Composed in 1931, the Overture to The College for Scandal, Op. 5 was Samuel Barber’s first orchestral work.
Barber was finishing research on the Curtis Institute of Music, and the piece served as a commencement thesis. Two years in a while August 30, 1933, it was premiered by the Philadelphia Orchestra, carried out by Alexander Smallens. The eight-minute-long live performance overture appeared on packages throughout the nation, serving to to ascertain Barber as one of many main American composers of the twentieth century.
Listening to this daring, spirited music, we are able to hear the 21-year-old Barber flexing his compositional muscle groups. The instrumental strains erupt with youthful confidence and playful delight. With echoes of Brahms, the music celebrates and builds upon current custom somewhat than pushing boundaries. It unfolds in time-tested Sonata kind.
The College for Scandal Overture was dramatically impressed by Irish playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s 1777 satirical comedy of the identical title. With characters together with Woman Sneerwell, Woman Scandal, and Sir Oliver Floor, the play highlights the gossiping, backbiting minutiae of London aristocracy. Stuffed with shenanigans, its a number of farcical plot strains slowly converge.
Barber didn’t conceive the music as a literal curtain raiser, however somewhat “as a musical reflection of the play’s spirit.” Sheridan’s buffoonish characters offered the spark for a brand new set of zany instrumental “characters.” Leonard Bernstein should have had this music in thoughts when he wrote his Candide Overture.
The mayhem is unleashed with a helter-skelter fanfare flourish through which E-flat minor collides with D main. The primary theme is a witty and frenetic dialog of imitative counterpoint. The second theme, first launched by the oboe, is full of autumnal nostalgia. Within the coda, the primary theme erupts right into a sparking fugue. Within the opening bars, a sneaky falling half step (E-flat, D) units the journey in movement. The Overture ends with the identical motif, now a brash concluding assertion by your entire orchestra.
This recording options Yoel Levi and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra:
Recordings
- Barber: Overture to “The College for Scandal”, Op. 5, Yoel Levi, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Amazon
Featured Picture: “New York, circa 1950,” Charles Cundall
