Lighter Classics Program Notes: Showcase, April 16, 2009

Lighter Classics Program Notes: Showcase, April 16, 2009

Showcase
Thursday, April 16, 2009 - 8 pm
William Eddins, conductor
Elizabeth Faulkner, flute and piccolo
Michael Massey, piano
Keri Lynn Zwicker, harp and Celtic harp
Raymond Baril, saxophone

BRITTEN
Gloriana: Courtly Dances (excerpts)
    Coranto
    Pavane
    Lavolta

MOZART
Andante for Flute in C Major, K.315

Vivaldi
Piccolo Concerto in C Major, RV 443: 3rd movement

BAKER
Harp Concerto, Op.117: Siguriya (3rd movement)

MOORE
Rich and Rare (arr. Lapalme)

BRITTEN
Soirées musicales (after Rossini), Op.9
    March
    Cazonetta
    Tirolese
    Boléro
    Tarantella

INTERMISSION

JÄRNEFELT
Praeludium

IRELAND
Piano Concerto in E-flat Major (excerpts)
    Lento espressivo – Allegro – cadenza
    Allegretto giocoso

WILLIAMS
Catch Me If You Can: Escapades

SULLIVAN
Overture in C “In Memoriam”

Program Notes

The Edmonton Symphony Orchestra is fortunate that, when needed, it can call upon many talented musicians to supplement the orchestra. When a third flute or a second harp is needed, for example, we can call upon Elizabeth Faulkner or Keri Lynn Zwicker, respectively. Ray Baril frequently lends his talents as both a saxophonist and conductor. And the ESO’s relationship with Michael Massey is decades old – going back to the days when he was a member of the cello section. These days, he plays orchestral keyboards, and is kept busy leading the two orchestras which make up the Edmonton Youth Orchestra program. This concert will demonstrate that great musicianship can be found among, and beyond, the ESO.

Several significant factors contributed to both the commission Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) received for the opera Gloriana, and the failure which its first performance suffered. The Earl of Harewood, a cousin of Princess Elizabeth was, in 1952, the editor of Opera magazine. When Elizabeth became Queen that year, it was the Earl that suggested that an opera based on the first Queen Elizabeth would be a suitable way of marking the ascension to the throne of the second.

The opera was based on the story of Queen Elizabeth I (known to her subjects affectionately as Gloriana) and the Earl of Essex as told in 1928 by Lytton Strachey. The tale was not one to sanctify its heroine, so it was considered by many as being in poor taste, given the occasion for which it was written. Gloriana was the first opera by Britain’s leading composer to drop from the regular repertoire, even if only for a time. The Gloriana Dances are based on dance forms from the time of the first Elizabeth, and are heard in the opera at a festive celebration in Act II. A coranto (in French, “courante”) is a French dance in 3/2 time based on the word “courir,” to run. The pavane is a dance of Italian origin, and is much more stately and staid in character. The lavolta, also in 3/2 time, is a brisk dance, deriving its name from the Italian word for “jump.”

Our soloists’ showcases begin with two of the best-loved composers. Wolfgang Amadé Mozart (1756-1791) struggled throughout his whole, brief life to make a living with his music. He was pragmatic enough to alter or revise his works to suit particular occasions or performers. So it is thought that the Andante for Flute in C Major was likely written as an alternative slow movement to his Flute Concerto in G Major, perhaps because the original movement did not suit a particular flutist. This work stands well on its own merits, however, with a beautiful lyrical line for the soloist following a pizzicato (plucked strings) introduction.

The flute and the piccolo, as we have them today, did not exist during the lifetime of Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741), so his Concerto in C, RV 443 was listed as a concerto for “flautino.” Both the recorder (played straight down from the mouth) and the “transverse flute” (played to the side, as modern flutes are today) were used in Vivaldi’s time. Like the piccolo, the flautino was a higher-pitched instrument from the transverse flute and recorder of the day, and is also known as the “sopranino recorder.” Vivaldi wrote over a dozen concerti for the various instruments of the flute family. The modern piccolo can handle the range of the music of the C Major Concerto for Flautino quite easily and naturally. We’ll hear the final movement of this work, a sprightly and deft exchange between soloist and strings.

Not many harpists are part of a non-classical revue like Cowboy Celtic, but Keri Lynn Zwicker enjoys defying categorization. The two works she performs tonight certainly show different facets of her personality. The first is very much what you’d expect from an orchestral harpist, and here is what Canadian composer Michael Conway Baker (b. 1937) has kindly provided to us about his concerto: “My Concerto for Harp and Orchestra was written for Elizabeth Volpe, principal harpist for the Vancouver Symphony.  It was completed in 2000 and premiered by the VSO a year later.  The last movement is in the form of a Spanish dance called a Siguriya and features the rhythm of that dance.”

The song Rich and Rare is based upon an old Irish tale of King Brien. So good a king was he that a woman of great beauty, adorned in rich jewels, traveled the land, without fear for her person or her property. As Keri Lynn Zwicker says: “I fell in love with this song while working on my Bachelor of Music degree in Piano. A fellow student and singer introduced me to the beautiful Benjamin Britten arrangement for piano and tenor, and I held on to the faded photocopy for many years before finally creating my own version. The poetry is by Thomas Moore (1808).” The orchestration, by Red Deer Symphony Music Director Claude Lapalme, was first presented at Cowboy Celtic’s first-ever symphony show, performed in March 2007 with the Kamloops Symphony Orchestra.

Determined to make his living strictly as a composer, Benjamin Britten took what musical work he could as a young man. So it was that he found himself working as a composer and arranger for a documentary film company called the General Post Office Film Unit. In 1935, for the GPO Film Unit animated short The Tocher, Britten was asked to arrange music by Rossini (see above) for small orchestra. From Rossini’s set of songs called Soirées musicales, published in 1835, Britten borrowed three of the songs, and the work’s title. To complete his five-movement work, Britten added an arrangement of the Soldier’s March from Rossini’s William Tell and a tarantella Britten heard his mother sing. As Britten’s Soirées musicales, the piece was published as his Op.9. In 1941, he created a second set of Rossini arrangements, calling them Matinées musicales. Together, they became the music for a ballet created by George Balanchine, Divertimento.

Armas Järnefelt (1869-1958) was the brother-in-law of the famous Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. A talented musician in his own right, he settled in Stockholm for much of his professional life, where he was principal conductor of the Royal Opera. He conducted the first performances in Sweden of many important works, and upon his return to Finland, he led both the Finnish National Opera and Philharmonic Orchestra. Not surprisingly, he was also considered one of the finest interpreters of the music of Sibelius. As a composer himself, however, Järnefelt’s name is not etched into the wall of the greats – two of his works for small orchestra, Berceuse and Praeludium, are most often heard these days. The latter of these, its title a variation of the word “prelude,” dates from the first decade of the 20th century. It has a gossamer texture which makes it a popular Christmas concert choice, and an utterly charming melody.

It’s got to be at least a little ironic that a man named Ireland would be an Englishman of Scottish descent. But such is the case of Manchester-born John Ireland (1879-1962), who became an important bridge between the previous generation of composers such as Charles Villiers Stanford (with whom Ireland studied), and the next generation which included Benjamin Britten and E.J. Moeran (both of whom he taught). He wrote many brief works for solo piano, but only one piano concerto. A movement from an intended other concerto was never expanded upon. His Piano Concerto in E-flat, however, is considered one of his finest works. Composed in 1930, it was premiered in October of that year. It was initially very successful and popular, but performances these days are rare. Michael Massey will take the solo part in the work’s final two movements, in which one hears echoes of Prokofiev, and even the kind of jazz that George Gershwin had made such a hit with in Europe the decade before.

There has likely never been as successful a film composer as John Williams (b. 1932). Dozens of themes from his many film scores are now part of our musical landscape. Steven Spielberg, of course, has used John Williams’ talents on many occasions. And so it was with the quirky 2002 film, loosely based on a true story, Catch Me If You Can, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks. Williams perfectly captured the brisk energy of the movie’s story, which centres on a lawman in seemingly perpetual pursuit of a con man. Escapades is a vignette of the film’s combination of darkness and light, and features a wonderful solo for saxophone, played tonight by Raymond Baril.

Arthur Sullivan (1842-1900) is best known as the music-writing half of the famous Gilbert and Sullivan duo. And while the rich, savagely satirical operettas the pair produced made both men wealthy and famous, Sullivan also tried to establish himself as a composer of instrumental music. His attempts seemed forever thwarted by the success of his stage music, and the utter lack of encouragement by the English press. His Overture in C was written before Sullivan began his partnership with William S. Gilbert. In 1864, a 22-year-old Sullivan received a commission from the Norwich Festival for an overture. Right around that time, his father died, and Sullivan turned his grief into this overture, “In Memoriam,” for his father.

Program Notes © 2009 D.T. Baker, with thanks to Michael Conway Baker & Keri Lynn Zwicker

Program notes © 2009 by the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra and its respective annotators. All Rights Reserved. Program notes may not be printed in their entirety without the written consent of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra; excerpts may be quoted if due acknowledgment is given to the author and to the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra. For reprint permission, contact D.T. Baker, Music Resource, by email, dave.baker@winspearcentre.com.
 
These notes appear in galley files prepared for Signature magazine, official publication of the ESO, and may contain typographical or other errors, or may differ from the final print version. Programs and artists subject to change without notice.