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Oberlin College Community Strings to Perform Music of Bach, Mozart, Poulenc and Dvorák, on Thursday, December 9, 8 P.M., in Finney Chapel
Story by Michael
Chipman
Photos by Linda
Shockley
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THE PROGRAM Bach: Prelude and Fugue in G minor, WTC II Mozart: Piano Concerto in C major, K. 246 • Allegro aperto Robert Shannon, piano Poulenc: Litanies à la Vierge Noire Women of the Oberlin College Choir Dvorák: Three Slavonic Dances • Op. 46 no. 8 in G minor |
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RELATED
The Oberlin College Community Strings, a group founded in 1995 to create more performance opportunities for all serious musicians - from the College, area communities and the Conservatory - is now celebrating its fifth year and going strong.
"This is the largest group we've ever had," says the group's founder and director Philip Highfill. "We've had very little repetition of repertoire in five years and I plan to continue that pattern. There is not an immense repertoire of works just for string orchestra, so I've done a little arranging myself." In fact, Highfill has arranged two of the four pieces on the program slated for Thursday, December 9, 8 p.m., in Finney Chapel. The concert is free and open to the public.
"I chose the music on this program partly for its contrasts," says Highfill. "The Bach and Poulenc are fairly serious works; the Mozart and Dvorák are more cheerful. At the same time, I think these particular composers work well together: Bach, Mozart and Dvorak are all from the core central European repertoire. Poulenc and Mozart share another connection in that Poulenc loved Mozart -- they both have a classic buoyancy of texture. And the key sequence of the four pieces makes sense."
The program for this first of two annual Strings concerts, will open with Highfill's arrangement of Bach's Prelude and Fugue in G minor, from Book Two of The Well-Tempered Clavier. "We did a Bach prelude and fugue last spring in an arrangement for strings and it worked very well, so I thought I'd try another. I've always thought the sound of the G-minor prelude and fugue calls to mind orchestral sonorities. An arrangement for strings was not too much of a stretch -- there are already four distinct lines in the original keyboard version."
Robert
Shannon, professor of
pianoforte, whom Highfill describes as "my colleague and
backpacking buddy," will join the group for Mozart's Piano
Concerto in C major, K. 246. "This is one of the earliest of
about two dozen concertos by Mozart," says Highfill. "He
wrote it when he was 20 for a noblewoman who was a student
of his father Leopold. All of Mozart's concerti are fabulous
pieces. In this one, the inspiration is perhaps not quite as
overwhelming as in his late concertos, but it is still a
wonderful piece of music. Like several early concertos, this
one only calls for string accompaniment, with help from
oboes and horns."
Highfill describes Poulenc's "Litanies à la Vierge Noire" as "an extraordinarily beautiful work, originally for women's chorus and organ. Poulenc later made a version for women's chorus, strings and timpani. It is mysterious, ethereal, extremely moving and draws directly from Poulenc's life. Raised Catholic, Poulenc did not practice the faith seriously until he experienced a personal crisis when one of his close friends was killed in an auto accident. Soon after, Poulenc visited a church in southwestern France that holds a statue of the Virgin carved in black wood. It has been a pilgrimage site for eight or nine centuries. While there, he experienced a spiritual conversion and returned to Catholicism. This piece was the harvest of that experience.
"The
text is a plea to the Virgin Mary and the Holy Trinity for
mercy and understanding," he continues. "It is much
different in tone from Poulenc's more famous irreverent,
silly side. Poulenc said his mother was more of a bon
vivant and his father was very serious. It is
interesting how both sides play out in his music."
Three Slavonic Dances by Dvorák will round out the concert. "These dances were originally composed for piano four hands and were an immediate hit with the public. Dvorák's publisher asked him to make a version for full orchestra, which was equally successful. They are very tuneful, energetic, colorful and fun to play. In my search for new material, I thought these might appeal to our group, so I arranged them for strings."
The Strings, a Conservatory outreach program, is the only group on campus that specializes in music written for string orchestra, or concertos with string accompaniment.
"The Community Strings," says Highfill, "is different from any other orchestra on campus in that it is only strings, and it is composed primarily of students from the College of Arts and Sciences, community members and a few Conservatory students who play strings as a second instrument. Also, like the Community Winds and the Musical Union, our once-a-week rehearsal schedule is less concentrated than that of other Conservatory ensembles."
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