UMS Concert Program, September 24, 1966: The Chamber Symphony Of Philadelphia -- Anshel Brusilow

Season: Eighty-eighth
Concert: First
Complete Series: 3523
Rackham Auditorium, Ann Arbor, Michigan

1966 Eighty-eighth Season 1967
UNIVERSITY MUSICAL SOCIETY
THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
Charles A. Sink, President Gail W. Rector, Executive Director Lester McCoy, Conductor
First Program
Fourth Annual Chamber Arts Series
Complete Series 3523
The Chamber Symphony of Philadelphia
ANSHEL BRUSILOW, Conductor
Saturday Evening, September 24, 1966, at 8:30 Rackham Auditorium, Ann Arbor, Michigan
PROGRAM
Trumpet Voluntary
Concerto Grosso for Strings and Harpsichord in G major ("Alia Rustica") . . .
Presto
Andante Allegro
Sinfonia in B-flat major.....
Allegro assai Andante Presto
?Concerto for Chamber Orchestra
Adagio mistcrioso; allegro Adagio
Spiritoso
Jeremiah Clarke Vivaldi
J. C. Bach
Benjamin Lees
INTERMISSION
Cherubini
Symphony in D major
Largo; allegro
Larghetto cantabile Allegro non tanto Allegro assai
World premiere. Tonight's concert marks the United Stales debut of this American chamber symphony.
A R S
L O N G A
VITA
B R E V I S
PROGRAM NOTES
by Paul Affelder
Trumpet Voluntary........Jeremiah Clarke
(Transcribed by Anshel Brusilow)
The eminent English conductor Sir Henry J. Wood discovered this little piece under the title of Trumpet Tune, among a manuscript collection of harpsichord pieces in the British Museum. Though no composer's name was attached to the work, the last piece in the collection was known to be by one of the greatest of all English masters, Henry Purcell. It was not unnatural, therefore, for Wood to assume that the Trumpet Tune was also by Purcell, and he published his transcription of the work in 1923 as Trumpet Voluntary by Purcell. More recent research, however, has revealed that this Trumpet Tune is identical with The Prince of Denmark's March, which Purcell's con?temporary, the London organist and composer Jeremiah Clarke, contributed to A Choice Collection oj Ayres for the Harpsichord, published in 1700.
Anshel Brusilow made this transcription of the Trumpet Voluntary especially for the Chamber Symphony of Philadelphia. He has scored it for pairs of flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, horns, trumpets, kettledrums, and the usual strings.
Concerto Grosso for Strings and Harpsichord
in G major ("Alia Rustica").....Antonio Vivaldi
Very little is known about the life of Antonio Vivaldi. He studied with his father, who was a violinist at San Marco in Venice, also with the composer Giovanni Legren-zi. From 1703 to 1740, he served as director of music, composer, teacher, and violinist at the Seminario Musicale dell' Ospedale delta Pieta, one of four homes for foundling girls in Venice.
The Concerto Grosso belongs to a large cache of Vivaldi manuscripts discovered only a few years ago in Genoa by Dr. Alberto Gentile. Except for the characteristic three-movement plan of fast-slow-fast, to be found not only in most of Vivaldi's con?certed works but in most such compositions of the baroque period, this concerto is quite atypical. Its title of Alia Rustica comes from the decidedly rustic character of its opening Presto, a jig-like movement in 98 meter with a theme that recalls that of The Irish Washerwoman. The slow movement, Adagio, is only sixteen measures long; it consists of a series of cadences that modulate through several keys and form an intro?duction to the final Allegro; smooth-flowing and somewhat more sedate than many Vivaldi closing movements, the latter is in two brief sections, each of which is repeated.
Sinfonia in B-flat major.....Johann Christian Bach
Johann Christian Bach, often referred to as the "London Bach" because of the many successful years he spent in the British capital, was the eleventh and youngest sur?viving son of Johann Sebastian Bach. Since his illustrious father died before Johann Christian had reached his fifteenth birthday, it is doubtful if he gave him much musical instruction, for his music shows little of his father's influence; it belongs more to the galant style of the rococo period in which he lived, and is marked by grace and ele?gance. Not surprisingly, it also has a decided Italian flavor.
The Sinfonia in B-flat major was composed in London about 1770, probably for use in one of Bach's many concerts there. It takes the form of an Italian overture-three sections, fast-slow-fast, played without pause. Its opening Allegro assai, with a vigorous first theme and a contrastingly more lyrical second theme, definitely fore?shadows the first-movement form of the symphony and sonata. An unusual feature of the slow movement, Andante, is the reappearance at one point of a quotation from the second theme of the first movement. The final Presto is a spirited rondo.
Concerto for Chamber Orchestra.....Benjamin Lees
Though he was born in Manchuria, of Russian parents, Benjamin Lees is a thor?oughly American composer. He attended the University of Southern California, where his teachers in harmony, theory and composition included Ernst Kanitz, Halsey Ste?vens, and Ingolf Dahl. Later he studied privately with the late American composer George Antheil. In 1955, Lees was the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship for travel and work in Europe. This was followed by a Copley Foundation Award and a Ful-bright Fellowship, enabling him to continue his work abroad for eight years.
Lees's music, which has been performed by most of our leading orchestras, has been described as "alternately rhythmic, lyric and free from the usual nationalistic influ?ences." Concentrating mainly on purely instrumental compositions, he has written a quantity of orchestral, chamber and keyboard music.
The Concerto for Chamber Orchestra was commissioned by Anshel Brusilow and is the first new work to be presented by this new orchestra. It is being performed dur?ing the orchestra's pre-season tour, receiving its premiere on tonight's program.
Lees has cast his concerto in the customary three movements. The first movement opens with a slow, mysterious introduction, appropriately marked Adagio mislerioso, which leads to the vigorous main section, Allegro. The lyrical middle movement, Adagio, is based on a single subject in free form, freely developed, while the finale, Spiritoso, is a rondo that is almost like a perpetual motion.
Symphony in D major........Luigi Cheeubini
Among Cherubini's fairly voluminous output there exists only one symphony. It was composed, along with an overture and a vocal work, at the invitation of the London Philharmonic Society, and the composer himself conducted its world premiere. On January 23, 1936, Toscanini introduced the symphony to America at a concert of the New York Philharmonic. In 1829, Cherubini had rearranged the music as a string quartet in C major. For this he composed a new slow movement and increased the tempo of the third movement, changing it from a Minuetto to a Scherzo. When Toscanini revived the symphony, he used the quartet as the basis for certain altera?tions in the earlier score. He retained the original slow movement of the symphony, but adopted the faster tempo marking for the third movement. This performance makes use of the editorial changes by Toscanini.
CHAMBER SYMPHONY OF PHILADELPHIA
Anshel Brusilow, Music Director and Conductor
Thomas Michalak, Assistant Conductor
Violins Cello Clarinets
Stuart Canin, Willem Stokking, Nathan Brusilow
Concertmaster Principal Ronald Reuben
William Steck, Catharina Meints ??,,?.
Ass't. Concertmaster Samuel Belenko Bassoons
Robert Witte Robert Perry Ryohei Nakagawa
Alcestis Perry Christopher R. Weait
Helen Janov u.,,., ?
Lee Snyder Batses Hor"s
Thomas Michalak Sam Hollingsworth, James London
Rick Posner, Principal Principal Ward Fearn
Kent Rose Henry G. Scott
Marion Hersh Trumpets
Monica Witte Flutes Louis 0PaIcskv
Olga Myerovich Joseph K. Koplin
Alicja Buczynska Israel Borouchoff
George Ervin Monroe Tympant
Violas Jack Moore
Carlton Cooley, Principal nhnc nri
Ralph Hersh OboCS P.ano, Celesta
Arthur Lewis James Caldwell Harpsichord
Murray Labman David Seeley Vladimir Sokoloff
UNIVERSITY MUSICAL SOCIETY INTERNATIONAL PRESENTATIONS
All presentations are at 8:30 p.m. unless otherwise noted.
HILL AUDITORIUM CHORAL UNION SERIES-Opening Concert
Chicago Symphony Orchestra......Saturday, October 8
Program:
Overture, "The Consecration of the House," Op. 124.....Beethoven
Symphony No. 4, "Inextinguishable"........Nielsen
Symphony No. 4, "Altitudes".........Martinon
EXTRA SERIES-Opening Concert
Chicago Symphony Orchestra......Sunday, October 8
Program :
Five Pieces for Orchestra, Op. 16........Schonberg
Concerto for Violin and Cello..........Rozsa
Symphony No. 2, C major, Op. 61........Schumann
Tickets: $5.00--$4.50--$4.00--$3.50--$2.50--$1.50
THE FIFTH ANNUAL
Dance Festival
Three performances in Hill Auditorium
?Hosho Noh Troupe.......Monday, October 24, 8:30
From Suidobashi Noh Theatre, Tokyo. Presented in collaboration with the University of Michigan Center for Japanese Studies. The program: "Sumidagawa," and "A Han-Noh."
Robert Joffrey Ballet.....Wednesday, October 26, 8:30
Young American "classic" company, with orchestra, specializing in both classic and modern choreography.
Fiesta Mexicana........Saturday, October 29, 8:30
From Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City, in its first United States tour. Program includes "Deer Dance"; Dances from the Mayans and the Aztecs; Songs and Dances of Vera Cruz; with native orchestra.
Series Tickets: $8.00--$6.00--$5.00 Single Concerts: $4.00--$3.00--$2.00
"Music of the Japanese Noh Drama"--Lecture-demonstration Tuesday evening, October 18, 8:30 p.m., at School of Music Recital Hall. Professor William P. Malm (Open to the public without charge).
For tickets and information, address UNIVERSITY MUSICAL SOCIETY, Burton Tower