NEC Chamber Orchestra: Stravinsky, Overton, & Elgar

Igor Stravinsky | Concerto in D Major, "Basel Concerto"

Vivace
Arioso: Andantino
Rondo: Allegro

Program note

Also known as the Basle Concerto, the Concerto in D was commissioned for the Basel Chamber Orchestra in 1946 by Paul Sacher, the conductor of the ensemble.  Sacher was not only an advocate of Stravinsky during the composer’s lifetime, but in the 1980s he established the Sacher Stiftung (Sacher Foundation) in Basel, where the vast majority of the composer’s archives are now held.  This elegant string concerto was written at a time when Stravinsky was acclimatizing to Los Angeles and the dizzying popular musical styles to which he was constantly exposed.  As a result, the composer dabbled in film music, wrote ballet music for a Broadway revue, and completed a work in the jazz idiom, the Ebony Concerto for Woody Herman, written just before the Basle Concerto.
        Scored for the full complement of strings, the Concerto in D fully explores the richness of a full-blooded string ensemble in much the same way as his earlier concerto, Dunbarton Oaks, exploited the opportunities afforded by a chamber orchestra for both strings and winds.  The Basle Concerto’s string writing runs the gamut of special techniques including cleverly employed spiccato and pizzicato writing often juxtaposed with beautifully lyrical writing assigned to various parts of the orchestra. 
        The Concerto is cast in three movements and displays neoclassical writing at its cleanest—unadorned and alternately gritty and graceful without artifice.  The jutting silences and syncopations obvious throughout the first movement, for example, are characteristically Stravinskian in the way they energize the music’s flow.  The second and third movements reveal a composer still committed to the “tension and release” formula of tonality but increasingly allowing prolonged dissonances to stand on their own without immediate resolutions.  The work was composed entirely in Hollywood shortly before Stravinsky undertook his landmark ballet Orpheus, also notable for its luminous string writing.

Hall Overton | Symphony for Strings

With drive
Adagio sostenuto
Allegro

Program note

For me personally, tonight’s performance of Hall Overton’s Symphony for Strings by our wonderful students is a dream come true. The work was composed in 1955 and, as far as I know, only performed once. Hall Overton, composer, pianist and arranger, was my theory teacher at Juilliard. When he found out that I played jazz, he invited me to play with him at his loft on 6th Avenue in Manhattan, the now famous “Jazz Loft” portrayed in documentaries, books and recordings. I gained so much from his inspiring musicianship and mentorship. During those years I was fortunate to solo in his Sonorities with the Juilliard Orchestra, premiere and record his Pulsations and participate in the premiere of his opera, Huckleberry Finn.

Hall’s approach to composing is best described in his own words:

“Since I am both a composer and active jazz musician, my work reflects both of these sources of musical experience. As a composer, my main interest has been in the exploration of non-systematic, intuitive harmony, both tonal and dissonant from which other elements--melody, counterpoint and form--can be derived. I am not particularly concerned whether this places me in the middle of the road, left or right. Or even if there is such a thing as a road to be on or off. There are only individual expressions for which we must find the right language. My attitude towards jazz is one of deep respect. Having attempted to master this difficult and exacting art for several years, with some small degree of success, I feel that I have come to know it in a way that possible only through performing and creating in this idiom. Jazz has had a strong influence on my compositional style, but purely on a subconscious level.”

Symphony for Strings was commissioned by the Koussevitzky Music Foundation.
– Donald Palma

Edward Elgar | Introduction and Allegro, op. 47

Program note

The idea for the Introduction and Allegro was first put to Elgar by August Jaeger— Nimrod of the Enigma Variations—who suggested that he write a piece for the recently founded London Symphony Orchestra. Jaeger's proposal was for "a brilliant, quick scherzo", an apt description for this exhilarating work.
        Elgar's normal method of composition included the use of themes which he had jotted down in his sketchbooks as they occurred to him, often years earlier, waiting for the right work in which to use them. The Introduction and Allegro contains one such theme in particular, what Elgar himself referred to as the 'Welsh tune'. It had come to him in August 1901 when the Elgars had been on holiday in Cardiganshire, West Wales, supposedly inspired by the distant singing of Welsh folk tunes. Elgar believed it to capture a Welsh musical idiom and had planned to use it in a projected Welsh Overture. That work never materialised, however, so Elgar used the theme in this work instead.
        Despite a number of early champions, the work took many years to gain the popularity and esteem it has today. After an initial handful of performances which were generally coolly received, the work remained largely ignored for the next thirty years or so. Perhaps the complexity of the work deterred performers, for it was only with the general improvement in the standard of orchestral string sections since the Second World War that the work gained a foothold in the concert repertoire. Today, its position is secure.                                                                             – Elgar Society 

Personnel

Violin
Joshua Brown **
Sin Ying Chan
Tiffany Chang ‡‡^^
Tong Chen §§^
Youngji Choi *
Isabelle Ai Durrenberger
Boxianzi Vivian Ling §  
Jaewon Wee
Rachel Yi ‡

Viola
Chiau-Rung Chen *
Lisa Sung §
Santiago Vazquez-Loredo ‡^ 
Zhanbo Zheng

Cello
Bennet Huang §
Claire Deokyong Kim *
Soobin Kong ‡^

Bass
Jacob Kalogerakos
Diego Martinez §‡^

Principal players

§ Stravinsky
‡Overton
* Elgar solo quartet
^ Elgar



Double symbol for principal 2nd violin