sign in sign up
<<
Home , Ottorino Respighi, Peninsula Symphony, Pines of Rome

The Force of Destiny SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2020 7:30 PM Vance Brand Civic Auditorium Elliot Moore, conductor Andrew Sords, Longmont Youth , Keynes Chen, director

La forza del : Overture

The Red Violin: Chaconne for Violin and JOHN CORIGLIANO

Mr. Sords

~INTERMISSION~

“La Campanella” from Violin Concerto No. 2 NICOLO PAGANINI

Mr. Sords

Pini di Roma (Pines of ) I pini de Villa Borghese (The Pines of the Villa Borghese) Pini presso una catacomba (Pines Near a Catacomb) I pini del Gianicolo (The Pines of the ) I pini della via Appia (The Pines of the )

Side-by-side with the Longmont Youth Symphony

LSO Afterglow Party Please join us directly following the concert at Longmont Public House (1111 Francis Street) for happy hour food & drink specials.

page 24 ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

About Andrew Sords Saint-Saëns with the Carson City Symphony; American violinist Andrew Sords has a and continues touring with baritone celebrated career as a soloist on four Daniel Singer and pianist Elizabeth DeMio continents and in performances with his trio. featuring the obscure “6 Gesange” by Having collaborated with 300 , . Uniting with John Walz () Sords has been cited for combining visceral and Timothy Durkovic (), Sords will virtuosity with a ravishing tone, while appear in several all-Beethoven programs international critics endorse Sords as “a throughout the Los Angeles area, including fully formed artist” (Kalisz-Poland News), return appearances at Pasadena’s Boston “utterly radiant” (Canada’s Arts Forum), Court Concert Series and the St. Cross and “exceptionally heartfelt and soulful” Music Guild. Following a tradition of annual (St. Maarten’s Daily Herald). Sords has tours in Canada, Sords will make his received numerous awards and distinctions British Columbia debut with a tour visiting reflecting his career trajectory, including the the North Okanagan Concert Association, 2012 Pittsburgh Concert Society Career the Kelowna Concert Association, and the Grant and the 2005 National Shirley Evergreen Concert Series (Vancouver), and Valentin Award. in 2020, travels north to Whitehorse Concerts (Yukon Territory). Also in 2020, Born in Newark, Delaware, Sords was Sords makes debuts on the Barrie Concert raised in Shaker Heights, Ohio, and asked Series (Ontario), Lakeshore Chamber for piano lessons at age five. A year later, he Music (Montreal), and the Caledon Series began studying violin with Liza Grossman, (Toronto)−all with pianist Cheryl Duvall. and continued studies with Linda Cerone, David Russell, and Chee-Yun Kim at the In recent seasons, Sords has appeared ENCORE School for Strings, the Cleveland with the El Paso Symphony, Flagstaff Institute of Music, and Southern Methodist Symphony, Brevard Symphony, Pueblo University. As a teenager, Sords garnered Symphony, Spartanburg Philharmonic, prizes from concerto competitions, signed Southeastern Ohio Symphony, Des Moines with management, and cultivated a media Orchestra, Grand Junction Symphony, and audience following from hundreds of Durham Chamber Orchestra, Longmont interviews, profiles, and appearances. Symphony, Guatemala’s “Festival Bravissimo,” Oakland Symphony, Windsor Symphony, In the 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons, Motor City Symphony, Kalisz Philharmonic Andrew Sords will tour extensively with the (Poland), North State Symphony, Beethoven sonata and cycles, the Chattanooga Symphony, Cleveland Triple Concerto, and the Violin Concerto in Philharmonic, Boulder Chamber Orchestra, th celebration of the composer’s 250 Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, Toronto anniversary. These appearances will include Philharmonia, Gulf Coast Symphony, far-flung venues such as Australia, Mexico, Melbourne Chamber Symphony, and both Quebec, the Caribbean, the Canary Islands, the Elgar and Dvořák concerti at Toronto’s and across the United States. Sords returns famed Glenn Gould Studio. to the Peninsula Symphony (Sords/Walz/ Durkovic) and North State Symphony As a prolific recitalist, Sords has appeared (Sords/Anderson/Anderson) with in La Jolla, Washington, D.C., Maui, New Beethoven; appears with the Mississippi York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, Valley Orchestra (Tchaikovsky); visits the and at St. Augustine’s (FL) EMMA Series at Juneau Symphony (Bruch); trots out Flagler College. andrewsords.com page 25 THE FORCE OF DESTINY PROGRAM

Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901): John Corigliano (b. 1938): The Overture to La Forza del Destino Red Violin: Chaconne for Violin (The Force of Destiny) and Orchestra In June of 1861, Verdi signed a contract Corigliano has been surrounded by music to provide an for the next season of all his life. His father was the concertmaster the Imperial Opera in St. Petersburg. He of the for 23 chose Don Alvaro, or the Force of Destiny, years. His mother was an accomplished a play by Angel de Saavedra, the Duke of pianist. Young John worked at WQXR and Rivas. Francesco Maria Piave, who provided , and studied with Otto the librettos for Ernani, Macbeth, Rigoletto Luening, Paul Creston and Victor Giannini. and La Traviata, was asked to convert the Corigliano holds the position of Duke’s play into an opera libretto titled La Distinguished Professor of Music at Lehman Forza del Destino. College, City University of New York, and serves on the faculty at the Juilliard School “It is an opera of huge dimensions, and of Music. He was composer-in-residence it needs special care,” said Verdi upon with the Chicago Symphony from 1987 arrival in St. Petersburg in November. to 1990. His works include concertos for But the leading soprano fell ill and the piano, , clarinet and ; three production was postponed until the following ; the opera The Ghost of year. After the first performance on Versailles, based on the third of November 10, 1862, Verdi’s wife reported Beaumarchais’ “Figaro” trilogy; and “excellent success…a good performance Mr. Man: Seven Poems of by all, singers, chorus and orchestra.” Bob Dylan. He won an Academy Award Verdi made a number of changes in the for his score to the film The Red Violin. opera for the La Scala production in 1869, The Chaconne was first played by Joshua most notably in the overture. The Russian Bell, who was the violinist on the movie version had begun with a short orchestral soundtrack, on November 25, 1997, prelude. For Milan he provided a real with Robert Spano conducting the San overture, containing themes from the Francisco Symphony. opera. It begins with the six unison brass Corigliano says the Chaconne “draws chords representing the tragic fate of the upon music I composed for the film of the principal characters. Then allusions are same name. The film spans three centuries made to the -baritone duet from Act in the life of a magnificent but haunted IV and Leonora’s second act aria and duet violin in its travels through space and time. with the abbot. A story this episodic needed to be tied Robert Boas writes: “The overture makes together with a single musical idea. For no attempt to provide a microcosm of the this purpose I used the Baroque device of drama, like such pieces as Beethoven’s a chaconne: a repeated pattern of chords Leonore No. 3 and Wagner’s Meistersinger upon which the music is built. Prelude, but forms an exciting orchestral movement which puts the listener in the “Against the chaconne chords I juxtaposed right frame of mind for what is to follow.” Anna’s theme, a lyrical yet intense melody representing the violin builder’s doomed

page 26 THE FORCE OF DESTINY PROGRAM (continued) wife. From these elements I wove a series Niccolò Paganini (1782-1840): of virtuosic etudes for the solo violin, Violin Concerto No. 2 in which followed the instrument from B minor, Op. 7 (La Campanella) country to country, century to century. “I have wept but three times in my life,” “I composed these elements before the Rossini once said, “the first, on the actual filming, because the actors needed failure of my earliest opera; the second, to imitate actual performance of the in a boat when a turkey stuffed with music. Then, while the film itself was truffles fell overboard; and the third, the shot, I made—from Anna’s theme, the first time I heard Paganini play.” The chaconne, and the études—this concert great violinist’s prodigious technique work. While I scored the film just for and showmanship inspired all sorts of the soloist and (to rumors, including the notion that he emphasize the ‘stringness’ of the had sold his soul to the devil. picture), I composed this 17-minute concert work for violin and full orchestra.” Paganini’s first two violin concertos were written for his first international “As The Red Violin: Chaconne for Violin tour. “After Christmas I’m going to give and Orchestra begins, diaphanous a concert at the Teatro San Carlo and ascending string lines unveil the I will play my first concerto, which I chaconne chords, voiced in incantatory haven’t played in Naples,” he wrote to dotted rhythms, in low winds and brass. a friend late in 1826. “I will play my Then solo violin and orchestra utter, second (with a bell obbligato) if I give and expand on, Anna’s theme. Virtuosic another…I want to play these concertos études quicken the pace, leading to for my countrymen before performing a rushing climax; these yield to a them in , London, and Paris.” stratospherically high, gravely slow True to his word, the Second Concerto melody, which remembers, against was introduced in Naples on January slowly shifting string sonorities, Anna’s 30, 1827. romantic theme. The string chords louden, strengthen with winds and When he played the Concerto in brass: then the soloist reclaims, in Vienna, the critics and audiences were determined accents this time, the ecstatic. “To analyze his performance diaphanous string line that opened the is utterly impossible, and numerous score. The orchestra halts to launch rehearings avail but little,” wrote one. the soloist’s cadenza, impetuous and “When we say that he performs incredible songful by turns: then the chaconne, difficulties with as clear and pure an in strings chords rendered brittle by intonation as another, when we say that sharp attacks with the wood of the in his hands the violin sounds more bow, gradually climax in a grand tutti beautiful and more moving than any restatement of the incantatory opening human voice, that his ardent soul pours and a whirlwind coda for all.” a quickening glow into every heart; when we say that every singer can learn from him, this is still inadequate to give

page 27 THE FORCE OF DESTINY PROGRAM (continued) an impression of a single feature of his Respighi and playing. He must be heard, and heard developed a program for the work, again, to be believed.” which is printed in the score:

The subtitle La Campanella (The Little “1. ‘The Pines of the Villa Borghese:’ Bell) derives from the tune in the last Children are at play in the pine grove of movement, in which the triangle and the Villa Borghese, dancing the Italian solo violin imitate each other. equivalent of ‘Ring around the Rosy’; wrote a piano fantasy on the melody. mimicking marching soldiers and battles; twittering and shrieking like swallows at Ottorino Respighi (1879-1936): evening; and they disappear. Suddenly Pini di Roma (The ) the scene changes to… “2. ‘The Pines near a Catacomb:’ We Elsa Respighi records that in 1920 her see the shadows of the pines, which husband “asked me to sing for him the overhang the entrance of a catacomb. songs I sang as a child at play...The From the depths rises a chant which request surprised me and I was most reechoes solemnly, like a hymn, and is amused to see Ottorino taking down then mysteriously silenced. the simple tunes that Italian children have sung for centuries.” Four years “3. ‘The Pines of the Janiculum:’ There later, those same melodies would is a thrill in the air. The full moon surface in the opening section of The reveals the profile of the pines of Pines of Rome. It is the second of the Janiculum Hill. A nightingale sings. “Roman trilogy” of symphonic poems, “4. ‘The Pines of the Appian Way:’ the others being The Fountains of Rome Misty dawn on the Appian Way. The and Roman Festivals. tragic country is guarded by solitary

pines. Indistinctly, incessantly, the conducted the first rhythm of innumerable steps. To the performance of The Pines of Rome on poet’s fantasy appears a vision of past December 14, 1924 in Rome. Despite glories; blare, and the army some isolated booing, the work was a of the Consul advances brilliantly in the success. “Let them boo,” said Respighi, grandeur of a newly risen sun toward “what do I care?” the Sacred Way, mounting the

Capitoline Hill.” For performances in the United States, Respighi provided his own program A recording of a real nightingale is used note: “While in The Fountains of Rome in the third section because Respighi the composer sought to reproduce by “simply realized that no combination of means of tone an impression of nature, wind instruments could quite counterfeit the in The Pines of Rome he uses nature real bird’s song. Not even a coloratura as a point of departure, to recall soprano could have produced an effect memories and visions. The century-old other than artificial.” trees which dominate so characteristically the Roman landscape become testimony Copyright 2019 © Charley Samson for the principal events in Roman life.”

page 28