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| About this Concert Robert Bonfiglio is an electrifying performer, and a charismatic stage presence. His skill on the harmonica is breathtaking, and he returns to the Winspear stage with a little of everything, from a tribute to Gershwin to some “song and dance.” Featured Repertoire GERSHWIN: A Medley of Song Hits for Harmonica GNATTALI: Song and Dance for Harmonica GERSHWIN: Gershwin in Hollywood SCOTT: A Raymond Scott Fantasia |
Next Lighter Classics December 22, 2011 A Lightly Classical Christmas Thank you to our sponsors! Bill & Mary Jo Robbins Series Supporters  Radio Media Sponsor |
Ticket Information$75 Dress Circle (A)$65 Terrace (B) $52 Orchestra (C) $38 Upper Circle (D) $28 Gallery (E) $20 Orchestra Front (F) Tickets subject to applicable service charges. |
| This performance is part of the Robbins Lighter Classics series. |
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Program Info
Program
REZNICEK
Overture to Donna Diana (6’)*
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS
Romance in D-flat major for Harmonica (7’)*
Robert Bonfiglio, harmonica
THOMAS
Overture to Mignon (8’)*
GNATTALI
Cancão e Dança / Song and Dance (12’)*
Robert Bonfiglio, harmonica
INTERMISSION
GERSHWIN (Arr Bennett)
Gershwin in Hollywood (10’)*
Back Bay Polka / A Foggy Day / Slap That Bass / Love Walked In / Nice Work If You Can Get It / One, Two, Three / Love Is Here To Stay / They Can't Take That Away From Me
GERSHWIN (Arr Eric Knight)
Sweet George – A Medley of Gershwin Song Hits (14’)*
Robert Bonfiglio, harmonica
I Got Rhythm / Embraceable You / Lady Be Good / It Ain’t Necessarily So / Fascinatin’ Rhythm / Summertime / s’Wonderful / He Loves and She Loves
SCOTT (Arr Robert Wendel)
A Raymond Scott Fantasia (7’)
Dinner Music for a Pack of Hungry Cannibals / Powerhouse / A Boy Scout in Switzerland / The Toy Trumpet / The Penguin /Huckleberry Duck / Twilight TurkeyProgram subject to change.
*indicates approximate performance duration.
Program Notes
Emil Nikolaus von Rezniček (1860-1945) is one of the many composers who share the same fate. Distinguished and noted composers during their lifetimes, their music has fallen into disuse, and today Rezniček – along with composers such as Fibich, Dukas, Addinsell, Ponchielli, and Pachelbel – is known chiefly by only one work.
While his operatic output encompassed a wide range of stories, Rezniček’s Donna Diana, and particularly its overture, is the work by which we best know him. The opera premiered in Prague in 1894 and is the story of a haughty heroine with many suitors, who ultimately succumbs to the hero after rejecting him, along with all the others, for as long as she can. The sparkling overture captures the merry tempests of the opera’s whimsical moods.
It takes a pretty special musician to attract some of the finest composers of the day to want to write works for that musician – particularly if the instrument on which the player has achieved mastery is one not normally associated with the classical concert stage. Larry Adler (1914-2001) was such a musician. Unbelievably, Adler was self-taught, yet became one of the most influential musicians of the early 20th century, and is credited with bringing the harmonica to the legitimate concert stage. But his career was not without controversy; blacklisted by the House Un-American Actitivities Committee, Adler eventually moved permanently to the U.K.
Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) was one of several important composers who wrote works for Adler. The Romance in D-flat Major was written in 1952. “I was very pleased that Vaughan Williams did straight Vaughan Williams,” Adler said of the work. “He made no concessions to the fact that he was writing for a harmonica; he just wrote a straight musical composition.” The work opens with an air of mystery, the harmonica expands on its opening material and leads the strings through a mysterious and at times ominous landscape. The prevailing mood is one of restlessness in the strings, and yearning from the solo instrument. The harmonica is given no pause in the brief work, which ends in an air of quiet resignation.
Ambroise Thomas (1811-1896) was nothing if not expedient as a composer. In his opera based on the Shakespearean tragedy Hamlet, he actually gave it the happy ending he knew his French audience would want – though when he brought the opera to England, he modified it for that audience. With his most famous opera, Mignon (premiered in 1866), he had no problem creating multiple versions of his take on the Goethe story; the French got a happy ending, the English got a reduced version in which a key character never appears, and for the Germans used to the Goethe original, Thomas kills off his heroine. None of these alterations affects the overture, which has proved a popular concert staple. Woodwinds dominate the pastoral opening, though the lower strings usher in harp arpeggios, all leading to a lush romantic melody first presented on horn. After this slow first half, a long-held horn note ushers in a strongly contrasting section, a syncopated rustic dance, gloriously restated at the overture’s climax.
Radamés Gnattali (1906-1988) was born in Porto Alegre, Brazil. He was a pianist and violinist early in his career, but soon after moving from Porto Alegre to Rio de Janeiro he became a successful conductor, composer and arranger. His early works were background scores for radio serials, but by the 1930s he was composing concert music in a neo-Romantic style which also showed his emerging interest in jazz (during much of the 1950s), then back toward traditional Brazilian strains in the 60s. His Canção de dança: para harmônica de boca e orquestra de cordas (“Song and Dance for Harmonica and String Orchestra”) was composed in 1959.
Tonight, we present two different medleys of George Gershwin (1898-1937) favourites – though based on the output of this extraordinary songwriter (who died before his 40 birthday), there could easily be dozens more. Following his success on Broadway, Gershwin headed for Hollywood, where many of his hit shows from back East were made into movies – giving him a chance to add the extra song here or there. Tonight’s Gershwin in Hollywood set includes songs originally from Broadway shows as well as new ones for Hollywood, and was put together by the indefatigable Robert Russell Bennett. Included are the songs (film and year of film release given as well) Back Bay Polka (from The Shocking Miss Pilgrim, 1947), A Foggy Day (from A Damsel in Distress, 1937), Slap That Bass (from Shall We Dance?, 1937), Love Walked In (from The Goldwyn Follies, 1938), Nice Work If You Can Get It (also for A Damsel in Distress), One, Two, Three (also from The Shocking Miss Pilgrim), Love Is Here To Stay (also for The Goldwyn Follies), and concludes with the evergreen They Can't Take That Away From Me (also from Shall We Dance?). All the films were released after Gershwin’s death.
The second Gershwin medley, arranged for harmonica and orchestra by Eric Knight, is called Sweet George – A Medley of Gershwin Song Hits. It certainly is that, as it includes (and this time, the original Broadway shows will be listed after): I Got Rhythm (originally a slow song from the 1928 musical Treasure Girl, it achieved its great success as a snappy jazz number in 1930’s Girl Crazy), Embraceable You (originally for an abandoned show called East is West, it too wound up in Girl Crazy), Lady Be Good (the title song for a 1924 musical), It Ain’t Necessarily So (like Summertime, this comes from Gershwin’s opera Porgy and Bess, which premiered in 1935), Fascinatin’ Rhythm (also from Lady Be Good), Summertime (as mentioned), s’Wonderful, and He Loves and She Loves (both from 1927’s Funny Face).
The cartoon world would be a poorer place were it not for the music of Raymond Scott (1908-1994). The maverick composer, instrument inventor, band leader, engineer (and more) never set out to write music for animated shorts. But his stuff lent itself so naturally to the medium, his work can be heard in dozens of Looney Tunes titles, as well as more modern fare such as Animaniacs and Ren and Stimpey. So the titles in the medley of goofball tunes by Scott arranged into an orchestral suite by Robert Wendel and given the lofty title A Raymond Scott Fantasia might not sound familiar, but the melodies themselves will likely whisk you back to childhood Saturday mornings. In rapid succession, you’ll hear moments from Dinner Music for a Pack of Hungry Cannibals, Powerhouse, A Boy Scout in Switzerland, The Toy Trumpet, The Penguin, Huckleberry Duck, and Twilight Turkey. You’ve been warned.
Program notes © 2011 by D.T. Baker
Artist Info
Robert Bonfiglio, harmonica
Called "the Paganini of the Harmonica" by The Los Angeles Times, Robert Bonfiglio has dazzled audiences throughout the world with his virtuosity. He has performed recent debuts with the Pittsburgh Symphony, the National Symphony at Kennedy Center, and the Louisville Orchestra. This season includes the Villa-Lobos Harmonica Concerto with the Galicia Symphony plus a tour with Musica Vitae in Sweden and the Rockford Symphony in the USA. This season also includes a Lincoln Center performance with the American Symphony Orchestra. He performed the world premiere of the Henry Cowell Harmonica Concerto with the Brooklyn Philharmonic under Lucas Foss, and he has also premiered works by Rodrigo, Arnold Black, Richard Einhorn, Eric Knight and Sir George Martin. Robert Bonfiglio has appeared as a soloist with Skitch Henderson and the New York Pops, John Williams and the Boston Pops, and John Mauceri and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra. He has been a concerto soloist with the Minnesota Orchestra, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Orchestra of the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, the Luxembourg Philharmonic, the Leipzig M D R-Radio Symphony, the Hong Kong Philharmonic, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, the Madrid Radio Television Española Orchestra, Real Orquesta Sinfónica de Sevilla, the Mexico City Philharmonic, as well as the Milwaukee Symphony, the Indianapolis Symphony, Oregon Symphony, Utah Symphony, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. His first RCA recording, featuring the Villa-Lobos Harmonica Concerto, was released to critical acclaim. Mr. Bonfiglio has recorded on the RCA, Arista, CBS, Sina Qua Non, High Harmony, and QVC Labels. He performed on the Grammy winning recording, Ragitme. Robert Bonfiglio got his Masters degree in composition from Manhattan School of Music. He studied harmonica with Cham-ber Huang and was coached for 12 years by Andrew Lolya, the first flute of the New York City Ballet. He also studied composition with Charles Wuorinen and Aaron Copland.
Mr. Bonfiglio last appeared with the ESO in September 2006.
William Eddins, conductor
William Eddins is in his seventh season as Music Director of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra. During his tenure, he has made it a priority that he conduct performances in nearly every subscription series the orchestra has presented, as well as a wide variety of special concerts and galas.
Bill Eddins began playing the piano at age five, but was bitten by the conducting bug while in his sophomore year at the Eastman School of Music. In 1989, he decided to begin conducting studies with Daniel Lewis at the University of Southern California. Assistant Conductorships with both the Minnesota Orchestra and the Chicago Symphony (the latter under the leadership of Daniel Barenboim) honed his skills even further.
Mr. Eddins has many interests outside music. He is fond of biking, tennis, reading, pinball, and cooking. He recently completed building his own recording studio at his home in Minneapolis, where he lives with his wife Jen (a clarinetist), and their sons Raef and Riley. While conducting has been his principal pursuit, he continues to perform on piano in Edmonton and elsewhere. He accepts a limited number of guest appearances each year. In 2008, he conducted a rare full staging of Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess for Opéra de Lyon, which won him great acclaim, leading to a repeat engagement in Lyon in July and September 2010, as well as Edinburgh in August 2010, and in London in September 2010. During August 2009, Bill toured South Africa, conducting three gala concerts with soprano Renée Fleming and the kwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic Orchestra.
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