KNOXVILLE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Lucas Richman, Music Director
2013-2014 - Seventy-Eighth Season
Lucas Richman, Music Director
Natalie Leach Haslam Music Director Chair
Thursday & Friday evening
January 16 & 17, 2014 ~ 7:30 p.m.
Tennessee Theatre
Strauss for the New Year
Sean Newhouse, guest conductor
Louis Schwizgebel, piano
Overture to Die Fledermaus
Strauss
Mozart Concerto No. 23 in A Major for Piano and Orchestra
I. Allegro
II. Adiago
III. Allegro assai
Louis Schwizgebel, piano
Intermission
Tchaikovsky
Suite from The Sleeping Beauty, Op. 66a
I. Introduction: La Fée des lilas
II. Adiago: Pas d’action
III. Pas de charactère: Le Chat botté et la Chatte blanche
IV. Panorama
V. Valse
Strauss
Emperor Waltzes, Op. 437
This concert will air on WUOT 91.9 FM on Tuesday, February 18, 2014 at 8:00 p.m.
This concert will be rebroadcast on Monday, August 4, 2014 at 8:00 p.m
Performances of the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra are made possible in part by grants from the City of Knoxville, the
Knox County Government and by contributions to the Knoxville Symphony Society’s Annual Support Drive. This project
is funded under an agreement with the TENNESSEE ARTS COMMISSION. Latecomers will be seated during the first convenient pause in the performance. The use of recording devices and/or cameras is strictly forbidden. Please remember to
turn off all electronic devices and refrain from text messaging during the concert. Programs and artists subject to change.
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Program Notes: Strauss for the New Year
Notes on the Program by Ken Meltzer
Overture to Die Fledermaus (1874)
Johann Strauss II was born in Vienna, Austria,
on October 25, 1825, and died there on June 3,
1899. The first performance of Die Fledermaus
took place in at the Theater an der Wien in
Vienna, Austria, on April 5, 1874.
Instrumentation: The Fledermaus Overture
is scored for piccolo, two flutes, two oboes,
two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two
trumpets, three trombones, timpani, snare
drum, bass drum, orchestra bell in E and strings.
Duration: 9 minutes.
Johann Strauss, known affectionately
as the “Waltz King,” was the most famous
member of the eminent Viennese family of
musicians that included father Johann Strauss,
Sr. (1804-1849), and brothers Josef (1827-70) and
Eduard (1835-1916).
The premiere of Johann Strauss’s Die
Fledermaus (The Bat) took place at the Vienna
Theater an der Wien on April 5, 1874. The
work was not an immediate success. Perhaps
the stock market crash of the previous year
dampened the audience’s enthusiasm. But soon,
Die Fledermaus, a delightful tale of mistaken
identity and practical jokes, triumphed in Berlin,
Hamburg, Paris, and, of course, Vienna. To this
day, Johann Strauss’s Die Fledermaus is one of
the few operettas maintain a regular presence in
the opera house, particularly around New Year’s
time.
The sparkling Overture to Die
Fledermaus has also enjoyed independent
success in the concert hall. The Overture
features several melodies from the operetta.
And, of course, the waltz plays a prominent role
in this delightful work.
§
Concerto No. 23 in A Major for Piano and
Orchestra, K. 488 (1786)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born in
Salzburg, Austria, on January 27, 1756, and died
in Vienna, Austria, on December 5, 1791.
Instrumentation: In addition to the solo piano,
the Concerto in A, K. 488, is scored for flute, two
clarinets, two bassoons, two horns and strings.
Duration: 26 minutes.
In October of 1785, Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart began work on his opera The Marriage of
Figaro. Mozart was anxious to establish himself
as an important composer of Italian opera
buffa. He poured his energies into Figaro, which
premiered at the Burgtheater in Vienna on May
1, 1786.
Still, Mozart found time to compose
several other important works during this
period, including three piano concertos—K. 482
in Eb, K. 488 in A and K. 491 in C minor. Mozart
completed the score of the Concerto in A on
March 2, 1786. While specific documentation of
the work’s premiere no longer exists, Mozart’s
usual practice was to offer the first performance
of a Piano Concerto shortly after its completion.
There are records of Lenten concerts in Vienna
held during March of 1786. It is quite possible
those concerts featured the premiere of Mozart’s
A-major Concerto.
Mozart took great pride in this
Concerto, and indeed, it is one of his finest.
Pianists and audiences have continued to share
Mozart’s enthusiasm. The A-Major Concerto is
an introspective work (there are no trumpets or
drums) that rejects overt showmanship in favor
of a restrained, and at times, heartbreaking
lyricism, most notably in the central Adagio.
Still, the optimistic finale perhaps reminds us
that the A-Major Concerto was the product of
one of the most fulfilling periods in Mozart’s alltoo-brief life.
The A-Major Concerto is in three
movements. The first (Allegro) features the
traditional double exposition of the principal
themes (orchestra, followed by the soloist).
There are departures from convention as well,
such as basing the development section not on
the principal themes, but a new melody. The
minor-key second movement (Adagio) looks
forward to the heroine Pamina’s despairing
second-act aria from Mozart’s opera, The Magic
Flute (1791). The Concerto concludes with a
spirited rondo (Allegro assai).
§
Suite from The Sleeping Beauty, Opus
66a (1890)
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky was born in KamskoVotkinsk, Russia, on May 7, 1840, and died in St.
Petersburg, Russia, on November 6, 1893. The
first performance of The Sleeping Beauty took
place at the Maryinsky Theater in St. Petersburg
on January 15, 1890.
Instrumentation: The Suite from The Sleeping
Beauty is score for piccolo, two flutes, two oboes,
English horn, two clarinets, two bassoons, four
horns, four trumpets, three trombones, tuba,
timpani, bass drum, cymbals, glockenspiel,
snare drum, triangle, harp and strings.
Duration: 23 minutes
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s second
ballet, The Sleeping Beauty, was the brainchild
of Ivan Vsevolozhsky. The Director of the
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Program Notes: Strauss for the New Year
Imperial Theaters in St. Petersburg from 18811899, Vsevolozhsky had long hoped to convince
Tchaikovsky to write a ballet for him. In the
summer of 1888, Vsevolozhsky sent Tchaikovsky
a libretto based upon the Charles Perrault’s 1697
fairy tale, The Sleeping Beauty. Tchaikovsky
was immediately drawn to the story.
Tchaikovsky worked on the music for
The Sleeping Beauty from October of 1888 to
September of the following year. The composer
dedicated the work to Vsevolozhsky—much to the
latter’s great satisfaction and pride.
Sleeping Beauty premiered at the
Maryinsky on January 15, 1890. The initial
audience and critical reception was lukewarm.
But today, The Sleeping Beauty is celebrated
as the masterpiece among Tchaikovsky’s three
ballet scores. No small accomplishment,
considering that the other two are Swan Lake
(1877) and Nutcracker (1892)!
The Story and the Music
A banquet at the King and Queen’s
castle celebrates the birth of the Princess Aurora.
The evil fairy Carabosse, angry that she was not
invited to the festivities, places a curse upon
Aurora. The first time the Princess pricks her
finger, she will fall into eternal sleep. However,
the good Lilac Fairy proclaims that Aurora’s
sleep will not last forever. Instead, a handsome
prince will find Aurora and kiss her, awakening
the Princess from her slumber. Aurora and the
prince will wed.
During a celebration in honor of
Aurora’s 20th birthday, the disguised Carabosse
tricks the young woman into prinking her finger
on a spindle. Aurora falls to the ground. The
Lilac Fairy intervenes. She protects the kingdom
by placing everyone in a deep sleep, so that they
may await the prince’s arrival.
The Lilac Fairy leads her godson, the
Prince Désiré, through an enchanted forest to
Aurora’s castle. The Prince finds the Sleeping
Beauty and kisses her. She awakens, as does the
entire court. The King agrees to the marriage
of the Prince and Aurora. The ballet concludes
with the wedding celebration.
This concert features the orchestral
Suite of excerpts from The Sleeping Beauty
prepared in 1899 by Tchaikovsky’s pupil, the
pianist, conductor and composer, Alexander
Siloti.
I. Introduction: La Fée des lilas (The Lilac
Fairy)—The opening section juxtaposes music
associated with the evil fairy Carabosse and The
Lilac Fairy.
II. Adagio: Pas d’action—The Rose Adagio, from
the ballet’s first Act, accompanies a scene at
Aurora’s 20th birthday celebration. Four princes
each present Aurora with a dark red rose as a
token of their love.
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III. Pas de caractère: Le Chat botté et la Chatte
blanche (Puss in Boots and the White Cat)—This
excerpt is taken from the divertissement in the
last-act wedding celebration.
IV. Panorama—This music, from Act II of the
ballet, portrays The Lilac Fairy transporting
Prince Désiré through the enchanted forest to
Aurora’s castle.
V. Valse—The Suite concludes with a grand
Waltz, taken from Aurora’s 20th birthday
celebration.
§
Emperor Waltzes, Opus 437 (1889)
Johann Strauss II was born in Vienna, Austria,
on October 25, 1825, and died there on June 3,
1899. The first performance of Emperor Waltzes
took place at the Königsbau Concert Hall in
Berlin, Germany, on October 21, 1889, with the
composer conducting.
Instrumentation: The Emperor Waltzes are
scored for two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets,
two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three
trombones, timpani, snare drum, bass drum,
harp and strings.
Duration: 10 minutes
It is most certainly the case that the
“Waltz King,” Johann Strauss II, did not invent
the waltz, either as a dance or form of concert
music. Indeed, the basic format for Strauss’s
waltz compositions was that employed by his
father—a slow introduction preceding a series of
independent waltzes, followed by a coda. What
Strauss did accomplish was to bring the waltz to
new heights of beauty and eloquence. Strauss
sought to create a more organic waltz form by
cleverly linking material between the various
sections. This structural ingenuity, coupled with
Strauss’s unfailing melodic inspiration and sense
of orchestral refinement, produced compositions
that made him the toast of Vienna, indeed, of the
world.
Johann Strauss conducted the premiere of his
grand Emperor Waltzes in Berlin on October 21,
1889 at the Königsbau concert hall. The original
title of the Waltz, “Hand in Hand,” celebrated
a toast made in August of 1889 by the Austrian
Emperor Franz Joseph I, extending “the hand of
friendship” to German Kaiser Wilhelm II. It was
at the suggestion of his Berlin publisher Simrock
that Strauss changed the name of the piece to
Kaiserwalzer, in honor of both the Austrian and
German monarchs.