A thrilling performance by a soloist can be one of the most memorable experiences in any orchestra concert.  This unique program, billed as “The Stars of the JSO” and featuring exclusively pieces with soloists, is a celebration of the excitement and beauty of solo performance with orchestral accompaniment.  

            It is also intended to be a tribute to the fine musicians that make up the orchestra.  In the words of Maestro Osmond, “In my twenty-fifth year with the JSO I am well aware that there are many reasons for the success we’ve enjoyed together.  Certainly none is more important than the talent of the players.  While there are many others who could be playing a solo on this program, we want to showcase a small segment of the orchestra’s musical excellence, and to express our appreciation for the dedicated and  outstanding musicians who commit their time and talent to be such an important part of the JSO.”

            The selections reflect a wide range of styles and come from many different parts of the globe.   

Triple Concerto 

            In 1804 Beethoven wrote a letter to his publisher telling him that he had written “something new,” a concertante for orchestra with three different solo instruments, violin, cello and piano.  Similar pieces for two or more soloists were very popular in Vienna at that time, but it seems that this was the first appearance this particular combination, known in chamber music as a piano trio. 

In characteristic fashion, Beethoven continued to revise and rework the Triple Concerto until it was published in 1807.  Beethoven dedicated the concerto to Prince Lobkowitz, which is fitting since this wealthy patron allowed Beethoven to hold trial performances of this concerto, along with his watershed third symphony, the Eroica, in his palace with his private orchestra.

The three performers engage in a lively conversation in the first movement.  In the second movement a rich’ flowing melody is heard mainly in the cello.  The elegant third movement is based on the triple-meter style of a polacca, a Polish folk dance also known by the French term Polonaise.

Tarantella

            Giovanni Bottecini (1821-1889) was a very famous musician in the Romantic era.  He was a composer of operas, and happened to be the conductor for the world premiere performance of Verdi’s Aida, but he earned his most enduring fame as a performer on the double bass.  His tours of Europe, South America and the United States amazed audiences with his skill as a soloist on the three-stringed double bass that was in fashion at Italy at that time.  His stunning virtuosity led to his being dubbed “the Paganini of the double bass,” and his compositions have become a must for aspiring bassists everywhere to play.

Villanelle

            A villanelle is usually a lively, humorous piece in the character of a rustic dance.  The earliest villanellas were vocal pieces written in Naples in the 16^th century.  These “clownish” pieces, as the British contemporary Morley called them, were probably a reaction against the more polished madrigals of the time.  Their composers delighted in breaking the more traditional rules of music composition.  Many composers have written works in the genre over the years.  The Villanelle we will hear tonight was written in 1906 by the French composer Paul Dukas (1865-1935), whose most famous work is the playful Sorcerer’s Apprentice.

Concertino D’hiver

Darius Milhaud (1892-1974), another French composer, is well known for compositions that reflect his interest in jazz and polytonality, the practice of writing music in two or more different keys simultaneously to create a unique harmonic coloration.  Milhaud wrote this concerto in 1953 for the famous trombonist Davis Schumann, who recorded it in 1955.  The title literally means “Little Winter Concerto,” and Milhaud later wrote three other concertos (each with different instrumentation!) to complete a 20^th century counterpart to Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons.

Concerto for Piccolo and String Orchestra

Osvaldo Costa de Lacerda (1927- ) is a Brazilian composer who combines the music his homeland and modern compositional techniques in an aesthetic of “refined nationalism.”  His many accomplishments include being selected as the first Brazilian to receive a Guggenheim fellowship.  That award allowed him to come to the United States in 1963 to study with Vittorio Giannini and Aaron Copland.  His concerto for piccolo and strings was written in 1980.           

Piano Concerto no. 2

            The legendary Russian pianist Serge Rachmaninov (1873-1943) wrote many superb works for piano and orchestra.  His four piano concertos and the wonderful Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini are mainstays of the repertoire.  The third concerto has been immortalized in the movie Shine, but all of these pieces demonstrate his genius and remarkable mastery of the piano keyboard. 

The second concerto was one of the most significant pieces in Rachmaninov’s career.  After the disastrous premiere of his first symphony in 1897, Rachmaninov went into deep depression and suffered crippling writer’s block.  Finally he consulted a doctor who helped him break the spell by daily repeating the words “You will begin to write your concerto… the concerto will be of excellent quality.”  Noone will ever know if it was the treatment the did the trick, but Rachmaninov was soon hard at work, and he performed the triumphant premiere of his new concerto in Moscow in October of 1901.

Bassoon Concerto and Sinfonia Concertante

Mozart (1756-1791) wrote many beautiful concertos, almost thirty for piano, eleven for violin or combinations of string instruments, and sixteen for one or more wind instruments.  His bassoon concerto, written in Salzburg in 1774, recognized the bassoon’s neglected potential as a lyric, expressive voice.  It is considered by many to be the most significant concerto in the bassoon repertoire.  Some of Mozart’s concertos were intended for performance by gifted amateurs.  This work clearly calls for a musician of great skill.

            Alfred Einstein has called Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante “the creative summit of his Salzburg period, and the crowning achievement in the field of the violin concerto.”  The work was written in 1779 and shows the astonishing mastery that its twenty-three year old creator was achieving.  The conversation between the soloists is equally brilliant in the passionate opening movement, the profound andante and the joyous finale. 

 Capriccio Espagnol

            This Spanish-flavored orchestral showpiece by the Russian master Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908) is not strictly a solo piece, but Maestro Osmond chose it for this program because of the many times principal players in the orchestra are called upon to play extended solo passages. 

Tchaikovsky expressed the view shared by many when he wrote a gracious note after the premiere in 1887, congratulating Rimsky-Korsakov for his “great masterpiece of orchestration.”  The composer must have appreciated the accolades, but he later wrote that he felt the piece exhibited more skill in terms of its composition than in “its clothing,” the orchestration.  In his words, “the change of timbres, the felicitous choice of melodic designs and figuration patterns, exactly suiting each kind of instrument … here constitute the very essence of composition…”

            The five movements of the “Spanish Caprice” were based on songs from a book in his library.  The theme that is heard throughout the piece is based on the concept of an Alborada, a Spanish morning serenade.  The third movement depicts a Gypsy song, while the finale is a raucous Fandango, a Spanish dance traditionally accompanied by guitar and castanets.