Concert Program
Large Ensemble Concert Series
NIU Philharmonic
Maria Kurochkina, Conductor
Friday, October 10, 2025
7:00 p.m.
Boutell Memorial Concert Hall
Faust-Overture Op. 46, Emilie Mayer (1812-1883)
In the later decades of the 19th century, Emilie Mayer was far from an obscure figure: her orchestral music was heard across German-speaking Europe, and critics discussed her work alongside that of leading contemporaries. Born in Friedland in 1812, she showed early promise at the piano and began composing as a child. After the death of her father in 1840, she made a decisive move to Stettin to study with Carl Loewe, who quickly championed her talent and put her orchestral scores before the public. By the mid-1840s Mayer had completed and heard performances of her first symphonies; in 1847 she relocated to Berlin for further study with A. B. Marx, and soon organized a landmark all-Mayer concert at the Royal Playhouse, performed by Wilhelm Wieprecht’s “Euterpe” orchestra.
Mayer built a professional life that defied the gendered expectations of her time. She chose not to marry, managed her own concerts, cultivated networks with conductors and publishers, and steadily expanded a catalog that ultimately included eight symphonies, more than a dozen overtures, substantial chamber music, songs, and a piano concerto. Her personality was often described as modest in public, but her career strategy was anything but passive: she negotiated, promoted, and produced her way into the concert life of Berlin, Cologne, Munich, Brussels, and beyond. Despite this visibility, shifting cultural winds in the later 19th century and the inconsistent publication of her music led to a long eclipse after her death in 1883—a neglect only now being corrected by performances and recordings.
Goethe’s Faust had already inspired works by Berlioz, Wagner, Liszt, Gounod, and Schumann when the 68-year-old Mayer turned to the subject. Rather than narrating the drama scene by scene, her Faust Overture is conceived as a concert overture in classical sonata design. A dark, slow introduction opens in B minor and sets an atmosphere of wary tension before the Allegro presses forward with sharply profiled themes and urgent rhythmic drive. The lyrical secondary ideas provide respite without dissolving the undercurrent of agitation; bold modulations and compact motivic work keep the music tightly coiled. At the close, the tonality turns from B minor to a blazing B major—Mayer marks this transformation in the score with a note identifying the moment of salvation, a nod to the redemption that closes Goethe’s vast drama.
The work received its premiere in Berlin in February 1881 with the Berliner Sinfonie-Capelle and quickly traveled to Stettin, Karlsbad, Prague, and Vienna. Heard today, the overture reveals an assured orchestral voice: taut construction, vivid color, and a command of large-scale momentum that sits comfortably beside her symphonic writing. It also offers a concise window into Mayer’s artistic stance more broadly—rooted in the classical tradition yet fully engaged with Romantic subject matter, and driven by a determination to claim public musical space at a time when women composers were routinely sidelined.
That her name fell out of concert programs says more about historical gatekeeping than about the music itself. As orchestras revisit the 19th-century repertory with wider lenses, Mayer’s Faust Overture makes a compelling case for her return: a concentrated dramatic arc, a clear architectural spine, and an ending that flashes with hard-won light.
Karelia-Suite, Op.11, Jean Sibelius (1865-1957)
I. Intermezzo
II. Ballade
III. Alla marcia
Jean Sibelius came of age during Finland’s nineteenth-century national awakening, a time when questions of language, culture, and identity carried political weight under Russian rule. Within this movement, Karelia — a borderland region with a strong tradition of rune singing and a central role in the Kalevala epic — became a powerful symbol of Finnish heritage. For Sibelius, it was not only a source of inspiration but also a place of personal attachment: he visited Karelia early in his career to study folk traditions and chose it as the destination for his honeymoon in 1892. The following year, the Viipuri Students’ Association invited him to compose music for a historical pageant designed to raise funds for education in Karelia. Sibelius wrote a series of short tableaux, later reworking three of them into the Karelia Suite. From the beginning, the music was meant to be accessible and direct, with clear textures and strong rhythmic profiles that could resonate immediately with audiences.
The Intermezzo sets off with bold horn calls and a firm marching rhythm, evoking collective movement and public life. The Ballade turns inward, led by the French horn in a long, narrative line that recalls the cadence of rune songs. Finally, Alla marcia returns to a brighter, outward-looking tone: its themes gather weight and brilliance, driving toward an energetic and triumphant conclusion.
Placed in its historical context, the Karelia Suite is more than picturesque scene-painting. It reflects the role of music in articulating Finnish cultural identity at a time when direct political expression was constrained. For Sibelius, Karelia embodied both history and possibility, and through this work he gave that symbolism a clear and memorable musical voice.
Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92, Ludwig van Beethoven
I. Poco sostenuto – Vivace
II. Allegretto
III. Presto, IV. Allegro con brio
Beethoven began work on his Seventh Symphony in the autumn of 1811 and finished it in the spring of 1812, at a moment when Europe was turning against Napoleon. By the time the work was first performed in Vienna in December 1813, the piece was heard not just as music but as a symbol of victory, with the premiere given in support of soldiers wounded at the Battle of Hanau. Beethoven himself conducted, throwing his entire body into the performance, and the audience responded with such enthusiasm that the slow movement had to be played twice.
The symphony opens with a broad introduction in A major, solemn yet full of latent energy. Winds sing long phrases over sustained chords before the strings ignite the first Vivace section with a theme that has the swagger of a rustic dance. From this seemingly simple idea, Beethoven builds a vast and tightly organized movement, constantly shifting harmonies and dynamics to heighten the sense of momentum.
The second movement, marked Allegretto, stands in complete contrast. It unfolds as a processional in A minor, constructed around an insistent rhythmic pattern that repeats almost obsessively. Against this backdrop, Beethoven layers two themes: one stark and unyielding, the other lyrical and consoling. Variations intensify the effect, and a fugal episode adds further weight before the return of the opening music. This movement quickly became one of Beethoven’s most admired creations, often performed by itself in the nineteenth century.
The third movement bursts in with a fleet and boisterous scherzo. Its skipping rhythm never seems to tire, while the central trio—based on a hymn tune from southern Austria—offers a more dignified interlude.
The finale, Allegro con brio, unleashes a torrent of energy even greater than what came before. Its sonata form structure hardly restrains the exuberance: racing string figures, bold harmonic turns, and jubilant horn calls fuel a movement of near-demonic vitality. A brief reminiscence of the first movement flickers by, but it is swept away in a blazing coda of unstoppable force.
At the time of its creation, Beethoven was grappling with worsening deafness, financial pressures, and personal disappointments. Yet in the midst of these struggles, he entered one of his most productive periods. The Seventh Symphony is often described as the “apotheosis of the dance,” and it remains one of the composer’s most exultant and rhythmically driven works.
Biographies
Maria Kurochkina
Maria Kurochkina is a conductor and educator whose work spans opera and symphonic repertoire. She is joined the faculty of Northern Illinois University in August 2025 as assistant professor of music and director of orchestral activities.
Kurochkina holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in orchestral conducting from Boston University, where she studied with James Burton and William Lumpkin and received a full merit scholarship. Her doctoral dissertation, Preserving Tchaikovsky’s Legacy: A Translation and Critical Commentary on Kirill Kondrashin’s Interpretation of Tchaikovsky’s Symphonies, reflects her research interests in interpretation, Soviet performance traditions and the challenges of translation in specialized musical contexts. She also earned a Specialist Degree (equivalent to a combined bachelor’s and master’s) from the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory, where she studied with Gennady Rozhdestvensky and Igor Dronov.
Her operatic work includes conducting full productions of The Consul (Chicago Summer Opera, 2024), Alice Tierney (Boston Fringe Festival, 2023), and Gianni Schicchi (Boston University Opera Institute, 2025), as well as leading the world premiere of R. Yunusov’s chamber opera Steps as music director and conductor at the Diaghilev Festival. She has also assisted at the Moscow Conservatory Opera Theatre and worked with orchestras including the State Academic Symphony Orchestra of Russia under Vladimir Jurowski.
Kurochkina has participated in masterclasses and fellowships across Europe and the United States, including the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, the Diaghilev Festival and sessions with the BBC Concert Orchestra, Marin Alsop, Teodor Currentzis, and others. She was a participant in the La Maestra Conducting Competition (Paris, 2022) and the Cantelli Award (Milan, 2024). She maintains a strong interest in contemporary music, education and intercultural collaboration.
NIU Philharmonic Roster
| Violins 1 Javier Polania Reilly Farrell Jacob Kukielka Christian Balgeman Athina Vrettou Keira Specht Laura Gonzalez Violins 2 Violas Cellos Basses |
Flutes Angel Salas-Marcado Segun Owele (2/picc) Kaelyn Witt (3/picc) Oboes Clarinets Bassoons Horns Trumpets Trombones Tuba Timpani Percussion |