September 24, 2022 — Records

Saturday, September 24, 2022, 7:30 p.m.
Gershwin Performing Arts Center | Murrieta Mesa High School

Tonight’s Program

Jessie Montgomery (b. 1981)

Records from a Vanishing City

Strum

INTERMISSION

Ludwig Van Beethoven (1770 – 1827)

Symphony No. 4 in B Flat Major

1. Adagio – Allegro vivace
2. Adagio
3. Scherzo-trio: Allegro vivace
4. Allegro ma non troppo

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

Concession sales this evening benefit the Murrieta Educational Foundation for the Arts.

Members of the California Chamber Orchestra

All musicians performing in this concert are members of
The American Federation of Musicians, Local 325

Program Notes

The California Chamber Orchestra 2022-23 concert season opens with Records, a concert inspired by the records of past and present. The concert features two composers: Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) and Jessie Montgomery (b.1981).

Strum 

Strum is the culminating result of several versions of a string quartet I wrote in 2006. It was originally written for the Providence String Quartet and guests of Community MusicWorks Players then arranged for string quartet in 2008 with several small revisions. In 2012 the piece underwent its final revisions with a rewrite of both introduction and ending for the Catalyst Quartet in a performance celebrating the 15 annual Sphinx Competition. The string orchestra arrangement represents the 2012 final version.

Originally conceived for the formation of a cello quintet, the voicing is often spread wide over the ensemble, giving the music an expansive quality of sound. Within Strum I utilized texture motives, layers of rhythmic or harmonic ostinato that string together to form a bed of sound for melodies to weave in and out. The strumming pizzicato serves as a texture motive and the primary driving rhythmic underpinning of the piece. Drawing on American folk idioms and the spirit of dance and movement, the piece has a kind of narrative that begins with fleeting nostalgia and transforms into ecstatic celebration.

Beethoven, Symphony No. 4 in B-flat Major, Op. 60

Beethoven c. 1805

People familiar with Beethoven’s Symphonies may be less familiar with his Fourth symphony. It never quite caught on like some of his other works– Symphony No. 5 (da-da-da-DUM), Symphony No. 6 (“Pastorale”), or Symphony No. 9 (“Choral”).

Symphony No. 4 highlights Beethoven’s compositional creativity and illustrates his desire to push the classical music envelope. We now look back on Beethoven’s body of work and see a composer prefacing the Romantic period, leading us through history to the music of Brahms and Mahler. Beethoven could not predict who or what would come after his music. He only knew what had come before (Haydn, Mozart), and where he personally wanted to go.

Beethoven also expands the traditional Minuet and Trio form in the third movement. He adds a second reprise of the Trio and main theme, extending the movement. Other composers (Haydn, Mozart, Schubert) were fairly strict about the musical roadmap of the third movement. Beethoven expands on the Minuet-Trio concept, which he takes even further by adding a fifth movement to his Symphony No. 6.

A final note about Beethoven’s Symphony No. 4: It was written in a time when aristocratic audiences had deep cultural knowledge of classical symphonic music. They also would have been familiar with Euro-centric folk music traditions, and likely also the music of Beethoven’s earlier works (and those of his predecessors).  His audiences would have noted the fresh timpani passages and expanded Minuet-Trio. They would have recognized the folk music snippets Beethoven includes in his music and appreciated his clever changes.

Much like today’s audiences may easily recognize musical quotes of Miles Davis or Gershwin in Montgomery’s Records from a Vanishing City, Beethoven’s audiences would have been thrilled to hear familiar musical snippets presented in clever ways.

— Dana Zimbric

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