S o u n d s o f D o w n t o w nA m e r i c a n s , a n d M u s i c F r o m

( T h e T i m e O f ) H a m i l t o nSaturday, June 10, 2017, 7:30PM

Kirk Douglas Theatre

Frank Fetta - Music Director and Conductor

Leah Hansen - CelloWinner, 2016 Parness Concerto Competition

Senior Division

This Concert is Dedicated to the Memory of Susan Fetta, Wife of Frank Fetta

P r o g r a mAaron Copland: Quiet City (1939)

Joseph Haydn: Cello Concerto, D Major (1783), Opus 101Leah Hansen-Cello

I. Allegro Moderato. II.Adagio. III. Rondo/Allegro

I n t e r m i s s i o nWilliam Grant Still: Danzas de Panama (1948)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Symphony No. 29, A Major, (1774)

I. Allegro moderato / II. Andante /III. Menuetto / IV. Allegro con spirito

This performance is made possible in part by a Culver City Performing Arts Grant

with Support from Sony Pictures Entertainment.

❉Copland was born in Brooklyn, the

youngest of five children of Sarah Mittenthal and Harris Copland, of Lithuanian-Jewish heritage. He grew-up in Brooklyn and New York, and lived in the northeastern United States for most of his life. For a while his abode was one of the apartments in the Carnegie Hall building.

Aaron Copland Nov. 14, 1900 -

Dec. 2, 1980

In his youth, he helped his father in the family department store, which was below their housing. In 1909 he began to make up songs at the piano, and as his burgeoning musical talents developed, his path towards a life in music became clear, despite some serious parental misgivings.

He first studied music with local teachers who were grounded in the thorough, German tradition prevalent in New York at that time, most notably professional piano teacher, Ludwig Wolfsohn, and harmony and counterpoint with Rubin Goldmark, 1917-21. In 1921, while seeking a change in musical climate, Copland traveled to Paris, where he came into contact with the illustrious teacher of music, Nadia Boulanger.

Although at first skeptical of a woman as a musical pedagogue, Cop-land soon discarded that notion, and be-came the first of her many students from the United States. This is a group that includes such important twentieth-centu-ry composers as Marc Blitzstein, Elliott Carter, Roy Harris, Walter Piston, Virgil Thompson and Phillip Glass. Another Boulanger student was the American tango composer Astor Piazolla, though he was from South America.

With Boulanger, Copland studied techniques of composition, and form and structure. The Boulanger method stressed absolute clarity of thought, and of form and structure, and this clarity of musical gestures, and form and structure, would be a signature of Copland’s compositions.

Though Boulanger was a very demanding and strict teacher, she was also very caring, and she wisely guided her students. She demanded the best, and brought out the best in her student composers and performers. With Copland, as with all her students, she strongly encouraged that each one develop their own style and voice. With his studies with Boulanger com-pleted, Copland returned home, and was eager to create an identity for him-self, and for American music which at the time was under deep European in-fluences, which was understandable since Classical Music is the music of Europe.

Back home, he turned his attention to jazz. In the 1920s Jazz was be-ginning to spread out from its origins and creators, black musicians of New Orleans. The New Orleans musicians would sail up the Mississippi River to Chicago to further spread the new Jazz sounds, and from Chicago the new American sound went to New York, Kansas City, and later out west for what became West Coast Jazz, which may really mean Los Angeles Jazz as the

city was the center with influential clubs and hotels along Central Avenue in Los Angeles producing concerts. Jazz is the provenance of Black Americans, Jazz was also finding acceptance into the wider white culture.

In his desire to create an American music, Copland incorporated ele-ments of Jazz into early successes: "Music for the Theater," the Piano Con-certo, and the monumental Piano Variations.

Always concerned with social issues, Copland made a bold statement in his patriotic "Fanfare for the Common Man" of 1942, which later became part of his Symphony No. 3. From this inspiration in the Common Man came Copland's best-known works: ballet music. He composed his three great scores in the 1930's and ‘40s for the Martha Graham’s ballets which are now icons of American culture: "Billy the Kid," "Rodeo," and "Appalachian Spring." Each ballet is virtually synonymous with the glory of Americana with Copland incorporating open intervals, and quotations of folk songs and cowboy tunes which seem organically sprung from the nation’s bedrock. It is one of music’s glorious mysteries that the confirmed New Yorker Copland, of Jewish her-itage and a homosexual, could so convincingly evoke the open rugged spa-ces of the West and the beauty of Appalachia.

As his works gained increasing popularity through their accessibility and their superior tight structure. He never forgot the lessons from Boulanger. Copland became one of the United States’ preeminent and most beloved composers, receiving numerous honors, including an Academy Award for the soundtrack of "The Heiress." Leonard Bernstein, a long-time friend and companion, during a Cultural Exchange with the then U.S.S.R., summed up the stature of Copland’s music, saying, “It’s the best we’ve got, you know.” Despite Copland’s immense popularity and the envy it might have generated, he remained warmly admired for his constant selflessness in promoting the works of many of his American colleagues, as well as those of such foreign composers as England’s Benjamin Britten and Mexico’s Carlos Chávez.

In 1964 Copland was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America’s highest civilian honor. In 1970 he received the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Merit from West Germany and the Howland Memorial Medal from Yale University; and he was given membership into the Institut de France and Britain’s Royal Philharmonic Society. In 1986 Copland was awarded both the Congressional Gold Medal given through act of Congress, and one of America’s highest civilian honors, and the National Medal of Arts, bestowed by President Ronald Reagan. His ashes are scattered at Tangle-wood, the summer festival grounds for the Boston Symphony, and a place frequented, and revered, by Copland.

In 1938, Copland’s friends at New York’s Group Theatre asked him to compose incidental music for "Quiet City," an experimental play by Irwin Shaw. (A writer in many genres, Shaw was perhaps best known for such novels as "The Young Lions" and "Rich Man, Poor Man," and the screen-plays for Forester’s "The Commandos Strike at Dawn" and O’Neill’s "Desire Under the Elms.")

In a conversation with the oral historian Vivian Perlis, published in her book “Copland: 1900-1942,” Copland recalled, “‘Quiet City’ was billed as a ‘realistic fantasy,’ a contradiction in terms that only meant the stylistic differences made for difficulties in produc-tion. The script was about a young trumpet player who imagined the night thoughts of many different people in a great city and played trumpet to ex-press his emotions and to arouse the consciences of the other characters and of the audience. “After reading the play, I composed music that I hoped would evoke the inner distress of the central character. [Group Theatre co- founder Harold] Clurman and Elia Kazan, the director, agreed that Quiet City needed a free and imaginative treatment. They and the cast ... struggled valiantly to make the play convincing, but after two try-out performances in April [1939], Quiet City was dropped.”

Copland further reminisced about recasting “Quiet City” into its final, or-chestral form, “In arranging [Quiet City] for trumpet and string orchestra, I added an English Horn for contrast and to give the trumpeter breathing spa-ces. I cannot take credit for what a few reviewers called my affinity to Whit-man’s “mystic trumpeter” or Ives’ persistent soloist in “The Unanswered Question.” My trumpet player was simply an attempt to mirror the troubled main character, David Mellnikoff, of Irwin Shaw’s play. In fact, one of my markings for the trumpeter is to play “nervously.” But Quiet City seems to have become a musical entity, superseding the original reasons for its com-position. The work has been called “atmospheric” and “reflective,” and David Mellnikoff has long since been forgotten.

❉Born in Rohrau, Austria, the second of twelve children of Maria and

Mathias Haydn, Franz Joseph showed early music promise in the family con-certs of the Haydn household. At age six he was sent to a boarding school for music, and at age eight was sent to Vienna for the choir school affiliated with the great Viennese cathedral, St. Stephens. One duty assigned to

Choirboy Haydn was to sing at the funeral mass for composer Antonio Vival-di, who left his native Italy to settle in Vienna for his last years.

While the Haydn family encouraged Franz Joseph’s musical study, it was seen only as a stepping stone into the Catholic clergy. Haydn was a par-ticularly good singer, and also studied keyboard and violin while in chorister school, yet he received little music theory and composition lessons. He said he learned more by listening than by anything else. He was even less stu-dious on general academics. When dismissed from the choir at around age eighteen, Haydn, rather than join the clergy, became a free-lance musi-cian in Vienna, and soon found him-self without much family support.

He spent the next ten years in Vienna as a freelancer. Sundays were particularly busy, with Haydn scurrying around Vienna for various free lance jobs: concertmaster at the Brothers of Mercy at eight in the morning, playing organ at a chapel at ten, and singing in the St. Stephen’s choir at eleven. He gave keyboard lessons, and began composing in earnest, including masses and simple piano sonatas used for lessons, and began rudimentary forays into symphonies and string quartets. The Classical structure of the symphony and string quartet can find their roots in Haydn. He worked ceaselessly on these forms, further refining and expanding them, and in the process created masterworks in both forms.

In Vienna he resided at the still standing Michaelerhaus, next to St. Michael’s Church, across from the royal palace, the Hofburg. Another resi-dent of the building was the dowager Princess Esterházy, who may have played a role in Haydn’s later employment at Esterházy Palace

In 1759 Haydn became music director for Count Morzin in Vienna, who quickly squandered his fortune and disbanded the court orchestra. In 1760 Haydn married Maria Apollonia Keller, who may have been second choice as Haydn had his eyes set on her sister until she entered the convent. Maria Keller seemed completely oblivious to her husband’s life. As long as a household could be financed it didn’t matter if he was a cobbler, a cook, or a musician. It seems that in the Haydn household manuscript music paper could also serve as hair curlers. There were no children; indeed Haydn, defining his marital situation, is to have said, “My wife was unable to bear children, and I was therefore less indifferent to the charms of other women.”

In 1760 Haydn began his long and extremely productive employment with Prince Nikolaus Esterházy, one of the richest and influential of the Hun-garian nobility, who was very impressed by one of Haydn’s early sym-

Aaron Copland Quiet City

Franz Joseph HaydnMarch 31, 1732-

May 31, 1809

phonies. Haydn would be employed by Prince Nikolaus for nearly thirty years. Prince Nikolaus resided first in Eisenstadt, until his desired palace was completed with the court moving to Esterházy Palace in 1766. For his new palace the prince required music for his music court, for his own enjoyment and to impress other European courts. In his contract as Vice-Kapellmeister, Haydn supplied instrumental music and opera, but no sacred music. Those duties were assigned to the Kapellmeister Werner. In 1766 Haydn became the Kapellmeister upon Werner’s death and once again pursued sacred compositions. Under contract, Haydn composed music solely for the prince; was forbidden to give away copies to others or compose for others; had to keep his distance from the hired musicians; and was responsible for the care and maintenance of the court’s instruments. 

At Esterházy Haydn was in a type of restricted isolation from the out-side musical world, including nearby Vienna, though he visited there enough to make friends with Viennese resident Mozart, who became a great friend and admirer. Haydn seized this isolation as an opportunity to experiment, within the artistic tastes of the prince, who seemed quite open to his Kapellmeister’s works. Haydn is quoted as saying, “I was set apart from the world, there was nobody in my vicinity to confuse and annoy me in my (iso-lated) curse, and so I became original.”

His originality was tempered and strengthened with his eventual and absolute mastery of the Classical Period forms and structures which were based upon the guiding principles of reason and balance of the Age of En-lightenment and Reason. His voice is absolute in his compositions of The Mass; opera seria and comedia; the symphony of which which he can be credited as a creator and absolute master influencing Mozart and Beethoven whose symphonies would not exist as we know them without the foundation of Haydn; and chamber music- particularly his invention of the refined and demanding string quartet, an ensemble used by many to delve very deeply into their personal thoughts and emotions.   A new contract in 1779 lessened restrictions on Haydn. He sought out a publisher, Artaria of Vienna, and he could receive commissions. In 1784 came the commission from the Concert de la Loge Olympique of Paris for symphonies, which yielded Nos. 83-87, works of newfound originality and vi-tality. Haydn’s fame in Europe was spreading after his years of isolation. 1790 found Haydn back in Esterházy after a long visit with friends in Vienna, and the isolation was keenly felt. Prince Nikolaus died about mid-year, and the succeeding son, Prince Anton, did not share his father’s taste for music.  Haydn was retained at full salary, but the orchestra was disbanded, and Haydn was free to move. The need for company and friendship found him

back in Vienna, where he hoped to have a rather uneventful semi-retirement, but this was not to be.

At this time the German violinist and concert manager based in Lon-don, J. P. Solomon, was scouring the Continent for soloists for the next con-cert season. Upon hearing of Haydn’s move to Vienna, Solomon showed up on his doorstep and announced to the eminent composer, “I am Solomon from London, and have come to fetch you. Tomorrow we shall conclude to an agreement.” The agreement was a series of concerts featuring new works of Haydn’s. The first series of 1791-2 was so successful that another London trip was made in 1794-5. London, with the wealth of the British Common-wealth, as the center of Europe economically and culturally, with its avid mu-sic public and vitality of concerts. The city, noted by Haydn was noisy and dirty, was none-the-less a hotbed of creation. Haydn was all the rave, with constant news of his concerts and articles in the papers.

While in London, the greatest impression on him was the Handel Commemoration of 1791. Hearing Handel's music, some works for the first time, of an earlier German speaking master who had lived and worked in London, profoundly affected Haydn’s work for the remain-der of his years.

Between his journeys to London and afterwards, Haydn’s life in Vienna was rather low key. He was now esteemed as the Master, and left in relative peace to work. These were the twilight years in a life of slowly achieved but ever expanding fame. His influence was great: his friend and mutual admirer Mozart was dead to soon, and a young Beethoven was briefly a pupil. He worked on his oratorios: the masterpiece "The Creation," a smaller master-piece "The Seasons;" and his final six masses for Prince Nikolaus’s grand-son. 

With Vienna under Napoleon’s siege, who out of respect for the com-poser posted house guards to watch over him, Haydn died quietly at home. At his memorial in Vienna in mid June Mozart’s Requiem was performed for the very large and appreciative gathering of Vienna’s art-loving world.

It seems that Prince Esterházy spared little expense for his court orchestra, employing musicians of very high caliber who would perform Haydn’s works. In the 1780s the principal cellist was Anton Kraft, who appar-

ently was held in such high esteem that a cello concerto was long attributed to him, but it was, in fact, composed for him by Haydn, but not accurately at-tributed to Haydn until 1951. Haydn’s other cello concert, C Major, suffered a similar fate. It too was written for an Esterházy musician, but this concerto was forgotten until it and was found in 1961.

The D Major Cello Concerto is more relaxed than Haydn’s earlier C Ma-jor Concerto of the 1760s. The effervescent first movement is in standard sonata form of Exposition/Development/Recapitula-tion with the orchestra stat-ing the very noble first

theme and then the contrasting, more energetic second theme. The solo cel-lo enters with the first theme which is then embellished with graceful virtuosi-ty. The genteel nobility continues with the solo cello withdrawing for an or-chestra interlude. But when the cello reënters, the mood shifts to a somber, and darkly shaded minor mode. The mood turns almost tragic which crests to a dramatic moment, and through modulations the mood lightens, and the genteel quiet stateliness returns. The solo cello and orchestra then together state the theme, and after some further playing the solo cello’s cadenza (solo) gives the soloist their time alone with the music.

At the very onset of the slower tempo second movement the solo cello plays a dignified theme. The movement has the cello leading all in long-lined phrases of contemplative beauty, until more minor mode drama emerges. It is short lived when the major mode returns, but one wonders why in such beauty there are these dramatic outbursts. This movement too has a caden-za which leads into a closing statement.

The third movement begins quietly with a joyous, lilting theme of beau-tiful symmetry. It is pastoral, with Olympian vistas which dispel any languor which may have crept into the listener’s hearing. The theme is exchanged between soloist and orchestra, and then the cello is off with virtuosic pas-sages. But like the previous movements, a darkness quickly descends, but then it just as quickly evaporates. In Rondo form, the first theme is repeated multiple times with separate, contrasting themes played between each re-peat. When the main theme quietly returns, and before the listener thinks all is well, the virtuosity of the work requires the soloist to take quick journeys to the minor mode, ending with the solo cello playing an ascending line, and leading all back into a repeat of the opening theme. While one would think

this should satisfy any composer, Haydn lays out one more virtuosic re-quirement before all is properly, joyously ended.

❉It is not uncommon for composers to meet resistance in pursuing their

art and craft. They write music which many don’t understand nor appreciate at the time, such as Johann Sebastian Bach whose many compositions were lost to the world for eighty years until the great Bach Revival led by Felix

Mendelssohn. Or the works are forgotten, or assigned to the wrong composer, such as Hay-den’s two cello concertos.

The criticism that composers just cannot flat-out compose has

been laid at the feet of many com-posers, even the masters. It is one of occupational hazards of composing. But few are told they cannot compose, and indeed have no right even think-ing they can, and should not be composing at all due to just the color of their skin. This criticism, and there was really more to it, it was racism, was thrown at William Grant Still.

Born in Mississippi, he studied violin, and later played piano, oboe and cello. He first studied at Wilberforce University, Ohio, and later at Oberlin Col-lege. He further studied with Cooleridge-Taylor, and worked for jazz/dance bands as an arranger. Still worked for pioneering Jazz musician W.C. Handy, who gave him a position as his arranger in New York, where Still lived until 1934. While in New York, Still was music director at Black Swan Records and arranger for Luckey Roberts, Sophie Tucker, Donald Voorhees, Paul White-man, Willard Robison, Artie Shaw and others.

From the New York years an uncorroborated story arises from the em-inent songwriter, pianist, vocalist and musical raconteur Eubie Blake, who was friends with Still. Blake relates, without verification, that Still gave or-chestration lessons to George Gershwin in New York at Gershwin’s apart-ment. While waiting for the always late Gershwin, Still played his own theme of what later would become “I’ve Got Rhythm” on the oboe in Gershwin’s apartment, which Gershwin must have heard. Blake further stated that Still had also played the theme numerous times while rehearsing Still’s “Shuffle Along,” heard by Gershwin in rehearsals, which predates Gershwin’s “Girl Crazy.” And the theme appears in Still’s notebook before “Girl Crazy.”

Still never acknowledged this supposed borrowing of the melodies by Gershwin. Gershwin is known for absorbing music he heard, anywhere and

Haydn, Concerto for Cello, D Major, Opus 101

I. Allegro Moderato. II.Adagio.III. Rondo/Allegro William Grant Still

May 11, 1895 - Dec. 3, 1978

any time, such as Jewish Cantorial music and the Blues and Spirituals found in “Porgy and Bess.” and wittingly or unwittingly using some of that in his own music. Claims like these about Still’s music may never be verified, but add to the richness and cross-pollination of American music.

Even with his work in Jazz, Swing and Broadway, Still continued com-posing concert/classical music, and took lessons with the revered American composer George Chadwick. But it was Still’s lessons with music firebrand and avant-garde French composer Edgard Varèse which were the most pro-found. Varèse encouraged still to open up, and pursue his lyrical gifts, which says a lot about Varèse as a teacher who composed the first purely percus-sion works. After these lessons Still composed his greatest works which were, however, met with resistance and at times bewilderment, and not only due to his skin color, but due to Still’s artistic and daring incorporation of American music of Jazz, Blues, and Swing.

Still was thoroughly grounded, influenced and reverential towards European Classical Music, heard through his hazy and complex harmonies of great beauty, and a natural flowing lyricism. As a Black American, he also found inspiration in the music of his people. Not so much in the spirituals, which Dvorák thought all American composers should use as a template, but in the Blues from the South, which seem to have emerged from the haze, heat and humidity of the delta region of the Mississippi River. The Blues are languid, minor keyed, soulful cries of a people subju-gated to first slavery, and then to the status of second and third class citizen-ship. He explained that he used the Blues because “they, unlike many spiri-tuals, do not exhibit the influence of Caucasian music” (sketchbook for the “Afro-American Symphony, 1930).”

Still moved to Los Angeles in 1934, and remained here for the rest of his life. William Grant Still has a special relationship with this orchestra, which was founded by composer, violinist and conductor George Berres as the Westchester Symphony Orchestra, and is now the Culver City Symphony Orchestra. Berres became friends with Still through their mutual film and television work. The orchestra has performed the “Afro-American Symphony” numerous times, and Still composed a work, “Preludes for String Orchestra, Flute and Piano,” dedicated to the orchestra.

Still was the first Black American to have a symphony performed by a major orchestra, to conduct a white radio orchestra, “Deep River Hour, 1932,” to conduct a major orchestra (Los Angeles Philharmonic, 1936), the first African American to have an opera, “Troubled Island,” performed by a major

opera company (1949), and the first to have an opera, “A Bayou Legend,” performed(posthumously) on national television (1981.) The period from 1926 to the early 1940s was Still's most prolific: during this time he wrote “Levee Land (1925),” a suite for orchestra and soprano that combines tradi-tional western musical elements with jazz; “From the Black Belt (1926),” a work for chamber orchestra based on seven short characteristic sketches; “Sahdji (1930),” a choral ballet, based on an African story; the “Afro-American Symphony (1931),” his most popular work; “Lenox Avenue (1936),” a ballet depicting life in Harlem; and his opera, “Troubled Island (1941).”

Notable performances of his works were the Chicago Symphony per-forming the ballet music “La Guiablesse” on June 16, 1933; the New York Philharmonic performing the “Afro American Symphony” at Carnegie Hall; and Leopold Stokowski with the Philadelphia Orchestra premiering Still’s “Symphony in g minor” December 10, 1937.

During the 1950s Still turned to writing for young audiences. This peri-od includes “The Little Song That Wanted to Be a Symphony (1954);” “The Little Red Schoolhouse (1957);” and “The American Scene (1957);” which is a set of five descriptive suites for young Americans based on geographic re-gions of the country; and various songs and arrangements written for chil-dren's music text books.

Still provided music for the scores for the films “Lost Horizon” and the original “Pennies from Heaven.” Later he also scored a number of television shows, including “Perry Mason” and “Gunsmoke.” Guggenheim and Rosenwald Fellowships allowed him to produce large-scale works like the ballet “Lenox Avenue (1937)” and the operas “Blue Steel (1935)” and “Troubled Island (1938),” with a libretto by Langston Hughes and based on the life of Dessalines, the first Emperor of Haiti and one of the ma-jor figures in Haiti's independence. It was premiered by the New York City Opera in 1949 and was very well received. Still continued to write politically and racially conscious works throughout his life, such as the narrated work “And They Lynched Him On A Tree (1940)” and “In Memoriam: The Colored Soldiers Who Died For Democracy (1944).”

Still married twice, first to Grace Bundy, and then Verna Arvery in Mexico where interracial marriages were legal as they were not at the time in the U.S. His health began failing in 1970, and after his death his legacy as the Dean of Black American composers remains. His ashes were scattered over the Pacific Ocean.

In another creative venture into the new, Still incorporated into a suite music from Panama used for dances. Panamanian dances were not known

outside the country, and it was Marciso Garay, a Panamanian diplomat, edu-cator, violinist, composer, musicologist and critic who brought these dances to the attention of Elizabeth Waldo, an American songwriter, violinist, ethno-musicologist, producer and conductor. She, in turn, introduced the dances and music to William Grant Still. The inventive Still approximated the sounds of percussive instruments onto the score for string orchestra composed in 1948. A Central American sound permeates the works, with Still’s lyrical strengths unifying to work.

“Tamborito (Small Drum)” and “Cumbia Y Congo” are a mixture of African music from the slave trade and Panamanian music. A Cumbia is a popular Latin American dance and here it has Black African Influences. “Majorana y Socavon” - Majorana is a plant, sometimes aromatic and is used for perfume, while Savacon is a hole, tunnel or shaft. There are sound effects of folk gui-tars, mejoraneras, and the three string vio-

lin, the Rabel . “Punto” (Dot, point, spot, place) is a work of Eurocentric and Panamanian mix with references to the Zapateo or shoe-tapping, and the Paseo or Promenade.

❉Long before the fashionistas of Los Angeles arrived on the scene, Vi-

enna for ages was known as a fashion conscious capital. Beethoven com-mented, often in irritation, on the passing fancies of the music going public. Before Beethoven was Mozart, a much more cosmopolitan musician who moved to Vi-enna in 1781 after traveling throughout Europe with his family. Mozart was one of music’s most astonishing prodigies (more on that can easily be found elsewhere),

and his father, Leopold, presented Wolfgang, and his also astonishing sister Marianne, to the courts and cities of Europe as the musical prodigies they were.

But sometimes it appears the two young musicians were presented more as curiosities than joyous creations, and were merely presented as sources of income. In those times travel was precarious, with impassible muddy roads, leaky carriages, cold rooms. bad food. If needed, they would travel by barge whose other passengers could be livestock on the way to market. This led to illnesses in the young Mozart, who when too sick to per-form could be reprimanded by his father on the lost income.

Born in Salzburg, after his worldly travels Mozart would return to the provincial city, and found the walls closing in. As he grew older, the harder it became to put up with the limited world-views of the Salzburg locals, and he increasingly chafed under the stiff collaring from his employer, the Cardinal of Salzburg. With Vienna in his sights as a major European city of culture at the crossroads of central Europe, Mozart grew increasingly impatient. The cardi-nal became so upset with Mozart’s impertinence that he ordered Mozart liter-ally be given the boot.

Free from his employer, and to put some distance between himself and an overbearing and meddling father, Mozart left for the fashion and mu-sical capital of Vienna, a city of music, and of keyboards and arrived March 16, 1781. The newly created piano-forte was pushing the harpsichord (and its cousins) out of fashion. With the new ability to play soft (piano) and loud (forte), and to sustain sounds longer, the piano rose above fashion to be-come the keyboard instrument of Europe, giving composers an instrument of choice for some of their most profound works. Mozart from his earliest years was known for his prowess at keyboards, through improvisations and performing his own compositions, with some of his deepest emotions poured into works for the piano.

Though he was experiencing newly found freedoms in Vienna, the never ending questions of supporting himself soon arose. Mozart be-came a free-lance musician, and one of first composers working outside the financial security of the courts or church. He quickly immersed himself in Viennese society, and he gravitated to a high society with lavish dress and extravagant parties, and the need for the money to pay for it. Eventually Mozart was in over head and could not hope to keep pace with the aristocracy and the wealthy society.

In his first couple years in Vienna Mozart was extremely successful, allowing for the high society lifestyle. This was funded through academy con-

William Grant Still“Danzas de Panama”

TamboritoMejorana y Socavon

PuntoCumbia y Congo

Wolfgang MozartJan. 27, 1756- Dec. 5, 1791

certs and subscription concerts which would present a wide variety of Mozart’s compositions.

But Mozart was not an artist to find success and then sit on the trea-sure chest and crank out repeats of earlier hits. He was a probing artist, al-ways looking to higher inspiration and greater awareness of the human con-dition. Mozart’s artistic growth was a path seemingly separate from most of the Viennese concert going public who wanted the good tune and pleasur-able entertainment. Mozart did indeed achieve a high salary from his early years in Vienna, but the changing Viennese tastes left Mozart behind, there was a war which drying up public spending, and Mozart’s own poor financial habits of spending and not saving created greater and greater financial diffi-culties. There is speculation that Mozart gambled away his profits, it is known that he did gamble, but that it was so bad that it caused his financial ruin is not clear nor supported.

The decline in income found Mozart traveling outside Vienna. He achieved great success in Prague with his operas “The Marriage of Figaro,” and “Don Giovanni.” In our contemporary accounts of Mozart on stage and film, too much is made of his carefree characteristics and not enough of how radical were his views. “The Marriage of Figaro” was from Beaumarchais’ play, banned by the courts because its subject is a lowly servant not only questioning his position in court, but outwitting the count (the aristocracy) and in essence stating the revolutionary thought that he, Figaro, is a free man of equal rights. “Don Giovanni” paints the Don as amoral, a rapist and murderer, dragged down to hell by the statue of the commendatore whom he killed. Not exactly homage and tributes to the European courts.

In another money seeking journey, Mozart travelled to Frankfurt in 1790. With the assistance of Countess Hatzfeld and other local admirers a concert was presented at the Great Municipal Playhouse featuring two piano concertos (K. 459 and K. 537) a symphony and some arias. The first concert was sparsely attended, and the second planned concert was cancelled. The disappointment is reflected in Mozart’s comments, “It was a splendid success for the point of view of honor and glory, but a failure as far as money was concerned.” The financial difficulties would follow Mozart for the little time left in his life.

In the final year of his life, he was slowly emerging from dark years of enormous financial pressures, though they we still present, and a home life of some difficulty. Constanza kept returning to the spas for medical treat-ments, and in addition to legitimate medical needs, these visits may also have been times for her to be away from her husband and the constant stresses and anxieties he was under. In 1791 there was a rekindling of his compositional energies into three basic categories. First were instrumental

works including two monumental concertos, his last Piano Concerto in Bflat Major, and the otherworldly Clarinet Concerto which has never been matched by any composer. Second were operas which were always touchstones in Mozart’s output. From 1791 there were two of very sharply opposing styles: “La Clemenza di Tito,” an opera seria of the old style, and “Die Zauberflöte”/“The Magic Flute” in which Mozart revisited the singspiel, unique to German theaters, which has singing and spoken dialogue. A singspiel is a rescue opera with the tenor rescuing the soprano from some sort of evil per-son and difficult situation, filled with intrigue, romance and humor. They are lighter than operas, but in Mozart’s hand they rise to very significant heights of artistic and human insight.

Then lastly, there is a religious work. In his last works there is a marked elevation of spirituality in his works, with an even greater mastery and invention of composition. Did Mozart sense his life was ending for months preceding his death? Religious works occupied Mozart from his ear-liest days in Salzburg to his final work, the “Requiem,” which was left unfin-ished at his death. Here his anguish, sense of beauty, and sense of devotion to God reach the greatest heights in music, and the personal becomes uni-versal.

Could there have been a slow recognition over months by Mozart that his body was giving out? And from this recognition was he then on a spiritual journey, heard through the works of his last year? From a man and composer of the sensitivity and awareness as Mozart, one could argue he knew.

Mozart’s death in 1791 is now notorious. Was he indeed poisoned by a deranged and jealous Salieri as put forth by play and movie? Or was it more likely from overwork; worry and stress about finances; and repercus-sions of a childhood that saw Mozart exposed to illnesses and diseases in his travels through Europe? Some now think Mozart suffered from rheumatic fever and kidney disease, and coupled with these stresses in life, the illness-

es which took Mozart’s life did so at age thirty-five.

Symphony No. 29, A Major, K. 201, dated April 6, 1774, was from a period of around one year of in-tense creative output by Mozart. There were three symphonies, a piano

sonata, two church sonatas, a set of variations, a serenade, two concertos, two masses, and the opera, “La finta giardiniera.” Symphony No. 29 is con-

Mozart Symphony No. 29, A Major

Allegro moderato / II. Andante /III. Menuetto / IV. Allegro con spirito

sidered by many one of Mozart’s first works of maturity where he was no longer studying forms and styles, but had assimilated them enough make personal statements through sure-handed use of the forms. The opening of the symphony begins without an introduction, but with a suddenness which startles in its graceful energy. The Exposition first theme is an exchange be-tween an octave downward leap and a contrasting bunching of notes as-cending. This repeats in stepwise sequence, and with the dynamic marking of piano, (quiet). The logical beauty of the symmetry continues until the theme is repeated forte (loud.) It is like a flower slowly opening in time-lapse photography. Of the Masters of the Classical Period, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert, in the sonata form Mozart’s wealth of melodic in-vention leads nearly always to the contrasting second theme which is some-times missing with Haydn and Beethoven. Here the second theme is con-trasting to the first with legato (smooth) phrase lines. The music is still early Mozart, age eighteen, with his signature of sudden outbursts of repeated notes and clear Haydnesque cadences. The Development section has the themes moving throughout, along with a section exception maturity. The re-turn of the opening theme marks the Exposition, with the startling beauty and energy previously heard. The second theme returns, and just when the lis-tener thinks the movement is about to end, Mozart throws in a brilliant coda (tail ending.)

The second movement can be called Haydnesque in the best sense of slow moving grace and nobility. The movement could pass off as an opera aria of two lovers enjoying a lovely afternoon. Like any relationship there are moments of less than calm, but it all works out by the end.

A stuttering third movement menuetto brings back the energy of the first movement. Lyricism in the Trio movement offers the requisite contrast. The opening theme repeats, and concludes with a startling abrupt ending.

The fourth movement takes up the energy of the opening movement, but is kicked-up a couple of gears. The energy bristles, ascending scales shoot upwards. This is music of a young man on the move. But a section of unease and drama marches in to give gravitas to the proceedings. This is dispelled with the return of the opening theme. The movement ends brilliantly and jubilantly.

❉ As the Sympho-

ny’s Music Director and Conductor, Maestro Fetta

is responsible for the creative decisions regarding the performance, the artists and its repertoire. Maestro Fetta’s versatility and skills have been widely acclaimed in both symphonic and operatic repertoire. Maestro Fetta received his musical education and training in New York and Los Angeles and fulfills conducting engagements and operatic coaching assignments throughout the United States.

From coast to coast, Frank Fetta’s musical talents have been glowing-ly praised and warmly appreciated.

As a guest conductor, Maestro Fetta is in high demand, and Maestro Fetta has had a number of his performances heard on both radio and cable television. Many of his fans enjoyed his appearance in the Blake Edwards’ film, “Mickie And Maude” starring Dudley Moore and Amy Irving and with the Symphony on the David Letterman Film Festival with Michael J. Fox. He was the music consultant on the film “Song of the Lark” which was seen on the Mobil Masterpiece Theater.

He has collaborated with the Riverside Symphony, the Los Angeles Opera, Sinfonia Mexicana, Inland Dance Theatre; Fresno Bal-let, Symphony and Opera; the Pasadena Symphony; the Honolulu Symphony; Opera A la Carte; the Toledo Opera; and the San Diego Symphony.

Among the fine artists he has conduct-ed are Julian Lloyd Webber, Judy Collins, Louis Lebherz, Suzanna Guzman, Eugene Fodor, Leila Josefowicz, Diane Schuur, Daniel Rodriguez, Lorna Luft, Vicki Carr, and Eduardo Villa.

In addition to his engagements with the Culver City Symphony and the Marina del Rey Summer Symphony, he is the Conductor and Artistic Advisor to the Redlands Bowl Music Festival, Music Director and Conductor of the San Bernardino Symphony Symphony, Conductor for the Zachary Founda-tion International Vocal Competition, and Principal Conductor for the Nevada Opera Theatre and other engagements as conductor.

From Perth Amboy, New Jersey, Conductor Fetta’s early passion for music led him to the piano and organ. He still coaches, accompanies, and guides the careers of vocalists and instrumentalists, and serves as organist at Corpus Christi Church in Pacific Palisades. But his great love is conduct-ing. Frank Fetta, Conductor

and Music Director

He resides in Los Angeles. His son, Rafael, is an actor living in New York City.

❉Leah Hansen, age 21, began her cello studies at the age of three. She has performed in numerous solo, concerto, chamber, and orchestra concerts. In 2004, Leah was chosen to solo in the Walt Dis-ney Concert Hall for the “John Kerry and Friends” Presidential Fundraiser with an audience of stars including Leonardo DiCaprio, Barbara Streisand,

Robert DeNiro, and Ben Affleck. She also performed in the Irvine Barclay Theater for the “Stars of Tomorrow.” At eight years old, Leah was the youngest First Place winner of the L.A. Cello Society Scholarship Competi-tion. In 2007, Leah was invited to solo with the Pacific Symphony under the direction of Maestro Carl St. Claire on a four-city tour. Since 2008, she has soloed with the Culver City, Bellflower, Brentwood, Inland Valley, West Cov-ina, Mount St. Mary’s, and South Coast Symphonies. Other awards include; Scholarships from the YMF, Fe Bland Foundation, and the Colburn School. Additional Prizes include: Discovery Prize in the National Debut Competition sponsored by the YMF in 2011, First Place in the ASTA State Finals in 2012, and First Place in the Mondavi Young Artist Competition in 2012. Leah was invited to solo with the YMF Debut Symphony Orchestra in April 2013 performing the Dvorak Cello Concerto. Leah Hansen was a scholarship recipient in the prestigious Academy program at the Colburn School of Music, under the tutelage of Ronald Leonard. She has coached with Alan Stepansky, Janos Starker, Richard Aaron, Amit Peled, Steve Doane, Timothy Eddy, Natasha Brofsky, and David Finckel.

Leah Hansen was chosen to perform in the convocation for the USC fall and spring admits in 2013 and 2014. Leah performed with Elton John and Kristen Chenoweth in 2014. Leah’s most re-cent masterclass performances were given by Steven Isserlis and Raphael Wallfisch. Leah won the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra Mock Audition

in collaboration with USC. She was also a winner of the USC Concerto Com-petition in 2016. Leah Hansen won the Culver City Symphony competition in 2016 and will be soloing with them in 2017. Leah won the “Best Schubert Performance” in the Great Composers Competition in 2017. Most recently, Leah Hansen won the USC Bach Competition in 2017. Leah is currently working on her Bachelor of Music degree in Cello Performance at the USC Thornton School of Music with Professor Andrew Shulman who is also the orchestra’s Principal Guest Conductor.

❉Culver City Symphony Orchestra is pleased to announce Andrew Shul-man as Principal Guest Conductor. In the history of the orchestra, Shulman is the first to hold this position.Due to Conductor Fetta’s demands as a conductor with other orchestras, and the work he does in the other

musical positions he holds, there were times when he could not conduct the orchestra, and Shulman was called in as guest conductor.

Andrew Shulman, the first British musician to win the ‘Piatigorsky Artist Award’, held in Boston, USA, comes from London, England. He has per-formed extensively throughout Western and East-ern Europe, Scandinavia, North and South Ameri-ca, Asia, The Far East and Australasia.Shulman established a quick rapport with the or-chestra through his rehearsals and concerts, and we look forward to working with him in the future.Andrew Shulman is a very active musician in Los Angeles, and internationally, as a cellist and con-ductor as seen in his bio-above.

Mr. Shulman’s bio and other information is found at his website: http://www.andrewshulman.com

Leah Hansen,Cello

Andrew Shulman, Principal Guest Conductor