Classics Series Maestro Jung-Ho Pak’s true passion is conducting Brahms. The orchestra thrives on compositions that challenge. They’re perfectly matched for the great composer’s complex, extremely heartfelt symphony, written at the zenith of his career. The intriguing passacaglia is masterly woven throughout the program, which also premieres a new composition by Brett Abigaña. 24 | Cape Cod Symphony Orchestra Live it Up! 2012|13 | 25 Center Stage Brahms’ Masterpiece April 6 & 7, 2013 Inside One of the Most Intriguing Art Forms Jung-Ho Pak, Conductor Heather Goodchild Wade, Violin Laura Manko, Viola A t today’s concert we invite you to take a tour through the history of music over three centuries courtesy of a simple idea called a passacaglia. We’ll discover how this very old and ingenious form of variation can give birth to complex and sophisticated ideas by composers from the Baroque period up to today. We’ll hear how Bach and Handel used this form to build ornate variations and how composers following them have used the passacaglia to meld the past with their own musical languages. The passacaglia has had an especially rich history spanning more than four hundred years. Its name is of Spanish origin and means “walking through the streets.” In the 16th century, the passacaglia was a dance. Musicians could improvise variations and play them in different instrumentations, but most passacaglias were written for keyboards such as the organ or the harpsichord. A form closely related to the passacaglia is the chaconne; the two terms are often used almost interchangeably. Musicians have taken special delight in the art of variation, repeating a theme over and over again with increasing amounts of embellishment and ornamentation. Variation not only allows the composer to display great compositional flair; but it also calls for considerable technical virtuosity on the part of the performer. In a passacaglia, the varied theme is in the bass, and the embellishments are in the upper voices. The Pachelbel Canon is probably the best-known example for this particular technique. Today, you’ll hear four very different approaches to the passacaglia, and we hope you will delight in the genius and beauty that inspires each presentation. Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor, BMV 582 Johann Sebastian Bach (Arr. Leopold Stokowski) Passacaglia, Op. 1 Anton Webern World Premiere Passing Acquaintance Brett Abigaña (After George Frideric Handel and Johan Halvorsen) INTERMISSION Symphony No. 4 in E Minor, Op. 98 Johannes Brahms I. II. III. IV. Allegro non troppo (fast, but not too fast) Andante moderato (moderately slow) Allegro giocoso (quickly, merrily) Allegro energico e passionato (quickly, energetically, passionately) 26 | Cape Cod Symphony Orchestra Live it Up! 2012|13 | 27 The Music Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor Johann Sebastian Bach Over time, passacaglias and chaconnes became longer and more complex. Johann Sebastian Bach’s (1685-1750) The Chaconne, considered the Mount Everest of violin playing, is the last movement of the Partita in D minor for unaccompanied violin. The Passacaglia is one of the most grandiose works in Bach’s voluminous output for the organ. It has been orchestrated several times before by famous musicians such as Ottorino Respighi and Leopold Stokowski, whose arrangement you will hear today. Bach Passing Acquaintance Brett Abigaña We commissioned Brett Abigaña to create a new interpretation of George Frederic Handel’s (16851759) passacaglia. Bach and Handel were born in the same year in the same part of Germany, but they never met. While Bach spent his entire career in Germany, Handel left his native country as a young man, lived in Italy for several years and then settled in London. His passacaglia was originally in part of a suite for harpsichord; Norwegian composer Johan Halvorsen transcribed it for violin and viola. Halvorsen’s work serves as the basis for Abigaña’s new piece. Passacaglia, Op. 1 Anton Webern The classical and early Romantic masters (Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann) did 28 | not write any passacaglias. When Johannes Brahms began a serious study of Baroque music, interest in the form revived. His magnificent passacaglia from the Fourth Symphony, which you will also hear today, served as a model for the young Anton Webern (1883-1945), who wrote this piece 23 years after the Brahms’ symphony. A native of Vienna, Webern would become one of the greatest musical innovators of the 20th century. Here, he updated the time-honored Baroque variation form by ingeniously stretching the harmonic language and juxtaposing certain chords in different ways. Like Brahms, Webern built a large-scale form out of the brief eight-bar units of the passacaglia theme and organized his piece in three large sections, including a contrasting middle section where the tonality changes from minor to major. Yet in the character of those sections, Webern differs strongly from his predecessors. After the 1908 premiere, critic Elsa Blumenfeld wrote in one of the Viennese newspapers: Webern The composition, surprising in its curiosities of tonal combinations and their progressions, nevertheless convinces through the depth of the moods evoked. Nothing appears accidental, nothing forced by a mania for originality; least of all is anything conventionally imitated. The moods are felt, the sounds heard. Especially characteristic is the instrumentation; its original tone colors and novel mixtures of instruments, some of which assume a solo function, indicate that everything is invented orchestrally, rather than having been converted from a piano sketch into an orchestral score. Cape Cod Symphony Orchestra A World Premiere g H andel and Halvorsen. Almost two centuries separate these two great composers, but they are linked forever by a musical “collaboration” which transcends time. We had an idea. We wanted to create something new that would bridge three centuries. This piece, Passing Acquaintance, premieres today. The story begins in Germany with Baroque composer George Frideric Handel (1685-1759). He created Harpsichord Suite in G minor; the last movement is a passacaglia. A century later, Norwegian composer and violinist Johan Halvorsen (1864-1935) breathed new life into Handel’s passacaglia by arranging it as a duo for violin and viola. “Halvorsen greatly elaborated and expanded the orchestration,” says Maestro Pak. “It is very different from Handel’s original. Using a modern language, Halvorsen made the piece relevant for his audience. We wanted to do the same – demonstrate how an old form like a passacaglia can be a framework for new ideas.” We commissioned an extremely talented composer, Brett Abigaña, for the project and gave him a few parameters. The basic structure and composition of the solo parts had to remain intact. The composer was absolutely free to create a new accompaniment and orchestral transitions around them. “The result is a 21st century piece that retains the structure and bones of the Halverson iteration, but with a daring, colorful and still romantic approach to the work,” says Pak. “It is a story that bridges three centuries, three countries and three sonic worlds: harpsichord, violin/viola and orchestra.” He adds, “One of the most exciting aspects of this orchestral version is that it will be as challenging and stimulating for the orchestra to play as it will be for me to conduct.” In fact, Maestro Pak is so appreciative of this new composition that he hopes it finds its way into the violin/viola concerto repertoire so that others can experience it. “I think this work could be a wonderful and historic addition to the classical repertoire.” Live it Up! 2012|13 Handel Halvorsen Abigaña | 29 The Music Johannes Brahms Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op. 98 The I t’s hard to put into words all the magnificent things this work contains; you can only listen to it over and over again with reverence and admiration.” Richard Strauss, who would become a musical giant in his own right, was only 21 years old when he tried to describe his feelings for Brahms’ Fourth Symphony. Since the composition premiered 127 years ago, generations have been similarly awestruck by this piece, written at the zenith of this great composer’s career. The symphony begins gently like a boat floating on the water and ends with a dramatic blaze of sound, triumphant but at the same time dark and ominous. In between, we hear innumerable shades of emotion. The piece is a veritable musical journey through four contrasting movements that beautifully complement one another. Johannes Brahms (1833-1897), born in Hamburg but a resident of Vienna for most of his life, was one of the 30 | Cape Cod Symphony Orchestra most historically-conscious among amounts of embellishment and the great composers. He knew the ornamentation. music of the past better than anyone The passacaglia theme is and made references not only to the extremely brief (only eight notes); generation immediately preceding therefore, the variations follow him but also to the music of more each other rather quickly. Instead distant eras. of perceiving each as a separate The tender opening Allegro soon entity, we hear the large-scale form gives way to more energetic musical that emerges from the well-planned utterances and ends with a sequence grouping of the single units. At the of harmonies typical in early music. beginning, we perceive a steadily The slow movement also contains rising line as the instrumental voices sonorities from bygone times. In layered on top of the passacaglia the third movement, designated as bass become more and more Allegro giocoso (“fast and joyful”), elaborate. After reaching a grandiose three instruments that were silent climax, the music becomes calmer, in the first two movements join the and the notes of the bass theme orchestra: the piccolo flute, the begin to move twice as slowly as contrabassoon and the triangle, a before. The slower variations include small percussion instrument that a haunting flute solo. Another section doesn’t appear anywhere else in the has prominent clarinet and oboe composer’s music. parts. There’s also a magnificent Brahms’ homage to the Baroque passage for three trombones. This is the most evident in the last is immediately followed by the recall movement. The composer told friends he took a movement from Bach’s It’s hard to put into words all Cantata No. 150, written the magnificent things this work in passacaglia form, as his contains; you can only listen to it inspiration. It’s also clear over and over again with reverence that he studied Bach’s organ passacaglia, as well as The and admiration.” Richard Strauss Chaconne (named after another form of variation) for violin, which he transcribed for piano of the movement’s beginning and (left hand only). Inspiration aside, the energetic ending as Brahms Brahms considerably expanded on masterfully combines the passacaglia Bach’s models for repeating a theme theme with the opening melody of over and over again with increasing the first movement. – Live it Up! 2012|13 | 31 The Artists Heather Goodchild Wade, Violin Wade Manko Heather Goodchild Wade has been Principal Second Violin with the CCSO since 2005. She also performs with the New Bedford Symphony Orchestra. She received her Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance from the University of New Hampshire and her Master of Music in Orchestral Studies from the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University. She lives in Providence with her husband, Scott, and children, Sadie (3) and Siduri (1). Favorite CCSO Memory: Tan Dun’s Concerto for Water with guest percussionist Christopher Lamb (Water Impressions 2008). “It is such an amazingly imaginative and musicallyconvincing work.” Laura Manko, Viola Abigaña 32 | Laura Manko has been Principal Viola with the CCSO since 2011. She also performs with ME2 Chamber Orchestra, the Atlantic Symphony Orchestra, the Haffner Sinfonietta and the Boston Harp Trio. She and composer Abigaña share a connection: Boston University. She received her Master of Music in Viola Performance from the university’s School of Music and is currently on the faculty of BU Tanglewood Institute. This spring, she will receive her Artist Diploma from BU. Favorite CCSO Memory: Celebrate with Yo-Yo Ma (2012). “It was such an amazing feeling to share the stage with such an incredible performer and humble human being.” Brett Abigaña, Composer Music authority Tim Reynish named him one of the 19 most influential woodwind composers. Mozart and Beethoven also made the Reynish list. Composer Brett Abigaña isn’t on his way. He’s very much arrived. Violist David Samuel, violinist Carla Leurs, The Destino Winds, ALEA III and The Afiara String Quartet have commissioned and performed his expressive music. The United States Naval Academy Band, The United States Army Field Band and Soldiers’ Chorus have called upon the composer as well. He has written several concertos, chamber music for strings and winds, song cycles and numerous pieces for orchestra and symphonic band. In addition to his composing schedule, The Juilliard School graduate is currently on faculty at Boston University (where he received his Doctorate of Musical Arts) and Boston University Academy. He is an affiliated artist with Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Associate Director of the Boston Composers’ Coalition, a non-profit collaborative organization dedicated to the creation, performance, education and dissemination of new music. After many years, Maestro Pak and Abigaña reconnected for this project. At age twelve, the composer was a member of the horn section in the Disney Young Musician’s Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Maestro Pak. Cape Cod Symphony Orchestra dining guide Live it Up! 2012|13 | 33
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