Washburn Symphony Orchestra

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)

When talking about his two overtures composed in 1880, Brahms said “while one weeps the other laughs”. The Tragic Overture provides a gloomy and rather serious contrast to its witty counterpart the Academic Festival Overture. Despite its title, the Tragic does not have a known connection to any theatrical setting or literary work. Instead, the overture is a masterful musical representation of tragedy itself. Beginning with two massive chords, perhaps inspired by the opening of Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony, this radical statement is immediately followed by a menacing timpani roll that announces tempestuous times approaching. Suddenly, an ominous main theme by the strings quickly transforms the mood into a somber atmosphere; then, a disheartening funeral march by the oboes is heard in the distance (possibly another trait taken from Beethoven’s Eroica). Enhancing the dark style of the piece, a pensive choral-like theme presented by the violins and then by the low brass, sets the ground for a final dying passage played by the clarinets and bassoons. Abruptly, the funeral march theme makes one last come back in the closing measures, providing a sense of sorrowful triumph that does not permit to truly take pleasure in conquering over a foe.

~ Norman Gamboa

Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)

Ravel’s last completed composition Don Quichotte à Dulcinée is a delightful musical setting to the poems by novelist Paul Morand (1888-1976) that portray the heartfelt and highly amusing trials of Don Quixote. In 1932, Austrian film director Georges Wilhelm Pabst secretly commissioned composers Jacques Ibert, Maurice Ravel, Marcel Delannoy, Manuel de Falla, and Darius Milhaud to write the songs for his film The Adventures of Don Quixote, featuring the Russian bass Feodor Chaliapin. Not knowing, each composer began to work on what they thought to be the one and only score for the film. At the end, Ibert's music was chosen and Ravel considered a lawsuit against Pabst (he later dropped all charges). In the first song Chanson Romanesque, a guitar-like accompaniment by the strings sets the mood for Don Quixote’s affectionate declaration of love and devotion to his lady Dulcinea del Toboso. The song is a simple four-verse set with almost unchanged accompaniment that alternates between simple and compound meters on every other measure. The second song Chanson Epique, is Don Quixote’s prayer to the Virgin and all the saints asking for protection and blessings. Its highly hypnotic and passionate character, reflects the form of a zortzico, a slow dance in quintuple meter from the Basque region of northern Spain. Finally, Chanson á boire is a very energetic jota (a Spanish dance in triple meter). This final song is a celebration to happiness and life: “I drink to joy! Joy is the one aim for which I go straight...when I've drunk."

~ Norman Gamboa

~ Norman Gamboa

Robert Johnson (b. 1932)

As the title indicates, this work is intended as opening of a symphony orchestra concert, and it is not associated with any dramatic work. It begins with a fanfare-like motive that is played by the trumpets, followed by the principal theme performed by the violins and violas. Both themes are developed and built up to a climax. Next, a tranquil section is introduced by the solo clarinet and strings, leading to a cheerful dance-like scherzo that features the oboe and flutes. A short recapitulation brings back all the melodies heard in the opening measures, while a swift scale passage and several emphatic chords drive the overture to its stirring end. In 1960 Robert Johnson received a Masters degree in Music Theory and composition at Brigham Young University, followed by postgraduate work at Indiana University. He is a member emeritus of the Topeka Symphony Orchestra, and is currently a senior member of the Washburn Symphony Orchestra.

~ Robert Johnson

Kyle Kindred (b. 1978)

Originally founded in 1986 by Eleanor Munger, a the retired 76-year old Montessori schoolteacher, Omega House opened its doors to respond to the devastation of terminally ill AIDS patients discharged from the hospital with nowhere else to go. Christ Church Cathedral provided the initial resources to create this residential hospice that has been the final home for over 800 men and women who have lost their life to HIV/AIDS-related illness. Today Omega House continues Ms. Munger’s original mission of providing a safe and loving home to people who need compassionate care as they complete their life’s journey. The three movements of this piece are inspired by and dedicated to the PERSEVERANCE and KINDNESS of Ms. Munger and all of those individuals involved with Being Omega Community Services in Houston, Texas. Their efforts bring HOPE to the people of their community as well as their families and friends. Three Virtues was commissioned by the Brannen-Cooper Fund, The Washburn University Flute Association, the Washburn Symphony Orchestra, and Dr. Rebecca Meador.

~ Dr. Kyle Kindred

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)

Premiered in 1885 with Brahms himself conducting, the work was originally composed with two additional opening measures of wind chords that served as a short prelude to the main theme, Brahms later decided to delete this brief statement so the whole Fourth Symphony could begin with a sense of urgency and bafflement. Starting with descending thirds in the violins, the entire piece is built upon the continuous use of the interval of a third and its inversion, the sixth. Just like in Beethoven’s Third Symphony, for the first movement Allegro non troppo, Brahms stretches the boundaries of the traditional structure of the sonata form, adding a false recapitulation of the initial theme that extends for about eight measures before the work fully commits to the intricacy of the development section. The true recapitulation comes after the movement has reached its calmest and most subtle moment, quickly erupting into a vigorous coda. A horn call in the second movement Andante moderato supplies the thematic material that is traded back and forth by the different instruments of the orchestra, while a flourish air of the winds help introduce the rich and melancholic melodic line of the cellos and horns. The movement reaches its end when the rather menacing reappearance of the initial call announces the onset of tempestuous times. The Allegro giocoso was the last part of the entire work to be composed. Contrasting with the closing of the previous movement, its joyful character is enhanced by the use of the sporadic triangle, timpani and piccolo, something Brahms presumably used to emmulate the Turkish instrument writing found in Mozart’s and Haydn’s operas. Finally, the last movement Allegro energico e passionato is set of theme and variations built over a short plan of just eight notes. Beginning with a brief choral-like introduction, the main subject is first presented by the winds and then passed around throughout the orchestra. Half way in the movement, the trombones are heard for the first time with a theme that is thought to be borrowed from Cantata No. 150 “Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich", attributed to Johann Sebastian Bach. A few more variations of ever increasing intensity lead the movement to its dramatic and jubilant conclusion.

~ Norman Gamboa

Catherine McMichael (b. 1954)

Tall Grass is a tone poem for flute quartet and string orchestra inspired by the “last great swath of tallgrass prairie in the nation” (National Geographic, April 2007), which is found in the Flint Hills of eastern Kansas. The cycle of life in the Flint Hills begins with the fire, and so does the piece. The first note, an F, stands for Flint Hills, and also for fire. As fire sweeps over the prairie early in the year, the land is cleansed and stimulated, soon producing the fine, bright green grass of spring. Birds call, prairie chickens joust, breezes blow and the grass grows. Summer follows, glorious and rich with tall, undulating grass. The autumn is on the horizon, though, as frost coats the golden grass, laying it low to enrich the soil for the next cycle of seasons, which will again be launched by fire.

~ Catherine McMichael

Antonio Vivaldi (1678 – 1741)

After the violin, to which Vivaldi composed near 230 concerti, it is the bassoon the instrument he wrote the largest number of solo works for, a total of 39 concerti, most of them believed to be composed between 1728 and 1737 with two of them left unfinished. Since the bassoon is thought to be a newly-invented French instrument dating from around 1650s, and it did not appear in Italy until much later, historians believe Vivaldi originally intended all his bassoon pieces for its predecessor, the dulcian, a double reed bass woodwind instrument from the Renaissance that had a folded conical bore. Little is known for whom these concerti were composed; however, their style reveal Vivaldi’s true understanding of the technical abilities of the instrument as well as its musical expressiveness. All of the concerti display intricate writing that at the time was commonly reserved for string instruments, including large arpeggios, wide register leaps, and fast moving passages. It seems the Concerto in E Minor, RV 484, borrows thematic material from the one surviving movement of the Flute Concerto, RV 432 for its opening measures, while the peaceful extended melodic lines of the second movement set the ideal ground for the energetic Allegro of the final movement.

~ Norman Gamboa

Benjamín Gutiérrez (b. 1937)

Semblanza para Fagot y Cuerdas (Sketch for Bassoon and Strings) was composed in 2005 and dedicated to Costa Rican bassoonist María Eugenia Sequeira, who currently serves as principal bassoonist with the Orquestra Simfònica del Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, Spain. According to Mr. Gutiérrez, for the Semblanza he looked back at the way chamber music was practiced prior to the XVI century: “At the time, instruments were rather shabby and performances quite imperfect, with this piece I make fun of these weaknesses while emphasizing the new developments and advances in composition such is the case of the use of time signatures.” The work opens with a tuning note given by the soloist that is unsuccessfully imitated by the violins until violas and celli hastily bring order to the commotion. After a short unmeasured section, the first solo cadenza serves as bridge to the very rhythmic Allegro middle section that is filled with alternating compound meters, emulating the early stages of time signatures as means of symmetry and musical organization. Several short episodes alternating from unmeasured to measured bring the piece to a frantic end.

~ Norman Gamboa

Antonín Dvořák (1841 – 1904)

Composed in 1875 in a record time of twelve days, the String Serenade in E major, Op. 22 is still one of Dvořák’s most popular and widely performed orchestral works to this day. The work received its premiere in Prague a year later in a historical performance with the strings from the Czech and German theatre orchestras combined. The Serenade is basically a symphony for strings in five movements; the first movement Moderato is constructed around two main ideas: the opening theme of quite an innocent and peaceful quality, and a dancelike middle section which is wittier and certainly more flirtatious. Due to its key of C-sharp minor, the Tempo di Valse of the second movement tends to evoke happy memories of a dance in some distant past. Contrasting with the previous movement, the cheerful scherzo of third movement is in essence a single theme that is presented and developed numerous occasions in a large array of different tempos and moods. The fourth movement is an exquisite collection of tender and melancholic melodies that emerge in and out of the fine contrapunctual texture, constantly making warm statements, while the main theme from the third movement Tempo di Valse is heard from time to time. Finally, the Allegro vivace provides the perfect ending with its highly declamatory main theme and its numerous quotations of previously heard motives from the first four movements.

~ Norman Gamboa

Bedřich Smetana (1824 – 1884)

Composed between 1874 and 1875, Má Vlast (My Fatherland) is without a doubt, Smetana’s true masterpiece in the symphonic arena. Má Vlast is an exquisite combination of Bohemian tales and the natural beauty of the Czech countryside. For Vlatava (The Moldau), the second of the symphonic poems of the cycle, Smetana wrote “Two springs pour forth their streams in the shade of the Bohemian forest, the one warm and gushing, the other cold and tranquil. Their waves, joyfully flowing over rocky beds, unite and sparkle in the rays of the morning sun. The forest brook, rushing on, becomes the River Vltava (Moldau). Coursing through Bohemia's valleys, it grows into a mighty stream. It flows through dense woods from which come joyous hunting sounds, and the notes of the hunter's horn drawing ever nearer and nearer. It flows through emerald meadows and lowlands, where a wedding feast is being celebrated with songs and dancing. By night, in its glittering waves, wood and water nymphs hold their revels. And these waters reflect many a fortress and castle – witnesses of a bygone age of knightly splendor, and the martial glory of days that are no more. At the Rapids of St. John the stream speeds on, winding its way through cataracts and hewing a path for its foaming waters through the rocky chasm into the broad riverbed, in which it flows on in majestic calm toward Prague, welcomed by time-honored Vysehrad, to disappear in far distance from the poet's gaze.” Smetana had gone completely deaf before he completed the first of the symphonic poems, like Beethoven and the Ninth Symphony, he never heard his beloved masterwork performed.

~ Norman Gamboa

Antonín Dvořák (1841 – 1904)

Originally written for piano four hands and using Brahms’s Hungarian Dances as a model, the Slavonic Dances are a collection of sixteen short pieces published in two sets as opus 46 of 1878 and opus 72 of 1886. Both sets were orchestrated shortly after at the request of German music publisher Fritz Simrock. Unlike Brahms, Dvořák did not employ actual folk melodies; instead, he focused his attention on the rhythms of the traditional Slavic folk music and used them to conceive his own melodic material. For the Dance No. 1 in C major, Op. 46, Dvořák used the Furiant, a fast and cheerful Czech dance that frequently displaces the down beat by the shifting of accents. The Dance No. 4 in F major, Op. 46 follows the style of the Sousedská, a waltz-like Bohemian country dance in slow triple time. 

~ Norman Gamboa

Alexander Borodin (1833 – 1887)

The Polovtsian Dances are without a doubt the core of Borodin’s unfinished opera Prince Igor, which is based on The Saga of Igor's Army by Vasily Stassov. The opera tells the story of Prince Igor and his battle against the Polovtsi, a Mongol-like nomadic tribe led by Khan Kontchak, who overrun the city of Puitvil in the year 1185. Borodin began composing the opera in 1869 which he continued writing intermittently for the following 18 years until his death in 1887. In the second act of the opera, a long ballet sequence takes place where both male and female slaves dance to entertain the Khan and his prisoner Prince Igor. The Polovtsian Dances were first performed separately at the request and assistance of his friend Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov who helped him orchestrating them. In concert setting, the dances are traditionally performed without chorus and are preceded by the Dance of the Polovtsian Maidens from Act I. In 1909 the dances reached new heights when Russian ballet impresario Sergei Diaghilev choreographed them independently from the opera for his French company, and later in 1953 when they were used for the song Strangers in Paradise in the Broadway Musical Kismet. 

~ Norman Gamboa

Ludwig van Beethoven (1712 – 1773)

Premiered in Prague in 1798 with Beethoven himself at the piano, the Piano Concerto in C major, Op. 15 was Beethoven’s first to be published but in fact it was the third one to be composed after an unpublished piano concerto in E-flat major and his Piano Concerto in B-flat major Op. 19. Czech composer Johann Tomášek (1774-1850) said after the premiere: “Beethoven’s grand style of playing, and especially his bold improvisation, stirred me strangely to the depths of my soul; indeed I found myself so profoundly shaken that I did not touch my piano for several days.” Just like in his first symphony, the Piano Concerto No. 1 still shows a significant influence of the Classical style specially of Mozart and Haydn, combined with a rather revolutionary harmonic treatment that will characterize Beethoven’s output for the rest of his life. After a rather lengthy orchestral exposition, the first movement Allegro con brio follows the standard sonata allegro form, constructed around two musical ideas of great contrast: the joyful main theme and a more lyrical subordinated theme. A coda by the orchestra alone brings the movement to an end. The Largo of the second movement pours out a highly melodic theme that is first introduced by the unaccompanied piano and then turned over to the orchestra, becoming the soul of the movement. Finally, the Rondo: Allegro scherzando sticks to the traditional seven-part rondo form of the Classical concerto. After a brief solo cadenza, the movement ends with a soothing subtle melody that is drastically contrasted by the powerful sounds of the rich orchestral accompaniment.

~ Norman Gamboa

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 – 1791)

Although numbered first, the Concerto for Horn in D major, K. 412 was actually the last of the four to be completed. In relation to the other three concertos, the K. 412 is significantly shorter in its duration with only two movements instead of the traditional three, displaying a less intricate counterpoint treatment and a bigger emphasis on melody and phasing. According to British musicologist Alan Tyson, Mozart drafted both movements of the concerto but the Rondo was completed by his student Franz Xavier Süssmayr in 1792. Süssmayer took it upon himself to make several modifications to the piece and inserted the introduction of the Lamentations of Jeremiah, a Gregorian chant used during Holy Week in the Catholic Church, as part of the second movement. The first movement Allegro, is a combination of the standard sonata form with elements of the ritornello style of the baroque concerto, showcasing the lyrical characteristics of the instrument. The second and final movement Rondo is a masterful depiction of the hunting sounds associated with the horn in a rondo form. Tonight’s performance includes a reconstruction of the Rondo by John Humphries.

~ Norman Gamboa