NEC Chamber Orchestra: Shaw, Harberg, Schoenberg

Caroline Shaw | Entr'acte (2011)

Program note

Entr’acte was written in 2011 after hearing the Brentano Quartet play Haydn’s Op. 77 No. 2 — with their spare and soulful shift to the D-flat major trio in the minuet. It is structured like a minuet and trio, riffing on that classical form but taking it a little further. I love the way some music (like the minuets of Op. 77) suddenly takes you to the other side of Alice’s looking glass, in a kind of absurd, subtle, technicolor transition.
- Caroline Shaw

Amanda Harberg | Concerto for Piccolo and Orchestra (2021)

Allegro
Moderato
Vivace

Elizabeth McCormack

Program note

Cast in three dramatically contrasting and colorful movements—an elegant opening reminiscent of a Classical Sonata-allegro, a tender lullaby, and a closing, raucous scherzo—Amanda Harberg’s Concerto for Piccolo and Orchestra evolved from her piccolo sonata, following a commission from Philadelphia Orchestra piccoloist Erica Peel.  Yanick Nézet-Séguin, who led the premiere, praised the concerto as “an extraordinary addition” to the piccolo’s limited repertoire.  He notes that “Amanda’s creativity and unique voice are on full display in this work.  Simply in choosing to explore the piccolo’s middle and lower voices, she quietly shrugs off the mundane and explores the unexpected.  This isn’t performative, or different for the sake f being different: Amanda simply sought to highlight a particular aspect of the piccolo’s beauty which is often overlooked.  This spirit—of curiosity for curiosity’s sake, of seeking out hidden loveliness as opposed to what is immediately apparent—pervades Amanda’s work.”  Harberg’s piccolo concerto will undoubtedly remain an important and beloved fixture of the instrument’s repertoire for years to come, rewarding listeners with its individual blend of new and old.

INTERMISSION

Arnold Schoenberg | Verklärte Nacht for String Orchestra, op. 4

Program note

Composed in 1899, Verklärte Nacht is almost Wagnerian, recalling especially Tristan und Isolde, which stretched the limits of tonality and the sexual morality of the 1860s.  The title Verklärte Nacht comes from an 1896 poem by Richard Dehmel (1863–1920) that celebrates new life, both literally and figuratively.  Its form—and that of Schoenberg’s music—is an ABACA structure.  Section A recurs as a refrain in which a narrator describes a couple walking outside at night.  In section B, the woman informs her companion that she is pregnant by another man, and in section C, the man answers with exceptional understanding, compassion, and acceptance.  The transfiguring warmth shared between the man and the woman defies taboos of society to create unity for the unborn child.
       Schoenberg did not consider the piece to be true “program music.”  In 1950, he commented: “It does not illustrate any action or drama, but was restricted to portray nature and express human feelings … in other words, it offers the possibility to be appreciated as ‘pure' music.”  In 1917, Schoenberg transcribed the work for string orchestra.

Chamber Orchestra