Manitoba Chamber Orchestra
Karl Stobbe, Concertmaster
Westminster United Church
5 October 2005

Michael Lankester , conductor
Angela Cheng, piano

 

Benjamin BRITTEN (1913-1976)
A Simple Symphony for Strings, op. 4

1. Boisterous Bourrée
2. Playful Pizzicato
3. Sentimental Saraband
4. Frolicsome Finale

Dmitri SHOSTAKOVICH (1906-1975)
Concerto no. 1, in c minor, for piano, trumpet & strings, op. 35

1. Allegretto — Allegro vivace — Moderato
2. Lento
3. Moderato
4. Allegro con brio

Miss Cheng

Intermission
Refreshments are available upstairs in the concert hall.

Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART (1756-1791)
Divertimento in b flat (k137)

1. Adagio
2. Allegro
3. Finale

Piotr Ilyich TCHAIKOVSKY (1840-1893)
Serenade for Strings in c, op. 48

1. Pezzo in forma di sonatina
2. Valse
3. Elegy
4. Finale (Teme Russ)

Concert co-sponsors / Standard Life and Mann Financial Assurance Limited
Season sponsor / The Great-West Life Assurance Company
Print media sponsor / Winnipeg Free Press
Radio media sponsors / CBC Radio Two 98.3, CBC Radio One 990 and Golden West Radio
Electronic media sponsor / Shaw Cable

 

Michael Lankester

English-born Michael Lankester enjoys an eminent, international conducting career that also includes his work as composer, arranger and commentator for special projects in opera, theatre and broadcasting.

Mr. Lankester made his American debut in 1980 with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. During an eight-year association with that orchestra — first as Assistant Conductor, then as Associate Conductor and finally as Conductor-in-Residence — he led subscription, education and tour concerts and directed its contemporary music series, Music Here and Now. He recently completed a highly successful tenure as Music Director of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra. His fifteen years with the HSO were notable for elevating the artistic standards of the orchestra, increasing its subscriber and donor bases and introducing several innovative series, among them Classical Conversations and Saturday Family Matinees.

Michael Lankester has guest conducted many of North America’s most distinguished ensembles, among them the Cleveland Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra and the symphony orchestras of Detroit, Indianapolis, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Syracuse, Edmonton, Montréal and Ottawa, as well as Mexico’s Orquesta Filarmónica de la UNAM. Of special note is his long-standing association with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, to which he returns on a regular basis.

In his native England, Michael Lankester has conducted the London Symphony Orchestra (with which he has also recorded for Argo Records), the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the English Chamber Orchestra. He has led the Orchestra Communale di Firenze on a tour of Tuscany, and he returns annually to conduct at the Festival La Gesse in Toulouse, France. In Asia, Mr. Lankester has led the Singapore Symphony Orchestra and Taiwan’s National Symphony Orchestra.

Michael Lankester has achieved considerable success with his arrangement of Prokofiev’s film score, Ivan the Terrible, with an accompanying script for narrator, premiered by the Hartford Symphony Orchestra and broadcast throughout the United States on National Public Radio. This version was subsequently performed by both the National Symphony Orchestra and the London Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Mstislav Rostropovich, and then recorded with the latter ensemble for Sony Classical. Mr. Lankester’s arrangement of music from Wagner’s Ring cycle has been performed in Hartford and Pittsburgh. His newest creation, a play for actress, singers, chorus and orchestra entitled Mrs. Mozart, was premiered in 1999 and starred Academy Award-winning actress Estelle Parsons.

A former Music Director of the National Theater of Great Britain, Michael Lankester worked with many distinguished directors, including Jonathan Miller and Franco Zeffirelli. He also served as conductor for the inaugural production of Tom Stoppard’s play Every Good Boy Deserves Favour (with music by André Previn) at London’s Mermaid Theatre; more recently, he has led several performances in Atlanta, Chicago and Minneapolis.

Michael Lankester worked closely with three leading British composers: Benjamin Britten, with whom he created an orchestra suite from the ballet The Prince of the Pagodas; William Walton, for whom he took over a series of concerts celebrating the composer’s 75th birthday; and Michael Tippett, with whom he worked in collaboration with the Northern Junior Philharmonic Orchestra of England.

Born in London, Michael Lankester studied at the Royal College of Music with Sir Adrian Boult and subsequently joined the faculty of the Royal College of Music as Professor of Conducting and Head of Opera. From 1968 to 1980, he conducted Contrapuncti, his own chamber orchestra, and gave performances in London and on tour throughout Great Britain and Europe.

Angela Cheng

Hailed by critics for her remarkable technique, tonal beauty and musicianship, Angela Cheng is one of Canada’s most gifted pianists. She has appeared as soloist with virtually every orchestra in Canada, as well as the Israel Philharmonic, Buffalo Philharmonic, Louisiana Philharmonic, and the symphonies of Colorado, Utah, Syracuse, St. Louis, Indianapolis, Birmingham and Houston. Also an enthusiastic recitalist, Ms. Cheng has collaborated with numerous chamber ensembles including the Takács, Colorado and Vogler quartets. Her many festival appearances include Houston, Colorado, Vancouver and the Festival International de Lanaudière in Quebec.

Angela Cheng’s debut recording of two Mozart concerti with Mario Bernardi and the CBC Vancouver Orchestra received glowing reviews. Other CDs include: for Koch International, Clara Schumann’s Concerto in A Minor with JoAnn Falletta and the Women’s Philharmonic; for CBC Records, selected works of Clara and Robert Schumann, four Spanish concerti with Hans Graf and the Calgary Philharmonic, and both Shostakovich concerti with Mario Bernardi and the CBC Radio Orchestra. Also for CBC Records, a new Chopin recital CD has recently been released.

Ms. Cheng was the 1986 Gold Medal winner at the Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Masters Competition as well as the first Canadian to win the prestigious Montreal International Piano Competition (1988). In the same year, the Canada Council awarded Ms. Cheng its coveted Career Development Grant. For her outstanding interpretations of Mozart, she received the Medal of Excellence at the Mozarteum in Salzburg in 1991.
We are delighted to welcome Angela back to open our 2005/06 season!

Brian Sykora is a native of Ohio, and a 1977 graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he studied with Bernard Adelstein of the Cleveland Orchestra. Since 1984, he has held the Principal trumpet chair with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra and the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, appearing as soloist on numerous occasions. Brian is also a founding member of the quintet ‘Northern Brass,’ which has been active throughout Manitoba and Western Ontario since 1985. Before moving to Canada, Mr. Sykora was a member of the Mexico City Philharmonic and the Chicago Chamber Brass, and in 1992 was invited to tour with the Orchestre symphonique de Montreal to Europe and Japan. Mr. Sykora has also composed several works for brass quintet, which are performed regularly throughout North America. Brian is a passionate baseball fan, enjoys the movies, running, and the occasional foray onto the golf course.

A Simple Symphony for Strings, op. 4
Benjamin Britten

Britten began composing at a very early age. These works consist of an enormous number of piano pieces, songs, chamber music and some orchestral works. He retained a special affection for these early efforts and was persuaded to revive and even publish some of them in later life.

A note in the score of the Simple Symphony states that the work “is entirely based on material from works which the composer wrote between the ages of nine and twelve.” Although the development of these youthful themes is in many places new, there are long stretches of the work which are taken bodily from the mainly piano pieces.

The rescoring for strings took place in December of 1933. The alliterative titles of the movements give an idea of the nature of the music.

Most original in design, the Boisterous Bourrée is founded on three main themes, two of which are heard simultaneously. After four bars of ‘forte’ chords, the first group of themes is heard on cello and second violin. A second tune in the relative major is well contrasted with the first melody. A development follows against a descending phrase of four notes which leads to a restatement of the second theme, this time in D major. A short coda ends the movement. While the Bourrée is short, much is compressed into a few bars.

The second movement, Playful Pizzicato, is pizzicato through all the strings, and is a brilliant example of its use. The marking is ‘Presto possible’ and demands polished playing. The principal section is taken from a Scherzo for piano of (1924) and a trio based on a song Britten composed in the same year.

The Sentimental Saraband is the most extended of the four movements. The main tune, taken from the Piano suite, no. 3, of 1925, is stated by the first violins over a bass pedal in G which holds the tonality for some time, then the basses jump up to a ‘sforzando’ D with thrilling effect. The second tune is taken from a waltz for piano dating from 1923, and has a rather wistful charm.

The Frolicsome Finale is a concise piece built on much the same lines as the opening Boisterous Bourée — two main subjects and a development of the first. The first subject is taken from a piano Sonata no. 9 of 1926 and the second from a song of 1925.

The Simple Symphony is dedicated to Britten’s viola teacher, Audrey Alston, of Norwich.

Concerto no. 1, in C minor,
for piano, trumpet and strings, op. 35
Dmitri Shostakovich

In common with several of Shostakovich’s other works of the early 1930s, the Concerto no. 1 is characterized more by a brittle brilliance than by profundity. It is something of a jeu d’esprit, with some quasi-elegiac passages in the slow movement, but with many parodistic episodes in the outer sections.

While the concerto exudes vivacity and good spirit, there are frequent examples of the composer’s penchant for quoting or paraphrasing from both his own works and those of others. There are fleeting references to recently completed scores of his own (incidental music for Hamlet, the circus sketch Allegedly Murdered, and his Preludes for piano), and also a hint of a Haydn keyboard sonata, as well as two rather more prominent citations from Beethoven.

The concerto opens with a pithy gesture for piano and trumpet; then the piano introduces a variant of the opening of Beethoven’s Appassionata Sonata. A second theme is more animated and driving; it suddenly ends and the movement finishes with a reprise of the original first theme. The slow movement brings on an air of gentle melancholy and a degree of introspection. Muted strings set the scene; the piano is given a simple, austere line, and the trumpet, too, is muted when it appears after a brief climax, setting and elegiac tone for the remainder of the movement.

Although the concerto has four movements instead of the usual three, the third, Moderato, is little more than an introduction to the last. The finale is a riot of familiar sounding tunes and rapidly changing rhythms. It is here that the trumpet takes on a status close to partnership with the piano.

Near the completion of the score Shostakovich was reminded that he needed a cadenza for the section, and he filled the gap with a wild paraphrase of Beethoven’s Rondo a capriccio, in G, popularly called The Rage Over a Lost Penny. Following this cadenza, all the accumulated energy is released in a driving conclusion.

Divertimento in B flat, K137
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

The Divertimento in B flat is the second of three divertimentos written in Salzburg in early 1772 for the same combination of strings. They have enjoyed equal popularity as string quartets and as works for string orchestra.
The B flat Divertimento is equal in quality to the more popular one in D (K136). It opens with a slow movement, a rare reference in Mozart to the old sonata da chiesa, as is the case in his first string quartet. The allegro has much of the brio of the first movement of K136 and the final has much of the wit of its counterpart.
The usual assumption that Mozart wrote everything down cannot be sustained, especially respecting the early works (this divertimento was written when he was 16). Many of them are wholly or partly in the hand of his father Leopold; these must have been copied from Mozart’s own hasty scribbles, which were then discarded.

Serenade for Strings in C, op. 48
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky

According to the composer, in a letter he wrote to his brother Anatol, this famous string serenade started out as a symphony or string quintet, but was eventually turned into a Serenade for string orchestra. It proved a “golden” work written from “inner compulsion” and was a popular success from the outset.

It received its first public performance in 1882 and shortly after was chosen by Tchaikovsky’s teacher, Anton Rubinstein, for a concert given in connection with the Moscow Art and Industrial Exhibition. Rubinstein disapproved of many of his former pupil’s works but gave unstinting praise to this one.

One of the most important aspects of the Serenade is the superb writing for strings. In writing for this medium, Tchaikovsky shows technical prowess and insight that was as brilliant as any of the string writing of his contemporaries, such as Borodin and Rimsky-Korsakov. Where a full sound is required, the layout, double stopping, etc., is impeccable. But even more remarkable is the restraint shown in writing in two or three real parts, with delicate doubling, as in the return of the first theme of the Valse section.

The first movement is true to its title, Pezzo in forma di sonatina, with a slow introduction which returns in the final section. Each of the subjects of the main allegro is developed in turn. The second movement, a valse, is delightful and, for all its simplicity, memorable. Its themes stick in the memory and, as in so many of Tchaikovsky’s valses, the first of them starts with a scale passage — in this case upwards.

The third movement is a very beautiful little Elegy and again, though simple in conception, is of striking originality.

The finale is perhaps the least interesting movement, founded on a moto perpetuo Russian tune complete with a slow introduction based on a boat-hauling song from the Volga. Just before the end there is a restatement of the opening material of the first movement, and the piece concludes with a boisterous repeating of the “merry-go-round” tune.

 

 

MCO's 2008/09 season is sponsored by The Great-West Life Assurance Company.
Support has been received from Media sponsors The Winnipeg Free Press, CBC Radio One 990,
CBC Radio Two 98.3, Golden West Radio & Shaw Cable. MCO's Chamber Chatter newsletter
is sponsored by PricewaterhouseCoopers. Heartstrings gala
sponsor: Mackenzie Financial Corporation.

© 2008 Manitoba Chamber Orchestra