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Mar 16 2018 The Great Hall at Cooper Union Mar 18 2018 Hudson Hall Fri, March 16, 2018 at 7:30 PM Sunday, March 18, 2018 at 3 PM Hello! The Great Hall at Cooper Union Hudson Hall Performances #83 & #84: Season 3, Concerts 20 & 21 We’re so glad you’ve joined us today. In TŌN, our goal is to make orchestral music relevant James Bagwell, conductor to today’s audiences. Here’s how we’re doing things a little differently: Arvo Pärt Fratres for String Orchestra and Percussion (b. 1935) (1977, rev. 1991) Let’s Chat Some of us will be introducing the Virgil Thomson The Plow that Broke the Plains, Suite for music, and even more in the hall at (1896–1989) Orchestra (1936) intermission. Come say hi, grab a Prelude selfie, ask some questions, and let us Pastorale (Grass) know your thoughts. Cattle Blues (Speculation) Drought We Live for the Applause Devastation We love your energy! There’s no need to wait till the end—if the music moves you, feel free to applaud any time the Intermission conductor’s baton goes down. Be a Social Butterfly Georges Bizet Symphony in C (1855) If you have a great time, let your (1838–75) Allegro vivo Adagio friends know: share a photo or video Allegro vivace (without disturbing anyone else), and Allegro vivace use #theorchnow and tag us @theorchnow. To find out more about usand what we think about the music, look through this program and visit theorchestranow.org. To stay up to date with TŌN emails, see the insert in this program. And to find out how you can support the orchestra, turn to page 12. The concert will run approximately 1 hour and 35 minutes, including one 20-minute intermission. But above all else, we invite you to sit back and ENJOY! No beeping or buzzing, please! Silence all electronic devices. Photos and videos are encouraged, but only before and after the music. THEORCHESTRANOW.ORG 3 ABOUT ABOUT THE PROGRAM THE PROGRAM Arvo Pärt Fratres Fratres was one of the first works to come out of Arvo Pärt’s “creative silence” of the mid-1970s, when he remained publicly silent for several years while he explored new avenues for his music. The piece is also one of the first compositions of his triad-based tintinnabulation style—derived from the Latin term for “little bells”—which he developed after becoming inspired by Gregorian chants and early Renaissance polyphony. A purely tonal method of composition, tintinnabuli pairs a single melody line against TŌN’S CARL GARDNER ON a secondary line that provides harmony, which lead to moments of silence BIZET’S SYMPHONY IN C from which all subsequent music is born. As Pärt described: Tintinnabulation is an area I sometimes wander into when I am searching What I find interesting is that Bizet wrote this when he was 17 years old, while he for answers—in my life, my music, my work . Tintinnabulation is like this. was at the Paris Conservatory, and he had no intention of having it played or Here I am alone with silence. I have discovered that it is enough when published—it wasn’t until after his death that it was discovered in the conservatory a single note is beautifully played. This one note, or a silent beat, or a library. He wrote this symphony when he was studying with Charles Gounod. moment of silence, comforts me. I work with very few elements—with Gounod had written his first Symphony in D just a few years earlier, and he one voice, with two voices. I build with the most primitive materials—with employed his student, Bizet, to transcribe the work for two pianos. So while Bizet the triad, with one specific tonality. The three notes of the triad are like was writing his Symphony in C as homework for Gounod, he was simultaneously bells. And that is why I called it tintinnabulation. transcribing Gounod’s first ever complete symphony. As a result, there are similar themes between the two; he pays homage to Gounod throughout the work. In Fratres, the six-bar theme is repeated and moved to new tonal levels, mostly by thirds. It was first performed by the Estonian early music ensemble Even though Bizet was young, his melodic material was well-developed. The form Hortus Musicus, but from this work there have been numerous variations is very typical, classical, and perfect; it follows the idiom of a classical symphony. scored for a variety of ensembles with the musical substance remaining This is hardly Bizet’s most innovative work. However, what he does to impress us mostly unchanged. Arrangements include those for violin and piano; for lies in the way he treats certain themes, passing those themes on, creating these strings and percussion, with and without solo violin; for wind octet and 3- and 4-note passages, and developing them throughout time. This quality percussion; for string quartet; and for eight cellos. reminds me very much of playing a symphonic work by Beethoven. I think it’s a beautiful symphony. You can tell that it’s very technically thought out—it would have been an A+ paper when he was in school. I hear very many of the operatic qualities that appear in Bizet’s later works. Specifically, I would point to the oboe solos in the second movement, which are very haunting and beautiful. The oboe melody reminds me of something that a passionate tenor would sing when faced with an obstacle on his way to being with his true love. For me, that sounds like a kernel of his voice that is evident later on when he writes Carmen. The first movement is very lively, upbeat, and full of exciting syncopations. The second movement is much more introspective, with the oboe solo setting the tone. The third movement feels like “The Dance” where the two lovers in our pretend opera finally overcome their struggles and unite together against the world; it’s a scherzo, so it’s a joke, happy and joyful. Lastly, the fourth movement is your typical grand finale. For our purposes, this could be the point in the opera when Bizet puts a musical punctuation on the journey all of our characters have just experienced and transformed through together. 4 @TheOrchNow THEORCHESTRANOW.ORG 5 ABOUT MEET THE THE PROGRAM CONDUCTOR Virgil Thomson The Plow that Broke the Plains Suite This piece was originally written for the film score of the 1936 short documentary film The Plow That Broke the Plains, which focused on the suffering of those living in the Great Plains during the 1930s. The Plow was directed by Pare Lorentz for the Farm Resettlement Administration of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, a program created as part of the New Deal. Thomson worked alongside Lorentz, who shared his enthusiasm for folk music, and orchestrated the music in a ten-day period, incorporating James Bagwell many folk melodies, as well as popular and religious music, into the score. conductor As he noted in his autobiography: “I knew the Great Plains landscape in James Bagwell maintains an active international schedule as a conductor Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Texas; and during the war I had lived in of choral, operatic, and orchestral music. He was most recently named a tent with ten-below-zero dust storms. I had come to the theme nostalgic associate conductor of The Orchestra Now (TŌN) and in 2009 was appointed and ready to work . the subject, moreover, was highly photogenic— principal guest conductor of the American Symphony Orchestra. From broad grasslands and cattle, mass harvesting, erosion by wind, deserted 2009–15 he served as music director of The Collegiate Chorale. Some of the farms.” highlights of his tenure with them include conducting a number of operas-in- concert at Carnegie Hall, including Bellini’s Beatrice di Tenda, Rossini’s Möise In 1942, Thomson arranged the six-movement orchestral suite, omitting et Pharaon, and Boito’s Mefistofele. He conducted the New York premiere several more substantial sections that were included in the original score of Philip Glass’ Toltec Symphony and Golijov’s Oceana, both at Carnegie for the film. The movement “Cattle” is notable for its cowboy ballads, while Hall. Since 2011 he has collaborated with singer and composer Natalie the final fugue in “Devastation” is based on an old song tradition with Merchant, conducting a number of major orchestras across the country, disappointed farmers of the Southwest, “I’m Gonna Leave Old Texas Now.” including the San Francisco and Seattle Symphonies. Mr. Bagwell has trained choruses for numerous American and international orchestras, including the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Budapest Festival Orchestra, and American Symphony Orchestra. He has worked with numerous conductors, including Charles Dutoit, Andris Nelsons, Gustavo Dudamel, Alan Gilbert, Gianandrea Noseda, Valery Gergiev, Yannik Nézet-Séguin, Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti, Lorin Maazel, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Michael Tilson Thomas, Louis Langrée, Leon Botstein, Ivan Fischer, Jesús López-Cobos, and Robert Shaw. Mr. Bagwell prepared The Collegiate Chorale for concerts at the Verbier Festival in Switzerland; in 2012 the Chorale traveled to Israel and the Salzburg Festival for four programs with The Israel Philharmonic. Since 2003 he has been director of choruses for the Bard Music Festival, conducting and preparing choral works during the summer festival at The Richard B. Fisher Kristin Hoeberman by Photo Center for the Performing Arts. He frequently appears as guest conductor for orchestras around the country and abroad, including the Cincinnati Symphony, Jerusalem Symphony, and the Interlochen Music Festival.