THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY College of Music presents
“Old Wine in New Bottles”
University Philharmonia
Alexander Jiménez, Music Director and Conductor
Guilherme Leal Rodrigues, Graduate Associate Conductor
Thursday, November 6, 2025
7:30 p.m. | Opperman Music Hall
Die Meistersinger: Prelude to Act 1
PROGRAM
Guilherme Leal Rodrigues, conductor
Richard Wagner (1813–1883)
Suite in E-flat for Band, Op. 28
Gustav Holst Chaconne (1874–1934)
Intermezzo
tr. Gordon Jacobs
March (1895–1984)
INTERMISSION
Ständchen (Serenade)
Die Erlkönig (The Erl-King)
Franz Schubert (1797–1828)
Franz Schubert tr. Theodore Thomas (1835–1905)
Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes by Carl Maria von Weber
Paul Hindemith Allegro (1895–1963)
Scherzo (Turandot)
Andantino
Marsch
To Ensure An Enjoyable Concert Experience For All…
Please refrain from talking, entering, or exiting during performances. Food and drink are prohibited in all concert halls. Recording or broadcasting of the concert by any means, including the use of digital cameras, cell phones, or other devices is expressly forbidden. Please deactivate all portable electronic devices including watches, cell phones, pagers, hand-held gaming devices or other electronic equipment that may distract the audience or performers.
Recording Notice: This performance may be recorded. Please note that members of the audience may at times be included in this process. By attending this performance you consent to have your image or likeness appear in any live or recorded video or other transmission or reproduction made in conjunction to the performance.
Florida State University provides accommodations for persons with disabilities. Please notify the College of Music at (850) 644-3424 at least five working days prior to a musical event to request accommodation for disability or alternative program format.
Wagner: Prelude to Act 1 of Die Meistersinger
One evening from the balcony of my house, as I watched a fine sunset light up in glory the splendid view of “golden” Mainz and the majestically flowing Rhine, the Prelude to my Meistersinger suddenly sprang up clearly in my mind as I had once before beheld it in a troubled mood, as if it had been a distant mirage, and I proceeded to draft the Prelude precisely as it appears today…
It was March 1862, and Richard Wagner had just settled in the town of Biebrich near Mainz. This was still a troubled time for him, following a long exile in Switzerland, a theatrical scandal in Paris involving Tannhäuser, and an aborted attempt to stage Tristan und Isolde in Vienna. A short stay in Venice in 1861 had not helped much, but on the way back to Vienna several ideas for the Prelude to Die Meistersinger had occurred to Wagner instantaneously and with the greatest clarity, and he immediately composed the opening section of the score. Now, established near his publisher, Schott, the entire music drama, originally conceived in 1845 as a satirical counterpart to Tannhäuser, crystallized in Wagner’s mind.
It took the composer until 1868 to complete Die Meistersinger, but in the meantime he presented several tantalizing previews in the form of libretto readings and concert performances of the Prelude, which he had finished first. When completed, this music drama became Wagner’s only comedy and his only story featuring ordinary mortals. As Richard Sternfeld puts it, the Prelude “contains the germ of the entire musical cosmos of the opera.”
It opens with the rugged but formal theme of the guild of Mastersingers and the brassy March of the Mastersingers, based on an actual 16th-century Meistersinger melody. In contrast with these, the next section focuses on themes associated with love, the dominant musical idea being a phrase from the famous third act “Prize Song.” Following a fugato on the main Mastersinger theme, the three main themes plus a fourth are freely interwoven in a glorious climactic section presented in luxuriant counterpoint.
– Michael Fink © 2021
Holst: Suite in E-flat for Military Band
The English composer, Gustav Holst, is best known to most audiences for his orchestral masterpiece, The Planets. Among band aficionados, however, Holst is also revered for numerous works for wind band, including his Suites Nos. 1 and 2 for Military Band. The Suite No. 1 in E-flat, Op. 28, was composed in 1909, yet not officially premiered until 1920. The work is a cornerstone of the wind band repertoire and is considered among the earliest works written for military band. The brass band tradition was a significant part of English musical life, and it is no wonder that early 20th-century English composers such as Holst, Vaughan-Williams, and Grainger wrote such notable works for band. Among them was Gordon Jacob, a contemporary of Holst whose own compositions for band are a staple of the wind band repertoire. Following the death of Holst in 1934, Jacob, who was a gifted orchestrator, set about making this arrangement of the Suite in E-Flat for orchestra.
– Alexander Jiménez
Schubert/tr. Thomas: Ständchen and Die Erlkönig
The two selections heard tonight come from a library of popular and historically significant arrangements by famed orchestral conductor Theodore Thomas (1835–1905). Thomas was among the most influential figures in the development of the American orchestra. Through approximately three decades of touring with his orchestra across the country, and in the process laying foundations for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Thomas left an indelible imprint on the American musical landscape. His arrangements were integral to his popularity with American audiences, who wanted accessibility in their music yet sought validation of their cultural sophistication. By presenting carefully chosen works of Europe’s most venerable composers in his arrangements, Thomas found a formula by which he could entertain his audiences while nevertheless encouraging their aspiration toward the status of high culture. These works span the entirety of Thomas’s career, from the less assuming (although wildly popular) early arrangement of Schumann’s “Träumerei” to the weighty mature arrangement of Chopin’s Polonaise, Op. 53.
– Dr. Paul Luongo, editor
Note: Dr. Paul Luongo earned the MM in Orchestral Conducting and PhD in Musicology from the Florida State University.
Hindemith: Symphonic Metamorphosis on Themes of Carl Maria von Weber
Hindemith’s enduring Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes by Carl Maria von Weber was originally sketched as a ballet, and its four distinctive movements maintain a certain sense of choreography. But by the 1940s, he had developed an idiosyncratic style that lent itself more to adventurous listening than to traditional ballet.
After fleeing Nazi Germany in 1937, Hindemith accepted a position at Yale, where he remained on the composition faculty through 1953. Shortly after his arrival, he was approached by the choreographer Leonid Massine, for whom he had previously composed the ballet Nobilissima visione. Massine wanted him to write a new ballet set to arrangements of music written by the early 19th-century romantic composer Carl Maria von Weber. Hindemith quickly took to the project, but apparently went too far, in Massine’s opinion, with Weber’s original material.
“It seems the music is too complicated for them,” said Hindemith, referring to the dancers in Massine’s company, “and that they simply wanted an exact orchestral arrangement of the original Weber. I am not just an orchestrator.” But there was something in the attempt of value to Hindemith. Three years later he returned to the project, and literally “metamorphosized” Weber’s originals into a single work, exploding with color and inventiveness, that cemented his place among the top composers of the 20th-century.
The first, third, and fourth movements of this “symphonic metamorphosis” are based on melodies from relatively obscure piano duets of Weber that Hindemith and his wife Johanna would often play together. The second movement is derived from Weber’s overture Turandot (a play with incidental music, not to be confused with Puccini’s opera of the same name). After receiving its world premiere by the New York Philharmonic in 1944, with Artur Rodzinski conducting, Hindemith immediately felt that it should also be available for band and requested that his Yale colleague Keith Wilson create the transcription. Since that time, the heroic march that serves as the suite’s fourth movement is often performed on its own.
– Jamie Allen
Violin 1
Ajay Balkaran‡
Olivia Leichter
Christina Leach
Chloe Gullo
Mulunesh Creaghan
Lucia Garro
Leah Tryzmel
Sasha Richeson
Violin 2
Peter Fennema*
Irsia Ruíz Guzmán
Shane Sharkey
Connor Brown
Violet Lorish
Elina Nyquist
Sarita Thosteson
Viola
Mary Boulo*
Angeleena Jackson
Joseilys Quinones
Corinne Williams-Hough
Brenden Brewer
Keannamarie Goliat
Emma Patterson
Jacqueline Wang
Madison Jansons
University Philharmonia Personnel
Alexander Jiménez, Music Director and Conductor
Guilherme Leal Rodrigues, Graduate Associate Conductor
Cello
Addison Miller*
Miroslav Beck
Enzo Savage
Daniel Jimenez-Ganoa
Matthew Pooler
Ashley Gessner
Jason Tejada-Chancay
Tyler Benko
María Ruíz Guzmán
Chloe Kolenc
Brandon Bonamarte
Bass
Jean-Phillipe Montas*
Charlotte Wooldridge
Daniel Martinez
Gavin Smith
Emma Waidner
Garrett Gilley
Christopher T. McDuffie
Flute
Alexandra Kotsonis*
Hazel Reid
Ian Guerrero
Piccolo
Ian Guerrero
Oboe
Haley O’Neill**
Lorin Zamer**
Alejandro Lopez
Emma Drugan
English Horn
Lorin Zamer
Emma Drugan
Clarinet
Nicholas Mackley**
Reymon Contrera**
Daniel Gonzalez**
Jariel Santiago
Bass Clarinet
Nicholas Mackley
Bassoon
Susanna Campbell**
Ben Kiely**
Amelia Khanji
Charles Martin
Contrabassoon
Ben Kiely
Horn
Vincent Aldoretta**
Andrew Keller
Davis Craddock
Isaac Roman**
Trumpet
Grason Peterson**
Angelo Del Oro**
Tyler Bennet**
Nathan Reid**
Trombone
Landon Ellenberg*
Justus Smith
Bass Trombone
Kevin Li
Tuba
Charlie Nelson
Percussion and Timpani
Ethan Turner
Gabby Overholt
Cole Martin
Aidan Lenski
Caitlin Magennis
Jordan Brown
Harp
Sierra Stacy
Orchestra Manager
Steven Stamer
Stage Manager
Connor Oneacre
Orchestra Librarians
Guilherme Rodrigues
Tom Roggio
Library Bowing
Assistant
Victoria Joyce ‡ Concertmaster
* Principal
** Co-Principal