NEIGHBORHOOD - COMMUNITY OF FAITH JUNE 27-JULY 4, 2021 - Houston Symphony

NEIGHBORHOOD
   concert

        THE
  COMMUNITY
   OF FAITH
 JUNE 27–JULY 4, 2021

Plato said, “Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind,
flight to the imagination, and life to everything.” Thank you to the
Houston Symphony for the indelible influence of your sensational
presentations of life interpretations in the forms of sounds that
have melodious and harmonious chemistry. We will remember
your generous gesture of allowing access to our community to that
which would, for some, is a world away. Indeed, we are confident
that something unpredictably transformative will happen in at
least one heart, and that’s the miraculous power of music. Perhaps
Marilyn Manson is right. “Music is the strongest form of magic.”
Then that makes the Houston Symphony the most elite cadre of
magicians in town!

In Key of Thankful

—Dr. James Dixon, II
The Community Of Faith Church

Program
K. DAY
   Lightspeed

PRICE
  String Quartet in A minor
    III. Juba

W.G. STILL
  “Summerland” from Three Visions

MOZART
  Serenade, K.525 (Eine Kleine Nachtmusik)
    I. Allegro

REVUELTAS
  Ocho Por Radio

BACH
  Suite No. 2
   VII. Badinerie

GRIEG
  Suite No. 1 from Peer Gynt, Opus 46
    IV. In the Hall of the Mountain King

PROGRAM NOTES

  K . DAY
  LIGHTSPEED
  M I G U E L H A R T H - B E D O YA , C O N D U C T O R

                                           KEVIN DAY
                                           COMPOSER (b. 1996)

• Kevin Day is a composer, conductor, producer, and multi-
  instrumentalist whose music fuses jazz, minimalism, Latin, and
  contemporary classical idioms.
• Day is a native of Arlington, TX and is currently the Composer-in-
  Residence for the Mesquite Symphony.
• Lightspeed is subtitled “a fanfare orchestra.” In music, a fanfare is a
  short, ceremonial piece that often features brass instruments. Listen
  for the trumpets’ characteristically heroic fanfare melody at the end of
  this short piece.
• Written in 2019, Lightspeed was commissioned by Washington &
  Lee’s University Orchestra.

PROGRAM NOTES

  PRICE
  S T R I N G Q U A RT E T I N A M I N O R
     III. JUBA

F E ATURE D MUSICIANS
   Amy Semes, violin
   Sergei Galperin, violin
   Wei Jiang, viola
   Louis-Marie Fardet, cello

                                      FLORENCE
                                      PRICE
                                      COMPOSER (1887–1953)
• Florence Price (1887–1953) wrote several hundred compositions
  throughout her lifetime, including songs and piano pieces, as well as
  choral, chamber, and orchestral works. She often incorporated African
  American spirituals in her works.
• Price’s String Quartet No. 2 in A minor combines her African
  American heritage with mid-twentieth century harmonies. Listen
  for the inspiration of the Juba, a lively African dance, in the third
  movement.
• Price’s music has been performed by many major orchestras. She
  was the first African American woman to have a piece performed by
  a major American orchestra—the Chicago Symphony gave the world
  premiere of her Symphony No. 1 in 1933.

PROGRAM NOTES

 W. G . S T I L L
 “SUMMERLAND” FROM THREE VISIONS

F E ATURE D MUSICIANS
  Matthew Roitstein, flute
  Megan Conley, harp
  Eric Halen, violin
  Wei Jiang, viola
  Charles Seo, cello

                                    WILLIAM
                                    GRANT STILL
                                    COMPOSER (1895–1978)
• In William Grant Still’s Three Visions, written in 1935, he asks the
  listener to be aware that each of the “visions” are real only to the
  dreamer. His second vision, “Summerland,” depicts the promised
  beauty of the afterlife.
• Still believed that a composer should be a master of many styles, bound
  to none. Reminiscent of this philosophy, you may hear in this piece
  hints of blues mixed with nods to fellow composer Claude Debussy.
• William Grant Still (1895–1978) is an important composer in American
  history, often associated with the Harlem Renaissance. He matured as
  a composer in Harlem in the 1920s and is known for blending African
  American musical idioms and spirituals with European styles and forms.
• A prolific composer with more than 150 compositions, he received
  numerous prestigious awards and notable commissions throughout his
  lifetime. He was also the first African American to conduct a major
  American orchestra (Los Angeles Philharmonic) and to have an opera
  performed by a major opera company (New York City Opera).

PROGRAM NOTES

  M OZ A R T
  SERENADE, K.525
    I. ALLEGRO
  NICHOLAS MCGEGAN, CONDUCTOR

                                     WOLFGANG
                                     AMADEUS
                                     MOZART
                                     COMPOSER (1756–1791)

• A serenade in Mozart’s time was a piece written to be performed
  outdoors in the evening and was usually characterized by having a
  cheerful, light mood. The Serenade in C minor is Mozart’s only serenade
  written in a minor key, so it has a much more brooding, somber feel
  than his other serenades.
• Mozart wrote his first serenade at the age of 13. Orchestral serenades
  were extremely popular in his native Salzburg, where they were regularly
  used at weddings and parties.
• However, after his move to Vienna, where he was employed by the
  emperor at the time of writing this piece, Mozart only occasionally wrote
  compositions of this type.
• Mozart was so fond of this piece that he reused it in two of his later
  works: He transcribed it for string quintet in 1787, and he borrowed
  the main melody of the second movement for his opera Così fan tutte in
  1790.
• Although Mozart only lived to be 35 years old, he composed over 600
  works. His compositions were catalogued in the 19th century by Ludwig
  von Köchel, and they are now always distinguished by the K. numbering
  from this catalogue in the title (as in Serenade No. 12 in C minor,
  K.388).

PROGRAM NOTES

  R E V U E LTA S
  OCHO POR RADIO
  YUE BAO, CONDUCTOR

F E ATURE D MUSICIANS
   Rian Craypo, bassoon                   Sophia Silivos, violin
   Alexander Potiomkin, clarinet          Annie Kuan-Yu Chen, violin
   Mark Hughes, trumpet                   Christopher French, cello
   Matthew Strauss, percussion            Timothy Dilenschneider, bass

                                      SILVESTRE
                                      REVUELTAS
                                      COMPOSER (1899–1940)
• Ocho Por Radio, which translates to “Eight Musicians Broadcasting,”
  was written in 1933 to be played over the radio. The instrumentation
  includes two violins, cello, bass, clarinet, bassoon, trumpet, and
  percussion, and all parts are colorfully soloistic. The trumpet and strings
  help to convey mariachi influences throughout the work.
• Silvestre Revueltas (1899–1940) was born in Santiago Papsquiaro,
  Mexico. As an Expressionist composer, Revueltas sought to expand
  authentic, Mexican-based classical music by infusing contemporary
  sounds that one might hear on the streets. His compositional style is
  similar to that of Igor Stravinsky in his use of folk-inspired melodies
  saturated in dissonance and rhythmic vitality.
• It is often said Revueltas’s mother loved the arts and dreamed of having
  a child who would be a poet, musician, and painter. Her dream came
  true, but with a slight variation. Instead of having just one multi-talented
  child, she had three sons, each of whom specialized in one of the three
  art forms: Silvestre, the musician; José, the writer; and Fermín, the
  painter.

PROGRAM NOTES
B AC H
SUITE NO. 2
  VII. BADENIERIE
JANE GLOVER, CONDUCTOR
ARALEE DOROUGH, FLUTE

                                  JOHANN
                                  SEBASTIAN
                                  BACH
                                  COMPOSER (1685–1750)

 • No manuscript score for this piece survives, but the handwriting
   and paper used for the orchestral parts indicate the piece was
   written around 1738–1739.
 • Bach’s orchestral suites are collections of short, lively pieces
   following French dance forms. This one features demanding
   parts for a flute soloist, which will be played by Aralee Dorough,
   principal flute.

PROGRAM NOTES

GRIEG
SUITE NO. 1 FROM PEER GYNT, OPUS 46
  I V. I N T H E H A L L O F T H E M O U N TA I N K I N G
MICHAEL KRAJEWSKI, CONDUCTOR

                                 EDVARD GRIEG
                                 COMPOSER (1843–1907)

• Edvard Grieg was a Norwegian composer and pianist who
  became well-known for writing music that drew from fairy tales
  and folk melodies from his home country.
• Playwright Henrik Ibsen asked Grieg to write music to
  accompany his play, Peer Gynt, which premiered in Oslo in
  1876. This play is based on a Norwegian fairy tale, telling the
  story of an anti-hero’s downfall and subsequent redemption.
• In the play, the young main character, Peer Gynt is not allowed
  to marry the girl with whom he fell in love. He runs away to the
  mountains but is captured by trolls who take him to their king –
  “In the Hall of the Mountain King.”
• Grieg begins this music with plucking strings to portray Peer
  Gynt tiptoeing and sneaking away from the trolls. As other
  instruments are added and the intensity grows with the
  accelerating pace, Grieg takes the listener on a journey of Peer
  Gynt being chased by trolls and running into the Troll King,
  before eventually escaping.

ABOUT THE
   HOUSTON SYMPHONY
   During the 2020–21 Season, the Houston Symphony celebrated
   its seventh season with Music Director Andrés Orozco-Estrada and
   continues its second century as one of America’s leading orchestras
   with a full complement of concert, community, education, touring,
   and recording activities. The Houston Symphony, one of the oldest
   performing arts organizations in Texas, held its inaugural performance
   at The Majestic Theater in downtown on Houston June 21, 1913.
   Today, with an annual operating budget of $25.8 million, the full-
   time ensemble of 88 professional musicians presents nearly 170
   concerts annually, making it the largest performing arts organization in
   Houston. Additionally, musicians of the orchestra and the Symphony’s
   two Community-Embedded Musicians offer over 1,000 community-
   based performances each year at various schools, community centers,
   hospitals, and churches reaching more than 200,000 people in
   Greater Houston annually.
   The Grammy Award-winning Houston Symphony has recorded under
   various prestigious labels, including Koch International Classics,
   Naxos, RCA Red Seal, Telarc, Virgin Classics, and, most recently,
   Dutch recording label Pentatone. In 2017, the Houston Symphony was
   awarded an ECHO Klassik award for the live recording of Alban Berg’s
   Wozzeck under the direction of former Music Director Hans Graf. The
   orchestra earned its first Grammy nomination and Grammy Award at
   the 60th annual ceremony for the same recording in the Best Opera
   Recording category.

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     Guarantor        Care Provider                                                         of Houston through Houston Arts Alliance.