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Saturday May 3, 2008 |
St. Cloud Symphony
Orchestra Saturday, May 3, 2008—7:30
PM Rice Performing Arts Center—Sauk
Rapids Driving Directions William Schrickel,
conductor St. Cloud State University Women’s
Choir (Mary Jo Bot, Director) Program J. S.
Bach/ Stanislaw Skrowaczewski Toccata & Fugue in D minor, BWV 565
Michael Daugherty
Desi Intermission Gustav Holst
The Planets (Suite for
Large Orchestra), op. 32
I.
Mars, the Bringer of
War
SCSU Women’s
Choir Michael Daugherty (b. 1954) has been Professor of Composition at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor) since 1991, the same year he composed Desi for an ensemble comprising winds, brass and percussion. The following note by Daugherty appears in the printed score: “This composition is a tribute to Desi Arnaz, who played the Cuban bandleader Ricky Ricardo alongside his wife, Lucille Ball, in I Love Lucy, widely regarded as one of the most innovative television shows of the 1950’s. The opening rhythmic motive is derived from the “Conga Dance” made famous by Arnaz when he sang and played bongos in Hollywood film musicals in the 1940’s. In Desi, the bongo soloist and percussion section provide a lively counterpoint to intricately structured canons and four-note cluster chords, creating polyrhythmic layers that intensify and build to a sizzling conclusion. Desi evokes a Latin sound punctuated by big band trumpets, trombone glissandi and dazzling woodwind runs.” Gustav Holst (1874-1934) was a financially strapped music instructor and part-time composer living in London when he began writing his suite for large orchestra, The Planets, in 1913. A shy man of varied interests, he had earlier in his life become enamored of Hindu epics, learning Sanskrit so he could read them in their original language. He also was an avid student of astrology. “As a rule I only study things that suggest music to me,” he wrote, “and recently the character of each planet suggested lots to me.” He finished The Planets’ first movement, Mars, the Bringer of War, before the outbreak of World War I in August of 1914, and he completed the seven-movement suite in 1916. (Holst chose not to write a movement about Earth, and Pluto would not be discovered until 1930.) The Planets was first performed in its entirety in London in 1920 (bringing Holst and his music a great deal of positive attention), and the composer wrote the following note for the premiere: “These pieces were suggested by the astrological significance of the planets; there is no programme music, neither have they any connection with the deities of classical mythology bearing the same names. If any guide to the music is required, the subtitle to each piece will be found sufficient, especially if it be used in the broad sense. For instance, Jupiter brings jollity in the ordinary sense, and also the more ceremonial type of rejoicing associated with religions or national festivities. Saturn brings not only physical decay, but also a vision of fulfillment. Mercury is the symbol of the mind.” Holst’s daughter, Imogen, pointed out that her father had never heard the sound of a machine gun and that the tank had not yet been invented when the composer created Mars, the Bringer of War. The hair-raising music opens with the mysterious sound of strings being played with the wood of the bow, and the tenor tuba delivers the rallying call to arms. The composer told Sir Adrian Boult, the eminent British conductor who recorded The Planets five times, that the quality of war he most wanted to illustrate was its stupidity. Venus, the Bringer of Peace is music of exquisite grace and delicate beauty. The rising 4-note motive played by the horn in the first bar unifies the entire movement, and Holst writes gorgeous, plaintive solos for violin, oboe and cello. Mercury, the Winged Messenger is a scherzo, fleet and dazzling. Holst designed the movement to be a witty competition between the two remote keys of B-blat major and E major, and the central section features a repeated 6-bar falling melodic idea, first presented by the solo violin, that is passed around and through the orchestra as it grows in volume and passion. Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity opens with the feel of a rustic dance. Imogen remarked that when Jupiter was played at Queens Hall in a private concert on September 29, 1918, “the charwomen working in the corridors put down their scrubbing brushes and began to dance” during this section. The central hymn-like portion of Jupiter became known as I vow to thee, my country in 1921 when Imogen wrote words for this inspired melody. Saturn, the Bringer of Old Age was Holst’s favorite movement. It opens as a dirge, with four flutes (including the seldom-used bass flute) and harps accompanying the melody that initially appears deep in the double basses. Holst also makes melodic use of the ultra-rare bass oboe before the trombones pick up the tempo to begin the trudging procession to old age and beyond. As time ravages the body, the spirit struggles to resist the onslaught, and out of this hopeless battle emerges a transfiguration of the soul—the movement ends in peaceful acceptance and transcendent serenity. Uranus, the Magician is The Planets’ second scherzo, darker and more malevolent than Mercury. It is difficult to believe Holst’s claim that he was not familiar with Paul Dukas’ The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, written by the French composer in 1897. Uranus appears to borrow heavily from the orchestration, musical structure and the emotional profile of the earlier work, albeit with even more powerful sonic impact. The 4-note magical incantation, dramatically intoned at the beginning of Uranus by the trumpets and trombones, returns in various guises throughout the movement, ultimately vanishing as the magician and the magic evaporate into the ether. Neptune was the most distant planet in our solar system
when Holst wrote The Planets in 1916, and as of August 24, 2006,
it is again. (On that date, Pluto was demoted to “dwarf planet” status at
a meeting in Prague of the International Astronomical Union.) In
Neptune, the Mystic, Holst uses the icy sounds of the flutes, celeste and
harps (playing tremolando) to suggest the cold, remote, unknowable nature
of the distant planet, and he adds to the eerie spell of the music by
including an invisible, wordless 6-part female chorus. The solo clarinet
provides just the tiniest hint of warmth before fading away into the
darkness, and the solar system’s final sound is of the disembodied chorus,
traveling farther and farther off into the infinite universe. Jessica Heim, a junior at the College of Saint Benedict, has won the Grand Prize in the 2008 St. Cloud Symphony Orchestra Young Performers Competition. The competition was held on March 3rd at St. Cloud State University. Sixteen competitors performed music for a panel of judges and the St. Cloud Symphony Orchestra Music Director, William Schrickel. She will perform the First Movement of Maurice Ravel’s Concerto for G major for Piano and Orchestra. She also won a $500 scholarship. The Young Performers Competition offers students the chance to perform before a panel of judges to receive written feedback. The judges offer significant information to aspiring musicians. Competition winners are declared in four categories: college-age piano, high school piano, college non-piano and high school non-piano. Each winner receives a $500 scholarship to continue the study of music. Winners of the Grand Prize are selected to perform with the orchestra. The competition is sponsored by the Sexton Foundation. Jessica Heim is double majoring in Music and Environmental Studies and is currently a student of Dr. Edward Turley. She began piano lessons at age 7 and studied with Dr. Paul Wirth throughout high school, attending the Central Minnesota Music School Young Artist Piano Camp for 7 years and passing Levels 1-5 of MMTA theory. She has studied classical ballet since age 5, and has been a piano accompanist for ballet classes at the St. Paul City Ballet and the Central Minnesota Music School since 10th grade. Outside of
music, Jessica’s interests include hiking, nature photography, and bird
watching. She enjoys reading books about astronomy, plant
identification (especially wild edible plants), animals (birds in
particular), and anything else that has to do with the natural
world. She spent last summer taking biology and ecology classes in
the mountains of Montana and on the Oregon coast. This summer, she
will be taking a May Term class in Sweden and Denmark to learn about ways
in which these countries have become more environmentally and socially
sustainable.
Tickets
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Visitors since 1/19/2007
