12 minute read
Phillipe Quint: Charlie Chaplin's Smile (Live Stream
PHILIPPE QUINT: CHARLIE CHAPLIN’S SMILE
Support for this program generously provided by
SATURDAY, APRIL 10, 2021 · 7 PM
THE BAKER-BAUM CONCERT HALL
(1862-1918) CHAPLIN Tango Bitterness from Monsieur Verdoux (1947) (arr. by Quint and Coleman) STRAVINSKY Tango (1940)
(1898-1937) CHAPLIN Weeping Willows from A King in New York (1957) (arr. by Quint and Coleman) Terry’s Theme (“Eternally”) from Limelight (1952) (arr. by Quint and Coleman) BRAHMS Hungarian Dance No. 5 in F-sharp Minor (arr. by Joachim)
(1840-1893) CHAPLIN The Kid Fantasy from The Kid (1921) (arr. by Leon Gurvitch) Theme (“Smile”) from Modern Times (1936) (arr. by Quint and Coleman) Philippe Quint, violin; Jun Cho, piano
Composed by Charlie Chaplin with musical arrangements by Arthur Johnson and musical direction by Alfred Newman. This was the first film score composed by Chaplin and he did so in a period of six weeks. The score’s main theme, La Violetera, was borrowed from Spanish composer Jose Padilla, to whom Chaplin lost a lawsuit for not crediting the composer for the leitmotiv of the Flower Girl’s Theme.
Clair de lune (Moonlight), third movement of Suite bergamasque by Claude Debussy, a piano depiction of a Paul Verlaine poem. Upon meeting Chaplin in Paris, Debussy exclaimed: “You are instinctively a musician and a dancer.”
Composed by Charlie Chaplin with musical arrangement and direction by Rudolf Schrager. Inspired by a film concept originally suggested by Orson Welles, Monsieur Verdoux is a black comedy starring Chaplin in a role greatly departing that of The Little Tramp. The story is based on that of bigamist and serial killer Henri Desire Landru and the film was Oscar-nominated for Best Screen Play.
Tango (1940) IGOR STRAVINSKY
After settling in Hollywood, Stravinsky found himself with financial difficulties. He decided to write new compositions entirely in America in order to exploit them, with the exclusive intention of making money. Tango, which was the first work entirely written in America, is one of those works. His encounter with Chaplin for a potential collaboration, did not yield any results in the end.
Paying a direct homage to Rhapsody in Blue in parts of his score of Modern Times, Chaplin was a big admirer of Gershwin’s music. “It Ain't Necessarily So" is one of the most well-known songs from Gershwin’s immortal opera Porgy and Bess (1935).
Composed by Charlie Chaplin with musical arrangements by Boris Sarbek. The score to A King in New York ironically produced popular tunes while simultaneously mocking social trends, celebrity status, and popular culture. This is another of Chaplin’s films not familiar to American audiences until its US release in 1973.
Composed by Charlie Chaplin with musical arrangements by Raymond Rasch and musical direction by Larry Russell. Although originally released in 1952, Chaplin was exiled from the US in that same year and Limelight was not seen by American audiences until 1972, winning the Oscar for best musical score in 1973.
Brahms’s Hungarian Dance No. 5 accompanies one of the most well-known scenes in The Great Dictator. A film where Chaplin plays both leading roles: a ruthless fascist dictator and a persecuted Jewish barber. It has been said that Hungarian Dances possibly paved the way for Ragtime.
Mélodie in E-flat Major, which Tchaikovsky also described it as a "chant sans paroles" is part his Souvenir d'un lieu cher. Chaplin had great appreciation for a beautiful melody, and Tchaikovsky was a great source of his musical inspirations sometimes borrowing a theme or two for his films and sometimes using Tchaikovsky’s score in its entirety, such his waltz from the ballet Sleeping Beauty that can be heard in Chaplin’s Gold Rush.
The Kid is a 1921 American silent comedy-drama film written by, produced by, directed by, and starring Charlie Chaplin, and features Jackie Coogan as his adopted son and side-kick. This was Chaplin's first full-length film as a director. It is here yet again that Chaplin revisits his favorite Tchaikovsky score of the first movement of the Sixth Symphony and makes his own version of the main theme that becomes a leitmotiv of the film’s soundtrack.
“Smile” is a song based on an instrumental theme used in the soundtrack for Charlie Chaplin's 1936 movie Modern Times. Chaplin composed the music, inspired by Puccini's Tosca. John Turner and Geoffrey Parsons added the lyrics and title in 1954. In the lyrics, based on lines and themes from the film, the singer is telling the listener to cheer up and that there is always a bright tomorrow, just as long as they smile. “Smile” has become a popular standard since its original use in Chaplin's film.
PRELUDE 6:30 PM
Webinar lecture by Eric Bromberger
SUNDAY, APRIL 11, 2021 · 7 PM
THE BAKER-BAUM CONCERT HALL
(1833-1897)
Allegro non troppo Allegretto quasi Menuetto Allegro Alisa Weilerstein, cello; Inon Barnatan, piano ARENSKY Piano Trio in D Minor, Opus 32
(1861-1906) Allegro moderato
Scherzo: Allegro molto
Elegia: Adagio
Finale: Allegro non troppo Inon Barnatan, piano; Philippe Quint, violin; Alisa Weilerstein, cello
Inon Barnatan and Alisa Weilerstein last performed for La Jolla Music Society in a Special Event on April 10, 2021. Philippe Quint last performed for La Jolla Music Society in the ProtoStar Innovative Series on April 10, 2021
Program Notes by Eric Bromberger
Born May 7, 1833, Hamburg Died April 3, 1897, Vienna Composed: 1862-65 Approximate Duration: 25 minutes
Born in the slums of Hamburg, Brahms rose from that grim setting to become a brilliant success: the young man’s piano-playing and compositions were quickly hailed throughout the German-speaking countries. Brahms had always assumed that he would make his career in Hamburg, and one achievement in particular would crown his rise from so modest a past to shining success—he wanted to be named conductor of the Hamburg Philharmonic.
But it was not to be, and several events combined to change the direction of Brahms’ life and career. The first came early in 1862, when the 29-year-old composer visited Vienna for the first time. He was enthralled to walk the streets where Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert, and so many others had lived and worked, and he quickly extended what had been planned as a short visit to that fabled city. The second event was devastating—while in Vienna, Brahms learned that the post with the Hamburg Philharmonic had gone to someone else. He was crushed, and even as an old man the memory of that rejection would haunt him. It was also a life-changer: Brahms gave up any thought of making his career in Hamburg and decided to move to Vienna.
He would remain there for the final thirty-five years of his life and come to love that city, but his entry took place only gradually. A number of his new Viennese friends encouraged the move, and one of them in particular—the cellist Josef Gänsbacher—helped arrange his appointment as conductor of the Singakademie, a choral society in Vienna. Once established in this position in his new city, Brahms wrote several compositions that he hoped would help establish his reputation there.
The Cello Sonata in E Minor was one of these new works, and it comes as no surprise that he dedicated it to Gänsbacher, who would remain a lifelong friend. Brahms began this sonata in 1862, during his first months to Vienna, and quickly completed three movements. But he then set it aside for three years, and when he returned to it in 1865, he cut one of those movements (an Adagio) and composed a new finale. Doubtless Gänsbacher played the sonata privately in Vienna before its publication in 1866.
The Sonata in E Minor was the first of Brahms’ seven duo-sonatas, and it brought the eternal problem of trying to balance one stringed instrument against the massive tonal resources of the piano. Brahms compounds that problem in this sonata by keeping the cello for the most part in its lower register. This may challenge the performers, but it gives the music its wonderful dark, rich sound.
The cello sings the noble opening theme of the Allegro non troppo, rising quietly from the depths over steady chordal accompaniment. Brahms is quite explicit in his instructions to the performers, reminding them throughout this movement that their playing should be espressivo, legato, and dolce. A second subject, announced first by the cello, is passionate and surging, and a lovely chorale for piano serves as a closing theme for the exposition. The development and recapitulation in this massive movement are dramatic, and Brahms winds all this turbulence down beautifully by closing out the movement with the chorale theme.
The haunting Allegretto quasi Menuetto is poised and delicate music, with the melodic line moving easily between the two instruments. The piano’s first four notes, a sort of introductory tag, haunt the minuet and then— ingeniously—become the basis for the flowing trio section. Many have felt the influence of Bach, one of Brahms’ favorite composers, on the finale. It opens with a powerful fugue, and the fugue subject appears to have been derived from the Contrapunctus XIII of Bach’s The Art of the Fugue. The piano has the first statement of this subject, which takes its energy from the powerful opening octave drop. But the structure in this movement is ingenious: that fugal beginning is only the exposition of the first theme, and the appearance of a second theme group—announced by the cello—sets the movement in a sort of modified sonata form. Much of the development, though, returns to the contrapuntal intricacies of the opening fugue, and this development is distinctive for its relentless logic and energy. A Più presto coda drives the sonata to its thunderous conclusion.
Piano Trio in D Minor, Opus 32 ANTON ARENSKY
Born July 12, 1861, Novgorod, Russia Died February 25, 1906, Terioki, Finland Composed: 1894 Approximate Duration: 30 minutes
The son of two passionate amateur musicians, Anton Stepanovich Arensky had his first piano lessons from his mother and was already composing by age nine. He studied with Rimsky-Korsakov at the St. Petersburg Conservatory and received the gold medal on his graduation in 1882. That same year, at age 21, Arensky became professor of harmony at the Moscow Conservatory, where he was a friend and colleague of Tchaikovsky and taught Rachmaninoff, Scriabin, and Gliere (the grateful Rachmaninoff dedicated his first tone poem, Prince Rostislav, to his teacher). Arensky served as head of the Imperial Chapel in St. Petersburg from 1895 until 1901, when he retired on a generous pension and devoted himself to composition and to performing. But those plans were cut short: Arensky died at age 44 from tuberculosis, and Rimsky-Korsakov noted grimly that his early death had been hastened by a lifelong fondness for cards and alcohol.
Arensky was a prolific composer—he wrote three operas, ballet, symphonies, concertos, and chamber music—but almost all of this music has disappeared from the concert hall: of his 75 opus numbers, only the Piano Trio in D Minor remains an established part of the repertory. Arensky wrote this trio in 1894 and dedicated it to the memory of Russian cellist Karl Davidov (1838-1889), who had served for several years as principal cellist of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and who had been head of the St. Petersburg Conservatory when Arensky was a student there. Arensky has been described as an “eclectic” composer, and the influence of Tchaikovsky is strong here. Some have also heard the influence of Mendelssohn, whose own Piano Trio in D Minor is one of the most famous in the literature.
The opening Allegro moderato is a big movement in sonata form based on two principal ideas: the violin’s soaring opening melody and a more subdued second subject announced by the cello. The movement is dramatic, but Arensky surprises us with its conclusion: he slows the tempo to Adagio, and after all the excitement the movement comes to an unexpectedly quiet conclusion. The ternary-form Scherzo has a brilliant beginning where the violinist alternates harmonics, spiccatos, and pizzicatos over swirling piano runs; the middle section is a good-natured waltz with the strings dancing above the piano’s rollicking accompaniment. Rather than offering a da capo repeat of the opening section, Arensky fashions a new closing section from that same material.
The third movement, marked Elegia, is the memorial for Davidov, and Arensky has the muted cello—Davidov’s own instrument—introduce the grieving main theme, which is quickly picked up by the violin. The delicate center section of this movement sounds the most “Tchaikovsky-an,” but this sunlight is short-lived, and the somber opening material returns to bring the movement to its close.
The opening of the finale seems consciously dramatic, built on contrasting blocks of sound: the piano’s massive dotted chords and string passagework in octaves and tremolos make for a portentous beginning. All seems set for a conventional spirited finale, but the conclusion brings some surprises: just as Beethoven had done in the finale of his Ninth Symphony, Arensky now revisits themes from earlier movements, bringing back the middle section of the slow movement and the opening theme of the first movement. The trio concludes with a brisk coda derived from the opening of the finale itself.
Arensky was the pianist at the première of the Trio in D Minor in December 1894, when he was joined by violinist Jan Hrímaly and cellist Anatoly Brandukov. Shortly after that premiere, those three recorded the trio on wax cylinders in what was one of the earliest recordings ever made of classical music. The performance is not complete, and the sound is dim, but that recording takes us back over a century in time to Imperial Russia and lets us hear Arensky play. Those interested can find excerpts of that recording on YouTube.
