UMS Concert Program, November 16, 1983: International Presentations Of Music & Dance --

Season: 105th
Concert: Fifteenth
Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor, Michigan

lnte!fiatipnal
THE UNIVERSITY MUSICAL SOCIETY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
Mstislav Rostropovich
Cellist
LAMBERT ORKIS, Pianist
Wednesday Evening, November 16, 1983, at 8:30 Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor, Michigan
PROGRAM
Adagio........................................................Marcello
Variations on "Ein Madchen oder Weibchen"
from Die Zauberflote, Op. 66................................. Beethoven
Sonata in A major, Op. 69.................................... Beethoven
Allegro ma non tanto Scherzo: allegro molto
Adagio cantabile, allegro vivace
INTERMISSION
Adagio and Allegro in A-flat major, Op. 70...................... Schumann
Sonata in C major, Op. 65........................................Britten
Dialogo: allegro
Scherzo pizzicato: allegretto Elegia: lento
Marcia: encrgico
Moto Perpetuo: presto
EMIAngel, Melodiya, London, Deutsche Grammophon, and Monitor Records.
Merrill Lynch Pierce Fenner & Smith has generously provided funds to defray the printing costs of this concert program and those that follow in the 1983-84 Choral Union Series.
Fifteenth Concert of the 105th Season 105th Annual Choral Union Series
About the Artists
This evening's artist needs no introduction to Ann Arbor audiences. Mstislav Rostropovich first performed here in 1965 with the Moscow Philharmonic, followed by a May Festival appearance in 1967, recitals in 1972 and 1975, a Benefit Concert in 1975 (in the dual role of cellist and conductor) and, most recently, a recital in 1980. These performances arc a few of his many, many world-wide appearances in recital, as soloist with leading orchestras and, in recent years, as conductor. Many world-renowned composers have written cello works dedicated to him, including Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Miaskovsky, Khachaturian, Kabalcvsky, Sauguet, Piston, Bernstein, and Britten. Among his many honors arc Honorary Memberships in the Academy of St. Cecilia in Rome, the Academy of Arts and Sciences of the United States, and the Royal Academy of Music in England. He has received Gold Medals from the Royal Philharmonic Society of Great Britain and from various cities in France, Greece, Japan, Israel, and Spain, and in France he is a Commander of Arts and Letters and a recent recipient of the prestigious medal of Officer of the Legion of Honor, one of France's highest distinctions. In the Soviet Union he was awarded the Lenin Prize, the Stalin Prize, and the nation's highest honor, the People's Artist of the U.S.S.R. In 1974 he received the Annual Award of the International League of Human Rights, and in 1976 received Germany's Ernst von Siemens Foundation Music Prize, previously awarded only to Benjamin Britten and Olivier Mcssiaen. The artist's honorary doctoral degrees include those from Harvard, Yale, and Princeton universities, Curtis Institute, Cambridge and Sussex universities in England, and Trinity University of Dublin.
Rostropovich was born in Baku, Azerbaijan, in 1927. His mother, a pianist, was his first teacher, and at age eight he began cello studies with his father at the Children's Music School in Moscow. He was later accepted at the Moscow Conservatory in two departments, cello and composition, which he studied under Shostakovich. As a young musician, he received first prize in three major inter?national competitions: Prague (twice) and Budapest. He concertized for the first time outside the Soviet Union in 1947. After 1970, however, limitations placed on the creative efforts of Rostropo?vich and his wife, soprano Galina Vishnevskaya, grew progressively more restrictive. Cancellations of concerts and foreign tours, a complete black-out in the Soviet press, television, and radio, and the cessation of all recording forced them to write an open letter to Leonid Brezhnev denouncing the intolerable conditions and requesting permission to travel abroad for two years. At the same time. Senator Edward Kennedy also spoke with Brezhnev about the artists' future, and they were granted exit visas. Four years later, 1978, the couple's citizenship was revoked for "acts harmful to the prestige of the U.S.S.R." Now, as one of the world's most outspoken defenders of human and artistic freedoms, Rostropovich gives numerous concerts and recitals in support of these efforts around the world.
The maestro made his United States conducting debut with the National Symphony Orchestra of Washington, D.C. in 1975, and in October 1977 he was appointed Music Director. The Orchestra has toured several times under his leadership, including trips through the Northeastern United States, Mexico, Japan and Korea, South America, and Europe. They have participated in numerous special events, such as the televised program honoring Aaron Copland on his 80th birthday, a Gala Inaugural Concert during festivities for President Reagan, and Fourth of July concerts at the Capitol. The maestro has also conducted the symphony orchestras of Boston, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, New York, Toronto, Berlin, and others, and makes annual appearances at England's Aldcburgh Festival, of which he is an Artistic Director.
Lambert Orkis currently holds the position of Principal Keyboard of the National Symphony Orchestra, and is a member of the Millennium Ensemble, and the Twentieth Century Consort, a group in residence at the Smithsonian Institution. With them he has performed as soloist and chamber musician in concerts at the Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, Spolcto Festival U.S.A., and Martha's Vineyard Music Festival. He has performed with many notable artists, including Rostropo?vich, Eleanor Steber, Lucy Shclton, Mattiwilda Dobbs, Rolf Bjorling, the Emerson, Delos, and Curtis string quartets, and as soloist with the Philadelphia, National Symphony, and Soviet Emigre orchestras. Public television viewers recently saw him as piano soloist with the National Symphony and Maestro Rostropovich, and First Lady Nancy Reagan as narrator, in Saint-Saens Carnival of the Animals. In May 1984 he will again perform with the National Symphony in Beethoven's Choral Fantasy under the direction of Rafael Friihbcck de Burgos. Mr. Orkis has premiered several solo works, among them George Crumb's "A Little Suite for Christmas, A.D. 1979," which he is recording, along with the works of Gottschalk, for release this year on the Pro Arte label.
Mr. Orkis received degrees from The Curtis Institute and Temple University, and currently serves on the Temple faculty as Professor of Piano and Coordinator of the Master of Music Program in Piano Accompanying and Chamber Music. He was the 1982 recipient of the Temple University Faculty Award for Creative Achievement.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
GAIL W. RECTOR, President WILBUR K. PIERPONT, Vice President
DOUGLAS D. CRARY, Secretary ALLEN P. BRITTON, Treasurer
PAUL W. McCRACKEN JOHN D. PAUL SARAH GODDARD POWER JOHN W. REED HAROLD T. SHAPIRO LOIS U. STEGEMAN E. THURSTON THIEME JERRY A. WEISBACH
UNIVERSITY MUSICAL SOCIETY
Burton Memorial Tower, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1270 Phones: (313) 665-3717, 764-2538