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Queens Festival Orchestra Association Inc. Forest Hills Symphony Orchestra 107-23 71 Road Suite #240 Forest Hills, N.Y. 11375 718-374-1627 516-785-2532 fhso44@aol.com
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Queens Festival Orchestra Association, Inc. presents the Forest Hills Symphony Orchestra
Sun, March 5, 2006
Forest Hills Symphony Orchestra
All Mozart Program
Overture to Cosi fan Tutte K 588 Symphony #34 K. 338 in C major
Intermission Violin Concerto #5 K. 219 A Major “Turkish”
German Dances K 605
This program is made possible in part by
funding from the New York City Department of Youth and Community Development
have been provided by
Visit our website at: www.fhso.org PROGRAM NOTES WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756-1791)
It had been just over two years since Mozart and Da Ponte had collaborated on Don Giovanni in 1787. That opera had been very successful in Prague, but the often frivolous Viennese audience had not liked it as much as The Marriage of Figaro. Whether or not Mozart set out to give Vienna the perfect Italian opera buffa in Cosi fan Tutti, he and his librettist accomplished just that. The story deals with disguise, mistaken identity, and supposed female fickleness (implied in the title); but in the end love triumphs over all. In the story there is just the right balance between sincere sentiment and tomfoolery, and in the music there is a corresponding balance between noble expression and scintillating comedy. The overture sets the tone for all of this. It begins with fanfare chords and a slow introduction (possibly a foretaste of The Magic Flute Overture?). The main themes of the Presto are quite another matter, however. In them, Mozart's incomparable Italian style comes through in a series of ideas that later must have become a virtual textbook for Rossini. Full of capricious turns, the rest of the overture is tightly woven out of those three brief ideas: A "whispered" theme for strings, a "chattering" theme featuring solo woodwind instruments, and a "hilarious kind of Hallelujah Chorus" (Donald Tovey) for full orchestra. The impression the listener gets is a constantly revolving musical kaleidoscope in which the three themes are like chips of brilliantly colored glass falling into place in funny, unpredictable patterns. SYMPHONY #34 IN C MAJOR K 338 The miracle of this symphony is that at the age of twenty-four, Mozart demonstrates a maturity and subtlety in combining apparently contradictory moods in a convincing unity. It was written during the last months of Mozart’s service to the Archbishop of Salzburg. Mozart had just returned from a tragic trip to Paris in January of 1779, where his mother had died and he himself had met humiliating professional disappointment. He also discovered on the trip home, that he had been jilted by his first serious love—the soprano Aloysia Weber. The limitation in the original work to three movements was a concession to the conservative Salzburg taste. Mozart was accustomed to the four-movement form of the Vienna and Mannheim schools. The symphony is astonishingly forward-looking and Romantic in the treatment of its melodies and form. The Menuetto movement (K 409) was originally crossed out and was composed two years later in Vienna. VIOLIN CONCERTOS Mozart was never taught to play the violin, even though his father was a fine violinist; he just seemed to know how. He was presented with a half-sized violin during a tour to Vienna at the age of seven. Though he never had a violin lesson, young Mozart surprised his father by playing the second violin part of some trios written by a family friend. His father dismissed the boy telling him not to bother the grown-ups. Later that same year Mozart was touring not only on the harpsichord but also as violin soloist. Everywhere he went he learned something about the violin--in Italy, technique; in France, brilliance of style; in Vienna the Austrian melodies that echo in all five of the violin concertos, composed when he was nineteen. These concertos are neither French, nor German, nor Italian in style but a highly personal amalgam of all the styles he had absorbed during his travels. They are aristocratic, graceful, humorous, and marvelously melodious. However, he lost interest in the violin, possibly because one of his official jobs was to play violin in the orchestra of the Archbishop of Salzburg. While we do not know when or by whom these concertos were first performed, but we do know that Mozart performed them himself after 1775. In a letter to Mozart from his father: “Always on my way home a feeling of melancholy steals over me. And as I come near our house I seem to hear you still—playing the violin.” The last movement of the Fifth Violin Concerto in A Major contains the swirling, driving sort of music that Mozart’s contemporaries thought of as Turkish or Hungarian. Therefore, the nickname of this concerto. Another suggestion that Mozart really did think of this as Turkish music is his borrowing (from himself) of the finale of a ballet from his opera Lucio Silla. GERMAN DANCES K. 605 These dances written in the last year Mozart lived furnished the court of Emperor Joseph II with the greatest dance music written to date. It was the beginning of a great library of music that was to include the late dance music of Joseph Haydn (1791 and later) and, as it happened, Beethoven's first orchestral compositions for Vienna, the Redoutensaal Dances of 1795 These magnificent, and until recently much neglected, minuets and German dances, culminated in the waltzes of Lanner and the Strauss dynasty. There is no question that the Austrians were always mad about dancing--Mozart himself included. When one examines the list of music that Mozart composed in these first three months of 1791, it is the lack of symphonies, quartets, quintets, masses, and operas--in fact any of the large forms except the piano concerto--which is curious and depressing. Is that all the court expected from its official chamber composer--minuets and German dances, however magnificent? Some such frustration was in Mozart's mind, too. He wrote--"Too much for what I did, not enough for what I could do." NEAL WACHENHEIMER—VIOLIN SOLO Mr. Wachenheimer graduated from the Manhattan School of Music, with a Bachelor of Music, Master of Music, and Music Education degree. He studied with the late Raphael Bronstein, Fritz Kramer and Raymond Le Mieux. He toured Austria with Fritz Kramer, giving lecture recitals. Mr. Wachenheimer retired from teaching music at P.S. 250 where he was choral director. His chorus performed throughout the Metropolitan area. He has been a member of the Forest Hills Symphony since 1986 and has performed concertos many times with the orchestra. He has also been heard in chamber music concerts at the Donnell Library in Manhattan. He is a member of the Island Senior String Symphony, which rehearses and performs in Suffolk County; He has also performed concertos with this organization. FRANKLIN VERBSKY
This season marks Mr. Verbsky’s 38th season with the Queens Festival Orchestra/Forest Hills Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Verbsky received his B.A. from Queens College, CUNY and his M.A. from Hofstra University. He studied piano with various teachers, the last of whom were Arcadie and Marie Kouguell, and cello with Alexander Kouguell, Professor Emeritus of Music at Queens College. He attended Kneisel Hall at Blue Hill, Maine, and the Taos School of Music, in Taos, New Mexico studying the chamber music literature and performance. Before assuming the duties of conductor and music director of the Queens Festival Orchestra in March 1968, Mr. Verbsky was principal cello of the orchestra and appeared as soloist with the orchestra under the baton of founder/conductor Jerome Laszloffy. He also acted as Assistant conductor. Mr. Verbsky has played with several area orchestras, i.e. Queens Symphony, and summer orchestra music festivals, i.e. New Hampshire Music Festival. He has also appeared in chamber music recitals in Town Hall and Lincoln Center. Presently he is a free-lance musician in the New York City, Long Island, and Upstate areas. He was principal cello of the Massapequa Philharmonic Orchestra for ten years and is conductor of the Senior Symphony String Orchestra in Huntington, which provides programs at assisted living, nursing home facilities and presents children’s concerts at area libraries. Most recently Mr. Verbsky has been heard as soloist with the Island Senior Symphony, where he performed cello concertos by Schumann and St. Saens. Above and beyond his musical activities, Mr. Verbsky is an educator,
having taught in the public schools of Nassau and Suffolk Counties from
1965 until his retirement in 1998. In those years he has taught all ages:
elementary, junior high, high school and college students. Prior to retiring,
Mr. Verbsky taught Orchestra at Uniondale High School and from 1985 to
the present is an adjunct Assistant Professor of Music at Hofstra University.
He has recently begun teaching cello at Five Towns College in Dix Hills.
In a new program originally sponsored by Hofstra’s Continuing Education
Department, Mr. Verbsky has begun offering a program encouraging adults
to begin learning to play a stringed instrument. The program, now entering
its fourth year, is looking for a new home but is enjoying a very enthusiastic
following.
SYMPHONY BOARD OF DIRECTORS Martin Schnall
President
The Queens Festival Orchestra Association/Forest Hills Symphony presents three Sunday afternoon concerts in the 2005-2006 season, its 42nd consecutive year of presenting orchestral concerts. It also marks the 27th year here at the Forest Hills Jewish Center and the 38th anniversary of conductor Franklin Verbsky’s tenure with the orchestra. If you wish to receive advance notice of our programs, please leave your name and address at the table at the entrance to the auditorium. For more information visit our Website: www.fhso.org
2005-2006 SEASON PROGRAMS
JUNE 4, 2006
KEEP THE HILLS ALIVE WITH THE SOUND OF MUSIC Here is my check for $_________________________ Name_____________________________________________ Address___________________________________________ Town___________________________State_____Zip______ Please make all contributions payable to the
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