PROGRAM NOTES Rhapsody Downtown Dubuque LISTEN HERE

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SAT Oct 5 at 7:30pm SUN Oct 6 at 2:00pm WILLIAM INTRILIGATOR, Music Director & Conductor Five Flags Theater PROGRAM NOTES Rhapsody Downtown Dubuque LISTEN HERE https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6lw3k1Lz7DUOMpJBEx47r5

Overture to The School for Scandal In 1931, Samuel Barber, age 21, was the golden boy of Philadelphia’s newly established Curtis Institute of Music. He had entered the school, today ranked at the top of American conservatories, as a charter student when he was 14 and immediately impressed his teachers with his precocity and his multiple talents. Not only was he a pianist and budding composer, but, as the nephew of Louise Homer, the renowned contralto star of the Metropolitan Opera, he possessed what developed into a beautiful baritone voice. The Curtis faculty allowed him to pursue a triple major in composition, piano, and voice. That year, Barber won the coveted Bearns Prize for musical composition granted by Columbia Samuel Barber University; its $1200 award — a small fortune during the depths of the Depression — enabled b. 1910, West Chester, Pennsylvania him to spend the summer in Cadegliano on Lake Lugano in the idyllic Italian Lakes district. d. 1981, New York City There he created his effervescent Overture to The School for Scandal, the first of his orchestral compositions to win a place in the standard repertoire. Barber was an insatiable reader of Instrumentation: European and American literature, and this overture was his musical response to Richard 2 flutes, piccolo, 2 oboes, Brinsley Sheridan’s wickedly funny English comedy of manners of 1777, rather than a prelude English horn, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, to any particular production. 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, The Overture was accepted as Barber’s graduation thesis for Curtis, and it won him a second timpani, percussion, Bearns Prize. Again the young composer used it to spend the summer of 1933 in Europe and harp, celeste, strings thus missed the opportunity to hear his new work premiered by The Philadelphia Orchestra before 8, 000 people at its summer home on August 30, 1933. Soon it was being performed by other prominent orchestras and conductors, including Arturo Toscanini who became one of Barber’s greatest champions. After that, Barber’s career took off like a rocket. This expertly crafted work — a classical sonata form with an opening exposition of two engaging and highly contrasted themes, a development of those themes, a recapitulation of the opening, and a closing coda of sizzling excitement — keeps changing tempos, yet maintains its relentless forward drive. The opening theme in the violins perfectly captures the satirical high spirits of Sheridan’s play. But it is the beautiful, pastoral second theme — sung by the oboe, Barber’s favorite orchestral instrument throughout his career — that lingers in the memory.

Refractions Dubuque native Adam O’Dell has been making waves ever since he graduated summa cum laude in composition from Clarke University. A composer, pianist, and music theorist, he has now completed a master’s degree from Bowling Green State University, and is currently studying for a doctorate in composition at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore under the direction of Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Kevin Puts. He has also worked in sound design and scoring for theatrical productions around America, including at Adam O’Dell Washington’s Kennedy Center. b. 1992, Dubuque, Iowa As a music theorist, O’Dell has been working in the pioneering field of bio-musicology, which Instrumentation: 2 flutes, piccolo, 2 oboes, investigates how humans respond to music physiologically as well as emotionally. As he 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, explains, “Numerous studies have found connections between humans and ‘musical instinct,’ 2 bassoons, 4 horns, which further aids our knowledge of why music has so many physical and mental health 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, benefits.” timpani, percussion, strings Certainly, his new orchestral work Refractions is bound to have a beneficial effect on listeners. Winner of the ABLAZE Orchestral Masters Composition Competition in 2016, it has recently been recorded by the Brno Philharmonic in the Czech Republic. O’Dell describes this exhilarating and beautifully scored work as follows: “Refractions is a tone poem inspired by white light flowing through a prism and the resultant transformations. There is indeed a kaleidoscopic aspect to the movement of the combinations of lines, while a background tonal basis enables dissonances to take on real power; and enables the tonal — or mainly tonal — sonorities to take on an internal glow, as well as — at the climatic moment — a real sense of triumphalism.”

Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra Benjamin Britten’s The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra is heard more often at youth concerts than on “adult” subscription programs. But that is unfortunate because beyond its original educational purpose, it is simply a marvelous musical work: a series of charmingly virtuosic mood pieces, imaginatively demonstrating the varied colors of symphonic instruments. The most prominent and perhaps the most gifted of England’s 20th-century composers, Britten wrote the work in 1946 as the score for a British documentary film The Instruments of the Orchestra. He took its majestic theme from a hornpipe dance written by the great English Benjamin Britten Baroque composer Henry Purcell (1659–1695) as part of the incidental music for the play b. 1913, Lowestoft, England Abdelazer or The Moor’s Revenge. Though its subtitle Variations and Fugue on a Theme of d. 1976, Aldeburgh, England Purcell tells exactly how this piece is constructed, Britten found that much too intellectual and Instrumentation: always preferred it be called The Young Person’s Guide. 2 flutes, piccolo, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, Its impressive theme is first played grandly by the full orchestra, then by each instrumental 4 horns, 2 trumpets, family: the woodwinds, brass, strings, and percussion. Then 13 brief variations show off the 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, unique timbres and expressive capabilities of each instrument, beginning with flutes and percussion, harp, strings piccolo and ending with the percussion family. Even the usually neglected double bass and tuba are given their moments to shine. Britten finishes with a brilliant, high-speed fugue, in which — to reinforce their identities — the instruments re-enter in the same order in which they were presented in the variations. Under the fugue, the grand Purcell theme emerges in the brass for a splendorous conclusion.

Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini Sergei Rachmaninoff himself played the world premiere of his now-beloved Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini on November 7, 1934, but not in his native Russia. Instead, the celebrated pianist/composer was in Baltimore backed by The Philadelphia Orchestra because the Russian Revolution of 1917 had forced him to flee his country at age 44 and begin his career again in the West. Once primarily a composer and conductor, he now became a touring piano virtuoso — one of the 20th century’s greatest — to support his family. America, with its insatiable demand for his concert appearances, made him richer Sergei Rachmaninoff than he’d ever been in Russia. But he never got over his homesickness. b. 1873, Oneg, Novgorod, Russia His music, too, remained rooted in Russia. And while audiences loved his lushly d. 1943, Beverly Hills, California Romantic melodies, many musicians and critics scorned him as out of date. Pondering his Instrumentation: predicament, he wrote: “Perhaps the incessant practice and eternal rush inseparable from 2 flutes, piccolo, 2 oboes, life as a concert artist takes too much toll of my strength; perhaps I feel that the kind of music English horn, 2 clarinets, I care to write is not acceptable today. . . . For when I left Russia, I left behind me the desire 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani to compose: losing my country I lost myself also. To the exile whose musical roots, traditions, percussion, harp, strings and background have been annihilated, there remains no desire for self-expression.” But the desire for self-expression did remain, and in 1934 it brought forth the brilliantly imaginative Paganini Rhapsody. The work springs from the 24th Caprice for unaccompanied violin by a virtuoso of another age and instrument, Nicolò Paganini. Rachmaninoff took Paganini’s spry two-part tune and built 24 imaginative variations on it. Most of these whiz by at high speed, so listeners should not struggle to keep count, but simply absorb the work as a continuous flight of fancy. Providing structural shape, Rachmaninoff grouped the variations into three larger units, making a mini-concerto: variations one through ten forming a fast “movement,” 12 through 18 a slow movement, and 19 through 24 a virtuoso finale. Here are a few highlights to listen for. A theme-and-variations composition usually begins with the unadorned theme itself. But here Rachmaninoff gives a witty preview — just the teasing first notes of each measure — before the violins sing the theme for us. At the seventh variation, the tempo slows a bit, and the piano intones in stark chords the melody of the “Dies Irae” chant from the Catholic mass for the dead; this somber tune was a signature theme throughout Rachmaninoff’s music. It returns again in the tenth variation amid dazzling orchestral music, along with some syncopated brass writing that sounds more American than Russian. The twelfth variation opens the middle section with a dream-like minuet in 3/4 time. The shadows deepen in the sixteenth and seventeenth variations as the piano gropes for light at the end of the tunnel. This is gloriously achieved in the golden sunlight of the eighteenth variation: the work’s most beloved and surely one of the most gorgeous tunes ever written. From this tranquil oasis the music builds in speed, excitement, and virtuoso display for the soloist until the winsome surprise ending.

Rhapsody in Blue Like Mozart, George Gershwin was a natural. His Russian-Jewish emigré family did not acquire a piano until he was 12 years old, yet within a short time he was playing the songs he heard around him with intuitive harmonizations and the beginnings of the rhythmic flair that would become a trademark. At 15, he quit school to become a “song plugger” for the publishing firm Remick’s on West 28th Street, immortalized as “Tin Pan Alley.” While pounding out other people’s songs, he began to write his own and was soon contributing melodies for Broadway musicals. By his mid-20s, he was one of the leading composers on Broadway. George Gershwin But what set Gershwin apart from his peers — Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, Cole Porter — b. 1898, Brooklyn, New York was his appetite for musical growth. If he had already conquered Broadway with his music, d. 1937, Beverly Hills, California why not the classical concert hall? But in 1924 when Rhapsody in Blue was introduced, Instrumentation: American composers were hardly welcomed by American concert impresarios. As Gershwin 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, biographer Edward Jablonski wrote: “It was a time of musical conservatism, when in order bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, to have your works performed in Carnegie Hall, it seemed essential to be foreign-born or 2 alto saxophones, tenor saxophone, 3 horns, dead — preferably both. Gershwin, more than any other American composer of the period, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, helped to ameliorate the situation.” tuba, timpani, percussion, strings That Rhapsody in Blue became an American legend from its very first performance is attributable to two factors. First, Gershwin was a pianist of spectacular charisma and virtuosity who could present his music better than anyone else. And, more importantly, he had the genius to tap into the spirit of his country and his times and translate it into music that possessed, as Frederick Jacobi said, “that high attribute of making people fall in love with it.” Instead of imitating European models, he drew on American popular song and dance, African American jazz, and the rhythms of the New York streets to create a potent new hybrid for the concert hall. The occasion was a highly publicized concert on February 12, 1924 at New York’s Aeolian Hall devised by band director Paul Whiteman and given the portentous title “Experiment in Modern Music.” Whiteman wanted to demonstrate to the New York musical establishment that American jazz had come of age and was worthy of the same respect as European art music. Although Whiteman had talked vaguely with Gershwin about writing a piano concerto for the occasion, Gershwin didn’t actually learn he was on the program until he read about it in The New York Tribune on January 3rd! Panicked, he called Whiteman who agreed there was not sufficient time to create a full-scale concerto and suggested a shorter free-form rhapsody instead. To help Gershwin meet his tight deadline, he offered the services of composer-arranger Ferde Grofé, who orchestrated the work as fast as it emerged from Gershwin’s pen. The title referred not just to the blue notes of jazz, but also to the composer’s love of the visual arts; having recently attended a Whistler exhibit with paintings such as “Nocturne in Black and Gold,” he chose “Rhapsody in Blue.” On that snowy Sunday afternoon, Whiteman’s over-long concert seemed to be turning into a bust as the audience dribbled toward the exits. Then for the 22nd and penultimate number, Gershwin strode to the keyboard. With that famous clarinet glissando, he immediately riveted the audience’s attention, and his buoyant composition and high-energy playing proclaimed a fresh and very American new voice. Incidentally, the wailing blues- style of playing that clarinet opener was not in Gershwin’s original score. Fooling around in rehearsal, Whiteman’s clarinetist Ross Gorman improvised the jazzy slide, and a delighted Gershwin urged him to keep it and add as much wail as possible.