BRUCKNER E MINOR MASS

LEONARD BERNSTEIN (1918-1990)

THREE DANCE EPISODES FROM ON THE TOWN (1944)

Scored for: piccolo, flute, oboe, English horn, Eb clarinet, bass clarinet, alto saxophone, two horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, piano and strings Performance time: 11 minutes First Grant Park Orchestra performance: June 19, 1993, Kenneth Jean, conductor

Not long after his conducting debut with the New York Philharmonic in November 1943, the 25-year-old Leonard Bernstein was approached by choreographer Jerome Robbins to write a ballet about sailors on leave in New York. This jazzy ballet, Fancy Free, premiered in April 1944 and helped to catapult Bernstein’s compositional career. Coming off the ballet’s success, Bernstein and Robbins decided to turn it into a full musical called On the Town. They enlisted the help of Bernstein’s young friends Betty Comden and Adolph Green to write the book and lyrics. In fact, Bernstein and Green worked on the musical together while they were both recuperating from surgery in the same hospital—Bernstein for a deviated septum and Green for a tonsillectomy. They would often erupt in laughter and song, much to the chagrin and amusement of the attending nurses.

On the Town, Bernstein’s first musical, retained only the basic plot of Fancy Free, centering on the amorous adventures of three sailors on 24-hour shore leave in New York City during World War II. The wartime romcom was an immediate success when it premiered in 1944, and MGM quickly bought the rights to make it into a movie starring Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra, which was released in 1949. However, most of Bernstein’s original music was not retained in the film version.

Bernstein chose three of the dance episodes from On the Town to form an orchestral suite, which premiered in 1946. Dance was naturally a central part of the musical due to the collaboration with Robbins. Like all of Bernstein’s dance music, the dance music in On the Town rose to a level of orchestral complexity never before seen on Broadway. In fact, one Boston critic wrote shortly after the premiere that Bernstein’s music was “an energetic blend of Stravinsky and Gershwin,” while veteran theater director George Abbott jokingly called it “that Prokofiev stuff.”

The first dance episode is “The Great Lover.” In this scene, Gabey has fallen in love with a subway poster beauty queen dubbed “Miss Turnstiles.” In dogged pursuit of this idealized woman, Gabey falls asleep on the subway and dreams of sweeping her off her feet. The music in this episode reflects both Gabey’s naiveté and determination. The second episode, “Lonely Town—Pas de Deux,” takes a more melancholic turn as Gabey watches a fellow sailor seduce then abandon a girl in Central Park. He laments that without love, New York is just a lonely town. The final episode, “Times Square—1944,” presents a panoramic view of a bustling Times Square as the sailors embark on their night of fun. The most famous tune from the musical, “New York, New York, it’s a helluva town,” makes a brief cameo in this exuberant scene. In this moment, the music captures not only the sailors’ joi de vivre, but also that of the young composer soaking up his meteoric rise to stardom.

MARGARET BROUWER (b. 1940)

CONCERTO FOR VIOLA AND ORCHESTRA (2010)

Scored for: pairs of woodwinds plus piccolo, four horns, two trumpets, two trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, harp, strings and solo viola Performance time: 25 minutes

First Grant Park Orchestra performance

Margaret Brouwer’s Concerto for Viola & Orchestra was commissioned by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra in 2010 and dedicated to and premiered by her friend, the longtime principal violist of the Dallas Symphony, Ellen Rose. Brouwer’s compositional style resists categorization—she responds to centuries of musical styles and traditions by combining contemporary frameworks such as twelve-tone rows with ancient sounds such as plainchant, and uses unique instrument combinations and extended techniques to find new colors and timbres within an orchestra. She uses all of these techniques in her Concerto for Viola & Orchestra to wonderful effect.

As a former professional violinist, Brouwer is especially sensitive to writing for the viola in her concerto. The viola is by nature a blending instrument. It serves as the backbone of the orchestra by marrying the brighter violins and the richer cellos. Consequently, it is difficult for the viola to stand out as a solo instrument if there is overly heavy orchestration. Brouwer manages to keep the viola soloist in the forefront by using sparser accompanimental textures during the softer moments, offsetting the rich, honey-hued sounds of the viola with a unique combination of harp, marimba, and vibraphone to produce a ringing quality the viola lacks.

The concerto follows the loose narrative of an individual’s emotional internal journey (embodied by the soloist). The name of the first movement, Caritas, comes from the Gregorian plainchant, Ubi caritas (Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est—Where charity and love are, God is there), the melody of which acts as both a musical and spiritual thread between each of the movements. The movement begins in a mood of questioning and anxiety. The viola soloist enters straight away, as the composer writes, “charged with intensity.” Underneath the turmoil of the viola, the orchestra creates an atmosphere of “blurred color” using fragments of the ancient chant. Eventually, the viola’s passionate mood is quelled by the calming influence of the orchestra and is transfigured into something more compassionate and peaceful. The first movement contains the widest variety of musical styles, biggest transformation in mood, and clearest statement of the Ubi caritas theme of the whole concerto. The second movement, “…fair as the moon, bright as the sun”, continues the concerto’s religious theme by quoting the biblical Song of Songs in its title. Brouwer calls it “simply a love song.” It exudes pleasure and warmth and suggests a pastoral scene with the opening musical instruction reading, “Like light wind through white clouds.” The third movement, “Blithesome Spirit,” is of a completely different affect. It is highly virtuosic for the soloist, full of difficult rhythms, changing meters, and extended techniques in rapid succession, lending the movement a buoyant and at times mischievous quality.