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Mendelssohn & Márquez
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Friday, July 11
About the Music Program Notes
MENDELSSOHN
Symphony No. 4 in A major, Opus 90 (Italian) (1833)
Miller Outdoor Theatre
8:30 p.m.
There is an old saying that artworks are never finished, only abandoned; some, however, are abandoned more quickly than others. Although the earliest sketches for Mendelssohn’s Italian Symphony do not survive, the composer likely began jotting them down during his sojourn through Italy from the autumn of 1830 through the spring of 1831. By February, he wrote home that “The Italian symphony is making great progress; it will be the lustiest piece I have yet composed”; by April, he hoped he would “be able to finish the Italian symphony while still in Italy.” However, work seems to have stalled until November 1832, when the London Philharmonic Society granted the 23-year-old composer his first international commission, requesting “a Symphony, an Overture, and a Vocal Piece.” The work was finished by April and premiered in London on May 13, 1833. By all accounts the new piece was a smashing success with everyone—except Mendelssohn. Often his own harshest critic, Mendelssohn remained dissatisfied with the symphony and revised the last three movements in 1834. He intended to revise the first as well, declaring “I shall have to change the whole theme, from the fourth measure on, and with it pretty much the entire first movement,” but was called away by other pressing matters. He never did revise the first movement and ultimately withdrew the work, much to the consternation of the many listeners who had hailed the original version as a masterpiece. Mendelssohn’s sister Fanny, herself a gifted composer, voiced
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Presenting Sponsor
City of Houston through the Miller Theatre Advisory Board
Guarantor
The Houston Symphony’s Miller Outdoor Theatre concerts are endowed by The Brown Foundation, Inc. in memory of Stewart and Hanni Orton
The Houston Symphony’s sound shell ceiling is made possible through the generosity of the Beauchamp Foundation and the Fondren Foundation
Program Notes
MENDELSSOHN
Symphony No. 4 in A major, Opus 90 (Italian) (1833)
the critical consensus when she wrote to her brother: “In general, I think you are all too ready to change a successful piece later merely because one thing or another pleases you more then.”
Despite Mendelssohn’s misgivings, the London Philharmonic gave several additional performances of the original version during the composer’s lifetime and revived the work after his death, including at a memorial performance attended by Queen Victoria in June 1848. The 1833 version of the work has held its place in the repertoire ever since, while the 1834 revisions remained unpublished and unperformed until the late 20 th century. Although comparing the two versions o ers a fascinating glimpse into the mind of the composer, the familiar 1833 version remains the most often performed today.
In keeping with his belief that music should speak for itself, Mendelssohn never publicly referred to this symphony as “Italian,” and during his lifetime no critics ever identified the music as having a particularly Italian character. The work only acquired its nickname after an 1850 biography of Mendelssohn stated that the symphony was composed in Italy. To be fair, in private correspondence Mendelssohn did refer to the work as an “Italian Symphony,” and it contains many Italianate elements, including orchestration and melodic turns reminiscent of contemporary Italian opera.
The first movement opens with a joyful, leaping theme which leads to a lyrical song without words for clarinets. Midway through the movement, fragments of a minor-key march begin a thrilling contrapuntal development—a nod to Mendelssohn’s admiration for the music of Bach. This mysterious march theme only reveals itself in full at the end of the movement.
Audiences during Mendelssohn’s lifetime typically found the second movement the most striking. Dating from the 1850s, the traditional interpretation of this movement as a “pilgrims’ march” likely stems from conflating the movement with the “March of the pilgrims singing the evening prayer” from Berlioz’s Harold in Italy. The image seems to have stuck thanks to the opening melody’s ecclesiastical character and walking bassline, which suggest a religious procession.
The musicologist John Michael Cooper argues that the third movement, a graceful minuet, was inspired by “Lili’s Park,” a poem by Goethe; during his time in Italy, Mendelssohn wrote of the poem that he wanted “to make a scherzo of a symphony out of it.” The poem centers on the Circe-like fairy Lili, who tames wild animals through enchantment. The narrator is a bear who has reluctantly fallen for her charms. According to this interpretation, the beginning and ending of the movement depict the lovely Lili and her magical menagerie; the middle section, with its woodsy hunting horns, depicts the bear, who despairs at his inability to resist the fairy’s spell.
The finale has the clearest Italian connection, as Mendelssohn labeled it a saltarello, a lively Italian folk dance which became popular at the end of the 18th century. In a letter from his Italian trip, Mendelssohn relates that one evening “there was dancing [...] Louise Vernet [...] dances the saltarello with Horace [Horace Vernet, her father, a French painter and director of the French Academy in Rome]. When she had to stop for even just a moment and would take up the large tambourine and begin beating on it [...] I should have liked to be a painter. It would have made a splendid picture!” Perhaps
Program Notes
MENDELSSOHN
Symphony No. 4 in A major, Opus 90 (Italian) (1833)
FALLA
Three Dances from El Sombrero de tres picos (The Three-Cornered Hat) (1919)
the symphony’s finale is this picture. In an original touch, the movement is in A minor, making the symphony one of only a handful of works in the history of European music which begins in a major key and ends in a minor key.
—Calvin Dotsey
Manuel de Falla’s famed ballet score, El Sombrero de tres picos, originated as an old folk tale Pedro de Alarcón had adapted into a novel in 1874. Léonide Massine choreographed it for the Ballets Russes in 1919, also dancing the role of the Miller. The title is taken from the triangular hat worn by the old rural Magistrate (Corregidor in Spanish) who has a roving eye for the Miller’s Wife. While her husband is neither too bright nor too handsome, she loves him, and the pair succeeds in turning the tables on the old fool.
The climax of the action comes in the second part, after the Magistrate has the Miller jailed and sneaks o in a second attempt to woo his Wife. Alas, he falls into a stream, takes o his wet clothes, climbs into the Miller’s bed and falls asleep. He is quickly discovered by the Miller, who disguises himself in the Magistrate’s clothes and gets revenge by flirting with the Magistrate’s Wife.
The second part of the ballet contains the most familiar music, which Falla later adapted into the second—and most popular—of two orchestral suites. It opens with an ensemble piece, a series of seguidillas danced by the Neighbors, followed by a bold, strutting farruca for the Miller.
After having the Miller jailed (to the tune of the “fate” motive from Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, which Falla impishly parodied), the Magistrate re-enters with a theme played by a solo bassoon and attempts to sway the Wife with a pompous minuet, just before falling into the water. After the bedroom episodes, the ballet ends with the exuberant jota.
—Carl R. Cunningham
GINASTERA
Danzas del Ballet Estancia, Opus 8a (1943)
Alberto Ginastera grew up in Buenos Aires, Argentina, as it was blossoming into one of the world’s most cosmopolitan cities. Yet the neighboring prairie—the pampa—cast a spell over him. “Whenever I have crossed the pampa or have lived in it for a time, my spirit felt itself inundated by changing impressions, now joyful, now melancholy … produced by its limitless immensity and by the transformation that the countryside undergoes in the course of a day,” he explained.
Those visions helped inspire his ballet Estancia. Depicting a day of toil and romance on a ranch—estancia in Spanish—the ballet celebrates the gaucho, the iconic ranch hand of the pampas. Folk-dance dynamism drives the music, and Ginastera enhances the homegrown flavor with narration drawn from a cornerstone of Argentine literature: José Hernández’s Martín Fierro, an epic depiction of the gaucho’s life.
The orchestral suite, which Ginastera assembled when World War II delayed the ballet’s premiere, features four colorful sections. Estancia begins at dawn, and “The Land Workers” describes the ranch bursting to life. “Scarcely had the horizon begun to take color, the birds to sing and the hens to cluck, when it was time to get moving, everyone o to work,” the narration says.
Program Notes
GINASTERA
Danzas del Ballet Estancia, Opus 8a (1943)
MÁRQUEZ
Danzón No. 2 (1994)
The music crackles with bold rhythms, staccato themes, and vivid colors; and Ginastera plays o the flashy opening against a light, chattering woodwind motif. Stillness reigns in “Wheat Dance,” which precedes “The Land Workers” in the ballet. A lilting flute melody sets the scene, with plucked strings suggesting the gentle strumming of a guitar; soaring violins take over, gleaming like dawn’s first light. Pounding drums and lusty French horns conjure up the vigor of “The Cattlemen.” And the “Final Dance” is the most riveting sequence of all.
It grows from the malambo, a folk dance traditionally performed by men to show o their agility. Sparkling woodwinds and buoyant rhythms animate the opening, and the excitement ratchets up when the full orchestra cuts loose with a bounding dance that could be the Latin American cousin of an Irish jig. Accented by French horn whoops and piccolo shrieks, the music drives headlong to its close.
—Steven Brown
Born in 1950 in Álamos, Mexico, Arturo Márquez studied composition with many renowned teachers in Mexico, Paris, and California. In the 1990s, Márquez began to compose works inspired by popular 20 th-century urban dance music, including his series of Danzónes. In 1993, Márquez was inspired to create a danzón that would be a brilliant showpiece for orchestra. The music alternates languid, nostalgic melodies for solo instruments with more fiery passages, building to an explosive finale.
—Calvin Dotsey
Program Bio
Praised for “strength and her tranquility of being” (Le Temps), Ana María Patiño-Osorio has been
gathering praise as a remarkable conductor, expressing wisdom, finesse, and deep respect for music.
Born in Medellín, Colombia, Ana is Music Director of the Orquesta Filarmónica de Medellín and serves as the 2025–26 Dudamel Conducting Fellow with Los Angeles Philharmonic. In April 2024, she captured international attention at the Malko Competition for Young Conductors in
Copenhagen, winning Second Prize, Audience Prize, and Youth Jury Prize. Symphony Orchestra. She also
The 2025–26 Season marks a series of prominent debuts in Europe and North America. Ana María will tour the Basque Country with the Euskadiko Orkestra (Basque National Orchestra) and debut with the Orquesta y Coro Nacionales de España, Orquesta Sinfónica y Coro de RTVE in Madrid, Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia, Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, RundfunkSinfonieorchester Berlin, Arctic Philharmonic, Malmö Symphony Orchestra, Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and Dallas
Ana María Patiño-Osorio, conductor
Program Bio
returns to the National Symphony Orchestra of Uruguay (SODRE).
In recent seasons, Ana María collaborated with the Orchestre national Bordeaux-Aquitaine, Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, Geneva Camerata, the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Colombia, and the Orquesta Filarmónica de Bogotá.
Committed to working with young musicians, since 2015 Ana María has also been involved with Iberacademy Orchestra in Medellín, where she has been assisting its co-founder and conductor Roberto González-
Monjas in a multitude of projects. She conducted the Iberacademy Orchestra at the Mozartwoche in Salzburg, led a highly successful European tour with Orquesta Juvenil Sinfonía por el Perú, and conducted the orchestra of The Royal Conservatory of Brussels.
Ana began her musical training as a saxophonist before transitioning to orchestral conducting. She completed her undergraduate degree in Orchestra Conducting at the Universidad EAFIT in Medellín before being accepted to the prestigious master’s program of Orchestral Conducting at the Zürcher Hochschule der Künste, where she graduated with honors in 2021. From 2022 to 2024, Ana Maríá was Assistant Conductor of OPENING NIGHT
CELEBRATING AMERICA
AT 250
September 19
Steven Reineke, conductor
Isabel Leonard, mezzo-soprano
Matthew McConaughey, narrator
the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the first person to hold this position.
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Mendelssohn & Márquez
Beethoven’s Symphony No. 4
Dvo& ák & Coleridge-Taylor
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