Lush & Lyrical

ILLIN OIS S Y M PH O N Y CH A M B E R O RCH E S T R A

Lush & L yrical Tania Miller, Conductor | Russell Hoffman, Oboe F R I D A Y

12 FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

APRIL 7:3 0 PM

SPRINGFIELD

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SATURDAY

Ralph Vaughan Williams Oboe Concerto I. Rondo Pastorale - Allegro moderato II. Minuet & Musette - Allegro moderato III. Finale: Scherzo - Presto Russell Hoffman, Oboe

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Symphony No. 5 Franz Schubert I. Allegro II. Andante con moto III. Menuetto - Allegro molto IV. Allegro vivace

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CHURCH BLOOMINGTON

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Edward Elgar Introduction and Allegro

13 SECOND PRESBYTERIAN

APRIL 7:3 0 PM

SEASON SPONSORS

Debra & Daniel Brownstone, M.D. SERIES SPONSORS

Kathryn Ransom Dr. Patricia & Mr. Randall Rushing

Russell Hoffman O BO E

Russell Hoffman was appointed to the position of Principal Oboe of the Illinois Symphony Orchestra by Music Director Ken Lam in 2021. During the 2022-2023 season, he served as Acting Principal Oboe of The Florida Orchestra, and has previously held the position of Associate Principal Oboe and Solo English Horn with Symphony in C (Haddonfield, New Jersey). He has performed with many leading orchestras including The Philadelphia Orchestra, Metropolitan Opera, Cincinnati Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, New York City Ballet, and New York City Opera. Russell has performed in prestigious venues such as Carnegie Hall, Royal Albert Hall, and the Hamburg Elbphilharmonie.

An equally devoted chamber musician, Russell most recently spent two summers at the Marlboro Music Festival (Marlboro, Vermont), performing with artists such as Mitsuko Uchida and Jonathan Biss.

In past summers he has performed at the Aspen, Lucerne, Sarasota, Spoleto, Tanglewood and Verbier festivals.

Born and raised in Mountain Lakes, New Jersey, he began his musical journey on piano with Ray Menard, and later on oboe with Lynne Cohen. He studied with Richard Dallessio in The Juilliard School Pre-College Division, where he served as teaching assistant. He later went on to receive degrees from the Juilliard School and the Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied with Nathan Hughes and Richard Woodhams. He credits Robert Atherholt, Elaine Douvas, John Ferrillo, and Linda Strommen as additional mentors. He currently lives with his wife in Cincinnati, where he enjoys cooking and yoga.

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Lush & L yrical

Program Notes | By Erik Rohde © | Artistic Director/Conductor, Winona Symphony Orchestra | Director of Orchestral Activities, University of Northern Iowa

Introduction and Allegro

SIR EDWARD ELGAR b. Lower Broadheath, outside of Worchestershire, England, 2 June, 1857 d. Worchester, 23 February, 1934 Premiered in 1905 by the composer and the newly-formed London Symphony Orchestra. (Approx. 15 minutes)

By the turn of the 20th Century, Edward Elgar had established himself as a prominent and famous English composer and had been knighted the year prior. Around that time, his good friend August Jaeger (‘Nimrod’ of the Enigma Variations) suggested to him that he write a new piece for the thenforming London Symphony Orchestra, suggesting a “brilliant, quick scherzo.” The present work is the result of that suggestion, and a work that Elgar took on tour triumphantly with the orchestra in 1905.

The piece is scored for string orchestra, utilizing a solo string quartet in imitation of the baroque form of the concerto grosso, in which a small group of soloists alternates and plays off of a larger group of instrumentalists. The soloists fold in and out of the texture to great interest, and show Elgar at the height of his technical skills as a composer, as well as displaying his first-hand knowledge as a violinist.

The work uses three primary themes, including a folksong-like melody that was supposedly inspired by a song he heard while traveling in Wales. The three themes, heard first in relatively quick succession, fold into one another to form the Introduction. The solo quartet introduces the second section of the work, the Allegro, which includes a complicated and impressive fugue, the notes swirling around each other throughout the soloists and orchestra.

The music comes to a head with the folksong first played by solo viola, then by the whole ensemble, and the piece works its way jovially to the end.

Oboe Concerto

RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS b. Down Ampney, Gloucestershire, 12 October, 1872 d. Hanover Terrace, Westminster, London, 26 August, 1958 Originally scheduled to premiere on July 5, 1944, at the Proms in London, but delayed due to threat of V1 rocket raids and premiered on September 30, 1944, by the Liverpool Philharmonic, conducted by Malcolm Sargent and oboist Léon Goossens, for whom the concerto was written. (Approx. 19 minutes)

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A younger contemporary of Edward Elgar, Ralph Vaughan Williams is another of the prominent class of English composers of the first half of the 20th Century. Unlike his older colleague however, whose training was largely of German roots (like that of most English composers up to that time), Vaughan Williams was above all concerned with the folk music of his native England, studying and curating folk songs and also contributing significantly to English hymnody, curating The English Hymnal for the Anglican church at the turn of the century.

The composition of Vaughan Williams oboe concerto was during 1944, while his country was embroiled in World War II. The 72-year old composer was working on his opera based on The Pilgrim’s Progress at the time in addition to his fifth symphony, a triumphant work whose themes bear some connection with the thematic material of Pilgrim’s Progress.

The oboe concerto contains music originally written for the symphony but later discarded, only to be recycled into the concerto.

The first two movements are each marked as a moderate Allegro, the first a rondo form, in which the primary motive returns again and again with a theme reminiscent of a folk song. The second, a quieter Minuet with delicate pizzicato accompaniment provided by the strings. Interestingly, the most weighty movement is the last one, unusual for a concerto, but more common in a symphonic form – perhaps a carryover from the fifth symphony. It is a Scherzo with two trios, alternating flourishes for the oboe and strings with more tranquil, graceful music, which brings the work to a lovely, pastorale close.

Symphony No. 5

FRANZ SCHUBERT b. Himmelpfortgrund, Vienna, 31 January, 1797 d. Vienna, 19 November, 1828 Written primarily in September, 1816 and completed on October 3, of that year.

(Approx. 27 minutes)

The great lyricist of the early Romantic era, Franz Schubert wrote an astonishing amount of music in his brief 31 years of life. His output includes over 600 songs, several symphonies, masses, works for piano and a great deal of chamber music.

His music set the bar for generations after him for lyric, cantabile melodies, and his songs began to plumb the depths

of rich text painting and soul searching drama that came to characterize the Romantic era in Western Music.

At this early stage of his life, Schubert was only 19. He had recently dropped out of school to study music, much to the dismay of his parents. At the time, the music of Mozart was intensely popular in Vienna, and this symphony is a reflection of Schubert’s infatuation with the great legend at the time.

He wrote later in his diary: As from afar the magic notes of Mozart’s music still gently haunt me…Thus does our soul retain these fair impressions, which no time, no circumstances can efface, and they lighten our existence. They show us in the darkness of this life a bright, clear, lovely distance, for which we hope with confidence. O Mozart, immortal Mozart, how many, oh how endlessly many such comforting perceptions of a brighter and better life hast thou brought to our souls!

lyricism that both shows Schubert’s influence from Mozart and how he had not yet greatly studied the rhythmic, driving music of Beethoven.

The symphony unfolds in a classical four-movement form.

A perfectly balanced opening movement gives way to a graceful, elegant slow movement that plays with light and dark textures that were hallmarks of both Mozart and Schubert’s styles. A Minuet follows, unusually in a minor key, and the symphony closes with a cheerful, youthful finale, with the vigor of youth and the clarity of classicism on full display.

The work bears Mozart’s influence in many ways.

The orchestration matches exactly the instrumentation of Mozart’s Symphony 40 in G Minor (without clarinets). The melodic writing is also clearly Mozart-inspired, with a graceful

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