San Francisco Chamber Orchestra

Crossroads program notes

May 18,19,20 - 2007 

Joseph Boulogne, le Chevalier de Saint-George  (1739 – 1799)  

A fascinating and little-known historical figure, the life of Joseph Boulogne, le Chevalier de Saint-George reads like an Indiana Jones adventure novel. His father was a wealthy French plantation owner; his mother, a black slave from Guadaloupe.  Raised on the family’s Haitian estate, Joseph was taken to Paris when he was 10, given the honorary title “Chevalier de St.-George”, and instruction in fencing and riding.  He would grow up to become a master swordsman, well-known as one of the finest fencers in Europe.   

An early talent for music led to violin lessons with Jean-Marie Leclair and composition lessons with François-Joseph Gossec. In 1772 Boulogne made his professional debut, performing two of his own violin concerti with one of the finest orchestras in France, Gossec’s “Concert des Amateurs”.  A year later, Boulogne was appointed music director of this ensemble, a post he held until the orchestra disbanded in 1781.  He then founded the “Concert de la Loge Olympique”, the orchestra for whom Haydn composed his six brilliant “Paris” Symphonies in 1785/86. Boulogne also traveled a great deal, giving fencing exhibitions and performing on the violin.   

The French Revolution interrupted Boulogne’s musical career.  He spent a few years in London, then returned to France where he formed a corps of troops known as the Legion Nationale du Midi, which comprised 1000 black soldiers.  His former association with the French court finally caught up with him;  in 1793, Robespierre’s “Reign of Terror” threw Boulogne into prison, where he languished for 18 months.  Upon his release, he traveled back to Haiti and lived there for several years.  Returning to France in 1797, Boulogne served briefly as director of a new organization, the “Cercle de l’Harmonie”. He died in Paris in 1799.   

Boulogne was one of the most famous personalities in 18^th century France.  Nicknamed “Le Mozart Noir” by his fans, he was a favorite of Marie Antoniette.  Political intrigue prevented him from being named director of the Opera Royal in 1775; the Rue Richepance in Paris has been renamed the Rue Chevalier de Saint-George.   

Violin Concerto in A Major, Opus 5 number 2   

Boulogne didn’t write a great deal of music, which is not surprising considering his dual career as athlete and artist.  Most of his instrumental works were composed in Paris between 1772 and 1779.  He wrote at least six violin concertos for his own use, which tell us that he was quite an accomplished virtuoso.  Opus 5 No. 2 is typical – the first movement, Allegro moderato,  displays sparkling passagework, arpeggios, high positions, and double-stopping designed display our talented soloist.  Boulogne’ strue lyrical gift is in evidence in the simple and lovely slow movement, Largo.  A high-spirited, if not abundantly inspired Rondeau brings the work to a very satisfying close.    
 
 

Eleanor Alberga (1949 - ) 

“It is rare, in the etiolated world of contemporary music, for a composer to be called back to the stage three times by an enthusiastic audience after the first performance of a work. But that was the reception accorded Eleanor Alberga…(at) the premiere of her new violin concerto.”  The Times, December 2001

Eleanor Alberga has established herself in the mainstream of British contemporary music and enjoys an international reputation as a composer. Her music has been performed by many leading orchestras, including the London Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic, Bournemouth Sinfonietta, London Mozart Players and the Women’s Philharmonic of San Francisco, and worldwide performances include Australia, South America, Canada, Europe and China. She was the first composer to be commissioned for the inaugural Festival of Women in Music.

She was also invited to participate in the prestigious Composer to Composer Festival in Colorado, USA, and was a featured composer at the Vale of Glamorgan Festival. 2001 was a turning point, as she chose to give up her career as concert pianist and concentrate full-time on composition. She completed her violin concerto and was awarded a NESTA Fellowship. This major award enables Alberga to further develop and experiment with her compositional techniques and ideas.

Alberga’s route to composition has not been an orthodox one. Born in 1949, in Kingston, Jamaica, she began her musical career deciding, at the age of five, to be a concert pianist, and also started composing short pieces for herself. In 1970 she won the biennial Associated Board Scholarship, supporting her studies at the Royal Academy of Music, London. At various times a member of the Jamaican Folk Singers, an African dance company and later pianist and Music Director of London Contemporary Dance Theatre, she draws from a richly diverse musical background. Drama is an integral component, her music often described as tremendously exciting, and accessible.   Alberga is uncompromising in her efforts to strive for music that says exactly what she intends, conforming only to her own rules of composition. The Maggini Quartet who commissioned her third string quartet said: “…we felt this could only have been written by Eleanor Alberga… Eleanor’s third quartet is a work of immense richness and variety of feeling, colour, rhythm and atmosphere; after some four performances we feel we have just begun to scratch the surface… The last movement remains one of the most thrilling that we have played.”

Alberga's many commissions encompass orchestral works as well as a wide range of solo and chamber music. Commissioned by The Scottish Chamber Orchestra under Joseph Swensen, the Violin Concerto, written for her husband Thomas Bowes, was premiered to high critical acclaim: “The Adagio is especially effective, with the orchestra’s strings shimmering in shifting patterns around lyrical lines from the soloist.” The Times.

Mythologies, scored for large symphony orchestra, premiered in June 2000 with Leonard Slatkin and in the United States in January 2001, was received with huge acclaim. Her dramatic adaptation of Roald Dahl’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, again scored for large symphony orchestra, received its premiere at the Royal Festival Hall in 1994 with Franz Welser Möst and the LPO, and widespread praise included David Lister, The Independent: "rich, colourful, atmospheric and often downright alarming”.

Other compositions include three string quartets for the Maggini and Smith Quartets, Dancing with the Shadow for Lontano and On a Bat’s Back I do fly for Kokoro (chamber ensemble of the Bournemouth Symphony). Market of the Dead, composed for the BBC TV Sound on Film series, was broadcast in August 1999: "...wonderful - a lyrical, mystical meditation” Daily Telegraph. More recently, she received great acclaim with her Piano Quintet, premiered to a full house at the Wigmore Hall: “Material and moods underwent constant transformation … all sounds coloured and stirred by a lively … imagination.” The Times, February 04. Tiger Dream in Forest Green, commissioned by the City of London Festival for the group Conchord, was equally well received at its premiere in June 04: “...an arresting opening… rich dream world…a visceral outburst” Evening Standard. “Alberga’s writing combined both atmosphere and action – including a very convincing final kill.” Daily Telegraph. 

The Wild Blue Yonder (1995) 

The Wild Blue Yonder is entirely based on seven quite concise motifs. I heard them first as isolated versions of life against a blank, atmosphereless and impenetrable emptiness. They are all heard within the works opening minute. With the notable exception of the last of these they are all developed and set in differing relationships to one another throughout the piece. Every note of the piece is generated from these motifs, forming a sort of sealed off version of life.
The whole work falls into four sections that in a structural sense give 1) an exposition, 2) a development by attempted fusion, 3) a development by disintegration, and finally 4) an acknowledgement of the irreconcilable. The piece lasts around thirteen minutes. 

Valerie Coleman (1970 - ) 

A native of Kentucky, flutist and composer Valerie Coleman began her music studies at the age of eleven and by the age of fourteen, had written three symphonies and won several local and state competitions. Coleman is the two-time laureate of the Young Artist Competition at Boston University where she also received the "Woodwind Award", was recipient of the Aspen Music Festival Wombwell Kentucky Award, and inaugural recipient of the Michelle E. Sahm Memorial Award at the Tanglewood Festival. As a rising voice in the flute world, Ms. Coleman has been the understudy for Eugenia Zukerman at Lincoln Center, featured soloist in the Mannes 2000 Bach Festival, and was recently showcased on the New York classical radio station WQXR. Valerie Coleman is not only the founder of Imani Winds, but also the resident composer under the name "V Coleman", giving Imani Winds their signature piece Umoja. In addition to composing several song cycles, A Kwanzaa Songbook for Children, and sonatas for various instruments, V Coleman has a full works list for chamber music. Recently, the premier of her Afro-Cuban Concerto for Wind Quintet and Orchestra at Carnegie Hall received glowing feedback. New York Concert Review calls the Concerts "a welcome addition to wind quintet literature, full of fresh sound." Valerie Coleman is currently a faculty member of the Juilliard School of Music Advancement Program and The Interschool Orchestras of New York. She received a Double Bachelor of Music degree in Theory/Composition and Flute Performance from Boston University and a Master of Music degree in Flute Performance from the Mannes College of Music. 

“...Her understanding of the instruments and her ear for timbral color

and texture are formidable.” THE ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION

 

Wayne Wallace  ( 1952  - )   

When it comes to truly capturing the essence of Latin and straight-ahead jazz in performance, composition and arranging, few are the equal of Wayne Wallace. Recent placements in the producer to world-class musicians including Count Basie, Benny Carter, Ray Charles, Celine Dion, Pete Escovedo, Earth, Wind & Fire, Aretha Franklin, Lionel Hampton, Joe Henderson, Lena Horne, Bobby Hutcherson, Tito Puente, Sonny Rollins, Carlos Santana, John Santos, Sheila E., McCoy Tyner, and Stevie Wonder. In fact, his extensive resume covers his musical involvement with dozens of other jazz and pop luminaries, too. Since the 1980's, Wallace has been a key member of two internationally acclaimed groups based in the Bay Area: Pete Escovedo's Band and John Santos & the Machete Ensemble, as well as leading his own groups from quartet to big-band. 

Born and raised in San Francisco, Wayne Wallace is a local jazz institution with world-class credentials who can match-up with any trombonist-arranger-composer in jazz today. His first exposure to jazz was listening to KJAZ radio and his parents' record collection, with included LPs by Charlie Parker and Nat "King" Cole. Taking up the trombone, he first played professionally in Top 40 and James Brown cover bands. Pursuing music studies in earnest, Wallace graduated from San Francisco State University, with a degree in Performance. >From 1993 through 1998, he immersed himself in Afro-Cuban sounds and culture at the National School of the Arts in Havana, Cuba. Private studies with globally acclaimed jazz vibes player Bobby Hutcherson and trombonist Julian Priester (Duke Ellington, Sun Ra, Herbie Hancock's Mwandishi Band) and Will Sudmeier deepened his understanding of jazz. 

Over the years, Wallace has been a veritable Renaissance Man of Afro-Latin jazz — a master musician on trombone and keyboards; a superior arranger, composer, and record producer; and a noted educator and lecturer.  

He has enjoyed a long affiliation with the bands of Pete Escovedo and John Santos. Additional concert credits include work with Patti LaBelle, Tito Puente, Dr. John, the McCoy Tyner Big Band, and Stevie Wonder. His recording, production, and arranging credits include Celine Dion, John Lee Hooker, Chris Isaak, and, among others, Sister Sledge. As a sideman in the recording studio, he has played with the Asian American Jazz Orchestra, Con Funk Shun, Earth, Wind & Fire, Whitney Houston, Santana, and dozens more. Wallace has had his songs recorded by artists like Pete Escovedo and John Santos & the Machete Ensemble, and he has composed for television (Star Search, Guiding Light, The Amy Fischer Story) and award shows (The Latin Grammys, The Alma Awards).  

Dr. Wallace is a well-respected jazz educator who has taught at, among other schools, San Jose University San Francisco State University, Stanford University, and the University of California at Berkeley.  He has been awarded grants for composing from the N. E. A., the Zellerbach Foundation, the San Francisco Arts Commission, and others. 

In addition to leading his own bands --"Wayne Wallace and Rhythm and Rhyme," the  "Wayne Wallace Septet", "Wayne Wallace Quintet", and "Wayne Wallace Quartet" as well as a four-trombone group called "The 4th Dimension" --Wallace has been producing an album for singer Alexa Weber-Morales (who sings superbly on The Reckless Search for Beauty).  He's also been engaged in preproduction work for an album featuring another talented San Francisco-based vocalist, Anna Estrada. Early 2007 finds the trombonist performing as a guest player with Gus Kambeitz and the West Valley College Jazz Ensemble and trumpeter-flugelhorn player John Worley's Worlview, respectively, as well as touring with his own groups. 

 

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 – 1791)

Symphony No. 34 in C Major, K. 338 (1780) 

June 9, 1781 marks an important turning point for our young Austrian genius.  Born in Salzburg, Mozart’s father was employed as a court musician for the Archbishop, and until June 1781, so was Mozart.  He had long chafed under the Archbishop’s neglect, and for many years had been seeking a more important musical post elsewhere.  In March of 1781, Mozart traveled to Vienna with an entourage of the Archbishop’s musicians, but refused to accompany them on their return to Salzburg several months later.  After numerous refusals of his plea to be released from the Archbishop’s service, he finally received “a kick on my arse… by order of our worthy Prince Archbishop” and was finally free to pursue his musical destiny in Vienna. 

A few years earlier, Mozart had undertaken an 18 month tour, accompanied by his mother, to Munich, Mannheim, and Paris.  In each city, he composed and performed, met with officials of the court, and made his availability for employment known.  At all turns he was disappointed; he received no major commissions or musical posts, a girl he had fallen in love with in Munich now rejected him, and to cap the worst trip of his life, his mother passed away during their visit to Paris.   

So the summer of 1780 finds our unhappy 24-year old Mozart reunited with his father in Salzburg, and still in the employ of the despised Archbishop.  Mozart’s recent travels had made their musical impressions on our young composer, and his craft continued to develop.  The Symphony in C Major, his 34rd, is a work of exceptional variety and ingenuity.  I chose this symphony because it comes directly after Mozart’s visit to Paris in 1779, where he could easily have come into contact with Joseph Boulogne and his “Concert des Amateurs”; also, it’s instrumental requirements exactly match the players we already have on our concert!   

The first movement begins with a martial air, swiftly evolving into a playful and ever-changing Allegro vivace.  Despite the inclusion of trumpet, horns, and “drums”, the texture is light and the music has a spaciousness that shows Mozart’s growing mastery of the form.  A lovely Andante di molto follows, scored for strings only.  The Finale:Allegro molto is a cheerful romp designed to send you home with a smile on your lips and a spring in your step.  I certainly hope that Mozart works his musical magic on you at this performance!   

Stay tuned for details of our next San Francisco Chamber Orchestra season, coming this Fall to a concert hall near you!