trffi

sw

Arizona State Universi ty

School of Music

GUEST ARTIST CONCERT SERIES

L ST]LLIYAN
CL
Assi

Rita
Robert
Winston

larinet
bassoon

KATZIN CONCERT HALL
Saturday, November 20,1999. 5:00 p.m.

Hil

PROGRAM

Sonata in E-flat Major, Op. 120, No. 2
Allegro amabile
Allcgro appassionato
Andante con moto

Johannes Brahms
I 833- r 897

Soliloquies for Solo B-flat Clarinet

I.
n.
III.
IV.

leslit: Bassctt

Fast, aggressive, driving, dramatic

Flowing, singing
Fast, abrasive, contcntious

Slow,lyrical,cxprcssive
**There will be u l}-minute intermi.\sion**

Duet-Concertino for C larinet
and Bassoon
Allegro moderato

Richard Strauss
t864-1949

Andante

Rondo: Allcgro ma non troppo

Il

Convegno

Amilcarc Ponchielli

f)ivcrtimcnto lbr Two Clarinets and

**+d(d.+***+*****

Piano

1834-

l8tt6

Performance Events Staff Manager
::
Paul W. Estes
Assistant Performartce Events Staff Manager
Gary Quamme

Staff
Con

ln

P.O.

Bakcr
Cook
ca Wood

Box 870405, Tempe, AZ 85287 -0405

Notes on the Program

In

1891 Johannes Brahms struck up his last great musical friendship,-ry!"1he heard the

(which
Richard Miihli"id ;iay in the ren6wned court orchestra of Meiningen
String
the
he
considered
and
60,
iilh-t had once airecieal. fiy ro* Brahms was nearly
imp-res.sion
But
the
strong
compose'
would
he
music
last
Quintet, Op. 111, to have buut, ih"
oi-ivfi*,fh"f,i'. pe"rorrality a"d pl.yt"g drew Brahms to write two chamber works for clarinet:
h-aving
u irio *ittr."ilo urrJpiano, Op. ira, and a quintet-with strings, Op' 115-'-F,]?94'
two
with
presented
Muhlfeld
again
pieceis,
Brahms
*"""*frif" produced iour sets of piano
works: the Sonatas, OP. 120.

.iu.i""ti"t

But these were gifts for more than Mtihlfeld. Clarinetists (and violists) have made these
Brahm.s's caliber had
*r.f.t into centeiryieces of their repertoire; no previous composer ofbegins
with an "amiable
sonata
piaool
The
second
and
for
clarinet
;;tt".; m-scale sonata
web of
a
continuous
spinning
iirtimate,partners,
are
instruments
t*o
ihe
ufilgrr.';H"re
the
second
in
than
closer
music out of a fe* simple motives. Nowhere is tfe cooperation
just
plays
one
clarinet
the
what
repeating
canon,
in
the piano accompanies
tfr"-L,-*t
is
movement
outer
"rs
neither
because
such-perhaps
as
movement
a
slow
t"ut futur. Instead of
and
surgi-ng
oarticularlv fast-the middle movement is a^ walti-scherzo, alter!ately
on a simp-le theme that' in
il;;;ti;;. " ih; last movement presents variations motif
varied over and over' The
on
one
based
is
itself
.fr."u.t".i.tical1y B"ah-sia" fashion,
playing with the theme'
and
embellishing
while
life:
even
lead
a
double
,u"iuiio". seem"to
they seem to be simpli&ing it to its essentials.
Leslie Bassett has been the recipient of numerous prizes for his compositional efforts
i".f"ai"g-the Pulitzer Prize (1966), the Rome Pize, a Fulbright.Fellowship, and two
of
G"gg""ft"i- f'r"tta.tion Fellowshipt. H" holds membership in tle American Academy
of
Emeritus
Professor
University
Distinguished
art"s"a"a Letters and is the Albert e. Stanley
Bassett
Han{brd,
in
22,1923-,
Born
January
Michigan.
Music at the University of
-C-alifornia,
was educated at California Stat]e University, Frelno, the University of Michigan, and th-e
Roberto Gerhard'
Lee
Finney,
E*ol" N"r*ale de U"*iq,r", Par1s, His teac[ers include R'oss
gospel music and
of
echoes
everything-from
While
Boulanger.
Arthur Honegger
""J-Uuai,
*ay into Bassett's music, the
j;:;t".".irti-til and
a strain of neo-cfassicism have found iheituisr''?
He states: "I've alwaS's
to*po.". has never allowed his work to b,e tagged-w-i-th any
mean you don't
doesn't
in'
That
,afr"""a strictly to Bassettism. You do what you believe
there's a lot of
and
mttsic,
lot
of
a
grew
hearing
up
yo,r.
I
,oti." what's goi"g o" ,torrtd
wanted'"
I
whatever
stolen
always
I've
love.-And
music I really
Soliloquies for Solo B-flat Clarinet was written in 1978 and is dedicated to the Reverend
n"U"ri onofrey. Composed in four movements, tlre pie-ce reflects Bassett's predilection for
contrasting instrumenial timbres. One way he does this is through the use of resonance
trills: trills which alternate tone color rather than pitch in rapid succession'

Richard Strauss's last instrumental composition, the Duet-Concerbinq for the uncommon
combination of clarinet and bassoon with string orchestra and harp, dates from 1947 and was
fi"E p"*otmed in Lugano, Switzerland in f5+S' Dedicated -to-the com-poser's friend, the
bassotnist Hugo Burglauser, the "little concerto" evolves with logic-and Tomentum as an
abrrd".rce of i"magin"atively protracted melodic lines seamlessly unfolds through its three
continuous movements: Alie4ro mod.erato, Andante, and Rondo (Allegro rn'd' non troppo)'
f.o* its beginning to the eitensive finale, this example of Classical miniaturist- writing
reflects the"retroJpective style-consciousness that had informed such "Neo-Classical"
of 1920, Sergei Prokofiev's Clossical
-ustetpieces as Ig'or Stravinsky's ballet Pulcinella Likewise, melodi-c remjniscences of
co-mpositio!s.
St*".,ss
earlier
and
of
1918]
Syipnl"y
iirr.tul Xiahler's symphonies and orchestral works of Strauss's own coincide with allusions to
Mozart and Beethoven. The dialogue treatment of the clarinet and bassoon, their-Iyrica1
arabesques juxtaposed against tf,e harp and sometimes soioistic strings, recalls the
eighteenth- cenhtry s infonia concertante.

Italian composer Amilcare Ponchielli was born in Paderno in 1834 and died in Milan in 1886'
After receifrng his first music lessons from his father he studied at the Milan Conservatory
and served u.-"o organist in Cremona. His first opera, I Promessi Sp-o-si was produced in
L856 but the only woik of his to hold a place on the operatic stage is La Giaconda (L876).
Conuegno (The T!5rst) was originally written for two clarinets and wind band. The o{Sinal
score is-in the library of the Islituto Nazionale di Archeologia e Storia dlll'Arte in Rome'

Il

Ponchielli chose to La[ it a Divertimento, although he avoided the form of separate
movements, in favor of connected sections, which corresponds more to the form of a
Potpourri. Cantilenas with operatic characteristics alternate with virtuoso passa-ges'
evidence of the high level of Italian wind playing of that time. In view of the dialogue form
both clarinet parts are equally challenging.

About the Artists
Miehael Sullivan is Assistant Professor of Clarinet at the Northern Arizona UniversitY
School of Performing Arts. He received his degrees from tr'lorida State University and the
University of Michlgan. Upon receiving a grant from,the German Academic Excha^nge
Service, hL studietl uf th" Staatliche Hochschule fur Musik in Munich, Germany, and as first
prize winner of the Pro'Mozart Society of Atlanta Concerto C-9mp-etr!!on, he.-w-as awarded a
erant to study at the Hochschule ftir Musik und Darsteilende Kunst (Mozarteum) in
Sakburg, Austria where he earned certiEcates in clarinet a1d salop-hone- Dr. Sullivan has
served oln the faculties of the University of Michigan at the Interlochen Center for the Arts
and Pittsburg State University. He appears regularly as a, soloist with symplorry orchestras
throughout ihe United States and his presented recilalg in the U.S- and Europe, most
notably performing at the Salzburg Festival in 1993. Michael Su]livan serves as principal
ctarinetist with tlie Ernest Bloch tr{usic Festival in Newport, Oregon and has served as
principai clarinetist with the Phoenix Mainly MozartIestival, the- FlagstaffFestival of the
as guest
irts Orchestra and Arrzona Opera's Wagrrer Festival Orchestra. He has performe-d
thu
Sedona
*.i
Fietd
BanC,
artist with the Music Academy of the ilest, the U.S. Army
with
universities
clinician
and
as
an
adjudicator
is
in
dcmand
Chamber LIusic !.eStivaJ. He
and high schools across the country. His principal teachers include Frank Kowalsky, Fred
Ormand, Gerd Starke, and Alois Brandhofer.

Rita Borden joined the piano faculty of Nor-thern Arizonallniversity in 1995 and is a
artists on the Performing Artists Series'
frequent perfoimer with NaU faculty and
"isiting
Chamber Music Society -agd i9 prin-cipal
She has performed concerts for the Sedona
keyboardist with the Flagstaff Symphony Orchestra., Ms- Borden earned her Bachelor of
Music degree from the University of Northern Colorado and her Master of Music in
Accompaiying from the University of Southern California. Her teachers included
Cwendiolyn K-oldofsky, Brooks Smith and Ivlalcolm Hamilton. She has concertized
extensiveiy with mem6ers of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra
and San Diego Symphony.

Winston Collier teaches bassoon and music Iiterature at Norbhern Arizona University,

where he performs regularly as Principal Bassoonist of the FlagstaffSVmP-ho1y Orchestra
and bassoonist for the-Kokopelli Woodwind Quintet. He holds degrees from the University of
Michigan, where he was a student of Richard Beene, and has been the recip]ent of mrmerous
musiial and acad.emic awards including a Rackham Dissertation Grant' He has performed
with the orchestras of Toledo, Flint, Arrn Arbor, and Windsor, among manl others, and has
given recitals and master classes throughout tbe Ulitsd States and Canada' Passionately
Iommitted to the music of our time, Mr. Collier has worked to increase the bassoon's
repertoire through numerous commissioning projects and-premieres. In addition, !e is 1
roinding membel of Quorum Chamber ArtJ Collective, which recently gave an acclaimed
New Yoik debut in Merkin Hall and is scheduled to record a CD of the music of composer
Evan Chnmbers in Summer, 2000. Mr. Collier served for six summers on the faculty of the
Interlochen Center for the Arts, where he coordinated the annual all-state bassoon
workshop. He joined the NAU faculty in the Fall of 1999.