WICHITA SYMPHONY | 2020-2021 SEASON
MASTERWORKS 1
SERENADE FOR JOY CENTURY II CONCERT HALL
SATURDAY | OCTOBER 24, 2020 | 7:30 PM Ending approximately 8:30pm STRINGS OF THE WICHITA SYMPHONY DANIEL HEGE Music Director & Conductor
PROGRAM PRESENTED WITHOUT INTERMISSION Movement timings are approximate and provided for the listener’s information.
W.A. MOZART (1756 - 1791) Adagio and Fugue (7’)
WANG JIE (1980 - )
Five Faces of Joy for Strings and Celeste (7’)
GEORGE S. CLINTON (1947 - ) Prairie Reminiscence (5’)
PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY (1840 - 1893) Serenade for Strings
Pezzo in forma di sonatina: Andante non troppo — Allegro moderato (10’) Valse: Moderato — Tempo di valse (4’) Élégie: Larghetto elegiaco (9’) Finale (Tema russo): Andante — Allegro con spirito (8’)
This performance will be available on-demand October 30 - November 28 exclusively for WSO Connect members. Masks are required at all times in Century II Concert Hall. Thank you for your understanding.
PROGRAM NOTES | OCTOBER 24, 2020 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart ADAGIO AND FUGUE IN C MINOR, K. 546 Born on January 27, 1756 in Salzburg, Austria. Died on December 5, 1791 in Vienna, Austria. First performance by the Wichita Symphony. If, as a listener, you are encountering Mozart’s Adagio and Fugue in C minor for the first time, you might be tempted to say that the music sounds like it was written by Johann Sebastian Bach. Why this is so and how Mozart came to write this work is one of the interesting stories of music’s evolution during the Classical era in the late-18th century. For composers, like Mozart, born during the mid18th century, the name Bach generally meant Bach’s two best known musician sons, Carl Philipp Emanuel and Johann Christian. The “old” man, Johann Sebastian Bach, had largely been displaced by the younger generation and his music relegated to pedagogical studies of counterpoint. Carl Philipp and Johann Christian, referred to in the annals of music history as CPE and JC Bach, were important figures, together with various Italian and German composers, in creating the “classical” style of the period between 1740 and 1780. The re-emergence of their father’s music began with the return to Vienna in 1777 of one Baron Gottfried van Swieten, a diplomat, librarian, amateur composer, and general enthusiast for Enlightenment values. Swieten established a series of Sunday afternoon soirees in his home devoted to the music of Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frederic Handel, the two pinnacles in music of the High Baroque. Mozart, along with Haydn, attended these gatherings, and both began to study the music of J.S Bach and Handel absorbing and recasting the Baroque influences of contrapuntal writing into their own personal styles. For Haydn, the pivotal transition can be seen in his string quartets of Opus 33 published in 1781 and subsequently emulated by the younger Mozart in his published set of quartets now known as his “Haydn Quartets” composed between 1782 and 1785. It may
have been for one of Swieten’s soirees that Mozart composed his Fugue in C minor for two pianos, K. 426 in 1783. Five years later, Mozart returned to this Fugue and orchestrated it for strings playable by a string quartet or larger string ensemble as in the performance by the Wichita Symphony at this concert. Taking as his model Bach’s Preludes and Fugues of the Well-Tempered Klavier, Mozart added the Adagio that serves as a prelude to his fugue in the version for strings. He entered the rearranged work into his thematic catalogue on June 26, 1788, on the same day he added his Symphony no. 39 in E-Flat Major, K. 543, the first of the great final trilogy of symphonies Mozart would compose that summer. By 1788, Mozart, once the darling of musical Vienna, was falling on hard times. It was not entirely his fault. In 1788, Emperor Joseph II began to abandon his enlightenment values, turning his secret police loose on Austrian society and entering into an unpopular and expensive war with Turkey that would last until 1791, and which created havoc on the Austrian economy and disillusionment with the Emperor’s leadership. Many cultural institutions closed or disbanded, making it difficult for Mozart to find work and new commissions. Mozart, only a year after the death of his father, was forced into borrowing considerable sums of money, and at the same time, made several foolhardy loans to friends that contributed to his deteriorating financial circumstances. Mozart may have pulled his two-piano fugue out of the drawer and revised it for strings in hopes of a quick sale that would raise funds. But it also underscores his focus on contrapuntal writing that summer, which would reach a culmination in the finale of the “Jupiter” Symphony just a few weeks later. The opening of the Adagio (a term referencing a slow tempo) is characterized by angular leaps with loud (forte) dynamics and dotted rhythms characteristic of the Baroque French Overture. The mood is severe and even ominous. The opening is immediately contrasted by a soft, hushed passage that continues the dotted rhythms in murmuring
PROGRAM NOTES | OCTOBER 24, 2020 shadows. One writer described it as an alternation between violence and mysticism. These two moods prevail for this 52-bar introduction lasting about two minutes and ending in an unresolved anticipation of the fugue to follow. The Fugue opens with a vigorous and robust statement, often called the subject or theme, that combines a falling interval of a fifth followed by an ascending scale passage. Listen for the succession of the theme as it successively enters in four voices beginning in the bass (cellos and basses) and ascending through the violas, second violins, and finally the first violins. This imitative writing between the string voices will continue throughout, sometimes in fragmentation and other times in an inversion where the first leap is upward followed by a descending scale. Periodically, the full thematic statement reappears to anchor the architectural structure of the music. The momentum drives the music forward reaching a point of its most intense activity before abruptly cutting off and ending in a strong cadence with all the instruments together. The fugue will last about four minutes.
Wang Jie FIVE FACES OF JOY FOR STRINGS AND CELESTE Born in 1980 in Shagnhai, China. First performance by the Wichita Symphony. The most recent member of the “Joy” series, FIVE FACES OF JOY offers five comic ways of smiling: a playful one, a jolly one, smile from a lover, smile from a dancing Godzilla, and a sweet smile before visions of Ondine swims away. Several compositions during this creative period ended up with five movements, five elements, five variations, or five instruments. Friends nagged me to reveal my secret fascination of “five”. I really didn’t want to disappoint my friends. So I made this one up: “Euhh, according to Chinese ancient thoughts, there are five elements in the making of the world.
As you listen to the Adagio and Fugue, can you hear things that might reflect Mozart’s mood in 1788? And what can you hear that might also be relevant in the parallel circumstances we live with during our own time?
NOTE: When we speak of contrapuntal writing and counterpoint in music, we are referring to the linear consideration of melodic lines sounding together. A “round,” such as “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” is the most basic kind of example that we learn as children. This musical texture is also referred to a polyphonic and it contrasts with homophony, or homophonic texture, where a single melody is accompanied by a harmonic chord figuration. A fugue is the most fully developed type of contrapuntal composition using imitative counterpoint with expansion and contraction of the theme and harmonic development. By Don Reinhold, CEO, Wichita Symphony, ©2020
They are metal, wood, water, fire and earth. I was very synchronized with my culture heritage…” Wait, but I began this piece thinking about smiles, and it still puts a big smile on my face every time hear it. The truth is, five faces just slipped out, putting themselves in this order. Not one more, not one less. All I did was being a good secretary: I listened and I wrote them down. This one-movement piece calls for a string orchestra and a very handsome Celeste player. - Wang Jie
PROGRAM NOTES | OCTOBER 24, 2020 George S. Clinton PRAIRIE REMINISCENCE Born June 17, 1947 in Chattanooga, Tennessee. First performance by the Wichita Symphony (world premiere). January of 2019, I attended the WSO performance of the short “pre-view” version of “The Rose of Sonora”, the violin concerto I wrote for Holly Mulcahy. After the first rehearsal, Don Reinhold was kind enough to drive Holly and me through the snow to visit the Old Cowtown Museum. I can’t explain the deep emotional connection I felt to the place, but it has stuck with me. “Prairie Reminiscence” is part of a larger work in progress I call “ The Old Cowtown Suite”. This movement was inspired by standing on the front porch of the Smith House while looking out into the blowing snows of winter. As I imagined being a settler back then, I became aware of the contrast of feelings they must have felt: the awe at the fierce beauty of it, the dread of the isolation it would bring, and the hope for an early spring. Many thanks to maestro Daniel Hege and the WSO for premiering this movement from the suite. More to follow! - George S. Clinton Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky SERENADE FOR STRINGS IN C MAJOR, OP. 48 Born May 7, 1840 in Votkinsk, Russia. Died November 6, 1893 in St. Petersburg, Russia First full performance by the Wichita Symphony. If we wanted to find something of a silver lining in this re-imagined symphony season under the dark cloud of the COVID-19 pandemic, we might point to the opportunity to experience and enjoy important and beloved repertoire not usually performed by the Wichita Symphony. Tchaikovsky’s popular Serenade for Strings is one such work. While the waltz appeared on a program in 1998 conducted by Zuohuang Chen, there is no entry for the entire
Serenade on a list of music performed by the WSO going back to 1981. Tchaikovsky composed the Serenade during the fall of 1880. Initially, he was unsure whether the sketches would become part of a symphony or a string quartet, but settled on a four movement serenade for strings, perhaps in homage to the string serenades or divertimenti of Mozart, a composer whom he was immensely fond of and returned to periodically for inspiration. Interestingly, Tchaikovsky worked on the Serenade side by side with the 1812 Overture, another of Tchaikovsky’s immensely popular works, but the differences between the two could not be more striking. The Overture was a commission, the music bombastic and loud, the Serenade a work of love. Writing to his patroness, Mme. Nadezhda von Meck, Tchaikovsky told her that “the Overture will be very loud and noisy, but I wrote it without any warm feelings of love and so, it will probably be of no artistic merit. But the Serenade, on the contrary, I wrote from inner compulsion. This is a piece from the heart, and so, I venture to hope that this work is not without artistic qualities.” Both pieces have survived 140 years as audience favorites. The Serenade was completed in the first week of November and given a private performance for Tchaikovsky by students and faculty of the Moscow Conservatory on December 3, 1880. Its first public performance was the following fall in St. Petersburg. It quickly gained many performances and was first heard in the United States at New York City’s Academy of Music under Leopold Damrosch in January 1885. Tchaikovsky, himself, conducted the work in Baltimore and Philadelphia during his 1891 American Tour. One of the delights of this weekend’s program is the way music by Mozart and Tchaikovsky bookend the evening. Tchaikovsky adored Mozart’s music and if one were to look for inspiration, one need not look any further than the exquisite musical
PROGRAM NOTES | OCTOBER 24, 2020 textures that combine rich chorale passages as in the opening introductions to the first and fourth movements and the playful imitative counterpoint and the exchange of melodic prominence between the instruments. What often sounds natural and “easy” in Tchaikovsky’s music is, in fact, a multilayered texture that shows off his creative genius for manipulating short motives and rich counterpoint. What also makes Tchaikovsky distinctive is the close relationship he maintains to ballet and a “heart on his sleeve” kind of rhythmic passion. The music demands movement and never strays far from roots in dance and folk music where phrase repetition encourages dance patterns. The first movement, “a piece in the form of a sonatina,” or little sonata, opens with a stately introduction with a chorale notable for its rich texture created by the use of double-stops where two pitches are played simultaneously by drawing the bow across two strings. The opening phrase is repeated with the melody shifting into the cellos and basses. The third time through, the tune returns to the first violins, but this time without the doublestops and without the basses, which creates a lighter, more transparent texture. The music reaches a pause and a two-note motive like a gentle sigh and unresolved question sets us up for the arrival of the main theme. A gently rocking theme with a dancelike quality begins the moderately fast section. The first movement concludes with a return of the opening introduction. The second movement is in the style of the 19th-century’s most favored dance, the waltz. The melody is one of Tchaikovsky’s finest with simplicity and elegant beauty. While the Strauss brothers held Europe in thrall with their waltz tunes, Tchaikovsky elevates the dance using rhythm in a way to sometimes disrupt the steady 1-2-3 beat and sophisticated, almost virtuosic accompanying figures for contrast. When the melody is repeated and orchestrated for the second violins and cellos, a rich warmth imbues the music while the first violins weave an embroidered tapestry of figurations above the tune. A middle section is like a conversation,
perhaps one not always in agreement, between the violins and the lower strings. The main theme returns and eventually the music gently begins to break into fragments tossed back and forth between instruments and fades away into the night. The third movement and the emotional core of the Serenade is an elegy. Typically, an elegy is a somber piece of music often associated with mourning. But that seems to be less the case here. The music is more nostalgic with some melancholy and sentimentality. The slow opening is marked by a climbing scale that is repeated four times with slight varied twists at the top each time. A more animated middle section introduces another one of Tchaikovsky’s beautiful melodies accompanied by pizzicato strings, and as the section progresses, the tune gets shared among the violins, violas, and cellos. The opening scales return and are extended in a coda with a final scale reaching upwards into the highest ranges of the strings as the music fades away in an ethereal quality. Like the first and third movements before, the fourth opens with a slow andante, this time using a Russian folk tune, “On the Green Meadow.” A spirited allegro begins using a second folk tune, “Under the Green Apple Tree.” Tchaikovsky’s masterful technique is on full display with an abundance of melody and playful contrapuntal techniques. As the music’s momentum reaches its peak, there’s an interruption of the rhythmic flow, and following a pause, Tchaikovsky surprises us with a return of the Serenade’s introduction from the first movement heard one more time in a bold, majestic statement. The joke, as Tchaikovsky lets us in on, is that the music of the Introduction is melodically linked to the folksong of the spirited finale, which he shows us in a gradual acceleration and a dash to the end as the folksong joyfully ends the Serenade. By Don Reinhold, CEO, Wichita Symphony, ©2020
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