2009-2010 Concert Season
CONCERT EVENTS
Sunday, May 2, 2010
7:30 pm
Garnet Valley High School
Glen Mills, PA
Verdi, La forza del destino:
Overture
Ravel, Pavane pour une
infante défunte
Gershwin, Rhapsody in Blue
Schumann, Symphony No. 4
Free Admission
Sunday, May 16, 2010
2:30 p.m.
West Chester University's
Swope Music Building
Madeleine Wing Adler Theatre
West Chester, PA
Repeat of May 2nd program
Free Admission
FEATURED PERFORMER: PIANIST JENNIFER CAMPBELL
Jennifer Campbell is a merit scholarship student at both the Darlington Fine Arts Center and the Music School of Delaware, studying piano and composition with David A. Brown. During the past four years she has been the first-place winner of the Music Teacher’s National Association (MTNA) Senior Piano Performance Competition in Delaware (2006, 2007, and 2008), the West Chester University Piano Competition, and the Marian Garcia Piano Competition at Penn State University. She has been awarded honorable mentions in the MTNA Eastern Division Competitions. Jennifer has performed as soloist with the Wilmington Community Orchestra, Lansdowne Symphony, and the Delaware County Symphony. Jennifer has also attended summer programs ranging from the Boston University Tanglewood Institute’s Young Artist Piano Program and the Delaware Summer Music Institute, to the Brandywine Piano Institute directed by Professor Anthony Di Bonaventura.
Jennifer is also an avid composer. She has composed a variety of solo, chamber, and orchestral works. Her Piano Trio No. 1 received its premiere performance by members of the Philadelphia Orchestra at the West Chester University New Music Workshop in 2007. In the spring of 2008, Jennifer was selected to compose a piece for the Winterthur Garden Fair Benefit CD. Jennifer was chosen as winner of the MTNA senior composition competition in both Delaware and Pennsylvania.
A violin student of Sylvia Ahramjian, Jennifer is currently principal concertmaster of the Delaware County Youth Orchestra. She feels blessed to have the opportunity to perform as soloist with the orchestra during her senior year. Jennifer will be attending the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University next fall on scholarship, majoring in piano performance.
PROGRAM NOTES
By Bonnie Brebach, Jennifer Campbell, Marilyn Lutz and Carmel Yuen
Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901)
La Forza del Destino: Overture (1869)
Verdi’s overture to the opera La Forza del Destino is a product of his middle period and is his most popular and perhaps his greatest operatic overture. The work is scored for two flutes (one doubling piccolo), two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, two harps, and strings.
The overture opens with three blasts from the brass, which are repeated, setting a solemn tone befitting the theme of “the force of destiny.” The overture then immediately establishes the “fate motive,” a nervous, rushing figure first introduced and developed in the strings. This motive acts as the glue holding together a series of richly lyrical melodies drawn from the opera, featuring some beautiful woodwind solos. The overture ends with a stirring conclusion in a major key, the brass propelling the work to a grandiose finish.
—Bonnie Brebach
(Information for this note was derived from Bernard Jacobson’s notes on the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra’s concerts at Carnegie Hall in the winter of 2008, available at www.carnegiehall.org, and Laurie Shulman’s notes for the New Jersey Symphony at www.njsymphony.org)
Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)
Pavane pour une infante défunte (1910)
Pavane pour une infante défunte was commissioned by Princess Edmond de Polignac of Maurice Ravel in 1899, when he was 24 years old. Originally written as a piano piece, the Pavane was so popular that Ravel orchestrated it in 1910, bringing it even wider acclaim. The Pavane demonstrates Ravel’s distinctive compositional style, which combines a formal, meticulous structure with what he called “musical beauty straight from the heart.”
The English translation, “Pavane for a Dead Princess,” is accurate, but Ravel made it clear in 1925 that the piece “is not a funeral lament for a dead child but rather an evocation of the pavane which could have been danced by such a little princess as painted by Velasquez at the Spanish court.” Ravel was evoking nostalgia and fantasy, not grief, in his reference to the pavane, a Renaissance court dance.
—Carmel Yuen
(Some material for this note was derived from The National Symphony Orchestra at www.kennedy-center.org, and from The Stockton Symphony at www.stocktonsymphony.org)
George Gershwin (1898-1937)
Rhapsody in Blue (1924)
Gershwin composed the celebrated Rhapsody in Blue in two weeks, rushing to meet an impending deadline on a commission by friend and band leader Paul Whiteman, who shared Gershwin’s desire to “break down misconceptions about the limitations of jazz.” It is said that Gershwin was inspired by the rhythms of the train tracks on his trip to Boston while composing the rhapsody. Notable American composer Ferde Grofe orchestrated the piece, tailoring his scoring to the talents of individual players in Whiteman’s jazz ensemble—the group that was to premiere the work in 1924 with Gershwin as piano soloist. Although some critics dismissed the new work as “drivel,” audiences applauded and admired the exciting innovative art form.
A legendary clarinet glissando sets the tone of the Rhapsody in Blue, opening wide the doors to an exploration of jazz textures and colors within the range of classical understanding. Within the first minute, already three main ideas are introduced. Immediately after, solo piano develops these ideas (with a clever interruption of bassoon and light strings). Following the solo, piano and orchestra progress through a series of intelligently designed developments on each of the themes before another extensive piano solo begins. Throughout this solo Gershwin adds touches of orchestration including French horn accompanying one piano passage, as well as a quirky oboe, string pizzicato, and cymbal combination in another. Later on, the orchestra introduces the lush E-major theme, which adds a poignant contrast to the exciting flurry of activity contained in much of the piece. Following is yet another piano solo, which includes a hammering repeated note section just before trombones enter. Soon the entire orchestra joins in and eventually ascends a heavy chromatic scale just before the final famous coda.
Although the piece has no real classical form, Gershwin is careful to develop main themes and motives throughout his work, creating an innovative and cleverly woven composition. The piece evokes many images of New York and the “big city” and remains an iconic American classic.
—Jennifer Campbell
(Some material for this note was derived from Peter Gutmann at www.classicalnotes.net)
Robert Schumann (1810-1856)
Symphony No. 4 in D minor, op. 120 (1851 revision)
Just two months after the successful premiere of his first symphony in 1841, Schumann
completed another significant work in the style of a symphonic poem. Unenthusiastic response to this piece caused him to shelve it until 1851, by which time he had gained the confidence and experience to transform it into what we know as his Symphony No. 4.
The four movements of this symphony flow out of material presented in the somber introduction of the first movement, and per Schumann’s instructions, the work is performed without pause between the movements. The introduction is followed by a series of lively and dramatic musical ideas which drive on to the grand conclusion of the movement. The second movement, Romanze, features the strings and woodwinds in flowing melodies tinged with sadness. The contrasting thematic material of the serious scherzo and light-hearted trio alternate in the third movement, closing with a seamless transition to the final movement. This begins with a slow introduction followed by a fast-paced and triumphant finale.
Although much has been made of Schumann’s descent into madness (the final stage of syphilis, which he had contracted in 1831) and his death in the insane asylum in Endenich at age 46, those closest to him recognized in him a musical genius which blossomed through sheer hard work and determination on his part. He came from a family which was not particularly musical and grew up in a town with little opportunity to hear the great music or musicians of the day. When he finally found a teacher worthy of his great potential as a pianist, his progress was foiled by numbness in one of his fingers which closed the door on his dream to take his place with the other pianist-composers of his day. Despite all of this, and without going into the tremendous misfortune of the early deaths of numerous close relatives, including his father, Schumann’s contribution to the world of music is a testament to the man who persevered through many hardships to share his gifts with the world.
—Marilyn Lutz
(Material for this note was taken from the 2007 book Robert Schumann by John Worthen, as well as Don Anderson’s 2008 program notes for the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra.)
PAST CONCERTS
FALL 2009 CONCERTS
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Strath Haven High School
Wallingford, PA
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Neumann University's Meagher Theatre
Aston, PA
Dvořák, Carnival Overture
Saint-Saëns, Danse Macabre
Tchaikovsky, Symphony No. 5
SPRING 2009 CONCERTS
Sunday, May 17, 2009
West Chester University's Swope Music Building
Madeleine Wing Adler Theatre
West Chester, PA
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Upper Darby Performing Arts Center
Drexel Hill, PA
Jennifer Higdon, blue cathedral.
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Scheherazade.
FALL 2008 CONCERTS
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Neumann College’s Meagher Theatre
Aston, PA
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Radnor High School
Radnor, PA
Brahms, Academic Festival Overture.
Prokofiev, Romeo and Juliet, Suite No. 3.
Dvořák, Symphony No. 8.
DELAWARE VALLEY YOUNG MUSICIANS’ ORCHESTRA
For information about DVYMO concerts, please click here.