This event is sponsored in part by the Harold K. Sage Foundation

and the Illinois State University Foundation Fund.

This is the twelfth program of the 2019-2020 season.

Program

Please silence all electronic devices for the duration of the concert. Thank you.

Essay No. 2 (1942) Samuel Barber (1910-1981)

Ballet Music from Faust (1869) Charles Gounod I. Dance of the Nubian Salves (1818-1893) II. Slow Dance

III. Ancient Dance

IV. Cleopatra’s Variations

V. Dance of the Trojan Women

VI. Mirror Variations

VII. Phryne’s Dance

~ INTERMISSION ~

Symphony No. 8, Op. 88 in G Major (1889) Antonin Dvořák I. Allegro con brio (1841-1904) II. Adagio III. Allegretto grazioso — Molto vivace IV. Allegro ma non troppo

ASSISTED LISTENING DEVICES The Center for the Performing Arts is equipped with an infrared audio amplification system for assisted listening. Headsets and receiver packs are available, free of charge, at the Box Office or by checking with the House Manager. An ID is needed to check out the device and must be returned to the House Manager at the end of the performance.

Program Notes

Samuel Barber, Second Essay for Orchestra by Ken Meltzer

In 1939, Barber accepted a commission to write what would become one of his most beloved concert works, the Violin Concerto, Opus 14 (1940). Barber’s sketchbook reveals that in addition to the Violin Concerto, he was also working on a Second Essay for Orchestra. Barber completed the Second Essay on March 15, 1942. By this time, of course, the United States was involved in the Second World War. Barber was keenly aware that he might be called into military service at any moment. He wrote to a friend: “I have been composing very hard, and my music has been going so well that it seems incongruous for times such as these. But I’ve taken the attitude that it is better to continue one’s job tutta forza until one’s draft board decides otherwise.” (Barber received his draft notice on September 16, 1942.) The day after completing his Second Essay for Orchestra, Barber showed the score to conductor Bruno Walter, who was interested in featuring American works in his concerts with the New York Philharmonic. Walter and the New York Philharmonic performed the world premiere of Barber’s Second Essay for Orchestra at New York’s Carnegie Hall on April 16, 1942. A month later, Eugene Ormandy conducted the Philadelphia Orchestra in the Second Essay. The Second Essay soon received further performances by several prominent orchestras, further solidifying Barber’s reputation in the United States and indeed, throughout the world. The Second Essay remains one of Samuel Barber’s most performed orchestral works.

The Second Essay’s arresting opening measures feature the flute, and then the bass clarinet, introducing a wide-ranging dolce, espressivo theme over hushed accompaniment by the bass drum (Andante, un poco mosso). The melody is soon developed by other winds and finally, the strings, as the music builds to a radiant climax. The violas sing the second principal theme (Con moto), related to the first, and developed in energetic fashion by the orchestra. A sforzando chord by the entire ensemble heralds a vibrant fugue, based upon a puckish theme (again related to the first) and launched by the clarinet (Molto allegro ed energico). The fugue reaches a hushed, mysterious resolution. The Second Essay concludes with a majestic chorale transformation of music from the work’s opening section (Più tranquillo, ma sempre muovendo)

Charles Gounod – Ballet Music from “Faust” by Susan Halpern

Charles Gounod’s Faust is the most popular of the many musical works based on the old tale of the man who sells his soul to the Devil in exchange for youth and love. In its original form, it had one brief dance episode—a carnival scene—but for a new production at the Paris Opéra in 1869, Gounod composed a complete ballet to be placed near the beginning of Act Five. This production, the work’s most lavish up until that time, helped Faust achieve remarkable popularity in France. It was almost a requirement of French operas to include ballet because the wealthy and aristocratic patrons expected it. Because the Parisians’ expectations were so strong, Giuseppe Verdi composed ballet music for the Paris performances of his operas. The new scene Gounod composed took Faust to the highest point in the Hartz Mountains to witness Walpurgis Night, or “Witch’s Night,” on the eve of May 1. In an attempt to distract Faust from his grief at the absence of his beloved Marguerite, the devilish Mephistopheles transports Faust to a cave and conjures up for him the sight of the most beautiful queens and courtesans of antiquity: Thais, Cleopatra, Helen of Troy, Astarte, and Phryné. The ballet music keeps with the presence of the Devil, who continues to encourage Faust in his worldly pursuits. An orgiastic ballet full of revelry takes place, continuing until dawn.

The first of the dances is “Dance of the Nubian Slaves”, a waltz, Allegretto. It is followed by “Cleopatra and the Golden Cup”, a slower dance, Adagio, which in its second part becomes more spirited, Animato. Then comes the wonderfully melodic Antique Dance, “Allegretto, and Dance of Cleopatra and Her Slaves”, Moderato maestoso. Next is Dance of the Trojan Maidens, Moderato con moto, and Mirror Dance, Allegretto. The finale, “Dance of the Phryné”, is Allegro vivo. Camille Saint-Saëns called this ballet suite “a masterpiece of its kind,” but Gounod had been reluctant to take it on and considered letting Saint-Saëns compose it for him; Saint-Saëns had tentatively agreed with the understanding that Gounod could replace it with his own music whenever he wanted to do so.

According to SaintSaëns, after that interchange with Gounod, “I never wrote a note, and never heard any more about it.” Now, almost all performances of the opera omit the substantial ballet, leaving the ballet music to be heard only rarely in concert. The orchestra includes two flutes (one doubling piccolo), two oboes, two clarinets (one doubling bass clarinet), two bassoons, four horns, four trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drum, cymbals, triangle, tambourine, harp, and strings.

Antonin Dvořák, Symphony No. 8 by Phillip Huscher

In the 1880s and 1890s, Dvořák was as popular and successful as any living composer, including Brahms, who had helped promote Dvořák’s music early on and had even convinced his own publisher, Simrock, to take on this new composer and to issue his Moravian Duets in 1877. Dvořák proved to be a prudent addition to the catalog, and the Slavonic Dances he wrote the following year at Simrock’s request became one of the firm’s all-time best sellers. Dvořák was then insulted and outraged, when, in 1890, Simrock offered him only a thousand marks for his G major Symphony (particularly since the company had paid three thousand marks for the last one), and he gave the rights to the London firm of Novello instead. (At least he did not follow the greedy example set by Beethoven and sell the same score to two different publishers.)

Dvořák’s G major Symphony is his most bucolic and idyllic—it is, in effect, his “Pastoral”—and like Brahms’s Second Symphony or Mahler’s Fourth Symphony, it stands apart from his other works in the form. Like the subsequent New World Symphony, composed in a tiny town set in the rolling green hills of northeast Iowa, it was written in the seclusion of the countryside. In the summer of 1889, Dvořák retired to his country home at Vysoká, away from the pressures of urban life and far from the demands of performers and publishers. There he realized that he was ready to tackle a new symphony—it had been four years since his last—and that he too was eager to compose something “different from the other symphonies, with individual thoughts worked out in a new way.” Composition was remarkably untroubled. “Melodies simply pour out of me,” Dvořák said at the time, and both the unashamedly tuneful nature of this score and the timetable of its progress confirm the composer’s boast. He began his new symphony on August 26; the first movement was finished in two weeks, the second a week later, and the remaining two movements in just a few days apiece. The orchestration took only another six weeks.

The first movement is, as Dvořák predicted, put together in a new way. The opening theme—pointedly in G minor, not the G major promised by the key signature—functions as an introduction, although, significantly, it is in the same tempo as the rest of the movement. It appears, like a signpost, at each of the movement’s crucial junctures—here, before the exposition; later, before the start of the development; and finally, to introduce the recapitulation. Dvořák is particularly generous with melodic ideas in this movement. As Leoš Janácek said of this music: “You’ve scarcely got to know one figure before a second one beckons with a friendly nod, so you’re in a state of constant but pleasurable excitement.”

The second movement, an Adagio, alternates C major and C minor, somber and gently merry music, as well as passages for strings and winds. It is a masterful example of complexities and contradictions swept together in one great paragraph. The central climax, with trumpet fanfares over a timpani roll, is thrilling. The third movement is not a conventional scherzo, but a lilting, radiant waltz marked Allegretto grazioso— the same marking Brahms used for the third movements of his second and third symphonies. The main theme of the trio was rescued from Dvořák’s comic opera The Stubborn Lovers, where Toník worries that his love, Lenka, will be married off to his father.

The finale begins with a trumpet fanfare and continues with a theme and several variations. The theme, introduced by the cellos, is a natural subject of such deceptive simplicity that it cost its normally tuneful composer nine drafts before he was satisfied. The variations, which incorporate everything from a sunny flute solo to a determined march in the minor mode, eventually fade to a gentle farewell before Dvořák adds one last rip-roaring page to ensure the audience enthusiasm that, by 1889, he had grown to expect.

Biographical Notes

James Liu - Guest Conductor James P. Liu, of Singapore nationality, was appointed Music Director of the Wuhan Philharmonic Orchestra at the invitation of the Wuhan Municipal Culture Bureau (China) in 2004. In 2011, he founded the Wuhan International Piano Festival and became the Artist Director. He was a Research Scholar on the Conducting Faculty at the Michigan State University (USA) College of Music. He is also the principal guest conductor of the Pueblo Symphony Orchestra of Colorado (USA). Mr. Liu led the WPO on tour to Oita, Japan in 2004. In 2009, he conducted the WPO at the 9th Asia Symphony Week in Tokyo and WPO was the only symphony orchestra from China. Mr. Liu also led the orchestra during a 13 city China tour in 2011. Mr.

Liu has been guest conductor with Numberger Symphoniker Orchestra (Germany), Duisburger Philharmoniker (Germany) Thuringer Symphoniker (Germany), Poland Silesian Philharmonic. The Cyprus State Symphony Orchestra, Poland Zabrze Philharmonic Orchestra, Oita Symphony Orchestra (Japan), Bohuslav Martinu Philharmonic Orchestra (Czech Republic), Tuscia OperaFestival(Italy) Orquestra de Camera Chihuahua (Mexico), State Symphony Orchestra (Mexico), Michigan State University Symphony Orchestra (USA), Pueblo Symphony Orchestra (USA), Evergreen Symphony Orchestra (TaiPei) Tian, Jin Symphony and Sichuan Symphony (China), and he has cooperated with artists from Europe, America, and Asia.

Glenn Block - Music Director and Conductor Dr. Glenn Block is in his 29th year as the Director of Orchestras and Professor of Conducting at Illinois State University. From 1983 - 2007, he led the Kansas City Youth Symphony program to being one of the largest and most recognized youth symphony programs in the country. Prior to coming to Illinois in the fall of 1990, Dr. Block served for 15 years as Director of Orchestras and Professor of Conducting at the Conservatory

of Music of the University of Missouri - Kansas City and Music Director of the Kansas City Civic Orchestra. From 1972 - 1974, he was Music Director of the San Diego Chamber Orchestra and from 1968 - 1974; he served as Principal Double Bass of the San Diego Symphony and Opera Orchestras. Born in Brooklyn, Dr. Block was educated at the Eastman School of Music. He also received his Ph.D. from the University of California at San Diego. A frequent guest conductor, he has appeared in 42 states with all-state and professional orchestras in the United States, Europe and South America. Since 2012, he lives in the summers and concertizes regularly in South America, headquartered in Buenos Aires, Argentina, conducting in Argentina, Paraguay, Brazil and Italy.

Dr. Block has served on the faculty of the National Music Camp at Interlochen as Resident Conductor of the World Youth Symphony Orchestra, and at the Interlochen Arts Academy as Visiting Conductor. In addition, he has served as Music Director of the Summer Festival Orchestra at the Rocky Ridge Music Center in Estes Park, Colorado. Dr. Block has been widely recognized as a teacher of conducting, performing master classes throughout the United States, Canada, Europe and South America. An active researcher, he has been the recipient of numerous Illinois State University, University of Missouri and National Endowment of the Humanities grants that have resulted in critical editions of the orchestral music of Igor Stravinsky, Charles Ives and George Gershwin. In 1985, he was appointed Research Consultant to the Orchestra Library Information Service of the American Symphony Orchestra League, where responsibilities included the organization of critical sources and errata information for the orchestral repertoire housed in a national database in Washington, D.C. He has served as a member of the national Board of Directors of the Conductors Guild of America, representing over 1,000 professional conductors, and the Board of Directors of the American Symphony Orchestra League.

Foreign guest-conducting have included residencies at the Fountainebleau Conservertoire in France, and in Spain, Canada, Colombia, Estonia, Russia, Italy and South America in 2013 (Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay.) Dr. Block led the Youth Symphony of Kansas City on three international tours to Spain (1992), Canada (1996) and Italy (2000) and three national tours to Chicago, St. Louis and New York’s Carnegie Hall. The Youth Symphony of Kansas City was invited by MENC to be the broadcast orchestra for the 1995 World’s Largest Concert and to perform at the 1996 MENC annual convention.

Beginning in 2012, he has annually toured extensively through South America with concerts in Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay. In the summer of 2014, he returned to South America, and also guest-conducted in Italy, with concerts in Pescara, and in the mountains of Abruzzo. In the fall of 2015, he returned to Buenos Aires to make his conducting debut at the Teatro Colón, and a second trip to Argentina to conduct in Mar del Plata in November of 2015.

In January 2016, Dr. Block was on sabbatical from Illinois State University, living and conducting in South America, researching El Sistema orchestra programs in South America, Italy and Vietnam. He conducted additional concerts throughout South America, guest-conducting and teaching conducting in Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, Italy, and Vietnam. During the month of July, 2016, Dr. Block conducted four orchestras in Asunción, Paraguay: the Orquesta de los Recicladas Instrumentos of Cateura (Recycled Instruments Orchestra), Orquesta de la Policia Naciónal, Camerata Miranda and the OCMA, made up of the principal players of the OSCA (Orquesta Sinfónica de la Ciudad de Asunción).

In 2017, he returned to guest-conduct in Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, Italy, China and Vietnam, in addition to his concerts in the United States. He was been invited to serve as Principal Guest Conductor with the National Symphony of Vietnam in Ho Chi Minh City for the 2016-2017 season. He has also been invited to join the conducting staff of the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, Argentina. In June of 2017, Dr. Block was been invited to lead an international Seminario in Dirección Orquestal (Seminar in Orchestral Conducting), and orchestra concerts in November 2017 at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

In 2018-2019, he returned to guest-conduct and lead conducting seminars in Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, Italy, China and Vietnam, in addition to his concerts in the United States. In the summer of 2019, Dr. Block was on a three-month international tour conducting in four countries on three continents with concerts and conducting seminars in Argentina, Paraguay, Brazil and Italy. He will be returning to Argentina and Brazil in December 2019 to guest-conduct orchestra festivals and lead conducting seminars.

ISU SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

VIOLIN I Eun Cho, concertmaster

Rhoda Kay Roberts Maiya Favis Satomi Radostits Jessica Pytel Mark Moen Jessica Pytel Grace Bang Nathaniel Quiroz Katie Heise VIOLIN II Rose Ortega, principal

Kathleen Miller Sarai Marchan Juliet Weight Bree Rea Aliana Kattabi Maddy Dunsworth Amanda Slabik Mary Otto Brennen Jacobson Nathan Anton Brock Melrose VIOLA Christopher Aman, principal

Ye Eun Eom Sara Johnson Christine Angela Aganon Rhiannon Cosper Vicky Nyder Ashely Delgado Caleb Mackinder Kimberly Bohm CELLO Bianca Prado, principal

Aaron Gomez Alex Hibbard-Brown Lydia Hedberg Peyton Miles Eli Gaier Paris Roake Isabelle Boike Ian Crossland Natasha Connor Angel Pangilinan DOUBLE BASS Samuel Frosch, principal

Alyssa Trebat Hunter Thoms Jacob Webber Kaitlyn Hall FLUTE Samantha Adams, co-principal Brianne Steif, co-principal Benjamin Wyland, co-principal

OBOE Tzu-Han Hu, principal

John D’Andria Madison Nottke, English horn CLARINET Brian Zielinski, principal

Daniel King Kara Karkus Thomas Shermulis, bass clarinet

BASSOON Nickolai Podvin, principal

Bradley Sarmiento HORN Leah Young, co-principal Mary Monaghan, co-principal Allison Hoffman Thomas Wade co-principal Klara Farren, assistant TRUMPET Brendan Korak, principal

Eric Caldwell Trevor Gould TROMBONE Jonathan Sabin, principal

Matthew Helferich A.J. Nemsick, bass trombone TUBA Martin Czernicki, principal PERCUSSION/TIMPANI Elliot Godinez, co-principal

Baryl Brandt, co-principal Jacob Okrzesik Wyatt Onsen Kyle Waselewski KEYBOARD Camilo Tellez, principal

ORCHESTRA COMMITTEE Aaron Gomez, chair Brian Zielisnksi, secretary Thomas Wade, treasure Sara Johnson Rhoda Roberts STAFF Aaron Gomez, Assistant Conductor, Manager/Librarian Camilo Tellez, Assistant Conductor, Manager/Librarian * All musicians are listed in chair order.

THANK YOU

Illinois State University Wonsook Kim College of Fine Arts

Jean Miller, dean Sara Semonis, associate dean of research and planning

Janet Tulley, assistant dean of academic programs and student affairs Nick Benson, coordinator, Center for Performing Arts

Steve Parsons, director, School of Music Janet Wilson, director, School of Theatre and Dance Michael Wille, director, Wonsook Kim School of Art Aaron Paolucci, director, Arts Technology Program

Kendra Paitz, director and chief curator, University Galleries Stephanie Kohl Ringle, business communications associate

Eric Yeager, director, CFAIT

Illinois State University School of Music

A. Oforiwaa Aduonum, Ethnomusicology Allison Alcorn, Musicology Debra Austin, Voice Mark Babbitt, Trombone Emily Beinborn, Music Therapy Glenn Block, Orchestra and Conducting Karyl K. Carlson, Director of Choral Activities Renee Chernick, Group Piano David Collier, Percussion and Associate Director Andrea Crimmins, Music Therapy Peggy Dehaven, Office Support Specialist/Scheduling Anne Dervin, Clarinet and General Education Gina Dew, Music Education Advisor Judith Dicker, Oboe Michael Dicker, Bassoon Geoffrey Duce, Piano Ellen Elrick, Music Education Tom Faux, Ethnomusicology Angelo Favis, Guitar and Graduate Coordinator Tim Fredstrom, Choral Music Education Sarah Gentry, Violin David Gresham, Clarinet Mark Grizzard, Theory and Choral Music Christine Hansen, Lead Academic Advisor Kevin Hart, Jazz Piano and Theory Phillip Hash, Music Education Megan Hildenbrandt, Music Therapy Rachel Hockenbery, Horn Martha Horst, Theory and Composition Mona Hubbard, Office Manager Aaron Jacobs, Violin John Michael Koch, Vocal Arts Coordinator William Koehler, String Bass and Music Education MaryKate Kuhne, Assistant Director of Bands

Marie Labonville, Musicology Katherine J. Lewis, Viola Anne McNamara, Trumpet Shawn McNamara, Music Education Roy D. Magnuson, Theory and Composition Anthony Marinello III, Director of Bands Thomas Marko, Director of Jazz Studies Rose Marshack, Music Business and Arts Technology Joseph Matson, Musicology Paul Nolen, Saxophone Lauren Palmer, Office Administrator Stephen B. Parsons, Director Ilia Radoslavov, Piano Adriana Ransom, Cello/String Project/CSA Kim Risinger, Flute Cindy Ropp, Music Therapy Andy Rummel, Euphonium/Tuba Tim Schachtschneider, Facilities Manager Carl Schimmel, Theory and Composition Daniel Peter Schuetz, Voice Robert Sears, Trumpet Lydia Sheehan, Bands Office Administrator Anne Shelley, Milner Librarian Matthew Smith, Arts Technology David Snyder, Music Education Ben Stiers, Percussion/Director of Athletic Bands Thomas Studebaker, Voice Erik Swanson, Jazz Guitar Elizabeth Thompson, Voice Tuyen Tonnu, Piano Rick Valentin, Arts Technology Justin Vickers, Voice Michelle Vought, Voice Roger Zare, Theory and Composition