Performances of the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra are made possible in part by grants from the City of Knoxville, the Knox County Government and by contributions to the Knoxville Symphony Society’s Annual Support Drive. This project is funded under an agreement with the TENNESSEE ARTS COMMISSION. Latecomers will be seated during the first con-venient pause in the performance. The use of recording devices and/or cameras is strictly forbidden. Please remember to turn off all electronic devices and refrain from text messaging during the concert. Programs and artists subject to change.

Lucas Richman, Music Director Natalie Leach Haslam Music Director Chair

Strauss for the New Year

KNOXVILLE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRALucas Richman, Music Director

2013-2014 - Seventy-Eighth Season

Sean Newhouse, guest conductorLouis Schwizgebel, piano

This concert will air on WUOT 91.9 FM on Tuesday, February 18, 2014 at 8:00 p.m. This concert will be rebroadcast on Monday, August 4, 2014 at 8:00 p.m

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Thursday & Friday eveningJanuary 16 & 17, 2014 ~ 7:30 p.m.

Tennessee Theatre

Strauss Overture to Die Fledermaus

Mozart Concerto No. 23 in A Major for Piano and Orchestra

I. Allegro II. Adiago III. Allegro assai

Louis Schwizgebel, piano

Intermission

Tchaikovsky Suite from The Sleeping Beauty, Op. 66a I. Introduction: La Fée des lilas II. Adiago: Pas d’action III. Pas de charactère: Le Chat botté et la Chatte blanche IV. Panorama V. Valse

Strauss Emperor Waltzes, Op. 437

Program Notes: Strauss for the New YearNotes on the Program by Ken Meltzer

Overture to Die Fledermaus (1874)

Johann Strauss II was born in Vienna, Austria, on October 25, 1825, and died there on June 3, 1899. The first performance of Die Fledermaus took place in at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna, Austria, on April 5, 1874.

Instrumentation: The Fledermaus Overture is scored for piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, timpani, snare drum, bass drum, orchestra bell in E and strings.

Duration: 9 minutes.

Johann Strauss, known affectionately as the “Waltz King,” was the most famous member of the eminent Viennese family of musicians that included father Johann Strauss, Sr. (1804-1849), and brothers Josef (1827-70) and Eduard (1835-1916). The premiere of Johann Strauss’s Die Fledermaus (The Bat) took place at the Vienna Theater an der Wien on April 5, 1874. The work was not an immediate success. Perhaps the stock market crash of the previous year dampened the audience’s enthusiasm. But soon, Die Fledermaus, a delightful tale of mistaken identity and practical jokes, triumphed in Berlin, Hamburg, Paris, and, of course, Vienna. To this day, Johann Strauss’s Die Fledermaus is one of the few operettas maintain a regular presence in the opera house, particularly around New Year’s time. The sparkling Overture to Die Fledermaus has also enjoyed independent success in the concert hall. The Overture features several melodies from the operetta. And, of course, the waltz plays a prominent role in this delightful work.

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Concerto No. 23 in A Major for Piano and Orchestra, K. 488 (1786)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born in Salzburg, Austria, on January 27, 1756, and died in Vienna, Austria, on December 5, 1791.

Instrumentation: In addition to the solo piano, the Concerto in A, K. 488, is scored for flute, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns and strings.

Duration: 26 minutes.

In October of 1785, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart began work on his opera The Marriage of Figaro. Mozart was anxious to establish himself as an important composer of Italian opera buffa. He poured his energies into Figaro, which

premiered at the Burgtheater in Vienna on May 1, 1786. Still, Mozart found time to compose several other important works during this period, including three piano concertos—K. 482 in Eb, K. 488 in A and K. 491 in C minor. Mozart completed the score of the Concerto in A on March 2, 1786. While specific documentation of the work’s premiere no longer exists, Mozart’s usual practice was to offer the first performance of a Piano Concerto shortly after its completion. There are records of Lenten concerts in Vienna held during March of 1786. It is quite possible those concerts featured the premiere of Mozart’s A-major Concerto. Mozart took great pride in this Concerto, and indeed, it is one of his finest. Pianists and audiences have continued to share Mozart’s enthusiasm. The A-Major Concerto is an introspective work (there are no trumpets or drums) that rejects overt showmanship in favor of a restrained, and at times, heartbreaking lyricism, most notably in the central Adagio. Still, the optimistic finale perhaps reminds us that the A-Major Concerto was the product of one of the most fulfilling periods in Mozart’s all-too-brief life. The A-Major Concerto is in three movements. The first (Allegro) features the traditional double exposition of the principal themes (orchestra, followed by the soloist). There are departures from convention as well, such as basing the development section not on the principal themes, but a new melody. The minor-key second movement (Adagio) looks forward to the heroine Pamina’s despairing second-act aria from Mozart’s opera, The Magic Flute (1791). The Concerto concludes with a spirited rondo (Allegro assai).

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Suite from The Sleeping Beauty, Opus 66a (1890)

Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky was born in Kamsko-Votkinsk, Russia, on May 7, 1840, and died in St. Petersburg, Russia, on November 6, 1893. The first performance of The Sleeping Beauty took place at the Maryinsky Theater in St. Petersburg on January 15, 1890.

Instrumentation: The Suite from The Sleeping Beauty is score for piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, English horn, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, four trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drum, cymbals, glockenspiel, snare drum, triangle, harp and strings.

Duration: 23 minutes

Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s second ballet, The Sleeping Beauty, was the brainchild of Ivan Vsevolozhsky. The Director of the

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Program Notes: Strauss for the New Year

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Imperial Theaters in St. Petersburg from 1881-1899, Vsevolozhsky had long hoped to convince Tchaikovsky to write a ballet for him. In the summer of 1888, Vsevolozhsky sent Tchaikovsky a libretto based upon the Charles Perrault’s 1697 fairy tale, The Sleeping Beauty. Tchaikovsky was immediately drawn to the story. Tchaikovsky worked on the music for The Sleeping Beauty from October of 1888 to September of the following year. The composer dedicated the work to Vsevolozhsky—much to the latter’s great satisfaction and pride. Sleeping Beauty premiered at the Maryinsky on January 15, 1890. The initial audience and critical reception was lukewarm. But today, The Sleeping Beauty is celebrated as the masterpiece among Tchaikovsky’s three ballet scores. No small accomplishment, considering that the other two are Swan Lake (1877) and Nutcracker (1892)!

The Story and the Music A banquet at the King and Queen’s castle celebrates the birth of the Princess Aurora. The evil fairy Carabosse, angry that she was not invited to the festivities, places a curse upon Aurora. The first time the Princess pricks her finger, she will fall into eternal sleep. However, the good Lilac Fairy proclaims that Aurora’s sleep will not last forever. Instead, a handsome prince will find Aurora and kiss her, awakening the Princess from her slumber. Aurora and the prince will wed. During a celebration in honor of Aurora’s 20th birthday, the disguised Carabosse tricks the young woman into prinking her finger on a spindle. Aurora falls to the ground. The Lilac Fairy intervenes. She protects the kingdom by placing everyone in a deep sleep, so that they may await the prince’s arrival. The Lilac Fairy leads her godson, the Prince Désiré, through an enchanted forest to Aurora’s castle. The Prince finds the Sleeping Beauty and kisses her. She awakens, as does the entire court. The King agrees to the marriage of the Prince and Aurora. The ballet concludes with the wedding celebration.

This concert features the orchestral Suite of excerpts from The Sleeping Beauty prepared in 1899 by Tchaikovsky’s pupil, the pianist, conductor and composer, Alexander Siloti.I. Introduction: La Fée des lilas (The Lilac Fairy)—The opening section juxtaposes music associated with the evil fairy Carabosse and The Lilac Fairy.II. Adagio: Pas d’action—The Rose Adagio, from the ballet’s first Act, accompanies a scene at Aurora’s 20th birthday celebration. Four princes each present Aurora with a dark red rose as a token of their love.

III. Pas de caractère: Le Chat botté et la Chatte blanche (Puss in Boots and the White Cat)—This excerpt is taken from the divertissement in the last-act wedding celebration.IV. Panorama—This music, from Act II of the ballet, portrays The Lilac Fairy transporting Prince Désiré through the enchanted forest to Aurora’s castle.V. Valse—The Suite concludes with a grand Waltz, taken from Aurora’s 20th birthday celebration.

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Emperor Waltzes, Opus 437 (1889)

Johann Strauss II was born in Vienna, Austria, on October 25, 1825, and died there on June 3, 1899. The first performance of Emperor Waltzes took place at the Königsbau Concert Hall in Berlin, Germany, on October 21, 1889, with the composer conducting.

Instrumentation: The Emperor Waltzes are scored for two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, timpani, snare drum, bass drum, harp and strings.

Duration: 10 minutes

It is most certainly the case that the “Waltz King,” Johann Strauss II, did not invent the waltz, either as a dance or form of concert music. Indeed, the basic format for Strauss’s waltz compositions was that employed by his father—a slow introduction preceding a series of independent waltzes, followed by a coda. What Strauss did accomplish was to bring the waltz to new heights of beauty and eloquence. Strauss sought to create a more organic waltz form by cleverly linking material between the various sections. This structural ingenuity, coupled with Strauss’s unfailing melodic inspiration and sense of orchestral refinement, produced compositions that made him the toast of Vienna, indeed, of the world.Johann Strauss conducted the premiere of his grand Emperor Waltzes in Berlin on October 21, 1889 at the Königsbau concert hall. The original title of the Waltz, “Hand in Hand,” celebrated a toast made in August of 1889 by the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I, extending “the hand of friendship” to German Kaiser Wilhelm II. It was at the suggestion of his Berlin publisher Simrock that Strauss changed the name of the piece to Kaiserwalzer, in honor of both the Austrian and German monarchs.