Heights Chamber Orchestra
Concert
Sunday November 9, 2003
Program Notes
|
Overture to
"Beatrice and Benedict"
Berlioz's love of Shakespeare led to his obsession with the
actress, Harriet Smithson, ignited when he saw her play Ophelia.
He eventually married her. Shakespeare's plays also inspired three of his
major works. The Overture to
Beatrice and Benedict, an opera based upon Much Ado about Nothing, is taken from
a number of scenes in the opera. It
opens with the duel of wits in which Beatrice and Benedict admit that a
bickering marriage is preferable to a lonely bachelordom.
In a slow interlude, the
French horns introduce a theme from Beatrice's aria in which she recalls the
strange emotions that gripped her when she realized that Benedict might not
return from the war. The interlude
ends with the music that closes the 1st Act, a scene of moonlight, the scent of
flowers and the magical sounds of night. The duel of wits returns, in
somewhat altered form, but is quickly followed by a March, not actually from the
opera, but suggestive of the above-mentioned battle.
A theme from the Nuptial March for the two secondary characters, Hero and
Claudio, provides the second subject of the Overture, and the whole is brought
to an exciting conclusion with a coda, containing material not found in the
opera. Piano
Concerto No. 1 in E-minor, Op 11 When he was 20, he composed
the E-minor Concerto, an achievement which ranks with the greatest in the entire
history of the art. The E minor
Concerto embraces the most individual kinds of expression available to a
pianist. The opening Allegro begins with a statement of the movement's melodic
ideas. Strings take the lead with a
theme that is the orchestra's alone. After these ideas have been
stated, the piano enters with a bold flourish and the orchestra then becomes
accompanist, acting as a veil through which the piano shows its charms. A
distinguishing feature of Chopin's piano style is the rubato, rhythmic freedom
to hold back the tempo, a challenge for the conductor who must follow the
subtlest inflections of the soloist if they are to come out together. The second movement was
described by Chopin as romantic, calm, and partly melancholy, comparing it to a
moonlit spring landscape. The last movement is a
stylized Polish folk dance set out as a rondo.
Listen for the refrain turning a half-tone flat at one point, then
quickly righted, as it dances on in a vivacious interplay between the orchestra
and increasingly brilliant solo piano. Suite
from
"Manon Lescaut"
The opera Manon Lescaut is based on Abbe Prevost's story of a young woman
torn between the love of a poor man and the delights of riches. The Suite opens
with Puccini's view of Parisian student life: mischief, romance and laughter.
This is followed by a Minuet, in which Manon, having left her lover for a
rich man, is being taught the fashionable refinements of the well-to-do.
The Intermezzo describes
Manon's journey to Le Havre; in an effort to satisfy her conflicting desires,
she has attempted to return to her lover, but not without her recently acquired
jewels. For this she is accused by
the rich man of prostitution and theft, and has been banished to America. The
Suite ends with the scene that precedes her banishment, the arrival of the
police and her arrest. Finale
to Act II Die Fledermaus
The second act of Johan Strauss' operetta takes place at a masked ball
where he shows off his brilliance as a composer of waltzes. The plot of Die Fledermaus
revolves around jokes and deceptions. Its
title comes from the fact that Herr Eisenstein, as a joke, caused his friend Dr.
Falke to walk through town in broad daylight in his carnival bat costume. Falke has planned to get
even with Eisenstein in a series of Waltzes he arranged for the climax of his
joke. Midnight strikes (early European clocks strike only six times for
midnight), the Waltz disintegrates, and the act closes with a brief, uproarious
polka. Tonight's
Conductor Anthony Addison headed the
Opera theater Department of the Cleveland Institute of Music from 1964-81 and
started Opera al Fresco, now known as Cleveland Lyric Opera. He began his
professional career at age seven as a chorister at St. Paul' Cathedral in
London. He later studied viola and conducting at the Royal Academy
and became Chorus Master and Conductor for the Carl Rosa Opera Company.
He conducted opera in Rome's
Teatro Eliseo, and in London started the UC Opera.
From the Cleveland Institute of Music, Mr. Addison went to the University
of Texas in Austin and to Rice University in Houston.
He has produced English versions of many operas and is author of Staging
the Music, a Guide for Opera Directors and Singers, published by the
National Opera Association. Tonight's
Soloist Elizabeth Jeanne Schumann,
at age three, was already begging to be taught to play the piano, but her
parents thought she was too young. She persisted, learning to play by ear.
Eventually, her mother
contacted a local piano teacher, and--as they say--the rest is history.
At 21, Ms. Schumann has already distinguished herself many times in
competitions, winning prizes in the Bartok-Kabalevsky International Piano
Competition, the Star City Young Artists competition, the ARTS Festival, the
Heida Herrmans International Piano Competition, the Stravinsky Awards
International Piano Competition, and the Kosciuszko Piano Competition. In 2001 Elizabeth was the
youngest applicant and only American woman to be accepted into the International
Van Cliburn Competition. In the same year she won the CIM Concerto Competition. This year she took the Baroque Prize in the Cleveland
International Piano Competition and is recipient of the newest Gilmore Young
Artist Award, her most prestigious award thus far, which carries a grant of
$15,000 for education.
In the spring of 2004, Elizabeth will receive a Masters in Piano
Performance from CIM where she has studied intensively with Sergei Babayan since
she was 17. The young artist has
performed solo and chamber music in America, Europe, Australia and Asia. Notes
by Anthony Addison and Ginger Kuper |