AZALEA FESTIVAL POPS -

MARCH 29, 2020

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The afternoon’s concert is inspired by the format of the Boston Pops concerts- part of the program
devoted to light classical pieces and the rest to popular tunes, movie scores, and Broadway excerpts.
 
The classical half gallops off with the “Allegro vivace” section of Rossini’s Overture to  William
Tell.  Listeners who only heard this work in the background on a tinny radio speaker missed how
exciting it is to hear in live performance, with the entire string section punching out the horse-hoof
rhythms using a special bow-stroke called ricochet.
 
Dvořák’s Slavonic Dances were originally written as piano duets, a kind of 19th-Century popular music
to be enjoyed at home. There are no actual quotations from folk dances, but the rhythmic and melodic
character of Slavic folk music is captured in colorful orchestrations. Johannes Brahms was a great
supporter of the younger composer and admired Dvořák’s ability to spin out tunes that were both
sophisticated and effortless.
 
Maeterlinck’s play Pelléas et Mélisande inspired quite a few composers, including Debussy, Schönberg,
and Sibelius. The familiar “Sicilienne” is from incidental music that Fauré wrote for a London
production of the play.
 
Concluding the first half of the concert is the premiere performance of  Azalea Suite, commissioned by
the 2020 North Carolina Azalea Festival. Although no actual title or subject matter was suggested by
the Festival, it seemed a natural thing for me to write a multi-movement piece representing the character
of a number of Azalea varieties. I perched color photographs of the chosen blooms on my music rack
and decided on an adjective describing each (these are parenthetically listed in the program next to each
movement title). The final movement is inspired by walking into an azalea garden, where the profusion
and variety of color can be breathtaking. My musical garden consists mostly of a collage of themes
from the previous movements.
 
The “pops” half of the program begins with a tribute to Louis Armstrong, followed by a PBS series
theme and an unforgettable film score excerpt by John Williams. After a special performance of
Sousa’s The Stars and Stripes Forever, we end with a built-in encore in the form of Leonard Bernstein’s
Overture to Candide.
 
BANQUET OF BAROQUE -
MARCH 14, 2020
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Concerto Grosso in D Major, Op. 6, No. 7

Arcangelo Corelli (1653 - 1718)
One of the joys of performing an all-Baroque program is that despite a shared musical language and set
of general forms, there is a lot of variety due to regional tastes as well as placement within the 150-year
Baroque period. Corelli’s music, from the middle of the period, is sunny and simple- there are rarely
more than two musical elements at a time and the rhythms perfectly suit bowed string instruments. Like
most of the works on tonight’s concert, there is both an alternation of fast and slow movements and an
emphasis on the contrast between one instrument (or a small group of instruments) and the larger
ensemble.