Sinfonia Monday, November 20, 2023 • 7:30 pm • Tew Recital Hall

Andante Festivo

Jean Sibelius

Originally composed for string quartet in 1922, Andante festivo was rescored by the composer in 1938 for string orchestra with timpani. The work emphasizes the warmth and rich sonority of the string orchestra, reflecting a hymnlike ceremonial quality. Broad lyrical phrases explore a wide range of dynamic contrast, phrasing, bow distribution, and orchestral color.

SNOWBERRY

Yukiko Nishimura

Written for the retirement of a master teacher, Yukiko's beautiful harmonic palette is on full display with this hauntingly beautiful work for string orchestra. Absolutely stunning and full of opportunities for expressive playing, your audience will be captivated and you will have plenty to teach in class!

High rise

Adrian Gordon

High Rise is a high-energy groove, that takes the orchestra on an exciting musical journey of adventures in a big city. The improvisatory-like lines, and percussive elements provide a fun musical landscape for string orchestras and audience members alike

Piano Trio in b-flat major, op. 97, "Archduke"

Ludwig van Beethoven

Archduke Rudolph Johann Joseph Rainer Hapsburg was born into a position of privilege. His grandmother was Empress Maria Theresa, while the revered Joseph II was his uncle. His father Leopold and brother Franz went on to rule the empire, as well. Existing on the periphery of affairs of state as Leopold's youngest son, Rudolph was able to devote a good deal of his time to honing his musical talents. Around age 16, he dumped the official teacher of the imperial princes and chose the 34-year-old Beethoven to be his piano teacher instead. He went on to become Beethoven's only full-fledged composition student and, more importantly, the highest born and most devoted of the composer's patrons. Indeed, Rudolph and Beethoven remained good friends until the composer's death. Among the masterpieces Beethoven dedicated to his benefactor are the Missa solemnis, the Grosse Fuge, the Hammerklavier Sonata, and this Piano Trio.

It was in the summertime of 1810 that Beethoven began sketching what would become his final and finest piano trio. Earlier that year, he had harbored serious thoughts of marrying his doctor's lovely 18-year-old niece, Therese Malfatti. When his hopes were dashed, the composer slunk off to Baden for a few months, where he nursed his wounds and distracted himself by jotting down plans for a string quartet and a piano trio. On his return to Vienna in October, he completed the quartet – his striking Op. 95, “Serioso.” The piano trio itself was written in a flurry of inspiration from March 3 to 26 the following year. It completed a decade of awesome creativity which had begun with the “Eroica” Symphony. Coming at the end of this so-called “heroic” decade, the “Archduke” Trio represented the full bloom and the crowning achievement of the composer's Middle Period. It is music of sweeping grandeur for a trio of virtuosos.

The initial Allegro moderato shows a master completely at ease with large-scale sonata form. Its spacious opening theme flows along smoothly and serenely before moving on to the staccato second subject with its pairs of descending phrases. The relatively traditional formal approach, conversational development, lush string and luxuriant keyboard writing engender a warmly expressive essay of great nobility. An energetic Scherzo ensues, launched by a bouncy rhythmic figure played by the cello. The central Trio section is pure Beethoven, contrasting a veiled chromatic fugato with a dashing waltz. In the expansive Andante cantabile, with its hymnlike theme, one encounters what will become a hallmark of later Beethoven works – a rarefied set of variations which evolve by thematic metamorphosis from within, the harmonic structure always carefully preserved. The rather abrupt appearance of the jaunty rondo finale shatters the meditative spell. Its dancing Hungarian-flavored theme undergoes constant development. At the heart of this, yet another, texturally rich movement, the cello soars above keyboard tremolandos. Beethoven signs off with a presto coda.

The composer's own spirits were high at this time, for both his health and his hearing had temporarily improved. He became once again a frequent habitué of plays, concerts, and other social gatherings. He even enjoyed playing the “Archduke” Trio with his friends. In fact, it was with this very piece that Beethoven the performer made his farewell to the stage at a charity concert in 1814 at the Hotel Zum Ritter Romischen Kaiser in Vienna. Beethoven at the piano was joined by violinist Ignaz Schuppanzigh and cellist Joseph Linke. The deafness which made further public appearances impossible was about to send Beethoven on one of the most far-reaching inward odysseys ever traveled by man.

Note by Kathy Henkel

hungarian dance no. 5

Johannes Brahms

By the middle of the 19th Century, and increasingly up until World War I, scores of Hungarian immigrants and refugees from throughout the Austro-Hungarian Empire flooded into Austria – mostly to Vienna, but everywhere in between, too, including Brahms’s hometown of Hamburg. Although many of them were of Roma descent (the preferred name for “gypsy”), Austrians referred to most of the “travelers” from the south, whether they were gypsy or not, as “gypsies.” These waves of immigrants [. . .] in the streets and taverns throughout Austria’s larger cities.

As a young musician at the beginning of his musical career, Brahms usually had to teach lessons and play light piano music at taverns to make money. He would also accompany theatre troupes at the local houses, and occasionally get hired as an accompanist for a touring musician, [. . .] . It would be his great fortune one evening to meet one of Hungary’s great touring violinists, Eduard Reményi. Reményi (1828-1898) was renowned [. . .] Brahms learned gypsy music in the intimate musical company of the greatest gypsy violinist. Serendipitously on the tour he also met the virtuoso violinist, Josef Joachim, [. . .].

Forever after cherishing gypsy music, Brahms would often entertain his friends at home for hours on end [. . .]. He was eventually persuaded to arrange them for publication, and in 1869 he published two sets of Hungarian Dances for two pianos, 21 pieces in all. In an era before movie theaters, radios, or television, [. . .] they proved exceedingly lucrative for Brahms. Arrangements for all sorts of different instruments were in demand, and soon Brahms arranged Numbers 1, 3 and 10 for orchestra, with huge success.

To this day, however, Hungarian Dance No. 5 is probably the most beloved of his Dances. And rightly so, with its enchanting first theme in a minor key, evoking the swagger and gravitas of a “mustachioed” lover, [. . .]. The quick changes in [. . .]. Oddly, the first orchestration of No. 5 was not done by Brahms but by Martin Schmeling (1864—1943, but often misattributed to Albert Parlow, died 1888) [. . .]. And so it is that this Schmeling orchestration of Brahms’s transformation of gypsy music has become one of the most treasured pieces in Western music.

Note by Max Derrickson

Melody for symphony orchestra

Myroslav Skoryk

Skoryk composed Melody for the 1982 Soviet war film Vysokyy pereval. Set in Galicia in the aftermath of World War II, the film was subjected to Soviet censorship and negatively depicted Ukrainian nationalism. Skoryk, who composed the work at the request of the film's director, Volodymyr Denysenko, later said that although other composers had turned down the offer to compose the film's score, he wanted to create music to subvertively convey the film's tragic and emotional themes. It was originally scored for flute and piano; Skoryk later arranged the work for other instruments, including violin with piano or orchestral accompaniment.