Concerts of Thursday, January 12, and Saturday, January 14, 2017, at 8:00p

Transcription

1 Concerts of Thursday, January 12, and Saturday, January 14, 2017, at 8:00p Donald Runnicles, Conductor Kirill Gerstein, Piano Marc Neikrug (b. 1946) World Premiere, Commissioned by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and the Grand Teton Music Festival The Unicorn of Atlas Peak (2016) Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky ( ) Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 1 in B-flat minor, Opus 23 (1875, rev. 1879) I. Allegro non troppo e molto maestoso; Allegro con spirito II. Andantino simplice III. Allegro con fuoco Kirill Gerstein, piano Intermission Dmitri Shostakovich ( ) Symphony No. 10 in E minor, Opus 93 (1953) I. Moderato II. Allegro III. Allegretto IV. Andante. Allegro

2 Notes on the Program by Ken Meltzer The Unicorn of Atlas Peak (2016) Marc Neikrug was born in New York on September 24, These are the world premiere performances. The Unicorn of Atlas Peak is scored for three flutes, alto flute, three oboes, three clarinets, three bassoons, four horns, three trumpets, two trombones, tuba, Percussion I (glockenspiel, triangle, medium suspended cymbal, tam-tam, bass drum), Percussion II (vibraphone, medium suspended cymbal), Percussion III (marimba, tuned gong), harp, celesta, and strings. Approximate performance time is ten minutes. In composing a ten-minute work, I was very conscious of structuring in a way as to allow for differing musical elements. I constructed a tapestry of textures, in which portions come and go. This results in a variety of accumulating layers of sound. In the visual world, I perceive this as relating to the way we see clouds move across the sky. They can move in layers and at differing speeds. While we are aware of the layers, at times, one cloud, can be covered by another, or possibly peek out for a moment. This sound tapestry is then set into three broader sweeps of phrases. The first builds into a climax of some force. This is followed by a more lyrical phrase of similar length. The next, shorter phrase builds again and is followed by a short coda, which takes us into a very different, more fantastical realm to finish. The title refers to a dear mutual friend who introduced Donald Runnicles and me. Marc Neikrug Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 1 in B-flat minor, Opus 23 (1875, rev. 1879) Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky was born in Kamsko-Votkinsk, Russia, on May 7, 1840, and died in St. Petersburg, Russia, on November 6, The first performance of the Piano Concerto No. 1 took place in Boston, Massachusetts, on October 25, 1875, with Hans von Bülow as soloist. In addition to the solo piano, the Concerto is scored for two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, timpani and strings. Approximate performance time is thirty-five minutes. First Classical Subscription Performance: November 17, 1953, Leonard Pennario, Piano, Henry Sopkin, Conductor.

3 Most Recent Classical Subscription Performances: March 28, 29, and 30, 2013, Yevgeny Sudbin, Piano, Michael Morgan, Conductor. Recording: (Telarc CD: 80386), André Watts, Piano, Yoel Levi, Conductor. Tchaikovsky, Rubinstein, and the First Piano Concerto Tchaikovsky composed his First Piano Concerto in the span of approximately seven weeks, completing it on January 2, Three days after putting the finishing touches on the work, Tchaikovsky played his new Concerto for Nikolai Rubinstein head of the Moscow Conservatory, and a superb concert pianist. Tchaikovsky, then a professor at the Conservatory, hoped that Rubinstein would agree to be the soloist in the Concerto s premiere. Nikolai Rubinstein was hardly impressed with Tchaikovsky s new composition. In a letter dated February 2, 1878, Tchaikovsky described the encounter to his patroness, Nadezhda von Meck. Written three years after the episode, the letter reflects that Rubinstein s verbal assault was seared in the composer s memory. A Worthless and Unplayable Concerto The meeting between Tchaikovsky and Rubinstein took place at the Conservatory, prior to a Christmas Eve party (Russian Christmas occurs, according to the Western calendar, on January 7). Tchaikovsky began to play his new Concerto, all the while anxiously awaiting Rubinstein s comments: I played the first movement. Not a single word, not a single comment! If only you could have known how foolish, how intolerable is the position of a man when he offers his friend food he has prepared, and his friend eats it and says nothing. Say something, if only to tear it to pieces with constructive criticism but for God s sake, just one kind word, even if not of praise! Rubinstein was preparing his thunder. Rubinstein s eloquent silence had tremendous significance. It was as though he was saying to me: My friend, can I talk about details when the very essence of the thing disgusts me? I fortified my patience, and played on to the end. Again silence. Finally, Tchaikovsky rose from the piano and, summoning his courage, asked Rubinstein: Well? It was then that there began to flow from Nikolay Grigoryevich s mouth a stream of words, quiet at first, but subsequently assuming more and more the tone of Jove, the Thunderer. It appeared that my concerto was worthless, that it was unplayable, that passages were trite, awkward, and so clumsy that it was impossible to put them right, that as composition it was bad

4 and tawdry, that I had filched this bit from here and that bit from there, and there were only two or three pages that could be retained, and that the rest would have to be scrapped or completely revised. Take this, for instance whatever is it? (at this point he plays the passage concerned, caricaturing it). And this? Is this really possible? and so on, and so on. I can t convey to you the most significant thing that is, the tone in which all this was delivered. In a word, any outsider who chanced to come into the room might have thought that I was an imbecile, an untalented scribbler who understood nothing, who had come to an eminent musician to pester him with his rubbish The devastated Tchaikovsky hurried out of the room and proceeded upstairs. Rubinstein followed Tchaikovsky: and, noticing my distraught state, drew me aside into a different room. There he told me again that my concerto was impossible, and after pointing out to me a lot of places that required radical change, he said that if by such-and-such a date I would revise the concerto in accordance with his demands, then he would bestow upon me the honour of playing my piece in a concert of his. By this point, Tchaikovsky had more than his fill of Rubinstein s comments: I won t change a single note, I replied, and I ll publish it just as it is now! An American Connection It was the distinguished German conductor and pianist, Hans von Bülow, who had the honor of being the soloist in the first performance of the Tchaikovsky First Piano Concerto. Tchaikovsky had long maintained tremendous admiration for Bülow, and dedicated the Concerto to him. Hans von Bülow gave the Concerto s premiere while on an American concert tour. And so, one of the most beloved Russian piano concertos received its first performance on October 25, 1875 not in Tchaikovsky s homeland, but in Boston, Massachusetts. The American audiences immediately responded with tremendous enthusiasm to a work that remains one of the most beloved in the entire repertoire. As Tchaikovsky reported: Each time Bülow was obliged to repeat the whole finale of my concerto! Nothing like that happens in our country. Tchaikovsky ultimately did pen some revisions to the Concerto for the score s publication in In time, Nikolai Rubinstein reversed his scathing opinion of Tchaikovsky s Concerto, and even became one of its greatest interpreters. The 1879 Performing Version The Tchaikovsky First Piano Concerto remains one of the most well-known and beloved of all concert works. But the irony is that the familiar performing version,

5 published in 1894 after Tchaikovsky s death, deviates significantly from what he composed, and conducted in concert. Research by members of the Tchaikovsky Museum and Archive in Klin, Russia, has produced scholarly performing editions of the Concerto s 1875 score and the 1879 revision. The soloist for these concerts, Kirill Gerstein, made the world premiere recording of the Concerto s 1879 edition (Myrios Classics MYR016). In his liner notes for the recording, Mr. Gerstein comments: Comparing the 1879 version with the posthumous one convinces me that the musical substance is expressed more authentically in the composer s own score. Many examples of differing dynamics, articulations, and tempo indications in Tchaikovsky s version point to a more lyrical, almost Schumannesque conception of the concerto. The arpeggiated chords and softer dynamics in the opening do not threaten to overpower the theme in the strings and allow the melody more metric flexibility and differentiation. Restoring the measures traditionally cut in the middle section of the finale enables us to hear harmonically adventurous musical material and positively affects the structural balance of the movement. In sum, the editorial changes of the third version add a flavor of superficial brilliance to the piece, while at the same time taking away from its genuine musical character. In a March 9, 2015 article for the New York Review of Books ( Mr. Gerstein discusses the history of the various performing versions, illustrated by side-by-side audio clips. Musical Analysis I. Allegro non troppo e molto maestoso; Allegro con spirito The horns proclaim a descending figure, punctuated by orchestral chords. This horn figure heralds one of the most beloved melodies in all of concert music played by the strings, accompanied by the soloist s chords (in the 1879 version, the chords are played as arpeggios). The soloist s brilliant repetition of the melody is followed by a virtuoso cadenza. Once again, the strings reprise the melody. Finally, the mood calms, resolving to a series of hushed brass fanfares, and a brief pause. That famous sequence is the introduction to the central portion of the opening movement (Allegro con spirito), which opens with a tripping theme introduced by the soloist, and based upon a Ukrainian folksong. The theme journeys throughout the orchestra, finally returning to the soloist. The second theme group consists of a pair of melodies, introduced in turn by the winds (molto espressivo) and muted strings (a tempo tranquillo). This second theme group is given an extended, diversified treatment. The principal themes confront each other in the fiery development section. The varied recapitulation leads to an

6 extended solo cadenza, followed by the coda that serves to bring the opening movement to a thundering close. II. Andantino simplice Muted, pizzicato strings provide the accompaniment for the solo flute s dolcissimo introduction of the slow movement s principal melody. The melody is soon repeated and elaborated by the soloist. A gossamer scherzo-like episode (marked Prestissimo in the 1894 score, but set at a broader Allegro vivace assai in the 1879 critical edition) precedes a reprise of the opening section and the movement s hushed conclusion. III. Allegro con fuoco The finale opens with a brief introduction by the strings and winds, offering hints of the recurring principal theme of this rondo finale. That theme, introduced in full by the soloist, is once again based upon a Ukrainian folk tune. The violins sing a contrasting, graceful melody. It is the latter melody that makes a glorious appearance at the work s conclusion, capped by the soloist and orchestra s dash to the finish. Symphony No. 10 in E minor, Opus 93 (1953) Dmitri Shostakovich was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, on September 25, 1906, and died in Moscow, Russia, on August 9, The first performance of the Tenth Symphony took place in Leningrad (St. Petersburg) on December 17, 1953, with Evgeny Mravinsky conducting the Leningrad Philharmonic. The Tenth Symphony is scored for two piccolos, two flutes, three oboes, English horn, E-flat clarinet, three clarinets, three bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, xylophone, triangle, tam-tam, tambourine, suspended cymbal, military drum, cymbals, bass drum, and strings. Approximate performance time is fifty-six minutes. First Classical Subscription Performances: November 29 and 30, and December 1, 1979, Hiroyuki Iwaki, Conductor. Most Recent Classical Subscription Performances: May 22 and 24, 2014, Ilan Volkov, Conductor. Recording: Telarc CD-80241, Yoel Levi, Conductor. Shostakovich and Stalin For more than half of his artistic life, Dmitri Shostakovich lived under the tyranny of dictator Joseph Stalin, General Secretary of the Soviet Union s Central Committee from Stalin s paranoid obsession with control extended to all areas of Soviet existence, including music. Soviet musicians were compelled to fashion works that glorified socialism and, more importantly, Stalin himself. Failure to do so placed the artist in legitimate fear of his livelihood, perhaps even his life. Shostakovich experienced the full weight of Stalin s anger in 1936, when an article entitled Muddle Instead of Music appeared in Pravda, the official

7 Communist newspaper. The anonymous author denounced the composer s opera, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (1934) a work Shostakovich described as a tragedy-satire, and one that might be viewed as critical of Stalin s brutal police tactics. Shostakovich clearly understood that if even if Stalin didn t write the Pravda article, it most certainly reflected the leader s views. Shostakovich attempted to placate Stalin and the Soviet regime with his Fifth Symphony (1937), which the composer subtitled A Soviet Artist s Reply to Just Criticism. Despite its enigmatic nature, the Fifth Symphony generally pleased Soviet critics, thereby redeeming Shostakovich, at least temporarily. Following the surrender of Germany in May of 1945, Shostakovich announced that he would write a Victory Symphony with a grand apotheosis. Stalin anticipated that the Symphony would emulate Beethoven s Ninth (1824), an epic work that concludes with a triumphant choral finale. Of course, Stalin expected the finale of the new work to sing his praises. Instead, Shostakovich s Ninth Symphony emerged as a satirical (and at times acerbic) 25-minute composition for conventional orchestral forces. Stalin viewed the Ninth Symphony as a personal insult and was furious. Stalin s perception may have been correct. In Testimony: the Memoirs of Dmitri Shostakovich, the composer (at least as related by his friend and student, Solomon Volkov) offered these comments about the circumstances surrounding the composition of the Ninth Symphony: I doubt Stalin ever questioned his own genius or greatness. But when the war against Hitler was won, Stalin went off the deep end. He was like a frog puffing himself up to the size of an ox, with the difference that everyone around him already considered Stalin to be the ox and gave him an ox s due...stalin always listened to experts and specialists carefully. The experts told him I knew my work and therefore Stalin assumed the symphony in his honor would be a quality piece of music. He would be able to say, There it is, our national Ninth....I confess that I gave hope to the leader and the teacher s dreams. I announced that I was writing an apotheosis. I was trying to get them off my back but it turned against me...i couldn t write an apotheosis to Stalin, I simply couldn t. I knew what I was in for when I wrote the Ninth. The Tenth Symphony Joseph Stalin died on March 5, In the summer and autumn of that year, Shostakovich returned to symphonic composition for the first time since The Tenth Symphony received its premiere on December 17, Evgeny Mravinsky, the composer s longtime friend and musical champion, conducted the Leningrad Philharmonic.

8 Shostakovich refused to offer a public explanation of the meaning of the Tenth Symphony, curtly stating: Let them work it out for themselves. The Shostakovich of Volkov s Testimony was more forthcoming: But I did depict Stalin in my next Symphony, the Tenth. I wrote it right after Stalin s death, and no one yet has guessed what the Symphony is about. It s about Stalin and the Stalin years. The second part, the scherzo, is about Stalin, roughly speaking. Of course, there are many other things in it, but that s the basis. If these words are an accurate reflection of the composer s thoughts, the Symphony s program becomes intriguing, to say the least. In the Tenth Symphony, Shostakovich employs a device found in several of his compositions a motif based on the notes D-E b -C-B, which, in German musical notation, is D-S-C-H, a musical representation of the composer (D. Schostakowitsch). In the course of the Tenth Symphony, this Shostakovich motif confronts, and ultimately defeats, the Stalin music. Whether the Tenth Symphony in fact portrays the triumph of Shostakovich over Stalin remains for the individual listener to decide. Regardless of the work s extra-musical associations, the Shostakovich Tenth represents the welcome resurrection of a brilliant symphonic composer and dramatist, at the height of his powers. Musical Analysis I. Moderato The opening movement, by far the longest of the four, is constructed as a massive arch. It is based upon three themes, all of which are masterfully interwoven throughout. The first theme is immediately stated in ominous fashion by the lower strings. A solo clarinet introduces the waltz-like second theme, lyrical but still quite melancholy (semplice). The music builds to a brief climax, with the strings offering hints of the undulating third and final theme. After a reprise of the second theme by the clarinet, the flute over pizzicato strings plays the final theme in complete form. The music journeys inexorably to the lengthy central climax where the third theme, now played in militant fashion by the trumpets, is prominent. An extended decrescendo follows. An affecting piccolo duet concludes the opening movement. II. Allegro While most scherzos provide episodes of contrasting lyricism and repose, the brief Allegro assaults the listener with an almost unremitting energy and violence. The scherzo opens with a forceful rhythm in 2/4 time, played by the strings. The prominent use of brass and percussion lends a decidedly militaristic atmosphere to this Stalin movement, which rushes headlong to a violent conclusion. III. Allegretto As in the first movement, the Allegretto features three principal motifs. The first is a rather insinuating figure, played in the opening measures by

9 the violins (dolce). The piccolo, flute, and oboe present the initial appearance of the D-S-C-H motif. The final motif is a repeated solo horn call (espressivo). This trio of themes returns throughout the movement in various guises. The D- S-C-H motif is now played with far greater force, at times juxtaposed with the horn call. The third movement concludes with faint echoes of the principal motifs. IV. Andante. Allegro The Allegro finale is preceded by an extended, atmospheric slow introduction (Andante), featuring several woodwind solos. Three forte staccato notes by the clarinet and a scurrying violin figure launch the principal Allegro, a whirlwind of activity that has a decidedly festive mood, particularly in comparison to the preceding movements. The Stalin music from the second movement makes a stormy intrusion on the celebration, only to be crushed by a massive orchestral statement of the D-S-C-H motif. After a hushed interlude (Listesso tempo), the Symphony concludes with a reprise of the frenetic Allegro material, punctuated by triumphant statements of D-S-C-H in the brass and timpani.