January 6 and 7
Gusts of Snow from Winter Melodies by Mona Lyn Reese
Winter Melodies was commissioned by the Groveland String Quartet of Minneapolis (Sinfonia concertmistress Julia Persitz was the quartet’s first violinist, and Melonie Stone, the Sinfonia’s former principal violist was the violist for and founder of the quartet). The orchestra version was written for the San Jose Chamber Orchestra, honoring its tenth anniversary season. The original commission was to compose a melodious and accessible work that a widely varied audience would understand and enjoy. The Groveland Quartet wanted a piece that would evoke the images of winter – its beauty, harshness and cold. For this program, the Sinfonia performs the first movement of the quartet; Gusts of Snow. In this movement, the music depicts the wind curling tendrils of snow across a field and around trees. The quartal harmony, sliding trills, folded scales and dance-like rhythms all contribute to the open and spacious feeling of this movement. What better way to start the Sinfonia’s Great Winter Festival, than with a piece that aurally evokes a typical Minnesota winter? Notes by the composer.
Piano Concerto No. 27 in B Flat r, K. 595 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
“I declare to you before God, and as an honest man, that your son is the greatest composer I know, either personally or by name.” Franz Joseph Haydn to Leopold Mozart.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is often thought of as the boy genius who gave us hundreds of wonderful operas, symphonies, concertos, songs, etc. Thanks to the play Amadeus and the movie that followed, he is often remembered as a prankster, a fun loving child who never grew up, and a genius who was just able to spin out one masterpiece after another. Life of course is never that simple, nor was his life the happy fairy tale one so often wants to assume.
The young Mozart started music lessons at age three with his father Leopold, who in his own right was a well-known and respected violinist and teacher. By age five the young Wolfgang had progressed enough to begin public performance and composing. Soon thereafter, Leopold took both Wolfgang and his sister (who also was a talented musician) to Vienna to show them off. The boy’s reputation preceded them, and he was already called the “little magician.” The child Wolfgang performed for the royal court and was a smash hit. After the performance, he jumped into to the lap of the empress, and kissed her. The court went wild, and according to a quote from the time, “all the ladies lost their hearts to the little fellow.” The children’s early childhood was filled with many successful trips, playing concerts, and meeting important leaders and musicians. During these travels, the young Mozart continually studied and learned under the direction of his father.
Mozart’s life and career had many ups and downs. At times he was very popular and at other times, he was all but neglected. Like his popularity, his finances also had many fluctuations – sometimes he was wealthy, and at other times he was poor. In spite of the uncertainties, he was able to create more than 600 works, many of which remain popular in today’s repertoire. Included are forty-one numbered symphonies, and twenty-seven numbered piano concerti.
Mozart’s life overlapped a major shift in musical tastes. No longer were the very involved and complicated contrapuntal works of the baroque era (Bach, Handel and Telemann), in vogue, but rather a lighter, less complicated style of music emerged. It started with the rococo, later to be followed by what we now know as the classical period. Mozart (and Haydn’s) early output fell into the rococo period – the music was shorter and tended to be simpler and very economical. Melody and accompaniment were often the norm and the music was very straightforward. Later of course, both Mozart and Haydn’s musical output would become the standard for the music of their era.
Tastes in keyboard music and sounds also changed. The pianoforte was being introduced, and it gained the public’s fancy, leaving behind the baroque’s popular standard, the harpsichord. The public craved for music featuring this new instrument. Mozart was a very talented pianist (he was considered one of the best of his day), and he took full advantage of this desire and his reputation to help earn his living. He composed many concerti for his own personal use and performances. The 27th concerto, which was his last, was composed in 1791, and performed during Mozart’s last public performance during that same year. It was published a few months later, and was one of the last of his compositions to be published during his life-time. Jf
Pictures at an Exhibition by Modest Mussorgsky (1839- 1881)
Russian composer, Modest Mussorgsky is probably best known in this country for his Pictures at an Exhibition, Night on Bald Mountain, and the opera, Boris Godunov. . Inspired by the work of his friend, artist Viktor Hartmann. Pictures at an Exhibition was composed for piano during a six week span between February and March in 1874. In 1873, Hartmann died unexpectedly at age 39 from an aneurysm, and his death was such a shock, that an exhibition of over 400 of his works was quickly organized. Mussorgsky not only lent some of his personal collection for this exhibition, but he also used this exhibition an inspiration to compose an homage to his friend.
Pictures at an Exhibition is a ten-movement work, with the movements being connected by a promenade theme – the idea being that the viewer strolls from picture to picture while enjoying the collection. The pictures were drawings and watercolors that were made while the artist traveled abroad. The titles include: Gnome, The Old Castle, Tuileries (Dispute between Children at Play), Cattle, Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks, Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuyle, TheMarket at Limoges, Catacombs (With the Dead in a Dead), The Hut on Fowl’s Legs (Baba-Yaga), The Bogatyr Gates (in the Capital of Kiev).
Pictures is a real tour de force for the piano, and much of the writing translates well to orchestra. There have been over thirty orchestral arrangements of this work, and well over fifty chamber versions of at least various movements. Composers from around the world have tried their hands in this endeavor, including of course, the Frenchman, Maurice Ravel. Ravel was a master orchestrator, and his version has become the most popular and the standard of the transcriptions in the orchestral repertoire. The way he combined different instruments to create wonderful orchestral colors is truly magnificent. In fact for years, I have wanted to do an arrangement of Pictures for the Sinfonia, but held off because of my respect for the Ravel version. That being said, Ravel’s work is for very large orchestra, and of course, the Sinfonia is a much smaller size. So when one of our players approached me and said that she heard a terrific version for strings and percussion, and asked me to do something for us, that was all I needed. I started this project with the intent of trying not to mimic Ravel, and at the same time, also create something that would be good for the Sinfonia and add a substantial piece to the chamber orchestra repertoire. The task was both a challenge and a thrill. I had great fun working this out – my hope is that of course the listeners will also have great fun listening to it! jf
