Program Notes

Opening Remarks (2001)

Jeffrey Dennis Smith’s work for four marimbas focuses on texture, melodic interplay, and dynamic contrasts to showcase the expressive qualities of the marimba quartet. Each part weaves in and out of the sound mixture in expressive and virtuosic ways while building towards an evocative and stirring climactic moment.

—Program note courtesy of Southern Percussion.

Sonata pian e’ forte (1597), from Sacrae symphoniae

Giovanni Gabrieli was one of the towering musical figures of the Italian Renaissance. A leading musician in the great city of Venice, Gabrieli was the organist at the San Marco Basilica, and the Scuola Grande di San Rocco. Many of Gabrieli’s compositions, both vocal and instrumental, were crafted to showcase San Marco’s extraordinary architecture and acoustics. The Sonata pian’ e forte, scored for two groups of four brass instruments, contrasts soft and forceful dynamics. The musical and dramatic impact of this work was no doubt heighted by a strategic positioning of the two groups within the San Marco Basilica.

An American in Paris (1928)

In March 1928, George Gershwin departed New York for Europe, with excursions to Paris, London, and Vienna. Prior to that time, Gershwin received a commission from conductor Walter Damrosch and the New York Symphony Society (later, the New York Philharmonic) for a new orchestral work. While in Paris, Gershwin stayed at the Hotel Majestic. In their book, The Gershwin Years, Edward Jablonski and Lawrence Stewart relate:

George worked on An American in Paris and readily played it for the usual stream of callers, among them the young British composer William Walton, Vladimir Dukelsky (better known as Vernon Duke), Dick Simon, the publisher, and pianist Mario Braggiotti. One day Leopold Stokowski dropped by and became greatly interested in the work in progress, but this lasted only until he heard that the first performance had been promised to Damrosch.

Gershwin returned to New York in June, where he completed An American in Paris a month before the work’s premiere. Walter Damrosch conducted the Carnegie Hall concert, which took place on December 13, 1928.

Gershwin provided a description of An American in Paris, which is included below (indented):

Allegretto grazioso

This new piece, really a rhapsodic ballet, is written very freely and is the most modern music I’ve yet attempted. The opening part will be developed in typical French style, in the manner of Debussy and the Six, though the themes are all original. My purpose here is to portray the impression of an American visitor in Paris, as he strolls about the city, and listens to various street noises and absorbs the French atmosphere.

An American in Paris opens with a jaunty “Walking Theme,” introduced by the violins and oboes, evoking a leisurely stroll along the City of Light. The inclusion of French taxi horns in the percussion section is a delightful, atmospheric touch (Gershwin went to great time and expense to secure these horns for the premiere). Other Parisian elements include the popular song, “La Maxixe,” played by the trombones. An episode featuring a magical combination of celeste and solo violin (Calmato) may, according to program notes for the premiere, suggest a brief conversation between the American and a Parisian woman.

Andante ma con ritmo deciso

As in my other orchestral compositions, I’ve not endeavored to represent any definite scenes in this music. The rhapsody is programmatic only in a general impressionistic way, so that the individual listener can read into the music such as his imagination pictures for him.

The opening gay section is followed by a rich blues with a strong rhythmic undercurrent. Our American friend perhaps after strolling into a café and having a couple of drinks, has succumbed to a spasm of homesickness. The harmony here is both more intense and simple than in the preceding pages.

A solo trumpet (with felt crown) plays a haunting, espressivo blues melody, soon taken up by other instruments. The music builds to a Grandioso climax, and finally resolves to a hushed episode, featuring a lilting violin solo. The blues melody temporarily yields to a playful Charleston (Allegro), introduced by the trumpets.

Allegretto

The blues rises to a climax followed by a coda in which the music returns to the vivacity and bubbling exuberance of the opening part with its impressions of Paris. Apparently the homesick American, having left the café and reached the open air, has disowned his spell of the blues and once again is an alert spectator of Parisian life. At the conclusion, the street noises and French atmosphere are triumphant.

A varied reprise of material from the opening “Walking” section joins with a reappearance of the blues melody, as An American in Paris reaches its grand conclusion.

Capriccio espagnol, op. 34 (1887)

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov composed his brilliant Capriccio espagnol in summer 1887. For some time, the Russian composer had been occupied with the orchestration of his opera, Prince Igor. However, according to Rimsky-Korsakov: “In the middle of the summer this work was interrupted: I composed the Spanish Capriccio from the sketches of my projected virtuoso violin fantasy on Spanish themes. According to my plans the Capriccio was to glitter with dazzling color, and manifestly, I had not been wrong.”

It was Rimsky-Korsakov who led the October 31, 1887 premiere of his Capriccio espagnol. The concert took place at the Small Theater in St. Petersburg, as part of the Russian Musical Society’s concert series. RimskyKorsakov conducted the Orchestra of the Imperial Russian Opera House. The concert, according to Rimsky-Korsakov, “was played with a perfection and enthusiasm the like of which it never possessed subsequently . . . Despite its length, the composition called forth an insistent encore.”

Rimsky-Korsakov has long been hailed as one of the masters of orchestration. The composer himself acknowledged that the Capriccio espagnol, along with Scheherazade (1888) and the Russian Easter Overture (1888), marked the culmination of a period in “which my orchestration had reached a considerable degree of virtuosity and bright sonority . . . ”

The five movements are played without pause.

I. Alborada. Vivo e strepitoso

The Capriccio espagnol opens with a scintillating Alborada (an aubade, or morning serenade).

II. Variations. Andante con moto

The horns introduce a languid, dolce theme that serves as the basis for a series of variations, showcasing the orchestra’s wide range of colors.

III. Alborada. Vivo e strepitoso

The third movement offers a repetition of the opening Alborada, now transposed from A to B-flat major.

IV. Scene and Gypsy Song. Allegretto

A roll of the snare drum introduces a series of cadenzas for the horns and trumpets, violin, flute and clarinet, and harp. A vibrant Gypsy song dominates the latter part of the movement, gathering impressive momentum as it proceeds directly to the finale.

V. Fandango of the Asturias

The final movement opens with a Fandango, a lively dance in triple meter. The Gypsy song briefly returns, as does the opening Alborada, bringing the Capriccio espagnol to a dazzling Presto conclusion. —Program notes by Ken Meltzer, unless otherwise indicated.