Claire Fox Hillard, Music Director
A publication of the Albany Symphony Association designed to provide insight into performances
by the Albany Symphony Orchestra
Concert Study Guide
Saturday, February 28, 2015
7:30 PM
Albany Municipal Auditorium
WATER
“Brave the Elements”
with the Albany Symphony’s
2014 – 2015 season
The Albany Symphony Orchestra’s “Brave the
Elements” season continues with Beethoven in
Blue Jeans, a “WATER” themed concert
featuring the world premieré performance of
Steven Landis’ “Thronateeska” composed about
the Flint River. The concert is Saturday,
Concert
Features:
February 28, 2015 at 7:30 PM in the Albany
 Beethoven’s Symphony #6 “Pastoral”
Municipal Auditorium with Pre-Concert Notes
 Smetana’s “Moldau” from Ma Vlast
from the stage at 6:30 PM with
Maestro Claire Fox Hillard and
composer Steven Landis.
The
concert also includes
more
 World Premieré of “Thronateeska”
 American composer Steven Landis
 A symphonic poem
 A programmatic symphony
THRONATEESKA: a concerto
for mixed quartet and orchestra
Thronateeska by Steven Landis was commissioned in
celebration of the Albany Symphony Orchestra’s 50th
Season. Cast in three continuous movements, the
composition explores the impact that the Flint River has
had upon the region and the environs of which the river is
comprised. The geological features of flint and its use in
local pre-Columbian History inspire the first movement.
The second movement pays homage to the delicate and
simple beauty of Spider Lilies in bloom, unique to the
Flint River Basin. The Flint River has influenced the
course of human history for thousands of years.
The final movement is a survey of events as perceived by
Steven Jon Landis, Jr.
the river. The concerto was composed for the new music
quartet enhakē as soloists and the Albany Symphony
Orchestra. Landis, a native of Gainesville, Florida, works
BORN: January 12, 1977
with many mediums including solo instrumental, mixed
in Hollywood, Florida
chamber groups, large ensembles, digital and mixed
media, as well as film and theater. Most recently, he has
http://slandismusic.com/
taught Composition at Salem College in Winston-Salem,
North Carolina. Steven earned an MM in Composition
from The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, as well as an MM in Double Bass
Performance and a BM in Composition from The University of Florida. He is currently pursuing
a DMA in Composition at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory.
enhakē
…is constantly inspiring audiences around the world with its
electrifying and sincere renditions of chamber music repertoire.
Spanning classical to contemporary masterworks, enhakē has been
praised for its “playing of the very highest caliber” (Fanfare) and
“keen instinct for exciting programmes" (BBC Music Magazine). The
group’s 2010 Carnegie Hall recital Made in America was lauded for its
"rock solid rhythmic integrity...strengths in balance, intonation, and
musicality” and described as a “polished, yet spontaneous
performance" (The New York Concert Review). The grand-prize
winner of the Yellow Springs Chamber Music Competition (2009),
gold medalist of the International Chamber Music Ensemble
Competition at Carnegie Hall (2008) and laureate of the Osaka
International Chamber Music Competition (2011), enhakē regularly
performs throughout the world’s most exciting venues. A staunch
advocate of new music, they collaborate with leading composers such
as Libby Larsen, Peter Lieuwen, and Edward Knight who have written
for and/or dedicated music to the group. enhakē can be heard on
NPR stations and on its CDs on the Emeritus and Naxos labels.
2
Smetana’s
well-known
“Vltava”
depicting the Moldau river and
Beethoven’s picturesque Symphony No. 6, the
“Pastoral,” with it’s flowing stream and mighty
thunderstorm.
Bedř ich Smetana
BORN: March 2, 1824
in Litomysl, Bohemia
DIED: May 12, 1884
in Prague, Bohemia
For the 2014-2015 season Maestro Hillard has
created a concert series based on the four basic
natural elemental elements. The remaining
concert is: “EARTH” – April 11, 2015 featuring
native American flutist Joseph FireCrow
performing a multi-media work by James Cocky,
“The Gift of the Elk.”
Vltava (The Moldau)
from “My Country”
Tickets may be purchased for each concert
individually or the series may be purchased as a
season package. Several options are available,
including an “All-for-One” package, which also
includes the popular Symphony @ the Museum
chamber music series.
Vltava (The Moldau) is the second
symphonic poem by Bedřich Smetana in his
cycle Má Vlast (My Country). It portrays
the river, which rises in the Šumava Forest
and
flows
through
the
Bohemian
countryside and the city of Prague before
joining the River Elbe. The course of the
river provides a ready-made musical
structure; the Moldau is in a modified rondo
form, with the flowing theme of the river
recurring in different forms between
colorful episodes depicting Bohemian life
and folklore along the riverside. Two brooks,
portrayed by two flutes, form the sources of
the river; these flow into the main stream of
the river itself, - a surging string melody.
Hunting horns are heard in the forests,
before the river flows past a rustic wedding
celebration where the guests are dancing a
polka. The next episode portrays moonlight
shimmering on the river in magical
orchestral colors. The music accelerates and
grows agitated as the river crashes over the
Rapids of St. John, above Prague, and finally
sweeps through the Czech capital itself. The
majestic chorale-theme of Vysehrad, the
great rock-fortress that is the symbol of the
Czech nation, towers over the closing bars,
as the Moldau flows unstoppably onwards to
the Elbe.
To purchase tickets, patrons can call the Albany
Symphony offices Monday – Friday between
10:00 AM – 4:00 PM, at (229) 430-8933 or online:
www.albanysymphony.org
Student, senior, and military discounts are
available.
Bedrich Smetana
3
Symphony No. 6 in F major, Op. 68 “Pastoral”
Ludwig van Beethoven was always most at ease when vacationing in the countryside, where he
could take long solitary walks through fields and the woods. As he wrote once to a friend, "How
glad I am to be able to roam in wood and thicket, among the trees and flowers and rocks. No
one can love the country as I do...my bad hearing
does not trouble me here. In the country, every tree
seems to speak to me, saying 'Holy! Holy!' In the
woods, there is enchantment which expresses all
things." Those words could have been written by
Henry Thoreau – they come from the pen of a man
who felt trapped by human society. Although this
love of nature is heard in several of Beethoven’s
works, no piece is more clearly in that spirit than
the Symphony No. 6 “Pastoral.” It was composed in
the summers of 1807 and 1808. The titles of each
of the “Pastoral” Symphony's five movements give a
clear picture of what the composer had in mind.
The first, "Awakening of Cheerful Feelings on Arriving in
the Country," sets the idyllic mood, which continues
throughout the piece.
A skipping rhythm is
heard throughout this movement, as if the composer
were imagining village children at play. The second
BORN: December 17, 1770
movement is a "Scene by the Brook," in this case, a brook
in Bonn, Germany
frequented by quails, cuckoos, and nightingales whose
DIED:
March
26, 1827
voices are evoked by the woodwinds. In the third
in Vienna, Austria
movement, Beethoven turns to a human inspiration.
"Merry Gathering of the Country Folk," portrays a village
dance. A friend of the composer's claimed that this movement was meant to depict a village band,
valiantly playing through a haze of alcohol. A comic touch is Beethoven's depiction of the rustic
bassoon player, able to play only two notes (F and C) and coming in at all the "wrong"
moments. Like all merrymaking, this party too comes to an end, in this case, with a change in the
weather, as the fourth movement, "Thunderstorm," arrives. The storm rages away throughout the
orchestra, then gradually subsides with the beginning of the fifth movement, "Shepherd's Song –
Happy, Thankful Feelings after the Storm."
Ludwig van Beethoven
http://www.biography.com/people/ludwig-van-beethoven-9204862
Upcoming events:
Sunday, March 8, 2015
Symphony @ the Museum
4:00 PM
The Guidonian Hand – trombone quartet
Saturday, April 11, 2015
“EARTH”
7:30 PM
Joseph Firecrow, native American flute
www.albanysymphony.org
P.O. Box 70065 * Albany, GA 31708-0065 * (229) 430-8933 * Fax (229) 430-8934