goto, at an early age. In 1982, conductor Zubin Mehta invited the then 11-year-old Midori to perform with the New York Philharmonic in the orchestra’s annual New Year’s Eve concert, where the foundation was laid for her subsequent career. Midori is the Dorothy Richard Starling Chair in Violin Studies at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. She is the recipient of honorary doctorates from Smith College, Yale University, Longy School of Music and Shenandoah University, and of the 2023 Brandeis Creative Arts Award from Brandeis University.

She plays the 1734 Guarnerius del Gesù ‘ex-Huberman’ and uses four bows – two by Dominique Peccatte, one by François Peccatte and one by Paul Siefried.

A native of Bulgaria, Moni Simeonov began playing the violin at age 5, and ten years later, came to the United States on a full scholarship to the Idyllwild Arts Academy. He performs with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and Opera, Ensemble San Francisco, and until recently, was the Concertmaster for the Sacramento Philharmonic. He has also served as a guest concertmaster with Reno Philharmonic, Louisiana Philharmonic and the Pacific Symphony. His doctoral studies included minor fields in Viola Performance, Schenkerian Analysis, Japanese Language, as well as an emphasis on the interpretation of the Balkan folk music.

On tour and in Los Angeles, Mr. Simeonov dedicates considerable time and energy to community engagement work and to musical activities and presentations for young people. Moni has performed and coached alongside Midori for her Orchestra Residencies Program American and International tours. Until 2014, he served as a director for the program. Outreach activities have taken him to places as diverse as homeless shelters in Peru and at-risk centers in Tennessee, to Syrian refugee camps in Lebanon, and hospitals for the terminally ill in Sri Lanka.

Moni’s summer teaching includes engagements with the Interlochen Summer Festival, the Singapore Violin Festival, and the Atlantic Music Festival. Moni is also the founder of Bulgaria’s first chamber music academy – “Quartet Intensive” in Sofia.

Moni has concertized and taught around the United States, South America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. His recordings have been archived by PBS, NPR, KUSC, Bulgarian National Radio and TV, as well as Japanese Broadcasting Company – NHK.

Moni received his BM and PC from the Eastman School of Music under Zvi Zeitlin, his MM and AD from Yale University with Ani Kavafian, and his GC and DMA from USC’s Thornton School of Music where he studied with Midori.

Moni served as Adjunct Instructor at USC’s Thornton School of Music until 2014. That year, he was appointed Director of String Studies and Violin Professor with the Bob Cole Conservatory of Music at California State University, Long Beach. Moni is also the creator of zenviolin.com.