53rd Season
Concert II
Conducted by
Jack Moore
<PROGRAM>
AARON COPLAND An Outdoor Overture
EDWARD MACDOWELL Piano
Concerto No. 2 in d minor, Op. 23
I.
Larghetto calmato
II.
Presto giocoso
III.
Largo-Molto Allegro
Clipper
Erickson, piano
***Intermission***
PETER ILYICH
TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No. 4 in f minor, Op. 36
I.
Andante sostenuto -
Moderato con anima - Moderato assai, quasi andante - Allegro vivo
II.
Andantino in Modo di
Canzone
III.
Scherzo: Pizzicato
ostinato – Allegro
IV.
Finale: Allegro con
fuoco
Please note that state law
prohibits smoking within 50 feet of this site.
Please be considerate of
those around you and observe silence during the performance.
>>PROGRAM
NOTES<<
Aaron Copland (1900-1990)
Aaron Copland was born in
Brooklyn, New York of Russian-Jewish immigrant parents. He was considered a
leading American composer. At the age of fifteen he decided to become a
composer. His parents did not encourage him to pursue this path. He claims that
he discovered music as an art all by himself.
In 1921 he went to France to study composition. He stayed in Paris for
three years. This experience had a lasting influence on his music.
When he returned to the United
States in 1925, he concentrated on combining elements of blues and ragtime for
a few years and then changed his style again to reach a broader, more
sophisticated audience. Copland had the ability of writing simple yet highly
professional music. His contributions include directing composers' groups,
organizing concerts, lecturing, writing books and magazine articles. He was
made musical ambassador to South America at the bequest of the U.S. State
Department. For twenty-five years he taught young composers at the Berkshire
Music Center at Tanglewood. Then at the age of fifty, he began another career,
that of conducting. His talents in this regard took him all over the world
conducting many orchestras.
Tonight we will hear his Outdoor Overture, which he wrote
especially for the orchestra. It was introduced on December 16 and 17, 1938 by
the orchestra of the New York High School of Music and Art. The score is
considered not too difficult and the orchestra played it with contagious
enthusiasm. It was considered to be fresh, spontaneous, and wholesome. The
piece was meant to interest and inspire
the budding high school
musicians of America and it did! This nine-minute work is among Copland's most
popular pieces. In 1942, he arranged it for symphonic band.
Edward Alexander MacDowell
(1861-1908)
Edward MacDowell was the
first important American composer. Though his music is heard much less
frequently these days, it was MacDowell who showed through his gifted
originality that America could produce a composer whose work would be
recognized in Europe as well as in America. He composed primarily for the
pianoforte, although he wrote a few orchestral works (the best known is Indian Suite), some lovely songs, and four sonatas. Tonight
we will hear his Piano Concerto no. 2 in
D. Minor, Op. 23 that, in the words of one writer, 'ensured his niche in
the gallery of immortals'. Conductor Theodore Thomas led the New York
Philharmonic and the composer in the world premiere of the Second Concerto in
March 1889 in New York City. The Concerto's first movement opens pp and closes
ppp and in between are crescendos in the best tradition of the Romantic Period.
According to MacDowell's wife, the second movement was inspired by MacDowll
seeing Ellen Terry as Beatrice in Much
Ado About Nothing. In the third movement we hear the brass section and
themes from the first movement. MacDowell's 'gorgeous melodies and sparkling
writing for the soloist provide a thrilling finale'. MacDowell's legacy lives
on as the MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire where over 4,000
artists have worked. In 1997 the MacDowell Colony was awarded the National
medal of Arts for 'nurturing and inspiring many of this century's finest
artists'.
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky
(1840-1893)
1877 was an emotionally
turbulent year for Tchaikovsky. He turned 37 years old, was married, and before
the end of the year had separated from his wife. It is also the year he began Symphony No. 4. Following the separation
from his wife, he and his brother moved to Switzerland and Italy and by January
1878 he had completed the Symphony. Many biographers have written that this
Symphony is autobiographical and often call the motto theme of the first
movement the Fate theme. This F minor Symphony has four movements. In his letters
- probably to his patroness - Tchaikovsky describes this music (and perhaps his
life). The first movement begins with the Fate theme and progresses restlessly
along with the theme of destiny recurring. "So is all life,"
Tchakovsky wrote, "but a continual alternation between grim truth and
fleeting dreams of happiness. There is no haven. The waves drive us hither and
thither until the sea engulfs us." He says of the second movement
that it "shows another phase
of sadness. Here is that melancholy
feeling which enwraps one…[with] a swarm of reminiscences. How sad…yet a
pleasure to think of the early years. …And all that is now so far away, so far
away." Of this Scherzo, as the third movement has been called, Tchaikovsky
wrote that it would have "quite a new orchestral effect from which I
expect great things." This popular movement begins with the pizzicato
strings. The woodwinds are heard and then a march-like passage from the brass
and kettledrums. Fragments from all three sections, like vague images, slip in
and out. As Tchaikovsky wrote, "The mood is now gay, now mournful. …One gives the fancy loose rein. Suddenly
into the imagination [is a] picture of a drunken peasant and a gutter song. Military music is heard passing in the
distance. These are disconnected pictures which come and go…" In the
finale a Russian folk song, 'In the Fields There Stood a Birch-tree' is played
by the woodwinds. Tchaikovsky says of the finale that it is "the picture
of a folk holiday. …Scarcely have you had time to be absorbed in the happiness
of others before untiring Fate again announces its approach. The other children
of men are not concerned with you. They neither see nor feel that you are
lonely or sad. …Rejoice in the
happiness of others -- and you can still live." The rejoicing is
interrupted by Fate, and the conclusion of the movement is brilliant, yet 'akin
to despair.' Many biographers feel Tchaikovsky had a very pessimistic view of
life and that the Symphony expresses a
'desire to escape.' Whatever Tchaikovsky's view, we can rejoice in the talent
and emotion that created this music.
__________________________
Clipper Erickson, piano soloist
Clipper Erickson has been
thrilling audiences with exciting and innovative performances for years. He has
performed with orchestras throughout the United States and Europe. His national and international
engagements include the Spoleto Festival USA, Chicago's Dame Myra Hess Series,
Boston's Gardner Museum, the Kennedy Center and the Phillips Collection in
Washington, as well as recitals in Indianapolis, New York, Philadelphia, France
and Italy. He has been soloist with the symphonies of Rochester, Oakland,
Sacramento, Newark, Lehigh Valley, Trenton, among many others. Mr. Erickson has
also releases a number of CD's.
Mr. Erickson attended the
Juilliard School of Music and received a Bachelor's Degree with Honors from
Indiana University and his Master's Degree from Yale University. Since 1988, he
has resided in the Philadelphia area. In addition to a busy performing and teaching
schedule, he also performs for the benefit of local charities.
IN MEMORIAM
CHARLES P. ELTERICH, trumpet
player for many years in the Ambler Symphony Orchestra and a faithful
benefactor in the financial support of the orchestra, died on December 21,
2003.
Mr. Elterich was a graduate
of West Pittston High School and the Wharton School of the University of
Pennsylvania. He was an industrial engineer with the FMC Enclosed Drive
Division at the time of his retirement in 1973, and had previously been
personnel manager at Keasbey and Mattison Company in Ambler.
A member of the First
Presbyterian Church, Ambler, he served as choir director, church schoolteacher
and treasurer for 52 years at the First Presbyterian Church, Kensington. He
conducted the LuLu Temple Concert Band, was a member of the Old Comrades
Concert Band and the VFW Post Band in Glenside in addition to many years
playing trumpet with the Ambler Symphony. He was also the first president of
SAGA, and a board member of the University of
Pennsylvania Alumni Club.
Mr. Elterich is survived by
a daughter, Louise of Ambler and two sons, Richard of Bethlehem and John of
Illinois, and five grandchildren.
THOMAS W. OAKES, JR. of Blue
Bell, died on November 29, 2003. While not a formal member of the Board of
Directors, Tom gave many hours stuffing envelopes, serving as ticket seller at
the door on concert nights, contributing financially, and helping out with the
work of the orchestra whenever he could. Most importantly, he made it possible
for his wife of forty years, Marie, to play the violin in the orchestra and to
serve on the Board of Directors.
Mr. Oakes was a graduate of
St. Joseph's Preparatory School and St. Joseph's University, Philadelphia,
where he received a degree in mathematics. He also earned a master's degree in
mathematics from Temple University. He was employed as an engineer by General
Electric and Lockheed-Martin for thirty-one years.
Mr. Oakes is survived by his
wife, Marie, and nine children, three boys and six girls, and eight
grandchildren.
DR. EDWARD L. STANLEY of
Keene Valley, formerly of Gwynedd Valley, died on August 26, 2003. He supported
the Ambler Symphony Orchestra in his will in appreciation of the music
presented to this community.
Dr. Stanley attended
Montclair Academy, New Jersey, and Princeton University where he was elected to
Phi Beta Kappa. He also received a doctorate in chemistry from Princeton. He
worked for Rohm and Haas Co. as a research chemist and in foreign operations in
the Far East. He ended his career as an independent consultant on
environmentally sound energy sources.
He was a member of the
Church of the Messiah in Gwynedd, the Wissahickon Valley Watershed Association,
the Adirondacks Mountain Club, and the Princeton Club of New York.
Dr. Stanley is survived by
his wife, Alice, one brother and three sisters, two sons and four
grandchildren.