Download classical series 11 - Atlanta Symphony Orchestra

Concerts of Thursday, February 7 and Friday, February 8, 2013, at 8:00p, and
Sunday, February 10, 2013, at 3:00p
Xian Zhang, Conductor
Milos Karadaglic, Guitar
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)
Romeo and Juliet, Fantasy Overture (1870, rev. 1880)
Joaquín Rodrigo (1901-1999)
Concierto de Aranjuez (1939)
I. Allegro con spirito
II. Adagio
III. Allegro gentile
Milos Karadaglic, Guitar
Intermission
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)
Symphony No. 2 in C minor, Opus 17 (“Little Russian”) (1872, rev. 1880)
I. Andante sostenuto; Allegro vivo
II. Andantino marziale, quasi moderato
III. Scherzo. Allegro molto vivace
IV. Finale. Moderato assai
Notes on the Program by Ken Meltzer
Romeo and Juliet, Fantasy Overture (1870, rev. 1880)
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky was born in Kamsko-Votkinsk, Russia, on May 7, 1840,
and died in St. Petersburg, Russia, on November 6, 1893. The first performance of
the Romeo and Juliet, Fantasy Overture took place in Moscow, Russia, at a concert
of the Musical Society on March 16, 1870, with Nikolai Rubinstein conducting. The
Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture is scored for piccolo, two flutes, two oboes,
English horn, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three
trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drum, cymbals, harp and strings. Approximate
performance time is twenty minutes.
First ASO Classical Subscription Performances: December 17 and 18, 1959, Henry
Sopkin, Conductor.
Most Recent ASO Classical Subscription Performances: January 31, and February
1 and 2, 2008, Robert Spano, Conductor.
“My muse has flown off”
In the fall of 1869, Russian composer Mily Balakirev (see, “Little Russian” Symphony,
below) suggested to Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky that he should attempt an orchestral
depiction of Shakespeare’s play, Romeo and Juliet. Tchaikovsky, then 29, was about the
same age as Shakespeare when the English playwright authored Romeo and Juliet.
Earlier that year, Tchaikovsky’s love affair with the Belgian soprano, Désirée Artôt,
ended abruptly when she married the Spanish baritone, Mariano Padilla y Ramos.
Tchaikovsky’s early attempts at a musical version of Romeo and Juliet were
unsuccessful, and he confided to Balakirev:
I didn’t want to write to you until I had sketched at least something of the
overture. But just imagine, I’m completely played out, and not one even
mildly tolerable musical idea comes into my head. I’m beginning to fear
that my muse has flown off to some distant place (perhaps she’s visiting
Zaremba), and perhaps I’ll have to wait for her to return.
Balakirev responded by describing how he had composed an overture to Shakespeare’s
King Lear, and offered a hint as to how Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet might begin.
Later, Balakirev even ventured so far as to suggest the structure of the piece, and the key
relationships between the various sections. While that correspondence has disappeared,
Tchaikovsky’s response makes it clear that Balakirev, to whom the work is dedicated,
contemplated a slow introduction symbolic of Friar Laurence, agitated, fast-tempo music
depicting the conflict of the Montagues and the Capulets, and a love theme for Romeo
and Juliet. Indeed, that is the general outline of Tchaikovsky’s Fantasy Overture.
“My overture had no success”
Those who are familiar with Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet might well presume that
when the long-awaited muse finally returned to Tchaikovsky, the music flowed in a
continuous and inevitable fount of inspiration. In truth, Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet
is testament to a diligent (and brilliant) craftsman who scrutinized his work with a
relentless objectivity and perfectionism.
The response to the March 28, 1870 premiere of the original version of Romeo and Juliet,
given under the direction of Nikolai Rubinstein, was less than ecstatic. Tchaikovsky
observed, “My overture had no success and passed quite unnoticed.” That summer,
Tchaikovsky penned extensive revisions to the original score, including a completely new
introduction and a reworking of the remainder of the Fantasy Overture. The premiere of
the revised score took place in St. Petersburg on February 17, 1872. Although the
revisions corrected many of the defects Tchaikovsky perceived in the original version,
the composer was not totally satisfied. In 1880, he made significant alterations to the
work’s dramatic conclusion. It is the final, 1880 version that has become a favorite of
concert audiences.
A tantalizing footnote is found in a letter of October, 1881, by Tchaikovsky to his
brother, Anatoly. Tchaikovsky reveals that he had decided to write an opera on that “old,
but eternally new subject, Romeo and Juliet.” A complete Tchaikovsky Romeo and
Juliet opera was not to be. After Tchaikovsky’s death, sketches for a love duet for
Romeo and Juliet, incorporating music from the Fantasy Overture, were discovered,
completed and orchestrated by Sergey Taneyev. That fragment is all that survives of
Tchaikovsky’s projected Romeo and Juliet opera.
Musical Analysis
The Romeo and Juliet, Fantasy Overture begins with an extended slow introduction
(Andante non tanto quasi Moderato), with the clarinets and bassoons intoning the
somber “Friar Laurence” theme. The theme returns in various guises, as the music gains
intensity. A dialogue between the strings and woodwinds leads to the exposition (Allegro
giusto), and the violent first subject, depicting the warring Montagues and Capulets,
thundered by the orchestra. The storm finally subsides, and muted violas and English
horn softly introduce the second subject, often referred to as Romeo and Juliet’s “love
theme.” Divided muted violins respond with an undulating motif. The love theme
predominates as the exposition of the principal themes draws to a hushed close.
The development of the themes begins with the strings’ piano statement of a portion of
the “Montague and Capulet” motif. The other principal themes soon enter and
intertwine, as the tension mounts. At the climax of the development, syncopated figures
in the brass and woodwinds battle the strings’ whirlwind ascending and descending
sixteenth notes. The music finally resolves to the fortissimo start of the recapitulation.
The undulating motif now precedes the strings and piccolo’s lush restatement of the love
theme. That theme soon yields to powerful, violent statements of the Montague-Capulet
and Friar Laurence motifs. A thunderous drum roll and brief pause lead to the coda
(Moderato assai). The love theme, now quite melancholy, is played to the
accompaniment of an insistent drumbeat. A final restatement of Romeo and Juliet’s
theme resolves to a drum roll, and the fortissimo closing bars.
Concierto de Aranjuez (1939)
Joaquín Rodrigo was born in Sagunto, Spain, on November 22, 1901, and died in
Madrid, Spain, on July 6, 1999. In addition to the solo guitar, the Concierto de
Aranjuez is scored for piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, English horn, two clarinets, two
bassoons, two horns, two trumpets and strings. Approximate performance time is
twenty-two minutes.
First ASO Classical Subscription Performances: October 20, 21 and 22, 1978,
Carlos Barbosa-Lima, Guitar, Hiroyuki Iwaki, Conductor.
Most RecentASO Classical Subscription Performances: January 8, 9 and 10, 1998,
Eduardo Fernández, Guitar, Yoel Levi, Conductor.
In 1927, Spanish composer Joaquín Rodrigo journeyed to Paris, where he studied at the
Sorbonne with Maurice Emmanuel and André Pirro, and at the Ecole Normale de
Musique with Paul Dukas. It was also in Paris, in 1929, that Rodrigo met the Turkish
pianist, Victoria Kamhi. The two were married in 1933. Rodrigo said of his wife,
Victoria:
She has represented everything in my life. Everything. Without her I
wouldn’t have accomplished even half my work…She would correct me,
sometimes advise me, and other times interpret my works at the
piano…We have never been apart. We would not understand life without
one another. Vicky has been, is my luck, my eternal companion, my
invaluable collaborator.
The two remained married until Victoria Kamhi de Rodrigo’s death on July 21, 1997.
Joaquín Rodrigo died two years later, on July 6, 1999, at the age of 97.
It was not until 1940 and the conclusion of the Spanish Civil War that Rodrigo finally
returned to Spain. However, while abroad, Rodrigo’s thoughts were certainly with his
beloved homeland. In 1939 Rodrigo, while living in the Latin Quarter of Paris and
“hoping to be able to return to Spain,” composed his Concierto de Aranjuez for guitar and
orchestra. Rodrigo dedicated the work to the guitarist Regino Sáinz de la Maza.
In comments reproduced in the liner notes for Christopher Parkening’s EMI recording of
the Concierto de Aranjuez (EMI 54665), Rodrigo described his inspiration for the work:
The Concierto de Aranjuez evokes a vast array of colorful imagery and
feelings. Being a history lover, especially Spanish history, when I created
this concerto, I had in mind the courts of Charles IV, a Bourbon king of
eighteenth century Spain, whose summer holiday residence was the palace
of Aranjuez. Everything about it is awe-inspiring: its lordly palace; its
gardens and fountains; its majestic views. Bearing this in mind while
listening to the Concierto de Aranjuez, one can clearly visualize the fair
maidens, noblemen, toreadors and commoners of the kingdom. Each
listener is free to seek his or her own interpretation.
The Concierto de Aranjuez was Rodrigo’s first composition for solo guitar and orchestra.
Throughout his life, Rodrigo composed numerous brilliant works for the guitar. As a
result, many assumed that Rodrigo was an accomplished guitar virtuoso. However,
Rodrigo, who was indeed a fine pianist and violinist, confessed that he couldn’t play
“four notes in a row” on the guitar!
When Rodrigo composed the Concierto de Aranjuez, he “had thought of nothing other
than that this concerto should be an especial success, be enjoyed by the public and be
played often.” However, the success of the work must have exceeded even the
composer’s wildest expectations. Drawing upon a varied array of musical traditions from
his country and elsewhere, Rodrigo fashioned, as he described it, “a synthesis of classical
and popular, of form and emotion.” As a result, Rodrigo created one of the 20th century’s
most popular concertos for solo instrument and orchestra, an enchanting and captivating
work that continues to appeal to the broadest cross-section of music lovers.
Rodrigo Describes the Concierto de Aranjuez
The Concierto de Aranjuez is in three movements. The following is Rodrigo’s
description of the work.
I. Allegro con spirito—“The first movement is animated by a rhythmic spirit and vigour
without either of the two themes contained within it interrupting its relentless pace.”
II. Adagio—“If nostalgia could take form the second movement would be its tightest
mold.”
“The second movement represents a dialogue between guitar and solo instruments (cor
anglais, bassoon, oboe, horn etc.). There is a constant and persistent beat supporting the
entire sound-structure of this movement.”
III. Allegro gentile—“The third movement recalls a courtly dance in which the
combination of duple and triple time maintains a taut tempo right to the closing bar.”
Symphony No. 2 in C minor, Opus 17 (“Little Russian”) (1872, rev. 1880)
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky was born in Kamsko-Votkinsk, Russia, on May 7, 1840,
and died in St. Petersburg, Russia, on November 6, 1893. The first performance of
the Symphony No. 2 took place in Moscow, Russia, on January 26, 1873, with
Nikolai Rubinstein conducting. The Symphony No. 2 is scored for piccolo, two
flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three
trombones, tuba, timpani, cymbals, tam-tam, bass drum and strings. Approximate
performance time is thirty-three minutes.
First ASO Classical Subscription Performance: March 21, 1951, Henry Sopkin,
Conductor.
Most Recent ASO Classical Subscription Performances: May 12, 13 and 14, 1994,
Yoel Levi, Conductor.
Russia’s strongest unified movement toward nationalist expression in concert music
emerged in the 1860s. A pianist named Mily Balakirev organized a group of composers
that included Alexander Borodin, César Cui, Modest Mussorgsky and Nikolai RimskyKorsakov. The eminent Russian critic, Vladimir Stassov, dubbed them “The Five,” or
“The Mighty Handful.”
The members of “The Five” sought to create music that was identifiably Russian in
subject matter and character. Toward that end, the composers incorporated Russian folk
melodies, stories and cultural themes into their works. For the most part, the members of
“The Mighty Handful” were self-taught musicians. But they viewed their lack of formal
conservatory training as a liberating force in the creation of Russian music.
By contrast, Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky was formally trained, and a student of the great
German-Austrian tradition that dominated concert music. Tchaikovsky’s favorite
composer was the Austrian-born Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Tchaikovsky fervently
believed that Mozart achieved “the highest, most perfect culmination ever attained by
beauty in the realm of music.”
For the members of “The Five” and their advocates, Tchaikovsky was not sufficiently
Russian in his musical approach. But for people like the eminent German critic, Eduard
Hanslick, Tchaikovsky’s music was too Russian in character. After the 1881 premiere in
Vienna of Tchaikovsky’s great Violin Concerto, Hanslick characterized the work as “a
brutal and wretched jollity of a Russian holiday. We see plainly the savage vulgar faces,
we hear curses, we smell vodka.”
For his part, Tchaikovsky acknowledged the strong influence of Russian folk tradition:
“As regards the Russian element in general in my music…I grew up in the backwoods,
saturating myself from earliest childhood with the inexplicable beauty of the
characteristic traits of Russian folksong.”
In the summer of 1872, Tchaikovsky visited his sister, Alexandra, at her family’s home in
the Ukrainian village of Kamenka. There, Tchaikovsky delighted in hearing the
Ukrainian peasants sing folk songs. Inspired by this experience, Tchaikovsky began
work on his Symphony No 2, completing it that winter. During the Christmas holiday,
Tchaikovsky played the Symphony at a party given by Rimsky-Korsakov. Tchaikovsky
proudly reported: “the whole company almost tore me to pieces in rapture.”
The Symphony No. 2 received its successful premiere in Moscow on January 26, 1873.
Tchaikovsky’s incorporation of Ukrainian folk melodies led Russian critic Nicholas
Kashkin to give the work its nickname, “Little Russian” (in Tsarist times, the Ukraine
was known as “Little Russia.”) Tchaikovsky later revised the “Little Russian”
Symphony. That revised (and now familiar) version premiered in St. Petersburg on
January 31, 1881.
Musical Analysis
I. Andante sostenuto; Allegro vivo—The “Little Russian” Symphony opens with an
expansive slow-tempo introduction (Andante sostenuto). The ensemble’s forte chord sets
the stage for a horn melody, based upon the folk song “Down by Mother Volga.” A final
statement by the horns of the folk song leads to the opening movement’s Allegro vivo
section. The winds offer hints of the vigorous first principal theme, soon played in full
by the strings. The oboes present the ascending second principal theme, marked
espressivo. The violins sing the final principal melody, a raising and falling figure (also
espressivo). The opening theme provides an emphatic close to the exposition. The
clarinets’ reprise of “Down by Mother Volga” opens the development. The Allegro
vivo’s first principal theme returns as well, as the development builds to a fff climax. The
strings launch the recapitulation of the Allegro vivo portion (Tempo I). In the final
measures, a truncated reprise of the slow introduction (Andante sostenuto) is capped by
the bassoon, accompanied by a series of hushed pizzicato chords.
II. Andantino marziale, quasi moderato—The Symphony’s slow movement opens with
the timpani’s repeated notes. This passage soon accompanies the movement’s principal
melody, first played by the clarinets and bassoons, and derived from a wedding march in
Tchaikovsky’s 1869 opera, Undine. The march returns throughout (with modified
accompaniment and instrumentation), alternating with various episodes. The middle
episode, featuring a melody first played by the flutes and oboes, is based upon the
folksong “Spin, My Spinner.” After a last reprise of the Undine wedding march, the
timpani has the final word in the ppp closing bars.
III. Scherzo. Allegro molto vivace—The third-movement Scherzo is one of Tchaikovsky’s
most brilliant and beguiling orchestral creations. The music teems from start to finish
with playful energy, delightful surprises and a kaleidoscope of orchestral colors. The
meter shifts from 3 beats in a bar to 2 for the central Trio (L’istesso tempo). A reprise of
the Scherzo and Trio rounds out the third movement.
IV. Finale. Moderato assai—The Finale opens with a grand introduction (Moderato
assai), based upon the Russian folk song, “The Crane.” That folksong becomes the basis
for the principal theme of the ensuing Allegro vivo. After an extended and brilliant
fantasia on the folksong, the first violins introduce the lilting second principal melody.
The folksong returns to conclude the exposition. In the development, the folksong and
first violin melodies encounter some unexpected twists and turns, almost as if viewed
through distorted glasses. Fragments of the folk song melody lead to a full restatement of
first violin theme. The closing measures (Presto) feature “The Crane” in its most
energetic guise, as the “Little Russian” Symphony sprints to a thrilling close.