University Orchestra

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Edvard Grieg
Lyric Suite, op. 54
Born June 15, 1843, Bergen, Norway 
Died September 4, 1907, Bergen, Norway 
Composed 1891/1904 
Duration 20 minutes

Edvard Grieg was a Norwegian composer and pianist. Widely considered to be one of the leading Romantic era composers, he is best known — apart from his vigorous piano concerto — for his character pieces and incidental music such as that which accompanied Henrik Ibsen’s play Peer Gynt. His Lyric Suite is an orchestration of four of the six piano pieces from Lyric Pieces, Book V for piano. The complete collection is 66 short pieces for solo piano. While largely intended for pedagogical purposes, the character pieces are quite unique and appealing and reveal Grieg’s Norwegian heritage. The suite was originally orchestrated by the Austro-Hungarian composer Anton Siedl, and later revised by Grieg. Siedl was the conductor of the New York Philharmonic at the time, and he titled the piece Norwegian Suite. Each of the four movements contains a descriptive title that conveys the sensibility of the piece. They are “Shepherd Boy,” “Norwegian March,” “Notturno,” and “March of the Dwarfs,” which is sometimes translated as “March of the Trolls.” Norwegian folklore includes many stories of trolls, who often serve as a “boogie man” to frighten children away from dangerous or otherwise undesirable activities. Norway’s landscape with dark forests, high mountains, and deep fjords provides ample space for trolls to hide.  
 

– Penny Brandt

Modest Mussorgsky
Pictures at at Exhibition
Born March 21, 1839, Karevo, Russia
Died March 28, 1881, Saint Petersburg, Russia
Composed June 1874
Published 1886
Duration 35 minutes

Modest Mussorgsky met the architect and painter Viktor Hartmann in 1866 through their mutual friend, the critic Vladimir Stasov. The two became fast friends and mutual admirers of the other’s art, with Mussorgsky dedicating a song to Hartmann, and Hartmann gifting the composer two paintings. In 1973, the 34 year-old Hartmann died suddenly of an aneurysm, leaving an entire community of Russian artists to grieve the loss, including Mussorgsky. Six months later, Stasov organized a memorial exhibition of over 400 Hartmann works in the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg. Mussorgsky visited the exhibit (which included the two paintings from his own collection), and was struck with a rare moment of compositional clarity. The untrained composer who was often plagued with self-doubt and self-sabotaging behaviors, worked feverishly on a new work based on the exhibit. He wrote to Vladimir Stasov saying: “Ideas, melodies, come to me of their own accord. Like roast pigeons in the story, I gorge and gorge and overeat myself. I can hardly manage to put it all down on paper fast enough.” 

What resulted was a musical walking tour through the Hartmann exhibit, which Mussogsky was wildly pleased with, and which his colleagues could not understand. As Golenishchev-Kutuzo recounted: “In music for these illustrations, as Mussorgsky called them, he represented [chicks], children, Baba Yaga in her wooden house on chicken legs, catacombs, gates, and even rattling carts. All this was not done jokingly, but 'seriously.' There was no end to the enthusiasm shown by his devotees; but many of Mussorgsky's friends, on the other hand, and especially the comrade composers, were seriously puzzled and, listening to the 'novelty,' shook their heads in bewilderment.” Originally conceived as a virtuosic work for solo piano, the work wasn’t published until years after his death, and is now most-often heard in its posthumous orchestrations and transcriptions for orchestras and wind bands.

The iconic opening Promenade, with its asymmetry and modal meanderings, gives the impression of Mussorgsky “roving through the exhibition, now leisurely, now briskly in order to come close to a picture that had attracted his attention, and at times sadly, thinking of his departed friend.” It is reprised several times, in unique iterations as he explores the gallery. 

Gnomus: according to Stasov, “a child’s plaything, fashioned, after Hartmann’s design in wood, for the Christmas tree at the Artists’ Club...It is something in the style of the fabled Nutcracker, the nuts being inserted into the gnome’s mouth. The gnome accompanies his droll movements with savage shrieks.”

Il vecchio castello (The Old Castle): an Italian castle stands isolated, and a troubadour (English horn) sings a lament.

Tulleries: a Parisian park with quarrelling kids, and doting nannies. 

Bydło (Polish Oxcart):a Polish peasant is pushing an old cart with heavy yet reliable wheels. 

Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks: ballet dancers in eggshell costumes: adorable.

Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuÿle: Mussorgsky’s two Hartmann paintings were two portraits of Jewish men. They were unnamed in the paintings, but Stasov named them Goldenberg and Schmuyle.

The Market at Limoges: the hustle and bustle as a woman explores a French city market. 

Catacombs: Mussorgsky wrote “The creative spirit of the dead Hartmann leads me towards skulls, apostrophizes them—the skulls are illuminated gently from within.”

The Hut on Chicken Legs (Baba Yaga): the witch Baba Yaga lives in a hut built on chicken legs. Like all witches, flies through the air. 

The Great Gate of Kyiv: Hartmann’s vision for new gates into the city: stone replacing wood, an imperial eagle atop, and a three story belfry. The musical depiction is grand and distinctly Russian. Although Hartmann’s renderings were never realized, their majesty is palpable. 

– Mark Bilyeu

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About the Artists

Matthew Pavon

Matthew Pavon is a conductor and violist studying for a master's in music for Orchestral Conducting under Farkhad Khudyev at the Butler School of Music. In his role as Teaching Assistant for University Orchestras, Matthew assists in conducting and administrating the University Symphony Orchestra and Co-Directs the University Orchestra. Matthew has served as the Graduate Conductor of the Missouri State University Orchestra. Upon receiving his M.M. in viola performance, he continued as the Assistant Conductor for Missouri State University from 2022 to 2023. His guest conducting appearances have included concerts with ensembles like the Kansas City Civic Orchestra, the Missouri Philharmonic, and the Drury University Orchestra. A strong believer in supporting the arts in his communities, Matthew is the founder and former artistic director of the Galloway Chamber Orchestra in Springfield, MO. He is also currently the workshop conductor for the Youth Symphony of Kansas City. Matthew lives in Austin, TX with his wife, Leianna, and their mini-Australian Shepherds, Koda and Ellie.

Chris Tran

Chris Tran is Co-Director of the University of Texas University Orchestra, Graduate Teaching Assistant for the University of Texas Orchestras, and is currently pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts in Orchestral Conducting with Farkhad Khudyev at the University of Texas at Austin. Mr. Tran has been an invited conductor at several masterclasses and workshops in Boulder, Los Angeles, Eugene, St. Andrews (Scotland), as well as the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music with Cristian Măcelaru, Thomas Sleeper, and Leonard Slatkin, and the International Conducting Workshop and Festival with the late Larry Rachleff and Donald Schleicher. He has also worked with conductors Neil Thomson, Jeff Grogan, and Sian Edwards. Mr. Tran earned a Master of Music in Orchestral Conducting from the University of Colorado Boulder with Gary Lewis, and a Bachelor of Music in Music Education from Southern Methodist University. His conducting mentors include Nicholas Carthy and Paul Phillips. He studied violin with Charles Wetherbee, former concertmaster of the Boulder Philharmonic, and Diane Kitzman, former Principal Violin of the Dallas Symphony. 

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University Orchestra

Principals

1  Grieg 
2 Mussorgsky

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