Download Concert of Sunday, May 16, 2010, at 7:30pm. Atlanta Symphony

Concert of Sunday, May 16, 2010, at 7:30pm.
Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra
Jere Flint, Conductor
Drew Forde, Viola
Xavier Foley, Bass
Geoff Knorr (b. 1985)
Shadows of the Infinite (2008)
William Walton (1902-1983)
Viola Concerto (1929, rev. 1962)
I. Andante comodo—con spirito
Drew Forde, Viola
Giovanni Bottesini (1821-1889)
Concerto No. 1 in F-sharp minor for Double Bass and Orchestra
I. Allegro moderato
Xavier Foley, Bass
Intermission
Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990)
Symphonic Dances from West Side Story (1960)
Notes on the Program by Ken Meltzer
Shadows of the Infinite (2008)
Geoff Knorr was born in Framingham, Massachusetts, on June 13, 1985. The first
performance of Shadows of the Infinite took place at Friedberg Hall of the Peabody
Conservatory in Baltimore, Maryland, on September 27, 2008, with Ruben Capriles
conducting the Peabody Symphony Orchestra. Shadows of the Infinite is scored for
piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, English horn, two clarinets, bass clarinet, two
bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, two trombones, bass
trombone, tuba, timpani, percussion, piano, harp and strings. Approximate
performance time is twelve minutes.
Geoff Knorr
Geoff Knorr is a young composer of contemporary concert music. He is a graduate of the
Peabody Conservatory, with a BM and MM in Music Composition, and BM in Recording
Arts and Sciences. Mr. Knorr’s composition professors at the Peabody included
Christopher Theofanidis and Michael Hersch. Mr. Knorr currently resides in Sparks,
Maryland, were he works as a composer and sound designer for Firaxis Games. He is
also pursuing free-lance projects in composition and audio engineering.
Geoff Knorr’s compositions have been performed throughout the United States by both
professional and student orchestras, including the Hartford Symphony Orchestra,
Peabody Symphony Orchestra, and Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra. His music has
received numerous awards, including the ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer
Award, Macht Orchestral Composition Award, and honorable mention in the National
Association of Composers, USA Composition Competition. Mr. Knorr was also selected
as a participant in the 2009 Minnesota Orchestra Composer Institute.
Geoff Knorr is an amateur cellist, who played in the Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra.
He is also an amateur pianist, guitarist and bass guitarist.
The composer provided the following program notes on his orchestral work, Shadows of
the Infinite:
Various ideas of texture, color, timbre, and structure for an orchestral
work had been swirling around in my head starting early in 2007, but it
was not until December of the same year that I actually began work on it.
The opening of the work starts with a strong downbeat, which acts as a
trigger to a bright, metallic texture consisting of string harmonics, winds,
and bowed crotales. These strong downbeats continue periodically with
what could be heard as aftershocks following their initial attacks. At the
same time, the trumpets gradually introduce a three note rising motive,
from which the work gathers much of its motivic material and
development. The piece then takes these basic elements seamlessly
through a series of timbres, colors, and emotions with the overall sense
being that of majesty, awe, and mystery.
The idea of "Infinite" is vastly incomprehensible. No beginning. No end.
Eternal past. Eternal future. Forever. Never-ending. No matter how hard
you or I try, we simply cannot wrap our minds around this thought. Even
when we gaze upward through our telescopes there is a limit to how far
away things out there are, and so we can somewhat understand…but
infinite, this is beyond us.
"The infinite-personal, triune God is there, and…is not silent."*
Shadows.
Majesty. Awe. Mystery.
Infinite.
Personal.
*Schaeffer, Francis. He is There and He is Not Silent, a part of Francis A.
Schaeffer Trilogy. Wheaton: Crossway Books/Good News Publishers,
1990. Pg. 290
Viola Concerto (1928-9, rev. 1962)
William Walton was born in Oldham, England, on March 29, 1902, and died in
Ischia, Italy, on March 8, 1983. The first performance of the Viola Concerto took
place at Queen’s Hall in London, England, on October 3, 1929, with Paul Hindemith
as soloist and the composer conducting the Henry Wood Symphony Orchestra. In
addition to the solo viola, the Concerto is scored for piccolo, two flutes, two oboes,
English horn, two clarinets, bass clarinet, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets,
three trombones, timpani, harp and strings. Approximate performance time of the
first movement is nine minutes.
William Walton’s Viola Concerto is the first of three Concertos the British composer
wrote for solo string instruments and orchestra. Jascha Heifetz commissioned—and in
1939 premiered—Walton's Concerto for Violin and Orchestra. The Cello Concerto was
the result of a commission from yet another legendary virtuoso, Russian cellist Gregor
Piatagorsky, who was the soloist in that work’s 1957 premiere.
The great conductor Sir Thomas Beecham suggested to Walton that he compose a
Concerto for the prominent British violist, Lionel Tertis. Walton completed the Concerto
in early 1929 and sent it to Tertis for his approval. Tertis, however, rejected the work,
finding it too modern for his tastes. Edward Clark of the BBC then forwarded the
Concerto to the German composer and violist, Paul Hindemith. Hindemith agreed to play
the work, and was the soloist in the Concerto’s October 3, 1929 London premiere, with
the composer on the podium.
Despite limited rehearsal time, the premiere of the Walton Viola Concerto was a great
success. Tertis was in the audience, and sent a letter to Walton, apologizing for his initial
assessment of the score. In short order, Lionel Tertis also performed the Walton
Concerto, and remained a staunch advocate for the piece. In 1962, Walton revised the
Concerto’s orchestration.
This concert features the Viola Concerto’s opening movement, set in slow tempo
(Andante comodo), and featuring a yearning, wide-ranging melody for the soloist. This
principal episode alternates with an agitated sequence (con spirito), before finally
resolving to a hushed conclusion.
Concerto No. 1 in F-sharp minor for Double Bass and Orchestra
Giovanni Bottesini was born in Crema, Italy, on December 22, 1821, and died in
Parma, Italy, on July 7, 1889. In addition to the solo double bass, the Concerto is
scored for flute, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets,
trombone timpani and strings. Approximate performance time is of the first
movement is eleven minutes.
Giovanni Bottesini’s early music studies were with his father, a clarinetist and composer.
As a child, Bottesini sang in choirs, and played the timpani and violin. In 1835, the
young Bottesini applied to study at the Milan Conservatory. However, the only
remaining scholarships were for bassoon and double bass. In a few weeks’ time,
Giovanni Bottesini mastered the latter instrument sufficiently to gain admission to the
Conservatory. There, in addition to his instrumental pursuits, Bottesini studied harmony,
counterpoint and composition.
In 1839, Giovanni Bottesini left the Milan Conservatory. The following year, he made
his triumphant concert debut. Bottesini soon established himself as one of the leading
double bass virtuosos of his day, performing both in solo concerts, and as a member of
various orchestras. Concert engagements took Bottesini throughout Europe and the New
World. His American recitals included appearances in New York and New Orleans.
In addition to his talents as a double bass virtuoso, Giovanni Bottesini also enjoyed a
prominent career as a composer and conductor. His most famous conducting appearance
occurred in Cairo, Egypt, on December 24, 1871, when Bottesini conducted the world
premiere of Giuseppe Verdi’s grand opera, Aida. During his career, Bottesini held
several important music director positions. In January of 1889, Verdi proposed that
Bottesini be named Director of the Parma Conservatory. However, Bottesini died six
months later, at the age of 77.
But it is for his achievements as an instrumentalist that Giovanni Bottesini is best
remembered. He was nicknamed the “Paganini of the Double Bass,” a reference to the
legendary Italian violinist. Bottesini astounded audiences with his extraordinary
technical brilliance and musicality. In commenting on Bottesini’s 1880 Gran duo
concertante for Violin, Double Bass, and Orchestra, a critic wrote: “It is necessary to
hear Bottesini in this piece to discover what possibilities are hidden in the giant of the
stringed instruments; to hear what can be done in the way of sonorousness, tone, lightness
of expression and grace.”
Bottesini most certainly also showcased these qualities in his Concerto No. 1 in F-sharp
minor for Double Bass. This concert includes the first of the Concerto’s three
movements (Allegro moderato).
Symphonic Dances from West Side Story (1960)
Leonard Bernstein was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts, on August 25, 1918, and
died in New York on October 14, 1990. The first performance of the Symphonic
Dances from West Side Story took place at Carnegie Hall in New York on February
13, 1961, with Lukas Foss conducting the New York Philharmonic. The Symphonic
Dances from West Side Story are scored for piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, English
horn, E-flat clarinet, two clarinets, bass clarinet, alto saxophone, two bassoons,
contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, tuba, timpani, percussion, harp, piano,
celeste and strings. Approximate performance time is twenty-three minutes.
In January of 1949, Jerome Robbins approached Leonard Bernstein with a suggestion for
a new project—a modern-day version of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. The updated
Romeo would be set in the slums during the Easter-Passover celebrations, and depict a
conflict between Catholics and Jews. Robbins suggested that Arthur Laurents write the
show’s book.
The three met, and Bernstein was very much taken with the project. However,
Bernstein’s many conducting obligations stood in the way. In April of 1949, Bernstein
wrote in his log: “This remote-control collaboration isn't right. Maybe they can find the
right composer who isn’t always skipping off to conduct somewhere. It’s not fair to them
or the work.”
In 1955, Bernstein, Robbins and Laurents resumed work on the project, which the
composer referred to in his log as “Romeo”. Everyone agreed to change the original
story line to one that focused on a conflict between “two teen-age gangs, one the warring
Puerto Ricans, the other self-styled ‘Americans’.” Bernstein was thrilled by this change
of course: “Suddenly it all springs to life. I hear rhythms and pulses…” That year,
Bernstein met “a young lyricist named Stephen Sondheim”. Bernstein immediately
pronounced him “ideal for this project.”
Bernstein’s work on Candide further delayed progress on “Romeo.” But by February of
1957, Bernstein vowed: “From here on nothing shall disturb the project.” West Side
Story premiered on August 19, 1957, at the National Theater in Washington DC. The
production featured one of the most remarkable collaborative teams in the history of
musical theater—a book by Arthur Laurents, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, music by
Leonard Bernstein, with the entire production directed and choreographed by Jerome
Robbins.
After performances in Washington, DC, and Philadelphia, West Side Story opened at the
Winter Garden in New York City on September 26, 1957. The production finally closed
on June 27, 1959, after 734 performances. A tour followed, as well as a Hollywood
movie in 1961. West Side Story has remained in the repertoire ever since.
West Side Story, one of the miracles of American musical theater, is a remarkable fusion
of drama, music and dance, all placed at the service of a powerful and timeless story. It
also represents an amazing synthesis of popular and classical elements, a sublime
marriage of the Broadway stage with the opera and ballet houses. As Bernstein wrote
after the premiere:
I am now convinced that what we dreamed all these years is possible;
because there stands that tragic story, with a theme as profound as love
versus hate, with all the theatrical risks of death and racial issues and
young performers and “serious” music and complicated balletics—and it
all added up for the audiences and critics.
In West Side Story, the setting of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet shifts from Verona to
modern-day New York City. The Capulets are now the Puerto Rican gang, the Sharks.
The Montagues become the Jets, the gang of “self-styled ‘Americans’”. Tony, a member
of the Jets and Maria, the sister of the leader of the Sharks, are the modern-day “starcrossed lovers.”
In 1960, Bernstein fashioned an orchestral work from the original Broadway score. Sid
Ramin and Irwin Kristol assisted Bernstein in orchestrating the Symphonic Dances from
West Side Story, which premiered at New York’s Carnegie Hall on February 13, 1961,
with Lukas Foss conducting the New York Philharmonic.
The Symphonic Dances comprise the following sections, played without pause:
Prologue: Allegro moderato
Somewhere: Adagio
Scherzo: Vivace leggiero
Mambo: Presto
Cha-Cha: Andantino con grazia
Meeting Scene: Meno mosso
Cool, Fugue: Allegretto
Rumble: Molto allegro
Finale: Adagio
“Drew Forde and Xavier Foley are two of three winners of the annual ASYO Concerto
competition. The other winner, Angelica Hairston, harp, appeared on the Winter Concert,
February 28, 2010.”