Samuel Barber Knoxville Summer of 1915 Program Notes The text of Samuel Barber Knoxville Summer of 1915 is an autobiographical vignette by James Agee, depicting his impression of an evening when he was six years old, in Knoxville, TN. Agee was a poet, novelist, Time magazine journalist, and screenwriter, including Read more
Sibelius Symphony 2 Program Notes Sibelius Symphony 2 displays the same elemental pagan strength in that is apparent in all of Sibelius’s writing, and since his own nation was often struggling against opposition, his depiction of Finnish legends, sagas, and rawness of its nature, allowed him to become the undisputed Read more
Mozart Symphony No. 40 Program Notes Mozart Symphony No. 40 Program Notes. Mozart finished this “Great G Minor” (compared to the shorter, No. 25), symphony on July 25, 1788, in a burst of composition that also included No. 39 in E-flat, and No. 41, “Jupiter.” If that bears repeating: he Read more
Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4 Program Notes Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4 Program Notes. The year 1877 was one of terrible challenge for Tchaikovsky. An unmarried, 37-year-old professor in his eleventh year at the Moscow Conservatory. It’s clear from even a cursory reading of his published diaries, that he accepted his homosexuality, Read more
Wagner Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan & Isolde Program Notes Richard Wagner Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan & Isolde Program Notes. Tristan & Isolde could have been a simple story of tragic courtly love, borrowed by Wagner from twelfth-century legend: King Mark of Cornwall sends his nephew, Tristan, to pick Read more
Sophie Gail Overture Les Deux Jaloux Program Notes Sophie Gail Overture Les Deux Jaloux. Composer Sophie Gail was a well-known opera singer in and around 1790s and early 1800s Paris. She composed her opera, The Jealous Two, after several songs (for voice and piano), and some one-act operas. It’s a Read more
William Grant Still Patterns Program Notes William Grant Still Patterns. Although the Still family has deep Philadelphian roots, William Grant Still was born in Mississippi, but spent his childhood in Little Rock, Arkansas, in its well-established artistic and intellectual Black community. There, he was a few years younger than his Read more
Tchaikovsky Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture Tchaikovsky softly evokes Friar Laurence and the chants of the cloister in opening his Romeo and Juliet Overture. After modulations and suspensions (notes that may clash but then give way) suggest Romeo’s early feelings about “love [being] a smoke raised the fume of sighs,” Read more
Witold Lutoslawski Little Suite Program Notes Fife (Allegretto) Hurrah Polka (Vivace) Son (Andante) Dance (Allegro molto) Witold Lutoslawski Little Suite, with its infectious energy and folk-inspired themes, was one of the most frequently performed works in 1950s Poland, and its melodies are drawn the town of Machowa, an hour’s drive Read more
Margaret Bonds Montgomery Variations Program Notes Margaret Bonds Montgomery Variations – Margaret Bonds came from a middle-class Chicago family. She showed early talent as a pianist and composer, and studied with Florence Price as a teenager. Her studies at Chicago’s Northwestern University yielded both undergraduate and graduate degrees. Near the Read more