Written by Anna Vorhes

Tonight's concert will offer a cornucopia of works about love.  Romantic love between couples and the various kinds of love that enrich human life are present.  Here are a few reflections on the pieces  you will hear.

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Fantasy Overture Romeo and Juliet

William Shakespeare used words both old and new to tell the complex story of young love in the world of noble feuds.  Tchaikovsky uses the main ideas of the story to offer us a strong picture of the events.  From the opening meeting of young lovers to the counsel of the priest who marries them, and through the bloody feud to the final demise of both young lovers, Tchaikovsky paints with a clear brush.  The melody he offers to depict their love is one of the most beautiful of all melodies of any century, and perhaps the most familiar love theme.

Maurice Ravel: Pavane for a Dead Princess

The pavane is a dance from the Renaissance era, slow in tempo and restrained in motion.  Ravel spoke of using this ancient dance to evoke the sense of Velazquez princess from a painting.   We can almost see her moving slowly as she learns the formal steps.

Jules Massenet: Meditation from Thais

This beautiful work is about contemplating a life choice of love for God over love for an exciting lifestyle.  Thais is a courtesan who has met a priest, who is trying to persuade Thais to leave the life of intrigue at court and follow his more ascetic ways.  This Meditation is Thais deciding which way to proceed with her life.

Amy Beach: Bal Masqué

Amy Beach was forbidden to touch the piano until her aunt convinced her mother that it was useless to try to prohibit the very young composer.  From that point the piano was her partner in composition.  This work began life as a piano waltz, published in 1893.  The composer orchestrated it, only one of two orchestral pieces she created.

Anna Clyne: Masquerade 
(Notes written by composer)

Masquerade draws inspiration from the original mid-18th century promenade concerts held in London's pleasure gardens.  As is true today, these concerts were a place where people from all walks of life mingled to enjoy a wide array of music.  Other forms of entertainment ranged from the sedate to the salacious with acrobatics, exotic street entertainers, dancers, fireworks and masquerades.  I am fascinated by the historic and sociological courtship between music and dance.  Combined with costumes, masked guises and elaborate settings, masquerades created an exciting, yet controlled, sense of occasion and celebration.  It is this that I wish to evoke in Masquerade.

Sergei Prokofiev: The Love for Three Oranges

A sour witch can use anything to send a prince on a quest! In this case, our prince must find three oranges in the world, each of which encloses a princess.  The style of the opera evokes the sense of Commedia del'Arte.  The prince does find the  three princesses, two of whom die immediately on being released from their citrus prisons.  The third is of course a proper princess and they live the expected happily ever after.

Pietro Mascagni: Intermezzo from Cavalleria rusticana

In an opera plot filled with unfaithful spouses and lovers, this Intermezzo offers a moment of calm beauty.  The melody comes from the Easter hymn heard earlier in the opera.  This is a moment of contemplation and introspection as the stage is completely empty.  The chaos of the rest of the opera seems unimportant in the echoes of this pastoral beauty.

Edward Elgar: Salut d'amour

Caroline Alice Roberts presented Edward Elgar with a poem to celebrate their engagement.  Elgar in turn set that poem as a piece of music, Salut d'amour for violin and piano.  The Salut d'amour refers to an Occitan (early language related to French) love song created by troubadours in the Middle Ages.

Lillie Boulanger: D'un Matin de printemps

The famous Theory teacher and mentor to 20th Century composers Nadia Boulanger believed her younger sister Lillie was a better musician than she herself was.  Lillie unfortunately suffered a bout of pneumonia in her childhood that weakened her lungs and led to her short life of only twenty-five years.  As we move toward spring, we can only imagine the invalid Lillie's delight in the return of warmer weather as we listen to From a Spring Morning.

Camille Saint-Saëns: Bacchanale from Samson and Delilah

Not all love is innocent and pure, as those who know of Delilah's manipulation of the biblical strongman Samson knows.  The story of Samson and Delilah involves a Bacchanale, a celebration of drinking wine in copious amounts.  In this work you will hear the fun of a wild party and sections of Samson and Delilah getting romantically interested in each other.