Overture Magazine - 2018-19 Season BSO_Overture_MAR_APR | Page 30

CIRQUE GOES HOLLYWOOD
Instrumentation: Two flutes, two oboes,
MUSIC CENTER AT STRATHMORE
Thursday, April 4, 2019, 8 pm
JOSEPH MEYERHOFF SYMPHONY HALL
Friday, April 5, 2019, 8 pm
Saturday, April 6, 2019, 8 pm
Sunday, April 7, 2019, 3 pm
Jack Everly, conductor
Troupe Vertigo
Selections to be announced from stage.
The concert will end approximately at 10 pm on Thursday, Friday
and Saturday and 5 pm on Sunday.
PRESENTING SPONSORS:
SUPPORTING SPONSOR:
About the Artists
Jack Everly
For Jack Everly’s bio, please see pg. 10
Troupe Vertigo
Fusing together elements of cirque
acrobatics, classical dance and
contemporary theater, Troupe Vertigo
brings audiences on a spellbinding
journey through the world of artistic
movement. Consisting of world-class
aerial artists, contortionists and ballet
dancers, Los Angeles-based Troupe
Vertigo was founded in 2009 by Artistic
Director Aloysia Gavre, formerly of
the internationally renowned Cirque
du Soleil, and Technical Director Rex
Camphuis, whose background is with
the fabled Pickle Family Circus. The
ensemble premiered its first offering,
Although that searing opening
theme in the orchestra seems to cry
out for the piano, we have to wait for
the soloist’s first appearance, which
is unexpectedly subdued and self-
effacing. Eventually, he attacks the
principal theme’s descending trills
before launching the lyrical second
theme: a noble hymn-like melody in
rich chords. Meditative and defiant
moods alternate in this massive sonata-
form movement. Brahms finds a new
way to intensify the heroic struggle of
his principal theme when it returns for
the recapitulation section: while the
orchestra thunders the home key of
D minor, the piano laces into the
theme in clashing E major.
If movement one exudes the
strength and virility of youth, the
second movement is music of a man
old and wise beyond his years. The
mood is now hushed, reflective, with
an almost religious serenity. Donald
Francis Tovey called it “a Requiem
for Schumann”; in an early edition of
the score, Brahms inscribed the words
from the Latin Mass, “Benedictus qui
venit in nomine Domini” (“Blessed is
he/she who comes in the name of the
Lord”) — his nickname for Schumann
had been “Mynheer Domini.” But at
the end of 1856, Brahms wrote to his
beloved Clara: “I am also painting a
gentle portrait of you, which shall...
be the Adagio.” Midway through,
clarinets introduce a fleeting moment
of passion.
In the finale, we return to the world
of heroic strife. Springing from a bold
syncopation, the pianist’s refrain theme
has sharply accented rhythms and a virile
upward-sweeping melodic profile. For
the episodes, Brahms spins off two clones
of this melody: first a noble version with
a prominent ascending triplet for the
piano, later a lusciously Romantic and
flowing version for the violins.
Big Top for a New Generation, in 2010
and has gone on to present Nighthawks: A
Film Noir Circus, inspired by American
jazz, Edward Hopper paintings and crime
novels. 2016 brought Tableaux to life at
the Bootleg Theater in Los Angeles. For
the symphonic stages, Troupe Vertigo
has created custom programs for major
orchestras, recently presenting Cirque Goes
to the Movies with the Philly Pops and
Cirque Goes Broadway with conductor
Jack Everly and the Indianapolis
Symphony Orchestra. Husband and wife
team Gavre and Camphuis frequently
bring their gifts and knowledge to the
film and television industry.
Recent highlights include working with
Rebel Wilson in Pitch Perfect 2 and with
Reese Witherspoon and Christoph Waltz
in Water for Elephants. Future offerings,
Cirque Dances, Cirque Carnaval, Cirque
Fantasy, Cirque Fairy Tales and Cirque
Romance, are in development now. Troupe
Vertigo also has a training program and
school in Los Angeles where “Anybody
with Any Body” can explore the wonders
of the circus craft.
two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns,
two trumpets, timpani and strings.
Troupe Vertigo last appeared with the
BSO in December 2018, performing Cirque
Notes by Janet E. Bedell, © 2019
28
OV E R T U R E / BSOmusic.org
Nutcracker, Nicholas Hersh, conductor.