June 8, 2025: Symphonic Treasure

Northbrook Symphony
Mina Zikri, Music Director
Ilya Shterenberg, clarinet

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
Clarinet Concerto in A major, K. 622
I. Allegro
II. Adagio
III. Rondo: Allegro
Ilya Shterenberg, clarinet

The Clarinet Concerto in A Major is a significant creative milestone in both Mozart’s career and the history of music more generally. This was to be Mozart’s final finished composition, composed the year of his death in 1791. This was also the year he composed his operas The Magic Flute and La Clemenza di Tito, his Piano Concerto No. 17 in B Flat Major K. 595, and the String Quintet in E flat Major, his final chamber work. Aside from the importance of this work for Mozart’s own life, the Clarinet Concerto is one of the earliest concertos for clarinet in the repertoire, and is certainly the work that kickstarted the prominence of the clarinet as a solo instrument. Mozart wrote the concerto for his friend Anton Stadler who was perhaps equally important to the acceptance of the clarinet in the orchestra due to his virtuosity and dedication to commissioning new works. It received its premiere on October 16, 1791, just a few weeks before Mozart’s death.

—INTERMISSION—

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)
Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Op. 36
I. Andante sostenuto - Moderato con anima
II. Andantino in modo di canzona
III. Allegro
IV. Finale: Allegro con fuoco

In a letter to his patroness Nadezhda von Meck, Tchaikovsky gave several poetic descriptions of his Symphony No. 4, writing:

The introduction is the seed of the whole Symphony: This is fate: that fateful force which prevents the impulse to happiness from attaining its goal, which jealously ensures that peace and happiness shall not be complete and unclouded.

Of the second movement he said: “… it is at once sad and somehow sweet to lose ourselves in the past.” The Scherzo consists of “capricious arabesques” and “elusive images”, and prompted the comment:

I never compose in the abstract, i.e., a musical idea never appears without its appropriate external form…. When I was writing the Scherzo of our Symphony, I imagined it exactly as you heard it. It is unthinkable played any other way than pizzicato.

And for the Finale, Tchaikovsky wished to express the joy found by spending time with others:

If within yourself you find no reasons for joy, then look at others. Go among the people. See how they can enjoy themselves, surrendering themselves wholeheartedly to joyful feelings.

Tchaikovsky was never one to write music that was disconnected from his own feelings and life experience, and his symphonies are possibly the clearest view into his state of mind at various points through his life.

The Symphony No. 4 is the work where he truly came into his own as an artist, matching his expressive talents with his craft in with remarkable skill. Through this music he expressed his frustrations as a homosexual man living in a time of great societal intolerance, as well as his homesickness for Russia as he was living in Italy when he composed this symphony. Assessing the symphony as a whole, Tchaikovsky concluded:

No sooner have you managed to forget yourself and to be carried away by the spectacle of the joys of others than irrepressible fate again appears and reminds you of yourself.

Symphony No. 4 in F Minor was premiered in Moscow in February 1878.

Program notes by Thomas Nickell.

Ilya Shterenberg, clarinet

Principal clarinetist of the San Antonio Philharmonic, and Principal clarinetist of the ProMusica Chamber Orchestra (Columbus, OH), Ilya Shterenberg balances a busy career as an orchestral musician, chamber music performer, and a soloist.

Hailed by the press: “He possesses that miraculous gift of an innate musical sense…music seemed to flow toward the infinite, as if divinely ordained”, he has been featured as a soloist with both orchestras, performing standard works by Mozart, Weber, Rossini, Debussy, as well as rarely heard clarinet concertos by Krommer and Kurpinsky, as well as the American premiere of Richard Strauss’s Serenade for Clarinet and Chamber Orchestra.

He has been featured as Principal clarinetist with the Baltimore, Cincinnati and Seattle Symphonies, the Florida Orchestra, as well as the Houston Grand Opera, and has collaborated with some of the most notable conductors of our time, including Roger Norrington, Seiji Ozawa, Dennis Russell Davies, Herbert Blomstedt, Daniel Barenboim, George Solti, Pierre Boulez and others.

Away from the orchestras, Ilya is very active as chamber musician, festival performer, and educator. He is a member of the Olmos Ensemble, a prominent chamber music group in San Antonio. His summer appearances have included the Colorado Music Festival and Britt Festival, as well as the Piccolo Spoleto Festival – USA. As an educator, he has been a faculty member of the College of Charleston, the University of Texas San Antonio, and UT Austin.

A native of Ukraine, Ilya began his music education at the Kosenko Music College, in Zhitomir, city of his birth. After his immigration to the United States in 1989, he received an Artist Certificate diploma from the Meadows School of the Arts, Southern Methodist University, after which he did further study at DePaul University in Chicago. His principal teachers have included Larry Combs, Stephen Girko, and Charles Neidich.

Mr. Shterenberg’s performances have been heard on National Public Radio stations throughout the country as well as Chicago’s WFMT nationwide classical music network. He performs frequently as a recitalist and chamber music artist with Cactus Pear Music Festival and the North Shore Chamber Music Festival.

Ilya is a Buffet Group USA performing artist.

Mina Zikri, Music Director

As Founder, Music Director, and Conductor of the Oistrakh Symphony of Chicago, Mina Zikri is dedicated to forging relationships with artists and musical organizations throughout the world, in the pursuit of developing new audiences for classical music. He frequently travels with Daniel Barenboim as an assistant conductor with the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra on tours that take them to prestigious concerts halls and festivals in Europe and South America, such as the Salzburg Festival in Austria, the Lucerne Festival in Switzerland, and the celebrated Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires. Each season he returns to his native Egypt to guest conduct the Cairo National Symphony.

At a time when even some of the most prominent orchestras in the United States are suffering from financial and cultural uncertainty, Zikri believes expectations for how to secure the future of symphony orchestras need to be upended. To him, targeting children and teenagers through programming and innovative concert experiences is a top priority - as it is a guaranteed way of transmitting the message of the arts to younger generations.

A member of the faculty of DePaul University Community Music Division, Zikri was named one of twelve finalists in the 2007 Gustav Mahler International Conducting Competition, where he was chosen from 223 candidates from 40 countries. He attended the American Academy of Conducting in Aspen, Colorado, on a fellowship, and holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from DePaul University, as well as a Performance Certificate in violin.

Zikri is the Resident Conductor of Chicago’s Lira Ensemble, a company that specializes in Polish music, song, and dance. He has recorded two albums with Lira that include music by Chopin, Lutosławski, and other Polish and American composers.

In 2019 Zikri was named Music Director of the Northbrook Symphony, where he works closely with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s Concertmaster, Robert Chen, who serves as an Artistic Creative Partner to the group.