VERMONT YOUTH ORCHESTRA in its forty-sixth season Troy Peters, Music Director and Conductor Friday, September 26, 2008 Sunday, September 28, 2008 8:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m. Harwood Union High School The Flynn Center for the Performing Moretown, Vermont Arts Burlington, Vermont PROGRAM “Vive la France” Emmanuel Chabrier Joyeuse marche François Borne Carmen Fantasy (orchestrated by Raymond Meylan) Kelly Herrmann, flute Claude Debussy “Festivals” from Nocturnes Maurice Ravel Concerto in G major for Piano and Orchestra I. Allegramente Samantha Angstman, piano INTERMISSION Camille Saint-Saëns Bacchanal from Samson and Delilah, Op. 47 Alexander Borodin Symphony No. 2 in B minor Allegro Scherzo: Prestissimo Andante — Finale: Allegro PROGRAM NOTES by Troy Peters Chabrier: Joyeuse marche Although he displayed great musical promise as a child, Emmanuel Chabrier (1841-1894) became a civil servant in France’s Ministry of the Interior. Working in Paris, he befriended leading musicians and painters of the time, including Manet (who painted Chabrier’s portrait twice). Seeing Wagner’s opera, Tristan and Isolde, on an 1880 trip to Germany so inspired Chabrier that he decided to quit his job and devote his life to music. Like much of Chabrier’s music, Joyeuse marche (“Joyful March”) was written for piano and later orchestrated by the composer. He conducted its premiere to open an 1888 festival devoted to his music at Angers in the Loire valley. The march was a hit, and the festival ended up being a highpoint of Chabrier’s brief career, as he was just beginning to struggle with the mental illness that would soon make him unable to compose. Borne: Carmen Fantasy By the end of the 19th century, French craftsmen had made many improvements in the construction of flutes, enabling previously unimaginable technical feats. These innovations, along with the groundbreaking teaching of Paul Taffanel at the Paris Conservatoire, spurred many French composers to create works highlighting the new brilliance and virtuosity. Flutist François Borne (1840-1920) wrote many such display pieces, but his Carmen Fantasy (1900) is the only one that has remained in the repertoire. Virtuoso fantasias on themes from popular operas were common in the late 19th century, allowing instrumentalists to show off using tunes which were already known to the audience — and Bizet’s Carmen is full of popular tunes. Borne’s brilliant fantasy works its way through the music of Carmen’s first entrance, the “fate” theme, the cigarette girls’ song from Act I, the especially well-known Habañera, and the exciting Gypsy Dance. Then, as he races to the end, Borne includes a brief statement of the most famous theme not yet heard, the Toreador Song. Debussy: “Festivals” from Nocturnes Only a few composers had a more revolutionary impact on the history of music than Claude Debussy (1862-1918). The atmospheric and evocative sounds of his Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun made him instantly famous in 1894. Debussy had created a new sonic palette, which he continued to explore in his next major orchestral work, Nocturnes (1897-99). After initially imagining this triptych of pieces as a concerto for the Belgian violinist Eugène Ysaÿe, he came to realize that the music lacked the virtuoso display to feature a soloist. A nighttime walk through Paris’ Bois de Boulogne inspired “Festivals,” as Debussy caught glimpses of distant lights and swarming crowds through the trees. In the composer’s own words, the music “portrays the restless dancing rhythms of the night sky, interspersed with sudden flashes of light; the episode of the procession – a dazzling and fantastic vision – passes through the festival, becoming a part of it. But the background remains persistently the same: the festival, its mixture of music and luminous dust, participating in cosmic rhythms.” Ravel: Piano Concerto in G major (first movement) Although he is widely regarded as an imaginative master of orchestration, Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) was a pianist who never really played in an orchestra. From his engineer father, however, he inherited a passion for figuring out how things worked, so the nuances of orchestral detail fascinated him. Generations of later composers have drawn inspiration from studying his orchestral scores. Ravel had planned to play his G major Piano Concerto on a 1928 American concert tour, but he did not finish writing it until three years later. By then, his health had begun to decline – “The concerto is nearly finished and I am not far from being so myself,” he wrote to a friend. So Ravel decided to conduct the 1932 premiere instead, with pianist Marguerite Long taking over as soloist. The first movement is suffused with harmonic and rhythmic echoes of jazz, which had become very popular in 1920s Paris. Saint-Saëns: Bacchanal from Samson and Delilah, Op. 47 Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921) was a prodigious musical talent on the level of Mozart or Mendelssohn. When he was eleven years old, he challenged his Paris audience to name any of the thirty-two Beethoven piano sonatas, which he would then play from memory. Although he went on to become a revered elder statesman of French music, he never lost his youthful sense of humor and loved showing off. After working for nearly a decade on his opera, Samson and Delilah, Saint-Saëns was disappointed to find that no French opera house would produce it, because its treatment of a Biblical story was potentially controversial. Franz Liszt intervened on Saint-Saëns’ behalf, however, and the opera was staged in Germany in 1877, initiating wider international acclaim for the composer. The Bacchanal evocatively depicts a drunken Philistine celebration in the Temple of Dagon (which Samson will later knock to the ground with his superhuman strength). Borodin: Symphony No. 2 in B minor The illegitimate son of a Russian prince, Alexander Borodin (1833-1887) inherited his name from one of the prince’s serfs and spent his childhood in poverty. Eventually hard work paid off, however, and he made historic discoveries in chemistry and founded the world’s first medical school for women. Meanwhile, he was one of the world’s greatest part-time composers. Composing evenings and weekends, he made significant contributions to music history as a member of the revolutionary group of Russian composers known as “The Five.” Borodin’s legacy as an orchestral composer lies chiefly in his Second Symphony, which he worked on intermittently from 1869 to 1876. Although the symphony has been criticized as being episodic, it is also brilliantly orchestrated and full of memorable moments. The stern opening of the first movement recurs several times, but most of the movement is vigorous and carefree. The Mendelssohnian Scherzo is driving and energetic, with a beautifully languorous middle section. The lush, lyrical third movement leads without pause into the rhythmic and optimistic finale. .