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Robert Moody, conductor

PSO Principal Musicians:

Lisa Hennessy, flute John Boden, hornAmanda Hardy, oboe Joe Foley, trumpetThomas Parchman, clarinet Nicholas Orovich, tromboneJanet Polk, bassoon John Tanzer, timpani

BÉLA BARTÓK Rumanian Folk Dances, for String Orchestra(1881 - 1945) I. Jocul cu bâtǎ (Stick Dance) II. brâul (Waistband Dance) III. Pe loc (Stamping Dance, or on the Spot) IV. buciumeana (hornpipe Dance) V. Poarga româneascǎ (rumanian Polka) VI. Mǎrunţel (Quick Dance) FRANK MARTIN Concerto for 7 Wind Instruments, (1890 - 1974) Timpani and Strings I. Allegro II. Adagietto - Misterioso ed elegante III. Allegro vivace PSO PRINCIPAL MUSICIANS

intermission HECTOR BERLIOZ Symphonie fantastique (Fantastic Symphony), Op. 14(1803 - 1869) I. rêveries, Passions II. un bal (A ball) III. Scène aux champs (Scene in the Country) IV. Marche au supplice (March to the Scaffold) V. Songe d’une nuit du sabbat (Dream of a Witches’ Sabbath)

As a courtesy to the musicians and other audience members, please remember to turn off all cellular phones, watch signals, and electronic devices. The use of photographic and recording equipment during the performance is strictly prohibited. This concert will last approximately one hour and forty-five minutes, including intermission.

This program is made possible with generous underwriting support from Sue and Hank Schmitt, as well as individual donors to the Annual Fund.

Please join Maestro Moody for our PostConcert Q&A in Merrill Auditorium immediately following tonight’s performance, sponsored by R. M. Davis.

This concert can be heard on the Maine Public broadcasting Network over the radio on Wednesday, November 26, 2014, at 8pm.

90th Season, 2014-15 • www.PortlandSymphony.org

Tuesday, November 11, 2014 at 7:30 PM Merrill Auditorium

Concert Conversation at 6:15 PMRehearsal Hall

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BÉLA BARTÓK Rumanian Folk Dances, for String Orchestra

Béla Bartók was born in Nagyszent-miklós, Hungary (now Sînnicolau Mare, Romania) in 1881; he died in New York in 1945. He originallly composed this work in 1915 for piano and orchestrated it two years later. This version for string orchestra was arranged by Arthur Willner in 1937.

bartók and Kodály surprised the world: when they went into the field with notebooks and edison cylinders to record true hungarian folk music, they came back with treasures that were far richer and more complex than anyone had suspected. What passed for hun-garian music until then had been an er-satz variety, prettied-up for the concert hall. bartók and Kodály had the real thing, with all of its flesh and blood still on the bones. Kodály was chiefly interested in the music of the Magyars, but bartók even-tually looked beyond the hungarian borders to the folk music of many dif-ferent ethnic groups. he spent a num-ber of years collecting and studying the peasant music of romania, and he composed several works drawing from that rich tradition. For the rumanian Folk Dances, bartók selected seven fiddle tunes and arranged them for the piano; his verson for orchestra came soon after. bartók presents the romanian melodies unal-

tered, but the accompaniments have a certain amount of harmonic freedom. The seven short tunes are Jocul cu bâtă (Stick Dance), Brâul (Sash Dance), Pe loc (In one Spot), Buciuneasca (horn Dance), Poarga româneascoă (romanian Polka), and two varieties of Mărunţel (Fast Dance). They range from the stately to the boisterous, and all are enriched in this version for string orchestra.

FRANK MARTIN Concerto for 7 Wind Instruments, Timpani and Stings

Frank Martin was born in Geneva, Switzerland in 1890 and died in Naarden, the Netherlands in 1974. He composed this work in 1949 on a commission from the orchestra of the Bern Musikgesellschaft, who gave the first performance the same year un-der the direction of Luc Balmer. The score calls for flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn, trumpet, trombone soloists, with timpani, percussion and strings.

Swiss-born Frank Martin decided to become a composer at age twelve, when he heard a performance of bach’s Saint Matthew Passion. he sang, played the violin, and often appeared as a per-former on the piano or harpsichord. he never attended a conservatory—as a composer he was largely self-taught. Martin’s parents expected him to become a mathematician. Perhaps not

About the Music November 11, 2014

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surprisingly, he valued order and logic in music. he admired ravel, recoiled at the unbridled freedom of Debussy, and was excited by the possibilities of Schoenberg’s techniques, though he could never warm to the music itself. ernest Ansermet, the conductor of the orchestre de la Suisse romande, be-came a life-long friend. he encouraged the young Martin, introduced him to the best French music of the day and conducted many of Martin’s premieres. Martin wrote works in most musi-cal genres, including operas, oratorios, concertos, solo works and chamber music. he moved to the Netherlands (the home of his third wife) after World War II, composing his Concerto for Seven Winds there and in Geneva in 1949. The Concerto’s first movement in-troduces the soloists—oboe, clarinet, horn, trumpet, trombone, bassoon and flute—with characteristic music for each. The soloists appear (as they do throughout the piece) more often in combination, though each has a solo turn or two as well. The music is highly rhythmic and often severe. The second movement sets up a rhythmic pulse that Martin said should be “imperturbably even” until the ritard before the trombone solo near the end. over this reference point comes a suc-cession of themes from the soloists, “some elegant and serene, others som-ber and violent.” The Finale is Martin’s take on the traditional rondo form, with a recur-ring theme in the orchestra (scored dif-ferently each time it appears) separat-ing sections that focus on the soloists. A cadenza for timpani leads to a ma-niacal march that only reluctantly gives way to the more lyrical closing music.

HECTOR BERLIOZ Symphonie fantastique (Fantastic Symphony), Op. 14

Hector Berlioz was born in La Côte-Saint-André, France, in 1803 and died in Paris in 1869. He completed his Symphony fantastique in 1830, and it was performed in Paris the same year under the direction of François-Antoine Haberneck. The symphony is scored for 2 flutes, picco-lo, 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, E-flat clarinet, 4 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 cornets, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, 2 ophicleides (usually substituted with 2 tubas), timpani, percussion, 2 harps and strings.

“I am plunged in the anguish of an interminable and inextinguishable pas-sion . . . all my remembrances awake and unite to wound me; I hear my heart beating, and its pulsations shake me as the piston strokes of a steam engine. each muscle of my body shudders with pain. useless! Frightening!” With this hyperbolic prose berlioz described his infatuation with harriet Smithson, an Irish actress whom ber-lioz had seen play ophelia and Juliet in Paris. he had yet to meet the woman. he bombarded her with feverish love letters, which frankly scared her off. She returned to england; he, at age 26, composed his Symphonie fantistique. berlioz subtitled his work “episode in the life of an artist” and gave audi-ences the following scenario: “A young musician of unhealth-ily sensitive nature and endowed with vivid imagination has poisoned himself with opium in a paroxysm of lovesick despair. The narcotic dose he had taken

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was too weak to cause death, but it has thrown him into a long sleep accompa-nied by extraordinary visions. In this condition his sensations, his feelings, and his memories fi nd utterance in his sick brain in the form of musical im-agery. even the beloved one takes the form of a melody in his mind, like a fi xed idea which is ever returning and which he hears everywhere.” This bit of melody, which berlioz called an idée fi xe, is fi rst played by the violins in the Allegro of the fi rst move-ment; it returns throughout the sym-phony to haunt the young musician. I. Dreams, Passions. “The young musician sees for the fi rst time a wom-an who embodies all the charms of the ideal being of whom he has dreamed, and he falls helplessly in love with her . . . he thinks of his almost insane anxi-ety of mind, of his raging jealousy, of his reawakening love, of his religious consolation.” II. A Ball. “In a ballroom, amidst the confusion of a brilliant festival, he fi nds the beloved one again.” III. Scene in the Fields. “Finding himself in the country at evening, he hears in the distance two shepherds piping the call to their fl ocks. he re-fl ects on his isolation; he hopes that soon he will no longer be alone. his heart stops beating: what if she were deceiving him? At the end, one of the shepherds resumes his melody, but the other no longer replies . . . the distant sound of thunder . . . solitude . . . si-lence.” IV. March to the Scaffold. “he dreams he has murdered his beloved, has been condemned to death, and is being led to his execution. At last, the idée fi xe returns, and for a moment a last thought of love is revived—only to

be cut short by the deathblow.” We hear the chop of the guillotine, the plop of the head into the basket and the cheer of the crowd. V. Dream of a Witches’ Sabbath. “he dreams that he is present at a witches’ revel, surrounded by horrible spirits, amidst sorcerers and monsters in many fearful forms, who have come together for his funeral. The beloved melody is heard again, but it has lost its shy and noble character; it has become a vulgar, trivial, grotesque dance tune.” A bell tolls for the dead and the witch-es’ round dance combines with the dies irae in the movement’s blazing rush to the end. It is easy to make light of berlioz’ histrionic emotional states, but the musical originality of Symphonie fan-tastique—composed a mere three years after the death of beethoven—is almost beyond comprehension. Program mu-sic had never before been carried to this extreme—we are a long way, here, from the nightingale, quail, and cuckoo of beethoven’s Sixth—and there was no looking back. likewise, the use of a re-curring theme was not new, but never had such a theme driven a whole work, dramatically and musically, as did ber-lioz’ idée fi xe. And the whole sound of the work, with its orchestral color com-ing in infi nite gradations between ex-quisite and grotesque, was nothing less than revolutionary. The “young musi-cian of unhealthily sensitive nature and endowed with vivid imagination” had composed the most remarkable fi rst symphony ever written.

– Mark Rohr is the bass trombonist for the PSO.Questions or comments?

markrohrprogramnotes@gmail.com

Visit Online Insights at PortlandSymphony.org to learn more about this concert.

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about the Artists LISA HENNESSy is principal flut-ist with the Portland Symphony or-chestra, boston landmarks orchestra and boston ballet orchestra. She also performs regularly with boston lyric opera, boston Philharmonic, boston Pops esplanade orchestra, boston Mu-sica Viva, rhode Island Philharmonic and other orchestras throughout New england. lisa maintains a private flute studio and has given masterclasses for the Greater boston Flute Association, the longy School of Music and the university of Southern Maine. She holds a Master’s in Music, with dis-tinction in performance, from the New england Conservatory, and a bachelor of Arts in Music, summa cum laude, from the university of houston. While earning her degrees, she studied with byron hester, principal flutist of the houston Symphony, and renowned flute soloist Paula robison. In 1994, lisa was the winner of boston’s James Pappoutsakis Flute Competition and NeC’s Concerto Competition. She has been a featured soloist on WGbh ra-dio’s Boston Performances and with the Portland Symphony and boston land-marks orchestra. She has made re-cordings for the A & e Cable Network and the Naxos American Classics and Chandos labels. The Boston Music In-telligencer has described her as having “a silvery, round sound ...ravishing and so patently secure.”

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AMANDA HARDy, joined the Port-land Symphony orchestra as princi-pal oboe in November 2013 where she occupies the Clinton Graffam Chair. As a recipient of the Gillet Scholar-

ship and Tourjée Alumni Scholarship Award, Amanda studied with boston Symphony principal oboist John Fer-rillo at the New england Conserva-tory (NeC). She was winner of the 2010 borromeo String Quartet Guest Artist Award Competition, which re-sulted in a solo performance with the ensemble; and she also has appeared as soloist with the boston Pops in Symphony hall, the Chelsea Music Festival orchestra in NyC, the NeC bach ensemble, the Drake Symphony orchestra, and the Des Moines youth Symphony. In 2006, Amanda won the grand prize for Iowa’s bill riley Talent Search, giving her state-wide televised recognition. recently, she has been guest principal oboe with the boston Pops, boston Philharmonic, A Far Cry Chamber orchestra, emmanuel Mu-sic and the Des Moines Symphony, and frequently plays with the boston Symphony, the boston Pops and the boston Pops esplanade orchestra. Amanda is on the faculty of New eng-land Conservatory Preparatory School and also teaches at Northeastern uni-versity. She holds a bachelor of Mu-sic in oboe with a piano minor from Drake university and a Master of Mu-sic and Graduate Diploma from NeC. her summer activities have included the Masterworks Festival, the Aspen Music Festival and School, the Chelsea Music Festival, and the Tanglewood Music Center in 2010 and 2011 where she was awarded the Mickey l. hooten Memorial Award both summers.

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DR. THOMAS PARCHMAN, clarinet-ist, came to Maine in 1984 as a result

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of a joint search between the univer-sity of Southern Maine and the Port-land Symphony orchestra. he holds the rank of Professor at uSM, and has been the Principal Clarinetist with the orchestra since his arrival. Dr. Parch-man holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the university of South-ern California, a Master of Music from Northwestern university, and a bach-elor’s degree in both Music educa-tion and Performance from Southern Methodist university. his principal teachers have been Clark brody (Chi-cago Symphony), larry Combs (Chi-cago Symphony), robert Marcellus (Cleveland orchestra) and Mitchell lurie (Chicago Symphony and solo-ist). As a clarinetist and saxophonist, Dr. Parchman performs music in a variety of styles from concerti, sonatas, chamber music, orchestra, ballet, and opera. Thomas Parchman was born in Memphis, Tennessee. his early musi-cal training was in public school bands and youth orchestras, and his first op-portunity to perform in an opera was as a member of the on-stage band in Verdi’s Aida with the Metropolitan op-era when it toured to Memphis. This early experience was the first of many in opera, which led to a twenty-five year association with the Spoleto Fes-tival and the Festival dei due Mondi as both and administrator and performer. he now is the Principal Clarinetist with PorTopera as well as the orches-tra Manager. In his role as a Profes-sor of Music, Dr. Parchman has been involved in the creation of new curri-cula for both the School of Music and the university at large with its general education program. he was part of a team that created a new entry year ex-perience course “Musician’s health: A

Path to Peak Performance.” This fall he will teach a new general education course in ethics “Devils, Dwarfs, and Dragons: Anti-Semitism in Music.”

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JANET POLK is principal bassoon-ist of the Portland Symphony and the Vermont Symphony as well as op-era North and PorTopera. She has also performed with many of New england’s orchestras and traveled to honduras through the Partners of the Americas. A committed chamber musician, she won prizes in the Inter-national Concert Artists Guild compe-tition and John Knowles Paine compe-tition, and performed at the prestigious round Top Festival in Texas with the block ensemble. With the oboe, bas-soon and piano trio Sospiri, she has recorded a CD titled Trios of the 20th and 21st Centuries. recent chamber music engagements have included the Sebago long lake Music Festival, Maine Mountain Chamber Music, and the radius ensemble. Active as a soloist, she has performed concertos with the Vermont Symphony, Portland Symphony, Indian hill Symphony, Dartmouth Symphony, uNh orches-tra, Northampton (Mass.) Chamber orchestra and Furman university Concert band, and given recitals at New england colleges and universi-ties. She has premiered the Concerto for bassoon and Strings by Gwyneth Walker and Sonata for bassoon and Piano by Christopher Kies. both of these works were composed especially for her. In addition to her performing career, Ms. Polk teaches bassoon at the university of New hampshire and Dartmouth College. She lives in Dur-

ham, Nh with her musicologist hus-band, Keith Polk.

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JOHN C. BODEN has held the position of Principal horn of the Portland Sym-phony orchestra since 1981. John is active as a freelance musician and has worked with virtually all of the profes-sional orchestras in New england. he was a member of the block ensemble, is a long-time member of the Portland brass Quintet and has performed at the Sebago long-lake Chamber Mu-sic Festival and the bowdoin Summer Music Festival. he has also performed as a soloist and clinician throughout the Midwest, New england, Austria and Panama. on natural horn, John has performed with the handel & haydn Society of boston, boston ba-roque, Philharmonia baroque orches-tra of San Francisco, Apollo’s Fire of Cleveland, Sante Fe Pro Musica, the Washington bach Consort, the Alos ensemble and the American bach So-loists.John holds a bachelor of Music degree from Northwestern university and a Master of Music degree from the university of Missouri at Kan-sas City Conservatory. he has studied with James Funkhouser (Kansas City Philharmonic), Frank brouk and Dale Clevenger (Chicago Symphony), Nancy Cochran-block, Philip Farkas, richard Seraphinoff (Indiana university) and Douglas hill (university of Wisconsin). Prior to coming to Maine, John boden was principal horn of the omaha Sym-phony and a member of the Midlands Woodwind Quintet. During a leave of absence in the 1995-96 season, he served as principal horn of the utah Symphony under the direction of Jo-seph Silverstein. The bodens (John,

Dawn, Daniel, and Ashley) live in lib-erty, Maine where John and Dawn pro-vide private instruction in the boden Music Studios.

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JOSEPH DAMIAN FOLEy is a native of Concord, New hampshire. he at-tended boston university, where he studied trumpet with roger Voisin, rolf Smedvig and Peter Chapman, as well as composition with Samuel headrick. he received both his bach-elor of Music and Master of Music de-grees from bu, and was twice given the award for “outstanding brass Player.” As an orchestral musician, Mr. Foley is Principal Trumpet of the rhode Island Philharmonic, the PSo and the river oaks Chamber orchestra (roCo) of houston, TX. he has performed with such prestigious ensembles as the bos-ton Symphony, the boston Pops, the Metropolitan opera, the royal ballet of london and the New york Philharmon-ic. Also a highly sought-after chamber musician, he is a former founding member of the Atlantic brass Quintet and has performed with the boston Symphony brass Quintet, the empire brass, burning river brass, the Metro-politan opera brass, AleA III, and at the Santa Fe, buzzard’s bay and New-port Chamber Music Festivals. his first solo CD is due out this year. Mr. Foley is also a gifted arranger, with over fifty brass transcriptions to his credit. he has arranged and composed for ensembles ranging from brass quintet to jazz ensemble to full sym-phony orchestra. As an educator, he has taught at many prestigious institutions, including boston university, The bos-ton Conservatory, boston College, MIT and harvard university. he has given

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clinics and master classes around the world, and currently serves as Profes-sor of Trumpet at rhode Island College.

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NICHOLAS OROVICH has been a fac-ulty member of the Department of Mu-sic at the university of New hampshire since 1980. he holds the rank of Pro-fessor and is currently the department chair. In addition to his duties as chair, Nic teaches trombone, euphonium and tuba. he has regularly been the con-ductor of the Symphonic band, and for many years also taught second-year ear training. Since 1979, he has held the po-sition of principal trombonist with the Portland Symphony orchestra. he was a founding member of the boston Phil-harmonic orchestra (founded in 1979), and performed with the bPo regularly until retiring in 2008. he is also a for-mer principal trombonist of the New hampshire Symphony orchestra. In 2007, Nic recorded and produced a solo trombone CD, Nic Orovich…and friends. In 2013 he was the trombone soloist in Jack Teagarden enters heaven, on the uNh Wind Symphony recording, The Music of Daniel Bukvich. he is also on numerous orchestral recordings as a member of the boston Philharmonic. A native of Mayville, Wisconsin, Nic received his bachelor of Music from the university of Wisconsin-Madison, attended l’Institute de hautes etudes Musicales, in Montreux, Switzerland, and received his Masters of Music with honors from the New england Conser-vatory in boston. Nic lives in exeter, New hampshire with his wife Jeremy Townsend. They have a daughter, ol-ivia, and a son, Stephan. An avid bicy-clist, Nic rides thousands of miles each year along New hampshire’s beautiful

back roads. Twice he has ridden 700 mile solo tours of his home state of Wisconsin.

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PSo Principal Timpanist JOHN TAN-ZER joined the orchestra in the fall of 1999. originally from New york City, he grew up in bedford, MA. John at-tended the New england Conservatory of Music where he graduated with hon-ors in performance and was awarded the Tourjée Alumni Award for perfor-mance excellence. his teachers include everett beale, everett Firth and William hudgins. At the New england Conser-vatory, John was selected as a member of an exchange program with the Toho Gakuen School in Tokyo. his achieve-ments includes a two-time Tanglewood Music Center Fellowship, member of the Schleswig-holstein Music Festival in Germany, and guest timpanist with the New World Symphony in Florida. When not performing with the PSo, John works both as a timpanist and percussionist. he performs frequently with the boston Symphony orchestra, boston Pops, boston lyric opera and the boston Pops esplanade orchestra where he can be seen most notably at the hatch Shell for the July 4th con-certs. With the boston Symphony or-chestra, he has worked with many of the great conductors in the finest con-cert halls around the world. The work with the bSo included participation on three international and two domestic tours as well as several recordings for audio and television. John lives in burl-ington, MA but enjoys having family in the Portland area. he is an endorser for the Vic Firth Drumstick company and plays on his personal German Aehnelt berliner timpani.

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