CELEBRATE 65 2024 - 2025
Viennese Soiree
Featuring Lynn Spurgat, Soprano
Saturday, September 28, 2024
7:00 p.m.
SAINT JOSEPH SYMPHONY
Christopher Kelts, Music Director and Conductor
CHRISTOPHER KELTS
Dr. Christopher Kelts is the newly appointed Director of Orchestras and Assistant Professor of Music in the UMKC Conservatory. Formerly Dr. Kelts held the position as Director of Orchestral Studies and Associate Professor of Music at Missouri State University. Concurrently, Dr. Kelts is the music director and conductor of the Kansas City Civic Orchestra, Kinnor Philharmonic Orchestra and Music Director/Conductor of the Saint Joseph Symphony. A native of St. Louis, Dr. Kelts has been the recipient of the “Arts for Life” Award for his musical direction in local theater, served as guest conductor for the St. Louis Suburban Honors Orchestra and clinician to many St. Louis School Districts. He continues to be an active guest conductor and clinician for many districts and honor orchestra program throughout the United States. Conducting engagements have taken Dr. Kelts throughout the region and the world. Most recent, Project Musica gave a performance at the National Assembly in Seoul, South Korea in May of 2016.Other conducting engagements have included: assistant conductor of the Kansas City Ballet, Chamber Orchestra of the Ozarks, Topeka Symphony Orchestra and the Urban Cultural Project (Kansas City).
Dr. Kelts completed his advanced conducting degrees at Illinois State University and University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music, Dance and Theater. His teachers have included Glenn Block, Robert Olson and Paul Vermel. While at UMKC and in Kansas City, Dr. Kelts maintained an active opera conducting schedule that included productions of; Le nozze di Figaro, Il Ritorno di Ulisses in Patria, Susannah, Pirates of Penzance, Hansel and Gretel, Guilio Cesare, Suor Angelica, Gianni Schicchi and as well as the world premiere of Tonatzin. Dr. Kelts has worked with stage directors, Linda Ade Brand, the late Marciem Bazell, Sylvia Stoner-Hawkins and Richard Gammon. Not limited to his studies in orchestral conducting, Dr. Kelts formally trained as a violist where he studied at Missouri State University and Illinois State University. Dr. Kelts has ample symphonic experience as a violist. Recent positions have included; Springfield (MO) Symphony Orchestra, Peoria Symphony, Opera of Illinois Orchestra and the Fort Smith Symphony Orchestra. His teachers have included Amy Muchnick, Kate Hamilton and the late Karen Tuttle. Dr. Kelts continues to perform in various chamber and orchestral ensembles.
Dr. Kelts has also taught at Missouri State University Department of Music’s summer string festival, String Fling, coaching participating high and middle school students in the art of chamber music and orchestral performance. He is a member of the Conductor’s Guild, College Orchestra Director's Association (CODA), National Association for Music Education (NAfME), and Missouri Music Educators Association (MMEA). He was Missouri State University faculty advisor for Mu Phi Epsilon-Alpha Mu Chapter.
LYNN SPURGAT
Soprano Lynn Spurgat is thrilled to be returning to The St. Joseph Symphony. After her Carnegie Hall debut in 2018, New York Concert Review (NYCR) described Lynn as a “performer with a breadth as an artist and communicator.” They went on to say that “Ms. Spurgat has a commanding stage presence, complete with a big personality and an intense focus.” In 2019, NYCR proclaimed that she had a “voice lined with velvet and tonal beauty.” They continued to say that during her performance of the Schoenberg Cabaret Songs, “she almost levitated.” And after her 2022 Carnegie Hall recital, NYCR declared “Ms. Spurgat’s voice was off the leash and in full bloom. Her warm presence and talent for connection with her audience made the evening a complete success.”
Lynn has delighted audiences at home and abroad in opera, orchestral, and recital performances. On the opera stage, audiences have reveled in her performances of Donizetti’s infamous three queens - Anna Bolena, Maria Stuarda, and Elisabetta, as well as Elvira (Ernani), Leonora (Il Trovatore), Elisabetta (Don Carlo), and Norma. Her performances of Norma have won critical acclaim by both Q on Stage and Opera L publications, describing her as “fiery [with] rich tones, beautiful artistry and [a] thrillingly wonderful pure voice.” Other operatic highlights include Antonia (Les Contes d’Hoffmann), Violetta (La Traviata), Donna Anna (Don Giovanni), Fiordiligi (Cosi fan tutte), First Lady (Die Zauberflöte), Maddalena (Andrea Chénier), Eva (Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg), Rosalinda (Die Fledermaus), Ellen Orford (Peter Grimes), La Princesse (L’Enfant et les Sortileges),the Strauss heroines of Ariadne (Ariadne auf Naxos), the Marschallin (Der Rosenkavalier) and Chrysothemis (Elektra), as well as the title roles in Lucrezia Borgia, Adriana Lecouvreur, Suor Angelica, Tosca , Aida, and Alcina. 2019 saw Ms. Spurgat take on the role of Mrs. Jones in Kurt Weil’s Street Scene with Modern Opera Company in New York City.
Ms. Spurgat is also a frequent recitalist and guest artist with symphonies across the country performing such works as the Brahms Requiem, Bruckner’s Te Deum, Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, the Saint-Saens Christmas Oratorio, Messiah, Elijah, and The Creation. Orchestral engagements have included the Long Island Philharmonic, St. Joseph Symphony, Pasadena Symphony Orchestra, Rio Hondo Symphony, Bakersfield Symphony, Bay View Symphony Orchestra, Liberty Symphony, Portland Chamber Orchestra, and the Buck Hill Chamber Players. Her recital engagements have included regional performances at world-renowned Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center and Merkin Hall in New York City, venues in Los Angeles and Pasadena (California), Kansas City and St. Joseph, (Missouri), Lenox, (Massachusetts), as well as international engagements in Aldeburgh, England, and the Teatro Dante Alighieri in Urbania, Italy. Most recently, Lynn was asked to record a special arrangement of the Schoenberg Cabaret Songs for the Schoenberg Institute in Vienna, Austria. This arrangement, for piano, viola, trumpet, flute/piccolo, and percussion was written specifically for her 2019 Carnegie Hall appearance. addition, Ms. Spurgat has garnered many vocal awards and honors. She has received top awards from The National Academy of Letters and Sciences, The American
Educators of Italian Origin, The National Federation of Music Clubs, The Jenny Lind Foundation, The National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS), The Puccini Foundation, The Léni Fe Bland Foundation, The Opera Reading Club of Hollywood, and was a district winner of The Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. She has been a guest artist with The German Society of New York City, French Institute Alliance Française, The New York Athletic Club, The International Opera Alliance Foundation, The Puccini Foundation, The Musical Hope Foundation, The Westside Opera Society, and The Virgin Atlantic International Holders Festival sponsored by Richard Branson.
Ms. Spurgat earned a Master’s degree in Vocal Arts from the University of Southern California and a Bachelor of Science degree in Vocal Performance at William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri. While at William Jewell, she held an internship at the Lyric Opera of Kansas City in the Marketing Department. As a St. Joe native, she attended Central High School. She continued her studies at the prestigious institutions of Tanglewood, The Britten-Pears School for Advanced Musical Studies in Aldeburgh, England, and The Centro Studi Italiani in Urbano, Italy. She also gained professional operatic stage experience while employed as a company member with The Los Angeles Music Center Opera. Other festival credits include Buck Hill-Skytop Music Festival, OPERAWORKS, Bel Canto Northwest, and The Bay View Music Festival. In 2019, she was delighted to return to Don’t Tell Mama’s Cabaret House on Broadway as a member of the Song-Bird Show. Ms. Spurgat sits on the Board of Directors of the Riverside Symphony in New York City and is on the inaugural Board of Directors for the newly formed Modern Opera Company-also in New York City.
Upcoming projects include a Midwest/West Coast recital tour, NYC recital with tenor Alonso Jordán López and another Cabaret Show in NYC at the famous Pangea Cabaret House. She enjoys teaching voice, giving Masterclasses and currently resides in New York City.
First Violin
Andrew Holmes, Acting Concertmaster
Teresa Edgar
Jami Bale
Beth Presler
Ilvian Gabrielian
Erik Hassell
Second Violin
Rob Patterson, Principal
Rachael Berg
Dima Estanbuli
Savana Ritter
Hannah Dixon
Emily Schutzel
Viola
Monty Carter, Principal
Brendan Pearson
Noel Good
Karla Nichols
Cello
Diana Woolard, Principal
Janelle Clark
Laura Hoesly
Dillon Potts
Double Bass
Christopher Nagy, Principal
Andrew Book
Sarah Camey
Flute/Piccolo
Lory Lacy, Principal
Elaine Brown
Oboe
Meribeth Risebig, Principal
Mark Cohick
Clarinet
Randall Cunningham, Principal
Chris Gibson
Bassoon/Contrabassoon
Claudia Risebig, Principal
Andrew West
Horn
Peter Jilka, Principal
Tracy Blizman
Sara Giovanelli
Andrea Stanton
Trumpet
Bob Harvey, Principal
William Richardson
Trombone
Michael Dragen, Principal
Mitch Kaufman
Will Sutton
Tuba
Dasvid Earll
Timpani
Bryan Busby
Percussion
Ken Eberhart, Principal
Roger Caliman
Keyboard
Jiwon Choi
Lorrie Dixon
Harp
Wesley Snell
Viennese Soiree
SATURDAY, September 28, 2024 7:00 p.m.
Missouri Theater
Christopher Kelts, Conductor
Lynn Spurgat, guest soloist
Program
Franz von SUPPÉ Poet and Peasant Overture (1819 -1895)
Johann STRAUSS JR. Pizzicato Polka (1825 – 1899)
Gustav MAHLER
Adagietto (1860 – 1911)
(From Symphony No. 5 in C-sharp minor)
Arnold SCHOENBERG
Cabaret Songs (Brettl-Lieder) (1874 – 1951)
Lynn Spurgat, soprano
Johann STRAUSS JR. Voices of Spring Waltz (1825 – 1899)
The use of cameras and/or audio video recording devices is strictly forbidden. The Saint Joseph Symphony reserves the right to make changes in programs and artists without prior notice. Please turn off all cell phones and pagers during the concert.
Welcome to our elegant Viennese Evening Party, here in our performance home! The Missouri Theater has been here for 97 years, and the Saint Joseph Symphony has been heard in it for 65!
We love YOU being here, and we love making music for you! When we’re not onstage, we chat backstage and chill out in the green room downstairs; our director, concertmaster and soloist have hideouts upstairs.
This evening’s program brings an additional hall to mind: Vienna’s Theater in der Josefstadt. It’s been in active existence 139 years longer than the Missouri Theater, and it’s almost as beautiful!
Our soiree opens with Franz von Suppé (1819-1895): Overture to Bauer und Dichter (Poet & Peasant) (1846).
Will we get to hear our Director & Conductor, Dr. Chris Kelts, formally pronounce this composer’s full name? Francesco Ezechiele Ermengildo Cavaliere di Suppé Demelli. Now that’s a sparkling baby!
Back in 1841, when he was 21, Franz took a volunteer position at the Theater in der Josefstadt, assisting with part writing and orchestration for stage events, and it quickly became his open door to life as a stage composer. He composed many burlesques, parodies, and nearly fifty operas, mostly in operetta style: smaller-scale, closer to what we’d consider a musical, containing spoken dialogue, with fun and often satirical wit. In fact, Suppé is credited more than any other composer to creating the operetta genre. Super-popular in its day, it kind of went away as a thing, but thanks to his unforgettable overtures to those works, the name Franz von Suppé will be alive ’n’ thrivin’ forever. In 1881, Suppé was given the Freedom of the City of Vienna, the sky-high honor of a composer in the center city of song.
Speaking of song, would you care to hear a love song? Or maybe a love letter…
Gustav Mahler (1850-1911): Symphony No. 5 Adagietto (1901-02)
If you call this a ‘song,’ you have to say it’s from an amazing album, also including a funeral march, a vehement storm, a dramatic dance, and a lively celebration. While those other symphony movements wanna be heard, they’re certainly used to the Adagietto getting the spotlight.
Gustav’s conductor buddy Wilhelm Mengelberg actually wrote in his own score of the work, “This Adagietto was Gustav’s declaration of love to Alma! … both of them told me this!” Alma Schindler and Gustav Mahler met in November, 1901, were engaged at the end of December, and married in early March.
Rich in both drama and bliss, the Adagietto is indeed a perfect love letter to Alma, given that she herself was a composer of many songs and piano works. Of musical Romanticism of the 19th century and modernism of the 20th (to use a mere single word for each monumental era), Gustav Mahler is recognized as a momentous bridge between the two.
Johann Strauss II. (1825-1899) & Josef Strauss (1827-1870): Pizzicato-Polka, Op. 449 (1869)
Now let’s get plucky! Pizzy! (pit-sy) … and a little cheeky! In this Frenchstyle polka for strings and glockenspiel, two brothers finally start getting along a little better! ‘Jean’ (Johann) justifiably gets more credit for it than ‘Pepi’ (Josef). As Johann told his publisher, Fritz Simrock, nearly twentythree years later, “I advised my brother Josef – so that he could secure the St. Petersburg engagement (I have been there 10 times and earned a lot of money) [ – ] to compose something which would catch on in St. Petersburg, and suggested he should prepare a pizzicato polka. He did not want to do it – he was always indecisive – finally I proposed to him that the polka should be created by the two of us. He agreed, and just look –the polka caused a furore in the true sense of the word.”
Did the Russian public like it? Черт возьми, ДА! (Heck YEAH!) It was played NINE times on the evening it was first performed! (Please don’t beg us for more than three or four, thanks.) Jean & Pepi quickly appreciated working together with ensembles; it gave each bro more time to compose.
Johann Strauss II.: Frühlingsstimmen (Voices of Spring) Waltz (1883)
How many composers would roll their eyes at being called “light music composers”? We’re not sure, but we know Johann Strauss II wouldn’t be one of them! He was the most successful and famous ‘STAR-light music’ composer of the 19th century! Admired by all, including his buddy, Johannes Brahms.
…Ah, ah, ah! Did you hear that whispered exchange just now, a couple of rows behind you? Someone said, “Why are they doing "Voices of Spring" when it’s actually now Fall?” Someone sweetly replied, “Hey, our lovely Lynn Spurgat and Saint Joseph Symphony are true Autumns AND true Springs!” A third person said, “Friends, in these times … we all need to hear the Voices of Spring."
We need to hear them, and we need to be them. Let the lark rise into the sky, while warm winds revive the meadows. The softly beginning, then fully flowing nightingale’s song. Shadows recede.
Ahhh.
Monty Carter
Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951) Cabaret Songs (Brettl-Lieder)
Texts by poets of Deutsche Chansons (Wederkind, Bierbaum, Salus, Hochstetter, Colly, Schikaneder, & Falke)
Arranged for soprano & chamber ensemble by Patrick Davin (1962-2020)
Arnold Schoenberg’s historical significance as the father of serialism often overshadows the vast output of compositions throughout his life. In fact, his compositions can be categorized into three periods: tonal, atonal, and twelve-tone. The last of which is usually the first association one has with his name. However, Schoenberg was also a teacher, music theorist, writer and painter. He was widely associated with the expressionist movement of German poetry and art. His compositional approach and development during his life took on a trajectory of constantly pushing the boundaries of acceptable conventionsculminating with his development of the twelve-tone system, or serialism. He composed in all genres: orchestral, chamber, piano, choral, and vocal. Unfortunately, with the rise of the Nazi party, his work was labeled as degenerate music and he was forced to flee Germany as much for his music as he was for his Jewish heritage. Arnold Schoenberg was born in Vienna and began musical studies at a very early age. By the age of eight, he had already composed his first pieces. He started to study theory and counterpoint with the composer Alexander Zemlinsky. Zemlinsky was instrumental in the launch of Schoenberg’s career by introducing him to several prominent Viennese musicians such as Gustav and Alma Mahler and Richard Strauss. Mahler became his mentor and supported him through all of his musical developments even when he ceased to understand them anymore. Schoenberg married Zemlinsky’s sister and shortly afterwards moved to Berlin to work at the Überbrettl. Soon after, Richard Strauss recommended him for a teaching position at the Stern Conservatory. While he didn’t stay in Berlin for long, this position at Stern sparked his lifelong passion for teaching. Back in Vienna, he began teaching composition to Alban Berg and Anton Webern. These two pupils took so well to Schoenberg’s methods and concepts that they
formed what is now known as The Second Viennese School. The music of The Second Viennese School, not surprisingly, mirrored the trajectory of Schoenberg’s development. By the mid-1920s, Schoenberg had already published his first book on his twelve-tone system. This would be one of many theoretical books written that schools and conservatories would add to their teaching curriculums. The decade also the death of his first wife, the marriage to his 2nd wife, and a 2nd teaching position in Berlin. During this period, he began his great biblical opera Moses und Aron. He never finished it, but after his death, in its incomplete form, it became a huge success. He remained in Berlin until 1933 when he and his family were forced to leave Germany for good. He moved to the United States and settled in Los Angeles where he took up various teaching posts at both USC and UCLA. Some of his finest instrumental pieces were composed in California: the Fourth String Quartet, his Violin Concerto, Piano Concerto, and his String Trio. The pieces that were composed from this point forward began to go back to somewhat of a more tonal nature. The family began holding Sunday music soirées where he met Hollywood royalty such as George Gershwin, Shirley Temple and Harpo Marx. Both John Cage and Otto Klemperer also began studies with him. Arnold Schoenberg lived out the rest of his life in California becoming a US citizen in 1941. Unfortunately, Schoenberg’s music remained unpopular in the general public. It was revered in academic circles and taught to countless music students world-wide. However, the serialism movement never achieved the popularity that Schoenberg had hoped it would.
In 1901 the Überbrettl Theater in Berlin was opened by Ernst von Wolzogen. Wolzogen sought to surpass the cabaret theaters that had become so popular in Paris. He intended to present first-class literary cabaret with the best German poets reciting their verses along with musical settings by the best composers of the day. During this time, the Deutsche Chansons was published. This collection of poems by prominent German poets was aimed at not only being poems the reader would enjoy alone, but that they would also enjoy in a raucous theater as entertainment. The poems are often bawdy and full of sexual innuendo and double entendre. Schoenberg obtained a copy of the book and set 3 of the poems to music. Another 5 poems soon followed from other sources written in the same style as the poems from the Deutsch
Chansons. After hearing some of Schoenberg’s arrangements of the poems, Wolzogen hired Schoenberg as the conductor of the Überbrettl. Unfortunately, the Theater was short lived and it eventually closed in 1902. Of these 8 songs, only Nachtwandler was performed during his lifetime. According to Schoenberg, it was not well received. The collection was not published until after his death. Nachtwandler was also the only song of the group that Schoenberg orchestrated. Schoenberg noted that Nachtwandler may have been the first example of chamber music for small ensemble before jazz ensembles. To date, two arrangements for full orchestra have been written for the entire collection. For tonight’s performance, Colin Britt has provided us with an arrangement that utilizes the original set of instruments Schoenberg used as well as the addition of a viola. This grouping of instruments gives the feel of the typical cabaret instrumentation of the day. These pieces are a great example of the blurring of classical and popular styles of the day.
In Frank Wedekind’s Galathea, the narrator describes the desire to kiss a young girl’s cheeks, hair, hands, knees and feet. But not her mouth which is reserved for the realm of fantasy! While Gigerlette leaves the realm of fantasy behind. Otto Julius Bierbaum’s poem describes an invitation to “tea” by Fräulein Gigerlette. She is dressed in all white while sitting in a candlelit red room. Later the two take a wild carriage ride with Cupid as their driver. The most suggestive of the songs is Der genügsame Liebhaber. Hugo Salus wrote a poem full of double entendres in which the male narrator tells us about his lady-friend who lies around the house all day stroking her black cat. Schoenberg also set Salus’ Einfältiges Lied about a King who goes out for a walk among the “common people.” He leaves his crown and scepter behind wearing only a commoner’s hat. Suddenly a strong gust of wind blows his hat off never to be seen again. One cannot be a King without his crown and walk amongst the common folk. In Mahnung, Gustav Hochstetter outlines a firm warning to a young girl. Be careful that you do not waste your youth on chasing foolish relationships! Take care to find yourself a good man who can build you a house and kiss you well!! Otherwise, you will soon find yourself to be a young, old-maid! The excitement of a parade is the setting for Colly’s Jedem das Seine. Here the narrator describes Kasper and all his military
might as they parade down the street. Suddenly, the narrator notices the enticing woman sitting next to him and a plan unfolds to take his new neighbor behind the grandstand while the parade marches on! Langsamer Walzer was actually an aria written for Emanuel Schikaneder’s Spiegel von Arcadien. Schikaneder was the librettist for Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte and its first Papageno. In this waltzy, Papageno-like song, the narrator tells the audience how much he loves women. In fact, he loves them so much that it makes his heart go boom, boom, boom! The set ends with Gustav Falke’s Der Nachtwandler. The narrator causes quite a ruckus in the middle of the night as he leads a group of musicians through the town’s streets waking up the community with their singing and playing.
Lynn Spurgat
COMPOSER BIOGRAPHY
JOHANN STRAUSS JR.
Johann Strauss Jr., also known as Johann Strauss II, was born on October 25, 1825, in Vienna, Austria. He was the eldest son of Johann Strauss Sr., a renowned composer known as “the father of the waltz.” Despite discouragement from his father who wished him to become a banker and avoid the pitfalls of a musical career, Strauss Jr. became one of the most famous composers of light music, particularly dance music and operettas. He also had two younger brothers who became composers of lesser fame, Josef and Eduard, but nonetheless contributed to the Strauss musical dynasty. Like his father, Strauss Jr. formed his own orchestra and eventually eclipsed even his father’s fame, touring all over Europe and Russia. When he suffered a nervous breakdown (likely due to the stress of touring) his younger brothers temporarily took over the reins as conductor of the orchestra. Strauss Jr. came to the United States in 1872 for a music festival in Boston where he conducted a “Monster Concert” of over 1000 musicians performing the Blue Danube waltz. A lock of his hair (in reality that of his Newfoundland dog) became a prized memento for many.
Strauss Jr. composed over 500 works, including waltzes, polkas, quadrilles, and other types of dance music. Some of his most famous pieces include “The Blue Danube,” “Tales from the Vienna Woods,” and the operetta “Die Fledermaus.” His music captured the elegance and refinement of the Habsburg era, making him a beloved figure in Vienna and beyond.
He passed away on June 3, 1899, but his legacy continues to influence the world of classical music.
ARNOLD SCHOENBERG
Arnold Schoenberg, born on September 13, 1874, in Vienna, Austria, was a pioneering composer and music theorist. He is best known for developing the twelve-tone technique, a method of composition that uses all twelve notes of the chromatic scale in a structured manner, which revolutionized 20th-century classical music. His work influenced generations of musicians. Schoenberg’s early works, such as “Verklärte Nacht,” were influenced by the late Romantic style, but he soon moved towards atonality and serialism. His notable compositions include “Pierrot Lunaire,” “Gurrelieder,” and "A Survivor from Warsaw". He was also a significant teacher, mentoring composers like Alban Berg and Anton Webern, who became central figures in the Second Viennese School. These composers valued visual art as well as musical, perhaps because Schoenberg himself was considered a talented painter throughout his life.
In 1933, Schoenberg resigned his post as instructor at the Prussian Academy of Music and emigrated to the United States to escape the rise of the Nazi regime. He continued to compose and teach, most notably at the University of California, Los Angeles. Although always a revolutionary in his compositional and artistic outlook, during the latter part of his life he turned stylistically back to tonality. He passed away on July 13, 1951, in Los Angeles, California.
COMPOSER
FRANZ VON SUPPÉ
Franz von Suppé, born Francesco Ezechiele Ermenegildo de Suppé on April 18, 1819, in Split, Dalmatia (now Croatia), was an influential Austrian composer and conductor of the Romantic period. He is best known for his light operas and operettas, which significantly shaped the development of Austrian and German light music. His style perfectly synthesizes elements of Italian, French and German opera of his time.
After the death of his father in 1835 Suppé and his family moved to Vienna where he studied under a pupil of Mozart. He was also greatly influenced by the music of Jacques Offenbach, Rossini and Donizetti (perhaps a family cousin). His composing and conducting career began in Vienna in 1840 with his greatest successes as a composer of light opera coming in the 1870’s and beyond. By this time Johann Strauss Jr.’s Die Fledermaus had captured the imagination of audiences worldwide and the public could not get enough of the operetta style. Suppé composed over four dozen operettas and numerous other works, including the famous overtures to Light Cavalry and this evening’s offering, Poet and Peasant. His music is characterized by its lively melodies and orchestration, making it popular in concert halls even today. Suppé passed away on May 21, 1895, in Vienna, Austria at the age of 76.
GUSTAV MAHLER
Gustav Mahler was born into an Austrian Jewish family on July 7, 1860 in Kaliste, in what is now the Czech Republic and he and his 11 siblings grew up in Jihlava. Eight of his siblings did not survive childhood and this circumstance of his life had a great and profound effect on the composer and his music. His parents had a difficult relationship and Mahler witnessed his mother being physically abused on occasions. This experience estranged him from his free-thinking father and cemented in him a fixation on his mother, so much so that he even subconsciously walked with a slight limp as she did. Because he was Jewish, Mahler felt an outsider growing up and turned to music as his creative outlet and way to gain acceptance. He also converted to Christianity later in life. At the age of four Mahler was already singing and composing simple songs on the piano and accordion. By the age of 15 he was a student at the Vienna Conservatory, studying voice, composition and conducting. Initially conducting was his focus as it was a much more lucrative music career than his other two interests. Mahler began his conducting career in an Austrian regional theater in Bad Hall. His success there led to larger conducting jobs in Prague, Budapest and Hamburg, eventually serving as director for the Vienna Court Opera from 1897 to 1907. He had added the renowned Vienna Philharmonic to his duties as conductor. His conducting resume also eventually included the New York Metropolitan Opera. But in 1901 he also experienced a hemorrhage which nearly ended his life and required a considerable period of recuperation in his lakeside cottage in Maiernegg in Carinthia.
Mahler’s early compositions are characterized by programmatic musicthe use of a non-musical themes or ideas. In this we can see the
influence of Beethoven, Ravel, and Wagner. Choral, folk and song elements mark the symphonies of this period. They contain more than the traditional four movements, and an expansive dramatic orchestral language and texture. As his mature style was way ahead of its time in all aspects, both musically and architecturally and was met with some skepticism by critics and audiences. He is also the author of several songs cycles, some of which are based on his own poetry. All of his compositions are indelibly marked with the dynamic personality of the composer, his obsession and fascination with death and the afterlife, and the search for the ultimate meaning of life itself. The symphonies are massive in scope and musical requirements. His monumental Symphony No. 8 in E Flat Major (1907) for eight soloists, double choir, and orchestra has been nicknamed the Symphony of a Thousand, because of the large forces it requires to perform.
In 1907 Mahler was hit with tragedy in his life three times - his resignation was demanded at the Vienna Opera, his three-year-old daughter, Maria, died, and a doctor diagnosed his fatal heart disease. Thus, at age 47, he was compelled to make a new reputation for himself, as a conductor in the United States, directing performances at the Metropolitan Opera and becoming conductor of the Philharmonic Society of New York. Each summer he returned to the Austrian countryside he loved to hike to compose his last works. In 1911 he returned to Vienna to die of heart disease on May 18, 1911. He passed away before he fully completed his tenth and final symphony.
Gustav Mahler once remarked that he was ahead of his time compositionally and the fame with which his music has grown in the last several decades as compared to its popularity in his own lifetime, suggests that the composer may have been clairvoyant. The monumental Symphony No. 5 of which this evening’s Adagietto is a part, has certainly gained a place as a favorite of his symphonic works in recent years and marked a turning point in his symphonic style. The exquisitely beautiful Adagietto stands as the fourth movement of his Symphony No. 5. Even before the fifth symphony gained popularity, this movement had become a signature piece of Mahler’s. It has been used frequently in modern culture, associated with films and as a memorial piece. The Adagietto is said to have been a love letter to Alma Schindler during their courtship. Despite Mahler’s fervent interest in her, she had not been as receptive to his romantic advances until she sat at the piano
and played the Adagietto. It is said she sent a message saying, “Now you may come.” Some have even speculated that he sent it to her with a proposal of marriage and that, even though she was courted by many men, the sheer beauty of this piece won her heart and she said “yes”. The poignancy of this movement is undeniable. The main theme in the strings and harp is so delicate, so filled with longing. Mahler brings it to a brief climax as if a long-awaited embrace or kiss has finally been fulfilled, before once again returning to the softness of its presentation before. The music suggests almost a dialogue between the lovers as the music ebbs and flows dynamically and the thematic material is explored. Listen carefully and you will hear a quote of a theme from Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde in the center of the movement.
Don’t forget to check out the rest of our 65th Anniversary Concert Season and get your tickets SOON to support our fine musicians…
11/10/24 – Kansas City Baroque Consortium
12/21/24 – Holiday Cheer
1/26/25 – Lory Lacy Ensemble
2/16/25 – Chun-Chien Chuang
3/22/25 – Mozart’s Requiem
4/19/25 – Bach to Mendelssohn
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Nodaway Valley Bank
Thanks to tonight’s concert sponsors and collaborators!
SAINT JOSEPH SYMPHONY SOCIETY Board of Directors
Bryson Mace, President
Donna Jean Boyer
Sharon Gray
Monica Morrey
Matthew Bobela, Vice-President
Lori Boyer, Treasurer and Interim Secretary
Connie Brock
Joel Hyer
Jeremy Peters
Pamela Bryson
Judy McMurray
Mary Shuman
Administrative Staff
Nancy Schmidt-Brunson, Managing Director
Shannon Pickman, Administrative Assistant
Noel Good, Librarian
Rob Patterson, Personnel Manager
Frank Polleck, Stage Manager
Monty Carter, Program Annotator
Thanks to our generous Season Sponsors and Partners And to YOU our Concert Patrons!
