UMS Concert Program, February 9, 1975: American Symphony Orchestra --

Concert: Seventh
Complete Series: 3926
Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor, Michigan

The University Musical Society
of
The University of Michigan
Presents
American Symphony Orchestra
KAZUYOSHI AKIYAMA, Music Director MORTON GOULD, Conductor
Sunday Afternoon, February 9, 1975, at 2:30 Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor, Michigan
PROGRAM
Candide Overture.............Bernstein
Macbeth (After Shakespeare's Drama)--Tone Poem, Op. 23 ... Strauss
Declaration Suite..............Gould
Liberty Bell Midnight Ride Concord Bridge Summer '76 Celebration
INTERMISSION
Orchestral Set No. 2..............Ives
Very Slowly: An Elegy to our Forefathers
Allegro: The Rockstrcwn Hills Join in the People's Outdoor Meeting Very Slowly: (From Hanover Square North at the End of a Tragic Day, 1915, the Voice of the People Again Arose)
Pictures at an Exhibition.........MussorgskyRavel
Promenade
The Gnome
Promenade
The Old Castle
Promenade
Tuileries
Bydlo
Promenade
Ballet of the Chicks in Their Shells
Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuyle
The Market Place in Limoges
Catacombs: Cum mortuis in lingua mortua
The Hut on Fowl's Legs
The Great Gate at Kiev
CBS, RCA, CRI and Vanguard Records
Seventh Concert Ninetysixth Annual Choral Union Series Complete Programs 3926
COMING EVENTS
American Symphony Orchestra.......Sunday, February 9
Morton Gould, conductor
Bernstein: "Candide" Overture; Strauss: "Macbeth"; Ives: Second Orchestral Set; Gould:
Declaration Suite; MussorgskyRavel: Pictures at an Exhibition
Prague Chamber Orchestra
(replacing Moscow Chamber Orchestra) .... Tuesday, February 11 Mozart: Symphony in D major, K. 504 ("Prague") ; Prokofieff: "Classical Symphony" in D major; Dvorak: Czech Suite in D major, Op. 39
Goldovsky Grand Opera Theater.....Thursday, February 13
Donizetti: "The Interrupted Wedding Night"; Debussy: "The Prodigal Son"
JeanPierre Rampal, Flutist, and
Robert VeyronLa Croix, Keyboard.....Tuesday, February 18
Harkness Ballet..........Thursday, February 20
Chhau, Masked Dance of Bengal.....Saturday, February 22
Moscow Balalaika Orchestra and Ludmila Zykina Monday, February 24 Paul Taylor Dance Company.......Wednesday, March 12
Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra.....Saturday, March IS
Alain Lombard, conductor; JeanBernard Pommier, pianist
Strauss: Also sprach Zarathustra, Op. 30; SaintSatins: Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor;
Prokofieff: Suites I and II from "Romeo et Juliette"
Qawwali Music from Pakistan.......Sunday, March 16
Vladimir Ashkenazy, Pianist.......Wednesday, March 19
Ars Antiqua de Paris.........Saturday, March 29
Boston Symphony Orchestra........Saturday, April 5
Seija Ozawa, conductor; and the Festival Chorus Beethoven: Overture, "Leonore" No. 3; Rush: The Cloud Messenger; Ravel: Daphnis and Chlo6
Preservation Hall Jazz.........Wednesday, April 9
Spanish RTV Symphony Orchestra.......Friday, April 11
Enrique Garcia Asensio, conductor; Narciso Yepes, guitarist
Angeles Chamorro, soprano; Francisco Ortiz, tenor
A program of music by Spanish composers: Guridi, Breton, Luna, Vives, Chapi, Rodrigo,
de Falla
May Festival......Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday,
April 30, May 1, 2 & 3
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Gail W. Rector, President Richard S. Berger Peter N. Heydon
Harlan Hatcher, Vice President Allen P. Britton Paul W. McCracken
Erich A. Walter, Secretary Douglas D. Crary Wilbur K. Picrpont
E. Thurston Thieme, Treasurer Robben W. Fleming Sarah G. Power
?elected December 21, 1974
UNIVERSITY MUSICAL SOCIETY
Burton Memorial Tower, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48104 Phones: 6653717, 7642538
title; for this slow, generally quiet movement concerns itself mainly with polytonal treatment of two fragments from Stephen Foster songs--"I'm coming" from Old Black Joe and "Down in de cornfield" from Massa's in de Cold, Cold Ground.
The lively second movement, The Rockstrewn Hills Join in the People's Outdoor Meeting, bears little relationship to its name. Completed in 1911, it derives from one of Ives' Four Ragtime Dances, which date from 19024; the other three were used in the First Piano Sonata. Ragtime, now en?joying a revival, was all the rage around the turn of the century, and its rhythmic freedom must have appealed to Ives' independent musical sensibility. For what reason it is not altogether clear, hut whenever ho wrote a ragtime piece he seemed to sneak a quotation from Bringing in the Sheaves. Here it is the principal theme, to which is added a quotation from the revival hymn, Hear Thy Welcome Voice. The music often becomes both boisterous and complex, in Ives' best style.
The third movement, From Hanover Square North at the End of a Tragic Day, the Voice of the People Again Arose, reflects a moving experience Ives had had on the previous May 7, the day the Lusilania was sunk. On his way home from the office that evening, Ives was waiting on the plat?form of the Hanover Square station of the Third Avenue Elevated, when a hurdygurdy on the street below started grinding out In the Sweet By and By. Some workmen on the tracks began to whistle the tune; and the crowd on the platform, up to that point silent and tense over the day's news, which they felt meant war, joined in the chorus, as an outlet for their feelings. Even after they boarded the train, small groups of passengers continued to sing it. The music begins with part of the Tc Deum, but the movement is devoted chiefly to a development of In the Sweet By and By. Though it builds to a big climax, the music dies away at the end.
Pictures at an Exhibition.....Modest Petrovitch Mussorgsky
Transcribed for Orchestra by Maurice Ravel
When the Russian architect Victor Hartmann died in 1873 at the age of thirtynine, two of his close friends, the critic Vladimir Stassov and the composer Modest Mussorgsky, wanted to do some?thing in his memory. Stassov's gesture was to arrange a memorial exhibition of Hartmann's archi?tectural drawings and watercolors. It was while strolling through the galleries that Mussorgsky conceived the idea of composing a suite of piano pieces based on the pictures. He called the suite Pictures at an Exhibition. While the suite continues to challenge the most virtuosic of pianists, it is heard more frequently in one of several orchestral transcriptions, most often that by Maurice Ravel.
As an introduction to Pictures at an Exhibition, and repeated between each "picture" as far as the fifth, there is a Promenade, whose irregular 114 meter depicts the composer walking from one picture to the next. There are ten "pictures" in the suite: (1) Gnomus (The Gnome). A grotesque gnome, in the form of a wooden nutcracker, goes through various contortions, accompanied by savage shrieks. (2) Vccchio Caslello (The Old Castle). In the voice of the solo saxophone, a troubadour sings a serenade outside a medieval castle. (3) Tuilcries. Children playing and arguing in the Tuileries Gardens in Paris. (4) Bydlo. "Bydlo" is the Polish word for "cattle," but the picture is of an old Polish oxcart, the song of its driver reproduced by the solo tuba. (5) Ballet of Chickens in Their Shells. Hartmann's costume sketches for children in a ballet show canaries enclosed in egg?shells; Mussorgsky's music imitates the clucking of chickens. (6) Samuel Goldcnberg and Schmuyle. Two Polish Jews arguing, the rich one portrayed by the lower strings, the poor one by the whine of the muted trumpet. (7) The Market Place in Limoges. French marketwomen engage in animated gossip. (8) Catacombs. The music reflects the gloom, mystery and religious background of the Paris catacombs. (9) The Hut on Fowl's Legs. A drawing, the design for a clock, suggests the hut of the witch Baba Yaga, and the composer has provided music to match. (10) The Great Gate at Kiev. The sketches for a massive city gate in Kiev have inspired music of even more massive proportions, bringing the suite to an impressive conclusion.
COMING EVENTS
Prague Chamber Orchestra
(replacing Moscow Chamber Orchestra) .... Tuesday, February 11 Mozart: Symphony in D major, K. 504 ("Prague") ; Prokofieff: "Classical Symphony" in D major; Dvorak: Czech Suite in D major, Op. 39
Goldovsky Grand Opera Theater.....Thursday, February 13
Donizetti: "The Interrupted Wedding Night"; Debussy: "The Prodigal Son"
JeanPierre Rampal, Flutist, and
Robert VeyronLa Croix, Keyboard.....Tuesday, February 18
Harkness Ballet..........Thursday, February 20
Chhau, Masked Dance of Bengal.....Saturday, February 22
Moscow Balalaika Orchestra and Ludmila Zykina Monday, February 24 Paul Taylor Dance Company.......Wednesday, March 12
Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra.....Saturday, March IS
Alain Lombard, conductor; JeanBernard Pommier, pianist
Strauss: Also sprach Zarathustra, Op. 30; SaintSaens: Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor;
Prokofieff: Suites I and II from "Romeo et Juliette"
Qawwali Music from Pakistan.......Sunday, March 16
Vladimir Ashkenazy, Pianist.......Wednesday, March 19
Ars Antiqua de Paris.........Saturday, March 29
Boston Symphony Orchestra........Saturday, April 5
Seija Ozawa, conductor; and the Festival Chorus Beethoven: Overture, "Leonore" No. 3; Rush: The Cloud Messenger; Ravel: Daphnis and Chloe
Preservation Hall Jazz.........Wednesday, April 9
Spanish RTV Symphony Orchestra.......Friday, April 11
Enrique Garcia Asensio, conductor; Narciso Yepes, guitarist
Angeles Chamorro, soprano; Francisco Ortiz, tenor
A program of music by Spanish composers: Guridi, Breton, Luna, Vives, Chapi, Rodrigo,
de Falla
82ND ANN ARBOR MAY FESTIVAL
Four concerts--April 30, May 1, 2, and 3
The Philadelphia Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy, Conductor The University Choral Union, John Pritchard, Guest Conductor
Soloists
Rudolph Serkin, Pianist Donald Bell, Bass Grace Bumbry, Soprano
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Gail W. Rector, President Richard S. Bcrger Peter N. Heydon
Harlan Hatcher, Vice President Allen P. Britton Paul W. McCracken
Erich A. Walter, Secretary Douglas D. Crary Wilbur K. Pierpont
E. Thurston Thieme, Treasurer Robben W. Fleming Sarah G. Power
elected December 21, 1974
UNIVERSITY MUSICAL SOCIETY
Burton Memorial Tower, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48104 Phones: 6653717, 7642538