San Jose Wind Symphony

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Program Notes

Sunday, March 1, 2009, 3:00 PM

"THAT'S ITALIAN!"
McAfee Center, Saratoga

Dr. Edward C. Harris, conductor
Peter Morris and Chris WIlhite, trumpet soloists

Overture to La Forza Del Destino (“The Force of Destiny”)

Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901), arranged by Franco Cesarini

Verdi was born in Roncole, Italy, into a family of small landowners and taverners. At 12, he was studying with the local organist in nearby Busseto, where he became the assistant in 1832. A local grocer recognized Verdi’s potential and offered to pay for his education at the Milan Conservatory. The Conservatory rejected him; so, he studied privately in Milan for two years before returning to Busseto to pursue his musical career and to marry the grocer’s daughter. An early opera enjoyed success at La Scala. Between 1838 and 1840, he lost his wife and two children. In despair, he vowed never to compose again. Friends persuaded him to begin writing, and his Nabucco in 1842 marked the beginning of a spectacular career. Hailed as a national hero, Verdi has made a significant mark in the operatic literature with his operas Rigoletto, La Traviata, Aida and Othello. Verdi dominated the world of Italian opera for most of the 19th century. His career coincided with the rise of Italian nationalism and the unification of the country, causes with which he was openly associated. His experimentation with harmony and orchestration infuse his works with such drama and passion that the arias from many of his operas have become extremely well-known melodies.

La Forza Del Destino was written in 1861 as a commission for the Imperial Theater in St. Petersburg, Russia. The premiere had to be cancelled when the principal singer became ill and couldn’t be replaced. The opera was finally premiered in November of the following year. Hampered by a plot that placed a curse on the principal characters and left nearly everyone dead, the opera was nonetheless a success. In 1869, Verdi revised the opera to be less depressing in story line and ending. He also included the overture, performed here today, in place of the prelude of the original version. Destiny, personified by the three ominous brass chords at the opening, is pushed forward by a rushing motive heard in the woodwinds. The lyrical melody of a prayer sung by the doomed soprano is also incorporated. Destiny’s force is heard as a strong undercurrent throughout the overture.

Concerto in Bb for Two Trumpets

Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741), transcribed by Philip J. Lang

Son of a violinist at St. Mark’s Cathedral in Venice, Antonio Vivaldi received his early training from his father and the cathedral’s director of music. He was ordained in 1703 but after two years gave up saying Mass because of difficulties with asthma. From 1704 to 1740, he taught violin at one of the four famous orphanages that occupied an important place in Venetian musical life. He traveled to many European cities to perform or produce his operas when his health permitted. The Four Seasons may be his best known and most recorded work. A number of his works for clavier and organ were transcribed by J.S. Bach, who was among his appreciative contemporaries.

At the time of composition, the trumpet was associated with the ruling nobility. The baroque trumpet was a valveless instrument and quite difficult to play. The Concerto in B Flat for Two Trumpets illustrates the technical brilliance typical of the day.

Venetian Spells

Martin Ellerby (b. 1957)

An English composer, Ellerby was educated at the Royal College of Music, London, where he was taught by Joseph Horovitz. His works include pieces for orchestra, chorus, concert band, brass band, ballet and various instrumental ensembles.

The composer writes: Venetian Spells was commissioned by Timothy Reynish and is dedicated to him on the occasion of his fiftieth birthday. Rather like my previous Paris Sketches, the work pays tribute to a great city and in particular to various composers associated with it. This is essentially a fun piece and makes use of ensembles drawn from the larger body of the symphonic wind orchestra. It falls into four movements.

I. Concertante (Antonio’s Allegro). A large brass ensemble is foiled by a more intimate concertante group (featuring the unique timbre of a harpsichord) which plays various interludes in a style akin to that of Vivaldi. The percussion section consists almost entirely of assorted drums with cymbals. Ideas are developed by the two main groups, culminating in a grand and noble conclusion, though not without a gentle sting in its tail.

II. Pas de Deux (Igor’s Lament). Buried on the island cemetery of San Michele are both the composer Stravinsky and the impressario Diaghilev. Scored for all of the orchestra, this is a full-bodied and passionate waltz, interrupted by some delicate interludes, all alluding to one of their great collaborations, hinted at but not quoted.

III. Vespers (Claudio’s Sunset). Scored for winds alone and featuring the subtle shades of cor anglais (English horn), alto clarinet and double bassoon, with a single percussion playing tubular bells, the work’s slow movement evokes a church organ playing in the early evening. Although the style is not that of Monteverdi, the spirit is.

IV. Festivo (Giovanni’s Canon). The finale is a celebration of the great city in festival time. Things canonical (though without the use of real cannon) make up the material of the movement. Scored for full forces, with some transparent moments, it builds to an epic conclusion of which Gabrieli would have been thoroughly ashamed.

Funiculi Funicula

Luigi Denza (1846-1922), arranged by Philip J. Lang

Luigi Denza was born in Castellammare, Italy, and studied at the Naples Conservatory. He later settled in London and became a professor of singing at the Royal Academy of Music in 1898. He wrote one opera, Wallenstein, and over 600 songs. Many of his songs became popular but could not match the success of Funiculi Funicula.

The words to Funiculi Funicula were written by journalist Peppino Turco and set to music by Denza in 1880 for the opening of the first funicular railway on Mt. Vesuvius. Although the song was composed in only a few hours, it has remained popular for more than a century. Richard Strauss later included the tune in the fourth movement of his Aus Italien, believing it to be a popular Neapolitan folk tune.

Scossa Elettrica—Marcetta Brillante (“Electric Shock — Brilliant Little March”)

Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924), edited by Clark McAlister and Michael Kaye

Puccini was an Italian composer whose operas, including La Bohème, Tosca and Madama Butterfly, are among the most frequently performed in the standard repertoire. Puccini was born in Lucca into a musical family. He studied piano with his uncle and was later educated at the Milan Conservatory. At the age of 14, he began his career as an organist at local churches. However, a performance of Verdi’s Aida in 1876 made such an impression on him that he decided to follow his instinct for operatic composition. He began his career as a composer of opera with Le Villi, but his real success began with the production of Manon Lescaut in 1893. In all, Puccini wrote twelve operas but died before he could complete the last, Turandot. He became famous for his melodic writing, dramatic harmonies and theatrical skill. Some of his arias, such as “O mio babbino caro” from Gianni Schicchi, “Che gelida manina” from La Bohème and “Nessun dorma” from Turandot, have become part of popular culture.

Scossa Elettrica is a vigorous march written in 1899 for an international convention of telegraphists to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Alessandro Volta’s “pile,” an early method to store electricity: in essence, the first battery. The pile device evolved into the batteries that made the telegraph possible. Puccini wrote “So here you have the little bit of rubbish! May the sound of this little march hasten the telegraphists to their retirement.”

Italian Polka

Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943), scored for band by Erik W.G. Leidzen

Rachmaninoff was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor. He was one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, the last great representative of Russian late Romanticism in classical music. Early influences of Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov and other Russian composers gave way to a thoroughly personal idiom, which included a pronounced lyricism, expressive breadth, structural ingenuity and a tonal palette of rich, distinctive orchestral colors. Understandably, the piano figures prominently in Rachmaninoff’s compositions, either as a solo instrument or as part of an ensemble. He also made a point to use his skills as a performer to explore the expressive possibilities of the piano.

The energetic and bright Italian Polka was originally composed for trumpet solo and one piano, four hands. It alternates between minor and major keys, ending in a dramatic fortissimo.

The Pines of Rome

Ottorino Respighi (1879-1936), transcribed by Guy M. Duker

Respighi was an Italian composer, conductor, performer and teacher who studied violin and composition first in Bologna, and later under Rimsky-Korsakov in St. Petersburg and Max Bruch in Berlin. He once said that the “Italian genius is for melody and clarity,” two qualities that are apparent in his works, including the notable tone poems The Fountains of Rome, The Pines of Rome, The Birds and Roman Festivals. In 1913, he was appointed teacher of composition at the Conservatorio di Santa Cecilia in Rome, where he settled permanently.

In The Pines Near a Catacomb the composer specifically features lower orchestral instruments to represent the subterranean feature of the catacombs, and the trombones to offer priestly chanting. Respighi wanted the ground to tremble under the footsteps of his army during the Pines of the Appian Way. The composer’s own guide to the score follows:

The Pines of the Villa Borghese. Children are at play in the pine groves of Villa Borghese. They dance round in circles; they play at soldiers, marching and fighting; they are wrought up by their own cries like swallows at evening; they rush about. Suddenly the scene changes.

Pines Near a Catacomb. We see the shades of pine trees fringing the entrance to a catacomb. From the depth rises the sound of mournful psalms, floating through the air like a solemn hymn, and gradually and mysteriously dispersing.

The Pines of the Janiculum. A shudder runs through the air: the pine trees of the Janiculum stand distinctly outlined in the clear light of a full moon. A nightingale sings.

The Pines of the Appian Way. Misty dawn on the Appian Way: solitary pine trees guarding the magic landscape; the muffled, ceaseless rhythm of unending footsteps. The poet has a fantastic vision of bygone glories: trumpets sound, and, in the brilliance of the newly risen sun, a consular army bursts forth towards the Sacred Way, mounting in triumph to the Capitol.

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Program notes are edited by Karen Berry, and excerpted from the composers’ notes, Band Notes by Norm Smith, The Pepper Music Catalog and:

Foothill College Symphonic Wind Ensemble
MusicNotes.com
Contra Costa Wind Symphony
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Wikipedia (Pines of Rome, Sergei Rachmaninoff)
The Classical Music Pages
Karadar Classical Music