Performance UGA40 September October 2016 41

ARCO Chamber Orchestra

Thursday September 29 2016 8:00 p.m.

PROGRAM

Ginastera Pampeana No. 1 for Violin and Piano Trans. Drago

Possetti Bailarina

Plaza Nocturna

Piazzolla Bordel 1900 Tres minutos con la realidad Decarísimo Escualo Libertango

A Parade of Milongas for Two Violins and String Orchestra Compiled and Arranged by Drago

La puñalada Corralera Milonga de mis amores La trampera

INTERMISSION

Special thanks to the friends of ARCO Dr. and Mrs. Gilles Allard, Dr. and Mrs. Wyatt Anderson, Dr. and Mrs. Bill Prokasy, Professor Bob Saveland, Buddy and Lucy Allen

ARCO Chamber Orchestra

HODGSON CONCERT HALL

conductor, solo violinconductor, solo violin

piano

Levon AmbartsumianAlejandro DragoAnatoly Sheludyakov

Program

A Night of Argentine Music

Alcorta, Alberdi, Esnaola Three Argentine Minuets for Strings

Williams El rancho abandonado (The Deserted Shack), Op. 32, No. 4 Trans. Williams, Alejandro Drago

Terzian Trez piesas para cuerdas Canción del atardecer (Sunset Song) Pastoral con variaciones Danza rustica

Piazzolla Las cuatro estaciones porteñas (The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires) Primavera porteña Verano porteño Otoño porteño Invierno porteño

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ARCO Chamber Orchestra

Program NotesAmancio Alcorta (1805-1862) Juan Bautista Alberdi (1810-1884) Pedro Esnaola (1808-1878)

Three Argentine Minuets for Strings These minuets are among the earliest mu-sical productions that can be identified as specifically Argentine. Their authors were prominent actors of the political, social, and cultural life of the early times of the young Argentine Republic: Amancio Alcorta, lawyer, judge, and diplomat; Juan Bautista Alberdi, politician, diplomat, and author of the first Argentine Constitution; and Pe-dro Esnaola, pianist, composer, and public servant, author of the official version of the Argentine national anthem. Although these minuets were not intended to form a cycle (they were originally written and published as keyboard pieces), they are most frequent-ly played in this three-part arrangement.

Alberto Williams (1862-1952)

El rancho abandonado (The Deserted Shack), Op. 32, No. 4

Alberto Williams is commonly regarded as one of the founders of the Argentine school of composition and one of the country’s first nationalists in music. After studying in the Paris Conservatoire, he returned to Argen-tina, where he took an active interest in the music of the Pampas.

El rancho abandonado is the fourth piece of a piano cycle entitled En la Sierra (In the Hill Country), Op. 32, published in 1893. The piece, written in ternary form, opens with a nostalgic vision of the abandoned hut set in a contemplative mood, followed by a middle, faster section in a mix of huella and malambo rhythms, which would seem to recall happier bygone days of communal joy and dance, only to return to the vision of the deserted hut. The author transcribed

this piece for strings himself, but unfortu-nately alarming discrepancies exist between several extant manuscript copies. The ver-sion presented in this concert is a recon-struction by Alejandro Drago, the result of carefully comparing two authorial manu-scripts and the original piano version.

Alicia Terzian (Born 1934)

Trez piesas para cuerdas (Three Pieces for Strings)

Alicia Terzian was born in Córdoba, Ar-gentina. She studied at the National Con-servatory of Buenos Aires under Alberto Ginastera, Gilardo Gilardi, Roberto García Morillo, and Floro Ugarte. She continued her studies in electronic music and medi-eval Armenian church music with Father Leoncio Dayan at the Mekhitarist Monas-tery of San Lazzaro degli Armeni in Venice.

She taught at the National Conservatory, the Municipal Conservatory of Buenos Ai-res, the Universidad Nacional de La Plata, and at the Art Institute of the Teatro Colón. She founded the Fundación Encuentros In-ternacionales de Música Contemporánea (EIMC) festival in 1968 and the Grupo En-cuentros in 1979. Terzian has served as a member of the Music Council of UNESCO, is Vice President of the International Wom-en’s Council of UNESCO, Vice President of the Argentine Composers Association, General Secretary of the Argentine Society for Musicology, and founder of the Latin-American Music Council.

Tres piezas para cuerdas (Three Pieces for Strings) was composed and premiered in 1954 in Buenos Aires, when the composer was only 20 years old. The music is based on Armenian Folk motifs.

Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992)

Las cuatro estaciones porteñas (The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires)

Astor Piazzolla is widely considered the most important Argentine tango composer of the second half of the twentieth century. A vir-tuoso bandoneonist, Piazzolla performed his own compositions with many different en-sembles, developing the Nuevo Tango style – a fusion of traditional Argentine tango, jazz, and compositional techniques such as ex-treme chromaticism and fugal elements. While this new style was not immediately accepted by Argentine tango composers and performers, Piazzolla was eventually recog-nized as a savior of tango, with his popularity growing both in Argentina and abroad.

Astor Pantaleon Piazzolla was born in southern Argentine city of Mar del Plata in 1921. In 1924, Astor and his family moved to New York City, where he was exposed to both jazz and classical music, as well as learning to play the bandoneon. In 1937 Piazzola returned to Argentina, where he studied classical composition with Alberto Ginastera. It was upon Ginastera’s encour-agement that Piazzolla entered his newly composed symphony in a composition con-test that won him a grant to study compo-sition with a legendary Nadia Boulanger in Paris. After returning to Argentina in 1955, Piazzolla formed his own groups to play tango – first the Octeto Buenos Aires, and later Quinteto Nuevo Tango. Until his death

in 1992, Piazzolla lived and composed in Argentina, France, and Italy, producing a large body of more than seven hundred and fifty compositions, including film scores, symphonic works, and numerous shorter works for smaller ensembles.

Piazzolla finished his Las cuatro estaciones porteñas in 1970. The work pays homage to the tango of Buenos Aires (the adjective porteñas in the title refers to the port city – Buenos Aires) and to Vivaldi’s famous Four Seasons. The suite was written for Piazzolla’s own quintet, consisting of bandoneon, vio-lin, electric guitar, piano, and double bass. The string orchestra arrangement was made by Jose Bragato, Piazzolla’s friend, colleague, and collaborator.

Alberto Ginastera (1916-1983)

Pampeana No. 1 for Violin and Piano

Pampeana No. 1 (1954) was originally writ-ten for violin and piano, and is presented here as a transcription for violin and strings by Alejandro Drago, written especially for this concert. The piece is set as a two-part rhapsody: the slow introduction, based on the so-called “Guitar Chord” (the open strings of the guitar – E A D G B E’), imi-tates the manner of improvised and accom-panied song-poetry of the Gauchos called payada (a story-telling, narrative mode); the second part is based on the malambo, a male dance of rhythmic patterns shifting between 6/8 and 3/4.

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ARCO Chamber Orchestra

Sonia Possetti (Born 1973)

Bailarina

Julián Plaza (1928-2003)

Nocturna

Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992)

Bordel 1900 Tres minutos con la realidadDecarísimoEscualoLibertangoThe rest of the second part of the program, devoted to tango (and its related genre, the milonga), opens with a lively, spirited milonga by Sonia Possetti, Bailarina, that has been performed in all five continents in various arrangements with lasting suc-cess. This is followed by another celebrated milonga, written by acclaimed bandoneo-nist and composer Julián Plaza, Nocturna, which is based on a mesmerizing chromatic motive that seems to imitate the swaying of the dancers.

Astor Piazzolla, the most revolutionary and controversial figure in the history of tango, and certainly one of the most iconic Latin American musicians, is the author of the next five pieces. Bordel 1900 (Brothel 1900), is the opening piece of his four-part cycle L’Histoire du Tango (The History of Tango) for flute and guitar, written in 1986. The cycle expresses Piazzolla’s views on the de-velopment of tango and his own place in it. Piazzolla comments on Bordel 1900:

The tango originated in Buenos Ai-res in 1882. It was first played on the guitar and flute. Arrangements then came to include the piano, and later, the concertina. This music is full of grace and liveliness. It paints a picture of the good natured chatter of the French, Italian, and Spanish women who peopled those bordellos

as they teased the policemen, thieves, sailors, and riffraff who came to see them. This is a high-spirited tango.

The famous Tres minutos con la realidad (Three Minutes with Reality) (1957), de-scribed by writer and composer Oscar del Priore as a “toccata in Tango rhythm,” is a composition that employs quartal har-monies and octatonic scales. The work shows the strong inspiration of Bartok’s Second Violin Concerto, and has become one of the landmarks of Piazzolla’s pro-duction. Decarísimo is a tribute to Julio de Caro, one of the founders of the modern harmonic and melodic language in tango. This piece was featured in the first record-ing of Piazzolla’s famed quintet, Piazzolla interpreta Piazzolla (1961), with the violin solos performed by Szymsia Bajour, Ale-jandro Drago's violin teacher in Argentina. Escualo, the only piece by Piazzolla writ-ten expressly for solo violin, was dedicated to his long-time violinist Fernando Suarez Paz, and was inspired by a day of shark hunting on the shores of Uruguay. The last piece by Piazzolla in this program is the world-famous Libertango (1974). The title is a combination of the Spanish word libertad (liberty) and Tango. Libertango is probably the most transcribed and adapted piece by Astor Piazzolla.

Compiled and Arranged by Alejandro DragoA Parade of Milongas for Two Violins and String Orchestra

A Parade of Milongas culminates the pro-gram on a cheerful note. Arranged for two solo violins, piano, and strings by Alejandro Drago especially for this performance in Athens, four milongas from Tango’s “Gold-en 40s” are presented as a poignant mini-cycle full of rhythm and syncopation: La puñalada by Pintín Castellanos, Corralera by Anselmo Aieta, Milonga de mis amores by Pedro Laurenz, and La trampera by Aníbal Troilo.

About the ArtistsThe ARCO Chamber OrchestraThe ARCO Chamber Orchestra, founded in 1990 by Levon Ambartsumian during his years as Professor of Violin at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, drew together handpicked instructors, students, and recent Conservatory graduates. Almost immediate-ly, ARCO performances throughout Europe drew high critical praise and enthusiastic audience response. International acclaim grew following ARCO’s concert tours in It-aly, Spain, Germany, Romania, France, and Korea. In 1995, Mr. Ambartsumian joined the University of Georgia’s Hodgson School of Music as the Franklin Professor of Violin, while remaining the Artistic Director and Conductor of ARCO. Because he was able to bring some of his students to America, the home base of the orchestra shifted to this hemisphere, where the ensemble has now become a talented international blend of musicians. Since its performance in 2001 in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, ARCO has been invited to return every year. ARCO has released numerous CDs with music by Vivaldi, Haydn, Mozart, Mendelssohn,

Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich, Piazzolla, Bron-ner, and Podgaits. The most recent ARCO concert tour included performances in six cities in Brazil.

Levon AmbartsumianLevon Ambartsumian, Regent’s and Frank-lin Professor of Violin at the University of Georgia, and formerly professor at the Mos-cow Conservatory (1978-1993), is an inter-nationally acclaimed violinist, winner of the 1977 International Violin Competition in Zagreb, the 1979 Montreal International Competition, and of the Soviet Violin Com-petition in 1981. Ambartsumian is a Mer-ited Artist of Armenia and of the Russian Federation. He is the founder, conductor, and artistic director of the ARCO Cham-ber Orchestra, now based at the University of Georgia in Athens. In addition to his teaching responsibilities, he continues to perform and present master classes around the world. More than forty CDs have been released under different recording labels in the United States and Russia. In May, 2009, Ambartsumian was awarded a gold medal of the Moscow Composers’ Union for his contribution to the development of con-temporary music and musical culture.

Performance UGA46 September October 2016 47

Alejandro DragoHailed by music critics as “a superb mu-sician” with the “classical virtuosity of a Heifetz or Perlman,” the “suave café style of Florian Zabach,” and the “jazzy insou-ciance of Stephane Grappelli,” Alejandro Drago has “crisscrossed the line between concerto virtuoso and jazz soloist.” His discography in France, the Unites States, and Argentina includes string quartets, concertos, and avant-garde tangos.

Alejandro Drago’s life in music began in his native Argentina. His mother, a pro-fessional tango dancer, introduced him to Antonio Agri, who spent many years as a violinist with Astor Piazzolla. He received his master’s degree from Moscow State Conservatory and a doctoral degree in or-chestral conducting from the University of Southern Mississippi. As a soloist, Drago has performed with leading orchestras. He has toured and conducted master classes, seminars, and lectures extensively in Asia, Europe, and Latin America.

From 2005 to 2008, he was the Assistant Conductor of the Southern Mississippi Symphony Orchestra and Chief Conduc-tor of the Southern Mississippi Chamber Orchestra. In July 2008, he joined the faculty

at the University of North Dakota Depart-ment of Music as the Professor of Violin and Viola and Director of the UND Cham-ber Orchestra. Since 2008, he has appeared on a number of occasions as a guest con-ductor with the Greater Grand Forks Sym-phony Orchestra, and recently has signed as the Music Director of this organization for three seasons until May, 2019.

Drago’s scholarly works have become im-portant references in English language scholarly studies of Tango music. His sym-phonic and chamber arrangements of Ar-gentine music have been performed exten-sively in Europe and Latin America, as well as in the United States.

Anatoly SheludyakovAnatoly Sheludyakov was born in Moscow, where he graduated from the Gnessin’s Mu-sical Academy and completed his doctoral studies under Professor Anatoly Vedernikov. He also graduated from the Moscow Con-servatory in the composition class of Tik-hon Khrennikov. His compositions include Variations for Orchestra, Ostinato for Or-chestra, Suite for Oboe and Piano, Suite for Violin and Piano, the Cantata Brotherhood Songs, Trombone Quartet, Six Vocal Suites, and many others.

In 1977, Sheludyakov was the winner of the Russian National Piano Competition. He has performed solo concerts with orches-tras, solo recitals, and chamber music con-certs in the most prestigious concert halls in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and other major cities in Russia, the United States, Germany, France, Italy, China, Czechoslovakia, Yu-goslavia, Cyprus, and Australia. He has re-corded twenty-four CDs of piano solo and chamber music and has performed on Rus-sian television and radio. His repertoire in-cludes the major works for piano, piano and orchestra, and piano chamber music of the Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and Contem-porary periods. In 1999, he was named an Honored Artist of Russia Federation.

ARCO Chamber Orchestra

artistic director and conductorLevon Ambartsumian

VIOLIN I Shakhida AzimkhodjaevaMoises CunhaLucas ScalamognaPedro MiszewskiLorenco Budo

VIOLIN IITeresa GryniaYeasol KangMinhye ParkDaniel AllenSahada Buckley

VIOLA Rogerio NunesSeonkye KimSerena ScibelliJohn Cooper

DOUBLE BASSClaudia Amaral

PIANO Anatoly Sheludyakov

ARCO CHAMBER ORCHESTRA

Levon Ambartsumian CONDUCTOR

Thursday, February 23 8:00 p.m.Hodgson Concert Hall

CELLO Ana Cristina AbrantesNoah JohnsonAndrew Short