PROGRAM NOTES Concertino pour Tuba et Orchestre, Eugène Joseph Bozza (1905-1991)
Most known for his compositions of chamber music for wind instruments, Eugène Bozza was a French composer and conductor who earned a Premier Prix for his playing, conducting, and compositions, and later won the Prix de Rome for his La légende de Roukmāni (1934). Concertino pour Tuba was originally written for Bb Bass Saxhorn, the French cousin of the tuba, and chamber orchestra. The Saxhorn’s use has faded over the years and this piece is now most often played on tuba. A review of Bozza’s music by Paul Griffiths states that Bozza’s works show “a high level the qualities characteristic of mid-20th-century French chamber music: melodic fluency, elegance of structure, and a consistently sensitive concern for instrumental capabilities.” Bozza is known for virtuosic writing and the humor with which he presents it. Written three short years after Ralph Vaughan Williams wrote the first major Tuba Concerto in 1954, Bozza’s Concertino for Tuba (1957) explores the capabilities of the performer and is another cornerstone work of the modern tuba repertoire. Very interesting in terms of melody and sonority, this piece shows the full range of the Tuba at its best. The first movement of this Concertino for Tuba is written more like a bassoon part rather than the tuba, exemplifies the French style of writing with its nimble, light, and disjunct melodic passages. The second movement, reminiscent of the opening bassoon solo from Stravinsky’s famous Rite of Spring, which was completed in Stravinsky’s time in Paris, and the groundwork for a later work of his titled New Orleans (1962) for bass trombone, explores jazz harmony with his weaving improvisatory-styled lines. Finally, his third movement is back to a quicker tempo with its joyful and rhythmic melody. The piece will leave you laughing during the cadenza where Bozza pokes fun at Dukas’ The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.
Cello Suite No. 2 in D minor BMV 1008, Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Johann Sebastian Bach, J.S. Bach, is one of the most well-known and important composers in western music history. Known as the musician’s composer, Bach was a late Baroque German composer and organist and has an extremely large body of work, known for such works as his Brandenburg Concertos, Goldberg Variations, The Well-Tempered Clavier, Toccata and Fugue in D minor, and many, many more. Bach was particularly known for his mastery of counterpoint and harmony. Bach’s Cello Suites are some of the most often performed works for the cello, frequently performed for recitals and competitions. The suites are from circa 1720, when Bach lived in Cöthen, but no original manuscripts have survived from this time. It is only through a hand-written copy by Bach’s second wife, Anna Magdalena, that scholars have been able to put together what is presumed to be an authentic edition of the original six suites. Typical for all the cello suites, they are in six movements with the first movement being a prelude followed by Baroque dances for all the other movements. The movements being performed today are I. Prelude, IV. Sarabande, and II. Allemande. As popular Baroque dance, Sarabande originates as a sung dance in Latin America and Spain, coming to Italy in the early 17th century as a part of the repertory of Spanish guitar. This slow Sarabande is typical of what the dance came to be in France and Germany. The second movement, Allemande, comes from the name of Germany in French (Allemagne) and was a German social dance. Allemande was a popular Baroque instrumental dance and was originally a moderate duple-meter dance in two or three strains. The allemande came to be the most highly stylized of all Baroque dances. The version you will hear in this suite is quite a bit slower than a typical allemande. The edition of this piece being performed today was arranged by Douglas Yeo (b. 1955) in 2001. Yeo is an orchestral bass trombonist who has played with the Boston Symphony, been on the faculty of Peabody Conservatory of Music as well as the New England Conservatory of Music and has appeared as a soloist for many different orchestras. As an extremely active member of the music community, Yeo is a leading exponent of historical brasses and has written numerous articles on trombone and orchestral playing. The goal of Douglas’ version was to keep all the notes that Bach wrote but remove things which the trombone can’t play, such as double stops, creating a “balance of fidelity to the original source and practical considerations needed when playing on trombone.” He leaves minimal phrase and dynamic marks, allowing the music to be re-interpreted in fresh ways each time. He offers his version to be freely printed and distributed on his website: yeodoug.com. CONTINUE