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WELCOME LETTER
8 Music Director Dirk Meyer Board of Directors Staff and Administration
MEET THE ORCHESTRA Meet the Orchestra
MASTERWORKS 1: KORNGOLD & BRAHMS Erin Aldridge Biography Masterworks 1 Program Notes
MASTERWORKS 2: PRICE & MOZART Bella Hristova Biography Masterworks 2 Program Notes
MASTERWORKS 3: VAUGHAN WILLIAMS & TIPPETT Richard Robbins Biography 34-37 Masterworks 3 Program Notes
WAYS TO SUPPORT THE DSSO How to Donate 39-42 DSSO Contributors
Our mission is to enhance our community through the performance of symphonic music that engages and inspires. OUR VISION We envision a stronger community throughthe power of music and musicians’ arertistry.
This year the DSSO kicks off a three-year artistic initiative to celebrate music that is heard all too seldom. Music by composers of color, female composers, and contemporary American voices. These are composers that might be less familiar, but they certainly have important things to say!
During the 2022/23 season we will direct our focus to music by Black composers. Five of our seven Masterworks concerts include compositions by Black composers, featuring an amazing variety of music. From the contemporary voices of Adolphus Hailstork and Jessie Montgomery, to the “classics” Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Florence Price and William Grant Still, you’ll find these compositions to be full of life, energy and beauty.
And there is even more to discover! Ever heard of Hans Rott? A student of Anton Bruckner, Gustav Mahler himself praised him as a genius and he would certainly have come to prominence, had he not passed so tragically early. How about Michael Tippett? He was one of Britain’s most prominent composers during the first half of the 20th century. His oratorio A Child of Our Time was written in support of oppressed people everywhere and makes stunning use of spirituals like Deep River and Nobody Knows The Trouble I See.
But, of course, if you are looking for something beloved and familiar, we also have that in store for you. Beethoven, Elgar, Gershwin, Sibelius, Mozart, Brahms… have your pick! And to top it off: we celebrate Sergey Rachmaninoff’s 150th birthday with two of his works: his lesser known tone poem The Rock and one of the cornerstones of the piano repertoire, his Piano Concerto No.3.
Talking about familiar: You don’t want to miss our pops performances this season. Our Holiday Spectacular is quickly becoming an annual tradition here in the Northland. And in February come enjoy the music of the most prolific film composer of our time: John Williams. You’ll hear all the classics, from Superman to Star Wars, but also rarities like his whirlwind Cowboys Overture and the jazzy Escapades based on music from Catch Me If You Can.
So come on out and join your DSSO again this season! If you have friends who might be symphony-curious, tell them about our 9 for 90 deal: first time subscribers can purchase all nine DSSO concerts for only $90.
But most importantly, come out with family, friends, and fellow music-lovers, and have the shared experience of art and beauty once more!
Dirk Meyer, Music Director Duluth Superior Symphony OrchestraWelcome to the 92nd Season of your Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra. I am pleased to be able to share some good news and work our orchestra has been able to accomplish over the past year.
First, I am happy to celebrate three years with the orchestra. It feels like longer, due to the twists and turns that COVID has brought to our organization and the world. We have been able to manage through it all, with virtual performances and restricted numbers on stage and in the hall, to bring us back together. We have received so much positive feedback as we have expanded our summer programs to included regular performances at the Great Lakes Aquarium and at Fourth Fest, and more growth is in store in the coming seasons as we look to celebrate the DSSO’s Centennial in eight years.
Second, the DSSO made the conscious effort to lower prices for its 2022-23 Season. We also reshaped our ticket zones, adding 359 of our $20 tickets in the hall. And if that was not enough, we also offered the “9 for $90” subscription package for new subscribers.
I am very happy to say that the community response has been nothing short of amazing. To date, the DSSO has added 337 new subscribers. If you are one of our new subscribers, thank you so much for joining us this season. We want to make sure you enjoy your concert experience, so please be in touch with me if you have any questions or anything that we can do for you.
Finally, I know that many people have read about the DSSO’s potential transition to the St. Louis County Depot. We are currently working on negotiations that will bring our offices back to the Depot building after nearly 15 years. In doing so, we will be more available to the public and also able to offer interactive displays of our nearly 100-year-old history. There are still more discussions to have, but we are excited to turn this page starting next year.
On behalf of the Board of Directors, our Musicians, our staff and volunteer Chorus, thank you so much for your support of the DSSO. Your investment – whether through purchasing a ticket or making a donation – supports our musicians and their ability to make music for the Twin Ports Community.
Brandon VanWaeyenberghe, Executive Director Duluth Superior Symphony OrchestraMark Monson, Board President
John Berchild, Past Chair
Robert T. Bennett, Treasurer
Tammy Ostrander , Secretary
BOARD OF DIRECTORS William Alexander Sandra Barkley Robert T. Bennett John
BrandonADMINISTRATIONVanWaeyenberghe, Executive Director
Kelly Katzmarek, Marketing Director
Jean Larson, Patron Service Manager
ARTISTIC STAFF
Dirk Meyer, The Charles A. & Carolyn M. Russell Music Director
David Arnott, Manager of Orchestra Operations
Maureen Breemeersch, Stage Manager
Kristin Sande, Music Librarian
RichardCHORUSRobbins, Chorus Master
Nikki Norland, Chorus Adminstrator
YOUTH ORCHESTRAS
Melanie Sever, Administrative Director and Concert Orchestra Conductor
Kristin Sande, DSSYO Administrative Assistant Ronald Kari, Youth Orchestras Coordinator
HONORARY LIFE DIRECTORS
Elaine
Pro NORTHERNPrint
Dirk Meyer (2013 – present)
Markand Thakar (2001 – 2012)
Yong-yan Hu (1995 – 2000)
Taavo Virkhaus (1977-1994)
Joseph Hawthorne (1967-1977)
Hermann Herz (1950-1967)
Joseph Wagner (1947-1950)
Tauno Hannikainen (1942 – 1947)
Paul Lemay (1932 – 1942)
Vincent Osborn, Program Notes Writer Ronald Kari, Performance Historian, now in his 61st Season.
DULUTH SUPERIOR SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA 130 West Superior Street, LL2-120 Duluth, MN 55802 www.dsso.com
DIRK MEYER, THE CHARLES A. & CAROLYN M. RUSSELL MUSIC DIRECTOR
Sponsors: Harris & Diane Balko; Elisabeth C. Mason; The Charles A. & Carolyn M. Russell Foundation
Erin Aldridge, Concertmaster
Sponsor: Arend & Verna Sandbulte in support of the concertmaster chair through the Sandbulte Orchestra Leadership Fund Mary Alice Hutton, Associate Concertmaster Angela Waterman-Hanson, Assistant Concertmaster Nicole Craycraft (On Leave 22-23)
Sponsor: Glen Holt Kathleen Sanders
Sponsor: Terry & Vicki Anderson Nairi Stack
Sponsor: Stack Brothers Mechanical Contractors and Bill Stack
Joan Halquist
Sponsor: Anonymous Friend of the DSSO Amanda Wirta
Sponsor: Anonymous Friend of the DSSO Daniel Radosevich
Sponsor: Anonymous Friend of the DSSO Steve Highland
Sponsor: Thomas & Barbara Elliott Jenna Mattson
Sponsors: Tom and Jill Kaiser
Laurie Bastian, Principal
Sponsor: Jacquie & Jim Sebastian Jean Leibfried, Assistant Principal Sponsor: Sandra Barkley Amy Eichers
Sponsor: Thomas & Alice McCabe Michael Husby
Sponsor: Brad Schmugge, CPA Olga Chernyshev
Sponsor: Walter and Kay Gower Michael Zellgert
Sponsor: Vern & May Nordling Sarah Warner
Sponsor: Kathy & James Sanders Kristen Anderson
Sponsor: James Seitz & Diane Kolquist Mary Negus
Sponsor: Anonymous Friend of the DSSO Stephen Baillie (On Leave 22-23)
Sponsor: Henry & Terry Roberts
Kevin Hoeschen, Principal
Sponsor: Rose and Lester Drewes Ronald Kari, Assistant Principal Sponsor: Stephen & Lauri Cushing; Ruth Ann Eaton Clare Chopp
Sponsor: Martha Aas Jonathan Kresha
Sponsor: Nancy Odden & Doug W. Britton Kevin Peterson
Sponsor: Robert T. & Barbara K. Bennett; Linda & Mark Boben Judy MacGibbon
Sponsor: Anonymous Friend of the DSSO J. David Arnott
Sponsor: Sylvia Jamar
Betsy Husby, Principal Sponsor: Christabel & James Grant Lucia Magney, Assistant Principal Sponsor: Ann Mars Julia Morehouse
Sponsor: Nancy Melander; Nancy & Mark Melhus Eric Graf
Sponsor: Anonymous Friend of the DSSO Rebecca M. Peterson
Sponsor: Robert T. & Barbara K. Bennett Darin Anderson
Sponsor: Michael and Sharon Mollerus Jesse Nummelin (On Leave 22-23)
Sponsor: Anonymous Friend of the DSSO Scott Lykins
Sponsor: Anonymous Friend of the DSSO
Cassidy Morgan, Principal Vincent Osborn, Assistant Principal
Sponsor: Lane Fryberger Smith Anthony Lischalk
Sponsor: John Ivey Thomas & Mary Rees Thomas Family Fund James McLeod
Sponsor: Branden Robinson Irving G. Steinberg
Sponsor: Lurene Buhrmann Blake Bonde
Sponsor: Carolyn Sundquist
Melanie Sever, Acting Principal OBOE:
Michael Dayton, Principal Sponsor: Gary and Jacqueline Foley Darci Griffith Gamerl, Oboe 2
Sponsor: Anonymous Friend of the DSSO Sarah Carmack, English Horn/Oboe 3
Sponsor: Anonymous Friend of the DSSO
Jennifer Gerth, Principal Sponsor: William & Saundra Palmer Kristine Peterson, Clarinet 2
Sponsor: Anonymous Friend of the DSSO Theodore Schoen, Bass Clarinet/Clarinet 3 Sponsor: Karl Diekman
Michael Roemhildt, Principal Sponsor Anonymous Friend of the DSSO Jefferson Campbell, Contrabassoon/Bassoon 3 (On Leave 22-23)
Karl Kubiak, Acting Bassoon 2
Sponsor: Timothy Sandor
Gregory Kehl Moore, Principal Sponsor: Anonymous Friend of the DSSO
James Pospisil, Principal Sponsor: James & Mary Zastrow Erika Hammerschmidt, Horn 2
Sponsor: Roger and Elaine Engle; Robert & Mary Evans
Gwendolyn Hoberg, Horn 4 Deborah Rausch, Assistant / Utility
Sponsor: Anonymous Friend of the DSSO
Earl Salemink, Principal Sponsor: Sharon & Robert Wahman Charles Leibfried, Trumpet 2
Sponsor: Jeff & Vickie Cadwell; David and Patricia Mast Thomas Pfotenhauer, Trumpet 3
Sponsor: Mark & Grace Monson
Larry Zimmerman, Principal Sponsor: Gale and Jeri Kerns; Roberta Vose Derek Bromme, Acting Trombone 2
Sponsor: Mark Danielson & Theresa Smith James Erickson, Bass Trombone
Steve Grove, Principal Sponsor: Helena Jackson & Doug Dunham
Fred Morgan, Principal Sponsor: Anonymous Friend of the DSSO Henry Eichman, Acting Principal Sponsor: Happy Sleeper and John Fochs
Gene Koshinski, Principal Sponsor: Susan J. Relf
Janell Kokkonen Lemire, Principal Sponsor: Elaine Killen
Beth Gilbert, Principal (On Leave 22-23) Alexander Sandor, Acting Principal Sponsor: John & Kathy Berchild
Deepen your connection to the Orchestra you love and receive special access. Become a Full Chair Sponsor with an investment of $5,000 or more; a Half Chair with a $2,500 to $4,999 gift; or become a Quarter Chair Sponsor at the $1,200 to 2,499 level.
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2022 7 PM DECC SYMPHONY HALL, ALLETE STAGE DIRK MEYER, MUSIC DIRECTOR ERIN ALDRIDGE, VIOLIN
An American Port of Call 10’
KORNGOLD
Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35 24’ Moderato Nobile Romance - Andante Allegro assai vivace Erin Aldridge, violin
Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 68 45’
Un poco sostenuto - Allegro Andante sostenuto
Un poco allegretto e grazioso
Adagio - Piu andante - Allegro non troppo, ma can brio
CONCERT SPONSOR:
Erin Aldridge has won numerous awards as both soloist and chamber musician and has been featured throughout Europe, South America, and the United States. She is a highly sought-after performer and pedagogue, and has been published in Strings Magazine. Erin maintains an active performance schedule as a soloist and chamber musician. She has been a soloist with the Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra, the Lake Superior Chamber Orchestra, the Long Prairie Chamber Orchestra, the Mesabi Symphony Orchestra, and the Itasca Symphony Orchestra. She has been a guest artist at the Indiana University Summer Music Festival, Arizona State University, DePaul University Contemporary Concert Series, Madeline Island Music Camp, Ashland Chamber Music Series, National String Workshop, “Live at the Chazen” Concert Series, and has been broadcast on National Public Radio, the BBC, Minnesota Public Radio, and Wisconsin Public Radio.
Erin Aldridge has several recordings, including her recording of Eugene Ysaÿe’s Six Sonatas for Solo Violin, Op. 27, and composer Justin Rubin’s Constellations for the MSR Classics label. In addition, she has done multiple recordings with acclaimed singer-songwriter Sara Thomsen, and the Three Altos.
In the Twin Ports area, Erin has received recognition as a prominent artist. In the spring of 2005, she was named Concertmaster of the Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra. She was selected for the “20 under 40” award by the Duluth News Tribune in the fall of 2007, an honor given to 20 professionals who are successful in their chosen fields and role models in the community. In 2012 she received the Community Enrichment Award from the Duluth Depot Foundation Annual Artist Awards and was honored by the American Association of University Women as one of four “Created Here” artists in the Duluth-Superior area.
Erin attended Indiana University where she received her Bachelor’s degree in Violin Performance. She received her Master’s degree and Performer’s Certificate in Chamber Music Performance from the University of WisconsinMilwaukee and was a member of the Leonard Sorkin Institute of Chamber Music under the direction of the Fine Arts Quartet. She continued her studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where she received her Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Violin Performance. Her primary teachers include Mimi Zweig, Josef Gingold, Nellie Shkolnikova, Rostaslav Dubinsky, Efim Boico, and Vartan Manoogian. Her conducting instructors include Margery Deutsch and David Becker.
In 2003, she joined the music faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Superior. She serves as Professor of Violin and Director of Orchestras. She is also the Concertmaster of both the Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra and Lyric Opera of the North Opera Orchestra, was a long-time faculty member of the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music Summer String Academy, and is a member of Danny Frank & the Smoky Gold.
Erin selectedwas for the“20 under 40” award by theDuluth News Tribune in the fall of 2007, anhonor given to 20 community.modelsfieldstheirsuccessfulwhoprofessionalsareinchosenandroleinthe
BORN: April 17, 1941, in Rochester, New York
WORK COMPOSED: 1984
WORLD PREMIERE: February 1985, in Norfolk, Virginia, Virginia Symphony Orchestra, Richard Williams conducting
PERFORMANCE HISTORY: Tonight’s performance is the DSSO’s first performance of any music by Adolphus Hailstork.
INSTRUMENTATION: Two flutes and piccolo, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons and contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, two trombones. tuba, timpani, percussion (snare drum, whip, triangle, small and medium gong, glockenspiel, wood block, crash cymbals, suspended cymbal, tenor drum, large tam-tam, xylophone, bass drum), piano and strings.
DURATION: 10 minutes.
Adolphus Cunningham Hailstork studied composition at Howard University where he received a Bachelor of Music in 1963. During the summer after his graduation he attended the American Conservatory at Fontainebleau, France, where he studied with the famed Nadia Boulanger. Hailstork then studied at the Manhattan School of Music under Vittorio Giannini and David Diamond, receiving another Bachelor of Music in 1965 and a Master of Music in 1966. He received his PhD in composition, studying under H. Owen Reed, from Michigan State University in 1971. From 1971 to 1976 Hailstork served as a professor at Youngstown (Ohio) State University and in 1977 he accepted a position as professor of music and Composer-in-Residence at Norfolk (Virginia) State University. From 2000 until his retirement on January 1, 2021 he held the same posts at Old Dominion University (Norfolk), where his title is now Eminent Scholar and Professor Emeritus of Music. Hailstork is an exceptionally prolific composer, writing for all genres of musical ensembles, and he has received numerous awards throughout his lengthy career. In 2019 he was honored by the Los Angeles Philharmonic for lifetime achievements after the world premiere of Still Holding On. His Fanfare on Amazing Grace was part of the inaugural prelude performed by the U.S. Marine Band at President Biden’s inauguration. This marked only the second time music by a contemporary African American composer has been selected to be performed at a presidential inauguration.
Hailstork composed An American Port of Call for the Virginia Symphony. He gives this summary of the piece: “The concert overture, in sonata-allegro form captures the strident (and occasionally tender and even mysterious) energy of a busy American port city. The great port of Norfolk, Virginia, where I live, was the direct inspiration.” Hailstork does a fantastic job of portraying the energy of Norfolk. There are short moments in the work that may evoke memories of Bernstein’s On the Town (which tells the tale of sailors on shore leave in New York City) and/or Gershwin’s American in Paris. Having lived across the bay in Hampton and Newport News in the early 1990s, the energy I experienced throughout the entire region is exactly as Hailstork describes in An American Port of Call.
He treated each film as an “opera without singing” and followed the Wagnerian style of leitmotifs. Korngold’s intention was to compose music that could stand alone in the concert hall without the visual aid of the film.
BORN: May 29, 1897, in Brno, Moravia (now Czech Republic)
DIED: November 29, 1957, in Hollywood, California
WORK COMPOSED: 1937-39 (rev. 1945)
WORLD PREMIERE: February 15, 1947, in Saint Louis, Missouri; Jascha Heifetz, soloist; St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Vladimir Golschmann conducting.
PERFORMANCE HISTORY: There has been only one previous DSSO performance of Korngold’s Violin concerto on March 18, 2000, with Vera Tsu as soloist and Yong-yan Hu conducting.
INSTRUMENTATION: Two flutes (2nd doubling piccolo), two oboes (2nd doubling English horn), two clarinets and bass clarinet, two bassoons (2nd doubling contrabassoon), four horns, two trumpets, trombone, timpani, percussion (glockenspiel, xylophone, vibraphone, cymbals, chimes, gong, bass drum), harp, celesta and strings.
DURATION: 24 minutes.
Any true movie buff will recognize the name Erich Korngold. Prominent film director Max Reinhardt (1873-1943) invited Korngold to Hollywood in 1934 to compose additional music for his film of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Over the next four years Korngold changed movie music forever and pioneered a new art form, the symphonic film score.
Many of the films he scored are timeless classics: Captain Blood, The Prince and the Pauper, Anthony Adverse (for which he won the first of two Academy Awards), The Adventures of Robin Hood (winner of his second Academy Award), The Sea Hawk, Sea Wolf, and Kings Row. Overall, he wrote the score for sixteen Hollywood films and received two more nominations for an Academy Award. Korngold, along with Max Steiner and Alfred Newman, is one of the founders of film music and his influence on modern film music cannot be Korngold’soverstated.fatherwas the eminent music critic Julius Korngold (1860-1945) who was notable for championing the music of Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) at a time when many others did not think much of him. He named his son Erich Wolfgang after Mozart and indeed the young Erich was a remarkable child prodigy. In 1906 Erich played his cantata Gold for Mahler, who pronounced him a genius and recommended he be sent to study with Alexander von Zemlinsky (18711942). Composed at the age of 11, Korngold’s ballet Der Schneemann was a sensation when it was first performed at the Vienna Court Opera in 1910, followed with a Piano Trio and a Piano Sonata in E-flat that was championed throughout Europe by Arthur Schnabel. Richard Strauss remarked: “One’s first reaction that these compositions are by a child are those of awe and concern that so precocious a genius should follow its normal development. … This assurance of style, this mastery of form, this characteristic expressiveness, this bold harmony, are truly astonishing!” Puccini, Sibelius, Bruno Walter, Arthur Nikisch and Engelbert Humperdinck were among many who were similarly
Byimpressed.hisearly
20s, Korngold had reached the zenith of his fame as a composer of opera and concert music. In 1923 he completed a Concerto for Piano Left Hand, Op. 17, for Paul Wittgenstein (1887-1961), who lost his right arm during World War I. Korngold’s Concerto was the first one written for Wittgenstein, followed by Ravel, Prokofiev, Hindemith, Britten and others. While he was teaching opera and composition at the Vienna Staatsakademie, Korngold arranged and conducted many of the lost and forgotten operettas by Johan Strauss II. Bringing these lost works back to the stage brought him recognition and he was awarded the title Professor Honoris Causa by the president of Austria.
Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35 ERICH WOLFGANG KORNGOLDBronisław Huberman (1882-1947), Polish violinist and founder of the Israel Philharmonic, would continually hound his host whenever Korngold invited him for dinner. “So, Erich, where’s my violin concerto?” Finally, after about thirty years of silence, in 1945 Korngold sat down at the piano and played a soaring, lyrical theme. Huberman exclaimed, “That’s it! That will be my concerto - promise me that you’ll write it.”
Korngold’s Violin Concerto utilizes bits and pieces of a number of his film scores. The work opens with a theme from Another Dawn, a romantic melodrama set in a North African British colony. The main melody from the film, which is associated with love and flight (Errol Flynn’s character is a pilot), was one of Korngold’s best. A transition of virtuosic passages leads into the second main theme of the first movement, which is as lyrical as the first, however is more introspective and perhaps even a bit melancholic in character. This melody comes from the 1939 film Juarez, a historical epic about the ill-fated attempt of the French to establish an empire in Mexico during the 1860s. The theme is associated with Carlotta, played by Bette Davis, whose voice and movements Korngold often found inspiring. The Oscar-winning score to Anthony Adverse (1936) provides the main theme of the slow second movement. The film is about an aristocratic love-child’s quest to find his way in the world at the turn of the nineteenth century.
The second movement unfolds into three parts after the soloist begins the main theme: a lyrical beginning, a more passionate transition, and a relaxed ending. This is followed by a contrasting middle section, which is more fragmented with chromatic motifs and mysterious harmonies that bring a return to the main
movement is based on the main theme from the 1937 adaption of Mark Twain’s fable The Prince and the Pauper: The story of two boys, one born to an abusive alcoholic father and the other the son of Henry VIII. The boys are born on the same day and bear a striking resemblance to each other (portrayed by twins Billy and Bobby Mauch). By pure chance they meet one day and, fascinated by their likeness, they decide to switch positions temporarily to see how the other one lives. Korngold cleverly creates a theme and variations in which the episodes are all astonishing variants on the playful tune, leading to the thrilling and yes, Hollywood happy ending.
Huberman, who waited decades for his concerto, never performed the work in public due to a busy schedule and his death in 1947. Korngold requested the legendary Jascha Heifetz to premiere the work;
he accepted the offer and encouraged Korngold to increase the difficulty of the solo part. The premiere was triumphant, causing Korngold to write, “A success just as in my best times in Vienna.” One reviewer predicted that the concerto would remain in the repertoire as long as Mendelssohn’s. The critics in New York weren’t as enthusiastic; New York Times critic Olin Downes panned it, calling it a “Hollywood Concerto” which reflected a general distaste for both film music and the lush, post-romantic style prevalent in critical circles at the time. Nevertheless, the Concerto began to experience a renaissance and is now regularly performed throughout the world.
BORN: May 7, 1833, in Hamburg, Germany
DIED: April 3, 1897, in Vienna, Austria
WORK COMPOSED: 1876 (began in 1854)
WORLD PREMIERE: November 4, 1876, in Karlsruhe, Germany, Otto Dessoff conducting
PERFORMANCE HISTORY: Our Orchestra will preform Brahms’ First Symphony for the twelfth time this evening. It was also heard in 1935, 1943, 1948, 1957, 1965, 1971, 1978, 1990, 1996, 2005, and on April 20, 2013 (Markand Thakar conducting).
INSTRUMENTATION: Two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons and contrabassoon, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, timpani and strings.
DURATION: 45 minutes.
Lately I have been reading a wonderful biography of Brahms by Jan Swafford, in which he writes that the First Symphony “in one blow… resurrected the genre of the symphony from years of failure, [and] made it once again the king of musical forms.” The prevailing musical direction by the mid-19th century was leading towards symphonic tone poems such as Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique and Liszt’s Les préludes. Between the years of Beethoven’s death (1827) and the premiere of Brahms’ First Symphony, very few symphonies were written that today would be considered successful. And none of them made nearly the impact that this great symphony did. Eduard Hanslick, Brahms’ friend and critic wrote:
Seldom, if ever, has the entire musical world awaited a composer’s first symphony with such tense anticipation . . . The new symphony is so earnest and complex, so utterly unconcerned with common effects, that it hardly lends itself to quick understanding . . . [but] even the layman will immediately recognize it as one of the most distinctive and magnificent works of the symphonic literature.
Brahms came to the symphony rather late. Although he started work on his First at the age of 21, it took him over twenty years to complete it. Prior to this he had composed only a few works for orchestra; in 1854 he began composing a symphony in D minor which eventually became his First Piano Concerto, in 1868 his German Requiem and the popular Haydn Variations (1873), which certainly boosted his ego. The long gestation period for the C minor Symphony may be attributed to a couple of factors. First of all Brahms was very critical of himself, which led him to destroy many of his early works. Secondly, he felt enormous pressure, as he expressed, “I shall never write a symphony! You have no idea how it feels to hear behind you the tramp of a giant like Beethoven.” However, after a number of starts to a symphony that became something else entirely, he finished his First Symphony in 1876.
The somber mood with its tension and drive in the first movement is very suggestive of Beethoven. From the very first notes accompanied by the timpani angrily beating a ‘C’ as if trying to beat the orchestra into submission, the theme opens with an unexpected G major chord. Brahms took the advice of Robert Schumann, “The beginning is the main thing; if only one makes the beginning, then the end comes of itself.” The first movement is the struggle that can be felt of Brahms coming into his own and emerging from the overwhelming shadow of Beethoven.
The second movement, Andante sostenuto, is now completely Brahms with the gentle, lyrical melodies for which he is most famous. The beauty of it is incomparable. The third movement, Un poco allegretto e grazioso, evokes
a personalized version of a scherzo by Beethoven with a taste of Schubert thrown in to bring about a smile.
The Finale opens as if it is an extension of the first movement with its ominous and fearsome emotional mood. Soon the clouds open up and the sun shines through with a chorale that speaks of peace and deliverance. This is the most direct homage to Beethoven and when a listener remarked on its similarity to the Ode to Joy melody, Brahms snapped, “Any jackass could see
Hans von Bülow was so moved that he called the symphony Beethoven’s Tenth. This caused a bit of annoyance with Brahms as he felt it amounted to accusations of plagiarism, where he viewed it as paying homage to Beethoven. Although it is still sometimes, though rarely, referred to as Beethoven’s Tenth, it is pure Brahms. Robert Schumann wrote, in 1853, that this young composer he had met would be the heir to Beethoven’s musical legacy: “If [Brahms] directs his magic wand where the massed power in chorus and orchestra might lend him their strength, we can look forward to even more wondrous glimpses into the secret world of the spirits.” As a great philosopher, Linus van Pelt (Peanuts) once said, “There are fewer things heavier than the burden of a great potential.”
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2022 7 PM
DECC SYMPHONY HALL, ALLETE STAGE DIRK MEYER, CONDUCTOR BELLA HRISTOVA, Violin
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2022 3 PM CATHEDRAL OF CHRIST THE KING DIRK MEYER, CONDUCTOR
IBERT Hommage à Mozart 5’
PRICE Violin Concerto, No.1 24’ Tempo
Bella Hristova, violin
Cantus Arcticus 18’ The
MOZART Symphony No.36 (Linz) 26’ Adagio-Allegro spiritoso MenuettoAndante and Trio Presto
Bulgarian-American violinist Bella Hristova has won international acclaim for her “expressive nuance and rich tone” (New York Times) and “impressive power and control” (Washington Post).
She has distinguished herself on the world stage as a performing artist with a remarkably diverse repertoire and bold approach to programming. A recipient of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant, she has won numerous awards including First Prize in the Young Concert Artists International Auditions, First Prize in the Michael Hill International Violin Competition, and is a Laureate of the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis. Hristova has performed extensively as a soloist with orchestras around the country, including the Buffalo Philharmonic, Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, the New York String Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, the Hawaii, Kansas City, Knoxville, and Milwaukee Symphonies as well as orchestras in Asia, Europe, Latin America and New Zealand. Highlights of the 22-23 season include performances of the Wynton Marsalis Violin Concerto with New Bedford and Santa Rosa Symphonies, Korngold concerto with Anchorage Symphony, Prokofiev 1st with Columbus Symphony and Bruch Scottish Fantasy with the Vermont Symphony Orchestra. In addition to her many appearances with orchestras, Hristova performs frequently with The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and has held residencies at top conservatory and summer music festival programs as a recitalist. She has performed recitals at Carnegie Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, and Boston’s Isabella Gardner Museum. A champion of music by living composers, Hristova recently commissioned and premiered Japanese-Zimbabwean composer Nokuthula Ngwenyama’s “Miasma” for unaccompanied violin.
She also commissioned the iconic American composer Joan Tower to write “Second String Force” which she premiered and frequently performs in recital appearances. In 2015, Hristova was the featured soloist for a consortium of eight major orchestras for a new concerto commission written for her by her husband, acclaimed composer David Serkin Ludwig. As a recording artist, Hristova has released a variety of albums reflecting her broad musical interests. “Bella Unaccompanied,” an album released on A.W. Tonegold Records, features works by John Corigliano, Kevin Puts, Piazzolla, Milstein, and Bach. Her Naxos debut album features the solo violin works of Belgian composer Charles de Beriot. Following multiple tours of New Zealand with renowned pianist Michael Houstoun, she and Houstoun recorded the complete Beethoven Sonatas for Piano and Violin, named a “Best Classical Album of 2019” by the New Zealand Listener, released on RATTLE. The duo will release the complete Brahms sonatas next year Hristova began violin studies at the age of six in her native Bulgaria. After gaining accolades following master classes in Salzburg with Ruggiero Ricci, she studied with Ida Kavafian at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, and received her Artist Diploma with Jaime Laredo at Indiana University. Hristova plays a 1655Nicolò Amati violin, once owned by the violinist Louis Krasner. She lives in New York City, with her husband David and their beloved (but poorly behaved) cats.
BORN: August 15, 1890, in Paris, France
DIED: February 5, 1962, in Paris
WORK COMPOSED: 1956
WORLD PREMIERE: : 1956, Orchestra of the RTF (Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française), Eugène Bigot, conducting
PERFORMANCE HISTORY: There have been no previous DSSO performances of this work. Other pieces by Jacques Ibert played by the Orchestra have been Escales (Ports of Call) in 1952 and 1982 and the Concertino da Camera with saxophone soloist Sigurd Rascher in 1955. The DSSO’s first Music Director Paul Lemay conducted our Youth Symphony in The White Donkey by Ibert on May 27, 1942. That was his last concert here. He entered World War II as a pilot and was missing in action in 1944.
INSTRUMENTATION: Two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, timpani and strings.
DURATION: 5 minutes.
Jacques François Antoine Marie Ibert was a prolific composer writing seven operas, five ballets, incidental music for plays and films, chamber music, piano, choral music. He is most known for his orchestral works, notably Escales (1922) and Divertissement (1930).
Ibert’s compositional style can be best described as eclectic. His biographer, Alexandra Laederich writes, “His music can be festive and gay … lyrical and inspired, or descriptive and evocative … often tinged with gentle humour … all the elements of his musical language bar [except] that of harmony relate closely to the Classical tradition.” As an example, his composition Escales begins in the impressionist style of Debussy and within minutes sounds more like the Spanish composer Manuel de Falla, who was a distant relative of Ibert’s Ibert’smother.father
was a successful businessman, and his mother a talented pianist. She encouraged her son to have a musical education and from the age of four, despite his father’s wishes that he go into business, he began studying the violin and then the piano. In 1910, Ibert attended the Paris Conservatoire, studying harmony, counterpoint and composition. He had private lessons with André Gedalge (1856-1926), whose other students included Nadia Boulanger, Georges Enescu, Maurice Ravel and Florent Schmitt. Ibert’s fellow students in these sessions included Arthur Honegger and Darius Milhaud.
His musical studies were interrupted by World War I, when he served as a naval officer. After resuming his studies, in 1919 he won the Conservatoire’s top prize (the Prix de Rome) at his first attempt. This prize gave him the opportunity to study in Rome and during that time he composed his first opera, Persée et Andromède
Ibert was commissioned by the music department of Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française (RTF) to write a piece in commemoration of the bicentennial of Mozart’s birth. Ibert was a well-known Mozartean and this was the culmination of his lifelong emulation of the great genius. In Hommage à Mozart, Ibert uses Mozartean snippets that pop in and out of the texture featuring all the various sections of the orchestra. There are moments when he uses quotes from Mozart’s more famous works that will bring a smile when you recognize them. It is a truly delightful work that makes for a great opening to a concert.
BORN: April 9, 1887, in Little Rock, Arkansas
DIED: : June 3, 1953, in Chicago, Illinois
WORK COMPOSED: 1939
WORLD PREMIERE: : February 24, 2019, in Trenton, New Jersey; Samuel Thompson, New Jersey Capital Philharmonic, Daniel Spalding conducting
PERFORMANCE HISTORY: The only other work by Florence Price the DSSO has given is her Piano Concerto in One Movement. Clayton Stephenson was the soloist on April 17, 2021, with Dirk Meyer conducting. This is the orchestra’s first performance of her Violin Concerto No. 1.
INSTRUMENTATION: Two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, timpani, strings and solo violin.
DURATION : 24 minutes.
Even today it is very difficult for a composer to have a work performed by a major symphony orchestra. However, a composer who is a woman and Black, in 1933… nearly impossible! The Chicago Symphony Orchestra premiered Price’s symphony in 1933 and a year later they premiered her Piano Concerto, with the composer at the piano. It appears that Florence Price was a major composer of the period and she had a busy schedule of writing orchestral music. She also developed a deep collaboration with contralto Marian Anderson, who in 1955 became the first African American soloist to perform at the Metropolitan Opera. At Anderson’s acclaimed Easter recital in 1939 at the Lincoln Memorial, she performed Price’s arrangement of the spiritual My Soul’s Been Anchored in the Lord. This propelled Price into the national spotlight and with Anderson’s support, Price and her daughters were finally able to be financially rewarded for her musical creativity.
The foundation of Price’s musical style is found in the genre of the African American spiritual. The New Orleans pianist Louis Moreau Gottschalk (1829-1869) was one of the first American composers to incorporate these elements in his compositions. In 1893 Antonín Dvořák was quoted in the New York Herald, “The future music of this country must be founded upon what are called Negro melodies. This must be the real foundation of any serious and original school of composition to be developed in the United States.” Price, along with William Grant Still and William Dawson, became a pioneer in integrating the passion and atmosphere of spirituals into classical symphonic form. Price wrote in an essay in 1938, “We are even beginning to believe in the possibility of establishing a national musical
continued to suffer challenges in having her music performed, Price continued composing until her sudden death in 1953. Most of her orchestral music was unpublished at this point. Her daughter, Florence Price Robinson, retained the manuscripts and had many difficulties in finding performance outlets for her mother’s music. Robinson died in 1975 and the manuscripts were presumed to be lost. Two property renovators discovered them in an abandoned house in 2009. The University of Arkansas at Fayetteville purchased the manuscripts and subsequently they were sold to G. Schirmer, Inc. Among the works discovered was her Violin Concerto No. 1, which was completed in December 1939.
Violin Concerto No. 1 in D major (1939) FLORENCE BEATRICE PRICE (née SMITH)The first movement opens in a style reminiscent of the great concertos of Tchaikovsky and Brahms, all sharing the key of D major. All this changes when the soloist enters with the theme that employs gentle syncopations and her exploration of ‘blue notes’ (flatted third and seventh degrees of the major scale). This is idiomatically similar to her other symphonic works, as well as those of Still and Dawson. The accompaniment throughout the movement is distinctly organ-like, employing different combinations of instruments in sustained tones to provide a unique timbral foundation for the soaring melodies of the solo violin. She draws some of the syncopated motives from the first movement for her main theme in the second movement. These motives are traded around the orchestra as the underpinning for the expansive, lyrical melody of the solo violin. The middle section is an undulating interlude which showcases the soloist. The third movement is a tour-de-force that demands much from both the orchestra and soloist. Price uses more chromaticism and dissonance in this movement, similar to the modern works of the time. The overall character is similar to the finale of Samuel Barber’s violin concerto, which was composed in the same year. After a false ending, the movement comes to a brilliant
Violin Concerto No. 1 was never premiered in her lifetime. Indeed, the work has only been in the public since 2018 when violinist Er-Gene Kahng made the first recording of the work with the Janaček Philharmonic, conducted by Ryan Cockerham, for Albany Records (TROY1706). Only a small number of performances have been made of the work since the premiere recording. The first documented performance is with violinist Samuel Thompson on February 24, 2019, with the New Jersey Capital Philharmonic under the direction of Daniel Spalding. Peter Clarke performed it for the inaugural concert of the 2019-20 season of the La Jolla Symphony under the direction of Steven Schick (a live recording is available on YouTube). On February 20-21, 2020, violinist Bella Hristova (our soloist this evening) performed it with conductor Adam Demirjian and the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra. The first performances by a major symphony orchestra were on October 6-7, 2022, with soloist Randall Goosby and the Philadelphia Orchestra under the direction of Yannick Nézet-Séguin.
BORN: October 9, 1928, in Helsinki, Finland
DIED: July 27, 2016, in Helsinki
WORK COMPOSED: 1972
WORLD PREMIERE: October 18, 1972, Arctic University of Oulu, Finland; Oulu Symphony Orchestra, Stephen Portman conducting
PERFORMANCE HISTORY: Tonight marks the Orchestra’s first performance of any music by Rautavaara.
INSTRUMENTATION: Two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, trombone, tape recorder, timpani, percussion (cymbals, tam-tam), harp, celesta and strings.
DURATION: 18 minutes
Einojuhani Rautavaara is among the most notable Finnish composers since Jean Sibelius. He composed a great number of works spanning various genres, including eight symphonies, nine operas, thirteen concertos and numerous works for various ensembles. His father, Eino, was an opera singer and cantor. His mother, Elsa, was a doctor and she encouraged him to learn the piano when he was young. When Einojuhani was ten years old his father passed away and less than six years later his mother died. He then went to live with his aunt, Hilja Teräskeli, in Turku, where he began formal piano lessons at the age of seventeen.
Rautavaara went on to study piano and musicology at the University of Helsinki and from 1948 to 1952 he studied composition at the Sibelius Academy under Aarre Merikanto (1893-1958). In 1954 Rautavaara won the Thor Johnson Contest for his composition A Requiem in Our Time. Jean Sibelius selected him in 1955 to receive a Koussevitzky Foundation scholarship, which Rautavaara used to study with Vincent Persichetti (1915-1987) at the Juilliard School. During the following two years he also studied with Roger Sessions (1896-1985) and Aaron Copland at Tanglewood. Rautavaara dedicated his 1980 concerto for the double bass, Angel of Dusk, to Olga Koussevitzky, the widow of Serge Koussevitzky, the founder of Tanglewood. He returned to Helsinki and graduated from the Sibelius Academy in 1957. From 1976 to 1990 he was professor of composition at his alma mater where some of his more famous pupils were composer Kalevi Aho (b. 1949) and conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen (b. 1958).
Cantus arcticus was commissioned by the Arctic University of Oulu in 1972 for its first doctoral degree ceremony. Oulu is a coastal city near the northern end of the Gulf of Bothnia that separates Finland from Sweden. Some of the bird songs were recorded near Oulu, others around the Arctic Circle and the marshlands of Liminka. The work is in three movements, each of which features a different set of bird songs. The first movement, Suo (The Marsh or The Bog), opens with two solo flutes in an impressionistic melody that is later joined by other woodwinds and a recording of bog birds in springtime. The repeated dissonant calls from the oboes and trumpets create a sense of spatial distance. The second movement, Melankolia (Melancholy), begins with two shore larks calling back and forth to one another, the recording is lowered in pitch by two octaves. The texture of the strings creates a meditative space so the focus can be on the dialogue between the birds. The final movement, Joutsenet muuttavat (Swans Migrating), opens with the chaotic sound of a large group of swans. Rautavaara uses this recording as an accompaniment to the orchestra mimicking their movement instead of their voices. He divides the orchestra into four groups: 1. violins and violas; 2. woodwinds; 3. horns, cellos and basses; and 4. celesta and harp. These four groups occupy the same space, overlapping and not perfectly in synch, but not colliding with each other. Imagining a flock of geese, flying at slightly different speed, will give a sense of how the instrumental parts might appear visually. There is one long crescendo throughout the movement and after its climactic moment, the swans fade into the distance.
I believe that this quote by Rautavaara really sums up the importance of art: “It is my belief that music is great if, at some moment, the listener catches ‘a glimpse of eternity through the window of time.’ This, to my mind, is the only true justification for all art. Everything else is of secondary importance.”
Symphony No. 36 in C major, K. 425 Linz WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART
BORN: January 27, 1756, in Salzburg, Austria
DIED: December 5, 1791, in Vienna
WORK COMPOSED: 1783
WORLD PREMIERE: : November 4, 1783, in Linz, Austria
PERFORMANCE HISTORY: Surprisingly, there have been no previous DSSO performances of this Mozart symphony.
INSTRUMENTATION: Two oboes, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, timpani and strings.
DURATION: 26 minutes.
Throughout Mozart’s short life he suffered what we would now call Helicopter Parent Syndrome. His father, Leopold, was overbearing and it seemed that nothing would please this curmudgeon. Around mid-1781 Mozart was in Vienna and he moved into the house of the Webers, family friends from Mannheim now living in Vienna. Only a short time later did Mozart move again to put a stop to rumors of his affair with the Weber’s third daughter Constanze. Nevertheless, the affair continued and they planned to be married (most likely pressure from the future in-laws).
On July 31, 1782, Mozart wrote to his father asking for his approval, on August 2 the couple took communion together, on August 3 the marriage contract was signed, and on August 4 they were married. Leopold’s grudging consent arrived on August 5.
Leopold did not accept Constanze as his daughterin-law and he wasn’t silent about it. After a year of postponed attempts to visit his insufferable father in Salzburg and heal this situation, Mozart and Constanze eventually set out from Vienna in July 1783. They remained in Salzburg for about three months and later correspondence suggests that the visit was not entirely happy. Mozart wanted nothing more than to please his father, but it was an exercise in futility; Leopold was not impressed with Constanze and this would plague Mozart the rest of his life.
On their return journey to Vienna the couple were met at the city gates of Linz by a servant of Count Johann Thun-Hohenstein, an old friend of the Mozart family. After learning that a concert was arranged to take place the following Tuesday, November 4, Mozart wrote to his father that he had no symphony with him and that he had to “work on a new one at head-overheels speed.” He composed the Linz Symphony in four days, beginning after his arrival in Linz at 9:00 AM on October 30 and having it ready for Count Thun’s orchestra to perform it on November 4.
Since his relocation to Vienna in early 1781, Mozart most likely gained considerable confidence in his compositional abilities. His bold use of a slow introduction to the first movement, a rarity at that time, is evidence of Mozart exploring his own personal style. He also used a slow introduction to the first movements in his next two symphonies, 38 and 39 (Symphony No. 37, for which Mozart wrote the introduction, was actually written by Michael Haydn (1737-1806). The first and last movements are operatic in style and influenced by his hugely successful opera Die Entführung aus dem Serail, that was composed shortly after his arrival in Vienna. Although Mozart composed this entire symphony in just four days, it is a fully finished work that holds its own in comparison to his other symphonies of the same period. He wrote in the score that the last movement should be played “as fast as possible,” thus bringing a hastily composed Symphony No. 36 to a breathtaking finish.
Program Notes by Vincent OsbornDSSO chorus master Richard Robbins is the director of choral activities at the University of Minnesota Duluth, where he directs the University Singers and Chamber Singers, in addition to teaching an array of choral conducting and music courses. Robbins travels extensively as a clinician, adjudicator, and director for choral festivals and honor choirs across the country, with recent engagements in Miami, Los Angeles, Orlando, San Francisco, Chicago, Baltimore, and New York City. He has conducted and lectured internationally on multiple occasions at Warsaw’s Chopin Conservatory of Music, the John Paul II Liturgical Institute, and at Krakow’s Academy of Music. As a conductor, his performances have been featured on numerous nationally syndicated programs, including American Public Media’s Pipedreams. His extensive experience in preparing choral-orchestral performances includes leading choirs for the Houston Ballet and for over 50 performances with the Houston Symphony. He has prepared choruses for several major conductors, including Christoph Eschenbach, Ermanno Florio, Hans Graf, Joan Glover, Bernard Labadie, Klaus Peter Flor, Michael Krajewski, Stephen Cleobury, Robert Franz, and Dirk Meyer.
..[THE] CHORUS PREPARED BY RICHARD ROBBINS SANG WITH MOVING TENACITY. HOUSTON CHRONICLE
BORN: October 12, 1872, in Down Ampney, Gloucestershire, England
DIED: August 26, 1958, in London
WORK COMPOSED: 1910
WORLD PREMIERE: September 6, 1910, in Gloucester Cathedral, London Symphony Orchestra, Vaughan Williams conducting
PERFORMANCE HISTORY: This Vaughn Williams string orchestra piece has been played by the DSSO in 1953, 1962, 1973, and on October 14, 1994. The latter performance was conducted by Music Director candidate Richard Westerfield. The next day the concert was repeated in Aitkin, MN, but guest conducted by Delta David Gier.
INSTRUMENTATION: : String Orchestra
DURATION: 15 minutes
Ralph (pronounced rāf) Vaughan Williams was the most important English composer of his generation. His many works include operas, ballets, chamber music, secular and religious vocal pieces and orchestral compositions including nine symphonies. He was strongly influenced by English folk songs and Tudor music. He was a key figure in the 20th century revival of British music and his output marked a decisive break from the German-dominated style of the 19th century.
Vaughan Williams came from a family of distinction and independence. His father, Reverend Arthur Vaughan Willams (1834-1875), was from a family of eminent lawyers. Sir Edward Vaughan Williams, the first Judge of Common Pleas, was the composer’s grandfather. Vaughan Williams’s mother, Margaret, née Wedgwood (1842-1937) was a descendant of Josiah Wedgwood and a niece of Charles Darwin. In 1875, after the death of her husband, Margaret moved her three children to her family home at Leith Hill Place, Surrey. Most of Vaughan Williams’ life was spent in this area or in London. He was encouraged to take an active interest in music and received his first lessons on the piano from a Wedgwood aunt. She also took him through The Child’s Introduction to Thorough Bass and a book on harmony. By the time Vaughan Williams attended preparatory school he was playing violin, piano and organ. He later switched to viola and played in the school orchestra while he was at Charterhouse (1887-1890). This was followed by two years at the Royal College of Music, then three at Trinity College, Cambridge (receiving a Bachelor of Music in 1894 and a Bachelor of Arts in history a year later), then returning for more study at the Royal College of Music.
Vaughan Williams had a rough beginning as a composer. His cousin, Gwen Raverat, recalled overhearing conversations about “that foolish young man, Ralph Vaughan Williams, who would go on working at music when he was so hopelessly bad at it.” The composer himself would later remark on his “amateurish technique,” which he said plagued him his entire life. As a young man it was apparent that Vaughan Williams was unable to see his own path in music. Further studies, with Max Bruch in Berlin and then Maurice Ravel in Paris, led him to recognize that he was attempting to imitate foreign models of music and that pointed him in the direction of using native resources for his inspiration. These interests were shared by Gustav Holst, who he met at the Royal College of Music in 1895, and they developed a close friendship until Holst’s death in 1934.
One of Vaughan Williams’s early and popular works is Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, which he composed for the 1910 Three Choirs Festival (the oldest music festival in the world, beginning in 1715), held at Gloucester Cathedral. His biographer James Day called it “unquestionably the first work by Vaughan Williams that is recognizably and unmistakably his and no one else’s.” Thomas Tallis (c.1505-1585) was an English composer of High Renaissance music and is considered one of England’s greatest composers.
His compositions are primarily vocal and they occupy a primary place in the anthologies of English choral music. For his of the nine tunes Tallis wrote for the Psalter of 1567 of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Matthew Parker (1504-1575). It is from Psalm 2, which from the King James Bible begins, “Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?” The metrical rendition by Parker is, “Why fum’th in sight: The Gentils spite, In fury raging stout? Why taketh in hond: the people fond, Vayne things to bring about?” Tallis’ tune is in the Phrygian mode, which is playing E to E on the piano and only using the white keys. Vaughan Williams’ setting is scored for a double string orchestra with string quartet. His biographer Michael Kennedy observes:
The spacious and sonorous use of spread chords, the majestic cadences and extreme range of dynamics, along with the antiphony between the two string bodies (playing alternately, the one answering the other, often like an echo), the contrast with the string quartet, and the passages for solo violin and solo viola combine to create a luminous effect.
The premiere of the with few exceptions. J. A. Fuller Maitland wrote for The Times sure whether one is listening to something very old or very new… But that is just what makes this Fantasia so delightful to listen to; it cannot be assigned to a time or a school, but it is full of the visions which have haunted the seers of all times.” Vaughan Williams’ a Theme by Thomas popular works in classical music.
BORN: : January 2, 1905, in Eastcote, London, England
DIED: January 8, 1998, in London
WORK COMPOSED: 1939-41
WORLD PREMIERE: March 19, 1944, at the Adelphi Theatre, London; London Regional Civil Defence and Morley College Choirs with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Walter Goehr conducting
PERFORMANCE HISTORY: The performance of this choral work marks the first time the DSSO has given a performance of any music by Michael Tippett.
INSTRUMENTATION: : Two flutes, two oboes and English horn, two clarinets, two bassoons and contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, timpani, percussion (cymbals), strings, chorus, and soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor and bass soloists.
DURATION: 66 minutes
Sir Michael Kemp Tippett OM CH CBE, an English composer, rose to prominence during and immediately after World War II. During his life he was considered, along with Benjamin Britten (1913-1976), one of the leading British composers of the 20th century. Tippett had a slow start as a composer; he destroyed his earliest works and he was thirty before any of his works were published. His music was broadly lyrical until the mid1950s when he changed to a more experimental style.
After his first visit to America in 1965, Tippett’s music began showing influences of jazz and blues. Around 1976, his later works returned to a more lyrical and melodic style. Tippett received many honors during his lifetime and the greatest praise was mostly for his earlier
embraced communism in the 1930s and became a pacifist after 1940. In 1943 he was imprisoned for refusing to carry out war-related duties required by his military exemption as a conscientious objector. He was led to Jungian psychoanalysis in 1939 after experiencing difficulties in accepting his homosexuality. The Jungian dichotomy of shadow and light became a recurring factor in his music. While Tippett was in therapy he was also looking for a theme for a major work, an oratorio or opera, that would reflect both the turmoil in the world and his own recent catharsis. He based his work on a recent event: the murder in Paris of a German diplomat by 17-yearold refugee Herschel Grynszpan (1921, declared dead in 1960), who was a Polish Jew.
On November 7, 1938, Grynszpan entered the German embassy in Paris claiming to be a spy with important intelligence and saying he wanted to speak to the ambassador. The clerk on duty asked Ernst vom Rath (1909-1938), the junior of the two embassy officials available, to see him. When Grynszpan entered Rath’s office, Rath asked to see the intelligence documents and Grynszpan took out a gun and shot Rath five times. Right before shooting Rath, Grynszpan yelled that this was in the name of 12,000 persecuted Jews. Grynszpan made no attempt to resist and he confessed to shooting Rath, repeating his motive was to avenge the Jews persecuted by the Nazi regime. Hitler sent his two best doctors to Paris to try and save Rath’s life but the wounds were fatal and he died at 5:30 PM on November 9.
The Nazis used Rath’s assassination as a justification for their antisemitic pogroms and within hours the violent actions taken in Germany, known as Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass) began and lasted throughout the night and into the following day. More than 90 Jews were killed and over 30,000 arrested; the property damage was immense and although the Jews could file insurance claims Hermann Göring, who was in charge of German economic planning, ruled that the claims would not be paid. Kristallnacht shocked the world, triggering a new wave of Jewish emigration from Germany, and putting the world at the brink of war. Grynszpan was sent to Germany where there would be a trial and the expected outcome of guilty followed by an execution. The Justice Ministry in Germany, which
A Child of Our TimeMICHAEL TIPPETT MICHAEL TIPPETT
was not yet taken over by the regime, argued that because Grynszpan was not a German citizen, he could not be tried for a murder he committed outside of Germany, and because he was a minor he could not face the death penalty. There were also rumors of a homosexual relationship between Grynszpan and Rath that Goebbels and Hitler wanted to avoid becoming public knowledge. Even in Nazi Germany people fell through the cracks; Grynszpan spent the war in custody with reports of him dying in late 1942. Grynszpan’s parents had no communication from their son and they petitioned the German government to have him declared legally dead. Grynszpan was declared dead in 1960, with a date of death fixed at May 8, 1945. However a photo emerged in 2016, taken in 1946, of a man resembling Grynszpan participating in a demonstration by Holocaust survivors against British refusal to let them emigrate to the British mandate of Palestine. Facial recognition indicated a high probability that the man in the photo was Grynszpan.
Tippett chose this event for his oratorio A Child of Our Time, for which he also wrote the libretto. In its three parts Tippett deals with this incident in the context of the experiences of oppressed people, and offers the pacifist message of reconciliation and ultimate understanding. Similar to Handel’s Messiah, Part I is preparatory and prophetic, dealing with the general state of oppression in our time. Part II is narrative and tells of a particular story of a young man’s attempt to seek justice by violence and the catastrophic consequences, and Part III is meditative, questioning if there is a moral to be drawn. Because Tippett conceived the work as a general depiction of man’s inhumanity to man, he preserved the universality of the work by avoiding actual depictions of people or places. A very original feature of the work is the use of African American spirituals in place of chorales. Tippett justified their inclusion as they are songs born of oppression, which are not found in traditional hymns. He wrote to America for a collection of spirituals and found that there were several that fit with each key situation in his oratorio. He chose five: Steal Away; Nobody Knows the Trouble I See, Lord; Go Down, Moses; O, By and By; and Deep River.
Tippett completed A Child of Our Time in 1941 on Easter and it was set aside with no immediate performance prospects because of the war. In February 1942 Tippett was charged with not complying with assigned non-combatant duties. There was a tribunal held and he testified that he rejected the duties because they were an unacceptable compromise with his principles. After several further hearings he was sentenced to three months’ imprisonment, of which he served two and was released. With encouragement from Britten, Tippett began to make arrangements for a premiere of A Child of Our Time. German composer and conductor Walter Goehr (1903-1960) agreed to conduct. Tippett recalled that “somehow or other the money was scraped together to engage the London Philharmonic Orchestra” (a major challenge because most of the musicians had left the city because of the war). The soloists were Joan Cross (soprano), Margaret MacArthur (alto), Peter Pears (tenor), and Roderick Lloyd (bass); and the Morley College Choir was augmented by the London Regional Civil Defence Choir.
Tippett’s biographer Oliver Soden writes of the premiere: It was an unusually cold March in 1944, and the West End theatres were barely heated. Concertgoers, many in army uniform, picked their way across the rubble and sandbags and craters of the Strand to the Adelphi Theatre, in order to hear a new work, for choir, orchestra, and four soloists, by a young composer called Michael Tippett. Orchestras had been evacuated from London, and concert halls were mounds of rubble; hence the decision to premiere the work in a theatre. But somehow, in that world of paper rationing and army calls-up, sheet music had been printed and performers drummed up. It was the midst of Operation Steinbock, known as the ‘Baby Blitz’, but on the day of the premiere, 19 March 1944, German bombers left London alone, turning their attention to the north of England. Theatre auditoriums during the war were hung with signs that would light up during an air-raid, in case the wail of the siren outside were drowned by the performance. But the premiere of Michael Tippett’s A Child of Our Time went without a hitch, and the next morning The Times hailed, in the tiny wartime newsprint that saved paper, ‘the choral work for which we have been waiting since the outbreak of this war’.
Tippett’s A Child of Our Time has not been performed often, possibly because of its premonitory quality. Addressing this situation, Tippett wrote in 1980 (a few years after the Pol Pot regime’s massacres in Cambodia): “When I wrote the work, I was so engulfed in the actions of the period, I never considered its prophetic quality. But it seems that the growing violence springing out of divisions of nation, race, religion, status, color, or even just rich and poor is possibly the deepest present threat to the social fabric of all human society.”
Just as it takes an ensemble to perform the great works of Beethoven, so it takes a collection of individuals to support the work of the Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra. When you give to the DSSO, you are supporting an organization that is a cultural cornerstone of the Twin Ports region, bringing together the best of our local musicians to entertain, educate and enrich the lives of more than 20,000 individuals each year.
Your ticket purchase tonight was important - but it only covers a quarter of our annual operating expenses. Individual donors play an important part in helping the Symphony bridge that gap. Each season, gifts from individuals provide more than 60% of our contributed income. That means donations of any size make a big difference and support our efforts to share great music with everyone in the community.
In Person - Come say hello to us at the tables in the lobby. We want to hear your stories about concerts you have enjoyed over the years.
Call the Office - We are happy to process your donation over the phone and love it when you call!
Donate Online - Give securely by visiting www.DSSO.com/give
Debit Transfer - Join other DSSO patrons and simply authorize your banker to initiate a reoccurring debit transfer from your account directly to the DSSO.
Mail Us a Check - We know it can be old-fashioned, but our office loves getting mail. 130 W. Superior St Suite LL2 - 120 Duluth, MN 55802
IRA Donation - Are you 70½ or older? You can support the music you love with a Qualified Charitable Distribution from your IRA. Please consult your tax or financial advisor for more information.
Charitable Bequest - Write your own story with planned gifts to the people & organizations you value by writing them to your Will and beneficiary designations.
Stock Donations- You can transfer appreciated stock as a gift that is fully tax-deductible.
The Legacy Society recognizes and honors the visionary individuals, couples, and families who have included the DSSO in their estate plans, ensuring that the music you care about continues into the future. To join the Legacy Society, you can make a bequest to the DSSO as part of your Will, name the organization as a beneficiary in a policy or retirement fund or provide a direct cash donation into our endowment.
To begin, contact your attorney and ask for the DSSO to be included in your Will, Trust or policy. Then contact the DSSO office and we can provide you with a membership form so we can begin recognizing your generosity and including your gift in our future
Inplanning.recognition
of their support, Legacy Society members are listed in all concert Program Books and are invited to an exclusive annual benefit event each year.
The Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra (DSSO) is proud to be a part of the Twin Ports business community. The Symphony is an employer, a downtown tenant, a consumer, an advertiser, and a member of the Chamber of Commerce. We understand that each company has different needs and motivations, from marketing and brand identification to client and employee entertainment and recognition, and more. We welcome the opportunity to discuss your corporate objectives and identify customized ways we can work together for mutual benefits.
The DSSO Donor Lounge is a space for where our most invested patrons can gather before a concert and during intermission. Access to the Donor Lounge starts with gifts to the annual fund of $1,000 and includes ßaccess to a private bartender on the second floor of the Symphony Hall Lobby Space.
THANK YOU TO THE FOLLOWING CORPORATE AND INDIVIDUAL CONTRIBUTORS WHO HAVE GIVEN IN SUPPORT OF THE DSSO JULY 1, 2021 THROUGH AUGUST 31, 2022
($25,000MAESTRO
Charles & Carolyn Russell MurielMinnesotaMcKnightMargaretThe DepotFoundationFoundationAmesMemorialFundFoundationStateArtsBoardWhitesideCharitableTrust
($10,000PRINCIPALto $24,999)
Nancy Odden, Doug Britton
WildeySt.ArendPachelNorthlandNorthJoseph MeeseElisabeth C. MasonLloydHelena JacksonJeremy FrybergerK.JohnsonFoundationShoreBankofCommerceFoundationFoundationJ.&Verna SandbulteLuke’sMedicalCenterH.MitchellFamilyFoundation
GUEST ($6,000ARTISTto$9,999)
Gary & RobertWilliamVernNationalMichaelJacqueline Foley&Sharon MollerusBankofCommerce&May Nordling&Saundra Palmer&Sharon Wahman M.D.
FULL ($4,500CHAIRto$5,999)
Shirley TratechaudMinnesotaEssentiaThomasKarl Diekman&Barbara ElliottHealthPower-AnALLETECompany
HALF ($2,500CHAIRto$4,499)
Robert T. & Barbara Bennett John &
QUARTER CHAIR ($1,200 to $2,499)
Dr. Vicki & Terry Anderson Linda & JamesRoberta “Bobbi”WilliamBranden RobinsonDean PetersonTammy OstranderNancy MelanderPat MastRobert KnightonElaine KillenTomDr. Glen E. HoltJohnWalterLane FrybergerHarold A. FrederickDr. RobertRogerLester DrewesMark DanielsonStephen CushingJeffreyLurene BuhrmannMark Boben&Vickie Cadwell&Elaine Engle&Mary EvansSmith&Kay GowerFochsofHappySleeperMattress&JillKaiser&Nairi StackVose&Mary Zastrow
CathyGudrunRajiv VaidyanathanSharon L. TorrisonAnita SwansonTobin SobaskiKaren RuediSusan Relf M.D.David J. OuseGeraldDirk MeyerDarla MeierAndre LamoureaDennis LamkinCarolJohnMargaret JoynesRuth JohnsonThomasKay GustafsonMaryRondi EricksonRuthAlisonSandra BarkleyBill AndersonClarkeAnn Eaton&Joe Gummerson&Joan Hedin&Sharon Kemp&Paul Knuti&MaryAnn OstroskiCrowell&Geoffery Witrak&Kirby Wood
BrucknerAngie BomierJanice BigaAnne BierBenedictineSusan BathoryLeonoreBeth ArnsonDorothyAllen AnwayKathy AntillaRichardEvelyn M. AndersonJohnJohn AlexanderJanet AkervikJerry Ackerman&Cathy Ameel&Yvonne AndersonAnway&Robert Baeumler&DonaldLaneSistersofSt.ScholasticaMonasterySocietyofAmerica, Inc.
William & Kathy Croke John & Jane HovlandSusan HoughTimothy HoryzaMary Holm-LundWayne HolmbergPaul HolmJeremy HoglundKevinKaren HoeschenLisa HochMaryGwen HobergJill HilliardGrace HerriedShirley HermanSara HenriksenThomas HenningDavidEllen HedinCheryl HedgecockMargaretKathleen HatchLynne HarringtonMartha HanRosemary GuineyDellaJanelle GomezMary GodfreyHilary GodardJane GilleyJohn GibbsMary GdulaGeoffrey GatesGary GangeDonaldGreg FoxErnie ForgachMarjorie FisherKaren FinsethConnor FilipiJason FifeAnya FeltsDiane Felde-FinkeMarie FegleyJeannePaul EngebretsonJoanneRonald A. EllefsonPaul EckhardtJacob DunlapMary DragichJeanne DotyTom DonahueDiane DesotelleKathleen DesantoDorothy DaytonJoel DayCatherine DahlbergJudy Dahl&Tom Ellison&Dennis Erickson&LouAnne GaalaasK. GrahamHallM. Hayes&Mary Helf&Allen Hoberg&Carol Hoeschen
John ZallarYasuyo YamazakiShirley WuchterStan WoldMandi WojciehowskiSusan WittkopfKelly WiisanenTomLaura WhitneyTrevor WhiteCarolSheldon WattsJori WaltJennifer Wabrowetz&Mark Weitz&Linda Wiig
Greg Fox Lane Smith
Bob & Sharon Wahman
Jane WalterGilley&Kay Gower
Elaine Killen Pat JohnKruschke&Kathy Berchild
Craft & Ellie Dryer
Tim & Leslie Chruchill Ernst Schoenfeld
Rena Kraut
Nairi MichaelDavidStackOuse&Betsy Rosenzweig
Joyce & Robert Hickman Thomas & Mary Jean Barratt Pamella Jacobson
Julie ThomasMichels&Sandra Henning
Diane Kolquist
John & Sharon Kemp Mary & Jim Zastrow John JanePattyKaySheldonKarenChristabelJeanMaryNancyBillKathleenPennyKellyTomMaryLouiseAlexanderFoss&BobEvans&LindaWiigWiisanenMortonSanders&NairiStackMcParlanPatRenaud&SharonCaptain&JamesGrantKeenanWattsBiga&PatrickSpottSaloDownsHovland
Judy Macgibbon
Paul & Vicky Siders
Dr. Vickie & Terry Anderson
Jeri & Gale Kerns
Susan Bathory & Donald Lane Mary Godfrey Sylvia Jamar Judith
DanLaurieJohnJacquieNewman&JimSebastian&CathyAmeel&MarkSeverson&LoisJaeckel
Nancy & Mark Melhus
Renate & Tony Lischalk
Jill DeanCotHilliardLaFondPeterson & Deb Rausch
Leonore & Robert Baeumler
Jeffrey HonorableCadwellDavid Bouschor
Ronald Caple Thom & Cindy Storm
Joanne & Tom Ellison
Harold Frederick Martha Aas
Carol Michealson
Buzz & Saundra Palmer Thomas & Jane Barthell Margaret Oman WIlliam Miller & Stephanie Hemphill
David Steininger& Lori JamesWilliamsLake & Melissa Lentz
Kathleen Risku
Bruce & Ann Mars
Rev. Craig Carlson Brad Schmugge
Dr. Beth Gilbert
Roger & Nancy Ralston Gary Loberg
Ruth Thorpe Linda Jorgenson & Jack JeanneKathleenMarkGundersonDanielsonAntilla&Daniel
Doty Charles & Jean Leibfried Linda & Mark Boben
Carolyn Sundquist
This list represents gifts being made in tribute to an individual, organization or occasion.
Helena Jackson by Dr. Robert & Mary Evans Christmas 2021 by Lois Bauer
Rea3d by Janelle Gomez Thomas Donahue by Charles & Jean Leibfried
Our hearts go out to the family and friends of musicians or patrons that have passed.
*This list represents those we have been made aware of through Memorial Gifts.
Dr. Vern Harrington by Terrence & Kathy Clark Richard Braun by Kelly Wiisanen George Hovland II by Jane Hovland Elisabeth Mason & Ellen Marsden by Christabel & James Grant Sam Tratechaud and Walter & Alta Moe by Shirley Tratechaud
David Vose, Robert & Margie Vickers by Roberta Vose Richard Ford by Julie Ford David Vose & Don Niemi by Sharon Torrison David Miller by Pat Miller Dorothy Anway by Allen Anway
Ellen Marsden by Alison Clarke Rodger Richards by Della K. Graham Lori Skog-Gourley by Kenrea Perell Ellen Marsden by Cheryl Hedgecock Adeline & Joseph Sandor by Timothy Sandor Marge Kuehn by Kathy Antilla Anne and Daryl Leibfried by Tom Donahue Ellen Marsden by Helen Hekgestad Mary June Donahue, LeAnn House, and Jean Klun by Ronald Kari
Mary Donahue by Charles & Jean Leibfried Victoria Luepke by HarlanStech
Our hearts go out to the family and friends of Robert Hjort who passed in 2022.
*Annual Designated Chorus Fund
Sylvia Jamar Janice Biga Kay Biga & Patrick Spott Pamella Oberfeld
are pleased to o er a big thank you to our sponsors for the 2021-2022 Season. Their generous support makes it possible for the DSSO to bring world-class concerts, educational programs, and community outreach to the Northland. BRAVO!
We are pleased to o er a big thank you to our sponsors for the 2021-2022 Season. Their generous support makes it possible for the DSSO to bring world-class concerts, educational programs, and community outreach to the Northland. BRAVO!
We are pleased to o er a big thank you to our sponsors for the 2021-2022 Season. Their generous support makes it possible for the DSSO to bring world-class concerts, educational programs, and community outreach to the Northland. BRAVO!
We are pleased to o er a big thank you to our sponsors for the 2021-2022 Season. Their generous support makes it possible for the DSSO to bring world-class concerts, educational programs, and community outreach to the Northland. BRAVO!
We are pleased to o er a big thank you to our sponsors for the 2021-2022 Season. Their generous support makes it possible for the DSSO to bring world-class concerts, educational programs, and community outreach to the Northland. BRAVO!
We are pleased to o er a big thank you to our sponsors for the 2021-2022 Season. Their generous support makes it possible for the DSSO to bring world-class concerts, educational programs, and community outreach to the Northland. BRAVO!
We are pleased to o er a big thank you to our sponsors for the 2021-2022 Season. Their generous support makes it possible for the DSSO to bring world-class concerts, educational programs, and community outreach to the Northland. BRAVO! TAKE A BOW, SPONSORS
WE ARE PLEASED TO OFFER A BIG THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS FOR THE 2022-2023 SEASON. THEIR GENEROUS SUPPORT MAKES IT POSSIBLE FOR THE DSSO TO BRING WORLD-CLASS CONCERTS, EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS, AND COMMUNITY OUTREACH TO THE NORTHLAND. BRAVO!
sponsors for the 2021-2022 Season. DSSO to bring world-class concerts, to the Northland. BRAVO!
This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a Minnesota State Arts Board Operating Support grant, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.
Supporters of the Miller-Dwan Foundation see their gifts touch lives beyond hospital walls. Here, the youngest to the oldest in our area are cared for with dignity and respect. Our caregivers work wonders. And families find dignity, hope, and healing.
We exist to support our region’s health. | mdfoundation.org