Program Notes

WANG JIEborn: 1980 in Shanghai, China

Symphonic Overture “America, the Beautiful” (2016)

premiere: October 22, 2016 in Colorado Springsapprox. duration: 6 minutes

American composer Wang Jie was born and raised in Shanghai. There, she studied piano and composition with Yang Liqing. In the United States, Wang Jie attended the Curtis Institute of Music (Artist Diploma), Manhattan School of Music (Master and Bachelor of Music), and New York University (Ph.D. in music theory and composition). Her compositions are performed throughout the world, and she is the recipient of numerous awards and honors.

Those near and dear have a nickname for me: “part-time monkey.” A hiker, rock climber, mischievous spirit and lover of adventure on mountains and cliffs, I have been waiting for this piece my whole life. When the Colorado Springs Philharmonic asked me to compose a concert opener inspired by Pikes Peak and the patriotic song “America, the Beautiful,” I said yes without hesitation. My desire was answered in the most cosmic, karma-istic way. I was mystified. Several ideas knocked at my door, demanded full attention. It was an all-or-nothing deal. Aside from my monkey business, I am an American. Hearing “O beautiful…” and “purple mountain majesties” stirs me. In today’s fractured political climate, this song brings the nation together in our shared love for this shining land and all it represents; this song is a well of hope. Fractured but full of hope, I re-harmonized “America, the Beautiful” and placed the song at the core of this overture.

Once my inner patriot provided structure, the part-time monkey animated sections with her usual quirks. Tracing the unique silhouette of Pikes Peak to the letter, I began part II of this overture with a fugue subject that musicalizes the signature contour of the entire mountain region. And once the fugue starts, it can’t be stopped.

The rest of Symphonic Overture is a generous collection of motivic sparks from the song “America, the Beautiful”. Some obvious. Others reserved for happy discoveries of multiple listening. You don’t think I’m going to hand it all to you in one performance, do you?

—Wang Jie

PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKYborn: May 7, 1840 in Kamsko-Votkinsk, Russiadied: November 6, 1893 in St. Petersburg, Russia

Variations on a Rococo Theme, Opus 33 (1876)

premiere: November 30, 1877 in Moscowapprox. duration: 18 minutes

Tchaikovsky composed his Variations on a Rococo Theme for his colleague at the Moscow Conservatory, German cellist Wilhelm Fitzenhagen. Tchaikovsky dedicated the score to Fitzenhagen, who appeared as soloist in the November 30, 1877 Moscow premiere, conducted by Nikolay Rubinstein.

Fitzenhagen made numerous revisions to the solo part as conceived by Tchaikovsky. He also modified Tchaikovsky’s order of the variations, and even cut the eighth (and final) variation. Needless to say, Tchaikovsky was far from pleased. Still, Fitzenhagen’s version of the Rococo Variations remains the one most frequently performed.

Tchaikovsky was unreserved in his praise for Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, whom he called, “the greatest of all composers.” Tchaikovsky fervently believed that Mozart achieved “the highest, most perfect culmination ever attained by beauty in the realm of music.” In the Rococo Variations, Tchaikovsky employs a theme (of his own composition) that harks back to Mozart’s era. The instrumentation, too, recalls an ensemble of Mozart’s time. Still, the work is far from a rehash of an 18th-century composition. Rather, it offers a charming fusion of eras and styles, with Tchaikovsky’s sublime lyrical gifts and mastery of orchestration gracing every bar.

The Variations on a Rococo Theme open with an orchestral prelude (Moderato quasi Andante). The soloist then presents the central “Rococo” theme (Thema. Moderato semplice). A series of seven variations on that theme ensues:

Var. I. Tempo del ThemaVar. II. Tempo del ThemaVar. III. Andante sostenutoVar. IV. Andante graziosoVar. V. Allegro moderatoVar. VI. AndanteVar. VII. e Coda. Allegro vivo

German cellist Wilhelm Fitzenhagen

JOHANNES BRAHMSborn: May 7, 1833 in Hamburg, Germanydied: April 3, 1897 in Vienna, Austria

Symphony No. 1 in C minor Opus 68 (1876)

premiere: November 4, 1876 in Karlsruhe, Germany approx. duration: 45 minutes

As early as 1853, prominent musicians, including Robert Schumann, urged the young Johannes Brahms to try his hand at symphonic composition. Brahms resisted. As late as 1870, Brahms wrote to conductor Hermann Levi: “I shall never write a symphony. You have no idea the likes of us feel when we hear the tramp of a giant like him beside us.” Here, Brahms referred to the great shadow cast by Ludwig van Beethoven and his epochal Nine Symphonies.

It was not until 1876 that Brahms completed his First Symphony. Some biographers believe that Brahms may have begun as early as 1855 to work on the score. We do know that in 1862, Brahms shared a draft of the proposed opening movement both with pianist Clara Schumann and conductor Albert Hermann Dietrich. On September 12, 1868, Brahms sent Clara a letter, containing an alphorn melody to which he set the following words: “Thus blew the shepherd’s horn to-day. High on the mountain, deep in the valley, I send you a thousand greetings.” That melody appears as the great horn call in the introduction to the finale of the C-minor Symphony.

It should also be noted that during the lengthy period Brahms wrestled with the creation of his First Symphony, he did successfully compose for orchestra. Perhaps the two orchestral Serenades (1858 and 1859) and the sublime Haydn Variations (1873) helped to steel Brahms’s courage and resolve. Three years after the Haydn Variations, Brahms completed his First Symphony. Brahms was 43 years old.

The premiere took place in Karlsruhe, under the direction of Otto Dessoff on November 4, 1876. Beethoven had been dead nearly half a century. Nonetheless, comparisons with the man Brahms called a “giant” were inevitable. The Brahms First charts a dramatic journey from C minor to C major, as does Beethoven’s Fifth. A four-note motif, also reminiscent of the famous opening theme of the Beethoven Fifth, plays a prominent role the first movement. A friend of Brahms noted the similarity of the finale’s principal melody to the "Ode to Joy” in Beethoven’s Ninth (to this observation, Brahms responded: “any ass can see that!”).

The eminent conductor Hans von Bülow dubbed the work “Beethoven’s Tenth.” Although Bülow certainly meant that as a compliment, it provided Brahms no great satisfaction.

For Brahms’s part, it seems that the completion of his First Symphony liberated him from the paralyzing specter of Beethoven’s imposing legacy. Three more Symphonies followed over the ensuing decade — each, like the first, a monument of the late 19th-century orchestral repertoire. In time, it became abundantly clear that in his Four Symphonies, Brahms, a musical descendent of Beethoven, spoke very much in his own voice — a voice of Romantic lyricism, passion, and grandeur.

The Symphony’s opening movement begins with a dramatic, slow-tempo introduction (Un poco sostenuto), featuring the timpani’s relentless hammer-blows and hints of the ensuing Allegro’s thematic material. Another brusque chord launches the Allegro proper and the strings’ forte presentation of the ascending and descending theme that is the nucleus for the movement’s thematic material. Two relatively brief movements follow. The radiant second movement (Andante sostenuto) concludes with a shimmering violin solo. The third (Un poco Allegretto e grazioso) is a graceful intermezzo. As with the opening movement, the finale begins with an extended slow-tempo introduction (Adagio). The principal section of the finale (Allegro non troppo, ma con brio) opens with the broad, majestic theme that bears a kinship to Beethoven’s "Ode to Joy.” Storm and stress finally resolve to the triumphant closing measures.