Sing in the VSO Chorus this holiday season!

Would you like to be a part of the some serious holiday cheer? Do you like to sing? Audition for the VSO Chorus this coming Wednesday, September 8,  at the Elley-Long Music Center in Colchester. E-mail our chorus co-coordinators, Pam and Ruth, for your audition slot. Rehearsals are on Saturdays; concerts are December 10-12. Get your pipes warmed up and come have some fun! Go to our website for more info about the VSO chorus. Keep reading!

Made in Vermont - three weeks from today!

OK, OK. I know! It's been around four months since our last post. I suppose things get a little hectic around VSO headquarters. We've been gearing up for our 2010/2011 season, which kicks off with our Made in Vermont Music Festival statewide tour. If you take a peek at the little Vermont graphic above, you'll see the areas we are visiting. Specifically, they are: Vergennes, Johnson, Lyndonville, Derby Line, Bellows Falls, Randolph, Woodstock, and Castleton. Do you live near one of these towns? Well, get on the horn (802-86-FLYNN) or visit FlynnTix for tickets to one of these intimate concerts. This year we feature Vermont composer Don Jamison, and three concerti featuring our very talented principal players. Heidi Soons, harpist, will play a concerto by Handel; Shelagh Abate, horn, will be featured in Rachmaninoff's Vocalise; and flutist Albert Brouwer will play CPE Bach's Flute Concerto in d minor. Conductor Anthony Princiotti rounds out the program with Mozart's Symphony No. 29. So come on down and listen to your Vermont Symphony Orchestra in action!
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Program notes: May 1 Masterworks Finale

The VSO brings its "Terezin Remembered" project and its 2009/2010 Masterworks Series to a close with a performance of Verdi's powerful Requiem. Whereas the evening Masterworks concert is sold out, we have opened the afternoon rehearsal to attendees. It begins at 2:30 p.m.; general admission tickets are $20. Get your tickets through the Flynn Box Office. Keep reading for program notes.


Requiem
Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901)

The remains of Alessandro Manzoni lay in state for several days in May of 1873 while Italy mourned. A huge throng including royalty and officers of state formed the funeral cortège that accompanied him to his final resting place in the cemetery of Milan. Absent was the one man who was to give Manzoni his greatest tribute: Giuseppe Verdi secluded himself with his grief over the loss of the poet-patriot he venerated so deeply. He said to his publisher Ricordi, "I shall come in the near future and visit his grave, alone and without witnesses and possibly (after much reflection and gauging of my own strength) make some proposal for the honoring of his memory."

Manzoni and Verdi met for the first time in 1868. By then, both men were national heroes. Italy was in the throes of an evolution which sought to return the state to the glorified national identity enjoyed during the Renaissance. It had been a long and impassioned effort led by powerful men with a variety of agendas, from the cool tactitian Cavour to the audacious Garibaldi and his personal army of “Red Shirts.” Manzoni strove to forge a national unity through the creation of the model for a modern Italian language, refining and establishing proper style and usage. With the publication in 1827 of his classic historical novel I Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed) he became a cohesive literary influence for a divided Italy. At age 76 he was made senator to the parliament of King Victor Emmanuel II in 1861, but even so spent most of his time in a reclusive semi-retirement in Milan.

Verdi became allied with Italian nationalism through Nabucco, his first critical success. He identified with ordinary people and proclaimed himself "the least erudite among past and present composers.” Verdi became a symbol of resistance to Austrian domination via a chorus in Nabucco entitled "Va, pensiero" which voices the longing of Jewish exiles for home. Italians empathized with this yearning for freedom, and the tune became wildly popular throughout the country.

Verdi virtually worshipped Manzoni, referring to him as "the Saint," and although notables from all over the world (Goethe, Byron, Balzac) visited the writer, Verdi shrank from invading his privacy. It took a conspiracy between Verdi's wife Giuseppina and their close friend the Contessa Clarina Maffei to inveigle Verdi into an audience with his idol. During a visit to Milan, the Contessa introduced Giuseppina to Manzoni. On her return home, Verdi met his wife at the train station with a carriage, and in a letter to the Contessa, Giuseppina recounts her strategy:

I told him very quickly, at breakneck speed, how you had received me...had gone out with me...Wishing to push on as fast as possible, I said with affected indifference: "If you go to Milan I'll introduce you to Manzoni. He expects you, and I was there with her [Clarina] the other day....

Phew! The bombshell was so great and so unexpected that I didn't know whether I ought to open the carriage windows to give him air or close them, fearing that in the paroxysm of surprise and joy he would jump out. He went red, he turned deadly pale, he perspired; he took off his hat and screwed it up in a way that reduced it almost to shapelessness. Furthermore (this is between ourselves) the most severe and savage Bear of Busseto had his eyes full of tears, and both of us, moved, convulsed, sat there for ten minutes in complete silence. Oh, the power of genius, of virtue and of friendship!

Verdi later went to see Manzoni, and on his next birthday the composer received a card which read: "To Giuseppe Verdi, from a decrepit Lombard writer."

Ironically, the original impetus for the Requiem had nothing to do with Manzoni at all. It was the death of the Italian opera giant Rossini that inspired Verdi with the need to create such a commemorative work. Between 1810 and 1830, Rossini established a body of music devoted to bel canto singing and purity of melodic line which offered sublime entertainment for lovers of vocal music. Italian opera enjoyed an unchallenged supremacy in Europe, and this was an enormous spiritual step for a country laboring to produce a national identity. When Rossini died in 1868, Verdi was moved to honor his memory by suggesting a salute from his contemporaries for this most famous representative of Italian national tradition. In a letter to his editor he suggested:

"I think that to honour Rossini's memory a REQUIEM MASS should be composed by the most distinguished Italian composers...and performed on the anniversary of his death.

I think that not only the composers, but all the artists engaged in the performance, should not only offer their services for nothing but should also contribute enough to cover the expenses involved. I do not think that we should accept help from any foreign hand, or any hand alien to art, however powerful. If this condition were not observed, I should immediately withdraw from the association...

This composition -- however good the individual numbers may be -- will inevitably lack unity; but despite this defect it will still serve to demonstrate how profoundly we all venerate the man whose loss is deplored by the whole world...

Initially, the idea got off to a roaring start. A committee was formed, and Verdi took on the composition of the closing section of the Mass, the Libera me, Domine. Then petty disagreements and rivalries began to take their toll, and it became clear that nothing would be finished by the appointed day of performance, the anniversary of Rossini's death. Verdi himself called the project to a halt, remarking to a friend, “Ah, men of talent are almost always overgrown boys...."

Later that year a colleague and professor from the Milan Conservatory wrote of his admiration for the Libera me, and a flattered Verdi responded that he had considered writing a Requiem himself and even had ideas for the Requiem aeternum and Dies irae. At heart, Verdi considered the effort involved in writing a Requiem as nonremunerative: the composers of Italian operas were practical musicians, creating when stimulated by contract or promise of financial benefit. In this Verdi was no exception, and to the professor he wrote: "I have no taste for useless things, and there are so many Messe da morto -- only too many!!! It is pointless to add yet another to the list." Three years later, Manzoni lay in state and a grieving Verdi had a personal use for a Requiem.

Exactly one year from the day of Manzoni's death, an orchestra of 100 and a chorus of 120 assembled in the church of San Marco in Milan. An audience from all over Europe spilled out of the modest structure, and members of the press (including Wagner champion Hans von Bulow) were forced to view from the organ loft. Von Bulow called the work “an opera in ecclesiastical garb.” In fact, the two female soloists were the composer's Aïda and Amneris from his latest operatic triumph, and the Requiem itself was an unabashedly operatic approach to sacred music. Needless to say, the public loved it.

The Requiem exhibits the musical mastery of Verdi's operas. As in Rigoletto or La Forza del Destino, there is displayed a formal balance within the various sections and between them. The work as a whole is unified through the use of repetitions or references to a driving motif, that element being the Dies Irae theme. As for the carping done by Verdi's critics (one noted "a certain overload of the sensuous and of ardent southern emotionalism”), listeners from all countries knew a genuine musical phenomenon when they heard it. The fact of the matter is that this was a personal homage paid by the agnostic Verdi to the devoutly Catholic Manzoni, and the last word in defense of her husband's effort was given by his wife Giuseppina:

They talk about the more-or-less religious spirit of Mozart, Cherubini and others. I say that a man like Verdi must write like Verdi, that is, according to his own way of feeling and interpreting the text. The religious spirit and the way in which it is given expression must bear the stamp of its period and its author's personality.

-- Hilary Hatch


Indra Thomas, soprano
Judith Engel, alto
Steven Tharp, tenor
Kevin Deas, bass Keep reading!

The Ultimate Red Sox Experience Raffle

The VSO is raffling off a seriously awesome prize this spring. I'm thinking of it as the Ultimate Red Sox Experience. I'm talking four tickets to the June 19 game versus the Dodgers, a PRIVATE charter flight from Burlington to Boston, limousine transportation from the airport to Fenway, and spending money. I heard a rumor that Leunig's on Church Street has thrown in a pre-flight dinner. The best part? Tickets are $50 and we're only going to sell 500, tops. Those are some pretty good odds. E-mail Mike to buy a ticket. You can also call (800) VSO-9293 x 25 to speak with Mike. Visit the raffle page on our website for the official rules, etc. Keep reading!

SymphonyKids Spotlight: DrumShtick

The VSO's Musicians-in-the-Schools ensembles travel the state delighting and inspiring schoolchildren with music. DrumShtick, one of seven M-I-S ensembles, is our percussion trio. Their show, "Music Means the World to Me," explores a culturally diverse repertoire and includes demonstrations of non-Western instruments. Through their sometimes zany humor the musicians introduce children both to general musical concepts and to the family of percussion instruments. Keep reading for a video of DrumShtick filmed at the VCAM studio for our television show, On Stage, and for more information bringing the trio to your neighborhood school.



This group normally presents three 45-minute shows a day, which can be in three different schools if they are close enough geographically. All presentations are most appropriate for elementary age students. The cost is $285 per performance, or $850 for a full day. Subsidy money is often available, especially if schools help set up bookings. For more information or to book a Musicians-in-the-Schools ensemble, please e-mail Eleanor@vso.org or call (800) VSO-9293 x 14. Keep reading!

Terezin Remembered

Terezin Remembered is a collection of cultural events commemorating the 65th anniversary of a story of the inextinguishable human spirit. Click here for a complete list of events. Included in this compendium are an art exhibit of works created by those incarcerated, a lecture, a chamber music concert consisting of works composed in the camp, and our Masterworks Series finale: a performance of Verdi's Requiem (plus a pre-concert symposium with survivors of the concentration camp). The only way to get your hands on a ticket to this concert is by contacting The Essex Resort and Spa about their special concert package. Call (800) 727-4295 and ask for the Terezin Remembered Package. You may also choose to attend the open rehearsal on the afternoon of May 1. Tickets are available through FlynnTix. Below is a video interview with Susi Learmonth, a member of the Upper Valley Friends of the VSO, whose family was interned at Terezin.



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Program Notes: March 20 & 21, 2010

Back by popular demand, guest conductor Sarah Hicks leads the orchestra as our music director and his wife share their artistry in Richard Danielpour’s moving tribute to the healing power of music. “Simple Gifts” refers to the Shaker melody Copland used in his beloved ballet; our concert package also contains hot-blooded music from Mozart and De Falla, and salutes to the vernal equinox.

Saturday, March 20, 8 PM Flynn Center for the Performing Arts, Burlington
Tickets

Sunday, March 21, 4 PM Paramount Theatre, Rutland
Tickets

Sarah Hicks, conductor
Jaime Laredo, violin
Sharon Robinson, cello

Keep reading for program notes. Visit the VSO's biographies page to read about our guest artists.


Overture to The Abduction from the Seraglio, K. 384
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

Mozart’s first great public triumph in Vienna was his comic opera The Abduction from the Seraglio, first produced on July 16, 1782. Mozart had just left what he called his “slavery” to the arrogant Archbishop of Salzburg, he was a success in the musical capital of the world, and he was in love. No wonder Seraglio is filled with youthful exultation! Carl Maria von Weber called it “a picture of what every man’s joyous, youthful years are to him, years the bloom of which he will never recapture.” This opera went far beyond the usual limits of the tradition with its long, elaborately written songs (hence Emperor Joseph II’s famous observation: “Too many notes, my dear Mozart.”) Despite the Emperor’s opinion, the work was a great success, and was taken into the repertories of many provincial companies (for which Mozart did not, however, receive any compensation).

The story of the opera is a Spanish nobleman’s attempted rescue of his fiancée from Turkish captivity. Turkish plots were popular in 18th century plays, operas, and novels, and Turkish music (Janissary music) had a special vogue in Vienna during Mozart’s day. The composer wrote to his father that the overture to his opera was very short and kept alternating loud and soft, with Turkish music in the loud passages. “It modulates on and on, from key to key, so that I don’t believe anyone could fall asleep, even if he hadn’t slept at all the whole night before.”


A Child’s Reliquary
Richard Danielpour (1956- )

The composer writes: “When I began composing A Child’s Reliquary in the summer of 1999, I had just learned of the tragic death of 18-month old Cole Carson St. Clair, the child of Carl and Susan St. Clair. Carl St. Clair is a great American conductor (the music director of the Pacific Symphony Orchestra in Los Angeles) and a dear friend and colleague. I was stunned upon hearing this news and found that the music I began to write that summer was all a series of variations on, or around, the Brahms Wiegenlied (“Cradle Song”). I could not get the Wiegenlied out of my mind during that time, nor could I stop thinking about the child who had drowned in a strange accident before reaching his second birthday. In many ways, A Child’s Reliquary was about not only the death of this child, but also about the death of innocence. The work is entitled A Child’s Reliquary because the piece is not unlike a musical shrine, with the outer first and third movements evoking public and private aspects of mourning, while the middle movement represents a flashback or snapshot of somewhat happier times.”

The work, which was originally written for string trio, was commissioned by the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio and premiered in April of 2000. It has been performed by the same group over twenty times in the U.S. and Europe since that time. In 2006, the Pacific Symphony Orchestra commissioned Danielpour to create the present orchestral version of the work.


Suite No. 1 from The Three-Cornered Hat
Manuel de Falla (1876-1946)

Manuel de Falla was the most important Spanish composer of the 20th century. As a youth he was equally interested in literature and music, and later became quite well known for his articles about music and for writing his own librettos. He eventually leaned toward composition and enrolled at the Madrid Conservatory. In 1907 Falla took an engagement as an accompanist for a tour of France and settled in Paris for the next seven years. He returned to Madrid a well-established composer. In 1920, seeking a quieter lifestyle, he moved to Granada. Although not directly involved with the Spanish Civil War, he did attempt (unsuccessfully) to intervene in the execution of his good friend Federico García Lorca. He was all too happy to leave when offered a conducting post in Argentina in 1939, and lived the rest of his life there.

The Three-Cornered Hat, or El Sombrero de Tres Picos, was first conceived as a pantomime ballet in two scenes. It was based on the novella, The Governor and the Miller's Wife, by Pedro Antonio de Alarcón, and the music drew liberally from Andalusian folk music. Sergei Diaghilev, famed impresario of the Ballets Russes, saw the premiere in 1917 and commissioned Falla to expand the work to a full ballet. Pablo Picasso was engaged to create the sets and costumes, and the premiere took place on July 22, 1919 at London’s Alhambra Theatre.

The story is a humorous tale of a magistrate who becomes infatuated with the wife of a miller, has him arrested on trumped-up charges, and then tries to seduce her. It includes such time-honored theatrical comedy traditions as pratfalls, clothes-swapping, and seduction-as-revenge, with everybody happy at the end except possibly the lecherous magistrate. Falla extracted two orchestral suites from the score, both of which have become staples of the repertoire. The first includes music that sets scenes, introduces characters, and moves the plot along. The opening fanfare was intended to highlight Picasso’s bullring-inspired curtain, and leads directly into the opening scene of the ballet. A bassoon solo introduces the magistrate, who is teased and mocked by the dances of the miller’s wife. As she picks grapes from the vineyard she leads him in a dance that ends with him tripping and falling, and the miller rejoins her to reprise the fandango.

--Gabriel Langfur


Upon Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring
Frederick Delius (1862-1934)

An English composer of German parentage, Delius lived for most of his life in France, yet his music most often evokes a sense of the English landscape. He is sometimes called an “English Impressionist.” Sir Thomas Beecham, the British conductor who championed his music, is largely responsible for his fame. Delius’ family had discouraged him from pursuing music as a profession, but while working on an orange plantation in Florida for a couple of years, he studied music in his spare time. He proved to be a better composer than orange grower, and soon was supporting himself as a musician. His friend Edvard Grieg helped persuade his family to allow him to move to Paris and begin living the life of an artist. Delius’ writing was strongly influenced by Grieg, and in fact “On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring,” one of his most popular works, is a sort of meditation on one of Grieg’s Norwegian Folk Tunes (No. 14, Op. 66). It dates from the happy period of his life before the ravages of syphilis rendered him almost a complete invalid. Interestingly, his mind and speech remained unimpaired even after he was blind and almost completely paralyzed, and he continued actively composing with the aid of Eric Fenby, his musical amanuensis. Often paired with his “Summer Night on the River,” the work breaks each melody into phrases, and lingeringly develops each phrase in various colors as the clarinet repeats the cuckoo’s familiar call.


Suite from Appalachian Spring
Aaron Copland (1900-1990)

Arguably Copland's best known work, Appalachian Spring was commissioned by Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge for Martha Graham's dance company. It was completed in 1944 and premiered that same year, with Martha herself dancing a principal role in the production. The following spring it received the Pulitzer Prize for music and the Music Critics Circle award for outstanding theatrical work of the season.

Copland's notes for the orchestral suite, which he arranged a year later, state: "…the music of the ballet takes as its point of departure the personality of Martha Graham." He mentions also that the title was chosen by Miss Graham, who borrowed it from one of Hart Crane's poems. Copland describes the action thus: "…A pioneer celebration in spring around a newly-built farmhouse in the Pennsylvania hills in the early part of the last century. The bride-to-be and the young farmer-husband enact the emotions, joyful and apprehensive, which their new domestic partnership invites. An older neighbor suggests now and then the rocky confidence of experience. A revivalist and his followers remind the new householders of the strange and terrible aspects of human fate. At the end the couple are left quiet and strong in their new house.”

The original score was for chamber orchestra, but the more frequently heard concert arrangement for full orchestra was intended for use in larger halls.

The movements of the suite are linked in a continuous whole. Towards the end of the piece is heard the famous Shaker melody “’Tis a Gift To Be Simple” with five variations. Although this is the only true quotation from American hymnody, the style and spirit of devotional music prevail throughout. This is in keeping with Copland’s own assertion that composers who use folk melodies must “re-express in their own terms the underlying emotional connotations of the material.”


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Vermont Music Now No. 11: Laura Koplewitz

VSO New Music Advisor David Ludwig interviews Vermont composer Laura Koplewitz. Keep reading to watch the video.



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Watch our orchestral youth concert, "Play Me a Story"

Thanks to RETN for filming the VSO's most recent orchestral youth concert, "Play Me a Story." You can watch it on their website by clicking here and check out when it is airing next. Find out more about our education programs, known as SymphonyKids, by visiting the VSO website. Keep reading!

The VSO is Stuck in Vermont

Seven Days video blogger Eva Sollberger waltzed her way into the Davis Center at UVM on February 6 to showcase the VSO for an installment of "Stuck in Vermont."

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