Season Finale 2021 Program Complete

The University of Southern Mississippi College of Arts and Sciences School of Music PRESENT Thursday, April 15, 2021, 8 p.m. Bennett Auditorium Dr. Michael Miles, conductor Carlos Fernandez, conductor PROGRAM Simple Symphony Benjamin Britten I. Boisterous Bourrée (1913-1976) II. Playful Pizzicato III. Sentimental Saraband IV. Frolicsome Finale Holberg Suite, op. 40 Edvard Grieg I. Prelude (1843-1907) II. Sarabande III. Gavotte V. Rigaudon Divertimento for Strings Béla Bartók I. Allegro non troppo (1881-1945) II. Adagio non troppo III. Allegro assai Program Notes Simple Symphony by Benjamin Britten Benjamin Britten, born 1913 and died 1976 in Suffolk, was an English composer, pianist, and conductor. Britten began studying music from a young age and at the age of twelve, he began to study with composer Frank Bridge. Britten later entered the Royal College of Music in London where he studied with John Ireland and Arthur Benjamin. Britten’s work began to earn international recognition in 1937 after the premiere of Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge for string orchestra. While in the United States from 1939 to 1942, Britten received commissions to write several operas, some of which are considered to be the best English operas since those of 17th century composer Henry Purcell. Britten was the conductor and artistic director of the English Opera Group which led to the creation of the Aldeburgh Festival in 1947— one of the most influential music festivals in England. Although Britten is most known for his compositions featuring vocalists, he has a few instrumental pieces which remain popular today. Some of these instrumental works include his three string quartets, The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, Symphony in D Major for Cello and Orchestra, and one of his earlier works, Simple Symphony for strings, composed from 1933 to 1934. Instead of starting from scratch, Britten created his Simple Symphony based on some of the earliest pieces that he composed from the ages of nine to twelve. Large sections were taken directly from his early pieces, which he then rescored for string orchestra, and were paired with new thematic development. The symphony was dedicated to his former viola teacher, Audrey Alston. Simple Symphony consists of four movements. The first, “Boisterous Bourée”, is composed in a reduced sonata form and is based on his first suite for piano written in 1925. As titled, the movement is based on the French bourree dance which was popular in the baroque era. The second movement, “Playful Pizzicato”, is a scherzo with lively character and quick tempo but does not follow the symphonic tradition of occurring as the third movement. Some of the material presented in this movement comes from the scherzo movement of his Piano Sonata op. 5 composed in 1924. The third movement, “Sentimental Sarabande”, is based on the sarabande dance style of the baroque era and is created from material taken from the prelude of his Suite No. 3 written in 1925 and a waltz written in 1923, both for piano. In the last movement, “Frolicsome Finale”, Britten combines material from the previous movements and includes thematic material from the finale of his Piano Sonata No. 9, composed in 1926. Written during his time studying at the Royal College of Music in London, it is an excellent demonstration of how Britten had developed his compositional skills from childhood as a young adult. Holberg Suite by Edvard Grieg Edvard Grieg, born 1843 and died 1907 in Bergen, was a pianist, composer, and founder of the Norwegian nationalist school of music. Grieg began studying piano at the age of six from his mother, Gesine Hagerup, who had studied music in Hamburg. In 1858, Grieg began his studies at the Leipzig Conservatory. During this time, he contracted pleurisy which permanently damaged his lungs. Grieg was inspired by Norweigen folk music and many of his best known pieces combine simple folk melodies with the forms and harmonies popular in the Romantic era. Some of his most famous pieces include the incidental music to Peer Gynt op. 23, the arrangements he wrote of dances and songs from Norway, and the Holberg Suite op. 40, written in 1884. Ludvig Holberg (1684–1754) was a Danish poet-dramatist most popular for his comedies. Although he was not Norwegian, he was an important figure in Norway as he had lived in Bergen. In December of 1884, the city of Bergen decided to honor Holberg’s 200th birthday by holding an outdoor performance event for the unveiling of the new Holberg monument at the central market followed by another performance at the concert hall. Grieg was commissioned to write two pieces for the events, and he produced a cantata and a suite. In a letter that he wrote to a friend prior to the performance, he expressed his concern over performing the cantata outside, imagining himself “conducting with [a] waterproof cape, winter coat, galoshes, and umbrella” and contracting “goodness knows what kind of illness”. As Grieg had predicted, an outdoor event in Norway in December did not provide favorable conditions for the performance of his cantata. Grieg’s second piece, composed for the concert hall venue, was much more successful. Originally titled From Holberg’s Time, and written for piano, Grieg arranged the piece for string orchestra a year later and it is one of his best known pieces today. The Holberg Suite, as its more popular string orchestra arrangement has come to be known, was written in the style of the music that was popular in the 18th century during Holberg’s lifetime. Grieg often referred to it as a “a perruque piece” in reference to the powdered wig fashion popular in the previous century. Inspired by the baroque-style suite style, three of its five movements are based on dances which are preceded by a prelude. Sarabande, the second movement, is a slow Spanish dance that was popularized in France during the baroque era. Sarabands are in 3/4 time and have a noble quality. Next follows the Gavotte, a French dance of moderate speed which Grieg wrote using pastoral melodic material. Grieg also incorporated a contrasting dance within the Gavotte movement called a musette— a dance style which included bagpipes, imitated in this movement by the sustained notes of the lower strings. The last movement ends with a spirited Rigaudon, also a French dance. In this movement, Grieg paid homage to his country by including violin and viola solos inspired by Norwegian Hardanger fiddle folk tunes. -Notes by Alaina Belisle Divertimento for Strings by Béla Bartók Considered one of the most prolific Hungarian composers in history, Béla Bartók was born on March 25, 1881 in Nagyszentmiklós, Hungary, modern-day Sînnicolau Mare, Romania. His childhood was shaped by his own illnesses and his father’s untimely death, but nonetheless he displayed immense talent and intellect. His pianistic skills developed rapidly, culminating in his admittance to the Budapest Academy of Music where he received advanced placements in piano performance and composition. Despite Bartók’s posthumous reputation primarily as a composer, he developed compositional skill gradually, instead finding renown as a foremost piano teacher and performer. Not long after initiating a concert career, he accepted a tenured piano faculty position at the Academy, choosing to embark on an unremitting, comprehensive collection of folk music from Hungarian, Slovak, and Romanian provinces. His devotional work to peasant music was the first of its kind, and thus, Bartók contributed momentously to the founding of ethnomusicology. His mature works were influenced by his ethnomusicological, historical, and contemporary studies. Bartók is recognized for having distinct “Beethovenian” and “Bachian” periods, though Hungarian folk songs infiltrated nearly every one of his compositions, particularly after his folk research endeavors commenced. In 1939, Bartók traveled to a patron’s alpine cottage in Saanen, Switzerland to focus on the Divertimento for Strings. On August 18, 1939 Bartók wrote to his son regarding the Divertimento, “…luckily the work went well, and I finished it in 15 days…” During this time, Bartók was keenly aware of the impending threats of the Second World War. Yet, following the work’s completion, Bartók faced a greater catastrophe than he could have imagined. Bartók’s mother, to whom he was greatly attached, died that Christmas. He wrote on April 2, 1940, “…I went to Saanen to be totally undisturbed, so that I could write 2 works as quickly as possible; I spent 3 ½ weeks there…those 3 ½ weeks I took away from my mother. I can never make amends for this.” For the already frail composer, his mother’s death was an irremediable blow. The societal stimuli of the war and his personal tragedy influenced the poignant tone characteristic of his works of this period. Bartók’s Divertimento, premiered by the Basle Chamber Orchestra on June 11, 1940, is a marriage of Bachian-Hungarian influence marked by celebratory highs and melancholic lows. The movements were drafted in the order of I, III, and II, and draw strongly upon the concertante and ripieno sections of a concerto grosso; the outer movements being notably conventional. The first movement, cast in sonata form, is characterized by melodious lines and ostinato accompaniment. The second movement, much less conventional, hints of the verbunkos dance and the distinctive “night music” of Bartók’s mature works. The third movement’s rondo finalizes the fast-slow-fast organization of the work and features a Baroque- style fugato. Classical and Baroque idioms at play, along with nostalgic echoes of Hungarian folk music, encapsulate an intense musical sentiment that articulates his nationalistic spirit and the tumult of loss and war. -Notes by Julianna Hinton About the Conductors Dr.

Load more