Overture Magazine 2019-20 BSO_Overture_Mar_Apr_final | Page 17
brought to the attention of the famous
conductor Felix Weingartner, who
introduced the work in Basle, Switzerland,
on February 26, 1935. And finally, this
gem of a symphony—with its enchanting
melodies and superb scoring—entered the
standard concert repertoire, some 80 years
after it was composed.
Movement one opens with the
wonderful verve, light-heartedness and
clarity which mark this entire work.
Already, Bizet knew instinctively how
to make an orchestra sparkle. A lilting
second theme led by the oboe momentarily
eases the music’s high energy. In the
development section, listen for atmospheric
soft horn calls; they are a harbinger of the
moody horn music Bizet will create for
his smugglers’ scene in the mountains in
Carmen’s Act III.
In the second movement, the solo oboe
reappears and offers a hauntingly exotic
theme, full of sinuous curves, that shows
Bizet’s superb talent as a melodist was
already fully formed in his first major
work. Nearly its equal is the soaring string
melody that follows; it has the ardent
singing quality that later made Don José’s
celebrated “Flower Song,” one of the
greatest of all tenor arias.
Reminiscent of Mendelssohn, movement
three is a buoyant scherzo of the lyrical,
rather than the furious, variety. Its middle
trio section is in the style of a musette, an
18 th -century French bagpipe dance. Here
the low strings provide the drone while the
woodwinds imitate the bagpipe’s keening
melody notes, playing a tune that’s a clever
variation of the scherzo’s theme.
Bizet the master melodist comes up with
three contrasting themes for his high-speed
finale: first a virtuoso fiddling romp, then
a perky march for the woodwinds and
finally a charmingly sentimental melody
for the violins. This infectious movement
rolls merrily to its close with a lightness
and expert pacing that belie its creator’s
extreme youth.
Peabody Symphony
Orchestra
Peabody Singers
Peabody-Hopkins
Chorus
Saturday, May 9
at 7:30 pm
Edward Polochick, conductor
Ludwig van Beethoven:
Mass in C major, Op. 86
Modest Mussorgsky:
Pictures at an Exhibition
(Tickets available April 1)
Reserve your FREE seats at
peabody.jhu.edu/events
or by calling 667-208-6620.
She
will
not
be
denied
A Celebration of
Women Composers
Donations Welcome.
May 3 // 4 p.M.
May 4 // 7:30 p.M.
Instrumentation: Two flutes, two oboes,
two clarinets, four horns, two trumpets,
Frederick Presbyterian church
timpani and strings.
Notes by Janet E. Bedell, © 2020
Free admission.
115 W. 2nd St. // Frederick, MD 21701
www.frederickchorale.org
The Frederick Chorale is supported in part by grants from the Maryland
State Arts Council, the Frederick Arts Council, the Nora Roberts Foundation,
the Ausherman Family Foundation, and the Delaplaine Foundation.
[email protected]
M A R – A P R 2020 / OV E R T U R E
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