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4040 MINNESOTA ORCHESTRA SHOWCASE

Home Away From Homefeb 18, 22

Minnesota OrchestraCourtney Lewis, conductor

Richard Strauss

Maurice Ravel

Samuel Barber

Edward Elgar

I N T E R M I S S I O N ca. 30’

Don Juan, Opus 20 ca. 18’

Suite of Five Pieces from Mother Goose (Ma Mère l’Oye) ca. 16’

Pavane of the Sleeping Beauty

Tom Thumb

Laideronette, Empress of the Pagodas

Conversations of Beauty and the Beast

The Enchanted Garden

Adagio for Strings ca. 7’

Enigma Variations, Opus 36 ca. 29’

Enigma: Andante

I. (C.A.E.): L’istesso tempo

II. (H.D.S.-P.): Allegro

III. (R.B.T.): Allegretto

IV. (W.M.B.): Allegro di molto

V. (R.P.A.): Moderato

VI. (Ysobel): Andantino

VII. (Troyte): Presto

VIII. (W.N.): Allegretto

IX. (Nimrod): Moderato

X. (Dorabella): Intermezzo (Allegretto)

XI. (G.R.S.): Allegro di molto

XII. (B.G.N.): Andante

XIII. (***): Romanza (Moderato)

XIV. (E.D.U.): Finale (Allegro)

Minnesota Orchestra Audience Services staff are available in the lobby this evening to assist with questions about the 2012-13 Classical season, series renewals and package purchases.

Saturday, February 18, 2012, 8 pm

Wednesday, February 22, 2012, 7:30 pm

Minneapolis Convention Center Auditorium

Minneapolis Convention Center Auditorium

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M i n n e s o t a O r c h e s t r a All materials copyright © 2012 by the Minnesota Orchestra.

Courtney Lewis, conductor

Belfast native Courtney Lewis, who became the Minnesota Orchestra’s associate conductor in fall 2010 after a year as assistant conductor, has worked with orchestras and chamber ensembles on three continents.Minnesota Orchestra: This season, in addition to leading the Orchestra’s Young People’s and family concerts, he debuted on the subscription series, leading fully staged performances of Hansel and Gretel in November.Upcoming: Lewis is one of four conductors from around the world selected by the Los Angeles Philharmonic for its 2011-12 Dudamel Fellowship program. This March he leads that ensemble in multiple performances and works with students in the orchestra’s education programs.Other role: Lewis founded and directs Boston’s acclaimed Discovery Ensemble, which introduces inner-city school children to classical music while bringing new and unusual repertoire to established concert audiences.More: minnesotaorchestra.org, opus3artists.com.

41FEBRUARY / MARCH 2012 MINNESOTA ORCHESTRA

feb 18, 22Artist

one-minute notes

Strauss: Don JuanThroughout this symphonic poem we hear of a man’s romantic exploits, disillusionment with life and ultimate death

in a swordfi ght. Along the way we hear mighty horn calls, sweeping violin music and a gorgeous cantilena for solo

oboe.

Ravel: Mother Goose SuiteThis simple and beautiful suite, based on fi ve well-known fairy tales, seems to spring from a child’s innocent

imagination. A highlight is the Pavane of the Sleeping Beauty, lightly scored and built on a gentle oscillating fi gure.

Barber: Adagio for StringsThe composer was just 26 when he wrote this brief, heart-rending work for string orchestra. It affects listeners so

profoundly that it has become our nation’s fi rst choice of music for times of mourning.

Elgar: Enigma VariationsThirteen of Elgar’s closest friends, as well as the composer himself, are depicted in this musical portrait gallery.

A highlight is the poignant Nimrod, which starts quietly and builds to a sonorous emotional climax.

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feb 18, 22 Program Notes

he summer of 1888 found the 24-year-old Strauss at something of an impasse. Already he had composed some magnifi cent songs, and his First Symphony, completed when he was 20, had been premiered in

New York City. But as a composer, he was still searching for an authentic voice. His career as a conductor was also stalled. He had succeeded Hans von Bülow as conductor of the superb Meiningen Orchestra just when that orchestra was being downsized, and he ended up as third conductor of the Munich Court Opera.

imagination catching fi reIn these years Strauss found himself drawn toward descriptive music, particularly to the conception of the “symphonic poem” as that had been shaped by Franz Liszt. Strauss moved tentatively in the direction of representational music with Aus Italien, which was more travelogue than drama, and the symphonic poem Macbeth. But his imagination—and his art—caught fi re when he took up the Don Juan story. He chose not the legendary fi gure of Molina, Molière, Gluck and Mozart, but one created by the German poet Nikolaus

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Lenau (1802-1850). Lenau’s is a much darker character, a philosopher who seeks the Ideal Woman through his conquest of individual women, and his fate is to fi nd not the ideal but disillusion, destruction and self-disgust. Finally confronted by Don Pedro, a relative of one of his conquests, this Don Juan recognizes the emptiness of his life, purposely lowers his sword during their duel and takes a fatal thrust through his heart.

While Liszt’s symphonic poems had been loosely inspired by legends, paintings and plays, Strauss aimed for a much more exact musical representation (he once bragged that he could set a glass of beer to music). His Don Juanis striking in its instant creation of character, the sheer sweep of its writing and the detail of its incidents.

He worked on the score across the summer of 1888 and took it with him that fall when he became the assistant conductor of the Weimar Opera. Th e management there insisted that he give the premiere with the local orchestra, which, however, was modestly talented and required many, many rehearsals. In a letter to his parents Strauss caught the spirit of those sessions, telling of a sweaty horn player who demanded: “Good God, in what way have we sinned that you have sent us this scourge!” Strauss went on: “We laughed till we cried! Certainly the horns blew without fear of death….I was really sorry for the wretched horns and trumpets. Th ey were quite blue in the face, the whole aff air was so strenuous.”

But their work paid off . Th e premiere on November 11, 1889, was a sensation, Strauss’ name swept across Europe, and Don Juan may be said to have launched its young creator’s career. Strauss biographer Michael Kennedy has called this music “the appearance of the real Strauss,” and a succession of increasingly detailed and brilliant tone poems followed over the next decade.

the music: fi ery and voluptuousDon Juan has one of the most famous beginnings in music. Th at volcanic opening rush (Strauss insists that it must be Allegro molto con brio) begins off the beat, and it streaks upward across three octaves in the fi rst moments. Th is fi ery fl ourish leads immediately to Don Juan’s own music, which seems always to be in frantic motion, surging and striving ever higher. In fact, one of the most impressive things about Don Juan is its energy: this music boils over, presses forward, erupts—it seems to be in motion even when it is still.

Richard StraussBorn: June 11, 1864, Munich

Died: September 8, 1949, Garmisch-Partenkirchen

Don Juan, Opus 20

Strauss conducts the premiere of Don Juan in 1889, the year: • The Wall Street Journal begins publication • The world’s fi rst jukebox is introduced in San Francisco • The Eiffel Tower opens in Paris, surpassing in height what

had previously been the tallest structure in the world, the Washington Monument

In 1899, when Elgar’s Enigma Variations is fi rst performed: • War breaks out between the U.S. and the Philippines • New York’s newspaper sales boys—“newsies”—stage a

strike for higher compensation

at the same time...



feb 18, 22Program Notes

avel, a collector of miniatures, never lost his capacity for child-like wonder. Sometimes he masked his pleasure in toys and tales and the paraphernalia of the nursery behind young friends. Ma Mère l’Oye, which r

Maurice RavelBorn: March 7, 1875, Ciboure, Basses-Pyrénées

Died: December 28, 1937, Paris

Suite of Five Pieces from Mother Goose (Ma Mère l’Oye)

Quick fi gures from violins and solo oboe suggest an early fl irtation, but soon a lush chord for full orchestra (marked tranquillo) introduces the sweeping violin solo that signals the Don’s fi rst real passion. Strauss was particularly adept at writing voluptuous love music, and this interlude goes on for some time before the Don tries to escape. On the surging music from the very beginning he breaks free and sets off on new adventures. His second passion brings another notable love scene, this one built on a gorgeous cantilena for solo oboe, but, his conquest made, the Don rushes off on a mighty horn call.

An animated scene follows, perhaps a depiction of Lenau’s carnival sequence, but suddenly matters plunge into gloomy near-silence. Fragmentary reminiscences of earlier love themes reappear as the Don confronts the meaning of his life, and the music rushes into the fi nal confrontation with Don Pedro. Th eir sword fi ght is suitably violent, but its climax breaks off in silence as Don Juan abandons the struggle and lowers his sword. Out of the eerie chord that follows, dissonant trumpets mark the thrust of Don Pedro’s blade through Don Juan’s heart, and descending trills lead to the close on grim pizzicato strokes. Don Juan’s quest, once so full of fi re, has ended in complete spiritual darkness.

Instrumentation: 3 fl utes (1 doubling piccolo), 2 oboes, English horn,

2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, cymbals, bells,

suspended cymbal, triangle, harp and strings

Program note by Eric Bromberger.

we know as the Mother Goose Suite, originated as a set of fi ve children’s pieces for four-hand piano, a gift for the young Godebski children that Ravel composed between 1908 and 1910. In the following year he transcribed it for the orchestra, whose colors added magic to the imagery.

Th e work was fi rst performed on April 20, 1910, by two little girls, ages six and seven. One of them, Jeanne Leleu, later a Paris Conservatoire professor and composer in her own right, recalled that Ravel asked them to play very simply, without seeking expression in every note: “He wanted the fi rst piece, the Pavane, to be very slow—for children that’s quite diffi cult! He wanted Tom Th umb to be very uniform in sonority…Laideronette had to be very clear, like little crystal bells, without hurrying the melodic phrase in the bass.”

Drawing from Charles Perrault’s Contes de ma Mère l’Oye, originally published in 1697, Ravel also borrowed Perrault’s title. Th e author’s opening tale became the Pavane of the Sleeping Beauty, who is lulled by a gentle oscillating fi gure based on the ancient Aeolian mode; the music is so lightly scored that there is little risk of waking her. Tom Th umb, who discovers that the birds have eaten the crumbs he has strewn on his pathway, is evoked by constantly varying time signatures and the changing direction of the line, as he turns hither and thither in a frantic eff ort to retrace his steps. In Laideronette, Empress of the Pagodas (not exotic buildings but tiny, insect-like creatures), the royal one is glimpsed in her bath, where she is serenaded by an orchestra of viols and lutes made of nutshells. Beauty and the Beast encounter each other in a dramatic waltz that contrasts the lyric charm of her voice, sweet in the clarinet, with his gruff responses, rumbling from the contrabassoon. Th e Enchanted Garden, so crystalline in texture that it might have been spun of glass, is capped by sparkling glissandos.

Instrumentation: 2 fl utes (1 doubling piccolo), 2 oboes (1 doubling English horn),

2 clarinets, 2 bassoons (1 doubling contrabassoon), 2 horns, timpani, cymbals, bass drum, tam-tam, triangle,

xylophone, harp, celesta, keyboard glockenspiel and strings

E. B.



feb 18, 22 Program Notes

ew 20th-century compositions can claim the popularity of Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings. Barber wrote it in 1936 as the central movement of his String Quartet, Opus 11, while spending the

summer in the picturesque little town of St. Wolfgang in the Austrian Tyrol. Th e premiere was given at the American Academy’s Villa Aurelia, performed by the Pro Arte String Quartet. Two years later, back in America, Barber was asked by Arturo Toscanini to arrange the Adagio movement for string orchestra. Barber added double basses and divided the second violins and cellos, making a total of seven parts. Toscanini then conducted the fi rst performance in this form in an NBC broadcast on November 5, 1938. Th e conductor thought enough of the work to include it in a subsequent South American tour, the only American work to be so honored.

An air of mysticism, the sense of vast spaces, and a kind of religious aura infuse the Adagio. For many listeners, it does indeed express the tranquility in grief inherent in its use as a threnody. Nicolas Slonimsky described it as “an essay in austere polyphony, slowly rising in dynamic intensity through a series of lingering chordal suspensions leading to languorous cadences.” Its single, sinuous theme moves in mostly step-wise motion in even notes, much in the manner of Gregorian chant. Adding to its faintly archaic air is the use of a medieval church mode (the Phrygian) in somewhat adapted form. Following the exalted glow of the climax, which occurs at just about the two-thirds point, the music returns to the grave tone in which it began, the melodic threads fragmenting into ever smaller segments as the sound recedes into darkness and silence.

Instrumentation: strings alone

Program note by Robert Markow.

Samuel BarberBorn: March 9, 1910, West Chester, Pennsylvania

Died: January 23, 1981, New York City

Adagio for Strings

f ne evening in 1898, Edward Elgar was improvising for his wife at the piano and just for fun tried varying a theme to suggest the personality of a diff erent friend in each variation. Suddenly a

musical project occurred to him, and what had begun “in a spirit of humor…continued in deep seriousness.” Th e result was an orchestral theme and 14 variations, each a portrait of a friend or family member, noted in the score by their initials or some other clue to their identity. Th e score attracted the attention of conductor Hans Richter, who led the fi rst performance in London on June 19, 1899, and the Enigma Variations quickly established Elgar’s reputation.

Elgar dedicated the variations “To my friends pictured within”—and the subject of each musical portrait was soon identifi ed. But mystery surrounded the theme itself, a six-bar melody full of rises and falls that make it an ideal candidate for variation. Elgar himself fed that mystery, naming the theme “Enigma” and saying: “the ‘Enigma’ I will not explain—its ‘dark saying’ must be left unguessed…further, through and over the whole set another and larger theme ‘goes,’ but it is not played.” Despite many attempts to identify this “larger” theme (including theories that it is Auld Lang Syne or God Save the Queen), the “enigma” remains as mysterious now as it did when the music was written a century ago.

portraits of friends—and of an eraWhat is not mysterious is the success of this music, with its promising theme, a wonderful idea for a set of variations, and a series of imaginative musical portraits. Part of the charm of this music is that—unlike the orchestral variations of Brahms or Schoenberg, which exist outside time and place—the Enigma Variations are very much in time and space, for they off er a nostalgic vision of a lost age. Th e music begins, and suddenly we

oEdward ElgarBorn: June 2, 1857, BroadheathDied: February 23, 1934, Worcester

Enigma Variations, Opus 36



feb 18, 22Program Notes

are in late-Victorian England, with its civilized manners, garden parties, friends bicycling over for a visit, and long steamer trips abroad.

Theme: Enigma. Strings alone announce the noble, wistful theme, which Elgar marks molto espressivo and then extends briefl y before the music leads directly into:

I. C.A.E. Th is is a gentle portrait of the composer’s wife, Caroline Alice Elgar, musically similar to the fi rst statement of the theme.

II. H.D.S.-P. Hew David Steuart-Powell was a piano teacher; this variation, marked Allegro, echoes his practicing staccato runs.

III. R.B.T. Elgar described Richard Baxter Townshend as “an amiable eccentric.”

IV. W.M.B. Th e variation for William Meath Baker, a bluff and peremptory country squire, thunders past in barely 30 seconds.

V. R.P.A. Richard Penrose Arnold was the son of Matthew Arnold; Elgar described him as a “gentleman of the old school,” and his variation combines a noble violin line with fl ights of fancy from the woodwinds.

VI. Ysobel. Isabel Fitton, a viola player, is gently depicted via an exercise in string-crossing for violists.

VII. Troyte. Arthur Troyte Griffi th was an argumentative architect. His Presto variation features brillante runs from the violins and ends with the sound of a slamming door.

VIII. W.N. Winnifred Norbury, a dignifi ed older acquaintance of the Elgars, is represented by the sound of her “trilly laugh,” but some believe this variation actually pictures her family home.

IX. Nimrod. August Jaeger was one of Elgar’s closest friends and supporters. “Jaeger” (Jäger) is German for hunter, and Nimrod was the mighty hunter in the Biblical book of Genesis. Th is noble slow movement is sometimes performed separately as a memorial. Strings alone

announce the theme, which grows to a triumphant climax and subsides to end quietly.

X. Dorabella. Dora Penny was a friend whose slight stammer is represented in the music as a brief hesitation at the start of each woodwind phrase. Elgar renamed her Dorabella for this variation, aft er the character in Così fan tutte.

XI. G.R.S. Th e variation for George Robertson Sinclair, the organist at the Hereford Cathedral, features the sound of his bulldog Dan in the growling lower instruments, and the tinkling sound of his bicycle bell in the triangle.

XII. B.G.N. Basil Nevinson was a cellist, and noble solos for that instrument open and close this cantabile variation.

XIII. (***) Romanza. Lady Mary Lygon was on a steamship to Australia when Elgar wrote this music, and

he remembered her with a variation that suggests the sound of the ship’s vibrating

engines as side drum sticks roll soft ly on the timpani. Over this low rumble, Elgar quotes Mendelssohn’s Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage Overture, putting quotation marks around the excerpt in his score.

XIV. E.D.U. “Edu” was his wife’s nickname for the composer, and

this musical self-portrait—by turns powerful, striving and gentle—was

“written at a time when friends were dubious and generally discouraged as to the composer’s

musical future.” Along the way we hear the whistle Elgar used to announce his arrival at home. He also weaves in a reminiscence of his wife’s variation before the music drives to a triumphant close.

Instrumentation: 2 fl utes (1 doubling piccolo), 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets,

3 trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drum, cymbals, snare drum, triangle and strings

E. B.

Above: Elgar and Caroline Alice Roberts, wed in 1889; their happiness seems to have been central to his development and success as a composer.


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