UNIVERSITY MUSICAL SOCIETY

VIENNA CHAMBER

Philippe Entremont Conductor and Pianist

Thursday Evening, January 28, 1993, at 8:00 Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor, Michigan

PROGRAM

Ancient Airs and Dances, Suite No. 3 ...... Respighi Italiana: Andantino (16th c. anonymous) Arie di corte (after Giovanni Battista Besardo, 16th c.) Siciliano: Andantino (16th c. anonymous) Passacaglia: Maestoso (after Lodovico Roncalli, 17th c.)

Concerto for Piano and Strings No. 12 in A major, K. 414 ...... Mozart Allegro Andante Allegretto INTERMISSION

Souvenir de Florence, Op. 70 ...... Tchaikovsky Allegro con spirito Adagio cantabile e con moto Allegro moderato Allegro vivace

Philippe Entremont and the Vienna Chamber Orchestra are represented by ICM Artists, Ltd., New York, Lee Lamont, President.

The Orchestra gratefully acknowledges the sponsorship of C. Itoh & Co., Ltd.

Philippe Entremont plays the Bosendorfer piano available through Evola Music Inc., Bloomfield Hills.

The public is invited to greet Philippe Entremont for a record-signing at L & S Music, 715 N. University, Ann Arbor, immediately following this evening's concert.

TWENTY-FOURTH CONCERT OF THE 114TH SEASON 114TH ANNUAL CHORAL UNION SERIES PROGRAM NOTES

Ancient Airs and Dances, Suite No. 3 Like the Itaiiana, the Sicilians is a (18794936) moderately paced dance in triple meter based on the work of an unknown com­ Among Italian who flour­ poser. Its lilting melody rises and falls in ished in the early 20th century, Respighi long arcs, punctuated by cello "strum­ ranks second only to Puccini in renown. ming." In its two other appearances the His fame rests largely on two orchestral melody receives a light pizzicato accompa­ works, The Fountains of Rome (1916) and niment. The (1924). Championed by The Possocaglia, founded on a four-bar Toscanini, those ravishing and richly bass pattern, proceeds in a stately triple scored symphonic poems soon became sta­ time. The original, by Lodovico Roncalli, ples of the concert repertoire. appears in a 1692 print that features the Between The Fountains and The Pines, only known music by that . Like Respighi began sifting through music of the the Arie di corte, this final movement grad­ distant past for new compositional chal­ ually rises to a climax then subsides in lenges. His (1921), for closing. After a broad maestoso section, it example, incorporated actual Gregorian moves through a passage marked energico e chants as melodic material. Through the piu animate, highlighted by triple stops in 1920s he regularly arranged the work of all parts but the bass. The movement closes earlier composers such as Bach, Vivaldi, slowly and majestically, much as it had and Monteverdi. Among other "archaic" begun. works, Respighi also composed three suites Though contemporaneous with the ris­ of Ancient Airs and Dances based on Renais­ ing tide of Neoclassicism in 1920s Europe, sance and Baroque music for lute (an an­ Respighi's engagement with the past seems cient stringed instrument shaped like half more a private, independent path than a a pear with a long neck). response to new trends. Writing in 1931, The third suite, finished in 1931, is the however, Respighi joined notable company most frequently performed. "Transcribed in composing a suite that in some way drew freely for ," it shows from earlier musical styles. Debussy, Stra­ Respighi's lithe and sentient approach to vinsky, Schoenberg, and others composed music of the past - a startling shift away such suites in the early decades of the 20th from the opulence of his famous symphonic century. poems. Each movement of the suite derives "Jeffrey Magee from an obscure lute piece dating from the 16th or 17th century. The first movement, based on an Concerto for Piano and Strings No. 12 anonymous 16th century work, is an Itaii- in A major, K. 414 ana a moderate dance in triple meter. It Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) features a gentle melody accompanied by a running pizzicato cello line. Within a year or so after his dismissal The Arie di corte, drawn from a piece by the Archbishop of Salzburg, Mozart was by Giovanni Battista Besardo, is like a suite on the way to establishing his brilliant but within a suite. Opening with a mournful brief career as composer, pianist and viola melody and a quasi-strumming ac­ teacher in the capital city, Vienna. In the companiment, this movement passes winter of 1782 and 1783, he wrote three through a series of contrasting moods and piano concertos for which he had a com­ tempos. It rises to an excited pitch, plete plan. On December 28, 1782, he wrote iwocissimo, and then closes quietly after to his father in Salzburg, "These concertos returning to the viola theme. are a happy medium between the too easy and the too difficult. They are very bril­ wealth of its themes, for the large number liant, pleasing to the ear, and natural of melodies that Mozart lavishes on a without being empty. There are passages musical structure that conventionally re­ here and there in which only connoisseurs quires no more than two. The slow move­ will find satisfaction, but at the same time ment, Andante, is one of his greatest lyrical the ignorant cannot fail to be pleased, masterpieces, and the finale, a rondo, Al­ though without knowing why." Idealistic legretto, is a brilliant piece of unambigious commentators on Mozart's work, Alfred good cheer. Einstein for example, read in this letter an elevated moral posture in which Mozart determines to make things difficult for Souvenir de Florence, Op. 70 himself but easy for the listeners. The Piotr llyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) practical just see him preparing to reach a broader audience. Tchaikovsky spent the first three Further support for the practical, or months of 1890 in Florence, working hap­ cynical, is given by a newspaper announce­ pily and productively on Pique Dame, one ment on January 15, 1783, which shows of the best of his ten , and in May Mozart certain of success and impatient to he wrote to the composer, Ippolitov- circulate his new works, even before he has Ivanov, that his projects for the summer performed them. "Herr Kapellmeister Mo­ were to finish orchestrating the and zart hereby informs the eminent public of to sketch a string sextet. In July the Sextet the availability of three recently composed was done, and he confided to his benefac­ clavier concertos. These three concertos, tress, Nadezhda von Meek, that he had which can be played by a large orchestra written it with "pleasure and enthusiasm, with wind instruments as well as by quartet and without the least exertion." that is two violins, viola and cello will He took the Sextet with him when he appear at the beginning of April, well went to St. Petersburg for the rehearsals of copied and supervised by himself, available Pique Dame that autumn, and had it played only to those who have subscribed." It is a in private for some of his friends there. complete marketing plan. In his later ne­ Among them were two young composers, gotiations with music publishers, Mozart Glazunov and Liadov, whose comments offered them the choice of issuing the seem to have persuaded Tchaikovsky that concertos with or without the parts for two the scherzo and finale needed revision, and oboes, two bassoons and two horns. This in January, 1892, in Paris, the work was wind section meant that the orchestra done. The first public performance of the wo'uld be a large one by the standards of Sextet was given on December 7, 1892, at the time, but it is very clear that he had a concert of the St. Petersburg Chamber carefully laid out the music in such a way Music Society, to which it is dedicated. It that the instruments would not be missed. was published later that year with a descrip­ The reference to a "quartet" does not tive title, Souvenir de Florence. It is played restrict the strings to four solo players, for here by the full string ensemble. the word was long used (and in French still The entire repertoire of string sextets is) to mean the orchestra's entire string is neither large nor old. The first of any section. importance are the two that Brahms The A-major Concerto, K. 414, is the worked at on and off from the mid-1850s second of the set of three, and it is a work to 1860s, and he probably got the idea for of distinctive richness and beauty that lends them from one written in 1848 by Louis itself to greatly varied characterizations. Spohr, who was then still an important Critics find in it qualities as different as figure. Dvorak's Sextet of 1879 and even melancholy lyricism and sunny Tyrolean Schoenberg's Transfigured Night of 1899 are gaiety. In performance too, individual in­ clearly descended from those of Brahms. terpretations may vary over a wide range. Tchaikovsky and Brahms used to enjoy The Concerto's first movement, Attegro, is each other's company when they crossed especially remarkable for the extraordinary paths on their concert tours, and each cordially respected the professionalism of Capriccio Italien, is a souvenir of the sounds the other, although neither really liked the he heard in Rome, but the Sextet is not a other's music. "souvenir" in the same sense. It expresses Nevertheless, when Tchaikovsky not so much his pleasure in the place as his began to work at the difficult problems of satisfaction at having worked so well on his writing fluently and interestingly for an opera there and his cheery optimism about ensemble of six string instruments, he al­ the future. The high-spirited music is full most certainly looked to Brahms' two of charm, rich in highly varied colors, in youthful Sextets for solutions. The con­ lyrical melodies, in vital rhythms. The first tent, here, is not at all Brahmsian, of two movements are models of elegant, course, and the writing is often reduced to Italianate, almost classical restraint - the the simple texture of tune-with-accompa- first, Allegro con spirito, a kind of loosely niment, but the very existence of Souvenir assembled serenade, and the second, Adagio de Florence is unimaginable without cantabile e con moto, a lovely song. The last Brahms' precedent. The tradition they es­ two are unabashedly Russian in subject tablished may actually have been transmit­ matter and in mode of expression - a ted to Tchaikovsky indirectly by Dvorak, somewhat melancholy scherzo, Allegro who was Brahms's disciple. The Czech and moderate, and a finale Allegro vivace, in Russian had become good friends in 1888, which Tchaikovsky turns a peasant dance and the Slavic heritage they shared gave tune into the subject of a fugue of which them a strong sense of kinship. he was very proud. Tchaikovsky's other "Italian" work, — Leonard Burkat ABOUT THE ARTISTS

The Vienna Chamber Orchestra, cur­ Philippe Entremont is internationally rently celebrating its forty-sixth season, is renowned as an artist of remarkable tech­ recognized as one of the leading interpreters nique and style, both at the keyboard and of the chamber ensemble repertoire. Its on the podium. Lifetime Music Director of stylish performances around the world con­ the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, which tinue to earn accolades from audiences and celebrates its forty-sixth season this year, critics alike. Mr. Entremont is now leading the ensem­ The orchestra's successful collabora­ ble on a seventeen-city United States tour, tion with Philippe Entremont began in including engagements at Carnegie Hall 1976. Under the direction of Maestro En­ and at Kennedy Center in Washington, tremont, now the ensemble's Lifetime D. C. Conductor, the Vienna Chamber Orches­ This season Maestro Entremont's guest tra has performed in the major music cap­ conducting engagements include appear­ itals of Europe and North America and has ances with the symphonies of Houston, made several tours of Japan. In addition to New Orleans and Milwaukee. In Europe, performing with Mr. Entremont, the en­ he performs in France, Germany, Austria, semble also works with many of the most the Netherlands, Italy, Norway and illustrious guest conductors and soloists. Denmark. The Vienna Chamber Orchestra has Highlights of last season included guest made many tours of this country and con­ conducting appearances with the sym­ tinues to be a tremendous favorite of Amer­ phony of St. Louis and Atlanta, ican audiences. The ensemble last returned concert engagements in Paris, Warsaw, to North America in the spring of 1991 as Vienna, Leipzig and Salzburg, and tours of part of a worldwide tour marking the 200th France, Spain, Italy and the Netherlands. anniversary of Mozart's death. He also performed recitals in Asia and the Far East. To honor the bicentennial of Mozart's death in 1991, Mr. Entremont and the Vienna Chamber Orchestra appeared at New York's Avery Fisher Hall, Washington's Kennedy Center, and in Los Angeles as well as in other west coast cities. He also led the orchestra at the opening of the Mozart celebrations at the Teatre Royal in Versailles, performing works that Mozart composed in Paris in 1778. Mr. Entremont's latest recordings are volumes three and four of a four-disc set of the complete Mozart piano sonatas on the Pro Arte label. His other releases include Chopin and Debussy works on CBS (Sony Classical) and Schubert and Dvorak pieces for piano and string quartet with soloists of the Vienna Chamber Orchestra (Pro Arte). His recordings of Stravinsky, Bern­ stein, Milhaud, Jolivet, Satie, Dohnanyi, The Vienna Chamber Orchestra can Richard Strauss, Saint-Saens and Litolff, be heard on several recordings of works reissued by Sony Classical, are considered by Bach, Mozart, Haydn, Hummel, by some to be definitive. Tailleferre and others. Tonight, the ensem­ A native of Rheims, France, Philippe ble returns to Ann Arbor for the first time Entremont was born on June 7, 1934. In since its local debut in 1981. 1953, at age 19, he became the first Lau- reate and Grand Prize Winner of the Mar­ ing the Grand Prix du Disque, the guerite Long-Jacques Thibaud Competi­ Netherlands' Edison Award, New Orleans' tion. That same year he made his American International Order of Merit, and a debut, appearing on consecutive days at the Grammy nomination. A Knight of the National Gallery in Washington, D. C., Legion d'Honneur, he was recently and with the National Orchestral Associa­ awarded Austria's First Class Cross of tion in New York. Since then, he has Honor for the Arts and Sciences. appeared on five continents both as recit- Tonight's concert marks Maestro alist and as guest artist with the finest Entremont's ninth appearance in Ann orchestras. Arbor over the last three decades. In addi­ Former president of the Ravel Acad­ tion to several performances in the dual role emy in St. Jean-de-Luz, Mr. Entremont has of conductor and pianist, he has played four been the recipient of many honors, includ­ solo recitals.

The Vienna Chamber Orchestra Philippe Entremont, Music Director

First Violins Cellos Ludwig Miiller* * Till-Georg Schiissler* Christian Eisenberger* * Orfeo Mandozzi Ann Harvey Tamas Varga Barna Kobori Ursula Hielscher Steven Hohler E. E. Engin Yafet Double Basses James Martin Rapport* Second Violins Franz Bauer Vesna Stankovic* Veronika Gottfried Orchestra Administration Elisabeth Rupertsberger Rudolf Buchmann, Manager Erich Haderer Regina Florey ICM Artists, Ltd. Touring Division Vera Hladikova Byron Gustafson, Senior Vice President and Director Violas Leonard Stein, General Manager Georg Hamann* Joseph H. Panteleo, Tour Manager John Moffat Farshid Girakhou Co-concertmasters Dietmar Flosdorf 'Principal Anett Homoki Katharina Horschik