Concert Programs and Performers
January 21, 2012 7 p.m.
ECLATANTE
Melissa Tardiff Dvorak is an active soloist and chamber
music musician in the Greater Washington DC area,
performing frequently at locations including the US Supreme
Court, US Department of State, the Kennedy Center, Myerhoff
Symphony Hall, Strathmore Music Center, US Naval Academy,
DAR Constitution Hall, the Georgetown Club, The Ritz
Carlton and other area landmarks. Her recent orchestral
appearances include Washington National Opera, National
Philharmonic, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Maryland
Symphony, Arlington Symphony, and Salisbury Symphony. She
is a founding member of the flute and harp duo Eclatante.
Melissa was the featured harpist for the 55th Presidential
Inauguration. In addition to a busy performance schedule,
Melissa maintains a private studio of about 30 harp
students. Melissa is currently serving as Mid-Atlantic
Regional Director of the American Harp Society. She holds
Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in Harp Performance
from The Peabody Conservatory of Music of the Johns Hopkins
University in Baltimore, Maryland.. She has studied with
world-renowned harpists Alice Chalifoux and Jeanne
Chalifoux, and attended the Salzedo Summer Harp Colony.
A Harp Duo
featuring Melissa Tardiff Dvorak
and Michelle Lundy
Program
Sixth French Suite JS Bach (1685-1750)
I. AllemandeII. CouranteIII. SarabandeIV. PolonaiseV. GavotteVI. MenuetVII. BoureePrelude, Fugue and Variation, Op. 20 Cesar Franck (1822-1890)
Duet on Subjects from Bizet’s Carmen John Thomas (1826-1913)
Intermission
Parvis Bernard Andres (b. 1941)
I. CortegeII. DanseAntique Dances and Airs Ottorno Respighi (1879-1936)
I. From the Ballet Count Orlando (1559) by Simone MolinaroII. Villanella by UnknownIII. Laura Soave (1581) by Fabrizio CarosoIV. Siciliana by UnknownV. Gagliarda (15??) by Vincenzo Galilei Spanish Dance No. 5 Andaluza Enrique Granados (1867-1916)
Performers
Michelle Myers Lundy is a professional harpist who performs throughout the Washington, DC area. She has performed at the Capitol, Supreme Court, National Archives, the Lyceum Museum, Strathmore Mansion and Hall, Alden Theatre and several of the Smithsonian Museums. Ms. Lundy is currently principal harpist with the McLean Orchestra and a substitute harpist with the National Philharmonic Orchestra. Ms. Lundy performs frequently as a soloist with different choruses throughout the Washington DC area including the Congressional Chorus, Thomas Circle Singers and the Choir of Holy Trinity Church.
Ms. Lundy began her musical studies in St. Louis on piano at the age of six. She spent five summers at National Music Camp in Interlochen, Michigan where she began her harp studies. She received her Bachelor in Music from Northwestern University in harp performance. While at Northwestern she was a member of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago. She continued her studies at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor where she received a Master in Music
Bernard Andres (b. 1941) is a contemporary French composer. Perhaps not widely known in the classical world, Andres is very well known among harpists. A harpist himself, Andres wrote several works for harp solo and a few collaborative works. Parvis was composed in 1974 and is in two sections, Cortege and Danse. The ever-present tuning key is used as a percussion instrument, with the harpist tapping on her tuning pins as well as using the tuning key in place of fingers to strike individual notes and to evoke metallic, forceful glissandi. The Danse movement is an energetic 7/8 moto perpetuo rhythm punctuated by quick downward glissandi played with fingernails, and numerous sections featuring the dry, percussive sound of notes being plucked close to the soundboard
One of the towering geniuses in the history of the arts, Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) produced a phenomenal amount of great music throughout his life. Wagner called him “nothing less than the most stupendous miracle in all music." Bach can evoke the full range of emotions, and crystallize them in structural forms as intricate as their spiritual content is profound. The French Suites were composed between 1722 and 1725. They consist of the traditional dances like Allemande, Courante, Menuet, Gavotte, Gigue, Sarabande as well as some less-frequently encountered dances like the Anglaise, Polonaise, Air, Bourree and Loure. These suites, not particularly 'French' in idiom, lack preludes, and are shorter and less elaborate than the Partitas and English Suites. Nevertheless, they contain some of Bach's most popular and accessible keyboard writing. As usual with Bach, parts of the suites were recycled from earlier works or sketchbooks, and they underwent several revisions after publication, like the addition of extra ornamentation. transcription is by the famed 20th century harpist, Carlos Salzedo (1885-1961).
Belgian-born César Franck’s (1822-1890) organ improvisations after church services were major public attractions, and he set some of them down in the Six Pieces he completed between 1859 and 1862. These exploited the power and colors of the organ to the fullest and did much to establish the distinctively French school of symphonic organ music. The third of the Six Pieces is the Prelude, Fugue, and Variation, Op. 18, which was dedicated to Camille Saint-Saëns, himself an organist of considerable skill. Franck’s dedications do not imply portraits, but the balance and clarity of the Prelude, Fugue, and Variation do suggest the classical orientation of Saint-Saëns. The flowing B-minor Prelude has a gentle melancholy, with three repetitions of an asymmetrical five-bar phrase. The Fugue has its own little prelude and clean textures, the polyphony by no means hard to follow. Rounding the three-part work is the Variation, basically a repeat of the Prelude with a more active accompaniment, fading to the light of B major. This transcription for 2 harps is by Dewey Owens, who after first mastering his performance techniques of the organ, didn’t learn to play the harp until he was thirty years old. When Owens told Carlos Salzedo of his interest in harp, Salzedo replied: “We haven’t a moment to waste!” He has created a large library of solo and ensemble music for the harp a virtually every level of ability.
One of the most colorful turn-of-the-century Spanish musicians, Enrique Granados (1867-1916) was one of the great pianists of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Virtually all of his music relies heavily on the Catalan and Spanish folk idiom of which, Granados was instrumental in bringing to the attention of the contemporary European musical establishment. In 1916, while returning from the USA where his opera had its New York première, and where Granados had performed at the White House for President Wilson, the liner Sussex was torpedoed by a German U-boat. Among the casualties were Granados and his wife. (Granados jumped from the relative safely of his lifeboat when he saw his wife flailing in the water.) Andaluza (also known as Playera) is the fifth and most famous of the twelve Spanish Dances that Granados composed for piano between 1882 and 1900. The exact dates of composition of the dances are unknown, but the composer said that most of them were written in 1883 when he was sixteen years old. This transcription for 2 harps is by the famed 20th century harpist, Carlos Salzedo (1885-1961).
Ottorino Respighi is one of relatively few Italian composers of the twentieth century whose orchestral works are well known in the United States. Throughout his life Respighi made arrangements of music from the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries. He was not a purist in terms of performance practice; in fact, his scores are really modern interpretations of these earlier works. One way he preserves the archaic charm of this music is by paying attention to its modality (the type of harmony used in Europe before major and minor keys became commonplace). Each set of Ancient Airs and Dances consists of four late Renaissance dances. This Suite entitled “Antique Dances and Airs” takes tunes from all 3 of the orchestral suites which were composed in 1917, 1923, and 1932. Respighi’s Siciliana is anonymous, with the familiar lilting 6/8 tempo that characterizes this 17th- and 18th-century dance of Sicilian origin. Throughout, Respighi’s settings are respectful of the originals, yet perhaps revealing just the slightest wink of his eye. This transcription for 2 harps is by Stanley Chaloupka, former first harpist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic from 1943-83.
John Thomas (1826-1913) was a Welsh composer and harpist. The bardic name Pencerdd Gwalia (Chief of the Welsh minstrels) was conferred on him at the 1861 Aberdare Eisteddfod. John Thomas started off by playing the triple harp which had three sets of strings and was very difficult to play. At the age of 14, through the influence of Ada Lovelace(Lord Byron's daughter), he was admitted to the Royal Academy of Music in London. He taught at the Royal College of Music where he eventually became professor, and at the Guildhall School of Music. He wrote many pieces for the harp that are very popular today and are used in the exam syllabus. He also wrote an opera, a symphony, and in 1872 he was appointed harpist to Queen Victoria. The opera Carmen by George Bizet (1838-1875) premiered in 1875 and was initially denounced by critics. Since then it has become one of the world’s most popular and frequently performed operas. The story is set in Seville, Spain, around 1820, and concerns the eponymous Carmen, a beautiful gypsy with a fiery temper. Free with her love, she woos the corporal Don José, an inexperienced soldier. Their relationship leads to his rejection of his former love, mutiny against his superior, and joining a gang of smugglers. His jealousy when she turns from him to the bullfighter Escamillo leads him to murder Carmen.
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Program Notes
