WHAT YOU ARE ABOUT TO HEAR

Haydn (1732-1809)

Symphony No 83 ‘The Hen’ (1785)

Allegro Andante

Minuet – Trio

Finale: Vivace

Márquez (b. 1950)

Flute Concerto ‘Son’ (2017) UK Premiere De tierra De mar De vientos cálidos De fuego

Poulenc (1899-1963)

Sinfonietta (1947)

Allegro con fuoco

Molto vivace

Andante cantabile

Finale: Prestissimo et très gai

From the poultry wit of Joseph Haydn to Francis Poulenc’s Parisian music-hall antics – by way of some fiery Latin evocations courtesy of Arturo Márquez – there’s no shortage of colour, energy and foot-tapping rhythm in tonight’s continent-leaping, centuries-spanning concert.

In his Symphony No 83, in fact, Haydn set out specifically to dazzle and impress. He was composing for the biggest, grandest orchestra he’d ever had access to. And for that lavish band, he set about creating music of an appopriately grand level of pomp, opulence and brilliance.

Haydn had been working as a court musician for the fabulously wealthy Esterházy family at far-flung Eszterháza Palace in what’s now Hungary since 1761. But in 1779, Prince Nikolaus loosened the tight rules on the musician’s employment, allowing Haydn to write music for others, and even to publish his pieces. The composer had been quietly making his own genre-defining musical innovations while at Eszterháza –establishing the symphony and string quartet as musical forms virtually single-handedly, for example – but this change of relationship suddenly provided him with entirely new freedoms. And as a result, Haydn’s first major international commission came from Paris.

The Count d’Ogny was a French nobleman and arts patron, and had co-founded the Concert de la Loge Olympique in 1780 as an orchestra to rival any in the French capital – and with players decked out with sky blue dress coats, flamboyant ruffles and swords swinging by their sides, it quickly made its mark. A key part of the Concert’s impact, though, came from its sheer size: it’s reported to have run to no fewer than

65 musicians, creating a sonic richness almost unheard of at the time (by way of comparison, Haydn had had to be content with a ensemble of about 25 at Eszterháza).

When Haydn received a commission for six new symphonies from d’Ogny – via the Concert’s celebrated conductor Joseph Bologne, the Chevalier de Saint-Georges – no wonder he jumped at the chance. His decision was no doubt helped by the sizeable fee of 25 Louis d’or he was offered for each of the six symphonies he’d compose. (Mozart, by contrast, had received a measly five Louis d’or for his own ‘Paris’ Symphony a few years earlier.)

No 83 is the second in the six-symphony collection, and according to Haydn’s own manuscript comes from 1785. And its comical nickname ‘The Hen’ – inspired, it’s been said, by the distinctive ‘clucking’ of the first movement’s second main melody (you can’t miss it) – is only one example of the rather mischievous wit that the composer employed to tickle his Parisian listeners.

His decision was no doubt helped by the sizeable fee of 25 louis d’or he was offered for each of the six symphonies he’d compose. (Mozart, by contrast, had received a measly five louis d’or for his own ‘Paris’ Symphony a few years earlier.)

For the most part, Haydn avoided dark, stormy minor keys in his symphonies. Seeing that No 83 is in G minor might lead you to expect something dramatic, serious-minded, even tragic. You wouldn’t be wrong at the piece’s very start: the first movement begins with a tense theme, complete with expressive dissonances and unexpected pauses. But the composer can’t keep the seriousness up for long, and quickly veers towards the brighter major for his humorous ‘clucking’ melody.

His gentle, restrained second movement continues the distinctive repeated notes that populated the opening movement, though Haydn throws in surprisingly dramatic interruptions to its otherwise lyrical melody. There’s a lot of rustic charm to his rather heavy-footed minuet dance in the third movement, though a solo flute joins tripping violins in the movement’s light-as-air central trio section. His finale propels us along with what might be a boisterous jig, or maybe a galloping hunt. In any case, the fourth movement’s boundless energy is kept on a tight lead at the opening, before bursting into vivid life and a joyful conclusion.

We jump westwards across the Atlantic for tonight’s next piece. Mexican composer Arturo Márquez is probably best known for his rip-roaring, euphoric Danzón No 2, which has become the unofficial anthem of the Venezuelan Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra, and as a result one of the most popular classical works being performed worldwide today.

Like the glittering Danzón No 2, Márquez’s Flute Concerto ‘Son’ expertly blends together distinctively Latin influences and a wide-ranging, brightly coloured classical style. Given the composer’s background, that characterful mix is probably not surprising. Born in 1950 in Sonora, Mexico, young Arturo was the son of a mariachi performer and grandson of a prominent folk musician, and, after launching his first compositional experiments as a teenager, went on to study with prominent classical figures in both America and Mexico.

He completed the first, two-movement version of his Flute Concerto in 1997, before adding two more movements in 2017, and thereby rounding off the four elements that inspired the piece: earth, water, air and fire. Those elements give Márquez’s movements thoroughly individual, contrasting personalities. His solo flautist, however, remains an assertive presence throughout, playing a melodic line that fuses catchy Latin licks with sometimes breathtaking virtuosity.

The infectious rhythms that permeate the whole Concerto kick off the appropriately earthy opening movement, ‘De tierra’ (‘Of the earth’), before the soloist introduces its lithe main melody. The second theme (introduced by the oboe) is slower and gentler, with a distinctive tick-tocking accompaniment from the claves, but Márquez’s music remains urgent and strongly rhythmic throughout.

A gently rippling melody low in the flute’s range opens the more serious-minded, sometimes even grief-stricken second movement, ‘De mar’ (‘Of the sea’), though a quicker, dance-like central section provides light relief. Márquez’s third movement, ‘De vientos cálidos’ (‘Of warm breezes’), continues without a break, and focuses our attention on the lone flautist, playing rippling, airy patterns that slowly spiral to a quiet close. His blazing finale, ‘De fuego’ (‘Of fire’), however, is anything but quiet: its assertive, pounding rhythms drive the Concerto to a spectacular close.

We leap back across the Atlantic to France for tonight’s final piece. Francis Poulenc was no stranger to wit, sparkle and jazzy inspirations in his music (he was a signed-up member of mischievous Parisian composer collective Les Six, for example). But by 1947, the year he wrote his Sinfonietta, he was aiming for a slightly cooler, more serious approach.

Poulenc’s Sinfonietta rode the wave of optimism following the end of the Second World War. It was commissioned by the BBC to celebrate the first anniversary of the Third Programme, predecessor to BBC Radio 3, as one of several works marking the new-found freedom of continental Europe following the conflict.

Poulenc never wrote a symphony, but his Sinfonietta (literally ‘little symphony’) is probably the closest he came. Indeed, it’s almost as though he stepped back from using that high-flying term with all its imposing historical associations for this energetic, light-hearted music, though he generally toned down his high spirits in it. Once he’d finished the work, the then 48-year-old composer admitted to being rather surprised himself at the gleeful wit and youthful excitement that remained in his Sinfonietta, and to being worried that he might have ‘dressed too young for my years’.

Thoughitmightnotbecalledasymphony,the Sinfoniettafallsintotheconventionalfourmovements wemightexpecttofindinthatmusicalform.

Though it might not be called a symphony, the Sinfonietta falls into the conventional four movements we might expect to find in that musical form. A burst of frantic energy kicks off its first movement, though its zingy vivacity gradually dissipates as the movement progresses. And rather than following the tight structure of contrasting themes in a traditional symphonic first movement, Poulenc is instead content to offer a succession of contrasting episodes. He seems to pay tribute to favourite fellow composers in his bustling second movement scherzo – Tchaikovsky’s ‘Pathétique’

Symphony, or Mendelssohn’s fairy music, or even Mozart – and his slow third movement achieves an almost Mahlerian intensity at times.

There’s no mistaking the influence of Stravinsky in his witty, dashing finale. (Poulenc himself admitted as much, saying:

‘I know very well that I am not the sort of musician who makes harmonic innovations, like Stravinsky, Ravel or Debussy, but I do think there is a place for new music that is satisfied with using other people’s chords.’) But we make a notable return, too, to popular music, in this case sounds that seem to come directly from the music hall, in themes that Poulenc reworked from an early string quartet he’d abandoned. He was forced, however, to reconstruct that earlier music from memory: he felt the original work had failed so badly that he’d flung its score into a Parisian sewer.

© David Kettle

Conductor ANDREI FEHER

Andrei Feher has already earned a reputation for his musical maturity and integrity, natural authority on the podium, and an imaginative and intelligent approach to programming. At the age of 26 Feher was appointed as the new Music Director of the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestra, a position effective from August 2018.

Having gained early experience as assistant to Fabien Gabel at the Orchestre Symphonique de Quebec, at the age of 22 Feher joined the Orchestre de Paris as Assistant Conductor to its Music Director, Paavo Järvi. During this time he collaborated with conductors including Zubin Mehta, Valery Gergiev, Christoph von Dohnányi, Thomas Hengelbrock and Jaap van Zweden, as well as regularly conducting the orchestra in their popular Young Public concerts at the Philharmonie de Paris.

In addition to his commitments with the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestra, recent and upcoming highlights include performances with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, Orchestre Symphonique de Quebec, Les Violons du Roy, Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, Orchestre National d’Ile de France, Orchestre Métropolitain Montreal and Romanian Radio National Orchestra.

A strong advocate of contemporary music, Feher has recently performed works by Eric Champagne, Pierre Mercure, George Dimitrov, Ciprian Pop and Abigail Richardson, as well as the world premiere of Thierry Besancon’s opera for children Les Zoocrates with Opéra de Lausanne. In November 2015, Feher conducted the world premiere of Soleil Noir by Pierre Jodlowski with the Orchestre de Pau-Béarn, which resulted in an immediate invitation to conduct the work in Toulouse in November 2016.

Born in Romania into a family of musicians, Feher began his musical education as a violinist in his hometown Satu-Mare before continuing his studies at the Montreal Conservatoire when his parents relocated to Canada.