COSUSS Winter 2026 program
Conductor: Olin Hannum
Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity from The Planets Gustav Holst (1874–1934)
Ma mère l’Oye (Mother Goose) Suite Maurice Ravel (1875–1937)
III. Laideronnette, Impératrice des pagodes
(Laideronnette, Empress of the Pagodas)
V. Le Jardin féerique (The Enchanted Garden)
Ballade for Piano and Orchestra Germaine Tailleferre (1892–1983)
Modéré
Assez lent
Mouvement de valse
Lent
Elizabeth Moss, Pianist
Intermission
Pictures at an Exhibition Modest Mussorgsky (1839–1881) orchestrated by Maurice Ravel
Promenade I
I. Gnomus (The Gnome)
Promenade II
II. Il vecchio castello (The old castle)
Promenade III
III. Tuileries – Dispute d’enfants après jeux (Tuileries; Children’s quarrel after games)
IV. Bydlo (Cattle)
Promenade IV
V. Балет невылупившихся птенцов (Ballet of unhatched chicks)
VI. Samuel Goldenberg und Schmuyle
VII. Limoges – Le Marché Limoges (The market)
VIII. Catacombæ (Catacombs)
IX. Con mortuis in lingua mortua (With the dead in a dead language)
X. Избушка на курьих ножках – Баба-Яга (The hut on hen’s legs – Baba-Yaga)
XI. Богатырские ворота – В стольном городе во Киеве
(The Bogatyr gates – In the capital in Kiev)
Program Notes
PROGRAM NOTES
British composer Gustav Holst (1874–1934) is best known for his orchestral suite The Planets (1914–1917), but he composed across a wide spectrum of genres, from solo vocal songs to large-scale works for instrumental ensembles. His music draws upon a unique blend of influences: the Romanticism of Wagner and Strauss, English folksong, and his personal fascination with mysticism and astrology. While Holst (along with his parents) originally dreamed of become a concert pianist, he suffered from acute neuritis in one arm and turned to composition instead, seeking artistic expression rather than fame. Ironically, The Planets brought him much recognition (to Holst’s dismay) and remains his most celebrated work. Inspired by astrology rather than astronomy, the suite consists of seven movements based on planets with astrological significance: Mars, the Bringer of War; Venus, the Bringer of Peace; Mercury, the Winged Messenger; Saturn, the Bringer of Old Age; Uranus, the Magician; and Neptune, the Mystic.
Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity is the fourth movement of The Planets. Holst originally intended for Jupiter to serve as the suite’s final movement, but eventually made it the suite’s central movement and placing the cosmic transcendence of Neptune as the finale. Jollity may seem an odd way to describe the exuberance and driving energy of Jupiter; however, the twentieth-century usage of the word meant more than cheery and jovial. In Holst’s time, jollity implied vitality, confidence, and generosity of spirit – virtues that aligned with Jupiter’s astrological role of vigor, celebration, and expansion.
The movement bursts forth in D major with driving rhythmic energy, thanks to its compound meter. The racing strings toss buoyant, syncopated figures back and forth between sections. Brass blazes above the orchestral texture while woodwinds interject here and there with their quicksilver commentary. Holst repeatedly shifts accents across bar lines, creating a sense of kinetic energy spilling forward, unable to be contained. Instead of writing one prominent melody with supporting accompaniment, Holst layers rhythmic motives across instrumental sections. The strings move in a whirling triplet motion, the brass punches out syncopated chords, and the winds provide chatter in contrasting subdivisions, all coming together to create a busy and exuberant tapestry.
This motion eventually gives way to a stately hymn-like tune filled with dignity. This section (Andante maestoso) unfolds warmly, in broad, noble phrases. It is introduced quietly in the strings then gradually embraced by the full orchestra, building through careful orchestral expansion rather than sudden grandeur. Its balanced phrase structure and noble nature give it an air of inevitability, later inspiring its adaptation as the English patriotic song “I Vow to Thee, My Country”. As the opening theme returns, momentum builds, and the familiar material reappears with renewed vibrancy and triumph, rising to a climactic fanfare and ending with a joyful flourish.
Maurice Ravel (1875–1937) is one of the most celebrated voices of early twentieth-century French music, thanks to his precision, color, and orchestration genius. While classified as an Impressionist composer, he did not care for this association, as he felt his carefully crafted writing prioritized clarity and craftsmanship over atmospheric vagueness. His music – which included solo piano music, orchestral works, ballets, operas, and chamber music – was shaped by Spanish dance rhythms, Baroque forms, jazz, and children’s stories, all marked with his unmistakably compositional traits: brilliance combined with transparency, carefully selected voicing, and vivid and sharply defined instrumental colors.
Ma mère l’Oye (1910) began as a piano duet written for Jean and Mimie Godebski, the children of close friends. translating fairy tales and folklore into charming musical narratives. Ravel orchestrated the suite twice, once in 1911 and again in 1912, expanding its colors palate while retaining its delicacy and innocence.
Laideronnette, Impératrice des pagodes portrays a princess cursed at birth to appear ugly, but ultimately, her kindness and wisdom reveal her true beauty. Ravel builds the magical pagoda kingdom through pentatonic melodies and shimmering orchestration. High woodwinds, celesta, harp glissandi, and delicate percussion—glockenspiel, triangle, tambourine—create a glittering, porcelain-like sonority. Pizzicato strings and harp ostinati provide a gently dancing pulse, while melodic fragments pass fluidly between flutes, oboes, and muted brass. Even in fuller passages, Ravel maintains remarkable transparency, crafting a mosaic of color that sparkles without overwhelming.
Le Jardin féerique (The Enchanted Garden) closes the suite with luminous simplicity. Though its precise fairy-tale source is uncertain, in the ballet version it accompanies Sleeping Beauty’s awakening. The movement begins in hushed stillness, with muted strings sustaining soft harmonies and a tender melody emerging gently in divided violins. Ravel structures the piece as a long, gradual crescendo: harp arpeggios shimmer beneath the texture while woodwinds enrich the strings with subtle doubling. Brass enter not with bombast but with radiant warmth, supporting the expanding theme. The music blossoms into full orchestral glow before settling into bell-like sonorities and shimmering upper strings, ending not in dramatic flourish but in a serene pinnacle.
Germaine Tailleferre (1892–1983) was the only female member of the French composer collective known as Les Six, whose music reacted against the opulence and density of late-Romantic and Impressionistic music. Les Six consisted of Germaine Tailleferre, Francis Poulenc, Darius Milhaud, Arthur Honegger, Georges Auric, and Louis Durey; their alliance was defined by their shared attitude against what they saw as the heaviness and excess of the two preceding compositional eras. Women were rarely encouraged to pursue composing careers alongside men in the early twentieth-century, but while Tailleferre still faced many challenges, her acceptance as a member of Les Six was significant. It also was a personal triumph in the face of her father’s lifelong opposition to her musical career. Despite his lack of support, she excelled at her studies, then attended the Paris Conservatory, later composing orchestral, chamber, solo, and film/stage works. Tailleferre eventually changed her surname from Taillefesse – her father’s name – to Tailleferre, as a show of commitment to her life as a musician.
Ballade for Piano and Orchestra reflects Tailleferre’s lyricalism and orchestration skills, as well as the Les Six values of transparency of texture, rhythmic clarity, and refined restraint. The Ballade unfolds freely rather than following the confines of a traditional piano concerto, but still holds four distinct sections that refer to tempo: Modéré, Assez lent, Mouvement de valse, and Lent. Rather than adopting the traditional concerto’s dramatic opposition between soloist and orchestra, the Ballade unfolds organically in four tempo-based sections: Modéré, Assez lent, Mouvement de valse, and Lent.
In the opening section, the piano presents nimble broken chords and articulate scalar passages, frequently introducing material that the orchestra then transforms. The woodwinds play lightly, avoiding dense tuttis. The Assez lent offers lyrical introspection, with the piano singing in the middle register while strings provide restrained harmonic support. The Mouvement de valse introduces elegant waltz rhythms, crisp articulation, and subtle harmonic shifts that lend sophistication without heaviness. Throughout the valse, Tailleferre shows off clarity of texture and refined orchestration. In the final Lent, the previous thematic material returns in a softened, more fluid form. Like the ebb and flow of the ocean, the Ballade moves through continuous transformation rather than toward a single towering climax. In its closing moments, the music recedes like a wave returning to the sea, its motion relaxing as it is absorbed back into the current from which it arose.
Modest Mussorgsky (1839–1881) was part of Могучая кучка (The Mighty Handful), a circle of Russian nationalist composers that also included Mily Balakirev, César Cui, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, and Alexander Borodin. They sought to forge a distinctly Russian musical language rooted in folk elements, modal color, and dramatic realism. Mussorgsky’s harmonic style often favors stark contrasts and bold, speech-like melodic contour. His best-known works include A Night on Bald Mountain and the opera Boris Godunov.
Pictures at an Exhibition (1874) was originally written for solo piano as a tribute to Mussorgsky’s friend, artist Viktor Hartmann. Decades later, French composer Maurice Ravel arranged Pictures; his adaptation of Mussorgsky’s raw, bold piano writing into a rich showpiece employing vivid orchestral colors was wildly successful and today is as widely performed as the original piano solo.
The ten movements serve as a musical gallery walk; each is based upon one of Hartmann’s paintings and the variety of languages in their titles reflects Hartmann’s original captions. Though most of the paintings are lost, Mussorgsky’s and Hartmann’s friend Vladimir Stasov wrote detailed notes describing the images and connecting them with specific movements.
Promenade I: The famous theme opens in an irregular 5/4 meter, suggesting uneven footsteps between painting. In Ravel’s orchestration, a solo trumpet presents the theme, supported by brass and strings. Bold harmonic shifts lend architectural solidity. Whenever the Promenade returns, changes in key, tempo, and character suggest shifting emotional reactions to the paintings.
Gnomus (The Gnome): Unpredictable and with a touch of malice, this sharped edged little scherzo depicts a gnome darting about with jagged intervals, abrupt tempo changes, and biting articulation. The strings snap sharply while muted brass and low woodwinds add grotesque color, mirroring the gnome’s distorted form before he runs away.
Promenade II: The second Promenade returns in a lower key and feels more restrained with its slightly slower pace and thinner texture. Never reaching the full dynamic level of the initial Promenade, this softer, darker version of the theme portrays a more reflective and introspective reaction to the exhibit.
Il vecchio castello (The Old Castle): Bassoon and alto saxophone share a melancholy melody sighing over a steady string accompaniment, giving voice to a lonely troubadour singing before an ancient ruin. Soft strings provide a steady, modal backdrop, creating a sense of suspended time.
Promenade III: The third appearance of the Promenade is fleeting; the architectural thread of the theme intact while moving forward briskly, projecting the sense of continuous movement through the gallery.
Tuileries – Dispute d’enfants après jeux (Tuileries – Children’s quarrel after games): Quick fluttering figures capture the chatter and teasing of children gently quarreling in a Parisian garden. The sparkling flutters of the woodwinds paired with nimble strings captures children’s chatter with their quick exchanges and light texture.
Bydło (Cattle) Low strings and brass portray lumbering cattle progressing determinedly despite their heavy load. They approach from a distance, becoming a powerful presence, then recede as they continue along their way.
Балет невылупившихся птенцов (Ballet of unhatched chicks): Skittering bursts of sound are both comical and delicate as the winds and strings mimic the tiny nervous movements of unhatched chicks pecking and wobbling inside their shells.
Samuel Goldenberg und Schmuÿle: (Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuÿle): Based upon two portraits, a wealthy man’s stern gravitas is a sharp contrast against the anxious desperation of a pauper. The heaviness of the low strings and brass for the wealthy figure combined with a muted trumpet’s anxious repeated notes for the pauper create a tense dialogue.
Limoges – Le marché (Limoges – The Market): The lively gossip and bustle of a crowded marketplace in the French city of Limoges can be heard in the chattering woodwinds, brass interruptions, and whirlwind of strings.
Catacombae (Catacombs): Blasting brass and low strings suggest a solemn descent into underground tombs. Massive chords paired with low murmurs evoke heavy stone chambers filled with echoes and gravitas.
Cum mortuis in lingua mortua (With the dead in a dead language): The Promenade theme is transformed by muted strings and soft woodwinds into a haunting shadow of its former self.
Избушка на курьих ножках – Баба-Яга (The Hut on Hen’s Legs (Baba-Yaga): Driving strings, explosive brass, and sharp percussion paint a vivide picture of the terrifying witch Baba Yaga, who has emerged from her hut resting on chicken legs to take flight in her magical mortar.
Богатырские ворота – В стольном городе во Киеве (The Great Gate of Kiev: Majestic chords and pealing brass depict a vision of ceremony, triumph, and radiant grandeur. The Promenade theme returns integrated into monumental architecture, bringing the suite to a triumphant close.
Program notes by Lauren Servias
