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 15