UNCG Symphony Orchestra
Robert Gutter, conductor
Jaemi Loeb, assistant conductor
Violin I
Frederic St. Pierre,
concertmaster
LaTannia Ellerbe,
assistant concertmaster
Kwanghee Park
Michael Cummings
Elizabeth Malcolm
Will Selle
Laura Doyle
Shina Neo
Shelley Blalock
Beth Zimmerman
Amy Blackwood
Violin II
Katie Costello,
principal
Emily Arnold,
assistant principal
Holly Ross
Jared Matthews
Holly Sitton
Andrew Liggett
Justin Ivey
Amy Johnson
Ashley Brown
Nicole Phillips
Greg Peterson
Viola
Eric Koontz,
principal
Noah Hock,
assistant principal
Sara Bursey
Patrick Scully
John Ward
Susannah Plaster
Frances Schaeffer
Joseph Driggars
Chrissy Fuchs
Amber Autry
Caitie Leming
Anne Marie Wittmann
Violoncello
Hilary Vaden,
principal
Brian Hodges,
assistant principal
Joel Wenger
Deborah Shields
Michael Way
Brian Carter
Jon Benson
Paul Stern
Rebecca Wade
Austin Cline
Sarah Dorsey
Double Bass
Rebecca Marland,
principal
Paul Quast,
assistant principal
Patrick Byrd
Di Wang
Andrew Hawks
Emily Manansala
Stephen Jackson
Mike Ditrolio
Flute
Allison Flores, principal
Elizabeth Yackley
Heather Meredith, piccolo
Oboe
Thomas Pappas, principal
Elizabeth Staff
Clarinet
Soo Goh, co-principal
Kelly Smith
Bassoon
Becky Hammontree, principal
Carol Lowe
Horn
Mary Pritchett, principal
Tara Cates
Kelly Dunn
Julie Price
Trumpet
Mark Hibshman, principal
Scott Toth
Luke Boudreault
Trombone
Sean Devlin, principal
Frank Beaty
Bass Trombone
Chris Cline
Tuba
Matt Higgins, principal
Harp
Bonnie Bach
Organ
William Carroll
Percussion
Robert Rocha, principal
Michael Haldeman
Braxton Sherouse
Sara Mecum
Librarians
Jaemi Loeb
Joel Wenger
University Symphony Orchestra
and Men’s Chorus
Robert Gutter, conductor
Robert Bracey, tenor
Wednesday, October 20, 2004
7:30 pm
Aycock Auditorium
Program
A Faust Symphony Franz Liszt
Greensboro premiere performance (1811-1886)
I. FAUST
Lento assai — Allegro impetuoso — Affettuoso poco andante — Allegro con fuoco
II. GRETCHEN
Andante soave
III. MEPHISTOPHELES
Allegro vivace, ironico — Allegro vivace — Andante — Allegro vivace
Mystical Chorus and Tenor Solo — Andante mistico
_____
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Gentlemen of the
Chamber Singers
Welborn Young, conductor
John Bennett
Danny Buckner
Steven Martin
Dustin Ousley
Eric Poole
Jason Wright
Gentlemen of the
University Chorale
William P. Carroll, conductor
Jonathan Blalock
Jack Callaham
Tim Cook
Jeff Danielson
Hayden Dawes
Nathan Dellinger
Michael Dougherty
Jon Douglas
Stephen Durr
Brandon Ellis
Drury Fulcher
Logan Haggard
Chris Juengel
Matt Lawing
Michael Lindsay
Dusty Lucas
Jeremy Lyall
James McClure
Geoff Montross
Andrew Oliver
Aaron Phillips
Jeff Rutledge
Neal Sharpe
Jayson Snipes
Brent Stephens
Men’s Glee Club
Eric Poole, conductor
Tenor I
Jason Blalock
Logan Haggard
Christopher Jenkins
Alex Lieberman
Dustin Ousley
Tim Rauscher
Brent Stephens
Greg Stout
Bass I
Michael Alligood
Tim Cook
Chris Critcher
Jesse Darden
Hayden Dawes
Michael Dougherty
Brian Fox
Drury Fulcher
Gordon Gantt
Eric Hope
Paul Ijames
Chris Juengel
Jonathan Kuuskowski
Jason Snipes
Tenor II
Jack Callahan
John Davis
Jeffrey Jones
Donney Owens
Nicolas Phillips
Daniel Serriff
Scott Scheffield
Nathaniel Todd
Nicolas Vaccaro
Shawn Weisner
Eric Worthington
Bass II
Alex Beard
Daniel Bryan
Stephen Durr
James Easteppe
Ben Garcia
Charles Gibson
Matt Lovett
Andrew Oliver
Lucas Ray
Neal Sharpe
Adam Thomas
Jason Wright
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, Ukraine; Catania, Italy; and most recently in Bacău, 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, Milan, Florence, 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 (MA) Symphony. In 1986 he was named "Conductor Emeritus" of that orchestra. As an instrumentalist, Gutter served as principal trombonist with the National Symphony Orchestra (Washington, DC). He holds the Bachelor and Master degrees from Yale University.
Robert Bracey, tenor, joined the School of Music faculty in 2003. He holds a BM in Music Education from Michigan State University, a MM and a DMA in Voice Performance from the University of Michigan. He previously served on the faculties at Bowling Green State University and Michigan State University. He has also taught on the voice faculty of the Michigan All-State program at the Interlochen Arts Camp for twelve summers. Dr. Bracey was awarded first place in the 2002 Oratorio Society of New York¹s International Solo Competition at Carnegie Hall. A Regional Finalist in the New York Metropolitan Opera Auditions, he also won first place in the NATS Regional Competition where he received the Jessye Norman Award for the most outstanding soloist at the competition. In 1999, he made his Detroit Symphony debut at Orchestra Hall and in 1994, his Kennedy Center debut in Washington, DC with the Choral Arts Society of Washington. Most recent highlights include performances with the Oratorio Society of New York at Carnegie Hall, Pacific Symphony (CA), Orlando Philharmonic, Choral Arts Society of Washington, ProMusica Chamber Orchestra of Columbus, Wichita Symphony, North Carolina Symphony, Duluth-Superior Symphony, Duke University Chapel Choir, Ann Arbor Symphony, and the Greater Lansing Symphony. Engagements for 2004-2005 include performances with the Telemann Chamber Orchestra in Tokyo and Osaka, Japan, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, Independence (MO) Messiah Festival, Grand Rapids Symphony, and the Boise Philharmonic. Dr. Bracey's first solo compact disc will be released by Centaur Records in 2005. The recording of English art songs also features UNCG faculty Andrew Harley, piano and Scott Rawls, viola.
The works which immediately come to mind when one thinks of the orchestral output of Franz Liszt (1811-86) are surely the symphonic poems, such as Les Préludes and Mazeppa. Most composers during the age of Romanticism who followed Beethoven strove to develop new genres of orchestral composition that could take the place of the traditional four-movement symphony. The only composers who continued with success to explore traditional stylistic possibilities along the direct line of evolution from Beethoven were Bruckner and Brahms (although one could make out a case for including Schumann, Mendelssohn, and the somewhat later Tchaikovsky and Dvořák among this coterie of traditionally minded composers). But the more familiar they became with Beethoven's music and the more conscious they were of it, the more nineteenth-century orchestral composers found the overwhelming presence of Beethoven to be an uncrossable hurdle in their path. Many composers began to explore their own individual thematic methods and structural ideals in an attempt to forge out new styles. Liszt's symphonic poems were a result of this challenge. They amount essentially to a concentration within a single-movement orchestral work of the program-music style which stood at the forefront of musical creation at this time. But, as far as Liszt himself was concerned, the Faust Symphony and the Dante Symphony were by no means works on the same plane as the symphonic poems.
It is well-known that Liszt gained the idea for composing the Faust Symphony from Berlioz; this work is indeed a "programmatic symphony" on the same level as the Symphonie fantastique. It is a moot point whether this influence was direct or indirect, but it is a fact that Liszt met Berlioz for the first time on the day before the first performance of the Symphonie fantastique, which took place on 5 December 1830 on Liszt's instigation. Despite being their first encounter, the two composers immediately recognized their mutual affinity, and spent the time enthusiastically discussing their theories of music and literature. It was on this occasion that Berlioz recommended Liszt to read Goethe's Faust (Berlioz would presumably have been referring to Part One, published in 1808; Part Two was not published until 1831.). One hardly needs to mention that Faust was an important source of musical inspiration for Berlioz. Already in his Symphonie fantastique he had used material from Goethe's masterpiece, in the movement depicting the night of the witches' sabbath (Walpurgis Night), and in 1829 he had composed the cantata Huit Scènes de Faust, Op.1, a work which was subsequently incorporated in 1846 into the dramatic legend, La Damnation de Faust, Op.24. Seeing for himself the passion which Berlioz felt for these literary works, Liszt appears to have spent a considerable time seriously studying this literature, as is clear from letters he wrote to several friends at this time. But it was not until the autumn of 1853 that Liszt began to apply his readings of Faust to the creation of a musical work.
Liszt began working seriously on the Faust Symphony in 1854. He wrote the work in a concentrated burst of activity during the summer and had virtually completed it by the autumn of that year. In its original form it appears not to have possessed the concluding chorale of the last movement and thus to have been a purely orchestral work. It was in 1857 that the work assumed its form with the final chorus employing a text taken from Part Two of Faust. But Liszt continued to revise the work thereafter, and it was in 1861 continued to revise the work thereafter, and it was in 1861 that it assumed the definitive form in which it is known today. The work was given its first performance in the second version in December 1857, exactly twenty-seven years after the premiere of Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique, during the period between 1842 and 1861 when Liszt was serving as director of court music at Weimar. The performance was given in Weimar, with Liszt himself conducting, at a concert held to celebrate the unveiling of a monument in honour of Goethe, Schiller and Wieland, the dukes of Weimar having been enthusiastic patrons of the important writers and poets who dwelled in the city. The definitive version was premiered at the Weimar Music Festival, conducted by the great Hans von Bülow, who became Liszt's son-in-law after marrying the composer's daughter, Cosima. One might mention as an aside here that Cosima married Hans von Bülow in 1857 but left him for Wagner in 1869. Bülow thereafter distanced himself from the new German school and aligned himself with the Brahmsian camp.
Liszt himself referred to this work as a set of three "character portraits" (Charakterbilder). In accordance with the characters who appear in the dramatic action, the first movement is entitled "Faust", the second movement "Gretchen", and the third movement "Mephistopheles". Liszt appears to have wanted to express the varied forms of the essential human spirit through the three characters invented by Goethe. The dramatic development present within the music is extremely intense, not only on the expressive level but also on the levels of musical language and theory, the intensity being induced by the various striking themes and their diverse musical development. We see here a presentiment of the use of leitmotifs in the manner which later came to be associated with Wagner.
1st movement: FAUST
This movement features five main themes, which indicate Faust's psychological states. Although varied in meter and tempo, structurally it is based on fairly orthodox sonata form. The first theme consists of a sequential falling chromatic figure based on four augmented triads. The mysterious sound specified as Faust's monologue is considered to be a representation of Faust's determination to unravel the enigmas of the universe. The second theme follows immediately and is based on a figure whose main constituents are a falling major seventh and a rising major third. This theme
University Choral Concert
William Carroll, conductor
Featuring the University Chorale,
Men’s and Women’s Glee Clubs, et al.
Sunday, October 31 · 3:30 pm
Aycock Auditorium
Contemporary Chamber Players
Robert Gutter, director
Music of Tann, Harbison, Larsen, and Carpenter
Monday, November 15 · 7:30 pm
Recital Hall, School of Music
performances
forthcoming represents the vacillations of Faust's emotions, and is thus treated as an important intervallic motif subject to extensive development and variation. With the entry into the fast main section, the music becomes characterized by intense motion centering on the strings, reflecting the impulsive character of the hero. The third theme is marked Allegro agitato ed appassionato. Faust's combative nature is suggested by the figure played by the violins incorporating falling semitones, but discordant tremolos appear in the low strings as if to suggest that Faust's ambitiousness is already leading him into dangerous waters. After an extensive development section has been created from this material, the fourth theme is presented in unison with extreme passion by oboes and clarinets. With its distinctive E@ Major resonance, the music here seems to symbolize Faust's heroic character, but the tonality soon disintegrates, hinting at his anguish. The ensuing section, with its alternating triple and quadruple meter, involves extensive development of the second theme. For Faust, the heroic resonance is a product not of the Beethovenian E@ Major but of the E major tonality a semitone higher. This appears in the fifth theme, marked grandioso. The development section begins with a canonical development of an augmented figure from the first theme presented by tenor trombones and trumpets, The rapid movement within the third theme is here combined simultaneously with the string section. The recapitulation begins with the literal reappearance of the opening part of the movement. But the impulsive figure does not reappear, and there follows a section in which the failing seventh theme is augmented to appear again in unison on clarinets and bassoons. This recapitulation takes on the character of a second development section, which gradually builds up to a large-scale climax.
2nd movement: GRETCHEN
This Andante soave slow movement moves forward basically in 3/4 time. However, from the central section onwards the 3/4 meter alternates with 4/4 meter either from phrase to phrase or from bar to bar. One can see here a close organic connection between the resultant 7/4 phrases and the music of the first movement. The movement begins with the presentation of a beautiful introductory theme in four-part harmony by flutes and clarinets. This highly lyrical theme forms a fine contrast with Faust's uncouthness and intensity as expressed in the first movement, while at the same time seeming gently to soothe Faust's spirit. The main theme conveying Gretchen's pure and innocent image is then sung out with consummate gentility by the solo oboe to an accompanying figure provided by the violas. The moto perpetuo line in semiquavers with its character as a kind of obbligato accompaniment and the fluid thematic line centering on conjunct motion in quavers are developed in alternation with a succession of different instruments. The slow episode presented by the violins seems to float down from the celestial regions, and is taken over by the violas. The tempo slows down and the strings, with the exception of the double basses, present a new theme marked Dolce amoroso. This theme is then repeated by the woodwinds, to express the gentility of spirit of Gretchen. The tempo accelerates slightly during the central section, which begins with the figure of Faust, represented by the falling seventh theme from the first movement. The theme, played in plaintive fashion by the horns, is supported by translucent C minor chords in the harp. The central section consists of a development of this theme. At last, to a mystical, ethereal accompaniment provided by the flutes in three-part harmony, Gretchen's theme, played first by the cellos followed by violins and violas in unison, reappears in 4/4 time in varied and augmented form. The theme based on the interval of a seventh is then developed with the meter alternating every bar between triple and quadruple time. The recapitulatory third section begins with the main theme marked Andante soave; the introductory section with which the movement began is here omitted. The harmonization is fuller than it was during the exposition-like first section. The descending seventh figure makes an occasional furtive appearance, and the Dolce amoroso theme is finally repeated.
3rd movement: MEPHISTOPHELES
This final movement, extending to as many as 798 bars, is divided into two parts, an instrumental section and a final chorus marked Andante mistico. The devil Mephistopheles does not have his own theme: the instrumental section of this last movement is based on variation and transformation of the Faust theme (from the first movement) and the Gretchen theme (from the second movement), symbolizing Mephistopheles' utterly destructive character. Initially marked Allegro vivace, ironico, the movement begins with a rising chromatic figure in the bass line played by the cellos and suggesting an ominous emanation from the nether regions together with fierce staccato chords played by the upper strings and woodwinds. This is followed by a phrase simultaneously employing three types of rhythm, and then by a characteristic example of orchestration, which seems to represent Liszt's opening ironico marking. Here, the Faust theme is handled destructively: above a succession of C# triplets played by the violins, the horns play a single quaver, whereupon the bassoons play the D a major seventh lower followed by F#. The ravaged theme gives rise to another separate motivic figure that reappears frequently as a forceful figure in dotted rhythm in the subsequent development. As stated earlier, Mephistopheles does not possess his own theme; one must recognize the infernal power suggested by the short figure in semiquavers which seems to well up from hell at the beginning of the movement. Accompanying this infernal figure, clarinets, cellos and bassoons appear to develop the augmented triad theme from the beginning of the first movement. The Mephistophelian figure in which Faust has become enmeshed metamorphoses into a descending chromatic scale and is developed with tempestuous force. The music enters a period in triple time at a slightly faster tempo (Un poco animato) to embark on a development dominated by the previously mentioned dotted-rhythm motif. While this is going on, oboes, clarinets and bassoons bring into forceful relief the dislocated first half of the falling seventh theme. The development based on this theme continues for a considerable time until the theme, now in ornamented variational form, appears in clear outline on the violas. This leads into the fugal development — one of the highlights of this last movement — whose subject incorporates the seventh figure. Irrational rhythms and phrases freely crossing bar lines are here emphasized with devastating irony. Liszt employs an innovatory developmental technique whereby the failing major seventh and the rising third are simultaneously combined as two entirely separate motifs. A general pause appears after a major climax has been reached. The infernal figure from the opening of the movement reappears and again ushers in the augmented triad theme from the beginning of the first movement. A fresh development then begins based entirely on thematic figures and material which have appeared earlier in the work. Employing diachronic and synchronic combinations of motifs in a manner quite unheard of in the canons of musical composition at this time, Liszt creates a powerful development through the ironical manipulation of traditional techniques such as inversion, retrograde motion, augmentation and diminution. Within this plethora of activity one should note that, alone, Gretchen's theme from the second movement appears retrospectively in totally unaltered form. Following the 3/4 passage devoted to Gretchen, Mephistopheles begins again to perform a Bacchanalian dance as if to indicate that he has recovered his spirits. The music with its scherzo character, dance-like and march-like by turns, develops in a surprisingly orthodox manner. The main Faust themes (the first and second themes) are treated several times during the latter half. During the slackening of tension that follows the climax, the celestial sound of flutes and arpeggiated harp figures appears. This seems to serve to usher in an allusion to Gretchen's theme, played gently in unison by horns and cellos. The music is led into the final chorus (Andante mistico) by means of a transition in which the timpani play a quiet roll on C. The orchestra, supplemented by organ, plays chords in the tonic key of C Major while the male chorus begin to sing the "mystic chorus" from Part Two, Act Five of Faust (published in 1831) to a simple recitative-like rhythm:
All that is transient, Is but reflected; All that's inadequate, Here it is perfected;
The indescribable, Here it is done; The ever-Womanly Leads us anon.
The main tonality of the chorale is gradually raised from C to E to G. The thematic figure sung by the solo tenor together with the text "The ever-Womanly . . .” retains a strong suggestion of Gretchen's theme. The orchestra reaches a big climax immediately before the repeat of the text, and we hear chorale harmonies on the winds with a distinctly Wagnerian resonance.
Notes by Akira Hirano, translated by Robin Thompson
