Performance by the UST Orchestra, led by Michael S. Richardson, in Cullen Hall at the University of St. Thomas (Houston) on April 26, 2024.
Soloists/Guest performers:
Flute - Amanda Williamson
Singers - Jessica Thrift, Daniela Garcia, Nataly Cruz
Percussion - Lovie Smith-Wright
Concert filmed by Chase Collins.
Program Notes (written by Michael S. Richardson):
The Flute Concerto in G Minor, 'La Notte,' [00:25] of Italian Baroque composer Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) is the second concerto in his Opus 10 collection of flute concertos that he had published around the year 1728. ‘La Notte’ is Italian for ‘the night,’ which establishes a dark mood to match the eerie tone of the six relatively brief movements in the work. With subtitles for individual movements like ‘Fantasmi’ (‘ghosts’) and ‘Il sonno’ (‘sleep’), the work oscillates between agitation to reflect restless spirits roving hallways in the depths of the night, and peaceful calm to depict a deep, although slightly perturbed, nighttime slumber. Dawn arrives in the last movement, but has the nightmare run its course? The listener is left to decide.
The 'Gothic' String Quartet [10:30] is a collection of string quartet pieces I wrote independently of one another from November of 2015 ('Leaves Falling at Night') to October of 2016 ('Samhain Sunset'). With the realization that the pieces were stylistically similar and all based on dark or ‘gothic’ themes and moods, I decided to combine them into a single work. The first four movements present a kind of shadowy four seasons, beginning in winter with 'Fires of Imbolg' and ending in autumn with 'Leaves Falling at Night.' 'Samhain Sunset' I included as a bonus track of sorts; it serves more as an encore piece to the previous four movements, but all five movements will be played straight through to the end. The terms ‘Imbolg’ and ‘Samhain’ are ancient Gaelic terms, signifying what were known as ‘quarter festivals’ that fell in between the solstices and equinoxes. Imbolg marks the festival that begins around February 1 and lasts until the Spring Equinox, while Samhain (what we today call Halloween) begins halfway between the Autumn Equinox and Winter Solstice and represents the end of the harvest season and the start of winter.
'The Window of Appearances' [23:55] comes at the end of Act I in the 1984 opera 'Akhnaten' by American minimalist composer Philip Glass (born 1937). 'Akhnaten' is the third in a trilogy of operas about significant or impactful figures in history, including 'Einstein on the Beach' of 1976 about Albert Einstein, and 'Satyagraha' of 1980 about Mahatma Gandhi. Akhenaten was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh who reigned from the 1350s to the 1330s BCE, and who is regarded as the first monotheist (belief in one God). In 'The Window of Appearances' listeners hear Akhnaten--Glass used a different spelling for the character role--sing for the first time, as he proclaims his new belief in the sole god Aten, god of the sun (English translation below). Glass wrote the part for countertenor, a high male falsetto voice, to highlight the alien qualities of Akhnaten’s figure from his time and his people (Jessica Thrift will sing the notes in the correct range as written by the composer). Akhnaten sings from the window of state appearances in his palace, and he is joined by his mother Queen Tye (Daniela Garcia) and by his wife Nefertiti (Nataly Cruz). Queen Tye and Nefertiti leave him as he gazes at a distant funeral barge bearing his deceased father down a mythical river to the Land of the Dead. Akhnaten is now king, and a new era has begun.
Norwegian Romantic-era composer Edvard Grieg (1843-1907) based his 'Two Nordic Melodies,' Opus 63, [33:31] on both authentic and manufactured Norwegian folk melodies. The first movement ('In Folk Style') presents a melody written in a folk style by Norwegian musician Fredrik Due, which Due sent to Grieg in 1894, while the second movement ('Cow-call' and 'Peasant Dance') is based on actual Norwegian folk melodies compiled by Ludvig Mathias Lindeman. While the first movement seems to evoke the sweeping grandeur of the Norwegian landscape, the second movement presents a pastoral idyll and a quaint yet rowdy folk dance side by side.
Encore: 'Can't Help Falling in Love,' by Elvis Presley [46:53]
'The Window of Appearances' English translation:
[Akhnaten]
Oh, one creator of all things
Oh, one maker of all existences
Men came forth from his two eyes
The gods sprang into existence at the utterances of his mouth
[A & Tye]
He maketh the green herbs to make cattle live
And the staff of life for the use of man
He maketh the fish to live in the rivers
The winged fowl in the sky
[A & Nef.]
He giveth breath of life to the egg
He maketh the birds of all kinds to live
And likewise the reptiles that creep and fly
He causeth the rats to live in their holes
[A, T, N]
And the birds that are on every green thing
Hail to thee maker of all these things
Thou only one.