Program Notes | Xian Conducts Carmina Burana

Zoltán Kodály
Born: December 16, 1882, in Kecskemet, Hungary
Died: March 6, 1967, in Budapest, Hungary
Composed: 1933
World Premiere: October 23, 1933 in Budapest; Ernst von Dohnányi led the Philharmonic Society Orchestra.
Duration: 16 minutes
Instrumentation: two flutes (2nd doubling piccolo), two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, timpani, snare drum, triangle, glockenspiel and strings

Galánta is a western Hungarian market town on the route from Vienna east to Prague. Now part of the Czech Republic, it was still in Hungary from 1885 to 1892, when Zoltán Kodály spent seven years of his childhood there. Galánta is where Kodály was given his first instrument (the cello) to study; it was where he first heard chamber music and home and folk music on the street. Decades later, he returned to this area on one of his folksong research trips; the Dances of Galánta that we hear at these performances are the principal fruit of that labor.

Along with his close friend Béla Bartók, Kodály laid the foundations of both modern Hungarian music and the science of ethnomusicology. As important for his contributions in education and folk music research as he was for his compositions, Kodály was a versatile talent who played violin, viola, piano and cello as a child, in addition to singing and composing. By the time he was a teenager, his original works were already being performed at school. Many a choral singer knows his name from the popular "Angels and the Shepherds" that surfaces with fair regularity on school and church Christmas programs. Symphony-goers will likely be familiar with his popular Háry Janós Suite (1927) and the fine Concerto for Orchestra (1940). These Dances are a fine complement to those orchestral works.

In 1927, the Hungarian musicologist Ervin Major showed Kodály a Viennese collection of music from Galánta that had been published in 1800. The tunes, largely dance music, featured the characteristic Hungarian dance, verbunkos, whose origins lay in the eighteenth century. Traditionally performed by Romani bands, the verbunkos was used to recruit soldiers until Hungary instituted military conscription in 1849. The dance remained popular and left a strong imprint on Hungarian folk music of the nineteenth century.

The Dances of Galánta were written to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Budapest Philharmonic Society. Kodály took the Viennese collection as his starting point, using the verbunkos tunes as the basis for a brilliant orchestral rondo in a single, 16-minute extended movement. He completed the score in 1933.

The piece opens with a rich cello melody: strong in profile, with a pronounced dotted rhythm. This opening idea is a sort of ritornello whose return throughout the Dances helps to unify the work and defines its contrasting episodes. After initial commentary by the strings, we hear the same theme echoed by French horn, then passed around the orchestra. The next declamatory soloist is the clarinet, which has a brief cadenza before offering its own rendition of the stylized theme.

The intervening episodes tend to emphasize sharp keys (as opposed to the decidedly flat keys of the initial segment). In one, the flute introduces an idea strongly reminiscent of the Berlioz Rakóczy March; a later episode features oboe and flute brightened by triangle and glockenspiel. The syncopated third episode is the first hint of the crazed verbunkos spirit that dominates the Dances of Galánta's close. An extended coda merges a half-dozen independent dance melodies in a reckless whirlwind. Kodály spins us around faster and faster, challenging our balance with violent syncopations, until we are certain that the music cannot possibly accelerate further — then it does. His madcap orchestral chase sprints forward, demanding the utmost from both orchestra and conductor, until the brilliant and climactic close.

Johann Sebastian Bach
Born: March 21, 1685, in Eisenach, Germany
Died: July 28, 1750, in Leipzig, Germany
Composed: 1723 or later
World Premiere: undocumented, but probably in Leipzig in the 1720s
Duration: 14 minutes
Instrumentation: solo oboe d’amore, strings and continuo

There is some mystery surrounding the origins of Johann Sebastian Bach’s A Major Concerto, BWV 1055, as it exists in a version for solo harpsichord as well as the version for solo oboe d’amore that we hear in these performances.

Music historians have traditionally regarded Bach’s Fifth Brandenburg Concerto, with its prominent harpsichord role, as the most important antecedent of the solo keyboard concerto. More recent scholarship has argued convincingly in favor of the various concerti for one, two, three and four harpsichords that date from Bach's Leipzig years (1723-1750). Supplementing his extraordinary schedule of obligations to the Thomaskirche in Leipzig was his work with the Collegium Musicum that had been founded by Telemann in 1704. Here, making music for pleasure among friends and students, Bach found another outlet for his inexhaustible creativity, balancing the emphasis on church music required of him as Kantor.

Most of the harpsichord concerti are believed to have been arranged for performance at the Collegium concerts. Ironically, and adding to the confusion and mystery of Bach scholarship, almost all of them were originally solo concerti (primarily for violin) that he arranged for keyboard instruments.

Some evidence suggests that Bach's original version of this A Major concerto may have been originally written for oboe d'amore, however. If that is in fact the case, then we may pinpoint the date of BWV 1055 as 1723 or after. As Bach's biographer Malcolm Boyd has pointed out, the oboe d'amore was a fairly new instrument in the first quarter of the 18th century. So far as we know, 1723 was the first year in which Bach wrote for oboe d’amore, in his Cantata No. 23. The instrument sounds a minor third lower than it is notated. Slightly larger than the standard oboe, it is smaller than the English horn, which sounds a fifth below the oboe. We may think of oboe d’amore as the mezzo-soprano of the double reed family.

This A-Major concerto is noteworthy for its exceptional detail in the solo part, which provides the oboist with the challenge of intricacy and linear complexity. We are most keenly aware of this challenge in the breathtakingly lovely Larghetto. A siciliana in 12/8 meter, it highlights both Bach's inexhaustible gift for long melodic lines and the soloist’s musicianship in shaping those gently vaulting phrases.

IN THE SOLOIST’S WORDS

Program Annotator Laurie Shulman asked the New Jersey Symphony’s Andrew Adelson about the Bach Concerto for Oboe d’Aamore he performs on this weekend’s concerts, and the unusual instrument for which it is written. His thoughtful responses follow.

LS: Why did you choose this concerto, rather than one for English horn?

AA: Last season, when our Music Director, Xian Zhang asked if I would play a concerto with the New Jersey Symphony, she specifically suggested Bach. She knew I had recently released my double album CD, The Bach Suites Reimagined, the world premiere recording of the complete Bach cello suites on English horn, in my own arrangement. Although Bach wrote for and loved the Oboe da Caccia (the antecedent to the English horn), he did not write an Oboe da Caccia or English horn concerto. So when Xian asked me which Bach concerto I would like to play, this three-movement concerto BWV 1055 leapt to mind. It has long been a favorite of mine because of its haunting Larghetto, flanked by outer movements of such sunny optimism – a perfectly balanced concerto.

LS: Do you think BWV 1055 originated for oboe d'amore, or that Bach adapted it from one of his keyboard concerti?

AA: Exactly which solo instrument Bach originally wrote this concerto for has been a topic of some debate. The only surviving manuscript in Bach’s own hand indicates harpsichord as the solo instrument. But we know that Bach recycled many of his pieces by arranging them for different instruments, thus giving new life to past compositions. This practice was exceedingly practical given the volume of music he was expected to produce for performances in Leipzig each week. Through meticulous research, examining the evidence that has come down to us over the past 300 years, some musicologists have come to the conclusion that Bach originally intended the oboe d’amore to be the solo instrument in this concerto, but that the original manuscript had been lost. The evidence has persuaded me. Here are two of the arguments.:

First, the choice of key for each movement is an important clue. Bach rarely chose to write in F-sharp minor. He would have needed a good reason to pick this unusual key for the lovely, heartfelt middle movement. The oboe d’amore, a new instrument which Bach began to use in his compositions in the early 1720s, likely provided the reason.   F-sharp minor is a very facile and sonorous key to play on the oboe d’amore. The outer movements of this concerto are both in A major, an excellent key for the clean execution of fast passage work on the oboe d’amore. Bach exploits this capacity with joyous rippling scales throughout.

Second, the range also points to the oboe d’amore as Bach’s original choice of solo instrument. He uses the entire range of the oboe d’amore, writing effectively for the lowest and highest notes possible on the instrument. Furthermore, this piece goes too low for standard oboe, so we can rule out that instrument. If Bach had written this piece for the violin or viola, he certainly would have written lower notes to feature their entire range. He also would have written more leaps and idiomatic string gestures. Instead, he chose largely stepwise motion, which is ideally suited to the capabilities of the oboe d’amore.

LS: What do you like about the oboe d’amore?

AA: The oboe d’amore is a joy to play. Its complex voice is truly unique. It encompasses the very best elements of both of its siblings: capable of the intense, emotional poignancy of the oboe, as well as the deeper, soulful exploration of the English horn. The oboe d’amore has yet another unmistakable quality that is embedded in its very core; there is some deep sadness, some inconsolable loss in its every utterance.

Carl Orff
Born: July 10, 1895, in Munich, Germany
Died: March 29, 1982, in Munich, Germany
Composed: 1935-1936
World Premiere: June 8, 1937 at the Frankfurt Opera in a staged production; Bertil Wetzelsberger conducted.
Duration: 65 minutes
Instrumentation: three flutes (second and third doubling piccolo), three oboes (third doubling English horn), three clarinets (one doubling bass clarinet, another doubling E-flat clarinet), two bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, xylophone, castanets, ratchet, sleigh bells, triangle, crotales, cymbals, tam-tam, chimes, tambourine, bass drum, three glockenspiels, suspended cymbals, two snare drums, two pianos, celesta, soprano, tenor and baritone soloists, mixed chorus and strings

Carl Orff's music has been regularly performed, yet it is little known. That paradox results from his reputation resting almost exclusively on Carmina Burana, which catapulted Orff to international fame in 1937. It has remained in the standard repertoire ever since. His other stage and choral compositions are curiosities, infrequently recorded and rarely performed. His most enduring legacy other than Carmina Burana is the educational materials he developed for schoolchildren. Carmina remains his crowning achievement as a composer.

An ancient manuscript: the sacred and the profane
The manuscript from which Orff took his texts for Carmina Burana was discovered at the Benedictbeuern monastery in the Bavarian Alps by one Johann Andreas Schmeller, who published the collection in 1847. Dating from the 11th through 13th centuries, the texts are in medieval German, Latin and old French. They deal with love, religion, and moral issues, the worldly and the metaphysical. Their style ranges from naïve to vulgar, from cynical to philosophical. Authors of wide educational and cultural backgrounds contributed to the compilation. The texts are highly dramatic.

Like Janáček, Orff was a late bloomer as a composer. He studied at Munich’s Akademie der Tonkunst. For many years he worked as a theatrical rehearsal pianist, thereby learning the mechanics of drama. In the 1920s he adapted several works by Monteverdi for the stage. He later directed the Munich Bach Society. Through these experiences, he cultivated his strong interest in early music.

Reconciling old and new
In the early 1930s, Orff became acquainted with the Benedictbeuern manuscript. Its medieval languages fascinated him. So did the beautifully illuminated cover, depicting a wheel of fortune. Its musical manifestation was the massive hymn to Fortune that frames Carmina Burana. The texts warranted treatment consistent not only with the medieval poems but also with the vocabulary of twentieth-century music. He bypassed the French texts in favor of those in German and Latin. In his music, he sought to echo the simple and naïve style of the poems, thus Carmina Burana contains primarily strophic songs with little or no variation in verses. Orff's melodies are diatonic and frequently scalar; a couple are strongly flavored by Gregorian chant.

His rhythm, by contrast, is enormously complex. Vibrant, driven, and atavistic, the primitive pulsation of Carmina Burana unites medieval peasantry with sophisticated effects available from a bevy of modern instruments. An expanded percussion section provides much of the vivid color so essential to Carmina's impact. Orff’s two orchestral pianos flavor some choruses (Ecce gratum) and dominate the musical fabric in others (Veni, veni, venias).

The big picture: a journey from spring, to the tavern, to love
Carmina divides into three principal segments, preceded by Fortune, Empress of the World, which returns to conclude the work. The first section, Spring, is a celebration of youth and the promise of the season. It introduces the theme of love and the eternal games played by young people seeking to attract one another.

Part II, In Taberna [In the Tavern] belongs to the men: the tortured hypocrite with craven heart (baritone solo); the swan roasting on the spit, lamenting his former domain as he contemplates being devoured by the hungry men who fill the tavern (tenor solo and men's chorus); the corrupt abbot who—among other vices—drinks (baritone and men's chorus); and finally In taberna, one of the great drinking choruses.

In Part III, The Court of Love, Orff presents a mini-drama of contemplated love, indecision (In trutina, soprano solo), seduction, and the joy of ultimate surrender to passion (Dulcissime, soprano solo). Following the exultant Blanziflor et Helena hymn, his repetition of the Fortune chorus reminds us that all human happiness is transitory.

Throughout Carmina Burana, Orff's vocal tessitura is abnormally high. We notice this characteristic more in the melismatic solo numbers, particularly those for soprano and tenor. But the soloists never obscure the prominent role of the chorus, which is central to the work's narrative, sensual and musical power.

Xian Zhang is currently in her eighth season as music director of the New Jersey Symphony, which celebrated its centennial last season. Zhang also holds the positions of principal guest conductor of Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and conductor emeritus of Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano, having previously held the position of music director between 2009–2016.

In high demand as a guest conductor, Zhang juggles an exceptionally busy diary of guest engagements alongside her titled commitments. Throughout 2024, she conducts Puccini’s Madama Butterfly at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Anthony Minghella’s acclaimed production features a starry cast with Aleksandra Kurzak, Eleanora Buratto and Asmik Grigorian sharing the role of Cio-Cio-San, and Matthew Polezani as Pinkerton.

Following a busy summer 2023 season which saw her conducting Boston Symphony at Tanglewood, Zhang’s upcoming symphonic highlights include returns to the Philadelphia Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo, Houston Symphony, Orchestra of St. Luke’s and National Symphony Orchestra (D.C.). Zhang remains a popular guest of London Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, NAC Ottawa, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Belgian National Orchestra and Norwegian Opera where she returned last season for Puccini’s Tosca.

Letters for The Future (released 2022), Zhang’s recording on Deutsche Grammophon with Philadelphia Orchestra and Time for Three, won multiple GRAMMY® awards in both the Best Contemporary Classical Composition (Kevin Puts’ Contact) and Best Classical Instrumental Solo categories.

Zhang previously served as principal guest conductor of the BBC National Orchestra & Chorus of Wales, the first female conductor to hold a titled role with a BBC orchestra. In 2002, she won first prize in the Maazel-Vilar Conductor’s Competition. She was appointed New York Philharmonic’s Assistant Conductor in 2002, subsequently becoming their Associate Conductor and the first holder of the Arturo Toscanini Chair.

New Jersey Symphony English Horn/Oboe Andrew Adelson has been a member of the New Jersey Symphony for more than 20 years. His double album, The Bach Suites Reimagined, is the world premiere recording of the complete Bach Cello Suites BWV 1007-1012 on English horn.

He has also performed with the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, New York City Ballet Orchestra, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Mexico City Philharmonic, and many musicals on Broadway.

A dedicated teacher, Adelson is on faculty at Rutgers University’s Mason Gross School of the Arts. He earned his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees at the Juilliard School, where he continues to teach master classes in Interpersonal and Ensemble Skills for the Orchestral Player.

Soprano Jana McIntyre is a George and Nora London Foundation Competition Award Winner as well as a Finalist in the Metropolitan Opera Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition. She began the 2023–24 season with a return to Opera Santa Barbara for La Divina: The Art of Maria Callas. Additional season engagements include debuts with the New Jersey Symphony for Carmina Burana and the Sacramento Choral Society and Orchestra for Rodgers and Hammerstein Celebration.

Last season saw McIntyre return to Opera Santa Barbara for Rossini’s comic one-act La scala di seta (Giulia) and Tulsa Opera for Into the Woods (Cinderella). She debuted Carmina Burana with the Santa Barbara Symphony and the Seattle Symphony.

McIntyre has won awards from the Gerda Lissner Foundation, the Jensen Foundation, and the Shoshana Foundation and was a Young Artist with the Merola Opera Program at San Francisco Opera and an Apprentice Artist with The Santa Fe Opera.

American tenor Andrew Morstein, winner of “Best Male Newcomer” at the Österreichischer MusikTheater Preis Awards in Vienna and praised for his “vocal virtuosity” (Olyrix) is a recent graduate of the Junges Ensemble Theater (JET) with the Theater an der Wien. This season, Andrew will sing Serge in Erlanger’s L’Aube rouge at the Wexford Opera Festival in Ireland, with Pensacola Opera as Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor and Chicago Opera Theater, performing the roles of Pyotr Fyodorovich/7th Man/7th Student in The Nose.

Recently, Andrew made his debuts at the Salzburg Festival, singing Don Curzio in Le nozze di Figaro, performed the role of Leonard Lev for the recording and performance of Tobias Picker’s Awakenings with Boston Modern Opera Project and Odyssey Opera, Almaviva in Il barbiere di Siviglia with Opera Neo in San Diego, and Lindoro in L’Italiana in Algeri with St. Pete Opera. In concert, Andrew sang the tenor solo in Carmina Burana with the Amarillo Symphony.

While in Vienna, appearances included Almaviva, Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni, Spoletta in Tosca, Camille in Tobias Picker’s Thérèse Raquin, Officer 1/Sandy in The Lighthouse, Georg in the 175th anniversary of the original performance of Der Waf fenschmied, and finally Klas/Windmüller in Enoch Arden.

Other notable performances include Andronico in Bajazet (Vivaldi), an evening of Russian song at the Wiener Kammeroper, and the Amalekite in Saul (Händel) in a much-celebrated production by Claus Guth, which was filmed for Austrian public television and transmitted by ORF Austria, Telemachus/City Man in Patrick Morganelli’s Hercules vs. Vampires with Nashville Opera, and Ramiro in La Cenerentola with Opera NEO.

While a graduate student at Northwestern University, Mr. Morstein performed Peter Quint in Britten’s The Turn of the Screw, Tom Rakewell in Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress, Bénédict in Berlioz’s Béatrice et Bénédict, and Alfred in Die Fledermaus. In concert, he performed Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 and the tenor solos in Janaček’s The Diary of One Who Disappeared.

Before opera became a full-time career, Andrew was part of two critically acclaimed acapella groups “Straight no Chaser” and “Gentleman’s Rule,” both of which toured internationally.

Andrew resides in Chicago with his wife.

Baritone Hugh Russell has performed with The Philadelphia Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Pittsburgh Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Houston Symphony, National Symphony, Dallas Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Israel Philharmonic, Orchestre Métropolitain (Montréal) and Kansas City Symphony, among many others.

In the coming season, Hugh will be featured in performance with pianist Craig Terry, and will return to North Carolina Opera to perform Papageno in Die Zauberflöte. He will also return to the New Mexico Philharmonic to perform his signature work, Orff’s Carmina Burana.

He has been featured in productions at Los Angeles Opera, New York City Opera, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Atlanta Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Manitoba Opera, the Wexford Festival and Angers-Nantes Opera, among many others.

The Montclair State University choral program has been led for 20 years by Australian-born director Heather J. Buchanan, whose choirs have won critical acclaim for their “heartfelt conviction,” “vibrant sound,” and for singing with the “crispness and dexterity of a professional choir.” Dr. Buchanan holds degrees from the Queensland Conservatorium of Music (Australia), Westminster Choir College of Rider University (USA), and the University of New England (Australia). A vibrant teacher, dynamic performer, and passionate musicians’ health advocate, Dr. Buchanan is in demand as a guest conductor, clinician & adjudicator in the US and abroad.

The 150-voice Chorale is Montclair’s core mixed-voice choir and specializes in performance of symphonic masterworks. Their accompanist is Steven W. Ryan and assistant conductor is Seth Velez. The singers comprise music students majoring in performance (vocal and instrumental), music education, music therapy, composition, musical theater, and recording arts and production in the John J. Cali School of Music, as well as auditioned non-music majors from other colleges in the University. The somatically-based choral pedagogy empowers students to refine their musical, vocal and choral skills, enabling them to function as independent, flexible and responsive musicians and artistic citizens. They have performed numerous times with the New Jersey Symphony under the batons of Neeme Järve, Jacques Lacombe, and Xian Zhang. New Jersey Symphony performance highlights include Howard Shore’s The Lord of the Rings Symphony, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, Mahler’s Symphony No. 3, Fauré’s Requiem, and Verdi’s epic Messa da Requiem. The Chorale’s highly acclaimed performances of Orff’s Carmina Burana and the Verdi Requiem with Maestro Jacques Lacombe were celebrated with limited edition CD releases in September 2011 and December 2015. Their masterwork performances have included collaborations with the Newark Boys Chorus, Children’s Chorus of Sussex County, and the American Boy Choir. Other concert highlights in the Alexander Kasser Theater include Saint Nicolas (Britten), Requiem (Fauré), Requiem (Duruflé), Chichester Psalms (Bernstein), the regional premiere of Parables (Aldridge) in collaboration with the Montclair State University Symphony Orchestra, Annelies (Whitbourn), Alzheimer’s Stories (Cohen), the East Coast premiere of Circlesong (Chilcott), the NJ premiere of Considering Matthew Shepard (Hella Johnson), and the regional premiere of The Breath of Life (Forrest) also released on Spotify and other streaming platforms.