UMS Concert Program, January 30, 1967: Music From Marlboro -- Rudolf Serkin

Season: Eighty-eighth
Concert: Fourth
Complete Series: 3546
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
Fourth Program Fourth Annual Chamber Arts Series Complete Series 3546
Second program in the Sesquicentennial Year of The University of Michigan
MUSIC FROM MARLBORO
of
The Marlboro Music Festival
RUDOLF SERKIN, Artistic Director
Alexander Schneider, Violin Julius Levine, Bass
Oswald Lehnert, Violin Leonard Arner, Oboe
Walter Trampler, Viola John Barrows, Horn
Robert Sylvester, Cello Earl Chapin, Horn
Monday Evening, January 30, 1967, at 8:30 Rackham Auditorium, Ann Arbor, Michigan
PROGRAM
Divertimento in D major, K. 251.......Mozart
Allegro molto Menuetto Andantino
Menuetto--tema con variazioni Rondo: allegro assai Marcia alia francese
Five Dances with Coda and Seven Trios.....Schubert
(for String Quintet)
INTERMISSION
Horn Quintet in E-flat major, K. 407......Mozart
Allegro moderato Andante Allegro
John Barrows, Horn; Alexander Schneider, Violin;
Walter Trampler and Oswald Lehnert, Violas;
and Robert Sylvester, Cello.
Dornbacher Laendler........Joseph Lanner
Die Romantiker Waltz........Johann Strauss
Die Mozartisten Waltz........Joseph Lanner
ARS LONGA VITA BREVIS
PROGRAM NOTES
Divertimento in D major, K. 251 . . Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (for Strings, Oboe and Two Horns)
Serenading was a popular pastime in the eighteenth century, and the instrumental serenade, consisting of dance tunes, marches, and lyric ariosos (without support by keyboard harmony) was much played in the streets. By the time of Mozart it had developed into works longer, if lighter, than symphonies, and the typical serenade had become a cheerful six-movement composition with two slow movements, alternating with two minuets. If the combination of instruments was solo rather than orchestral, the composition would be called a divertimento. It was no longer played exclusively outdoors.
Mozart wrote the Divertimento in D, K. 251, in 1776, probably for his sister's birthday. The first movement has a theme in the style of a German song, while there is a French tinge to the variations and the Rondo which is then followed by a March "in the French style."
Five German Dances with Coda and Seven Trios . Franz Schubert (for String Quintet)
The universal affection and admiration in which Schubert is held today has dimmed the memory of the many wrongs and disappointments which he endured while on earth. He suffered privation from his earliest years; in the winter of 1812 we catch a glimpse of him entreating his brother for a roll, some apples, or a half-pence, to keep off hunger in the freezing rooms of the Konvict--the school in which choristers were trained for the court chapel. Franz entered the Konvict in October 1808, when eleven years and eight months old, and remained there till the autumn of 1813. On Sundays and holidays he went home, and then the great delight of the family was to play quartets, his own and those of others.
The five German Dances with Coda and Seven Trios was composed in 1813, the year also of his First Symphony. The second trio of the first of these dances is note?worthy for its viola solo. Since Schubert took the viola in the chamber music sessions at home, it was probably for his own amusement that he wrote this solo passage.
Horn Quintet in E-flat major, K. 407 . Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
With none other does Mozart appear to have played so many tricks as with Josef Leutgeb, an old friend and fellow player in the Salzburg band, whom he found again on his arrival in Vienna, where Leutgeb had settled down, keeping a cheesemonger's shop and playing the horn. Mozart wrote four concertos for him, the present Quintet, and probably a Rondo (K. 371). Jokes abound in the margins of the horn parts--"go it, Signor Asino'--'Take a little breath'--'wretched pig'--and much more of the like.
This is not a quintet in the strict sense, for the horn has too dominating a part and only the violin shares the solo work, the three lower instruments mostly providing an accompaniment.
The whole of the first movement is more in concerto than in chamber style, and the melodious sweetness of the andante is also reminiscent of the concerto. The final rondo, whose main theme is developed from that of the andante, resembles a clever, showy concerto finale.
Dornbacher Laendler........Joseph Lanner
Die Romantiker Waltz........Johann Strauss
Die Mozartisten Waltz........Joseph Lanner
The warm national life of old Vienna penetrates the work of Joseph Lanner (1801-43). His frank, genial disposition made him universally beloved. Important places of amusement competed for his services; he also conducted at the court balls, alternately with Strauss. The humble Laendler is the ancestor of the Waltz.
Johann Strauss, the elder (1804--49), joined Lanner's band as violist when still in his teens; and then, as engagements multiplied, he acted as deputy-conductor. In 182S, when he and Lanner parted, Strauss founded an orchestra of his own and eventually achieved world-wide celebrity as a composer of dance music which he raised to a higher level than it had ever reached before. His music, full of life, fire, and boisterous merriment, contrasts well with Lanner's softer and more sentimental airs.
THE MARLBORO MUSIC FESTIVAL
To music lovers throughout the world, The Marlboro Music Festival represents a unique musical gathering-place for some of the most distinguished and gifted artists of our time. At Marlboro the young virtuoso and the mature artist can get away from their normal routines and pressures to explore together new repertoire, exchange ideas, and cultivate the high art of chamber music.
Founded in 1950, this extraordinary community of artists has become, in the words of one critic, "perhaps the highest concentration of artistic activity of whatever kind, that takes place anywhere, anytime, in the United States and possibly the world." The "Music from Marlboro" concerts, now in their second season, offer a representation of the unique programs and the spirit of music-making so typical of Marlboro.
UNIVERSITY MUSICAL SOCIETY INTERNATIONAL PRESENTATIONS
All presentations are at 8:30 p.m. unless otherwise noted.
REMAINING PERFORMANCES, Second Semester
in Hill Auditorium
Royal Winnipeg Ballet.......Saturday, February 4
Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra . . . 2:30, Sunday, February 26
Jose Greco Dance Company......Wednesday, March 8
Shirley Veerett, Mezzo-soprano.....Monday, March 13
Stockholm University Chorus......Thursday, April 6
Boston Symphony Orchestra......Saturday, April 8
Tickets: $5.00--$4.50--$4.00--$3.50--$2.50--$1.50
A special U of M Sesquicentennial event
ARTUR RUBINSTEIN . . . 2:30 p.m., Sunday, March S
Tickets: $5.00--$4.50--$4.00--$3.50--$2.50--$1.50
1967 MAY FESTIVAL--April 22, 23, 24, 25 (Five Concerts). Orders for series tickets accepted: $25.00 -$20.00 -$16.00 -$12.00 -$9.00.
Chamber Music Festival
in Rackham Auditorium
Borodin Quartet (from Moscow) . . . 8:30, Friday, February 17
Program: Quartet No. 2 in D major...........Borodin
Quartet in F minor, Op. 95.........Beethoven
Quartet No. 3 in F major, Op. 73.......Shostakovich
Stockholm Kyndel String Quartet . . 8:30, Saturday, February 18 with Per-Olof Johnson, Guitarist
Program: Quartet in G major, Op. 64, No. 4.........Haydn
Guitar Quintet..........Castelnuovo-Tedesco
Quartet No. 4..............Bartok
Trio Italiano d'Archi......2:30, Sunday, February 19
Program: Trio in D major, Op. 14..........Boccherini
Trio (1959)..............Petrassi
Divertimento, KV 563, in E-flat major.......Mozart
Series Tickets: $8.00--$6.00--$5.00. Single Concerts: $4.00--$3.00--$2.00
For tickets and information, address UNIVERSITY MUSICAL SOCIETY, Burton Tower, Ann Arbor, Michigan