Saturday, February 10, 2024 at 3:00 pm
Snow date – Sunday, February 11
Christ Church Cathedral of Hartford
45 Church Street, Hartford, CT 06103
Sponsored by The Alexander Franklin Foundation
The Farmington Valley Symphony Orchestra celebrates 10 Seasons with Maestro Jonathan Colby as Music Director! An outstanding concert program will feature the 100 strong voices of the Hartford Chorale joined by exceptional soloists. Hear the full forces of the FVSO joined by the superb organ at Christ Church Cathedral with Scott Lamlein at the keyboard.
Do not miss this dynamic program with the FVSO and its community partners.
SAINT-SAENS: Symphony No. 3 in C major, “Organ”
Scott Lamlein, organ
TOWER: Fanfare No. 5 for the Uncommon Woman
DVORAK: Te Deum
Sarah Callinan, soprano
Gregory Flower, bass-baritone
The Hartford Chorale
Jack Anthony Pott, Music Director
Program Notes
Camille Saint-Saëns (1835 – 1921) French
Symphony No. 3 in C Minor, Op. 78, “Organ” (1886)
First Performance: May 19, 1886, St. James Hall, London, UK.
Royal Philharmonic Society (commissioned), the composer conducting.
FVSO Performances: 04/28/01 (Eells), 12/15/12 (Eells)
By 1886, Saint-Saëns had achieved one of his lifelong ambitions, he had brought French music to the forefront of the classical universe. It would spawn a flurry of other grand French symphonic works by Lalo, Frank, d’Indy, Dukas, Chaussan and Lamourex all written within a year of this work. Saint-Saëns was not the Philharmonic Society’s first choice for their new commission in 1885, the composer actually stood well behind Gounod, Delibes and Massenet. Good fortune and fate would say that providence ruled the day and the commission ended up in Saint-Saëns’ hands. What came of it was one of the most grandiose, exciting and majestic works in all of the composer’s repertoire. Even though Saint-Saëns would live for another 30 years, he considered this almost to be his swan song, later saying “I gave everything to it I was able to give. What I have here accomplished, I will never achieve again.”
Joan Tower (b. 1938), American, Female
Fanfare No. 5 for the Uncommon Woman (1993)
First Performance: August 20, 1993, Aspen Music Festival, Colorado, USA.
FVSO Performance: FVSO Premiere
Fifth Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman (for four trumpets), written for Joan Harris, was commissioned by the Aspen Music Festival on the occasion of the opening of the Joan and Irving Harris Concert Hall on August 20, 1993. This fanfare is the fifth in a series dedicated to “uncommon” women — women who take risks and are adventurous in their actions and goals. – Joan Tower
Antonín Dvořák (1841 – 1904) Bohemian/Czech
Te Deum, Op. 103, B176 (1892)
First Performance: October 21, 1892, New York. Metropolitan Orchestra, choir of 250 voices, the composer conducting. Clementine de Vere, soprano & Emil Fischer, bass.
FVSO Performances: FVSO Premiere
Three months before Dvorak’s departure for the United States, the president of New York’s National Conservatory of Music, Jeannette Thurber, asked the composer to write a new work. She requested a cantata with which Dvorak would introduce himself to American audiences and which would also be suitable for performance during the celebrations for the 400th anniversary of the discovery of America in October 1892. She promised to send an appropriate English text for the cantata forthwith. However, the departure date was fast approaching and no text had materialised, so Dvorak decided to write his cantata to a text that had been recommended to him as an alternative, a Latin liturgical hymn in celebration of God, Te Deum laudamus. (It was only later, when the composer was already working on his cantata, that he received the text that was originally pledged – the poem The American Flag by American poet Joseph Rodman Drake. Dvorak later set this poem to music as well).
Notes courtesy of https://www.antonin-dvorak.cz/en/work/te-deum/