Swiss conductor THIERRY FISCHER is principal conductor of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and chief conductor of Japan’s Nagoya Philharmonic. From 2001–06 he was Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor of the Ulster Orchestra in Belfast.

Fischer studied flute with Aurèle Nicolet and began his career as principal flute in Hamburg and at the Zurich Opera. His conducting career began in his 30s. Spending his apprentice years in Holland, Fischer has since appeared with leading European orchestras. Future plans include annual appearances at the BBC Proms in London and festivals of Messiaen and Dutilleux.

With the Ulster Orchestra, Fischer conducted cycles of Schubert, Beethoven, Brahms and Honegger. He began his relationship with Hyperion with a series of recordings of the works of Jean Francaix. His discography also includes a Gramophone Award-nominated Frank Martin disc on Deutsche Grammophon with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe.

Fischer's hallmarks are a lightness of touch and transparency of texture. He has a keen stylistic sense and brings a fresh approach to repertoire from Bach to his compatriots Frank Martin and Honegger. He has an affinity for the unique textures and radical utopianism of Messiaen; he plays a major role in the BBC’s Messiaen celebrations this year.

He has conducted the radio orchestras of Paris, Stockholm, Hanover, Lugano and Saarbruecken; the Berlin Symphony, Colorado Symphony, Monte Carlo Philharmonic and Gothenburg Symphony. Fischer has strong relationships with chamber orchestras like the Scottish Chamber, Northern Sinfonia, Dutch Radio Chamber and Ensemble Orchestral de Paris.

American pianist SIMONE DINNERSTEIN has gained international attention since a triumphant New York recital debut at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall in 2005, performing Bach’s Goldberg Variations. Recent and upcoming performances include recital debuts at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Aspen, Ravinia and Stuttgart Bach festivals and in Paris, London and Bremen. Debut performances include engagements with the Dresden Philharmonic, Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra and Kristjan Järvi’s Absolute Ensemble.

Dinnerstein's 2007 debut album —a recording of the Goldberg Variations—earned the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Traditional Classical Chart during its first week of sales and remains highly ranked. The disc appeared on “Best of 2007” lists of The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The New Yorker, Time Out New York, iTunes “Editor’s Choice Best Classical” and Amazon.com. Piano Magazine called the disc “precisely the kind of playing that the early 21st century most needs.”

She has been featured in Gramophone, Classic FM Magazine, The New York Times, Slate.com, The Independent, The Guardian and the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, as well as “The Howard Stern Show” and NPR’s “Morning Edition.”

In New York, Dinnerstein has performed on the People’s Symphony series at Town Hall and on Lincoln Center’s Great Performers series. She has played in nursing homes and community centers; she gave the first classical music performance in the Louisiana state prison system.

BY LAURIE SHULMAN, ©2008

FIRST NORTH AMERICAN SERIAL RIGHTS ONLY

Symphony No. 1 in D, Op. 25 (“Classical” Symphony)

Sergei Prokofiev

Born April 23, 1891 in Sontzovka, Ukraine

Died March 5, 1953 in Moscow, U.S.S.R.

Political chaos in Russia

In February 1917, Russian peasantry revolted against the Tsarist regime, overthrowing a centuries-old monarchy in favor of a provisional government. Eight months later, the Bolsheviks replaced the provisional government, establishing Soviet rule in Russia and changing the face of world politics. During this tumultuous period, Sergei Prokofiev composed his First Symphony, a work miraculously free of any reference to the chaotic events transpiring at the time.

Papa Haydn, transported to the 20th century

The “Classical” Symphony is justifiably associated with Haydn; Prokofiev himself acknowledged his idea of writing a symphony such as Haydn might have composed had he lived until the 20th century. But the real challenge for Prokofiev in this work was to write without using the piano. He intentionally removed himself from the piano, believing that melodies conceived without its aid were simply better melodies.

Prokofiev also harbored the hope that, in dubbing the work “Classical,” he might encourage it to actually become a classic.

In fact, that is exactly what happened, and with good reason. The work is a masterful achievement in economy of means. With small performing forces, miniature scale of movements and effective understatement, Prokofiev did indeed create a timeless masterpiece. His transparent clarity pays homage to the elegant 18th-century style of Haydn and Mozart; his ironic sense of humor and inventive modulations tie the work to the present century.

The “Classical” Symphony is scored for flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, trumpets and horns in pairs, timpani and strings.

Timing: Approximately 15 minutes.

Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat major, Op. 19

Ludwig van Beethoven

Born December 16, 1770 in Bonn, Germany

Died March 26, 1827 in Vienna, Austria

Keyboard whiz kid: Beethoven as self-promoter

Beethoven’s career in Vienna in the 1790s garnered him more prestige as a performer and keyboard improviser than as a composer. Wishing to promote his considerable talents as a pianist, he wrote many pieces for himself, including Piano Concerto No. 2—the first major work for piano and orchestra he completed. Despite its numbering as “Concerto No. 2” and its later opus number (which reflects a later publication date of 1801) than the Piano Concerto No. 1, Op. 15, the Second Piano Concerto is the earlier work. Recent scholarship indicates that Beethoven may have composed parts of it as early as 1785, when he was still a teenager in Bonn.

Beethoven himself did not consider either of the first two piano concerti to be among his finer works, but both pieces show his graduation from gifted student to Viennese master. And the Viennese public received him with delight. We know that he played the B-flat concerto in public in March 1795; that performance is believed to be his debut with orchestra in the Austrian capital.

Learning from Mozart, finding one’s own path

The B-flat major concerto follows the Mozartean formal concerto model, with an extensive orchestral exposition in the first movement preceding the soloist’s entrance. Listeners more familiar with Beethoven’s C-major concerto will be pleasantly surprised by the intimate, chamber-music-like quality of this work. Scored without trumpets or timpani, it permits more focus on the interaction of the piano with the delicate wind instruments. The outer movements, especially the finale, have an irresistible and extremely memorable rhythmic vitality. The B-flat concerto is the forgotten jewel among Beethoven’s piano concerti, and its cadenzas give us a tantalizing glimpse at the young genius’ improvisatory technique.

Beethoven scored Op. 19 for flute, two oboes, two bassoons, two horns, solo piano and strings.

Timing: Approximately 28 minutes.

Symphony No. 4 in C minor D. 417, Tragic”

Franz Peter Schubert

Born January 31, 1797 in Liechtenthal, Vienna, Austria

Died November 19, 1828 in Vienna

From classic to romantic: a momentous transition

Beethoven and Schubert are the most important links between the Classical and Romantic periods in music. Beethoven was a generation Schubert’s senior and the most famous composer in Europe when Schubert was growing up. While there is no doubt that Beethoven had a profound influence on the younger man, Schubert looked more to Haydn and Mozart as models for his instrumental music, particularly during his teenage years.

Teenage prodigy

We tend to forget what an extraordinary prolific prodigy Schubert was as an adolescent. He started composing symphonies when he was 14, and he completed five before he turned 20. Even these early symphonies have a proud place in the repertoire.

In 1816 alone, he managed to compose not only the symphony that concludes this program, but also another symphony (No. 5 in B-flat major), three violin/piano sonatinas, two acts of an opera, a half dozen sacred choral works, dozens of dances for violin, a string trio and more than 100 songs. Music poured out of him at an astounding rate.

Branching out: the young professional in Vienna

Beginning in 1814, Schubert began working as a schoolmaster. He was barely 17. Two years later, he decided to try to earn his living as a musician. He took lodgings with the mother of a friend and sought employment as a music instructor. One of his recreational activities was a series of informal orchestral meetings that were an expansion of the Schubert family quartet gatherings (Franz played viola). For a while, the larger group met in the home of a music-loving merchant, Franz Frischling. As their ranks expanded to include woodwinds and timpani, the venue changed in late 1815 to the home of Otto Hatwig, a professional violinist who served as concertmaster.

We know of no documented performance of Schubert’s early orchestral works during his lifetime, but it seems likely that readings of his first six symphonies and many of his orchestral overtures took place at these Viennese orchestral soirées. No public performance of the Fourth Symphony occurred until 1849, more than 20 years after Schubert’s untimely death. That is one aspect of the tragedy of this symphony.

What does ‘Tragic’ mean?

The subtitle, Tragische in German, is actually Schubert’s. He appears to have added it to the title page after he completed the work. Certainly the tonality of C minor has dark overtones, and in Schubert’s day would have suggested a link to stormy works like Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, Pathétique Sonata and Third Piano Concerto, all dramatic compositions in C minor. This was Schubert’s first symphony in a minor key, but apart from that, we do not know precisely what he meant by “Tragic.”

Schubert was brought up on a steady diet of Haydn and Mozart. We know that he had studied Mozart’s Fantasy and Sonata in C minor for solo piano. Haydn’s Sturm und Drang (“Storm and Stress”) symphonies from the 1770s made a big impression on Schubert as well. Several biographers refer to the “Tragic” Symphony as Schubert’s Sturm und Drang symphony.

About the music

The slow introduction to the first movement bears a striking resemblance to Haydn’s “Representation of Chaos” prelude in The Creation. In early 19th-century Vienna, Haydn’s oratorio was as frequently performed as Handel’s Messiah is at Christmastime in this country. Schubert’s audience would have recognized immediately the allusion and salute to Haydn.

In some respects, the eloquent slow movement is the most tragic part of the symphony. Melancholy and sedate, it moves with the quiet resignation of a private funeral march. The contrasting sections in minor mode are all the more powerful because they are so unexpected: two outbursts of grief that will not be denied. The woodwinds play an important role in heightening the expressive depth of the movement.

Schubert’s Menuetto stretches the boundaries of that 18th-century dance. It is a scherzo in all but name. Listen for offbeats—Schubert plays games with our sense of pulse. His trio is an Austrian ländler, a type of slow country waltz that was gaining in popularity.

The finale opens agitated and very definitely back in C minor. As with the opening movement, though, Schubert soon takes us on a wild ride through a number of different key centers (something he loved to do in all his music). To be sure, there are a couple of sudden, Beethovenian forte passages, but the overall message is one of dance rhythms and joy. Not one to disappoint that promise, Schubert resolves the movement, and his symphony, in bright C major: the Viennese key of sunlight.

The score calls for two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, timpani and strings.