February Subscription Concert
The LCSO explores how the sounds of the natural world inspire classical music in a fun, family-centered program of symphonic music. Featuring Carnival of the Animals by Camille Saint-Saëns, Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf, and Australian composer Matthew Hindson’s Dangerous Creatures and led by Dr. Carolyn Watson, this concert will take you on a journey through the animal kingdom and beyond! An instrument AND animal petting zoo, plus special activities for children before and after the concert will make this concert an extra special event for families!
Carnival of the Animals
Camille Saint-Saëns (October 9, 1835 – December 16,1921) was a French composer, pianist, and organist known for his symphonic poems and his opera Samson et Dalila. Saint-Saëns befriended Franz Liszt early on in his career, inspiring Saint-Saëns to adapt Liszt’s style into French traditions of harmony and form. Although he was writing in the middle of the Romantic period, Saint-Saëns was more conservative in his composition, often rejecting modern works of his peers and clinging to Classical form and tonal harmonies. Despite this, his works influenced many French Impressionist composers, as well as other Romantic composers like Wagner.
Carnival of the Animals was written in 1886 while visiting a small Austrian village. The idea was created to amuse the guests at a Mardi Gras party by mimicking the sounds and personalities of various animals. However, Saint-Saëns never allowed it to be performed (except for the “Swan” movement), fearing that it might overshadow his more serious works.
Throughout the 14-part suite, Saint-Saëns uses a variety of instruments and compositional techniques to portray each animal. A few examples are the clarinet crowing “cock-a-doodle-doo”, leaping and hopping chords in the piano, donkey brays in the violins, and the rattling of bones from the xylophone.
Peter and the Wolf
Sergei Prokofiev (April 23, 1891 – March 5,1953) was a Russian composer and pianist known for the melodic nature of his work. Prokofiev studied at the St. Petersburg Conservatory and was the youngest in his class. While a student, he was known for his mature compositions and rebellious nature. In 1918, Prokofiev fled Russia to the US, where he was never very happy. He eventually moved to Paris, and then back to Russia where he lived in seclusion until his death, the same day as Josef Stalin.
Peter and the Wolf premiered in 1936 in Moscow after Prokofiev was commissioned by the Moscow Children’s Theatre to compose the piece. The story follows a boy and his animal friends capturing a wolf. To help tell the story and develop the characters, Prokofiev assigned each character an instrument or section of instruments. The bird is the flute, the cat a clarinet, duck an oboe, Peter’s grandfather is the bassoon, the wolf portrayed by the french horns, the hunters by the percussion, and Peter by the string section. The work also includes narration, which Prokofiev wrote as a simple prose narrative instead of rhyming verses to keep the focus on the music. The work was made into the animated film Peter and the Wolf by Walt Disney in 1946.
Dangerous Creatures
Matthew Hindson (September 12, 1968) is one of Australia’s most dynamic and successful composers. His invigorating soundworld is both immediate and direct, and his innate sense for drama, wit and spontaneous joie de vivre has resulted in many of his scores having a significant and ongoing international presence. As well as being performed by every Australian orchestra, the London Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Royal Philharmonic among many others, Matthew’s distinctively original music has been set by dance companies such as the Birmingham Royal Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, National Ballet of Japan, The Australian Ballet and the Queensland Ballet. He has written for soloists and ensembles all over the world.
As well as his substantial composition activities as a composer and a leading Australian composition educator, Matthew has been the Deputy Dean and Associate Dean (Education) at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, part of the University of Sydney, since 2015. In 2006 Matthew was made a member of the Order of Australia (AM) for his contributions to music education and composition. He has been appointed to substantial government arts funding and advisory roles, including with the Australia Council for the Arts and Creative NSW.
Dangerous Creatures was conceived as a contemporary Carnival of the Animals, except filled with animals that can hurt or harm us. The animals range from the enormous (Big Black Bears) to the tiny (Spiders, Army Ants, Scorpions). Each movement depicts the animals in question, and some of the movements depict pictorial interactions between humans and the animals in question: for example, waking at night to find a scorpion in one’s tent. And speaking of humans, the work concludes with the most dangerous creature of all.