Program Notes: American Riffs and Rhapsodies

JANUARY 27 & 29

AMERICAN RIFFS AND RHAPSODIES FRIDAY January 27, 2017 – 8:00pm SUNDAY January 29, 2017 – 2:00pm JACOBS MASTERWORKS CONCERT OUR AMERICAN MUSIC FESTIVAL

conductor James Gaffigan clarinet Sheryl Renk tap dancer Cartier Williams

All performances at the Jacobs Music Center's Copley Symphony Hall.

This concert is made possible through the generosity of Dorthea Laub and Phyllis and Daniel Epstein.

PROGRAM HENRY COWELL

“Hymn” from Hymn and Fuguing Tune No. 2, for String Orchestra

STEVEN STUCKY

Rhapsodies

SAMUEL BARBER

Symphony No. 1, Op. 9

Allegro ma non troppo Allegro molto Andante tranquillo Con moto (Passacaille)

INTERMISSION LEONARD BERNSTEIN

MORTON GOULD

DUKE ELLINGTON/ Arr. Luther Henderson, Ed. John Mauceri

Prelude, Fugue and Riffs, for Solo Clarinet & Jazz Ensemble

Prelude for the Brass

Fugue for the Saxes

Riffs for Everyone Sheryl Renk, clarinet Tap Dance Concerto Toccata Pantomime Minuet Rondo

Cartier Williams, tap dancer Harlem

The approximate running time for this program, including intermission, is one hour and fifty minutes.

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ABOUT THE ARTISTS

AMERICAN RIFFS AND RHAPSODIES - JANUARY 27 & 29 Highlights of his 2016-17 season include re-engagements with the Cleveland Orchestra, Chicago Symphony and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, as well as with the San Francisco, Detroit, Houston, New World, Vancouver and San Diego symphonies and return appearances at the Aspen Music Festival and Music Academy of the West.

Internationally, in addition to his work with the Lucerne Symphony and Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, he guest conducts the Oslo Philharmonic and the BBC Symphony in London.

JAMES GAFFIGAN, CONDUCTOR

H

ailed for the natural ease of his conducting and the compelling insight of his musicianship, JAMES GAFFIGAN continues to attract international attention and is considered by many to be the most outstanding young American conductor working today. In January 2010 he was appointed Chief Conductor of the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra and Principal Guest Conductor of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, and he recently concluded his tenure as Principal Guest Conductor of the Gurzenich Orchestra in Cologne.

In addition to these titled positions, Mr. Gaffigan is in high demand to work with the leading orchestras and opera houses throughout North America, Europe and Asia. In the United States Mr. Gaffigan has guest conducted the Cleveland, Philadelphia and Minnesota Orchestras, the New York Philharmonic and the Pittsburgh, St. Louis, National, Dallas, Cincinnati, Atlanta, Baltimore and Milwaukee symphonies, among others. His U.S. festival engagements include appearances at the Blossom, Grand Teton and Grant Park festivals as well as at the Hollywood Bowl.

Mr. Gaffigan’s international career was launched when he was named a first prize winner at the 2004 Sir Georg Solti International Conducting Competition in Frankfurt, Germany. Since then he has appeared with prestigious orchestras such as the Munich, London and Rotterdam Philharmonics, London Symphony, Dresden Staatskappelle, Deutsches Symphony Orchestra Berlin, Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre National de France, Vienna Symphony, London and Czech Philharmonics, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and the Sydney Symphony, among others.

Equally at home in the opera house, James Gaffigan made his Vienna State Opera debut in 2011-12 conducting La bohème, was immediately invited back to conduct Don Giovanni the following season, and returned once again in the fall of 2015 for performances of The Marriage of Figaro. He made his debut with the Washington National Opera in September 2016 conducting a production of The Marriage of Figaro, and future opera projects include his debuts with the Lyric Opera of Chicago and the Santa Fe Opera.

Born in New York City in 1979, James Gaffigan attended the New England Conservatory of Music and the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University in Houston, where he earned his Masters of Music in conducting.

He was also chosen to study at the American Academy of Conducting at the Aspen Music Festival and School and was a conducting fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center. In 2009 Mr. Gaffigan completed a three year tenure as Associate Conductor of the San Francisco Symphony where he assisted Michael Tilson Thomas, led subscription concerts and was Artistic Director of the orchestra’s Summer in the City festival. Prior to that appointment, he was the Assistant Conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra where he worked under Music Director Franz Welser-Möst from 2003 through 2006. n

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ARTIER WILLIAMS is a dancer, choreographer, filmmaker and performer who hails from Washington, D.C. He began his tap dancing career at the age of four. Mr. Williams learned his first tap steps from his grandmother Audrey Williams. At the age of six Mr. Williams performed a piece choreographed

by Mýa. Mr. Williams won Apollo Kids at The prestigious Apollo Theater Distinguished as one of The Apollo Theater's youngest "Apollo Legends". Later that year Mr. Williams was invited to the Kennedy Center Honors alongside Robert Downey Jr.

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CARTIER WILLIAMS, DANCER

Mr. Williams has performed for two U.S. Presidents, and in 1998 he co-starred in the PBS Special In Performance at The White House with President Clinton. He toured the U.S. and Japan in the Tony Awardwinning Bring In 'Da Noise, Bring In 'Da Funk, co-starring with Savion Glover. He has performed at The Joyce Theatre, New York City Center as well as the L.A Kodak Theatre where he performed The AFI Awards: A Tribute to Tom Hanks. Other appearances include a performance at Usher's birthday bash in New York City as well as performances for the FCC, The CIA, The State Department and Department of Justice.

Mr. Williams performed in A Beautiful Chaos in 2011; this production was created

by Mr. Williams and his fellow New York Film Academy student, Matt Denoma. As a filmmaker Mr. Williams has written, directed and produced Phone Bait, The Violinist and My Love Awaits. He's also appeared in Spike Lee's Film Bamboozled. Mr. Williams also performed at The Opening of the Cannes Film Festival for Moulin Rouge.

Mr. Williams performed with Super-DJ Chew FU at The Palms Hotel/Resort in Las Vegas.

His first instructional DVD, Cartier Williams' Hoofing with the Basics Vol.1, is available at all Capezio Retail Stores. Mr. Williams choreographed and directed Cartier Williams Rythm Refix in summer 2014 at The Museum of Contemporary Moving Arts in Chicago.

Cartier Williams is the co-founder and co-artistic director of The European Tap Dance Foundation, a non-profit organization that offers low income children an opportunity to experience the arts through tap dance. He is also the co-owner of Foundations Milan-based school, Tap Temple, which officially started classes in 2014. Additionally, Mr. Williams is continuing to develop multiple musical productions, as well as expanding his brand with productions, including tap shoes and instructional videos. n P E R FOR M AN C E S M AGAZ I NE P37

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

AMERICAN RIFFS AND RHAPSODIES - JANUARY 27 & 29 SH E RY L R E N K is the Principal Clarinetist of the San Diego Symphony. She was the Principal Clarinetist of the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra for ten years and was formerly a member of the San Francisco Symphony. During that time, Ms. Renk joined the orchestra on several European, Asian and U.S. tours, and she performed on numerous San Francisco Symphony recordings. Ms. Renk has also performed on many movie and commercial soundtracks, mostly recorded at the famed Skywalker Ranch in Marin County. She completed her music education at San Francisco State University and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music where she studied with Donald Carroll and later with Rosario Mazzeo. Sheryl Renk is the Clarinet Professor at San Diego State University. n

Andrew Norman Bio Continued from pg. 10

Prize, the 2005 ASCAP Nissim and Leo Kaplan Prizes, the 2006 Rome Prize, the 2009 Berlin Prize and a 2016 Guggenheim Fellowship. He joined the roster of Young Concert Artists as Composer in Residence in 2008 and held the title “Komponist für Heidelberg” for the 2010-11 season. Mr. Norman has served as Composer in Residence with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project and Opera Philadelphia, and he currently holds that post with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. His 30 minute string trio The Companion Guide to Rome was named a finalist for the 2012 Pulitzer Prize in Music, and his large-scale orchestral work Play was named one of NPR’s top 50 albums of 2015 and was nominated for a 2016 Grammy® in the Best Contemporary Classical Composition category.

Mr. Norman is a committed educator who enjoys helping people of all ages explore and create music. He has written pieces to be performed by and for the young, and has held educational residencies with various institutions across the country. He joined the faculty of the USC Thornton School of Music in 2013, and he is thrilled to serve as the new director of the L.A. Phil’s Composer Fellowship Program for high school composers.

Mr. Norman recently finished two piano concertos, Suspend, for Emanuel Ax, and Split, for Jeffrey Kahane, as well as a percussion concerto, Switch, for Colin Currie. Upcoming projects include a symphony for the Los Angeles Philharmonic and collaborations with Jeremy Denk, Jennifer Koh, Johannes Moser, yMusic, the Berlin Philharmonic and the London Symphony. Andrew Norman’s works are published by Schott Music. n

ABOUT THE MUSIC EIGHTY YEARS OF AMERICAN MUSIC This concert brings a generous selection of American music, composed over the span of 80 years. It also reminds us how rich our musical traditions are – we’ll feel the heritage of church hymns, folk music, jazz and dance, as well as the classical tradition.

The earliest piece is Barber’s First Symphony, written in the 1930s; it is one of the first of that magnificent sequence of symphonies American composers wrote in the Thirties and Forties. From the difficult World War II years come two quite different kinds of music: Cowell’s beautiful look back to the church and folk traditions of early American music and Ellington’s celebration of life in Harlem. Like Ellington, Bernstein found jazz the right idiom for his Prelude, Fugue and Riffs, written shortly after the war. Gould’s Tap Dance Concerto, from the early Fifties, fuses a “serious” form (the classical concerto) with a popular dance form. And from there we jump ahead over half a century to the Rhapsodies of Steven Stucky, a sparkling piece by a composer quite familiar to Southern California audiences. n

“Hymn” from Hymn and Fuguing Tune No. 2, for String Orchestra H E N RY C OWE L L Born March 11, 1897, Menlo Park, CA Died December 10, 1965, Shady, NY Henry Cowell was one of those West Coast visionaries who seem to see the world differently right from the start. Cowell began P 38 PE RFORMA NCES MAGA Z IN E

composing as a boy, but he never felt bound by the “rules” of Western art music, and from an early age he was interested in the music of all cultures (particularly Asia) and in new sounds.

Cowell experimented with polytonality and polyrhythms, he invented what we now call “tone clusters,” and he placed objects within the strings of a piano to create new sonorities.

At age 22, Cowell published a treatise titled New Musical Resources outlining an entirely new theory of music; he became a vigorous champion of new music. He toured Europe and the United States, giving performances and lectures and appearing at Schoenberg’s request before the latter’s composition class in Berlin; Webern conducted his music in Vienna. Furthermore, Cowell founded the journal New Music, which championed Ives, Ruggles, Varèse and other composers. Cowell was also an influential teacher; among those who studied with him were George Gershwin, John Cage, Lou Harrison and even Burt Bacharach.

Yet for all his visionary and experimental ideas, Cowell was very interested in American folk music. As a young man he had studied at Berkeley with Charles Seeger (father of Pete Seeger), and Cowell’s wife Sidney Robertson – a specialist in folk music – shared with him the vast collection of folk songs and hymns she had gathered. Between 1944 and 1964, Cowell composed a series of 18 Hymn and Fuguing Tunes. These were usually scored for string orchestra, though Cowell sometimes wrote them for other ensembles as well.

Cowell made clear that in these pieces he

was not quoting American folk music – all the themes were his own – but that he was evoking the old traditions of the church hymn and the fuguing tune. The fuguing tune, which had been popular with American colonial composers like William Billings, would develop a tune contrapuntally: the entry of the voices would overlap, though the music never took the form of a strict fugue. For his part, Cowell described this music simply as “something slow followed by something fast.”

The Hymn and Fuguing Tune No. 2 has always been one of the most popular of the series, and this program begins with the Hymn by itself.

First performed as part of a radio broadcast by station WEAF in New York City on March 23, 1944, the Hymn opens with a heartfelt and reverent melody marked Larghetto sostenuto.

Gradually, Cowell expands this simple beginning, adding voices and increasing the dynamic until the music drives to a firm close.

The Hymn makes a poised – and very beautiful – beginning to an all-American program that will overflow with energy. n

Rhapsodies ST EV EN ST UC KY Born November 6, 1949, Hutchinson Kansas Died February 14, 2016, Ithaca, New York The death last year of Steven Stucky robbed American music of one of its brightest stars.

Trained at Baylor and Cornell, Stucky taught composition for many years at Cornell and

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ABOUT THE MUSIC

AMERICAN RIFFS AND RHAPSODIES - JANUARY 27 & 29 Juilliard. He was a prolific composer, and his works include compositions for orchestra, chorus, chamber ensembles, keyboard and solo voice; his one opera, The Classical Style, was premiered at the 2014 Ojai Festival.

Stucky served as composer-in-residence with the Los Angeles Philharmonic from 1988 until 2009, the longest tenure of any composer with an American orchestra, and his Concerto for Orchestra No. 2, premiered by that orchestra under Esa-Pekka Salonen, won the Pulitzer Prize for music in 2005.

The composer wrote a note for Rhapsodies, and it is reprinted by permission of the Theodore Presser Company: When the New York Philharmonic invited me to compose a short work for its European tour of August-September 2008, the invitation came with a suggestion from Music Director Lorin Maazel: would I consider writing “something rhapsodic?” I ran to the dictionary for help. The more I thought about those words rhapsody and rhapsodic – words I would never have chosen to describe my music – the more I realized that boundaries are meant to be pushed, and that an external, even foreign stimulus like “rhapsodic” could be just the ticket to push mine.

The resulting work is rhapsodic in two senses. It has a freely developing form, as if improvised, and it trades in ecstatic, fervent forms of expression. Although it is in one continuous movement, Rhapsodies is titled in the plural because it unrolls as a series of rhapsodic episodes, usually triggered by a single player whose ardent phrases gradually “infect” his neighbors until soon a whole section of the orchestra is sounding ecstatic.

A solo flute (appassionato) draws other high woodwind voices in one by one, until they create a riotous mass of sound. A solo English horn (cantando, fervente) recruits clarinet, bass clarinet, bassoon and more, until its whole neighborhood has broken into song, too. Solo horn and trumpet (nobile) launch still another outbreak, now among the brasses. Meanwhile, behind each of these episodes of rhapsodizing flows calmer, supporting music elsewhere in the orchestra, serving as a backdrop.

Unrelenting fervor can only be borne for so long. Eventually, the orchestra lapses, spent, into a quiet coda, where the intense experiences that have come before can be recollected in tranquility.

Rhapsodies was jointly commissioned by the New York Philharmonic and the BBC, with generous support from the Francis Goelet Fund. The world premiere was given by the New York Philharmonic under Lorin Maazel on 28 August 2008 at the BBC Proms, Royal

Albert Hall, London, with the U.S. premiere by up to a tremendous climax, but does not the same forces falling on 18 September 2008 recapitulate them, and this opening section at Avery Fisher Hall in New York. n collapses on fragments of its first theme.

Out of the silence, the Allegro molto leaps - Steven Stucky to life on the strings’ dancing 6/8 meter, a

pulse felt in virtually every measure of this energetic section. Based on a variation of Symphony No. 1, Op. 9 the symphony’s opening string theme, this SA M UEL B ARB ER section conforms to the scherzo of the Born March 9, 1910, West Chester, PA traditional symphony. It too rises to a spiky, Died January 23, 1981, New York City sonorous climax, then falls away on the Can this wonderful symphony – still so fresh sound of muttering bassoons and clarinets and youthful – really be 81 years old? Barber and – over quiet timpani strokes – flows completed it in February 1936, a few days directly into the Andante tranquillo. This before his 26th birthday, while spending section is derived primarily from the long a year in Europe on a Pulitzer Traveling melody originally introduced by English Scholarship and as a Prix de Rome winner. horn and violas. Over murmuring strings, The symphony was premiered in December solo oboe transforms that melody into an of that year in Rome by the Augusteo expressive cantilena, and this too builds Orchestra; it was quickly repeated by the up to a climax of considerable power. The Cleveland and Philadelphia Orchestras, the concluding section, marked Con moto, New York Philharmonic and other orchestras begins very quietly in the cellos and basses. in this country. When Artur Rodzinski led Their simple tune is yet a further derivation this music with the Vienna Philharmonic at of the symphony’s opening theme, and now the Salzburg Festival in July 1937, it was the Barber employs it as the ground bass for a first work by an American ever performed at passacaglia. As it repeats, he weaves variants that festival. Bruno Walter recorded the First of the symphony’s themes above its quiet Symphony in 1945, and it remains one of the progression, slowly at first, then gathering best-known symphonies ever composed by intensity as the symphony drives to its an American; among its numerous recordings powerful close. are several by European orchestras.

Barber was not by nature a symphonist, and This popularity is easy to understand. he knew it. He wrote a Second Symphony Throughout, the symphony’s long, singing during World War II, but was dissatisfied lines and memorable themes show Barber’s and later withdrew it and destroyed the considerable melodic gift. This is also one orchestral parts – the First is his only of those pieces that just sound good. Barber authorized symphony. But it remains an had a terrific ear for instrumental color, and exciting and impressive work, not just for this music rings through a concert hall, its its international success but for its historical sonority dominated by the sound of soaring significance: it was one of the earliest of the violins, piercing trumpets and thunderous magnificent sequence of symphonies by timpani. And finally, the symphony is young Americans (Harris, Schuman, Piston, effective formally: only 20 minutes long, it Diamond, Copland and others) composed is in one movement made up of four sections during the years of the Depression and that conform to the movements of the World War II. n traditional symphony. As many have noted,

Barber’s model for such a form was Sibelius’ Seventh Symphony (and some may hear a Prelude, Fugue and Riffs, for Solo Clarinet & touch of Sibelius in his orchestral sound), Jazz Ensemble but the youthful energy and imaginative LEONARD B ERNST EI N evolution of themes are entirely his own.

Born August 25, 1918, Lawrence, MA

The symphony gets off to a terrific start on a series of terraced brass attacks – a rippling wash of bright sound – and immediately Barber introduces his first subject in the strings; this jagged shape will reappear in a variety of forms. Other themes follow quickly – a long-lined melody for English horn and violas and a soaring, intense closing subject – and these three ideas contain all the material Barber will use across the span of his symphony. Now he plays them

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Died October 14, 1990, New York City

In 1949 jazz band leader Woody Herman, who had already commissioned Stravinsky’s Ebony Concerto, asked Leonard Bernstein to write a piece for his band. At that point Bernstein was a 31-year-old wunderkind who had substituted at the last minute for Bruno Walter with the New York Philharmonic and had made a name for himself as the composer of the ballet Fancy P E R FOR M AN C E S M AGAZ I NE P39

ABOUT THE MUSIC

AMERICAN RIFFS AND RHAPSODIES - JANUARY 27 & 29 Free and the musical On the Town. Bernstein completed the piece for Herman – which he called Prelude, Fugue and Riffs – on November 4, 1949, but by that time Herman’s Herd had disbanded, and so Bernstein’s piece went on the shelf. Its premiere finally took place on October 16, 1955, as part of the Omnibus telecast of Bernstein’s program, “What Is Jazz?” Benny Goodman was clarinet soloist on that occasion, and Bernstein dedicated Prelude, Fugue and Riffs to him.

This music requires large forces: five saxophones, five trumpets, four trombones, plus piano, percussion and string bass, as well as a solo clarinet in the final section. Bernstein scores the opening Prelude, which he specifies should be “Fast and exact,” for brass and percussion only. Tempos are fluid here, and the music dances along constantly-shifting meters. The sound changes completely at the Fugue, scored only for the saxes: two altos, two tenors, and baritone. Again, the keynote is perky rhythmic vitality, though a nice counter-theme (marked dolce) sings through the busy texture of the fugue. Piano alone leads the way into the final section, Riffs, which Bernstein notes is “for Everyone.” A riff if a brief repetitive phrase, and the solo B-flat clarinet – accompanied only by piano – lays out the basic riff, a climbing two-measure figure.

Gradually the other instruments enter, and along the way there are solos for trombone and trumpet. But the principal effect of this final section is of a really big-band sound, with the solo clarinet sailing high above all the energy, and then finally Prelude, Fugue, and Riffs makes its way to an ebullient – and fullthroated – close. n

Tap Dance Concerto MORTO N G O U L D Born December 10, 1913, New York Died February 21, 1996, Orlando Works for solo dancer and orchestra are rare, but they do exist. William Schuman wrote Judith specifically for Martha Graham, who turned that music into a dramatic re-telling of Judith’s beheading of Holofernes. Morton Gould’s Tap Dance Concerto offers a much more light-hearted, though equally exciting, experience. As a composer, Gould was always willing to experiment: he wrote a piece for rapper and orchestra and another work – titled Hosedown – for a group of singing firemen and orchestra. Gould had been impressed by the filmed musicals and shows of the 1930s that always included a tap dance number, and he had been thinking for years about composing a concert piece for tap dancer and orchestra.

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Then, in the early 1950s, he ran into an old associate, tap dancer Danny Daniels. Born in 1924, Daniels had danced in such Broadway shows as Billion Dollar Baby (for which Gould had written the music) and Street Scene.

(Daniels would later appear in such films as Pennies from Heaven, The Night They Raided Minsky’s and Zelig.) Gould suggested the idea of a tap dance concerto to Daniels, who readily agreed. Daniels danced and Gould conducted the premiere of the Tap Dance Concerto, which took place in Rochester in November 1952.

This is a charming piece, but it is also very difficult for the dancer, who must dance non-stop for 20 minutes. It is a concerto in the sense that it offers a solo part for a single performer accompanied by an orchestra, but in this case the soloist does not have a melodic or thematic part – the entire solo line is rhythmic, consisting only of quick taps of the dancer’s shoes, which Gould scrupulously notates in the score. Of course, some of the effect of this piece is visual, as an audience watches the movement of the dancer’s body while hearing the tap of his shoes, but the solo part must be danced very cleanly and accurately.

The concerto is in four brief movements. The opening Toccata is full of energy (Gould’s marking is “Bright and Vigorous”), and – as in a classical concerto – the composer offers his soloist a cadenza before rounding the movement off briskly. The second movement is titled Pantomime, and Gould marks it “Very Slow and Held Back.” Everyone who dances this concerto makes clear that this movement, the slowest of the four, is also the most difficult: the dancer must tap very precisely at a very slow tempo. The Minuet is marked “Lyrically Moving in a brisk three,” and then Gould rounds off the concerto with a Rondo that he specifies must be “Very Fast and Driving.” This is a virtuoso movement, with rapid exchanges between dancer and orchestra as the rhythmic line jumps back and forth between them.

Gould could not have foreseen, when he wrote this music in 1952, that it would go on to become one of his most frequently-performed pieces. Works for dancer and orchestra are rare, but tap dancers are grateful to have this charming little piece, which is still performed regularly around the world. The reasons for the success of the Tap Dance Concerto are not hard to find. It’s unusual. It’s a rare opportunity for a tap dancer to appear with an orchestra. It’s a real workout for that dancer.

And it’s so much fun. n

Harlem DUKE ELLI NGTON Born April 29, 1899, Washington, DC Died May 24, 1974, New York City Duke Ellington and his various bands are remembered primarily for their short pieces, often about three minutes in length, a duration that was dictated by the need to keep such pieces on one side of a 78-rpm record. But Ellington was attracted to the idea of writing music of greater length and more significant content, and when he was invited to give concerts in Carnegie Hall during World War II he composed Black, Beige, and Brown (January 1943) and New World a-Comin’ (December 1943); both works were much longer than his previously released “hits,” and both were concerned with the condition of African Americans in the United States.

Ellington originally wrote these pieces for his own orchestra of about 14 players (six brass, four reed, four rhythm), but he remained interested in symphonic music, believing that the symphony orchestra would bring his music to a larger audience.

In the years after World War II, while his orchestra was engaged in a series of highly successful European tours, Ellington began to plan a new work, one that combined his jazz orchestra and a symphony orchestra. Ellington called the piece Harlem, and he completed it during the summer of 1950, shortly after returning from Europe on the Ile de France.

His initial idea was to write a piece in the style of a baroque concerto grosso: Ellington’s jazz orchestra would make up the small band of soloists, and they would be set in contrast to the full symphony orchestra. There appears to be no truth to the often-repeated story that Harlem had been commissioned by Toscanini for his NBC Symphony, but the real story is complicated. Ellington led the premiere of Harlem on June 20, 1951, at Lewisohn Stadium, and there is evidence that some players from the NBC Symphony were part of the orchestra on that occasion. In 1955, after Toscanini had retired, the famous conductor’s longtime radio producer, Don Gillis, led the Symphony of the Air (the new name adapted

by Toscanini’s orchestra as it struggled to survive without NBC) in a performance of a symphonic version of Harlem, arranged

by Ellington’s longtime collaborator Luther Henderson. That version heard will be heard on these concerts, in an edition created

by Hollywood Bowl Orchestra Founding Director, John Mauceri.

Ellington referred to this piece as “a tone

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ABOUT THE MUSIC

AMERICAN RIFFS AND RHAPSODIES - JANUARY 27 & 29 parallel” to Harlem, and listeners might think of it in much the same way they think of Gershwin’s An American in Paris: each is a musical portrait of a city its composer loved.

In his autobiography, Ellington left a brief description of Harlem: “We would like to take you on a tour of this place called Harlem…

It is Sunday morning. We are strolling from 110th Street up Seventh Avenue, heading north through the Spanish and West Indian neighborhood toward the 125th Street business area…You may hear a parade go by, or a funeral, or you may recognize the passage of those who are making Civil Rights demands.”

Ellington begins by having a trumpet say the word “Harlem” – that two-note motif will return throughout the piece – and Harlem, only about 14 minutes long, is structured around a series of brief, almost kaleidoscopic scenes. Ellington left a list of those 20 scenes:

The piece of music goes like this: (1) Pronouncing the word “Harlem,” itemizing its many facets – from downtown to uptown, true and false; (2) 110th Street, heading north through the Spanish neighborhood; (3) Intersection further uptown – cats shucking and stiffing; 4) Upbeat parade; (5) Jazz spoken in a thousand languages; (6) Floor show; (7) Girls out of step, but kicking like crazy; (8) Fanfare for Sunday; (9) On the way to church; (10) Church – we’re even represented in Congress by our man of the church; (11) The sermon; (12) Funeral; (13) Counterpoint of tears; (14) Chic chick; Stopping traffic; (16) After church promenade; (17) Agreement a capella; (18) Civil Rights demandments; (19) March onward and upward; (20) Summary – contributions coda.

PERFORMANCE HISTORY

by Dr. Melvin G. Goldzband, Symphony Archivist With the exception of the Barber Symphony No. 1, all the pieces presented at these concerts are premieres to San Diego's orchestra and audiences. That symphony by Samuel Barber had been played by the orchestra under Jahja Ling's direction during the 2010-11 season.

The remainder of the selections to be played at this concert, by Henry Cowell, Steven Stucky, Leonard Bernstein, Morton Gould and Duke Ellington, are being given their first San Diego hearings.

PROGRAM NOTES BY ERIC BROMBERGER

JANUARY 28 BEYOND THE SCORE®: IVES’ SYMPHONY NO. 2: THINGS OUR FATHERS LOVED SATURDAY January 28, 2017 – 8:00pm JACOBS MASTERWORKS CONCERT OUR AMERICAN MUSIC FESTIVAL

conductor James Gaffigan (See page 37 for bio) A production of The Chicago Symphony Orchestra creative director Gerard McBurney actor Jill Mueller actor Roger Mueller narrator Nuvi Mehta

chorus members of SACRA/PROFANA Performance at the Jacobs Music Center's Copley Symphony Hall

PROGRAM CHARLES IVES

Symphony No. 2

Andante moderato Allegro

Adagio cantabile

Lento maestoso

Allegro molto vivace

The approximate running time for this concert, including intermission, is two hours and ten minutes.

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