UMS Concert Program, March 21, 1973: Angelicum Orchestra Of Milan --

Concert: Seventeenth
Complete Series: 3819
Power Center For The Performing Arts Ann Arbor, Michigan

The University Musical Society
bad
The University of Michigan
Presents
Angelicum Orchestra of Milan
BRUNO MARTINOTTI, Conductor
Wednesday Evening, March 21, 1973, at 8:00
Power Center for the Performing Arts
Ann Arbor, Michigan
PROGRAM
Contrapuncti Nos. 1, 16 and 18......Johann Sebastian Bach
from The Art of the Fugue, BWV 1080 (16851750)
transcr. Martinotti
Suite No. 1 in C major, BWV 1066.....Johann Sebastian Bach
Ouverture (Grave, allegro), Courante, Gavotte I, Gavotte II, Forlane, Menuet I, Menuet II, Bourree I, Bourree II, Passepied I, Passepied II
Soloists
Marcello Masi, Oboe
Maueo Raddavero, Oboe
Oscar Meana, Bassoon
INTERMISSION
Capriccio for Chamber Orchestra......Riccardo Malipiero
(1914 )
Sinfonia for Several Instruments in D minor .... Luigi Boccherini ("La Casa del diavolo") (17431805)
rev. Carmirelli Andante sostenuto Allegro assai Andantino con moto Andante sostenuto Allegro assai con moto
Decca, Musical Heritage, Audio Fidelity Records
Seventeenth Program International Presentations in Power Center Complete Programs 3819
PROGRAM NOTES
Contrapuncti Nos. 1, 16 and 18...........Bach
from The Art of the Fugue, BWV 1080
The Art of the Fugue is the spiritual testament of J. S. Bach; it is his last work, left unfinished and without any absolute indications as to execution. We know that, in most cases, Bach did not specify for what instrument he intended his keyboard compositions: harpsichord, organ or clavichord may well be interchangeable. Even The Art of the Fugue was probably intended for a keyboard in?strument: which one Perhaps the organ, but it is not mentioned. On the other hand its nature has something metaphysical so that if one understands it as many musicians do, fascinated by the in?numerable possibilities of interpretation which it offers, transcriptions for various combinations of instruments are legitimate. Everything is legitimate so long as not one note is added or taken out. If pure music was ever conceived, it is Bach's last work, called The Art of the Fugue, a name which we are not even certain was indicated by the composer. There is in all this something mystical, religious, divine, mysterious, and belonging to the initiate: as in certain sacred books which religion says were dictated directly by God.
On the other hand who can deny that it might be only a mathematical exercise It is like all the fugues of Bach, but carried in this case to the sublime or like that "little" formula of Einstein's which revolutionized our concept of the world. But here as well as there the mathematical formula is united with genius, with the intuition of genius, the possibility of conceiving a development of the formula in such a way that meaning appears.
The Art of the Fugue is based on a very simple theme by no means rhythmically interesting, which Bach treats in nineteen different ways: fifteen fugues and four canons. The theme (or subject) is artfully contrived by Bach in such a simple way that it allows him to vary it rhythmically at his pleasure (innervandole) each time, at every appearance.
The composer called every passage Contrapunctus and the attentive listener will feel how, little by little, the fundamental idea is changed and enriched. This sense of construction, growing richer and richer, is constant as the composition progresses, and imprints upon the whole a "rhythm" from which the dynamic power of the whole work is derived.
Suite No. 1 in C major, BWV 1066..........Bach
Composed about 1721, and dating from the period of Bach's residence at Co'then, this is the first of four Suites, or Overtures, according to the original title by the author, that "summit" of German music. An exquisite composition, marked clearly by French influences and therefore removed from the late Suites of the Leipzig period nourished by the German spirit, this suite is composed of a series of dances, favorites of the time and intended for a relatively small instrumental group. It
opens with an ample "Ouverture" in the French style made up of a fluid Allegro fugato framed by two Graves, the last of which takes up again the thematic elements of the first with an abundance of variations. There follow six dances, all of French origin except for the nimble Forlane, the only one known to have been written by Bach. These are a Courante, a Gavotte, where the violins and viola in the trio enliven the song of the oboes by imitating a fanfare of trumpets, the abovemen?tioned Forlane, in which the composer maintains a straightforward popular quality, a Minuet and a Bourrie (one of which entrusts its trio to strings alone while the other features the typical hues of solo oboe and bassoon), and finally a Passepied which singularly presents in the trio, instead of something new of a contrasting nature, the same melodic design as in the principal section, enlivened by a persistent figuration in octaves stated by the oboes.
Capriccio for Chamber Orchestra......Riccardo Malipiero
Capriccio for Chamber Orchestra was written upon invitation of Maestro Bruno Martinotti in the period, summer through autumn, 1972. The orchestral distribution is two oboes, bassoon, two horns, cembalo, and strings.
The title, Capriccio, indicates in itself that it is a composition free of formal structure which has allowed the composer a continuous instrumental play, sometimes virtuoso in character, and obviously almost always soloistic. In some places the strings are divided. In the first part, one is reminded of the concerto grosso. The episodes follow one another, alternating between fast and slow tempi, in one movement, without loss of continuity and with moments in which the single instruments are featured separately in free cadenzas. In fact the Capriccio begins with a cembalo cadenza and ends, as always is the case with Riccardo Malipiero's music, pianissimo.
Symphony for Several Instruments in........Boccherini
D minor, ("La Casa del diavolo")
If Luigi Boccherini of Lucca, son of a double bass player and himself a cellist, cannot be said to have been the first to introduce the antique sonata a due and a tre into chamber music as we know it today, especially in the string quartet, he remains nevertheless one of the most typical representatives of late musical "illuminism," and in an absolute sense the greatest Italian composer of instrumental music of the eighteenth century. This Symphony remained unpublished till early in 1960. It owes its curious title ("The Devil's House") to the final movement: an Allegro assai con moto built entirely with thematic material (very slightly modified in its rhythmic structure) taken from one of the dances of the infernal ballet in Gluck's Orjeo ed Euridice.
This use of the Gluckian theme "becomes an element of confirmation [notes the editor] of the authencity of the composition, if one bears in mind that another similar example is known in Boccherini's work: in fact the Ciaccona in one of his symphonies of Op. 16 derives, in an analogous way to the present case, from the Festin de Pierre ascribed to Gluck."
We must add, however, that since the date of composition of the opera is unknown, there exists some likelihood that it was the Italian musician who inspired the Bavarian.
REMAINING EVENTS
Aeolian Chamber Players........Saturday, March 24
(8:30, Rackham Auditorium) Ives: Largo; Gilbert: Centering I; Crumb: Vox Balaenae; Berio: Sequenza; Schoenberg: Chamber Symphony, Op. 9
Topeng Dance Theater of Bali.......Tuesday, March 27
(8:30, Rackham Auditorium)
National Ballet, "Sleeping Beauty".....Saturday, March 31
Sunday, April 1 (Power Center)
London Symphony Orchestra........Friday, April 6
Andre Previn, Conductor (8:30, Hill Auditorium)
Walton: Portsmouth Point Overture; Vaughan Wil?liams: Symphony No. 3; Brahms: Symphony 2
?Sold out
8OTH MAY FESTIVAL PROGRAMS AND ARTISTS
Four Concerts -May 2, 3, 4, and 5, 1973 THE PHILADELPHIA ORCHESTRA at all concerts,
Eugene Ormandy, Conductor
the University Choral Union -Thor Johnson, Guest Conductor Soloists: Rudolf Serkin, Jessye Norman, Van Cliburn, Isaac Stern
PROGRAMS:
May 2: ALLBEETHOVEN--Overture to "Leonore" No. 3; Concerto No. 4 for Piano and Orchestra, Mr. Serkin, soloist; Symphony No. 3 ("Eroica").
May 3: Brahms: Symphony No. 4 in E minor; Strauss: "Ein Heldenleben."
May 4: Verdi: "Stabat Mater" and "Te Deum," University Choral Union; La Montaine: Songs of the Rose of Sharon; Wagner: "Du bist der Lenz" from Die Walkiire, and "Dich teure Halle" from Tannhduser, Miss Norman, soprano soloist; Rachmaninoff: Concerto No. 2 for Piano and Orchestra, Mr. Cliburn, soloist.
May 5: Wagner: Prelude to Parsijal; Beethoven: Romance No. 1 for Violin and Orchestra; Mozart: Concerto No. 1, K. 207, for Violin and Orchestra, Mr. Stern, soloist; Tchaikovsky, Symphony No. 4, in F minor.
UNIVERSITY MUSICAL SOCIETY
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Gail W. Rector, President Harlan Hatcher, VicePresident Erich A. Walter, Secretary E. Thurston Thieme, Treasurer
William L. Brittain Allen P. Britton Douglas D. Crary Robben W. Fleming
Paul G. Kauper Wilbur K. Pierpont Sarah G. Power Daniel H. Schurz
Burton Memorial Tower, Ann Arbor, Michigan Phone 6653717