Winners 3–6

THIRD PRIZE
Nelson Morgan, Nicholson, Georgia

Concert 1
Benjamin Britten: Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes
Samuel Barber: Piano Concerto
Intermission
Ralph Vaughan Williams: Symphony 5

Concert 2
Granville Bantock: The Witch of Atlas
Jean Sibelius: Violin Concerto
Intermission
Einojuhani Rautavaara: Symphony 8, The Journey

Concert 3
Josef Suk: Fantastic Scherzo
Sergei Prokofiev: Piano Concerto 3
Intermission
Dmitri Shostakovich: Symphony 10

Concert 4
Claude Debussy: Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun
Samuel Barber: Knoxville: Summer of 1915
Jean Sibelius: Luonnotar, for soprano and orchestra
Intermission
Carl Nielsen: Symphony 4, The Inextinguishable

Concert 5
Joan Tower: Tambor
John Adams: Violin Concerto
Intermission
William Schuman: Symphony 3

Concert 6
Charles Ives: The Unanswered Question
Carlos Chávez: Symphony 2, Sínfonia índia
Dmitri Shostakovich: Cello Concerto 1
Intermission
Leoš Janácek: Sinfonietta

Concert 7
Thomas Adès: Asyla
Maurice Ravel: Piano Concerto in G
Intermission
Béla Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra

FOURTH PRIZE
Mike Healey, Durham, North Carolina

Concert 1
Anton Bruckner: Symphony 4
Alban Berg: Violin Concerto
Intermission
Kurt Weill: Symphony 2

Concert 2
Claude Debussy: Piano Fantasy
Marc-Andre Dalbavie: Flute Concerto
Intermission
Paul Dukas: Symphony in C

Concert 3
John Williams: The Five Sacred Trees, for bassoon and orchestra
William Walton: Spitfire Prelude and Fugue
Intermission
Ralph Vaughan Williams: A London Symphony

Concert 4
Alan Hovhaness: Symphony 2, Mysterious Mountain
Philip Glass: Concerto Fantasy for Two Timpanists and Orchestra
Intermission
Howard Hanson: Symphony 4

Concert 5
Edvard Grieg: Holberg Suite
Jean Sibelius: Symphony 5
Intermission
Einojuhani Rautavaara: On the Last Frontier

Concert 6
Alexander Borodin: In the Steppes of Central Asia
Alfred Schnittke: Concerto Grosso 1
Intermission
Dmitri Shostakovich: Symphony 5

Concert 7
Heitor Villa-Lobos: "Little Train of Caipira," from Bachianas Brasileiras 2
Joaquín Rodrigo: Fantasia para un Gentilhombre
Intermission
Alberto Ginastera: Suite from Estancia

FIFTH PRIZE
Stephen Decker, Chelmsford, England

Concert 1
Gustav Holst: Ballet Suite from The Perfect Fool
Ralph Vaughan Williams: An Oxford Elegy
Intermission
William Walton: Symphony 1

Concert 2
Charles Ives (orchestral arrangement by William Schuman): Variations on "America"
George Gershwin: Piano Concerto in F
Intermission
Steve Reich: The Desert Music

Concert 3
Albert Roussel: Bacchus et Ariane, Suite 2
Maurice Ravel: Piano Concerto in G
Intermission
Claude Debussy: Selection of Preludes (arranged for orchestra by Colin Matthews): "Feuilles mortes;" "Les tierces alternees;" "La danse de Puck;" "Le vent dans la plaine;" "La fille aux chevaux de lin"
Claude Debussy: Nocturnes

Concert 4
Anton Webern: Im Sommerwind
Alban Berg: Violin Concerto
Intermission
Anton Webern: Five Pieces for Orchestra
Arnold Schoenberg: Verklarte Nacht

Concert 5
Kurt Weill: Suite from The Threepenny Opera
Karl Amadeus Hartmann: Concerto Funèbre, for violin and orchestra
Intermission
Richard Strauss: Also Sprach Zarathustra

Concert 6
Zoltán Kodály: Háry János Suite
Ernst von Dohnányi: Variations on a Nursery Song
Intermission
György Ligeti: Atmospheres
Béla Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra

Concert 7
Dmitri Shostakovich: Festival Overture
Sergei Prokofiev: Violin Concerto 2
Intermission
Dmitri Shostakovich: Jazz Suite 1
Sergei Rachmaninov: Symphonic Dances
End-of-season encore:
Dmitri Shostakovich: Tahiti Trot ("Tea for Two")

SIXTH PRIZE
Iannis Symplis, Athens, Greece

Concert 1
Jean Sibelius: The Swan of Tuonela
Dmitri Shostakovich: Cello Concerto 1
Intermission
Anton Bruckner: Symphony 4

Concert 2
Hector Berlioz: Nuits d'été
César Franck: Symphonic Variations
Intermission
Hector Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique

Concert 3
Antonin Dvo?ák: Scherzo Capriccioso
Béla Bartók: Violin Concerto 2
Intermission
Josef Suk: Symphony in c, Asrael

Concert 4
Darius Milhaud: Le Beouf sur le Toit
Maurice Ravel: Piano Concerto for the Left Hand
Intermission
Béla Bartók: Music for strings, percussion, and celesta

Concert 5
Anton Webern: Passacaglia
Arnold Schoenberg: Violin Concerto
Intermission
Arnold Schoenberg: Pelleas und Melisande

Concert 6
György Ligeti: Lux Æterna
Gabriel Fauré: Requiem
Intermission
François-Joseph Gossec: Grande Messe des Morts

Concert 7
Arnold Schoenberg: Gurrelieder

COMMENTS
otaku's picture

Results?

John Marks's picture

Hi-

Thanks for your interest. The results are in process, and that process will take a couple or a few more weeks. I do not want to make any snap judgments, so I am researching the many many many unfamiliar pieces, and pondering how this concert versus that concert at that point in the season will pan out in terms of attendance and box office.

Beyond that, it will be a major task to format the winning entries to Stereophile's style sheet, and then I have to write the introductory copy. But the present work is hunting up at least YouTube performances of pieces that are new to me, to John Atkinson, and most of my music-loving friends.

I think that nearly all the entries are interesting, and the potential winners are impressive beyond anything I had hoped for.

So, please be patient.

JM

DepletedZPM's picture

 

Since I had fun putting together my entry, I wrote up the following note for Facebook friends.  I'd love to see some of the other entrants talk about their approaches to programming their seasons.

Romain Kang, Sunnyvale, California

My season is a geographical cycle beginning and ending in the US.  Each concert has some nation or region as its center of gravity, including at least one living composer and one "party piece" (in my opinion).  Whereas JM's example season employed piano concerti as "tent poles" in his structure, I have given concerti a more ornamental role, leaving just Michael Ching's single-movement piano concerto as representative, with less prominent instruments getting more solo turns.

Bracketing the season are probably the best-known tunes, by John Williams and Aaron Copland; Copland's final movement is built on the famous "Fanfare for the common man", in effect, ennunciating a return home.  I hope the visceral experience of the live orchestra allows the audience to hear these pieces anew.  I got a bit punchy with Concert 1, which has all living American composers named John, in reverse alphabetical order and descending age.

The other programs seem strong enough, though more time to listen, reflect, and revise would have helped.  In particular, the Asia-centered program (Concert 5) was a challenge because I know its composers least, but I felt I could not leave it out.  Choosing a concerto was the most time-consuming task. I would have liked to include Gang Situ's Double concerto for violin and erhu, but could not find a commercial recording.  My first draft put Chen Yi's Percussion concerto in the concerto spot, but timidity got the better of me, so instead there is a violin concerto from Unsuk Chin, a Korean living in Germany.  Also, Tan Dun quotes Beethoven's Third symphony liberally, and could be a disqualifier depending on interpretation of contest rules.

The discipline to leave out material was crucial; I took out an entire French program with some of my choral favorites.  There is both really good stuff and really fun trash in the symphonic world that would have been enjoyable to share.  In the best case, though, you leave the audience wanting more after the final chords have sounded.

Andrei's picture

@Romain

Congrats at result! I was interested in your Asia-centered program because I also wanted to include non-western music.  I had in mind a concert built around Tan Dun's 'Symphony 1997' or Ravi Shankar's Sitar Concerto.  Like you I felt I could not leave it out - but I did.  Unfortunately the combination of my limited knowledge of asian music and the necessity to make a coherent program meant I just had to give up.  Thanks for your post and I will be looking up those many pieces you mention that are new me.

DepletedZPM's picture

One friend passed the Stereophile lists around her classical music meetup group, and one keen reader noticed that I had a nonexistent piece in my Concert 5.  There is no "American" overture by Borodin -- it's by Prokofiev.  The error is surely a sloppy edit on my part, since I had Borodin's "Polovtsian dances" slotted there in an early draft.  I'm grateful that the editors cut me some slack there!

edbudzil's picture

When browsing the classical music composers catalogue, one will find the S category particularly large. Included in this section is one Stravinsky, Igor. This name is conspicously absent from the Fantasy Season contest. (I didn't enter the contest, so I'm not griping my entry didn't win.) Has Stravinsky's music gone out of fashion? Is his Rite of Spring, which caused the audience to riot during the 1913 premiere, still considered "too modern" 100 years later? I understand why audiophiles would not include the Romantic composers and earlier eras- that music lacks the instrumental color that the French Impressionists and Late Romantic composers brought to orchestral sound. But, c'mon, no Stravinsky? Nary a Firebird, or Rite of Spring to be found???

ptr's picture

from Mr Marks rules:

But to make it more interesting, you can't program works by any of these composers: Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Handel, Haydn, Mahler, Mendelssohn, Mozart, Schubert, Stravinsky, Tchaikovsky, or Wagner. Did you catch the "no Beethoven" part? Good.

Love Stravinsky, but like Mr Marks I belive that he is quite the staple on the concert stage!

Myself, I was quite surprized to be shareing second price!

Did not have a very decided way of structuring my season sugestion. I started out by choosing 7 underplayed works that I dearly would love to hear an orchstra play. Then adding a work that I think would contrast the main work really well, then I strongly belive that every concert should start with a musical Apéritif (i.e an overture) which I added.

Reading back my own season there emerged a red thread with a decent amount of "American" music, wich I feel is under played repertoir around the globe. The nest time the collour oif the fabric might be quite diffrent!

/ptr (in Sweden)

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