Juilliard Wind Orchestra (212) 799-5000, Ext
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Juilliard Wind Orchestra Behind every Juilliard artist is all of Juilliard —including you. With hundreds of dance, drama, and music performances, Juilliard is a wonderful place. When you join one of our membership programs, you become a part of this singular and celebrated community. by Claudio Papapietro Photo of cellist Khari Joyner Photo by Claudio Papapietro Become a member for as little as $250 Join with a gift starting at $1,250 and and receive exclusive benefits, including enjoy VIP privileges, including • Advance access to tickets through • All Association benefits Member Presales • Concierge ticket service by telephone • 50% discount on ticket purchases and email • Invitations to special • Invitations to behind-the-scenes events members-only gatherings • Access to master classes, performance previews, and rehearsal observations (212) 799-5000, ext. 303 [email protected] juilliard.edu The Juilliard School presents Juilliard Wind Orchestra Elaine Douvas, Conductor Sunday, October 22, 2017, 3pm Paul Hall LUDWIG VAN Rondino in E-flat Major, WoO 25(1793) BEETHOVEN (1770–1827) CHARLES-FRANÇOIS Petite symphonie (1885) GOUNOD Adagio, Allegro (1818–93) Andante cantabile Scherzo (Allegro moderato) Finale (Allegretto) RICHARD STRAUSS Sonatina No. 1 in F Major, TrV 288, (1864–1949) “From an Invalid’s Workshop” (1943) Allegro Moderato Romance and Minuet (Andante, Tempo di Menuetto) Finale (Molto Allegro, Meno Mosso, Tempo Primo, Presto) This afternoon’s concert will be played without an intermission. Major funding for establishing Paul Recital Hall and for continuing access to its series of public programs has been granted by The Bay Foundation and the Josephine Bay Paul and C. Michael Paul Foundation in memory of Josephine Bay Paul. Please make certain that all electronic devices are turned off during the performance. The taking of photographs and the use of recording equipment are not permitted in this auditorium. 1 Cover photo of oboists Liam Boisset and Ryan Roberts by Richard Termine Notes on the Program by David Crean LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN Rondino in E-flat Major, WoO25 In November 1792, 21-year-old Ludwig van Beethoven arrived in Vienna Ludwig with instructions to “receive Mozart's spirit through Haydn’s hands.” Van Beethoven He brought with him some of his best works from his early career in Bonn, perhaps intent on making an early splash in a Viennese milieu Born: suddenly bereft of its two great masters. Mozart had been dead less Probably on than a year, and, while Haydn was still at the peak of his powers, he had December 16, begun to devote much of his time and attention to financially lucrative 1770, (he was concerts in London. Despite the artistic void left by his illustrious baptized on the forbears, Beethoven adopted a cautious attitude towards publication 17th) in Bonn, of his earlier works. Many were substantially reworked, while others then an were held back altogether. The Octet for winds, a late product of the independent Bonn period, was revised in Vienna, then completely overhauled first electorate of as a string quintet (Op. 4, 1795), then as a piano trio (Op. 63, 1806). The Germany 1793 Vienna version of the octet was published as Op. 103 in 1830, three years after Beethoven’s death. The Rondino for winds, WoO25, is Died: thought to be an alternate finale and a product of the first round of this March 26, 1827, revision process. Like the octet, it was published posthumously in 1830. in Vienna, Austria The original finale for Op. 103 is an energetic race to the finish with rapid scalar passages and jagged leaps for the horns. The Rondino, by contrast, adopts a much more restrained, even aristocratic tone, although the horns retain their prominence. The lyrical main theme (first introduced by the horns) is presented three times, with the two contrasting episodes offering soloistic opportunities for the clarinets and oboes. The final statement of the theme is adorned with subtle contrapuntal flourishes in the clarinets and oboes, perhaps the result of the counterpoint instruction Beethoven was then receiving from Haydn. The work is one of the first to call for the use of horn mutes, prescribed near the end of the coda to create an unusual echo effect. It should also be noted that, like the octet, the Rondino was intended to be played by valveless “natural” horns, where pitch inflection was accomplished by adjusting lip pressure and the position of the hand in the bell. CHARLES-FRANÇOIS GOUNOD Petite symphonie While his name is not often encountered on concert programs, Paul Taffanel’s influence is nevertheless apparent at virtually every perfor- mance that involves the flute. As one of the first great virtuosos of the modern (Boehm) flute and a long-tenured professor at the Paris Conservatoire, he is commonly regarded as the founder of modern flute playing. His enduring contributions to the classical repertoire have less to do with his own compositions than with his rediscovery of the 2 flute works of Bach and the dozens of works he commissioned for his wind ensemble, the Société de musique de chambre pour instruments à vent (Society of Chamber Music for Wind Instruments). Among the notable composers to write for Taffanel’s group was Charles Gounod, now best remembered for his opera Faust and his arrangement of Bach’s Charles-François C-Major prelude as an “Ave Maria” setting. Like Taffanel, Gounod was Gounod one of the first French musicians to promote the music of Bach, and his ready gift for melody and refined sensibility made him one of the Born: most popular composers of his day. His Petite symphonie, written for June 17, 1818, the Society in 1885, uses the same ensemble as Beethoven’s Rondino, in Paris, France with the predictable addition of a single flute part. Died: As the name implies, Gounod’s work is a miniature symphony in the October 18, 1893, style of the 18th century. Indeed, were it not for the more chromatic in Saint-Cloud, harmonic language, and deftly handled modulations to distant keys, Hauts-de-Seine, the work might easily pass for one of a hundred years prior. Gounod’s France lightness of touch and classical sense of form owe nothing whatever to the pathos-filled music of his contemporary Wagner. Following a brief introduction, the cheerful first movement follows the expected sonata form, with soloistic writing for several members of the ensemble. The slow movement is a vehicle for Taffanel’s flute, which, except for a short central modulatory section, takes center stage as a soloist. The scherzo is a clever variation on the standard classical structure, demonstrating the 19th-century interest in forms within forms (the opening section of the scherzo is a binary form within a larger binary form). The finale returns to sonata form and often features the flute in dialog with the first oboe. RICHARD STRAUSS Sonatina No. 1 in F Major, TrV 288, “From an Invalid’s Workshop” By 1943, a nearly 80-year-old Richard Strauss was one of the most famous and accomplished composers in the world. He burst onto the scene in the late 1880s with a series of genre-defining “tone poems” before embarking upon an equally successful, though often controversial, career as Germany’s premiere post-Wagner opera composer. The rise of the Nazi regime put an effective end to his operatic career—his final opera Capriccio was seen as a peculiarly light-hearted offering in the midst of the devastation engulfing Europe. But Strauss was neither deaf to, nor immune from, the outrages of the Nazi regime. His last years were marked both by anxiety over the situation of his Jewish friends and family (coupled with frequent, frantic attempts at intervention), and general depression over the degradation of German culture by the Nazis and the physical destruction of its monuments in the war. It was in this tense atmosphere, however, that Strauss unexpectedly experienced something of a personal artistic renaissance, and returned to a genre that he had generally neglected since his late teens: music for winds. 3 Notes on the Program (Continued) Strauss was recovering from the flu when he began the first sonatina, although its subtitle,“From an Invalid’s Workshop,” likely has both a literal and more metaphorical interpretation. Strauss felt himself artistically spent after completing Capriccio (he declared that subsequent compositions were “wrist exercises”) and the privations of the war years had made him understandably jaded. The one-time maverick was also no longer at the forefront of the musical avant-garde and was regarded as something of a relic by younger contemporaries who had embraced atonality. Nevertheless, if Strauss considered himself an artistic invalid, there is little in the generally upbeat work to suggest such despondency. Richard Strauss An expert orchestrator, Strauss scores the sonatina for the unprecedented combination of two flutes, two oboes, five clarinets (including a C clarinet, Born: basset horn, and bass clarinet), two bassoons, contrabassoon, and four June 11, 1864, very prominent horns (Strauss’ father was a well-known horn virtuoso). Munich, Germany Strauss’s early works for wind ensemble were greatly indebted to 18th-century classicism, and one finds those same forms here. Now in the Died: hand of an accomplished master, however, they no longer circumscribe September 8, musical decisions but serve as a barely perceptible framework, overlaid 1949, with Strauss’ usual kaleidoscopic harmonies and organically unfolding Garmisch- melodic lines. Partenkirchen, Germany Nominally in F Major, the opening movement’s second theme does indeed begin in C, and the recapitulation as expected returns to F, but these formal signposts are hardly the main focus. Rather it is Strauss’s transformation of the introductory idea into an important theme, his Brahmsian juxtaposition of two against three, and the subtle shadings of his unusual instrument combinations that arrest the listener’s attention.