PROGRAM NOTES

JOSHUA BELL

that autumn, and in June 1813 Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington, engineered a decisive victory in the Battle of Vitoria, which effectively spelled French defeat in the Iberian Peninsula. On March 31, 1814, the European allies entered Paris; a week later Napoleon abdicated to his marshals and within a month he and an entourage of a thousand loyal men began their exile on the Italian island of Elba, where Napoleon was installed as Emperor and officially ruled over the locals. Nine months later he sneaked back in an attempt to conquer France again, and his forces picked up considerable steam before being squashed for good in the Battle of Waterloo in June 1815— after which he was sent to spend the remaining five and a half years of his life on the remote South Atlantic island of St. Helena.

Beethoven monitored all of this with great interest. On December 8, 1813, two of his works were unveiled in a concert at the University of Vienna organized for the benefit of troops wounded five weeks earlier in the Battle of Hanau: his descriptive symphonic fantasy Wellington’s Victory, or The Battle of Vitoria, and his Seventh Symphony. In between, the audience was treated to marches (by other composers) in which the orchestra accompanied a mechanical trumpet-playing machine, the creation of Johann Mälzel, better remembered as the inventor of the metronome. Both of Beethoven’s pieces were warmly received—as indeed was the mechanical trumpeter—so much so that the program was repeated four days later as a second benefit. The second movement of the symphony had to be encored on both occasions.

The Seventh became one of Beethoven’s most popular symphonies, and it evoked admiring comment from a “Who’s Who” of people who should know—beginning with Beethoven himself, who, in an 1815 letter to the impresario Johann Peter Salomon, cited his “Grand Symphony in A” as “one of my best works.” Richard Wagner proclaimed it “the Apotheosis of the Dance; the Dance in its highest condition; the happiest realization of the movements of the body in an ideal form.” Vincent d’Indy objected that “in the rhythm of the first movement there is certainly nothing dance-like; it seems rather as if inspired by the song of a bird”—and if we are able to put aside Wagner’s famous characterization, we may find that d’Indy was onto something. Wagner was also struck by the Seventh Symphony’s extremes of expression: “But compare the roughness of the opening and the concluding movements of this work with the grace, loftiness, and even deep devotional feeling of its middle sections, and we are presented with similar puzzling contrasts to those so often found in Beethoven’s life, where, in his journals and letters, we find religious and personal appeals to God worthy of one of the Hebrew Psalmists, side by side with nicknames and jokes which befit a harlequin.” Hector Berlioz, noting that the Symphony’s Allegretto was its most famous movement, proclaimed, “This does not arise from the fact that the other three parts are any less worthy of admiration; far from it.”

Mendelssohn Defends Beethoven

In 1825, the 16-year-old Felix Mendelssohn and his friend Ferdinand Hiller paid a visit to the publisher Johann Anton André. Hiller described the scene in his 1874 book Mendelssohn: Letters and Recollections:

André was one of those musicians who are completely wrapt up in Mozart, and who measure everything by the standard of Mozart’s beauty and finish—a standard sufficient to condemn many of the finest things. ... The discussion even got as far as Beethoven, whom André had often visited in Vienna. The worst thing he could find against him was his manner (so to speak) of composing, into which this learned theorist had had a glimpse. For instance, he told us that he had seen the manuscript of the A-major Symphony, and that there were whole sheets left blank in it, the pages before and after which had no connection with each other. Beethoven had told him that these blanks would be filled up—but what continuity could there be in music so composed? Mendelssohn would not stand this, and kept on playing whole movements and bits of movements in his powerful orchestral style, till André was in such delight that he was obliged, for the moment, to stop his criticisms.

—JMK

JAMES M. KELLER

James M. Keller is the longtime Program Annotator of the San Francisco Symphony and was formerly Program Annotator of the New York Philharmonic and a staff writer-editor at The New Yorker The author of Chamber Music: A Listener’s Guide (Oxford University Press), he is writing a sequel volume about piano music. Portions of these notes previously appeared in the programs of the New York Philharmonic and are used with permission.

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Julian

MARVEL STUDIOS presents “BLACK PANTHER” in Concert

Starring

CHADWICK BOSEMAN

MICHAEL B. JORDAN

LUPITA NYONG’O

DANAI GURIRA

MARTIN FREEMAN

DANIEL KALUUYA

LETITIA WRIGHT

WINSTON DUKE with ANGELA BASSETT with FOREST WHITAKER and ANDY SERKIS

Music by LUDWIG GÖRANSSON

Executive Producers

LOUIS D’ESPOSITO

VICTORIA ALONSO

NATE MOORE

JEFFREY CHERNOV STAN LEE

Produced by KEVIN FEIGE, p.g.a.

Written by RYAN COOGLER & JOE ROBERT COLE

Directed by RYAN COOGLER

This film is rated PG-13

Today’s performance lasts approximately 2 hours and 15 minutes and includes one 20 minute intermission.

The performance is a presentation of the complete film Black Panther with a live performance of the film’s entire score. Out of respect for the musicians and your fellow audience members, please remain seated until the conclusion of the end credits.

Original Score Album available on MARVEL MUSIC / HOLLYWOOD RECORDS at Disneymusicemporium.com

Presentation licensed by Disney Concerts in association with Marvel Studios, All rights reserved. ©2021 MARVEL.

Julian Pellicano

Known for his versatility across a broad spectrum of genres, dynamic interpretations and meticulous technique, American-Canadian conductor Julian Pellicano is the Principal Conductor of Canada’s Royal Winnipeg Ballet and Associate Conductor of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra. Bringing an incisive musicality and collaborative spirit to every performance, he has built a wide-ranging international career leading the Winnipeg Free Press to proclaim that “his versatility is truly astonishing.”

As a guest he has conducted orchestras in North America and abroad including the Seattle Symphony, Vancouver Symphony, the National Arts Centre Orchestra, the Orquestra de Valencia, Edmonton Symphony among others. Passionate about the intersection of music and dance, upcoming ballet performances include a debut with the National Ballet of Canada, a return to Orlando Ballet as well as extensive performing and touring with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet.

A specialist in performing films live with orchestra, Mr. Pellicano’s catalogue of film projects encompasses over 20 titles including the Star Wars and Harry Potter series, E.T. The Extraterrestrial, Jurassic Park, Home Alone, Miloš Forman’s award-winning film Amadeus, Fritz Lang’s Metropolis with its original 1927 score, Casablanca, Singin’ in the Rain, The Wizard of Oz, Disney’s Fantasia, The Nightmare Before Christmas, plus several of Charlie Chaplin’s silent classics.

Julian Pellicano studied conducting at the Yale School of Music, the Royal College of Music in Stockholm. Julian Pellicano’s career grew out of unconventional beginnings, performing as a primarily self-taught percussionist, timpanist, drummer and accordionist. He percussion at the Peabody Conservatory, the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, Sweden, and the Yale School of Music. He also holds a degree in philosophy from The Johns Hopkins University.

Massamba Diop

Massamba Diop is one the most renowned masters of the tama, a talking drum from Senegal, West Africa, known for its abilities to replicate the sounds of human speech. Before the advent of telephones and radio, it was the tama that was called upon to announce important events and send messages from village to village. Recognizing the central role talking drums play in many African cultures, Ludwig Gorensson decided to put it, and Massamba, front-and-center of his Grammy- and Oscar-winning score for Marvel’s Black Panther.

But by the time of Black Panther, Massamba was already a seasoned figure on the world music scene. He first came into the limelight as lead percussionist and founding member of Daande Lenol (The Voice of the People), the band of Senegalese super-star Baaba Maal. Over the past 40 years the group has toured the world, working with many notable musicians and releasing dozens of albums, including “Firin’ in Fouta”, which was nominated for a Grammy in 1996. Massamba has also performed and recorded with the likes of James Brown, Mumford & Sons, Carlos Santana, Herbie Hancock, Harry Belafonte, and Angelique Kidjo. He appeared on Peter Gabriel’s landmark release “Passion”, which won a Grammy in 1990, and has made several appearances with Playing for Change’s “songs around the world”. He has been part of many major international diplomatic events like the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony in Oslo, the 2012 Olympics in London, and joined Stevie Wonder and a star-studded cast in 2009 to perform “Happy Birthday” for Nelson Mandela to close out Mandela Day at Radio City Music Hall in New York. Massamba is also a Remo Percussion, Inc. endorsed artist, and in 2016 helped them design and launch the “Tamani Talking Drum”, the first mass-produced tama available to the public.

In 1993, Massamba and American percussionist Tony Vacca co-founded the Senegal-America project, a grass-roots cultural exchange program which has sponsored various educational, health care, and artistic initiatives in Senegal, and has provided an important venue for African musicians in the States. Massamba and Tony tour the Northeast each year with a variety of performances, school programs, and workshops, from their Northampton, MA base. Massamba has several other regular collaborators including Surabhi Ensemble in Chicago, Walo in Portland, Oregon, and Total Rhythm in San Francisco. He currently calls Columbus, Ohio home.