Ravinia 2024 Issue 4

the third stage of a rocket that’s finally broken loose of Earth’s gravity and allowed to float. And it’s at that moment that we hear the trium- phant, real fanfare music in the trumpets and horns.” In addition to the full orchestral score, there are versions for concert band, piano duo, and wind ensemble. ANTONIO ESTÉVEZ (1916–1988) Mediodia en el Llano (Midday on the Plain) Scored for two flutes and piccolo, two oboes, three clarinets and bass clarinet, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, timpani, triangle, cymbals, guiro, celesta, harp, piano, and strings Venezuelan composer and conductor Antonio José Estévez Aponte was born and raised in the colonial city of Calabozo, located on a low plain alongside the Guárico River in the eastern por- tion of the country. Professional opportunities frequently took his father Mariano to nearby Ca- racas, where Antonio’s musical training began at age 7. The young boy continued his studies after the family returned to Calabozo in 1925. At age 14, he was accepted into Caracas’s Escuela de Música y Declamación (known today as the Es- cuela Superior de Música José Ángel Lamas), led by Vicente Emilio Sojo (1887–1974), a respected composer, conductor, and educator. Estévez ini- tially played clarinet but later specialized in oboe, becoming a member of the Banda Marcial de Ca- racas in 1932 and, two years later, joining the Orquesta Sinfónica Venezuela as second oboe. Estévez composed the Suite Llanera (Cowboy Suite) in 1942 as a sixth-year pupil of Sojo, who encouraged his students to write music influ- enced by Venezuelan culture. Sojo was a pivot- al figure in the establishment and expansion of Venezuelan orchestral composition. According to scholar Pedro Rafael Aponte, his students pro- duced 51 orchestral scores between 1942 and 1959. The very first work on the list was Suite Llanera . This three-movement composition depicts the Antonio Estévez (1950) constantly changing atmosphere of Los Llanos— the vast and ecologically diverse plain extend- ing across the central portion of Venezuela into eastern Colombia—at dawn, noon, and sunset. Estévez made his conducting debut in the work’s premiere. Dissatisfied with the suite as a whole, he extracted the second movement, Mediodia en el Llano (Midday on the Plain), and published it as an independent work. “Although it seems to me the most arid [movement],” Estévez ex- plained, “it is also very Venezuelan. Venezuelan in a very broad sense, since we had never heard Venezuelan symphonic music; we had no models for it, except for a few things by Sojo himself.” Mediodia en el Llano is evocative rather than depictive, replicating moods rather than telling stories. Subtle coloration provided by the wind instruments re-creates the static feeling of a sultry midday on the plain. Estévez’s mildly dis- sonant language recalls the French impression- ists. The central section brings a mild surge of energy, accompanied by the twittering of birds (woodwinds) and more expansive lyrical writ- ing (strings). Stillness gradually returns, as the music dissolves into nothingness. After completing his oboe (1942) and compo- sition (1944) degrees at the Escuela de Música y Declamación, Estévez entered Columbia Uni- versity for advanced studies in composition, pia- no, and conducting with funding from the Ven- ezuelan Ministry of Education. His plan to study with Igor Stravinsky was unfortunately thwarted by the composer’s move to Los Angeles. Estévez spent two summers (1945 and 1946) at the Tan- glewood Music Center, expanding his compo- sition and conducting technique alongside a group of fellow Latin American musicians. Back in New York City, he took private lessons with Vittorio Giannini (1903–1966), a highly regard- ed member of the Juilliard composition faculty. Before completing his two-year period abroad, Estévez traveled throughout Europe to London, Paris, Belgium, The Netherlands, and Italy, re- turning to Venezuela in 1948 a more cosmopoli- tan and technically proficient musician. ALBERTO GINASTERA (1916–1983) Suite from the Ballet Estancia (Ranch), op. 8a Scored for two flutes and piccolo, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, timpani, xylophone, triangle, tambourine, castanets, cymbals, tenor drum, bass drum, snare drum, tam-tam, piano, and strings Argentine composer Alberto Ginastera began composing in his early teens and won his first competition at 18. After completing an extreme- ly broad and demanding course of study at the National Conservatory of Music in Buenos Ai- res, Ginastera intensified his efforts at cultivat- ing a musical language enriched by indigenous Argentine rhythms and melodic constructions. His one-act, five-scene ballet Estancia chroni- cles events at an Argentine gaucho ranch on the vast grassy plains ( pampas ) during the span of one day: dawn, morning, afternoon, night, and dawn. Each vignette utilizes stylized Argentine dances. The storyline involves a country girl who despises a city boy, until he proves himself capable of handling her rugged way of life. Estancia (Ranch) resulted from a commission by the American Ballet Caravan—a touring company comprising members of George Bal- anchine’s American Ballet and Lincoln Kirstein’s Ballet Caravan—specifically for its summer 1941 tour of South America. Financial strains im- posed by World War II forced Balanchine and Kirstein to cancel their 1941 tour and the antic- ipated production of Estancia . The American Ballet Caravan subsequently disbanded in Octo- ber 1941. Ginastera quickly arranged four dances into an orchestral suite, dedicated to Kirstein, which received its premiere on May 12, 1943, at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires under con- ductor Ferrucio Calusio. The full ballet was first staged on August 19, 1952, at the Teatro Colón with choreography by Michel Borowski. DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH (1906–1975) Symphony No. 5 in D minor, op. 47 Scored for two flutes and piccolo, two oboes, three clarinets, two bassoons and contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, snare drum, triangle, cymbals, bass drum, tam-tam, bells, xylophone, two harps, celesta, piano, and strings An urgent message came over the New York Times wire in 1937 from Soviet correspondent Harold Denny. “COMPOSER REGAINS HIS PLACE IN SOVIET. Dmitri Shostakovich, who fell from grace two years ago, on the way to re- habilitation. His new symphony hailed. Audi- ence cheers as Leningrad Philharmonic presents work.” Although Aram Khachaturian’s Piano Concerto also received its premiere on that November 21 concert by the Leningrad Philhar- monic under Yevgeny Mravinsky (at the Festival Alberto Ginastera RAVINIA.ORG  • RAVINIAMAGAZINE 63