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2014-2015 Subscription SeriesMARCH 14 & 15, 2015

Nir Kabaretti, ConductorChad Hoopes, Violin

Laura Dubroca, Flamenco Dancer

LALO Symphonie Espagnole for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 21 Allegro non troppo Scherzando: Allegro molto Intermezzo: Allegretto non troppo Andante Rondo: Allegro

— I N T E R M I S S I O N —

MASSENET Ballet Music from Le Cid Castillane Catalane Andalouse Madrilène Aragonaise Navarraise Aubade

DE FALLA Interlude and Dance from La Vida Breve

RIMSKY-KORSAKOV Capriccio Espagnol, Op. 34 Alborada: Vivo e strepitoso — Variations: Andante con moto — Alborada: Vivo e strepitoso — Scena e canto gitano: Allegretto Fandango asturiano

March 2015 • Volume 8, Edition 5

Join Ramón Araïza for “Behind the Music” beginning one hour before each concert!

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On The Upbeat

a few words from...

David Pratt executive directorDear Symphony patrons,

This weekend marks my first official concerts as the new Executive Director of the Santa Barbara Symphony Orchestra. I am thrilled and honored to step into this important leadership position in the organization. Over the coming months I look forward to getting to know many of you and hearing your thoughts on our orchestra. I believe classical music plays a critical role in the cultural fabric of any community, and often at the core of this is the city’s symphony orchestra, not only with inspiring, engaging and entertaining concerts, but through meaningful education programs that have demonstrated impact with young people.

The success of orchestras in the 21st century is based on a number of key groups working together. It’s a partnership between musicians, donors/sponsors, ticket buyers, board, and the administration. No orchestra will survive unless it’s deeply rooted in the community and these groups are in sync. I look forward to working with each of these groups as the Executive Director to grow the organization so that the Symphony is around for another sixty years.

We will launch our 2015/16 season at the end of this month. Keep an eye out for the new season brochure in the mail and online—there are some spectacular concerts and programs planned.

Thank you for coming and please help spread the word about this cultural jewel right here in Santa Barbara—this is your symphony orchestra!

David Pratt Executive Director

ROBERT WEBERArtist Sponsor

Principal Concert Sponsors

CHAD HOOPES LAURA DUBROCA

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Chad Hoopes violin20 year old American violinist Chad Hoopes, has been appearing

with numerous ensembles throughout the world since he won the first prize at the Young Artists Division of the Yehudi Menuhin International Violin Competition. He recently had a brilliant debut with Orchestre de Paris at Salle Pleyel. Further highlights of the last season include a tour to Russia with MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra, performances with Vancouver Symphony and outstanding debut at Prinzregententheatre with Munich Symphony Orchestra. In October 2013 he was signed by the French label NAÏVE. His first recording with the MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra under Kristjan Järvi (Mendelssohn and John Adams concertos) was released in spring 2014.

He frequently performs with leading orchestras such as the Vancouver Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, Houston Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Brussels Chamber Orchestra, Colorado Music Festival Orchestra, Trondheim Symphony and the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, Canada.

Next season, Mr. Hoopes will begin his position as the first Artist-in-Residence with the Münchner Symphoniker.

Chad plays the 1713 Antonio Stradivari Cooper; Hakkert; ex Ceci violin, courtesy of Jonathan Moulds.

Chad Hoopes is represented worldwide by Tanja Dorn of IMG Artists.

Laura Dubroca flamenco dancerBorn in 1982, Laura Dubroca has lived in United Arab Emirates, Venezuela, Qatar, Indonesia, France and Spain. Along the way she absorbed diverse cultural influences from each country she called home. She began classical ballet studies at an early age and later discovered her love of flamenco. In 2003, she moved to Spain and studied flamenco with renowned teachers such as Manolo Marín, Milagros Menjibar, Carmen Ledesma, Rafael y Adela Campallo (at the Fundación Cristina Heeren de Arte Flamenco in Seville, Spain) and later with Mercedez Ruiz, Juana Amaya, Rafaela Carrasco, Pastora Galván and Belén Maya.

Laura lived in Spain for 8 years, where she performed in various flamenco “tablaos.” She danced for the international award-winning harpist Meko and for the “Ballet Español del Teatro Arenal,” a resident flamenco dance company in Madrid.

Laura has experience teaching flamenco dance in Madrid, and abroad. Since 2009 Laura has been invited to teach at the fine arts school of Istanbul in Turkey; she also taught at the French flamenco dance school Malvaloca, at the World Dance Studio Rumpuree in Bangkok, Thailand, and at the Reed College in Portland, Oregon in the United States.

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Symphonie Espagnole for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 21 (1873)Édouard Lalo (1823-1892)Running Time: 40 minutes

Édouard Lalo’s early musical training was at the conservatory in Lille, where he was born in 1823; he later transferred to the Paris Conservatoire to study composition and violin. He started composing in the 1840s, but, discouraged by the lack of performances and publications of his music, he abandoned his creative work for almost a decade to play viola (and later second violin) in the Armingaud-Jacquard Quartet. His muse was rekindled in 1865 upon his marriage to Bernier de Maligny, a gifted contralto who performed many of his songs in recital and who also inspired his first opera, Fiesque. The Divertissement for orchestra (1872), based on ballet music from Fiesque, was his first important success as a composer. Encouraged by the formation of the Société Nationale de Musique in 1871 and the support of such conductors as Pasdeloup, Lamoureux and Colonne, Lalo produced a succession of instrumental works that brought him to the forefront of French music, including the Violin Concerto (1874) and Symphonie Espagnole (1875), both premiered by the celebrated Spanish virtuoso Pablo de Sarasate. His eminent position in French music was confirmed when he was awarded the Legion of Honor in 1888.

The Symphonie Espagnole, despite its name, is a true concerto in which the soloist is called upon to display significant feats of violinistic prowess. The five movements individually follow symphonic structures, which led Lalo to write about the title, “It conveyed my thought — a violin soaring above the rigid form of an old symphony.” The first movement is cast in sonata form, with a main theme employing bold upward leaps and a legato second theme in a contrasting

major tonality. The nimble, dance-like Scherzando, in three-part form (A–B–A), calls for both lyricism and flexibility from the soloist. The next movement is characterized by the extensive use of the Spanish rhythmic device of alternating groups of two and three notes. In the fourth movement, a three-part structure (A–B–A), a somber introduction leads to the melancholy main theme for the soloist. The finale, begun by the sound of distant peeling bells, is a bubbling rondo in the style of the saltarello.

Ballet Music from Le Cid (1884-1885)Jules Massenet (1842-1912)Running Time: 17 minutes

When the curtain rises on Le Cid, Rodrigo is about to be made a Knight of St. James and also to receive the blessing of the Count de Gormas to wed his daughter, Chimene. Following the knighthood ceremony, the King tells Don Diego, Rodrigo’s father, that he, Diego, has been chosen as the guardian of the young Prince. Gormas, furious that he has not been selected for the honor, insults Diego. Rodrigo returns and Diego implores his son to defend his honor. Only after he has agreed to this plea does Rodrigo learn that he will have to duel with the father of his beloved. Gormas is mortally wounded in the confrontation. Chimene asks the King to serve justice on the murderer, but he is convinced instead by Diego to allow Rodrigo to lead the Spanish forces against the invading Moors. Rodrigo pledges to return to accept whatever sentence the King deems appropriate. Still in love with Chimene, Rodrigo goes to her chamber to bid her farewell, and finds that she is torn between her feelings for him and her duty to her father. He tells her that he fears he will be killed in the upcoming battle, but she bids him to return safely to her. In his tent the night before the battle, Rodrigo has a prophetic vision of St. James promising

MARCH 2015

Notes on the Program by Dr. Richard E. Rodda

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him victory. The Moors are indeed defeated, and Rodrigo returns to the King, who tells Chimene that she must decide his sentence. She instead proclaims her love for him, saying that her father would not condone the condemnation of so great a solder, and the opera ends amid general rejoicing.

The ballet music occurs during the ball scene that opens Act II, before Chimene has confronted the King with news of her father’s death. Massenet brilliantly captured the color and spirit of the opera’s setting with his versions of several characteristic Spanish dances: Castillane, Andalouse, Aragonaise, Aubade, Catalane, Madrilène and Navarraise.

Interlude and Dance from La Vida Breve (“The Brief Life”) (1904-1905)Manuel de Falla (1876-1946)Running Time: 8 minutes

Between 1900 and 1902, while he was still a student at the Barcelona Conservatory, Falla wrote a series of five zarzuelas, the traditional form of popular Spanish musical theater mixing music and spoken dialogue whose origins trace back to the 17th century, but the works excited little interest and only Los Amores de la Iñes (”Sweethearts of Iñes”) was staged (Madrid, April 12, 1902). In 1904, the San Fernando Academy of Fine Arts in Madrid announced a competition for a new “Spanish lyrical drama,” and Falla eagerly applied. Performance of the winning entry was implied by the publicity materials, and Falla hoped that the receipts, should his opera be chosen, would fund his long-standing desire to study in Paris. He chose a successful writer of zarzuela librettos (and a fellow native of Cádiz), Carlos Fernández-Shaw, to supply the text. As the scores had to be submitted “before sunset” on March 31, 1905, Falla set quickly to work, but his schedule became complicated when Tragó, his old Conservatory teacher, convinced him to enter a piano contest sponsored by the instrument manufacturers Ortiz y Cussó — planned to begin the day after the deadline for the opera submissions. Falla decided that he had little chance in the piano competition, so he concentrated instead during the following months on the new opera, titled La Vida Breve (“The Brief Life”). He finished the work just in time and then returned to his piano practice, grateful that he would be among the last to perform at the two-week competition. He worked furiously on the required pieces — a Bach fugue, a Beethoven sonata, and compositions by Chopin, Schumann, Liszt and Saint-Saëns — and played with such emotion and intensity at his recital that one of the judges was moved to tears. He placed first in that competition and a few months later learned that La Vida Breve had been chosen as the winning entry in the Academy contest. His elation turned to frustration, however, when he

was informed that, owing to some ill-defined administrative problem, the new opera would not be staged. He reluctantly went back to teaching piano lessons and saved enough money during the following months to finance his long-hoped-for trip to study in Paris. In the summer of 1907, he set out for the French capital with the score of La Vida Breve tucked into his luggage, planning to stay a week. He did not return to Spain for seven years. La Vida Breve was finally premiered on April 1, 1913, when it was successfully staged at the Casino at Nice.

Suzanne Demarquez outlined the stark plot of La Vida Breve in her biography of Falla: “A Gypsy girl, Salud, lives with her grandmother and her aunt in the Albaïcin quarter of Granada. She has been seduced by Paco, a fashionable young man. Both have sworn eternal love, but Paco has deserted Salud for a rich novia [i.e., fiancée], Carmela, whom he plans to marry. On the day of the wedding, Salud, followed by her relations, appears in the middle of the wedding feast, reproaches her lover for his unscrupulous conduct, and falls dead at his feet.” The Interlude and Dance from La Vida Breve not only suggest the opera’s Andalusian setting but also distill the essence of Falla’s Spanish musical nationalism.

Capriccio Espagnol, Op. 34 (1887)Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908)Running Time: 15 minutes

Rimsky-Korsakov visited Spain only once: while on a training cruise around the world as a naval cadet, he spent three days in the Mediterranean port of Cádiz in December 1864. The sun and sweet scents of Iberia left a lasting impression on him, however, just as they had on the earlier Russian composer Mikhail Glinka, who was inspired to compose the Jota Aragonesa and A Night in Madrid on Spanish themes. Both of those colorful works by his Russian predecessor were strong influences on Rimsky-Korsakov when he came to compose his own Spanish piece in 1887. Rimsky-Korsakov’s principal project during the summer of 1887 was the orchestration of the opera Prince Igor by his compatriot Alexander Borodin, who had died the preceding winter. Rimsky installed himself at Nikolskoe on the shore of Lake Nelai in a rented villa and made good progress with the opera, one of many completions and revisions he undertook of the music of his fellow Russian composers. Things went well enough that he felt able to interrupt that project for several weeks to work on his piece on Spanish themes, originally intended for solo violin and orchestra but which he re-cast for full orchestra as the brilliant Capriccio Espagnol.

©2015 Dr. Richard E. Rodda

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©On the Upbeat, MARCH 2015 VOL. 8, EDITION 5. Published for Symphony Series concert subscribers by the Santa Barbara Symphony, 1330 State Street, Suite 102, Santa Barbara, CA 93101, (805) 898-9386 —A non-profit organization.

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