UMS Concert Program, June 30, 1984: Ann Arbor Summer Festival -- Detroit Symphony Orchestra

Power Center For The Performing Arts Ann Arbor, Michigan

A Presented by
nn Arbor the university
'ummPY MUSICAL SOCIETY
OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
Gala Opening Concert
Detroit Symphony Orchestra
PHILIPPE ENTREMONT Guest Conductor and Pianist
James Westwater, Multimedia Artist
Gordon Staples, Violinist Nathan Gordon, Violist
Edouard Kesner, Violinist Italo Babini, Cellist
Ann Arbor Summer Festival Chorus Donald Bryant, Director
Saturday Evening, June 30, 1984, at 8:00
Power Center for the Performing Arts
Ann Arbor, Michigan
PROGRAM
Overture, "Le Corsaire," Op. 21...............................................Berlioz
Suite from "Appalachian Spring" ............................................Copland
With James Westwater's simultaneous threescreen photographic presentation
"La creation du monde" (string quartet and piano) ..............................Milhaud
Gordon Staples, Edouard Kesner, Nathan Gordon, Italo Babini, Philippe Entremont
INTERMISSION
"Daphnis et Chloe," Suites 1 and 2 ..............................................Ravel
With Ann Arbor Summer Festival Chorus
Immediately following this evening's concert, you are invited to join Marcel Marceau at the Top of the Park (above the adjacent Fletcher Street parking structure), where he will introduce his filmed mime performance of "La creation du monde." In case of rain, the film will be shown inside the Power Center.
A gala benefit reception with a French flavor honored Marcel Marceau and Philippe Entremont prior to tonight's concert. Thanks go to the reception committee headed by Phyllis Wright, assisted by Mary Branch, Cindy Colton, Rosalie Edwards, Judith Goodman, Helen Mann, Charlotte McGeoch, Shirley Oliver, Agnes Reading, Anne Rubin, Ann Schriber, Jerry Weidenbach, and Sally White.
PROGRAM NOTES
Overture, "Le Corsaire," Op. 21 ........................................Hector Berlioz
(18031869)
Berlioz wrote this concert overture, based upon Byron's The Corsair, in 1831 and revised it extensively thirteen years later. The work was first performed in Paris on January 19, 1845, with the composer conducting from the manuscript.
Speculation over the nebulous background and genesis of this work has run rampant over the years. It is true that Berlioz was enchanted with Byron's works and followed the Corsair in his desperate adventures. It is also true that unrequited love affairs and contemplated murders and suicides were not uncommon to Berlioz. Furthermore, the title of the Overture when it first appeared was La Tourde Nice, a name derived from a ruined tower rising high above the sea, and a second title was Le Corsaire rouge, apparently after James Fenimore Cooper's novel of 1827. Sir Donald Francis Tovey lays to rest this endless speculation in his Essays in Music Analysis: "Berlioz has now twice induced me to read works of Byron, which otherwise I might have failed to read; and I can proudly claim now to have read them for their own sake, since the light they throw upon Berlioz' music is nil. The Overture to Le Corsaire is as salty a seapiece as has ever been written. To me it is one of Berlioz' most attractive works."
Suite from "Appalachian Spring" .......................................Aaron Copland
(fa.1900)
The major characteristic of Copland's music is an abiding Americanism which expresses itself in all of his works. Among his most familiar ballet scores is Appalachian Spring, composed for the eminent modern dancer Martha Graham. The ballet, an evocation of the simple folk and customs of America of the last century, was commissioned by the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Foundation and first performed in 1944 in the Library of Congress. It was the recipient of the Pulitzer Prize in 1945, and in the same year received the New York Music Critics Circle award.
The composer describes his collaboration with Miss Graham: "The music of the ballet takes as its point of depar?ture the personality of Martha Graham. I have long been an admirer of her work. She, in turn, must have felt a certain affinity for my music, because in 1931 she chose my Piano Variations as background for a dance composition called Dithyramb.' Miss Graham sent me an untitled script...1 began work on the music in 1943 but I didn't complete it until a year later. The title was chosen by Miss Graham. She borrowed it from a Hart Crane poem, although the ballet bears no relation to the poem's text."
In 1945 Copland arranged some of the outstanding portions of the music into an orchestral suite which includes eight sections, played without interruption. It begins at the dedication of a new Pennsylvania farmhouse for a young farmer and his bride. Other characters are an old pioneering woman, a revivalist who grapples with Sin, and four ap?prentice preachers. The music evokes tenderness and passion in the duo for the Bride and her Beloved; jubilation and exaltation for the Revivalist and his flock; the Bride's solo dance, with its extremes of joy and fear; and scenes of daily activity for the Bride and her farmerhusband, from which emerges an old Shaker theme derived from the Pennsylvania melody, "The Gift to be Simple. "
Concertgoers this evening have the unique opportunity to experience simultaneously James Westwater's visual scoring of Appalachian Spring, as he employs his slides in a dissolve technique to depict the nature, history, and people of that region.
"La creation du monde" (string quartet and piano version) .................Darius Milhaud
(18921974)
Although Darius Milhaud was familiar with American jazz in France and its influence on European music, his first trip to New York in 1922 had a lasting effect on him. In his biography, "Notes Without Music," he writes about his visit to Harlem that year: "The music I heard was absolutely different from anything I had ever heard before, and was a revelation to me. This authentic music had its roots in the darkest corners of the Negro soul, the vestigial traces of Africa, no doubt. Its effect on me was overwhelming. As soon as I came back from the United States, I got in touch with Fernand Leger and Blaise Cendrars, with whom I was to work on a new ballet for Rolf de Mare. Cendrars chose for his subject the creation of the world, going for his inspiration to African folklore, in which he was well versed. At last, in La Creation du monde, I had the opportunity I had been waiting for to use those elements of jazz to which I had devoted so much study, and I made wholesale use of the jazz style to convey a purely classical feeling."
The ballet was first performed in Paris in 1923. The action occurs in semidarkness, with the dancers emerging out of the gloom. Giant deities of Creation appear in council; the confused mass begins to move. Suddenly a tree appears, and then various animals; the animals join in a dance during which two bodies emerge. While the pair performs the dance of desire, the remaining mass dissolves into human beings, who join in a mad and dizzying round. The crowd breaks into small groups and disappears, leaving the black Adam and Eve embraced in a prolonged kiss of springtime.
The composer later made the version heard here, for string quartet and piano, performed tonight by firstdesk players of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and Mr. Entremont.
The piano used in this performance is a Bosendorfer Imperial Grand, courtesy of Kimball International and Arnoldt Williams, Canton, Michigan.
"Daphnis et Chloe," Suites 1 and 2 ......................................Maurice Ravel
(18751937)
Ravel began to work on the ballet Daphnis et Chloe in 1909 and completed it in 1911. The work was commissioned by Serge Diaghilev, to whom it is dedicated. The first performance of the complete ballet was given by the Ballet Russe at the Chatelet in Paris in 1912; Pierre Monteux conducted, Michel Fokine the choreographer, Leon Bakst the designer, and Tamara Karsavina and Vaslav Nijinsky the leading dancers. The composer intended that all performances of the complete ballet and of the subsequent orchestral suites include a chorus of mixed voices, singing without words.
The scenario, by Fokine, is based on the classical tale written by Longus, a Greek poet who lived during the fourth century B.C. It deals with Daphnis' love for Chloe, her abduction by pirates, and her rescue and return to Daphnis by Pan.
Ravel made clear his intentions in Daphnis et Chloe when he wrote his autobiography (1928): "In writing it, my in?tention was to compose a vast musical fresco, concerning itself less with archaic fidelity than with fidelity to the Greece of my dreams, which in many ways resembled that imagined and depicted by the French artists of the latter end of the 18th century. The work is constructed symphonically, but the tonal plan is kept severely in check by the employment of a very few themes, whose elaboration ensures that the work shall be homogeneous . . ."
Ravel arranged two suites from the original score, the first in 1911 and the second a short time later. The suites are based on the second and third sections, respectively, of the original ballet score.
Philippe Entremont, one of France's foremost musicians, has won great acclaim for three decades as a concert pianist and, in the last sixteen years, as a conductor. He has performed as piano soloist with most of the world's major orchestras, his tours taking him to five continents for performances with orchestras and recitals. As conductor, he has led such orchestras as the Royal Philharmonic, Vienna Symphony, Warsaw Philharmonic, and Orchestre National de France, and in this country he has guestconducted the symphonies of San Francisco, Detroit, Houston, and Philadelphia. Since 1980 he has been Music Director and Conductor of the New Orleans Philharmonic, taking that ensemble on its first European tour in 1982. He led the Vienna Chamber Orchestra on its 1981 American tour, which in?cluded Ann Arbor.
Mr. Entremont is the former President of the Ravel Academy in St. JeandeLuz, and is the recipient of many honors, including the Grand Prix du Disque (four times), the Netherlands Edison Award, and is a Knight of the Legion d'Honneur.
This evening's concert marks Mr. Entremont's seventh Ann Arbor appearance as a pianist, and his second as con?ductor.
The Detroit Symphony Orchestra, founded in 1914, has earned a reputation of undisputed excellence throughout the country. Each season, the DSO presents more than 200 concerts at home and on tour in Michigan and the United States. The Orchestra offers a Young People's Concert series, gives free concerts at city schools, shopping malls, and Hart Plaza. The DSO has repeatedly been invited to perform at Carngie Hall, before the United Nations, and at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.
In 1964 the DSO established its summer residence at the Meadow Brook Music Festival on the campus of Oakland University. With its pastoral setting and beautiful natural amphitheater, it is now one of the most popular summer music festivals in the country.
Eurotour 79 placed the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in the international spotlight, as Maestro Antal Dorati led the DSO through 24 concerts in eight European capitals. The Orchestra earned rave reviews, numerous encores, and standing ovations.
The DSO, with a current roster of 102 players, is presently under a recording contract with London Records. In 1977 the Orchestra's performances of the nine Beethoven symphonies were filmed for television and shown on the PBS network.
The Orchestra's first concert in Ann Arbor took place in 1919; this evening's concert marks its 59th appearance here under Musical Society auspices.
James Westwater's wide ranging interests have carried him from Alaska, where he photographed with the Institute of Polar Studies, to Antarctica, where he was artist for the National Science Foundation; and from photography filling hardcover books to orchestral photographic productions in many of the nation's concert halls with distinguished or?chestras. Twice a National Endowment for the Arts Resident Artist, Mr. Westwater has pioneered the integration of multiple screen photography and live symphonic music. His production, The Wilderness Suite, to be presented July 24 in the final program of this Festival, was premiered in Washington's Kennedy Center by the National Symphony Or?chestra. Appalachian Suite, a recent work seen this evening, was premiered by The Cleveland Orchestra.
Mr. Westwater earned a Ph.D. in Educational Development, with studies in philosophy, aesthetics, art history, cinema, and multimedia production. He is a recipient of the Antarctic Medal, a past fellow of the Explorers Club, and has produced multimedia presentations in cooperation with the National Geographic Society and the Institute of Polar Studies.
Detroit Symphony Orchestra
GUNTHER HERBIG Music DirectorDesignate
KENNETH JEAN Resident Conductor
ANTAL DORATI Conductor Laureate
MICHAEL KRAJEWSKI Assistant Conductor
FIRST VIOLINS" Gordon Staplest Concertmaster
Bogos Mortchikian Associate Concertmaster
Joseph Goldman Gordon Peterson
Assistant Concert masters
Misha Rachlevsky Linda SneddenSmith Derek Francis Alan Gerstel Nicholas Zonas LeAnn Toth Beatriz Budinszky Malvern Kaufman Richard Margitza Margaret Tundo Elias Friedenzohn Santo Urso Geoffrey Applegate Ann Alicia Ourada Velda Kelly"
SECOND VIOLINS" Edouard Kesnert Felix Resnick Alvin Score Lillian Fenstermacher James Waring Lenore Iatzko Walter Maddox Roy Bengtsson Thomas Downs Robert Murphy Ronald Fischer Joseph Striplin Bruce Smith Gabriel Szitas
Marguerite Deslippe Stacey Woolley
VIOLAS Nathan Gordont David Ireland' Philip Porbe Eugenia Staszewski LeRoy Fenstermacher Hart Hollman Walter Evich Gary Schnerer Catherine Compton Vincent J. Lionti Glenn Mellow Darryl Jeffers
VIOLONCELLOS" Italo Babinit
James C. Gordon Chair Marcy Chanteaux John Thurman Mario DiFiore David Levine Barbara Hassan Debra Fayroian David Saltzman Paul Wingert Carole Gatwood Haden McKay
BASSES
Robert GladstoneT Raymond Benner Stephen Molina Maxim Janowsky Linton Bodwin Stephen Edwards Craig Rifel Donald Pennington Marshall Hutchinson
HARP Elyse Ilkut
FLUTES Ervin Monroet Shaul BenMeir Robert Patrick Clement Barone
PICCOLO Clement Barone
OBOES Donald Bakert John Snow Robert Sorton' Treva Womble
ENGLISH HORN Treva Womble
CLARINETS Paul Schallerf Douglas Cornelsen Laurence Liberson Oliver Green
EFLAT CLARINET Laurence Liberson
BASS CLARINET Oliver Green
BASSOONS Robert Williamst Kirkland Ferris Paul Ganson' Lyell Lindsey
CONTRABASSOON Lyell Lindsey
HORNS Eugene Wadet Bryan Kennedy
Corbin Wagner Willard Darling Mark Abbott' Keith Vernon
TRUMPETS Ramon Parcellst Kevin Good Alvin Belknap Gordon Smith
TROMBONES
Raymond Turnert Joseph Skrzynski Nathaniel Gurin Thomas Klaber
TUBA Wesley Jacobst
TIMPANI Salvatore Rabbiot Robert Pangborn
PERCUSSION Robert Pangborn t Norman Fickett Raymond Makowski Sam Tundo
LIBRARIAN
Elkhonon Yoffe
Charles Weaver, assistant
PERSONNEL MANAGER
Oliver Green
Stephen Molina, assistant
t Principal 'Assistant Principal
"Sotnc members of the section voluntarily rotate seating on a periodic basis. "'Orchestral Fellow, The Music Assistance Fund.
Activities of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra are made possible, in part, with the support of the State of Michigan through funds from the Michigan Council for the Arts.
ANN ARBOR SUMMER FESTIVAL CHORUS
Donald Bryant, Director Beth Lipson, Manager Nancy Hodge and Robert Pazur, Accompanists
First Sopranos Mary Ellen Auch Sharon Barlow Susan Campbell Cheryl Cunningham Kathryn FosterElliott Sylvia Jenkins Cheryl Jordan Carolyn Leyh Doris L. Luecke Loretta Meissner Margaret Nesse Marie Phillips Suzanne Schluederberg Alice Schneider Margaret Warrick Joanne Westman
Seaond Sopranos Kathleen Bergen Lois Briggs Barbara Carron Doris Datsko Judith Lehmann Mary Loewen Kim Mackenzie Barbara Nordman Sara Peth Rachel Shefner Patricia Tompkins Barbara Wallgren Rachelle Warren Christine Wendt
First Altos Yvonne Allen Martha Ause Kathlyn Boyer Marion Brown Carol Carpenter
Sally Carpenter Ellen Collarini Cheryl Cox Mary Crichton Angeleen Dahl Carolyn Ehrlich Marilyn Finkbeiner Nancy Houk Carol Hurwitz Gretchen Jackson Olga Johnson Nancy Karp Mary Anne Long Frances Lyman Tamber MePike Marian Miner Lois Nelson Shelley Rankin Elaine Sargous Linda Siebert Jari Smith Leah Stein Jane Van Bolt Suzanne Williams Charlotte Wolfe Bobbie Wooding
Second Altos Anne Abbrecht Alice Dobson Andrea Foote Mary Haab Dana Hull Cheryl Melby Mary Peterson Mary Price Margaret Sharemet Carol Spencer Kathryn Stebbins
Cynthia Urbytes Alice Warsinski Helen Wolford
First Tenors William Bronson Charles Cowley Joseph Kubis Paul Lowry Robert MacGregor
Second Tenors Albert Girod Donald Haworth Ted Hefley Daniel Kaller James Priore Carl Smith
First Basses Thomas Cox William Hale William Ling Eric Neiswender Brad Pritts James Schneider Donald Williams
Second Basses Glenn Davis Bruce Dicey John Dunkel
berger
Charles Lehmann Raymond Schankin Robert Shellen
berger
Robert Strozier Terril Tompkins John Van Bolt