Stanford Symphony Orchestra Stanford Symphonic Chorus Stanford University Singers
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Stanford Symphony Orchestra Stanford Symphonic Chorus Stanford University Singers Paul Phillips and John Mauceri, Conductors WHEN: VENUE: Saturday, March 10 BInG 7:30 PM cOncErt haLL Sunday, March 11 2:30 PM Photo: Jan Malý Artists Notes Stanford Symphony Orchestra Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990) Paul Phillips, Music Director and Conductor On the Waterfront – Symphonic Suite From the Film (1954/5) Stanford Symphonic Chorus Stephen M. Sano, Director “I heard music as I watched: that was enough.” the 36-year-old Bernstein was Stanford University Singers in a screening room watching a rough- robert huw Morgan, Director cut of a hard-hitting movie exposing corruption and exploitation on the new york city docks. the screening was Program enough to fire Bernstein’s imagination: “day after day I sat at a movieola, Leonard Bernstein: On the Waterfront – Symphonic Suite from the Film (1954/5) running the print back and forth, Paul Phillips, conductor measuring in feet the sequences I had chosen for the music, converting feet Danny Elfman: Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, Eleven Eleven (2017) into seconds by mathematical formula, I. Grave; Animato. Lento making homemade cue sheets.” II. Spietato. allegro furioso Scoring the movie took Bernstein from III. Fantasma. adagio espressivo February to May 1954. his flourishing IV. Giocoso; Lacrime. allegro brillante career as a composer of symphonies, scores for Broadway, as a leading Sandy cameron, violin soloist conductor, pianist and teacher at home John Mauceri, guest conductor and abroad, and other aspects of the life of an increasingly omnipresent —INTERMISSION— musician, were put on hold. the finished movie On the Waterfront, written William Walton: Belshazzar’s Feast (1930–31, rev. 1931, 1948 & 1957) by Budd Schulberg, directed by Elia Jeremy huw Williams, baritone soloist Kazan, would go on to win eight Paul Phillips, conductor Oscars, including Best Picture, director, actor and Supporting actress. these eight Oscars equaled the previous This program is presented in partnership with Music at Stanford. record-holder, Gone with the Wind. Bernstein’s score, however, only PROGRAM SUBJECT TO CHANGE. Please be considerate of others and turn off all phones, pagers, and watch alarms. Photography and recording of any kind are not permitted. thank you. received a nomination, out-voted by an 2 average score by dimitri tiomkin for of individual isolation and, at the same Danny Elfman (b. 1953) The High and Mighty. although time, evokes dawn over the new york Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, approached many times after 1954, docklands and skyline, transcending the Eleven Eleven (2017) Bernstein was never again to write an specific narrative and becoming, as its original film score. composer hoped, part of a portrait of In 2017 Elfman premiered his first life in nyc. cellist and conductor Violin concerto in Prague, which was Bernstein composed for the film in Mstislav rostropovich put it another performed by the czech national much the same way he wrote for the way: “his Suite from On the Waterfront I Symphony Orchestra with violinist theater, apparently with little specific have conducted many, many times, and Sandy cameron and conducted by direction from his director. Kazan, this music smells of the united States. John Mauceri. the work was co- always economical, though effective, But it is a good smell!” the music commissioned by Stanford Live, the in his use of music, (and brilliant in his suddenly shifts gear to an aggressive, Prague Proms, and the royal Scottish use of silence to increase the tension rhythmically-driven Presto barbaro national Orchestra. Of the concerto of a scene) incorporated a little over tempo and we are thrust into the Elfman says, “I need to push myself 30 minutes of Bernstein’s score into his violence of the racketeers and to music into new territory with fresh challenges 108-minute movie. not surprisingly, the drawn from an early rooftop scene in as much as I can and whenever I can. I composer wanted “to salvage some of the film when an informer is thrown to am told I have a recognizable style but the music that would otherwise have his death. a fragment of the solitary my greatest pleasure is when I can been left on the floor of the dubbing- horn melody then leads to eloquently surprise the audience with my music.” room,” and published his own flowing love music between Malloy and symphonic suite for the concert hall Edie doyle (Eva Marie Saint) and to a the following year. although it does melody (which was cut from the film) William Walton (1902–1983) follow the movie’s narrative as much which grows in ardor each of the five Belshazzar’s Feast (1930–31, Rev. 1931, as possible and its musical themes are times it is presented. a third horn solo 1948 & 1957) developed, the 20-minute continuous announces a furious, scherzo-like battle score is, by design, more symphonic with music drawn from the climactic Belshazzar’s Feast , the blockbuster suite than symphonic poem. fight between Malloy and Friendly. an choral masterpiece that firmly alto saxophone now reintroduces consolidated the 29-year-old William a hauntingly expressive Malloy’s theme and its orchestration Walton as a composer of the front unaccompanied horn melody portrays grows to a sonorous full orchestra as the rank with the British public, grew from the solitary longshoreman terry Malloy badly beaten-up Malloy bravely enters a modest, informal, verbal commission (Marlon Brando) and his battles against the dock for an honest day’s work, now from the BBc. they had in mind a 20- his overbearing and corrupt union boss with the full support of his fellow minute work, “suitable for the Johnny Friendly (Lee J. cobb) and his workers, emboldened by his example. microphone,” and “really light in cronies who organize the new york Friendly’s iron grip is now beaten. character,” for small chorus and small harbor. Bernstein’s horn melody speaks —© 2018 Keith Horner. orchestra (“not more than 15 soloists”). 3 a fee was not even specified. at the my boy,” Beecham rather grandly said Strauss, and other European time, Walton had a reputation as an to Walton. “Why not throw in a couple composers then embracing the jazz enfant terrible with Façade , in which of brass bands?” age. his skill in harnessing his choral Edith Sitwell’s poems were recited resources comes from his training as a through a megaphone to his jazzy, Walton did exactly that: “thrown in choral scholar at Oxford and his twenties music. When presented with they were, and there they remain,” he familiarity with the English choral his friend Osbert Sitwell’s carefully said. the twin ensembles of three tradition. structured, vividly described Old trumpets, three trombones, and tuba testament story of the capture of the seated to either side of the orchestra In stark contrast to Walton’s musical children of Israel in Babylon and add a visceral shimmer to Walton’s depiction of hedonism at Belshazzar’s overthrow of the decadent King depiction of Belshazzar’s pagan feast court, the baritone soloist, Belshazzar (drawn from books of and to other climactic scenes in the unaccompanied at first, then intones daniel, Isaiah, revelation and Psalms work. the feast forms the second of the writing on the wall, the words and 137 and 81), Walton’s imagination went three clearly defined tableaux in their translation dramatized with a into overdrive. Working at the Sitwell’s Sitwell’s compact libretto. the first is tautness and impact that is spine- favored accommodation on the Italian Isaiah’s prophecy of the Israelites’ exile tingling. the scene’s eerie sounds were amalfi coast and in the in Babylon (howl ye, howl ye), followed to serve Walton well in his film scores northamptonshire stables of his by their resignation and lamentations in the years to come. In the final sponsor’s family home in England, (By the waters of Babylon) and tableau, Walton unleashes a triumphal Walton seized on the dramatic images aspirations (how can I forget thee, O paean of praise and alleluias in thanks in the Biblical story and wrote for Jerusalem). the richesse of for the delivery of the Israelites from forces equivalent to those of the Belshazzar’s Babylon is then invoked captivity. Its glory in victory is calmed grandest of English oratorios. It was by by solo baritone. Soon, Walton somewhat by a choral section far his largest project to date and unleashes his considerable skill in lamenting the fall of Babylon and its beyond the resources of the piqued precisely focused, crisp orchestration, fate to come. But the alleluias prevail BBc. they bowed out, the Leeds which includes high E-flat clarinet, and, in the words of the leading critic Festival bowed in and its artistic alto saxophone and a host of exotic of the day, the influential critic Ernest director Sir thomas Beecham, fearing percussion to invoke the gods of gold, newman: “Mr. Walton works a first and only performance for the silver, iron, stone, wood and brass. the constantly at a voltage that takes our new work, assigned the conducting to rhythmic drive of Walton’s score breath away.” the up-and-coming Malcolm Sargent. comes from his familiarity with the —© 2018 Keith Horner. “as you’ll never hear the thing again, theater scores of Stravinsky and 4 Text to Belshazzar’s Feast Arranged from biblical sources by Osbert Sitwell thus spake Isaiah: thy sons that thou shalt beget, they shall be taken away and be eunuchs In the palace of the King of Babylon. howl ye, howl ye, therefore: For the day of the Lord is at hand! By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down: yea, we wept and hanged our harps upon the willows.