Many of us are passionate about our craft, but musicians are some of the luckiest people because they are entirely enchanted by their noble pursuit. The members of the Narragansett Bay Symphony Community Orchestra have chosen a field that evokes much pleasure, which they would like to share with you, their audience. The community-based orchestra is excited to perform “French Impression” on March 8 at 3 p.m. at the Dwares JCC.
Gail Agronick, a founding and board member of the orchestra, has played the violin since she was in the fourth grade, growing up in the Rhode Island Philharmonic Youth Orchestras. She says, “I really enjoy our performances at the JCC because our family spent a lot of time there as members of The Friday School. … It is quite rewarding to play in the same space that my husband, girls and I celebrated many Shabbats.”
Amy Goldstein, also a founding and board member – along with her husband Bruce Goldstein – plays the flute. She met her husband in the orchestra at Brown. Goldstein admits, “Playing in an orchestra again with him is very nostalgic.”
Saul Woythaler is a bassoon player and a board member. A retired principal electrical engineer, he’s also a co-president of Touro Synagogue in Newport. Woythaler has been involved in music since the 6th grade; he says that it is his passion. “NaBSco provides [the opportunity to make music] to a unique group of skilled, dedicated, high-level amateur musicians who wish to continue to perform and learn.”
In 2014, NaBSco (previously known as the Rhode Island Philharmonic Community Orchestra) became a nonprofit 501c(3) group. Their move toward independence began when they formed a board, codified bylaws and found a new conductor and music director, Benjamin Vickers. Woythaler considers the organization to be fortunate to have Vickers as its leader. He says, “Ben is a skilled conductor who has the ability to extract the best from our group, making the whole greater than the sum of the parts.”
Vickers took the time to respond to some questions about the pieces they will play, including “Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun” by Claude Debussy, “Noble and Sentimental Waltzes” by Maurice Ravel and “Symphony in D Minor” by César Franck. Here are some of his replies.
Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun:
In your opinion, does Claude Debussy do justice to Stéphane Mallarmé’s poem?
I do. Reading and experiencing the poem creates a remarkably similar psychological impression as being with the music does.
What evidence of symbolism do you see in the musical piece? How did the movement influence Debussy’s composition?
The symbolist movement’s dream-like and bizarre imagery is reflected in the music – even not knowing that the piece is about a faun chasing nymphs and his feelings and desires for them on an oppressively hot afternoon, one can get a great deal of that from the music. … The flute solo comes from nothing, just as one’s awareness comes gradually from darkness after waking – the piece and the poem both continue in this quasi-waking state, and one feels the free flowing of thoughts and images without particularly attaching any significance to them, just as when one is in that state.
Debussy was known for his defiance of the norm during his student days. Did he reject the rules in his creation of the Prelude as well?
In the Prelude, he’s not rejecting rules for its own sake certainly; I think it is more that this piece has its own rules, which it actually follows pretty strictly. Its apparently very free and effortless existence is a result of careful construction. The piece is really spun out from a few very short, simple ideas – most of which derive in some way or other from the very opening flute solo.
Why do you think Debussy chose the flute to represent the faun?
I think it is a natural choice, because of the poem’s opening lines. … The completely unaccompanied flute solo at the Prelude’s beginning is a quiet and gentle revolution as well – nothing quite like it had been done in symphonic music. Pierre Boulez wrote that this flute solo breathed life into modern music, awakening it.
Does the omission of brass and percussion from the piece work in its favor?
Well, there are horns, blended and used like woodwind instruments though. And at the end there are “antique cymbals” which we would call crotales. However, the omission of the other brasses and percussion absolutely works in favor of all that the piece is. That too is a quiet revolution of sorts; in 1894 late romantic, huge orchestras were rather the norm and expression on the grandest scale as well. Debussy really elevated the importance of instrumental color and timbre as an element of composition in the Prelude. The prominent roles played by the wind instruments and their careful combinations and blend create the piece’s famous atmosphere.
Noble and Sentimental Waltzes, Ravel:
How is Ravel’s impressionist style different from that of Debussy?
To me they are very, very unlike. … Ravel was a complete classicist. He valued formal clarity and precision in all details. His scores have the meticulous touch of the gears in a Swiss watch. … In a sense, Debussy and Ravel share a great attachment to the importance of orchestral color and timbre as a primary feature in their works. I virtually don’t consider Ravel an Impressionist, but that is a little extreme point of view.
What challenges do you face when performing the Waltzes?
Like all Ravel’s music, they are very difficult to play. They demand virtuoso techniques of all the players – woodwind and brass challenges of balance, blend, finger work and rapid articulation – lots of percussion, which is great for us, and string techniques which divide the sections, who normally play one line all together or sometimes divide between two, into several more groups playing different music at once. The strings also have rapid changes in bowing style called for, and both natural and artificial harmonics very frequently. … We hope that a listener won’t be preoccupied with these difficulties because Ravel’s orchestration is so precisely calculated that it should sound like the most brilliant and lyrical set of waltzes you could imagine Ravel writing – with, of course, his ironic touches.
Symphony in D Minor, Franck:
Does the influence of Wagner and Liszt enhance Franck’s composition or hinder it, considering the difference between the French cyclic and the German romantic forms?
In an altogether different way, the Franck and Debussy have a great deal in common. This is not very evident on the surface, and in fact, the Franck reveals this connection quickly, with a little study or even just a few hearings. What the ‘this’ is, is motivic derivation. In the Debussy, it is not simple to find or to hear the connections between the whole and the part from which the whole is derived, namely the opening flute solo. That is because the derivation is all very much in the background, in the very slow moving structures and harmonic relationships that require searching out – but, they are there.
The piece is very Wagnerian. The pace at which it unfolds and develops is very similar and influenced by Wagner’s music dramas. Wagner and Liszt were both very interested in creating psychological meaning through taking a theme or a motive and developing it into recognizable, although distinct, forms.
Franck’s distinct fingerprint is in evidence strongly in several ways. The ease with which he develops his motives in mostly traditional, functional harmonic situations, and yet manages to go to very remotely related harmonic situations while doing so, is amazing. Franck was one of the great organists of his time, and the sound of the organ, its voicing, characteristically abrupt changes in registration and massive resonant sound are all in the symphony.
It was actually Franck who devised the novel three-movement form that the symphony uses, based on its particular sense of musical balance. The first movement is a significantly modified, but recognizable sonata form. The last movement is a conventional enough rondo-esque finale with the episodes one would expect – here, incidentally and naturally, is where the ‘cyclicism’ shows up. The slow movement and scherzo are where the formal modification is – the two are fused into one; an A-B-A form based on the same musical materials (the gorgeous, famous English horn solo), with the A’s being the slow movement and the B being the scherzo.
What made you choose this musical piece, in view of how rarely it’s performed lately?
I have always loved the Franck Symphony and wanted to work on it and perform it. It used to be performed very frequently and to be very popular, but it is not often performed anymore. I think it is a difficult piece to play well and to pace correctly.
If all of its interconnections are not clearly brought out, it has the potential to become a not-good performance, and not to strike a listener as a profound journey of the spirit. It has a great finale, a massively impressive first movement, and one of the most touching, nostalgic and songful slow movements there are in the repertoire. You can actually leave the hall humming the English horn tune.
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