Download PROGRAM NOTES by Paul Schiavo Music

PROGRAM NOTES by Paul Schiavo
Music From Russia
The emergence of an extremely vital school of composition in Russia was one of the most
important musical developments of the 19th century. Taking their cue from Mikhail Glinka,
sometimes referred to as “the father of Russian music,” a small but influential group composers
sought to create a self-consciously nationalist style, one distinct from Western European
traditions. To that end, they favored tone poems over symphonies or concertos, and a
particularly colorful kind of orchestration.
While the work of the nationalist school — whose members included Alexander Borodin, Nikolai
Rimsky-Korsakov and Modest Mussorgsky — was in many ways the most conspicuous event in
the flowering of Russian music, it was not the only one. Somewhat in contrast and counterpoint
to it was the work of certain composers, most notably Piotr Tchaikovsky, who were more
sympathetic to the larger currents of 19th-century Romanticism in music.
The traits that generally characterize the nationalist and Romantic schools of Russian composition
do not constitute firm distinctions, however. Tchaikovsky sometimes wrote tone poems and was
not adverse to colorful instrumentation when it suited his purposes, while lines and harmonies
typical of the Romantics often found their way into the music of the nationalist school. The
achievements of both camps are on display in the compositions that form the program of this
concert. Works by Glinka and Rimsky-Korsakov, especially the latter’s Scheherazade, epitomize
the vibrant-hued and picturesque style of the nationalist school. Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto
addresses a compositional genre whose broad outlines were well established by Beethoven,
Mendelssohn and other composers, but fills that familiar vessel with music in a distinctly Russian
vein.
MIKHAIL GLINKA
Summer Night in Madrid (Spanish Overture No. 2)
BORN: June 1, 1804, in Novospasskoye, Russia
DIED: February 15, 1857, in Berlin
WORK COMPOSED: 1848–51
WORLD PREMIERE: Unknown
All of the important Russian composers of the 19th century worked to establish a national musical
ethos. Ironically, a number of them were drawn to Mediterranean lands and culture, and
celebrated these in their work. Tchaikovsky visited Italy repeatedly and used tunes he heard there
in composing his Capriccio italien, for orchestra. Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov served in the Russian
navy aboard a ship that visited half a dozen countries, including Spain. He later wrote what he
called his “Spanish fantasy,” the colorful Capriccio espagnol. And Mikhail Glinka, Russia’s first
significant composer, attained a more intimate knowledge of Iberian culture, living there and
studying Spanish folk music for two years. His sojourn produced two “Spanish Overtures,” as
Glinka called them: Jota Arogonesa and Summer Night in Madrid.
Glinka began the latter composition, which opens our concert, in 1848, while still living in Spain,
but completed it three years later, by which time he was residing in Warsaw. The work is
essentially a potpourri of Spanish melodies inventively harmonized, varied and extended, and
brilliantly orchestrated.
WHAT TO LISTEN FOR: Glinka’s musical recollection of a warm night in the Spanish capital begins
with a poetic introductory passage. The first of the succession of melodies that follows is a lilting
tune introduced against the clicking of castanets, which flamenco dancers still use to accompany
their own performances. At other times Glinka employs cymbals, snare drums, figures that
imitate the strumming of guitars, and pizzicato (the string players plucking their instruments
instead of bowing them) to impart Spanish color. Lively rhythms of Spanish dances animate the
piece.
Scored for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, trombone, timpani,
percussion and strings.
© 2016 Paul Schiavo