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PRESENTS
2024
7:00 PM
6:30 PM Pre-Concert Talk
november
mozart & Friends
Oak Ridge Symphony
Wind Ensemble
MOZART & FRIENDS
Charles Gounod (1818-1893)
Petite symphonie
(Little Symphony for Wind Instruments) (1885)
Andres Eloy Rodriguez (b. 1974)
“Equilibruim”
for 10 Wind Instruments (World Premiere)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
Serenade No.10, K.361 (370a),
B-flat major (Gran partita) (1783–1784)
Intermission
Musicians
Flute 1 - Shelby Shankland
Flute 2 - Gozde Cakir Ramsey
Oboe - Mike Adduci
Oboe 2 - Hunter Collins
Clarinet 1 - Victor Chavez
Clarinet 2 - Kristi Youngkin
Clarient 2 - Mark Karmer
Bassoon 1 - Ben Atherholt
Bassoon 2 - Noah Moore
Horn di Basset - Victor Chavez
Horn di Bassett - Rafael Puga
Horn 1 - Joesph Meinweiser
Horn 2 - Meredith Simpson
Horn 3 - Carrie Kiehler
Horn 4 - Keiran Joseph Scruggs
Bass - Daniel Shifflet
Concert Notes
Charles Gounod (1818-1893)
French Composer which production was mostly concentrated on operas, among them the “Faust” and “Romeo et Juliette”, his famous “Ave Maria” is often
performed in weddings, and social events.
Gounod was born in Paris into an artistic family, he initially pursued law under pressure from his parents but soon followed his passion for music,
studying at the Paris Conservatoire. He won the prestigious Prix de Rome in 1839, allowing him to spend time in Italy, where he absorbed works of
Palestrina. completing his studies in Austria and Prussia. During this time Gounod met Felix Mendelssohn, who was a big influence in Gounod, especially
since Mendelssohn advocacy to Bach’s music.
Back on French soil after a dramatic rift with Mrs Weldon, Gounod returned to composing operas, and later shifted his focus to choral music. His catalogue
of choral music included three oratorios, 21 masses and numerous cantatas. Gounod was undoubtedly an influential figure in the history of French music.
He mentored Georges Bizet, whose Symphony in C bears the imprint of Gounod’s own Symphony no.1. His songs paved the way for Fauré and Debussy,
and his operas influenced Massenet and Saint-Saëns. But his refusal to follow the innovations of Richard Wagner, which were then sweeping Europe,
alienated him from many critics. Debussy’s remark that ‘Gounod, for all his faults, is necessary’ demonstrates the respect shown to him by the next
generation of French composers.
Petite Symphony (1885)
The premiere of Gounod’s Petite Symphonie for nine winds (1885) was the result of a particular convergence of circumstances. The first contributing factor
was Theobald Boehm’s revolutionary improvements to the structural design of woodwind instruments. Boehm re-imagined the mechanism of these
instruments so that they could be built with ideal acoustical properties in mind. These advances improved projection of tone, stability of intonation, and
technical facility in addition to bringing woodwind instruments to a standard of consistency that string instruments had achieved centuries prior. The
second factor contributing to the premiere of the Petite Symphonie was the concurrent resurgence of wind music as championed by flutist Paul Taffanel.
Taffanel founded the Société de Musique de la Chambre pour Instruments à Vent (Chamber Music Society for Wind Instruments) in 1879 to commission
and promote music for the newly-perfected Boehm-style woodwind instruments. He reached out the several belle époque composers for new woodwind
works, and Gounod responded with the Petite Symphonie. The work calls for the standard Mozart serenade instrumentation of two oboes, two clarinets,
two bassoons, and two horns, but Gounod also included a single flute part for Taffanel. The resulting four-movement work exhibits a Classical clarity of
form and phrase structure with shades of Romantic harmony and expressivity.
The first movement opens with a slow introduction preceding the fresh Allegretto, which uses homophonic and simple textures. The second movement
marked Andante cantabile features a prominent flute solo with occasional interventions by the oboe and clarinet. The third movement entitled Scherzo is
written in 6/8 in a sort of tarantella with a trio. The last movement, marked Finale, also opens with an homophonic introduction, but its sparkly character
runs the movement until the end. It is written in Sonata form and divided in two parts, as the early symphonies.
Program Note by Régulo Stabilito
Andrés Eloy Rodríguez (b. 1970)
(Caracas, 1970). Bachelor in Music (1998) - Instituto Universitario de Estudios Musicales (nowadays UNEARTE), Master in Music (2007) - Universidad Simón
Bolívar. Flute lessons with Franklin Hinojosa, José A. Naranjo, Glenn M. Egner, Víctor Rojas, José García-Guerrero, Luis Julio Toro and composition with
Emilio Mendoza and Juan Carlos Núñez.
Winner in 2004 of the Festival of Soloists "Aldemaro Romero", in the first version of this festival in Venezuela. Municipal Prize of Music 2010, mention of
Symphonic Brief Work, "Modesta Bor" Prize, with Episodios Rituales (2006), repeating the same award in 2014 in the same category with Concertino para
Orquesta (2010). In 2015 he won the First Prize of the First National Composition Competition “Banda Sinfónica 24 de junio” in honor of the 93rd
anniversary of this prestigious institution of the Carabobo State (Venezuela), with his Suite de Ayer y Hoy for symphonic band (2015).
As a composer he has explored different formats for both chamber music and symphony orchestra,
as well as various composition styles. His works have been performed by groups such as the Venezuelan Symphony Orchestra, Simón Bolívar Symphony,
Caracas Municipal Symphony, National Philharmonic Orchestra, Mérida State Symphony Orchestra, Miranda Symphony Orchestra, Venezuelan National
Flute Orchestra and renowned local performers. Outside of Venezuela frontiers there have also been several premieres of his own, such as the Credo para
tres flautistas, and a new version for chamber ensemble of Episodios Rituales, both premieres made in 2016 in Baton Rouge (Luisianna - USA).
He is currently preparing his first compilation CD of several of his works, among which are Sonata for flute and piano (2002), Encuentros - Suite for flute
and guitar (2016), Credo for three flutist (2016). Likewise, other chamber works were premiered in the United States, such as Elegía Fantastico y Obstinato
Giocoso for flute and viola (2017), Breve Recuento de un Largo Viaje for trombone bass and quintet (2016), as well as other commissions in progress.
Currently, Mr. Rodríguez is working on a Requiem for vocal soloists, chorus and orchestra, as hommage to Mtro. Juan Carlos Nuñez, extraordinary
venezuelan composer who passed away on 2024.
Member of the Symphony Orchestra Venezuela since 2000 as assistant to the flute section and member of its Board of Directors (2010-2012 and 2012-2014).
Professor of the flute and chamber music courses of the Master in Music of the Simón Bolívar University, and of the Venezuela National School of Flute,
belonging to FUNDAMUSICAL BOLIVAR (Worldwide known as EL SISTEMA). Memberof the Chatedra of Composition "Antonio Estévez", under the tutelage
of the Mtro. Juan Carlos Núñez since 2009.
Mr. Rodríguez also is the Artistic Conductor of the Venezuela Flute Orchestra, an institution with more than 25 years in the artistic scenarios in his home
country, Venezuela.
Equilibrium (2024)
For double woodwind quintet, Op. 31 (2024)
I) Prologue
II) Promenade I
III) The Evil
IV) Promenade II
V) The Good
VI) The Meeting
VII) The Challenge
VIII) Acceptance
IX) Promenade III
X) The Fight
XI) The Equilibrium
Work commissioned by Oak Ridge Civil Music Association (ORCMA), through its musical director Mtro. Régulo Stabilito, and composed between August
and September 2024, to be programmed within the orchestra's concert agenda, in particular for its woodwind section. The work consists of several
movements linked practically without interruption, lasting approximately 11 minutes.
The work is a brief story, from the composer's personal perspective, about good and evil. After discussing with Maestro Stabilito about the characteristics
of this commission, we reached an agreement to make a semi-staged story about the spiritual struggle and the balance between good and evil, assuming
that both will always coexist and cannot exist separately. The Good represented by the high instruments of one of the quintets (flute and oboe), and The
Evil represented by the low instruments of the other staged quintet (bassoon and the horn). The playing begins with both quintets separated off the stage.
This arrangement represents the human subconscious, with all the staging within the stage being the human conscious. After the Prologue where this kind
of philosophy is briefly described, the protagonists of The Evil make their appearance, accompanied by their quintet companions off stage with a
Promenade I (incidental music to accompany the march of the bassoon and horn towards the stage). Next, the protagonists of The Good appear, the same
thing happening with their quintet companions, also accompanying them from off stage (Promenade II). In front of this Encounter, the Challenge occurs, in
which The Evil challenges The Good to a fight. Later, the clarinets of both quintets have a brief and furtive encounter, like a short fight, in where the other
members of both quintets who are backstage get involved. These clarinets somehow represent the human unconscious, which act by instinct. The Good
accepts the challenge to a duel, but both opponents sing a Gregorian Chant in unison like knights, as a sign of acceptance of its conditions and the destiny
of each of those involved. This Gregorian “Song of the Horse Rider” chant is authored by maestro Juan Carlos Núñez, to whom the composer wishes to pay
a small tribute on the occasion of his recent passing.
The soloists from both sides then sing a Promenade III to give way to the remaining members of the quintets who are backstage. When they take position
in the center of the stage, they begin to play this Promenade so that the soloists take position on the stage. The Fight begins between these two opposing
forces, where all the issues involved in Good and Evil, the Acceptance of this Challenge, are presented. The Fight ends, and the forces in conflict begin little
by little to take the natural balance of their coexistence. Who wins this Fight? The question is left open. What is important to understand is that balance has
been achieved, even if briefly, until these antagonistic forces come into conflict again.
Program Note by Andrés Eloy Rodríguez
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1818-1893)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) was one of the most influential, popular and prolific composers of the classical period. He composed over 600 works,
including some of the most famous and loved pieces of symphonic, chamber, operatic, and choral music. Mozart was born in Salzburg to a musical family.
From an early age, the young Mozart showed all the signs of a prodigious musical talent. By the age of 5 he could read and write music, and he would
entertain people with his talents on the keyboard. By the age of 6 he was writing his first compositions. Mozart was generally considered to be a rare
musical genius, though Mozart said that he was diligent in studying other great composers such as Haydn and Bach.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born on January 27, 1756, in Salzburg, Austria. His father, Leopold Mozart, a noted composer, instructor, and the author of
famous writings on violin playing, was then in the service of the archbishop of Salzburg. Leopold and Anna Maria, his wife, stressed the importance of
music to their children. Together with his sister, Nannerl, Wolfgang received such intensive musical training that by the age of six he was a budding
composer and an accomplished keyboard performer. In 1762 Leopold presented his son as performer at the imperial court in Vienna, Austria, and from 1763
to 1766 he escorted both children on a continuous musical tour across Europe, which included long stays in Paris, France, and London, England, as well as
visits to many other cities, with appearances before the French and English royal families.
Mozart was the most celebrated child prodigy of this time as a keyboard performer. He also made a great impression as a composer and improviser. In
London he won the admiration of musician Johann Christian Bach (1735–1782), and he was exposed from an early age to an unusual variety of musical styles
and tastes across Europe.
From the age of ten to seventeen, Mozart's reputation as a composer grew to a degree of maturity equal to that of older established musicians. He spent the
years from 1766 to 1769 at Salzburg writing instrumental works and music for school dramas in German and Latin, and in 1768 he produced his first real
operas: the German Singspiel (that is, with spoken dialogue) Bastien und Bastienne. Despite his growing reputation, Mozart found no suitable post open to
him; and his father once more escorted Mozart, at age fourteen (1769), and set off for Italy to try to make his way as an opera composer.
In Italy, Mozart was well received: in Milan, Italy, he obtained a commission for an opera; in Rome he was made a member of an honorary knightly order by
the Pope; and at Bologna, Italy, the Accademia Filarmonica awarded him membership despite a rule normally requiring candidates to be twenty years old.
During these years of travel in Italy and returns to Salzburg between journeys, he produced his first large-scale settings of opera seria (that is, court opera
on serious subjects): Mitridate (1770), Ascanio in Alba (1771), and Lucio Silla (1772), as well as his first string quartets. At Salzburg in late 1771 he renewed his
writing of Symphonies (Nos. 14–21).
Paris was a vastly larger theater for Mozart's talents. His father urged him to go there, for "from Paris the fame of a man of great talent echoes through the
whole world," he wrote his son. But after nine difficult months in Paris, from March 1778 to January 1779, Mozart returned once more to Salzburg, having
been unable to secure a foothold and depressed by the entire experience, which had included the death of his mother in the midst of his stay in Paris.
Unable to get hired for an opera, he wrote music to order in Paris, again mainly for wind instruments: the Sinfonia Concertante for four solo wind
instruments and orchestra, the Concerto for flute and harp, other chamber music, and the ballet music Les Petits riens. In addition, he began giving
lessons to make money.
Mozart's years in Vienna, from age twenty-five to his death at thirty-five, cover one of the greatest developments in a short span in the history of music. In
these ten years Mozart's music grew rapidly beyond the realm of many of his contemporaries; it exhibited both ideas and methods of elaboration that few
could follow, and to many the late Mozart seemed a difficult composer.
The major instrumental works of this period bring together all the fields of Mozart's earlier activity and some new ones: six symphonies, including the
famous last three: no. 39 in E-flat Major, no. 40 in G Minor, and no. 41 in C Major (the Jupiter —a title unknown to Mozart). He finished these three works
within six weeks during the summer of 1788, a remarkable feat even for him.
In the field of the string quarter Mozart produced two important groups of works that completely overshadowed any he had written before 1780: in 1785 he
published the six Quartets (K. 387, 421, 428, 458, 464, and 465) and in 1786 added the single Hoffmeister Quartet (K. 499). In 1789 he wrote the last three
Quartets (K. 575, 589, and 590), dedicated to King Frederick William (1688–1740) of Prussia, a noted cellist.
Mozart's development as an opera composer between 1781 and his death is even more remarkable, perhaps, since the problems of opera were more far-
ranging than those of the larger instrumental forms and provided less adequate models. The first important result was the German Singspiel entitled Die
Entführung aus dem Serail (1782; Abduction from the Seraglio). Mozart then turned to Italian opera. Mozart produced his three greatest Italian operas: Le
nozze di Figaro (1786; The Marriage of Figaro), Don Giovanni (1787, for Prague), and Cosi fan tutte (1790). In his last opera, The Magic Flute (1791), Mozart
turned back to German opera, and he produced a work combining many strands of popular theater and including musical expressions ranging from folk to
opera.
On concluding The Magic Flute, Mozart turned to work on what was to be his last project, the Requiem. This Mass had been commissioned by a benefactor
said to have been unknown to Mozart, and he is supposed to have become obsessed with the belief that he was, in effect, writing it for himself. Ill and
exhausted, he managed to finish the first two movements and sketches for several more, but the last three sections were entirely lacking when he died. It
was completed by his pupil Franz Süssmayer after his death, which occurred in Vienna, Austria, on December 5, 1791.
Serenade No. 10 in B flat major K.361 “Gran Partita” (1783-1784)
Although some musicologists still debate about the composition date, between 1781 and 1783, we know the Serenade was premiered in Vienna in 1784 as part
of a benefit concert. The Gran Partita as it is commonly known was not a nickname given by Mozart, however the composition process is associated with
some performance prominent figures: the oboist Friedrich Ramm and the clarinetist Anton Stadler. The last one was also the inspiration for the Clarinet
Concerto and the Clarinet Quintet.
The instrumentation is quite unusual: 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 basset horns (instrument of the lower range in the clarinet family) 2 bassoons, 4 horns, and a
double-bass. This instrumentation allows Mozart to explore the full range of woodwind sonorities supporting operatic treatment for each soloist.
The piece is written in 7 movements:
I. Largo – Molto Allegro
II. Menuetto
III. Adagio
IV. Menuetto
V. Romance
VI. Tema con Variazioni
VII. Finale
The first movement starts with a classic opening homophonic gesture of the tutti giving the path to the operatic clarinet solo. The Molto Allegro is written
in sonata form starting with a simple melodic theme which persists thorough the movement without mutation, instead of it, the accompaniment changes
giving an enormous thematic consistency for the movement.
The Menuetto has an elegant character, almost like the opening of a theme for the court. It includes 2 trios: Trio I dedicated to the clarinets and the basset
horns, and the Trio II is dedicated to the bassoon.
This movement is perhaps the most famous, thanks to the film “Amadeus” by Peter Shaffer. The Adagio, has a dual mood, and Mozart in his genius
manages to present different characters with the same elements in the orchestration. Written in E flat major, the common element is syncopated figure,
which at the beginning suggest a simple walking, in the middle of the movement becomes a funeral march, returning to its lighter character during the
recapitulation with just a reminiscence of the funeral march during the coda.
The second Menuetto presents a more playful character. Written in B flat major, it contains 2 trios. Trio I: which share the character of the menuetto and
the Trio II: which uses unison melodic lines for the oboe I basset horn I and Bassoon I.
The Romance, written in two parts Adagio and Allegretto. The adagio gives melancholic solos to the clarinets and oboes, and the allegretto is a tour of force
for bassoons and double-bass.
The Tema con Variazioni contains the presentation of the theme and six variations. Once again, the number seven perhaps has a hidden meaning in the
work. The theme has a simple character, almost like a lullaby. However, that character changes thorough the variations.
The Finale has that sparkly virtuosistic character that Mozart explores in his works thanks to his own ability to perform demanding passages.
It is a shame that the piece is rarely performed, perhaps for the complexity to access to basset horns, however the musical value of the work is comparable
to any of the Mozart’s Symphonies.
Program Note by Régulo Stabilito