PROGRAM NOTES
AWADAGIN PRATT RETURNS
NOTES ON THE PROGRAM
BY AARON GRAD
Hans Werner Henze
Born July 1 , 1926 in Gütersloh , Germany Died October 27 , 2012 in Dresden , Germany
“ MÄNADENTANZ ” FROM THE BASSARIDS [ 1965 ]
Hans Werner Henze came of age in Nazi Germany , an experience that instilled a lifelong hatred of fascism and an uneasy relationship with his homeland . While other composers in his generation coped by making a complete break with musical modes of the past , Henze adopted an outsider ’ s perspective : he moved to Italy , embraced the politics and activism of the far left , and composed operas , symphonies , and other works with historical ties .
The subject of Henze ’ s opera The Bassarids came at the suggestion of his librettist , the poet W . H . Auden , who collaborated with Chester Kallman to adapt an Ancient Greek tragedy by Euripides . Henze completed the one-act opera in 1965 for a performance at the next year ’ s Salzburg Festival , and he also extracted one of the most exciting scenes as a concert work for orchestra . This “ Mänadentanz ,” or “ Dance of the Maenads ,” depicts the female followers of Dionysus , the god of wine , fertility , and all unbridled passions . The name of this cult of priestesses came from the Greek word for “ raving ” or “ demented ,” and Henze ’ s dance music captures their ecstatic frenzy .
Instrumentation Four flutes including two piccolos and alto flute , four oboes including two English horns , five clarinets including E-flat clarinet and bass clarinet , alto saxophone , three bassoons , contrabassoon , six horns , four trumpets , three trombones , two tubas , timpani , percussion , two harps , celesta , two pianos , and strings .
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Born January 27 , 1756 in Salzburg , Austria Died December 5 , 1791 in Vienna , Austria
SYMPHONY NO . 39 IN E-FLAT MAJOR , K . 543 [ 1788 ]
When Mozart began writing symphonies , he was an eight-year-old keyboard prodigy in London , where he had played for King George III and befriended J . C . Bach — the youngest son of J . S . Bach and a trendsetter in the emerging genre of the symphony . As a teenager back in his hometown of Salzburg , Mozart looked to the example of Joseph Haydn , whose brother happened to work alongside Mozart and his father , and some of the symphonies Mozart wrote as a 17- and 18-year-old ranked among his first truly brilliant compositions . By that time , he had already completed three-fourths of his lifetime symphonic output .
Mozart had fewer occasions to write symphonies during his heyday as a busy freelancer in Vienna . He might never have written his three final symphonies were it not for the money troubles that plagued his final years , a period when demand for his performances had dried up . Some opportunity must have sparked this symphonic trilogy , but most likely nothing came of it . Mozart may not have even heard all three before he died .
Symphony No . 39 ( the first of the final trilogy ) is Mozart ’ s only mature symphony without oboes , instead featuring clarinets . It is also one of his few symphonies to begin with a slow introduction , a structure favored by Haydn . The mellow key of E-flat and a rolling three-beat tempo reinforce the gentle character of the fast body of the opening movement .
The Andante con moto second movement preserves the docile atmosphere . Strings introduce the innocent theme alone at first , but individual woodwinds later emerge for some of the movement ’ s most personal passages , their echoing lines interweaving with chamber-music delicacy .
Interrupting the noble and sturdy Menuetto , whimsical clarinet counterpoint in the contrasting trio section parodies the ländler , an Austrian folk dance . In the finale , the main theme separates into malleable scale fragments and leaps , foreshadowing Beethoven ’ s symphonies with their relentless manipulations of small motives .
Instrumentation Flute , two clarinets , two bassoons , two horns , two trumpets , timpani , and strings .
Jessie Montgomery
Born December 8 , 1981 in New York , NY Currently resides in New York , NY
ROUNDS FOR SOLO PIANO AND STRING ORCHESTRA [ 2022 ]
Jessie Montgomery began classical violin lessons at age four , but she learned just as much from the days she spent at her father ’ s rehearsal studio for rock and jazz bands in Manhattan ’ s East Village . Since studying violin performance at The Juilliard School and film scoring at New York University ,
Maximilian Franz
16 OVERTURE / BSOmusic . org