Program Notes: Concert 5
About our soloist
Cellist Wendy Law has appeared as soloist with renowned orchestras including the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Singapore Symphony, Hong Kong Sinfonietta, Russian Philharmonic and Juilliard Orchestra. Ms. Law has performed throughout North America, appearing in such venues as Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall and Alice Tully Hall; Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall; the J.F. Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C.; and Jordan Hall, Boston. An active chamber musician, she has collaborated with the Borromeo String Quartet, Yo-Yo Ma and Pamela Frank, among others. A proponent of the interdisciplinary arts, Ms. Law collaborates with artists from other genres. Past collaborations of note include performances of the Bach Cello Suites with the Juilliard Dance Ensemble choreographed by Igal Perry, Mark Morris Dance Group, VisionIntoArt and performances in the thematic interdisciplinary series “Voyage to the Exotics” (a series created and founded by Ms. Law in 2002).
Ms. Law began her cello studies with Ge Wu at the Hong Kong Academy of the Arts. At age twelve, she moved to the United States to study with Mark Churchill at Boston’s New England Conservatory Preparatory School as well as the Walnut Hill School. Ms. Law received her Bachelor of Music with Distinction from the New England Conservatory, having studied with Laurence Lesser. She received her Master of Music in the prestigious Artist Diploma Program from the Juilliard School, where she studied with Joel Krosnick and Tim Eddy.
In recent seasons, Ms. Law was invited by the office of the U.N. Secretary General to perform at the General Assembly of the United Nations in a memorial ceremony for the U.N. staff and family members of those who lost their lives in the attack on the U.N. compound in Baghdad, Iraq. On the invitation of the Association of Performing Arts Presenters, Ms. Law was showcased in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. Other recent appearances include New York’s Bargemusic, Chicago’s Dame Myra Hess Concert Series, and the Caramoor and Marlboro Music Festivals. A regular touring artist, Ms. Law has toured with Musicians From Marlboro and has performed internationally in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Argentina, Chile, Canada, France, Switzerland and Belgium.
In 2003, Ms. Law was featured on Japan’s nationwide broadcast of the NHK-TV documentary series, New York Streets. She has also appeared on PBS-TV’s documentary broadcast of the New England Conservatory Youth Philharmonic Orchestra’s tour of Chile and Argentina, in which Ms. Law was the featured soloist. She has also performed at Boston’s WGBH Radio and at Hong Kong’s radio station. Ms. Law has recorded Wing-Fai Law’s Phantasm with the Russian Philharmonic Orchestra for the Hugo label.
As well as receiving local and national prizes in the American String Teachers Association Competition and the Boston Symphony Orchestra Young Artist Competition, Ms. Law has been the recipient of numerous other awards, including the Juilliard InterArts Award, first prizes in the Juilliard Cello Concerto Competition, National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts, Kingsville International Competition, Fischoff National Competition (as a member of the Amaryllis String Quartet), and the Harvard Musical Association Achievement Award.
PROGRAM NOTES
Son and Stranger Overture
Felix Mendelssohn (1809–1847)
December 1829 marked the silver wedding anniversary of Felix Mendelssohn’s parents. To brighten the occasion, twenty-year-old Felix decided to write a piece of music in their honor, a one-act liederspiel, (a musical skit mingling spoken lines with songs), with libretto by his friend Karl Klingemann. Entitled Die Heimkehr aus der Fremde, literally “The Return Home of the Stranger,” the work was performed as planned at an anniversary gala held in the Mendelssohn home in Berlin. The composer never intended the piece to be performed commercially, but in 1851, four years after his death, it was staged in Leipsig and later the same year in England, where it was given the title Son and Stranger.
The plot, cleverly designed to put Felix and his parents on stage in thin disguise, focuses on a village mayor and his wife who are busily preparing to celebrate an important anniversary, the mayor’s fiftieth year in office. Both anxiously await the return home of their long absent “stranger son” (a military officer, as it happens), much as Mendelssohn’s parents were awaiting the homecoming of their own Felix, who had conceived and written his operetta while away on a tour of England, arriving in Berlin barely in time for the performance.
Symphony no. 36 in C Major, Linz
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791)
On the morning of October 31, 1783, Mozart and his wife Constanza arrived in Linz on their way back to Vienna from Salzburg where they had just spent three months with Leopold, Mozart’s father, trying with little success to soften his disapproval of their marriage. Passing through Linz, they were hosted by a certain Count Thun, an ardent lover of Mozart’s music. The count invited the couple to stay at his castle, extracting from Mozart the promise that in four days he would conduct the Count’s orchestra in an all-Mozart concert. On the evening of the 31st, Mozart wrote to his father, “Because I have not a single symphony with me, I am working at breakneck speed on a new one, which must be ready by November 4.” Mozart made his deadline and the performance came off on schedule.
- Adagio — Allegro spiritoso. The symphony opens with a slow introduction (Adagio, 3/4 time), a common device in a Haydn symphony but an unusual one for Mozart, who employs it only here and in Symphonies no. 38 and no. 39. The dashing Allegro spiritoso is festive in character, with just a touch of pomp — music that seems right at home played for an audience of nobles.
- Poco adagio. Aristocratic refinement also marks the Poco adagio. Dignified trumpets, an unusual presence in a Mozart slow movement, add a touch of stateliness. At times a hint of melancholy comes to the surface — perhaps the reflection of lingering sadness over Leopold’s rejection of Constanza? (Such speculations are as impossible to resist as they are to prove.)
- Menuetto. The Minuet, with its bold and forthright rhythm, is reminiscent of Haydn. The tuneful Trio section is a laendler, the 3/4 meter country-dance that was destined to evolve into the waltz. Oboe and bassoon are featured, playing first in unison, then with the bassoon songfully imitating the oboe.
- Presto. After a quiet, suspenseful opening, the Presto quickly develops into an exhilarating finale marked by flying fast notes and dramatic dynamic contrasts. At this point Mozart seems intent on acknowledging, not so much the nobility of Count Thun’s entourage, as the musical excellence of his orchestra. If Thun was asking a lot in expecting Mozart to crank out a four-movement symphony in four days time, at least he gave his hurried composer an instrumental ensemble of the highest caliber with which to work.
Romanian Folk Dances for String Orchestra
Bela Bartok (1881–1945)
Bela Bartok’s eminence as a modernist composer influenced by the likes of Stravinsky and Schoenberg is such that one sometimes overlooks his “other” musical identity as a musical ethnologist. Passionately interested in the folk music not only of his native Hungary but of all the Balkan countries as well, Bartok collected and arranged literally thousands of folk tunes during his lifetime. Ironically, this material was not without influence on his own compositional style, which at times features “imaginary folk music” — music of his own invention but nonetheless folk-like in flavor.
The six short Romanian folk dances were published in 1915 in an arrangement for piano that Bartok orchestrated two years later. A popular version for violin and piano is also widely performed. The opening “Stick Dance,” referring to a game played with sticks, is happy and energetic. “Sash Dance” (the sash is a cloth belt worn by both men and women) is similar in mood but faster. “Stamping Dance” features a slower, more deliberate beat. “Horn Dance,” with contrasting major and minor sections, is graceful and subdued. “Romanian Polka,” meant to accompany a children’s dance, is quick and lively, as are the two concluding “Fast Dances.”
Variations on a Rococo Theme in A Major
Peter Ilyitch Tchaikovsky (1840–1893)
Composed in 1876, a few months before the Fourth Symphony, Tchaikovsky’s opus 33 is an attractive, melodic virtuoso piece that stands today as a staple of the cello repertoire. An opening dialogue between strings and woodwinds leads to a romantic horn melody. From this point on, the solo cello dominates the music, first stating the lyrical theme, then taking the lead in seven variations separated by orchestral interludes and solo cadenzas. Throughout, interplay between soloist and orchestra is constant and beautifully varied.
These notes are written for Symphony by the Sea. They may be reproduced, provided that authorship acknowledgement is given to William R. Clark, © W. R. Clark