Start your Holiday Season with Us!
Feel the spirit embodied in the music and song of the season
3:00pm Mansfield Theater
PROGRAM NOTES
Leroy Anderson 1908 – 1975
Christmas Festival 1950
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7 MINUTES
Gustav Holst 1874 – 1934
Christmas Day 1910
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7 MINUTES
Peter Tchaikovsky 1840 – 1893
Nutcracker Suite 1892
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24 MINUTES
Émile Waldteufel 1857 – 1915
Skater's Waltz 1882
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8 MINUTES
Michael Head 1900 – 1976
The Little Road to Bethlehem 1946
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3 MINUTES
Randol Alan Bass b. 1953
A Symphony of Carols 1997
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12 MINUTES
Gary Fry b. 1955
Sing the Carols of Christmas
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6 MINUTES
Leroy Anderson 1908 – 1975
Sleigh Ride 1948
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3 MINUTES
The first time I stood in front of the Great Falls Symphony was for the 2016 holiday concert, as a Music Director candidate. For that reason (and others), the Symphony’s holiday concert has always held a special place in my heart.
Holiday programs always emphasize tradition and familiarity, reflecting many people’s desires to celebrate continuity, family, and community during this time of year.
It may be a surprise that this concert represents the first time the GFSA has performed Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite in its original orchestration since that 2016 program. (We performed a pandemic-era small ensemble version in 2020.) If ever there was a piece that needs no introduction, it’s this one, and not just because it’s so well known: When Tchaikovsky and his collaborators adapted E.T.A. Hoffman’s “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King” for ballet, they removed a huge chunk of the plot, so that the whole second act takes place after the original story has finished, with the protagonist Clara, newly crowned queen of the Land of Sweets, sitting back to watch a series of dances, much as the audience is doing. In other words, once we reach the third movement of the suite (the iconic celesta feature Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy), the drama has been (essentially) completed, and it’s all over but the dancing.
The Nutcracker’s Waltz of the Flowers is one of two seasonal waltzes to feature on this program, the other being Émile Waldteufel’s Skater’s Waltz. Born in Strasbourg on the French-German border, Waldteufel was something of a French Johann Strauss, Jr., a composer and bandleader whose activities focused on music for entertainment and dancing. Working as conductor for both the French government and the private sector in London, Waldteufel churned out literally hundreds of the waltzes and polkas popular in his day. He wrote the Skater’s Waltz, filled with graceful gliding melodies and not-so-graceful crash-landing scales, in 1882, inspired by the skating rink in Paris’s Bois de Boulogne.
Our carol collections this year come from both sides of the Atlantic. Englishman Gustav Holst, known more for noisemakers like The Planets and his suites for military band, composed his by-turns gentle and stirring Christmas Day in 1910 for the musicians at London’s Morley College where he was on faculty. While Holst employed traditional carols (“The First Nowell,” “Good Christian Men, Rejoice,” and others) for his medley, Sussex native Michael Head’s The Little Road to Bethlehem is an original composition from 1946. As lovely as they come, this modern carol tells the story of a traveler happening to pass by Mary as she sings a lullaby to the infant Jesus.
The two American composers featured on our program, Leroy Anderson and Randol Bass, have had careers which mirrored each other in various ways. Both Anderson (from Massachusetts) and Bass (from Texas) made their names composing, conducting, and arranging so-called occasional music, music meant for particular events and holidays. Both Anderson’s Christmas Festival (perhaps best known for its concluding “Jingle Bells” / “O Come, All Ye Faithful” mashup) and Sleigh Ride were composed for the Boston Pops, the orchestra with which he was most intimately connected throughout his working life. Bass’s collaborating ensembles have been relatively more eclectic, including professional orchestras, university ensembles, and choirs. Like many of his arrangements, Bass’s medley A Symphony of Carols distinguishes itself by its substantial and engaging orchestral writing.
–Program note by Grant Harville
PAM LEMELIN
Why You Shouldn't Miss It
The centerpiece of our annual holiday concert is the perennial favorite Suite from The Nutcracker. As usual, our Symphonic Choir will be with the orchestra as we surround The Nutcracker with familiar carols and seasonal delights, including our traditional guest-conducted Sleigh Ride.
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