FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thursday, May 8, 2014
CONTACT:
Rebecca Bailey, Publicity Coordinator/Writer
Hopkins Center for the Arts, Dartmouth College
rebecca.a.bailey@dartmouth.edu
603.646.3991
Sunny, upbeat Copland meets stormy Berlioz in symphonic program May 24
Photo: Anthony Princiotti conducts the Dartmouth Symphony Orchestra. Courtesy of the Hopkins Center.
HANOVER, NH—Aaron Copland's sunny, rhythmically alive Suite from Appalachian Spring is paired with Hector
Berlioz' Symphonie Fantastique—a vivid musical trip through ecstasy and despair, tantrums and tenderness—
in a concert on Saturday, May 24, at 8 pm, by the
Dartmouth Symphony Orchestra. The concert takes
place in Spaulding Auditorium of Hopkins Center;
tickets at $15 for adults, $10 for youth.
Born and raised in Brooklyn, NY, Copland (19001990) has been described as the “Dean of American
Composers” for his ability to evoke an unabashedly
American spirit in his music. Appalachian Spring
began as a commission for a ballet to be performed
by modern dance originator Martha Graham and her
dance company at the Library of Congress in 1944.
Graham's ballet tells the story of a newlywed couple
experiencing the joys and tribulations of married
life—in rural Pennsylvania, not Appalachia. When the musical piece was still untitled a day before the debut,
Graham suggested the title Appalachian Spring, drawn from a poem by American poet Hart Crane. Somehow
the r stuck. Copland said, in later interviews, “I gave voice to that region without knowing I was giving voice to
it.”
Pearl Lange, one of the dancers who helped premiere the work, recalled, "The first day we heard this music, it
was like the sun spread over the floor. Every rehearsal was like that. The music is so clear and so beautiful and
so rhythmically alive."
Writes DSO co-manager Alice Wang '16 in program notes, "Copland’s music, buoyed by open-sounding,
consonant harmonies, conveys a bright-eyed simplicity that evokes images of pastoral abundance and the
sense of infinite, spontaneous possibility that has been associated with the American identity. Frequent
rhythmic shifts, especially in passages of rapidly changing time signatures, also contribute to the sense of
youthful vitality that permeates the piece." The piece concludes with its famous final section made up of a
series of variations on the melody of the Shaker tune Simple Gifts.
The calm and brightness of the Copland contrasts with the flood of powerful emotions of Symphonie
Fantastique. Although Berlioz was onbly 26 when he wrote it, he already had experienced nearly two decades
of angst-ridden love obsessions. The inspiration for Fantastique was an Irish actress named Henrietta (Harriet)
Smithson, whose company brought Shakespeare to the Paris for a series of productions in 1828. Despite
understanding little English, Berlioz was entranced by Smithson's performances of Shakespeare's ingénues. He
worked that fascination into this symphony as a recurring theme or idée fixe that appears at least once in
every movement.
His own program notes for the symphony sketches an overall story for the work—a young musician "of morbid
sensitivity" undergoes an opium-induced series of feverish hallucinations—as well as detailed accounts of
what each musical movement depicts. These include him meeting his beloved at a ball; a summer evening in
the country; a march to a scaffold; and a diabolical witches' gathering.
The work, writes Wang, is "essentially theatrical; instead of writing pieces of music that were worlds unto
themselves, Berlioz used the elements of music to describe literary narratives. The result is a sort of wordless
symphonic opera. Melodies, harmonies and rhythms describe characters, their states of mind and the events
affecting them. This technique would be developed even more explicitly in the music dramas of Wagner; in
our time, we most frequently encounter it as a basic component of film music."
The DSO is made up more than 40 undergraduates, graduate students and community members as well as
some guest players. Director Anthony Princiotti also is the Music Director of the New Hampshire Philharmonic
Orchestra and the Principal Guest Conductor of the Vermont Symphony. He received his Doctor of Music
degree from the Yale School of Music and a Bachelor of Music degree from the Juilliard School. He was
awarded a conducting fellowship at Tanglewood, where he studied with Leonard Bernstein, Gustav Meier and
Seiji Ozawa. He has been a recipient of the Marshall Bartholomew Scholarship, the Charles Ives Scholarship
and the Yale School of Music Alumni Association Prize. Between 1981 and 1987, he was first violinist with the
Apple Hill Chamber Players and has appeared as a guest conductor with the Calgary Philharmonic, Vermont
Symphony, New England String Ensemble, Hartford Symphony, San Paolo State Symphony, Yale Philharmonic,
Norfolk Festival Orchestra, Pioneer Valley Symphony and the Young Artists Philharmonic. As a member of the
faculty of Dartmouth College since 1992, he holds the rank of Senior Lecturer in Music. His recording of
Telemann’s Twelve Fantasias for Unaccompanied Violin was recently released. He is the author of more than
eighty articles about orchestral music.
* * *
Founded in 1962, the Hopkins Center for the Arts is a multi-disciplinary academic, visual and performing
arts center dedicated to uncovering insights, igniting passions, and nurturing talents to help Dartmouth and
the surrounding Upper Valley community engage imaginatively and contribute creatively to our world. Each
year the Hop presents more than 300 live events and films by visiting artists as well as Dartmouth students
and the Dartmouth community, and reaches more than 22,000 Upper Valley residents and students with
outreach and arts education programs. After a celebratory 50th-anniversary season in 2012-13, the Hop
enters its second half-century with renewed passion for mentoring young artists, supporting the
development of new work, and providing a laboratory for participation and experimentation in the arts.
RELEVANT LINKS
https://hop.dartmouth.edu/Online/140524_dso
https://hop.dartmouth.edu/Online/dartmouth_symphony_orchestra
Download high-resolution photos:
https://hop.dartmouth.edu/Online/default.asp?doWork::WScontent::loadArticle=Load&BOparam::WScont
ent::loadArticle::article_id=A14ACB33-679C-469F-9E075A08469894E7&sessionlanguage=&SessionSecurity::linkName=
CALENDAR LISTING:
Dartmouth Symphony Orchestra in concert
Ah, love. In 1827, it inspired young French composer Hector Berlioz to pen his groundbreaking, nearly hourlong Symphonie Fantastique, a vivid musical trip through ecstasy and despair, tantrums and tenderness. It is
paired with Aaron Copland’s 1945 Appalachian Spring; originally written for a Martha Graham ballet, it
describes love grounded in family, community and agrarian life, culminating in Copland’s variations on the
timeless Shaker hymn Simple Gifts. Anthony Princiotti, conductor.
Saturday, May 24, 8 pm
Spaulding Auditorium, Hopkins Center for the Arts, Hanover NH
$15, $5 Dartmouth students, $10 all other students
Information: hop.dartmouth.edu or 603.646.2422