Sunday, February 23, 2025
– 2:00pm –
Morrison High School Auditorium

– Gather the whole family for this special afternoon concert with Beethoven’s arguably most famous hit, his Symphony No. 5 (Da Da Da Dum….) An early overture by Anton Bruckner – who went on to write music for huge forces of musicians – will also be heard; a first performance for Clinton Symphony. The program will also feature an outstanding area high school Young Artist chosen from the Symphony’s annual January auditions open to all area high school musicians.

Our 2025 Young Artist is Rileigh Wren:

Rileigh Wren is currently a senior at Sterling High School and has studied saxophone
under the direction of Mr. Erik Oberg, and previously Mr. Kevin O’Keefe. She currently
studies privately under the guidance of Mrs. Nicole Oberg. In school, she is an active
member of the SHS Band, Bass/Treble Choir, Orchestra, Future Educator Club, Theater
Department, Sterling Municipal Band, and has been the Drum Major of the SHS
Marching Band for the past two years. She was selected as the lead alto in the ILMEA
District 8 Jazz Band in 2024, and played in the ILMEA All-State Concert Band the last
two years. She plans to study Music Education at Illinois Wesleyan University to follow in
the footsteps of her Sterling Public Schools music teachers. Rileigh would like to thank
her amazing directors for their mentorship and helping her achieve her goals, and she
would especially like to thank her family for supporting and encouraging her to follow her
true passion: music. Rileigh will be playing the Concerto for Alto Saxophone by Ronald Binge.


Learn more about our Young Artist Auditions.

Program Notes:

Anton Bruckner 1824-1896
Anton Bruckner was an Austrian composer and organist, best known for his
symphonies and sacred music. Hugely influenced by the music of Richard Wagner,
whom he idolized to the point of obsession, he also had deep roots in the sacred music
of Bach, Haydn, Mozart and Palestrina. His symphonies have been described as
‘cathedrals in sound’, reflecting their spacious architectural qualities and mood of
religious devotion.
Born in Austria to a peasant family, he showed an early aptitude for music and
began studying violin and organ at a young age. In 1841, Bruckner entered the
Augustinian monastery where he continued his musical studies and began composing.
A devoutly religious man, his music is often infused with religious themes. After leaving
the monastery, he worked as a teacher and organist in Linz while continuing his
composition studies. When his first symphony premiered in 1869, it was roundly
criticized by critics, although it was praised by composer Richard Wagner. The two men
became friends and Wagner encouraged Bruckner to continue his musical career.
Despite his exceptional talent and eventual acclaim, Bruckner remained desperately
insecure throughout his life, becoming obsessive about the tiniest inconsequential
details of his compositions, constantly revising and re-revising. A controversial figure in
his lifetime, his music was often criticized for being too long and too complex, and he
was nearly 50 before achieving any level of success with his trailblazing third
symphony. Initially deemed unplayable by the Vienna Philharmonic in 1875, it was
premiered by the composer himself two years later to the sounds of jeers and catcalls.
Today he is considered one of the most important composers of the late Romantic era.
Bruckner’s final years were devoted largely to his Ninth Symphony, an apocalyptic
work, which, even after a lengthy period of nearly six years, remained incomplete at the
time of his death in 1896. All that remain of his planned finale are 200+ pages of
sketches. Fortunately, the three movements are complete as they stand, and Bruckner
referred to the glorious Adagio as his ‘farewell to life’. Several passages of harmonic
originality take him to the very brink of atonality, making him every bit as vital an
influence as Mahler, Brahms, and Wagner on Schoenberg’s early experiments.
Bruckner composed nine symphonies, as well as a large body of other music,
including masses, motets, choral works and chamber music. His music is characterized
by long melodies, massive orchestration and religious themes; his use of brass and
woodwinds is particularly striking and challenging to perform.


Overture in G Minor

In the fall of 1862 while studying in Linz, Bruckner composed his first orchestral
works: the Four Orchestral Pieces, followed by the Overture in G Minor. A much more
mature work than Bruckner’s earlier orchestral pieces and the Symphony in F Minor, his
characteristics are already present in the Overture: the opening subject with his unison
octave leap, the full orchestral chords followed by semiquavering runs, and the second
slower subject with its large interval leaps.


Ronald Binge 1910-1979
Born into a poor family in Derby, England, Ronald Binge had to learn music the hard
way. After his father died in WWI, the family had no money for music lessons, and
Ronald had to teach himself with the help of a local choirmaster. He taught himself
harmony and counterpoint on his own and tried his hand at arranging and composing
during the many years he worked as a pianist in movie theaters where he learned to
sightread and compose for silent movies. In 1932 he moved to London where he met
the Italian conductor Annunzio Mantovani and started writing arrangements for the
symphony orchestra of this famous conductor. Binge himself is the inventor of the
famous cascading strings effect known as the “Mantovani Sound’ which charmed music
lovers and television spectators in the 50s and 60s.
The first of his ten film scores was composed in 1938, and he wrote a huge output
for radio, television and stock music libraries. His most prestigious co-scoring
assignment was likely the BBC documentary series War in the Air (1954) in which he
joined forces with British film music luminaries. Today, he is chiefly remembered for
composing the popular melodies Elizabethan Serenade and Sailing By, the latter
becoming the signature tune of the British shipping forecasts. He also wrote classical
music as well as a series of wind band compositions such as the popular Cornet
Carillon. He died in September 1979 before the premiere of his Concerto for Alto
Saxophone.


Concerto for Alto Saxophone
Commissioned by the BBC for the 1956 International Festival of Light Music, Binge’s
Concerto shows off the power and lyricism of the modern saxophone and how well it fits
within an orchestral setting. Cast in 3 movements, the standard fast, slow, fast format,
the work shows both the lyrical and the playful sides of the instrument. The first
movement is a dialogue between orchestra and soloist, each taking a turn to lead. The
second movement (Romance) gives the soloist the opportunity to show his skill as a
‘singer’, particularly in the upper register. The third movement (Rondo) is in 6/8 and has
a lively swing to it, showing the instrument in its most jazz-like nature.

Ludwig Van Beethoven 1770-1827

Probably the best-known name in all of music, Ludwig Van Beethoven was a German
composer and pianist considered a central figure in Western classical music. His
innovative compositions combining vocals and instruments expanded the scope of the
concerto, quartet, symphony and sonata. His genius bridged the gap between the
Classical and Romantic eras of Western music, and many of his greatest works were
created while he was going deaf.


Symphony No. 5
Famous for its ominous first four notes, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 was begun in
1804, but its completion was delayed several times for other projects. In 1808 at one of
the most amazing concerts of all time, the Fifth debuted in a five-hour concert in an
unheated concert hall featuring a marathon of his new works. The rapt (exhausted?)
audience was treated to Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6, the aria Ah! Perfidy, two
movements from the Mass in C Minor, the fourth piano concerto, Symphony No. 5 and
the entire Choral Fantasy. Beethoven was known for working on several pieces
simultaneously, and, as it happened, all of these were ready to go. An unrehearsed
orchestra, a soprano with stage fright and freezing temperatures could not have
dampened the wonder of the night. But it was the Fifth that jolted the audience to
attention with its tension and shockingly wild drive. Reviewers, however, initially
shrugged it off.
Praised as one of the most important works of its time, its famous four-note opening
is interpreted as “Fate knocks at the door” by Beethoven’s biographer Anton Schindler.
Fighting money problems, increasing deafness and debilitating depression, Beethoven’s
personal fate is reflected in his own words: “I will seize Fate by the throat; it shall
certainly not bend and crush me completely.” The Fifth has become so iconic it’s hard to
imagine how shocking and difficult it was at its inception when reviews described it as “a
stream of glowing fire.” Indeed, its opening notes have been co-opted for everything
from the Allied broadcasts symbolizing victory to disco versions. Philosophers of
Beethoven’s time interpreted his music as an expression of the sublime, a purposely
obscure term of reflecting emotions of fear, awe and pain. Certainly the work takes its
listeners on a hero’s journey and ends with a sense of resolution.
While Beethoven’s Third Symphony expanded the dimensions of the symphony
form in all directions, the Fifth compresses all the advances of form and content into a
much more compact space. The first movement, Allegro con brio, is the shortest in all
his symphonies, fully energized by that famous four-note thunderclap which permeates
the entire piece, a new symphonic principal at its time. A lyrical second theme is
introduced by the French horn, but the turbulent development rages on. An expressive
oboe cadenza stops the action again, but a long coda returns to hammer the opening
motif once more, described as “One of the most powerfully integrated movements in all
symphonic literature.” (Edward Downes)
The second movement, Andante con moto, is as expansive as the first is
compressed, developing four variations on two main themes. An initial ascending theme
begins in the low strings, followed by another rising idea in the clarinets, flute and
bassoons. Trumpets and timpani bring in a swaggering march seldom heard in classical
slow movements.
The third movement, Allegro, is a scherzo rather than the expected minuet and trio.
Ominous cellos and basses restlessly stir the first musical ideas before the French
horns return with the opening theme. Themes push back and forth before a dramatic
pianissimo section charges the atmosphere leading directly to a brilliant finale.
The fourth movement adds trombones, contrabassoon and piccolo, a first
appearance in symphonic literature. In an exuberant mood, Beethoven leads us to his
triumphant coda, modulating to a hopeful C Major and a sense of triumphant victory.
The Fifth spoke a musical language no one had heard before; a sense that music is a
critical and elevating force for life. “Beethoven
broke all the rules and turned out pieces of breathtaking rightness. He had the real
goods, the stuff from Heaven, the power to make you feel at the finish: something is
right with the world.” (Leonard Bernstein)