BOSTON SYMPHONY CHAMBER PLAYERS Sunday, October 28, 2001, at 3 p.m. at Jordan Hall BOSTON SYMPHONY CHAMBER PLAYERS Malcolm Lowe, violin William R. Hudgins, clarinet Steven Ansell, viola Richard Svoboda, bassoon Jules Eskin, cello James Sommerville, horn Edwin Barker, double bass Charles Schlueter, trumpet Jacques Zoon, flute Ronald Barron, trombone John Ferrillo, oboe Everett Firth, percussion with Elizabeth Ostling, flute Cathy Basrak, viola Thomas Rolfs, trumpet Stephen Drury, piano Haldan Martinson, violin Ludovic Morlot, conductor BRITTEN Sinfonietta, Opus 1 Poco presto e agitato Variations. Andante lento — Tarantella. Presto vivace Ms. OSTLING, Messrs. FERRILLO, HUDGINS, SVOBODA, and SOMMERVILLE; Messrs. LOWE, MARTINSON, ANSELL, ESKIN, and BARKER WYNER Serenade for seven instruments (1958) Nocturne I Toccata Capriccio; Aria Nocturne II Messrs. ANSELL and ESKIN, Ms. OSTLING, Messrs. SOMMERVILLE, ROLFS, BARRON, and DRURY LUDOVIC MORLOT, conductor INTERMISSION MOZART Quintet in C for two violins, two violas, and cello, K.515 Allegro Menuetto. Allegretto; Trio Andante Allegro Messrs. LOWE, MARTINSON, and ANSELL, Ms. BASRAK, Mr. ESKIN Baldwin piano Nonesuch, DG, Philips, RCA, and New World records Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) Sinfonietta for flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn, and string quintet, Opus 1 Today we think of Britten primarily as a composer of vocal music—of operas, choral works, church parables, canticles, folk song arrangements, the War Requiem, and so on. Even works with "instrumental" titles, like the Spring Symphony, are in fact primarily vocal compositions, however brilliant and colorful the instrumental part. But eighteen of Britten's first twenty-five large works are for instruments alone, and they were gener- ally bigger and more noticeable pieces than the vocal works of the time. Britten composed the Sinfonietta, his first published work, in 1932, while still at the Royal College of Music; he dedicated the score to his teacher Frank Bridge. Already the young composer had demonstrated a natural gift of melodic invention. The Sinfonietta was in part an attempt to harness this gift into a more intricately constructed treatment. Specifically influenced by Schoenberg's Chamber Symphony No. 1, particularly in its elaborate thematic working-out of motivic germs, Britten clearly wished to create an English music with a greater thematic intricacy than the sometimes meandering tuneful- ness of the tradition he had inherited. A pentatonic horn call (reminding the listener of Schoenberg's opening, though the latter's perfect fourths are more dangerous in their destruction of a tonal sense) provides the material from which the young composer mines the tiny germinal elements that make up the Sinfonietta's thematic language. Already Britten is willing to expand the tonal proce- dures of his free sonata-form first movement, to play with harmonic ambiguities, but never to dispense with tonality altogether. The slow movement's variations bring an air of nostal- gia and gentler, triadic harmonies. The finale is a Tarantella cast as a moto perpetuo in which the fast surface activity unwinds the musical material slowly and gradually. While the Sinfonietta may not yet reveal the expressive possibilities of Britten's melodic poignancy—especially as it came to be revealed in his operas— it certainly demonstrates a command of structure and form that can only be envied in a composer not yet turned twenty. —Steven Ledbetter YehudiWyner (b.1929) Serenade for seven instruments (1958) The American composer-pianist-conductor Yehudi Wyner is the Walter W. Naumburg Profes- sor of Music at Brandeis University. The recipient of numerous awards and commissions, he has also taught at Yale and Tanglewood and has been a visiting professor at Harvard and Cor- nell. His compositions range from works for small vocal and instrumental ensembles to works for large orchestra, from theater pieces to liturgical music for the synagogue. Recent commis- sions include a Cello Concerto for the BBC Philharmonic, "Lyric Harmony" for Carnegie Hall and the American Composers Orchestra, and a Psalm for soprano Dawn Vpshaw with instru- mental ensemble. He has provided the following comments on the Serenade: Forty-three years have gone by since I wrote the Serenade for Seven Instruments. The lit- tle summer cottage I rented in 1958 at a Crafts Colony in Woodstock, New York, remains alive in my memory. Secluded, shaded by small trees, the cottage provided a pleasant ambience in which I could enjoy the natural surroundings with my year-old son. It was an atmosphere congenial to concentrated creative work. Composition on the Serenade proceeded quite rapidly and the elaborated sketch was completed by summer's end. Shortly after my return to New York City, I received a phone call from Aaron Copland asking how my work was going, what was new. I told him about the Serenade and he expressed interest in hearing it, so we arranged a visit to my very mod- in an almost improvisatory way, formal decisions being reached in the writing, imposing est apartment on East 6th Street in Manhattan. There, on my ancient and decrepit Stein- themselves retroactively as it were, then affecting my further progress. (This is a com- way upright, I played through the piece as best I could with Aaron listening attentively and mon procedure in my music in which the direction and significance of things reveal appreciatively. It was typical of him to take a keen interest in the work of emerging com- themselves slowly and in the process, not before, and order is a consequent, not an posers; he had a way of encouraging them by finding good things in their music. antecedent of the work.) The choice of instruments was likewise not hit upon at once The actual first performance of the Serenade took place at Yale, but another perfor- but responded to the demands of the material. At least one movement was sketched mance was simultaneously being prepared at the 92nd Street Y by a brilliant band of play- before the full complement of players was fixed. There are four movements (five if one ers expertly led by Werner Torkanowsky. The dress rehearsal in New York took place the wishes to count separately the Aria contained within the Capriccio). The order of the day before the Yale premiere. This was fortunate for me because I was able to hear my movements and their basic motion follow no conscious model, nor does the weight of music dispatched with sweep and clarity. The student performance was miserably pre- duration of the movements have much to do with classical precedent. Within these pared—a disaster, in fact—and had I heard it first I would have been deeply disheartened. movements the formal divisions are usually simple. In the long history of this piece, the Boston Symphony Chamber Players have given Certain shapes inform the whole work. The number of such generating shapes is very the finest performances by far, both at Tanglewood and in Jordan Hall. They have also few. Certain features were carried out with some consistency: exact sequences or imita- recorded the Serenade (on the CRI label). I feel honored to have received their excel- tions avoided; all recurrences varied; motivic, phrase, and sectional lengths balanced in lent attentions. an asymmetrical way; no doubling of instruments (the surprising exceptions strengthen A last comment: on rereading my original program notes for the Serenade [reprinted the rule); any material may appear in any movement, subject to affective transformation; below], I am struck by how familiar they are, how consonant with the way I think about prevailing instrumental timbre is contrast, not blend, permitting clear separation of lines my music even today. and independent plateaus of action. The listener is frequently offered a choice as to —Yehudi Wyner which material is principal or secondary at any given moment. The resultant web in October 2001 which most parts may have equal weight banishes the idea of mere accompaniment. The Serenade for Seven Instruments was written in response to a commission by the These ideas are common in dodecaphonic composition, less common outside the sphere. Friends of Music at Yale University and was first performed on Alumni Day, February These are some notions I had in mind as I wrote the piece. None of them is dogma, 1959. The title page bears a dedication to James Hoffman, a young American painter however, and may or may not operate in any other of my compositions. For if the aims who was mortally ill at the time and soon to die. The dedication was intended as a ges- and problems of each piece are a surprise, perhaps the solutions will be fresh as well. ture of devotion to a friend, a noble individual and eloquent artist. The titles Serenade —Y.W and Nocturne I and II refer to qualities of the night and reflect the darkness of his passing. Serenade is a lyric, poetic work, remarkable in no way for its structural devices. No Wolfgang Amade Mozart (1756-1791) used, preliminary plans the piece grew preconceived schemes were no formal imposed; String Quintet in C, K.515 After moving to Vienna in 1781, Mozart quickly became one of the better-known com- Born in France, Ludovic Morlot studied the violin in Lyon and in Montreal, Canada, posers of the day, particularly because of his own concerts in which he brilliantly per- with Vladimir In turned to conducting, where he worked Landsman. 1994 he becom- formed his own piano concertos, which were the armature of his career as a composer, ing a pupil of the late Charles Bruck at the Pierre Monteux School for Advanced Con- performer, and impresario. By 1786, however, Mozart had begun to make the transition ductors in Hancock, Maine. In June 2000 he graduated in conducting from the Royal from piano concerto to opera for his offerings to the public, beginning with The Marriage Academy of Music, where he studied under Sir Colin Davis, George Hurst, and Colin of Figaro.