First Concert of the 30th Season

I. Allegro ma non troppo
II. Adagio
III. Rondo-Allegro

I. Allegro
II. Adagio
III. Andantino con Variazioni

Because wind instruments are quite prominent factors in twentieth-century musical life we tend to be unaware that such was not always the case. During most of the nineteenth century, despite improvements in instrument construction and performance techniques, wind instruments were not used as media for major solo works. However, the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries had been golden times for wind players, and Weber's Bassoon Concerto is one of the final essays in its genre. It was composed in 1811 for a bassoonist in the Munich court orchestra. Weber was a great admirer of Mozart (an admiration made more intense by family pride in a cousin's marriage to Mozart) and, even though Weber is considered to have been the first German romantic composer, this concerto is a logical successor to Mozart's concerted works.

The first movement has two main themes, the first in a martial style and the second more lyrical. Both themes are stated and developed in the traditional sonata-allegro form. The brief second movement is much like opera arias of the period, with a bel canto melody and florid ornamentation by the soloist. The middle section of the movement is particularly interesting, being played by only two horns and the solo bassoon. The rondo evokes a jolly feeling, though its expression of humor is sublime to a degree that raises it above the clown category frequently assigned to the bassoon.

The Fugue and Chorale on Yankee Doodle is an excerpt from the moving picture score Tuesday in November of 1947. The ostentatious tongue-in-cheek piece opens with an overly pompous introduction reminiscent of Tchaikovsky's solemn 1812 Overture. The fugue, usually considered a very academic musical form, begins in the manner of a four-voice treatment of the subject, but as it progresses it becomes a set of variations rather than the academic fugue. The chorale, based on the introductory theme which is related to "Yankee Doodle" only in the first five notes, is a broad melody with full block harmony. The simple chordal texture is laced with a rapidly ascending and descending scale continually repeated. The chorale and accompanying scale inexorably swell to a climactic ending.

The Symphony Concertante was composed in 1778 at the request of four virtuosi from the famous Mannheim musical center who were at the time performing in the Concerts Spirituels in Paris: Wendling, flute; Ramm, oboe; Ritter, bassoon, and Stich (known as "Punto," for whom horn concerti were written), horn. At a later date the work was revised to include clarinet instead of flute. It is this latter version which is to be heard today.

As a musical form, symphony concertante is a hybrid of the baroque concerto grosso and the eighteenth-century classical symphony -- large and small ensembles are juxtaposed, yet the structure is that of the fully developed symphony.

Guest soloist Leonard Sharrow is joined by three orchestra members. Clarinetist Robert Jones is assistant professor of music at Manchester College, having come here in September, 1968, after teaching at the University of Montana, MacPherson College, and the Halstead, Kansas, public schools. Oboist Stephanie Jones is Mrs. Robert Jones, and along with her husband has had extensive performing experience, including membership in American Symphony Orchestra League Conducting Institute orchestras in 1966 and 1967. Hornist Thomas Listenfelt is a senior music student at Manchester College.

Dvořák wrote sixteen Slavonic Dances, Opus 46 in 1878, and Opus 72 in 1890. Because of their popularity and commercial success they were published in one version for two pianos and another for orchestra. The dances are artistic stylizations of Czech folk dances. Dvořák employed characteristic rhythms of specific folk dances -- Opus 46, Number 1 is a Furiant -- but created original melodies. The Slavonic Dances are among the most colorful and popular nationalistic music, a popularity that has received new impetus during the current political turmoil in Czechoslovakia.