seventy-seventh season grant park orchestra and chorus ... 24... · carlos kalmar, artistic...

2011 Program Notes, Book 1 A35

GrantParkMusicFestivalSeventy-seventh Season

Grant Park Orchestra and ChorusCarlos Kalmar, Artistic Director and Principal Conductor

Christopher Bell, Chorus Director

Friday, June 24, 2011 at 7:30 p.m.Saturday, June 25, 2011 at 7:30 p.m. Latin Works for OrchestraJay Pritzker PavilionGRANT PARK ORCHESTRACarlos Kalmar, Conductor

BARILARI Canyengue

CARREÑO Margariteña, Symphonic Variations

VILLA-LOBOS Uirapurú, Symphonic Poem

CHÁVEZ Suite de Caballos de Vapor, Ballet Symphony Dance of the Man: Allegro — Boat to the Tropics: Danza Agil (Vivo) — Tango (Molto lento) — Interludio — Th e Tropics: Tempo di Huapango — Tempo di Sandunga

GINASTERA Glosses sobre temes de Pau Casals, Op. 48 lntroducció Romanç Sardanes Cant Conclusió delirant Played without pause


CArLOS KALMAr’s biography can be found on page 10.

Canyengue (2005, 2006)Elbio rodríguez Barilari (born in 1953)Canyengue, composed for chamber ensemble in 2005 and arranged for or-chestra in 2006, is scored for piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, English horn, two clarinets, bass clarinet, two bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, harp, piano and strings. Perfor-mance time is approximately 6 minutes. The chamber version was premiered on October 6, 2005 at the Hamilton Park Cultural Center in Chicago by the MAVerick Ensemble led by Jason Raynovich; the orchestral version was pre-

miered on June 21, 2006 by the Grant Park Orchestra, conducted by Carlos Kalmar.

Elbio Rodríguez Barilari is a musician of rich and varied talents. Barilari was born in 1953 in Montevideo, Uruguay, where he studied at the Conservatório Universitario and with Coriún Aharonián, Graciela Paraskevaídis and Héctor Tosar before continuing his education in Brazil.He subsequently studied in Germany, on an invitation from the Deutscher Musikrat, with Milko Kele-men, Helmut Lachenmann and Dieter Schnebel; he was also mentored while in Europe by Luciano Berio, Konrad Boehmer, Otto Donner and Misha Mengelberg. As a clarinetist and saxophonist, from 1994 to 1997 Barilari led the Barilari Quinteto and organized Planeta Blues, the first Uru-guayan blues band to tour Europe and to record a compact disc; during the 1990s, he also led the fourteen-piece La Banda Oriental.

Since settling in the United States in 1998, Barilari has lectured at the University of Chicago and the Instituto Cervantes and given workshops in Chile and Paraguay; he is currently on the faculty of the University of Illinois at Chicago and Composer-in-Residence at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University in Bloomington. He has collaborated annually with the Grant Park Music Festival since helping to organize a tribute concert to Astor Piazzolla in 2002, for which he was also commissioned to write his Bandoneón Concerto. In June 2006, the Grant Park Orchestra, conducted by Carlos Kalmar, premiered his Canyengue at Millennium Park; that same season at Grant Park he also recruited and prepared the orchestra of native South American instruments for the performance of Ariel Ramírez’s Misa Criolla.

The composer wrote of Canyengue, “When I was ten years old, I heard [bandoneón virtuoso and tango composer] Astor Piazzolla playing live on TV. Right away I knew I was going to compose that kind of music. Since that time I have written and performed many other kinds of music, but chamber and symphonic tango pieces have been a permanent trait in my production.

“Tango belongs to the two sister cities of the Rio de la Plata: Buenos Aires and Montevideo. We Uruguayans, as the Argentines, are sons of the bandoneón because of our strong African heri-tage, and we are sons of the drum as well. In Canyengue, I recall the flavor of tango together with milonga, milongón and candombe, the Afro-Uruguayan rhythms that form the sonorous landscape of my hometown.

“Canyengue is a word of African origin. In Lunfardo — the tango slang — it means ‘something with a lot of rhythm.’ Even more, canyengue comes from kaniengue, a verb that in the Ki-Kongo language spoken by many of the slaves who arrived in colonial times means ‘to melt into the music.’

“In fulfilling a request by the Chicago Composers Forum and the Chicago Park District for their ‘Fresh Ink Series’ I first composed Canyengue in 2005 as a sextet (violin, flute, clarinet, cello, piano and percussion). After the premiere, James Palermo, former Artistic and General Director of Grant Park Festival, asked me to expand the piece for full orchestra. This is my second work for the Grant Park Orchestra, which in 2002 premiered my Bandoneón Concerto.”

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A38 2011 Program Notes, Book 1 2011 Program Notes, Book 1 A39

margariteña, SyMPHOniC VAriATiOnS (1954)inocente Carreño (born in 1919)Margariteña is scored for piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, English horn, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, tim-pani, percussion, harp and strings. The performance time is approximately 14 minutes. This is the work’s first performance by the Grant Park Orchestra.

Inocente Carreño, one of Venezuela’s most gifted and influential musi-cians, was born at Porlamar on the Caribbean island of Margarita in De-

cember 1919 and immersed in the culture and music of his homeland by his grandmother and older brother Francis, who became a noted folklorist. Carreño began studying guitar when he was nine, and played with local bands and started composing waltzes, joropos, merengues, boleros, tangos, rumbas and other pieces in traditional popular styles after the family moved to Caracas in 1932. In 1940, he entered the Escuela de Música y Declamación (later the José Angel Lamas School of Music) to study with composer, conductor, ethnomusicologist and founder two years before of the Venezuela Symphony Orchestra, Vicente Emilio Sojo. During his six years at the school, Carreño also became a skilled singer and trumpet and French horn player, began conducting, and established his reputation as a teacher when he was appointed to the faculty in 1945. Following his graduation in 1946, he became a force in the country’s musical life, performing traditional Venezuelan and Latin music on guitar with the Trío Caribe, playing horn in the Venezuela Symphony Orchestra, singing and arranging for the choir Orfeón Lamas, teaching at the José Angel Lamas School and several other Caracas institutions, guest conducting most of Venezuela’s major orchestras and cho-ruses, winning many composition prizes, and composing in both popular and classical idioms. Carreño has also been founding director of the Prudencio Esáa School of Music in Caracas in 1970, Counselor Minister of the permanent delegation of Venezuela to UNESCO in Paris, advisor to the Venezuelan Ministry of Culture, and director of the José Angel Lamas School. He has remained ac-tive as a composer and conductor. On January 14, 2011 in Caracas, Carreño led the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra, which has featured his music on their world-wide tours, in the premieres of two new works as part of a concert of his compositions celebrating his 91st birthday.

Carreño composed Margariteña in 1954 and premiered the work at the First Latin American Music Festival in Caracas in December that year. The title refers both to the island of Margarita, Carreño’s birthplace, and to the Venezuelan song that it takes as its principal subject — Margarita es una lagrima (“Margarita is a Tear”). The theme is introduced by the solo horn and given a deftly scored working-out by the full orchestra. (The piece is subtitled “Symphonic Variations.”) Episodes follow using two other traditional melodies — a muscular treatment of Canto de Pulon (“Song of Pulon”) and a vibrantly rhythmic version of Canto de Velorio (“Song of Velorio”) — punctuated by echoes of the opening measures in the horns. A brief pause leads to a playful treatment of the children’s song Tiguitiguitos before a sonorous coda based on Margarita es una lagrima closes this landmark work of Venezuelan musical nationalism.

GRANT PARK MUSIC FESTIVAL Friday, June 24 and Saturday, June 25, 2011

uirapurú, SyMPHOniC POEM (1917)Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887-1959)Uirapurú is scored for piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, English horn, two clari-nets, bass clarinet, two bassoons, contrabassoon, soprano saxophone, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, two harps, piano, celesta, violinophone and strings. The performance time is approximately 18 minutes. This is the work’s first performance by the Grant Park Orchestra.

Heitor Villa-Lobos, Brazil’s greatest composer, had little formal train-ing. He learned the cello from his father and earned a living as a young man playing with popular bands, from which he derived much of his musical background. From his earliest years, Villa-Lobos was enthralled with the indigenous songs and dances of his native land, and he made several trips into the Brazilian interior to study the native music and ceremonies. Beginning with his earliest works, around 1910, his music shows the influence of the melodies, rhythms and sonorities that he discovered. He began to compose prolifically, and, though often ridiculed for his daring new style by other Brazilian musicians, he attracted the attention of the pianist Artur Rubinstein, who helped him receive a Brazilian government grant in 1923 that enabled him to spend several years in Paris, where his international reputation was established. Upon his permanent return to Rio de Janeiro in 1930, Villa-Lobos became an important figure in public musical education, urging the cultivation of Brazilian songs and dances in the schools. He made his first visit to the United States in 1944, and spent the remaining years of his life traveling in America and Europe to conduct and promote his own works and those of other Brazilian composers. Villa-Lobos summarized his creative phi-losophy in an interview with New York Times critic Olin Downes by saying that he did not think of music as “culture, or education, or even as a device for quieting the nerves, but as something more potent, mystical and profound in its effect. Music has the power to communicate, to heal, to ennoble, when it is made part of man’s life and consciousness.”

Among the earliest of Villa-Lobos’ works to capture the mystery and legend and musical traits of the Brazilian interior is Uirapurú, composed originally as a symphonic poem in 1917, but given form (and its first performance) as a ballet by Serge Lifar in 1935. The score incorporates rhythmic and melodic fragments that the composer collected on his trips into the Amazonian rain forest, and uses a number of native percussion instruments to help create its mood. The story of the composi-tion, original with Villa-Lobos, was inspired by the bird of the Amazon known as the Uirapurú, which is valued for its beautiful song; a stuffed specimen is said to bring its owner good luck.

The composer prefaced the score with the following account: “This is the story of Uirapurú — a legendary Enchanted Bird. Fetish worshipers considered it the ‘King of Love.’ Its nightly song lured the Indians into the woods in search of the enchanting singer.

“In such a search, a merry group of young natives comes upon an ancient and ugly Indian seated in the forest playing upon his nose-flute. Resenting the invasion of their forest by this unsightly old man, the natives beat him mercilessly and drive him out. The continued search for the elusive Uira-purú by the natives is witnessed by all the members of the nocturnal animal and insect kingdoms — glow worms — crickets — owls — enchanted toads and bats — and crawling things.

“A beautiful maiden appears — also lured by the sweet song of Uirapurú. Armed with bow and arrow, she catches up with the Enchanted Bird, piercing its heart, whereupon the singing Bird is immediately transformed into a handsome youth.

“The Happy Huntress, who has thoroughly captivated the handsome youth, is about to leave the forest followed by the amazed natives when they are halted by the shrill, unpleasant notes of a distant nose-flute. Suspecting the arrival of the ugly Indian seeking revenge for the merciless beating they had administered, the natives hide in the dense woods. The unsuspecting youth boldly con-fronts the ugly Indian, who slays him with a perfectly placed arrow. As the Indian maidens tenderly carry the body to a nearby fountain, it is suddenly transformed into a beautiful Bird which flies, its sweet song diminishing, into the silence of the forest.”



suiTe de Caballos de vapoR (“hoRse-poweR suiTe”), BALLET SyMPHOny (1926-1930)Carlos Chávez (1899-1978)The Horse-Power Suite is scored for piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, English horn, E-flat clarinet, two clarinets, bass clarinet, soprano and tenor saxo-phones, four horns, four trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percus-sion and strings. The performance time is approximately 25 minutes. The Grant Park Orchestra first performed the Suite on August 29, 1964, with Carlos Chávez conducting.

Carlos Chávez, the most important and influential figure in modern Mexican music, devoted his life to raising the educational, concert and creative activities of his native land to the standards of the other great musical nations. His career included an enormous list of achievements that would have staggered a man of lesser energy and enthusiasm: between 1928 and 1949, he founded and conducted Mexico’s first permanent professional orchestra, the Orquesta Sinfónica de México; he was director of the National Conservatory of Music, where he revolutionized the curriculum by including the study of native music (1928-1935); he was head of the Mexican Department of Fine Arts (1946-1952); he initiated government-sponsored research into folklore and ancient instru-ments that led to the formation of a small ensemble of archaic Aztec and Nahua instruments; he championed the works not only of contemporary Mexican composers, but also those from through-out the country’s history; he was Charles Eliot Norton Lecturer at Harvard University in 1958-1959; he guest conducted many of the major orchestras in the western hemisphere; and he was one of the great composers of the modern era.

Chávez studied all aspects of Mexican music, but he was especially drawn to that of the pre-conquest era. “Among the Aztecs,” he wrote, “music achieved the marks of a true artistic culture. It filled a role of real social importance in government, religion and war. It was a true state institu-tion, and was the object of special study and cultivation.” It was to this lofty plateau that Chávez sought to return modern Mexican music. In his compositions, this meant combining the ethos and characteristics of native music with the techniques and craftsmanship of the European tradition to produce something specifically Mexican. While he seldom quoted existing folk songs in his works, their component rhythms, textures and melodic leadings are integral to his style. Aaron Copland, deeply respectful of Chávez’s achievement, wrote, “Here and there perhaps a recognizably native turn of phrase can be discerned, but as a whole the folk element has been replaced by a more subtle sense of national characteristics…. I feel that no other composer — not even Béla Bartók or Falla — has succeeded so well in using folk material in its pure form while also solving the problem of its complete amalgamation into an art form.”

Chávez, like many artists and intellectuals, was much under the sway of socialist thinking dur-ing the years between the world wars. After living in New York City from September 1926 to June 1928, where he formed close ties with Copland, Cowell and Varèse and became active in the International Composers’ Guild and its successor, the Pan American Association of Composers, he returned to his native land to head the Orquesta Sinfónica de México, which was then being organized by the musicians’ union. Among the ensemble’s goals was the performance of concerts for workers, and Chávez conducted the orchestra throughout the country and contributed a number of folk song settings and a Sinfonia Proletaria based on Mexican revolutionary ballads to the repertory for that purpose. Chávez’s most powerful blending of his socialist concerns with music that reflects the ethos and idioms of Mexico is the ballet Horse-Power, composed between 1926 and 1930 (the orchestration was revised in 1954), which treats the relations between the two Americas in terms of supplier of raw materials (the tropics) and manufacturer of finished products (the north). The ballet’s ideological focus was further sharpened by enlisting the Mexican muralist Diego Rivera to design the scenery and costumes. Rivera, well known for his paintings of peasants and laborers, said that the relevance of Horse-Power was in “the unfolding of plastic and musical deeds, whose connotations are in accord with the rhythm of the aspiration, interests and necessities of our social existence.”

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Robert Lawrence, in his classic reference guide, The Victor Book of Ballets, summarized the plot of Horse-Power : “In presenting the relationship of the tropics — producer of raw materials — with the northern regions, which use these products to manufacture various commodities, the ballet tries to establish one region’s dependence on the other, arguing — in terms of dance — that the North requires the lifeblood of the tropics just as the tropics seek the finished goods of the North.

“Scene One. Modern Man, personified by the name H.P. (significant not only of horsepower but of that dynamic energy which controls whole worlds), is at the height of his strength and inventiveness. He expresses the boundless potentialities contained within himself, his eagerness to conquer the unknown forces that surround him.

“Scene Two. A cargo ship is seen at sea, symbolizing the commerce between North and South. A dance of the sailors on board denotes activity and physical force. Mermaids of the tropical seas come over the side of the ships, conveying their special brand of sensuality. An all-embracing rhythm joins the forces of the two regions — sailors and mermaids — in a syncopated bacchanal.

“Scene Three. Here the abundance of the tropical earth is seen. The fruit trees sway in the breeze, the fruits themselves grow animated as the natives pass by, peddling their merchandise. Sailors from the northern ship come ashore to gather cargo, and the scene takes on increasing life as the men load the produce on board.

“Scene Four. In contrast to the serenity of the tropics, the northern city of industry is seen, with its skyscrapers and great machines. The raw materials of the world are assembled here to be manufactured for the needs of civilization. Economic forces keep the pattern going, but Man revolts against material values and returns to his longings for the products of earth. Human beings and raw materials then join in a final jubilant dance.”

The orchestral suite includes the first three scenes of the ballet. The opening scene/movement (Dance of the Man) portrays the bold ambitions of Modern Man through several continuous sec-tions of energetic music reminiscent of various Mexican dances. After an episode of jagged rhythms and disjunct melodic lines at the center of the movement, the earlier themes return in transforma-tion. The second scene/movement (Boat to the Tropics) opens with a quick-tempo waltz (labeled Danza Agil [“agile” or “nimble”]) which exploits the metric ambiguity found in much Spanish and Mexican music. The movement’s second section is an alluring Tango, used in the ballet to depict the seductive mermaids, which achieves a state of sardonic wit that recalls Kurt Weill’s stage works. (The Three-Penny Opera of 1928 is exactly contemporary with Horse-Power.) The movement culmi-nates with freely whirling figurations for the winds and a sedate Interludio which serves as a bridge to the last movement. The finale (The Tropics) begins with a huapango, a lively Mexican dance of Spanish origin especially popular in the lands along the Gulf of Mexico, which is characterized by a complex rhythmic structure superimposing duple and triple meters. Horse-Power, one of Chávez’s most masterful creations, closes with a brilliant sandunga, a swaying dance in fast triple meter from Tehuantepec.

Julie Kent in G

iselle. Photo by Fabrizio Ferri.

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A44 2011 Program Notes, Book 1 2011 Program Notes, Book 1 A45

glosses sobRe Temes de pau Casals (“CommenTaRies on Themes of pablo Casals”), OP. 48 (1976-1977)Alberto Ginastera (1916-1983)The Glosses is scored for piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, English horn, E-flat clarinet, two clarinets, bass clarinet, two bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, piccolo trumpet, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, harp, piano, celesta, harmonium and strings. The performance time is ap-proximately 18 minutes. This is the work’s first performance by the Grant Park Orchestra.

Alberto Ginastera, Argentina’s most famous and widely performed composer, was the outstand-ing creative figure in South American music following the death of Villa-Lobos in 1959. Ginastera’s career was divided between composition and education, and in this latter capacity he held posts at leading conservatories and universities in Argentina and at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. His musical works, many written on American commissions, include three operas, two ballets, six concertos, eleven film scores, eight orchestral works, various vocal and choral compositions, and much music for chamber ensembles and piano. Ginastera traveled extensively to oversee the presen-tation of his scores and to adjudicate major musical competitions. For his contributions to music, he was honored with many awards, including memberships in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Ginastera divided his works into two stylistic categories. The first (“Nationalism”) includes his music before the mid-1950s, which displays overt influences of Argentine musical traits and themes. He modeled the rhythms and melodies of these works on the folksongs and dances known as musica criolla, though he seldom used literal quotations. This nationalistic music is imbued with the symbolism of the pampas and the “gauchesco” tradition, for which Ginastera became the leading musical spokesperson. Ginastera’s second style (“Neo-Expressionism”) began around 1958, and encompassed most of his later compositions, works characterized by such modernist devices as polytonality, serial writing, use of quarter-tones and other micro intervals, and an extension of instrumental resources. All of this technical jargon sounds rather imposing, but these techniques lend to the music a power of expression reinforced by expert craftsmanship that is always tantalizing to the ear. Ginastera’s later works bear a strong affinity with the expressionism of Schoenberg and Berg, which was itself an extension of the great European Classical-Romantic tradition. Ginastera’s compositions mark him as one of the most important members of the international community of composers, and demonstrate the manner in which he was able to combine the melodic and rhythmic resources of the folk music of his native Argentina with the compositional idioms of the great modern masters.

Cellist and composer Pablo Casals (1876-1973) was one of the greatest musical figures of the 20th century, a virtuoso of peerless musicality who was not only acclaimed throughout the world and who brought Bach’s incomparable solo suites into the modern repertory, but who was also widely admired for his passionate stand on world affairs. When Francisco Franco assumed authori-tarian rule of Casals’ native Spain in 1939, the cellist not only moved to France but also refused to play in his homeland or in any country that supported its fascist regime. Casals became a symbol of the stand against tyrannical governments, and when he played at the White House on November 13, 1961, his first appearance in America since 1939, President Kennedy said, “The work of all artists stands as a symbol of human freedom and no one has enriched that freedom more signally than Pablo Casals.”

Ginastera wrote of his Glosses sobre Temes de Pau Casals (“Commentaries on Themes of Pablo Casals”) in a preface to the published score of the work: “The first version of this composition was written in Geneva during the spring of 1976 on commission from both the Festival Casals of Puerto Rico and the Committee for the American Bicentennial to be premiered in June 1976 by the Interamerican Youth Orchestra at the Festival in San Juan celebrating Casals’ centenary. For that occasion and at the request of the Festival, I composed Glosses for string orchestra and string

GRANT PARK MUSIC FESTIVAL Friday, June 24 and Saturday, June 25, 2011quintet ‘in lontano’ (‘in the distance’), which was premiered on June 14th under the direction of Alexander Schneider.

“While composing this work for string orchestra, I couldn’t help hearing the resonances of the full symphony orchestra, and when Mstislav Rostropovich [the famed Russian cellist and then mu-sic director of the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C.] asked me for a new compo-sition, I proposed to him the working up of a full orchestra version of Glosses, in which one could listen to the themes of his illustrious colleague. He welcomed my suggestion and I thus developed the structure of the string version by amplifying its form and adapting it to the new symphonic conception. This venture, carried out during 1977, was considerable and took the same proportions as the composing of a new work.

“It was with great emotion that I composed Glosses to the memory of Pablo Casals. Many things drew me to Casals: his personality; his great qualities as an artist and as a man for whom freedom was the essential element in all of life; the long friendship that existed between him and my wife, [cellist] Aurora [Nátola-Ginastera], one of his most devoted disciples; the enthusiasm he showed for my works; his interest in keeping abreast of events everywhere in the world of music; and, finally, my own Catalan origin — the ‘ginesta’ (‘broom flower’) being one of the symbols of [Casals’ native] Catalonia.

“I still have in my mind a very clear, almost photographic, recollection of Casals sitting on the beach of San Juan with his inseparable umbrella, looking at the sea beyond the horizon as if trying to reach with his eyes the ocean’s opposite shore. A distant smile — at once enigmatic and mischievous, somewhat poetic, somewhat bitter — lighted his face from time to time, and I knew that his thoughts were over there in his native Catalonia. And I have kept from that time certain mental images of Casals that I have tried to bring back to life with love and friendship through his own musical themes.

“1. lntroducció: The watchman’s song ... fireworks [Ginastera quoted Stravinsky’s brilliant 1908 orchestral miniature, Fireworks] ... choruses of praise to the Virgin of Montserrat. [This movement refers to Casals’ sacred choral work Oració a la verge de Montserrat (‘Prayer to the Virgin of Montser-rat’) of 1959.]

“2. Romanç: Idyllic, serene landscape, with evocations of the Tres Estrofas de amor [‘Three Verses of Love,’ Casals’ 1958 setting of poetry by the Spanish writer Tomás Blanco].

“3. Sardanes: From far away, the sounds of an infinite number of sardanas (the national dance of Catalonia) drawing near and passing by ...

“4. Cant: In a nocturnal, magical atmosphere, filled with the songs of fabulous birds, one can hear the theme Cant dell Ocells [‘Song of the Birds’], immortalized by Casals. [Casals became closely identified with this old Catalan Christmas song, which he called his ‘song of exile’ and played widely.]

“5. Conclusió delirant: Suddenly everything is illuminated with the colors of blood and gold — the colors of the Catalan flag — and a wild sardana bursts forth and rushes onward to a frenetic conclusion.”

©2011 Dr. Richard E. Rodda


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