My Program: J. Strauss II Perpetuum mobile – Ein musikalischer Scherz op. 257 (3 minutes)
J. Strauss II: Pizzacato Polka (4:30 minutes)
Ades: Dances from “Powder her face” (11 minutes)
Mozart: Ein musikalischer Spaß K. 522 (19 minutes)
Intermission
Poulenc: Les Biches Suite for Orchestra (20 minutes)
Saint-Saens: The Carnival of Animals (28 minutes)
The case for my program: Music can have a great deal of humor in it, and I find that many of these pieces that make me smile are some of my favorites. For some reason I’ve never heard a program committed entirely to the jolly and jovial works out there, so I decided that an evening of lighthearted laughs would be a wonderful place to begin.
The dance music of Johann Strauss II for me has always been a source of smiles. From the literally named “A Musical Joke,” to his Pizzacato Polka, his music is sure to brighten up anyone’s day. I couldn’t have a program of happy, joking music without these two pieces.
Thomas Ades writes some of today’s most humorous music when he wants to, whether it’s chamber music (Catch, Op. 4) or his first opera, Powder her Face. The three dances from that opera have been excerpted recently as an orchestral suite, and slur with drunken humor of the opera’s Countess throughout the three.
Mozart was also a well known writer of ‘joke music’. His divertimento, Ein musikalischer Spaß K. 522, plays around with everything “wrong” in a piece still delightfully Mozartian but with all the surprising touches of a modern master.
Poulenc was a noted humorist, from some dark and sexual jokes in his songs to the absurdist opera “Les Mamelles de Tiresias.” The orchestral suite from his early ballet, Les Biches, combines both that sly wit with some brilliantly beautiful writing in the later movements.
Saint-Saens’s suite “The Carnival of Animals” pokes fun at everything from his contemporaries (the quote of Orpheus in the Underworld in “The Tortise”) to the general grandeur of the lion. But still, he remains true to the less comedic animals by writing one of his more beautiful melodies for “The Swan.”
