NEC Symphony + David Loebel: Britten, Liu & Sibelius

NEC: Jordan Hall | Directions

290 Huntington Ave.
Boston, MA
United States

NEC Symphony, directed by David Loebel, performs two standards of the literature—Britten's Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra and the Sibelius Symphony No. 5—and gives the premiere performance of a new work by Da-Yu Liu '24 DMA, winner of a school-wide competition.

This performance is open to in-person audiences, and is also viewable via livestream.

Watch livestream from Jordan Hall:

Ensembles
  • NEC Symphony
Conductors

  1. Benjamin Britten | A Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra, op. 34

    (Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Purcell)

    Theme: Allegro maestoso e largamente
    Variation A (flutes): Presto
    Variation B (oboes): Lento
    Variation C (clarinets): Moderato
    Variation D (bassoons): Allegro alla marcia
    Variation E (violins): Brillante - Alla polacca
    Variation F (violas): Meno mosso
    Variation G (cellos): [L'istesso tempo]
    Variation H (basses): Comminciano lento ma poco a poco accelerando al Allegro
    Variation I (harp): Maestoso
    Variation J (horns): L'istesso tempo
    Variation K (trumpets): Vivace
    Variation L (trombones): Pomposo
    Variation M (percussion): Moderato
    Fugue: Allegro molto


     

  2. Da-Yu Liu '24 DMA | Assimilation (2021)


    Winner, NEC Composition Competition

     

    Program note

    In memory of my grandparents:
    黃昌中 (Huang Chang-Chung)
    黃　淑 (Huang Shu)
     
    This piece explores the clashing and fusion of Asian traditional liturgical chant with Western modalism, polytonalism and spectralism.
     
    Throughout life, we strive to find our position in society through constant dialogue between cultures, religions and individuals. Facing the realization that the world is not Utopia, we hang on to survival while hovering between the drive of existing and the drive of equilibrium. Life in this sense represents a prolonged process of alienation and assimilation; and after all the struggle, there waits the final assimilation with the earth, an end that all are bound to endure or embrace.
     
    The two pentatonic subjects, alluding to Asian liturgy and a Taiwanese popular cultural symbol in the 20th century—a re-creation of Su Shi’s Shuidiao Getou (蘇軾《水調歌頭》) by Taiwanese musicians (梁弘志、鄧麗君)—gradually develop into chromatic disarray before essentially molding into modal and spectral sonorities. Between which, recurring collages of tonality and modal progressions portray the persisting dissonance and obstruction, while several digressions with textures imitating Asian traditional liturgical chanting resemble the uncanny moments of consolation and sublimation in life and the path in search of ultimate peace. At last, the pentatonic chant is assimilated with both modal and spectral sonorities, as an entity fades into distant space and time.
     
    How the chant is reshaped and reformed into different sonorities in this piece narrates the stories of our dispersion and reconciliation; the alienation and the final assimilation of pentatonic, modal and spectral materials serve as an epitome of the relations we experience in life—to people, places and memories.
    --Da-Yu Liu

  3. Jean Sibelius | Symphony No. 5 in E-flat Major, op. 82

    Tempo molto moderato; Allegro moderato - Presto
    Andante mosso, quasi allegretto
    Allegro molto: Misterioso

  4.  

    Personnel

    First Violin
    Célina Bethoux
    Claire Byeol Kim
    Michael Fisher
    Caroline Smoak
    Olga Kaminsky
    Masha Lakisova
    Clayton Hancock
    Kitty Amaral
    Kristy Chen
    Tsubasa Muramatsu

    Second Violin
    Sydney Scarlett
    Chiung-Han Tsai
    Helena Hwang
    Darwin Chang
    Theresa Katz
    Hila Dahari
    Sarah Campbell
    Shiyu Wang
    Arun Asthagiri
    Emma Boyd

    Viola
    Njord Fossnes
    Katherine Purcell
    Jowen Hsu
    Nicolette Sullivan-Cozza
    Peter Jablokow
    ChengRong Li
    Ru-Yao Van der Ploeg
    Eunha Kwon
    Nathan Emans
    Asher Boorstin

    Cello
    Sarah Tindall
    Pi-Wei Lin
    Lillian Yim
    Heechan Ku
    Asher Kalfus
    Miruna Eynon
    Sophia Knappe
    Jonah Kernis
    Lily Stern
    Davis You

    Bass
    Luke Tsuchiya
    Cailin Singleton
    Colby Heimburger
    Isabel Atkinson

    Flute
    Honor Hickman^
    Subee Kim*
    Subin Oh‡
    Anna Ridenour

    Piccolo
    I    sabel Evernham‡
    Anna Ridenour*

    Oboe
    Yuhsi Chang*
    Corinne Foley‡
    Coleton Morgan^

    English horn
    Coleton Morgan

    Clarinet
    Sarah Cho*
    Xianyi Ji
    Tao Ke‡
    Cole Turkel^

    Bass Clarinet
    Xianyi Ji

    Bassoon
    Garrett Comrie
    Seth Goldman
    Kangwei Lu^
    Carson Meritt*
    Andrew Salaru‡
    Wang Jialu

    Contrabassoon
    Adam Chen

    French horn
    Mattias Bengtsson^
    Huimin Mandy Liu
    Graham Lovely‡
    Mauricio Martinez
    Tess Reagan
    Xiaoran Xu*

    Trumpet
    Matthew Mihalko^
    Justin Park*
    Alexandra Richmond
    Cody York‡

    Trombone
    Jaehan Kim‡
    Noah Korenfeld
    Noah Nichilo
    Alex Russell^
    Kevin Smith*

    Bass Trombone
    Roger Dahlin^
    Jason Sato*‡

    Tuba
    James Curto

    Timpani
    Doyeon Kim‡
    Nga ieng Lai*
    Mark Larrivee^

    Percussion
    Isabella Butler
    Nga ieng Lai
    Mark Larrivee
    Eli Reisz*
    Rohan Zakharia‡

    Harp
    Shaylen Joos


    Principal players
    *Liu
    ‡    Britten
    ^Sibelius

     

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