Program Notes

by Pam Davis, Assistant Concertmaster

Arturo Marquez (1950 -)

Danzon No. 2 (1994)

Son of a mariachi musician, Arturo Marquez was trained at the Mexican Music Conservatory and the California Institute of the Arts. His music incorporates traditional forms and styles from his Mexican heritage. The danzon is a dance form of 1880’s Cuban origin with roots in English contradance, French quadrille, and African rhythms. In this work, Marquez includes duet passages that hint at a physical dance between two partners.

Commissioned by the National Autonomous University of Mexico and dedicated to his daughter Lily, Danzon No. 2 is one of Marquez’s most popular works. It begins with a sultry conversation between clarinet and piano with the ubiquitous clave ostinato developing into a tango style, not unlike salon music of the early 1900’s. That clave rhythm creates a heartbeat in much of the piece, joined by solos for piccolo, trumpet, and violin. e WORLD EVENTS: Nelson Mandela elected president of South Africa, Amazon. com is founded, the Tunnel under the English Channel opens e FIRST PERFORMANCE: March 5, 1994, Mexico City e MOST RECENT SSO PERFORMANCE: November 2013, Kyle Wiley Pickett conducting

Pablo Sarasate (1844 -1908)

Fantasy on Bizet’s Carmen, Opus 25 (1883)

Pablo Martín Melitón de Sarasate y Navascuez shortened his name to Pablo Sarasate when he became a prominent musician. Born in Pamploma, Spain, which is famous for the annual running of the bulls, Sarasate was the son of a Spanish military bandmaster. Sarasate began violin lessons at age five, performed his first concert at eight, and entered the Paris Conservatory at 12. Seeing his potential of furthering Spanish culture in his touring performances, Queen Isabella II subsidized his career, including gifting him with a Stradivarius.

Sarasate, as one of the big three violinists of the 19th century (along with Paganini and Joachim) was known for his beautiful tone, precision, and apparent effortlessness in playing and was the first important violinist to make commercial recordings. Many composers dedicated works to Sarasate, among them Lalo and Saint-Saëns.

In this piece of violin showmanship dedicated to Austrian violinist Joseph Hellmesberger, Sarasate borrowed liberally from Bizet’s opera Carmen eight years after its premiere: the Entr’acte between Acts III and IV; Carmen’s Habanera; the scene of Carmen, Don José and Zuniga, “Mon officier c’était une querelle”; the Séguidille from Act I; and the Chanson Bohème from Act II. Technically demanding, filled with effects such as harmonics, left-hand pizzicato, fiery arpeggios, and flashy scales, this challenging work was most likely written for the composer’s own concert tours. e WORLD EVENTS: Franz Kafka is born, the Brooklyn Bridge opens, Richard

Wagner dies e FIRST PERFORMANCE: 1875, Paris e MOST RECENT SSO PERFORMANCE: Tonight is the SSO debut 48

Pablo Sarasate (1844 -1908)

Ziguenerweisen (Gypsy Airs) Opus 20 (1878)

Sarasate’s two most performed works are his Carmen Fantasy and Zigeunerweisen. Often played as an encore, Zigeunerweisen is based on Hungarian “gypsy” music, thanks in part to the popularity Romani music found in works of Brahms and Liszt. Here the themes seem to serve as a conduit for the violinist’s blazing virtuosity. Sarasate is said to have made the pyrotechnics appear easy. According to George Bernard Shaw, some composers “write music for the violin, but Sarasate writes violin music”. e WORLD EVENTS: H.M.S. Pinafore premieres in London, Thomas Edison patents the phonograph, George M. Cohan is born e FIRST PERFORMANCE: 1878, Leipzig, Germany e MOST RECENT SSO PERFORMANCE: April 1958, Lowell Adams, violin,

Charles Moffet conducting

Igor Stravinsky (1882 - 1971)

The Firebird (1910)

If it weren’t for other composers’ hesitancy, Stravinsky’s composition career might have followed a different trajectory. Michel Fokine and Serge Diaghilev hired four or five different composers who could not or would not follow through in completing the music for their new ballet. Finally, Rimsky-Korsakov’s 27-year-old student Stravinsky was engaged.

Ballet subsequently became one of the genres that Stravinsky made his own as The Firebird, followed by Petrouchka and Rite of Spring, placed him squarely in the front rank of contemporary composers. During rehearsals, Diaghilev was quoted as saying to his prima ballerina, “Mark him well. He is a man on the eve of celebrity.”

A patchwork tale from Russian folklore, the story follows this outline:

Introduction: The prince comes upon a magical garden.

Prelude, Dance, and Variations of the Firebird: Prince Ivan sees the fabulous Firebird, Pantomime 1, Pas de Deux, Pantomime 2: The Firebird offers Ivan a golden feather for sparing the bird’s life.

Scherzo, Pantomime 3: Thirteen captive princesses play in the garden, and Ivan falls in love with beautiful princess #13.

Khorovod: As the princesses dance, Ivan vows to rescue them.

Infernal Dance: With the feather, Ivan summons the Firebird, who enchants them all into a furious dance.

Lullaby: When they have fallen asleep, the Firebird guides the Ivan to a huge egg which contains the legendary evil captor Kaschei’s soul. Ivan smashes the egg.

Finale: They all (except Kaschei and company) live happily ever after.

Although Stravinsky’s style changed dramatically in his later works, The Firebird remains his most popular work, with its virtuosic use of orchestral color and abrupt repetitive motives. When confronted with admirers who wished he would return to its lush style, he would refer to The Firebird as “that great audience lollipop.” But he did express pride in his novelty: “the most striking effect in The Firebird was the natural-harmonic string glissando near the beginning, which the bass chord touches off like a Catherine Wheel. I was delighted to have discovered this, and I remember my excitement in demonstrating it to Rimsky’s violinist and cellist sons. I remember, too, Richard Strauss’s astonishment when he heard it two years later in Berlin.”

The full ballet was followed by three manifestations of concert versions or suites for orchestra. Tonight, the SSO will be playing the 1945 version. e WORLD EVENTS: Mark Twain dies, Halley’s Comet reappears after 76 years,

Samuel Barber is born e FIRST PERFORMANCE: June 25, 1910, Paris e MOST RECENT SSO PERFORMANCE: March 2013, Kyle Wylie Pickett conducting 49