MW4: Guitar Virtuoso & Beethoven’s Eroica

Sat, February 23, 2013 7:30PM-10:00PM at Whitefish Performing Arts Center
Sun, February 24, 2013 3:00PM-5:30PM at Flathead High School Performance Hall
Conductor : John Zoltek
With Guest Artists:
Ana Vidovic - Guitar

Celebrated Croatian guitarist Ana Vidovic takes the stage and is featured in one of the most popular and beloved concertos for solo guitar and orchestra in the repertoire. Spanish composer Joaquin Rodrigo composed this his first concerto for any instrument (and his best known!) in 1939 and was successfully premiered in 1940 after the composers return to Madrid after living in France during the Spanish Civil War. The work like many by Rodrigo pays tribute to his Spanish heritage but in addition in the Conceirto de Aranjuez, Rodrigo, utilizing clear light textures and enhancing orchestral sonorities, manages with great genius to blend uphold and the small intimate sound of the solo guitar with the full orchestra. The exquisite clarity and simplicity of the music and orchestration at times creates the illusion of a larger than life guitar sonority expressed by the selection of instrumental doublings and idiomatic strumming accompaniment. The work is in the typical concerto three movement design with the up tempo Allegro utilizing the idiomatic strumming effect in the orchestra rhythm with melodies reminiscent of Spanish folk song, the lyrical and nostalgic Adagio with the very popular theme stated by the English Horn and later taken up by the soloist ushering in a dramatic and sensual string melody response. The finale marker Allergo gentile, sounds like an appropriation of J.S. Bach counterpoint seen through Rodrigo’s Spanish folk/classical idiom. This gentle theme becomes material for graceful interplay and conversation between soloist and orchestral instruments. A dance-like counterpoint procession!
The concert concludes with Beethoven’s revolutionary “Eroica” Symphony No. 3 in Eb major composed in1804, initially as a tribute to the young Napoleon Bonaparte. But legend has it that upon hearing that Napolean had crowned himself emperor, Beethoven angrily scratched out the title “Bonaparte”. In fact the term “Eroica” did not appear on the title until the symphony’s publication in 1806. The real story might never be known but it is of no real consequence as the symphony is filled with intense and dynamic music some of the greatest that Beethoven had composed. The sheer length of the first movement alone at a startling 16 minutes when at the time most complete symphonies by other composers where 20-30 minutes total. By contrast the “Eroica” duration is 45- 50 minutes depending on performance, more than double the length! But it is not the duration, which is significant, although it does point to the more expansive harmonic and motivic development initiated by this symphony but not practiced until much later in the 19th century. The symphony is in four expanded movements, all of them filled with Beethoven’s deep musical concentration and the profound exploitation of thematic resources.
The concert opens with lively music plucked from Bedrich Smetana’s most successful opera, The Bartered Bride, composed 1863-70. The story line revolving around Czech people was one of the earliest manifestations of Czech nationalism as applied to opera. The score is inspired by the Czech and Slovak folk idioms that fuel both the melodic and rhythmic framework of the music. The opera’s Overture and Three Dances elucidate upon this concept of this Czech folk idiom style with lively national dance rhythms and quirky melodies that exemplify the rustic manner of the opera’s subject and setting. The Overture is exciting and bustling with simple direct musical energy which is continued in the three ensuing dances are written in polka, furiant and gallop rhythms The Bartered Bride was one of Smetana’s many works that extoll the uniqueness and vitality of the Czech culture, thereby initiating a Czech national music style later propagated by composers Dvorak, Janacek, Suk and others.
Song / Playlist
Janacek..............Lachian Dances
Rodrigo...............Concierto de Aranjuez - Vidovic
Beethoven...........Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major "Eroica"

Sponsors:
Crown of the Continent Guitar Foundation
Grouse Mountain Lodge
Montana Club
ABC Montana
Kalispell Toyota
Glacier Ear, Nose and Throat
Glacier Bank
Glacier Restaurant Group