INSIGHTS from Music Director Louis Langree
December 5, 2020
Welcome to the final live stream of the CSO’s Fall 2020 digital concert series! All of us at the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra are so thankful that, despite the pandemic, we have been able to present these digital concerts until we can be together again.
Let’s end this difficult year on a positive note with a festival of orchestral colors and hidden gems! We begin by uncovering a hidden treasure written by a remarkable (and surprisingly unknown) composer, Marianna Martines (1744-1812). Her family lived in a four-floor building in Vienna: on the first floor, the illustrious princess of the Esterházy family; on the second floor, the Italian singer and composer Nicola Porpora; on the third floor, the Martines family; and on the fourth floor, the young, struggling, poor, freelance, and (at that time) unknown composer by the name of Joseph Haydn. The young Martines became a student of Haydn and Porpora, and, at a young age, she regularly performed at the Imperial court for Empress Maria Theresa. In the prime of her life, Marianna hosted weekly soirées, attended by the musical elite including Haydn, Michael Kelly, and W.A. Mozart, who wrote several four- hand piano sonatas for himself and Marianna. She was ahead of her time: an unmarried career woman who made a living by teaching and composing, was never formally employed by any court, and disseminated over 200 of her own compositions in manuscript form. Sadly, most of this music is lost. In tonight’s performance you will hear her Overture or “Sinfonia” in C major—a “symphony” in three short movements.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s (1756-1791) Piano Concerto No. 12 in A Major is one of my favorites because of its beautiful tenderness and irresistible joy! This piano concerto must have been a favorite of Mozart’s as well, because he often played it, taught it to students, and wrote two complete sets of cadenzas for it. He published this work in three versions: strings plus winds, string orchestra, and string quartet. The latter instrumentation was a marketing strategy to tempt “amateur” musicians into buying this concerto to play with friends.
We are thrilled to welcome the wonderful pianist Awadagin Pratt, who chose this concerto to honor the memory of his former mentor, the musical giant Leon Fleisher. Fleisher appeared as soloist and conductor with the CSO many times from 1959 to 2016. Fleisher’s signature piece was Brahms’ Concerto No. 1. Listen closely to Awadagin’s cadenza in the second movement for a touching homage to his mentor’s favorite piece.
Maurice Ravel’s (1875-1937) Ma mère l'Oye (“Mother Goose”) was originally written for piano duet in 1910 and orchestrated soon thereafter. Ravel is a magnificent orchestrator who, with only 35 musicians, invites us into a magical atmosphere that is the sonic translation of “once upon a time….” Each of the five movements is a musical depiction of a well-known fairytale. We all know these fairytales, so listen for the roaring of the Beast, the song of twittering birds, the deep sleep of the princess, and the wandering motions of lost children.
On a final note, I am personally grateful to the musicians of the Orchestra for their positivity, dedication, and courage during this unprecedented time. It is my deep honor and pleasure to work with them. And we are all thankful for you, our audience, for watching each of our digital concerts and for your deep appreciation for your Orchestra. I leave you with my best wishes for a happy, healthy, and pandemic-free New Year in 2021. Until we meet again, stay safe and be well.