See what's coming up this season in our other concert series:
Mannheim Rocket
Our next international stop is sister city Mannheim, Germany, where we feature the composers that made up the Mannheim School along with a composer, Mozart, who found inspiration in their work.
Franz Joseph Haydn - Deutschlandlied
Johann Stamitz - Mannheim Symphony no 2
Carl Stamitz - Clarinet Concerto no. 3
Carl Stamitz - Bassoon Concerto in F major
W.A. Mozart - Idomeneo Incidental Music
Tickets $10-$30
Friday, January 29, 2010 at 11:00 a.m. & 7:30 p.m.
Assumption University Chapel
Instrumentally Speaking – pre-concert talk at 6:55 p.m. inside the Freed-Orman Centre
Add Lunch or Dinner to your concert ticket!
A buffet lunch is served following the morning concert and a three-course dinner is served prior to the evening concert, both in the Freed-Orman Centre. Deadline for meal reservations for this concert is January 22. To reserve, please call 519-973-1238 ex. 22.
This program also performed Saturday in Leamington and Sunday in Tecumseh
John Morris Russell, Conductor
James Ormston, Clarinet
Eric Varner, Bassoon
Deutschlandlied
Franz Joseph Haydn
B. March 31, 1732, Rohrau, Austria
D. May 31,1809,
Vienna, Austria
Das Deutschlandlied ("The Song of Germany". Also known as "Das Lied der Deutschen" or "The Song of the Germans") has been used wholly or partially as the national anthem of Germany since 1922. The music was written by Joseph Haydn in 1797 as an anthem for the birthday of the Austrian Emperor Francis II of the Holy Roman Empire. In 1841, the German linguist and poet August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben wrote the lyrics of "Das Lied der Deutschen" to Haydn's melody, lyrics that were considered revolutionary at the time.
The song is as well-known by the opening words and refrain of the first stanza, "Deutschland über alles" (Germany above all), but this has never been its title. The line "Germany, Germany above all" meant that the most important goal of the Vormärz revolutionaries should be a unified Germany overcoming the perceived anti-liberal Kleinstaaterei. Alongside the Flag of Germany it was one of the symbols of the March Revolution of 1848. During the Third Reich, German political propaganda altered the meaning of the first verse to stir up feelings of racial superiority.
In order to endorse its republican and revolutionary tradition, the song was chosen for national anthem of Germany in 1922, during the Weimar Republic. Out of similar reasons in 1952, West Germany adopted the Deutschlandlied as its official national anthem, with only the third stanza sung on official occasions. Upon reunification in 1990, the third stanza only was confirmed as the national anthem.
German Lyrics |
Approximate Translation |
First Stanza: |
|
Deutschland, Deutschland über alles, |
Germany, Germany above all, Above all in the world, When, for protection and defence, it always takes a brotherly stand together. From the Meuse to the Memel, From the Adige to the Belt, Germany, Germany above everything, Above everything in the world. |
Second Stanza |
|
| Deutsche Frauen, deutsche Treue, Deutscher Wein und deutscher Sang Sollen in der Welt behalten Ihren alten schönen Klang, Uns zu edler Tat begeistern Unser ganzes Leben lang. Deutsche Frauen, deutsche Treue, Deutscher Wein und deutscher Sang! |
German women, German loyalty, German wine and German song Shall retain in the world Their old beautiful chime And inspire us to noble deeds During all of our life. German women, German loyalty, German wine and German song! |
Third Stanza (Current German National Anthem) |
|
Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit |
Unity and justice and freedom For the German fatherland! For these let us all strive Brotherly with heart and hand! Unity and justice and freedom Are the pledge of fortune; Flourish in this fortune's blessing, Flourish, German fatherland. |
❧
Mannheim Symphony no 2 in A major
Johann Stamitz
B. June 19, 1717, Německý Brod, Czechia
D. March 27, 1757,
Mannheim, Germany
Johann Wenzel Anton Stamitz, one of the most influential figures in European music during the mid-eighteenth century, was born in Nemecky Brod (Deutschbrod) in June 1717. His father, Antonín Ignác, was organist at the Dean's Church and later became a merchant, land-owner and town councillor. Johann probably received his early musical training from his father before entering the Jesuit Gymnasium in Jihlava in 1728.
Stamitz is known to have been a student in the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Prague during the academic year 1734-35 and is thought to have left the University in order to establish a career as a violin virtuoso. He was probably engaged as a violinist by the Mannheim Court in 1741-42 as a result of contacts made during the coronation in Prague, as King of Bohemia, of the Bavarian Elector Carl Albert, one of whose closest allies was the Elector Palatine.
The earliest known reference to a concert appearance by Stamitz occurs in an advertisement for a concert in Frankfurt am Main on 29th June 1742 at which he was to perform alternately on the violin, viola d'amore, cello and double bass as well as furnishing a concerto for two orchestras of his own composition.
Stamitz's professional career took off in Mannheim. In 1743 he was named Erster Hoff Violinist (First Court-Violinist); in 1745 or 1746- the date is uncertain -he was awarded the title Concertmeister and in 1750, was named to the newly-created post of Instrumental-Music Director.
Under the Elector Carl Theodor (1724-99), an enlightened ruler with strong interests in philosophy, science and the arts, the court at Mannheim became one of the most glittering in Europe. Although an important patron of art and literature, Carl Theodor's central interest was music and he spared neither effort nor expense in building his court into one of the leading musical centres in Europe. In addition to presenting regular productions of new operas and ballets, the Mannheim Court engaged a number of exceptional musicians, among them Franz Xaver Richter, the flautist Johann Baptist Wendling, Ignaz Holzbauer and the cellists Innocenz Danzi and Anton Fils (Filtz), all of whom played in the incomparable orchestra led by Johann Stamitz.
The Mannheim orchestra presented weekly 'academies' in the Rittersaal (the Knight's Hall) at the Electoral Palace. These academies were relatively informal social gatherings and visitors were often given standing-room to hear the performance. The academies were the primary responsibility of the Concertmeister and Stamitz was required to prepare and conduct the performance, perform occasional concertos and provide orchestral compositions of his own. While the orchestra achieved its greatest fame in the two decades following Stamitz's death, there can be little doubt that he provided the original impetus toward the development of its new style of accurate, precise performance.
In one of the most famous descriptions of the Mannheim court orchestra the aesthetician C.F.D. Schubert recalled that listening to the orchestra:
One believed oneself to be transported to a magic island of sound... No orchestra in the world ever equalled the Mannheimers' execution. Its forte is like thunder; its crescendo like a mighty waterfall; its diminuendo a gentle river disappearing into the distance; its piano is a breath of spring...
Dr Charles Burney, the English music historian, observed:
indeed, there are more solo players, and good composers in this, than perhaps in any other orchestra in Europe; it is an army of generals, equally fit to plan a battle, as to fight it.
In the late summer of 1754, Stamitz undertook a year-long journey to Paris, appearing there for the first time in a Concert Spirituel of 8th September 1754. While in Paris he lived at Passy in the palace of the fermier général Alexandre-Jean-Joseph-Le Riche de la pouplinière, a wealthy amateur whose private orchestra he conducted, and was also active in public concerts in the French capital, appearing with particular success at the Concerts Italiens.
Stamitz probably returned to Mannheim in the autumn of 1755, dying there less than two years later, aged thirty-nine. The official record of his death reads:
30th March, 1757. Buried, Jo'es Stainmiz, director of court music, so expert in his art that his equal will hardly be found. Rite provided.
Symphonies (or quasi-symphonies) make up the bulk of Stamitz's surviving music. Among the earliest are a set of three "Mannheim" symphonies, probably dating from Stamitz's early years in the court, around 1741-45.
The A Major "Mannheim" symphony provides an excellent guide to the fluid features of symphonic music in the 1740s. There is no mistaking the symphony for a Baroque composition, but at the same time, a significant number of elements separate this symphony from the full-bore Classical idiom of several decades later.
All three movements of the A Major symphony are cast in sonata-allegro form, at least sonata form in its relatively early incarnation. The three primary divisions of exposition, development, and recapitulation are fully present, as is the bipartite repeat structure typical of 18th century sonata forms (i.e., the exposition is repeated alone while the devo + recap are repeated as a unit.) Casting all three movements in sonata form is atypical for the later Classical style, in which pure sonata form is restricted to the outer movements.
The first movement opens with a descending A Major scale followed immediately by a slow sequential upward rise. The development begins with the typical early classical technique of stating the primary theme in the dominant key. Unexpectedly, the devo moves to a strong cadence in the subdominant (IV) key of D Major; at that point comes a picture-perfect False Reprise, or what sounds like the beginning of the recapitulation. However, while this "recap" occurs at more or less the right point in the movement, it isn't in the right key -- the recap needs to be in A Major. Thus the "false" reprise, a practice encountered throughout the Viennese Classical and even cropping up as late as Beethoven's Piano Sonata in F Major, Op. 10 No. 2. That false reprise eventually gives way to the "real" recap, which begins with the quasi-transitional material immediately following the original primary theme and then restates the secondary material of the expo in the tonic key of A Major, as expected.
The slow movement is in E Major (the key of the dominant), also in sonata form, but has a notably Baroque feel, thanks to canonic treatments of the main melody as well as the "walking bass" style so typical of the earlier 18th-century style. Like the first movement, it also features a bifocal close; unlike the first movement, the development is extremely short (almost perfunctory) and leads to a relatively free recapitulation.
The final movement, back in the tonic key of A Major, is set in 3/8 meter, Presto, as was common practice at the time. The exposition tends to remain solidly in the tonic, but finally makes it to the dominant late in the exposition -- so much so, in fact, that one isn't 100% sure whether one is hearing a modulation to the key of the dominant or just a half-cadence on V. As in the second movement, the development is short and sweet, concerned mostly with turning that dominant key center into a dominant seventh chord in the original key (quite a simple thing to achieve) and then moving to the recapitulation with the secondary theme of the exposition. ❧
Clarinet Concerto no. 3 in B-flat major / Bassoon Concerto in F major
Carl Stamitz
Baptized May 8, 1745, Mannheim, Germany
D. November 9,1801,
Jena, Germany
Carl Philip Stamitz is the best-known representative of the second generation of composers who were active at the court of the Elector Palatine in Mannheim during the middle decades of the Eighteenth Century. He received his earliest musical training from his father, Johann Stamitz, Director of Instrumental Music and leader of the incomparable Mannheim court orchestra, and in the years following his father's early death, from the court musicians Christian Cannabich, Ignaz Holzbauer and Franz Xaver Richter. Extant orchestral registers for the period 1762-1770 list Carl Stamitz as a second violinist in the court orchestra, a position which enabled him to forge a brilliant performing technique as well as study the contemporary Mannheim repertoire.
Stamitz left Mannheim in 1770, travelling to Paris where, the following year, he was appointed court composer to Duke Louis of Noailles. In Paris he made contact with many leading musicians including Gossec, Leduc, Beer and Sieber, who published a number of his newest compositions, and, together with his brother Anton, was a regular performer at the Concert Spirituel. In the summer of 1772 Stamitz lived at Versailles and composed the first of several programme symphonies, La promenade royale. His journeys as a virtuoso took him to Vienna in 1772, to Frankfurt the following year and in 1774, to Augsburg, Vienna and Strasbourg where he published the six quartets op.14.
Stamitz's departure from Paris has not been accurately documented although the Pohl claimed that he was in London from 1777 until at least 1779. The Paris years were secure and relatively prosperous for Stamitz. After his departure, however, he never again held an important permanent position even during the years of his greatest international fame. In London he published many compositions, especially chamber works, and continued to style himself 'Composer to the Duke of Noailles'. Some time after 1779 he moved to The Hague where he appeared as a viola soloist in at least 28 concerts at the Court of William V of Orange including one on 23 November 1783 in which Beethoven (aged twelve) played the fortepiano.
During the next few years Stamitz travelled incessantly, presenting academies in Hamburg, Luebeck, Magdeburg, Leipzig and many other centres. He directed a performance of Handel's Messiah at the Cathedral in Berlin in 1786 and in 1787 was in Nuremberg for a performance of his musical allegory on the occasion of Blanchard's balloon ascent.
Stamitz's last years followed much the same pattern as the decade immediately following his departure from Paris. He travelled extensively, made occasional petitions for employment and sent his compositions as far afield as Wales and Russia in the hope that they would win him lucrative compensation. In the mid-1790s he served briefly as Kapellmeister and music teacher at the university in Mannheim but the income was insufficient for him to support his family. His wife of ten years, Maria Josepha (nee Pilz) died in January 1801 and Stamitz himself died in November the same year shortly before his planned trip to St Petersburg received official sanction. In spite of his early fame, his obvious gifts as a performer and composer and his sporadic experiments in alchemy, Carl Stamitz died so heavily in debt that his possessions had to auctioned to help pay his creditors. A printed catalogue of his music collection was printed for a separate auction in 1810 but the collection has long since disappeared. ❧
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
B. January 27, 1756, Salzburg, Austria
D. December 5, 1791,
Vienna, Austria
Idomeneo, re di Creta ossia Ilia e Idamante (Italian for Idomeneo, King of Crete, or, Ilia and Idamante; usually referred to simply as Idomeneo, K. 366) is an Italian language opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The libretto was adapted by Giambattista Varesco from a French text by Antoine Danchet, which had been set to music by André Campra as Idoménée in 1712. Mozart and Varesco were commissioned in 1780 by Karl Theodor, Elector of Bavaria for a court carnival. He probably chose the subject, though it might have been Mozart.
The libretto clearly draws its inspiration from Metastasio and its overall layout, not to mention the type of character development which Metastasio had developed and mostly from the highly poetic language used in the various numbers and the secco and stromentato recitatives. The style of the choruses, marches, and ballets was very French, and the shipwreck scene towards the end of Act I is almost identical to the structure and dramatic working-out of a similar scene in Gluck's Iphigénie en Tauride. The sacrifice and oracle scenes are similar to Gluck's Iphigénie en Aulide and Alceste.
It was first performed at the Cuvilliés Theatre of the Residenz in Munich on 29 January 1781. Written when the composer was 24, Idomeneo was Mozart's first mature opera seria, and with it he demonstrated his mastery of orchestral color, accompanied recitatives, and melodic line. In certain respects (e.g., the choirs), however, this opera is still an experimental drama, resulting more in a sequence of sets than in a well developed plot. Mozart also had to fight with the mediocre author of the libretto, the court chaplain Varesco, making large cuts and changes, even down to specific words and vowels disliked by the singers (too many "i"s in "rinvigorir").
Idomeneo was performed three times at Munich, and later in 1781 Mozart considered revising it to harmonise it with Gluck's style. This would have meant a bass Idomeneus and a tenor Idamantes, but nothing came of it. A concert performance was given in 1786 at the Auersperg palace in Vienna, and as well as changing Idamantes from a castrato to a tenor, Mozart wrote some new music and cut out other parts. ❧
James Ormston
James Ormston has served as Principal Clarinet of the Windsor Symphony since 1991. Mr. Ormston resides in Toronto, where he is an active member of the freelance community. He performs frequently with the Canadian Opera Company and the Toronto Symphony, and has appeared as guest Principal Clarinet with the Kitchener Waterloo Symphony, the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, and the National Ballet of Canada. As a performer with these and other ensembles, he is often heard on CBC Radio 2 broadcasts. Solo performances with orchestra include works by Busoni, Debussy, Molter, Mozart, Richard Strauss and Weber. Mr. Ormston is scheduled to perform the Clarinet Concerto by the English composer Gerald Finzi with the Windsor Symphony Orchestra in
October 2008.
After completing undergraduate studies with Thomas Dowling at the University of Victoria, Mr. Ormston continued studies with Wesley Foster, Principal Clarinetist of the Vancouver Symphony and Joaquin Valdepenas, Principal Clarinetist of the Toronto Symphony. In the United States, he pursued private study with Theodore Oien, Principal Clarinet of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Russell Dagon, Professor of Clarinet, Northwestern University, and Robert Marcellus, Principal Clarinetist of the Cleveland Orchestra. He has performed at music festivals in Banff (Banff School of Fine Arts), Aspen (Aspen Music Festival), Keystone (National Repertory Orchestra), Hamilton (National Orchestral Academy), and Edinburgh (Edinburgh International Festival).
Additionally, Mr. Ormston has enjoyed performing for several leading Canadian music theatre producers including Marlene Smith/Ernie Rubenstein (Napoleon), Live Entertainment (Music of the Night US Tour, Ragtime), Mirvish Productions (Oliver), Canadian Stage (Into the Woods, Passion, Sweeney Todd), and Troika LLC, (Sound of Music Asia Tour). Mr. Ormston has been member of the Charlottetown Festival of the Arts Orchestra, in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, since 1999.
James Ormston has served as an adjudicator of Clarinet Performance for both the University of Toronto School of Music (Undergraduate and Graduate level) and the Royal Conservatory of Music Glenn Gould School. He is currently Instructor of Clarinet at the University of Windsor School of Music. ❧
Dr. Eric Van der Veer Varner is instructor of bassoon at Miami University, a position he previously held at Heidelberg College in Tiffin, Ohio.
Dr. Varner received his Bachelor of Music in 1996 from the University of Michigan. He received his degree in Artistic Education from the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst, Heidelberg-Mannheim, Germany in 1998. From 1996 until 2000, he played with the Kurpfälzisches Kammerorchester in Mannheim, as well as the Heidelberger Kantatenorchester. He also participated in the prestigious Bayreuth Easter Festival with the International Orchestra Academy from 1998 until 2000. Dr. Varner returned to the United States in 2000 to complete his studies, and received a Master’s and a Doctoral degree in Music Arts from the University of Michigan in 2004. He was awarded the Bronze Medal at the Fischoff Chamber Music competition in 2003 with the Taliesin Trio.
He is the former principle bassoonist of the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra (2001-2006), and currently holds positions as principle of the Windsor Symphony Orchestra in Canada as well as playing second and contrabassoon with the Michigan Opera Theater in Detroit.
Dr. Varner’s principal teachers include Richard Beene, Alfred Rindespacher, Hugh Cooper and Michael Dicker. When he is not busy playing and teaching, he enjoys watching college football, literature, exercising, and playing with dogs. ❧