Opening Night: Visions of Childhood
Wednesday, May 15, 2024 | 7:30 PM | $5-$45
Pre-concert Discussion with Joseph Horowitz at 6:30 PM
Opening Night Reception & Discussion Following the Performance
Mountain View United Methodist Church, 355 Ponca Place, Boulder
David Taylor
- MAHLER, arr. SCHNYDER/HOROWITZ | Mahlerei (Scherzo from Symphony No. 4)
- STRAUSS, arr. LEDGER | Vier letzte Lieder (Four Last Songs), TrV296
- MAHLER, arr. Stein | Prologue, Bedächtig, nicht eilen from Symphony No. 4
- WAGNER, arr. WOODS | Siegfried Idyll, WWV 103
- HUMPERDINCK, arr. WOODS | “Der kleine Sandmann” (“The Little Sandman”) and “Abendsegen” (“Evening Blessing”) from Hänsel und Gretel
- SCHUBERT, arr. WOODS | Die Forelle (The Trout), Lied and Variations
- MAHLER, arr. WOODS | “Das irdische Leben” (“The Earthly Life”) from Des Knaben Wunderhorn
- SCHUBERT, arr. WOODS | “Der Tod und das Mädchen” (“Death and the Maiden”), Variations and Lied
- MAHLER, arr. STEIN | “Das himmlische Leben” (“The Heavenly Life”) from Symphony No. 4
Kenneth Woods, conductor
April Fredrick, soprano
David Taylor, bass trombone
MahlerFest Chamber Orchestra
Our program starts with Mahlerei, a concertino for bass trombone and chamber orchestra that Joseph Horowitz stitched together utilizing various tunes from the second movement of Mahler’s Fourth Symphony, a whirling waltz/scherzo that we offer in its original form in this year’s final concert. Horowitz created this version specifically for our soloist, David Taylor, an edgy, flamboyant, reckless, experimental musician who was a member of Stokowski’s “American Symphony,” played under Pierre Boulez, and recorded with both the Rolling Stones and Duke Ellington.
Franz Schubert
Strauss’s Four Last Songs was inspired by his son who suggested that composing a few songs might lift his spirits as he suffered from failing health and depression in 1948. The work explores themes of farewell, fulfillment, lifelong love, and death. This arrangement for chamber orchestra was first recorded by our own Kenneth Woods and our soloist, April Fredrick, who will join us again for Mahler’s Fourth Symphony on Sunday.
After intermission we explore childhood more overtly, beginning with birth in Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll, a birthday present from his wife just after the birth of their son, Siegfried. Humperdinck’s quasi-Wagnerian children’s opera, Hänsel und Gretel, was first conducted by Strauss in 1893 with the second production by Mahler in Hamburg in 1894. Schubert, a huge influence on Mahler’s creative development and from whom we will hear more music on Saturday evening, composed songs without match in breadth, beauty, originality, and importance. “The Trout,” composed when Schubert was just 20 and later used as the basis of the famous “Trout Quintet,” speaks to a child’s evolving view of our complex relationship with nature, food and comfort, and the cost of that food and comfort.
Mahler’s “The Earthly Life” forms a bleak mirror image to “The Heavenly Life.” Where “The Heavenly Life” tells of a world of eternal peace and plenty, “The Earthly Life” speaks of a world of terror and hunger. Between these two, we present Schubert’s “Death and the Maiden” which we repeat in Mahler’s orchestration on Saturday evening. Written the same year as “The Trout,” Woods’s arrangement combines the quartet with the original song on which it was based into a structure similar to a Mahler symphony.
What to Expect
Mountain View United Methodist is a beautiful building located in the Frasier Meadows neighborhood. There is plenty of free parking in the lot on the west side of the building and the surrounding surface streets. The main doors are on the west side of the building just south of the sanctuary (and north of the school wing). You’ll enter there and make your way through a spacious lobby to the sanctuary. The church holds about 200 people with chairs on the main floor and pews in the balcony.
As the opening performance of the festival, feel free to dress up but, as usual, this is Boulder and casual is always in fashion. The sound in the balcony is very nice, perhaps preferable, but the sight lines are not as advantageous. Gold Circle Ticket Holders will have seats blocked off in the center of the main floor. Arrive early to get the best seats.
After the performance, we will provide coffee and cake in the foyer to celebrate the opening of MahlerFest 37. Bring your treats into the sanctuary for a discussion between Kenneth Woods and April Fredrick about this evening’s performance
Return to the MahlerFest 37 homepage.