INTERMISSION MUSIC SERIES

Join in the conversation, as we together enjoy Chopin: The Women Behind The Music, a fascinating documentary about the life of great pianist and composer Frédéric Chopin and the story of the women whose voices inspired his music.

To mark the 200th anniversary of Chopin’s birth, this 2010 film follows young concert pianist James Rhodes on a journey to Warsaw, Paris and London to explore the singers who enchanted the composer with their voices: Konstancja, a young soprano and the object of his teenage affections; Delfina, a Polish Parisian émigré countess; fellow composer and opera singer Pauline Viardot; and, during the final few months of his life, the Swedish operatic superstar Jenny Lind.

Threaded through the narrative of the film, Rhodes performs a selection of Chopin’s piano music, while rising young opera singer Natalya Romaniw performs some of the signature arias that thrilled Chopin.

There are two easy ways to join the watch party:

1. On southfloridasymphony.org/intermission-music-series/ | Simply navigate to this page on Saturday at 8pm and a video player will automatically appear towards the top of the page.
2. On Facebook Live | Just look for the Facebook Live event to show up on our Facebook page at 8pm on Saturday and click on the event to join. If you tune in on Facebook Live you can comment on the stream, interact with other viewers in real time, and connect with the artists! During this time of social distancing, you can still be connected!

It’s movie night with SFSO! Join us for Vladimir Horowitz: The Last Romantic, a charming and revealing documentary that paints an intimate portrait of the revered Russian-born classical pianist. In extensive interviews, the famed performer jokes, talks about his life and his favorite music — including the work of Sergei Rachmaninoff, Alexander Scriabin and Frédéric Chopin. He also plays pieces by those and other composers, including Bach and Mozart. His wife, Wanda Toscanini Horowitz, appears alongside him and shares many memories about their life together.

A tribute as much to the spirit of the man as to his internationally acclaimed talent, this Emmy award-winning documentary would be enjoyable for anyone interested in good music and unusually gifted musicians.

There are two easy ways to join the watch party:

1. On southfloridasymphony.org/intermission-music-series/ | Simply navigate to this page on Saturday at 8pm and a video player will automatically appear towards the top of the page.
2. On Facebook Live | Just look for the Facebook Live event to show up on our Facebook page at 8pm on Saturday and click on the event to join. If you tune in on Facebook Live you can comment on the stream, interact with other viewers in real time, and connect with the artists! During this time of social distancing, you can still be connected!

Join your SFSO friends for a movie watch party of Franz Schubert: The Greatest Love and the Greatest Sorrow, a poignant tribute not about his life, but about Schubert’s extraordinary achievements in his final months following the death of his idol, Beethoven.

Schubert was undervalued in his own lifetime because he died young and he failed to achieve public recognition and financial success. He was the first great composer in western music to live by his art alone, without patronage, but he enjoyed only one public concert of his music in his lifetime.

Christopher Nupen’s documentary uses Schubert’s words and music to help us feel closer to what the composer himself was trying to say. The film begins with the funeral of Beethoven, at which Schubert was a torch bearer, and the story is told almost entirely in music that Schubert wrote between then and his death.
It includes quotations from his letters and diaries and the words that he used in some of his songs. The title, The Greatest Love and the Greatest Sorrow, is taken from a dream which Schubert wrote down in 1822 and which is quoted in full in the film.

There are no actors, just words, music, musicians and an anonymous storyteller predominantly using Schubert’s own words. It features Vladimir Ashkenazy (piano), Andreas Schmidt (baritone), Michael Sanderling (cello), Antje Weithaas (violin), the Petersen Quartet and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Chorus conducted by Wolfgang Sawallisch.

There are two easy ways to join the watch party:

1. On southfloridasymphony.org/intermission-music-series/ | Simply navigate to this page on Saturday at 8pm and a video player will automatically appear towards the top of the page.
2. On Facebook Live | Just look for the Facebook Live event to show up on our Facebook page at 8pm on Saturday and click on the event to join. If you tune in on Facebook Live you can comment on the stream, interact with other viewers in real time, and connect with the artists! During this time of social distancing, you can still be connected!

Imagine Being a Concert Pianist gets under the lid of this extreme form of musicianship. Celebrated pianists Evgeny Kissin, Vladimir Ashkenazy and Chinese wunderkind Lang Lang, talk intimately about their lives, their work and their motivation. This 58-minute BBC documentary gives a frank and personal perspective on a profession for which the only real qualification is genius, richly illustrated with specially recorded rehearsal and performance.

Join SFSO for a Saturday night movie watch party (with chat) on Facebook or view it on southfloridasymphony.org.

There are two easy ways to join the watch party:

1. On southfloridasymphony.org/intermission-music-series/ | Simply navigate to this page on Saturday at 8pm and a video player will automatically appear towards the top of the page.
2. On Facebook Live | Just look for the Facebook Live event to show up on our Facebook page at 8pm on Saturday and click on the event to join. If you tune in on Facebook Live you can comment on the stream, interact with other viewers in real time, and connect with the artists! During this time of social distancing, you can still be connected!

Pianist Sofiya Uryvayeva Martin returns to the Intermission Music Series with her second installment of “The Music You Love.” Enjoy masterpieces such as the Albinoni Adagio, a controversial work that’s wildly familiar for its frequent use in film scores; a haunting melody from the Italian Renaissance, Ave Maria; Addinsell’s Warsaw Concerto, written for the 1941 World War II love story film Dangerous Moonlight; and a medley of works from some of the greatest classical composers all time — Rachmaninoff, Bach, Mozart, Tchaikovsky and more.

Experience the magic of passion, and raw emotions of joy, sorrow, delight and love. Sofiya will join us for the watch party and share her insights on the moving music – including two of the greatest mysteries in musical history.

Program:
Tomaso Albinoni: Adagio in G minor
Classical medley: Sergei Rachmaninoff, John Williams, Johann Sebastian Bach, Isaac Albeniz, Carlos Gardel, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Johann Strauss II, and Peter Tchaikovsky
Giulio Caccini: Ave Maria
Richard Addinsell: Warsaw Concerto (from the movie “Dangerous Moonlight”)

There are three easy ways to join the watch party:

1. On southfloridasymphony.org/intermission-music-series/ |Simply navigate to this page on Sunday at 7pm and a video player will automatically appear towards the top of the page.
2. On Facebook Live | Just look for the Facebook Live event to show up on our Facebook page at 7pm on Sunday and click on the event to join.
3. On YouTube | Visit our YouTube channel at 7pm on Sunday and click on the Intermission Music Series event for this week to join.If you tune in on Facebook Live and YouTube, you can comment on the stream, interact with other viewers in real time, and connect with the artists! During this time of social distancing, you can still be connected!

About Sofiya Uryvayeva Martin
Originally from Siberia, phenomenal pianist Sofiya Uryvayeva Martin was granted an “Einstein visa” and subsequently American citizenship due to her superlative achievements in the music field.

She has performed with great success throughout the world, including in the United States, Mexico, Switzerland, Ukraine, Poland, Germany, Italy and Austria. Her YouTube channel has become very popular in promoting classical music around the world, with many videos of her live performances. Modern composers from all over the world have dedicated their music to her, and she has performed numerous world premieres.

Sofiya’s concerts have been described by critics as “a festival of all the senses,” “a magic ride on the witch’s broom” and “brilliant technique with soul.”

Join us for a Sunday afternoon of beautiful music with piano duos, duets and solos with Catherine Lan and Tao Lin. Beethoven’s 8 Variations on a Theme by Count Waldstein, a work for piano four hands, was inspired by his “first and most important patron,” Ferdinand von Waldstein. Fantasie in F minor is Franz Schubert’s most often performed piano duet and is considered one of the great masterpieces of ensemble piano repertoire. Selections from Chopin’s Études, considered to be some the most enduring and defining piano works, are also on the program. With his collection of etudes, Chopin brought about a complete overhaul of the etude art form – from a technical exercise to a lively emotional story that at the same time develops the pianist’s technique. And finally, Brahms’ Hungarian Dance No. 1 is the first of the 21 fiery dance tunes derived from his lifelong fascination with Hungarian czardas music and gypsy bands that played on the street corners of Vienna.

Program:
Beethoven | 8 Variations on a Theme by Count Waldstein, WoO 67
Schubert | Fantasie in F minor, Op. 103
Chopin | Selections from Études
Brahms | Hungarian Dance No.1 in G minor

There are three easy ways to join the watch party:

1. On southfloridasymphony.org/intermission-music-series/ |Simply navigate to this page on Sunday at 4pm and a video player will automatically appear towards the top of the page.
2. On Facebook Live | Just look for the Facebook Live event to show up on our Facebook page at 4pm on Sunday and click on the event to join.
3. On YouTube | Visit our YouTube channel at 6pm on Sunday and click on the Intermission Music Series event for this week to join.If you tune in on Facebook Live and YouTube, you can comment on the stream, interact with other viewers in real time, and connect with the artists! During this time of social distancing, you can still be connected!

About Duo Beaux Arts
Duo Beaux Arts was formed in 2008 by internationally renowned husband and wife concert pianists Dr. Catherine Lan and Steinway Artist Tao Lin. The Duo has performed in France, Switzerland, Spain, Netherland, China, Finland, Estonia and the US to both critical and audience acclaim. Featured on Fox4 Morning Blend TV, Venice Magazine, Parklander Magazine, World Journal, Maine Public Radio/Television, and Gulfshore Life Magazine, the Duo has been invited to perform at the Cosmos Club in Washington D.C., a private social club for women and men distinguished in science, literature, the arts, a learned profession or public service, whose members include 3 Presidents, 2 Vice Presidents, a dozen Supreme Court justices, 36 Nobel Prize winners, 61 Pulitzer Prize winners, and 55 recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The Duo will make its debut recital as part of the Buda Castle Museum Concert Series in Bartók Hall in Budapest, Hungary in 2020.

“Le Sacre du Printemps” (Rite of Spring), which composer Igor Stravinsky debuted in Paris in 1913 with the Ballets Russes, is widely regarded as one of the most important ballets of the 20th century.This documentary explores the re-creation of the controversial ballet that caused a legendary riot when it premiered. The original version of the ballet, choreographed by Vaslav Nijinsky to Stravinsky’s orchestral score, was lost — but in 1971, nearly 60 years later, dance historian Millicent Hodson became interested in recovering it and discovered that Robert Joffrey was also interested. Hodson and art historian Kenneth Archer describe the process of reconstructing the ballet, which is then seen in a performance by the Joffrey Ballet.

Come together for beautiful music and make new connections during our livestream watch party. Huifang Chen (violin) and Tao Lin (piano) return to the Intermission Music Series with works by one of the greatest violin virtuosos of all time, Kreisler; a romantic duo by Liszt; a sublime sonata by Franck that is among the most famous works of chamber music; and a Spanish-styled dance by de Sarasate.

Program:
Fritz Kreisler | Tempo Di Minuetto (in the Style of Pugnani)

Franz Liszt arr. Nathan Milstein | Consolation

César Franck | Sonata in A major for Violin and Piano
1. Allegretto ben moderato
2. Allegro
3. Ben moderato: Recitativo-Fantasia
4. Allegretto poco mosso

Pablo de Sarasate | Zapateado, Op. 23, No. 2

In the Roaring Twenties, all of America hummed the tunes of one man. Born in a humble Brooklyn neighborhood in 1898, George Gershwin quickly rose to dazzling heights in the entertainment world. Before his life was tragically cut short at the age of 38, the young composer had reshaped popular music into a uniquely American sound. He fused the exuberant refrains of Tin Pan Alley with the lush orchestrations of classical music and the complex rhythms of jazz in compositions like Funny Face, Porgy and Bess and Rhapsody in Blue. Featuring performances of Gershwin classics by the renowned Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and interviews with celebrities, family members and friends, this award-winning documentary offers an intimate look at the troubled life of an incomparable American artist.

IT’S MUSIC MOVIE NIGHT WITH SFSO! Jacqueline du Pré was one of the greatest cellists of all time; however, her international career was cut short by Multiple Sclerosis – she stopped playing cello at the age of 28 and died at the age of 42 in 1987. Jacqueline du Pré: A Gift Beyond Words, compiled by Christopher Nupen’ from the five prize-winning films he made during her lifetime, pays tribute to her on the 30th anniversary of her death.

SFSO presents a livestream recital featuring Huifang Chen on violin and Tao Lin on piano, Intermission Music Series favorites, who have both previously appeared with pianist Catherine Lan. Coming live from their living room, enjoy Tchaikovsky’s charming Melodie; Ponce’s Mexican love song, Estrellita; Brahms’ Sonata for violin and piano in G major, also called the “Rain Sonata”, and Kreisler’s popular showpiece, Tambourin Chinois which he described as “a free fantasy in the Chinese manner.”

Program:
Pytor Ilyich Tchaikovsky | Melodie
Manuel Ponce (arr. Heifetz) | Estrellita
Johannes Brahms | Sonata for violin and piano in G major
Fritz Kreisler | Tambourin Chinois

In Part 2 of Christopher Nupen’s film series on Pytor Ilyich Tchaikovsky, called “Fate”, the focus shifts to Tchaikovsky’s extraordinary relationship with Nadezhda von Meck; the most important in his life, after his mother, as well as his increasing concern with the idea of fate as a controlling influence in his own life and as a motivating force in his later symphonies. What he did not know, despite all his concern and forebodings, was that fate would overtake him, at the age of 53, more tragically than even Tchaikovsky could have foreseen. What’s so compelling about Nupen’s films is that they do not use actors to represent the composer, but are made entirely of Tchaikovsky’s own words and music, plus the words of a few of his closest companions.

Returning to the Intermission Music Series by popular demand, concert pianists Catherine Lan and her husband Tao Lin (also known as Duo Beaux Arts), perform a collection of piano duets, duos and solo works — including one of Chopin’s more popular pieces that you may recognize from 2002 film The Pianist; a set of three dances by Ginastera, one of the leading Latin American composers of the 20th century; and Mendelssohn’s Allegro Brillant, considered one of the most challenging pieces in the entire piano duet repertoire. The livestream concert opens with Mozart’s Sonata for Two Pianos … did you know that listening to this work has been shown to improve mental function, leading to what is known as the “Mozart Effect”?

Program:
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart |Two movements from Sonata for Two Pianos in D major
“Allegro con spirito”
“Molto Allegro”

Frederic Chopin | Ballade No. 1 in G minor

Alberto Ginastera | Danzas Argentinas
“Danza del Viejo Boyero”
“Danza de la Moza Donosa”
“Danza del Gaucho Matrero”

Felix Mendelssohn | Andante and Allegro Brilliant

The “king of the music documentary”, Christopher Nupen, directed a 2-part series on Pytor Ilyich Tchaikovsky that uses music and commentary by Tchaikovsky, as well as by some of his closest companions (rather than actors), to document his life. The first film, “Tchaikovsky’s Women”, looks at the women both in his private life and in his early music. Almost all his best early work was inspired by deep identification with the plight of his suffering young heroines, so much so that it spilled over repeatedly into his personal life with dramatic consequences. This predilection began, when Tchaikovsky was 24 years old with Katerina Kabanova in The Storm, and continued with Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, Francesca da Rimini, Odette in Swan Lake and, above all, Tatyana in Eugene Onegin. All these young women make appearances in the film.

SFSO pianist, Sofiya Uryvayeva Martin brings you “The Music You Love”, featuring a variety of thrilling works that will bring you joy and make your heart sing. Be swept away by Broadway hits, sultry tango, ballet classics and more. “When we listen to our beloved music, the blood dances in our veins and in our hearts,” said Sofiya. “It helps us forget all the problems in our lives and allows us to simply enjoy the moment.”

Have questions for Sofiya? She’ll be chatting live with you during the broadcast.

Program:
Aram Khachaturian | Sabre Dance
Classical Medley
Jewish folk song Hava Nagila
Stephen Sondheim | Send in the Clowns
Mitch Leigh | The Impossible Dream (The Quest)
Manuel de Falla | Ritual Fire Dance
Carlos Gardel | Por una Cabeza
Astor Piazzolla | Libertango
George Gershwin Medley
Antonio Vivaldi | “Storm” from The Four Seasons

About Sofiya Uryvayeva Martin
Originally from Siberia, phenomenal pianist Sofiya Uryvayeva Martin was granted an “Einstein visa” and subsequently American citizenship due to her superlative achievements in the music field.

She has performed with great success throughout the world, including in the United States, Mexico, Switzerland, Ukraine, Poland, Germany, Italy and Austria. Her YouTube channel has become very popular in promoting classical music around the world, with many videos of her live performances. Modern composers from all over the world have dedicated their music to her, and she has performed numerous world premieres.

Sofiya’s concerts have been described by critics as “a festival of all the senses,” “a magic ride on the witch’s broom” and “brilliant technique with soul.”

SATURDAY NIGHT IS MUSIC MOVIE NIGHT WITH SOUTH FLORIDA SYMPHONY! Join your SFSO friends on our Facebook page or YouTube Channel as we watch Mademoiselle, about Nadia Boulanger, one of the most respected conductors and teachers of all time. Boulanger (1887–1979) was the first woman to conduct an entire symphony at the Royal Philharmonic in London (in 1937), the New York Philharmonic (in 1939), as well as orchestras in Boston and Philadelphia. This 1977 film, directed by Bruno Monsaingeon, reveals the force and the flavor of a character who exerted considerable influence on the musical life at the end of the 20th century.

IT’S MOVIE NIGHT WITH SFSO! Grab some snacks and join us on our Facebook page or YouTube Channel, as we watch a music-inspired film together.

IT’S MOVIE NIGHT WITH SFSO! Grab some snacks and join us on our Facebook page or YouTube Channel, as we watch a music-inspired film together.

IT’S MOVIE NIGHT WITH SFSO! Grab some snacks and join us on our Facebook page or YouTube Channel, as we watch a music-inspired film together.

SATURDAYS ARE MOVIE NIGHT WITH SFSO. Bring the snacks and join your SFSO friends on our Facebook page or YouTube Channel, as we watch Hilan Warshaw’s 2013 documentary Wagner’s Jews, the first film to focus on Richard Wagner’s complex personal relationships with his contemporary Jewish admirers and supporters. Wagner, the famous German composer known best for his romantic operas, has aroused both the most unyielding passions and the fiercest hatred alike.

Between myth and reality, this biographical documentary addresses the complex and controversial personality of the composer. Warshaw travels to Germany, Switzerland and Italy, where Wagner lived and worked. Backed by archives, reconstructions, interviews and performances of original pieces composed by contemporaries of Wagner, this film takes a documented look at the composer.

Wagner’s Jews also discusses the debate about the representation of Wagner’s works in Israel today.

SFSO artists Catherine Lan on piano and Huifang Chen on violin (of Duo Formosa) return to LIVE ON THE DRIVE – from their home – with Beethoven’s vigorous and virtuosic Violin Sonata No. 8, the Taiwanese Bang Chhun Hong, and one of technically brilliant Sarasate’s most popular, non-Spanish pieces, Introduction and Tarantella.

IT’S MOVIE NIGHT WITH SFSO! Pop the popcorn and join your SFSO friends on our Facebook page or YouTube Channel, as we watch The War Symphonies – Shostakovich Against Stalin together, a powerful documentary on how composer Dmitri Shostakovich used his Fourth to Ninth Symphonies as a silent protest against the crimes of Joseph Stalin. During the Interwar period and World War II, Stalin dictated the Soviet Union in a bloody manner. Shostakovich couldn’t agree at all with the policies that the tyrant used, but speaking out loud was impossible — it would have cost him his life. Shostakovich found another way: art. Shot on location in Moscow and St. Petersburg, this film brings together great performances, rare archival film material and personal recollections from family and colleagues.

Concert pianists Catherine Lan and her husband Tao Lin (also known as Duo Beaux Arts), perform a collection of piano duets (for one piano, four hands), including Claude Debussy’s charming Petite Suite; Astor Piazzolla’s tango take on Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, as well as one of his most popular tangos, Oblivion; and selections from Gabriel Fauré’s Dolly Suite, which were written for the daughter of his mistress.

Concert pianists Catherine Lan and her husband Tao Lin (also known as Duo Beaux Arts), perform a collection of piano duets (for one piano, four hands), including Claude Debussy’s charming Petite Suite; Astor Piazzolla’s tango take on Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, as well as one of his most popular tangos, Oblivion; and selections from Gabriel Fauré’s Dolly Suite, which were written for the daughter of his mistress.

IT’S MOVIE NIGHT WITH SFSO! Grab some snacks and join us on our Facebook page or YouTube Channel, as we watch Following the Ninth: In the Footsteps of Beethoven’s Final Symphony together, the uplifting film by Kerry Candaele. The first of a Beethoven film trilogy, Following The Ninth is about the global impact of Beethoven’s final symphony, with stops at Tienanmen Square during the 1989 protests, in Chile, where women living under the Pinochet dictatorship sang the Ninth outside the walls of torture prisons, in Japan when each December the Ninth is performed hundreds of times, often 10,000 people in the chorus. And now, with a concert for the victims of the earthquake and Tsunami. And, finally, in Germany at the Berlin Wall in December, 1989, as Leonard Bernstein performs Beethoven’s Ninth as an “Ode To Freedom”.

Catherine Lan on piano and Huifang Chen on violin bring you some classical music beauties, including Edward Elgar’s engagement gift to his wife-to-be, Salut d’Amour; the jazzy 2nd movement of Maurice Ravel’s Violin Sonata No. 2 for violin and piano, Monti’s Czárdás, with one of the most iconic openings in classical music, and more.