UMS Concert Program, March 10, 1971: Menuhin Festival Orchestra Of London --

Concert: Ninth
Complete Series: 3718
Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor, Michigan

The University Musical Society
of
The University of Michigan
Presents
Munich Chamber Orchestra
HANS STADLMAIR, Conductor
Friday Evening, March 12, 1971, at 8:30 Rackham Auditorium, Ann Arbor, Michigan
PROGRAM
Concerto for String Orchestra, Op. 40, No. 2 (1950) .
Allegro con brio Moderato Vivace
Concerto for Two Violins in D minor (S. 1043) . . . .
Vivace
Largo, ma non tanto Allegro
Lukas David and Maurice Denton, Violinists
J. N. David
J. S. Bach
INTERMISSION
Serenata Notturna in D major, for Two Small Orchestras
and Kettledrums, KV. 239.......
Marcia (maestoso) Menuetto
Rondo (allegretto)
Second Symphony for String Orchestra in A (1960) Andante, allegro Adagio
Burleske
Andante, allegro
Deutsche Grammophon Gcsellschajt Records
Mozart
H. Genzmer
Seventh Concert
Eighth Annual Chamber Arts Scries
Complete Program 3719
PROGRAM NOTES
Second Concerto for String Orchestra, Op. 40, No. 2 . Johann Nepomuk David
David, born in Austria in 1895, is one of the most significant Germanspeaking composers at the present time. He grew up as choirboy at the Augustinerstift in St. Florian near Linz, centre of activity of Anton Bruckner, and his development was influenced by the spirit of the composer. His educational work as Professor of Composition and as Director of the Leipzig Conservatorium (1934--45) brought him into direct contact with the works of J. S. Bach. In 1945, after the war, the composer was appointed Director of the Mozarteum in Salzburg. Three years later he accepted a Professorship at the Hochschule fiir Musik in Stuttgart, where he is still living.
The Second Concerto for Strings was written in 1950. As always, the composer makes much use in the three movements of contrapuntal devices. The resulting astringency of texture is com?pensated, on the other hand, by his love of experimenting with new colours and combinations of tone that are obtainable from a string orchestra and by virtue of his musical warmth and verve.
Concerto for Two Violins in D minor (S. 1043) . . Johann Sebastian Bach
The two violins arc treated as a unit that vie "in friendly rivalry" with the accompanying group. The work stands midway between concerto grosso and solo concerto. Each follows the tradition of the Italian school in exploiting the violin's capacity for melody and brilliant figuration.
The entire ensemble announces the spirited theme that generates the opening movement. There is continuous flowering and expansion of motives. The solo passages are set off against the tutti that furnish the architectural frame. They are written in a virtuoso style demanding nimble leaps from low to high register. The writing is tuneful, relaxed, and springs from the nature of the instrument.
The Largo ma non tanto presents the two violins as soloists against an orchestral background. The movement has the quality of a lofty duet out of baroque opera, the passages in vocal style being interspersed with others of instrumental character.
The concluding movement is an Allegro of the same motoric type as the first. The solo instru?ments are presented in animated opposition to the group. There are some difficult triplet figures and double stops that allow fiddlers to show the stuff they're made of. One can see why the twentieth century turned to this wholesome and welltempered music after the grandiose emotion?alism of the late romantics.
Serenata Notturna in D major for two small Orchestras
and Timpani, KV. 239......Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Composed in 1776, this work stands alone among the serenades of Mozart and of other com?posers by virtue of individuality of its orchestration--a solo quartet of two violins, viola and doublebass is matched by a tutti ensemble of violins, violas and cellos, to which Mozart adds a part for timpani. We do not know for what occasion the work was written and what determined Mozart's choice of instruments. It is possible that it was used as music for New Year. The orches?tration must have amused the composer very considerably; the three movements of the Nachtmusik are full of unclouded happiness and lightheartedness--as for example the buffoonlike introductory march of the players or the final rondo with its cheeky Gasscnhaucr (popular song) melodies.
Symphony No. 2 for String Orchestra in A major (1960) .... Genzmer
Harald Genzmer, born in 1909, has been working for a good many years as Professor of Composition at the Staatliche Hochschule fiir Musik at Munich. After a performance of his Second Symphony for Strings by the Munich Chamber Orchestra in Switzerland, the Press review stated: . . . "The Symphony for string orchestra shows a thorough knowledge of the skill in contra?puntal techniques, sure feeling for form and creative imagination."
Genzmcr's style--regardless of all that is new--has its roots in the Teutonic tradition of the first half of this century. It is not confined by tonality, yet is never completely without tonal relationships. The plan of the four movements, whose contrasted characters cover a wide range of expression from serious to lighthearted moods, approximates that of the traditional symphony.
The Chamber Arts Series for next season (197172) will be announced soon, at which time orders for series tickets will be accepted.
Concerto No. 5 in A major, K. 219, for Violin and Orchestra . . . Mozaet
The Amajor concerto was written when Mozart was nineteen years age, and is, according to Alfred Einstein, "unsurpassed for brilliance, tenderness, and wit."
Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge, Op. 10 ... Benjamin Britten
Britten heard a performance of Frank Bridge's orchestral suite The Sea at the Norwich Triennial Festival in 1924 (when he was ten) and was "knocked sideways" by it; three years later, after meeting Bridge at the next Norwich Festival, Britten started having composition lessons with him. Bridge died in 1941, and his music, never exactly popular, was largely forgotten until Britten himself began reviving interest in it by instigating performances at the Aldeburgh Festival and elsewhere. An early tribute was paid when Britten chose to base his Variations for string orchestra, Op. 10 on a theme from Bridge's Idyll No. 2 for string quartet, composed in 1906. The commission for the Variations came from Boyd Neel, who, in May 1937, was invited to take his orchestra to the Salzburg Festival in August that year and give the first performance of a new English work. Time was obviously very short but Britten responded readily to Noel's request, producing a complete sketch of the new piece within ten days and completing it a month later. The premiere of the Variations (which are inscribed "To F.B.--A tribute with affection and admiration") was given in Salzburg on 27th August, and immediately established it as one of the most brilliant and resourceful works in the repertoire of the string orchestra.
The work opens with a short but arresting introduction, which leads immediately into the first statement of the gentle, waltzlike Theme by four solo strings, lightly supported by the remainder; it is then played again, in slightly varied form, by the full string band. Variation 1, which follows immediately, is a short Adagio, in which references to the drooping intervals of the Theme can be detected in the rhapsodic interjections for the violins. This is followed by a rhythmic March, rising to a fierce climax and then dying away, and a shapely Romance, in which the Theme is heard in the pizzicato bassline. Next come three brilliant parodies: a superb takeoff of Rossini in the Aria italiana (accompanying instruments plucking quasi chitarra) ; a rather square Bourrec dassique (with a big solo violin part in the "trio") ; and a devilish Wiener Walzer-no doubt inserted for the benefit of the Salzburg audience. No. 7 is a virtuoso Molo perpetuo; No. 8 an impressive and sonorous Funeral March (observe the falling fifths of the Theme in the ostinatolike bass), and No. 9 a slow Chant, in which imaginative use is made of harmonics and sustained chords, supporting a chant on violas divisi a 3. The complex last movement begins as an energetic fugue on a subject in which the falling fifth is again prominent. At its climax the texture is spread out in eleven parts and the Theme is heard against it in octaves on the solo quartet. Other themes from works by Frank Bridge add to the richness of the final pages of the fugue, after which the work is concluded with a solemn coda, in whose last bars the quartet once more separates itself from the rest of the orchestra.
R.G.
THE MENUHIN FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA OF LONDON
Personnel Robert Masters, Conctrtmaster
Violin 1 Robert Masters John Glickman Nitjel Murray Marjorie Lavers James Coles John Holloway
Violin 2 David Stone Lorraine du Val Cyril Newton Rosemary Ellison Sheila Nelson Sybil Glickman
Viola
Walter Gcrhart Anthony Harris Andrew Nigel Sparrow John Davis
Cello
Ross Pople Eileen Lawrence Roper Smith
Double Bass John Gray Michael Brittain
Flute
Patricia Lynden
Oboe
Michael Dobson
James Brown
Bassoon Deirdre Grant Stefan de Haan
Horn
John Burden
James Buck
Harpsichord continuo--John Gray Orchestral Management--Mrs. Noel Masters
INTERNATIONAL PRESENTATIONS197 1
iMUNICH CHAMBER ORCHESTRA......Friday, March 12
Hans Stadlmair, Conductor
PIERRE FOURNIER, Cellist........Monday, March IS
Suite No. 6 in D major (Unaccompanied).........J. S. Bach
Sonata Arpeggionc in A minor.............Schubert
Three Fantasiestiicke, Op. 73.............Schumann
Elegy....................Faure
Sonata in A major................Franck
Tickets for Rostropovich (Choral Union Series) to be used for this replacement. SIBERIAN DANCERS AND SINGERS OF OMSK . . Saturday, March 27
Special Attraction
MERCE CUNNINGHAM AND DANCE COMPANY . Tuesday, April 13
in Hill Auditorium at 8:30 p.m.
Tickets: $5.00--$4.00--$3.00 (Lecturedemonstration Monday, April 12. Tickets: $1.00)
ANN ARBOR
THE PHILADELPHIA ORCHESTRA IN ALL CONCERTS
THURSDAY, APRIL 29, 8:30 P.M.
EUGENE ORMANDY, Conductor; LEONTYNE PRICE, Soprano--"Dove sono" from Le Nozze di Figaro (Mozart) ; "Ritorna Vincitor" from Aida (Verdi) ; Four Last Songs (Strauss); "Pace, pace" from La Forza del Destino (Verdi). Two Portraits (Bartok) ; Symphony No. 8 in B minor (Schubert); "Till Eulenspiegel" (Strauss).
FRIDAY, APRIL 30, 8:30 P.M.
THOR JOHNSON, Conductor. "Sea Symphony" (Vaughan Williams) with THE UNIVER?SITY CHORAL UNION, MARALIN NISKA, Soprano; and DONALD BELL, Bass. BARBARA NISSMAN, Pianist, in Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini (Rachmaninoff).
SATURDAY, MAY 1, 8:30 P.M.
EUGENE ORMANDY, Conductor. All orchestral program: Sinfonietta (Janacek) ; "La Mer" (Debussy); and Symphony No. 5 in Bflat major (Prokofieff).
SUNDAY, MAY 2, 2:30 P.M.
THOR JOHNSON, Conductor. "Great" Mass in FMinor (Bruckner), with THE UNIVER?SITY CHORAL UNION; MARALIN NISKA, Soprano; ELEANOR FELVER, Contralto; JOHN STEWART, Tenor; and DONALD BELL, Bass. CHRISTOPHER PARKENING, Guitarist, in "Fantasia para un Gentilhombre" (Rodrigo).
SUNDAY, MAY 2, 8:30 P.M.
EUGENE ORMANDY, Conductor. ANDRE WATTS, Pianist, in Concerto No. 2 in Bflat (Brahms). Toccata, Adagio and Fugue (Bach); "Enigma" Variations (Elgar).
Series Tickets: $32.00, $26.00, $20.00, $15.00, $10.00
Single Concerts: $7.00, $6.50, $6.00, $5.00, $3.50, $2.50
Single tickets now on sale.
UNIVERSITY MUSICAL SOCIETY
BURTON MEMORIAL TOWER, ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN 48104 (Phone 6653717;