School of Music
U N C G
UNCG Symphony
Robert Gutter, artistic director
Andrés Milá-Prats, guest conductor
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
7:30 pm
Cone Ballroom, Elliot University Center
Program
Coriolan Overture, Op. 62 Ludwig van Beethoven
(1770-1827)
Andrés Milá-Prats, conductor
Six Pieces for Orchestra, Op. 2 (revised, 1928) Anton Webern
Langsam (1883-1945)
Bewegt
Massig
Sehr massig
Sehr langsam
Langsam
Intermission
Petrouchka, Burlesque in Four Scenes (revised, 1947) Igor Stravinsky
1. The Shrove - Tide Fair (Morning) (1882-1971)
Introduction
Danse Russe
2. In Petrouchka’s Room
3. In the Room of he Black Moor
Valse
4. The Shrove-Tide Fair (Evening)
Wet Nurses’ Dance
Peasant with Bear
Gypsies and a Rake Vendor
Dance of the Coachmen
Masqueraders
The Scuffle (The Moor and Petrouchka)
Death of Petrouchka
Police and the Juggler
Apparition of Petrouchka’s Double
Program Notes
Beethoven - Coriolan Overture
The Ancient Greek historian and biographer Plutarch tells the story of the legendary Roman
general Coriolanus, who defeated the Volscians in central Italy, southeast of Rome, and captured
their city of Corioli in 493 B.C. According to the story, Coriolanus returned victorious to Rome, but
soon after had to flee the city when charged with tyrannical conduct and opposition to the
distribution of grain to the starving plebs. He raised an army of Volscians against his own people
but turned back after entreaties of his mother and his wife. The Volscians, however, regarding
him as a traitor because of his indecisiveness, put him to death.
The inspiration for Beethoven's Coriolan Overture came neither from Plutarch nor from
Shakespeare, who made him the subject of his play Coriolanus, but from a play by Heinrich
Joseph von Collin – poet, dramatist and functionary in the Austrian Finance Ministry (Austria's
way of supporting its artists). Von Collin's play was a philosophical treatise on individual freedom
and personal responsibility. It premiered in 1802 to great acclaim, using incidental music derived
from Mozart's opera Idomineo.
Beethoven took just three weeks to compose the Overture in January 1807. It was not intended
as incidental music in the play itself. Rather, it was meant to stand on its own as a composition
inspired by the play. The Coriolan Overture was premiered in March at an all-Beethoven concert
held in the palace of Prince Lobkowitz.
The stark and dramatic music of the overture has a predominating emotional drive and is one of
Beethoven's more explosive and violent expressions. Even in the lyrical second subject, the
music stays quiet for a moment only, then quickly reverting to a fortissimo outburst. Scholars
usually assume that the music, rather than telling the story of the play, was intended as a musical
portrait of Coriolanus himself.
Webern - 6 Pieces for Orchestra
In September 1906, just two months after her son had earned the Ph.D. in musicology, Amalie
von Webern died at age 53. This tragedy proved to be one of Webern's most significant events in
his life. Webern stated that "almost all of my compositions have originated in her memory" The
Six Pieces composed in 1909, constitute Webern's most overt attempt to resolve through his art
the many conflicting emotions he had after the loss of his mother.
Writing to Berg in 1912, Webern stated that his compositions "quite decidedly had to do with
experience often down to the details." the Six Pieces are perhaps his most programmatic work. In
January 1913 in a letter to Schoenberg he described the work:" to describe briefly the character of
the pieces...The first is the expectation of a catastrophe, the second the certainty of it's fulfillment,
the third the most tender contrast, it is so to speak the introduction to the fourth, a funeral march,
the five and six pieces are an epilogue remembrance and resignation. Concerned that the
unusual large orchestration of the original limited the possibilities of performance, Webern revised
the orchestration in 1928.
Stravinsky - Petrouchka
The score was begun in Lausanne, Switzerland, in August 1910, and completed in Rome in May
of 1911. Stravinsky was 28. Petrushka opened in Paris on June 13, 1911, with Vaslav Nijinsky in
the title role. It was a smash success, with general agreement that the music, though perfectly
suited for stage action, was too ugly and coarse to survive on its own merits. Time has decisively
reversed that judgment.
The First Tableau is set in the Shrove-tide Fair in 1830's St. Petersburg, on a winter day. Crowds
of merrymakers mill about. An organ grinder competes with a music-box man. The crowd grows
more and more exuberant. Suddenly two drummers silence the crowd and a Magician appears
from behind a curtain. The impression his hocus-pocus makes on the gullible crowd is reflected in
the mysterious mutterings of the orchestra. Then the Magician plays an insipid tune on his flute,
and touches it to three puppets (Petrushka, the Ballerina and the Blackamoor) who have been
revealed from behind a curtain. To everyone's astonishment, they begin to cavort without strings
(the Russian Dance). The drums roll again, and there is a change of scene.
In the Second Tableau, the setting shifts from the real world to the fantasy world of the puppets,
all of whom have been endowed by the Magician with emotion. Petrushka feels and suffers the
most. We see him kicked into his bare, prison-like room. At this point his despondent wail, the
"Petrushka chord," is heard as an arpeggio in two clarinets. He curses and paws the walls,
hoping to escape. The door opens and the vacuous Ballerina dances in. Petrushka, ugly and
unwanted, has fallen in love with her, but she is repulsed by his grotesque antics and flees. In
despair, Petrushka hurls himself at a portrait of the Magician, but only falls through a hole in the
wall.
The Third Tableau is the luxurious room of the Blackamoor, who is lying on a divan playing with a
coconut. He performs a posturing dance. The Ballerina enters playing a trumpet, and finds the
brutal Blackamoor very romantic. The empty-headed banality of the music and of their mutual
enchantment makes the tragedy of Petrushka all the more poignant. Consumed with jealousy,
Petrushka bursts into the room, heralded by the screaming of muted trumpets, but is driven out by
the Blackamoor.
The scene returns to the festive crowd outside for the Fourth Tableau. Various dances overlap. A
peasant plays a pipe and leads a bear walking on its hind legs. At the climax of the gaiety,
Petrushka dashes from behind the curtain of the puppet theater, the Blackamoor in hot pursuit
with his scimitar. Once again the worlds of reality and fantasy have merged. There is a fatal blow,
and Petrushka falls with a broken skull (accompanied by the sound of a dropped tambourine). A
policeman arrives with the Magician, who demonstrates that Petrushka was, after all, only made
of wood and sawdust. The crowd disperses in the snowy dusk as the Magician drags off the
lifeless puppet. Suddenly Petrushka's ghost appears above the theater, taunting and threatening
(muted trumpets). The Magician drops the puppet in terror and flees into the darkness.
Petrushka is a most remarkable theater piece, for seldom has music been wedded so completely
and logically to dramatic action. The harmonic vocabulary of the work is highly complex, with the
frequent simultaneous use of clashing triads a tritone apart (the "Petrushka chord") -- very
revolutionary in 1911. While the Firebird ballet was still largely Rimskian in idiom, Petrushka is
Stravinsky's first mature work, in which his style for the first time came to fruition. It is also one of
the great musical works of the twentieth century.
Robert Gutter is currently Director of Orchestral Activities at the
University of North Carolina at Greensboro and also serves as Music
Director of the Philharmonia of Greensboro. In 1996 he received an
appointment as Principal Guest Conductor of the National Symphony
Orchestra of the Ukraine in Kiev. He is founder and artistic director
for the International Institute for Conductors which has had
workshops in Kiev,Catania, and most recently in Bacau, Romania. In
his 35 years
as a professional conductor he has devoted himself to both
professional and non-professional orchestras in over twenty five
countries and in the major cities of New York, Washington D.C.,
Paris, London, Vienna, Milano,Firenze, Stuttgart, and St. Petersburg.
In addition to his symphonic engagements, he has appeared with
opera companies both in the United States and in Europe. Prior to accepting his orchestral posts
in North Carolina in 1988, he served as Music Director and Conductor of the Springfield,
Massachusetts Symphony. In 1986 he was named "Conductor Emeritus" of that orchestra. As an
instrumentalist, Gutter served as principal trombonist with the Washington National Symphony.
He holds the bachelor and Master degrees from Yale University.
Andrés Milá-Prats was born in Buenos Aires in 1976. He
received his degree in Orchestral Conducting from the Catholic
University of Argentina where he studied Orchestral Conducting
with Guillermo Scarabino, Choral Conducting with Néstor
Andrennacci and Guillermo Opitz, and Composition with Marta
Lambertini and Julio Viera. He also participated in Master classes
with Charles Dutoit, Luis Gorelik and Sergio Feferovich, and has
conducted several Orchestras and Ensembles in Argentina and
Chile. He received a National Fellowship in Argentina for further
studies in Conducting with Bruno D’Astoli and Musical Analysis
with Federico Wiman. In addition, Andrés has carried out several
projects that included premieres of New Music from young composers. He is now pursuing a
Master’s degree in Music Performance at UNCG where he studies with Robert Gutter.
Upcoming Events
Wind Ensemble Wednesday, October 3, 7:30 Cone Ballroom, EUC
University Band Thusday, October 4, 7:30 Cone Ballroom, EUC
and Symphony Band
Pandit Satish Vyas, Friday, October 5, 7:30 Recital Hall, School of Music
Guest Artist Santoor Recital
Chamber Singers Sunday, October 7, 5:30 Recital Hall, School of Music
Jose Feghali, Tuesday, October 9, 7:30 Recital Hall, School of Music
Guest Artist Piano Recital
For tickets to any of these events, contact the Box Office at 334.4849
The Symphony
Flute
James Miller ◊
Laura Kaufman
Piccolo
Tike Douthit ◊
Oboe
Thomas Pappas ◊
Jim Davis
English Horn
Brittany Joyce ◊
B-flat Clarinet
Kelly Austermann ◊
Bryan Goddard ◊
Bass Clarinet
Jay Welborn
Bassoon
Leah Plimpton ◊
Ann Shoemaker ◊
Contrabassoon
Chris Akins
Horn
Philip Kassel ◊
Nick Lee ◊
Austin Macdonald
Alex Allred
Trumpet
Christian McIvor (Principal)
James Dickens
Clay Perry
Michael Schietzelt
Trombone
Paul Palm ◊
Scott Smith
Caleb Smith
Bass Trombone
Lawrence Evans
Bobby McFarland ◊
Tuba
Mike Robinson
Harp
Clarke Carriker
Piano
Yong Im Lee
Celesta
Pablo Gusmão
Percussion
Mathew Hill (Principal)
Lane Summerlin
Melissa Kessler
Joseph Cox
Anthony Grier
Violin 1
Allison Willet (Concert master)
Will Selle
Megan Morris
Michael Cummings
Casey Ogle
Lisa Gattuso
Annalisa Chang
Song Haein
Amy Morse
Violin 2
Andrew Liggit (Principal)
Elizabeth Cansler
Kyrsten Wicker
Derrick Foskey
Chris Thurstone
Kim Jennings
Chris Bridgman
Caleb Lackey
Veronica Allen
Viola
Nicole Peragine (Principal)
Laura Anderson
Caitie Leming
Nina Missildine
Chrissy Fuchs
Laurie Rominger
Noelle Saleh
Elizabeth Adamik
Corrie Franklin
Elizabeth Green
Patrick Parker
Amanda Huber
Violoncello
Gina Pezzoli (Principal)
Michael Way
Kevin Lowery
Megan Johnson
John Gemperdine
Jonathan Frederick
Sarah Dorsey
Contrabass
Kit Polen (principal)
Stephen Jackson
Stella Heine
Sanders Davis
Robert Dixon
Alex Young
Stewart McLemore
Librarian and Personnel Manager
Andrés Milá-Prats
◊ Co-principal
