Concerts - February 2012

Melissa MatsonTreasures

  • Saturday Feb. 18 – Laxson Auditorium, Chico, 7:30 pm
    Sunday Feb. 19 – Cascade Theatre, Redding, 2:00

Subtle beauty meets brash exuberance in this concert that brings together an audience favorite, Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony, with two rarities. Chabrier’s Spanish-inflected Habanera introduces an intriguing showpiece for the violin’s more modest sister, the viola. You’ll enjoy hearing the music of Rebecca Clarke, one of America’s little-known treasures.

Conductor Kyle Wiley Pickett will give a free pre-concert talk one hour before the concerts begin.

To purchase tickets online to Feb. 18 concert in Chico, click here.
To purchase tickets online to Feb. 19 concert in Redding, click here.

 

Melissa Matson, viola

Melissa Matson, prizewinner of the Cleveland Quartet Competition (1978-80), earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees, as well as a Performer’s Certificate, at Eastman. Matson studied viola with Martha Katz, Heidi Castleman, and Karen Tuttle, and chamber music with the Cleveland and Juilliard Quartets, and at the Quartet Program and the Aspen Festival Center for Advanced Quartet Studies.

She is a founding member of the Chester String Quartet (1978-83), and also won prizes at the Munich and Portsmouth (England) quartet competitions. She has recorded on CRI, Stolat, and Pantheon. Matson also performed on a CD, Chamber Jazz, by Jeff Tyzik, released by the Society for Chamber Music (Rochester).

In addition to her teaching post, Matson is a soloist and principal violist with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, and is a performer with the Society for Chamber Music (1986-) and the Skaneateles (NY) Festival (1987-). She also is a mentor and coach for the Rochester Philharmonic Youth Orchestra (1990-).

Prior to joining the Eastman faculty in 1985, Matson was a faculty member at Indiana University – South Bend (1980-83) and the Eastern Music Festival (summers 1984-86).

“Malurous qu’o uno fenno” (Unhappy he who has a wife)

Unhappy he who has a wife,
Unhappy he who has none!
He who has none wants one,
He who has one wants none!
Tradèra, ladèri, dèrèro, Ladèra ladèri dèra!

Happy is the woman
Who has the man she needs!
But she is still happier –
The one who hasn’t any!
Tradèra, ladèri, dèrèro,
Ladèra ladèri dèra!

Translation from:
McCann, Lori. A Critical Performing Edition of Selected Songs from Chants d’Auvergne. Collected and Harmonized by Joseph Canteloube. Doctoral Thesis, University of Wisconsin, 1996.

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Habanera
Emmanuel Chabrier (1841-1894)

Frenchman Emmanuel Chabrier’s  love and passion for music developed at an early age. Influenced by his father, Chabrier was forced to earn a living with a “day job” as a civil servant. In his evenings, however, he expressed the artistic side of his personality by performing in the night clubs of Paris.

His parent’s death in 1869 caused a four-year halt in Chabrier’s composing. Returning to composition following his marriage to Alice Dejean, Chabrier gained recognition and respect. In 1880 he resigned from his day job and devoted himself to music.

A trip to Spain in 1882 had a considerable impact on Chabrier’s life and music. The first piece in which this impact is evident is his well-known rhapsody, España. Habanera is the second piece influenced by his trip. Written in 1885 for piano, Habanera was transcribed for orchestra in 1888.

Habanera is a Spanish dance (originally from Cuba, the name refers to Havana) in a slow duple meter like that which became the foundation of the tango. In Chabrier’s Habanera, the lilting Spanish rhythms are evident from the very beginning. The piece begins lightly, like feet stepping so gracefully  that they hardly touch the ground. Intensity increases later with the return of the original theme but the piece concludes as lightly as it began.

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Sonata for Viola and Orchestra
Rebecca Clarke (1886-1979)

In an era when women’s roles were strictly defined, English composer Rebecca Clarke created her own path in the world of professional music.

She endured two unsuccessful attempts to complete a musical education. After her harmony teacher proposed marriage, Clarke’s father withdrew her from the Royal Academy of Music, and later actually threw her out of the family home. Overcoming the negative effects on her life, she used her need to support herself to establish a career in the male-dominated field of professional music performance.

Clarke became one of the first female musicians in the Queen’s Hall orchestra and then performed throughout the United States between 1916 and 1919. A violist and composer, she performed with cellist May Mukle in Hawaii and on an international tour of British colonies. Toward the end of the 1920s and the early 1930s, however, Clarke’s compositions diminished. Apparently discouraged, she also had difficulty getting her music published. As a result, many of her compositions have not been studied or recorded. She settled in the US permanently during World War II and married in 1944.

Founded in 2000 by former Chicoan Liane Curtis, the Rebecca Clarke Society encourages and supports performances and recordings of her music, publication of her music and writings, and scholarship concerning Clarke and her music.

The Viola Sonata (1919) was written during the concertizing years of Clarke’s career. The piece (in its original version for viola and piano) tied for first place in the Berkshire Festival of Chamber Music, sponsored by Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge. During the judging of that competition, Clarke’s composition was compared to those by Maurice Ravel; in fact, one judge thought Ravel had submitted the piece using an alias! In other of Clarke’s compositions, the influence of Claude Debussy can be heard.

Impetuoso begins with a strong thematic announcement from the solo viola, and showcases the rich, beautiful tone of the instrument. As the movement continues, the orchestral harmonies show elements of the romantic era as well as the new sounds of the 20th century. The Vivace second movement alternates seamlessly between a fluttering melody and accompaniment in a rousing dance. Adagio, the third movement,begins with a lower version of the haunting melody and is full of emotion. As the movement continues, elements of impressionism, including characteristic sonorities and use of pentatonic scale are heard.

Although an immediate success, the Sonata gradually disappeared from the repertoire, and Clarke was virtually forgotten. The rediscovery of the Sonata occurred in 1976, and since that time it has become (according to some violists) the most frequently performed large work for viola and piano.

The current version in which a chamber orchestra replaces the piano was premiered on June 8, 2007.  The orchestration was done by composer Ruth Lomon. A native of Montreal, Canada, Ruth Lomon attended le Conservatoire de Quebec and McGill University. She continued her studies with Frances Judd Cooke at the New England Conservatory of Music and, later, with Witold Lutoslawski at Dartington College, England. She is Scholar-in-Residence at the Women's Studies Research Center, Brandeis University (which is also the home of The Rebecca Clarke Society).

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Symphony No. 7
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

At the heart of symphonic repertoire lie the symphonic works of Ludwig van Beethoven.  Ingenuity and strong emotions are hallmarks of his nine symphonies, which continue to be studied and imitated, each possessing its own personality and connection to Beethoven’s dramatic life.

Symphony No. 7 (1811-1812) was composed in the middle of his career and well into the years of his struggle with deafness. Both a mastery of his material and maturity of character are evident in his composition.  Dealing with deafness and rising above it, Beethoven’s inner strength and wisdom meld with creativity and bring forth a new era in composition.

Many works that push the boundaries of creativity and emotion are originally rejected by a composer’s contemporaries and first audience. That is not the case with Symphony No. 7. The work premiered at a soldier’s benefit concert in December 1813 and was immediately popular. The Viennese audience that enjoyed that first performance had been through many defeats by Napoleon, yet held on to hopes for victory. Beethoven spoke to that desire for victory through the celebratory tone of Symphony No. 7. The second movement, Allegretto, became especially popular and is sometimes performed alone. It also provides a sense of passion and anticipation in a very dramatic scene of the recent movie, The King’s Speech.

Symphony No. 7 begins with a long, majestic introduction, and then with the repetition of one note transitions into the Vivace section. Allegretto, the beautiful second movement, is a striking contrast to the first movement. Elements of dance are evident in the scherzo of the third movement, Presto meno assai. The theme for the trio comes from an Austrian folksong. Allegro con brio continues the dance in a flurry of joy and movement. Again, themes are derived from folksong, this time a Hungarian dance tune which becomes the second theme. It is likely these two movements that led Richard Wagner to state, “The Symphony is the Apotheosis of the Dance itself: it is Dance in its highest aspect, the loftiest deed of bodily motion, incorporated into an ideal mold of tone.”

Overall, the Seventh Symphony is driven by its intense rhythmic nature, more than by melodies, from which derives the pervading sense of celebration and excitement. Through music, Beethoven overcame the most devastating challenge for any musician, and emerged with hope and strength.

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- Program Notes by Lauren Sharkey