Philharmonic Concert

carthage music department presents

Philharmonic Concert Dr. E. Edward Kawakami, conductor with 2022 Concerto Competition Winner Katiann Nelson ‘22

Saturday, May 14, 2022 | 7:30 p.m. | A. F. Siebert Chapel

program Academic Festival Overture, Op. 80

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)

The Piano Concerto in C-sharp minor, Op. 45 I. Allegro moderato Katiann Nelson ‘22, piano

Amy Beach (1867-1944)

Two Mexican Dances Juventino Rosas (1868-1894) I. Flores de Romana arr. Alexandra Dee II. Juanita William Dowell ‘22, guest conductor Firebird Suite (1919) IV. Berceuse V. Finale

Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)

philharmonic personnel Violin 1 Azniv Khaligian** Lee Fulkerson* Katrina Briselden Emma Conran Violin 2 Ashlynne Edwards** Julia Rieckmann Claire Guenther Riley Conway Eleanor Riley Viola Sam Gomberg* Megan Baumeister Genevieve Zauhar Megan Baumeister Meghan Keifer-Zagar Elena Cordoba Olivia Carson Cello William Dowell* Grace Hill Zoey Kurka Lily Lourigan Brian Dean Abby Roushia

Bass Sydney Edwards* Flute Bailey Schneyr* Emma Eckes (piccolo)* Gabriela Booth Oboe Hannah Wong* Amber Ward Clarinet Katiann Nelson* Zach Ward* Lexy Klawonn Bassoon Bryan Weiss*

Trombone Angela Barone* Seyi Ajibade Samuel Hoopingarner Tuba Drake DeBoer* Timpani Henry Meyer* Percussion Justin Hall Erik Wilson Harp Azniv Khaligian Anne Morse-Hambrock

Horn Lena Welch* Sophia Figura Trumpet Caroline Lilly* Colin Conway

* principal ** concertmaster

program notes The Piano Concerto in C-sharp minor, Op. 45 Program notes by Katiann Nelson ‘22 Compositions by Amy Beach, heart-breakingly beautiful and remarkable in both their compositional integrity and quantity, prove to be some of the most frustratingly overlooked pieces in the piano and orchestral repertoires. Her music serves as one of thousands of examples of music created in the shadow of gender-based oppression.

Adopting her husband’s name upon marriage, Mrs. Henry Harris Aubrey Beach (née Amy Cheney), was forbidden from pursuing the performance career she so deeply desired. After all, women married to doctors ought not have careers as public as music performance! In lieu of her performance career, music composition became Amy’s new normal. Still, Amy Beach’s identity as a musician and composer remained constantly in question; Amy Beach’s husband’s name, H.H.A. Beach, continued to appear on all of her compositions rather than her own.

Completed in 1899, just months before her husband’s death, Beach’s Piano Concerto in C# Minor, Op. 45 lives as one of many examples of women wielding creative power at a time where this was actively discouraged. Prominent musicologists such as George Upton, spoke out against women composing through books such as the shockingly offensive publication “Woman in Music” (1880) which describes the creative efforts of women: “She will always be the recipient and interpreter, but there is little hope she will be the creator.” These words set the backdrop for the conception of this concerto, and reflects the attitudes of those first audiences and critics who described this music as “too masculine.” Amy Beach found herself in a climate where she could be neither creator nor performer, constantly ridiculed for stepping outside her sphere of belonging. Amy Beach’s sense of societal repression, frustration, and sorrow for opportunity lost shines clearly through her massive Piano Concerto in C# minor, Op. 45, which stands as an exceptional, yet woefully underplayed example from the Romantic Period.

Musically, this Piano Concerto in C# Minor, demonstrates this composer’s multifaceted understanding of a pianists’ role as a soloist, virtuoso, accompanist, and ensemble player. Between several cadenzas exist moments where solo instruments such as violin, clarinet, and flute take the spotlight and the solo pianist turns into an accompanist. In the turn of a phrase, the solo piano acts as a member of the orchestra, adding depth and texture to the melodic lines played by the full string section. Still, Amy Beach constantly returns to the moments of fiery solo piano which characterize the movement as a whole. In stark contrast with the passion and anger of many solo passages comes the glorious and lyric secondary theme, full of reminiscence and longing. This wide range of emotional expression and sudden character change additionally characterize this movement of the concerto.

Today, many performers get to help Amy claim her rightful place in history, as she continues to fight dated, but still present notions of women’s place in music from beyond the grave. The first movement of Beach’s Piano Concerto seems to dually serve as personal testimony to the frustration of her own circumstance and as a call to comrades to take up the fight against patriarchal domination in the musical canon.

Amy Beach, along with hundreds of other once-silent composers, pave the way for women composers and performers today.

program notes Two Mexican Dances Program notes by William Dowell ‘22 A man of the salons, Mexican composer Juventino Rosas was known for his luscious piano dance music. His waltzes recreated the finest sounds of their Viennese neighbors–whose own waltzes were considered the pinnacle of the genre–filling the air with lilting beats and luscious melodies. Yet his music goes beyond that of European tradition, creating multiple Mexican dances that took advantage of the piano’s melodic and percussive qualities. Dr. Alexandra Dee, Director of Orchestral Activities at the Hayes School of Music at Appalachian State University, arranged two of his dances, “Flores de Romana” and “Juanita,” for string orchestra.

The shift from piano to string orchestra highlights the sensuousness of both dances through the strings’ warmer timbre. Both dances build tension through the layering of triplets and eight-notes, creating a two-against-three rhythmic conflict. “Flores de Romana” allows each section to glide across the dance floor before slinking back into the accompaniment. The strings indulge themselves in richly thick melodies that fall into their resolutions. “Juanita” remains a bit more playful, bouncing between its triplet rests. The strings remain lush, but the sensual atmosphere becomes more innocent in the F-major environment. Graceful works, Juventino Rosas’s two dances share pleasures suited for the intimate parties of the salon.

Academic Festival Overture Program notes by William Dowell ‘22 Despite never receiving a formal education, Johannes Brahms showcases exciting student life through a blend of student songs in his Academic Festival Overture.

Written for an honorary doctorate from the University of Breslau, the Academic Festival Overture cycles through songs more fitting for drinking than studying, remaining eclectic while being orchestrally intricate.

Opening mysteriously as the strings press forward, the overture soon features quick dialogues between various sections, starting with a conversation between the horns and the low strings. Underlying tension builds and releases, with motor rhythms relaxing into held chords and serene melodies. Even immediately, the work feels almost erratic in its tone, jumping from foreboding warning into peaceful contemplation and then into excited celebration. Dynamic jumps and instrumental interjections keeps the orchestra restless, almost like an intermingling of various groups versus a cohesive whole. Student songs jump into the fray with sudden excitements. Lyrical violin melodies shift into playful bassoon solos reinforced by offbeat string accompaniment. Of course, Brahms’ signature compositional techniques, that of motivic development, become freely displayed as various themes dance around each other as they are further varied and recontextualized. Harmonic and orchestral transitions connect the disparate sections, keeping a sense of unity among the diversity of styles and moods on display. Eventually, the orchestra ends in a glorious fanfare, supported by the power of the brass. Instruments fly through the air with graceful freneticism before settling on a series of weighty C-major chords that ring out into the audience. Energetic and erratic, the Academic Festival Overture serves as an elaborate musical thank you note that showcases the excitement of student life.

program notes The Firebird Suite (1919) Program notes by William Dowell ‘22 Just because a piece is published does not mean a piece is “finished.” Multiple iterations of a work, like the various editions of a book, may contain numerous corrections or alterations from the composer. Sometimes, these editions change radically change the work, sometimes placing it into a new genre. In 1910 Igor Stravinksy’s condensed his ballet The Firebird into an orchestral suite for performances in the concert hall.

The orchestral suite also features multiple revisions, one in 1919 and another in 1945. Both reduce the orchestration of the original–making the work more accessible to smaller ensembles–but while the 1945 revision adds additional music from the ballet, the 1919 revision maintains the tightness of the original suite. However, in exchange for a tighter focus, the 1919 edition was littered with errors, which would take multiple years and editions to fix. The two revisions also served as strategies for Stravinsky– whose exile to Switzerland, France, and eventually the U.S. placed him in regular financial hardship–to resell previously copyrighted material to varying degrees of success. Regardless of the legal and technical issues that surrounded the 1919 version of The Firebird Suite, the work’s imaginative aural landscape and breathtaking melodies mark it as a premier orchestral work.

This concert will celebrate Carthage’s rebirth through the trials of the pandemic into the blazing Firebirds with two movements of the suite, the “Berceuse” and “Finale.”

French for lullaby, the “Berceuse” balances a serene, yet mysterious bassoon melody with the murmurings of the rest of the orchestra. Strings hover over the melody, often floating higher with artificial harmonics. While the “Berceuse” places the audience in a slumber-like enchantment, it is the “Finale” that is magically glorious.

Opening with a horn melody, the “Finale’s” primary theme is taken by the winds, strings, and brass, as its warmth fills the concert hall. Quiet at first, each iteration of the melody grows, as the musical kindling catches each spark. The music soon jumps into a breakneck celebration, its asymmetric meter remaining both majestic and pulse-poundingly energetic. This quick pace does not last for long, instead slowing down into a final iteration of the melody that rides the line between richness and indulgence. Each note becomes fuller and fuller as the resonance heats the orchestra.

A final series of brass chords and a striking crescendo sends the music soaring into a blaze of glory.

Fine Arts at Carthage acknowledges that the land on which our building stands is part of the traditional Potawatomi, Sioux, Peoria, Kickapoo, and Miami peoples past, present, and future. These homelands reside along the southwest shores of Michigami, North America’s largest system of freshwater lakes. We honor with gratitude the land itself, and the people who have stewarded it throughout the generations. Many Indigenous peoples thrive in this place—alive and strong, and this calls us to commit to continuing to learn how to be better stewards of the land we inhabit as well.

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