BOSTON SYMPHONY CHAMBER PLAYERS Sunday, October 22, 2000, at 3 p.m. at Jordan Hall BOSTON SYMPHONY CHAMBER PLAYERS Malcolm Lowe, violin Richard Svoboda, bassoon Steven Ansell, viola James Sommerville, horn Jules Eskin, cello Charles Schlueter, trumpet Edwin Barker, double bass Ronald Barron, trombone Jacques Zoon, flute Everett Firth, percussion William R. Hudgins, clarinet with JAYNE WEST, soprano HALDAN MARTINSON, violin MARTHA BABCOCK, cello STEPHEN DRURY, piano COPLAND As It Fell Upon a Day, for soprano, flute, and clarinet Ms. WEST, Mr. ZOON, and Mr. HUDGINS Threnodies I and II, for flute and string trio Mr. ZOON, Mr. LOWE, Mr. ANSELL, and Ms. BABCOCK Sextet for clarinet, piano, and string quartet Allegro vivace Lento Finale Mr. HUDGINS, Mr. DRURY; Mr. LOWE, Mr. MARTINSON, Mr. ANSELL, and Ms. BABCOCK The Copland performances in this concert celebrate the centennial of Aaron Copland's birth* INTERMISSION BEETHOVEN Septet in E-flat for clarinet, horn, bassoon, violin, viola, cello, and double bass, Opus 20 Adagio—Allegro con brio Adagio cantabile Tempo di menuetto Tema con variazioni: Andante Scherzo: Allegro molto e vivace Andante con moto alia marcia—Presto Baldwin piano Nonesuch, DG, Philips, RCA, and New World records NOTES ON THE PROGRAM AARON COPLAND (November 14, 1900-December 2, 1990) To many listeners, Aaron Copland was the epitome and fountainhead of American music. While Copland was studying with Nadia Boulanger in France, Boulanger introduced him in the spring of 1923 to her friend Serge Koussevitzky, who was soon to become the new conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Koussevitzky and Copland hit it off at once. Many of Copland's early works received their world pre- mieres here in Boston, and he quickly became established as the leading American composer of his generation. Always an exceedingly warmhearted and generous man, Copland constantly brought to Koussevitzky 's attention the music of other worthy young composers. Thus Copland, almost as much as Koussevitzky himself, was respon- sible for the extraordinary burst of American sym- phonic writing in the '30s and '40s. In 1940 Copland became Dean of the Faculty at the newly-founded Berkshire Music Center (now the Tanglewood Music Center). In that position for a quarter-century, he taught a new generation of com- posers, from the United States and increasingly from Latin America and the rest of the world. Meanwhile Copland at Tanglewood in 1947 < 1 • • he composed1 symphonies, piano music, chamber1 1 music, songs, ballets, and film scores of high quality. His works include some of the most-loved by any American composer, including Appalachian Spring, Fanfare for the Common Man, the Lincoln Portrait, Rodeo, and El Salon Mexico. In recent seasons, soprano jayne West's schedule has been highlighted by perform- ances with the Boston Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Utah Symphony, Pensacola Symphony, Boston Baroque, Boston Musica Viva, San Antonio Symphony, Boston Cecilia, and, also in her home town of Boston, with Emmanuel Music, of which she has been a member since 1987* Besides her appear- ances with many of the country's leading orchestras and chamber groups, Ms. West has had a long-standing association with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, includ- ing appearances both at Symphony Hall and at Tanglewoocl On the operatic stage, her roles have included Pamina in Die Zaufjertldtet&onna Elvira in Don Giovanni, Julie in Carousel, Titania in Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream, the lead role in the world premiere of Robert Motan's Desert ofRoses, Anne Trulove in Stravinsky's TheRakes Progress, which she recorded under Robert Craft's direction for Music- Masters, and the Countess in Peter Sellars's production of Mozart's Lenozze di FigatOr a performance issued on videocassette and laserdisc by London/Decca. Ms. West has recorded Copland's As It Fell Upon a Day for Koch. Other record- ings include Bach cantatas and Bach's St John Passion with Emmanuel Music on Koch International A Vocal Fellow for two summers at the Tanglewood Music Center, Ms. West appeared with the Boston Symphony most recently at Tangle- wood in 1999 and this past week at Symphony Hall. It Fell Upon a Day As which he could not be compared to his young self) and the slow ravages of time, which stole away his As It Fell Upon a Day was one of the first Copland works to be performed in public, memory and his formerly robust health, contributed to that decline in his output. and one of the first to attract critical attention, even though it was conceived simply But even the tiny miniatures that still came from his pen in those later years as a class assignment when he was studying with Nadia Boulanger. Copland spent the were filled with the traits that immediately marked them as the work of one of America's summer of 1923 in Vienna with Harold Clurman; there he composed the work to best-loved composers—the fresh, unsentimental treatment of tri- adic harmonies, the open -spaced meet Boulanger 's requirement of a piece for flute and clarinet. But he went a step fur- chords, the thythmic play. two ther by adding a solo voice to set a madtigalesque poem (actually called "Philomel") The Threnodies are both memorial pieces, quiet remembrances of departed friends, by Richard Barnefield (1574-1627). The assignment was to write for the two instru- and both are small but jewel-like in their precision. Copland composed ments in imitative counterpoint, and this Copland does in the introduction. The text Threnody I as a memorial to Igor Stravinsky in 1971, deftly concealing a three-part canon in the string parts, over is treated freely, and occasionally the harmonies suggest the modal music of the which the flute soars delicately. Threnody II came two years later, a memorial for Renaissance. But, as one critic wrote of its premiere in Paris, on February 6, 1924, Beatrice Cunningham. It is lighter and gentler in character, a tender, falling song. "With so few instruments, a composer cannot bluff; he must play fair." He felt that the young American composer demonstrated in this piece "a technique which is for already highly finished." Sextet clarinet, piano, and string quartet Copland's earliest scores seemed to move in the direction of difficulty As it fell upon a day and severity. After the Symphony for Organ and Orchestra In the merry month of May, came Music for the Theatre, the often jazzy Piano Concerto, the severe Symphonic Sitting in a pleasant shade Ode (composed for the Boston Symphony Orchestra's fiftieth birthday), and the granitic Which a grove of myrtles made, Piano Variations. These were followed by a work on which Copland expended nearly Beasts did leap and birds did sing, two yean (1932-33) to make it as perfect as possible, the Short Symphony. The piece had Trees did grow and plants did spring; a running time of only fifteen minutes, but it proved a tough nut to crack for the orchestras Everything did banish moan of the 1930s. Its complex irregular rhythms running almost without break were Save the Nightingale alone: extremely tricky, and its spare texture meant that any error or miscalculation on the part of the performers She, poor bird, as all forlorn would be readily noticeable. It was a sobering experience for Copland Lean'd her breast up-till a thorn, when two fitm devotees of con- temporary music Leopold Stokowski in Philadelphia and Serge Koussevitzky And there sung the dolefull'st ditty, — in Boston—both cancelled projected performances on the grounds that they could not That to hear it was great pity. afford sufficient rehearsal time. (In the end the work was premiered in Fie, fie, he! now would she cry; Mexico by Tereu, Tereu! by and by; That to hear her so complain Scarce I could from tears refrain; For her griefs so lively shown Pianist Stephen Drury has given performances throughout the United States, Made me think upon mine own. Europe, Asia, and Latin America, appearing as soloist with orchestras from San Ah! thought I, thou mourn 'st in vain, Diego to Bucharest. A prizewinner in several competitions, including the Concert None takes pity on thy pain: Artists Guild, Affiliate Artists, and Carnegie Hall/Rockefeller competitions, his Senseless trees they cannot hear thee, repertoire stretches from Bach, Mozart, and Liszt to the music of today. The U.S. State Ruthless beasts they will not cheer thee: Department sponsored two tours taking him to places as varied as Paris, Hong Kong, Greenland, Pakistan, Prague, and Japan. Mr. Drury is a frequent participant King Pandion he is dead, in music festivals on both sides of the Atlantic. He is a champion of twentieth- All thy friends are lapp'd in lead; century music; his performances of music ranging from the piano sonatas of Charles All thy fellow birds do sing Ives to works by John Cage and Gyorgy Ligeti have been critically acclaimed. In Careless of thy sorrowing: 1992 he directed the world premiere of George Russell's TimeLine for orchestra, Even so, poor bird, like thee, chorus, jazz band, and soloists. He premiered the solo part of John Cage's lOl with None alive will pity me. the Boston Symphony Orchestra and gave the first performance of John Zero's concerto for piano and orchestra, Aporias, with Dennis Russell Davies and the Threnodies I and II, for flute and string trio Cologne Radio Symphony. Mr. Drury has commissioned new works from John Aaron Copland's muse slowed down in his last years, and after the early 1970s there Cage, John Zorn, Terry Riley, Lee Hyla, and Chinary Ung. His recordings include were almost no further pieces during the nearly two decades that remained to him.