Saturday, April 23, 2022 at 7:30 PM Keefe Center for the Arts 117 Elm Street Nashua, NH
Love's Dawn Symphony NH
Saturday April 23, 2022 7:30 PM NO INTERMISSION CONCERT LASTS ONE HOUR Preludes (Pre-concert Talk) at 6:30 PM Grace Notes
Post-Concert Reflection) - approximately 15 minutes after the concert Doors open at 6:15 PM Keefe Center for the Arts 117 Elm Street Nashua, NH Program (subject to change) : Claude Debussy - Petite Suite Richard Wagner - Siegfried Idyll Wolfgang Mozart - Symphony No.35 in D major, K.385 "Haffner" Roger Kalia, conductor
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SAFETY Masks and proof of vaccination required for hall entry In accordance with our Health and Safety practices, tonight’s concert has no intermission. Food and drink will not be permitted in the venue. See more on our safety practices at back of book.
PROGRAM NOTES Siegfried Idyll (1870) Richard Wagner (1813–1883) The intense emotions and complicated relationships among the characters of Wagner’s operas are well known to audiences, but Wagner’s own personal life was perhaps equally dramatic and full of plot twists. Wagner’s first marriage to actress Christine “Minna” Planer was plagued by both debt and adultery, and the couple spent the last decade legally married but separated. During the separation, Wagner found himself in love with another married woman. The object of Wagner’s affections, Cosima, was not only the daughter of the piano virtuoso Franz Liszt but also the wife of German conductor Hans van Bülow, who ardently championed Wagner’s works. Wagner and Cosima declared their love to each other in 1863, but they were not able to marry until 1870— Wagner’s first wife passed in 1866, and Cosima’s requests for divorce were repeatedly denied by von Bülow, despite having three children by Wagner while still married to von Bülow. Wagner and Cosima finally married in August 1870, and for her birthday in December, Wagner wrote a piece which he had performed at their home. Cosima recalled the occasion in her diary, writing, “When I woke up, I heard a sound, it grew ever louder, I could no longer imagine myself in a dream, music was sounding, and what music! After it had died away, [Richard] came in to me with the five children and put into my hands the score of his ‘symphonic birthday greeting.’ I was in tears, but so, too, was the whole household.” The music that moved the household to tears was none other than his Siegfried Idyll, which Richard and Cosima had initially called the Tribschen Idyll, in honor of their newly built house that overlooked Lake Lucerne. The music, intimate and sincere, is one of Wagner’s few non-operatic pieces. Still, melodies and ideas from Siegfried Idyll appear in other later works, including scenes from the opera Siegfried. It is tempting to think that the work’s present name is due to the appearance of these musical moments in the opera of the same name, but the title of the work most likely refers to the Wagners’ son, who was also named Siegfried and who had been born just a year earlier. Siegfried Idyll includes a melody similar to a well-known German lullaby, and the published score also refers to a “Fidi-birdsong” (Fidi was a nickname for Siegfried). Considering these references, the intimate details of the work’s first performance, and the lush, romantic sounds of the piece, it is difficult to conceive of Siegfried Idyll as anything but a musical portrait of the Wagners’ love and long-awaited happy ending.
Petite Suite (1888) Claude Debussy (1862-1918) Orchestral version arranged in 1907 by Henri Büsser Claude Debussy is best known for his impressionist works such as Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune (Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun), Nocturnes, and La Mer, but there existed a time before these masterpieces during which Debussy was exploring and developing his own style. The Petite Suite from 1888 represents this early stage in Debussy’s career, and it was composed just
two years after Debussy completed his compositional studies at the Paris Conservatory. Heard in its original version for four hands, the work is strikingly neo-classical because of its arrangement of dance movements. The idiomatic keyboard writing is also reminiscent of the French clavecin (harpsichord) tradition that peaked in the early- to mid- eighteenth century. Each movement also follows a clear da capo structure common to the Baroque period and characterized by two strongly contrasting sections with a return of the first section. The four movements each capture a particular dance or scene, effectively marrying the ideas of both the Baroque dance suite and the Romantic preference for short character pieces. The first movement, “En Bateau” (In a boat) depicts gently rocking waves in a lilting 6/8 meter with arpeggiated chords (given to the harp in the orchestral version) that provide a constant sense of motion. In “Cortège,” rather than represent music for an actual procession, Debussy creates the atmosphere of a lively parade or festival with a jaunty opening melody and highly syncopated middle section. The “Menuet” returns to the Baroque dance suite format, and Debussy captures the character of this courtly dance with clearly marked four-bar phrases and an unhurried principal theme. Graceful ornaments and arabesques given to various instruments in the orchestral version add grace and charm to this historically French dance. The suite concludes with “Ballet,” a sparkling movement whose alternating sections appear to capture various exciting theatrical scenes. Once published, Petite Suite proved extremely popular, and Debussy’s publisher asked him to arrange the work for orchestra. Occupied with other commissions, Debussy asked his friend Henri Büsser, a conductor and composer, to make the arrangement. Büsser’s arrangement mimics Debussy’s renowned attention to timbre and texture to such an extent that his arrangement sounds as though it could have been composed by Debussy himself with the full range of orchestral instruments in mind from the suite’s inception. Symphony No. 35 in D Major, K. 385, “Haffner” (1782) Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) Much of what is known about Mozart’s personal life, relationships, and composing practices comes to us through surviving letters, the majority of which were sent to family members. In 1782, the young Mozart had moved to Vienna to pursue his career, leaving behind his family and friends in Salzburg. Among the relationships the Mozart family cultivated in Salzburg was that of the Haffner family, whose business fortune and later philanthropy was well known across Austria. In recognition of the family’s success and prominence, the younger Sigmund Haffner was ennobled by Emperor Joseph II on July 29, 1782. To mark the occasion, Mozart’s father, Leopold, wrote to his son to request a symphony. Although Mozart was tied up with other composing projects and in the midst of planning his own wedding, he found the time to compose a grand work for the special occasion, sending individual movements to his father as he wrote them. By December 1782, months after the ennobling ceremony, Mozart requested the return of his music, as he wanted to prepare it for his own use in an upcoming Lenten concert in Vienna. The version of the symphony heard in concert halls today is similar to the original work scored for Haffner’s ennoblement but includes a handful of changes that Mozart made for the work’s public premiere in Vienna. Most notable is the structure: the music sent to Leopold for Haffner’s celebration
included a celebratory march and likely an additional minuet, but the concert version adopts the standard, four-movement symphonic form. Mozart also added flutes and clarinets to the outer movements of the symphony, which already featured a full complement of pairs of oboes, bassoons, horns, and trumpets to reflect the grandness of the occasion. (It is worth noting, too, that the key of of the symphony, which already featured a full complement of pairs of oboes, bassoons, horns, and trumpets to reflect the grandness of the occasion. (It is worth noting, too, that the key of D major was long associated with celebration, as it not only accommodated eighteenth-century trumpets and timpani but also created extra fullness or resonance through the use of open strings.) The first movement capitalizes on this from its declamatory opening note—a unison D—in which Mozart asks the violins to play two of the same pitch, one open-string D and another fingered on the lowest string. As if a nod to Haffner’s ennoblement, the melody immediately jumps two octaves, reinforcing the same pitch, just at a higher level. This melodic elevation is then followed by dotted rhythms, whose historical associations with the military and French royalty may be another nod to Haffner’s elevation of status. The movement that unfolds is both lively and bold, employing a traditional sonata -form, despite the striking similarities between the first and second themes. (Many scholars actually consider this movement to be monothematic.) The second movement and third movements respectively provide the expected respite and levity, while the fourth movement is a brilliant tour de force that Mozart requested to be played “as fast as possible.” This final movement was apparently enough of a crowd pleaser that it was repeated at the end of the premiere concert, which opened with the full symphony and featured a variety of other instrumental and operatic works by Mozart. Though lasting only twenty minutes, the combined majesty and brilliance of this compact symphony render the work itself worthy of ennoblement as one of the great classical symphonies.
CHRISTINE WISCH, program notes Christine Wisch is a PhD candidate in musicology with a minor in ethnomusicology. Her work as a musicologist focuses on early nineteenth-century Spanish classical music and issues of nationalism, patronage, and identity. She is the recipient of a 2019 Dissertation Fellowship from the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi for her in-progress dissertation, “Politics, patronage, and Music in 1830s Spain.” Her research has been presented at both national and international conferences and has been supported by a number of awards and grants, including a 2017 Mellon Pre-Dissertation grant from Indiana University’s Russian and Eastern European Institute (REEI) and the A. Peter Brown Research Travel Award. Recently, she worked as a research consultant on Hispanic topics for the tenth edition of the History of Western Music and its corresponding anthologies, and she continues to work for Indiana University’s Latin American Music Center (LAMC). Additionally, she has written program notes for orchestras across the country and remains an active violinist.
SYMPHONY NY Musicians Performing April 23, 2022 Violin 1 Elliott Markow Sargis Karapetyan Aleksandra Labinska Ana-Maria LaPointe Leonora LaDu Violin 2 Amy Ripka Kun Shao Jessica Amidon Lisa Brooke Viola Elaine Leisinger Elisabeth Westner Seeun Oh Nissim Tseytlin Cello Harel Gietheim Nathaniel Lathrop Priscilla Taylor Cameron Sawzin Bass Volker Nahrmann Robert Hoffman Flutes Kathleen Boyd Peggy Friedland Oboes Kyoko Hida-Battaglia Ronald Kaye
Clarinets Marguerite Levin Margo McGowan Bassoons Sally Merriman Stephanie Busby Horn (Jacky) Ho-Yin, Li Kristin Olsen Trumpets Richard Watson Richard Kelley Percussion Jeffrey Bluhm Dylan Barber Timur Rubenstyn Harp Katie Lyon-Pingree
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