NEC Wind Ensemble + Charles Peltz: Opening Explosion

George Frideric Handel | Overture to "Music for the Royal Fireworks"

Program note

In 1748 the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle was signed ending the war of Austrian succession.  The war had produced little gain for the British, and its Hanoverian king, George II, was seen as having agreed to terms too congenial to his German kin.  In an effort to demonstrate to the people of England his role in securing peace on their behalf, he commanded a great fireworks celebration in honor of the treaty (and, of course, himself.)
        Handel was commissioned to write the music, to be played by “warlike instruments”, those being trumpets and drums and other woodwinds. Handel originally scored “Fireworks Musick” for 24 oboes, 12 bassoons and contrabassoon, 9 horns, 9 trumpets and percussion but fought for the inclusion of violins as well.  There was great tension between crown and composer regarding the inclusion of strings and, although the autograph score indicates strings, these were added onto the original all winds score.
        The Overture is in the form of a French overture in three distinct parts: an opening double dotted adagio in common time followed by a sprightly 3 quarter time allegro.  The score calls for multiple repeats within the each movement.

Giovanni Gabrieli (arr. Kathryn Salfelder) | Canzona XVI, Canzona XVII

Program note

The year 2012 marked the 400th anniversary of the death of Giovanni Gabrieli, the noted director of music at St. Mark’s cathedral in Venice, in the late 16th and early 17th centuries.   His death may have been little noticed by some, but it should not have passed without celebrating Gabrieli’s indispensable contribution to instrumental music.  It was he who pioneered instrumental music which could stand alone, separate from the vocal music which instruments had usually doubled and supported in slavish unison.
        Canzona, a word explicitly meaning “song”, seems an oddly vocal title ascribed to a large number of the instrumental works in Gabrieli’s collection Canzone e Sonate of 1612, published in 1615.   In fact, these works (and the Sonatas as well) were based on the popular French chanson style of composition of the time: bursts of notes sung in short canonic sequences.  This rapid conversation between instruments was the perfect device for Gabrieli to create clear textures as his antiphonal choirs spoke to one another across the spaces at St. Mark’s cathedral in Venice, where he was director of music.
        These arrangements have been created by NEC faculty members Kathryn Salfelder and Charles Peltz. The ensemble wishes to thank John Tyson of the NEC early music faculty for his inspiring and insightful contributions to the preparation of this music.

Richard Strauss | Suite in B-flat Major, op. 4

Praeludium: Allegretto
Romanze
Gavotte
Introduction and Fugue

Program note

Richard Strauss was a musical prodigy, no question.  Tonight’s work was composed when he was a mere 17 and was written at the request of none other than Hans von Bülow, arguably Europe’s greatest conductor at the time.  The melodic and harmonic gifts that would be Strauss’ hallmarks are already in evidence in the Suite: a rich harmonic language, tonal but spiced by bass and tenor dissonances; an expressionist’s sense of the vivid primary colors of the wind instruments; and above all a flair for the theatrical gesture, which makes even the 13 orchestral winds alone sound as if they were a full orchestra unto themselves.
        The first movement is full of adolescent joy, cantering triplets carry along full-throated melody.  The second movement is a sonnet – intimate couplets heard in solos and duet; but as instruments are added and as harmonic temperatures are brought to boil, sonnet becomes epic.  The third movement is a Gavotte, drawing inspiration from the baroque dance but employing a Byzantine modal interlude that is a harbinger of Strauss’ Salome who waits off stage.  Finally, brimming with youthful confidence, Strauss works out a joyous fugue to conclude the suite.
 
- Charles Peltz

John Austin | The Circle Cannot Close (Nine Inventions on the Arrow of Time) - world premiere

Program note

The composer offers:

“One could describe The Circle Cannot Close as an A1BA2 form — B being Invention V’s mercurial rumination. However, A2 ’s reversal of A1 order, inverting of A1’s lines and changing their registrations in relationship to each other, and its added interpolations diminishes, if not thwarts, the ABA form’s usual brand of closure. Here, formal rigor is but a stealthy conduit of the music’s journey:
        A veiled fanfare heralds an uncertain future —
        Inventions I-IV — by turns questing, volatile, elegiac, mercurial —
        Invention V — improvisatory, meditative —
        Seeking to return, Invention VI echoes IV, VII revisits III, VIII mirrors II,
        IX shadows I — familiar path, but altered: formerly ascending melodies descend,        
        lines switch places, harmonies and colors change…

No arrival, no return — I’s exuberantly anticipatory bells darken to uncertainty, resignation, acceptance, elegy — chastened by life, perhaps.

In these madrigalesque miniatures, every player is a soloist.”

John Austin’s music spans works for piano, orchestra, chorus, a variety of chamber ensembles - with and without voice - music theater, and opera. The Orpheus Trio (Paula Robison, flute; Scott Nickrenz, viola; Heidi Lehwalder, harp) performed his Orpheus and the Maenads on their 1977-78 tour of the U.S. and Canada. In 1983, Austin led the University of Chicago’s Contemporary Chamber Players in his Requiem for four solo singers and 14 instruments. His Designs and Refrain (1975) won the Percussive Arts Society’s National Award; and Opera News reviewed his one-act rock and roll opera Orpheus in March 1966, several months before The Who’s Tommy. Austin’s opera Heloise and Abelard received its first performance (in concert form) in 2012 with the renowned soprano Tony Arnold as Heloise, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Harvard University Choir, Edward Elwyn Jones conducting.
                Austin’s choral and chamber vocal works include settings of Ezra Pound, William Blake, and Richard Wilbur among others. These works have been heard at Tanglewood andat Harvard. Orchestral works include Fantasia on Johann Pachelbel’s Magnificat Fuga, Quinti Toni, No. IV (1994), Echoes of Loss and Regret, Three American Love Songs for Soprano, Tenor and String Orchestra (2019), When Twilight (2019), and Gallery Songs (2021). Theater works include a ballet in progress and innovative music for MacArthur fellow Naomi Wallace’s tragic one-act play No Such Cold Thing about two teenage Afghan girls and an American GI. Austin studied with Roy Harris; Robert Lombardo (Roosevelt University M.M. 1973); and Ralph Shapey (University of Chicago Ph.D. 1981).

Jude Vaclavik | Bifrost, in memory of Christopher Rouse (East Coast premiere)

Program note

Bifrost is a tribute to my mentor and friend Christopher Rouse, written at the request of Maestro Carl St. Clair, to whom the work is dedicated. 
        In the early 1990s, Rouse composed a batch of works triggered by the sudden passing of those whose lives impacted him profoundly. My love of Chris’s music blossomed through the discovery of these pieces. It is an honor to memorialize Chris through a work of my own.
        It felt fitting to look to Norse mythology for this tribute, following Chris’s propensity for writing works after these tales and the lore of other cultures. The Bifrost is a rainbow bridge that connects Earth and the Norse kingdom of the Gods, Asgard. The concept of the Bifrost, which acts as a portal between the realms of men and Gods, was a source of inspiration for my composition. Bifrost is an abstract portrayal of one’s voyage into an afterlife, from the final moments in the physical body to the arrival upon the farther shore, the spirit’s place of repose.
        Bifrost comprises short and continuously evolving sections performed without break, lasting approximately 12 minutes in total duration. The work is scored for flute, oboe, 2 clarinets, bassoon, contrabassoon, trumpet, 2 horns, trombone, percussion, and piano. The percussion battery consists of a suspended cymbal, bass drum, glockenspiel, xylophone, and vibraphone.
        The work was completed in Houston, Texas on August 31, 2021 through the generosity of a consortium of commissioners led by Carl St. Clair and the University of Southern California Thornton School.”                       
– Jude Vaclavik

Jude Vaclavik is known for creating dynamic and kinetic works. His music has been commissioned by the New York Philharmonic, Lubbock Symphony Orchestra, New York Youth Symphony, New York City Ballet’s Choreographic Institute, New Juilliard Ensemble, and numerous universities and conservatories such as the Eastman School of Music, New England Conservatory, University of Michigan, University of North Texas, University of Southern California, among others. His works have been performed by leading artists at major venues across the United States including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and have been recognized by the American Academy of Arts and Letters and ASCAP.
        Parallel to his composing, Vaclavik served as the Director of U.S. Publishing and Promotion at G. Ricordi & Co., New York and began his publishing career at Boosey & Hawkes as the Director of Promotion. Vaclavik has also held administrative positions at The Juilliard School, Juilliard’s Evening Division and Utah State University.
        A native of Houston, Texas, Vaclavik holds a Doctor of Musical Arts in Music Composition from The Juilliard School where he also earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees, studying with Christopher Rouse and John Corigliano. He lives with his wife and two children in Houston.

Personnel

Flute
Zoe Cagan
Javier Castro
Jeong Won Choe
Anna Kevelson
Clara Lee
Yang Liu
Hui Lam Mak
Chase McClung
Yeyoung Moon
Nnamdi Odita-Honnah
Mara Riley
Erika Rohrberg
Elena Rubin
Aimee Toner
Megan Trach

Oboe
Izumi Amemiya
Ryoei Leo Kawai
So Jeong Kim
Samuel Rockwood
Nathalie Graciela Vela
Kip Zimmerman

Clarinet
Tyler J. Bourque
Ching-Wen Chen
Hyunwoo Chun
Benjamin Cruz
Soyeon Park
Erica Smith

Bassoon
Delano Bell
Andrew Brooks
Andrew Flurer
Chaoyang Jing
Miranda Macias
Daniel McCarty
Richard Vculek

Saxophone
Alexis Aguilar
Chen Guancong
Rayna DeYoung
Alicia Camiña Ginés
Jinghao Li
Guanlong Shen
Juchen Wang

French horn
Alex Daiker
Drew Hayes
Karlee Kamminga
Hannah Messenger
Yeonjo Oh
Paolo Rosselli
Tasha Schapiro
Sophie Steger
Helen Wargelin

Trumpet
Cameron Abtahi
Jake Baldwin
Charlie Jones
Qiyun Liu
Ryan O’Connell
David O’Neill
Alex Prokop
Dimitri Raimonde
Kimberly Sabio
Wentao Xiao

Trombone
Noah Bianchetta
Puyuan Chen
Katie Franke
Zach Johnson
Quinn McGillis
Jianlin Sha
Matt Vezey

Bass Trombone
Changwon Park

Euphonium
Jack Earnhart

Tuba
Colin Benton
Jim Gifford
David Stein

Percussion
Ross Hussong
Stephanie Nozomi Krichena
Taylor Lents
Pei Hsien Lu
Parker Olson
Hayoung Song
David Uhlmann
Tennison Watts
Leigh M. Wilson
Yiming Yao

Harp
Yvonne Cox
Hannah Cope Johnson
Shaylen Joos
Zi Li
Morgan Mackenzie Short

Double Bass
Misha Bjerkson

Piano
Qi Liang
Pin-Chieh Chen