UMS Concert Program, November 11, 1958: The National Symphony Orchestra Of Mexico --

Concert: Fourth
Complete Series: 3246
Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor, Michigan

1958 Eightieth Season 19S9
UNIVERSITY MUSICAL SOCIETY
THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
Charles A. Sink, President Gail W. Rector, Executive Director Lester McCoy, Conductor
Fourth Concert Eightieth Annual Choral Union Series Complete Series 3246
The National Symphony Orchestra of Mexico
(Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional de Mexico) LUIS HERRERA de la FUENTE, Conductor
Tuesday Evening, November ii, 1958, at 8:30 Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor, Michigan
PROGRAM
Sensemaya.........Silvestre Revueltas
Concerto No. 2 in F minor for Piano
and Orchestra, Op. 21.........Chopin
Maestoso Larghetto Allegro vivace
Soloist: Jose Kahan
INTERMISSION
Huapango..........Jose Pablo Moncayo
Symphony No. 5, Op. 47........Shostakovich
Moderato; allegro non troppo Allegretto Largo
Allegro non troppo
The Steinway is the official piano of the University Musical Society. ARS LONGA VITA BREVIS
PROGRAM NOTES
Sensemaya.........Silvestre Revueltas
The music was composed for a ballet. The theme is a desperate drought in a Caribbean village. A woman announces that Lucero has disappeared, and all go out to search for her. The witch doctor performs his incantations. They encounter a vicious serpent. The men go to get their machetes; the serpent is none other than Lucero, bewitched by the witch doctor. Facundo, suspicious of foul play, tries to stop them. The witch doctor battles with Facundo, wins and slays the serpent, around whose body all execute a dance of triumph. When they go to lift the body, they find it is the body of Lucero. At seeing this, the witch doctor falls, victim of his own spells, and with his death the evil things end. The rain begins to fall. This story derives from the AfroCuban rite of Sensemaya.
Huapango..........Jose Pablo Moncayo
The name of "Huapango" is given to the popular fiestas of the coastal region of Vera Cruz and Tamaulipas, as well as the Huasteca region extending from there up into Hidalgo and San Luis Potosi. Some hold that the word "Huapango" comes from a contraction of "Huaxtecas," the local aborigines, and "Pango," the old name of the Panuco River.
The huapango is danced on special wood platforms erected for the occasion. Some are for one or more couples, and others for women only. When a single couple mounts the platform, this means that they are virtuosos of the heelstamping type of dance. This "taconco" gives the huapango its rhythmical richness.
Moncayo's piece embodies three huapangos coming from the port of Alvarado, where the traditional style is best preserved. It is in threepart form. The first and second themes of the principal part correspond to the huapangos "Ziqui Ziri" and "Balaju," respectively, while the central part is built up on "El Gavilan," of quieter and more melodic nature.
Symphony No. 5, Op. 47......Dmitri Shostakovich
Including his latest symphony, Shostakovich now has to his credit ten symphonies, a piano concerto, many chamber works, and two operas. The Fifth Symphony, which marked the composer's reinstatement in official favor by its successful premiere in Leningrad, is described by the composer as "The assertion of personality. It is man with all his emotions and experiences that I saw as a focus of design in this work, which is lyric in conception from beginning to end." Leopold Stokowski has expressed his interpretation that in the Fifth Symphony Shostakovich "painted in tone the inner and outer experiences of an artist's life, sometimes expressing the boisterous humor of crowds in the street, as in the fourth part, sometimes painting with ironic splashes of color, a gaminlike humor, as in the second part, and sometimes telling by the simplest orchestral means the innermost reveries of his spirit in dark and melancholy coloring or rising to sublime heights of ecstasy as in the third part."
The Finale is a spirited Rondo featuring March rhythms. Thematically there are several references to the subjects of the first movement. The middle section provides quiet contrast to the opening vigor and orchestral blaze, but these soon return and proceed in cumulative intensity to create a brilliant climax as the close of the symphony.
THE NATIONAL SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA OF MEXICO
Luis Herrera de la Fuente, Conductor Armando Echevarria, Librarian Guillermo Robles, Personnel Manager Luis Sanchez Arriola, General Manager Josefina Arana, Secretary
Abraham Saloma, Company Doctor
Lucio Altamirano Ramon Galvan Jesus Cruz Reyes Stage Auxiliaries
Violins
Franco Ferrari,
Conccrtmaster Hermilo Novelo,
assistant concertmastet Juana C. Court Luis A. Martinez Boris Jankoff Carla Albinati Jose Trejo Jorge Serafini Daniel Burgos Luis S. Saloma Jose Noyola Fortino Velazquez Luis Sosa Alfredo P. Ibaiiez Gregorio Oseguera Emmanuel Arias
Violins
Manuel Enriquez,
principal Daniel Cruz Alfredo Cardenas Luis Sosa Jose Medina Martin Villasenor Manuel Allende Alfredo Gutierrez Gonzalo Macias Claire Basyn Daniel Samano Amelia Medina Melesio Moreno Guadalupe Leon
Violas
Gilberto Garcia,
principal Ivo Valcnti Rodolfo Concepcion Fernando Jordan Jesus Mcndoza Marcelino Ponce David Saloma Jose Olaya Francisco Contreras Armando Lavalle
Violoncclli
Adolfo OdnoposoB,
principal Dante Barzano Juan M. Tellez Margarita Olalde Tirso Rivera Carlos Mejia Teofilo Ariza Apolonio Arias Alberto Gonzalez Jesus Reyes
Double Basses
J. Luis Hernandez,
principal Luis Bignon Ricardo Gonzalez Miguel Lopez Carlos Medina Daniel Ibarra Klaus Edling
Flutes
Agustin Oropeza,
principal Gildardo Mojica Ruben Islas Jose Ayuso
(Piccolo)
Oboes
Sally van Den Berg,
principal Luis Segura Jesus Tapia
(English Horn)
Clarinets
Anastasio Flores Rodolfo Rosales Guillermo Robles
(Rcquinto) Guillermo Cabrera
(Bass Clarinet)
Bassoons
Louis Salomons
principal Joaquin Palencia Timoteo Traba
(Contrajagot)
French Horns
Fernando Bencomo Leo Kreuz Harvey Garber Juan Vazquez
principals Jose Sanchez Alberto G. Barroso
Trumpets
Felipe Leon principal
Tomas Fernandez Miguel G. Calderon Luis Fonseca
Trombones
Clemente Sanabria
principal Prospero Reyes Ignacio Cahue
Tuba
Rosendo Aguirre
Harp Judith Flores
Piano Alicia Urreta
Timpani Carlos Luyando
Percussion
Homero Valle Felix Montero Manuel Casay
1958 -UNIVERSITY MUSICAL SOCIETY CONCERTS -1959
E S S I A
First Concert: Saturday, December 6, 8:30 p.m. Repeat Concert: Sunday, December 7, 2:30 p.m.
Nancy Carr, Soprano John McCollum, Tenor
Florence Kopleff, Contralto Kenneth Smith, Bass
University Choral Union
Musical Society Orchestra
Mary McCall Stubbins, Organist
Lester McCoy, Conductor Tickets (either performance): 75 cents and 50 cents
Nineteenth Annual Chamber Music Festival
Societa Corelli......February 13, 14, 15, 1959
Three Concerts in Rackham Auditorium Series Tickets: $4.00 and $3.00. Single Concerts: $2.00 and $1.50. Now on sale.
Jerome Hines, Bass.......Monday, November 24
Program: All You Lovely Women (Cost Fan Tutte) . Mozart Within These Holy Portals (Magic Flute) . Mozart Non piu andrai (Marriage of Figaro) . . Mozart
An schwager Kronos......Schubert
Der Doppelganger.......Schubert
Zuneignung.......Richard Strauss
Ella giammai m'amo (Don Carlos) .... Verdi La Calumnia (Barber of Seville) .... Rossini
Ecco il mondo (Mefistofele).....Boito
Le Tambourmajor (Le Caid) . . . Thomas
Mephistopheles' Serenade (Faust) . . . Gounod
Automne...........Faure
L'Invitation au voyage.......Duparc
Chanson de Sancho........Ibert
Let Us Break Bread Together . . . Arr. Goldman He's Got the Whole World in
His Hands......Arr. H. Forrest
Jonah and the Whale.....MacGimsey
Down to the River......MacGimsey
Nathan Milstein, Violinist......Monday, January 5
Boston Pops Tour Orchestra.....Tuesday, January 13
Renata Tebaldi, Soprano.....Tuesday, February 10
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra . . . Thursday, February 26
National Symphony Orchestra .... Wednesday, March 4
Cesare Valletti, Tenor......Wednesday, March 11
Robert Shaw Chorale and Orchestra . (2:30) Sunday, March 15
Andre Tchaikowsky, Pianist.....Monday, March 23
Tickets: $3.50--$3.00--$2.50--$2.00 and $1.50 ?Extra Series
For tickets or information, address: University Musical Society, Burton Memorial Tower.