UW Symphony Orchestra with Donna Shin, flute

David Alexander Rahbee leads the UW Symphony in a program of music by Jessie Montgomery (Robert Stahly, conductor), Cécile Chaminade, Francis Poulenc, and Dmitri Shostakovich. With faculty guest Donna Shin, flute. 

Program

Hymn for Everyone:  Jessie Montgomery (b. 1981)
Robert Stahly, conductor

Flute Concertino, Op. 107: Cécile Chaminade (1857-1944)

Flute Sonata: Francis Poulenc (1899-1957); orchestrated by Lennox Berkeley (1903-1989)
I. Allegro moderato
II. Cantilena: Assez lent
III. Presto giocoso
Donna Shin, flute

Intermission

Symphony No. 9, in E-flat major, Op. 70:  Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975)
I. Allegro
II. Moderato
III. Presto
IV. Largo
V. Allegretto

(in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the composer’s death)

Program Notes

By Mica Weiland

Jessie Montgomery (b. 1981) - Hymn for Everyone (2021)
Jessie Montgomery is an American composer and violinist whose work spans a diverse range of styles and instrumental configurations. From 2021 to 2024, she served as the composer-in-residence with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. In Hymn for Everyone, composed during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Montgomery reflects on themes of unity and collective experience. Inspired by a melody that came to her following a long hike, the work functions as a musical meditation on togetherness. This sense of unity is conveyed through the orchestration, as the central theme is passed among various "choirs" of instrumental sections, resulting in a rich tapestry of timbral color and texture. Through this compositional approach, Montgomery underscores both the cohesion of the orchestra and a broader metaphor for human solidarity.

Cécile Chaminade (1857-1944): Concertino for Flute in D major, Op. 107 (1902)
Cécile Chaminade was a French composer and pianist born into a musically inclined family, receiving her earliest piano instruction from her mother. Although she was evaluated and approved to study at the Conservatoire de Paris, her father ultimately prohibited her enrollment, believing it inappropriate for a young woman of her social standing. Nevertheless, Chaminade pursued her musical education privately with instructors affiliated with the Conservatoire. Among her most enduringly popular works is the Concertino for Flute, a piece celebrated for its lighthearted and lyrical character. The orchestration provides a buoyant and supportive foundation for the expressive, song-like lines of the solo flute, resulting in a work that has become a staple of both the orchestral and solo flute repertoire.

Franic Poulenc (1899-1963) - Flute Sonata (orch. Berkeley) (1957/1977)
Francis Poulenc, born in Paris in 1899, was a prominent French composer and pianist. Notably, parallels can be drawn between Poulenc and Cécile Chaminade, particularly in their early musical development and the barriers they faced in pursuing formal music education. Although for different reasons—Chaminade due to societal expectations for women of her class and Poulenc due to his father’s disapproval—both were initially denied access to traditional conservatory training. Like Chaminade, Poulenc received his first piano instruction from his mother and continued his studies privately.
In the 1920s, Poulenc became a member of Les Six, a group of early 20th-century French composers who sought to move away from the dense, Romantic orchestral textures of the Germanic tradition, favoring clarity, wit, and a distinctively French sensibility.
Poulenc composed his Flute Sonata late in his career, following a commission from the Library of Congress. During this period, he was also working on one of his most important works, the opera, Dialogues des Carmélites. The Sonata reflects his deep engagement with vocal music at the time, evident in its lyrical phrasing and vocal-like lines. Poulenc himself expressed a preference for composing for woodwinds over strings, as he considered their timbre and expressive capabilities to be closer to that of the human voice. The piece gained widespread popularity and was eventually orchestrated. In 1976, flautist James Galway approached English composer Sir Lennox Berkeley, a longtime friend of Poulenc, to create an orchestral version of the sonata. The task turned out to be quite challenging because of the pianistic nature of the accompaniment. Despite the difficulty, Berkeley honored Poulenc’s brilliance with a meticulous and faithful orchestration that achieved a widespread popularity similar to that of the original work.
The Sonata consists of three movements. The first is marked by virtuosic demands on the performer, including elaborate trills and rapid ornamental flourishes. The second movement is a melancholic cantilena, evoking a vocal style characterized by flowing, lyrical expression. The final movement concludes the work with brilliance and vivacity, bringing the piece to an energetic and spirited close.

Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) - Symphony no. 9 in Eb major, Op. 70 (1945)
Dmitri Shostakovich, a composer and pianist born in early 20th-century Soviet Russia, is widely recognized for his vast and diverse body of work, which includes operas, ballets, film scores, chamber music, concertos, and symphonies. His compositional output is inextricably linked with his complex and often fraught relationship with the Soviet government, a tension that is frequently reflected in his music. Originally conceived as a grandiose celebration of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in World War II, Shostakovich declared that his ninth symphony would feature large-scale orchestration, soloists, and chorus. However, Shostakovich ultimately abandoned that initial vision and composed a very different Ninth Symphony—more modest in scale and ironic in tone.
Rather than the monumental work the public had anticipated, the resulting symphony spans just over 30 minutes and employs a relatively conventional Romantic-era orchestration. Yet what it lacks in grandeur, it compensates for with biting sarcasm, unexpected emotional depth, and stylistic ingenuity. Across its five movements, the symphony maintains a remarkable sense of cohesion despite its stark contrasts in character and mood, consistently engaging the listener with its unpredictability and wit.
The first movement draws on Classical-era idioms, evoking the lightness and clarity of Mozart with its buoyant textures and memorable melodies. However, Shostakovich infuses the movement with his distinctive voice, employing syncopated accents in surprising places and integrating a quasi-militaristic march beneath an extended violin solo. The second movement is a haunting waltz that begins with a solemn chorale in the woodwinds, soon devolving into a more aggressive and unhinged character. An omnipresent pizzicato figure in the low strings heightens the movement’s sense of instability and impending dread. As the violins and violas enter to introduce the waltz theme, the music oscillates between momentum and collapse. The movement concludes with a piercing and disorienting piccolo solo, accompanied by the persistent pizzicato, leaving a lingering sense of psychological unease.
The final three movements are performed attacca, without pause, forming a continuous arc to the symphony’s conclusion. The third movement opens in stark contrast to the previous one, featuring a sprightly theme in the clarinet and flute that evokes a sense of carefree exuberance. However, this lightness is soon interrupted by a martial trumpet solo over a restless accompaniment, before the music fades into a whispered conclusion. The fourth movement emerges seamlessly from this silence with a brass fanfare, out of which a deeply expressive bassoon solo rises. Shostakovich subtly references other iconic ninth symphonies in this movement, including those of Beethoven and Mahler, through brief musical quotations embedded in the bassoon's lines.
The final movement begins right after the bassoon’s mournful lament, quickly escalating into an increasingly frenetic tempo. As the music builds in energy and intensity, it culminates in an explosive surge of rhythmic drive and aggression. Brimming with Shostakovich's signature sarcasm and sharp wit, the finale reintroduces militaristic motifs heard earlier in the piece. Its bold, panache-filled conclusion provides a perfect closing to the symphony, leaving the audience craving more.

Biographies