Download Program Notes sponsored by

Program Notes sponsored by
by Edward Yadzinsky
Ariodante
George Frideric Handel
Born February 23, 1685; Halle, Germany
Died April 14, 1759; London, England
George Frideric Handel remains on the all-time
best-seller list with his great oratorio Messiah, and
two very popular orchestral suites – Water Music
and Fireworks. His catalog is otherwise replete
with hundreds of titles: operas, diverse oratorios,
songs and a trove of chamber works. Moreover, Handel flourished
during the era known as the Late Baroque, a time when the orchestra
itself was a burgeoning infant.
We may be surprised to learn that during his long career, Handel was
known primarily as an opera composer. He scored about 45 of them,
mostly in the popular “Italian style.” Completed in the early fall of
1734, Ariodante was the first composed for Handel’s appointment at
London’s famed Covent Garden. In chronology, it was the 33rd opera
to emerge from his plume.
Set in three acts, the opera’s storyline is based on Orlando Furioso,
the great dramatic poem by Ludovico Ariosto (1474-1533). In sum,
the kindly and devoted princess Ginerva is to marry the king’s knight,
Ariodante. But the lovers are each betrayed by rivals for her hand.
She awaits the gallows for alleged treason. Ariodante tries to end it
all by jumping off a high cliff into the sea, but miraculous breezes
carry him safely into the deep woods. When the king learns of the
plots against his daughter and her betrothed, he purges the villains
© Program Notes copyright 2016 by Edward Yadzinsky
Edward Yadzinsky joined the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra as a
clarinetist and saxophonist in 1963. As an avant-garde performer,
he has appeared across the United States, Canada and Europe, and
has recordings including Echoi, by Lukas Foss, with the composer
at the piano. As a composer Yadzinsky has written various chamber
music works and a ballet for full orchestra. He is a professor at State
University of NY at Buffalo, is the historian of the BPO, and has
written our program notes since 2001.
and reunites Ginerva and Ariodante, accompanied by folk songs and
dances at the final curtain.
To set an appropriate mood for the stage action, Handel scored an
elegant and sprightly overture. With classic Baroque accents and
dotted rhythms, the music begins with a regal bearing, very much
like an English processional in 4/4 time. A second section in triple
meter is altogether light and breezy. Set as a blithe fugue, the music
suggests the convoluted drama at hand. As a final call for the curtain
to rise, Handel provides yet another royal motif, featuring snippets in
the oboe and bassoon in 2/4 meter before the final chord in G minor.
As a tuneful coda, the Overture segues into a staged Gavotte, also in
G minor, as the storyline begins.
At the time, operas were expected to have at least one entertaining
dance interlude (often more). For Ariodante Handel provided the
current Ballo (ballet scene) from the end of Act I. The Ballo features
another Gavotte, in F major and duple-time, followed by a pair of
Musettes in D major. The first, marked Lentement (slowly) in stately 4/4
time, is replied by a courtly encore, marked Andante in 6/8 meter. The
set concludes with a tip-toe Allegro (fast), back in heralding F major.
For reference, a Gavotte is an up-beat French dance, made popular by
Louis XIV in the late 17th century. A Musette is an ancient dance, also
of French origin. The term formally means “bagpipe,” but was applied
to any folk tune performed “in the style” of musettes (bagpipes).
As an aside, we note the fact that opera and ballet derived from
Italian culture, almost at the same time. That other cultures point
to diverse stage works of greater antiquity does not change the fact
that early opera and ballet were – by far – most widely supported in
Italy. In relatively short order, opera and ballet became the dominant
genres in Italian theater. In turn, the creative inertia from the Italian
Renaissance pervaded the whole of Europe, with Italian opera and
ballet in tow.
Events of 1734 (Ariodante composed)
- Dam built across Cabacier’s Creek and grist mill erected where flour
and meal for Detroit settlement were ground
- Voltaire writes English Letters and Philosophy
- Cure for shipbound scurvy discovered in Greenland
- House of Cards painted by Jean-Baptiste-Simeon Chardin
- Rinaldo and Armida painted by Francois Boucher
- J.S. Bach composes Christmas Oratorio
- Alexander Pope writes Essay on Man
- G.F. Handel composes six Concerti Grossi
- James Short builds innovative reflecting telescope
Concerto for Harp and Orchestra, Op. 25
Alberto Ginastera
Born April 11, 1916; Buenos Aires, Argentina
Died June 25, 1983; Geneva, Switzerland
During his distinguished career, Alberto Ginastera
served as the cultural ambassador of his native
Argentina. Although most of his musical training
occurred there, it should be added that his most
advanced study was done under the tutelage of American composer
Aaron Copland at Tanglewood. Regarding his impressions of
Ginastera’s serious manner and mode, Copland observed:
“There is a tremendous contrast between the outward personality
and the inner man. He is never off the cuff, but speaks with due
consideration for feelings and decorum. A lot goes on inside we don’t
know about, obviously. He’s a very smart cookie, in the best sense.”
In general, Ginastera’s music is traditional, despite his occasional use
of an advanced musical vocabulary, derived mostly from various 20thcentury techniques. But his amalgamation of those styles and modes
is essentially practical, even in his use of microtones (smaller than
half tones), atonal serial procedures (to avoid a sense of key center),
and even aleatoric devices (chance music).
Ginastera’s full catalog comprises ballets, operas, film scores, various
concertos, choral works and numerous pieces for a variety of chamber
ensembles. Among his most frequently performed orchestral scores
are his Variaciones Concertantes, the suite from his brilliant ballet
Estancia (performed by the A2SO in our 2013 Daytime Youth
Concerts), a set of three colorful settings titled Pampeanas and the
current Concerto for Harp.
The composer has provided the following commentary about the piece.
“When in 1956, I accepted a commission to write a harp concerto, I
could hardly have dreamed that it was going to be the most difficult
work I have ever written, and that it would take several years to
see the light. The first sketches for the work are dated 1956; the last
measures of the completed score were written in the last weeks of
1964. The harp, because of its own intrinsic characteristics, poses
for a modern composer many problems that are very difficult to
solve. The special features of harp technique – so simple and at
the same time so complicated – the possibility of writing for 12
sounds on only seven strings, the eminently diatonic nature of the
instrument and many other problems make writing for the harp a
harder task than writing for piano, violin or clarinet. My creative
work was therefore slow and painful, since I wished to produce, as
I did with my piano and violin concertos, a virtuoso concerto, with
all the virtuoso display, for the soloist and for the orchestra, that
real concertos must have.
“My harp concerto is divided into three movements: The first one,
marked Allegro giusto, is built in a kind of sonata form, concentrating
more elements at the end of the re-exposition and coda. The second
movement, Molto moderato, is a juxtaposed form in four sections,
A-B-C-A. The last movement, Liberamente capriccioso; vivace,
has a form equivalent to that of an introduction and rondo. The
introduction is a long cadenza for harp alone. The rondo, in which
one can recognize some rhythmic elements of Argentine music, is
the last part of the movement. It has five sections: A-B-A-C-A. The
orchestra consists of the traditional instruments in pairs, except for
trombones, and a reduced body of strings. A percussion section of 28
different instruments has been used to underline the strong rhythmic
pulsation of the work.”
Events of 1964 (Harp Concerto composed)
- First Ford Mustang is made
- Lyndon Johnson signs Civil Rights Act
- Johnson declares War on Poverty Campaign
- US Congress authorizes war against North Vietnam
- The Beatles release I Want to Hold YHand and All My Loving
- Cassius Clay beats Sonny Liston for World Heavyweight Championship
- BASIC (Beginners’ All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code), an easyto-learn high-level programming language, is introduced
- Pablo Picasso paints his fourth Head of a Bearded Man
- Hasbro launches G.I. Joe action figure for boys
Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op. 73
Johannes Brahms
Born May 7, 1833; Hamburg, Germany
Died April 3, 1897; Vienna, Austria
As Beethoven alternated moods from one symphony
to the next, Brahms seemed to follow suit. For
example, the current work – altogether lyrical,
graceful and light – was scored within a short year of
its weighty predecessor, the momentous Symphony No. 1 in C Minor.
In turn, Brahms followed the serious tone of his third symphony with
the brighter nuance of the fourth.
Symphony No. 2 was written at Pörtschach on the edge of lake Wörth
in Alpine Carinthia (Austria) during a long summer holiday in 1877.
The tone of Brahms’ letters during that time reflects the mood of the
symphony itself: Here melodies flow so easily and freely that one has
to be careful not to trample any of them underfoot. But when the
composer got around to describing his own music (a rare occurrence)
he liked to speak in a self-effacing vernacular. For example, writing to
friends, Johannes described Symphony No. 2 with a deflecting tease:
“The new Symphony is so melancholy that you won’t be able to stand
it. I have never before written anything so sad and mournful – the
score will have to be published with a black border. I have given fair
warning to you. It will certainly be a failure.”
However, at the premiere at the Musikverein in Vienna the composer
finally let down his guard:
“The orchestra here has rehearsed and performed with real pleasure,
and has praised me as I have never been praised before. I believe that
this piece and the things in it can give great pleasure by sounding
so well.”
With regard to the schematic of the work, a few details are fascinating.
Given that it was scored on location in the Austrian Alps, historians
sometimes describe Opus 73 as Brahms’ “Pastoral Symphony” (a
reference to Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6). But there is more. Note
the bucolic horns at the very opening of the work – the principal
motif appears at once with the barest of introductions. The second
theme is not far behind – a gorgeous fragment from the celestial high
strings. The beginning tempo is marked Allegro non troppo, i.e., “not
too fast.” Brahms then takes us on a tour of variations on the main
themes, including a few frames of fugal counterpoint. The movement
closes with a memoir from the very first bars, again in the horns.
Peaceful shadows in B major radiate from the lower strings at the
beginning of the second movement Adagio non troppo. After the
melody is traced in the cellos, it is mirrored in the high strings as
a prelude to what composer Arnold Schönberg once described as
“Brahms’ musical prose.”
Note the airy, G major chant in the woodwinds over pizzicatos at
the very opening of the third movement Allegretto grazioso. In turn,
bouncing strings make a game of it in a scherzo-styled dash. With ease,
the music yin-yangs between both tempos, with a moment or two of
levity in the manner of a country folk dance; we wonder if Brahms
has coyly borrowed the tune from vagabond fiddlers.
Keep a tuned ear on the first bars of the fourth movement – the
intervals from the very opening bars of the symphony are refreshed in
a fast moving retake in the strings. Brahms demurs and lets us settle
down, but only briefly. On a sunny cue the orchestra spreads its sonic
wings once again over the Alpine expanse, thrilling the radiant air as
it glides to the close with power strokes in D major.
Events of 1877 (Symphony No. 2 composed)
- First telephones installed in Detroit
- Detroit Public Library formally opens
- Chase Manhattan Bank founded
- First U.S. bicycle factory in Boston
- Japanese Red Cross founded
- First liquid oxygen and liquid nitrogen
- American Museum of Natural History opens
- First telephone switchboard installed
- Phonograph demonstrated by Thomas Edison
- Washington Post is founded
- Anna Karenina written by Tolstoy
- Swan Lake by Tchaikovsky premiered at Moscow’s Bolshoi
- First Wimbledon tennis match
- Fresh Air Fund established in Pennsylvania
- Granola created in Battle Creek, Michigan