Antonio Salieri, Italian Composer (1750-1825)

Although Antonio Salieri is unfairly portrayed in the famous

movie Amadeus as less esteemed than his rival Mozart, in life

he had much greater stature and popular following in Vienna.

In fact, he was teacher to Beethoven, Liszt and Schubert, he

had many wealthy benefactors and enjoyed much success

thanks in large part to his many comic operas.

Overture to The Chimney Sweep

(Der Rauchfangkehrer) Composed in 1781 Duration is 3 minutes

The Chimney Sweep (or Der Rauchfangkehrer in German) was one of Salieri’s

many comic operas, a form of opera also called “opera buffa.” In contrast with

more serious operas of the day which were intended as entertainment for the

nobility, opera buffa was meant for the common people to relate to and enjoy.

This opera follows the story of a young chimney sweep named Volpino who is

engaged to a servant named Lisel. They do not have enough money to marry, so

Volpino comes up with a scheme to trick two noblemen into giving him money.

He entices the two noble women of Lisel’s house to fall in love with him. The

two noblemen want to marry these two noblewomen so they pay Volpino a large

fee in exchange for rejecting the two

women and thereby securing their

hands in marriage. Volpino and Lisel

end up with enough money to marry!

All operas begin with an overture.

The purpose of an overture is to in-

troduce many of the main musical

themes that will be heard throughout

the opera.

• SALIERI Overture to Der Rauchfangkehrer • HAYDN Overture to Orlando Paladino • MOZART

Sinfonia Concertante Symphony No. 5 Symphony No. 39

Happy Birthday

Mozart! 10:30am

Friday, Jan. 15

REPERTOIRE

Opera buffa always contains comic situations and characters

Haydn’s most popular opera during his lifetime was Orlando Paladino, which tells a love story full of

dramatic moments, magic and a few comic moments as well. The title character goes mad with love

for a woman with three suitors, and then is ultimately cured of his affliction by a sorceress. The mu-

sic begins with three strong “knocks” from the orchestra which was a musical device used by com-

posers at the time. It told the audience that they were about to hear a drama. You can hear these

three knocks throughout the overture.

“Papa Haydn” as he is affectionately called in some circles, was one

of the most celebrated composers of his day. He worked in the fam-

ily court of the Esterhazy family. This was at a time when very

wealthy families would have their own orchestra and music director

at the court. After his appointment there shrunk to part time, he

traveled to London to conduct his symphonies and then on to Vi-

enna where he wrote a great deal of music. Everywhere he went,

his music was well respected and he enjoyed a great deal of success. He was already very famous

when Mozart was a child, and the two became friends and respected each other’s work tremen-

dously.

Joseph Haydn, Austrian Composer (1732-1809)

Page 2

W.A. Mozart, German Composer (1756-1791)

Overture to Orlando Paladino composed in 1782, duration is 3 minutes

Mozart lived a short life--he was born on January 27, 1756, and died of

illness on December 5, 1791. He was only thirty-five years old at the

time of his death. From an early age he amazed his father with his musi-

cal talent. At the age of three he was playing the keyboard, and by the

time he was five years old he was composing simple minuets. In 1763,

Mozart’s father Leopold embarked on a three-year journey with his two

children, Mozart and Nannerl, to showcase their abilities before the no-

bility of Europe. Mozart gained experience as a musician and was able

to make connections to the courts of Europe which later proved to be

crucial when he began to pursue his own musical career.

After several other tours, Mozart returned to Salzburg as a court organist. Mozart disliked this posi-

tion and in 1781 he resigned and moved to Vienna, where he married Constanze Weber. His life in

Vienna was a fine one--he certainly enjoyed his luxuries, and made good money. He achieved success

there with the premiering of operas such as The Abduction from the Seraglio and The Marriage of Figaro.

However, this was the turning point. Mozart's income began to drop, and he was forced to take

loans to support his finances. He made trips in an attempt to improve his fortunes, but to no avail.

1791, the last year of Mozart's short life, saw a burst of productivity. It was around this time that he composed what are regarded to be among his finest symphonies, Nos 39, 40 and 41. Other famous compositions of this year include The Magic Flute, the last Piano Concerto No. 27 in B-Flat, and of course, the unfinished Requiem Mass in D Minor. Mozart's health began to decline—he died Decem-

ber 1, 1791 and was buried in a common unmarked grave outside Vienna. -M. Yamaguchi

Valerie Heywood, viola

FRIDAY, JAN. 15

Born in Korea, raised in Canada, educated in the United States, having worked in Asia for a decade and now working in Europe and the United States, newly-appointed Buffalo Philharmonic Or-chestra concertmaster Dennis Kim is truly a citizen of the world. Mr. Kim was first ap-pointed Concertmaster of the Tucson Sym-phony Orchestra at the age of 22. He has since served as Concertmaster of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, Seoul Phil-harmonic Orchestra, and after holding this position in the Tampere Philharmonic Or-chestra in Finland he has recently been named Concertmaster of the BPO. After making his solo debut at the age of 14 with the Toronto Philharmonic Orchestra, Mr. Kim has gone on to perform as a soloist with every major orchestra in China and Korea. Kim is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and the Yale School of Music.

The BPO's own principal violist Valerie Heywood joined the orchestra during

the 1984-85 season and has worked with four of our illustrious music direc-

tors since that time. During the summer Valerie performs at the Grand Teton

Music Festival and was previously a member of the Santa Fe Opera, New Mex-

ico. She is also a champion of chamber music and is a founding member of the

Chamber Music on Elmwood Festival in Buffalo. She has degrees from the Uni-

versity of Michigan and The Juilliard School and is

an avid teacher.

Page 3

Wolfgang Amadeus was just 9 years old when he composed his Symphony No.5 in December of 1765.! At the time, he was in Holland to perform at The Hague with his sister, Nannerl, during one of their well-known childhood tours. In particular, the work was written to demonstrate Wolfgang’s pro-digious gifts for the many admirers who anticipated the arrival of the extraordinary siblings. It should be noted that in the Finale, the melody played by the high horns, is a signature moment for opera buffs: twenty years later, Mozart borrowed the phrase for the very beginning of the Final scene for Act II of The Marriage of Figaro! Mozart wrote his last three symphonies (Nos. 39, 40 and 41) during a six-week interval in the summer of 1788. He wrote them all in ink with no corrections or revisions; composed for the sake of the music alone; placed on the storage shelf; never to be heard by their creator. It is known for certain that Wolfgang Amadeus possessed what we de-scribe as a photographic memory, which explains in part how he could compose without making correc-

tions. - Ed Yadzinski

These two symphonies give us bookends to his mu-

sical life.

Dennis Kim, concertmaster

This three movement work is very operatic in nature, with the violin and viola playing lyrical as well as

virtuosic roles throughout the piece. The first movement, Allegro finishes off with a double cadenza

featuring the two soloists. The second, quieter Andante movement follows with a more intimate

sound. The final movement, Presto is a fast dash that shows off the virtuosity of the two soloists.

Sinfonia Concertante for Violin, Viola and Orchestra composed in 1779, duration is 30 minutes

Valerie Heywood, principal viola

Symphonies No. 5 and No. 39 composed in 1765, duration is 9 minutes composed in 1788, duration is 27 minutes

Explore and Learn:

This program features several important musical forms found in classi-

cal music, the overture, the concerto and the symphony.

OVERTURE CONCERTO SYMPHONY

What are the differences between these three forms? What is similar

between them?

Which anniversary of Mozart’s life are we celebrating

this year?

Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra

As Buffalo’s cultural ambassador, the Grammy Award-winning Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, under Music Director JoAnn Falletta, presents more than 120 Classics, Pops and Youth Concerts each year and reaches more than 40,000 K-12 students per year across all eight counties of Western New

York.

Since 1940, the orchestra’s permanent home has been Kleinhans Music Hall, a National Historic Landmark designed by Eliel and Eero Saarinen with an international reputation as one of the finest concert halls in the United States.

JoAnn Falletta, Conductor

Friday Morning Concert Series

BUFFALO PHILHARMONIC

ORCHESTRA

education@bpo.org