{"id":7536,"date":"2012-04-25T18:39:18","date_gmt":"2012-04-26T01:39:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/?p=7536"},"modified":"2013-02-07T21:08:01","modified_gmt":"2013-02-08T05:08:01","slug":"short-seasons-and-saint-saens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2012\/04\/25\/short-seasons-and-saint-saens\/","title":{"rendered":"short, seasons, and saint-saens"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

This week’s classical series program is quite an interesting one, at least to me. It begins with a symphony of Aaron Copland that is still seldom performed, the Second Symphony (also known as the Short Symphony). It’s a slight, three movement work, which could be compared to neoclassical works of Igor Stravinsky such as his Dumbarton Oaks<\/em> or Symphony in Three Movements<\/em>. It is instantly recognizable as Copland, but it predates the so-called Americana pieces (Billy the Kid<\/em>, Appalachian Spring<\/em>, etc.), so there is not the folk music influence that one might expect. It is rhythmically complex, with the time signatures changing often in the course of the outer movements. This rhythmic complexity, along with the transparent orchestration, led to some cancelled premieres by Stokowski’s Philadelphia Orchestra and Koussevitsky’s Boston Symphony due to a lack of adequate rehearsal time. Copland wrote this about the piece:<\/p>\n

In [this work] I continued the effort, begun with the Piano Variations, to expand my style, both harmonically and rhythmically. The Short Symphony’s <\/em>preoccupation is with complex rhythms, combined with clear textures. Sonority-wise, the most rhythmically complex moments have a certain lightness and clarity. The work is in three movements (fast, slow, fast) played without pause. The first movement is scherzo-like in character. The second movement is in three brief sections\u2014the first rises to a dissonant climax, is sharply contrasted with a songlike middle part, and returns to the beginning. The finale is once again bright in color and rhythmically intricate.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Click here<\/a> to listen to a 1980 NPR interview with Copland followed by a performance of the work by the San Francisco Symphony under Michael Tilson Thomas.<\/p>\n

\"\"The next piece on the program is Astor Piazzolla’s Four Seasons of Buenos Aires<\/em> (Estanciones Porte\u00f1as<\/em>), which was originally written (between 1965-70) for Piazzolla’s own ensemble, a quintet of violin (doubling viola), piano, electric guitar, double bass, and bandone\u00f3n. In 1991 it was arranged by Jaques Morlenbaum for the ensemble of woodwind quintet, three cellos, and double bass. Finally, around 1999, the Russian composer Leonid Desyatnikov made an ingenious arrangement featuring solo violin with string orchestra which combined the forms and gestures of Vivaldi’s original with Piazzolla’s South American seasons. The soloist for these concerts is an audience favorite, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg. Click here<\/a> to listen to a performance by violinist Steven Copes with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra.<\/p>\n

Finally, we come to one of the enduring warhorses of the symphonic repertoire, Camille Saint-Sa\u00ebns’ Third Symphony “Organ”. It will feature a huge electronic organ that actually does a fair job of imitating a pipe organ (if you’ve heard the work at the Schnitz before, then you’ve heard this same organ used). I actually like this piece quite a lot. It gives our winds and brass a chance to really shine, and the big organ chord that opens the finale is always fun to hear (and to watch the audience react to).<\/p>\n

\"\"The last interesting feature of this concert? It marks the first classical guest conducting appearance of former PYP music director (and now music director of the Memphis Symphony) Mei Ann Chen. It will be great to see how she’s grown in her years since being in Portland, and should be a nice homecoming for both her and the orchestra.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week’s classical series program is quite an interesting one, at least to me. It begins with a symphony of Aaron Copland that is still seldom performed, the Second Symphony (also known as the Short Symphony). It’s a slight, three movement work, which could be compared to neoclassical works of Igor Stravinsky such as his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":303,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[148,1045,2],"tags":[2454,3027,3030,3668,3029,2698,3028,3026],"class_list":["post-7536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-appreciations","category-programming-music","category-the-orchestra-world","tag-copland","tag-four-seasons-of-buenos-aires","tag-mei-ann-chen","tag-oregon-symphony","tag-organ-symphony","tag-piazzolla","tag-saint-saens","tag-short-symphony"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-1Xy","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":13134,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2014\/01\/01\/2013-playlist\/","url_meta":{"origin":7536,"position":0},"title":"2013 playlist","author":"Charles Noble","date":"January 1, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"This is as exhaustive as I can make it, but I've certainly missed some things by accident, and omitted others on purpose. It's been that kind of year. Here's to more great music in 2014! * = first time performed by me Chamber Music Bart\u00f3k Quartet No. 1* Britten Quartet\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "chamber music"","block_context":{"text":"chamber music","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/chamber-music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13645,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2015\/01\/14\/new-recording-by-the-oregon-symphony\/","url_meta":{"origin":7536,"position":1},"title":"new recording by the oregon symphony","author":"Charles Noble","date":"January 14, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Well, it's actually not officially for sale until February 1st, but if you want to pre-order, you can do so by contacting the Oregon Symphony's ticket office by calling\u00a0503-228-1353 or 1-800-228-7343,\u00a0Monday\u2013Friday, 10 AM \u2013 9 PM. You can also pre-order at a variety of online outlets, but if you want\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "recordings"","block_context":{"text":"recordings","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/recordings-music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/cover.png?fit=300%2C300&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":989,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/05\/23\/a-look-back-pt-1\/","url_meta":{"origin":7536,"position":2},"title":"a look back, pt. 1","author":"Charles Noble","date":"May 23, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I thought I'd start off next Monday by taking a retrospective at the 2007-2008 OSO season, both on stage and off. But for now, a list of the works we performed this season on the Classical Subscription and Inside the Score series. I'm always somewhat dumbfounded when I look through\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "music"","block_context":{"text":"music","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6809,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2011\/08\/25\/the-write-stuff\/","url_meta":{"origin":7536,"position":3},"title":"the write stuff","author":"Charles Noble","date":"August 25, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"I just turned in my first set of program notes for the Oregon Symphony! I was asked to write notes that were a bit off the beaten path of program notes (which are normally all written for the Oregon Symphony by the excellent Elizabeth Schwartz), and it was fun and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "appreciation"","block_context":{"text":"appreciation","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/appreciations\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/iStock_000001958827XSmall-200x199.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":13712,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2015\/05\/08\/2014-2105-a-retrospective-part-two\/","url_meta":{"origin":7536,"position":4},"title":"2014-2105: a retrospective, part two","author":"Charles Noble","date":"May 8, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"And now, for the big list - the stuff I played with the Oregon Symphony this past season*. Lots of variety, and some holes in repertoire that I really couldn't believe when I looked at the list - only one work by Brahms, for example? Hm... Barber - Adagio for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "the orchestra world"","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/noble-oso-pic-e1408736178252.jpg?fit=451%2C300&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7021,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2011\/10\/28\/ludwig-carl-and-aaron\/","url_meta":{"origin":7536,"position":5},"title":"ludwig, carl, and aaron","author":"Charles Noble","date":"October 28, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"This week's concerts by the Oregon Symphony feature three works that range from the well-known to the virtually unknown. It's a good mix of the familiar and the new (though none of the pieces was written more recently than 67 years ago). Beethoven's only violin concerto is one of those\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "programming"","block_context":{"text":"programming","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/programming-music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/KG_016a1-599x299.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/KG_016a1-599x299.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/KG_016a1-599x299.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/303"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7536"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7536\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}