UMaine Orchestra Offering Rich, Classical Works
Contact: George Manlove at (207) 581-3756
ORONO — Anatole Wieck, University of Maine associate professor of music and UMaine Orchestra conductor, is looking forward to a magnetic concert April 10 at Minsky Recital Hall for several reasons.
First, the concert will present a melodious, passionate and powerful repertoire by three quintessentially classical composers — the Russian Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, the Austrian Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and American Aaron Copland.
Second, it provides Wieck, who was born and raised in the former Soviet Union before emigrating to the United States, an opportunity to defy the former Russian government’s attempt to censor religious music.
And third, it will be a good concert for young people and others who are unsure whether they like classical music.
“This is a good concert for people who may not be familiar with classical music,” says Wieck.
Wieck has selected three major pieces to perform, the “Russian Easter Overture” by Rimsky-Korsakov, Mozart’s “Jupiter” Symphony 41 and Copland’s “John Henry.”
Being performed the evening before Easter Sunday, “Russian Easter Overture,” which Wieck describes as “lyrical but very passionate in a spiritual sense,” involves the musical exchange between a priest and his congregation, and builds to a triumphant ending to symbolize the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
“To me, it’s very special,” Wieck says, “because I grew up in Russia and I had never heard this music. I didn’t know it existed. The government was trying to stamp out anything religious.”
The work, which is rarely performed, according to Wieck, “is one of Rimsky-Korsakov’s greatest pieces. To me it is something the communists didn’t manage to stamp out, the spirituality.”
Rimsky-Korsakov also is known for his orchestral suite “Scheherazade” and “Flight of the Bumble Bee.”
Mozart’s Symphony 41, or “Jupiter,” named after the mythological king of the Roman gods, is significant because is represents the shifting of Mozart’s elegant style toward the more heroic, assertive style of the younger German composer, Ludwig von Beethoven, according to Wieck and the orchestra concertmaster, grad student William Bell.
“Traditionally, we think of Beethoven as being associated with heroic expression and we think of Mozart as elegant,” Wieck says. “This Mozart is both elegant and heroic.”
He calls is a “very luminous, optimistic work,” and potentially one of Mozart’s greatest. Wieck particularly likes the polyphonic genius, he says, of Mozart’s simultaneous weaving more than one melody into the piece, and still keeping the music “transparent and graceful.”
“That’s very difficult to do, and an expression of Mozart’s genius,” he adds.
The third piece, Copland’s John Henry, is another lyrical composition based on the folk song and legend of American railroad man John Henry, who fought to save jobs by pitting his “steel-driving” skills with a sledge hammer against the new steam-powered machines that threatened to replace men. The story is that John Henry beat the machine, but died of exhaustion after the contest.
It is a melodic piece that relies on the heavy influence of percussion instruments, says Bell, a graduate student from Presque Isle studying for a master’s in grand violin performance.
“Everyone knows “Rodeo” and “Appalachian Spring,” but nobody really knows “John Henry,'” says Bell, who noted that in addition to using the university’s timpani, bells, triangle, bass drum, cymbals and tam tam drums, he needs to find a real hammer and anvil for the performance.
Understanding the stories behind music helps the listener appreciate the melodies and harmonies of the different instruments of the 65-member UMaine orchestra, Wieck and Bell agree, and Wieck says he will give a brief explanation of the April 10 concert pieces before each one is played.
The concert begins at 7:30 p.m. in the Class of 1944 Building. Admission is $6.