THE COLORADO COLLEGE MUSIC DEPARTMENT Presents The
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THE COLORADO COLLEGE MUSIC DEPARTMENT Presents The Colorado College Chamber Orchestra Fall Concert Daniel Brink, conductor December 11, 2012 7:30 PM Packard Hall PROGRAM Don Quixote Overture No. 10 in G Georg Philipp Telemann (“Burlesque de Quixote”) (1681-1765) I. Overture II. Awakening of Don Quixote III. His Attack in the Windmills IV. Sighs of Love for Princess Aline V. Sancho Panza Swindled VI. Rosinante Galloping VII. The Gallop of Sancho Panza’s Mule VIII. Don Quixote at Rest Fantasia on “Greensleeves” R. Vaughan-Williams Adopted from the opera Sir John in Love (1872-1958) String Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 51 Antonin Dvořák Allegro ma non troppo (1841-1904) Meghann Maurer and Patricia Andrews, violin Nathaniel Bookout, viola Gautam Webb, cello Masques et Bergamasques , Op. 112 Gabriel Fauré I. Ouverture (1845-1924) II. Menuet III. Gavotte IV. Pastorale Tres Viejos Aires de Danza Joaquín Rodrigo Pastoral (1901-1999) Minué Jiga THE COLORADO COLLEGE CHAMBER ORCHESTRA Violin Bass Bassoon Meghann Maurer* Suzi Kang Sarah Schroeder Trisha Andrews David Dymek* Christopher Harding Nick Fikre Junmin Cho Harp Horn Vanda Skadden** Julia Pendleton-Knoll Leigh Adams** Judy Maestrelli** Alexei Desmarais Flute Trumpet Lauren Beiber Anna Lee Kris Grant Ross Calhoun Daniel Butler Ellen Rigell Emily Glaser Kenyon Fatt Timpani Viola Oboe Trevor Johnson Nate Bookout Bryan Harding Rebecca Harrison** Re Evitt* Cello Clarinet Bobby Meller Andrew Pope Gautam Webb Kristen Wells Erin Conner Elliot Mamet Isabel Norwood *CC Faculty, Staff, Alumni **Colorado Springs Community NOTES The genre of the orchestral suite emerged in the early Seventeenth Century and has inspired western composers ever since. Originally conceived as a set of dances of various national origins, related by a uniform key center, it evolved to include a wide variety of other forms, sometimes excluding dance forms altogether. Miguel Cervantes’ 1605 masterpiece, Don Quixote, has inspired many musical interpretations in the last four hundred years, from a Baroque ballet by Boismortier in 1743 to Richard Strauss’ famous tone poem from 1897, to Mitch Leigh’s Man of La Mancha in 1965. The prolific Baroque master Georg Philipp Telemann composed his orchestral suite based on Cervantes’ novel in 1761. Unlike his contemporary, Bach, Telemann was very fond of Opera and was highly successful in the genre. He characteristically infused some of his talent for drama into his instrumental work. The work heard this evening is a “programme overture” and contains music from Telemann’s Don Quixote opera, also of 1761. The first movement takes the form of a French Overture, a genre Telemann made popular in Germany. “The Awakening of Don Quixote” is written in a pastoral style, and subtle musical cues suggest the story’s Spanish setting. In “His Attack on the Windmills,” the aggressive but playful music depicts the hero’s famous charge at what he believes are giants. The next two movements feature two-note motifs. In the first, “Sighs of Love for Princess Aline,” the two notes descend as though sighing. In “Sancho Panza Swindled,” the two-note motif is turned upside down and played for comic effect. Then comes music dedicated to Don Quixote’s horse and Sancho Panza’s mule. A moderately paced minuet depicts Rosinante, Don Quixote’s loyal, but elderly, horse. “The Gallop of Sancho Panza’s Mule” acts as a dawdling trio section to Rosinante’s minuet. The title of the final movement, “Don Quixote at Rest,” suggests a slow ending to the suite. On the contrary, it is a lively dash that speeds along like the adventurous dreams and delusions of Cervantes’ most famous hero. The Fantasia on Greensleeves is the only work on this evening’s program which is not part of a suite. It is however, like the Telemann, extracted from an opera. Ralph Vaughan-Williams spent much of his early career collecting English folk songs, preserving this musical heritage for future generations, and using the styles and themes from traditional songs in his own compositions. Vaughan-Williams’ 1929 Opera, Sir John in Love, is based on Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor and it is from this opera that the Fantasia is taken. It freely borrows from the traditional Greensleeves melody, combining it with an East Anglian folk song which Vaughan-Williams had collected during his field work. Dvořák’s Opus 51 String Quartet, dubbed the “slavonic” quartet, was written in 1878-1879 when the composer’s fame was spreading quickly. He was being encouraged by his German mentors to abandon his home in Prague, settle in Vienna, and turn his attention to writing music in the German mold. In this quartet, Dvořák asserts his Czech identity, calling on the rhythms and forms of his native culture, a value which characterizes much of his substantial output. The Allegro ma non troppo is a charming first movement, devoid of the typical serious quality of an opening movement, exploring instead Dvořák’s expert craftsmanship with warm and gentle themes, and including a rhythm from his homeland, a polka. Fauré’s Masques et Bergamasques, Op. 112, is a twentieth-century musical homage to the world of the fêtes galantes of the eighteenth century. Written quite late in Fauré’s life, it is commonly heard as an orchestral suite, but it was first commissioned by Albert I, Prince of Monaco and was designed to accompany a one-act divertissement, a danced and sung entertainment, with a scenario by René Fauchois inspired by Paul Verlaine, relating how members of a commedia dell-arte troupe would spy on the amorous encounters of aristocrats in its audience. The work was originally in eight movements, involving chorus and tenor soloist. The four purely instrumental movements of the original have been extracted to form the orchestral suite, and they hearken back to the dance-based forms of the early Baroque orchestral suite. Fauré reportedly said of Masques et Bergamasques that “it is like the impression you get from the paintings of Watteau.” Joaquín Rodrigo was born in Sagunto, Valencia, and almost completely lost his sight at the age of three after contracting diphtheria. He began his musical studies at the age of eight, and went on to become one of the most successful Spanish composers of the Twentieth Century. Rodrigo had nostalgia for courtly music of days long past, and this character pervades the Tres Viejos Aires de Danza (Three Old Dance Airs). Of the three movements, the ‘Pastoral’ was written, for piano, in 1926, while Rodrigo was still in Valencia. In 1927 he began studies in Paris with Dukas at the École normale de Musique; it was there, in 1929, that he orchestrated the ‘Pastoral’ and added a ‘Minué’ and a ‘Jiga’. The calmness of the ‘Pastoral’ is succeeded by the more piquant wit of the two later movements, and for all that one might hear echoes of some of the music he must have been hearing in Paris, the whole has a characteristically ‘Rodrigoesque’ quality. To quote Rodrigo himself, “My cup may be small, but it is from my own cup that I drink”. - Dan Brink ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Susan Grace, Artist in Residence CC String Faculty: Jerilyn Jorgensen, Margaret Miller, Katherine Knight, and Joseph Head The Colorado College Performance Faculty Neil Hesse, Music Department Paraprofessional Stormy Burns, Music Department Office Coordinator Catherine Bailie, Music Department Events Coordinator UPCOMING EVENTS IN THE COLORADO COLLEGE MUSIC DEPARTMENT Unless indicated, all concerts are in Packard Hall, are free, and require no tickets. Music at Midday Wednesday, December 12 ~ 12:15 PM Bluegrass Ensemble Keith Reed, director Thursday, December 13 ~ 7:30 PM Senior Recital Angela Victoria Komar, alto Saturday, December 15 ~ 7:30 PM Tunjung Sari Balinese Music and Dance I. Made Lasmawan, director Sunday, December 16 ~ 3:00 PM http://www.coloradocollege.edu/academics/dept/music/ For more event information: http://www.coloradocollege.edu/newsevents/calendar/ .