Sir James Galway and Lady Jeanne Galway - Sun, Oct 14, 2018

Sir James Galway and Lady Jeanne Galway Michael McHale, Piano SUNDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2018 • 7PM Jackson Hall, UC Davis Sonata No. 3 for Flute and Piano Allegretto Intermède pastoral: Très modéré Final: Joyeux, Allegretto

Philippe Gaubert (1879–1941)

Morceau de Concours for Flute and Piano

Gabriel Fauré (1845–1924)

Fantaisie for Flute and Piano, Op. 79 Andantino Allegro

Fauré

Sonata for Flute and Piano Allegro malinconico Cantilena Presto giocaso

Francis Poulenc (1899–1963)

INTERMISSION In Ireland for Flute and Piano

Three Irish Folk Songs for Flute and Piano The Spinning Wheel She Moved Through the Fair Star of the County Down

Hamilton Harty (1879–1941)

arr. David Overton (b. 1942)

Andante and Rondo for Two Flutes and Piano, Op. 25

with L ady Jeanne Galway

Franz Doppler (1821–1883)

Il Pastore Svizzero (“The Swiss Shepard”) for Flute and Piano

Pietro Morlacchi (1828–1868)

The artists and fellow audience members appreciate silence during the performance. Please be sure that you have switched off cellular devices.

Videotaping, photographing and audio recording are strictly forbidden.

PROGRAM NOTES Sonata No. 3 for Flute and Piano (1933) PHILIPPE GAUBERT (Born July 5, 1879 in Cahors, France.

Died July 8, 1941 in Paris)

the competition’s virtuosic numbers with a piece that “accorded to phrasing, style and rhythm the importance which belonged to them.”

Philippe Gaubert was among the leading French musicians of the early 20th century. Renowned as a conductor, composer and master flutist, Gaubert received his instrumental training from Paul Taffanel at the Paris Conservatoire, where he won a first prize for performance when he was only 15; he also studied harmony and composition at the school with Xavier Leroux, receiving second prize in the 1905 Prix de Rome competition.

In 1919, Gaubert succeeded Taffanel as professor of flute at the Conservatoire, and the same year was appointed conductor of that institution’s concerts, a position he held until 1938.

He was named to the conducting staff of the Paris Opéra in 1920 and became principal conductor there in 1931; he also directed the programs of the Société des Concerts and guest conducted throughout Europe and England. In addition, he taught orchestration at the Conservatoire, was a member of the school’s governing Conseil supérieur, and served as composer for the Société des Concerts. Gaubert was awarded the Légion d’honneur in 1938.

Though he composed two operas, three ballets, an oratorio, many ambitious works for orchestra (notably a symphony and a violin concerto), vocal pieces and chamber music, Gaubert is best remembered for his contributions to the flute repertory.

He judiciously dedicated all of his flute works to prominent French performers of that instrument—the Flute Sonata No. 3, composed in 1933, is inscribed to Jean Boulze, principal flute of both the Paris Opéra and the Concerts Lamoureux. The sonata’s first movement balances its gracefully flowing, pastelshaded outer sections with a central episode of more animated expression. The peaceable character and rippling figurations of the Intermède pastoral (“Pastoral Intermezzo”) conform exactly to its title. The finale is a lively dance of several complementary sections with tasteful displays of technical prowess.

Morceau de Concours for Flute and Piano (1898) Fantaisie for Flute and Orchestra, Op. 79 (1898) GABRIEL FAURÉ (Born May 12, 1845 in Pamiers, Ariège, France Died November 4, 1924 in Paris) One of the great traditions of the Paris Conservatoire is the school’s annual series of competitions for student instrumentalists. Many of France’s finest composers have written pieces for these yearly events, and during Fauré’s tenure on the Conservatoire’s composition faculty, from 1896 to 1905, he contributed examples for cello, flute, violin and harp. For the flute competition of July 1898, directed by his friend and faculty colleague, Paul Taffanel, the most highly regarded flutist of his day, Fauré wrote a Fantaisie as the prepared work and a brief Morceau de Lecture for sight-reading. That year’s winner, Gaston Blanquart, gave the formal premieres of both compositions on July 28. Fauré’s student Charles Koechlin recalled that the delicate Morceau de Lecture (not published until 1977 under the title Morceau de Concours) was meant to balance

The Fantaisie opens with a lyrical sicilienne melody for the soloist over a gently rocking accompaniment. The faster section that follows provides the soloist with ample opportunity for mercurial virtuosity.

Sonata for Flute and Piano (1956–1957) FRANCIS POULENC (Born January 7, 1899 in Paris Died there on January 30, 1963) Poulenc’s Sonata for Flute and Piano was composed during the winter of 1956–1957 in Cannes, “at the Hotel Majestic,” as the composer carefully noted at the end of the score. It was dedicated to the memory of Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, the great American benefactress of chamber music, and first performed by Jean-Pierre Rampal and the composer at the Strasbourg Festival on June 18, 1957.

The first movement is a reminder that Poulenc once described himself as “a melancholic character ... which likes to laugh like all melancholic characters.” A falling flutter from the soloist begins the wistful main theme. This distinctive melodic gesture pervades much of the movement. The central portion, with a long rhapsodic theme for the flute, is brighter in spirit. So touching is the lovely second movement that it was immediately encored at its premiere. One French critic called it “a great rainbow of melody” and Poulenc’s biographer, Henri Hell, equated it with some of the finest moments in the masterful opera Dialogues of the Carmelites, completed only one year before the sonata. The finale is based on one of the composer’s characteristically jolly music-hall tunes.

In Ireland for Flute and Piano (1918) SIR HAMILTON HARTY (Born December 4, 1879 in Hillsborough, County Down, Ireland Died February 19, 1941 in Brighton, England) Hamilton Harty, composer, conductor, pianist and organist, was the most widely admired Irish musician of his generation.

Born in 1879 in Hillsborough, south of Belfast, Harty was so effectively trained in music by his father, the local organist, that he was playing organ at the church in neighboring Magheracoll by age 12, and four years later was named organist at St. Barnabas Church in Belfast. Soon thereafter he took up a similar post in Bray, south of Dublin, where he received help and encouragement from the Italian composer and pianist Michele Esposito, then on the faculty of Dublin’s Royal Irish Academy of Music. In 1900, Harty set out for London, where he quickly established himself as a composer and a brilliant accompanist.

Two of his chamber works won prizes and his Comedy Overture was performed at the Promenade Concerts in 1907; and a successful appearance conducting his tone poem With the Wild Geese with the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) in 1911 led to his engagement to conduct that ensemble throughout the

2 | mondaviarts.org

following season. Harty appeared frequently with the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester during World War I, and in 1920 he began a 13-year tenure as that orchestra’s permanent conductor.

He was knighted in 1925 for his services to British music. Harty returned to the LSO from 1932 to 1934, and made successful tours guest conducting in America and Australia during the 1930s. Among Harty’s many honors were a fellowship from the Royal College of Music, Gold Medal of the Royal Philharmonic Society, and honorary doctorates from Dublin’s Trinity College, Manchester University, Queen’s University in Belfast and De Paul University in Chicago.

“In a Dublin street at dusk, two wandering street musicians are playing,” reads the legend heading the score of Harty’s In Ireland, composed in 1918 for flute and piano and arranged for flute, harp and orchestra in 1935. (The work was originally dedicated to Miriam Timothy, harpist with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and harpist to Queen Victoria.) Harty’s two imaginary Dublin buskers seem to play harp and flute, if the arpeggiated accompaniment and the thoughtful bardic melody cast across it in the introduction indicate his intentions.

There follows a medley of Harty’s spot-on simulations of traditional Irish reels, hornpipes and ballads.

Three Irish Folk Songs for Flute and Strings Arranged by DAVID OVERTON (Born in 1942 in Northampton, England) Arranger, composer and solicitor David Overton, born in 1942 in Northampton, England, studied music and singing as a youth and at age 9 became a choirboy at Westminster Abbey in London; he was one of the youngest participants in the Queen’s Coronation the following year. After leaving the Abbey, Overton continued his education at Trent College, near Nottingham, and then pursued a 50-year career in law while maintaining his interest in music as an occasional choral singer and frequent arranger for James Galway, The King’s Singers, Vienna Choir Boys and other soloists and ensembles. Among the works that Overton created for James Galway are arrangements of Three Irish Folk Songs: The Spinning Wheel, She Moved Through the Fair and Star of the County Down.

Andante and Rondo for Two Flutes and Piano, Op. 25 (1874) FRANZ DOPPLER (Born October 16, 1821 in L’viv, Ukraine Died July 27, 1883 in Baden, near Vienna) Both Franz Doppler and his younger brother, Karl (b. 1825), studied music with their father, composer and oboist Joseph Doppler, in their native town of Lemberg (now L’viv, Ukraine).

Franz made his debut as a flutist in Vienna at the age of 13, and Karl soon thereafter caught up with him sufficiently that the brothers made several concert tours together before settling in Pest, where they played first in the orchestra of the German Theater (1838) and later in that of the National Theater (1841); in 1853, they were among the founding members of the Hungarian Philharmonic Orchestra. Franz took up composing in Pest, where his first opera, Benyovsky, was produced with sufficient success in 1847 to inspire him to write four other

Hungarian-language operas, all well received, during the following decade. The Doppler brothers continued their joint tours throughout Europe during those years, winning particular acclaim at Weimar (where they met Liszt in 1854) and London (in 1856). In 1858, Franz moved to Vienna to take a job as principal flutist of the Court Opera, and within a few years he was conducting there and composing ballets for the theater; his only German opera, Judith, was performed at the Court Opera in 1870. From 1865 until his death in the Austrian spa town of Baden in 1883, he taught at the Vienna Conservatory.

In addition to his stage works, Franz Doppler also composed choruses, a Hungarian Overture for orchestra, a variety of chamber compositions (most featuring, not unexpectedly, his own instrument), and many pieces for piano in the popular dance and national styles of the day. He has also been associated with the orchestrations of some of Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsodies, though it now seems that Liszt had only appended the younger man’s name to the publications out of gratitude for his having earlier tried to orchestrate some of his music and taken a few lessons with him. Karl Doppler, like his brother, also composed for the theater, mostly Hungarian Singspiels and incidental music. From 1865 to 1898, he was Kapellmeister for the court at Stuttgart, where he died in 1900.

Andante and Rondo for Two Flutes and Piano, published in 1874, was one of the numerous pieces Franz Doppler composed for his joint appearances with his brother. Doppler, who wrote a half dozen works for the musical stage, derived the two-part form of the Andante and Rondo from the traditional operatic “cavatina and cabaletta,” which comprises a songful, highly decorated opening section in moderate tempo followed by a faster virtuosic movement. In Doppler’s instrumental analog, the Andante is in three sections, with the outer portions balanced by a more strongly expressive central episode. The closing Rondo, with two lyrical interludes separating the returns of its infectious main theme, is a showy tribute to the fiery Gypsy music of Hungary, where the Doppler brothers established their careers.

Il Pastore Svizzero (“The Swiss Shepard”) for Flute and Piano PIETRO MORLACCHI (Born in 1828 in Switzerland Died in 1868) Almost nothing is known of flutist and composer Pietro Morlacchi other than that he was born in Switzerland in 1828, studied in Milan with Giuseppe Raboni in the 1840s, died in 1868, and left a Capriccio Originale, The Swiss Shepherd (sometimes misattributed to the better-known conductor and composer Francisco Morlacchi) and a fantasy on a theme from Rossini’s Moses in Egypt for his instrument, as well as two fantasies on opera themes for the pioneering combination of flute and bassoon. The Swiss Shepherd opens with a brief cadenza-introduction that leads to a sweet, rustic theme, flavored with some wide yodeling intervals, upon which the flute works several showy variations. A melancholy strain offers contrast. A jaunty tune, decorated with additional virtuosic flute figurations, provides a brilliant ending.

3 | mondaviarts.org

©2018 Dr. Richard E. Rodda

ABOUT THE ARTISTS Sir James Galway Sir James Galway is regarded as both the supreme interpreter of the classical flute repertoire and a consummate entertainer whose appeal crosses all musical boundaries. Through his extensive touring, over 30 million albums sold, and his frequent international television appearances, Sir James has endeared himself to millions worldwide and is a tireless promoter of the arts.

The 2017–18 season included a special James Galway Tribute Gala at The Waterfront Hall, Belfast, together with the Ulster Orchestra, celebrating their 50th year and honoring Sir James, their first artist laureate. Other highlights included a special tribute to his late friend, Henry Mancini with the Chicago Symphony at the Ravinia Festival and the BBC Proms in the Park at Castle Coole, Northern Ireland.

Belfast-born, Sir James studied in London and Paris before embarking on his orchestral career in such prestigious orchestras such as the Sadlers Wells and Royal Covent Garden Operas, the BBC, Royal Philharmonic and London Symphony Orchestra, before taking up the coveted position of solo flautist with the Berlin Philharmonic under Herbert von Karajan.

From Galway’s lips have come definitive treatments of classical repertoire and masterworks by Bach, Vivaldi and Mozart. He also features contemporary music in his programs, including new flute works commissioned by him and for him by composers such as Adamo, Amram, Bolcom, Corigliano, Heath, Lieberman and Maazel. Recent commissions include a concerto, Linen & Lace, by Bill Whelan; a concerto by Elaine Agnew, Dark Hedges, commissioned by BBC Radio 3 for the Royal Albert Hall Proms, and a concerto for two flutes written especially for Sir James and Lady Galway by the Northern Irish composer, Philip Hammond.

Among the many honors and awards for his musical achievements are; the Gramophone 2014 Lifetime Achievement Award; the Grammy President’s Merit Award; Classic Brits Lifetime Achievement Award; The Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame; The National Concert Hall Dublin Lifetime Achievement Award; Honorary Prince Consort Professor at the Royal College of Music in London; and the Kennedy Center Gold Medal in the Arts. He has been honored twice by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, with the OBE in 1979 and again in 2001 with a Knighthood for his services to music.

Sir James lives with his wife and family in Switzerland and currently plays on the 20-carat ‘Galway’ Nagahara Flute, commissioned especially for him.

Lady Jeanne Galway An accomplished flutist, Lady Jeanne Galway continues to grace the international platforms with her virtuosity.

Her touring schedule regularly takes her to many of the major cities in the U.S. to perform as soloist with orchestras such

as Chicago, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Seattle, Denver and the National Symphony. She has appeared in the cultural capitals of the world including London, New York, Milan, Rome, Vienna, Salzburg, Zurich, Dublin, Belfast, Tokyo, Beijing and Singapore.

Lady Galway is also an accomplished chamber musician, touring regularly with various chamber ensembles.

A strong advocate for the importance of music education in the school system, Lady Galway has recently taken to public speaking at various international education conferences.

The Galway Flute Academy is Sir James and Lady Galway’s educational platform, where they share their experience with the musical generation of tomorrow.

Lady Galway has recorded to critical acclaim for RCA Victor, Sony BMG Classics and Deutsche Grammophon. Irish America magazine awarded Sir James and Lady Galway the 2008 Spirit of Ireland award in recognition for their roles as musical ambassadors. A native of New York, and graduate and former member of the flute faculty of New York City’s Mannes College of Music, Lady Galway is currently performing on an 18-carat gold Nagahara flute.

Michael McHale Belfast-born Michael McHale has established himself as one of Ireland’s leading pianists and has developed a busy international career as a solo recitalist, concerto soloist and chamber musician.

He has performed as a soloist with the Minnesota, Hallé, Moscow Symphony and Bournemouth Symphony Orchestras, City of London Sinfonia, London Mozart Players and all five of the major Irish orchestras. He has performed at the Tanglewood and Tokyo Spring Festivals; Wigmore Hall, London; Berlin Konzerthaus; Lincoln Center, New York; Symphony Hall, Boston; and Pesti Vigadó in Budapest.

McHale’s debut solo album, The Irish Piano, was released in 2012 by RTÉ lyric fm and selected as CD of the Week by critic Norman Lebrecht. The debut album of the McGill/McHale Trio, Portraits on Cedille, featuring special narrations by Academy Award–winner Mahershala Ali, was released in 2017 and immediately entered the Top 25 US Billboard Classical Chart.

Winner of the Terence Judd/Hallé Award in 2009, McHale was also awarded the Brennan and Field Prizes at the 2006 AXA Dublin International Piano Competition, the 2005 Camerata Ireland/Accenture Award, and in 2016, a Major Individual Award from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. He studied at the Royal Irish Academy of Music, Cambridge University and the Royal Academy of Music.

In 2017, McHale was invited to become a Patron of the Ulster Youth Orchestra, and in 2018, he was appointed as a part-time professor of piano for undergraduate and postgraduate students at the Cork School of Music in Ireland.

4 | mondaviarts.org