Season Two, Concert One

Our first concert will be on Monday, October 18, 2010 at 7 PM in Waetjen Auditorium on the campus of Cleveland State University. We are very pleased to announce that Dr. Joseph Parisi, Associate Director of Bands at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory, will be one of our guest conductor that evening and will conduct Michael Gandolfi‘s Vientos y Tangos. The principal trumpet player in the Cleveland Winds, Neil Mueller, will guest conduct The Seven Dances from “The Misfortunes of Sophie” for double woodwind quintet by Jean Francaix.

The repertoire for the rest of the concert will feature a transcription of Ravel’s La Valse by Joe Kreines and John Corigliano’s Gazebo Dances for Band.

Program Notes

La Valse – Ravel/arr. Kreines

In a letter written in 1906, Ravel spoke of plans to compose a waltz that would pay tribute to Johan Strauss and be “an apotheosis of the Viennese waltz.” He titled his rough sketch Wien: Poème Symphonique (Vienna: Symphonic Poem). By 1920, the work had evolved to its finished form and its final title:. This is no typical waltz; it is a surreal parody, an apocalyptic view of wartime Vienna, familiar to Ravel through his service as an ambulance driver during World War I.

In Ravel’s version we are meant to see, as through a mist, an imperial palace of the mid-19th century, a grand ballroom filled with dancers, a scene alive with light and colour, an “impression of a fantastic and fatal whirling.” It is a waltz with one foot planted solidly in classical waltz traditions, with the other balanced uncertainly on the shaky ground of the new, the avant-garde, the modern. Rarely performed as a ballet, it is often programmed as a concert work, the absence of visual “busyness” helping to free the palette of the mind’s eye to imagine the surrealism of Ravel’s vision. Ravel dedicated his waltz to his long-time friend Misia Sert, a woman who was held in high esteem by many influential personalities of the day. It was in her home that Ravel first performed a piano reduction of the work for Sergei Diaghilev, Igor Stravinsky, and Francis Poulenc.

– Nikk Pilato, windrep.org

Seven Dances from “The Misfortunes of Sophie - Françiax

The ballet, Les malheurs de Sophie (‘The Misfortunes of Sophie’) is loosely based on the book of the same title written by Sophie, Comtesse de Ségur. Born Sophie Rostopchine (1799-1874), her story, which is based on her own early life, depicts the misadventures of the three-year-old Sophie and her five-year-old cousin, Paul. Françiax’s ballet setting, his third following Scuola di Ballo and Beach, is divided into three tableaux, from which the composer set seven dances for double woodwind quintet. The various movements describe escapades such as the death of her new wax doll, which expires after being left carelessly in the sun, the funeral for the doll, the cooking and eating of her mother’s pet fish, and various joyous dances, the last of which includes butterfly nets.

Vientos y Tangos – Gandolfi

Vientos y Tangos (Winds and Tangos) was commissioned by The Frank Battisti 70th Birthday Commission Project and is dedicated to Grank Battisti in recognition of his immense contributions to the advancement of concert wind literature. It was Mr. Battisti’s specific request that I write a tango for wind ensemble. In preparation for the piece, I devoted several months to the study and transcription of tangos from the early style of Juan D’arienzo and the ‘Tango Neuvo’ style of Astor Piazzolla to the current trend of ‘Disco/Techno Tango,’ among others. After immersing myself in this listening experience, I simply allowed the most salient features of these various tangos to inform the direction of my work. The dynamic contour and the various instrumental combinations that I employ in the piece are all inspired by the traditional sounds of the bandoneon, violin, piano and contrabass.

– Michael Gandolfi

Michael Gandolfi was born in 1956 in Melrose, Massachusetts. He received the B.M. and M.M. degrees in composition from the New England Conservatory of Music, as well as fellowships for study at the Yale Summer School of Music and Art, the Composers Conference, and the Tanglewood Music Center. Mr. Gandolfi is the recipient of numerous awards, including grants from the Fromm Foundation, the Koussevitzky Music Foundation, the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His music has been performed by leading ensembles including the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and The President’s Own United States Marine Band. He is a faculty member of the New England Conservatory of Music and the Tanglewood Music Center.

Gazebo Dances – Corigliano

John Corigliano first conceived Gazebo Dances for piano, four hands. It did not receive its title, however, until he had arranged the piece for both orchestra and concert band in 1973. Each movement has a separate dedication: I. Overture, to Rose Corigliano and Etta Feinberg (both pianists); II. Waltz, to John Ardoin (a music critic); III. Adagio, to Heida Hermanns; IV. Tarantella, to Jack Romann and Christian Steiner.

Corigliano’s title, Gazebo Dances, is derived from the dance music played by bands in New England country towns. These groups usually play in pavilions, or gazebos, while the public listens and dances. Three of the four movements refer to traditional types of pieces both in title and in style.

– John Palmer, Rovi

The American John Corigliano continues to add to one of the richest, most unusual, and most widely celebrated bodies of work any composer has created over the last forty years. Corigliano’s numerous scores—including three symphonies and eight concerti among over one hundred chamber, vocal, choral, and orchestral works—have been performed and recorded by many of the most prominent orchestras, soloists, and chamber musicians in the world. Recent scores include Conjurer (2008), for percussion and string orchestra, commissioned for and introduced by Dame Evelyn Glennie; Concerto for Violin and Orchestra: The Red Violin (2005), developed from the themes of the score to the François Girard’s film of the same name, which won Corigliano the Oscar in 1999; Mr. Tambourine Man: Seven Poems of Bob Dylan (2000) for orchestra and amplified soprano, the recording of which was nominated for the Grammy for Best Contemporary Composition in 2008; Symphony No. 3: Circus Maximus (2004), scored simultaneously for wind orchestra and a multitude of wind ensembles; and Symphony No. 2 (2001: Pulitzer Prize in Music.) Other important scores include String Quartet (1995: Grammy Award, Best Contemporary Composition); Symphony No. 1 (1991: Grawemeyer Award); the opera The Ghosts of Versailles (Metropolitan Opera commission, 1991); and the Clarinet Concerto (1977.) One of the few living composers to have a string quartet named for him, Corigliano serves on the composition faculty at the Juilliard School of Music and holds the position of Distinguished Professor of Music at Lehman College, City University of New York, which has established a scholarship in his name; for the past fourteen years he and his partner, the composer-librettist Mark Adamo, have divided their time between Manhattan and Kent Cliffs, New York.

– From johncorigliano.com

Tickets

Tickets are $5 for adults and $2 for students.

Directions

The concert will be in Waetjen Auditorium on the campus of Cleveland State University. Directions to campus can be found here. Patrons will be able to park in the main garage, now called Central Garage, that is accessible from East 21st Street via Chester Avenue.