Program Notes: December 14, 1997
Katherine Hoover: "Stich-te Naku" ("Grandmother Spider") for Cello and Orchestra
Stich-te Naku, according to its composer Katherine Hoover, "is a story of creation and of weaving; of Stich-te Naku, the Spider-Grandmother who wove the world in her web, and all of its features and creatures." Based on the folklore and music of native Americans, Stich-te Naku suggests weaving on a variety of levels; in Ms. Hoover's words, "we weave cloth, stories, plans; we weave the fabric of our lives." The trajectory of creation here has a cautionary side as well, progressing from birds and animals to the sounds of chaos and guns, followed by mourning, renewal, and celebration. Ultimately, Stich-te Nakuweaves a hopeful trajectory of trials endured and happiness achieved.
Beethoven: Overture to "Fidelio"
Beethoven's Fidelio Overture was written for the successful revision of his opera in 1814, but was completed only after the opening night. Unlike his earlier three overtures for Fidelio (written in 1805, 1806, and 1807, and now known as Leonore Overtures 1-3), his final version does not use music from the opera itself, relying instead on newly conceived material, more concisely rendered, to set the stage for his melodramatic tale of political repression and dramatic rescue. Ironically, the successful revival of the opera, which celebrates the devotion of a faithful wife, came while he was himself still recovering from the period of devastating loneliness that followed the conclusion of the "Immortal Beloved" episode in 1812.
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 4
Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony, completed in early 1878, coincides with a particularly difficult episode in his life, his brief and disastrous marriage to the unstable Antonina Milyukova. The first movement of the Fourth Symphony has suggested to some the plot-line of Bizet's Carmen (which Tchaikovsky had recently heard and loved), and it is easy to hear echoes of this parallel story of ill-starred romance in the militaristic "fate" motive that opens the movement and the dance-like tune that "seduces" the main theme a little later. Probably, the malicious fate struggled against in the first movement, described by Tchaikovsky's as "that ominous power that hinders our striving after happiness," refers to his homosexuality, which was surely an obstacle to his finding happiness in marriage. In Tchaikovsky's private program for the symphony (provided for his benefactor, Madame von Meck), the shattering conclusion of the first movement is succeeded, in turn, by melancholy (second movement) and the release of imagination encouraged by drink (hence the unusual instrumentation of the third movement!). The finale, with its unmistakable tokens of Russian nationalism, suggests that a more fulfilling comfort might be provided by "the people," although even this alternative has to weather a final reappearance of the "fate" motive that opened the symphony.
This occasion marks the return of Katherine Hoover's music to our stage, for we performed her moving Eleni: A Greek Tragedy in March 1994. Ms. Hoover, a native of West Virginia now living in New York, holds degrees from the Eastman and Manhattan Schools of Music. She has won many grants and awards as a composer, including a National Endowment Composer's Fellowship. Her compositions have been widely performed and praised; her Quintet (Da Pacem) received its premiere at Lincoln Center, and Eleni: A Greek Tragedy (1986) has been performed by eleven orchestras. Stich-te Naku is the third in a series of Ms. Hoover's engagements with native- American subjects, preceded by Kokopeli for solo flute and Canyon Echos for flute and guitar.
Timothy Landauer , who was born in Shanghai, won the Concert Artists Guild International New York Competition in 1983, and has since performed at Carnegie Hall, the Ambassador Auditorium in Los Angeles, and in other prestigious venues throughout the world. Among the honors he has won are the Young Musicians Foundation's National Gregor Piatigorsky Memorial Cello Award, the National Solo Competition of the American String Teacher's Association, the Samuel Applebaum Grand Prize, and the 1984 Hammer- Rostropovich Scholarship Award. Currently the Principal Cellist with the Pacific Symphony Orchestra, he holds degrees from Shanghai Conservatory of Music and the University of Southern California (Masters), where he also taught between 1987 and 1990.
--- Raymond Knapp
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