Wind Symphony Concert

April 19, 2019

8 p.m.  •  Friday, April 19

1866 College Rd   •  Columbus, OH

PROGRAM

Overture to Italian in Algiers

Giacomo Rossini (1792–1868)
arr. Lucien Cailliet (1891–1985)

Brent Levine, guest conductor

Paris Sketches

Martin Ellerby (b. 1957)

1.  Saint Germain-des-Prés
2.  Pigalle
3.  Père Lachaise
4.  Les Halles

Michael Weintraub, guest conductor

—INTERMISSION—

Symphony No. 1, The Lord of the Rings

Johan de Meij (b. 1953)

1.   Gandalf (The Wizard)
2.  Lothlorien (The Elvenwood)
3.  Gollum (Sméagol)
4.  Journey in the Dark
5.  Hobbits
 

NOTES

OVERTURE TO ITALIAN IN ALGIERS
Giacomo Rossini, arr. Lucien Cailliet

Gioacchino Rossini was one of the great composers in the Italian operatic school, even though most of his productive years were spent in Paris. His is a remarkable record in that all of his operas (over 35) were written in a period of two decades, and after William Tell (1829), he never wrote another stage work. He spent his last 40 years as a gourmet, priding himself as a chef (he concocted Tournedos Rossini). Among his outstanding works are Il Barbiere di Siviglia, William Tell, La Gazza Ladra, Semiramide, and L’Italiana in Algeri.
 
Lucien Cailliet was a member and arranger of the Philadelphia Orchestra under Leopold Stokowski. He also served as a composer/arranger/conductor in Hollywood Motion Picture Studios (principally Paramount Studios). Over 200 of his arrangements and compositions have been published in the United States.

PARIS SKETCHES
Martin Ellerby

The composer writes:

This is my personal tribute to a city I love, and each movement pays homage to some part of the French capital and to other composers who lived, worked or passed through — rather as Ravel did in his own tribute to an earlier master in Le Tombeau de Couperin. Running like a unifying thread through the whole piece is the idea of bells — a prominent feature of Parisian life. The work is cast in four movements:

1. Saint Germain-des-Prés

The Latin Quarter famous for artistic associations and bohemian lifestyle. This is a dawn prelude haunted by the shade of Ravel: the city awakens with the ever-present sound of morning bells.

2. Pigalle

The Soho of Paris. This is a 'burlesque with scenes' cast in the mould of a balletic scherzo — humorous in a kind of 'Stravinsky-meets-Prokofiev' way. It is episodic but everything is based on the harmonic figuration of the opening. The bells here are car horns and police sirens!

3. Père Lachaise

The city's largest cemetery, the final resting place of many a celebrity who once walked its streets. The spirit of Satie's Gymnopédies — themselves a tribute to a still more distant past — is affectionately evoked before the movement concludes with a 'hidden' quotation of the Dies Irae. This is the work's slow movement; the mood is one of softness and delicacy, which I have attempted to match with more transparent orchestration. The bells are gentle, nostalgic, wistful.

4. Les Halles

A bustling finale with bells triumphant and celebratory. Les Halles is the old market area, a Parisian Covent Garden and, like Pigalle, this is a series of related but contrasted episodes. The climax quotes from Berlioz's Te Deum, which was first performed in 1855 at the church of St. Eustache, actually in the district of Les Halles. A gradual crescendo, initiated by the percussion, prefaces the material proper and the work ends with a backward glance at the first movement before closing with the final bars of the Berlioz Te Deum.

SYMPHONY NO. 1, The Lord of the Rings
Johan de Meij

Johan de Meij’s first symphony, The Lord of the Rings, is based on the trilogy of that name by J. R. R. Tolkien. This book has fascinated many millions of readers since its publication in 1955. The symphony consists of five separate movements, each illustrating a personage or an important episode from the book.

The movements are:

I.   GANDALF (The Wizard)
II.  LOTHLORIEN (The Elvenwood)
III. GOLLUM (Sméagol)
IV. JOURNEY IN THE DARK
     a. The Mines of Moria
     b. The Bridge of Khazad-Dûm
V.  HOBBITS

The symphony was written in the period between March 1984 and December 1987, and had its première in Brussels on 15th March 1988, performed by the “Groot Harmonieorkest van de Gidsen” under the baton of Norbert Nozy. In 1989, The Symphony The Lord of the Rings was awarded a first prize in the Sudler International Wind Band Composition Competition in Chicago, and a year later, the symphony was awarded by the Dutch Composers Fund. In 2001, the orchestral version was premiered by the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra.

Although it is not simple to summarize such an extensive and complex work, the main outline is as follows: the central theme is the Ring, made by primaeval forces that decide the safety or destruction of the World. For years it was in the possession of the creature Gollum, but when the Ring falls into the hands of the Hobbits the evil forces awake and the struggle for the Ring commences. There is but one solution to save the World from disaster: the Ring must be destroyed by the fire in which it was forged — Mount Doom in the heart of Mordor, the country of the evil Lord Sauron.

It is the Hobbit Frodo who is assigned to carry out this task, and to assist him a company, the Fellowship of the Ring, is formed under the leadership of Gandalf, the wizard, which includes the Hobbits Sam, Peregrin and Merin, the Dwarf Gimli, the Elf Legolas, Boromir and Aragorn, the later King. The Companions are secretly followed by Gollum, who does not shun any means, however perfidious, to recover his priceless Ring. However, the Companions soon fall apart; after many pernicious adventures and a surprising dénouement Frodo and Sam can at last return to their familiar home, The Shire.

Explanation of the five movements:

I. Gandalf (The Wizard)

The first movement is a musical portrait of the wizard Gandalf, one of the principal characters of the trilogy. His wise and noble personality is expressed by a stately motif which is used in a different form in movements IV and V. The sudden opening of the Allegro vivace is indicative of the unpredictability of the grey wizard, followed by a wild ride on his beautiful horse “Shadowfax.”

II. Lothloriend (The Elvenwood)

The second movement is an impression of Lothlórien, the elvenwood with its beautiful trees, plants and exotic birds, expressed through woodwind solos. The meeting of the Hobbit Frodo with the Lady Galadriel is embodied in a charming Allegretto; in the Mirror of Galadriel, a silver basin in the wood, Frodo glimpses three visions — the last of which, a large ominous Eye, greatly upsets him.

III. Gollum (Sméagol)

The third movement describes the monstrous creature Gollum — a slimy,  shy  being  represented  by  the soprano saxophone. It mumbles and talks to itself, hisses and lisps, whines and snickers, is alternately pitiful and malicious, is continually fleeing and looking for his cherished treasure, the Ring.

IV. Journey in the Dark

The fourth movement describes the laborious journey of the Fellowship of the Ring, headed by the wizard Gandalf, through the dark tunnels of the Mines of Moria. The slow walking cadenza and the fear are clearly audible in the monotonous rhythm of the low brass, piano and percussion. After a wild persuit by hostile creatures, the Orks, Gandalf is engaged in battle with a horrible monster, the Balrog, and crashes from the subterranean bridge of Khazad-Dûm into a fathomless abyss. To the melancholy tones of a Marcia funèbre, the bewildered Companions trudge on, looking for the only way out of the Mines — the East Gate of Moria.

V. Hobbits

The fifth movement expresses the carefree and optimistic character of the Hobbits in a happy folk dance; the hymn that follows emanates the determination and noblesse of the hobbit folk. The symphony does not end on an exuberant note, but is concluded peacefully and resigned, in keeping with the symbolic mood of the last chapter “The Grey Havens” in which Frodo and Gandalf sail away in a white ship and disappear slowly beyond the horizon.

Wind Symphony

Russel C. Mikkelson, conductor

PICCOLO
Peyton Sandri

FLUTE
Daniel Zipin *
Kayla Bradley
Alex Goad
Grace Forrai
Nicole Conte

OBOE
Michael Rueda *
Hilary Hobbs
Esther Krumm
Suzanne Jennison

ENGLISH HORN
Suzanne Jennison

BASSOON
Ian Bell *
Nate Centa
Maxx Zywica

CONTRABASSOON
Maxx Zywica

E-flat CLARINET
Cosmos Fristachi

CLARINET
Alyssa Powell *
David Robinson
Sarah Korneisel Jaegers
Nathan Murta
Logan Howe
Gabrielle Valladares
Mikey Blaha
Noah Wise

BASS CLARINET
Austin Suarez

ALTO SAXOPHONE
Michael Weintraub *
Francesca Wantuch
Colin Wood

TENOR SAXOPHONE
Nick Young

BARITONE SAXOPHONE
Logan Wright

HORN
Benjamin Hottensmith *
Leo Steinkerchner
Greg Eberwine
Cameron Reed
Anna Dorey
Amanda Midkiff

TRUMPET
Brooklynn Howell *
Daniel Brinker
Sara Loney
Justin Boucher-Foley
Heather Johnson
Kaity Catalfina
Vanessa Rivera

TROMBONE
Peter Gooch *
Jake Pauley
Jacob Chestnut

BASS TROMBONE
Parker Baird

EUPHONIUM
Sean O’Brien *
Seth Champion
Grant Booth

TUBA
Austin Crumrine *
Bennett Deshotels
Jocelyn Smallwood

PERCUSSION
Amelia DuPlain *
Clay Schneider
Ben Shaheen
Sarah Nichols
Lucas Fox
Michael Mayer

DOUBLE BASS
David Shelton

PIANO
Yingzhou Hu


* indicates principal