NEC Chamber Orchestra: Herbert, Mozart, Bartók

Philip Herbert | Elegy, in memoriam Stephen Lawrence (1999)

Program note

"Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent."  Victor Hugo

Elegy was composed in February 1999 as a gesture of empathy after watching the shocking news coverage of the tragic murder of Stephen Lawrence. It was subsequently premiered by an invitation from the Prince's Foundation, for the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust's first Annual Memorial Lecture in September 2000.
        The piece is richly scored for 18 string players, one for each year of the life of Stephen Lawrence. It is a chorale in three sections, imbued with the influence of English pastoral composers. The music is slow, pensive and reflective, moving between C major and various minor tonalties throughout. The music is full of soulful harmonies with gentle dissonances in sonorous chords, under a plaintive melody. There are particularly poignant sections for soloists at the start of the piece, for a sextet and later, expressive solos for a cello.
        The middle section is characterised by a solemn theme, accompanied by a march-like texture in E-flat major moving toward a climax, before the recapitulation of material presented at the start returns. This section is abbreviated and ultimately leads to a cadence in c minor.

"There is no music having a single sound. Different sounds are needed to give music harmony"             
Dogon Oral Tradition

There is a need to place a higher value on the strength that comes from diverse peoples living together harmoniously across the world. We all have something valuable and very positive to contribute to the larger puzzle of life in the world today. Stephen Lawrence was deprived of the right to a life where he could use his talents for the good of wider society. Nevertheless, we can press together across our communities to help realise his aspirations.                                                
– Philip Herbert

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart | Divertimento for Oboe, Two Horns and Strings in D Major, K. 251

Molto allegro 
Menuetto
Andantino
Menuetto: Tema con variazioni                                                       
Rondo: Allegro assai                          
Marcia alla francese

Program note

Of the pieces of entertainment music from Mozart’s Salzburg years, the D major Divertimento, K.251, is the most substantial; it is also one of the few that seems to have a private rather than public origin, probably having been written for a garden party to celebrate the name-day of Mozart’s sister Nannerl in July 1776. Mozart usually attached the title “divertimento” to chamber rather than orchestral works, and it is likely that the first performance was given by a septet of oboe, two horns, two violins, viola and double bass. But there is nothing in the instrumental writing to prevent performance by a small orchestra; and indeed it has been suggested that the piece might have been played orchestrally for the end of term celebrations at the University of Salzburg.

INTERMISSION

Béla Bartók | Divertimento for String Orchestra, Sz 113 BB 118

Allegro non troppo
Molto adagio
Allegro assai

Program note

Béla Bartók wrote his Divertimento in the summer of 1939 when Europe was careening into World War II. He was in Switzerland on a “working vacation,” and was well aware of the situation. He wrote about it to his son: “The poor peace-loving loyal Swiss are forced to glow with war fever. Their daily papers are full of articles on protection of the country; in the more important passes are defense measures, military preparations.”
     In spite of this, Bartók was happy. “Luckily, I can banish these anxiety-provoked thoughts,” he wrote.“While I am at work it doesn't disturb me.” He was in Switzerland courtesy of Paul Sacher, the conductor of the Basel Chamber Orchestra. who commissioned him to write the Divertimento. Sacher put Bartók up in his chalet in the Alps and he was well provided for:

Somehow I feel like a musician of olden times—the invited guest of a patron of the arts.. . . they see to everything—from a distance . . . The furnishings are not in character, but so much the better, because they are the last word in comfort. The janitor's wife cooks and cleans; she is a very nice and honest woman, and my wish is her command. Recently, even the weather has been favoring me . . .

        He dashed off the Divertimento in fifteen days and then set to work on his Quartet No. 6. The Divertimento is some of Bartók’s sunniest and most accessible music, the Quartet some of his gnarliest. Like the divertimentos of the eighteenth century, Bartók’s Divertimento utilizes dance rhythms. He also hearkens back to the concerto grosso of Corelli, Handel, and Bach in which a large string orchestra contrasts with a smaller solo section.
        The first movement starts in a jaunty tempo with an optimistic melody. The soloists introduce a gentler melody. The middle part of the movement introduces some tension as orchestra and soloists alternate and Bartók employs some grating dissonance. The recapitulation of the main themes seem a bit more subdued. The second movement is eerie and dark with some surprising and terrifying outbursts. All is well again in the robust final movement. The folk-like melody gets treated to some interesting transformations and a solo cadenza. At the end, the strings wind up into a frenzied tempo for a dramatic close.

NEC Chamber Orchestra

Violin
David Carreon **
Hayong Choi * §§
Nick Hammel §
Clayton Hancock ‡‡
Masha Lakisova ‡
SooBeen Lee
Yeji Lim
Claire Thaler
Ching Shan Helen Yu

Viola
John Clark *  
Njord Fossnes §
Rituparna Mukherjee
Maureen Sheehan ‡  

Cello
Alexander Davis-Pegis §  
Claire Park *
Yi-I Stephanie Yang ‡    

Bass
Daniel Slatch

Oboe
Christian Paniagua

French horn
Willow Otten ‡
Noah Silverman

Principal players
* Herbert
‡ Mozart
§ Bartók

Double symbol for principal 2nd violin