Inauguration Concert Chamber Music Society of Aula Simfonia Jakarta presenting Jakarta Simfonia Orchestra 26 September 2020, Aula Simfonia Jakarta Eunice Tong Artistic Director
CONCERT PROGRAM PIANO QUINTET
RIMSKY-KORSAKOV Piano Quintet in B-flat Major i. Allegro con brio MOZART Piano Quintet in E-flat Major ii. Larghetto BEETHOVEN Piano Quintet in E-flat Major iii. Rondo: Allegro ma non troppo BRASS ENSEMBLE
GABRIELI Sacrae Symphoniae 1597 (arr. Michel Rondeau) BACH Contrapunctus IX LAURIDSEN O Magnum Mysterium DUKAS Fanfare from ‘La Peri’ CHAMBER STRINGS
HOLST St. Paul Suite GRIEG Holberg Suite
PIANO QUINTET RIMSKY-KORSAKOV - Piano Quintet in B-flat Major i. Allegro con brio As a member of the The Five - a group of influential Russian composers, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov was known as the master of orchestration, making some of his compositions the staple of classical music repertoire. Piano Quintet in B-flat - written for flute, clarinet, bassoon, horn, and piano - was published only after Korsakov’s death. Allegro con brio is the opening movement of the work, giving us a breathtaking energized sound. MOZART - Piano Quintet in E-flat Major ii. Larghetto Written for oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn, and piano - Mozart considered this as one of the best music he ever wrote. In this second movement, he lets the winds take the initiative in introducing the main theme instead of piano. Piano will then reintroduce the theme in recapitulation. CMS INAUGURATION CONCERT | 26 September 2020
BEETHOVEN - Piano Quintet in E-flat Major iii. Rondo: Allegro ma non troppo Though similar in instrumentation, this work which was written by the young Beethoven at the age of 26 showcase a different kind of brilliance. A keyboard virtuosic himself, this movement sets the nonchalant theme with a rather speedy tempo, embellished by the piano and winds in their ever revolving activity.
BRASS ENSEMBLE (BE)
30:00 min
GABRIELI - Sacrae Symphoniae 1597 (arr. Michel Rondeau) Giovanni Gabrielli is one of the most remarkable composers between Italian Renaissance to Baroque in the Venetian school Era. Born in Venice, He was a composer, organist and a teacher. He was famous for writing sacred music which consists massively of choral pieces and instrumental motets. His mark on composition is written in his principal publications: Sacrae symphoniae of 1597 and 1615 (printed posthumously). It is purely instrumental music for church use or massive choral and instrumental motets for the liturgy. In his composition, he likes to use the concerto effects. It is a contrast between soloists against the orchestra. He sets voices or instruments and produces a counterpoint with contrasting sonorities. The Concerto effect became an essential part in later madrigal and later operas in Monteverdi. BACH - Contrapunctus IX Johann Sebastian Bach is a German composer and church musician born in 1685. Bach is considered the benchmark of the Baroque era. He composed countless works for solo, orchestra, instruments and voice; some of his famous pieces are the Brandenburg Concertos, The Well-Tempered Clavier, Mass in B Minor, and numerous other masterpieces consisting of church and instrumental music. One of his unfinished masterpieces is called Art of Fugue and composed during the last decade of his life. This piece is Bach’s experimentation on monothematic instrumental works. Contrapunctus derived from the word “contrapunctal” means combining two or more independent lines. There were 13 contrapunctus in total with each using various experimentations on fugal compositions. Contrapunctus CHAMBER MUSIC SOCIETY INAUGURATION CONCERT | 26 September 2020
IX, a 4 alla Duodecima, is two subjects being played dependently, and in invertible counterpoint. The work is originally composed for piano but later arranged for different instruments. MARTIN LAURIDSEN - O Magnum Mysterium Lauridsen is an American composer born in 1943. He was named an "American Choral Master" by the National Endowment for the Arts in 2006. He was a composer in residence of the Los Angeles Master Chorale for six years and was a professor of composition at the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music for more than 40 years. His composition draws us into a deep silence of beauty. The special timbre technique that he created has been recognized world-wide. His works have been recorded on more than 200 CDs, five of which have received Grammy Award nominations including this piece, O Magnum Mysterium, performed by Tiffany Consort. This song is originally a responsorial chant from the Matins of Christmas and Lauridsen re-composed this song into a chorus for 4 voices. DUKAS – Fanfare from ‘La Peri’ Paul Abraham Dukas is a French composer in the Late Romantic to Contemporary Era. Born in 1865, he studied at the Paris Conservatory and later became one of the most prominent composers in France. His work is mainly dramatic, programmatic music and compositions for piano. He was the professor of composition at the Paris Conservatory and taught orchestration class for a small period of time. Dukas was not only a composer but also active as music critics. His works have been published in several Paris papers titled as “Les Écrits de Paul Dukas sur la musique” (1848). “La Péri”, in French means “The Peri”. Peri is the name of Persian fairy. Inspired by an old Persian myth, Dukas composed La Peri as one of four ballets and premiered in Paris on April 12, 1912. The story is about King Iskender who was in the middle of a mid-life crisis and in search of the Flower of Immortality. He saw a sleeping fairy with a flower in her hand. He grabbed the flower and the fairy showed him an ecstatic dance. When the king returned the flower, the fairy suddenly disappeared. The piece started with the brass fanfare introduction of the ballet.
CHAMBER STRINGS HOLST - St. Paul Suite 12:40 min Gustav Holst, famously known for The Planets, is an English Romanticism composer. His early compositions were influenced by Mendelssohn and Tchaikovsky, especially on the lyrical melody. St. Paul’s Suite derived from four English folk songs, composed in 1913 for strings. It comprises four movements representing different folk songs. Starting with Jig, the strings fiddles away, portraying an English dance, however in the middle of the piece, an expansive melody comes out, calling out the first theme. Ostinato sets the mood for the next movement, where one can hear second violins constantly playing eighth notes, accompanying the first violins as reminiscent of a country waltz. Intermezzo then comes with a delicate pizzicato, playing the role as an accompaniment while solo violin sings the aria, giving us an operatic feel. The Finale gives us the “dargason”, which was a well-known ballad tune in the sixteenth century. Holst ends the whole suite with a bright feeling.
GRIEG - Holberg Suite 20:43 min As a Romantic Norwegian composer, Edvard Grieg was very famous in his time and known as a very gentle person. Born in Bergen, he is much celebrated even to this day. Originally named From Holberg’s Time, the Holberg Suite premiered in 1884, to commemorate the bicentennial anniversary of a very famous CHAMBER MUSIC SOCIETY INAUGURATION CONCERT | 26 September 2020
Danish-Norwegian playwright called Ludwig Holberg. Grieg was asked to compose a cantata for male voice – a genre that was trendy during Holberg’s time. Grieg however politely refused the order, simply because it was wintertime and thus too cold to conduct or to ask anybody to perform. On the other hand, Grieg composed a piece for strings only which was very economical, set in the style of French Baroque to commemorate Holberg’s era, but gave it a modern twist. The suite premiered in December 1884 in Bergen, the birthplace of both Grieg and Holberg. The suite consists of five movements, which begins with Praelude in a baroque toccata style of dance. Strings must play in a very crisp and clear rhythmic. Followed by Sarabande, in a complete opposite mood, set in the slow and stately dance of ¾ where one can hear the beautiful romantic melody. Gavotte was the chosen style for the third movement, giving it a pastoral feel of dance which is a very Grieg character. Inspired by French musette, a traditional genre that is usually accompanied by accordion accompaniment. Grieg tried to imitate the bag-pipes sound by utilizing how the player strikes the bow on the strings. Continued with Air which is a much more elegiac, melancholic, and sorrowful piece. Finished with Rigaudon, a very lively French dance, introducing the duet of violin and viola solo imitating the spirited folk style of the Norwegian Hardanger fiddle.
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