Dance Preludes (1959) 7 Witold Lutosławski

Oberlin Sinfonietta

Wednesday Timothy Weiss, conductor February 27, 2013, 8:00 pm Warner Concert Hall Concert No. 158 Timothy LeFebvre, baritone

Dance Preludes (1959) 7’ Witold Lutosł awski Allegro molto (1913–1994) Andantino Allegro giocoso Andante Allegro molto

Helen Lim, flute Ryan Jones, oboe Giovanni Giacomo, clarinet Brianna Lehman, bassoon Sophia Tinger, horn Xiang Fang, violin Becky Johnson, viola Iva Casian-Lakos, cello Clint O’Brien, bass

Octet (2007–08) 16’ Sean Shepherd And sometimes the sea poured brilliant iris on the glistening blue (b. 1979) A too-fluent green suggested malice Sovereign clouds came clustering The perplexed machine

Hayley Jensen, clarinet Brianna Lehman, bassoon Sophia Tinger, horn Rebecca Telford-Marx, Xiang Fang, violin Becky Johnson, viola Iva Casian-Lakos, cello Clint O’Brien, bass

—Intermission—

Farnsworth: Four Portraits of a House (2004) 8’ Andrew Norman South Elevation (b. 1979) West Elevation East Elevation North Elevation

Helen Lim, flute Ana Nelson, Giovanni Giacomo, Michael Chen, Hayley Jensen, clarinet Xiang Fang, violin Joshua Hess, piano Justin Gunter, percussion Le bal masqué (“The Masked Ball”) (1932) 18’ Francis Poulenc Préambule et air de Bravoure (1899–1963) Interméde Malvina Bagatelle La dame aveugle Finale: Caprice

Timothy LeFebvre, baritone Ryan Jones, oboe Michael Chen, clarinet Brianna Lehman, bassoon Nikola Nikolovski, trumpet Justin Gunter, percussion Joshua Hess, piano Rebecca Telford-Marx, violin Iva Casian-Lakos, cello

Nicholas Engelhardt, personnel manager Michael Roest, librarian

Please silence all cell phones and refrain from the use of video cameras unless prior arrangements have been made with the conductor. The use of flash cameras is prohibited. Thank you. Biography

Nationally acclaimed baritone Timothy LeFebvre has wide-ranging experience from the operatic stage to the concert hall. Recent performances include Mozart’s Requiem with the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra, solo recitals at Oberlin Conservatory and University of Michigan (Ann Arbor), Elijah with New Dominion Chorale, Brahms’ Requiem with Hamilton College, Beethoven’s Mass in C with Wichita Symphony, Mozart’s Requiem with Susquehanna Valley Chorale, Brahms’ Requiem with the Orchestra of the Southern Finger Lakes, and Messiah with the Handel Choir of Baltimore. LeFebvre has appeared in concert with the Jacksonville Symphony, Cleveland Pops Orchestra, Wichita Symphony, Pensacola Symphony, West Virginia Symphony Orchestra, Vermont Symphony, Minnesota Symphony, Syracuse Symphony, American Symphony Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, Spokane Symphony, Binghamton Philharmonic, Rochester Bach Festival, Berkshire Choral Festival, New Dominion Chorale, Williamsport Symphony, Orchestra of the Southern Finger Lakes, Syracuse Chamber Music Society, the Skaneateles Festival, and the Marlboro Music Festival. He has also appeared in concert at New York’s Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully Hall. His frequently performed opera roles include Rigoletto, Sharpless (Madama Butterfly), Germont (La Traviata), Count (Le nozze di Figaro), Falke (Die Fledermaus), Marcello and Shaunard (La bohème) and Father (Hansel and Gretel). LeFebvre’s operatic experience features performances with Central City Opera, Tri-Cities Opera, Sarasota Opera, Chattanooga Symphony and Opera, Syracuse Opera, Indianapolis Opera, Opera Delaware, and Opera Theater of Pittsburgh. LeFebvre is a winner of the New York Liederkranz Vocal Competition, and other awards include the Richard F. Gold Career Grant, an Opera Fellowship at Binghamton University, and Regional Finalist in several Metropolitan Opera Competitions. He is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University and Binghamton University and is currently associate professor of singing at Oberlin Conservatory of Music. Future performances include Elijah with Westminster Choir College, Britten’s War Requiem with Jacksonville Symphony, and Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen with Pensacola Symphony. Program Notes

Dance Preludes (1959) by Witold Lutosł awski (Warsaw, 1913–Warsaw, 1994)

The “early period” of Witold Lutosł awski, the great Polish composer born a hundred years ago this year, lasted until he was well into his forties. Lutosł awski’s stylistic orientation in those years was primarily neo-classical, and he derived a great deal of inspiration from folk music. Like Béla Bartók before him, Lutosł awski was interested in finding a contemporary harmonic setting for the folk melodies he used. In his case, this involved “non-tonal, chromatic counterpoints and harmonies,” as he himself explained in 1974. It was an activity that enabled him, during the years of Stalinist repression in Poland, to write works that were acceptable to the authorities without compromising his artistic integrity. The Dance Preludes stand at the end of this period, as the last of Lutosł awski’s works to use folk music. (Within a few years, the composer would join the forefront of the international avant-garde.) These five short pieces are in a light divertimento style, in turn fast and slow, playful and lyrical in character. Several of the movements use polymeter (different time signatures employed simultaneously). Originally written for clarinet and piano in 1954, Lutosł awski later made two other versions of this piece: one for clarinet and small orchestra (1955), and the other, heard tonight, for a nine-member chamber ensemble. ~Peter Laki Octet (2007–08) by Sean Shepherd (b. 1979, Reno, Nevada) The titles of my Octet are taken from the lines of a poem by Wallace Stevens: “Sea Surface Full of Clouds.” While writing the piece at the American Academy in Berlin on the Wannsee, I told my fellow Fellows that I had a feeling that the piece I was writing had something to do with the color blue, and we started talking poetry. Ellen Levy and Ken Gross, both brilliant literary scholars, sent me running toward the water and the sky in all great directions, yet once I found these words, I kept returning to them. For each movement, I found the title at a different point of completion. Some were completely finished, some in the middle, and some started some musical possibilities for me. As titles go, these are not meant to provide anything that might be taken literally; a vague impression may, in the end, reveal more. ~Sean Shepherd

Farnsworth: Four Portraits of a House (2004) by Andrew Norman (b. 1979, XXXX) When one looks at Nature through the glass walls of the Farnsworth House it takes on a deeper significance then when one stands outside. More of nature is thus expressed—it becomes part of a greater whole. ~Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, 1958 In 2003 I became interested in the Farnsworth House. Mies described the house as a lens through which one becomes more aware of the changing colors and forms of the natural world outside, and it was this description that prompted me to create a series of four musical portraits of the house and its environs. The instruments in my piece are divided into two ensembles. The four clarinets form the House Ensemble. In each of the four movements these instruments render a different elevation of the house in musical terms, the lengths of the notes determined by the proportions of the porch, floor, roof, and vertical supports of the house. While the music of the House Ensemble is timbrally uniform and rigorously systematized, the music of the complimentary group of instruments, the Nature Ensemble, is just the opposite; the flute, violin, percussion, and piano play non-coordinated gestures—many determined by chance procedures—meant to evoke the ever-changing colors and forms of the natural world. ~Andrew Norman

Le bal masqué (“The Masked Ball,” 1932) by Francis Poulenc (Paris, 1899–Paris, 1963) As a young man, Francis Poulenc, who died 50 years ago, was a darling of the Parisian aristocratic salons, where refined elegance existed side by side with outrageous humor. He was a close friend with the Vicomtesse Marie-Laure de Noailles (1902–70), an enthusiastic patron of Salvador Dalí, Man Ray, and many other avant-garde artists. Together with her husband Charles, she commissioned Poulenc to write a work for a special gathering to be held at their property in the South of France. The composer collaborated with another colorful figure of the Parisian artistic scene, the surrealist poet Max Jacob (1876–1944), who provided the punning lyrics for this hilarious “profane cantata.” Circus music peppered with some very contemporary harmonies, Le bal masqué is one big joke with some rather menacing undertones. Death is a recurrent motif in the poems, and although it is constantly mocked by both the poet and the composer, the comedy can turn into tragedy at any moment. Poulenc’s instructions to the singer bear translating: “The vocal part must be interpreted with a mixture of violence (Air de Bravoure-Finale) and charm (Malvina and part of La dame aveugle). Never should the singer emphasize the ironic intentions of the poet. Take the markings ‘tenderly,’ ‘with love,’ etc. literally.” ~Peter Laki Texts and Translations

Le bal masqué Poulenc Préambule et air de Bravoure Prelude and Bravura Aria Madame la Dauphine, fine, fine, fine, Her Ladyship the Dauphine ne verra pas le beau film will never see the beautiful film qu’on y a fait tirer les vers du nez, they pulled out of her nose, car on l’a amenée for the lady, en terre with her baby, avec son premier né was taken to the ground, en terre et à Nanterre near the sound, où elle est enterrée. where she’s buried under a mound. Quand un paysan de Chine When a peasant in China veut avoir des primeurs, wants to get fresh produce, il va chez l’imprimeur he goes to the production office ou bien chez sa voisine. or to his next-door neighbor. Tous les paysans de la Chine All the Chinese peasants les avaient épiés watch them in the heat, pour leur mettre des bottines, tines, to put on their little boots, il leur coupent les pieds. they cut off their feet.

Monsieur le Comte d’Artois The Count of Artois est monté sur le toit counted his toys, faire un compte d’ardoises, toi, toi, toi, and his alloys, et voir par la lunette, nette, nette, and put on his glasses pour voir si la lune est plus grosse to see if the grasses que le doigt. have grown in the noise. Un vapeur et sa cargaison, son, son, son, A steamer and its freight ont échoué contre la maison. sank and met a sad fate, Chipons de la graisse d’oie, doye, doye, let’s filch some goose fat, son, doye, pour en faire des canons. use it to make a gun. ~transl. Peter Laki Malvina Malvina Voilà qui j’espère vous effraie: Here’s something I hope will scare you. Mademoiselle Malvina ne quitte plus Miss Malvina hasn’t let go of son éventail her fan depuis qu’elle est morte. since she died. Son gant gris perle est étoilé Her gray pearl glove is studded with gold d’or… stars… Elle se tire-bouchonne comme une She twirls around like a Gypsy valse tzigane, waltz, elle vient mourir d’amour à ta porte She comes to die of love at your doorstep, près du grès où l’on met Next to the sandstone where they put les cannes… the canes… Disons qu’elle est morte du diabète, Let’s say she died of diabetes, morte du gros parfum qui lui penchait of the strong perfume that tilted le cou, her neck. Oh! l’honnête animal si chaste Oh, the honest animal, so chaste et si peu fou, and so sober, Moins gourmet que gourmande, no gourmet, though she loved food, elle était de sang lourd, her blood was heavy, agrégée ès lettres et chargée she had a teacher’s diploma in lit de cours, and an adjunct position, C’était en chapeau haut qu’on lui faisait and you had to wear a top hat to la cour, court her, Or, on ne l’aurait eue qu’à otherwise you could only have her la méthode hussarde!... in a rough-and-ready way… Malvina, oh Fantôme, que Dieu te garde! Malvina, oh Phantom, may God keep you! ~transl. Peter Laki

La dame aveugle The Blind Lady La dame aveugle dont les yeux saignent The blind lady with bloodshot eyes choisit ses mots. chooses her expressions Elle ne parle à personne de Her infirmities are not the theme ses maux. of her confessions Elle a des cheveux pareils à la mousse, Her hair curls over her like moss Elle porte des bijoux et des She wears gold brooches that pierreries rousses. great jewels emboss La dame grasse et aveugle dont les yeux The fat blind lady with the bloodshot saignent, eyes écrit des lettres polies avec marges Writes scrawly notes with letters et interlignes. double size Elle prend garde aux plis de sa robe She is careful of the folds of her cotton de peluche, dress et s’efforce de faire quelque chose de plus. And as for the other things she does her best Et si je ne mentionne pas son And if I don’t mention her beau-frère, brother-in-law here c’est qu’ici ce jeune homme n’est pas It’s because the young fellow’s not en honneur, in favor, I fear car il s’enivre et fait s’enivrer l’aveugle For he gets her drunk, the drunken fellow qui rit alors So she’ll laugh and she’ll laugh et beugle. and then she’ll bellow. ~transl. Joseph T. Shipley

Caprice Caprice Réparateur perclus de vieux automobiles. Repairman crippled with old automobiles, l’anachorète, hélas, The hermit, unfortunately, a regagné son nid, has made it back to his nest. Par ma barbe, je suis trop vieillard By my beard, I am too old pour Paris, for Paris; l’angle de tes maisons m’entre The corners of your houses get dans les chevilles. into my ankles. Mon gilet quadrillé a, dit-on, My checkered vest looks, one may say, l’air étrusque almost Etruscan, et mon chapeau marron va mal And my chestnut hat goes poorly avec mes frusques. with my outfit. Avis, c’est un placard qu’on a mis Notice, someone has placed a notice sur ma porte, on my door: Dans ce logis tout sent la peau Everything in this dwelling smells de chèvre morte. of a dead goat’s skin. ~transl. Shawn Thuris