Lexington Symphony: April 8 2006 Concert

Saturday April 8 2006, 8:00 pm, National Heritage Museum

Pre-concert talk 7:00 pm

David Rockefeller Jr., narrator

Wachner	Midnight Ride of Paul Revere
Barber	Violin Concerto
Copland	Old American Songs

Special Feature: Children's Event 2:30-5:00 pm

Jason Horowitz: "eloquent and...wonderfully adept"

--The Boston Herald

Continuing a tradition of performing American music in recognition of Lexington's Patriots Day celebration, this program features a setting of Longfellow's famous poem by the prize-wining composer Julian Wachner. Soaring melody is at the fore in Barber's beloved Violin Concerto, while Copland's creative settings of American folk songs, performed by Robert Honeysucker and the award-winning Lexington High School Madrigal Singers, are sure to please young and old alike.

Photographer Alice M. Hughey will be showing Variations on a Theme in the lobby.

"Copland's...Old American Songs...[were] sung with plush lyricism and raucous wit by one of Boston's best singers,... Robert Honeysucker"

--The Boston Phoenix

Program Notes

Wachner Midnight Ride of Paul Revere

Julian Wachner's The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere, set to Longfellow's familiar text, was the second work to be commissioned by the Boston Landmarks Orchestra, and received its first performance by that ensemble, Charles Ansbacher directing, in June of 2004. The work was written specifically for children to enjoy, and as such has joined the company of Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf, Britten's Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra, and Pinkham's Make Way for Ducklings, the last-named having also been written specifically for the BLO.

In addition to the challenge of confronting any inhibitions he might have had about writing a "kid's piece," the composer had to deal with the dramatic challenges of the poem itself.

The poem takes a good two pages before it gets exciting. There's a description of the Mystic River and ships sailing, and the music might have sounded a little bit static.

Wachner's "remedy" was to include enough rhythmic, jazzy elements to keep the children interested. Once the action picks up, the musical images naturally become more vivid.

The music has to take the part of the characters and the horse, as well as portray the excitement of the British Army approach and the birth of America. So there are a lot of trumpet calls, horn calls, piccolo tunes, and fifes like those of revolutionary America, ... of all these wonderful American images.

The composer has noted, however, that "it still sounds like music from a 21st century composer," and that there are plenty of modern musical elements at play. There will also be spooky water music, a bassoon solo for the invading boats, and a string chorale for the Old North Church graveyard. And there will certainly be opportunity for the kids to join in. A good time to be had by all!

Ken Seitz

Barber Violin Concerto

Samuel Barber's Concerto for Violin and Orchestra was commissioned in the spring of 1939, a year after the composer's international status had been confirmed by the NBC Symphony's broadcast of his Adagio for Strings under the direction of Arturo Toscanini. The source for the commission was the Philadelphia soap magnate Samuel Fels, who requested the work for a young Russian-born violinist by the name of Iso Briselli. Briselli had come to this country in 1924 from Berlin with his then teacher, Carl Flesch; the relationship between Briselli and Fels, a strong supporter of the arts, has been alternately described as "ward," "protegé," and "adopted son."

Fels proved willing to subsidize the violinist's desire to have a concerto from the American composer, who wrote the first two movements of the commissioned work that same summer. (Barber was then living in a small Swiss villa, thanks in part to the advance for the commission.) Briselli's reaction to the music sent to him was full of "enthusiasm and admiration," according to George Diehl in an article in the November 1995 issue of The Strad.

Following the breakout of war in Europe, Barber returned to Philadelphia and a teaching post at the Curtis Institute of Music; he finished the last movement of the concerto in July of 1940. When the violinist received the finale, his initial reaction, again according to Diehl, was that "as a moto perpetuo it did not match the quality or substance of the first two movements." Briselli apparently suggested that the finale be rewritten, a notion firmly rejected by the composer, who then returned the advance he had received from Samuel Fels.

(Earlier writings by other commentators would refer to Briselli's having complained originally that the first two movements were too easy and not virtuosic enough, with Barber reacting to the criticism by writing a perpetual motion finale, and Briselli then maintaining that the finale was unplayable, followed by Fels refusing to pay the remainder of the commission.)

This musicological soap opera notwithstanding, Herbert Baumel, a student at Curtis, having none of Briselli's reservations as to either quality, suitability, or playability of the concerto, learned the music rather quickly and performed it for a small, invited audience with the school orchestra conducted by Fritz Reiner. The public premiere took place on February 5th, 1941, with Albert Spalding taking the solo part and Eugene Ormandy conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra. It is reported that Briselli eventually did play the work privately, never attempting it in public. It is also reported that the commission fee was eventually paid in full.

Barber revised the work in 1948, but it was not until the early 1950s that the first recording was made of the piece. In 1965, a recording by Isaac Stern and Leonard Bernstein brought the Violin Concerto into the mainstream; since then it has become one of Barber's most frequently performed compositions. It was even transcribed by James Galway for flute (with the composer's approval) in 1980, although that adaptation has yet to challenge the popularity of the Concerto as originally designed by the composer.

Ken Seitz

Copland Old American Songs

In 1950, Aaron Copland was asked by Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears to arrange a group of American songs which they could perform at the Music and Arts Festival which Britten had founded in 1948 at Aldeburgh, England. Copland responded with a set of five Old American Songs, first performed in October of 1951 by the two British musicians; the first American performance took place in New York's Town Hall with William Warfield as soloist and Copland himself at the piano. This first set proved to be so successful that Copland wrote a second volume of five songs which he and Warfield premiered at the Castle Hill Concerts in Ipswich, Massachusetts in July of 1952. Within a few years, Copland had transcribed both sets for solo voice and orchestra.

The Boatmen's Dance was discovered by Copland in a collection of songs at Brown University Library; the tune was written by Daniel Decatur Emmett, the composer of Dixie. Copland's arrangement includes a banjo-like accompaniment and a musical echo down the length of the River "O-hi-o."

The Dodger is a satirical song which emerged during the 1884 presidential campaign of Grover Cleveland and his rival, James G. Blaine. The original verses targeted a number of professions; Copland's setting is limited to stanzas satirizing the political candidate, preachers, and overconfident men with amorous intent.

Long time Ago is thought to have originated as a blackface tune, and comes from the same collection as The Boatmen's Dance. The nostalgic lyrics reminisce of a maid beloved and cherished who perished "a long time ago."

Simple Gifts, a Shaker hymn tune dating back as early as 1848, was selected by Copland for its peaceful attitude. According to William Warfield, the composer wanted it "simple, almost recitative-like in quality, so you wouldn't feel it as a rhythmic, bouncy thing ... Aaron even put the chords on the off-accented beat to be sure it wouldn't be sung with that regular rhythmic feeling."

I Bought Me a Cat features a a steadily increasing array of barnyard animals and their characteristic sounds (including "the wife"). Copland was introduced to this song by his friend, the playwright Lynn Riggs, who had sung it as a boy in Oklahoma. The orchestra is particularly effective with its colorful, dissonant punctuation.

The Little Horses, a Southern children's lullaby, comes from the John A. and Alan Lomax collection, Folk Song USA. The subtly alternating speeds prescribed by the composer help to convey the image suggested by the title.

Zion's Walls is a revivalist song discovered by Copland in a compilation of spirituals compiled in 1943 by George P. Jackson; the composer altered the original text from praises of Jesus to the praises of Zion. The tune and its countermelody were also used by Copland in The Promise of Living from his opera The Tender Land.

The Golden Willow Tree is based on a children's song, The Golden Vanity, discovered by Copland on a Library of Congress recording.The composer substantially reduced the number of verses, although the song remains the longest of the Old American Songs.

At the River is probably the most recognized of the songs; it was written in 1865 by the Baptist minister Robert Lowry as an expression of hope and redemption for a country torn apart by the Civil War.

Ching-a-Ring Chaw is another minstrel tune from Brown University's collection. Although much taken with the tune and its nonsense refrain, Copland was careful to redo the original verses (advocating the repatriation of African-Americans to Haiti) to create a more universal vision of the promised land.

Ken Seitz