Orchestral Brilliance Program Notes

  Born in Vienna, Austria in 1797, Franz Schubert was a remarkably prolific composer who produced over 1500 works during his short lifetime.  He received his earliest musical training from his father, who taught him to play various musical instruments, and by 1808, Franz showed enough talent to earn a scholarship to the Imperial College Seminary.  While there, he studied under the famous composer, Antonio Salieri, and began composing in his early teens, producing several songs and a series of string quartets. After leaving school at age 16, he enrolled in Vienna’s Imperial teacher’s training college and one year later began teaching music at the same school as his father. 

Best known for his songs, symphonies, piano music, and chamber music, Shubert’s compositional style progressed rapidly throughout his life. He is considered the last of the classical composers as well as one of the first romantic ones, an unrivaled master of lyrical beauty.  The largest number of his compositions are songs for solo voice and piano and several secular works for two or more voices, including choruses and cantatas. He completed eight orchestral overtures and seven complete symphonies, and while he composed no concertos, he did write three concertante works for violin and orchestra. In addition, Schubert wrote a large body of music for solo piano, including eleven sonatas, and a large set of works for piano four hands. He also wrote over fifty chamber works, seven masses, one oratorio and one requiem. Schubert’s influence was considerable with later composers of the Romantic era, like Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms, Anton Bruckner, and Gustaf Mahler. 

Schubert composed his incidental music to the Romantic drama “Rosamunde, Princess of Cyprus” in less than three weeks, just in time for the premiere in December 1823. There was little time left to rehearse the music and no time to compose an overture. Instead, he used an overture already composed for the drama “The Magic Harp.” While “Rosamunde” the play only lasted for two performances, the overture lived on, a favorite of audiences with its dramatic introduction and lyrical themes – a work of delightful Schubertian beauty!

By the late 1820s, Schubert's health was failing, and he confided to some friends that he feared that he was near death. Schubert died in Vienna, aged 31, on 19 November 1828, at the apartment of his brother Ferdinand. The cause of his death was officially diagnosed as typhoid fever, though other theories have been proposed. He was buried, at his own request, near the grave of Beethoven, whom he had admired all his life, in the village cemetery of Währing on the edge of the Vienna Woods.

  Born in Lyons, France, in 1825, Jean-Baptiste Arban showed a musical talent and an interest in military music from a young age. His first instrument was the cornet, but he later switched to trumpet, and studied the instrument at the famed Paris Conservatory. He became one of the first masters of the cornet-a-piston – a cornet with piston valves, invented by horn player Heinrich Stölzel in 1814. Although brass instruments were popular with composers during the Baroque and Classical eras, the instruments didn’t have any valves, and players had to resort to the use of techniques like hand stops and lip slurs to play certain notes. Piston valves have a fast and clean action, making them ideal for complicated passages where every note needs to be heard. They were a great improvement in the playability of brass instruments, and, in the following decades, valves quickly became a basic feature on trumpets, cornets, French horns, tubas, and a host of other brass instruments.

The cornet was not the only instrument that Arban mastered; he was equally proficient on other brass instruments as well, including the saxhorn and early versions of the cornet.  He was influenced by Niccolò Paganini's virtuosic technique on the violin and successfully proved that the cornet was a true solo instrument by developing virtuoso technique on the instrument. He began teaching the art of cornet playing at the Paris Conservatory in 1869, took some time off in 1874 to pursue a career in conducting, and returned to teaching in 1880. He passed away in Paris in 1889.

Arban is best known today as the composer of “Carnival of Venice,” which has been a favorite of brass players for over a century. Based on a popular Italian folk tune (“My Hat, It Has Three Corners”) “Carnival of Venice” is a set of virtuosic variations written for solo trumpet and piano, each variation showcasing a different technique and style of playing such as double and triple tonguing, slurring, and arpeggios. The piece has been arranged and adapted for a variety of instruments, including keyboards, violin, and accordion. It’s a favorite with performers and audiences alike, and is often heard in recitals, concerts, and competitions all over the world. 

Nia Imani Franklin is a multi-talented musician, composer, actress, conductor, and singer. With styles ranging from Rhythm and Blues to classical, Nia’s expressive and eclectic music is a great fit for commercials, television and film. Her love for music began at a young age with gospel singing in church and composing her first song at the age of five. Nia received a Bachelor of Music degree in theory and composition from East Carolina University and a Master of Music degree in composition from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. While a student as UNCSA she composed a chamber opera titled King Solomon that premiered in 2015. 

Shortly after being selected for the 2017 William R. Kenan Fellowship with the Lincoln Center of the Performing Arts education division, Franklin moved to New York. She immediately began working with Success Academy Charter School, founded a music club for students, and served as a cultural partner for Sing for Hope.  In June 2018 she won the title of Miss New York and was crowned Miss America the following year.  

Franklin’s works have been performed by orchestras throughout the United States, including the Dallas Symphony, Friction Quartet, Saskatoon Symphony, and many others. Chrysalis Extended, one of her most notable works, has had nearly 4 million views on her Tik Tok profile. Regarding that work, Franklin offers this description:

“A chrysalis is what helps turn a caterpillar into a butterfly; it’s the transitional phase when the caterpillar gets wrapped inside a protective case and is given the time and space to become a butterfly. In my piece, the music sort of wraps around itself like a chrysalis, and you will hear musical ideas repeated and woven throughout. The music builds steadily into a big arrival near the end of the piece, and in this way it is reminiscent of the life cycle of a butterfly. Sometimes it takes a little longer to reach one’s full potential – and that is okay! I dedicate this piece to young composers everywhere.”

  Born into a distinguished Russian noble family in 1844, Rimsky-Korsakoff spent much of his life combining his music composition and teaching with a career in the Russian Armed Forces – first as an officer in the Imperial Russian Navy, then as the civilian inspector of Naval Bands. As inspector of Naval Bands, Rimsky-Korsakoff was able to expand his knowledge of woodwind and brass playing, which enhanced his abilities in orchestration.  Rimsky-Korsakoff was to become one of the most important figures in the art of orchestration, his lifetime coinciding with the rapid rise of industrialization and its profound effects on musical instrument design and production, and ultimately the orchestra itself. 

The 19th century was a fertile period for the development of the orchestra - and develop it did! The restraint of the Classical period gave way to the expressiveness of the Romantic era, with an emphasis on the personal, the dramatic, and the passionate - changes that demanded increased instrumental range and more facile playing techniques. To meet those demands, instruments had to be adjusted, and innovators like Boehm, Stölzel and others led the way.  With significant improvements in brass and woodwind instruments brought about by more advanced fingering systems and valve technology, those instruments took on new roles of importance in the tone color palette of the orchestra, resulting in an orchestra of greatly increased size and expressive power. Woodwinds grew from two to typically three or four of each instrument; and the brass section was augmented by a third trumpet, third and fourth horns, and the inclusion of trombones and tuba.  To maintain balance in the overall sound, the string section was expanded and divided into clear sections, with first violins  numbering as many as twenty players; second violins twenty; violas twelve; cellos ten and six to eight double basses. Composers had the option to subdivide these sections into smaller sections in their scores, allowing for huge dynamic contrasts and changes of texture within their music.

The percussion section was no exception to the changes and development of the orchestra. Timpani were soon joined by an array of instruments chosen for their unique sound qualities, including cymbals and gongs, woodblocks, castanets, bass drums, tubular bells, triangles, and side drums to name but a few additions to this vital part of the orchestra.

From the time of Haydn to the beginning of the 20th century, the orchestra grew from approximately 30 players to upwards of 50 or more, with a phenomenal range of color and musical expression.  The age of Orchestral Brilliance had arrived and is on full display in this evening’s performance of Rimsky-Korsakoff’sCapriccio Espagnole, Opus 34.

Although he had never visited Spain, during the 1880s Rimsky-Korsakoff became fascinated with the color and variety of Spanish folk music. It was from a collection of Spanish folk songs that he derived the music for his Capriccio Espagnole, Op. 34. The work was conceived as a piece for orchestra with solo violin, but after sketching out his ideas he decided he didn’t like it. He adapted his plan, kept the Spanish theme, and made the orchestral music so glittering and flashy that each and every musician would need virtuoso skills to play properly!  Capriccio premiered in St. Petersburg on October 31, 1887, with Rimsky-Korsakoff himself conducting it. It was a resounding success - the audience exploded with applause and wanted the orchestra to play it again all the way through! Even the musicians in the orchestra kept stopping to applaud Rimsky-Korsakov's genius during rehearsals – a rare tribute indeed!

Scored for a large orchestra, Capriccio Espagnole is in five movements, each with a different character and all based on Spanish folk song types such as the alborada, gypsy dances, and the fandango. The piece has a massive percussion section and is packed with enough new – at the time - orchestral effects to fill a book. It is a masterpiece of orchestration, bursting with orchestral imagination and beauty. Rimsky-Korsakov was slightly annoyed that all most people could see in the work was the colorful orchestration. He thought that the orchestration was a fundamental part of the piece, and not just fancy window-dressing.

During his long career as a composer and teacher, Rimsky-Korsakoff became famous as an orchestrator, and published an important textbook on the subject. As a member of a group of Russian composers known as The Five, he believed in creating a nationalistic style that was characterized by Russian folk song and lore. Although he initially rejected Western compositional methods, he gained an appreciation for Western musical techniques upon becoming a professor of music composition, harmony, and orchestration at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory in 1871. After a three-year program of self-education, Rimsky-Korsakoff became a master of Western methods, incorporating them alongside the influences of Mikhail Glinka and other members of The Five as well as the music of Richard Wagner. 

Rimsky-Korsakoff left a considerable body of original Russian nationalist compositions and shaped a generation of younger composers and musicians during his decades as an educator. He is considered the main architect of what is known as the Russian style of composition and transmitted the style directly to two generations of Russian composers, including Stravinsky. His influence also extended to non-Russian composers such as Maurice Ravel, Claude Debussy, Paul Dukas, and Ottorino Respighi as well.

Beginning around 1890, Rimsky-Korsakov suffered from angina. This ailment and the stress of the Russian Revolution of 1905 took their toll on his health. After December 1907 his illness became severe, and he was unable to work. 

In 1908, he died at his Lubensk estate, and was interred in Tikhvin Cemetery at the Alexander Nevsky Monastery in Saint Petersburg, next to Borodin, Glinka, Mussorgsky and Stasov. 

  Born in Milan, Italy, Giuseppe Sammartini learned to play the oboe from his father, and became an exceptionally skilled oboist who significantly advanced the level of oboe playing during his lifetime. Although born in Milan, Sammartini found his success in other parts of Europe, and eventually settled in London, where he spent the rest of his life. He achieved a high level of fame in London and was dubbed “the greatest oboist the world had ever known.” Well versed in counterpoint and harmony made him a very skilled composer of his time. Sammartini’s career as a composer advanced when he was hired as music master for the Prince of Wales, Frederick, and his wife Augusta. He worked for them and their children from 1736 until his death in 1750 and dedicated many of his compositions to Frederick and members of the family.

As an instrumental composer, Sammartini wrote a significant number of solo sonatas, many of which were written for the flute, recorder, and oboe. During his lifetime he wrote 24 sonatas for recorder and bass, 30 trios for flutes or violins, 24 concerti grossi, 4 keyboard concertos, numerous oboe concertos, 16 overtures, some cello sonatas, and some flute duets. 

The Concerto in F Major for Recorder is by far his best-known work, and for good reason: its lyricism, especially in the pastorale Siciliano, offers the soloist abundant opportunities for musical expression. Although originally scored for recorder as the solo instrument, tonight our soloist Ashley Hall-Tighe will perform the Concerto in F on trumpet! She will be accompanied by the string section of the Rock Hill Symphony.