SHEPHERD SCHOOL CHAMBER ORCHESTRA

LARRY RACHLEFF, Music Director SUSAN LORETTE DUNN, Soprano THOMAS HONG, Conductor ZHU ZHU, Piano

Thursday, April 24, 2014 8:00 p.m. Stude Concert Hall PROGRAM

Coriolan Overture, Op. 62 Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

Piano Concerto No. 1 in E-flat Major Allegro maestoso. Tempo giusto (1811-1886) Quasi Adagio Allegretto vivace Allegro marziale animato Zhu Zhu, soloist Thomas Hong, conductor

INTERMISSION

Chants d’Auvergne (selections) Joseph Canteloube Malurous qu’o uno fenno (1879-1957) Lo Fiolairé Pastourelle La Pastoura als Camps Baïlèro Lou Coucut Susan Lorette Dunn, soloist

Symphony No. 8 in B Minor, “Unfinished” D. 759 (1797-1828) Allegro moderato Andante con moto

The reverberative acoustics of Stude Concert Hall magnify the slightest sound made by the audience. Your care and courtesy will be appreciated. The taking of photographs and use of recording equipment are prohibited. SHEPHERD SCHOOL CHAMBER ORCHESTRA String seating changes with each concert. Winds, brass, percussion and harp listed alphabetically.

Violin I Double Bass (cont.) Trumpet Sarah Arnold, Evan Hulbert William Gerlach concertmaster Renaud Boucher- Philip Hembree Dorothy Ro Browning Trombone Anastasia Sukhopara Charles Paul * Madeleine Doyon­ Lijia Phang Flute Robitaille Ling Ling Huang James Blanchard Gregory Hammond Rebecca Reale Douglas DeVries Stephen Houck Michelle Black Amanda Galick Ryan Rongone Emily Nebel Christen Sparago Bass Trombone Amulet Strange Violin II Richard Stiles Geoffrey Herd, Kelly Zimba principal Piano Piccolo Rebecca Nelson Yvonne Chen Kayla Burggraf Natalie Gaynor Douglas DeVries Timpani Jacqueline Kitzmiller Lucas Sanchez Sophia Cho Oboe Michael Stubbart Eric Gratz Leah Craft Michael Ferri Gina Alice Ford Percussion Titus Underwood Colin Ryan Viola Wei Wang Lucas Sanchez Jill Valentine, Michael Stubbart principal English Horn Daniel Wang Titus Underwood Orchestra Manager Rebecca Lo and Librarian Clarinet Leah Gastler Kaaren Fleisher Nicholas Davies Anthony Bracewell Sean Krissman Production Manager Cello Lin Ma Mandy Billings Benjamin Stoehr, Assistant Production principal Bassoon Conrad Cornelison Manager Erik Wheeler Jessica Goldbaum Brian Figat Ariana Nelson Michael Severance Chris Lee Maxwell Geissler Francis Schmidt Benjamin Francisco Horn Everett Burns Recording Engineer Double Bass Andrew Du Comb Andy Bradley Michael Fuller, Markus Osterlund principal Spencer Park * playing Schubert only

PROGRAM NOTES

Coriolan Overture, Op. 62 ...... Ludwig van Beethoven Upon hearing the title of this piece, one may wonder whether it is connected with Shakespeare’s Coriolanus. The stormy dramatic nature of the music itself will further confirm such suspicions. TheOverture is, however, modeled after a play by Heinrich von Collin, an Austrian civil servant who was unaware that Shakespeare had written about the same tragic warrior. Both versions of this story are roughly the same except for their endings. Coriolanus is exiled from Rome and leads the Voluscians on a ruthless attack against the city. Meanwhile, his mother, Volumna, begs him to have mercy on Rome. Coriolanus eventually gives in to her entreaties, which causes his downfall and ultimately his death. In Shakespeare’s version of the story, Coriolanus, after comprehending the difficul­ ty of his position, fatally stabs himself. In Collin’s version, the warrior is killed by the Voluscians whom he has betrayed. Beethoven’s extremely programmatic overture captures the spirit of Coriolanus and his life’s continuous strife. Until about 1800, the overture as a genre was used as a specific device to call the audience to attention before a theatrical or operatic performance, but it had little to do with the storyline of the actual theatrical work that it intro­ duced. Later composers, however, tried to reflect the general mood of the dra­ ma in the overture. Although Beethoven did this in the Coriolan Overture, he did not create it for an actual performance of the play. Collin’s Coriolan was first performed in 1802 and was not performed at all after 1805. There were no further plans to revive the play when Beethoven composed the overture in 1807. Beethoven must have been inspired by the story after reading the play, and he composed the overture as a concert piece that could represent the life and struggles of Coriolan. This tumultuous, agitated piece is characterized by continuous tension that seems never to resolve. The first theme emerges after a loud and crashing intro­ duction. Perhaps representing Coriolan and his struggles, it is a nervous sound­ ing theme comprised of short, frantic eighth notes in the strings. The theme gradually builds as the lower strings continue to repeat the first motive, add­ ing to the feeling of agitation and tension. The lyrical, flowing counter theme of­ fers some contrast and may be seen as representing Coriolan’s mother’s plea for mercy. After this theme enters, the music never seems to resolve, since no strong cadence occurs. The music finally resolves on a somber C minor chordrepre ­ senting Coriolan’s defeat and submission to his fate. The rest of the piece marks a sharp contrast as slow, lugubrious string and bassoon passages whisper the death of a once great warrior. – Note by Rebecca L. Rockwood

Piano Concerto No. 1 in E-flat Major ...... Franz Liszt Franz Liszt was born on October 22, 1811, in Raiding, Hungary. His father, an amateur musician, immediately recognized his son’s prodigious musical gifts and became his first piano teacher. Liszt’s status evolved quickly after studying in , then Paris. He became the nineteenth century concert music’s version of today’s pop superstar. His image was framed around with flamboyant cos­ tumes, a bejeweled sword and medaled chest, velvet gloves, facial contortions, a tossed-around mane of hair, and frequent, public love affairs. By the late 1840’s a successful, wealthy Liszt had tired of his glamorous and lucrative interna­ tional concertizing career—he called it a “circus” life. He was appointed court music director at Weimar, composer and teacher for Albéniz, Bizet, Saint-Saëns, Smetana and legions of other historically prominent musical figures. In short, he lived a restless, dynamic, exciting life that included stints in various offices such as politician, abbe (minor order of priesthood), charity concert provider, teacher, conductor and literary scholar. He died from pneumonia on July 31, 1886, in Bayreuth, Germany. Franz Liszt composed his first piano concerto over a 26-year period. The main themes are written in a sketchbook dated from 1830; the final version dates from 1849. On February 17, 1855, Liszt premiered the piece himself, under the baton of . Liszt made yet more changes before the concerto’s publication in 1856. This concerto unfolds as a single continuous drama, yet is comprised of four discrete movements that mimic the movements of a Classical symphony (fast, slow, scherzo, fast). Each of the first three movements has its own themes, but the march-like finale is made up entirely of themes from the previous movements, though completely transformed. The full orchestra announces the first theme that opens the entire concerto. It is said that Liszt and his son-in-law, the brilliant pianist and conductor Hans von Bülow, set the opening theme to words (most likely directed toward Liszt’s philosophical opponent, Brahms and his camp): “Das versteht ihr alle nicht, Haha!” (None of you understand this, Haha!). The theme immediately repeats itself a step lower, in a startlingly different harmony. At this point, the pianist makes her presence known in an imposing cadenza. Liszt returns to this opening theme again and again in this movement, and each time it leads to something new—a recitative, a lyric melody, thundering octaves, and finally to weight­ lessly glittering passagework that ends the movement in a puff of smoke. The strings lead off in the second movement, and suggest a lyrical melody that the piano then fills in with vintage Romantic rhapsodic expression. When this sequence comes to its close, the orchestra restates its suggestive beginning, more urgently this time. The piano responds with a declamatory recitative. As the passions calm, the movement ends with the clarinet restating the melody from the beginning of the movement. Then, an interruption: silence. The ping of a triangle, and the dancing reply of plucked strings, introduce the basic idea of the Scherzo. Liszt breaks the Scherzo off for a cadenza. The pianist recalls the beginning of the concerto, and suddenly those pages loom large again in a dramatic and developing restatement, which in turn opens the way for the martial finale. The fourth movement presents nothing new; all its musi­ cal material is ingenious transformation and recapitulation. This movement, said Liszt, is a recapitulation of what has come before, only quicker, and with a springier rhythm. In his own words: “This binding and rounding off a piece at its close, is a technique I have made my own, but it is justified by the musical form. The trombones and basses take up the second part of the adagio’s motif. The piano passage that comes after this is the motif just played in the adagio by flute and clarinet. The final passage is a variation and major-mode development of the scherzo’s motif. At last the very first theme comes in with a trill accompa­ niment, to conclude the whole.” – Note by Zhu Zhu

Chants d’Auvergne (selections) ...... Joseph Canteloube Although a composer by training, Marie Joseph Canteloube was known primarily for his arrangements of French folksongs and particularly the five vol­ ume series Chants D’Auvergne from which tonight’s program is selected. His first exposure to folk music was as a child in Auvergne, the region of France in which he was born in 1879. From the time he was very young he studied piano, first with his mother and then with Amélie Doetzer, a friend of Chopin’s. Later he studied composition via mail with Vincent d’Indy for six years before finally moving to Paris and enrolling at the Schola Cantorum where d’Indy taught. In Paris a group of young composers gathered around d’Indy and Canteloube who shared their dedication to preserving France’s regional folk music traditions and incorporating them into classical music. Canteloube himself not only used folksong in his own work, but became the French equivalent of Bartok, taking a tape-recorder to the rural regions of France and recording peasants singing. Chants D’Auvergne was published between 1923 and 1954. The songs are in the Auvergnat dialect of the Occitan language, which was spoken in Canteloube’s home region. Canteloube took great freedom in his work, and the line between arrangement and composition can be blurry. Although the songs are arrange­ ments of traditional songs, their lush orchestration makes it hard to imagine a peasant singing them. In the composer’s own words: Just because the peasant sings without accompaniment, that is not suffi­ cient reason to imitate him. When the peasant sings at his work, or during the harvest, there is an accompaniment which surrounds his song which would not be felt by those whose interest is purely academic. Only poets and artists will feel it… It is nature herself, the earth which makes this, and the peasant and his song cannot be separated from this… If you suppress this atmosphere, you lose a large part of the poetry. Only the immaterial art of music can evoke the necessary atmosphere, with its timbres, its rhythms and its impalpable, moving harmonies. The songs are a beautiful combination of folksong and classical orchestra­ tion, with their poetic stories of love between shepherds and shepherdesses, and their vocal gymnastics, especially in “La Fiolaire” (the spinner) and “Lou Coucut” (the Cuckoo). The most well known song in this collection is “Baïlèro,” which was used in Laurence Olivier’s famous movie of Shakespeare’s Henry V.

Symphony No. 8 in B Minor, “Unfinished” . . . . . Franz Schubert Although it is known as the “Unfinished” Symphony, there is nothing incom­ plete feeling about Schubert’s Symphony in B Minor, D. 759. The two existing movements complement each other beautifully, creating a whole that needs no continuation despite its unorthodox ending in the distant key of E major. Howev­ er, his unfinished sketch of a scherzo (which remains unperformed) leaves us in no doubt that Schubert did indeed intend to create a traditional four-movement symphony. In 1813, the sixteen-year-old composer started writing symphonies and had completed six by 1818. These early symphonies are in the classical tradition of Haydn, with a slow introduction, clear phrasing and articulation, and lots of light, homophonic violin melodies. Following this quick outpouring of work, the young composer spent four years exploring and developing a more individual style before writing his last two symphonies. The B Minor is Schubert’s fourth unfinished symphony from this period (between 1818 and 1822), however the other three only exist in piano sketches. While each of these three symphonies have unusual features, the B Minor is a more dramatic departure from his ear­ lier work and is the most distinctively Romantic. From the gripping, but practically inaudible opening played by nothing but basses and cellos, through the deep final chord, the first movement is low, slow, dark and dramatic. The quiet beginning gradually builds up layer by layer, add­ ing strings playing a slow tremolo, then the haunting first theme in the clarinets and oboes. Throughout the movement, Schubert starts with sparsely accompa­ nied melodies, and builds them up to higher and higher intensity before the bot­ tom drops out and the next exquisite melody is exposed in the sudden calm. After the tempestuous development section, the first theme appears as a brief calm in the storm, before the second theme comes back in the cellos to build to one final climax. The second movement is both similar and very different from the first. It is also a sonata form and has the same shimmering suspended quality, with loud dramatic peaks that simply disappear into a new melody. But this movement has less pain and darkness in it. The light major melodies flow in and out of each

-CONTINUED ON INSERT­ -NOTES CONTINUED- other, overlapping and sometimes turning into grand marches. And finally it comes to a calm and optimistic close, with a rich sustained version of the opening melody and a swelling final chord. As sad as it may seem, Schubert never actually got to hear the symphony played. After being diagnosed with syphilis in 1822, he sent the first two movements to his friend Anselm Hüttenbrenner. However, after Schubert died six years later with the work still unfinished, the movements remained forgotten until a conductor by the name of Johann von Herbeck found out about them 37 years later. Herbeck finally premiered the work in 1865, with the finale of Schubert’s third symphony incongruously tacked onto the end. There has been much speculation about why Schubert never finished this symphony, but the most straightforward explanation is simply that Schubert left many unfinished works. He was not particularly well known during his lifetime and much of his music, other than his songs, remained unheard until after he died. With his work neglected, there was no particular incentive to finish it and when he got stuck he would simply move on to something else. Although it is tempting to mourn the missing move­ ments of the Unfinished symphony and all the other music left unwritten by Schubert’s untimely death, I think we should instead remind ourselves of how prolific Schubert was during his short career and count ourselves lucky to have as much as we do. After all, if Beethoven had died as young as Schubert, he would not even have written his first symphony. – Notes by Clara Goodwin

BIOGRAPHIES

ZHU ZHU is originally from Qingdao, China. As a youth she attended music schools in Jinan and Beijing. She came to the U.S.A. at the age of seventeen to at­ tend Interlochen Arts Academy. After graduating from Interlochen, she completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Michigan in the studio of Dr. Logan Skelton. While at Michigan, Zhu Zhu participated in many solo and chamber recit­ als of various kinds, including representing the school at the Kennedy Center. She has participated in numerous festivals and concert series, including the Gilmore Festival, the “Beethoven: Sonata Obsession” series at Michigan, and the Prague International Piano Masterclasses. In May 2010, she was invited to perform as the single featured soloist on Michigan’s Furlong solo recital. She also received the Stanley Award as the most outstanding undergraduate student at U of M. Zhu Zhu has soloed throughout the United States and China, most recently as featured solo­ ist with the Qingdao Symphony Orchestra. After finishing her Master’s degree at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, she was accepted into Rice’s pres­ tigious doctoral program, where she is currently studying with Dr. Robert Roux. She was selected to teach an undergraduate course she designed for Rice next year on Chinese music and culture.

Australian Soprano SUSAN LORETTE DUNN studied at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music in Brisbane, Queensland, graduating with both a Bach­ elor of Music Degree and a Graduate Diploma Degree of Opera. Miss Dunn has performed regularly with both Opera Australia and Opera Queensland. Roles in her repertoire include Tzeitel - Fiddler On The Roof, Frasquita - Carmen, Mabel - Pirates of Penzance, Lola - Cavalleria Rusticana, Dorabella - Così fan tutte, Dido - Dido and Aeneas, Earth - The Eighth Wonder, Musetta - La Boheme, Valencienne - The Merry Widow, Mlle Dangeville - Adriana Lecouvreur, Steph­ ano - Romeo and Juliet, Cornelia - Damascus, Laetitia - The Old Maid and the Thief, Lucy - The Beggars Opera, Catherine - Seeking True South, and The Water Nymph - The Golden Axe. Miss Dunn has performed and recorded as soloist with ABC Australia and with many of Australia’s major orchestras. Since moving to the USA in 2002 Miss Dunn has sung concert performances with the Rhode Island Philharmonic, Chicago Phil­ harmonic, Charlotte Symphony, San Antonio Symphony, Kansas City Symphony, El Paso Symphony, Dayton Philharmonic, Spokane Symphony, Toledo Symphony, Chautauqua Symphony, Camerata of San Antonio, and the Martinů Philharmonic in the Czech Republic. Miss Dunn has performed regularly as a soloist in many of America’s major summer music festivals including the Grand Teton Music Festival, Connecticut’s Summer Music Festival, Interlochen Music Festival, Sunflower Music Festival, Cactus Pear Music Festival, the Chautauqua Music Festival, the Sarasota Music Festival, and the International Conductor’s Workshop in the Czech Republic. Miss Dunn has premiered Australian vocal works in concert both nationally and internationally, and has recorded Australian composition for EMI/ Jade. Compos­ ers David Heuser, Betty Beath, Stephen Lalor, David Hush and Paul Keelan have written for her. Miss Dunn has won many major Australian singing competitions including the State and Commonwealth Finals of the ABC Instrumental and Vocal Competition, an Opera Foundation Scholarship for study in Israel, an Australia Council Grant for study in the UK, an Arts Queensland Personal Development Grant, and in 2000, a prestigious Winston Churchill Fellowship where she worked with the New York Festival of Song in New York City. As a result of her Churchill Fellowship, Miss Dunn performs a series of concerts at The Shepherd School of Music, dedicated to the revitalization and re-invention of the song recital. Concerts in this series in­ clude A Little Bit In Love, Dream With Me, The Golden Age of Operetta, and this year, An Interntional Café (Melbourne, Australia), and Musical Chameleons. Miss Dunn’s other international performances include the British premiere of Kurt Weill’s Street Scene in London’s West End, a tour of Pirates of Penzance – The Ballet, an American Music Theatre Gala in Tel Aviv, Israel and Bernstein on Broadway for Leonard Bernstein – An 80th Anniversary Celebration. Miss Dunn has performed major roles throughout Australia in Musical Theatre, which include Leonard Bernstein’s Mass, Aspects of Love (The Really Useful Company), Baby (Queensland Theatre Company), Nunsense II (Mixed Company), Lucky Me (Tropic Line Theatre Company), Into The Woods (Opera Australia), A Little Night Music (Sydney Theatre Company) and Kiss Me Kate (Andrew McKinnon Concert Productions) where she was also featured as a dancer. Additionally, Miss Dunn has both produced and performed as a soloist in concert performances of Aspects of Romance, Broadway Showstoppers, No Tune like a Show Tune and Leading Ladies. She has also produced and performed in Bernstein on Broadway, a show she conceived for the Queensland Symphony Orchestra. Susan Lorette Dunn has been instrumental as an educator as well as maintain­ ing her full-time performing career. In Brisbane, Australia she held positions as Lecturer at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music and the Queensland Uni­ versity of Technology, where she also devised programs in music theatre skills. Since 2002, Miss Dunn has had the title of Artist Teacher of Voice within the Voice and Opera Faculty of the prestigious Shepherd School of Music. Miss Dunn has also served on the faculty of the Opera Theatre and Music Festival of Lucca, Italy, The Brevard Music Festival, The Sarasota Music Festival, and The International Conducting Workshop and Festival, Czech Republic. She has taught master classes at the Aspen Music Festival, Music Academy of the West, Santa Barbara, and The Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, Australia. She recently created The St. Francis School of Music: A Co-curricular Vocal and Instrumental Program, for St. Francis Episcopal Day School, in Houston, Texas. Susan Lorette Dunn currently lives in Houston with her husband, conductor, Larry Rachleff, and son, Sammy. TRANSLATIONS Chants d’Auvergne (Songs of the Auvergne) by Joseph Canteloube Selections from Series 1-4 Translations provided by DECCA (Avril Bardoni, 1983)

Malarous qu’o uno Fenno Pastourelle (Pastorale) Baïlèro (Bailero) (Wretched the man who has a wife) “Oh, come here to me! Shepherd, yonder across the river, Wretched the man who has a wife, Come across the river! surely you are not having much fun? Wretched the man without one! rep. Come to this side, Sing bailero lero, lero lero lero lero bailero lo. He who hasn’t got one wants one, and we shall talk of serious things, None at all, and are you? He who has one doesn’t! And then for the rest of the day Sing bailero lero, lero lero, etc. Tradera laderi derero, etc. We shall talk about love!” Shepherd, the grass is in fl ower, Happy is the woman “But I cannot get across! Come here to tend your fl ock! Who has the man she needs! rep. Whatever shall I do? Sing bailero lero, lero lero, etc. But happier still is she I have no boat, The grass is better in my fi eld! Who’s managed to stay free! nor bridge to cross the water Bailero lero, lero lero, etc. Tradera laderi derero, etc. nor even a shepherd to love me faithfully!” Shepherd, the river runs between us, “You would soon have a boat and I cannot get across! Lo Fiolairé (The Spinner) were you to be kind to me! Sing bailero lero, lero lero, etc. Then I shall come and fetch you! When I was little You would have a vaulted bridge, Bailero lero, lero lero, etc. I tended the sheep, You would have a shepherd too Ti lira lira lira, etc. to love you faithfully all your life!” I had a distaff Lou Coucut (The Cuckoo) and I took a shepherd, The cuckoo is a beautiful bird; Ti lira lira lira, etc. La Pastoura als Camps (The Shepherdess in the Fields) there are none more beautiful For tending my sheep than the cuckoo that sings, When the shepherdess He asks me for a kiss, than my cuckoo, than your cuckoo, rep. went to the pastures, rep. Ti lira lira, etc. than anybody’s cuckoo! to tend her little ewes, Say, have you not heard the cuckoo sing? No skinfl int I, tra la la, etc. I give him two instead! to tend her little ewes, Yonder at the bottom of the meadow, Ti lira lira, etc. a fi ne gentleman came by, rep. stands a scarlet fl owering tree, and looked at her, and there the cuckoo sings, tra la la, etc. and looked at her. He’s my cuckoo, he’s your cuckoo, rep. he’s everybody’s cuckoo. “Ah! Let me look at you! rep. Say, have you not heard the cuckoo sing? You are so pretty! And certainly if the all the cuckoos Tra la la, etc. chose to wear bells, You are so pretty!” they would sound like fi ve hundred trumpets! “Then tie up your horse, rep. He’s my cuckoo, etc. tie your horse to this tree, tra la la, etc. Tie your horse to this tree!” But just when he thought the maid was his, rep. She ran away. tra la la, etc. She ran away! THE SHEPHERD SOCIETY This performance is made possible in part by members of The Shepherd Society. Their gifts provide merit-based scholarships that attract the most promising young classical musicians to study at Rice. With your support, we can continue to off er our stu­ dents the highest level of training from the fi nest faculty in the fi eld. We hope you’ll take a moment to review the opportunities for support and the benefi ts of membership at www.theshepherdsociety.org. To join The Shepherd Society, call 713-348-3492 or visit the website above.

UPCOMING ORCHESTRA EVENT

*SOLD OUT* – Fri., Apr. 25, 8:00 p.m. – SHEPHERD SCHOOL SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, RICE CHORALE and HOUSTON MASTERWORKS CHORUS Larry Rachleff , conductor PROGRAM: Strauss - Don Juan, Op. 20; Dvořák - Cello Concerto in B Minor, Op. 104 (Coleman Itzkoff , soloist; Thomas Hong, conductor); and Ravel - Daphnis & Chloé, Suites No. 1 & 2. Stude Concert Hall. Tickets are required (no charge). For tickets call 713-348-8000. *This event is SOLD OUT and no more tickets are available.*