Miller Outdoor Theatre July 1

Miller Outdoor Theatre

E. WALLEN Mighty River

COPLAND Four Dance Episodes from Rodeo DVOŘÁK Symphony No. 7

PRESENTED BY

GUARANTOR

City of Houston through the Miller Theatre Advisory Board

The Houston Symphony's Miller Outdoor Theatre concerts are endowed by The Brown Foundation, Inc. in memory of Hanni Orton and Stewart Orton

The Houston Symphony's sound shell ceiling is made possible through the generosity of the Beauchamp Foundation and the Fondren Foundation

Four Dance Episodes from Rodeo

• Out of Aaron Copland’s many diverse compositions, few have remained as popular as his music for the ballet, which captured the American spirit through folk tunes and pastoral imagery.

One such ballet is Rodeo, which follows a young cowgirl and her attempts to win the affection of the Head Wrangler. Commissioned by Les Ballets

Russes during World War II and choreographed by Agnes de Mille, Rodeo was an instant success, and would set the stage for Copland’s next ballet outing two years later with Appalachian Spring.

• The first movement begins with a rowdy, upbeat melody, before transitioning to an introduction of the heroine and cowboys in turn. Two folk songs are featured prominently throughout the movement: "If He Be a Buckaroo by His Trade", and "Sis Joe." The remainder of the movement unfolds as an intricate set of variations on these two tunes.

• The “Chorale Noturne” casts a more contemplative tone, captured by a tender melody for the woodwinds and violins with delicate accompaniment. “I was striving here for a sense of the isolation felt by the heroine,” Copland writes in his notes on the piece.

• The third movement begins with the sound of fiddlers tuning their instruments, before an oboe begins a slow waltz melody based on the tune “I Ride an Old Paint.” Copland uses sparse orchestration throughout the movement, often featuring solo instruments over a soft string texture.

• In the energetic final movement, “Hoedown,” which begins with a quotation of “Bonaparte’s

Retreat,” the cowgirl finally wins over the wrangler at the big dance. After Copland’s own “Rodeo” theme, quotations from the introduction return, along with selections from “Miss McLeod’s Reel” and “Gilderoy,” building into a jubilant orchestral finale.

Mighty River

• Born in Belize, Errollyn Wallen is a British composer, singer, and songwriter who has written works for choir, opera, orchestra, and film. She has been commissioned by outstanding music institutions from the BBC to the Royal

Opera House and has had her music performed across the globe.

• Wallen wrote Mighty River upon receiving a commission to commemorate the

Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 and premiered it in 2007 with the Philharmonia

Orchestra in London. “It is an innate human instinct to be free, just as it is a law of nature that the river should rush headlong to the sea,” Wallen writes.

“That is the concept behind Mighty River.”

• The music of Mighty River is built around fragments of gospel music and spirituals, such as with the gentle opening rendition of "Amazing Grace" in the horn. This melody is reinforced by the woodwinds, before fading into a repetitive, chugging ostinato in the strings.

• No matter how the energy of the piece ebbs and flows, with swirling solos, melodic fragments, and sudden splashes of color, this ostinato remains constant, evoking the relentless motion of the river.

• “Slavery claimed the lives of countless people, but somehow my ancestors found the grit and determination to persist in spite of the conditions in which they found themselves. I dedicate Mighty River to my great-great-greatgreat-great-great grandmother. Though I never knew her, I am driven on by her courage in the face of dreadful odds and am inspired by her example not merely to survive, but to thrive." – Errollyn Wallen

Symphony No. 7 in D minor, Opus 70

• By the time of the premiere of his Sixth Symphony in Prague, Czech composer Antonín Dvořák was recognized as a musician of international stature. Soon after the premiere, the London Philharmonic would commission him to write a new symphony, one which Dvořák would give a seriousness and magnitude previously unheard of in his other symphonic works.

• Despite these successes, Austro-German attitudes were skeptical, if not hostile, toward Bohemian culture and music, and Dvořák had thus far found it difficult to endear anything but his most jovial work to these audiences, despite being championed by luminaries such as Brahms and music critic

Eduard Hanslick. Thus, when he began the laborious process of crafting his legendary Seventh Symphony in 1884, it was with the goal of creating nothing short of a masterpiece. “My new symphony,” he wrote at the time, “must be such as to make a stir in the world.”

• The symphony begins with an ominous rumble before a dark theme emerges in the cellos and violas. A gentle horn and oboe duet provides a moment’s respite, but the despairing theme soon triumphs. A lyrical secondary theme emerges in the woodwinds, which is passed between sections with increasing conviction. The piece concludes with a fierce conflict between the two themes, with opening material ultimately triumphing as the movement fades.

• A folklike clarinet melody opens the adagio second movement, before transitioning to the main theme in the flutes and oboes. The gentle lyricism of the movement periodically is interrupted by moments of tense musical exchange, creating a foreboding that cannot be completely soothed by the tender major chords that end the movement.

• The third movement, a flourishing scherzo, is reminiscent of the Slavonic dance styles that are featured prominently in much of Dvořák’s work. The energetic dance of the opening is contrasted with a pastoral interior section, before building back into the scherzo once more.

• The brooding opening of the finale sets the stage for the final conflict between tragedy and triumph, with numerous contrasting themes suddenly emerging.

At its explosive climax, the symphony seems to be prepared to end in despair, but instead triumphs with a massive major-key resolution in a truly Beethovian fashion.

German conductor Christian Reif, who has quickly established a name for himself as a fast-rising talent, is music director of the Lakes Area Music Festival of Minnesota. In July 2019, Christian completed a three-year post as resident conductor of the San Francisco Symphony and music director of the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra. His tenure culminated in a six-city European tour with the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra, including performances at Vienna’s Musikverein, Berlin Philharmonie and Hamburg Elbphilharmonie. Following the Berlin performance, the Merkur wrote of him that a “bright future and a great career must lie ahead.” Christian has conducted the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Dallas Symphony, Ulster Orchestra, Romanian Radio Symphony, Aalborg Symphony, Fundación Excelentia in Madrid, North Carolina Symphony, San Antonio Symphony, Santa Barbara Symphony, Toledo Symphony, Colorado Springs Philharmonic, Orchestre National de Belgique, and Orquestra Sinfonica Portuguese in Lisbon. Most recently, he conducted the Stavanger Symphony in a program of Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet and Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 1 paired with Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915 with soprano Julia Bullock, and made his debut in 2021 with the Orchestre National d’île de France in a streamed performance of Stravinsky’s Apollon Musagète. His 2021-22 engagements include appearances with the Hallé Orchestra, Gävle Symphony, Orchestre National de Lyon, Odense Symphony, Munich Radio Orchestra, Brno Philharmonic, New World Symphony, and Kansas City Symphony. Christian is the former resident conductor of the San Francisco Symphony and music director of the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra. He was a conducting fellow with the New World Symphony 2014-16 and a conducting fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center in the summers of 2015 and 2016. He studied with Alan Gilbert at The Juilliard School, where he completed his masters of music in conducting in 2014 and received the Charles Schiff Conducting Award. Prior to that, he studied with Dennis Russell Davies at the Mozarteum Salzburg, where he received a diploma in 2012. Christian won the 2015 German Operetta Prize, awarded by the German Music Council, and two Kulturförderpreise awards given to promising artists of the region who promote cultural advancement in their communities.