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FIRE: LIGHT & LEGEND

Program Information

Artist Bios

Program Notes

Program Information

Friday, January 20, 2012, at 8 pm | Richardson Auditorium in Princeton

Saturday, January 21, 2012, at 8 pm | NJPAC in Newark

Sunday, January 22, 2012, at 3 pm | State Theatre in New Brunswick

NEW JERSEY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

JACQUES LACOMBE conductor

ANSSI KARTTUNEN cello

ANDRÉ DE SHIELDS Zeus
CLAYBOURNE ELDER Prometheus

FRANCESCA HARPER PROJECT

FRANCESCA HARPER choreographer

MURRAY HORWITZ librettist
ARC3DESIGN lighting

AL CRAWFORD designer

HAYDN Symphony No. 59 in A Major, “Fire”

Presto

Andante o più tosto allegretto

Menuetto

Allegro assai

SAARIAHO Notes on Light

“Translucent, secret”

“On Fire”

“Awakening”

“Eclipse”

“Heart of light”

ANSSI KARTTUNEN cello

~INTERMISSION~

BEETHOVEN The Creatures of Prometheus, Op. 43

Overture

Introduction: Allegro non troppo

No. 1: Poco adagio

No. 2: Adagio

No. 5: Adagio

No. 9: Adagio

No. 10: Pastorale

No. 14: Andante

No. 16: Finale; Allegretto

FRANCESCA HARPER choreographer

The following text has been provided by Murray Horwitz:

The Creatures of Prometheus
The Story of the Ballet
In speech and dance, Prometheus notes the lowly state of humankind and resolves to lift them up and inspire them—despite Zeus’ warnings. He awakens the humans, kindling love between Eon and Linus. The goddess Athena enters and takes an interest in the proceedings.

To spark the lovers’ desires, Prometheus invokes the Muses of Drama, Dance and Music to instruct them in the arts, incurring the displeasure of Zeus (who appears in both male and female forms). Athena, attended by a minion, seeks to help Prometheus in his effort. Forbidden by Zeus from giving humanity the gift of celestial fire, Prometheus calls upon his ally Athena and joins Eon, Linus and the other mortals in a celebration of human possibility. The Muse of Drama inspires them all, and they delight in their own amusement. Prometheus decides that humankind is ready and gives Eon and Linus the fire from Olympus—plunging all of humanity into chaos.

Zeus condemns Prometheus to be bound to a rock for his transgression and, again in both male and female form, expresses his rage. Eon and Linus are oblivious to the tragedy. They dance delightedly, diverted by the arts they’ve learned, ignoring their fellows’ sufferings. Eon and Linus finally try to save Prometheus, who looks down from his rock at the humans’ progress and setbacks (as Athena’s minion seeks to embolden them). The human struggle will go on eternally, and Zeus laughs.

Artist Bios

JACQUES LACOMBE conductor

New Jersey Symphony Orchestra Music Director Jacques Lacombe is renowned as a remarkable conductor whose artistic integrity and rapport with orchestras have propelled him to international stature.

Principal Guest Conductor of the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal from 2002 to 2006, he led the orchestra in more than 100 performances. He served for three years as Music Director of both orchestra and opera with the Philharmonie de Lorraine in France; he has been Music Director of the Orchestre Symphonique de Trois-Rivières since 2006.

Lacombe’s engagements for the 2011–12 season include his debut with the Orquesta Filarmonica de Malaga in Spain, return engagements with the Vancouver Opera in Roméo et Juliette and with the Deutsche Oper in Un Ballo in Maschera, as well as two rarely performed operas: Felix von Weingartner’s Die Dorfschule and Carl Orff’s Gisei – Das Opfer. Lacombe will make his Carnegie Hall debut as part of the May 2012 Spring for Music Festival with the NJSO.

Highlights of the 2010–11 season included the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra’s opening gala with Joshua Bell, season-opening concerts with the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal and return engagements with the Opera Company of Philadelphia for Roméo et Juliette, Deutsche Oper Berlin for Ariadne auf Naxos and Vancouver Opera for La traviata and the world premiere of John Estacio’s Lillian Alling. He led Le Cid starring Roberto Alagna and Béatrice Uria-Monzon at l’Opéra de Marseille, broadcast throughout Europe on Mezzo TV, and saw the release of a critically acclaimed NJSO CD, featuring Janáček’s Suite from The Cunning Little Vixen and Orff’s Carmina Burana.

In recent seasons, Lacombe made his debut with the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden and at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich. He led Turandot and Les Contes d’Hoffmann for Opéra de Monte-Carlo and Der fliegende Holländer, Eugene Onegin, Zemlinsky’s Der Traumgörge and concert performances of Waltershausen’s rarely heard Oberst Chabert at the Deutsche Oper Berlin. Oberst Chabert was released as a live CD by CPO in 2011. He has also led operatic productions at the Metropolitan Opera and Teatro Regio in Turin, given the world premiere of Vladimir Cosma’s Marius et Fanny at l’Opéra de Marseille and worked abroad with orchestras in Nice, Toulouse and Halle, as well as with the Orchestre Lamoureux in Paris, Slovakia Philharmonic, Budapest Symphony, Royal Flemish Philharmonic, Victoria Orchestra Melbourne and New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.

Born in Cap-de-la-Madeleine, Québec, Lacombe received his musical training at the Conservatoire de Musique de Montréal and at the Hochschule für Musik in Vienna.

ANSSI KARTTUNEN cello

Finnish cellist Anssi Karttunen is one of the most reputable and versatile musicians on today’s classical music scene. Exceedingly active both as a soloist and chamber musician, his repertoire covers all of the standard works for cello, as well as myriad forgotten masterpieces and his own arrangements. He plays on modern, classical and baroque cellos, as well as the violoncello piccolo.

Karttunen is a passionate advocate for contemporary music. He has performed more than 125 world premieres, collaborating with such composers as Magnus Lindeberg, Kaija Saariaho, Rolf Wallin, Luca Francesconi and Tan Dun; 24 concertos have been written for him. He premiered Lindberg’s cello concerto with the Orchestre de Paris, Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Mania with Avanti!, Martin Matalon’s cello concerto with the Orchestre National de France and Francesconi’s Rest with the RAI Torino. On commission from the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Saariaho wrote the concerto Notes on Light for Karttunen, which he premiered in 2007 and has performed with multiple orchestras.

This season, he performs Notes on Light at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden to Wayne McGregor’s acclaimed choreography and gives a master class at Carnegie Hall with Saariaho. He appears with the Orchestre National de France and Concertgebouw Orkest. His Zebra Trio performs concerts worldwide.

Karttunen has worked with orchestras such as the Philadelphia, Philharmonia, NHK, Tokyo Metropolitan and Residentie Orchestras; Tokyo, Munich, Rotterdam, Luxembourg, Oslo and Helsinki Philharmonics; BBC Symphony; Southwest German Radio Symphony Orchestra; Ensemble Modern; Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona and Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra. He performs regularly as a soloist or chamber musician at Europe’s most important music festivals.

His recordings traverse a broad spectrum of music, from Beethoven’s complete works for cello and piano played on period instruments to 20th-century solo pieces to concertos performed with the London Sinfonietta and the Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestra. With Deutsche Grammophon, he released a DVD of Tan Dun’s The Map for cello, video and Orchestra. He also appeared on the first contemporary music CD-ROM, “Prisma,” featuring the music of Saariaho.

Karttunen has been artistic director of the Avanti! Chamber Orchestra; he directed the Helsinki Biennale in 1995 and the Suvisoitto Festival in Porvoo, Finland, from 1994 until 1997. From 1999 until 2005, he was principal cellist of the London Sinfonietta. He has also appeared as a conductor with various ensembles.

FRANCESCA HARPER choreographer

Francesca Harper blends original choreography, dance, music and film to create category-defying, groundbreaking works. The New York City native studied at The Ailey School, School of American Ballet and Joffrey Ballet School. After performing with the Dance Theater of Harlem, she danced as a principal in William Forsythe’s Ballet Frankfurt from 1994–99. Harper has performed in Broadway productions including Fosse, The Producers, The Frogs and The Color Purple. She played the role of Helene opposite Molly Ringwald in a national tour of Sweet Charity. A singer and lyricist, Harper has released her debut album, “Modo Fusion,” a blend of soul-inspired R&B and electronica. She was a ballet consultant for the feature film, Black Swan starring Natalie Portman, who went on to win an Oscar for her work.

Harper has choreographed works for the Holland Dance Festival, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Ailey II, Dallas Black Dance Theater, Oakland Ballet, Hubbard Street II, Tanz Graz and her own company, The Francesca Harper Project, which features classical dance forms deconstructed and fused with cutting-edge text, music, film and video. She premiered her critically acclaimed one-woman show The Fragile Stone Theory at the 2002 Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival. Judith Jamison performed Harper’s Documotion: ONE-Rave at the 50th Anniversary of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center at the Apollo Theater.

The Francesca Harper Project has been featured at The Ailey Citigroup Theater, 92nd St. Y Harkness Dance Festival, Solstice: Dancing at the Crossroads in Times Square, Apollo Theater, Bloomberg Culture Series, Central Park Summerstage and Venice Biennale, among others.

ANDRÉ DE SHIELDS Zeus

In a career spanning more than 40 years, André De Shields has distinguished himself as an unparalleled actor, director and educator. De Shields is the recipient of the 2009 National Black Theatre Festival’s Living Legend Award and the 2007 Village Voice OBIE Award for Sustained Excellence of Performance. He has garnered eight AUDELCO Awards for Outstanding Performance, Direction and Choreography. The Baltimore native is best known for his show-stopping performances in four legendary Broadway musicals—The Full Monty (Tony Nomination), Play On! (Tony Nomination), Ain’t Misbehavin’ (Emmy Award) and The Wiz (Title Role). He is renowned for five acclaimed collaborations with The Classical Theatre of Harlem—Derek Walcott’s Dream on Monkey Mountain, Langston Hughes’ Black Nativity, Caligula, King Lear and Archbishop Supreme Tartuffe. His next project is the Goodman Theatre’s production of Tennessee Williams’ Cámino Réal, directed by Calixto Bieito.

These are De Shields’ debut performances with the NJSO.

CLAYBOURNE ELDER Prometheus

Claybourne Elder recently starred on Broadway as Buck in Bonnie and Clyde; he originated the role at La Jolla Playhouse and Asolo Repertory Theatre. He starred to rave reviews as Ollie in Moisés Kaufman’s acclaimed adaptation of Tennessee Williams’ One Arm for The New Group and Tectonic Theater Project. He made his New York debut in the world premiere of Sondheim’s Road Show, originating the role of Hollis Bessemer; he appears on the original cast recording. Elder was featured in “Sondheim—The Birthday Concert” at City Center and at Lincoln Center. He originated the role of Charles Lindbergh in the U.S. premiere of Maltby and Shire’s Take Flight. Recent credits include roles as Wolf/Cinderella’s Prince in Moises Kaufman’s revival of Into the Woods, Cliff in Cabaret with Kansas City Repertory Theatre, Aaron Fox in Curtains with Music Theatre of Wichita and workshops of the new musical Venice at the Public Theatre.

These are Elder’s debut performances with the NJSO.

Program Notes (download a PDF here)

FIRST NORTH AMERICAN SERIAL RIGHTS ONLY

Our Winter Festival concludes with a spectacular array of music from three different centuries, representing fire, light and legend. The element of fire plays a role in all three works. Music Director Jacques Lacombe opens with Haydn’s Symphony No. 59, subtitled “Fire.” “I love conducting Haydn!” he declares. “It always amazes me how fresh and new his music sounds. From a purely musical standpoint, Haydn is always more complex than Mozart. The structure is unpredictable. Our orchestra is experienced with Haydn because of the many symphonies that Neeme Järvi conducted, which is an advantage.”

Exciting Finnish cellist Anssi Karttunen makes his NJSO debut this weekend with a work dedicated to him—Kaija Saariaho’s Notes on Light for cello and orchestra. “Saariaho is one of the most important living composers, and she has not yet been performed here,” Lacombe notes. “Karttunen is good friends with her and is a specialist in her music. He will bring wonderful insight to this important concerto.” Its second movement, “On fire,” refers to the heated exchange between cello and orchestra.

Finally, we turn to legend, specifically the Greek legend of Prometheus, who stole fire from Zeus and gave it to mankind—which brings us back to fire in a neat circle. Beethoven’s incidental music to The Creatures of Prometheus was his only significant ballet score. These performances honor those origins in a collaboration with dancers. A narrator assists in refreshing our knowledge of Greek mythology.

Symphony No. 59 in A Major, “Fire”

Franz Joseph Haydn

Born March 31, 1732 in Rohrau, Austria

Died May 31, 1809 in Vienna

Haydn’s six “Paris” and 12 “London” symphonies show up on orchestral programs more than all the rest of his symphonies combined. His 80-plus other works in the genre are filled with glorious music that is well worth discovering. Lacombe has chosen the 59th, in part because of its subtitle (which actually comes from a play).

Prince Nikolaus Eszterházy, Haydn’s employer from 1762 to 1790, was keenly interested in all the arts. During the 1770s, he employed a resident theatre troupe during the summers. For five years, the celebrated Russian actor and director Carl Wahr oversaw theatrical presentations at Eszterháza, the prince’s summer palace. In 1774, Wahr produced The Conflagration by Gustav Friedrich Wilhelm Grossmann. For its entr’actes, the Prince’s resident orchestra played music from an A major symphony that Haydn had composed several years earlier. That work became known as the “Fire” Symphony.

The symphony falls into a group of works from the late 1760s and early 1770s described as Haydn’s Sturm und Drang symphonies. The term, which means “storm and stress,” refers to a movement in German romantic literature in the 1770s that emphasized the powerful, even exaggerated, expression of emotion. Goethe and Schiller are associated with the movement, which takes its name from the title of a 1776 drama by Friedrich Maximilian von Klinger.

HAYDN AND THE STURM UND DRANG MOVEMENT

Sturm und Drang (“Storm and Stress”) is a literary movement that originated in Germany in the 1770s. Music experienced its own Sturm und Drang at the same time in Austria, but the two phenomena appear to have been simultaneous and unrelated developments. In Haydn’s music, Sturm und Drang manifested itself as a series of works in minor keys that relied on various methods to create a strong effect: chromatic harmonies, spare textures, dramatic gestures. Isolated in the Esterházy court, Haydn was most likely unaware of the German Sturm und Drang movement, much less affected by it. That likelihood does not lessen the emotional impact of his unusual symphonies from this period. In his case, the so-called Sturm und Drang works (which also include his six Op. 20 string quartets) date principally from the late 1760s to the early 1770s.

The Symphony No. 44, called “Mourning,” is one of seven symphonies in minor keys that Haydn wrote in seven years, an unusually high number. It is a superb example of his stormy, darker side. Others that fall into this category are the Symphony No. 26 in D Minor, “Lamentatione;” Symphony No. 45 in F-sharp Minor, “Farewell,” and the Symphony No. 49 in F Minor, “La Passione.” Surprisingly, at least three works in major mode also qualify as Sturm und Drang: the Symphony No. 58 in F Major, Symphony No. 65 in A Major and the symphony on this weekend’s program, No. 59 in A Major, “Fire.”

Scholars and critics have paid disproportionate attention to Haydn’s Sturm und Drang works in minor keys. Major mode does not preclude the sudden dynamic changes, instrumental experimentation and inherent drama that characterize these works. The “Fire” Symphony has many of the same qualities that distinguish its symphonic siblings: tremolando, rapidly repeated notes, dramatic leaps and pregnant pauses. It makes a persuasive case for inclusion among Haydn’s most celebrated early symphonies.

Chronology is difficult to pinpoint for Haydn’s early symphonies, but this one almost certainly dates from 1767 or 1768. The opening movement is fiery indeed, with aggressive repeated notes in the strings and a strong rhythmic profile. Sudden switches between piano and forte suggest the irregularity of flickering flames.

Haydn concentrates on the strings in the slow movement, a sedate minuet in A minor. His third movement is a conventional minuet, lighter in mood. The trio section is for strings alone. Woodwinds take center stage in the finale, with a remarkable opening for horns and oboes reminiscent of Haydn’s wind divertimenti. Their cameo solo recurs just before the close.

Haydn’s score calls for two oboes, bassoon, two horns, continuo and strings. Timing: approximately 17 minutes.

Notes on Light

Kaija Saariaho

Born October 14, 1952 in Helsinki, Finland

Currently residing in Paris, France

Finland is a small country that boasts a remarkable number of prominent composers, conductors and performers of international stature. Kaija Saariaho has become one of Finland’s most celebrated musical figures. She studied at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki with the Finnish modernist Paavo Heininen (b. 1938); her classmates and friends included composer Magnus Lindberg and conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen. The three of them were co-founders of Ears Open!, a progressive group that promoted avant-garde music.

Saariaho worked in Freiburg and Darmstadt in the late 1970s and early 1980s, eventually settling in Paris, where she was associated with the IRCAM research institute. IRCAM is a legendary center of electronic and computer-assisted technology in music. Both areas interest Saariaho, who worked with such multimedia combinations as orchestra and tape. More recently, she has explored techniques used by the French “spectralist” school, employing computer analysis to analyze sound spectra for specific notes.

Notes on Light is exclusively acoustic. No electronica is involved, but Saariaho asks for extended techniques from many members of the orchestra, particularly the strings, as well as the soloist. These include “bent” pitches; extensive glissandi; bowing on, near or behind the bridge; rapid alternation between normal and harmonic sounds and increasing bow pressure to achieve a scratchy tone.

Saariaho is known for manipulating dense blocks of sound in shifting patterns with an emphasis on orchestral color. Her five-movement concerto initially looks like an arch form, but its quasi-programmatic movement titles are more akin to a journey that explores the relationship between cello and orchestra.

Glissandi and sliding pitches—those “between” the conventional 12 pitches of the piano keyboard—dominate “Translucent, secret.” Divided strings, flutes and harp join the soloist in establishing the mood: static, with a bit of tense uncertainty.

“On Fire” is the sole fast movement of the five. Nervous and flickering throughout, it is as agitated as the first movement was static. The soloist has extended moto perpetuo passages in dialogue with the orchestra. “Awakening” is both the longest movement and the emotional heart of the work. Marked “sweet, languid,” it is a virtuoso exercise in extended techniques and otherworldly sounds.

“Eclipse” refers, in part, to the silencing of the soloist. He plays only three times: two gestures in a signature semitone slide near the front, and a resurgent, intense C-sharp at the end. That single note, in a dramatic crescendo, moves without pause to the finale, “Heart of light,” a culmination of everything that has preceded.

On the last page of the score Saariaho includes a quotation from T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land: “I could not speak, and my eyes failed, I was neither living nor dead, and I knew nothing, looking into the heart of light, the silence.”

KAIJA SAARIAHO’S NOTES ON LIGHT, IN THE SOLOIST’S WORDS

This weekend’s soloist, cellist Anssi Karttunen, is the dedicatee of Notes on Light. He played the premiere performances with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in February 2007, with Jukka-Pekka Saraste conducting. Since then, Karttunen, who is a close personal friend of Saariaho, has made Notes on Light one of his signature solo works. He has written the following note for the piece:

At first sight, Notes on Light with its five movements might not seem like the average cello concerto. With a closer look, however, one finds the elements that at least I like to think make a great concerto:

1. The relation of soloist and orchestra goes through many very different situations.
2. The soloist is given a chance to show many sides of his personality.
3. When the soloist has important things to say, the orchestra gives it space and, on the other hand, the orchestra gets its moments to lift the music up into exuberant colours, often in surprising ways. The solo cello is not only the hero of Notes on Light, it also has to fight for its rights, lead, collaborate with and sometimes submit to the orchestra. All this makes Notes on Light a rich voyage that could well lead us into the very heart of light.

I see two intervals of a semitone as important mottos of the piece: The first is a slide down from F sharp to F natural, which starts the piece and to which one returns from different paths along the Concerto. The second is a rising semitone from C sharp to D natural, which often interrupts the action changing the atmosphere. These two motives seem to be even stronger landmarks than any traditional melodic element. In the last movement the single note of F sharp proves to be the center of the whole work. In fact, Saariaho seems to have invented a kind of melody that doesn’t so much sketch a contour of notes as a contour of colour.

Through the voice of the cello, the first movement introduces the secret world of the piece, translucently coloured by small ensembles within the orchestra. The second movement opposes the soloist and the orchestra in a fiery dialogue. The music is energetic and obsessive, the soloist refusing to speak at the same time with the orchestra. The third movement finally awakens both into large, colourful gestures.

In the fourth movement, the soloist offers his C sharp-to-D motive twice, but both times the orchestra eclipses him gently with dark, slowly moving shadows of sound. With the third try, he finally drives the shadows away and leads us to the fifth movement, embarking on a voyage towards light. Finally, the F sharp appears as the note that could be the heart of light, it seems to draw all the music to itself, finally lifting the cello high up to the spheres of absolute brightness … or total darkness.

– Anssi Karttunen, Paris, 2008

FINNISH MUSIC

In January 2000, The New York Times Magazine published an article by Geoffrey Wheatcroft, “Finland’s Forte: How a Small Scandinavian Country Conquered the World of Classical Music.” In the 11 years since then, an abundance of important Finnish musicians have assumed commanding roles in world musical culture. Some are performers, like violinist Pekka Kuusisto, soprano Karita Mattila, mezzo-soprano Monica Groop, bassist Matti Salminen and pianist/conductor Olli Mustonen. Others are composers with names that once sounded exotic and are now becoming mainstream: Kalevi Aho, Magnus Lindberg, Einojuhani Rautavaara, Saariaho and Aulis Sallinen. Another group of Finns has developed into major conductors: Paavo Berglund, Osmo Vänskä, Mikko Franck, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Esa-Pekka Salonen and Leif Segerstam (Salonen and Segerstam conduct and compose).

Plenty more vibrant young talent is coming up through the ranks. Finland is reaping the benefits of a state system that fosters active participation in the arts. Beginning in the 1960s, the government sponsored state grants to support composers and performing artists. During the next 20 years, dozens of music schools, orchestras, music libraries and festivals were established. The venerable Sibelius Academy, Finland’s most prestigious conservatory, has a conductor training program that is among the world’s finest.

The real success of the national program stems from its grassroots presence in elementary and secondary schools. Music is an integral part of Finnish education, which means that the country’s young people grow up familiar with music and expecting it as a normal and desirable part of everyday life. As a result, performances in Finland—whether choral music or opera, chamber music, solo recital or orchestra—are well attended by appreciative, well-educated audiences.

So great is the demand that Finland, a country of about five million people, now boasts some 50 music festivals. A strong sense of national pride ensures performances of new music by Finnish composers, and the world has noticed.

The score calls for four flutes (third and fourth doubling piccolo and alto flute), two oboes, two clarinets, bass clarinet, bassoon, contrabassoon, four horns, timpani, a large percussion battery, harp, celeste, piano, solo cello and strings. Timing: approximately 28 minutes.

Overture and Selections from The Creatures of Prometheus, Op. 43

Ludwig van Beethoven

Born December 16, 1770 in Bonn, Germany

Died March 26, 1827 in Vienna, Austria

In 1800, the Italian dancer and choreographer Salvatore Viganò was the most influential ballet master active at the Viennese imperial court. When Viganò approached Beethoven about collaborating on a ballet, the then-30-year-old composer eagerly accepted the assignment, correctly guessing that the project would do much to further his reputation. The resulting work, The Creatures of Prometheus, was his only mature ballet score.

In Viganò’s scenario, the Greek demigod Prometheus brings two clay statues to life, using fire from the heavens. Upon discovering that they lack emotions, he leads them to Parnassus. There, the Muses, Apollo and Bacchus educate them in the arts so that they may experience the passion of human life through the power of harmony.

The Creatures of Prometheus became quite popular, enjoying nearly 30 performances in its first two years. Today, it is known primarily for its first and final movements. The overture is the earliest of Beethoven’s concert overtures to remain in the repertoire. It is a symphonic sonata-form movement, drawing heavily on the models of both Haydn and Mozart. The slow introduction calls to mind Beethoven’s First Symphony (also in C), but the Allegro molto con brio is more self-assured and aggressive than that of the symphony. Beethoven’s overture relies heavily on its principal theme for both development and coda, and it boasts some imaginative orchestration.

Several of the succeeding movements were solos for Viganò in the original ballet; for these performances, Lacombe has chosen selections that feature individual orchestra musicians, including harp, cello, oboe and basset horn. The Pastorale is a lovely little confection in C major that highlights the woodwinds, with another major solo for oboe, a lilting duet between horn and bassoon and engaging commentary from the flutes and the rest of the ensemble. The finale is based on two of Beethoven’s contredanses. The first of them is the same theme he used in the “Eroica” Symphony and in the Piano Variations, Op. 35. In this earlier incarnation, the famous tune has less dramatic weight, but more unselfconscious charm.

Beethoven’s score calls for two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, basset horn, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, timpani, harp and strings. Timing: approximately 36 minutes.