Concerto Winners Eric Lamb and Erika Tolano to be Featured in Oberlin Chamber Orchestra Concert, Sunday, April 16, 8:00 P. M., in Finney Chapel Story and photos by Linda Shockley
	Back to the main story About the Artists		Program Notes Concerto for flute in D Minor C P E Bach This work began its life as a concerto for harpsichord in 1745. It was transcribed for flute during Bach's lifetime, but it cannot be said with certainty that Bach was himself responsible for this. Like many of CPE Bach's works, the concerto exhibits both Baroque and Classic period characteristics. In its harmonic construction, especially at the outset, it appears like a Baroque concerto, a work even his father may have composed. But rather than introduce the solo instrument with new material of its own the flute reiterates material from the orchestral opening - a decisively Classic trait - before spinning off new material. Much of the first and last movements is fraught with the rather abrupt shifts in character so identified with Bach's style. Both contain many unexpected dynamic changes, fragmentations of themes, and sudden jumps from solo to tutti. The finale's energy level is further enhanced by outbursts of rapid sixteenth-notes in both the solo and orchestral parts. Providing some level of placidity is the central second movement with its sweeping melody and graceful ornamentation. Chuench'i Schürmann Schürmann was born in Holland but spent most of his life living in England, while composing and conducting. Chuench'i was originally composed for voice and piano on a commission from Marni Nixon in 1966. Soon after, it was orchestrated by the composer. The first and last songs represent the beginning and ending of spring and are clearly linked musically. A high degree of thematic unity exists between the seven songs, which use Arthur Whaley's translation of the Chinese as text. I. New Corn Swiftly the years, beyond recall. Solemn the stillness of this fair morning. I will clothe myself in spring clothing and visit the slopes of the Eastern Hill. By the mountain-stream a mist hovers, hovers a moment, then scatters. There comes a wind blowing from the south that brushes the fields of new corn. -T'ao Ch'ien II. Plucking the rushes Green rushes with red shoots, long leaves bending to the wind - you and I in the same boat, plucking rushes at the Five Lakes. We started at dawn from the orchid island; we rested under the elms till noon. You and I plucking rushes had not plucked a handful when night came! - Anon. III. Shang Ya! Shang Ya! I want to be your friend for ever and ever without break or decay. When the hills are all flat and the rivers are all dry, when it lightens and thunders in winter, when it rains and snows in summer, when Heaven and Earth mingle - not till then will I part from you. Shang Ya! - from Oaths of Friendship IV. Flowers and Moonlight on the Spring River The evening river is level and motionless - the spring colours just open to their full. Suddenly a wave carries the moon away, and the tidal water comes with its freight of stars. - Emperor Yang-Ti V. Look at the little bay of the Ch'i Look at that little bay of the Ch'i, its kites-foot so delicately waving. Delicately fashioned is my lord, as thing cut, as thing filed, as thing chiseled, as thing polished. Oh the grace, the elegance! Oh, the lustre, oh, the light! Delicately fashioned is my lord, as a thing of bronze, a thing of white metal, as a sceptre of jade, a disc of jade. How free, how easy he leant over his chariot-rail! How cleverly he chaffed and joked, and yet was never rude! - from The Book of Songs VI. Self-Abandonment I sat drinking and did not notice the dusk, till falling petals filled the folds of my dress. Drunken I rose and walked to the moonlit stream; the birds were gone, and men also few. -Li Po VII. At the End of Spring The flower of the pear-tree gathers and turns to fruit; swallows' eggs have hatched into young birds. When the Seasons' changes thus confront the mind, what comfort can the Doctrine of Tao give? It will teach me to watch the days and months fly without grieving that Youth slips away; if the fleeting world is but a long dream, it does not matter whether one is young or old. But ever since the day that my friend left my side and has lived an exile in the City of Chiang-ling, there is one wish I cannot quite destroy: that from time to time we may chance to meet again. - Po Chu-i Symphony No. 9 in C Major, D.944 Schubert Schubert began composing the Ninth Symphony in 1825 and completed it in 1826 (possibly 1827). It has been argued that a planned Vienna performance in 1826 was canceled after rehearsals due to the work's imposing length and difficulty. A partial performance was led by Mendelssohn in 1839 in Leipzig. Apparently the complete work must have been rehearsed because it was after such a rehearsal that Schumann - in attendance - had written in a letter the famous phrase "...this length, this heavenly length, like a novel in four volumes..." The first full performance of the symphony occurred in 1841 in Frankfurt. It is scored for double winds, horns and trumpets, three trombones, timpani and strings. Schubert had first used trombones in a symphony for the "Unfinished". In the Ninth they play a dual role. With natural (i.e. - valveless) horns having a limited number of available pitches in their lower register, Schubert used the trombones at times like substitute horns, often to provide the bass of the wind choir. But their most prominent use was to carry significant melodies: the solemn timbre is most ingeniously exploited in the first movement. Schubert begins the first movement with an alla breve Andante that rather seamlessly - and without tempo modification, according to the composer - flows into the Allegro non troppo. Horns intone the unison first theme whose melodic and rhythmic elements are incorporated throughout the movement. Winds take up the theme in harmony, supported by pizzicato strings. If this first musical paragraph could be heard as somewhat cold and emotionless - of course, not expressionless! - then Schubert certainly pours out his musical heart during the ensuing cello theme. After passages featuring adventurous harmonies with abrupt dynamic and orchestrational changes the opening theme returns again in the woodwinds, now accompanied by an obbligato triplet melody in the divided violins. The climax cadences on the opening of the Allegro non troppo. This opening, quite basic melodically and introducing the contrast between duple and triple divisions of the beat between strings and winds, in many ways serves Schubert by allowing him to build the massive structure of the movement. The relative simplicity of the material permits Schubert to group individual measures into larger metric structures, usually of four measures, sometimes two or six, which are further grouped into even larger musical paragraphs. With accents, and internal rhythms creating surface interest, the larger structures move inexorably to dramatic climaxes. The second movement is cast as a march, replete with dotted rhythms. Twice, however, second violins initiate contrasting song-like passages. In the latter half of the movement a cataclysmic, shattering climax is followed by the only moment of silence in the movement. Then, as if to heal, the cellos provide a soothing, if at first tentative, melody, joined by the movement's omnipresent solo oboe. Then the song-like character returns in full orchestral garb before a final, closing appearance of the march theme. In a manner familiar to listeners of Tchaikovsky and Bruckner (who also clearly owes much to Schubert's approach to large-scale form) Schubert casts heavy, octave- doubled strings in opposition to wind forces as a fundamental element of the opening of the Scherzo. This material then provides support for the waltz-like second theme. In the Trio, rather than creating the effect of a reduced orchestra, as was customary in the Classic period, Schubert offers a sonorous, thickly orchestrated song for the woodwind choir. The Finale's opening 162 measures, seem at once to be both an emphatic statement of character and key, and also a bustling, energetic introduction to the more sedate second theme, presented by the woodwinds in thirds. In fact, Schubert originally had sketched a fugue-like subject for his second theme, but ultimately chose a rather simple song-like passage. This choice allowed him to develop a carefully-paced growth to the climax closing the exposition. In one of many magical moments in the symphony, Schubert then has the cellos descend by step from G to E-flat, preparing for the pianissimo entrance of the clarinets and woodwinds at the onset of the development. Then, the second theme is reintroduced, now fortissimo before the energy is spent. The opening music, gradually returns. Of special note, is the long (84 measures!) crescendo from ppp to fff in the coda. A terrific implosion of four repeated C's in the strings is heard five times in all before the first of two fff (!) outbursts, leading to the close of the symphony.
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