Second Concert of the 28th Season

I. Allegro con brio
II. Largo
III. Rondo: Allegro

I. Morning Mood
II. The Death of Ase
III. Anitra's Dance
IV. In the Hall of the Mountain King

The C Major Concerto, written in 1797, was actually the second piano concerto written by Beethoven. The numbers were assigned on the basis of publication sequence.

The first movement opens with an extended orchestral section which presents the first two themes before the piano enters. Beethoven's use of sonata form follows classical lines. The graceful melodies of the second movement are Mozartean in character. Solo clarinet is utilized in dialogue with the piano in a very effective way. The third movement is a spirited rondo. It has a Viennese gaiety and ebullience which make it an excellent vehicle for the facile pianist.

Peer Gynt, a symbolic drama, was written by Henrik Ibsen in 1867. Ibsen approached Grieg about writing incidental music for a revised version of the play in 1873. The production was a great success. Grieg extracted eight selections for use in two suites. Suite No. 1 is the best known and one of the favorite program works in orchestral literature.

Grieg provided this summary of Ibsen's play:

"Peer Gynt ... is ... a character of morbidly developed fancy and a prey to megalomania. In his youth he has many wild adventures -- comes, for instance, to a peasants' wedding where he carries off the bride up to the mountain peaks. Here he leaves her to roam about with wild cowherd girls. He then enters the kingdom of the mountain king, whose daughter falls in love with him and dances to him. But he laughs at the dance and the droll music, whereupon the enraged mountain folk wish to kill him. But he succeeds in escaping and wanders to foreign countries, among others to Morocco, where he appears as a prophet and is greeted by Arab girls. After many wonderful guidings of Fate he at last returns as an old man, after suffering shipwreck on his way to his home, as poor as when he left it. Here the sweetheart of his youth, Solvejg, who has stayed true to him all these years, meets him, and his weary head at last finds rest in her lap."

The opening movement of Suite No. 1 is a musical picture of a lovely sunlit morning in Egypt. "The Death of Ase" is a poignant elegy for Peer's mother, which is performed by muted strings. "Anitra's Dance" features an oriental melody at a mazurka tempo in reference to Peer's adventures in Morocco. The final movement is a grotesque march. The single theme, first heard in low strings, signifies the ominous character of the gnomes after being insulted by the irrepressible Peer Gynt.

Howard Hanson has dared to be a romanticist in the twentieth century! His works are often compared with those by Sibelius and Franck. The opera Merry Mount was completed in 1934. At that time Hanson was Director of the Eastman School of Music, a post he held for nearly forty years. The "Love Duet," which comes from Act II - Scene 3, displays Hanson's melodic gift and his flair for lush harmony.

The conductor's score contains the following information which was written by Aaron Copland:

An Outdoor Overture was composed especially for the 1938 mid-winter concert given by the school orchestra of the High School of Music and Art in New York City. The Overture owes its existence to the persuasive powers of Mr. Richter, head of the music department at the school. Mr. Richter explained to me that my work was to be the opening gun in a long-term campaign that the High School of Music and Art planned to undertake with the slogan "American music for American Youth."

I determined to interrupt the orchestration of my ballet "Billy the Kid" and to write the work Mr. Richter wanted for his students. He had clearly stated his specifications: "My suggestion is that you write a single movement composition somewhere between five and ten minutes in length. I think it should be an overture or rhapsody, rather optimistic in tone, which would have a definite appeal to the adolescent youth of this country." With this friendly advice in mind I began work on October 18 and finished the composition two and a half weeks later on November 5th. The orchestration was completed in the following week. As it turned out the composition was an overture, about nine and a half minutes long, definitely optimistic in tone. When Mr. Richter first heard me play it from the piano sketch, he pointed out that it had an open-air quality. Together we hit upon the title: An Outdoor Overture.

An Outdoor Overture is scored for the usual symphony orchestra, with the omission of the tuba. "Don't forget the percussion section" was another of Mr. Richter's admonishments. The percussion section was therefore not forgotten.