Bachianas Brasileiras No. 1 HEITOR VILLA-LOBOS
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The Dvořák Serenade for Strings always makes me think of the freshness of spring time, with feelings of optimism and amiable associations. The key of E major helps to convey the buoyancy and energy I sense so strongly in this delightful work. ERIC MCCRACKEN, NCS VIOLIN Bachianas Brasileiras No. 1 HEITOR VILLA-LOBOS BORN March 5, 1887, in Rio de Janeiro; died November 17, 1959, in Rio de Janeiro PREMIERE Composed beginning in 1930; first performance September 12, 1932, by the Philharmonia Orchestra of Rio de Janeiro, Walter Burle Marx conducting OVERVIEW Heitor Villa-Lobos was and remains Brazil’s foremost classical composer. His father, an amateur musician, taught him to play the cello and clarinet, and he taught himself to play the guitar. After his father’s death, in 1899, Villa- Lobos began making a living playing guitar and cello in cafés and movie houses. As a composer, he was also mostly self-taught. Between 1905 and 1912 he made numerous expeditions into Brazil’s hinterland to study the music and folklore of the indigenous populations, whose music eventually became the inspiration for much of his own. In this regard, his career mirrored that of European contemporaries Béla Bartók, Zoltan Kodály, and Ralph Vaughan Williams, all of whom studied and incorporated the music of their native countries. In 1918, on a South American tour, pianist Artur Rubinstein “discovered” Villa-Lobos (who was already by then well-known in his native Brazil) and encouraged him to visit Europe “to show his accomplishments.” The European trip finally took place in 1923. Villa-Lobos stayed in Paris until 1930 when he returned to Brazil to take charge of music education in the schools. In 1935, he began traveling continuously and extensively in Europe and the U.S. He composed a vast number of works, in all genres. WHAT TO LISTEN FOR Villa-Lobos composed the nine Bachianas Brasileiras between 1930 and 1945, in “homage to the great genius of Johann Sebastian Bach … [whom I] consider a kind of universal folkloric source, rich and profound … [a source] linking all peoples.” But while the Bachianas contain suggestions of Bach’s style and form, the music is unmistakably Villa-Lobos’ own and relies heavily on Brazilian folk melody and rhythm. Villa-Lobos began Bachianas Brasileiras No. 1, for eight cellos, in 1930. He dedicated the work to the great cellist and Bach interpreter, Pablo Casals. The first of the three movements, Embolada, takes its name from a poetic-musical form with stanza-and- refrain structure, declamatory melody, and fast tempo. The title of the prelude, Modinha, refers to a sentimental love song; the closing fugue is simply called Conversa — “chat.” INSTRUMENTATION Cello octet Concerto for Double Bass and Orchestra TERRY MIZESKO BORN 1946, in Morehead City PREMIERE Composed 2017; the North Carolina Symphony gives the world premiere in these performances OVERVIEW A native of eastern North Carolina, bass trombonist Terry Mizesko is among that small number of the North Carolina Symphony’s homegrown composers. In addition to his 46 years in the back row of the orchestra, Mizesko has regularly faced the ensemble to conduct Holiday Pops and educational concerts. He has taught trombone at Duke University, UNC-Chapel Hill, and St. Augustine’s College. His composing and arranging must be crammed into a hectic schedule of teaching, touring, and practicing. He holds a bachelor’s degree from East Carolina University — not in trombone, but in composition and theory. Mizesko’s first orchestral work, Highland Suite (1996), was a personal project; but since then, NCS has gone back to the well for a number of works from their in-house resource. In addition to Sketches from Pinehurst, the orchestra premiered Four Scenes for Flute and Orchestra (2001) and Last Voyage of the Currituck (2006). His colleagues, past and present, have also supported his habit. Former principal violist Hugh Partridge commissioned Sundays at Shackleford Banks for the Triangle Youth Philharmonic in 2006; and NCS Assistant Principal Clarinet Michael Cyzewski commissioned the Divertimento for Clarinet and String Quintet. WHAT TO LISTEN FOR Mizesko composed this concerto at the suggestion of NCS Principal Double Bass Leonid Finkelshteyn, to whom it is dedicated. Mizesko describes the first movement as dominated by the second theme, a Yiddish dance. The second movement is a Romanza within a march, showing the incongruity of a double bassist playing a concerto with an orchestra — he gives the goose-stepping march to the orchestra, interrupted by long lyrical phrases by the bass. Mizesko describes the Scherzo as an homage to Bruckner and Mahler: angular, at times angry, at times humorous. The finale features two dances evoking the peasant music of Eastern Europe — Yiddish in style, with a mix of Slavonic dances and pizzicato imitating a balalaika orchestra. INSTRUMENTATION Solo double bass, strings To the Point JENNIFER HIGDON BORN December 31, 1962, in Brooklyn PREMIERE Composed 2003; first performance November 12, 2004, in Philadelphia, James Freeman conducting OVERVIEW Jennifer Higdon is a major figure in contemporary classical music, receiving the 2010 Pulitzer Prize in Music for her violin concerto and a 2010 Grammy for her percussion concerto. Higdon enjoys several hundred performances a year of her works, and blue cathedral is one of America’s most-performed contemporary orchestral works, with more than 600 performances worldwide since its premiere in 2000. Her works have been recorded on nearly 50 CDs. Higdon’s most current project was an opera based on the best-selling novel Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier. It was co-commissioned by Santa Fe Opera, Opera Philadelphia, and Minnesota Opera, in collaboration with North Carolina Opera. Higdon recently won the International Opera Award for Best World Premiere. She holds the Rock Chair in Composition at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. Her music is published exclusively by Lawdon Press. WHAT TO LISTEN FOR To the Point is derived from Higdon’s fourth string quartet, Impressions, a compositional response to the Debussy and Ravel string quartets, both of which imitate the Indonesian gamelan that the composers heard at the World Exposition in Paris. Higdon employs extensive pizzicato and other string colorings (as a reflection of the gamelan ensemble’s percussion instruments). Each instrument in the quartet has its own theme (as would a gamelan instrumentalist), and there is no development of those themes (following Debussy and Ravel’s lead). INSTRUMENTATION Strings Orawa WOJCIECH KILAR BORN July 17, 1932, in Lviv, Ukraine; died December 29, 2013, in Katowice, Poland PREMIERE Composed 1986; first performance March 10, 1986, in Zakopane, Poland, by The Polish Chamber Orchestra, Wojciech Michniewski conducting OVERVIEW Polish composer Wojciech Kilar studied in his native country and in Paris with the mentor of so many mid-20th- century composers, Nadia Boulanger. A composer of more than 130 film scores, including Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992) and Life as a Fatal Sexually Transmitted Disease (2000), Kilar has also composed five symphonies and a number of other orchestral and choral works. In the 1960s, he was a leader of the Polish avant-garde, considering John Cage “the pope of modern music.” But after the mid-1970s, much of his inspiration derived from the indigenous music of the highlands of southern Poland, where he has spent most of his life. WHAT TO LISTEN FOR Composed in 1986, Orawa — the name of a hilly region spanning the Polish-Slovakian border — is based on the folk melodies and rhythms of the region. Kilar’s music sounds like a cross between Béla Bartók and Phillip Glass. Like Bartók, Kilar works with short kernels of melody rather than entire songs or dances; like Glass, he repeats melodic fragments, making gradual changes in the melody and subtle variations in orchestration, all to a constant meter, or beat. In the nine or so minutes it takes to perform, Orawa progresses through a series of brief melodies, beginning from the barely audible to a screaming finale. INSTRUMENTATION Strings Serenade for Strings in E Major, Op. 22 ANTONÍN DVORÁK BORN September 8, 1841, near Prague; died May 1, 1904, in Prague PREMIERE Composed 1875; first performance December 10, 1876, in Prague, Adolf Čech conducting OVERVIEW Given his current stature as one of the foremost composers of the 19th century, Antonín Dvořák was something of a late bloomer, although not for want of musical talent and industry. Dvořák’s father was a butcher, and had expected his son to go into the family trade. Only after his uncle had agreed to finance the boy’s musical education was he able to follow his passion for music. Although trained as a church organist, Dvořák took his first job as principal viola in Prague’s new Provincial Theatre Orchestra. During this time, he practiced composition, producing songs, symphonies, and entire operas, but without recognition — much less appreciation — until he was in his 30s. Already influenced by the nationalist Bohemian style of Bedřich Smetana, Dvořák met and became a disciple of Brahms in 1875. Vienna’s famous curmudgeon music critic, Eduard Hanslick, also encouraged the not- so-young composer and gave him prominent billing in his reviews. In the same year, Brahms and Hanslick also supported him when he entered and won the competition for the Austrian State Prize in music for young, poor, and talented musicians (Dvořák won the competition twice more). The committee report stated that “...the applicant, who has never yet been able to acquire a piano of his own, deserves a grant to ease his strained circumstances and free him from anxiety in his creative work.” Brahms and Hanslick also urged Dvořák to move to Vienna, but his love for his native Bohemia kept him in Prague.