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MSU Symphony to play Mozart, Ginastera, Rachmaninoff

Professor of Music and Director of Orchestras Designate Kevin Noe. Photo: Melissa Benmark/WKAR Photo: Melissa Benmark/WKAR
Professor of Music and Director of Orchestras Designate Kevin Noe. Photo: Melissa Benmark/WKAR Photo: Melissa Benmark/WKAR

By Melissa Benmark, WKAR News

http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wkar/local-wkar-994525.mp3

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EAST LANSING, MI – WKAR'S Melissa Benmark talks with the MSU College of Music's Kevin Noe about the next MSU Symphony Orchestra concert at Wharton Center. The performance includes selected works from Ginastera and Rachmaninoff, and Mozart's Symphony No. 36.

KEVIN NOE: Well, it has a separate little subtitle to it. It's called the "Linz" symphony. And the reason it's called the "Linz" symphony is because it was premiered in Linz and it was written for that purpose.

But the great story about Mozart 36, and one that gives us all pause at his incomparable genius is that I don't remember the particulars of the story but I remember the punchline. He's traveling somewhere. He's going to arrive in Linz, where they have asked him for a symphony, but he has forgotten to bring him with him. And so he decides he will simply pen one out in the carriage on the way. And he writes this symphony in three days! Three days, it goes from, "Oops, I don't have one," to performance-ready, with parts.

Now, how any human being can do such a thing and of course, it's glorious. The symphony is just magnificent, you know. It doesn't have a rushed feel to it. "You know, Wolfgang was really slacking here, he just slapped it together." It doesn't sound like that at all. How any human could write a whole symphony in three days, riding in the back of a carriage, is absolutely beyond me.

MELISSA BENMARK: Alberto Ginastera, a composer of, I would say, unusually depthy and brilliant and difficult music And I'm going to have you say the title, here.

NOE: It's Variaciones Concertantes. The concerto variations, in a sense, for the orchestra. It's a piece that is twelve movements, and what's really interesting about it is that it features a solo for every instrument that is in the orchestra. It is a chamber orchestra, so it's a fairly small group, but it still have twelve different features. So you have a cello feature, bass feature, violin, viola, oboe, bassoon, flute, clarinet the clarinet one is infamous. Not just famous, it's infamous for its incredible difficulty. And we have trumpet and trombone, and harp as well.

All of them have their own features, and yet the piece holds together as a cohesive unit that seems like it really goes from the beginning all the way to the end as one journey. So it doesn't just sound like a set of variations. It has a really clear line that drives to the end. It's magnificent music. It's got a very soulful quality that's hard to articulate, but I've often associated with his music.

BENMARK: And then we have Minsoo Sohn, the soloist on the "Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini," Rachmaninoff. One of the best-loved Romantic pieces ever. Tell me about that, and the contrast between that and the other pieces on the program.

NOE: I suppose in the variations sense, there's, you would think there would be a link, because you've got the concerto variations of Ginastera, and then the Paganini variations. But the Ginastera variations is not based on the same tune over and over.

The famous Paganini variations, which is based on (sings), is essentially that same tune over and over. And there are 24 movements in this, each one, of course, very short. But what is amazing is Rachmaninoff's ability to just mine endless riches out of the same little simple material. I mean, when you hear Variation 2 and then 17, and then the famous one which is 18, which is (sings), for which I'm a complete sucker. Every time we get there, I just die.

You just think, this is why these people are famous, great creators of the best art, is because they can somehow pull these nuggets out of salient little bits of material that we don't see. We think, (sings), okay fine. They don't see it that way. They think, oh, well, if I flip it upside down, I can do this. Oh, and if I make it longer I can do this. Well, if I harmonize it this way, I can do this. Or if I just gave it to this instrument it would sound different. And they, they're geniuses, you know?

And see, I just point at stuff. I'm just a conductor. I just point and complain, you know. If I was really talented, I would actually compose, but you know. We all bow down to people like Rachmaninoff, Ginastera, and Mozart. That's for sure.

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