Northwestern State University
Presents
The Natchitoches-Northwestern Symphony
“Concerto Winners”
March 24, 2026
7:30pm, Magale Recital Hall
Douglas Bakenhus, Music Director
Andrej Kurti, Assistant Conductor
Karla Gonzalez, Instructor
Sofiko Tchetchelashvili, Instructor
Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) Festival Overture, Op. 96 (1954)
The creation and inspiration of Shostakovich’s Festival Overture has been subject to several different theories. Some believe that the celebratory quality of the overture displays Shostakovich’srelief at the death of Josef Stalin (in 1953), whose regime had twice censored the composer and his music leading to fear of dire consequences and causing Shostakovich to suppress many of his works that were composed during this time. Most likely, the Festival Overture was commissioned for a gathering at the Bolshoi Theater in November of 1954, celebrating the 37th Anniversary of the October Revolution of 1917. The conductor, Vasili Nebolsin, realized that he had no appropriate piece to open the high-profile concert. He approached Shostakovich, who was at the time a musical consultant at the Bolshoi. The composer soon began working on the overture and completed it in three days, with the individual pages of the score being taken by courier before the ink had dried to copyists waiting at the theater to create the orchestra parts. Although written in haste, the Festival Overture has proved to be one of Shostakovich’s most frequently performed works. He completely grasped the sense of the occasion and requirements implicit in the commission. The brilliant orchestration, the exuberant mood, and the infectious high spirits of the overture have guaranteed its place as an effective concert opener and audience pleaser. At the 1980 Moscow Olympics the opening fanfares of the overture were used to announce the start of each day’s events.
Johann Baptist Neruda (1708-1780), Trumpet Concerto in Eb (1750)
Neruda's dates of birth and death are only approximations (1707 or 1708 to 1780 according to the Grove Dictionary). He was born in Rosice, Bohemia (today the Czech Republic), to a well-respected musical family. After spending his earlier years gaining a good reputation as a violinist and conductor in Prague, Neruda became Konzertmeister of the Dresden court orchestra. He died in Dresden around 1780. His compositional output includes eighteen symphonies, fourteen instrumental concertos, sonatas, sacred works and an opera Les Troqueurs. The Concerto in E-flat for Trumpet and Strings written for Johann Georg Knechtel, is his most significant work. Originally written for the "corno da caccia" or "post horn" using only the high register, it is now usually performed on E-flat or B-flat trumpet.The manuscript for this piece is in the National Library in Prague, along with several other unusual works for brass instruments.
Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924):
Senza Ma from Suor Angelica (1917-1918)
and
E lucevan le stelle from Tosca (1895-1899)
Senza mamma (Without mother) is a heartbreaking aria from Puccini's Suor Angelica where the title character learns her son has died. She laments dying alone without her care, imagining him as an angel in heaven. The emotional song focuses on her regret, final goodbye, and hope to reunite in the afterlife.
E lucevan le stelle (And the stars were shining) is a celebrated tenor aria from Act III of Giacomo Puccini's Tosca, sung by the painter Mario Cavaradossi while awaiting execution at Castel Sant'Angelo. It is a poignant reflection on love and past memories, featuring a famous clarinet solo and moving from nostalgic adoration to passionate despair. The lyrics recall sweet memories—the scent of the earth, the garden gate creaking, and his lover's arrival—contrasting sharply with his imminent death.
Aram Khachaturian (1903-1978) Flute Concerto (1968)
The Khachaturian Flute Concerto is a 1968 transcription of his 1940 Violin Concerto in D Minor, authorized by the composer for French flutist Jean-Pierre Rampal. Known for its demanding technical passages and expressive melodies, it is a staple of modern flute repertoire. The third movement, Allegro vivace, is a fiery, virtuosic finale, often compared to a “Saber Dance” style with fast, scalar, and arpeggiated passages.
Emmanuel Séjourné (1961), Concerto for Marimba and Strings (2005 rev’d 2015)
Commissioned for Bogdan Bocánu, this 21st century piece highlights the marimba's capacity for expressiveness. It blends romanticism with jazz and rock harmonies that showcases the resonant, warm tone of the marimba.
Maurice Ravel (1875-1937), Mother Goose Suite (1911)
Fascinated with children’s Fairy Tales, Ravel’s Mother Goose Suite was composed in 1908 for the children of friends of his, ages 6 and 10, as a piano duet, or piano 4 hands. The Subject, Fairy Tales or Mother Goose stories; are depicted here like musical watercolors or impressionistic images. The full plots are not represented in the music, but instead, single images of the complete range of emotions in the stories.
· I-Pavane of the Sleeping Beauty – Presents a graceful 16th dance by attendants of the sleeping beauty.
· II. Little Tom Thumb - Tom’s frustrating wanderings in the woods are depicted by mixed meter string passages, while the woodwinds play a quiet “walking” melody. Twittering birds, by solo violin/piccolo/flute, swoop down to steal the crumbs left to mark Tom’s return path.
· III. Laideronnet, Empress of the Pagodas – This oriental depiction of the Empress and her Pagodas is composed in a pentatonic scale, entirely on the black keys of the piano. The Pagodas, tiny munchkin-like people, sing and play on their miniature percussive instruments, here represented by piccolo, flute, celeste, and xylophone.
· IV. Beauty and the Beast- The clarinet represents Beauty in the tempo of a waltz, while the role of the Beast is represented by the contrabassoon. The Beast expresses his love for Beauty, but she only loves him as a friend. One day, the Beast is found lying in the garden. Beauty thinks he is dying, and so she admits that she recognizes his inner beauty after all and thus confesses her love for him. One of her tears falls on him, which breaks the spell that was cast upon him, and with a harp glissando, he transforms into a handsome prince, they are married and live happily ever after.
· V. The Fairy Garden or Enchanted Garden – is more of a place than a story. A place of perfect happiness or bliss. This beautiful place must be searched for and is represented by a C-major chord. It builds, hoping to find C-major, but instead lands on a G. Then, we add a clarinet hoping that it will help, but alas, it culminates with a sad E-minor chord. Then a solo violin and solo viola take us through a gauntlet of faraway keys, the music then softly rises to a perfect blissful pianissimo C-major, it descends, and rises again, this time to a glorious fortissimo C-major, celebrating all that is good and beautiful!
Victoriano Valencia Rincón (b. 1970), San Pelayo (Fandango) (2005)
Colombian composer, Victoriano Valencia, is a prolific composer of orchestral music, symphonic bands and traditional folk ensembles. He has a bachelor’s degree in music education from the National Pedagogical University of Colombia and a master’s degree in composition from EAFIT University in Colombia. The present-day town of San Pelayo (Cordoba Region, Colombia) was a settlement of vital importance in the expansion process of rural bands (or pelayeras) of the Colombian Caribbean at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th. One of the traditional genres of the pelayera bands is the fandango, taken from the Afro-Hispanic song forms and characterized by a soloist accompanied by backing choruses.
Composed in 2005, the melodic material of San Pelayo is based on the designs of improvised eight-bar phrases characteristic of fandango and passed along via oral tradition by bands. The percussion section is essential for metric stability and enhances the expressive force with rhythm patterns associated with the percussion instruments traditionally found in orchestras and concert bands (cymbals, snare drum, and bass drum) as well as in folkloric groups (guache, tambor alegre, and tambora). On an orchestration level, textural and dynamic growth is established through the distribution of the melodic role via solos at first, and by full sections later. The climax provides a strong contrast with melodic material stressing expressiveness that ascends by registers of the orchestra and sets the stage for the coda.
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Lhareem Lazo, Soprano
Ever Naun Galeas Antunez, Trumpet
Douglas Flores, Tenor
Parrel Appolis, Flute
Walker Libbe, Percussionist