UMS Concert Program, April 28, 1984: Ann Arbor May Festival -- Philadelphia Orchestra

Season: 105th
Concert: 50th
Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor, Michigan

1894 ANN ARBOR MAY FESTIVAL 1984
LADEL
CHESTRAtt
1936 RESIDENT FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA 1984
Riccardo Muti, Music Director
Eugene Ormandy, Conductor Laureate
William Smith, Associate Conductor
WILLIAM SMITH, Conducting
Saturday Evening, April 28, 1984, at 8:30 Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor, Michigan
PROGRAM
Classical Symphony in D major, Op. 25........................ Prokofiev
Allegro Larghetto
Gavotte: non troppo allegro Finale: molto vivace
"Don Juan," Op. 20 ............................................ Strauss
Thc Pines of Rome .............................................Resimghi
The Pines of the Villa Borghese The Pines Near a Catacomb The Pines of the Janiculum The Pines of the Appian Way
INTERMISSION
"La Valse"...................................................... Ravel
Festival Overture, "1812," Op. 49...........................Tchaikovsky
with The Festival Chorus and University Brass Players
Angel, RCA Red Seal, Delos, Telarc, and CBS Masterworks Records.
Hail and Fareit'ell!
We salute the members of The Philadelphia Orchestra and their inimitable leader, Eugene Ormandy, who, for so many years have provided so much joy for so many Ann Arbor concertgoers. We celebrate their constancy, their genius, and the many friendships forged during this half century. To the Fabulous Philadelphians, we give highest praise and deepest thanks.
1984 Festival Souvenirs
Take with you two concrete reminders of this milestone year. Our 64-page Souvenir Program Book contains two large sections devoted to Maestro Ormandy and the Orchestra, plus expanded program notes and artist profiles. A full color, 17 x 33 poster is also available, featuring a grouping of past Festival photographs of Mr. Ormandy and May Festival artists. Each is $2, on sale in the lobbies during intermission and before and after each concert.
50th Concert of the University Musical Society's 105th Season 91st Annual May Festival
PROGRAM NOTES by Richard Freed
Classical Symphony in D major, Op. 25................... Sergei Prokofiev
(1891-1953)
When Prokofiev played his First Piano Concerto in 1911, Glazounov stalked out of the audi?torium in outrage; the Second Concerto, when he played the original version of that work at Pavlovsk in 1913, provoked an exodus on a larger scale, as well as energetic hissing and catcalls; the Scythian Suite, which he conducted in pre-Revolutionary Petrograd on January 29, 1916, set oft" a near-riot of protest with its harsh rhythms and daring new colors. After these scandales, he undertook to produce, in the summer of 1917, a work that would set more easily with the public -a symphony in the classical manner.
This graceful Symphony in D was the last of Prokofiev's works to be completed in the Old Russia, only weeks before the October Revolution, and, as it turned out, it was the last to be presented in the Soviet Union before the young composer's departure for his 15-ycar sojourn in the West. On his 27th birthday, just two days after the premiere, Prokofiev was granted an exit permit and on May 7, the birthday of his beloved Tchaikovsky, he set out for the United States by way of Japan and the Pacific. It is indicative of the affection he held for this early work that after he returned to his homeland he expanded the Gavotte movement of the Classical Symphony for use in his ballet masterpiece Romeo and Juliet.
"DonJuan," Op. 20..................................... Richard Strauss
(1864-1949)
Strauss was not yet 24 when he began work on Don Juan, but even then he had the imaginative?ness to turn to a then new and unorthodox version of the famous legend. The particular version that struck his imagination was written only 43 years earlier by Nikolaus Lcnau. Lenau was an Austro-Hungarian poet whose verses were used for song texts by numerous composers. He died before finishing his Don Juan, but the character of the hero was fuily drawn; it is a different character from the one we know in Mozart's opera, and this sympathetic and probing portrait of the amatory conquistador appealed to Strauss far more than the traditional image of the Don as a mindless seducer.
The exuberance and impetuosity of Don Juan himself, so vividly projected in the opening of Strauss's work, are contrasted with episodes of tenderness and several "feminine" themes. But even the heroic theme given to the four horns (and subsequently quoted by Strauss in Ein Hcldcnlcbcn), for all its noble thrust, is less a proclamation of triumph than an acknowledgement of an idealistic yearning beyond possibility of true fulfillment or satisfaction. The dissolute hero (or anti-hero) meets his end unceremoniously; there is no hint of a grand gesture, and there is no peroration.
The score of Don Juan was completed in the summer of 1888, just after Strauss turned 24; the premiere took place in Weimar on November 11 of the following year, under the direction of the composer. It seems curiously appropriate that this first in the cycle of great tone poems Strauss was to produce within the decade 1888-1898 should have been introduced in Weimar, for it was there that Liszt, who is credited with the "invention" of the tone poem, created all but the last of his own 13 works in this form, and he had been dead only three years when the premiere of Don Juan heralded Strauss as the chief continuator of the tradition Liszt had begun.
The Pines of Rome.................................... Ottorino Reshghi
(1879-1936)
All of Respighi's Roman spectaculars -The Fountains, The Pines, Church Windows, Roman Festivals -arc cast in the same format of four linked sections and, in each case, the composer made his descriptive intent explicit. In The Pines, produced in 1924, Respighi uses nature itself to summon up impressions of the grandeur that was Rome.
The work opens with a scintillating scherzo. The Pines of the Villa Borghese, depicting children in the shrill delights of their games (including one which is the Italian counterpart of "Ring-around-thc Rosy"); an insistent command from three trumpets cuts through the din and brings the raucous jollity to a halt.
The Pines Near a Catacomb makes use of a plainchant figure to conjure up a mysterious and ominous impression. (Respighi was fascinated by Gregorian chant; he composed his Concerto gregoriano for violin two years prior to The Pines.) Following a tranquil interlude, the ominous mood returns; a chant of martyrs "rises from the depths, re-echoes silently, like a hymn, and then mysteriously dies away."
A piano cadenza and a sinuous tune from the solo clarinet introduce The Pines of the Janiculum, a voluptuous nocturne colored by the harp, celesta, and shimmering murmurs from the strings. In what must have been the first example of "electronic music," Respighi called for the playing of a specific recording of an actual nightingale singing toward the end of this section.
After the nightingale's song the scene changes to The Pines of the Aimman Way. As the dawn mists rise and settle, the tread of ghostly legions is felt and, in Lionel Salter's splendid phrase, "fanfares begin to echo down the centuries." The mists disperse in the blaze of thousands of
burnished helmets and breastplates. The vast orchestra swells. "To the poet's fantasy appears a vision of past glories. Trumpets blare, and the army of the Consul advances brilliantly in the grandeur of a newly risen sun toward the Sacred Way, mounting the Capitoline Hill in final triumph."
"La Valse"................................................Maurice Ravel
(1875-1937)
In 1919, when Ravel was just returning to full-time creative activity following the breakdown of his health during World War I, he discussed with Serge Diaghilev the possibility of a new ballet to be presented with Stravinsky's Pulcinclla, and he turned to an idea he had had in his mind for nearly 15 years. When the score of La Valse was submitted in 1920, together with Ravel's own scenario, Diaghilev rejected it as being too expensive to produce; the music was introduced, not as a ballet but in a Concert Lamoureux, Chevillard conducting, on December 12, 1920. The Royal Flemish Ballet gave the first danced production of the work on October 20, 1926, in Antwerp, and Ida Rubinstein (for whom Ravel composed his Bolero in 1928) presented it in Paris several times, using different choreography on each occasion; a successful choreographic version by George Balanchine was introduced by the New York City Ballet in 1951.
Ravel's original title for this work was Wien, the German name for Vienna. He described the music as "a kind of apotheosis of the Viennese waltz, with which is mingled in my mind the idea of the fantastic whirl of destiny." The composer's preface to the score reads:
"Movement de valse victimise. Drifting clouds allow hazy glances at waltzing couples. The clouds gradually disperse and we see an immense room filled with a whirling crowd. As the movement becomes clear, the scene takes on more illumination, until the light of the chandeliers bursts forth. An Imperial Court about 1855. . . ."
Orchestral parts for La Valse famished by Theodore Presser, music publishers.
Festival Overture, "1812," Op. 49.................Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky
(1840-1893)
In 1880 Tchaikovsky was asked to write a festival piece commemorating the Battle of Borodino, the burning of Moscow, and Napoleon's retreat from the self-sacrificed city. Tchaikovsky found the project distasteful ("I am not a concoctcr of festival pieces," he said), but in the same year Nikolai Rubinstein offered him a commission for a similar work, to be performed at the Moscow Exhibition of Art and Industry two years later, and this he did accept, albeit reluctantly. The Overture was introduced at the Exhibition on August 20, 1882, and embarrassed the composer by becoming notoriously popular.
Though Tchaikovsky did not include voices in his scoring, it has become customary in recent years to add a chorus to sing the hymns at the opening and close of the work, as is done in the present performance. The Overture opens with the old Russian hymn God Preserve Thy People, by way of prelude to the dramatic events to follow. A Russian folk song and the Marseillaise represent the opposing forces in the pitched battle, and they are whipped up to a fine frenzy of falling snow and sweeping flames. In the final onslaught the Marseillaise is buried under the Russian artillery; the opening hymn rises ecstatically as the bells of all the cathedrals of Moscow set up a glorious din, and amid the final salvos the Tsarist anthem thunders forth in awesome jubilation.
William Smith, Associate Conductor of The Philadelphia Orchestra, joined the Orchestra in 1952 and immediately became an indispensable part of the organization. He heads the Orchestra Keyboard section (piano, celesta, harpsichord, and organ) in addition to his regular duties as "standby" conductor. In the latter capacity he has appeared more than 1(X) times. He conducts regularly on the adult subscription series as well.
Mr. Smith is responsible for the Orchestra's extensive program of educational concerts. He conducts the three Senior Student Concerts, two Junior Student Concerts, and five Children's Concerts, two annual performances of Handel's Messiah, and the New Year's Eve Concert, plus other non-subscription programs. He also trains and conducts the orchestra at The Curtis Institute of Music.
In the spring of 1977, Mr. Smith received an Honorary Doctorate from the Philadelphia College of the Performing Arts in recognition of his outstanding service and participation in the musical life of the community. He received the 1979 Philadelphia Art Alliance Medal of Achievement, and during the same year was given an Honorary Doctorate from Ursinus College, Collegeville, Pennsylvania. Next month, May 1984, Mr. Smith will be the recipient of the Big BrotherBig Sister Association's Humanitarian Award, in recognition of his work with youth of the city, especially through the Children's and Student Concert Scries.
In the years from 1957 to 1966, William Smith conducted ten concerts in our Ann Arbor May Festivals, featuring violinist Joseph Szigcti, pianist Gyorgy Sandor, pianist Philippe Entrcmont, cellist Leonard Rose, and first-chair members of the Orchestra as soloists. He also stepped in to lead the second half of the 1975's Wednesday night concert. We are pleased to have him back on the podium for the Grand Finale of "Those Fabulous Philadelphians."
University of Michigan Symphony Band Members
Horns
Julia Heirich Diana Wade Ellen Hillman Terry Manuszak Cynthia Crump Kristcn Johns
Bruce Taggart Cathy Miller
Trumpets Charlie Lea Russ Whitchcad Eric Miller Mark Morgan
Cornels Rich Chasin William Camp Drew Farkas Frank Tichcli
Trombones Brian Robson Laurie Penpraze David Van Dover
Tuba
Jay Bertolet
A New Season of International Presentations 1984-85
Choral Union Series
Chicago Symphony OrchestraRaymond Leppard............ Sat. Sept. 22
Cleveland OrchestraChristoph von Dohnanyi............ Wed. Oct. 10
Atlanta Symphony OrchestraRobert Shaw................Sun. Oct. 21
Leipzig Gewandhaus OrchestraKurt Masur.............. Thurs. Nov. 8
Judith Blegen, Soprano; HAkan HagegArd, Baritone............ Sat. Nov. 17
Vladimir Ashkenazy, Pianist.................................Tues. Jan. 15
Prague Symphony OrchestraJiri Belohlavek .................Sat. Feb. 2
The Festival Chorus and soloists
Royal Philharmonic OrchestraYehudi Menuhin ...........Tues. Feb. 19
National Symphony OrchestraMstislav Rostropovich .... Wed. Mar. 20 Sherrill Milnes, Baritone................................... Fri. March. 29
Chamber Arts Series
Guarneri String Quartet.................................. Wed. Oct. 17
The Masterplayers......................................... Sun. Nov. 4
Kuijken Quartet......................................... Tues. Nov. 13
Romanian National Choir................................. Sun. Nov. 18
Music: from Mauluoro...................................... Wed. Jan. 23
Guarneri Strinc; Quartet................................... Sun. Feb. 10
I Fiamminghi................................................. Fri. Mar. 8
Polish Chamber Orchestra...............................Thurs. Apr. 18
Debut & Encore Recital Series
Ivo Pogorelich, Pianist..................................... Tues. Oct. 30
Viktoria Mullova, Violinist.................................. Sat. Nov. 10
Katia & Marielle Labeque, Duo-pianists...................... Sun. Feb. 17
Paul Badura-Skoda, Pianist................................ Sun. Mar. 10
Choice Series
Western Opera Theater, La Cenerentola....................... Sat. Oct. 6
Royal Winnipeg Ballet..........................Sat. & Sun. Oct. 27 & 28
American Ballet Theater II ............................... Sun. Nov. 18
Balletap USA.............................................. Sun. Jan. 27
The Felh Ballet.................................... Fri. & Sat. Feb. 8 & 9
Special Single Concerts
Houston Ballet................................ Sat. & Sun. Sept. 29 & 30
James Galway, Flutist........................................ Sat. Oct. 20
Pittsburgh Ballet Theater, The Nutcracker............ Fri.-Sun. Dec. 14-16
NYC Opera National Company, Rigoletto....................Tues. Mar. 5
1985 May Festival, May 1-4
The Pittsburgh Symphony and Andre Previn
UNIVERSITY MUSICAL SOCIETY
Burton Memorial Tower, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1270 Phones: (313) 665-3717, 764-2538