Vista Philharmonic Orchestra

Program Notes

By Maestro Bruce Hangen

Salzburg-born Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 – 1791), was living an incredibly busy life in Vienna when he composed the Symphony No. 35 (1782), not to mention he was about to be married and moved to new living quarters at the same time. This work is subtitled the Haffner Symphony, as it was composed for the ennoblement of one Sigmund Haffner, friend of the Mozart family (there is also an earlier Haffner Serenade, composed for the same family).  The first movement begins without the common slow introduction, but rather dives right into the main, highly energetic theme of leaps and bounds.  Scurrying scales soon follow as the movement progresses with statements of the theme in all sorts of obvious and understated iterations.  Short, compact and to the point, Mozart said this movement was to be played “with great fire”!  In contrast, the second and third movements play out almost traditionally, and with significantly fewer Mozartean innovations, perhaps due to the composer’s desire to placate his traditional-minded father who had requested the piece in the first place.  The final movement, to be played “as fast as possible” shows Wolfgang at his best and most creative.  Likely because the four-movement symphony was originally part of a six-movement serenade, this work is one of Mozart’s shortest symphonies but with an altogether powerful musical effect similar to his later works.

La Valse (The Waltz, 1920) was composed originally in celebration of the Viennese waltz of the 1800s, especially as perfected and promulgated by the Austrian Strauss family.  Maurice Ravel (1875 – 1937) began work on the piece as early as 1906 at the invitation of Serge Diaghilev, with the intent of its being performed by the impresario’s Ballets Russes.  With Diaghilev’s rejection of the piece as not being for dance, the work lay abandoned for years.  Then history marched in: World War I overtook Europe; Ravel himself served in the Army, was wounded and was moved to praise France while condemning Germany and Austria.  After the war, Ravel took up the piece again, but because of past events contemporaneous critics and musicologists today insist that the work has a much more sinister conclusion than the “whirling frenzy” Ravel originally intended.  La Valse begins very mysteriously, evoking a large ballroom enshrouded in mist that only gradually lifts, revealing brilliant chandeliers and joyous dancers reliving Vienna in its 1855 heyday.  But the brilliance of the piece lies in the work’s conclusion, where brilliance becomes blinding, passion becomes pandemonium until the waltz ultimately implodes.  This is one incredible composition, yes, for its musicality, but as with all of Ravel’s orchestral works, even more for the orchestration, the colors, and the psychological drama evoked.

SURVIVE (Symphony No. 4) (2018-19)
Program note from the composer:

“The premiere of the first movement was at a concert saluting William Grant Still, the “dean” of African-American composers. I decided to reference some of the motives found in Still’s famous and pioneering Symphony No. 1, “Afro-American.”  I knew I would add others to make a symphony. Those movements are 2. Sometimes with a Lighter Touch, 3. While still remembering the Emmanuel Nine (and many others), and  4. Still Crossing That Bridge.

The first movement opens with a quiet, short introduction, followed by a duet for oboe and cello (two instruments that William Grant Still played). A suspenseful transition section leads to the conclusion, which features the African-American spiritual “Hold On” (also known as “Keep your Hand on the Plow”).

The second movement is a short scherzo with a clarinet solo in the middle. I wrote it to relieve the unresolved tension of the first movement (especially its ending).

The third movement is an elegy to the memory of the Emmanuel Nine, a group of church members who, while meeting and praying at the Mother Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston South Carolina were gunned down June 17, 2015.

The fourth movement is a tribute to the brave and determined citizens who, marching for voting rights in 1965, crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. Still crossing that Bridge symbolizes the ongoing struggle for civil liberties.”

Adolphus Hailstork (b. 1941) is one of the illustrious group of American composers who trained with Nadia Boulanger at the American Institute in Fontainebleau. He also studied at Howard University, the Manhattan School of Music (with Vittor io Giannini and David Diamond), and Michigan State University, where he received his doctorate. He has composed widely in most classical genres from solo instrumental and vocal works to cantatas, operas, concertos, and symphonies. James Conlon premiered Earthrise at the Cincinnati May Festival and Rise for Freedom, Hailstork’s opera about the Underground Railroad, was premiered by the Cincinnati Opera. The Buffalo Symphony and the Virginia Symphony have both recorded discs of his music. He is a retired professor living in Virginia Beach, Virginia.