SUBSCRIBE TODAY 2022/23 SEASON

Brahms’ Third Symphony

Symphony Series

Rennolds Memorial Concert

Valentina Peleggi CONDUCTOR (pg.6-7)

María Dueñas VIOLIN (pg.70-71)

Feb

JUAN PABLO CONTRERAS (B. 1987)

MeChicano (New Music USA Commission)

LALO (1823-1892)

Symphonie espagnole for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 21

I. Allegro non troppo

II. Scherzando: Allegro molto

III. Intermezzo: Allegretto non troppo

IV. Andante

V. Rondo: Allegro

María Dueñas, VIOLIN

Intermission

BRAHMS (1833-1897)

Symphony No. 3 in F Major, Op. 90

I. Allegro con brio

II. Andante

III. Poco allegretto

IV. Allegro 2:05 approximate program length

María Dueñas was the winner of the Senior First Prize of the internationally revered Menuhin Competition 2021, co-hosted virtually by the Richmond Symphony, University of Richmond, City of Richmond, Virginia Commonwealth University and Virginia Public Media.

Thank you to all the sponsors and hosts who made this competition possible.

Did you know?

MeChicano as a portmanteau word combing “Mexican” and “Chicano.”

Intended as a tribute to Mexican-Americans, it represents the first piece Contreras has written since becoming a U.S. citizen following 15 years of living in this country.

Juan Pablo Contreras: MeChicano (New Music USA commission)

We begin this concert with a bold new work from New Music USA’s influential Amplifying Voices program, an initiative that fosters underrepresented composers in the classical music sphere. The Richmond Symphony co-commissioned MeChicano in partnership with this program and a consortium of six American orchestras.

Born in 1987 in Guadalajara, Mexico, Juan Pablo Contreras explores novel combinations of Western classical idioms with Mexican folk music, seeking to integrate these sources into a unified sound world. He chose the title MeChicano as a portmanteau word combing “Mexican” and “Chicano.” Intended as “a tribute to MexicanAmericans,” it represents the first piece Contreras has written since becoming a U.S. citizen following 15 years of living in this country. He notes that the piece “commemorates my journey to becoming a MeChicano and celebrates the Mexican-American communities that have flourished in the U.S.”

Contreras describes how the presence of Mexican-Americans in the U.S. grew in prominence in the 1980s — especially in border states. “One of the ways in which these communities started to find a sense of pride and belonging was through music,” the composer explains. “They organized Saturday Night Dances where Mexican-American orquestas (dance bands) would play music that synthesized Mexican and American styles. These gatherings were crucial in forging a sonic and cultural Chicano identity.”

MeChicano is modeled on these Saturday Night Dance performances. “The band leader (the orchestra’s principal trumpet) plays a solo to warm up the audience, while the ensemble ‘tunes’ their instruments,” writes Contreras. “Once they’re ready to play, a drum fill signals the start of the dance and the orchestra takes us through a ‘setlist’ of original tunes that reimagine a Chicano pop song, a rock ’n’ roll groove, a Mexican waltz, a Tejano polka, and a cumbia. The clarinet and drums play prominent solos in this piece, while the French horn, trombone, and tuba get to ‘sing’ like Chicano-band frontmen.”

Lalo: Symphonie espagnole

Édouard Lalo enjoyed a major breakthrough with the premiere of Symphonie espagnole in February 1875. He composed it for the Spanish star violinist Pablo de Sarasate (1844-1908), a former prodigy whose reputation spread like wildfire across Europe and America. Lalo tailored the Symphonie espagnole to Sarasate’s remarkable technical command but above all to the beautiful tone the Spaniard was famous for coaxing from his fabled Stradivari instrument.

Lalo wanted his title to convey the image of “a violin soaring above the rigid form of an old symphony.” The presence of Spanish-flavored thematic material and rhythms throughout the work is an obvious nod to Sarasate’s origins — though he gave no detailed program to accompany the Symphonie espagnole aside from its slices of implicit local color crafted by this decidedly French composer. Lalo was playing to the public’s taste for musical “postcards” evoking what was perceived as the “exotic” flavor of Spanish music. Bizet’s opera Carmen, which is set in Andalusian Spain, would premiere just a month later, for example.

The Symphonie espagnole has five movements as opposed to the three expected of a standard concerto, allowing for allusions to symphonic constructs on top of the concerto idea. But there’s never any doubt about the primary role assigned to the violin soloist — who in this performance is María Dueñas, the highly acclaimed winner of the most recent Menuhin competition (in 2021), which was originally to have taken place through live performances in Richmond; because of the pandemic, it shifted to a virtual format. Lalo exploits a wide array of the violin’s resources. Beyond his technical demands, he gives the soloist a beguiling personality. The opening idea in the orchestra lays out a striking pattern that suggests the central role played by rhythmic ideas in this work. In the scherzo-like second movement, Lalo uses the orchestra to imitate a large guitar. The third-movement is an intermezzo that includes the habanera rhythm. Following this is a melancholy slow movement that draws on darker orchestral colors and makes much use of the violin’s expressive low register. But all nocturnal shades are cast aside with hints of the awakening sun in the cheerful final movement.

Brahms: Symphony No. 3 Music director Valentina Peleggi expresses a special pleasure in the opportunity to continue the Richmond Symphony’s exploration of the symphonies of Johannes Brahms with the third of his four contributions to the genre. In contrast with the Latin idioms and colors of the program’s first half, the Third Symphony, she points out, creates an abstract world of its own — a world that is notably different from the music of Brahms’s other three symphonies. Dating from 1883 — the year his older, supposed arch-rival Richard Wagner died — the Third is the most compact of Brahms’s symphonies as well as a virtuoso study in ambiguity. No wonder it is regarded as among Brahms’s most elusive compositions. Even so, the Third earned instant acclaim from the public at its premiere in December 1883. Although Brahms makes references to the game-changing Third Symphony of Beethoven, famously known as the Eroica and the epicenter of that composer’s “heroic” style, the former’s work is on the whole remarkably anti-heroic; its soundscape is saturated with unexpected moments of inwardness and intimacy. For example, Brahms rewires the “heroic” paradigm of an aggressively victorious conclusion, ending each movement quietly and coming to rest with an attitude of ethereal closure.

Fun fact: María Dueñas, was the winner of the most recent Menuhin competition (in 2021), which was originally to have taken place through live performances in Richmond; because of the pandemic, it shifted to a virtual format garnering nine million views!

Beethoven’s First Metro Series

Chia-Hsuan Lin CONDUCTOR (pg.8-9)

Adrian Pintea VIOLIN (pg.73)

Ellen Cockerham Riccio VIOLIN (pg.73)

Mar

J.S BACH (1685-1750)

Concerto for Two Violins in D Minor, BWV 1043

I. Vivace

Adrian Pintea, VIOLIN

Ellen Cockerham Riccio, VOLIN

JAMES LEE III (B. 1975)

Emotive Transformations

VIVIAN FUNG (B. 1975)

Concerto for Two Violins and String Orchestra

Adrian Pintea, VIOLIN

Ellen Cockerham Riccio, VIOLIN

Intermission

HAYDN (1732-1809)

Symphony No. 104 in D Major, “London”

IV. Spiritoso

BEETHOVEN (1770-1827)

Symphony No. 1 in C Major, Op. 21

I. Adagio molto - Allegro con brio

II. Andante cantabile con moto

III. Menuetto: Allegro molto e vivace

IV. Finale: Adagio - Allegro molto e vivace

1:50 approximate program length