Concert 5
Music for All Time–To Everything There Is A Season
April 25, 2019

Happy Birthday Variations John Towner Williams
Morning, Noon and Night in Vienna Franz von Suppé
Winter and Summer from The Four Seasons Antonio Vivaldi
Philip Johnson, assistant concertmaster, violin solo
The Unanswered Question Charles Edward Ives
Ase’s Death from Peer Gynt Edvard Grieg
The Firebird Suite Igor Stravinsky

Sponsored by Community 1st National Bank

Conductor’s Letter

Gene Dowdy
Conductor & Artistic Director

Dear Symphony of the Hills’ Friends,

Our final concert of the season is filled with music that portrays the different seasons, times, and stages of our existence including birth, life, passing, as well as the hope of things eternal. “Happy Birthday to You,” while a ubiquitously sung verse at birthday parties, and also intensely fought over in a 2016 legal battle certifying public domain, had humble beginnings as an elementary school song sung with the words, “Good Morning to All.” John Williams transcribed this song, cited by the Guinness Book of World Records as the most recognizable song in the English language, into his own brilliant orchestral rendition. We look at entire lifetimes through the lens of a 24-hour period, hence metaphors such as “the dawn of life” and the biological condition known as “sundowning.” Popular classical composer Franz von Suppe wrote an overture inspired by the times of day entitled “Morning, Noon and Night in Vienna.” Fittingly, 2019 is the 200^th anniversary of the birth of this greatest Viennese light-opera composer. When it comes to seasons of the year, Antonio Vivaldi composed the most famous of concertos based on the four seasons. We will feature Symphony of the Hills assistant concertmaster Philip Johnson performing “Winter” and “Summer” from Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons.

The second half of our concert begins with another American composer, Charles Ives, who combined innovative ideas in his music. Though largely unknown during his lifetime, Ives became celebrated all over the world as a brilliant composer. His “Unanswered Question” poses a musical reflection on our pursuit to find meaning in life. For the end of our time on Earth, many composers have written profound works that honor and reflect upon life and death. We will feature Edvard Grieg’s intensely emotional composition entitled “Ase’s Death” from his Peer Gynt Suite No. 1. Finally, as a representation of eternal life, Russian composer Igor Stravinsky composed his colorful Firebird Suite, based on a fairy tale about a magical bird that could bring blessings or curses to its owner. At the end of the ballet, the Firebird causes an awakening of those who have fallen asleep, and the music is a thrilling celebration of new life.

We hope to see you at our concert finale, and where we will announce our 2019-20 season!

With sincere thanks for your support,

Gene Dowdy
Conductor & Artistic Director

Philip Johnson, Violin Soloist

Philip Johnson began learning violin at the age of 10, studying with symphony players in his hometown of Buffalo, New York. He earned a Bachelor of Music degree in violin performance from the Eastman School of Music in 1982, and a Master of Music degree in violin performance and literature from Baylor University in 1986. His teachers include Bernard and Rivka Mandelkern, Sally Thomas, Charles Castleman, and Kristin Lindley, and he has coached with concertmasters of eight major orchestras. His summer studies include four summers at the Meadowmount School of Music, two summers at the Quartet Program, and one at the Tanglewood Music Institute. Since joining the San Antonio Symphony in 1983, he has been an active performer throughout San Antonio and South Texas. He was Concertmaster of the Mid-Texas Symphony for six years, and from 2004-07 he served as Operations Manager for Youth Orchestras of San Antonio. Since 2009, he has been a member of the adjunct faculty at St. Mary’s University, where he teaches violin lessons, string methods classes, and directs the growing St. Mary’s String Ensemble. He serves as Associate Concertmaster of the Symphony of the Hills, and is active with local freelance playing, sectional rehearsals at area high schools, and private teaching. His wife, Deana, is an oboist, retired high school orchestra director, and youth orchestra conductor; they have three grown children and two grandsons. In (look up the year), Philip and Deana appeared with Symphony of the Hills, performing Bach’s Double Concerto for oboe and violin.

Concert Notes

Summing up a lifetime of music is of course impossible. But tonight we’re going to hit both ends and the middle while showing off the diverse skills of the Symphony of the Hills. This final concert of the season will be a thrilling celebration of life from birth to passing, from dawn to dusk, with selections to provide color across the whole spectrum.

Morning, Noon and Night in Vienna
Franz von Suppé  (1819 – 1895)

Franz von Suppé—aka Francesco Ezechiele Ermenegildo Cavaliere Suppé Demelli—was born in Spalato, Dalmatia (now Split, Croatia) to parents who, like so many others before and since, discouraged their son’s aspirations for a musical career. Thwarting the will of his parents, he followed the recommendations of a local bandmaster and choirmaster who realized his real talent. Though he demonstrated promise as a composer at a young age, von Suppé agreed to move with the family to Padua, Italy where he was supposed to study law. His passion was directed elsewhere however. As a teenager in Cremona, Suppé studied flute and harmony. His first extant composition was a Roman Catholic mass, which premiered at a Franciscan church in Zara in 1832. Upon his father’s death in 1835, he relocated to Vienna (with his mother), enrolled in the Conservatory, and pursued his true passion.

Morning, Noon and Night in Vienna belongs to a musical genre that characterizes a piece to precede an operetta, i. e. a humorous play interspersed with song. The overture to such a production is rarely related to the actual story line of the play. The function of the overture was simply to get the attention of the audience, quiet the house and set the scene for the entertainment. Even in this relatively early work, composed when he was only twenty‐four, von Suppé had a feel for how to grab the attention of the audience. The play closed after three nights, but the overture has enjoyed an enormous, and continuing, success.

The Unanswered Question
Charles Edward Ives (1874 – 1954)

Charles Edward Ives was a composer in the American modernist mode. He is one of the first American composers of international renown, although his music was largely ignored during his life, and many of his works went unperformed for many years. Ives was among the first composers to engage in a systematic program of experimental music, with musical techniques including polytonality, polyrhythm, tone clusters, random (or accidental) elements and quarter tones, foreshadowing many musical innovations of the 20th century.

The Unanswered Question: What is the meaning of life? Ives stated that the quiet strings you hear at the beginning of this piece, which continue throughout, represent the “silence of the Druids” who know everything and observe everything but say nothing, so the question goes unanswered. The strident and discordant trumpet solo represents the human being who asks the perennial question of existence. The woodwind quartet represents those who try to provide the answer, but who fail to come up with one, and they grow more and more dissonant as they continue, representing disagreement and argument among those trying to answer the question — eventually their dissonance is extreme and they give up. Charles Ives was attempting to express in music that unanswered question of life, “Why am I here?” Alexa and Siri don’t have the answer either.

The Firebird Suite
Igor Stravinsky  (1845 – 1924)

The Firebird is a fantastic, exciting, immensely popular ballet and orchestral work by the Russian composer Igor Stravinsky. It was written for the 1910 Paris season of Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes. The ballet, a perennial favorite among major ballet companies throughout the world, was based on the Russian fairy tales of the Firebird and the blessing and curse it possesses for its owner. When first performed at the Opéra de Paris on 25 June 1910, the work was an instant success with both audience and critics.

Igor Stravinsky was the son of Fyodor Stravinsky, a principal musician at the Imperial Opera in St. Petersburg, Russia, and Anna Kholodovskaya, a competent amateur singer and pianist from an aristocratic Russian family. As a result of his father’s association with many of the leading figures in Russian music, including Rimsky-Korsakov, Borodin and Mussorgsky, Igor grew up in an intensely musical environment. In 1901, Stravinsky began to study law at St Petersburg University, while taking private lessons in harmony and counterpoint. He worked under the guidance of Rimsky-Korsakov, who was impressed with Igor’s talents. By the time of his mentor’s death in 1908, Stravinsky had produced several works.

The Firebird has historic significance not only as Stravinsky’s breakthrough piece, but also as the beginning of the collaboration between Diaghilev and Stravinsky that would produce other acclaimed ballets, e.g. The Rite of Spring (1913). Firebird has been recorded countless times by most noted international orchestras and is instantly recognizable for its usage in the depiction of a violent, flaming volcanic spirit in Disney’s movie Fantasia 2000.

The legend or myth of the Firebird has taken many forms over the millennia, similar in many ways to that of the Phoenix, most often representing rebirth or eternal life. The bird takes a leading role in many Russian or Slavic fairy tales as a glowing, fiery creature of great and desirable beauty. The bird recreates itself in a burst of new life, analogous to springtime, and according us a well-chosen conclusion to this evening’s concert.

Concert Notes by Jim Adams