Timeless Masterworks the Composer's World
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WEEK THREE TIMELESS MASTERWORKS Sunday Afternoon, August 19, 2018 at 3:00 Spa Little Theatre THE COMPOSER’S WORLD Tuesday Evening, August 21, 2018 at 8:00 Spa Little Theatre WWW.SPAC.ORG WWW.CHAMBERMUSICSOCIETY.ORG A MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT Dear Friends, Welcome to the Saratoga Performing Arts Center’s 2018 Season! As I begin my second summer in Saratoga, I am so grateful for the community’s enthusiastic embrace of our new initiatives, new partnerships and new collaborations. This season you can expect exhilarating performances from our beloved resident companies, the return of new “classics” like “Live at the Jazz Bar,” “SPAC on Stage” and “Caffe Lena @ SPAC,” and the Saratoga debuts of the National Ballet of Cuba and Trinity Irish Dance Company. SPAC and its home, the Spa State Park, represent a perfect confluence of manmade beauty and natural beauty and it is the inspiration of place that made us want to explore the interplay between the natural world and the world of art, the nexus between Art & Cosmos. This year, we launch the Out of this World festival, kicked off by a performance of Holst’s The Planets with spectacular NASA Space footage, followed by star-gazing around the reflecting pool. Audiences will engage with roaming astronomers, experience virtual reality space expeditions and even attend a special children’s chamber concert that examines the creative connection between Einstein and Mozart. And we introduce a new SPAC Speakers series with thought-provoking “stars” from the worlds of space, science and the arts. There are so many other new experiences and surprises in store. We welcome you to a new summer of discovery. Elizabeth Sobol PRESIDENT AND CEO CMS AT SPAC A MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIRMAN Dear Friends, On behalf of the Saratoga Performing Arts Center Board of Directors, thank you for your support and attendance at this performance. The strength and progress of SPAC has always depended on the contributions of its audiences and the many sponsors, donors and partners who recognize SPAC’s impact on the cultural and economic life of this region. Thanks to you, as we lift the curtain on our season, we do so in a strong position financially, artistically and as an institution. Last season, we welcomed Elizabeth Sobol to Saratoga Springs as SPAC’s new president and CEO. In less than two years, Elizabeth has implemented a new vision and path for the Center with innovative programming and an increased emphasis on affordability, accessibility and community outreach. SPAC’s reduced $30 amphitheater ticket and the expanded Fidelity Kids in Free program welcomed hundreds of new guests who had previously never been to the Center. Educational programming such as Classical Kids, Summer Nights at SPAC and the Performance Project have expanded exponentially, reaching more than 23,000 students in over 70 schools. These are just a few of the successes that we will continue to build upon. Looking ahead to the future, I’d also like to extend a special thanks to New York State for its capital investment of $1.75 million to rehabilitate and upgrade SPAC’s amphitheater ramps, lighting and other high priority infrastructure. The new project is slated to be completed in advance of the 2019 season and is part of the Board’s and SPAC President and CEO Elizabeth Sobol’s vision to strengthen our partnerships and make critical investments into our facilities for generations to come. As always, your presence and support is what makes this season possible. We invite you to join us often this summer to experience world-class artistry in our world-class venue. Ron Riggi CHAIRMAN CMS AT SPAC TIMELESS MASTERWORKS Sunday Afternoon, August 19, 2018 at 3:00 Spa Little Theatre ALESSIO BAX, piano TARA HELEN O'CONNOR, fute SEAN LEE, violin ROMIE DE GUISE-LANGLOIS, clarinet MATTHEW LIPMAN, viola AYANO KATAOKA, percussion MIHAI MARICA, cello WOLFGANG AMADEUS Trio in E-fat major for Clarinet, Viola, MOZART and Piano, K. 498, “Kegelstatt” (1786) (1756-1791) Andante Menuetto Rondeaux: Allegretto DE GUISE-LANGLOIS, LIPMAN, BAX HEITOR VILLA-LOBOS Assobio a Játo (The Jet Whistle) for Flute (1887-1959) and Cello (1950) Allegro non troppo Adagio Vivo O'CONNOR, MARICA STEVEN MACKEY Micro-Concerto for Solo Percussion, (b. 1956) Flute, Clarinet, Violin, Cello, and Piano (1999) Part 1: Chords and Fangled Drumset Part 2: Interlude No. 1—Vibes Solo Part 3: Click, Clak, Clank Part 4: Interlude No. 2—Marimba and Cello Part 5: Tune in Seven KATAOKA, O'CONNOR, DE GUISE-LANGLOIS, LEE, MARICA, BAX —INTERMISSION— ROBERT SCHUMANN Quartet in E-fat major for Piano, Violin, (1810-1856) Viola, and Cello, Op. 47 (1842) Sostenuto assai—Allegro ma non troppo Scherzo: Molto vivace Andante cantabile Finale: Vivace BAX, LEE, LIPMAN, MARICA PLEASE TURN OFF CELL PHONES AND OTHER ELECTRONIC DEVICES. Photographing, sound recording, or videotaping this event is prohibited. NOTES ON THE PROGRAM Trio in E-fat major for Clarinet, Viola, and Piano, K. 498, “Kegelstatt” WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART The sobriquet “Kegelstatt” has Born January 27, 1756 in Salzburg. long attached itself to the Clarinet Died December 5, 1791 in Vienna. Trio, though it did not originate with Composed in 1786. Mozart. “Kegel” in German indicates Duration: 20 minutes the game of nine-pin bowling (known as “skittles” in English) and “statt” the “place” where it was played, a Among Mozart’s most loyal friends pastime that enjoyed considerable during his last years in Vienna were popularity in Vienna during Mozart’s the members of the Jacquin family. day. The E-fat Trio, which Mozart The paterfamilias, Nikolaus Joseph entered into his own catalog of von Jacquin was a distinguished compositions on August 5, 1786, was botanist and professor of chemistry probably not composed while he at Vienna University who instilled was bowling, but the Twelve Duos the love of music in his children, for Horns (K. 496a), fnished just Joseph Franz (21 in 1787), Gottfried one week earlier, were: he noted on (19), and Franzisca (18). Mozart was that manuscript that it was “untern fond of the Jacquins and he visited Kegel schreiben”—written while them frequently to share their bowling. (The apparent anomaly of dinner, play his music for them, and the delicate task of musical notation keep Franzisca up with her lessons combined with a physical sporting when she proved to be one of his activity might be explained because most talented piano students. For Mozart usually worked out his the entertainment of the household, compositions completely in his head Mozart composed the Trio in E-fat before committing them, without major for Clarinet, Viola, and Piano mistakes or revisions, to paper, a (K. 498) in August 1786. He wrote the clerical activity whose drudgery viola part for himself (he refused he was known to have alleviated to touch the violin after moving with games, schnapps, or friendly to Vienna, always playing viola conversation.) The earliest source at his frequent chamber music for the “Kegelstatt” subtitle appears evenings) and the clarinet part for to be the pioneering 1862 catalog Anton Stadler, another of his fellow of Mozart’s works by Austrian Freemasons and a superb performer musicologist Ludwig von Köchel. who later inspired Mozart's Clarinet Köchel did not have access to the Quintet (K. 581) and Clarinet manuscript of either the Horn Duos Concerto (K. 622). or the Trio, so worked these nearly CMS AT SPAC SUNDAY, AUGUST 19, 2018 contemporaneous compositions into musical thoughts. In its unstinting his chronological list according to concentration on the turn motive anecdotal information available to pronounced by the piano in the very him—in other words, he may have frst measure, the opening movement mixed them up. shows its indebtedness to Joseph Franklin Cohen, Principal Haydn’s technique of thematic Clarinet Emeritus of The Cleveland development in sonata forms, which Orchestra, proposed a delightful had also served as the model and alternative to the above conjecture. inspiration for Mozart’s “Haydn” The theme that begins the trio and Quartets of the three preceding courses continually through the years. The clarinet introduces a first movement comprises a strong subsidiary theme, a sort of proto- opening note followed by a waltz, which does not, however, keep four-note turn figure and four the music from referring stubbornly slower descending notes. Nine to the opening phrase. The second notes total, the same as the number movement is among the longest and of pins in Kegel, whose rhythmic most serious in expression of all progression may reflect the impact 18th-century minuets. It contrasts of the ball, the initial explosion of the limpid grace of the clarinet with the pins, and the lingering fall of the rather gruff interjections of the the few remaining ones. A strike! viola, and so much looks forward to Perhaps the “Kegelstatt” Trio was, the encroaching age of Romanticism after all, a souvenir of one of the that Eric Blom said it revealed “a game-loving Mozart’s many non- kind of Emily Brontë-like smoldering musical diversions. passion.” The last movement is a As befts a piece composed for melodically rich rondo in which the friends, the instruments participate clarinet alone presents the theme, on an equal basis in the trio, viola plays it on its frst return, and exchanging, complementing, viola and clarinet together give its and accompanying each others’ last recurrence. Assobio a Játo (The Jet Whistle) for Flute and Cello HEITOR VILLA-LOBOS Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos Born March 5, 1887 in Rio de Janeiro. had little formal training. He learned Died there December 17, 1959. the cello from his father and earned Composed in 1950.