Ravinia 2022, Issue 6

ZACH ALAN/MOLINA VISUALS (ORPHEUS) the orchestral texture. The change to a slower tempo ( Adagio ) in var. 8 marks an important juncture in the original set of variations. Its already layered texture required no enhance- ment. Wiancko extends 16th-note flourishes to all the upper strings in var. 9, which con- trasts with the sparse duet setting of var. 10. From this point forward, Wiancko interpo- lates more original music. The next two vari- ations (nos. 12 and 13) possess, respectively, a Latin character enhanced by woodblock and a soft, mysterious mood intensified by string pizzicatos. Var. 14 remains in its orig- inal form. The pace slows for two newly com- posed variations—metrically free, at times Coplandesque, and in a major key. Wiancko retains most aspects of the next six variations, notably adding a pizzicato countermelody to var. 18. The final two variations (nos. 22 and 23) gain energy and drive through the addition of a tambourine and foot-stomping. –Program note © 2022 Todd E. Sullivan ADOLPHUS HAILSTORK (b.1941) Sonata da Chiesa Having just celebrated his 80th birthday last April, Adolphus Hailstork is proving that he is still in the prime of his musical life, adding major new works to a substantial catalog that stretches back to the 1960s. During his stu- dent years at Howard University, Manhattan School of Music, and Michigan State Univer- sity, Hailstork gained notice for his finely crafted scores for large and small ensembles, including a master’s thesis work performed by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. A succession of teaching posts brought him to Virginia, where he joined the faculty of Nor- folk State University and then Old Dominion University. He still serves as Professor of Mu- sic and Eminent Scholar, and current projects such as his Fourth Symphony—a tribute to George Floyd—show his continued engage- ment with concert music that reflects his per- spective on Black life in America. Adolphus Hailstork When commissioned to write a work for the string orchestra at a high school in northern Virginia in 1992, Hailstork looked back on his own childhood singing as a chorister at a cathedral in Albany to find inspiration for his Sonata da Chiesa , or “church sonata.” The titles of the brief movements match the work’s reverent tone: Exaltation , O Great Mystery , Adoration , Jubilation , O Lamb Of God , Grant Us Thy Peace , Exaltation . –Program note © 2021 Aaron Grad ANTONIO VIVALDI (1678–1741) The Four Seasons , op. 8, nos. 1–4 (RV 269, 315, 293, 315) From its perch on the Adriatic Sea, Venice dominated international trade for centuries. That economic engine created merchants of unimaginable wealth. And those merchants had mistresses and prostitutes. And those women had babies. And some of those baby girls ended up at the Ospedale della Pietà, an orphanage funded generously by those same powerful men. And those girls had an ex- traordinary music teacher: an ordained priest and violin virtuoso named Antonio Vivaldi. Vivaldi was not the first to write concertos featuring a solo instrument with orchestra, but he did more than anyone else to spread that northern Italian specialty out to the rest of the world. From 1703 until 1715, and again from 1723 to 1740, Vivaldi used his students at the Ospedale to test out new ideas, leading him to produce a staggering array of more than 500 concertos in his life, with at least 230 featuring the violin. Even before the publi- cation of his first breakthrough collection of concertos in 1711, bootleg copies had spread far and wide, including to Weimar, Germany, where they found perhaps their biggest fan in the young Johann Sebastian Bach. Vivaldi released his most ambitious publica- tion to date in 1725, when he collected 12 vio- lin concertos under the title The Contest Anonymous portrait of Antonio Vivaldi (c.1723) Between Harmony and Invention. He named the first four concertos after the seasons, and he organized the musical ideas to correspond to descriptive sonnets that he likely wrote himself. These interrelated works that we know as The Four Seasons live on as the crown jewels within Vivaldi’s prolific output. The sonnets offered Vivaldi ample opportu- nities for word painting, starting with Spring and the bright trilling of “birds in joyous song.” When a goatherd naps in a meadow, Ospedale della Pietà the violas play the part of his barking dog; when nymphs and shepherds dance to bag- pipes, droning violas, cellos, and basses pro- vide their best imitation. Summer brings the “heat of the burning sun,” matched by wilting musical figures and the so- loist’s interpretation of a cuckoo’s call. The slow movement depicts another nap, this one inter- rupted by the nuisance of gnats and flies and occasional peals of thunder, until the finale un- leashes the full force of the summer storm, the lines cascading down like sheets of rain. Autumn begins with peasants dancing and drinking in celebration of the harvest. The slow movement descends into the soundest sleep yet, with the soloist joining the muted strings in slow-moving phrases, and then the finale wakes for a hunt, complete with horn calls and more barking dogs. Winter paints a scene of desolate cold and chattering teeth. The slow movement moves the scene indoors to the fireside while pizzi- cato raindrops continue to fall, and then the finale steps back out onto the slippery ice scoured by raging gusts of wind. –Program note © 2019 Aaron Grad ORPHEUS CHAMBER ORCHESTRA Orpheus Chamber Orchestra is a radical experiment in musical democracy, proving for 50 years what happens when exceptional artists gather with total trust in each other and faith in the cre- ative process. Orpheus began in 1972 when cellist Julian Fifer assembled a group of New York freelancers in their early 20s to play orchestral repertoire as if it were chamber music. It’s one thing for the four players of a string quartet to lean in to the group sound and react spontaneously, but with 20 or 30 musicians together, the complexities and payoffs get magnified exponentially. Within its first decade, Orpheus made Carnegie Hall its home and launched a global presence through its tours of Europe and Asia. Its growing discography of more than 70 recordings for Deutsche Grammophon, Nonesuch, and other labels stands as a benchmark of the chamber orchestra repertoire, including Haydn symphonies, Mozart concertos, and 20th-centu- ry gems by Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Ravel, and Bartók. The sound of Orpheus is defined by its relationships, and guest artists have always been cru- cial partners in the process, from longtime collaborators such as Richard Goode and Branford Marsalis to next-generation artists including Nobuyuki Tsujii and Tine Thing Helseth. Break- ing down the barriers of classical repertoire, the ensemble’s partnerships with Brad Mehldau, Wayne Shorter, Ravi Shankar, and many others from the sphere of jazz and global traditions have redefined what a chamber orchestra can do. Relationships with composers and dozens of com- missions have been another crucial way that Orpheus stretches itself, including a role for Jessie Montgomery as the orchestra’s first ever Artistic Partner. 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