Download MOZART`S “ELVIRA MADIGAN” Saturday, February 21, 2015 – 8pm

MOZART’S “ELVIRA MADIGAN”
Saturday, February 21, 2015 – 8pm at The VETS, Providence
Open Rehearsal – Friday, February 20, 5:30pm
Larry Rachleff, conductor
Joyce Yang, piano
STRAVINSKY
MOZART
SIBELIUS
Jeu de cartes
Piano Concerto No.21, C major, K 467 (Elvira Madigan)
Symphony No.5, E-flat major, op.82
Jeu de Cartes (A Card Game)
Ballet in Three “Deals”
Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)
While on tour in the United States in 1935, Stravinsky was offered an open-ended
commission from the newly-formed American Ballet. With longtime friend George Balanchine as
choreographer, Stravinsky found the offer very attractive. The subject was not immediately
obvious to the composer, but it came to him gradually.
Stravinsky loved many kinds of games — cards, chess and Chinese checkers, to name a few.
Poker was a favorite, and he decided to use its paradigm loosely to form the new ballet’s
scenario. Dancers were dressed as individual cards, which determined their “personalities.” In
the jocular mood of the music reflecting that of a friendly card game, Stravinsky humorously
wove in disguised references to the music of other composers. Listening closely, we can hear
allusions to the metronome ticking sound in Beethoven’s Eighth Symphony and music from
Johann Strauss’s Die Fledermaus, Ravel’s La Valse, Rossini’s Barber of Seville and other works.
Two features of Jeu de cartes are unusual in ballet scenarios: there is no love interest, but
there is a moral. The music of the three “deals” is continuous. A description of the action was
printed in the original score:
The characters in this ballet are the chief cards in a game of Poker, disputed
between several players on the green cloth of a card-room. At each deal the
situation is complicated by the endless guiles of the perfidious Joker, who
believes himself invincible because of his ability to become any desired card.
During the first deal, one of the players is beaten, but the other two remain
with even “straights,” although one of them holds the Joker.
In the second deal, the hand that holds the Joker is victorious, thanks to four
Aces who easily beat four Queens.
Now comes the third deal. The action becomes more and more acute. This
time it is a struggle between three “flushes.” At first victorious over one
adversary, the Joker, strutting at the head of a sequence of spades, is beaten by
a “Royal Flush” in Hearts. This puts an end to his malice and knavery.
Piano Concerto No.21 in C major, “Elvira Madigan” K.467
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
On Thursday, 10 March 1785, Kapellmeister Mozart will have the honor of
giving at the Imperial & Royal National Court Theater a Grand Musical Concert
for his benefit, at which not only a new, just finished Forte piano Concerto will be
played by him, but also . . .
So began the handbill announcing the premiere of the C major Concerto. Concert life as we
know it was then only in its infancy, and we have such events to thank for several of Mozart’s
symphonies, concert arias, piano sonatas and, notably, the last 17 piano concertos.
In the C major Piano Concerto, Mozart marks the first movement Allegro maestoso. Yet it is
a comic opera-style maestoso, with a dominating main theme that foreshadows Don Giovanni’s
Leporello character. Two graceful themes follow and are interwoven with the first. After a brief
introduction by the piano, the main theme returns. Here the piano blends with the orchestra to
set forth a whole new set of themes. The main theme is not forgotten but generally appears as
support for the piano’s decorative filigree. The piano’s entrance in the central section
announces an entirely new theme, pathetic in character but rhythmically derived from the main
theme. Following this is a lengthy section of passagework, the harmony of which Alfred Einstein
described as “modulations through darkness into light.” The light finally bursts out in a reprise
that combines both rosters of themes. Like a character from the commedia dell’arte, the
ubiquitous main theme keeps popping up, both before and after the solo piano cadenza.
The Andante contains a magical quality that only muted strings will allow. Over an
accompaniment of “quivering triplets” (Einstein), the leisurely cantilena unfolds, first in the
strings and then in the piano. (This theme became popular through the soundtrack to the 1967
Swedish film, Elvira Madigan.) The middle section of the movement is based loosely on
fragments of this “ideal aria.” When the full theme returns, it is in a somewhat distant key, but
Mozart deftly returns to the home key in the final pages of the movement.
In the finale, Mozart returns to the spirit of opera buffa, but this time the scene is a peasant
round dance. The piano first joins in with a short solo cadenza and a brief statement of the
rollicking rondo theme. Soon, however, the soloist takes a more commanding role, while
contrasting episodes playfully alternate with the main theme. Mozart has saved most of his
virtuosic writing for this movement, which calls for a full solo cadenza just before the final wrapup.
Symphony No.5 in E-flat, op.82
Jean Sibelius (1865-1957)
The Fifth Symphony is among the longest and most-revised of all the seven symphonies by
Sibelius. He conceived the work as early as 1912 but did not begin serious composition until
1914. The symphony’s premiere in late 1915 did not satisfy Sibelius, however, so he prepared a
second version for a 1916 performance. Still dissatisfied, the composer withdrew the work for
extensive revision and re-writing. World War I and civil war in Finland probably prevented him
from enjoying the long periods of concentration needed for this task, but in late 1918, he wrote
in a letter:
I am working daily at the Fifth Symphony in a new form, practically
composed anew. The first movement is reminiscent of the old, the third
reminiscent of the end of the old first movement. The fourth movement has the
old themes, but strong in revision. The whole, if I may say so, [is] a vital climax to
the end. Triumphal.
The following year saw the completion of the revision, but apparently, the work had to wait
until early 1921 for a performance, which took place in London under the baton of the
composer.
The most radical of Sibelius’s revisions to the Fifth Symphony was the merging of the
original first two movements into one movement. If we had to choose one word to describe
what these two parts have in common, it would be “fanfare.” In the slow, introductory opening
section, Sibelius exposes and develops expansive, noble themes that form a kind of
annunciation. Almost imperceptibly, the music slips from this moderato opening into the quickwaltz, scherzo-like mood of the second half. Here, the composer transforms the principal slow
theme into a scherzando fanfare theme that dominates most of the second half up to its brilliant
final notes.
The Andante proves that Sibelius could take the simplest musical materials and make them
sound fresh and original. Here is a movement built on a folk-like theme and concordant
harmonies, which nonetheless possesses symphonic depth of meaning. The form is a set of
subtle variations on the little theme. Twice the double basses hint at ideas that will come in the
finale.
The last movement is like a mirror of the first movement: two big sections, fast and then
slow. The bustling tremolo of the strings that opens the movement is provocative but becomes
secondary to the broad theme that follows. This famous horn theme (with a lyrical countermelody etched in the woodwinds) has been likened to the “massive cadence of the sea”
(Edward Downes) or Thor swinging his hammer (Donald Tovey). Alternately developing these
ideas, Sibelius reaches an extensive Largamente, which is the symphony’s culmination. Thor’s
hammer beats time as increased dissonances build tension. Release comes in the late moments,
punctuated by the final stabbing chords.
Summarizing Sibelius’s Symphony No. 5, critic Olin Downes wrote that it is “a work of firm
serenity and immense contained strength. . . . The Fifth Symphony has not to do with
perturbation, revolution, violence, revolt. It is music of inner tranquility, imposing strength, and
individuality of design.”
Program Notes by Dr. Michael Fink