Masterworks April 24, 2021 • 7:30 Pm THIS EVENING’S PERFORMANCE
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ARTISTIC DIRECTOR Masterworks April 24, 2021 • 7:30 pm THIS EVENING’S PERFORMANCE Mozart Overture to Le Nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro), K. 492 Fauré Pavane, op. 50 Ravel Ma Mère l’Oye (“Mother Goose”) Bizet Symphony In C Season Sponsor Concert Sponsor THIS EVENING’S MUSICIANS FLUTE KEYBOARD Tamara Thweatt, Interim Principal Allegra Sorley Laura Recendez VIOLIN I OBOE Joana Genova-Rudiakov, Guest Concertmaster Rebecca McGuire, Principal Madeleine Wething Sharon McCullough Nicholas Drumm Amanda Baer CLARINET Angela Ruch Wai Ki Wun, Principal Reinhold Strnat Katherine Peters MinJi Kim Ann Manship BASSOON Ryan Caldwell, Principal VIOLIN II Kathleen Moniaci Nataliya Nizhalova, Principal Jonathan Johnson HORN Kris Zaloudek Dave Poncar, Principal Reid Bonner Ginny Kundrat Candida Wiley Larry Lemon Kevin Shiue Greg Leffler VIOLA TRUMPET Rachel Gries, Principal Dan Price, Principal Julie Scull, Assistant Principal Bob Bonner Daniel Wunderle Melinda Bowman TIMPANI Jason Spangler, Principal CELLO Anna Thompson-Danilova, Interim Principal PERCUSSION Matthew Trefethen, Acting Assistant Principal Mark Stempel, Principal Jan Brill Keli Welsh Joerg Schreiber Amy Holmes BASS HARP Rose Meyers, Principal Melanie Mashner, Principal Joseph Everett, Assistant Principal Laura Payne ARTISTIC DIRECTOR Carmel Symphony Orchestra since fall 2017 she has served as Artistic Director of Indiana’s Carmel Symphony Orchestra and was recently appointed Music Artistic Director of the Carmel Music and Film Festival which she helped to launch. She served as Music Director of the Williamsburg Symphony Orchestra (WSO) from 2004 to 2019, when she celebrated the WSO’s 35th anniversary and her 15th and final season. Apopular guest conductor, Ms. Hymes continues to expand her relationships with orchestras nationwide. Among the orchestras that Ms. Hymes has guested with are the Houston, Indianapolis, Oregon, North Carolina, Savannah, New Hampshire, Roanoke (VA), Hartford (CT), Portland (ME), Madison (WI), Florida West Coast, Harrisburg (PA), Spokane (WA), Richmond (VA), Springfield (MA), Bozeman (MT), Chappaqua Chamber (NY), Bangor (ME) and Omaha symphony orchestras, as well as the San Francisco Women’s Philharmonic, Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra and the Florida Orchestra. International guesting includes the Costa Rica JANNA HYMES Artistic Director National Symphony (where she has been a frequent guest), the Delta Ensemble of Holland, National Versatility, passion and innovation are the Orchestre de Lyon, Besancon Chamber Orchestra hallmarks of American conductor Janna Hymes. and the Orquesta Sinfonica del Estado de Mexico. Renowned for her inspiring performances, musical depth and energetic presence both on and off Born in New York City, Janna Hymes is a Fulbright the podium, she has developed a reputation as scholar, recipient of a 1999 Geraldine C. and Emory an exciting, detailed communicator. Praised by M. Ford Foundation Grant, and a prizewinner of the press as “an architect, a builder in sound, a the 1998 International Conducting Competition in conductor with an overall view who never misses Besancon, France. details”, Ms. Hymes is Artistic Director of Indiana’s WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756-1791) Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924) Overture to Le Nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro), K. 492 Pavane, op. 50 (1887) (1786) Though he was an important figure in the musical scene of late The Marriage of Figaro began as a satirical play, written in 1778 19th-early 20th century France, Gabriel Fauré’s importance by the French playwright Pierre-Augustin de Beaumarchais. It can be easy to overlook. The innovations of his contemporaries was one of the greatest hits in the history of French drama. tended to emphasize more intense expression, longer forms, It was also a dangerously controversial play for its time, larger ensembles, ever more brilliant orchestral colors; partly because of its satirical depiction of the aristocracy as qualities which are largely absent in Fauré’s music. His list of licentious fools, but also for the fact that Figaro, a mere barber works consists mainly of chamber works and shorter pieces in service to Count Almaviva, is depicted as being cleverer such as songs and piano music. He disliked flamboyant than his master. Well, we can’t have that, so the play ended up instrumental effects, considering them at best self-indulgent, being banned for six years, which of course only made it more or at worst a substitute for real musical invention. His popular than ever. masterpiece, the Requiem, distinguishes itself for its intimate expression, relative lack of drama, transparent orchestration, Sometime in 1785, Mozart became interested in the play as and above all its serenity, all hallmarks of Fauré’s mature style. the subject for a new opera. There was a problem, though; Emperor Joseph had also banned the play in Austria, and the Despite his preference for smaller ensembles, Fauré did ban was still in effect. Mozart had a plan, though, which began produce a number of orchestral works. One of his best-known with his approach to Lorenzo Da Ponte to adapt the play for is the Pavane, written in 1887 for a small orchestra consisting of the operatic stage. Da Ponte was a good choice for several woodwinds and horns in pairs, plus the usual strings. A Pavane reasons. For one, he had already established himself as the is a slow, elegant, and stately dance from the Renaissance era, leading librettist in Vienna, having worked with Salieri, Paisello, originating in Italy but mainly associated with Spain. The work and other leading composers of the day. Also, he had earned was originally written for a summer concert series of lighter the admiration of the opera-loving Joseph, which might have works, but the premiere took place on November 25, 1888. given him some influence to convince the Emperor to lift his ban. As Da Ponte later recalled, he succeeded by promising At about the same time, Fauré had begun to frequent the to remove the more overtly political elements of the story line salon of Élisabeth de Caraman Chi-may, Countess Greffulhe, (though he did end up leaving a bit in). In any event, Joseph a leading Parisian patroness of the arts. The composer chose was swayed by Da Ponte’s argument, and the way was clear. to dedicate the work to her. She raised the idea that the work be performed as a short ballet, but also suggested that a part Initial work on Figaro took place during late fall 1785. Following for chorus be added. Fauré obliged her, adding a choral setting a winter hiatus (during which Mozart wrote the short opera of a rather insipid text by the Countess’s nephew on top of The Impresario, three piano concertos, and other works), the preexisting orchestral parts. The version with chorus and the opera was completed during the spring of 1786. The first dancers was first performed in 1991 at one of the Countess’s performance, on May 1, was not a failure, but neither was it garden parties. an unqualified success. According to contemporary accounts, the premiere was underrehearsed, and the singers had not yet The published score included the choral parts. However, since mastered their parts, probably because they hadn’t had them the chorus was simply overlaid onto an already complete long enough. By the third performance, on May 24, things composition, and contributed nothing essential, it is most had time to settle in, and Figaro finally earned the respect it common to simply perform it with orchestra alone. deserved. Today it is one of the most frequently staged operas Fauré considered the Pavane “elegant but not particularly in the world. important;” still, it has become one of his most familiar The overture was the last bit to be composed, completed compositions. The reasons for its appeal are obvious. The only two days before the premiere. While it does not contain opening flute melody is haunting and easily memorable, but any of the music from the opera itself, it is a lively work full of the simplicity of the texture is offset by Fauré’s genius for wit and scurrying energy, perfectly setting the mood for the introducing unexpected harmonic twists, keeping the texture shenanigans which are to follow. from being overly predictable. The choreographer Léonide Massine heard “haunting echoes of Spain’s Golden Age,” which brought to mind the formality and underlying melancholy he found in the paintings of Velázquez. Two decades later, nearly identical terms would be used to describe the Pavane for a Dead Princess by Maurice Ravel, Fauré’s most distinguished pupil. MAURICE RAVEL (1875-1937) Ma Mère l’Oye (“Mother Goose”) (1910, orchestrated 1911) played on the black keys only, giving the whole movement a kind of faux-Oriental flavor. Ravel was often described as having a reserved personality; not unfriendly, but cool and detached, forming few deep Dialogue of Beauty and the Beast shows us the climax of the friendships. However, when he was in the company of children, story. Beauty admits to the Beast that when she realized his shy demeanor melted away. Though Ravel never married, how kindhearted he was, he did not seem so ugly. When she he loved children and was at ease in their world. Fascinated by accepts the Beast’s proposal, he is immediately transformed childish things, he collected toys and children’s books, which into a handsome prince. The conversation takes place with became the inspiration behind Ma Mère l’Oye, one of his most a graceful waltz tune for the clarinet depicting Beauty; the popular works. Beast growls in reply with a lurching, ungainly solo for the contrabassoon (perhaps the best known contrabassoon solo One of Ravel’s few enduring friendships was with the family of in the orchestral literature). Cipa Godebsky, a Polish expatriate who had been friends with Ravel’s father. After his father’s death, the Godebskys in effect Ravel ends by bringing his listeners to The Fairy Garden.