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October 23, 2017

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Lehár’s Merry Widow waltzes into Macky Auditorium (and does other dances, too)

Classic Viennese operetta gives its characters a second chance Oct. 27–29

By Peter Alexander

Franz Lehár’s Merry Widow, the classic Viennese operetta, is a delicious platform for wonderful singing, graceful dancing, colorful costumes, and an inexhaustible supply of humor. But in the hands of stage director Leigh Holman, director of the CU Eklund Opera Program, there is a serious side too.

The Merry Widow-X4 The CU production will be presented Friday–Sunday, Oct. 27–29, in Macky Auditorium. Nicholas Carthy will conduct an orchestra and cast of CU students. Other artistic staff of the production are set and lighting designer Peter Dean Beck; costume designer Tom Robbins; choreographer Stephen Bertles; and technical director Ron Mueller.

The major roles are double cast, with different singers on Saturday and Friday/Sunday. The performances will be sung in German with English titles.

“People think of it as light, and it is a funny show,” Holman says. “But I’ve taken a little bit more serious tone with it—not to scare anyone off because it’s still very hilarious and fun, but I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about second chances.”

In fact, it’s a second chance for the two main characters that drives the plot of The Merry Widow.

Leigh Holman

As the operetta opens, the fictional east-European country of Pontevedro is facing a budget crisis. At their embassy in Paris, the ambassador hopes to arrange the marriage of the wealthy widow Hanna Glawari with Ponetvedro’s most eligible bachelor, Danilo. That would, he believes, save the country by keeping her money in Pontevedro. But Paris is filled with men—bachelors and married alike—who would love to get their hands on her and her money, making the ambassador’s matchmaking all the more urgent.

Of course there are many other comic-opera complications with many other couples, but you want to keep your eye on the ball, which is the Hanna-Danilo relationship. As Holman explains, this is where the second chance comes in, because they have a history.

“They fell in love years ago when she was a farm girl,” Holman says. “He was wealthy and a nobleman, and his uncle did not approve of their relationship.” Because Danilo hesitated to oppose his uncle, Hanna ended the relationship and got revenge by marrying another wealthy suitor.

Lightening strikes twice for Danilo (Bryce Bartu) and Hanna (Anna Whiteway) in CU’s “Merry Widow.” (Photo by Glenn Asakawa)

“I wanted to deepen the understanding of the audience for what this couple had gone through,” Holman says. “So I decided to do a pantomime during the Overture, with a young Danilo and a young Hanna in front of the curtain. We get to experience their young love, and the situation where the uncle disapproves and Danilo hesitates. He eventually asks her to marry him, but she shows him her ring, that she’s already married. So we get all of that before the curtain opens.”

After the Overture, the curtain opens on the embassy party. Hanna’s much older husband has now died, leaving her a fortune, and Danilo has buried his sorrows by being a feckless man about Paris. ”They see each other again after all these years,” Holman explains. “Now they just love to spar with each other all the time, always testing each other.

“We really wanted to play on the idea, what would happen if we all got a do-over, if we had the chance to go back again? The question is, would we love to [do that]? We don’t know how it would end up, but we all wonder.”

This being operetta, you can count this second chance ending up with a happy outcome for all of the mixed-up couples. And you can also count on a lot of great entertainment along the way: a bit of farce and mistaken identities, gorgeous individual arias, hilarious ensembles, wonderful “Pontevedrian” folk music and costumes, and plenty of dancing.

Conductor Nicholas Carthy

“We are having a wonderful time,” Holman says of herself and the cast. “It’s just a joy to go to work every day. We walk into the rehearsal hall and they’re all warming up, everybody’s dancing, the Viennese Waltz, the polka, the mazurka, the everything!”

Because Holman is devoted educator as well as opera director, “the everything” has great benefits for the students. “It’s the whole triple threat,” she says. “They’re singing, dancing, and acting with [spoken] dialog, so it’s a great opportunity for them. And comic timing! There really is an art to that and it’s something that has to be learned. They’re really grasping it and that’s exciting to see.

“Our goal is that when they leave CU they’re ready for whatever life brings. With musical theater and opera melding ever closer and closer together, I think this will get them ready for whatever opportunities they have.”

In other words, young opera singers have to be ready when they leave school because—unlike Hanna and Danilo—they won’t always get second chances when opportunities appear. And neither do audiences; The Merry Widow is only in Macky this weekend.

# # # # #

The Merry Widow by Franz Lehár
CU Eklund Opera Program
Leigh Holman, stage director
Nicholas Carthy, music director and conductor

7:30 p.m. Friday & Saturday, Oct. 27 & 28
2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 29
Macky Auditorium

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Peter Alexander

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October 22, 2017

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“Happy Concert” opens Pro Musica Colorado’s 2017–18 season

Music by Ravel, Castelnuovo-Tedesco and Stravinsky performed with energy, enjoyment

By Peter Alexander

The Pro Musica Colorado Chamber Orchestra opened their 2017–18 season last night (Oct. 21) with a program conductor Cynthia Katsarelis calls “probably the happiest concert we’ve ever done.”

Cynthia Katsarelis and Pro Music Colorado Chamber Orchestra (photo from a prior season)

The program featured three ebullient neo-classical works written between the First and Second World Wars. This is music that is ideal for a chamber orchestra of Pro-Musica’s size and quality, and it was performed with obvious energy and enjoyment. Pace Katsarelis, it was not happy throughout, since there were moments of melancholy here and there, but on the whole the program was indeed light in texture and mood.

The opening work, Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin (“The tomb of Couperin,” a form of musical homage to a deceased composer), is one of the great works for smaller orchestra. Originally composed for piano, it is a set of Baroque dances stylistically descended from the great keyboard suites of Françoise Couperin. Ravel orchestrated four of the original six dances in the years immediately after World War I.

There is a slight sense of melancholy beneath the surface, since every movement is dedicated to the memory of one or more of Ravel’s friends who had died in that terrible war. But the graceful Baroque-style dances are more reflective of cherished memories than mourning, and the music can be enjoyed without knowing the deeper motivation.

From the first moment, the crucial wind parts were crystal clear and well played. The strings were occasionally less distinct, but the sound was warm and lovely to hear. The players were secure and achieved a sense of ensemble under Katsarelis’ direction. The final movement (Rigaudon) was particularly enjoyable, with nice contrast among the different sections.

Ideally, the orchestra should breathe and move together like the two hands of a single pianist. A certain amount of rhythmic expansion and contraction is an essential part of the style. Instead, I found the interpretation a little rigid and too steady of tempo, but never less than enjoyable.

Guitarist Nicolò Spera

The Concerto No. 1 for Guitar and Orchestra of Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, performed by CU music faculty member Nicolò Spera as soloist, was a real highlight. Spera is clearly a master of his instrument who plays with a palpable love and joy in every note. His easy virtuosity made this piece, one of the great concertos for guitar, look easy. He has the ability to take expressive freedom with the music without every losing a strong sense of beat, of meter, and of phrase.

The second movement, described by Katsarelis as a sort of farewell to the composer’s homeland of Tuscany before he had to flee Mussolini’s Italy, is wistful throughout. Probably the least “happy” music on the program, it was eloquently performed by Spera and the orchestra. The finale, marked Ritmico e cavalleresco (“rhythmic and knightly”), was delightful from beginning to end.

Katsarelis and the orchestra provided stylish support for the soloist. Spera’s joy in playing this music was contagious to all, orchestra and audience alike, making this a performance to relish and remember.

Cynthia Katsarelis

The final piece on the program, Stravinsky’s Suite from Pulcinella, is a good example of why we “play” music. Here there is nothing but happy music, and when performed as it was by Katsarelis and Pro Musica, it is fun for conductor, for players, and for the audience. The performance had great energy and drive.

The score is filled with solo bits for nearly every instrument in the ensemble, some quite showy, all played with evident virtuosity. Concertmaster Stacy Lesartre gave outstanding technical and expressive leadership for the ensemble, and while I hesitate to list individuals for fear of slighting someone, I have to praise string bassist Paul Erhard, another CU faculty member. I have never heard the bass solos played with greater beauty and purity of sound. The entire wind section—flute, oboe, bassoon, horn, trombone—was outstanding.

The only criticism was that the sound was occasionally a little heavy-footed. This may be due to the venue, which is new for Pro Musica: Boulder’s Mountain View Methodist Church. The very high A-frame ceiling may reinforce the longer wave lengths; certainly the bass was well heard all evening. But it was never muddy and the texture was generally clear, which cannot be said of the sound in their prior home, First United Methodist in downtown Boulder.

Mountain View has another great advantage over any of the downtown venues: its own parking lot. This is not a musical issue, but it is an important one. Boulder lacks a decent concert venue with adequate parking, and in particular the crowding in central Boulder on busy weekends may discourage some people from making the effort to go to live performances. I see no downside to using Mountain View: the entryway makes a suitable lobby, the sanctuary is comfortable, the sound is good, and the parking seems like a luxury after all the nights I have cruised downtown neighborhoods looking for an open space.

I hope Pro Musica will make the move permanent.

Edited to correct minor typos 10/22.

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Peter Alexander

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October 19, 2017

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A busy classical weekend

Boulder Chamber Orchestra, Pro Musica Colorado and Seicento launch their seasons at the same time

By Peter Alexander

In September, there were two the same day; now Boulder will see three ensembles launch their seasons in the city’s crowded classical-music calendar on the same October weekend.

Seicento Baroque Ensemble choir with their new director, Kevin Padworksi. Photo courtesy of Seicento Baroque Ensemble.

Each of the organizations — Boulder Chamber Orchestra (BCO), Pro Musica Colorado Chamber Orchestra and Seicento Baroque Ensemble — have a concert in the Denver area Friday, Oct. 20 and in Boulder on Saturday, Oct. 21. Seicento presents their concert a third time in Longmont on Sunday, Oct. 22.

Conductor Bahman Saless and the BCO will present music of Mozart and Elgar, featuring soloists Sharon Park on violin and Andrew Krimm on viola. The program includes Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante for violin, viola and orchestra, one of his most popular pieces, and Elgar’s lovely Serenade for Strings.

Pro Musica, under conductor Cynthia Katsarelis, will present a program featuring works written between the two World Wars. The music represents the neo-classical style, which used smaller ensembles and borrowed forms, styles and even tunes from earlier times. Guitarist Nicolò Spera will be the soloist in the Guitar Concerto No. 1 of Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco. Other works will be by Ravel and Stravinsky.

Finally, the Seicento Baroque Ensemble will introduce their new conductor, Kevin Padworksi, in a program celebrating the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. The Reformation had enormous impact on the music of Europe, as reflected in music by J.S. Bach and others on the program.

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Composer Lowell Liebermann will have residency at CU Boulder College of Music

Public performances Oct. 18 & 19 provide an introduction to his music

By Peter Alexander

If you don’t know the music of American composer Lowell Liebermann, the coming week is your opportunity.

Composer Lowell Lieberman. Photo by Christian Steiner

Actually, if you do know his music, the coming week is an opportunity, too. The composer of accessible, intriguing, and often surprising works in many different genres, Liebermann will be in residence at the CU College of Music through Thursday (Oct. 19). The residency includes two full programs of Liebermann’s music—at noon Wednesday at the Dairy Arts Center and at 7:30 p.m. Thursday in Grusin Concert Hall. (See the schedule below for details and admission information.)

A Roser Visiting Artist at CU, Liebermann was invited by Peter and Helen Weil Prof. of Piano David Korevaar, who met Liebermann when they were both undergraduates at Juilliard. “We’ve known each other since we were, dare I say, still teenagers!” Korevaar says. “And I’ve been interested in his music ever since.”

Korevaar has been playing some of Liebermann’s pieces in concerts over the past year, and just completed a recording of his music. “I was thinking very much about Lowell,” he says, “so I thought it would be great to have him come. [CU composition professor] Dan Kellogg was very supportive and together we applied for funding from the Roser Visiting Artist’s Fund.”

As part of the Roser fund’s support, Liebermann will be meeting with many different groups of CU students this week. Activities include masterclasses with piano and flute students, coachings with all the performers of his works being presented during the residency, and extensive work with composition students.

David Korevaar

For those who may not know Liebermann’s music, Korevaar explains that it’s “accessible in the best sense. Often very lyrical, often dramatic. There’s a lot of variety— what he’s got first of all is an amazing craft. He can write anything, and for anything. He also has a great imagination, but he manages to integrate everything so well.

“His music, especially what he wrote in the 1990s, tended to have a lot of very, shall we say, nominally pleasant and familiar sounds. And some of it is not pleasant—one of the things that Lowell can do is really create some nightmarish sounds. He’ll do that by twisting your expectations, but he balances it well. He knows how to balance things, as any good composer does.”

Korevaar, who has been very busy with performances lately, from Beethoven with the Boulder Philharmonic to several Faculty Tuesday recitals and a Brahms concerto on tour, will be part of several of the performances. In spite of everything on his plate, he likes Liebermann’s music so much that he was unable to resist joining in.

Jennifer Hayghe

“My original plan when I put this whole thing together was I wasn’t going to do any of the playing,” he says. “But how can I not put myself in? Lowell has some recent chamber pieces that he was particularly interested having done, plus there was the Sonata for Two Pianos, and I thought that would be a great piece for me to finally get to play with Jennifer Hayghe.”

The performances during the coming week will feature Korevaar and other CU faculty, students and alumni. Several of the piano pieces are included, played by different artists, including Liebermann himself Wednesday at the Dairy.

A number of chamber pieces are also included in the two concerts, among them the Flute Sonata—probably Liebermann’s best known work—performed by flutist Joshua Hall and pianist Cecilia Kao, and the Sonata for Two Pianos by Korevaar and Hayghe.

Another that Korevaar thinks is especially impressive to hear is the Trio for clarinet, viola and piano, which he will play with clarinetist Daniel Silver and violist Ericka Eckert. (The full program for both concerts is listed below.) There will also be a talk-back with the composer following the Wednesday performance at the Dairy.

If you need one more reason to attend the concerts, Korevaar points out that there will plenty of flash and dazzle on display, including the Trio for clarinet, viola and piano. “I think one of the reasons that Lowell’s music has been very successful is that he also understands instrumental virtuosity, and there’s plenty of that,” he says.

“His music can be very brilliant and very showy.”

# # # # #

Lowell Liebermann Residency
CU Boulder College of Music

Public events:

Liebermann

2 p.m. Monday, Oct. 16, Grusin Concert Hall
Piano class, with CU students playing works by Lowell Liebermann

3:30 pm. Tuesday, Oct. 17, Room NB59, Imig Music Building
Flute Class, Christian Jennings Studio

12 noon Wednesday, Oct. 18, Dairy Arts Center
Soundscape at the Dairy: Music of Lowell Liebermann

—Piano Quartet: Sharon Park, violin; Stephanie Mientka, viola; Zachary Reaves, cello; Sarah Rushing, piano
—Elegy for Clarinet and Piano: Emily Wrangler, clarinet; Adam Coleman, piano
—Nocturne No. 2: Ryan Grippo, piano
—Nocturne No. 7: Sophia Zervas, piano
—Nocturne No. 10: Lowell Liebermann, piano
—Trio for clarinet, viola and piano: Daniel Silver, clarinet; Ericka Eckert, viola; David Korevaar, piano
—Post-concert talkback with Lowell Liebermann, David Korevaar, and Sharon Park

Tickets

7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 19, Grusin Concert Hall
Faculty/student recital of music by Lowell Liebermann

—Flute Sonata: Joshua Hall, flute, and Cecilia Kao, piano
—Nocturne No. 8: Maria Wietrzynska, piano
—Piano Trio No. 3: Charles Wetherbee, violin; David Requiro, cello; David Korevaar, piano
—Violin Sonata: William Terwilliger, violin, and Andrew Cooperstock, piano
—Sonata for Two Pianos: Jennifer Hayghe and David Korevaar
—Daydream and Nightmare for two pianos, eight hands: Sarah Rushing, Jonathan Morris, Nathália Kato, and Barbara Noyes

Free and open to the public.
_______________

Edited 10.16 to correct the names of performers due to last-minute schedule changes.

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Peter Alexander

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October 12, 2017

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‘Bachtoberfest’ concerts are all about Bach, not beer

Boulder Bach Festival embarks on a new season of adventures

By Peter Alexander

Boulder’s ever-adventurous Bach Festival embarks on a new season of exploration, with concerts in Boulder Oct. 12 and Longmont Oct. 14.

AC-Elizabeth-Blumenstock-photo-by-David-Tayler

Violinist Elizabeth Blumenstock for the Juilliard School and Philharmonia Baroque will be a guest artists with the Boulder Bach Festival. Photo by David Tayler.

Boulder Bach Festival music director Zachary Carretin explains, “We spent recent years talking about Bach as our compass, and that gives us liberty to explore in any direction, across time, across cultures. So exploration is certainly a theme (this year), and presenting music the festival has never presented before.”

Not that Bach has been forgotten. “Every program does connect to the music of J.S. Bach,” he says, “sometimes in more direct ways, sometimes with six degrees of separation.”

That description applies to the opening program, which features chamber works with and without voice by Bach and composers associated with him: Vivaldi, Handel, Telemann, his student Johann Gottlieb Goldberg and his son Johann Christian Bach, known as “The London Bach.” Featured performers are Carretin and Elizabeth Blumenstock on violin; cellist Guy Fishman; keyboardist Christopher Holman; and soprano Josefien Stoppelenburg.

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Boulder Philharmonic brings “Music of Resistance” to Macky

Pieces by Benjamin Britten, Beethoven and Shostakovich

By Peter Alexander

The Boulder Philharmonic calls their next concert “Music of Resistance,” but it might more accurately be called “Music of Conscience.”

Boulder Philharmonic

The concert, at 7:30 p.m. Saturday (Oct. 14) in Macky Auditorium, features three pieces, each of which expresses a message of conscience from the composer—two of them explicit, one more murky and controversial. Music director Michael Butterman will conduct.

Tenor Matthew Plenk

The first piece will be Benjamin Britten’s Ballad of Heroes for tenor, chorus and orchestra, composed in 1939 for a “Festival of Music for the People” held in London. A setting of poetry by W.H. Auden and Randall Swingler, it is a response to the Spanish Civil War. The overtly political text roundly condemns the “numberless Englishmen” who have forgotten those who “fight for peace, for liberty, for you.” Matthew Plenk, a faculty member at the University of Denver’s Lamont School of Music, will be the tenor soloist.

The second is Beethoven’s Fantasy for Piano, Vocal Soloists, Chorus and Orchestra, composed in 1808 for a massive concert that included the Fifth and Sixth Symphonies, the Fourth Piano Concerto, two movements from the Mass in C major. The Fantasy was hurriedly composed as a concert-ending piece that would bring all of the performers together.

The text, suggested by Beethoven and written mostly by the poet Christoph Kuffner, expresses the composer’s idealistic conviction that music can bestow “outer peace and inner bliss,” and the blessings of the gods upon mankind. CU music professor David Korevaar will be the soloist.

The final and more controversial piece is Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5, composed in 1937. The score was written after the composer was sharply criticized and threatened under orders from Stalin. Shostakovich stated that the subsequent symphony was “a Soviet artist’s creative response to justified criticism,” and it ends with a march that expresses either the triumph of the Soviet state, or its brutality, depending on the interpretation.

Michael Butterman

“There are different views of this,” Butterman says. “Certainly one of the more prevalent is the notion that Shostakovich was more or less pinned against the wall and told, ‘it would be a shame if anything happened to your career.’ So the question is, did he just say, ‘You want something that’s life-affirming? I can do that.’ Or was it a veiled protest?

“There is a way that rings in the Shostakovich that could be interpreted as compelled, or rejoicing that is done for show. Of course I don’t know, but I tend to think it’s that.”

The other two works are unfamiliar, but both can be seen as early, small-scale versions of larger and more familiar works written later in the composer’s career. Britten’s Ballad of Heroes shares many traits with the composer’s War Requiem, written in 1962, including the textual contrast between the quiet British homefront and the horror of war, brass fanfares, and Britten’s characteristic style of vocal writing for the soloist.

Similarly, Beethoven’s Fantasy sounds very much like the Ninth Symphony written 16 years later. The regular phrasing and simple outline of the theme, the combination of chorus, soloists and orchestra, and the use of variations leading to a triumphant close inevitably remind listeners of the symphony’s famous finale.

In spite of being unfamiliar, both works are “worth hearing and also interesting because of their better known analogs,” Butterman says. “You get some insight into the world views and the frames of mind of these two (composers), through the text and the quality of the music carrying the text.”

The Britten was suggested to Butterman by an orchestra member. He didn’t know the score, but once he listened, he said, “I thought it was really effective.

Benjamin Britten

“It’s fascinating because Britten was a pacifist, and yet this piece is celebrating those who went off in the International Brigade to fight in the Spanish civil, against fascism. He’s saying, If you believe in something, you’ve got to stand up for it.”

Plenk had not heard the piece before, either. As in much of Britten’s music, he says, “there’s a somewhat instrumental character to the way he writes for tenor.”

As for the political content of the text, “any time you’re performing, you’re trying to express what the composer intended, whether it’s political or not,” he says. “I’d urge people to let the text lead them (in how they listen to the music). I would say that with any music, but this was written for a specific purpose, to memorialize the fallen soldiers from the International Brigade of the Spanish Civil War.”

David Korevaar

Korevaar relishes the opportunity to play Beethoven’s Fantasy. “One of the reasons we play it is because it has this wonderful sense of uplift,” he says. “It starts in C minor, a key that Beethoven uses for drama and tragedy. And C major (where it ends) is a key of joy and light. And so there is an aspect of a ritual experience” when you hear it.

One thing Korevaar particularly enjoys is the way “the piano is given a sort of Promethean role,” he says. “When I play this piece I have the feeling of having magical powers.

“The piano begins alone, and then we add the instruments one at a time. It’s like you’re giving life to all these figures, and then once the orchestra and the piano have had their say, what more can you do? Then you conjure up human voices, first solos and then a chorus!

“It’s really marvelous.”

# # # # #

Music of Resistance
Boulder Philharmonic Orchestra, Michael Butterman, conductor
Matthew Plenk, tenor, and David Korevaar, piano
CU Boulder and Western Illinois University choirs
7:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 14, Macky Auditorium

Tickets

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Peter Alexander

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October 6, 2017

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Ars Nova singers open season with the Monet of choral music

Program features the complete choral works of Maurice Duruflé

By Peter Alexander

If Monet’s paintings were music, they would be the choral works of Maurice Duruflé.

That’s the view of Thomas Edward Morgan, director of Boulder’s Ars Nova Singers, who open their season Oct. 6 and 7 in Denver and Boulder with an all-Duruflé program, featuring the composer’s entire output for chorus.

Thomas Edward Morgan and Ars Nova Singers. Photo by Julie Afflerbaugh.

“Our mailing for this [concert] used a Monet painting of Rouen Cathedral,” Morgan says. “Duruflé was a choir boy at that cathedral, and [his music] is as close as we get in the musical world to how Monet was seeing the world.”

Maurice Duruflé

Duruflé’s name is probably better known to choral singers than to the general public, largely because his music is very rewarding to sing, but there’s not very much of it. “He was a perfectionist,” Morgan says. “He didn’t release very much material, but all of what he did is just extremely well crafted, and a joy to do.”

The anchor of the program will be Duruflé’s best known work, his Requiem, composed in the 1940s. The other choral works on the program are a set of four motets, composed in 1950; the Cum jubilo Mass of 1960, for male choir and organ; and Notre Père (Our Father), an a capella work composed in 1977.

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Longmont Symphony Orchestra embraces ‘New Frontiers’

Elliot Moore, new music director, opens the 2017–18 season Oct. 7

By Peter Alexander

The Longmont Symphony Orchestra (LSO) enters a new era Saturday (Oct. 7), playing their first regular-season concert with recently-hired music director Elliot Moore.

Elliot Moore at Lake McIntosh - credit - Photography Maestro (1)

New LSO director Elliot Moore loves living in Colorado.

Titled “New Frontiers with Old & New Friends,” it will be the first major concert since the full retirement of Robert Olson, who was music director of the LSO for 34 years. “Having a new music director after 34 years is an entirely new frontier, for the orchestra, and maybe for the community,” Moore says.

The idea of frontiers runs through the entire season, from “New Frontiers and Old Friends” Saturday, to a program titled “The American Frontier” on Veterans Day, Nov. 11, to spring concerts featuring a world premiere, music evocative of the sea, and the LSO’s first-ever chamber orchestra concert in the Longmont Museum’s Stewart Auditorium. (See the full season here.)

The frontier theme also has a personal meaning for Moore. “Moving out here is definitely a new frontier, for both me and my wife,” he says. “I’m very happy to say that we love it here, we’re having a fantastic time living in the community.”

The additional theme of friendships old and new runs through Saturday’s concert. Foremost of course is the fact that Moore is making many new friends as he settles into the Longmont community. But that idea is also reflected in the music Moore selected for the program: Slalom by CU composition professor Carter Pann, Rachmaninoff’s beloved Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini with pianist Spencer Meyer, and Edward Elgar’s Enigma Variations.

Pianist Spencer Meyer

The first half of this program is devoted to new friends, including the pianist playing the Rachmaninoff, Spencer Meyer. “He and I share the same artistic manager and we’ve been hearing about each other for a long time,” Moore says. “I’m really excited to be working with him for the first time.”

In a sense the Rachmaninoff might be thought of as an old friend for musicians and audiences alike. With its virtuoso exploration of Paganini’s famous theme—used by numerous composers as a subject for variations—and the beautifully tender 18^th variation, it’s a piece that everyone loves.

“Everybody does love this piece,” Moore says. “It has a lot to do with the great violinist Paganini and the story that Paganini sold his soul to the devil, and it includes the (melody of the) 13^th-century Dies Irae chant throughout the work.

“When you know the meaning (of the chant,) which is the Day of Wrath, I think it gives the music more meaning and enhances everyone’s experience.”

Composer Carter Pann

Pann is another new friend for Moore. “While we have never met, we’ve had wonderful exchanges on e-mail about his music,” he says. “I’m really excited to be working with him. Having such an incredible artist living right here within the community is inspiring.”

Pann’s piece, describing a fast descent of a ski run, is filled with quotations from popular classical pieces. “In my head, I see Carter putting on his headphones,” Moore says. “He puts on his favorite playlist and starts zooming down the mountain. You’ll hear some works that are familiar to us all in his piece.”

Elgar’s Enigma Variations, the final piece on the program, is all about friendship. Each of the score’s 14 variations is a character sketch of one of Elgar’s friends. Elgar, who enjoyed puzzles, concealed the names of the people represented—some only slightly, by using their initials, others more carefully with puns or more cryptic designations. One titled “Romanza” is represented by a series of asterisks, which may stand for a local musical patron, who was away on a sea voyage, or a lost love of Elgar’s youth who had sailed to New Zealand years before.

Sir Edward Elgar

Perhaps the most famous variation is titled “Nimrod.” In it, Elgar paints a portrait of a close friend and associate, Augustus Jaeger. In German Jaeger means “hunter,” which suggested the Biblical name of Nimrod, “a mighty hunter before the Lord.” Others portrayed in the piece include Elgar himself, his wife, and amateur musicians from Elgar’s circle.

Moore likes to note that some of the variations also tell a story that would be known to the subject. “One example is one of his friends, (who) liked to play fetch with his dog,” he explains. “The musical vignette is about playing a game of fetch, and the dog barking. That’s the story that the two of them knew about.”

The Enigma Variations can be enjoyed without knowing any of this, but Moore aims to provide as much information as possible. “I think the more you understand, the more fun you have,” he says. “I intend to give a talk, with some musical examples, to everyone who’s there.”

Enhancing listeners’ understanding and enjoyment of the concerts is one of Moore’s main goals as director of the LSO. Or in the poetic language of concert themes, introducing the audience to both new friends and old.

# # # # #

Opening Night: New Frontiers with Old & New Friends
Longmont Symphony Orchestra, Elliot Moore, conductor
Spencer Meyer, piano
7:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 6
Vance Brand Civic Auditorium, Longmont

Tickets

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Sharps & Flatirons

Classical Music in Boulder & Environs—A blog by Peter Alexander

Monthly Archives: October 2017

Lehár’s Merry Widow waltzes into Macky Auditorium (and does other dances, too)

“Happy Concert” opens Pro Musica Colorado’s 2017–18 season

A busy classical weekend

Composer Lowell Liebermann will have residency at CU Boulder College of Music

‘Bachtoberfest’ concerts are all about Bach, not beer

Boulder Philharmonic brings “Music of Resistance” to Macky

Ars Nova singers open season with the Monet of choral music

Longmont Symphony Orchestra embraces ‘New Frontiers’

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