Download Program notes by Laurie Shulman ©2011 First North American

Program notes by Laurie Shulman ©2011
First North American Serial Rights Only
Sonata in B minor, T36
Johannes Sperger (1750-1812)
Haydn and Mozart have nearly eclipsed the bumper crop of other gifted composers active
in Prussia and the Austro-Hungarian empire in the late 18th century. Most musicians would be
hard-pressed to name a half dozen of their contemporaries. Names like Dittersdorf, Vanhal,
Stamitz, and Boccherini get some play, but most other classical era composers fly beneath the
radar. For bass players, however, Johannes Sperger is a major figure. He was the most celebrated
bassist of his day and wrote prolifically for the instrument. In addition to his 45 symphonies, he
composed 18 solo concertos for bass, as well as a substantial amount of chamber music.
In the sonata that opens Mr. Chirkov’s program, Sperger adapted material from his last
two solo concertos, which were technically challenging and innovative. The original sonata, for
bass and cello, may have been presented to Prussia’s Friedrich Wilhelm II in the 1780s. (The
king was an accomplished cellist.) Sperger was working on a freelance basis between 1786 and
1789 while seeking a court appointment.
Eighteenth-century bass tuning – known as Viennese tuning – used thirds and fourths
between the instrument’s five strings, allowing for an impressive and full texture. In Sperger’s
original, the cello plays a supporting harmonic role. In the arrangement for bass and piano that
Mr. Chirkov plays, Klaus Trumpf has fleshed out the keyboard part to approximate the sonorities
of the original. Sperger’s sonata is consistent with high classical style, and both outer movements
are in straightforward sonata form. His slow movement is a standout: aria-like, elegant in its
melodic lines and elaborate embellishments. Sperger incorporated two brief solo cadenzas to this
Adagio cantabile, perhaps recognizing that its songful phrases were a superior achievement.
***
Sonata “1963" for double bass and piano
Frank Proto (b.1941)
Frank Proto was the long-time composer-in-residence of the Cincinnati Symphony and a
member of the orchestra's bass section until his retirement in 1997. In addition, he did extensive
arranging for the orchestra, and was often called upon to play orchestral piano as well. Proto
began his musical studies on piano, and did not take up bass until he was 17. He attended
Manhattan School of Music, subsequently earning advanced degrees in performance and
education there. As a composer, however, Proto is essentially self-taught.
He has carved a niche for himself by means of substantial contributions to the double
bass literature. Sonata “1963" is an outstanding early example, composed for Proto’s senior
recital at the Manhattan School. It is a remarkable achievement for a twenty-one year old.
Cast in a neo-baroque sonata da chiesa format of slow-fast-slow-fast, Sonata “1963" slyly
pays tribute to the past while ignoring the present of “long hair music” in the early 1960s –
which meant serialism. Instead, Proto embraced cool jazz and swing, a bold move. At the same
time, he covers all the bases in terms of what you want to hear from a gifted young player
proving his skill. In the opening movement, the emphasis is on beauty of sound, with the
spotlight firmly on bass; piano is limited to steady eighth notes. The sonata proceeds attacca to a
swing movement that demonstrates Proto’s deep connection to jazz. Piano emerges from the
background to become an integral part of a complex musical texture, and Proto even dabbles in
some imitative counterpoint.
Molto adagio opens with the longest passage for solo piano in the sonata, cleverly
introducing material that the bass will expound upon once it joins the discussion. The music
expands to a powerful climax, whose expanding chords presage the subject matter of the fugato
finale. Once again, Proto moves without pause to his fast movement. Jazz elements return, now
edgier, with a more aggressive harmonic approach than in the second movement. His
counterpoint is also more sophisticated, and musical material undergoes extended development.
Today, Proto is a big name, not only in the double bass world but also because of his
substantial contributions to the orchestral pops literature. The early Sonata “1963" was a
precursor of a talent whose promise he has fulfilled richly. This thirteen minute work altered the
landscape of the accompanied bass sonata, setting a high mark that few composers have matched
since.
***
The second half of the program opens with four Slavic works, all 20th- and 21st-century
but with widely varying perspectives.
Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) is justly celebrated for his symphonies and string
quartets, but he also composed a considerable amount of film and ballet music. The Limpid
Stream, Op.39 was a mid-1930s ballet composed to a scenario about life on a collective farm.
Fyodor Lopukhov commissioned it for a new dance company at Leningrad’s Maly Theatre. From
its premiere in June 1935, the ballet was a popular success – until February 1936, when a vicious
editorial in Pravda, “Ballet Falsehood,” attacked Shostakovich with specific reference to The
Limpid Stream. Published just weeks after the infamous attack on his opera Lady Macbeth of the
Mtsensk District, the second editorial hammered a nail in the coffin of Shostakovich’s political
disgrace. (His Symphony No.5 the following year won governmental approval, becoming
Shostakovich's passport to official "rehabilitation.")
The ballet score contained a substantial amount of wonderful music. When
Shostakovich’s colleague Lev Atovmyan compiled his three ballet suites from Shostakovich’s
music, he drew more than half the suites’ numbers from The Limpid Stream. The Adagio was
originally for cello and orchestra, but transfers well to double bass and piano.
***
Miloslav Gajdos (b.1948) is based in Kroměříž, a city in southeast Czech Republic,
about midway between Brno and the Slovak border. He studied violin as a child, but switched to
double bass and has become one of Europe’s most active and innovative performer/composers
for the instrument. Gajdos (pronounced GUY-DOSH) has written extensively for bass, including
ensemble works and pieces for every level from beginner to virtuoso. This unaccompanied
Invocation is free and improvisatory, with some haunting themes that suggest Czech folk music.
It is technically demanding, with double and triple stops, rapid passagework, wide leaps, and a
variety of auxiliary string techniques (e.g., sul ponticello, col legno). Gajdos also calls for
quarter tones and left hand pizzicato. Invocation is a convincing addition to the 21st-century
unaccompanied bass repertoire.
***
Between 1825 and 1949, no major composer composed a solo work for double bass. The
closest contributor to the literature was Russia’s Reinhold Glière (1875-1956), an important -- if
second tier – figure best known for his ballet The Red Poppy, with its ever-popular “Russian
Sailors’ Dance.”
Few composers have witnessed so much change during their lifetime as Glière. Born into
the Czarist Empire, he outlived both Lenin and Stalin in the Soviet Union. Surprisingly, his
compositions – a rich post-romantic legacy of more than 500 works – do not reflect the political
and cultural tumult he lived through. He was particularly successful as a composer for the dance,
and is generally considered to be the father of Soviet ballet. His best compositions, including his
Horn Concerto, Op. 91, and the unusual Concerto for Coloratura Soprano (1943), stand up well
against the major works of Borodin and Glazunov.
Glière wrote four short pieces for bass, two published as Op.9 and the others as Op.32.
Both pair were almost certainly composed for the Russian bassist-turned-conductor Serge
Koussevitzky, whom Glière is known to have assisted in the preparation of Koussevitzky’s own
Double Bass Concerto.
The Intermezzo, Opus 9 No.1 is a graceful waltz that shows the best side of salon music.
Cast in a simple ternary form, the music is harmonically inventive, and shows skillful variation
in the restatement of the A section and coda. Koussevitzky doubtless played it as an encore as
well as on recital programs.
***
As its title implies, Vocalise has its origins in vocal music: it is the last of 14 songs by
Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943) published as Op.34 in 1912. Though he is best known as a
composer for piano and orchestra, between 1890 and 1916 Rachmaninoff wrote some eighty
songs for voice and piano, many of which set texts by Russia’s great authors, including Pushkin,
Tolstoi, and Lermontov.
Vocalise is unlike any of them, simply because it has no text. There is only one known
Russian precedent for this concept: Igor Stravinsky’s Pastorale of 1907. Vocalise has become
far better known than the Stravinsky work, and served as a model for Reinhold Glière in his
Concerto for Coloratura and Orchestra, Op. 82 (1943).
Although it was published with the Opus 34 songs, Vocalise postdates the others in that
group by several years, and fully ten years after the earliest of Opus 34. Rachmaninoff dedicated
it to Antonina Nezhdanova, a soprano he accompanied during the 1912-1913 season. Initially,
she questioned why it had no words. “What need is there of words,” Rachmaninoff asked her,
“when you will be able to convey everything better and more expressively by your voice and
interpretation than anyone could with words?” Evidently this compliment to her artistry satisfied
her, for Vocalise remained textless.
Serge Koussevitzky’s widow Olga claimed that Rachmaninoff had originally composed
Vocalise for her husband, then altered the dedication after the two had a disagreement. The story
is apocryphal but much beloved to bass players, who like to claim Vocalise as their own.
Rachmaninoff is said to have favored the idea that the piece would be performed like a
Bach aria. Nikolai Struve, a composer who was also on the editorial board of Editions Russes de
Musique, recommended that he prepare an orchestral version. Since then, the piece has also
been transcribed for virtually every solo instrument.
***
"The Paganini of the double bass," they called him during his lifetime. Giovanni
Bottesini (1821-1889) may be all but forgotten today, but in the mid-19th century he was
renowned throughout Europe and the Americas as a double bass virtuoso, conductor, and
composer. In an era when travel across the ocean was time-consuming and risky, he managed to
tour the United States twice by 1853. He also conducted in Paris, Russia, Scandinavia and
Spain, finding a particularly warm reception on the podium of international opera houses.
Tender, lyrical, and romantic, the Elegy No.1 in D major has deservedly become one of
Bottesini’s most widely performed works. The Tarantella furnishes maximum contrast: an
extroverted and flashy bravura showpiece. The composer opens with a dramatic introduction
culminating in an unaccompanied solo cadenza; the dizzying tarantella theme unfolds as a rondo
with episodes, finishing with a spectacular flourish. Both pieces attest to Bottesini’s virtuosity
and musicianship.
***
Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992) capitalized on the universal appeal of his native Argentina’s
celebrated tango. Before his death nineteen years ago, he was known as the “king of the nuevo
tango” in his homeland. His list of works is peppered with examples: Etudes tanguistiques for
flute (1987), Tango Suite for two guitars (1983), Seven Tangos and Milongas for solo guitar
(1980), and Histoire du Tango (1986). Several more fancifully named works are also tangos:
Acentuado & Romantico, Milonga del Angel, La Muerte del Angel and Oblivión, all for guitar.
Contrabajeando, which dates from the early 1950s, is a play on contrabajo, Spanish for
double bass. Of Piazzolla’s three works for solo bass, Contrabajeando is the most soloistic. The
piece was a collaboration between Piazzolla and Anibal “Pichuco” Troilo, another bandoneón
player and bandleader who was employer, mentor, and colleague to Piazzolla. Troilo wrote the
opening cadenza for this piece, but the balance is Piazzolla’s work: still a tango, but adding
harmonic and rhythmic touches that stamp it as his own.