11 minute read
January 27 - 29 — Classics Water Festival: Neptune & Water Music
is a misanthrope, a proud fisherman whose boy apprentice has died under “accidental circumstances.” Grimes resolves to “fish the sea dry” and to create a respectable place for himself in the seaside village society by marrying the schoolmarm Ellen Orford. When a second boy falls to his death while descending from Grimes’s cliffside hut, Peter is demonized by the townsfolk. Pressed to the brink of insanity by the guilt inflicted upon him, he ultimately takes his fishing boat out to sea and sinks it, drowning himself in the process. Britten’s opera is remarkable for its insightful delineation of character – the principals, the secondary roles, and the sea itself. Its intricately rich score includes six orchestral interludes, four of which comprise the suite heard on today’s concert. In “Dawn,” which acts as a transition between the Prologue and Act 1, we can hear in the flute and violins a thin glint of sunlight breaking through the clouds; harp, violas, and clarinets add glimmering arpeggios; the sonorous brass harmonies call to mind the deep sea below. At opera’s end, after Peter has drowned himself, this music returns to remind us of nature’s endless patterns, indifferent to the quotidian events of humanity. “Sunday Morning” opens Act 2. Accented notes from the horns evoke large, clanging church bells; woodwinds, strings, and trumpets suggest smaller bells; and a solo flute portrays waking birds. A full-bodied tonal palette emerges as textures are overlaid and actual bells now announce the Lord’s Day. Britten said “Moonlight” – which introduces Act 3 – depicts “summer night, seascape, quiet.” Its unsteady rhythm and restless harmony might evoke the ebb and flow of moonlit waves, but there’s also a sense of foreboding. (Things are not going to go well for Peter Grimes.) “Storm” links Scenes 1 and 2 in the first act. It vividly portrays not only a gale blowing in from the sea, but also the protagonist’s anxiety-ridden psychological state. An arching melody – with the characteristic interval of an ascending ninth – is heard as the storm subsides a bit; it is to this melody that Peter had sung “What harbor shelters peace, away from tidal waves and storms?” in the foregoing scene. The dream it articulates is drowned by the squall’s turbulent swell. Reginald Goodall conducted the premiere of Peter Grimes at Sadler’s Wells Theatre in London. A few days later, Britten conducted the “Four Sea Interludes” on a concert in Cheltenham.
NEPTUNE & WATER MUSIC
WATER FESTIVAL
Friday, January 27, 2023 at 7:30 pm Saturday, January 28, 2023 at 7:30 pm Sunday, January 29, 2023 at 2:30 pm ALLEN-BRADLEY HALL Nicholas McGegan, conductor Ilana Setapen, violin Jennifer Bouton Schaub, piccolo
JEAN-PHILIPPE RAMEAU/ed. Nicholas McGegan Suite from Naïs 1a. Ouverture 2. Entrèe majesteuse des Dieux des Peuples de la terre 3. Sarabande 4. Gavotte vive 5a. Premièr Rigaudon 5b. Deuxième Rigaudon 6. Entrèe des Lutteurs 7. Chaconne 8. Air de Triomphe 9a. Primier Menuet 9b. Deuxième Menuet 11a. Premièr Tambourin 11b. Deuxième Tambourin
ANTONIO VIVALDI Concerto in F major for Violin and Orchestra, RV 569 I. Allegro II. Grave III. Allegro Ilana Setapen, violin
IN TERMISSION
program continues on page 24
Jennifer Bouton Schaub, piccolo
GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL Suite No. 1 in F major from Water Music, HVW 348 Overture [Largo/Allegro] –Adagio e staccato – Allegro Menuet Air Menuet Bourée Hornpipe Allegro [variant] Hornpipe [variant]
The 2022.23 Classics Series is presented by the UNITED PERFORMING ARTS FUND. The length of this concert is approximately 2 hours. Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra can be heard on Telarc, Koss Classics, Pro Arte, AVIE, and Vox/Turnabout recordings. MSO Classics recordings (digital only) available on iTunes and at mso.org. MSO Binaural recordings (digital only) available at mso.org.
Guest Artist Biographies
NICHOLAS McGEGAN
In his sixth decade on the podium, Nic McGegan — long hailed as “one of the finest baroque conductors of his generation” (The Independent) and “an expert in 18th-century style” (The New Yorker) — is recognized for his probing and revelatory explorations of music of all periods. He is music director laureate of Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and Chorale and principal guest conductor of Hungary’s Capella Savaria. Highlights of his 2022.23 guest bookings in North America include leading the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Philharmonia Baroque; return engagements with the St. Louis and Milwaukee symphonies, and his first appearances with the Eugene and Edmonton symphonies; and a performance and recording of Bach’s Mass in B Minor with Cantata Collective. In Europe, he appears with Denmark’s Aalborg Symphony, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, and the Royal Northern. McGegan’s prolific discography includes more than 100 releases spanning five decades. Having recorded over 50 albums of Handel, McGegan has explored the depths of the composer’s output with a dozen oratorios and close to 20 of his operas. His extensive discography with Philharmonia Baroque includes two Grammy nominations. McGegan has also released two albums with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra under the BIS label. This past season, his album of Mozart violin concertos launched with violinist Gil Shaham and the SWR Symphonie Orchester. English-born, McGegan was educated at Cambridge and Oxford. He was made an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) “for services to music overseas.” Other awards include the Halle Handel Prize; the Order of Merit of the State of Lower Saxony (Germany); the Medal of Honour of the City of Göttingen; and a declaration of Nicholas McGegan Day by the Mayor of San Francisco, in recognition of his work with Philharmonia Baroque. ILANA SETAPEN
Since her solo orchestral debut at age 15, Ilana Setapen has been flourishing as a violinist with a powerful and original voice. She is hailed by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel as a violinist with “a sparkling sound” and “the kind of control that puts an audience completely at ease.” She is currently the acting concertmaster of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. In recent seasons, Setapen has had solo performances with the Milwaukee Symphony, Festival City Symphony, and the Amarillo Symphony, among others. She held the assistant concertmaster position of the Grant Park Music Festival Orchestra in Chicago for six years and is a favorite guest concertmaster with the Chicago Philharmonic. She is currently on the faculty at Center Stage Strings at the University of Michigan, and she performs frequently with Present Music. Solo and chamber music performances have brought her abroad to China, France, Brazil, Holland, England, Monaco, and Italy.
Setapen grew up in Amarillo, Texas. She was a student of Robert Lipsett both at the University of Southern California and at the Colburn Conservatory. She received her Master of Music degree from The Juilliard School as a student of Donald Weilerstein and Ronald Copes. Also a dedicated educator, she has a successful private studio.
JENNIFER BOUTON SCHAUB
Jennifer Bouton Schaub has been a member of the Milwaukee Symphony since 2011. She has performed around the world, including an extended appointment with the Australian Ballet and Australian Opera, and she is a regular substitute with the Chicago Symphony and the Detroit Symphony. Bouton Schaub performed as second flute for Lyric Opera of Chicago from 2014 to 2016, and she was a member of the Virginia Symphony and the Akron Symphony. Bouton Schaub has been a featured guest artist in numerous American and international festivals, including the Arizona Music Festival, National Repertory Orchestra, Aspen Music Festival (Piccolo Fellowship), Sunflower Music Festival, Artosphere Festival Orchestra, and AIMS Summer Festival Orchestra in Graz, Austria. In 2012, she was a prize-winner in the National Flute Association’s Piccolo Artist Competition. A committed educator, Bouton Schaub has held faculty positions at Carthage College, Wisconsin Lutheran College, and Carroll University. Other academic affiliations include contributing editor, interview subject, and columnist for Flute Talk Magazine and The Instrumentalist; competition judging for the National Flute Association and the Chicago Flute Club; and founding member of Arts and Community Education (ACE) ensemble for the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. In 2009, Bouton Schaub was an assistant editor and research assistant for the publication of the revised edition of Jeanne Baxtresser’s essential book, Orchestral Excerpts for Flute (Presser). Bouton Schaub received a Certificate in Advanced Flute Studies and Master of Music degree from Carnegie Mellon University and a Bachelor of Music degree from the Peabody Conservatory. Her teachers include Jeanne Baxtresser, Alberto Almarza, and Marina Piccinini. Originally from Denver, Colorado, Bouton Schaub enjoys being active outdoors with her husband and two young daughters.
Program notes by J. Mark Baker
JEAN-PHILIPPE RAMEAU
Baptized 25 September 1683; Dijon, France Died 12 September 1764; Paris, France Suite from Naïs
Composed: 1749 First performance: 22 April 1749; Paris, France (complete) Last MSO performance: November 2001; Nicholas McGegan, conductor Instrumentation: 2 flutes (1st and 2nd doubling on piccolo); 2 oboes; 2 bassoons; 2 trumpets; timpani; percussion (tambourine, tenor drum, wind machine); harpsichord; strings Approximate duration: 23 minutes
The leading French composer of his time, Jean-Philippe Rameau was a close contemporary of J.S. Bach, G.F. Handel, Domenico Scarlatti, and G.P. Telemann. A member of the “smart set,” he counted Voltaire as a friend. His output of music for the stage is prodigious, and his writings on music theory show him to be a product of the Age of Reason. Traité de l’harmonie [Treatise of Harmony, 1722] is his most important and influential work in that sphere. Seeking to explain music in scientific terms, he maintained that it is founded on harmony, which arises from natural causes. It is to him that we owe the terms “tonic,”“dominant,”“subdominant,”“supertonic,” etc. to describe the role each chord played in a particular key’s hierarchy. Rameau’s stage work Naïs falls into the category of a pastorale héroïque, set in a prologue and three acts. More ballet than opera and more descriptive than dramatic, it relates the story of Neptune, Roman god of the sea, who disguises himself as a mortal to win the affection of the fair nymph Naïs. When two rivals for her affections attempt to attack the incognito god, he summons huge waves to drown them. Neptune then discloses his identity to Naïs. Taking her to his underwater palace, he there turns her into a goddess. The spectacle – with a libretto by Louis de Cahusac (1706-59) – includes athletic contests, dancing shepherds, flotillas afire, battles in heaven, and underwater palaces. It bears the subtitle Opéra pour La Paix, referring to the fact that the work was composed to celebrate the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, the 1749 treaty that ended the War of Austrian Succession (1740-48). (Handel’s Music for the Royal Fireworks was written for the same occasion.) The selections we’ll enjoy today display a wide range of moods, from the courtly (e.g., gavotte) to the popular (e.g., rigaudon) – and employ richly varied orchestral timbres. As the French philosopher Denis Diderot (171384) noted, Rameau possessed the keen ability to distinguish the tender, the voluptuous, the impassioned – even the lascivious.
Born 4 March 1678; Venice, Italy Died 28 July 1741; Vienna, Austria Concerto in F major for Violin and Orchestra, RV 569
Composed: unknown First performance: unknown Last MSO performance: MSO premiere Instrumentation: 2 oboes; bassoon; 2 horns; harpsichord; strings Approximate duration: 15 minutes
As one of the greatest composers of concertos – and certainly the most prolific, as more than 450 still survive, for various solo instruments and combinations thereof – Antonio Vivaldi hardly needs an introduction. The four violin concertos that comprise The Four Seasons are ubiquitous. He was the first composer to use ritornello form habitually in fast movements. (In a ritornello, the music of the opening tutti recurs in whole or part between solo parts and again at the end.) Likewise, his frequent use of the familiar three-movement layout (fast-slow-fast) became a model for subsequent composers. Though Vivaldi was a Roman Catholic cleric (his vibrant hair color earned him the sobriquet “The Red Priest”), soon after his ordination he refused to say mass. Nevertheless, he remained pious –outwardly, at least. From 1703 to 1740, with a few interruptions for travel and service elsewhere, Vivaldi labored as a violin teacher, concert director, and choirmaster at Venice’s Ospedale della Pietà, a multi-functional institution: part music school for girls, part orphanage, part conventschool, and part nunnery. Much of his music was composed for faculty colleagues and student ensembles there. With its use of two oboes and two horns, the Violin Concerto RV 569 is especially colorful. The outer movements, both set in F major, exploit the full ensemble, often pairing like instruments. The sparse middle movement is cast in D minor in a graceful compound meter (12/8); accompanied only by strings and harpsichord, the solo violin sings a melancholy operatic aria.
ANTONIO VIVALDI Concerto in C major for Piccolo and Orchestra, RV 443
Composed: 1728-29 First performance: unknown Last MSO performance: February 2014; Francesco Lecce-Chong, conductor; Jennifer Bouton, piccolo Instrumentation: harpsicord; strings Approximate duration: 12 minutes
For biographical information on Antonio Vivaldi, please see the article above. Nowadays, in this country, we usually group members of the recorder family into the same categories as the four choral voice types: soprano, alto, tenor, bass. Rarer recorders are the sopranino, the great bass, and the double bass. The concerto at hand was penned for flautino (sopranino recorder), one of only three such works Vivaldi created for the instrument. Most likely the piece was fashioned for the girls in his charge at the Ospedale della Pietà. The flautino’s notes resonate an octave higher than the alto instrument, the one that got the lion’s share of solo work in the 18th century (including Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 2). In the same vein, the piccolo (in Italian, the very word itself means “small”) sounds an octave higher than the concert (C) flute. And, like the flautino, its printed music is written an octave below the sounding pitch. Vivaldi’s Concerto in C major, RV 443, sounds entirely idiomatic on
