PROGRAM NOTES

Concertino for Flute in D Major, Opus 107 CÉCILE CHAMINADE

Cécile was born in Paris in 1857 to avid musicians who encouraged her talent from an early age. Their neighbor, Georges Bizet, visited the household when Cécile was 8, and “made me play all the pieces I knew,” she later recalled. Her first composition was published at age 12, and after a successful Paris debut in 1877 she became very active as a pianist, chamber musician and conductor throughout Europe as well as in the USA and Canada. Her reputation as a composer grew with the bulk of her 400 pieces being devoted to piano works and mélodies (art songs). She was very much admired in the United States, where Chaminade Clubs of amateur women musicians developed in many cities, and where she earned a substantial income from brisk sales of her printed music. French composer Ambroise Thomas said of Chaminade: “This is not a woman who composes, but a composer who is a woman.” In 1913 she was awarded the Légion d'Honneur – the first for a female composer. She stopped composing after World War I and retired to Monte Carlo where she died in 1944.

The Flute Concertino was commissioned by the Paris Conservatory in 1902 and composed originally for flute with piano accompaniment and was orchestrated two years later for a London concert. With this composition Cécile entered the ranks of many esteemed (male) composers who wrote concours solo for the end-of-year competitions, which included Fauré and Messiaen. The piece is one movement and begins with a broad shapely melody that features clear textures, turns into a highly decorative solo part which is regarded as quite demanding for the flautist, and then, after a cadenza, ends with an exciting coda. Always, the orchestra is scored with delicacy and restraint, an ideal backdrop to the flute’s agility and tonal variety. The concertino remains a standard and popular part of the flute repertoire and is the only work of hers that is performed regularly.

Pie Jesu

LILI BOULANGER

Lili Boulanger (1893-1918) was a tragic figure indeed among composers, plagued with chronic ill-health and prevented by her early death from fulfilling the outstanding promise revealed in just a handful of compositions. The Pie Jesu was her last work, dictated on her deathbed to her sister Nadia; its haunting beauty seems to speak of another world. It was originally a soprano solo with string quartet, harp, and organ.

Illuminare

ELAINE HAGENBERG llluminare is Elaine’s first extended work, consisting of five-movements for SATB chorus and chamber orchestra. Using lesser-known sacred Latin texts, the piece takes us through a season of beauty and goodness that has been disrupted by darkness and confusion. But as Light gradually returns, hope is restored, illuminating our future and guiding us in peace. With a majestic and bright opening in D major, Illuminare begins with a radiant flurry of 16th notes representing the entrance of Light. Then the voices enter in powerful unison, and the Ambrosian hymn text bursts into a punctuated and joyful “Gloriae” section. As the music turns to a softer legato passage, part of a “peace” theme is revealed in the cello— then returns to the joyful rhythmic momentum of the beginning. The second movement features the women’s voices and