Maestro's Picks from Festival Mozaic, Dec. 2008

Maestro's Picks from Scott Yoo, Music Director

THE SOUNDS OF SCANDINAVIA

Recommended
Recordings from Music Director Scott Yoo

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1. Jean Sibelius
Symphonies No. 5 and 6
Helsinki Philharmonic
Paavo Berglund
Seraphim

I once was Berglund's assistant years ago when he conducted these pieces with the Boston Symphony. All I can say is that he knew this repertoire cold--it was in his blood. One musician remarked to me: "It's like getting it straight from the source."

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2. Karl Nielsen
Symphonies No. 4 and 5
Herbert Blomstedt
San Francisco Symphony
London

Making recordings at Odense Concert Hall, with pictures of Nielsen all over the place, makes me think of this recording that was my first introduction into the world of this Danish master. Nielsen, like his Scandinavian colleague Sibelius, has an incredibly distinctive sound all of his own. I am always struck by how Nielsen's music can create passion without any heat. Reminds me of the Danish weather, I suppose.

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3. Edvard Grieg

Peer Gynt
Herbert von Karajan
Berlin Philharmonic

Is this the most famous music from Scandinavia? Perhaps, but it is arguably some of the finest as well. There is a reason that this music was a fixture in Warner Brothers cartoons for so many years. Perhaps no one can paint a picture of a Nordic landscape as well as Grieg. If you want catchy tunes, be sure to check out Grieg's Piano Concerto this summer at Festival Mozaic--one of the finest and most popular in the repertoire.

Greetings!

Season's Greetings to you from all of us at Festival Mozaic!

I am writing to you from Denmark, where I am conducting the Odense Symfoniorkester. I am here on a week-long recording project, including a modern work for one CD and a pair of Mozart Piano Concertos for another, with a talented young Russian pianist, Vassily Primakov. The orchestra is very fine and, if the rehearsals are any indication, the CDs should be quite good.

It is difficult to overcome jet lag when I have not yet seen the sun. The sun doesn't even make it through the morning fog before the recording sessions begin, and by the time we are done around 3 p.m., it is already twilight. Also, I think I've had my share of pickled herring for a while. And most disappointing, supposedly the women of Denmark are famously beautiful, yet it is impossible to tell because it is completely dark.

This is my third trip to play and conduct in Scandinavia, and although I enjoy being here, I really cannot wait to be back in the San Luis Obispo County sunshine. I am already gearing up for my trip to SLO in January for the Festival's next WinterMezzo weekend, and our musicians are already counting down the months until spending July on the glorious Central Coast with you all.

This is a busy international season for me. I am lucky to have conducting and playing engagements this year in such far-flung locales as Cartagena (conducting the City of London Sinfonia, which will be an unusual cultural and geographic juxtaposition, if there ever was one) and in Canada, Seoul, Tokyo and Mexico City.

As I travel and experience how different cultures perceive and react to the Western Classical music legacy, I've been thinking a lot about how much a place can affect the music that comes out of it: Vienna certainly influenced Mozart, even, and perhaps especially, when he didn't reside there; Bach is as inseparable from Leipzig as Copland is from our imagination of the American West and Bernstein is to Broadway.

So in addition to photos of my travels, I thought I would share 'musical photos' of pieces and composers I find inspiring who were influenced by the regions of my travels. I hope my perspectives of this great music may transport you to these locales, without the 14-hour flight and cramped seating.

Get a recording of these, sit back, and imagine yourself in a different place, and perhaps, a different time. In fact, that's exactly where we intend to transport you, live, at Festival Mozaic next summer.

Until then, take a listen and bon voyage!

Scott Yoo

Music Director