Boston Conservatory Orchestra: Towards a Brighter Future

Name: Boston Conservatory Orchestra: Towards a Brighter Future
Start: 2022-10-29T19:00:00-04:00
End: 2022-10-29

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Saturday / October 29, 2022 / 7:00 p.m.

Mechanics Hall

321 Main Street

Worcester

01608

United States

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Boston Conservatory Orchestra’s 2022–2023 opening concert explores themes of nature and transformation with works by William Grant Still, Tan Dun, and Gustav Mahler.

The concert opens with William Grant Still’s deeply expressive Poem for Orchestra, which was “inspired by the concept of a world being reborn spiritually after a period of darkness and desolation,” according to his spouse, Verna Arvey.

Next is Chinese-American composer Tan Dun’s Passacaglia––Secret of Wind and Birds, which showcases unconventional sounds that no "classical" composer would have dreamed of a century ago, such as actual birdsong.

The concert concludes with Mahler’s epic Symphony No. 1 (“Titan”). Filled with fanfares, more traditional bird calls, and a bow to klezmer, this work is notable for bringing forth an exciting new approach to universal, nature-based music-making.

Bruce Hangen, Conductor

Program Information

Repertoire

WILLIAM GRANT STILL: Poem for Orchestra

TAN DUN: Passacaglia––Secret of Wind and Birds

MAHLER: Symphony No. 1 (“Titan”)

Program Notes

WILLIAM GRANT STILL: Poem for Orchestra (1944)

Known popularly as the “Dean of African-American Composers,” William Grant Still (1895–1978) composed music encompassing a wide variety of styles and genres, from opera to symphony to song. Notably, Still was the first African-American composer to have a symphony premiered by a major American orchestra. The Poem for Orchestra was written as a commission at the behest of Erich Leinsdorf, then conductor of the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra. Conceived during the late years of World War II and reflecting Still’s devoted Christian faith, the Poem traces an arc from darkness and despair into holiness and hope.

The Poem is cast in three main sections. It begins in a slow tempo, desolate and despondent, with dissonant harmonies. This builds up to a faster, scherzo-like passage that continues the growing energy and discord of the opening. Finally, the music breaks into a luminous idyll, full of soaring melodies in a brilliant A Major key. Still orchestrates his ideas using distinctive, evocative instrumentation, with powerful brass fanfares in the climax, and the sparkling of the harp and celesta in the final section. His songful melodies shine all throughout, even in the initial dissonant passage. Composed during a time of great turmoil and uncertainty, the Poem for Orchestra represents Still’s optimistic vision of chaos and dejection transformed into resurrection and exaltation.

The Poem for Orchestra was accompanied by a poem in words by Still’s wife, the pianist and author Verna Arvey:

Soul-sick and weary,
Man stands on the rim of a desolate world.
Then from the embers of a dying past
Springs an immortal hope.
Resolutely evil is uprooted and thrust aside;
A shining temple stands
Where once greed and lust for power flourished.
Earth is young again, and on the wings of its re-birth
Man draws closer to God.

TAN DUN: Passacaglia: Secret of Wind and Birds (2005)

While he is perhaps best known for the score to the explosive martial arts film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), Tan Dun (b. 1957) has composed pieces in genres and styles as varied and eclectic as the increasingly global world of contemporary music. His music draws from a variety of sources, both Western and Eastern, ancient and modern.

In 2005, Carnegie Hall commissioned Tan Dun for the National Youth Orchestra’s upcoming tour of China. Per this request, the Passacaglia: Secret of Wind and Birds captures, in Tan’s words, “the wonder of nature and a dream of the future.”

Fitting for a young orchestra, Tan’s piece mixes elements of the distant past and the burgeoning present. The piece is set up as a passacaglia, a Baroque form in which the music unfolds through a series of developing variations over a repeating musical pattern. It also features the sounds of birds played by traditional Chinese instruments, born of centuries and millennia of history. But these sounds come out of cellphones—quintessentially modern devices. As the variations continue, rhythms reminiscent of hip-hop emerge from snapping, whistling, and stomping. In the middle, the most ancient forms of music-making emerge as musicians hum melodies and whisper chanted words.

A spirited potpourri of sounds from yesterday and today, the Passacaglia swirls and swells into a unison cry that Tan describes as “the Phoenix, the dream of a future world.”

We invite you to join us on this odyssey through time and nature! At Maestro Hangen’s direction, please click this link to play birdsongs along with the orchestra:

Play Birdsongs

GUSTAV MAHLER: Symphony No. 1

In 1888, Gustav Mahler (1860–1911) was employed as a conductor at the Leipzig Opera. As a man of Jewish heritage, Mahler was able to find professional success in conducting despite anti-Semitic hostility in Germany; in fact, he converted to Catholicism in 1897, though this is widely believed to be a (successful) maneuver to get around the Vienna State Opera’s ban on Jewish directors.

Mahler was also a serious composer; at the time, he was hard at work at his Symphony No. 1, which would become the first of nine momentous symphonies. Though the symphony premiered in Budapest in 1889, Mahler made several revisions until publishing the final version in 1899. For example, Mahler originally subtitled the symphony, “Titan” after a novel by the German author Jean Paul, though he later removed it, because—as he stated—the final version was not primarily focused on evocations of the book.

As with its symphonic siblings, Mahler’s first symphony is constructed on an epic scale, lasting nearly an hour in its final version. The symphony loosely fits a standard four-movement structure. An introduction of great stillness and solemnity opens the symphony, before transitioning to a sunny allegro. Following are a rustic dance, a heavy funeral march, and a stormy finale that ends in ecstatic jubilation.

Many features of the symphony are particular to Mahler’s musical personality. The piece is full of references to nature— several birdcalls populate the music, especially the call of a cuckoo, and the opening is marked “Wie ein Naturlaut” (like a nature-sound).

Mahler’s expertise in melodic composition is also apparent throughout the symphony; in fact, there are several quotes from his song cycle Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (“Songs of a Wayfarer”). Also characteristic of Mahler is the inclusion of folk elements. The second movement, for example, features the ländler, an Austrian folk dance. The third movement quotes the popular song, “Frère Jacques,” in a slow round, and it also draws from klezmer, a variety of Jewish folk music. This juxtaposition of a song about Christian monks and some raucous Jewish klezmer is striking, considering Mahler’s own Jewish heritage and later “conversion” to Catholicism.

As Mahler famously stated: “The symphony must be like the world. It must contain everything.” Indeed, this symphony encompasses a vast world of sound-scenes—of heroic adventure, worldly life, tempestuous chaos, and finally, bright triumph.

Notes by Julian Gau

Ensemble List

PICCOLO
Jessica Lynch, M.M. '22
Kristalis Sotomayor Matos , M.M. '24
Shion Suzuki, G.P.D. '24

FLUTE
Megan McCafferty, B.M. '23, Principal
Shion Suzuki, M.M. '25

OBOE
Daniel Meza, M.M. '23, Principal*
Christian Paniagua, B.M. '23, Principal^
Taylor Childress, B.M. '24

ENGLISH HORN
Coleton Morgan, B.M. '24

CLARINET
Cheng Lin Yang, M.M. '23, Principal
Chuck Furlong, Guest Artist
Ning-Chieh Tsai, M.M. '23, E-flat Clarinet, Bass Clarinet^
Maxwell Reed, B.M. '24, Bass Clarinet*, E-flat Clarinet^

BASSOON
Carson Saponaro, B.M. '26, Principal
Christian Arroyo Castillo, M.M. '23
Lizi Huang, B.M. '23, Contrabassoon

HORN
Hannah Messenger, Guest Artist, Principal*
Nicholas Ochoa, B.M. '22, Principal^
Jack Krugman, B.M. '23
Cameron McCarty, BM '25
Connor Strauss, B.M. '25
Amber Dai, M.M. '24
Yixiang Wang, M.M. '23
Ricardo Verde, B.M. '26

TRUMPET
Elizabeth Jewell, Guest Artist, Principal*
Robert Adams, M.M. '22, Principal^
Max Ignas, Guest Artist*
Matthew Dao, M.M. '24^
Charlotte Berube-Gray, B.M. '26
Elliot Wlasiuk, B.M. '26 ^

TROMBONE
Lauren Galarraga, B.M. '24, Principal
Gillian Kearney, B.M. '22

BASS TROMBONE
Sean McCarty, Guest Artist

TUBA
Sam Boswell, Guest Artist, Principal

TIMPANI
Ashley Ridenour, M.M. '23*
Chistian Weimer, B.M. '25
Xingyue Xue, B.M. '23
Christian Bartholomew, B.M. '24

PERCUSSION
Harold Rivas, B.M. '24*
Ashley Ridenour, M.M. '23*
April Ong, B.M. '24
Xingyue Xue, B.M. '23
Alexa Clawson, B.M. '25
Chistian Weimer, B.M. '25
Christian Bartholomew, B.M. '24

HARP
Jiayi Li, M.M. 24, Principal
Cherish Mckellar, M.M. '24*

CELESTE
Julian Durr, B.M. '25*

VIOLIN I
Gaia Sbeghen, G.P.D. '23, Concertmaster
Christine Chen, G.P.D. '23
Armando Ortiz Montenegro, G.P.D. '23
Kathryn Pappalardo, G.P.D. '23
Svens Skriveris, M.M. '23
Hope DiMaria, B.M. '24
Katelyn Bennett, B.M. '23
Christina Junga, B.M. '23
Brianna Ingber, B.M. '24
Annali Wirtz, B.M. '26
Anne McKee, M.M. '24
Maria Hodson, B.M. '23

VIOLIN II
Kristen Barrett, M.M. '24, Principal
Lauren Oeser, B.M. '25
Rowan Gemma, B.M. '24
Joshua Rosenthal, B.M. '26
Ruixuan Zhao, M.M. '24
Leon Baker, B.M. '25
Alex Estrella, B.M. '25
Ying-Hsuan Liao, M.M. '23
Adrian Atonya, B.M. '26
Clara Mazo, B.M. '23
Finnian Long, B.M. '26*
Selena Vega, M.M. '24*
Xueqi Hu, M.M. '24*
Gloria Fortner, B.M. '25^
Yinfei Li, M.M. '24^
Wei Liu, P.S.C. '23* ^

VIOLA
Colton Slaven, B.M. '23, Principal
Jayna Leach, M.M. '24
Maria Dupree, M.M. '23
Lauren Wilson, B.M. '25
Renee Chan, M.M. '23
Andrew Gretzinger, M.M. '24
Zhaofeng Tang, M.M. '23
Morgan Brown, B.M. '23

CELLO
Elaina Spiro, B.M. '24, Principal
Luis Tovar, B.M. '24
Lilya Arustamyan, B.M. '25
Jean Taglia, B.M. '24
Jarrel Martin, M.M. '23
Casey Johnson, M.M. '24
Bryceton Au, B.M. '26
Hailey Brasser, B.M. '26*
Jianze Qi, B.M. '23^

BASS
Olive Haber, B.M. '23, Principal
Jacob Slater, M.M. '24
Leo Martinez, B.M. '25
Enrique Perez, B.M. '26

* First concert half
^ Second concert half

Concert Services Staff

Senior Manager of Concert Services – Luis Herrera
Concert Production Coordinator – Matthew Carey
Concert Production Manager – Kendall Floyd
Senior Manager of Performance Technology – Wes Fowler
Performance Technology Technicians – Sara Pagiaro, Goran Daskalov

Boston Conservatory thanks audience members for viewing this program information online. This paperless program saved 200 sheets of paper, 21 gallons of water, and 18 pounds of CO2-equivalent greenhouse gas emissions.