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Beethoven & Blue Jeans January 14, 2017 Gioachino Rossini composed his opera William Tell in 1829, and it was first performed in Paris before the ink was dry. The Overture is scored for 2 flutes, piccolo, 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, timpani, percussion, and strings. Rossini composed quickly, and like many opera composers left the overture to the last minute. (He once advised another composer only half-jokingly to wait until the day of the first performance.) Rossini composed William Tell, his last opera, in a few days and true to form left the overture for last. While Rossini’s operas are rarely performed nowadays— in truth, there are few singers who can perform them properly—his overtures have long been concert hall staples, and the Overture to William Tell is the most popular. The Overture is in four parts, the first three of which describe the Swiss countryside that is the setting of the opera. The first section depicts a sunrise with five solo cellos; the second is a ferocious storm; the English horn solo in the third is a shepherd’s call. The final section begins with a fanfare and continues with a patriotic march. The Overture to William Tell has the distinction, if one may call it that, of having several themes that will be recognized by all, even those who have never set foot in an opera house. The most obvious example is the trumpet fanfare and march in the last section of the piece. Those who are of A Certain Age will know this music as the theme to the Lone Ranger television series—and will have a hard time not thinking of the Lone Ranger when the music comes around! There are others as well: the bucolic English horn melody and the storm music have been used in countless cartoons, whenever the action might call for them. There’s a good reason for that: Rossini’s music is simple, tuneful, and highly evocative. Ludwig van Beethoven composed this concerto in 1805 and 1806, and it was first performed publicly in 1808 in Vienna with Beethoven the soloist. The score calls for solo piano, flute, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, and strings. Beethoven knew full well what audiences expected in a concerto—by this time the form had hardened into a shape everyone thought they knew—so it gave him the greatest pleasure to break the mold at every opportunity. His Fourth Piano Concerto has surprise after surprise, if we can open our ears to hear them. continued next page Overture to William Tell Gioachino Rossini Born 1792 in Pesaro, Italy Died 1868 in Paris, France Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 4 in G major, Op. 58 Ludwig van Beethoven Born 1770 in Bonn, Germany Died 1827 in Vienna, Austria Program Notes 73


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