Analisis

Concerts of Thursday, November 17 and Saturday, November 19, 2011, at 8:00p

Ilan Volkov, Conductor

Christina Smith, Flute

Carl Ruggles (1876-1971)

Angels, for Muted Brass (1920-21)

Ruth Crawford Seeger (1901-1953)

Andante for Strings from String Quartet 1931(ca. 1938)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

Concerto No. 1 in G Major for Flute and Orchestra, K. 313 (1778)I. Allegro maestoso

II. Adagio ma non troppo

III. Rondo. Tempo di Menuetto

Christina Smith, Flute

Intermission

Jean Sibelius (1865-1957)

Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Opus 43 (1902)

I. Allegretto


II. Tempo Andante, ma rubato


III. Vivacissimo


IV. Finale. Allegro moderato

Notes on the Program by Ken Meltzer

Angels, for Muted Brass (1920-21)

Carl Ruggles wasborn in East Marion, Massachusetts, on March 11, 1876, and died in Bennington, Vermont, on October 24, 1971. Angels is scored for four trumpets and two trombones (all muted). Approximate performance time is three minutes.

These are the first ASO Classical Subscription Performances.

American composer Carl Ruggles, along with his dear friend Charles Ives, as well as Wallingford Riegger,Henry Cowell and John J. Becker, are often referred to collectively as “The American Five.” Ruggles and his colleagues attempted to incorporate the rhythmic and harmonic avant-garde experimentalism of early 20th-century Europe into an American form of musical expression.

As a youth, Ruggles studied the violin and may have had the opportunity to play for the legendary Fritz Kreisler. Afterstudies in composition at Harvard University, Ruggles pursued an active career as composer, conductor, music critic and teacher. Carl Ruggles was also an extremely talented visual artist whose paintings were displayed in many important exhibits.

Ruggles first conceived of Angels as the center of a three-movement symphonic suite, entitled Men and Angels. Ruggles scored Angels for six mutedtrumpets. Later, he created the version for four trumpets and two trombones (again all muted) performed at these concerts. Ruggles dedicated Angels to the musicologist and composer, Charles L. Seeger, husband of composer Ruth Crawford Seeger (see, Andante for Strings, below).

Angels opens with a hymn-like passage (marked “Serene”). The music builds to a powerful, ff climax, leading to a return ofthe opening hymn and the work’s hushed resolution.

Andante for Strings (ca. 1938)

Ruth Crawford Seeger was born in East Liverpool, Ohio, on July 3, 1901, and died in Chevy Chase, Maryland, on November 18, 1953. The Andante for Strings is scored for first and second violins, violas and cellos. Approximate performance time is four minutes.

These are the first ASO Classical SubscriptionPerformances.

Ruth Crawford Seeger, born Ruth Crawford in East Liverpool, Ohio, on July 3, 1901, studied music in Jacksonville, Florida, Chicago and finally, New York. There, Ruth Crawford studied with the American composer and musicologist, Charles Seeger. After receiving a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1930, Crawford spent 1930-31 studying in Berlin and Paris. Crawford returned to New York in1931, and married Seeger the following year.

In the 1920s and 1930s, Ruth Crawford Seeger earned considerable recognition and acclaim for her modernist compositions. In the 1940s and early 1950s, Seeger devoted her career to collecting, arranging and publishing American folk music (one of her step-sons was the folk singer Pete Seeger). In 1952, Ruth Crawford Seeger completed her Suite forWind Quintet, which seemed to herald a return to original compositions (Seeger herself referred to the Quintet as getting back to “my own music”). The following year, however, Ruth Crawford Seeger died of cancer, at the age of 52.

Ruth Crawford Seeger’s String Quartet 1931 premiered in New York on November 13, 1933. American composer and critic Virgil Thomson described it as “in very way a...