Manitoba Chamber Orchestra
Anne Manson, Music Director and Conductor
Karl Stobbe, Concertmaster
Westminster United Church
4 May 2010

Michala Petri, recorder

 

Chen Yi (b. 1953)
The Ancient Chinese Beauty

1. The Clay Figurines
2. The Ancient Totems
3. The Dancing Ink

Michala Petri

Edward Elgar (1857-1934)
Serenade for Strings, in e minor, op. 20

1. Allegro piacevole
2. Larghetto
3. Allegretto

Gary Kulesha (b. 1954)
Concerto for recorder and small orchestra

1. Passacaglia
2. Slow
3. Allegro

Michala Petri

Intermission

Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)
Symphony no. 45 in f sharp minor (Farewell)

1. Allegro assai
2. Adagio
3. Menuetto: allegretto and trio
4. Finale: presto

Concert sponsor / LBL Holdings
Concert sponsor / Embassy of Denmark
Season sponsor / The Great-West Life Assurance Company
Print media sponsor / Winnipeg Free Press
Radio media sponsors / CBC Radio 2 98.3, CBC Radio One 990,
Espace musique 89,9 and Golden West Radio

 

Michala Petri

Michala Petri is the leading player of instruments of the recorder family. Her repertoire includes music from the Baroque, Classic, Romantic and contemporary eras. Michala Petri has in many ways expanded — indeed broken down — the boundaries of her instrument family. In her hands the recorder is not a ‘tributary’ to the great river of ‘important’ instruments, but itself becomes a major instrument. From the beginning of her career she has been a leading figure in the commissioning of works; more than a hundred works have been written for her by composers such as Malcolm Arnold, Vagn Holmboe, Per Nørgaard, Daniel Börtz, Gordon Jacob — the list is constantly growing.

Alongside her interest in contemporary music, Michala Petri continued to make and play transcriptions of Baroque and Romantic music long before it became known that original recorder works from those eras could actually be found. “This justifies my stubbornness and my instinct for the possibilities of the instrument,” says Michala Petri, and stresses that in her transcriptions she has carefully selected pieces that suit the nature of her instrument.

Eager to emancipate the recorder and its repertoire from restrictive views of its proper place in the world of the Baroque, Michala Petri has always liked to play with ensembles and instrumentalists whose primary interest is not Baroque music, such as Claudio Abbado, Heinz Holliger, Gidon Kremer, Christopher Hogwood, Henryk Szeryng, Pinchas Zukerman, Keith Jarrett and many others. The sound of the music is Michala Petri’s prime concern: “Music is the important thing, not the instrument — for me it happens to be the recorder. My aim is the best possible appropriate expression of the music.”

So that the recorder in its various manifestations could assert itself and make an impact acoustically, Michala Petri has always been interested in extending its limited dynamic potential. With that in mind she has actively collaborated with instrument-makers, and in recent years has applied her experience to the development of a new type of flute that incorporates her ideas. “With this instrument, which has more dynamics and compass, I can give better expression to the music of Romanticism with more freedom and naturalness in my expressive range.”

The fact that Michala Petri knows no technical limitations naturally stimulates her delight in musical experimentation. It is not only in the area of classical music — with orchestras, in chamber music ensembles and in duets with Lars Hannibal — that the sparks fly: a collaboration with Keith Jarrett kindled an interest in jazz and in the music of other cultures. Her great fascination in this respect is China, working with Chen Yue, one of the great virtuosos on the xiao (bamboo flute), and Yan Jiang, one of the significant players of the pipa (lute) from far Cathay. She is also experimenting with intercultural cooperation and has already commissioned works from Chinese as well as European composers.

The Ancient Chinese Beauty
Chen Yi

Chen Yi composed The Ancient Chinese Beauty in 2008, on commission from
Michala Petri. Petri premiered it with the Beijing Phil- harmonic Orchestra, conducted
by Shen Hao, on 4 April 2008, to celebrate the anniversary of the longest
uninterrupted relation between the two countries, Denmark and China.
The composer has written the following note:

The Ancient Chinese Beauty is a musical realization of my impression of the ancient Chinese art: the clay figurines of the Han dynasty (206 bc to 220 ad), the ancient totems dated thousands of years, and the cursive of the Tang dynasty (618 to 907), for solo recorders and string orchestra.”

I: The Clay Figurines / Have you seen the shapes of the enraptured storyteller, the vivid acrobat and the moving dancers with long sleeves? They are in highly exaggerated forms and postures, in large and sweeping movements — the innocent and bold images symbolize the strength, motion and speed. It’s the beauty of the crude and primitive power of humanity in its conquest of the material world.

II: The Ancient Totems / Have you seen the fierce-looking totem patterns on the bronze wine vessels, or on a piece of wood or stone, in different designs? The totem was an auspicious symbol, which was used in primitive sacrificial ceremonies. It had the power to protect against evil. The ferocious beauty of the totem art expressed an irresistible force and an historical inevitability.

III: The Dancing Ink / The dancing layers and lines in the ink calligraphy have such rich colour, dark and bright, thick and thin, heavy and light in the texture that I have this imagination realized in musical sound of the third movement, which is full of vivid energy and dramatic shapes.

Serenade for strings in E minor, op. 20
Sir Edward Elgar

Numerous front-rank British composers, including Vaughan Williams, Britten and Holst, have found writing for the rich, expressive and flexible medium of the string orchestra a highly congenial practice. Elgar’s contributions are small in number but substantial in every other sense. This lovely, warm-hearted Serenade was the first of them. Its origins appear to lie in three pieces, dating from 1888, that have disappeared. Elgar revised them in the Spring of 1892, in time to make the resulting Serenade a third anniversary present for his wife, Alice.

At first, British audiences greeted it with indifference. The first complete professional performance was given in Antwerp, Belgium in 1896. It remained unheard in London until 1906, when Elgar conducted it himself. He held an abiding affection for it, frequently referring to it as his favourite among his own compositions. It has three brief movements, two compact, animated sections framing the heart of the work, a haunting larghetto.

Concerto for recorder and small orchestra
Gary Kulesha

The composer has written the following note:

I have been lucky enough over the years to compose music for some truly extraordinary performers. This has given me the luxury not just of some exceptional premieres, but also of having contact with the personalities of these remarkable people. There is no more stimulating experience for a composer than to work with performers of the calibre of Michala Petri.

When Barry Cole of the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony first suggested that I write this piece, I resisted, being more than a little concerned about the solo instrument and its possibilities. After meeting with Michala in early 1991, and attending some of her concerts, I became convinced.

I realized that, although the recorder has been associated almost exclusively with Baroque music, it is in fact quite an interesting sounding instrument for contemporary music. There is a quality almost like that of a Japanese shakuhachi in its sound, and I admire this. I chose to write a work which, while it contains some subliminal suggestions of Baroque concertos, is totally contemporary. I counterpoint the solo with both the harpsichord, its traditional partner, and with a marimba, a genuinely contemporary instrument.

The first movement is a passacaglia, with the theme first stated by the basses and cellos after a cadenza-like introduction from the recorder. This theme is present through this very dark movement, which builds to a climax, and then skulks away.

The second movement is quite lyrical, and features the alto, or treble, recorder. A build-up leads to a passage for very high violins and recorder alone, which in turn leads to a free exchange between the recorder and harpsichord over a throbbing repeated note in the violas, not unlike the slow movements of some of Vivaldi’s recorder concertos.

The finale begins with great energy, which it sustains throughout. The repeated sixteenth-note figure which the violins begin immediately is present almost throughout the movement, which is a kind of moto perpetuo. A climax leads to an extended cadenza for the solo recorder, which includes some singing into the instrument while playing. This leads into the final section of the piece, a ghostly flickering of the opening material, the moto perpetuo, and some references to traditional Baroque concertos. The work ends softly.

This concerto was premiered by Michala Petri on 5 February 1992, with the MCO, conducted by Simon Streatfeild.

Symphony no. 45 in F sharp minor (Farewell)
Joseph Haydn

This dramatic and vividly theatrical work dates from a period when Haydn’s style was undergoing change. This reflected a widespread artistic trend of the period, which took its name, Sturm und Drang (Storm and Stress), from a popular play. Founded upon an increase in individual expression, it nurtured the presentation of deeper, darker emotions, as a supplement to the courtly gentility characteristic of previous years’ art.

Haydn entered the service of the Esterházys, a noble Hungarian family, in 1761. Although their court orchestra was small — no more than 18 players during this period – its excellent quality proved a powerful stimulus to Haydn’s imagination. It also won his deep admiration and loyalty, nowhere more clearly and cleverly demonstrated than in this symphony.

Prince Nicolaus Esterházy owned a palace in Vienna and two grand estates, one at Eisenstadt, the other a summer residence at Esterháza. The Prince adored his summer retreat. It became his habit to spend more and more time there. In 1772, he stayed longer than ever, into November. This distressed the members of his orchestra, who had not been allowed to bring their families with them from Eisenstadt. They turned to Haydn for help. He composed this symphony in such a way as to give the Prince a gentle hint that it was time to leave.

It is one of Haydn’s few symphonies (11 out of 104, to be exact) in a minor key. It also appears to be the first-ever symphony in F-sharp Minor. There have been a few later examples, such as Glazunov’s second.

There are no preliminary gestures. Haydn flings us directly into a turbulent, dramatic world. There is only minimal respite in the opening movement, which is filled with many sudden shifts in dynamics and nervous string tremolos. Haydn follows it with a full-scale adagio. Opening with a march-like tread, it strikes a pathetic mood, full of wistfulness and yearning. Could he have intended it is a portrait of his unhappy orchestra? Unusually, the following minuet begins quietly, almost hesitantly, a quick indoctrination into its nature, which is far removed from the dance floor. The central trio section includes a quote from an ancient Gregorian chant melody, the original text drawn from the lamentations of the prophet Jeremiah.

The finale returns to the minor-key activity and storms of the first movement. But then Haydn calls an abrupt halt, switching to a serene, restful adagio in the major. He gradually peels the orchestra away, singly or in pairs. At the first performance, the musicians (most of whom played standing up) snuffed out the candles on their music stands as they departed. Finally, just two violinists remained to complete the pantomime: Haydn and concertmaster Luigi Tomasini.

Prince Nicolaus took the hint and gave orders to pack up and leave for Eisenstadt the next day. This episode did not anger the music-loving nobleman. In fact it served to endear Haydn to him more than ever.

 

 

Anne Manson / Music Director and Conductor

MCO's 2010/11 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 2 98.3, Espace musique 89,9 and Golden West Radio. Heartstrings gala sponsor:
Mann Financial Assurance Limited. Sponsor of open dress rehearsals: Canadian Bridge Federation.
Arts Accessibility Program: Sun Life Financial.

© 2010 Manitoba Chamber Orchestra