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Program Notes
BÉLA BARTÓK
born: March 25, 1881 in Nagyszentmiklós, Hungary died: September 26, 1945 in New York, New York
Suite from The Miraculous Mandarin
Opus 19 (1926)
premiere: November 27, 1926 in Cologne, Germany
approx. duration: 20 minutes
Béla Bartók’s ballet The Miraculous Mandarin is based upon the shocking story of the same name by Hungarian author Menyhért Lengyel, first published in the journal Nyugat on January 1, 1917. Bartók took a great interest in the tale, and asked his piano teacher and friend, István Thomán, to approach Lengyel about the possibility of a musical adaptation. By postcard of March 28, 1918, Thomán informed Bartók: “Menyhért Lengyel would be delighted if you set the Mandarin to music.” Bartók and Lengyel met on June 21, 1918, and the two signed a letter of agreement to proceed with The Miraculous Mandarin project.
Bartók began composition of The Miraculous Mandarin in September of 1918. “I am now thinking about the Mandarin too,” he wrote. “It will be hellish music if I succeed.” Bartók completed the score in June of the following year. Lengyel was thrilled with the results, as attested by a July 5, 1919 entry in his diary: “The other day Béla Bartók played for us on the piano the music of The Miraculous Mandarin…Wonderful music! Incomparable talent!”
To this day, many are taken aback by The Miraculous Mandarin’s graphic depiction of robbery, seduction, sexual longing, and murder. However, both Bartók and Lengyel found beauty and humanity in the story. As Lengyel wrote: “The true message of The Miraculous Mandarin, of course, is not the excessive eroticism but the apotheosis of pure, almost unearthly desire and love.” Lengyel’s tale moved Bartók to achieve one of his greatest orchestral creations, a brilliant score as “miraculous” as the ballet’s enigmatic title character.
These concerts feature Bartók’s 1928 Suite, fashioned from the original ballet score. It presents, in essence, the first two-thirds of the complete ballet, with a concert ending.
The story of The Miraculous Mandarin takes place in a tenement in a crowded metropolis. Three penniless thugs force a young woman to stand by the window to lure men up to the apartment. The woman seduces a shabby old rake, and later, a shy young man, up to the apartment. As both have no money, the thugs eject them. The woman then attracts a mysterious figure, a Mandarin. She begins to dance for him. The Mandarin views the woman — impassively at first, but soon with increased longing. When the Mandarin tries to embrace the woman, she frees herself. A violent chase ensues and when the Mandarin finally catches the woman, they fight. [It is at this point that the concert Suite ends.]
The thugs emerge from hiding and rob the Mandarin of all his belongings. They try to kill the Mandarin, first by suffocating him, then by running him through with a rusty sword. However, the Mandarin survives, his eyes constantly fixed upon the woman. The thugs then hang the Mandarin, but again he refuses to die. They cut the Mandarin down, and the woman finally yields to him. The Mandarin’s wounds begin to bleed, and he expires.
JOHN ADAMS
born: February 15, 1947 in Worcester, Massachusetts
Dr. Atomic Symphony (2007)
premiere: August 21, 2007 in London
approx. duration: 25 minutes
John Adams composed his opera Dr. Atomic in response to a suggestion in 1999 by Pamela Rosenberg, then general director of the San Francisco Opera. Rosenberg conceived of an “American Faust” opera, based upon J. Robert Oppenheimer (1904-67), the American physicist who served as scientific director of the Manhattan Project, the top-secret research and development of the first nuclear weapons in Los Alamos, New Mexico. Adams collaborated on the opera with the acclaimed director, Peter Sellars. At Adams’ suggestion, Sellars fashioned a libretto derived from the actual words of the characters portrayed in Dr. Atomic. In addition, the libretto includes writings by John Donne, Charles Baudelaire, and Muriel Rukeyser, the Bhagavad Gita, as well as Native American songs and legends.
The first performance of Dr. Atomic took place at the War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco, California, on October 1, 2005, with Donald Runnicles conducting the soloists, Chorus, and Orchestra of the San Francisco Opera. The Dr. Atomic Symphony, based upon music from the opera, premiered at London’s Royal Albert Hall on August 21, 2007, with the composer conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra.
Programme Note for BBC Symphony Orchestra
The symphony is cast in a sustained, 25-minute singlemovement arch, not unlike the Sibelius Seventh Symphony, a work that has had an immense effect on Adams’s compositional thinking. The opening, with its pounding timpani and Varèse-like jagged brass fanfares, conjures a devastated post-nuclear landscape. The frenzied “panic music” that follows comes from one of Act Two’s feverish tableaux that evoke the fierce electrical storm that lashed the test site in the hours before the bomb’s detonation. The ensuing music is taken from moments that describe the intense activity leading up to the test. One hears the US Army General Leslie Groves, here impersonated in the boorish trombone music, berating both the scientists and his military subordinates, music that gives way to the ritual “corn dance” of the local Tewa Indians. The symphony concludes with an instrumental treatment of the opera’s most memorable moment, a setting (originally for baritone voice, here played by solo trumpet) of John Donne’s holy sonnet, “Batter my heart, threeperson’d God”. This is the poem that the physicist hero of the opera, J. Robert Oppenheimer, loved and that inspired him to name the desert test site “Trinity.”
Reprinted with kind permission of Boosey & Hawkes.
SERGEI RACHMANINOFF
born: April 1, 1873 in Semyonovo, Russia
died: March 28, 1943 in Beverly Hills, California
Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor
Opus 30 (1909)
premiere: November 28, 1909 in New York
approx. duration: 40 minutes
In the summer of 1909, Sergei Rachmaninoff received an invitation to make his first concert tour of the United States. The Russian pianist/composer/conductor had grave misgivings about leaving his family and homeland for such an extended period of time. But Rachmaninoff, who had developed a passion for motorcars, was swayed by the generous fees offered. As Rachmaninoff confessed to a friend: “I don’t want to go. But then perhaps after America I’ll be able to buy myself that automobile…It may not be so bad after all!”
The American concert tour featured Rachmaninoff as both pianist and conductor in performances of his compositions. During the summer of 1909, he authored a new work for that tour — his Third Piano Concerto. In October, Rachmaninoff began his voyage to the United States. During the voyage, Rachmaninoff practiced on a silent keyboard.
On November 28, 1909, at the New Theater in New York City, Rachmaninoff appeared as soloist in the world premiere of his Third Piano Concerto. Walter Damrosch conducted the Symphony Society of New York. On January 16, 1910, an historic collaboration took place at Carnegie Hall, when Rachmaninoff again performed his Third Piano Concerto — this time with the New York Philharmonic. The conductor was the Orchestra’s Music Director, the great Austrian composer Gustav Mahler.
After that performance, the critic for the New York Herald offered this prophetic commentary about the Rachmaninoff Third Concerto:
The work grows in impressiveness upon acquaintance and will doubtless rank among the most interesting piano concertos of recent years, although its great length and extreme difficulties bar it from performances by any but pianists of exceptional technical powers.
We are fortunate that there have been many superb artists willing to confront the phenomenal technical demands imposed by Rachmaninoff, one of the greatest pianists. When the hurdles are overcome, the Rachmaninoff Third emerges as a summit of the Romantic piano concerto — a masterful fusion of virtuoso pyrotechnics, unforgettable melody, and lush orchestration.
The Concerto No. 3 is in three movements. In the opening movement (Allegro ma non tanto), the soloist enters after two bars of orchestral introduction, playing the first of two principal themes. The movement is notable throughout for the soloist’s dazzling passagework. The slow-tempo second movement is a lyrical Intermezzo (Adagio), with a vivacious central passage. A dramatic passage, launched by the soloist, serves as a bridge to the Finale (Alla breve), which follows without pause. The soloist presents the fanfare-like opening theme. Later, a series of syncopated chords by the soloist develops into the flowing second theme. In the closing measures, a glorious declaration of the second theme, capped by a dazzling cascade of notes by the soloist, brings the Concerto to a rousing close.
