Coming in October

Join the LCSO for its 2010-2011 season premier! The LCSO will be performing Grieg's In Autumn, Glazunov's "Autumn" from The Seasons, Vaughan Williams' Tuba Concerto in F Minor, and Brahms' Symphony No. 2 in D Major, to name a few!
Saturday, October 23rd, 2010
8:00pm
Irving Arts Center

Coming in November

The LCSO will be performing Piazolla's "Otoņo Porteņo" (Buenos Aires Autumn), Mozart's Symphony No. 36 in C Major "Linz", Beethoven's Concerto for Violin, Cello, and Piano. This performance will also feature Vivaldi's "Autumn" from The Four Seasons.
Saturday, November 20th, 2010
8:00pm
Irving Arts Center
October November December January February March April May > This Season
Saturday, November 20th, 2010 | 8:00pm | Irving Arts Center

This performance will feature:
Alex McDonald, piano
Andrew Wang, violin
Oliver Schlaffer, cello
Antonio Vivaldi – “Autumn (L’autumno)” from The Four Seasons (Le Quattro stagioni), Op. 8 No. 3 
Timing:  11’
The Four Seasons (Le quattro stagioni) is a set of four violin concertos by Vivaldi. Composed in 1723, The Four Seasons is Vivaldi's best-known work, and is among the most popular pieces of Baroque music.  The texture of each concerto is varied, each resembling its respective season. For example, "Winter" is peppered with silvery staccato notes from the high strings, calling to mind icy rain, whereas "Summer" evokes a thunderstorm in its final movement, which is why the movement is often dubbed "Storm."
 
The concertos were first published in 1725 as part of a set of twelve concerti, Vivaldi's Op. 8, entitled II cimento dell'armonia e dell'inventione (The Contest between Harmony and Invention). The first four concertos were designated Le quattro stagioni, each being named after a season. Each one is in three movements, with a slow movement between two faster ones. At the time of writing The Four Seasons, the modern solo form of the concerto had not yet been defined (typically a solo instrument and accompanying orchestra). Vivaldi's original arrangement for solo violin with string quartet and basso continuo helped to define the form.3
  • Concerto No. 1 in E Major, Op. 8, RV 269, "La primavera" (Spring)

          1. Allegro

          2. Largo

          3. Allegro Pastorale
  • Concerto No. 2 in G Minor, Op. 8, RV 315, "L'estate" (Summer)

           1. Allegro non molto

           2. Adagio e piano - Presto e forte

           3. Presto
  • Concerto No. 3 in F Major, Op. 8, RV 293, "L'autunno" (Autumn)

           1. Allegro

           2. Adagio molto

           3. Allegro
  • Concerto No. 4 in F Minor, Op. 8, RV 297, "L'inverno" (Winter)

           1. Allegro non molto

           2. Largo

           3. Allegro
 W.A. Mozart – Symphony No. 36 in C Major (“Linz”), KV 425    
Timing:  30’30

The Symphony No. 36 in C Major, KV 425, (known as the Linz Symphony) was written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart during a stopover in the Austrian town of Linz on his and his wife's way back home to Vienna from Salzburg in late 1783.  The entire symphony was written in four days to accommodate the local count's announcement, upon hearing of the Mozart’s arrival in Linz, of a concert. The premiere in Linz took place on 4 November, 1783. The composition was also premiered in Vienna on 1 April, 1784. The autograph score of the "Linz Symphony" is not preserved.

The symphony is scored for 2 oboes, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani and strings. There are four movements:

         1. Adagio, 3/4 - Allegro spiritoso, 4/4
         2. Adante, 6/8
         3. Menuetto, 3/4
         4. Finale (Presto),  2/4

Every movement except the minuet is in sonata form.

The slow movement has a Sicilian character and meter which was rare in Mozart's earlier symphonies (only used in one of the slow movements of the "Paris") but would appear frequent in later works such as #38 and #40. The next symphony by Mozart is Symphony No. 38. The work known as "Symphony No. 37" is mostly by Michael Haydn.
L.v. Beethoven – Concerto for Violin, Cello, Piano, and Orchestra in C Major, Op. 56   
Timing:  64’18

Ludwig van Beethoven's Concerto for Violin, Cello, and Piano in C Major, Op. 56, more commonly known as the Triple Concerto, was composed in 1803 and later published in 1804 under Breitkopf & Hartel. The choice of the three solo instruments effectively makes this a concerto for piano trio and the only concerto Beethoven ever wrote for more than one solo instrument. A typical performance takes approximately thirty-seven minutes.

Beethoven's early biographer Anton Schindler claimed that the Triple Concerto was written for Beethoven's royal pupil, the Archduke Rudolf (Rudolf von Habsburg-Lothringen) The Archduke, who became an accomplished pianist and composer under Beethoven's tutelage, was only in his mid-teens at this time, and it seems plausible that Beethoven's strategy was to create a showy but relatively easy piano part that would be backed up by two more mature and skilled soloists. However, there is no record of Rudolf ever performing the work—it was not publicly premiered until 1808, at the summer "Augarten" concerts in Vienna – and when it came to be published, the concerto bore a dedication to a different patron: Prince Lobkowitz (Franz Joseph Maximilian Fürst von Lobkowitz).

The concerto is divided into three movements:

        
         1. Allegro

         2. Largo (attacca)

         3. Rondo alla polacca

The first movement is broadly scaled and cast in a moderate march tempo, and includes decorative solo passage-work and leisurely repetitions, variations, and extensions of assorted themes. A common feature of this, is a dotted rhythm (short-long, short-long) that lends an air of graciousness and pomp, that is not exactly "heroic" but would have conveyed a character of fashionable dignity to contemporary listeners; and perhaps a hint of the noble "chivalric" manner that was becoming a popular element of novels, plays, operas, and pictures. (The jogging triplets that figure in much of the accompaniment also contribute to this effect.

In this movement, as in the other two movements, the cello enters solo with the first subject. Unusual for a concerto of this scale, the first movement begins quietly, with a gradual crescendo into the exposition, with the main theme later introduced by the soloists.

The slow movement, in A-flat Major, is a large-scale introduction to the finale, which follows it without pause. The cello and violin share the melodic material of the movement between them while the piano provides a discreet accompaniment.Dramatic repeated notes launch into the third movement, which is a polonaise (also called "polacca"), an emblem of aristocratic fashion during the Napoleonic era, which is, thus, in keeping with the character of "polite entertainment" that characterizes this concerto as a whole. The bolero-like rhythm also characteristic of the polonaise can be heard in the central minor theme of the final movement.

In addition to the violin, cello, and piano soloists, the concerto is scored for one flute, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, timpani, and strings.

Astor Piazzolla – ("Buenos Aires Autumn") “Otoño Porteño” from (The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires) Cuatro Estaciones Porteñas         
Timing:  10’

The Cuatro Estaciones Porteñas, also known as the Estaciones Porteñas or The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires, are a set of four tango compositions written by Ástor Piazolla, which were originally conceived and treated as different compositions rather than one suite, although Piazzolla performed them together from time to time. The pieces were scored for his quintet of violin (viola), piano, electric guitar, double bass and bandoneón. By giving the adjective porteño, referring to those born in Buenos Aires, the Argentinean capital city, Piazzolla gives an impression of the four seasons in Buenos Aires.