Third Concert of the 45th Season
Sunday, February 26th, 1984
Cordier Auditorium
Robert Jones, Conductor
| A Concert Overture, Op. 36 | John Bavicchi | |||
| Fantasia para un gentilhombre | Joaquin Rodrigo | |||
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Villano y Ricercare |
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| Scott Jackson Wiley, guitar | ||||
| Intermission | ||||
| Concerto in D Major, F. XII, No. 15 | Antonio Vivaldi | |||
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Allegro giusto |
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| Scott Jackson Wiley, guitar | ||||
| Symphony No. 2 in B-Flat Major, D. 125 | Franz Schubert | |||
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Largo-Allegro vivace |
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Program Notes by James R. C. Adams |
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| A Concert Overture, Op. 36 |
John Bavicchi (b. 1922) |
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John Bavicchi was born in Boston on April 25, 1922. His initial training was as a civil engineer. After four years study of this and four of service in the U.S. Navy, he entered the New England Conservatory in 1948, and subsequently joined Walter Piston's class at Harvard, also including extended private study. Student days over, Mr. Bavicchi has divided his time between composing, teaching, and conducting. After varied freelance teaching posts he joined the faculty of the Berklee College of Music in 1964, lecturing in composition, music history, and conducting. Mr. Bavicchi is conductor of the Arlington Philharmonic Society Chorus and Orchestra. Besides conducting a wide repertoire of orchestral and choral music, he has also written for the orchestra with great success. It is his experience with community orchestras and bands on a highly practical level over several years that has made his works so valuable to community orchestras. Bavicchi knows exactly how var one can challenge both orchestra and audience. Over the last twenty-five years or so he has built up a diverse and impressive list of over eighty-five works. He is a composer who refutes the ivory-tower approach utterly. His music is written with a clear sense of purpose, which never loses sight of his aesthetic and expressive intentions. Thus he has written for symphony orchestra, ensembles of mallets and percussion, string quartet, band, piano, chorus, organ, and solo voice to mention but a few. And his technical demands range from the beginning student to the virtuoso professional. Bavicchi the composer has been honored with awards from the National Institute of Arts and Letters, ASCAP, the American Symphony Orchestra League Recording Grant and with commissions from the Harvard Musical Association, Cecilia Choral Society, Welsh Arts Council, MIT Concert Band, and Boston Civic Symphony, among others. His works have been performed in countries as far away as Australia, Canada, England, France, Wales, Germany, Peru, Turkey, and Sweden. |
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| Fantasia para un gentilhombre |
Joaquin Rodrigo (b. 1901) |
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Joaquin Rodrigo's works for solo guitar with orchestra rank as major contributions to a relatively short list of works for the medium. His most well-known composition in this genre is teh Concert de Aranjuez, which premiered in 1940 with immediate success. Readers may remember the second movement as the background music in a television commercial for a major automobile manufacturer done several years ago. Rodrigo was born in 1901 in Spain. He has been blind since the age of three. He studied composition with Dukas and Manuel de Falla, and both the French and Spanish influence is reflected in his music. He studied in France at the Paris Conservatory and the Sorbonne. The Spanish government has recognized his achievements with many national honors and tributes, and he was named an Officier des Arte et des Lettres by the French government. Rodrigo is viewed as the most significiant post-World War II Spanish composer. The Fantasia para un gentilhombre (Fantasia for a Gentleman) was intended as a tribute to Gaspar Sanz, a seventeenth century Spanish guitarist, composer, and priest. The musical material was, in fact, composed by Sanz and subsequently elaborated and orchestrated by Rodrigo. the gentilhombre referred to in the title is, of course, Gaspar Sanz. The work is cast in four movement, the titles of which indicate either Spanish dances or Baroque contrapuntal forms. The texture throughout is exemplified by melodic phrases stated alternately by solo guitar, orchestral strings, or orchestral woodwinds. The intimate quality of the guitar precludes a texture which requires the guitar to compete in volume with the orchestra. The first movement, "Villano y Ricercar," begins with a section in duple meter, patterned after a sung dance which was popular in sixteenth and seventeenth century Spain. The middle section of the movement, "Ricercare," exhibits the imitative counterpoint typical of this Baroque form which was a precursor of the fugue. The movement ends with a return to the material of the opening "Villano." The second movement also has three distinct sections in an A-B-A pattern. The first section, "Españoleta," is in a flowing 6/8 meter, typical of this dance which originated in sixteenth century Italy. The "Fanfare de la Caballeria de Nápoles" (Fanfare of the Horsemen of Naples) comprises the middle section and is in a lively duple meter. The title is probably a reference to the Spanish occupation of southern Italy during the 17th century, in which Gaspar Sanz was a participant as an army officer. The use of harmonics and col legno (with the wood of the bow) in the strings of the orchestra creates striking special effects. A reprise of the "Españoleta" closes the movement. The "Danza de las Haches" (Dance of the Torches) conveys a strong rhythmic identity with the use of dotted rhythms and accented, detached notes. A clear dance-like character prevails in this rather brief movement. The "Canario" dance form originated in seventeenth century France and was an attempt to convey the exotic flavor of native culture of the Canary Islands. It is in lively 6/8 meter, and is notable for the frequent use of hemiola, the technique of changing from two equally spaced metric pulses to three equally spaced pulses without changing the time signature. A cadenza for the guitar occurs near the end of the movement. |
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| Concerto in D Major, F XII, No. 15 | Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) |
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Antonio Vivaldi, an Italian composer of the Baroque era, is credited with the formalization of the mature Baroque concerto form. He wrote nearly five hundred concerti for various solo instruments, and, in the process, developed a genre that consisted of three movement with a tempo scheme of fast-slow-fast. He also established the use of a recurring theme or motive (ritornello) as an important structural feature of each of the fast movements. Vivaldi was trained in the priesthood and ordained in 1703. His career as a priest was quite stormy and he was censured at least once for conduct uncoming a priest. He was widely acclaimed during his lifetime as a composer and as a violinist, and made important contributions to the advancement of violin technique. In addition to the concerti, he also composed a large body of sacred choral music, sonatas, and operas. He insisted on overseeing productions of his own operas, and, as a result, was a very widely-travelled composer. On two occasions he was invited to perform before the pope. The Concerto in D on today's program was originally written for lute, not guitar. The two instruments have enough in common, however, that the use of either is musically appropriate. The work is actually a chamber concerto, indicating that the orchestral forces required are smaller than in the typical Vivaldi concerto. The score calls for only first and second violins and a single continuo line, in this case, cello. The reason is clear; the lute and guitar are incapable, by nature, of competing successfully with a larger orchestra. In the first and third movements the temo is lively and the ritornello theme can be identified easily in the violins at the beginning of each movement. The middle slow movement exhibits a lovely melody in the guitar with almost continuous use of dotted rhythms. |
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| Symphony No. 2 in B-flat Major, D. 125 | Franz Schubert (1797-1928) |
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Franz Shubert's Symphony No. 2 was completed in 1815 when the composer was eighteen years old. The year 1815 was, in fact, the most productive year in the life of one of the most productive composers in the history of European music. In addition to the Second Symphony, Shuberty wrote the Symphony No. 3, 145 songs (including the famous "Erlkönig"), four operas, two masses, and several other choral works, compositions for solo piano, and a string quartet. The Symphony No. 2, along with many other compositions by Schubert, reflects traits of the Classical era and, at the same time, hints at the coming Romantic style. The work follows the classical tradition in the number of movements -- four -- and in the overall structural scheme of each movement. Romantic inclinations can be seen in the loose adherence to structural details, in the modulatory and harmonic patterns, and the length of the first and last movements. The score calls for a traditional instrumentation of flutes, oboes, clarinet, bassoons, horns, trumpets, tympani, and strings. The first movement begins with a slow introduction, not unlike the symphonies of Haydn, followed by a greatly expanded sonatat-allegro form in allegro tempo. The principal theme is stated and restated at four different points in the movement, interspersed with two statements of a lyrical secondary theme. A relatively brief development section occurs in the middle of the movement. Transitional material between the two themes is quite lengthy, assuming more prominence than similar material in the symphonies of Haydn or Mozart. The second movement is a strict theme and variations in andante tempo. After the initial statement of teh theme in the strings, five variations are heard, each one with various combinations of wind and strings. A coda follows the last variation, and the movement ends quietly. The third movement is a classical minuet-trio form. The minuet section is in C minor. The trio is in E-flat major and features the oboe in most statements of the important thematic material. The movement ends with a reprise of the minuet in C minor. The final movement is a presto in sonata-allegro form,
which, like the first movement, is expanded by more than the usual
number of principal theme statements. The development section can be
identified by a relentless repetition of the rhythmic motive |
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Manchester Symphony Orchestra Personnel |
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Violin Ervin Orbán, Concertmaster Rosemary Manifold * Carolyn Caldwell Elizabeth Guntermann Eloise Guy Mary Moreland +^ David Neal Lenelle Ross Suzanne Schmucker +^ Yang Xi Viola Chris Friddle * Maria Eriksson Annette Martin Cynthia Orbán Cello Waverly Conlan * Valerie Goetz Doud Laurie Kieffaber David W. Pinkham +^ Rebecca B. Waas Bass Christopher Bowser * Calvin Bisha Joseph Ferraro Piccolo Denise Van Petten + Flute Kathy Urbani * Paige Leonhard Oboe Stephanie Jones * Dawn Zumbrun |
Clarinet Cindy Greider * Jane Grandstaff Bassoon Takashi Yamano * Mack Walker Horn Eric Jones *+ Dan Cripe + Kent Teeters Trumpet Andrew Norman * Steve Hammer Ray Goelz + Trombone D. Larry Dockter * David Schultz + Louis Grettenberger Timpani Christopher Caldwell + Percussion Bill Leonhard *+ Terry McKee * Denotes principal + Denotes MC student ^ Denotes MSS Scholarship recipient |
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 Scott Jackson Wiley graduated with honors from the
Conservatory of Barcelona, where he studied under Jose Luis Lopategui. A
protege of Narciso Yepes, he has also studied under such respected
masters as Emilio Pujol, Gyorgy Sebok, George Neikrug, and flamenco
master Mario Escudero. He has concertized extensively throughout Spain,
his country of residence for nine years. His return to the United States
was marked by a successful New York debut at the Merkin Concert Hall,
received with critical acclaim by the New York Times. Mr. Wiley
is dedicated to the art of chamber music and has performed widely with
voice, flute, violin, and string quartet. With tenor Michael Chang he
recently performed, under the auspices of the Consulate General of Spain
in New York, a program of original 20th century music for voice and
guitar at Merkin Hall and was featured soloist in New York's II
International Guitar Festival at Cami Hall sponsored by the American
Institute of Guitar. He is on the faculty of the Roosa School of Music
and the American Institute of the Guitar. |
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, creating a kind of tension very commonly found in the symphonies of
Beethoven.