Details

About this Concert An evening of extraordinary orchestral music, ranging from Debussy’s hypnotic ballet, to the exhilarating South American rhythms and melodies of Harry Freedman’s dazzling suite, to the remarkable and rapturous music of Rautavaara complement two rarely-heard showpieces for saxophone. Featured Repertoire DEBUSSY: Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun DEBUSSY: Danse DEBUSSY: Rapsodie for Orchestra and Saxophone IBERT: Concertino da camera for Saxophone FREEDMAN: Oiseaux exotiques: Suite RAUTAVAARA: Cantus Articus “Concerto for Birds”  Additional Activities Join us for Symphony Prelude at 7:15pm in the Upper Circle lobby for an informative presentation about the evening's program. Add this concert to my calendar

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Ticket Information $79 Dress Circle (A) $69 Terrace (B) $56 Orchestra (C) $38 Upper Circle (D) $28 Gallery (E) $20 Orchestra Front (F) Tickets subject to applicable service charges.

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Program Info

Program

DEBUSSY
Prélude à l'aprés-midi d'un faune (10')*

DEBUSSY (Orch Ravel)
Danse (6’)*

DEBUSSY
Rapsodie pour orchestre et saxophone (10')*
 William H. Street, saxophone

IBERT
Concertino da camera for Saxophone (11')*
 William H. Street, saxophone

INTERMISSION

FREEDMAN
Selections from Oiseaux exotiques: Suite (14’)*
1. Conga
2. Butterfly
3. Joropo
6. Llanero
9. Samba 1
12. La Negra

RAUTAVARRA
Cantus Articus, Opus 61 “Concerto for Birds and Orchestra” (19')*

*Indicates approximate performance duration.
Program subject to change.

Program Notes

Music of Claude Debussy (b. St. Germain-en-Laye, 1862 / d. Paris, 1918)

Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune

“He is considered the revolutionary who, with the Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune of 1894, set twentieth-century music on its way.” Such is summation of the impact of Claude Debussy by the late critic of the New York Times Harold C. Schoenberg. While regarded an important composer during his life, the decades since then have only increased Debussy’s stature as the greatest French composer.

The “faune” of the title is not, as tonight’s concert theme might suggested, a young deer, but rather the fauns of Greek myth – rural gods with the horns and legs of a goat. Debussy was inspired by L’après-midi d’un faune (“The Afternoon of a Faun”), a poem by his contemporary Stéphane Mallarmé. The work begins with one of the most sensuous, languid solos in music, a magical scene-setter performed on the flute, and unfolds luxuriantly into a rich, pastel landscape of ever-unspooling melody. It premiered on December 22, 1894, and its first conductor, Gustave Doret, recalled, “There were cheers. The orchestra itself applauded. An encore was demanded, and I was forced to grant it. I broke the rules, thinking that it had been a long time since a masterpiece of this class had been presented.”


Rapsodie for Orchestra and Saxophone

A patent for the saxophone was registered by Adolphe Sax in 1846, and soon after, a number of Sax’s French countrymen began giving the instrument some token exposure in their music. As the new century dawned, wealthy American arts patron and President of the Orchestral Club of Boston, Elisa Hall (1853-1924) was advised by her doctor to take up the saxophone – for health reasons. She was disappointed in the quantity and quality of works for her adopted instrument, so she set about commissioning new works for it. Among those she engaged were Vincent d’Indy, André Caplet, and, in 1893, Claude Debussy.

He dragged his feet terribly over the commission for what he called, “this aquatic instrument,” noting humorously in a letter to a friend, “Considering this Fantasy was ordered, and paid for, and eaten more than a year ago, I realize I am behind with it.” The fantasy was rescored as a Rapsodie, and it is curious to note that a copy of the score, signed by Debussy, currently resides at the Bibliotheque National de Paris and is dated 1903 – five years before the score was ever sent to, “the Saxophone Lady.” The work was never performed publicly until 1991, at a commemorative concert following Debussy’s death.

The Rapsodie begins mysteriously in the strings, and the soloist’s entrance picks up on that; Debussy’s ability to create a luxuriantly unfolding melody much in evidence here. There is never a sense of hurry, the landscape has a pastoral feel, though also very nocturnal. The saxophone is called upon to play long, passages featuring tricky syncopations and languidly held long notes. Halfway through, the mood becomes decidedly more decisive and dramatic in the orchestra, though the saxophone seems to settle the mood once again as it dictates the emotional content of the work. The final section picks up the pace, as the saxophone begins an undulating dance, still full of mystery, with a slightly Arabian fragrance to it – and a surprisingly declamatory ending.

Danse (orch. Ravel)

Five years after Debussy’s death, the new head of Debussy’s old publishing house, Fromont, commissioned Maurice Ravel to orchestrate music of Debussy as an homage. As Fromont had been a publisher of Debussy’s early works, Ravel chose two of those, both originally written for piano solo. The lively and engaging Tarantelle styrienne dates from 1890; it is contrasted with a Sarabande, one of the movements of the suite Pour le piano of 1901, and marked in the piano score as “Avec une élégance grave et lente” (“with a serious elegance, and slowly”).


Concertino da camera for Saxophone
Jacques Ibert (b. Paris, 1890 / d. Paris, 1962)

In the generation which followed the great writers for orchestra such as Ravel and Debussy, many French composers became quite expert in writing for smaller forces. Jacques Ibert was one of those, with a particular ear for wind sonorities. He wrote his chamber concerto for Saxophone in 1935, scored for the soloist plus 11 instruments. It opens with a quick feeling of tension in the ensemble, but the soloist’s entrance ushers in a cosmopolitan, suave sensibility. The spare instrumental forces provide a surprisingly warm backdrop for the saxophone’s passages, which range from nimble to long-breathed and lyrical. While the soloist dominates, the ensemble provides important counter-material, picking up on the saxophone’s varying emotional shading. The movement ends in happy collaboration.

The Larghetto central section is begun whisper softly by the saxophone, haunting and almost forlorn. The ensemble tiptoes in as the saxophone continues its plangent song. Seamlessly, the instruments blend with the soloist in a rich and plaintive song, suddenly abated as, without a pause, the final section, Animato molto, scurries in almost mischievously. This movement is full of élan, but it still showcases the full arsenal the saxophone has, ranging through its entire compass, and blending demanding fingering and breath control with dynamic shifts and wide leaps. There is a brief cadenza before the sense of play with the ensemble returns to close the work.


Oiseaux exotiques: Suite (selections)
Harry Freedman (b. Lodz, Poland, 1922 / d. Toronto, 2005)

Harry Freedman likely never foresaw the very specific advantage his brief tenure as an arranger for Toronto dance clubs in the 1940s would have. It exposed him to a wide array of dance styles, from American jazz, to dance forms from many lands. So when choreographer Constantin Patsalas approached Freedman with a set of Venezuelan tunes had had heard while on a trip to South America, wanting the veteran composer to arrange them for a ballet, his talents in setting exotic music bore great fruite, and one of Freedman’s most popular scores was born.

Oiseaux exotiques (“Exotic Birds”) was premiered by the National Ballet, and is a colourful series of dances based on Venezuelan music. Some of the movements are in fact named for actual flying creatures (in tonight’s excerpts, Butterfly and La Negra – “the blackbird”), while others are Latin American dances (Conga, Joropoand Samba). The Joropo, in fact, is considered Venezuela’s national dance. The other excerpt tonight, Llanero, is based on a Venezuelan folksong. In evoking an authentic  Venezuelan sound, Freedman’s orchestration features a large percussion section. The Edmonton Symphony Orchestra’s CBC recording of the suite, coupled with Malcolm Forsyth’s Atayoskewin and released in 1986, won a Juno Award.


Cantus Arcticus, Op.61 "Concerto for Birds and Orchestra"
Einojuhani Rautavaara (b. Helsinki, 1928)

Einojuhani Rautavaara has established a presence on the world stage that goes far beyond his status as one of Finland’s finest composers. At once highly individual and profoundly influential, Rautavaara has created a fascinatingly diverse body of work, one guided more by his deep musical instincts than by currency of a particular school of compositional thought.

His Cantus Arcticus, featuring pre-recorded bird sounds, was commissioned in 1972 by the University of Oulu, located in/near the Arctic, for its doctoral degree ceremony. “The bird sounds were taped in the Arctic Circle and in the marshlands of Liminka,” Rautavaara has said. The opening movement begins with two flutes (among the most “birdlike” of orchestral instruments), and eventually, other winds are added to their sound, accompanied by birds one finds in Finnish bogs in spring. When the strings finally enter, they can be interpreted, the composer says, “as the voice and mood of a person walking in the wilds.”

The second movement lives up to its melancholy name. The recording used here is that of a shore lark, though the recording is actually lowered by two octaves, creating a spectral, ghost-like feel to the bird’s song. The final movement is given the migration of a host of swans. The instrumental forces are presented in four independent groups. As the din of the swans grows, the orchestral parts blend and coalesce with increasing complexity. Then, like the birds themselves, the music gradually fades into the distance.

Program notes © 2012 by D.T. Baker

Artist Info

Pierre Simard, conductor

Pierre Simard is Artistic Director with the Vancouver Island Symphony (BC) and the Orchestre symphonique de Drummondville (QC). He is acclaimed as a prominent Canadian conductor and composer-arranger, with a worldwide career.

Passionate and versatile, he shares his love for music with a contagious enthusiasm that has granted him praise from critics, colleagues and audiences alike. His warm personality and outstanding commitment have enabled concertgoers of all ages to enjoy symphonic music.

Formerly Assistant Conductor with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, and Associate Conductor with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, he is guest conductor with major orchestras in Canada (Edmonton, Ottawa’s National Arts Centre, Toronto, Hamilton, Victoria, Québec’s Les Violons du Roy, Trois-Rivières, Montréal’s Orchestre Métropolitain), the United States (Milwaukee (WI), Tucson (AZ), Santa Cruz (CA), Hot Springs (AR)), and Europe (Lisbon’s Orquestra Metropolitana, Brussels, Lyon). He also guest conducted with Opéra de Montréal and the Lanaudière International Festival.

A passionate performer of new music and large-scale symphonic masterpieces, Pierre Simard reinvents the concert formula, combining fantasy, other art forms or humour to music. His vast repertoire includes major symphonies and concertos, orchestral gems, choral works, his own compositions and arrangements and new music premieres.

His creativity and dedication towards younger audience members enabled him to create original symphony shows featured all across North America. He also guest conducts shows with artists such as Colin James, Ian Tyson, Chantal Kreviazuk, Nikki Yanofsky, the Canadian Tenors, and Chris Botti.

Pierre Simard was awarded the Canada Council for the Arts’ Jean-Marie Beaudet Award in Orchestral Conducting. He also received two Opus Prizes from Québec’s Music Council and grants from Québec’s Arts Council. A Master’s Degree in Conducting from the Peabody Institute (Johns Hopkins University) graduate and from the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal, Pierre Simard studied with Raffi Armenian, Frederik Prausnitz, JoAnn Falletta and Marin Alsop.

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William H. Street, saxophone

Saxophonist William H. Street has performed and lectured in Belgium, Canada, Federation of Russia, France, Great Britain, Japan, Mexico, Spain, Taiwan, Thailand, Ukraine, and the U.S. He tours frequently with pianist Roger Admiral and the Quatuor International de Saxophones emphasizing the importance of both solo and chamber music making. Strongly influenced by his former teachers Etheridge, Hemke and Londeix, Mr. Street has sought to make heard the music of today’s composers in his concerts. He can be heard on compact disc recordings Sunthesis: Les Septs Iles with L'Ensemble International de Saxophones, At Your Service with pianist Sylvia Taylor and the Centaur recording of Evolution V for five saxophonists by Marilyn Shrude, with the Chicago Saxophone Quartet. His recording of Tre Vie, Concerto for Saxophone and Orchestra by Malcolm Forsyth with Grzegorz Nowak and the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra was nominated for a 1999 Juno award and was re-issued in 2009.

Other recordings include Quatuor International de Saxophone LIVE, heliosaxo, My Very First Solo, and Westwind, Canadian Music for Saxophone with Roger Admiral. Street also participated as a jury member for international competitions in Belgium, France, Russia, Thailand, Ukraine, and the United States. He served as President of the North American Saxophone Alliance from 1992-1994. His published work includes the English translation of Hello! Mr. Sax, ou les Paramètres du Saxophone (Leduc) by Jean-Marie Londeix, "Elise Boyer Hall," and "The Life of Elise Boyer Hall" in Les États Géneraux Mondiaux du Saxophone. Anna and William Street translated into English the Méthode d'étude de Saxophone by Jean-Marie Londeix and published by Éditions Henry Lemoine in Paris.  William Street also served as editorial consultant for the biography Jean-Marie Londeix, Master of the Modern Saxophone by James Umble (Roncorp, 2000).

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