The Dallas Morning News Symphony Series

Orchestral

Landscapes
Featuring

Pamela Mia Paul, Piano
Friday, April 20, 2007 at 8:00pm at Lakeland Baptist Church  (Directions)

Adults $20, Senior $ (60+) $18, student $8
Special UNT rate (this concert only $5)
Special Group Rates - click here

Beethoven: Egmont Overture

Sibelius: Pelleas and Melisande Op 46

Grieg: Piano Concerto in A Minor

  Adron Ming, Music Director/Conductor

Pamela Mia Paul

Pamela Mia Paul is both a brilliant performer and a deeply dedicated teacher. On stage, she has performed with the world’s great orchestras. She has given concerts throughout the U.S., and in Europe, the People’s Republic of China, South Korea and Turkey both as soloist and as chamber musician.

Miss Paul's European orchestral appearances include the Vienna ORF Orchestra, the Vienna Symphony, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Berlin Stadskapelle, and the Dutch Radio Symphony

Her U.S orchestral appearances include those with the New York Philharmonic, the symphonies of Detroit, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, and Houston, the American Composers Orchestra, and the Boston Pops.

Ms. Paul has commissioned and premiered works for the piano; Robert Beaser’s Piano Concerto, which was written for her, had its world premiere in the U.S., with the St. Louis Symphony conducted by Leonard Slatkin, and in Europe with the Monte Carlo Philharmonic under the baton of American conductor Richard Dufallo.

Pamela Mia Paul received a doctor of musical arts, master of music and bachelor of music from the Juilliard School. She is currently Regents Professor of Piano at the University of North Texas.

In the studio, or in the setting of a Master Class, she is an internationally sought-after teacher whose students have participated in and won competitions including the Naumberg International Piano Competition.

Ms. Paul is a Steinway Artist.   

Recent recordings by Pamela Mia Paul are available at BarnesandNoble.com or Amazon.com

Egmont Overture

Ludwig van Beethoven

(1770-1827)

The overture and incidental music to Goethe’s “Egmont” were written by Beethoven in the years 1809-1810.  The plot of the drama follows the historical narrative of the life of the Count of Egmont, the Flemish nobleman who opposed the government which Philip sought to establish in the Netherlands, and who became one of the associates of William of Orange in his struggle for Flemish liberty.  By a treacherous conspiracy on the part of the infamous Duke of Alva, the Count was captured and executed in 1567.

The overture opens with a short Andante introduction, followed by a marcato motive of a sarabande. Beethoven’s use of this old Spanish dance symbolically refers to the overlords who came north from Iberia to Holland.  The oboe, imitated by other woodwinds, leads back to the opening sarabande.  A section of extreme vitality follows, bridging to the main part of the overture and its brief development.  Revolution rages.  The exposition is then restated (recapitulation).  The Coda is comprised of entirely new material and a close that is a jubilant, mighty fanfare in the full orchestra.

Suite “Pelleas and Melisande”,

Op. 46 

Jean Sibelius 

(1865-1957)

          At the castle gate

          Melisande

          A spring in the park

          The three blind sisters

          Pastorale

          Melisande at the spinning wheel

          Entr’acte

          Melisande’s death

The plays of the symbolist Maurice Maeterlinck were very influential at the turn of the twentieth century, and none more so than his play “Pelleas and Melisande”.  Written in 1892, in the next 15 years it was set to an opera by Debussy, as a tone poem by Schoenberg, and both Faure and Sibelius wrote incidental music for stage productions.  The plot is typical of symbolists; all shadowy with moods and emotions rather than any clear explanation of the action.  Prince Golaud out riding one day discovers Melisande weeping and lost in the forest, and takes her under his protection.  The play charts her growing infatuation with the prince’s younger brother Pelleas, Golaud’s ensuing jealousy, and Melisande’s ultimate death.

The Pelleas and Melisande suite is presented in eight impressive vignettes.  At the castle gate, with its rich opening for strings, represents the opening of the main gate at King Arkel’s castle.  Melisande, in its delicate English horn melody over a gentle string accompaniment, portrays Melisande weeping by a forest spring, and the music evolves into a gentle waltz. A spring in the park is a cheerful waltz with some dark undercurrents.  A pensive song of diminishing hope is heard in The three blind sisters.  A lovely Pastorale portrays a serene landscape.  Melisande at the spinning wheel has ominous drumming eruptions that offset the sighing strings and winds.  The following Entr’acte is the happy music that precedes the doomed couple’s clandestine meeting in the park.  The suite concludes with the sadly beautiful strains of  Melisande’s death.                

Jean Sibelius

Born on December 8, 1875 in Hameenlinna, Finland

Died on September 20, 1957 in Ainola, Finland

Jean Sibelius was born in Finland  to a Swedish-speaking family.  His father, a doctor and amateur musician, died when he was two years old.  His mother, a member of the musical Borg family, was left in dire financial straits with her children.  Sibelius learned Finnish at high school in his hometown. He planned to study law, but the power of music emerged and he went on to enroll at the Music Institute of Helsinki.

The path of music was to be his destiny, leading to his composing classics such as Finlandia and Valse Triste, as well as the substantive Violin Concerto in D minor and his highly-regarded Seventh Symphony.  For the most part he devoted all of his time to composition, although he did return on two occasions to teach at the Music Institute of Helsinki from 1892-1900 and 1907-1910.  In the final thirty-two years of his life he wrotevery little music, except for a few incidental songs for the piano.

As a gift for his 50^th birthday, Sibelius received a grand piano, his most important furnishing, and with the creation of a Frazer confectionary in his honor.  Later he was commemorated with postage stamps, currency, and competitions.

Concerto in A minor for Piano and Orchestra, Op. 16

Edvard Grieg

(1843-1907)

          I.  Allegro moderato

          II.  Adagio

         III.  Allegro marcato

As Sibelius is to Finland, so is Edvard Grieg to Norway.  Grieg was the foremost Scandinavian composer of his generation and principal promoter of Norwegian music.  He was an important factor in Norway’s struggle in the 19^th Century to restore and retain her national identity.  His genius was for lyric pieces (songs and piano miniatures), but his Piano Concerto found a place in the standard repertory.  The rhythmic patterns in the first and third movements of the concerto suggest peasant dances and Norwegian folk music.  Admittedly, Grieg was not a master of orchestration, but the fact remains that he produced one of the most successful of Romantic concertos.  He had a real gift for melody and an unusual grasp of the picturesque in music.  Also, he understood the piano, since he was an accomplished professional pianist in his own right.  The soloist’s role in the A minor concerto is ingeniously conceived and skillfully worked out.  Despite all the changes in music over the past century, the work steadfastly refuses to die.

          I.  Allegro moderato.  Like many of the Romantic concertos there is no orchestral exposition of the thematic material at the beginning; instead, there is a brief introduction which is begun by the piano and then taken up by the orchestra.  As the movement progresses there is a restatement of the two themes that have been introduced, followed by a cadenza and then a brief, closing section.

         II. Adagio.  The second movement is relatively short, consisting of a sustained melody introduced by muted strings with the later addition of wind instruments.  There is no pause between this and the third movement.

       III.  Allegro marcato.  The last movement is marked by two contrasting sections.  The first section provides a pianissimo melody in the strings accompanied by broken chord figures in the piano.  The second section invokes a decided change of style with its song-like melody played first by the flute.  After returning to the principal theme there is a solo cadenza and then a closing section built around both themes.

Edvard Grieg

Born on June 15, 1843 in Bergen

Died on September 4, 1907 in Bergen

           Edvard Grieg was a Norwegian composer and pianist who composed in the romantic period. When he was 15-years of age he met Ole Bull, the legendary Norwegian violinist, who immediately recognized Grieg’s musical talent and urged his parents to send him to the Leipzig Conservatory.  He was a gifted professional pianist but  is noted primarily as a nationalist composer, drawing inspiration from Norwegian folk music.  His many short pieces for piano – often built on Norwegian folk tunes and dances – led some to call him the Chopin of the north.

          Among Grieg’s best-known pieces are his Piano Concerto in A minor, ten volumes of Lyric Pieces(for piano), and his incidental music to Henrik Ibsen’s play Peer Gynt, especially for In the Hall of the Mountain King.  His smaller scale pieces are the most successful musically.  The Piano Concerto retains popularity, in part, because of its impressive opening flourish, and the folk-like melodies contained in the slow movement.