March Program: ASO at Holy Rosary
Comments by Music Director John Thomas Dodson
Craig Terry, guest conductor and pianist
In 2006, ASO audiences heard Craig Terry in performances of the Ravel Piano Concerto and Beethoven's Choral Fantasy. His burgeoning career has continued to develop at the Lyric Opera of Chicago and recently he triumphed with a celebrated solo appearance with the Chicago Philharmonic! We've invited Craig back to display his many talents as a guest conductor of the orchestra and to present a special performance of a piano concerto by Mozart conducted by Craig from the keyboard! Offered in the stunning surroundings of the Holy Rosary Chapel, we've scheduled two performances because seating is limited. Order your tickets early. These concerts sell out!
Program Notes by Beryl McHenry
Ballet Music from Orfeo
Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714–1787)
Orfeo ed Euridice was one of about 40 operas composed by Gluck. It was debuted in 1762, in the Italian language, in Vienna. It is probably his best known and is a prime example of Gluck's elegant synthesis of Italian and French traditional operatic styles. Gluck is credited with setting the standard for nineteenth century operas, very different from the formal conventions of the late Baroque period. Gluck was born in Erasbach, Upper Palatinate, in what is now the extreme western part of the Czech Republic, and Czech was his native tongue. At age 14 he left home to work as an organist in Prague, where he also studied opera. He subsequently moved on to Vienna and then to Milan, where his first opera, Artaserse, was performed.
One often hears Gluck's later works referred to as "reform operas." Orfeo ed Euridice was the first of these. Gluck, along with several other composers, were strongly influenced by the French style and sought to "make the music serve the poetry" by having the music express only the situations in the story. He would eliminate orchestral extras and any ornamental singing or flourishes. The overture had to fit the drama and the orchestration had to fit the words of the story. In his own words, Gluck wrote that he "sought to confine music to its true function of serving poetry by expressing feelings and the situations of the story without interrupting and cooling off the actions through useless and superfluous ornaments." Orfeo is a fine example of these reforms, with solo singing, dancing and choral music completely integrated with the story. Its plot is fairly simple and straightforward and expresses the emotions so important to the story of the musician Orpheus and his journey to the Underworld to bring back his beloved Euridice. It is in the second act of this "opera/ballet" that the most memorable ballet music is contained. Orpheus is marveling at the beauty of Elysium. What was in the 1762 version a brief ballet sequence was expanded in a major revision done in 1774 (this time in French) into the four movement "Dance of the Blessed Spirits." In the final act, when Orpheus fears Euridice has returned to Hades, he decides to kill himself and join her there. He is stopped by Amore, who returns Euridice to him. The chorus sings an anthem in praise of love's triumph over death and a four movement ballet is part of the closing of the opera.
Piano Concerto No. 19
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791)
Mozart was a prolific composer of piano concerti. He wrote them throughout his life span, writing the first at age 11 and the last during the final year of his life.
Ten years before his death, Mozart left his native Salzburg and moved to Vienna to take advantage of the city's insatiable demand for new concerti. He produced seventeen of his piano concerti during that decade. Mozart was chronically short of money and he was aware that the dramatic theaters closed right before Christmas and Easter. This created a greater demand for musical concerts, and Mozart put his greatest efforts into producing new music to be released during those time periods. His own catalogue lists the concerto No. 19 as having been completed December 11, 1784, just in time for the pre-holiday demand. Subsequent entries suggest that the dates of release for the other five concerti written that year were carefully planned to be released during this most advantageous time.
Concerto No. 19 is sometimes referred to as the "second coronation concerto" because six years after its conception it was played at the coronation of Leopold II with the composer as soloist. It is a work of three movements, typical of Mozart concerti, concluding with a cadenza written by Mozart himself. The second movement, in condensed sonata form, features some wonderful interplay between the piano and the winds and strings. The third and final movement is in a broad rondo form with the main theme introduced by the piano followed quickly by the full orchestra. This theme reappears in typical rondo fashion but attention should be drawn toward an atypical fugal section midway through. Another Mozart cadenza late in the work leads back to a final presentation of the main rondo theme in a grand conclusion to the work.
Mozart described his concertos in a letter to his father Leopold as "a happy medium between what is too easy and too difficult….There are passages here and there from which connoisseurs alone can derive satisfaction, but these passages are written in such a way that the less learned cannot fail to be pleased…."
Symphony No. 5 in B-flat Major
Franz Schubert (1797–1828)
Schubert's life was a very short one. While his lieder were popular with the Viennese public, none of his symphonies was performed during his lifetime and none was published until fifty years after his death. In 1827 a directory of composers was published and Schubert's name did not appear.
He was classically trained, a student of Salieri, but also needed to work for a living. He chose to work in his father's school, because "schoolteachers were exempt from military service, he would not have to study any more, and he would have plenty of leisure for composition," according to one biographer. While he also received three meals a day and a stipend, he reportedly hated teaching. He spent every free moment composing, and it was during the end of this three year period that he composed the Symphony No. 5. It is very different in character from his other four symphonies, and generally recognized as his finest in terms of its balance and its finely crafted melodic development. It is the "symphony without trumpets and drums," and indeed Schubert tends more toward the early style of Mozart, eliminating trumpets and timpani from a typical orchestration.
The first movement, in sonata form, opens with a short introductory phrase before introducing the principal theme which features a repetitive rhythmic pattern crafted into a rather lengthy, joyful melody. The second movement is song-like and reminiscent of Schubert's superb lieder. The third movement is a minuet, and it has been suggested that it is a subtle tribute to Mozart's Symphony No. 40. Its trio is justly famous for having one of the loveliest melodies ever written. The final movement is a very precise, regular sonata-allegro, dramatic and eloquent. The entire symphony is a remarkable achievement for a young man only 19 years of age!
Schubert died at age 31, having composed over 600 lieder, nine symphonies, numerous operas and a wealth of chamber music. His last wish was to be buried near Beethoven.