Program Notes

GABRIELLA SMITH

born: December 26, 1991 in Berkeley, California

Field Guide (2017)

premiere: August 12, 2017 in Santa Cruz, California

“In the past few years, I have become obsessed with making field recordings everywhere I go. It began with my desire to record the unfolding and trajectory of the dawn choruses I remember hearing every early Sunday morning as a teenager on the drive out to Point Reyes Bird Observatory, where I would volunteer as a bird bander. It would always start just as we drove past Lagunitas Creek, about thirty minutes before sunrise, and we’d turn off the music and roll down the windows and let in the glorious cacophony and cold morning air. Since then I have recorded dawn choruses and many other natural and human-produced soundscapes around the world, while backpacking in the Sierras, Cascades, and Andes, in temperate and tropical rainforest, in desert, in coastal scrub, in oceans, tide pools, bays, lakes, and glacial streams, recording underwater sounds with my hydrophone, and in the streets and parks and subways of the cities I have spent time in. I envisioned Field Guide as a collage inspired by these various recordings, my improvisations with them on violin and voice, and experiments processing them electronically. Many thanks to the Cabrillo Festival for commissioning this piece in honor of John Adams’ 70th birthday. John, I dedicate this piece to you in celebration of your birthday and especially in gratitude for the many ways you and your music have inspired me over the years.”

—Gabriella Smith

BENJAMIN BRITTEN

born: November 22, 1913 in Lowestoft, England - died: December 4, 1976 in Aldeburgh, England

Les Illuminations

Opus 18 (1939)

premiere: January 30, 1940 in London

In 1939, composer Benjamin Britten and tenor Peter Pears left England for the United States. Britten was disappointed with the English public’s lack of acceptance of his works. Further, Britten, a committed pacifist, was distraught over the cloud of war that was enveloping Europe. Poet W.H. Auden, whom Britten greatly admired, advised the young composer that America could provide an artistic and political haven. When Aaron Copland learned of the news, he wrote to Britten: “Dear Benjie, How perfectly extraordinary to think of you here on this side of the water! I can’t get used to the idea — but I will.”

After Britten arrived in the US, he began to experience grave doubts about his decision. Copland encouraged him to remain in America: “You owe it to England to stay here. After all, anyone can shoot a gun — but how many can write music like you?” But eventually, Britten’s love for his native land proved too strong. Britten and Pears returned to England in the spring of 1942. However, during his relatively brief American stay, Britten composed several important works, including his song cycles Les illuminations (1939) and Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo (1940), the Sinfonia da requiem (1940), his first String Quartet (1941) and, in collaboration with W.H. Auden, his first opera, Paul Bunyan (1941).

It was Auden who suggested to Britten that he consider composing a work based upon Arthur Rimbaud’s (18541891) collection of poems, published under the title Les Illuminations. Britten began the work in England, in the spring of 1939. That October, after his move to the United States, Britten completed Les Illuminations, scored for high voice and strings.

In a 1940 program note, Britten offered the following description:

(Rimbaud’s) short life as a poet was an erratic and turbulent one, generally near starvation and often homeless, sometimes with his friend Verlaine, sometimes alone, and much of it was set in the most sordid surroundings, in Paris, Brussels, and London; but throughout it, the boy’s inspiration remained radiant and intense. The word ‘Illuminations’ suggests both the vision of a mystic and a brightly coloured picture …. The composer has taken seven of these poems, six in prose and one in verse, and has made them into a cycle.

\In Les Illuminations Britten, still in his mid-20s, demonstrates many of the qualities associated with his musical voice. The brilliant writing for string orchestra (previously showcased in the 1937 Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge, Opus 10) is characteristic of Britten’s mastery in instrumental writing. The sensitive, expressive vocal settings of Rimbaud’s poetry attended Britten’s song, operatic, and oratorio works. And throughout, there is a powerful sense of a composer’s autobiographical expression.

Les Illuminations is adapted from the suite of prose poems by the French poet Arthur Rimbaud (18541891), written c. 1873-5 during his tempestuous relationship with fellow poet Paul Verlaine. The work was published in 1886 without Rimbaud’s knowledge: by then, he had abandoned writing and was living as a trader in the Horn of Africa.

Britten dedicated Les Illuminations to Anglo-Swiss soprano Sophie Wyss (1897 – 1983), who also performed in the work’s premiere. Wyss also sang the premiere of Britten’s orchestral song cycle Our Hunting Fathers (1936).

WILLIAM GRANT STILL

born: May 11, 1895 in Woodville, Mississippi - died: December 3, 1978 in Los Angeles, California

Poem for Orchestra (1944)

premiere: December 7, 1944 in Cleveland, Ohio

William Grant Still, often referred to as the “Dean of AfricanAmerican Composers,” was born in Woodville, Mississippi. He studied at Wilberforce College and the Oberlin Conservatory. Still worked with W.C. Handy, and studied privately with George Whitefield Chadwick and Edgar Varèse. He composed successfully in a wide variety of genres, including symphonies, operas, sacred musical, assorted instrumental works, and popular songs, as well as television and film scores. William Grant Still also conducted, and created arrangements of spirituals.

The Kulas American Composers’ Fund commissioned Still’s Poem for Orchestra for the Cleveland Orchestra. The premiere took place on December 7, 1944, with Rudolf Ringwall conducting. On April 4, 1946 at Carnegie Hall, the New York Philharmonic and Music Director Artur Rodziński performed the New York premiere of Still’s Poem in a concert that also featured the celebrated African-American contralto Marian Anderson, singing music by Mahler and Donizetti, as well as spirituals.

According to Still’s wife, pianist, and writer Verna Arvey, the Poem for Orchestra was “inspired by the concept of a world being reborn spiritually after a period of darkness and desolation.” The work’s journey from its agitated opening to resplendent closing pages culminates in a final chord that suggests that challenges nonetheless remain.

JEAN SIBELIUS

born: December 8, 1865 in Hämeenlinna, Finland - died: September 20, 1957 in Järvenpää, Finland

Symphony No. 5 in E-flat Major

Opus 82 (1915, rev. 1916, 1919)

premiere: December 8, 1915 in Helsinki, Finland

The Symphony No. 5 is Jean Sibelius’s most important largescale work from World War I. The start of composition was in close proximity to the outbreak of the conflict (although Sibelius may have been contemplating the work as early as 1912). Sibelius completed the first version of his Fifth Symphony in time for its premiere in Helsinki on December 8, 1915. The composer led the concert, given in honor of his fiftieth birthday. Sibelius revised the score of his Fifth Symphony the following year. However, it was not until 1919 that Sibelius penned the familiar third, final version of his Symphony No. 5.

It’s not surprising that the period during which Sibelius composed the Fifth Symphony often found him in a reflective, somber mood. A few months after the outbreak of war, he wrote: “My heart sings, full of sadness—the shadows lengthen.” Without question, Sibelius’s Fifth Symphony has moments of gloom and conflict. However, like another famous Symphony No. 5 — Ludwig van Beethoven’s C-minor, Opus 67 (1808) — the struggle depicted in the Sibelius Fifth culminates in triumph.

In September of 1915, shortly after he began work on the Fifth Symphony, Sibelius wrote in his diary: “In a deep dell again. But I already begin dimly to see the mountain I shall surely ascend…God opens his door for a moment and his orchestra plays the Fifth Symphony.” Jean Sibelius died in the evening of September 20, 1957, at the age of 91. At the moment of his passing, a concert was taking place in Helsinki. Conductor Sir Malcolm Sargent and the orchestra were performing the music of Sibelius — his Symphony No. 5.

The opening movement of the Sibelius Fifth (Tempo molto moderato; Allegro moderato; Presto) is based upon four principal themes. Rather than immediately proceed to the traditional development section, Sibelius first offers a varied second exposition of the principal themes, followed by a

mysterious development section. A quicksilver episode in 3/4 time serves the dual function of the opening movement’s rather free recapitulation and the work’s scherzo. The coda gathers impressive momentum, bringing the opening movement to a rousing close. The slow-tempo second movement (Andante mosso, quasi allegretto) is a theme and set of variations, some of which offer hints of the ensuing finale. That final movement (Allegro molto; Misterioso) opens with a flurry of activity in the strings. This ultimately gives way to a majestic theme, introduced by the horns. The two themes return throughout in music notable for its energy and inexorable momentum. In the closing measures, the second theme reigns supreme until the work’s stunning conclusion — six hammer blow chords.

1915 photograph of Jean Sibelius and wife Aino relaxing at Ainola, their home near Lake Tuusula, north of Helsinki.