Program Notes: May 17, 1998
Rossini: Overture to "the Silken Ladder"
Hearing the marvelous overture to Gioacchino Rossini's new opera, La Scala di seta (The Silken Ladder), audiences in 1812 must have thought themselves in for a delightful evening, but the opera itself proved to be a disappointment. Rossini composed it quickly to follow up on his first great operatic success (L'Inganno felice), which had premiered just two months earlier. In a letter whose authenticity is much in doubt, Rossini implied that there had been deliberate sabotage on his part, complaining to his impressario: "you treated me like a child; in causing you to have a fiasco, I have repaid you with interest. Now we are even." If the story is true, Rossini's jest was a good one indeed, for he provided his "fiasco" with one of his most glittering overtures, full of delectable tunes, surprising turns, and an inimitable use of woodwinds, piquant and insinuating at the same time.
Ibert: Flute Concerto
Across his diverse and successful career, Jacques Ibert kept his distance from the many "isms" of the twentieth century, insisting that "all systems are valid, provided one derives music from them." His Flute Concerto, written for Marcel Moyse and premiered in 1934, is one of the classics of its genre, and in it Ibert demonstrates that his idea of "music" is not as easily "derived" as he seems to suggest. The work is a masterful blend of the new and old, exploring the full range of flute technique without indulging in virtuosity for its own sake. Ibert also takes advantage of new compositional possibilities and his exquisite sense for orchestral color, but, again, without indulging in excess, exercising a typically French restraint within exquisitely balanced forms and textures. The three movements of the concerto are outwardly conventional, with a lyrical slow movement sandwiched between dramatic fast movements, but each movement is individually conceived; both outer movements, for example, shift dramatically between fast and slower tempos to great expressive effect. Throughout, Ibert creates a nicely nuanced balance between orchestral and virtuosic brilliance.
Mendelssohn: Symphony #3 "Scotch"
Felix Mendelssohn's trip to Scotland as a young man inspired him both as a painter and as a musician, and one can easily hear an attempt to "paint" scenes in the music that resulted. Although the Scotch Symphony was begun as early as 1829, when he first visited Edinburgh, he was not to complete the work until 1842, when he conducted the premiere. Oddly, it seems to have been Mendelssohn's predominantly good spirits that kept him from completing the often moody score, and it was not until he returned to Berlin in 1841 and became disenchanted with his musical opportunities there that he was sufficiently depressed to resume work on the symphony. Mendelssohn begins the symphony with what we may take to be a musical setting of the gloomy Scottish coast, painting a cloud-ridden land- and seascape that erupts into a full-fledged storm later in the movement. The second movement cheerfully evokes Scottish folk music-this is more the music of the highlands than the forbidding coast-before returning us to gloom for the third movement, with its ominous funereal intrusions. For the finale, which ends in majestic triumph, Mendelssohn takes up a military theme, indicating that it was not just the rugged Scottish landscapes that interested him, but its blood-soaked history, as well. Although overshadowed by the popularity of his Italian Symphony of 1833 (which never fully satisfied Mendelssohn, and was not published during his lifetime), the Scotch is arguably his finest symphony.
David Shostac, a frequent soloist with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, has collaborated with Sir Neville Marriner, Jean-Pierre Rampal, Iona Brown, Christopher Hogwood, Leopold Stokowski, Seiji Ozawa, Erich Leinsdorf, Eugene Ormandy, Zubin Mehta, and many others. Shostac holds a Masters degree from Julliard, and has received numerous prizes, including the Henry B. Cabot Prize (Tanglewood), the William Schwann award, and first prize in the Coleman Chamber Music Competition, which was judged by Heifetz and Piatigorsky. His numerous recordings have appeared on a variety of labels, including Angel, Nonesuch, Crystal Records, Harmonie-Resort Productions, and Excelsior Records. He has appeared in recital with Roberta Peters and Victoria de Los Angeles, and may be heard on numerous TV and movie sound tracks. Shostac has taught at the University of Southern California, UC Irvine, and the California Institute of the Arts, and is currenty on the faculties of Cal State Northridge and the Aspen Music Festival.
--- Raymond Knapp
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