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The overture opens with a brash flourish from the Roman Carnival Overture, Op. 9 carnival music from Act II of Cellini. The subsequent HECTOR BERLIOZ (1803 - 1869) English horn melody comes originally a duet for Cellini and his beloved, Teresa, heard at the end of Act I. he aphorism “Life imitates art” applies perfectly to The melody first sings first alone, and then in canon, Tthe account of Berlioz’ ill-fated attempts to stage accompanied by a festive, jingling chivaree from the his opera Benvenuto Cellini. The pairing of composer orchestra’s brass and percussion sections. Swirling and subject seemed to be perfect match – Berlioz’ woodwind flourishes signal the return of the saltarello fiery Romantic idealism found particular resonance in carnival music in the overture’s main Allegro, characterized the swashbuckling escapades of the sixteenth-century by witty rapid-fire interplay between the woodwind and Florentine goldsmith (whose autobiography remains one string sections. The duet music returns in a long fugato of the raciest literary works of the Renaissance). While section over the underlying saltarello rhythm, building the original libretto was rejected for performance, a new to an impressive climax that brings back the carnival one by Léon de Wally and Henry Auguste Barbier was music in full force. The dance music’s muscular energy approved by the Opéra in 1835 and Berlioz set to wins the day, joyfully frolicking to the final blazing A work to bring Cellini to life onstage. major chord, clothed in Berlioz’ brilliant orchestration.▪ Berlioz’ trials and tribulations in staging Benvenuto Cellini seem to eerily parallel the goldsmith’s difficulties Piano Concerto No. 5 (Egyptian) in casting the great equestrian statue of Perseus, which CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS (1835 - 1921) forms the focal point of the opera. Faced with a less than stellar libretto, problems with the censors, singers either e was born in the same year as Mark Twain and unwilling or unable to cope with the musical complexities HAndrew Carnegie; he died in the same year as of the work, and an indifferent and incompetent Enrico Caruso. He knew Hector Berlioz, John Philip conductor, Berlioz must have felt like his hero, whom Sousa and Igor Stravinsky. He was a child prodigy, the Pope commanded to cast the enormous bronze playing concertos by Mozart and Beethoven in the statue in one day, or be hanged for his crimes. In the Salle Pleyel in Paris at the age of ten. He was a virtuoso end, Cellini was an abject failure at its first performance pianist as well as a prominent conductor and organist – in 1838 – Berlioz noted that the audience “hissed with Franz Liszt called him “the best organist in the world.” admirable energy and unanimity.” The tenor in the lead He traveled widely, performing in Britain, Russia, North role quit after the third performance, prompting the Africa, South America, and the . He wrote management to shut down the production, leaving the the first original film score in 1908. He was an avid composer depressed and discouraged. student of mathematics, philosophy, archaeology and Berlioz knew that Cellini contained some of his astronomy. He was fluent in both Latin and Greek and best music, which deserved a better fate than the Paris wrote books of poetry, philosophy, and astronomy as audience had given it. No stranger to musical repurposing well as several plays. (his Symphonie Fantastique and Harold in both Despite his many accomplishments, most music contain material from earlier works), in 1844 Berlioz history texts dismiss Camille Saint-Saëns in a sentence created a concert overture entitled Roman Carnival or two. His popularity with the general public rests from portions of the music from Cellini. Roman on The Carnival of the Animals (subtitled “Grand Carnival became one of his most popular works (he Fantasie Zoölogique”), an occasional piece that he never included it frequently on concerts he conducted), and intended to be heard beyond its first performance. remains so to this day. In the infrequent modern Amongst music critics, he tends to be damned with faint revivals of Benvenuto Cellini, the overture often serves praise – “elegant,” “well-balanced,” “a classical sense of as an instrumental prelude to the second act of the proportion,” “based on Classical models.” Late in his opera, an option originally suggested by the composer. life he was considered something of a reactionary, a

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reputation that still dogs him almost a century after idea and the yearning of the second theme contrasts his death. with the glittering runs, rapid arpeggios and other Yet Saint-Saëns’ music has remained a firm part of virtuoso pianism heard throughout the movement. the concert repertoire. For all the dismissal of his work The second movement Andante starts in a truly as less than profound, many of Saint-Saëns concertos surprising fashion – a passionate and turbulent and works for solo instrument and orchestra remain introduction, which finally relaxes into the Nubian perennial concert staples, beloved of both performers love song of Saint-Saëns Nile journey. The piano and audiences alike. It is true that he based many of his ruminates over ghostly chords in the strings, later joined works on Classical models and was one of the earliest with a lyrical subject in the flute and taken up by the proponents in France of the music of Johann Sebastian other woodwinds. A brief dancelike section appears Bach, but he also wrote numerous symphonic poems over trills in the piano, but mysteriously fades away employing the cyclical forms and transformational over a unison phrase in the orchestra, followed by a procedures pioneered and developed by Hector Berlioz passage reminiscent of the tinkling of small bells. The and Franz Liszt. While his works display a Classical movement as a whole is rhapsodic and improvisatory, sense of balance and order, that characteristic makes and gave the work its nickname. them no less expressive or Romantic. Saint-Saëns’ own The moto perpetuo finale begins quietly in the piano’s words sum up his approach to musical composition: lower register, but builds in strength before exploding in colorful virtuoso fireworks. The energy is almost The artist who does not feel completely unrelenting, with even the more lyrical passages infused satisfied by elegant lines, by harmonious with Romantic ardor. The movement rushes headlong colors, and by a beautiful succession of to its final chords, riding a wave of knuckle-busting chords does not understand the art fingerwork to its thrilling conclusion.▪ of music. Unsurprisingly for such an enquiring mind, he found (1898 - 1937) travel stimulating to both his health – as he grew older, ore conservative aficionados of classical music he became considerably less tolerable of Parisian winters might be somewhat horrified to discover – and to his imagination. He was a frequent visitor M that not only were George Gershwin and Arnold to both Algeria and Egypt, finding that the warmth Schoenberg good friends and tennis partners, but that and calm of those locations inspired his muse. Gershwin had asked the father of atonal serialism for For the 50th anniversary of his Paris debut, composition lessons. Schoenberg politely refused, with Saint-Saëns composed his fifth piano concerto, the memorable reply “I could only ever make of you a written largely while on vacation in Luxor. The third-rate Schoenberg, and you are already a first-rate composer did not attach the nickname “Egyptian,” Gershwin.” Gershwin made a similar plea to Maurice but he did indicate that several features derived Ravel, prompting Ravel to ask how much money from his sojourn by the Nile, including an attempt Gershwin made in a year. When Gershwin responded to imitate the sound of Egyptian crickets and frogs with a six-figure amount, Ravel memorably quipped, and a quotation from “a Nubian love song that I “Perhaps it is I who should be taking lessons from you!” heard sung by the boatmen on the Nile when I was Gershwin’s desire to learn from Europe’s greatest going downstream in a dahabieh (a shallow-draft composers came from a desire to absorb their Egyptian barge).” techniques into his own musical language. We know The lyrical opening theme of the first movement that Gershwin met Schoenberg’s disciple Alban Berg is heard in the solo piano and then taken up by the in Vienna, and that Gershwin both owned a score to full orchestra. The warm, singing character of this Berg’s Wozzeck and attended the American premiere

12 | theFSO.org PROGRAM NOTES March 23, 2019 of the opera (conducted by Leopold Stokowski) in program associated with the music – and then Philadelphia in 1931. It has even been postulated that proceeded to outline a remarkably specific program Wozzeck strongly influenced Porgy and Bess. While we for the piece: know him best as an inspired craftsman of the immortal tunes of the Great American Songbook that reflect the This new piece, really a rhapsodic ballet, is wit and romance of their lyrics, Gershwin also had a written very freely and is the most modern finger on the pulse of the musical avant-garde, and a music I’ve yet attempted. … The opening careful listener will hear just how well he absorbed the part will be developed in typical French groundbreaking musical trends of his time. style, in the manner of Debussy and the Gershwin’s first foray into concert music (today Six, though the themes are all original. My we would undoubtedly call it a “crossover hit”) was purpose here is to portray the impressions his 1924 premiere of , written for of an American visitor in Paris as he the Paul Whiteman Band and later scored for full strolls about the city, listens to the various symphony orchestra. Walter Damrosch, conductor street noises, and absorbs the French of the New York Philharmonic, heard a performance atmosphere. As in my other orchestral of the Rhapsody and commissioned Gershwin’s compositions, I’ve not endeavored to Piano Concerto in F in 1925. This prompted a present any definite scenes in this music. second commission for an orchestral work from … The rhapsody is programmatic only in Damrosch and the Philharmonic, to be premiered a general impressionistic way, so that the during the orchestra’s 1928 – 1929 season. individual listener can read into the music Gershwin worked on the composition during a trip such episodes as his imagination pictures to Europe in the spring of 1928, a trip where he met for him. … The opening gay section … Stravinsky, Prokofiev, and other cutting-edge composers is followed by a rich “blues” with a strong of the time. His imagination was fueled by contact with rhythmic undercurrent. Our American all aspects of musical life in Europe, given the evidence friend, perhaps after strolling into a café, of his friend, composer and pianist Mario Braggiotti, and having a few drinks, has suddenly who decided to drop in on the Gershwins unannounced succumbed to a spasm of homesickness. while they were staying at Paris’ Hotel Majestic: The harmony here is both more intense and simple than in the preceding pages. Attired in a dressing gown, Gershwin gaily This “blues” rises to a climax followed by ushered me inside with that vague and a coda in which the spirit of the music stunned manner of one who was holding returns to the vivacity and bubbling tightly to the thread of a creative mood. exuberance of the opening part with its Beside his Steinway was a group of bridge impressions of Paris. Apparently, the tables covered with all sizes and makes of homesick American, having left the café French taxi horns … “I’m looking for the and reached the open air, has downed right horn pitch for the street scene of a his spell of the blues and once again is ballet I’m writing. Calling it An American an alert spectator of Parisian life. At the in Paris. Lots of fun.” conclusion, the street noises and French atmosphere are triumphant. Gershwin finished the work at the beginning of August. In an interview with the magazine Musical The portion of the work to which Gershwin doesn’t America, given late that month, Gershwin emphasized refer in the interview occurs after the “blues,” intended that An American in Paris did not have a specific to dispel his wandering expat’s homesickness:

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a wonderful imitation of a Dixieland band, which starts on vacation at Saint-Jean-de-Luz that summer, he as a brash trumpet solo over an expanded rhythm played a rather innocuous melody for his guest, the section, and builds into a raucous, uninhibited New music critic Gustave Samazeuilh. “Don’t you think this Orleans stomp for the entire orchestra. This ushers in a theme has a certain insistent quality?” Ravel inquired. return of the “blues” theme in full cinematic splendor, “I’m going to try and repeat it a number of times without leading to the final rush into the boisterous sounds of any development, gradually increasing the orchestra as Parisian city life – including four of those taxi horns.▪ best I can.” That project bore the working title Fandango, but Ravel felt that it did not fit the character of the music Boléro and changed it to Boléro. The first performance in MAURICE RAVEL (1875 - 1937) November 1928 at the Paris Opera was a huge success. Once Rubinstein’s performance rights expired, the work n old joke from the heyday of radio states “An took on a second life in the concert hall, where is heard intellectual is anyone who can hear Rossini’s A the most often today. William Tell Overture and not think of The Lone Ravel was as surprised as anyone that Boléro became Ranger.” For the generations who were born after that such a resounding audience favorite. He considered it long-running radio program, that joke might require more a compositional exercise than an attempt at artistic some explanation, and perhaps cries out for a more expression. His later explanation of the work is more relevant contemporary version. For the Baby Boomer dismissive than informative: generation, it could be “An intellectual is anyone who can hear Ravel’s Boléro and not think of Bo Derek.” “I am particularly anxious that there Those moviegoers “of a certain age” will have no should be no misunderstanding as to trouble recalling the bead-tressed vixen of Blake my Boléro. It is an experiment in a very Edwards’ 10 jogging on a sunlit beach towards the special and limited direction, and it camera in slow motion. should not be suspected of aiming at Inevitably the passage of time has rendered this achieving anything different from, or version of the joke rather passé as well (Millennials anything more than, it actually does would undoubtedly ask “Who’s Bo Derek?”), but, like achieve. Before the first performance, I Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and Orff’s Carmina Burana, issued a warning to the effect that what Ravel’s singular masterpiece has taken on a life of its I had written was a piece…consisting own in our popular culture. In addition to providing wholly of orchestral texture without a soundtrack for Dudley Moore’s midlife crisis, Boléro music—of one long, very gradual underscored the fantastical animation of the “Evolution” crescendo. There are no contrasts, and episode in Bruno Bozzetto’s madcap Fantasia parody there is practically no invention except Allegro non troppo, and left an indelible impression on in the plan and the manner of the a worldwide audience in Jayne Torvill and Christopher execution. The themes are impersonal— Dean’s gold medal performance in pairs figure skating folk tunes of the usual Spanish-Arabian at the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo. kind. Whatever may have been said to Boléro sprang to life from the idea of dance and the contrary, the orchestral treatment is movement, and was originally intended as a ballet. simple and straightforward throughout, Before leaving for a concert tour of the United States without the slightest attempt at in early 1928, Maurice Ravel gave his word that he virtuosity.... I have done exactly what I would write a new work for the dancer Ida Rubinstein have set out to do, and it is for listeners and her company for the upcoming fall season. While to take it or leave it.”

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The construction of the work is very simple. A single With each change in instrumentation, the volume builds snare drum taps out a two-measure bolero rhythm, imperceptibly. Boléro remains obstinately in C major, which will continue through the entire 16-minute until, just at the climax, the tonality shifts from C major length of the work. The solo flute enters with a sinuous to an even brighter E major for eight measures. The melody in two parts. This melody is repeated, unaltered orchestra relentlessly pounds out the snare drum rhythm and unmodulated, by solo instruments and then with in the final bars, embellished with wild glissandi in the groups of instruments. Strings gradually switch from trombones and saxophones before the brutal, snarling pizzicato to arco, and divide into harmony parts within final chords.▪ each section, creating an increasingly lush string texture.

Encore Feb 23, 2019

Rossini Barber of Seville Overture

Program Notes by Dr. David Cole © 2019

r. David C. Cole, the program annotator for the Flint Symphony Orchestra, has had a distinguished Dcareer as a conductor, violinist, music educator and writer. He served as the conductor of the Southwest Florida Symphony’s Youth Symphony, the top ensemble of the three orchestras in the Southwest Florida Symphony Youth Orchestra program, from 2012 – 2017. He also served as the conductor for the Symphony’s Young People’s Concerts and Majors for Minors programs, and he has also served as the Symphony’s Education Director and Youth Orchestra Manager. In his tenure with the Southwest Florida Symphony’s Youth Symphony, he led them in appearances at in in April of 2014, and at the Capital Orchestra Festival at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. in February of 2016. Dr. Cole’s recent guest conducting appearances include concerts with the Marquette Symphony (Michigan), the Colombian National Conservatory Orchestra, the Pleven Philharmonic (Bulgaria), the Orquestra de Camera de Bellas Artes (Mexico City), the Baylor Symphony Orchestra, the El Alto Municipal Youth Orchestra (Bolivia) and the Cincinnati Metropolitan Orchestra.

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