Return of the Masters: A Musical Perspective

Guest Writer: Rick Reeves, orchestra manager

Houston Ballet Orchestra looks forward to performances of Mahler’s expansive Das Lied von der Erde, or Song of the Earth in the Return of the Masters program (Sept. 8-18). It is rare that any ballet company has the opportunity to present a musical work of this magnitude. It is written for a large orchestra which uses additional woodwinds, a second harp, a mandolin and special guest artists mezzo-soprano Susanne Mentzer and tenor Russell Thomas.

While the orchestral forces are large, there are only a few occasions when the entire group is playing at the same time. Mahler’s choice of instrumentation (the compliment of musicians) make the orchestra sound like a small chamber group or a large symphony orchestra. But the orchestral writing is not just about supporting the text of the song. Das Lied is a combination of musical forms. It’s part song cycle and part symphony. The symphonic moments act as interludes to tie the six songs together. Mahler made use of singers in several of his symphonies. Das Lied might represent the continued evolution in his compositional style;  a musical culmination of his symphonies and his songs.

Music Director Ermanno Florio conducting the Houston Ballet Orchestra photo:Geoff Winningham

Mahler, like several other composers of his day, was concerned about writing a ninth symphony. At that time it seemed that whenever a notable composer wrote his ninth symphony he died. Mahler started his tenth symphony before he finished the ninth symphony. I believe he died shortly after completing the ninth symphony and Das Lied. The first performances were given posthumously. The tenth symphony was not completed.

Susanne Mentzer is a Houston favorite having appeared with Houston Grand Opera and the Houston Symphony Orchestra, as well as most all of the other major opera venues in the world. She is a gifted musician known for her expressive singing. This will be our first opportunity to work with her. Joining Susanne is Russell Thomas. Russell has sung at the Metropolitan Opera and with the Boston Symphony as well as many other organizations. We look forward to hearing this powerful tenor with the orchestra.

On the same program is In the Night which will feature our solo pianist Katherine Burkwall-Ciscon, playing Nocturnes by Chopin. She has an in-depth knowledge of the choreography and knows how it relates to the music. Notice the video monitor on her piano. She watches the dancers as she plays so that her musical accompaniment is perfectly matched to the choreography.

Check out this video for more insight on Song of the Earth from Music Director Ermanno Florio.

Dress rehearsal footage of Stanton Welch’s Cinderella

To see more clips from dress rehearsal, please visit our YouTube page.

Rehearsals…in Technicolor!

Guest writer:  Katherine Burkwall-Ciscon, principal pianist of the Houston Ballet Orchestra

What does a pianist do during rehearsals?  Sometimes we just watch the amazing process of dancers learning and refining their movements.  Imagine having to learn the entire part of Maria from West Side Story from a recording.  No written music, no script, no paper or pencils to take notes, only the recording.  How long would it take?  This month I’ve watched the entire company learn their roles in The Merry Widow in a matter of hours—bit by bit, step by step, with no written aids, only the artistic staff and a video.  This is the third time I’ve played rehearsals for The Merry Widow, and I never grow tired of watching the characters develop, or of playing that wonderful music.  Each time I also find there is a higher level of detail I somehow missed writing into my musical score the last time! 

There are two layers of details I jot down in my music.  The first layer is the choreographic signposts that the dancers use to block out each section.  The more I know about how the choreography meshes with the music, the more common reference points I have with the dancers.  I definitely do not have a dancer’s memory, so I write the steps of the corps and each character in my music.  I’ve found that different colors are sometimes the only way to visually separate out the formations of the corps from the simultaneous actions of the principal characters.  My music is covered in colored writing!  Often, the dancers use nicknames to differentiate the sections (which I also write in the music).   Some of my favorite nicknames for The Merry Widow sequences:  “Ladies Choice”, “Pickey Dickey”, “Down the Avenue”, “Madame Butterfly”, “Explosions”, and Annette Page’s favorite: “Magic Moment.” (Annette Page is choreographer Ronald Hynd’s wife, and she joined her husband in setting The Merry Widow on the company).

The sheer number of waltz and polka themes, and their inevitable repetitions, brings out the second layer of details I need to add to the piano score.  When John Lanchbery first wrote the piano reduction of his arrangement of Franz Lehár’s music, he gave the pianists the basic black and white version of the music that he would later orchestrate in glorious Technicolor.  In the orchestration, whenever a major theme was repeated, Lanchbery used different mixes of instruments to change the color of the music, or he added counter-melodies (like the famous piccolo solo in Stars and Stripes Forever) to make the theme sound very different.   My challenge as a pianist this time around was to try to put more of those counter-melodies into my music—and then figure out how to play it all with only ten fingers!  Sometimes it just isn’t possible—the last triumphant waltz of The Merry Widow has a fantastic counter-melody in the strings that I just couldn’t squeeze in.  But then, there is the glory of listening to the orchestra play it all in the dress rehearsals! 

-Katherine