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London Echoes: Haydn & Arnold

Sunday, February 4, 2024, 3:00 p.m.
Gershwin Performing Arts Center | Murrieta Mesa High School

Today’s Program

Malcolm Arnold (1921 – 2006)

Sinfonietta No. 1, Op. 48 (1954)

1. Allegro comodo
2. Allegretto
3. Allegro con brio

Sally Beamish (b. 1956)

Hover (2018)

Franz Joseph Haydn (1732 – 1809)

Concerto in D Major for Cello and Orchestra

1. Allegro moderato
2. Adagio
3. Allegro

Andrew Hayhurst, cello

INTERMISSION

Franz Joseph Haydn

Symphony No. 95 in C Minor

1. Allegro moderato
2. Andante cantabile
3. Menuetto. Trio.
4. Finale. Vivace.

Thanks to the Murrieta Valley Unified School District for their support of this concert.

About our Soloist

Cellist Andrew Hayhurst holds Bachelor’s degrees in Cello Performance and Performing Arts Technology from the University of Michigan where he received a full merit scholarship and graduated with highest honors. He earned his Master of Music in 2013 from the Yale School of Music.

After graduating from Yale, Mr. Hayhurst performed regularly with the Los Angeles Opera and Los Angeles Philharmonic, including their 2015 Asia tour with Gustavo Dudamel. He also recorded in many of Hollywood’s major studios and was the Associate Principal Cello of the San Bernardino Symphony. Andrew Hayhurst joined the San Diego Symphony Orchestra in 2015.

As a chamber musician Mr. Hayhurst has collaborated with members of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and he has been coached by members of the Tokyo, Juilliard, Concord and Emerson Quartets. While at the University of Michigan he formed a piano trio that won the Midwest and Michigan MTNA Chamber Music Competitions in 2010. He has participated in the Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival, the Geneva Music Festival and the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival.

Mr. Hayhurst has performed over National Public Radio and on Los Angeles’s KMozart. He has been awarded scholarships from the Colburn School of Performing Arts and the Santa Barbara Fé Bland Foundation. His primary teachers have been Richard Aaron, Robert deMaine, Aldo Parisot and Richard Naill.

About Our Artistic Director and Conductor

Members of the California Chamber Orchestra

California Chamber Orchestra musicians in this concert are members of The American Federation of Musicians, Local 325

Program Notes

English composer Sir Malcolm Arnold (1921-2006) entered the Royal College of Music at age 16, studying trumpet with Ernest Hall and composition with Gordon Jacob. At age 20, he was named Principal Trumpet of the London Philharmonic, a post he held for 7 years. Though he was considered one of the great trumpeters of the time, his desire to compose required his full attention. By age 30, he worked exclusively as a composer. Arnold is often included with fellow composers William Walton and Benjamin Britten and is considered among the most influential British composers of the 20^th century.

Malcolm Arnold’s Sinfonietta No. 1, composed in 1954, is a three-movement work inspired by the 18th-century divertimento and commissioned by the London-based Neel Boyd Orchestra. Showcasing the composer’s mastery of orchestration and distinctive melodic style, this Sinfonietta is a joyful exploration of rhythm and color, with lively themes and rhythmic vitality that capture the spirit of mid-20th-century British music.

Sally Beamish (b. 1956) is an award-winning English composer and violist. Born in London, Beamish began her music career as a violist with Academy of St Martin in the Fields, London Sinfonietta, and others. Her work in composition has led to many accolades. She was appointed a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2015 and the Royal Swedish Academy in 2022. In 2018, she won the Award for Inspiration at the British Composer Awards, and in 2020, she was
awarded an OBE in the Queen’s birthday honors.

Her composition Hover, composed in 2018, explores the delicate balance between stasis and movement. It was a commission by The Academy of St Martin in the Fields and received its premiere performance in February 2019. About her piece, Beamish writes,

 “The piece was initially inspired by Gerald Manley Hopkins’ poem The Windhover, which depicts a falcon wheeling and gliding in the morning air… Hover portrays anticipation and exhilaration as well as melancholy, and is also a response to the beauty and destructiveness of nature.

 The piece opens on solo oboe, as if coming from a distance. The two oboes then interlace, hovering above a static string texture. The mood settles into a stillness, out of which emerges the Celtic-inspired lullaby, introduced by the solo viola, which then duets with the oboe.  The fiery images which dominate the second part of the poem are depicted by horn flourishes, which stir the music into an unsettled passion. A brief calm follows, which is subverted by the downward swooping – almost violent – string passages. The threatening mood is resolved by a return of the lullaby, combined with the opening hovering theme. A coda marked ‘misterioso’ concludes the piece, with joyous horn interjections.”

Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) is remembered as the “father of the symphony.” For many decades of his career, he worked for the Esterhazy family.  This wealthy and influential family employed Haydn as their Kapellmeister (leader and house-composer of their orchestra). Haydn and the orchestra would travel with the family to their two castles and perform original music (composed by Haydn) weekly.

Scholars believe that Haydn’s Cello Concerto in D Major was written for the cellist Anton Kraft, a member of the Esterhazy orchestra, and premiered around 1783. As Haydn biographer H.C. Robbins Landon writes, “the ’cello part was certainly ‘tailor-made’ for Kraft, and all those brilliant technical effects . . .  show that this is a typical eighteenth-century attempt on the part of the composer to display the talents, tone, and musicianship of his soloist.”

The concerto is in three movements. The first movement, Allegro moderato, begins with a lovely theme first played by the orchestra and followed by the solo cello. The cello embellishes and flourishes throughout the movement, requiring virtuosic technique.

The second movement is slow and highlights the gentle, cantabile side of the solo cello. This is a moment of music to savor and enjoy.

The third movement is jovial, light, and dance-like. The movement is in a rondo form, meaning the main theme recurs, interspersed by new thematic material. In grand concerto style, Haydn writes double stops and octaves for the soloist and closes the concerto with a thrilling finish.

Haydn was the creator of the symphony as a musical format. Through his immense composing–and perhaps due to practical reasons–Haydn needed a system for his large ensemble pieces. What began as general multi-movement large ensemble pieces became codified works with four distinct movements: the opening in sonata-allegro form, the second a slow movement, the third a trio and minuet form, and the fourth a fast finale. By creating and using this format for his music, Haydn’s work created a whole new world for classical composers, leading directly to the symphonic writing of Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, and many others.

Toward the later years of Haydn’s career, he twice received permission from the Esterhazy family to travel to London, where he composed his final symphonies (numbers 93-104). These pieces of music, nicknamed the London Symphonies, are masterful works of genius.

One of Haydn’s renowned London Symphonies, Symphony No. 95 in C minor, premiered in April 1791. This dramatic work opens with a striking Sturm und Drang (storm and stress) intensity; the symphony traverses a rich landscape of emotions. Haydn’s mastery of form and orchestration is on full display, making this symphony a compelling journey through the classical era’s expressive possibilities.

The symphony is in four movements, each with its uniqueness. After the first movement’s back and forth between C minor and major, the second movement is all charm. This second movement is slow and contains three variations, the first of which highlights the orchestra cello. The third movement is a traditional minuet and trio, though Haydn makes it seem so easy. The principal cellist in the orchestra gets a big moment in the trio section, as it embellishes and plays against the accompanying pizzicato strings. The final movement is an exciting finish to this classic symphony by the masterful Haydn.

— Dana Zimbric

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Portrait of a Heavenly Life: Mahler

Sunday, November 19, 2023, 3:00 p.m.
Gershwin Performing Arts Center | Murrieta Mesa High School

Today’s Program

Gustav Mahler (1860 – 1911)

Symphony No. 4 in G Major
Tasha Koontz, soprano soloist

1. Bedächtig, nicht eilen (deliberate, unhurried)
2. In gemächlicher Bewegung, ohne Hast (in measured tempo, unhurried)
3. Ruhevoll,poco adagio (calm, somewhat slowly)
4. Sehr behaglich (at ease)

This afternoon’s concert will be performed without an intermission.

Thanks to the Murrieta Valley Unified School District for their support of this concert.

About our Soloist

Native Hawaiian soprano Tasha Hokuao Koontz has lent her “accurate, powerful voice” (Broadway World) to a gallery of leading operatic ladies and has been recognized by Parterre Box for her “sumptuous, gleaming lyric instrument” and by Opera Wire for her “secure silvery high notes.”

In 2024, Tasha will make her South America debut singing the title role of Tosca with Opera Nacional de Chile. In the same year, she returns to San Diego Opera as Donna Anna in Don Giovanni.

In 2023, Tasha joined San Diego Opera to perform the roles of Nella in Gianni Schicchi and Suor Genovieffa in Suor Angelica. A company favorite, Koontz debuted with San Diego Opera as Annina in La Traviata in 2017, and subsequently performed the roles of Edith in Pirates of Penzance, Frasquita in Carmen and High Priestess in Aïda, and covered the role of Mimì in La Bohème sung by Ana Maria Martinez. She also sang the role of Catrina in a 2019 workshop performance of El último sueño de Frida y Diego, written by Pulitzer Prize- winning playwright Nilo Cruz and Latin GRAMMY® Award-winning composer Gabriela Lena Frank. Ms. Koontz subsequently originated the role of Frida Image 1 in the world premiere performances of Frank’s opera in 2022. In San Diego Opera’s 2021 concert entitled, “One Amazing Night,” Koontz “wowed with a knockout performance” (San Diego Union Tribune).

Other 2023 performances include a debut with the Camarada Chamber Ensemble singing Brahms Op.91 Zwei Gesänge and Bach Cantata BWV 209, the Brahms Requiem with the La Jolla Symphony & Chorus, the Rachmaninov Vocalise and Poulenc Gloria with the Helena Symphony, and the world premiere of a two person chamber opera, Her New Home, written by composer Polina Nazaykinskaya and librettist Konstanin Soukhovetski with the prestigious Garth Newel Piano Quartet at the Garth Newel Summer Festival. Ms.Koontz will also return to the Del Mar International Composers’ Symposium in August to continue to bring new music to life with up and coming composers.

Ms. Koontz earned her master’s degree in music from the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, where she studied with acclaimed soprano Carol Vaness, and received her bachelor’s degree in music from Northwestern University.

About Our Artistic Director and Conductor

Members of the California Chamber Orchestra

California Chamber Orchestra musicians in this concert are members of The American Federation of Musicians, Local 325

Program Notes

Austrian composer Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) wrote his Fourth Symphony in August 1900, amidst a busy symphonic and opera conducting career. Compared to Mahler’s other six symphonies, the 4^th is lighter in style, with neoclassical attributes. Though Mahler’s core compositional style is steeped in Romanticism and tonal color, the 4^th Symphony has more similarity with Mozart or Haydn than with composers like Brahms or Wagner.

The 4^th symphony is considered by many Mahler historians to be an exploration of child-like emotions and experiences. Mahler is known to have had a difficult childhood – he grew up in a household with an abusive father; sickness and death were rampant among his 13 siblings. Mahler never lost touch with his artistic inner child and worked through this childlike lens when composing his 4^th symphony.

The first movement immediately transports the listener into a fairy tale setting. Mahler chooses rhythmic sleigh bells that evoke the feeling of traveling by horse-drawn carriage into a magical setting. The melody played by the first violin is hopeful and joyful, answered by a playful clarinet. The movement is filled with moments of musical jokes and has a lively feel.

The second movement takes a much darker turn. Here, Mahler explores the raw emotion of fear. Mahler’s wife, Alma, said Arnold Böcklin’s work entitled Self-Portrait with Death Playing the Fiddle (1872) inspired this second movement. In the portrait, the artist is shown with the violin-playing skeleton of Death lurking over his shoulder and whispering into the artist’s ear. Mahler portrayed violin-playing Death via the Concertmaster’s instrument. Mahler calls for the Concertmaster to have a second violin with scordatura tuning, meaning the strings are tuned very sharp. This gives the violin a scary, haunting, other-worldly sound. During the movement, the Concertmaster switches between their two violins. The music is in a quick three, suggesting a spooky dance with Death.

The third movement starkly contrasts the prior dark music and is celebrated as one of the most beautiful slow movements Mahler ever composed. The movement begins with a heartbeat rhythm and a gorgeous melody played by the cello. Mahler depicts divine love throughout this music. Mahler takes his time in this movement, which lasts nearly 20 minutes. As the movement concludes, Mahler’s score indicates that the gates of heaven open.

According to Mahler, the fourth and final movement is a peek into heaven. It features a soprano soloist who sings a setting of “The Heavenly Life” from The Youth’s Magic Horn, a collection of German folk songs and poems published between 1805 and 1808. The text depicts a childlike angel describing paradise in heaven, where food is plentiful, and music is more beautiful than on Earth. Mahler is careful to say that the song should not be presented as a parody, but in an honest manner. In Mahler’s mind, no one would know heaven better than a child.

This chamber version of Mahler’s 4^th Symphony was transcribed in 1921 by conductor, composer, and music teacher Erwin Stein (1885-1958) under his mentor Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951). Schoenberg and other composers (including Stein, Berg, and Webern) formed an exclusive concert series in Vienna between 1919 and 1921. The concerts were open to members only and explicitly forbade critics (they even posted a sign on the door: ‘Critics forbidden entry.’) The goal of the Society for Private Musical Performances was to perform works by composers from Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) to the present (1919-21) without the worry of ‘old-fashioned’ audiences disapproving of the work, or music critics publishing scathing reviews of the new music. The Society existed to promote new music in a safe, non-judgmental environment, so much in fact, that applause of any kind was also not permitted. No printed programs were created, and the musical selections were not announced until the concert began.

During its few years of existence, the Society held 353 performances. Many of the works in these performances had first to be transcribed for smaller ensembles; the post-WWI economy demanded it. Mahler’s 4^th Symphony was one of the many pieces Schoenberg and his colleagues transcribed for smaller ensemble and performed during an exclusive Society concert.

— Dana Zimbric

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