23 minute read
Program Notes
Program Notes
DAVID B. LEVY
Astor Piazzolla arr. Leonid Desyatnikov
The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires (Las Quatros Estaciones Porteñas) (1965/1970; arr. 1996–1998)
The Argentinean composer Astor Piazzolla was born on March 11, 1921, in Mar del Plata and died on July 5, 1992, in Buenos Aires. He was a noted bandleader and performer on the bandoneón, a squareshaped, button-operated accordion associated with folk idioms of Argentina, especially the tango. Piazzolla, more than any other composer and performer, was responsible for international interest in the tango as a dance and art form. He is credited with creating his own distinctive kind of tango, known as “nuevo tango,” a style that fused the traditional dance with modern compositional techniques, including jazz. His Four Seasons of Buenos Aires were composed in 1965 and 1970 for a quintet of instruments led by the bandoneón. The works were later arranged and transcribed for solo violin and string orchestra by the Kharkiv-born and Leningrad-trained composer Leonid Desyatnikov (b. 1955).
Los porteños (“the people of the port”) is a name associated with the workingclass society of Buenos Aires. It is this stratum of Argentinean society from which Piazzolla and his “new tango” arises. In 1965, the composer wrote music for a play by Alberto Rodriguez Muñoz entitled Melenita de oro using the instrumentation of his Quinteto Nuevo Tango, which included bandoneón, violin, electric guitar, piano, and string bass. Among the music for this play was a piece called “Verano Porteño,” which represented summer in Buenos Aires. Later, in 1970, Piazzolla decided to write pieces to represent the other seasons.
Unlike Vivaldi, Piazzolla’s original intention, as can be seen, was not to write a coherent set of pieces. Indeed, the works had nothing whatsoever to do with Vivaldi until the Russian composer Leonid Desyatnikov made an arrangement of the four works for solo violin and strings that inserted clever references to Vivaldi’s concerto set. Interestingly, Desyatnikov went on to compose his own Russian Seasons for violin, solo voice, and string orchestra. Taken together with Vivaldi’s concertos, the Piazzolla/Desyatnikov works are set in a fascinating context—Baroque Venice meets Buenos Aires tango. ●
Franz Schubert
Symphony No. 5 in B-flat Major, D. 485 (1816)
Franz Peter Schubert was born in Vienna on January 21, 1797, and died there on November 19, 1828. He composed a wide variety of music, but his most enduring contributions were to the repertory of song for voice and piano. As best as can be determined, Schubert composed more than six hundred accompanied songs in his brief life, as well as a large number of solo piano compositions, operas, sacred vocal works, and chamber music. His gift as a lyrical composer may also be heard in his purely instrumental music, including this, his Symphony No. 5, composed in 1816. It is scored for flute, 2 oboes, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, and strings.
The British conductor and analyst Donald Francis Tovey dubbed Schubert’s Symphony No. 5 a “very perfect little work.” Composed between September and October 3, 1816, the piece was first performed by a small group of friends and family at the home of Otto Hatwig, the friend who led the performance. Schubert was not well known as a composer outside of his circle of acquaintances, and his early symphonies are exemplars of the kind of intimate Hausmusik that was not intended for large public audiences or spaces. This, of course, was a far cry from the public presence of Ludwig van Beethoven, who by this time had already
composed, and supervised performances of, his first eight symphonies. The rather modest orchestration, indeed, harkens back to the original instrumentation of Mozart’s Symphony in g minor, K. 550 (No. 40, for which Mozart later added clarinets). Whenever Schubert’s earlier symphonies were performed, he played the viola part. As far as we can tell, the first public performance of Schubert’s Fifth Symphony did not take place until 1873 and was not published until 1885.
Schubert found himself at a crossroads in his own life, now still at the tender age of 19, when he composed this symphony. For years, he had been a frustrated assistant schoolmaster at his father’s institution. He now was determined to abandon this modest, if comfortable, position to pursue his true passion— music—on a full-time basis. From this perspective, we should view the work as the pinnacle of his early maturity.
Each movement of Schubert’s Symphony No. 5 is a masterpiece of structure and, of course, his innate lyrical gift so amply evident in his songs for voice and piano. Schubert was incapable of writing a bad tune, and this symphony is filled with some of his best, most notably in the Andante con moto second movement. An unusual feature of the work’s third movement, Menuetto, is the composer’s deviation from the home key of B-flat Major to the more dramatic key of g minor—the same key as the aforementioned symphony by Mozart. The central section of the movement (Trio) is a pure ray of sunshine, as is the energetic finale, Allegro vivace, despite its occasional dramatic outbursts. ●
Joseph Haydn
Symphony No. 82 in C Major, “The Bear,” Hob. I:82 (1786)
[Franz] Joseph Haydn was born in Rohrau, Lower Austria, on March 31, 1732, and died in Vienna on May 31, 1809. His long and productive career spanned the end of the Baroque Era to the onset of the Romantic. Famed for his incomparable
contribution to the development of the symphony and string quartet, Haydn composed an enormous amount of music in other genres, including sacred choral music. His Symphony No. 82 in C Major stems from the mid-1780s and is among the six symphonies known as the “Paris” Symphonies, composed on commission from the Masonic organization the Loge Olympique. Its subtitle, “The Bear” (“L’Ours”), was not given by the composer. It is scored for flute, 2 oboes, 2 bassoons, 2 horns (or 2 clarini [trumpets]), timpani, and strings.
Joseph Haydn was one of the most fortunate composers of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries in that, starting in 1761, he enjoyed the steady patronage of the wealthy and powerful Esterhazy family of Hungarian Princes, for whom he composed an astonishing large number of compositions. It mattered little to the younger Haydn that his workload was exceedingly heavy and that his compositions were the sole property of his employer. Greater artistic freedom would come his way, and he eventually found his music being performed and published throughout Europe, always with the permission of the Esterhazy prince. As a result, Haydn became one of Europe’s most celebrated composers, whose music, to paraphrase the master himself, was “understood by everyone.”
It is not easy to separate Haydn’s popularity in Paris with the political tenor of the times. The Habsburg Emperor, Joseph II, ruled the Austro-Hungarian empire, at first alongside his mother, Maria Theresia, and alone after her death in 1780. His sister, Marie Antoinette, was betrothed to the dauphin of France, who became King Louis XVI. It was in this fashion that the Habsburgs retained and expanded their power and influence throughout the continent. The fact that two of its musical sons, Haydn and Mozart, represented excellence in musical achievement only added further luster to Austria’s cultural reputation.
It was into this environment that the young French military officer and adjunct postal director of the realm, Claude- François-Marie Rigoley, comte d’Ogny, and Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges decided to commission Haydn for six new symphonies. These were the Symphonies Nos. 82-87, whose excellence nowadays is overshadowed somewhat by the last twelve symphonies Haydn composed for London. ●
Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges
Symphony No. 1 in G Major, Op. 11 (Pub. 1779)
Composer and violinist Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges was born in Baillif, Guadeloupe, on December 25, 1745, and died in Paris, June 9, 1799. He is one of 18th-century music history’s most intriguing figures, long known mainly to music historians but relatively unknown to audiences until recently. Interest in composers of color has led to worldwide renewed interest in his life and music, both of which have allowed his music to emerge from relative, and undeserved, obscurity. As a result, audiences are discovering not only a fresh musical voice from the past, but have restored Bologne’s reputation as a master of many skills, including his fame as a champion fencing master. He wrote two sparkling symphonies, one in G Major and one in D Major. Both are scored for 2 oboes, 2 horns, and strings.
As a graduate student in musicology, the name of Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges was brought to my attention by Professor Barry Brook of the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Brook, whose expertise was in 18th-century music, shared with me and my fellow aspiring musicologists the importance of this composer in the development of the genre known as the symphonie concertante; a cross between symphony and concerto for two or more instruments. This type of composition was especially popular in Paris, but fine examples stemmed from the pens of Haydn, Mozart, and others.
Bologne was the son of a white planter, George Bologne, and his African slave Nanon. The title Chevalier de Saint-Georges became official when his father acquired the title of Gentilhomme ordinaire de la Chambre du roi. The family resettled in France in 1753, after which Joseph began his tutelage as a champion swordsman, leading eventually to his earning the title of Gendarme de la Garde du Roi as well as the title of Chevalier. After George Bologne returned to Guadeloupe, Joseph, who became the beneficiary of an annuity created by his father, remained in France, becoming the darling of the elite, partly based on his expertise as a fencing master. None other than John Adams dubbed him as “the most accomplished man in Europe in riding, shooting, dancing, fencing, and music.”
Much less is known of his early musical training, although evidence suggests he was already known in musical circles as early as 1764, based largely on his skill as a violinist and composer. He soon became the leader (concertmaster) of a new orchestra, the Concerts des Amateurs. This opportunity led to his composition of two concertos for violin that demonstrated his extraordinary skills as a virtuoso. Under his guidance, the orchestra of the Amateurs became one of Europe’s leading ensembles.
His success led in 1776 to a proposal that Joseph be named director of the Paris Opéra, but racism reared its ugly head as a faction petitioned Queen Marie Antionette refused to be governed by a person of mixed race. Louis XVI decided to nationalize the institution, thus blunting Saint-Georges’s critics. As a result, the composer turned his attention increasingly toward the composition of operas. But by the 1780s, he again took up the mantle of orchestra leader and founded the Concert de la Loge Olympique, the organization that commissioned none other than the illustrious Joseph Haydn to compose his six “Paris” Symphonies (Nos. 82-87). While music, opera, and fencing remained central to Saint-Georges’s life, he also became a strong advocate for equality for Black people in France and England. He thus was, and once again has become, a symbol for racial equality. A man of myriad talents is finally receiving richly deserved recognition as an important cultural figure.
His Symphony No. 1 is a cheerful work in three movements. The outer movements are exuberant representatives of the popular galant style of the Classical era. The second movement Andante, cast in D Major, is amiable and features gentle dotted rhythms and plenty of sighing appoggiatura that are so characteristic of the style. ●
George Walker
Lyric for Strings (1946)
American composer, pianist, and organist, George Theophilus Walker was born in Washington, D.C., on June 27, 1922, and died in Montclair, New Jersey, on August 23, 2018. A graduate of Oberlin College Conservatory, the Eastman School of Music, and the Curtis Institute of Music, Walker achieved many firsts as an African- American composer and performer. He had further studies at the American Conservatory in Fontainebleau, where his teachers included, among others, Nadia Boulanger. Walker also was the winner of several distinguished awards, including a Fulbright, Whitney, Guggenheim, Rockefeller, and MacDowell fellowship. He received the Pulitzer Prize in music in 1996 for his vocal/orchestral setting of Walt Whitman’s “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d.” Walker also taught at many prestigious colleges and universities. His Lyric for Strings, originally entitled “Lament,” was composed in 1946 and was conceived as a middle movement for a string quartet.
Although not a performer on any string instrument, George Walker had a fine sense of how to write beautifully for string ensemble. Inspired in some respects by the famous Adagio for Strings (1936) by
Samuel Barber, the composition of Lyric for Strings overlapped with news of the death of Walker’s grandmother, thus becoming a memorial in her honor. As is the case with so much other music of its kind, it is a work of profound personal expression. As an African-American, Walker did not try to hide his identity. As documented in an interview with The New York Times in 1982, Walker remarked, “There’s no way I can conceal my identity as a Black composer. I have a very strong feeling for the Negro spiritual and have also drawn from American folk songs, and popular and patriotic tunes, which I believe merit inclusion in serious compositions.” In this way Walker represented, along with other African-American composers such as William Grant Still and Florence Price, the fulfillment of the promise of American music predicted and advocated by Antonín Dvořák toward the beginning of the 20th century. ●
Zoltán Kodály
Dances of Galánta (Galántai táncok) (1933)
Hungarian composer and educator Zoltán Kodály was born in Kecskemét on December 16, 1882, and died on March 6, 1967, in Budapest. He, along with his fellow Hungarians, Béla Bártok and Ernő [von] Dohnányi, was instrumental in uncovering authentic Hungarian (Magyar) melodies and dance rhythms that informed his own compositional style. His bestknown composition is the Suite derived from his Singspiel Háry János, composed in 1926–1927. His Dances of Galánta, composed on commission in 1933 to celebrate the eightieth anniversary of the Budapest Philharmonic, received its first performance by the Philharmonic Society Orchestra, conducted by Dohnányi in Budapest on October 23, 1933. The approximately 15-minute work is scored for 2 flutes, piccolo, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, percussion, and strings.
Kodály’s youth. The composer’s famous Hungarian colleague Béla Bartók paid tribute to him in 1921, writing:
In 1928, Bartók further wrote:
Dances of Galánta may be characterized as a five-part symphonic poem in rondo form, whose thematic material is in the style of verbunkos music, derived from collections of Hungarian dances published in Vienna around 1800 that included “Gypsy” tunes from the Galánta region. The composer himself thought of it as a companion to his piano suite Dances of Marosszék (1927, orchestrated by him in 1930). The brilliant orchestration of Dances of Galánta may be attributed in part to the composer’s familiarity with the orchestral works of the Frenchman Claude Debussy. The work’s dramatic introduction alternates declarative statements followed each time by colorful flourishes, leading to an extended cadenza and solo for the clarinet. The clarinet, which is featured prominently throughout the piece, evokes the tárogató, a traditional folk instrument originally from Turkey that became
associated with Hungarian and Romanian music. Audiences familiar with the two brilliant Romanian Rhapsodies of George Enescu will find a strong kinship with its Hungarian cousin. ●
Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy
Symphony No. 5 in d minor, “Reformation,” Op. 107 (1829–1830; rev. 1832)
(Jacob Ludwig) Felix Mendelssohn (Bartholdy) was born, February 3, 1809, in Hamburg and died November 4, 1847, in Leipzig. Mendelssohn was an important composer of the Romantic generation and one of history’s first major orchestral conductors. The “Reformation” Symphony originally dates from 1829-30 and was intended to commemorate the tercentennial of the Augsburg Confession. Mendelssohn revised the piece, and it was not performed until 1832 and only published in 1868. It is scored for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba (originally “serpente”) timpani, and strings.
Mendelssohn’s d minor Symphony (“Reformation”) was actually the second of his symphonies for full orchestra, whose proper numbering ought to be, respectively, Nos. 1 (c minor), 5, 4 (“Italian”), 2 (“Lobgesang), and 3 (“Scottish”). The “Reformation” Symphony was composed in 1829-30 in Berlin to commemorate the tercentenary of the Diet of Augsburg (1530), the conference that established the basic tenets of the Lutheran faith (Augsburg Confession). Its first performance, however, did not take place until 1832.
Recent scholarly thought on the “Reformation” Symphony, especially that of Judith Silber Ballan and Mark Evan Bonds, sees it as Mendelssohn’s closest engagement with issues raised by Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony (“Choral”), works that were written, not coincidentally, in the same key. The narrative idea of victory through struggle (Per aspera ad astra) are evident in both works. Where Beethoven engages the actual human voice, Mendelssohn infers it through the quotation of the Catholic “Dresden Amen” in the first movement’s introduction, and the Lutheran hymn “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God” (“Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott”) presented in the finale. Indeed, as Ballan points out, the triumph of the “A Mighty Fortress,” known as the battle hymn of the Reformation, could be seen as symbolic of the victory of Martin Luther and his movement over the Catholic Church. Bonds, a musicologist on the faculty of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, proposes that the “Reformation” Symphony, along with Mendelssohn’s choral “Lobgesang” represent a selfconscious history of German music.
If Ballan and Bonds are correct in these readings of the “Reformation” Symphony, then the work must take its place alongside other narrative, programmatic symphonies of the nineteenth century, such as Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique. Even taken as “pure” or “absolute” music, however, the piece is one of the landmarks of the romantic symphony. ●
Sergei Rachmaninoff
Concerto No. 2 in c minor for Piano and Orchestra, Op. 18 (1900–1901)
Sergei Vassilevich Rachmaninoff was born in Oneg, Novgorod, on March 20/ April 1, 1873, and died in Beverly Hills, California, on March 28, 1943.* Famed as both pianist and composer, Rachmaninoff left Russia after the Revolution of 1917, eventually taking up residence in the United States. His Piano Concerto No. 2 was composed in 1900–01 and received the first performance of its last two movements in Moscow on December 2/15, 1900, in Moscow. The first performance of the entire piece took place on October 27/ November 9, 1901.* On both occasions the composer himself was the soloist, with Alexander Siloti conducting the Moscow Philharmonic. The Concerto No. 2 is scored for solo piano, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, and strings. [*NB: The variation of dates reflects the difference between the Julian and Gregorian calendars.]
The Russian-born pianist and composer Rachmaninoff falls into the tradition of the great performer-composers of the Romantic style that included figures such as Niccolo Paganini and Franz Liszt. Like his great predecessors at their best, his music avoids the self-indulgent kind of virtuosity-for-its-own-sake practiced by less gifted musicians. His music often is quite sentimental, but his melodic gifts were more than sufficient to prevent it from becoming maudlin. Although Rachmaninoff
composed a wide variety of music, he is best known for his works for the piano, and his Concerto No. 2 is by far the most frequently performed of the four that he composed. His Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini is also a popular favorite.
After the failure of his First Symphony in St. Petersburg, Rachmaninoff recorded in his Recollections that he lost all hope for any future success. In 1900, he sought psychiatric assistance from Dr. Nikolai Dahl, who, according to the composer, hypnotically persuaded him to continue work on a new piano concerto. Dr. Dahl’s positive approach seems to have worked, and he became the recipient of the dedication of the Piano Concerto No. 2. The work received its first performance in 1901 in Moscow, and it was greeted with both critical and popular acclaim.
The work is in three broad movements. The first of these, Allegro moderato, begins quietly with chords solemnly played by the unaccompanied soloist. These grow in intensity, ushering in the lush first theme in the strings. A lyrical second theme emerges from the soloist, followed by a proper development section and a stirring recapitulation in martial style. The Adagio sostenuto is a movement of great beauty and tunefulness, whose serenity is only briefly interrupted by an animated middle section that calls for considerable dexterity. The last movement is marked Allegro scherzando, and it plays dramatically between the major and minor mode. As in the first movement, the finale’s second subject is highly lyrical. Following the lead of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1, which seems to have served as a model for this piece, Rachmaninoff demarcates the climax of
the movement with a tutti statement of the lyrical theme. This produces a triumphant effect, making for a stirring conclusion to the romantic masterpiece. ●
Dmitri Shostakovich
Symphony No. 10 in e minor, Op. 93 (Prem. 1953)
Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich, one of the Soviet Union’s greatest composers, was born in Saint Petersburg on September 12, 1906, and died in Moscow on August 9, 1975. Although he composed in a wide variety of genres, he is best known for his 15 symphonies, works that stand among the finest examples of the genre from the mid-twentieth century. His Tenth Symphony was first performed by the Leningrad Philharmonic (now Saint Petersburg) on December 17, 1953. It is scored for 2 flutes (second doubling piccolo), piccolo, 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, E-flat clarinet (doubling 3rd clarinet), 2 bassoons, contrabassoon (doubling 3rd bassoon), 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion (triangle, snare drum, cymbals, bass drum, tam-tam, bells, xylophone), and strings.
A play by David Pownall entitled Master Class depicts Joseph Stalin and Marshall Zhdanov giving a music “lesson” to Prokofiev and Shostakovich, two masters of the 20th century who, at one point or another, had strayed from the true faith of socialist realism in their music. As the play progresses, all four individuals come to the realization that music, especially untexted (i.e., instrumental) music, refuses to conform to any political ideology. History has shown, however, that tyrants and censors never seem to learn this lesson, and composers like Shostakovich who must labor under the yoke of totalitarianism are the ones who have paid the heaviest price. His symphonies (especially Nos. 5 through 15) and chamber music (especially the Eighth String Quartet) bear eloquent witness to his pain.
It was texted music—an opera entitled Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District— that got Shostakovich into the deepest hot water. Mercilessly attacked in Pravda in 1936, Shostakovich again incurred the wrath of the Communist Party Central Committee in 1948. Perhaps the Party continued to bear a grudge against the composer for failing to immortalize Chairman Stalin’s leadership in defeating the Nazi fascists with a triumphant and celebratory Ninth Symphony. Instead of invoking the grandeur and glory of Beethoven’s Ninth, Shostakovich produced instead a terse burlesque. For several years thereafter the composer withheld his music from public performance. Only after Stalin’s death in 1953, a slight liberality ensued and Shostakovich’s Tenth Symphony saw the light of a somewhat less gloomy day.
Shostakovich’s personality is etched on this symphony by means of a Schumannesque device—a musical anagram based on the composer’s name: (D[mitri] SCH[ostakovich] that translates into the pitches D, E-flat, C, and B). Shostakovich had used this device twice before—in his Violin Concerto No. 1 and String Quartet No. 5. The quotations in the Tenth Symphony appear in the third and fourth movements. He used the motif again very effectively in his Eighth String Quartet, the Cello Concerto No. 1, and the Fifteenth Symphony.
(1) Moderato. A brooding mood permeates this opening movement. After a winding line in the strings, the clarinet intones a more clearly identifiable melody. Some analysts have noted that this tune bears a striking resemblance to a passage from the contralto solo “Urlicht” movement of Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 (“Resurrection”). The words from the folkish anthology Des Knaben Wunderhorn (The Youth’s Magic Horn) that Mahler set translate as follows: “Man lies in direst need! Man lies in the greatest pain!” Shostakovich’s admiration of Mahler is a well-known fact, and if he was, indeed, quoting Mahler, this citation may shed further light on a “program” for his Tenth Symphony, although the composer denied that he had any such intention.
A second subject is brought forth by the flute over a pizzicato accompaniment. Especially memorable is the haunting and subdued end of the movement with its hollow intertwining piccolo solos.
(2) Allegro. The first movement’s melancholy now yields to savage anger. Brass and percussion punctuate a perpetual motion machine that unleashes the previous movement’s potential energy. The music maintains a loud dynamic level throughout. Here we encounter unbridled fury. Some writers have speculated that this movement is a grimly-etched portrait of Stalin.
(3) Allegretto. What begins as a sardonic scherzo becomes a grim warning from the composer, now using the DSCH cipher. Hints of the motto in the flute, and then in the plucked cellos and basses, prefigure a poignant signpost in the solo horn. This is answered by a quotation of the melancholy opening phrase from the first movement. The horn call returns, now punctuated by austere responses by the piccolo and flute, tam-tam, and plucked strings. The lighter mood returns, but the tension soon increases. Now four horns, fortissimo, issue another warning. A solo violin, followed by flutes and piccolo, close the movement with final references to the DSCH motto.
(4) Andante-Allegro. The introduction dispels the mood of the third movement with a gloomy gesture that eventually yields to a surprisingly optimistic Allegro. But after so much gloom, can all be right with the world? The spirit of the second movement intrudes, culminating with the DSCH motto bringing the music to a brief halt. The bassoons will have none of it, however, and the merry romp resumes. The motto, uttered now by the horns and timpani, is absorbed into the optimistic spirit of the finale, bringing the symphony to its triumphant close. ●
