SATURDAY, OCTOBER 26TH, 2024 7 PM
DECC SYMPHONY HALL, ALLETE STAGE
DIRK MEYER, CONDUCTOR
DARCI GAMERL, ENGLISH HORN
MOZART 17’
Symphony No. 31 in D Major, K. 297 Paris Symphony
Allegro assai
Andante
Allegro
LEE III
Courageous Lights
Amanda’s Ascent
Zitkála-Sá’s Song
Malala’s Yearning
Darci Gamerl, English Horn
*Minnesota Premiere
INTERMISSION
MENDELSSOHN
Symphony No.1
Allegro di molto
Andante
Menuetto: Allegro molto
Allegro con fuoco
CONCERT SPONSOR:
“A musician of great sensitivity and dynamic stage presence” - Duluth News Tribune, oboist & English Horn specialist, Griffith Gamerl continues to redefine the definition of a successful career in classical music.
Darci Griffith Gamerl’s groundbreaking, collaborative artistry, production & compositions have won awards with recognition via the Omaha Entertainment Awards, The American Prize.
A frequent guest artist, Griffith Gamerl performs as a soloist and orchestral musician with various orchestras, national touring touring productions (Wicked, The King & I, The Little Mermaid, Johnny Mathis, Aladdin, The Sound of Music). Gamerl holds orchestral positions throughout the USA, including the Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra, the Sioux City Symphony Orchestra, Lincoln’s Symphony Orchestra, and the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra.
Founded in 2016, Griffith Gamerl composes, arranges and performs with cellist, David Downing in Bel Canto Duo. The duo was awarded Outstanding New Artist by the Omaha Entertainment Awards (2023) & were finalists (American Prize) for both chamber music composition & for the Ernst Bacon Prize for the performance of American music. Past commissioners have included work for the documentary film, Nebraska Flatwater - Gallery 1516 & The Four Cather Tableaux (The National Willa Cather Center). Darci & David are currently scoring Willa Cather, a documentary featuring the life, work and commemoration of the preeminent author.
BCD’s clients include KANEKO, the National Music Museum, the University of Nebraska Medical Center, The Durham (Dressing the Abbey - Exhibit Opening), DA Davidson, Temple Israel, Joslyn Castle, the International Double Reed Society, Nebraska Wedding Day & Gallery 1516.
As a chamber musician with the trio I the Siren, Ms. Gamerl received a finalist award (American Prize) in Chamber Music Performance. In 2021 she was a semi-finalist in the professional composition category for her work, The Seven Directions & received a finalist award in the professional chamber music category (American Prize) with David Downing for their collaborative composition, Sacred Waters.
As a soloist, Ms. Gamerl has premiered works by Dr. James Lee III, Jonathan Leshnoff, Kelly Hale, Marie Rubis Bauer, Robert K. Mueller & Fabio Mengozzi. Her performance of ‘Courageous Lights’ for English horn & orchestra by Dr. James Lee III (Premiere Augusta, GA - January 2024) received a standing ovation. Upcoming concerto performances are slated for the 24/25 season (Lincoln’s Symphony Orchestra & the Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra.
In addition to an active performing career, Ms. Gamerl continues to instruct - with former students winning jobs with major orchestras across the country. Her production work includes The Silent Canon (nationally syndicated with Dr. Anthony TrecekKing), KVNO Classical 90.7, the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra, Down the Pit (podcast).
Symphony
Paris Symphony
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART
BORN: January 27, 1756, in Salzburg, Austria
DIED: December 5, 1791, in Vienna
WORK COMPOSED: 1778
WORLD PREMIERE: June 12, 1778, a private performance in the home of Count Karl Heinrich Joseph von Sickingen; June 18, 1778, in Paris at the Concerts Spirituels
PERFORMANCE HISTORY: Mozart’s Symphony No. 31 is receiving its third DSSO performance tonight. It was also played in 1954 and on April 26, 1968.
INSTRUMENTATION: Two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, timpani and strings.
DURATION: 17 minutes
In 1777 Mozart, accompanied by his mother Anna Maria, made an extended tour of Europe. After stopping in Mannheim, they arrived in Paris on March 23, 1778, where he began a six-month residency. The only major work he composed during this time was Symphony No. 31, which was commissioned by Joseph Legros (1739-1793), a popular counter-tenor and composer who, in 1777,
became director of the Concerts Spirituels (one of the first public concert series in existence, they began in Paris in 1725 and ended in 1790).
The Paris Symphony uses an unusually large orchestra for the period, and it is the first of Mozart’s symphonies to use clarinets. The premiere included 22 violins, five violas, eight cellos and five basses, a large complement of strings for that time. Mozart did not have a great opinion of the French people and after it was performed in private for two of his friends he wrote to his father:
They both liked it very much. I too am very pleased with it. But whether other people will like it I do not know … I can vouch for the few intelligent French people who may be there; as for the stupid ones – I see no great harm if they don’t like it. But I hope that even these idiots will find something in it to like; and I’ve taken care not to overlook the premier coup d’archet [A fancy term that simply means all the instruments playing together at the start of a symphony, one of the contemporary fashions of the Concerts Spirituels.] … What a fuss these boors make of this! What the devil! – I can’t see any difference – they all begin together – just as they do elsewhere. It’s a joke.
The letters Mozart wrote to his father give us an idea of his condescension toward the French audiences. Despite his feelings, he acquiesced and composed an exciting symphony that would be guaranteed to please any audience. The symphony was performed again on August 15th with a different middle movement. He replaced the original Andantino (in 6/8) with an Andante (in 3/4). For this concert we will be performing the original Andantino
Mozart’s time in Paris was successful and he earned well-deserved praise and recognition, but it also included a personal tragedy. His mother fell ill around mid-June, the doctors called in could do nothing for her and she died on July 3rd. After her burial, Mozart took care of his affairs in Paris and traveled home in mourning to Salzburg and his father.
Mozart won over the Parisian audience with Symphony No. 31. After a four-year hiatus from the symphonic form, he wrote one of his grandest works to that time and it paved the way for even greater works to come.
Concerto for English Horn Courageous Lights
JAMES LEE III
BORN: November 26, 1975, in St. Joseph, Michigan
WORK COMPOSED: 2023
WORLD PREMIERE: January 6, 2024, Augusta, Georgia; soloist Darci Griffith Gamerl, Augusta Symphony Orchestra, Dirk Meyer conducting
PERFORMANCE HISTORY: Tonight marks the first DSSO performance of any music by James Lee III.
INSTRUMENTATION: Two flutes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, trombone, timpani, percussion, harp, strings and solo English horn.
DURATION: 24 minutes
American composer James Lee III has composed over 80 works for orchestra, chamber ensemble, piano, vocals, choral ensemble and more. After earning a bachelor’s degree in piano performance from the University of Michigan, he entered the university’s Master of Music program in composition, where he earned both master’s and doctoral degrees in composition. His career began in earnest when his dissertation work Beyond Rivers of Vision (2005) was premiered by Leonard Slatkin and the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center in
Washington, D.C. in October 2006. Lee studied composition with Michael Daugherty, William Bolcom, Bright Sheng, Betsy Jolas, Susan Botti, Erik Santos and James Aikman. Lee also served as a composition fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center in the summer of 2002, studying with Osvaldo Golijov, Michael Gandolfi, Steven Mackey, Kaija Saariaho, and Stefan Asbury.
Lee’s Courageous Lights was written for tonight’s soloist, Darci Griffith Gamerl. Gamerl offers insight about the work: “The concerto revolves around the lives of three notable and powerful activists: poet Amanda Gorman, Native-American author and classically trained violinist Zitkala-Ša, and education activist Malala Yousafzai. Their voices ring true with the touching and powerful clarity of Dr. Lee’s compositional voice. I am honored to work with him and my fabulous colleagues to bring this work to life, and to add such a phenomenal work to the English horn repertoire. In modern society, many of us feel that we do not fit in or that we do not belong, and I believe that was very much the case for Zitkala-Ša. It was her inability to fit in that granted her the drive and tenacity to enact change for her people – work that is being commemorated in a new series of coins featuring the work of notable women. At the forefront of my mind is Ša’s ability as a master communicator. Her training as a classical violinist, author and composer gave her the skills to enact longstanding changes integral to granting Native Americans citizenship and the prioritization and preservation of Native American culture. My preparation has been very different as I honor the history that this concerto brings to life, and the lives of the many teachers and mentors that have helped me along my path –not only as a performer, but as a human being. My heartfelt gratitude goes out to each one. My hope is that this work will inspire future generations to find their unique voice, to know that they matter and to use their talents to enact change that will lead to a society that values equality, education and justice for all.”
BORN: February 3, 1809, in Hamburg, Germany
DIED: November 4, 1847, in Leipzig
WORK COMPOSED: 1824
WORLD PREMIERE: November 14, 1824, at a private gathering to honor his sister Fanny’s 19th birthday; February 1, 1827, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Johann Schulz conducting; May 25, 1829, London Philharmonic Society, Mendelssohn conducting
PERFORMANCE HISTORY: The DSSO performs Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 1 for the first time this evening.
INSTRUMENTATION: Two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets., two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, timpani and strings.
DURATION: 32 minutes
Do you remember what you were doing when you were fifteen years old? Were you possibly completing your 13th symphony? Although it is now known as Symphony No. 1, the manuscript Mendelssohn gave the London Philharmonic Society bore the title “No. 13” (his earlier symphonies remain unnumbered in tacit validation of his ‘coming of age’ in 1824).
We can include Mendelssohn in the same breath with Mozart, Chopin, and others as a true child prodigy. This Symphony No. 1, completed only a few years before the death of Beethoven and only a few decades after the death of Mozart, shows an understanding of the musical styles of these two greats that belies his young age. The first movement is a brilliant statement that could be compared with Beethoven’s early symphonies as well as Mozart’s later works. The lyricism of the second movement is exquisitely romantic, displaying his love for his sister Fanny on her 19th birthday. For the London premiere in 1829 Mendelssohn replaced the Menuetto with an orchestration of the Scherzo from his Octet, Op. 20. The Menuetto, which will be performed on this concert, is a beautiful movement that reflects the earlier works of Beethoven, whereas the Scherzo is lively, vibrant and exciting. The final movement, Allegro con fuoco, is as complex and thrilling as the conclusions of Mozart’s later symphonies.
Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 1 was well-received when he conducted the London premiere on May 25, 1829. It was reviewed in The Harmonicon: “[Mendelssohn] has already produced several works of magnitude, which, if at all to be compared with the present, ought, without such additional claim, to rank him among the first composers of the age.... Fertility of invention and novelty of effect, are what first strike the hearers of Mendelssohn’s symphony; but at the same time, the melodiousness of its subjects… The author conducted it in person, and it was received with acclamations.” This first symphony from his ‘coming of age’ displays his selective use of the developing Romantic-era ideals and would be a harbinger of his works yet to come in his short life.