David Alexander Rahbee leads the University Symphony in a program of music by Klengel, Mahler, Pärt, and Schubert. With graduate student conductors Daren Weissfisch and Rylan Virnig.
Masks are required in all indoor spaces on the UW campus. Patrons must show proof of vaccination or recent negative provider-administered COVID-19 PCR test for entry to live events at Meany Hall. Individuals unable to be fully vaccinated, including children under age five and people with a medical or religious exemption, must have proof of a negative provider-administered COVID-19 PCR test (taken within 72 hours of the performance). UW staff will check for proof of vaccination and negative COVID PCR tests at the doors as a condition of entry. Proof of negative test result must come from a test provider, a laboratory or a health care provider. Home or self-administered tests will not be accepted. Details of these policies and procedures are at: https://artsevents.washington.edu/covid-protocols
Program
Friday, February 4, 2022
Gerlich Theater, University of Washington Meany Hall
UW Symphony Orchestra
Rylan Virnig, Daren Weissfisch and David Alexander Rahbee, conductors
Hymnus for 12 cellos, Op. 57………………..……Julius Klengel (1859-1933)
Daren Weissfisch, conductor
What the Wildflowers Tell Me ……....Gustav Mahler (1860-1911), arr. Benjamin Britten (1913-1976)
Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten …………...…… Arvo Pärt (b 1935)
Rylan Virnig, conductor
Symphony in C major, D944 ….……………….. Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
- Andante – Allegro ma non troppo
- Andante con moto
- Scherzo: Allegro vivace
- Allegro vivace
Program Notes
by Megan Rideout Redeker
Klengel: Hymnus for 12 celli, Op. 57
At the age of fifteen, Julius Klengel was already a member of the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig. Klengel was a prodigious cellist, and composed almost exclusively for his own instrument. He was also an incredibly gifted pianist, and could reportedly accompany his students on almost any work from memory. Klengel composed his Hymnus for 12 Celli in 1920 and performed it with some of his students as a gift for Arthur Nikisch, the principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic and Klengel’s dear friend. Two years later, Nikisch passed away. Klengel’s Hymnus was performed at his funeral, and then was not performed again for fifty years.
Mahler/Britten: What the Wild Flowers Tell Me
During the summers of 1895 and 1896, Gustav Mahler was able to take a few months away from his position as principal conductor of the Hamburg Opera. Mahler spent these summers in a cabin in Steinbach am Attersee, writing his Third Symphony. In 1941, Benjamin Britten arranged the second movement of this symphony, What the Wildflowers Tell Me, for a smaller orchestra. Britten loved the music of Mahler, and felt that it should be more popular amongst orchestras and audiences. He thought that the smaller orchestration of this movement would make the work more accessible, and therefore more popular. While writing his Third Symphony, Mahler said that the second movement was “the most carefree thing that [he] had ever written–as carefree as only flowers are.” Britten’s arrangement remains faithful to the original, and the reduced orchestration does not detract from the beauty of the movement.
Pärt: Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten
Arvo Pärt is an Estonian composer whose current works are primarily minimalist. His compositions are largely influenced by Gregorian chant and early European polyphonic music. Pärt is most known for the development of tintinnabuli, a compositional technique where one line arpeggiates the tonic triad and the other line moves in stepwise motion. One of Pärt’s earliest uses of this technique may be heard in his Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten, which he dedicated to the composer after his death in 1976. Pärt greatly admired Britten’s music for its “unusual purity.” He had intended to meet the composer, but was unfortunately never able to. Cantus was written in canon form for string orchestra and bells, with the strings playing the A minor scale and arpeggiating an A minor chord, and the bells repeating an A. The piece has a sacred and haunting quality to it, and remains one of Pärt’s most popular and most performed compositions.
Schubert: Symphony (No. 9), in C major, D.944 “The Great”
Though his compositional career only lasted about twenty years, Franz Schubert wrote over 1,500 pieces of music. His Ninth Symphony is the last symphony he completed, though an incomplete Tenth Symphony was discovered among his belongings after his death. Schubert wrote two symphonies in C Major: Symphony No. 6 and Symphony No. 9. In order to differentiate between the two, the shorter Sixth Symphony is often called “The Little C Major,” and the much longer Ninth Symphony is called “The Great C Major.” Schubert finished his Ninth Symphony near the end of his life, by which time he was too ill and poor to have it premiered. After Schubert’s death, Robert Schumann obtained the score for the Ninth Symphony, and may be largely credited with saving it from being lost. Schumann wrote about the work in his Neue Zeitschrift für Musik and also convinced Felix Mendelssohn to premier it in Leipzig in 1839. Schubert only lived to be thirty-one, and died without hearing his Ninth Symphony performed publicly. Today however, it continues to be a favorite of orchestras and audiences around the world.
|
Bios
The University of Washington Symphony Orchestra is made up of music majors as well as students from departments all across campus. Under the leadership of Dr. Rahbee since the fall of 2013, the UW Symphony has performed over 180 works, spanning from the early baroque through contemporary. The orchestra collaborates regularly with distinguished faculty soloists as well as members of the Seattle Symphony and other local and national arts organizations. The orchestra has also collaborated with internationally prominent guest artists such as pianists Jon Kimura Parker, Jonathan Biss and Yekwon Sunwoo. Other collaborations have included Side-by-Side concerts with the Seattle Symphony, operas on period instruments with Pacific MusicWorks, a concert with jazz studies faculty, as well as annual performances with the combined university choirs. Performances are given in Gerlich Theater (formerly known as Meany Theater), as well as various other locations on campus as well as at Benaroya Hall. They rehearse twice weekly, and perform at least six concerts per academic year. The orchestra may also be divided into smaller groups throughout the year under the title UW Chamber Orchestra. The UW Symphony has been nationally recognized by The American Prize National Non Profit Competitions in the performing arts, placing in the finals in orchestral performance and for each of the last three seasons, and in the category of orchestral programming for the past 5 seasons.
“Like” us at: https://www.facebook.com/UniversityofWashingtonSymphonyOrchestra/
Do you play an orchestral instrument? Students interested in joining the UW Symphony or Campus Philharmonia Orchestras may email Dr. Rahbee at darahbee@uw.edu. New enrollment occurs each quarter on a space-available basis.