Great Gate of Kiev/Hopak - “The Great Gate of Kiev,” originally for piano, is part of a larger work, Pictures at an Exhibition. Mussorgsky was inspired to write the set of ten pieces after seeing watercolor paintings of a close friend’s trip abroad. Although the paintings are mostly lost, Mussorgsky’s music keeps the artwork and our imaginations alive through the vibrant sounds and colors depicted in each of the pieces."Hopak" was originally part of the score for his comic opera "Sorochinsky Fair."
Program Notes
(continued) by his orchestra. The music of Bologne's Symphony #2 is identical to the Overture of the opera L’Amant Anonyme, which was first performed exactly 240 years ago, on March 8th 1780. L’Amant Anonyme (The Anonymous Lover) is the only one of six operas by SaintTragic Overture: Brahms was known to compose pieces George to survive in its entirety. It tells the story of Valcour, a in pairs, and the dark and moody Tragic man secretly in love with his friend Leontine, but because of Overture contrasts with its more famous and lightsocial norms he is unable to tell her of his affections. It is hearted counterpart, Academic Festival Overture. entirely possible that Saint-George had a similar experience. Although an overture is typically written to introduce the An exciting work in the classical style, the Symphony features melodies found later in a larger work, both the Tragic many fast passages for the strings. Overture and the Academic Festival Overture are Estampas Mexicanas I: Férial (parade) standalone pieces. The dramatic work seems to depict Estampas Mexicanas is a three movement suite for orchestra contending forces of the human struggle, beginning and featuring Mexican folk elements in a style akin to the nationalistic ending with dramatic chords. compositions of the beginning of the twentieth century. The first Bal Masqué movement, Férial, is a festive parade of simple, colorful, folk-like Bal Masqué, originally written for piano, was then tunes and rhythms woven into a tapestry of western European orchestrated by Amy Beach (the composer) and engraved textures. It relates to music written right after the Mexican Revolution and reorchestrated as a project of the Women's of 1910, when composers, who had been writing in the European Philharmonic Advocacy. Bal Masqué is a delightful waltz salon-music styles favored at the time, started to borrow folk musical meant to depict the magic, mystery and fun of a elements to spice up their compositions. Originally written as a masked (masquerade) ball, and is one of Beach's few university class assignment, Estampas was premiered by the San standalone orchestral works. Jose Symphony to an enthusiastic crowd of 25,000 and has been since performed hundreds of times all over the world. Dance of the Tumblers An exciting and well-known dance from the opera "The Dances in the Canebrakes Snow Maiden," Dance of the Tumblers depicts the Price composed her three Dances in the Canebrakes for piano in interactions between humans and mythological 1953, and unexpectedly died shortly afterward. As was her usual creatures. Throughout the opera composer RimskyKorsakov distinguished each of the characters using practice, she used the rhythms, melodic traits and emotions of the different musical themes or "leitmotifs." The opera itself African-American experience, but not borrowed melodies. The was Rimsky-Korsakov's favorite composition. dances were orchestrated after her death by her friend, William Grant Still, who was widely regarded as the “Dean of AfricanSymphony Op 11, #2 American Composers.” A “canebrake” is a dense stand of sugarcane, In 1793, the brilliant violinist, fencer and composer a staple crop on antebellum southern plantations . The first and last Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-George became dance suggest theatrical inspiration: Nimble Feet is a version of the musical director and leader of the Concert de Amateurs, cakewalk, a popular 19th-century social dance in the South and in which rapidly won recognition as one of the finest minstrel shows; and Silk Hat and Walking Cane sounds like a slow, orchestras in France. The first performance of the nostalgic rag to accompany a snappily-dressed dancer. The middle symphony #2 , originally scored for strings, horns and movement, Tropical Noon, is a subtly syncopated imagination of a oboes, was given in Paris at the Hôtel de Soubise, peaceful, mid-summer scene.
Remember that technique is valuable only as a means to an end. You must first have something to say... if you feel deeply and know how to express what you feel, you make others feel.” ~ Amy Beach, composer
