RedlandsSymphony

DAUGHERTY b. 1954

Orchestration

Piccolo, 3 flutes, 3 oboes, English horn, Eb clarinet, 3 clarinets, bass clarinet, 3 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 4 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, harp, strings

Program Notes

American composers all have to find their own paths toward an American voice, their own way of forging an American sound. Michael Daugherty’s journey has been a particularly self-aware one and, as in Motor City Triptych (2000), he sometimes directly invokes the idea of manufacturing. Daugherty’s is an America of icons, born and made. Many of his works portray famous and infamous personalities, from Superman, to J. Edgar Hoover, to Jackie O. His two musical portraits of Elvis—Elvis Everywhere, a string quartet with recorded performances by Elvis impersonators, and the (costumed) bassoon concerto Dead Elvis—are among his most popular works.

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ELLINGTON 1899-1974

Orchestration

2 flutes, 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, harp, piano, strings

Program Notes

Written near the end of the American master’s life, Duke Ellington’s The River premiered 1971; the work is a ballet that was created in conjunction with legendary choreographer Alvin Ailey for the American Ballet Theater. Though decidedly programmatic, the ballet’s narrative of creating a musical story of a river (its birth, bubbling from the ground, life, and journey), is a wonderfully unusual program; it is a narrative based on gesture and abstracted musical association rather than a specific denotative plot.

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HINDEMITH 1895-1963

Orchestration

Piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, strings

Program Notes

Paul Hindemith’s Symphonic Metamorphosis on Themes of Carl Maria von Weber began life as an idea for a ballet. Hindemith was approached by a choreographer about making some “arrangements” of Weber’s music for a ballet group. Hindemith apparently came back with piano sketches of what would eventually be the Symphonic Metamorphosis, but the dancers wanted more traditional (read: lame) arrangements of Weber’s music. Hindemith withdrew from the project and decided to make it an orchestra piece for the concert hall, and in 1944, the New York Philharmonic premiered it (not a bad consolation prize, if you ask me). The work is arguably Hindemith’s most popular and most performed work, and rightfully so.

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Maestro Jon Robertson is now in his twenty-sixth season as music director and conductor or the Redlands Symphony Orchestra. The extraordinary quality of this orchestra is attributed to the blend of devotion he has for the musicians and his artistic vision.

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