ELENA RUEHR
COMPOSER-IN-RESIDENCE

Elena Ruehr says of her music “the idea is that the surface be simple, the structure complex.” And from Gramophone Magazine, “The sound world is wholly Ruehr: it never sounds like anyone else and the effect is exhilarating…her output is unified by her desire to communicate effectively without compromise…”

Currently composer in residence with Lincoln’s Symphony Orchestra, she has a major list of recordings including her orchestral works as well as the opera Toussaint Before the Spirits, her cantata Averno, and her Six String Quartets. Her other recordings include Icarus, Jane Wang considers the Dragonfly, Lift, Shimmer, and Shadow Light, as well as many others.

In addition to having a standing collaboration with QuartetES, her works have been commissioned, recorded, and performed by numerous other string quartets, including the Arneis, Biava, Borromeo, Cypress, Delgani, Lark, Quartet Nouveau, Roco and Shanghai string quartets. An award winning faculty member at MIT, she has been a Guggenheim Fellow, a fellow at Harvard’s Radcliffe Institute and composer-in-residence with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project. Known for her vocal music and collaboration with poets, she has written five operas, five cantatas and a number of songs. She has also written extensively for orchestra, chorus, wind ensemble, chamber ensemble, instrumental solo, opera, dance and silent film. Her work has been performed internationally and described as “sumptuously scored and full of soaring melodies” (The New York Times), and “unspeakably gorgeous” (Gramophone).

Winner of the Baker Undergraduate Teaching Award, Dr. Ruehr has taught at MIT since 1992 and lives in Brookline, Massachusetts.

Broadway Boogie Woogie
Elena Ruehr (b. 1963)

Broadway Boogie Woogie is titled after the Mondrian painting of the same name and is a celebratory, jazzy and fun overture. My father, who was a mathematics professor, was also a jazz pianist, and often played boogie woogie and other standards after dinner when I was a child. I grew up listening to jazz not from recordings but from the interpretations my dad did. The geometric design of Mondrian’s painting along with its playful energy reminds me of the way my mathematician father would play. This 7 minute romp is in memory of Otto Ruehr.

Violin Concerto No. 3
“Three Peices for Anton”
Elena Ruehr (b. 1963)

For my third and final piece as part of my residency with Lincoln’s Symphony Orchestra I knew I wanted to write a concerto for concertmaster Anton Miller. This work is, for the most part, quite light hearted with the movement and energy that I think are hallmarks of Anton’s playing and personality.

The first movement gives a nod to Stravinsky’s Violin Concerto, with an open stringed sound and bright chords. It also has short motives that are constantly shifting rhythmically to create variety and playfulness.

The second movement also pays homage to a great concerto that Anton has played: The Sibelius Violin Concerto. This reference is not so obvious but has to do with a motive of sixths ascending. It is a slow and lyrical movement in a theme and variations form ending with a coda.

The third movement was actually written first, and is a cheerful nod to a joke Anton made about writing a concerto that sounded like the jazzy call waiting music he heard on his phone. I decided to play with that idea and the result is a tongue-in-cheek virtuosic dance.

Symphony No. 3 in E-flat Major, Op. 55, Eroica
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

The opening years of the nineteenth century were transformative for Beethoven. 1802 saw the writing of the composer’s famous Heiligenstadt Testament, a letter written (but never sent) to his brothers in which he expressed despair over his growing deafness and related his contemplations of suicide but in the end asserted hope for the future and a desire to overcome his demons and establish a profound dedication to his art. This personal breakthrough gave way to Beethoven’s second compositional period, sometimes called his “heroic” phase, that lasted until about 1812. The first major work to launch this stage was the revolutionary Symphony No. 3, also known as Sinfonia Eroica (“Heroic Symphony”), composed from 1803-1804.

Beethoven had originally titled his Third Symphony “Bonaparte” in honor of his personal hero, Napoleon, as he believed the military leader perfectly embodied the democratic ideals of the French Revolution. However, when Beethoven learned that Napoleon had declared himself Emperor in 1804, the composer is said to have torn up the title page upon which Bonaparte’s name was emblazoned in a fit of disillusioned rage. His passions cooled by the time the work was published in 1806, and the composer himself suggested the title Sinfonia Eroica along with the inscription “composed to celebrate the memory of a great man.”

Reviews upon the Third Symphony’s first public performance in 1805 were mixed: while some hailed the work as the composer’s greatest artistic achievement to date, others bemoaned its exhausting length, technical complexity, and overall weightiness. Over time, however, it has become a particularly well-loved and respected contribution to the symphonic genre. It is no doubt a revolutionary work: massive in scope and twice as long as most of the symphonies by Haydn and Mozart, it also features an unprecedented range of emotions, shifting moods several times within single movements. It was with Eroica that Beethoven truly began to push the limits of what a symphony could be, say, and do; the work thus marks an important turning point between the Classical and Romantic eras.

Spanning four vast movements and boasting a performance time of nearly 50 minutes, Eroica is unquestionably monumental. Two bold tonic chords open the first movement, giving way to a cello melody in which a striking C-sharp creates strong harmonic tension. The movement proceeds in a whirlwind of motivic development, unexpected rhythmic passages, and staggering harmonic shifts that coalesce into a characteristically Beethovenian lavish and lengthy coda.

The second movement takes the form of a funeral march, its somber opening eventually leading to a somewhat sunnier passage before ultimately moving into a fugal section that drives the intensity to a magnificent pitch. A fragmented version of the opening theme repeats at the movement’s close, emphasizing the overarching expression of grief. The third movement, an energetic scherzo brimming with brilliant melodic passages and playful metric choices, offers a complete contrast in mood to the second.

The finale, an expansive theme and variations, is a musical event in and of itself. It begins with a brief introduction before the quiet theme appears. The ten variations that follow feature a remarkable array of stylistic and emotional variety, including such diverse forms as a fugue, a dance, and a hymn with moods ranging from solemn to humorous and everything in between. The movement’s coda ends with an ecstatic passage and three towering chords that provide a fitting conclusion to this victorious symphony.

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For Lied Center concerts we offer valet parking, and parking is also available at several downtown garages, including Que Place (11th & Q), Larson Garage (13th & Q), Market Place (10th & Q), and Haymarket Garage (9th & Q). Pre-pay for your event parking at parkandgo.org. Street parking is available for our family concerts, located at O’Donnell Auditorium at 50th & Huntington on the Nebraska Wesleyan University campus.

Our family concerts are a perfect way to introduce children to classical music during an hour-long presentation that includes actors or puppets. We also welcome children at all Lied Center concerts, and we provide special children’s program magazines which include educational activities, a coloring page, and a coupon for a free treat at intermission. If your child is becoming noisy during Lied Center events, ask any usher to be directed to the glassed-in room at the back of the main floor, where you can see and hear the performance without disturbing your neighbors.