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program notes
Erica Abbey Photography began studying the cello at the age of 8 and was the top prize winner at the 2002 Tchaikovsky Competition , in addition to being awarded the Special Prize for his interpretation of the Rococo Variations .
Johannes Moser last appeared with the BSO in October 2013 , performing Tchaikovsky ’ s Variations on a Rococo Theme , Jun Märkl , conductor .
About the concert :
Dancin ’ Blue Crabs !
Jonathan Leshnoff
Leshnoff born in New Brunswick , NJ ., 1973 .
Composer ’ s statement : Composing music can be a long process but always begins with one source of inspiration . Creating Dancin ’ Blue Crabs ! for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra ’ s Centennial composition project was a challenging , unique task that began with a list of audience suggestions . Looking through 190 suggestions was … interesting … to say the least . I was one step away before giving up , until I got suggestion # 154 . Three short words that read : “ Dancin ’ blue crabs !” This suggestion was accompanied by a brief explanation : “ a dance that sounds the way we might see crabs moving .” Being the nice Jewish boy I am , my experience with crabs is quite limited . Did blue crabs dance ?
Jonathan Leshnoff
Shortly after I read this audience suggestion , someone showed me a video of a blue crab dancing . The video was so funny that it instantly became the inspiration for the composition . My experience watching the blue crabs dancing is portrayed in this fun , short piece that increases the solo contrabassoon repertoire by 100 percent ! Its dedication reads , “ Happy 100 , hon .”
Instrumentation : Three flutes including piccolo , three oboes including English horn , three clarinets , including E-flat and bass clarinet , two bassoons , contrabassoon , four horns , three trumpets , three trombones , tuba , timpani , percussion , strings .
Symphony No . 1
Samuel Barber
Born in West Chester , Pennsylvania , March 9 , 1910 ; died in New York City , January 23 , 1981
Only 25 when he wrote his First Symphony , Samuel Barber was a recent graduate of Philadelphia ’ s Curtis Institute of Music where , even as a student , he had attracted the attention of major musical leaders . In 1935 , he won the Prix de Rome , which sent him to the Italian capital as , in the jury ’ s words , “ the most talented and deserving student of music in America .” Before crossing the Atlantic , he began his First Symphony while vacationing on the Maine coast that summer ; he completed it in Rome and France early in 1936 .
The Symphony was the most ambitious work he ’ d yet tackled , but it showed that Barber was already a master of formal symphonic construction and of the various orchestral instruments , individually and collectively . It also displayed the gift for writing memorable , highly expressive themes that would fill his music from the Adagio for Strings to his Pulitzer Prizewinning opera Vanessa .
With all these qualities , the Symphony did not have to wait long for recognition . Premiered in Rome in December 1936 , it hit the international circuit when the respected conductor Artur Rodzinski led its American premiere with The Cleveland Orchestra on January 21 , 1937 , then took it to Carnegie Hall in March , and the Salzburg Festival with the Vienna Philharmonic in July . There Arturo Toscanini was so impressed he asked Barber for a new work to be introduced on his national radio broadcasts with the NBC Symphony in 1938 . Those performances of the Adagio for Strings and the First Essay for Orchestra made Barber a household name in America , a remarkable odyssey for a composer not yet 30 years of age .
Cast in one movement like Sibelius ’ Seventh Symphony ( somewhat of a formal model for Barber ), the Symphony nevertheless encapsulates the feeling of four movements . It is built from three themes , all presented within the first two minutes of its “ first movement ” opening section . Heralded by brass , the work opens dramatically with a bold , upward-leaping melody ( the principal theme ) proclaimed by all the strings . Totally different in character is the quieter , more introspective second theme , a meandering melody introduced in the cloudy , melancholy colors of English horn and violas . After a passage of scurrying string music , drama returns for the third theme , a twisting idea forcefully stated by strings and woodwinds . These themes are developed in music of intriguing delicacy and subtlety that gradually builds to a fierce climax and closes in a brash downward slide .
Now the tempo accelerates , and Barber transforms his dramatic principal theme into a scampering fugue subject for a scherzo section . Full of zesty rhythmic play , this music wittily challenges all the orchestra ’ s instruments . As it flickers out in the bassoon , the solo oboe — one of Barber ’ s favorite instruments — launches a haunting “ slow movement ” over a haze of strings ; its poignant melody is derived from the introspective second theme . The strings , assisted by brass , carry this music to a passionate climax .
From the silence that follows , the cellos and basses begin a repeating passacaglia pattern ; grave and stately , it is a stretchedout fragment of the principal theme . As this finale music crests , we hear again the twisting third theme soaring in the strings and striving powerfully against the principal theme in the brass . In just
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