Program Notes for En Français, February 17 & 18, 2018

Transcription

1 Program Notes for En Français, February 17 & 18, 2018 Aïda: Triumphal March Guiseppe Verdi By the 1860s the middle-aged Verdi had been able to enter a new season of his life. The intense production of the 1840s and 1850s had granted him sufficient fame and prosperity to recede somewhat from the continuous industry required to assume his station, relaxing somewhat from the continuous demands of establishing himself, and also the devastating personal tragedies that marked the years of his early career. During this time he was able to focus on modernizing and streamlining the operations of his estate and also to focus on the ever-restless political climate of the Italian people as they moved toward the unification that would finally be realized in He was also able to be much more selective about the projects he pursued. Rienzi, WWW49: Overture Richard Wagner In 1852, just beginning he was beginning to work on the operatic tetralogy that would become his famous Ring of the Nibelung, Richard Wagner looked back on Rienzi of 1840, and deemed it an embarrassment. Of course, this judgement was only even remotely conceivable in light of the vision of operatic reform that was beginning to burgeon in his mind and, had it not been for Rienzi, his first great success as an opera composer, this vision would never had found the fertile soil to germinate. But, however fair Wagner s hindsighted assessment of his early triumph, Rienzi is notable for being the final work in his early period, and the only one that can be counted as any kind of success. Rienzi granted Wagner his first real professional stability, paving the way for jobs, powerful contacts, and the opportunity for subsequent operatic projects that would take him well into the middle period of his production. After Rienzi came the The Flying Dutchman, Tannhauser, and Lohengrin, the trilogy of operas written between 1840 and 1850 that form his Romantic operas. And after that came the music dramas of his maturity, starting with the Ring cycle. Rienzi is modelled closely after the 5-act grand operas that were popular in Paris during the 1820s, 30s, and 40s, melodramatic, full of spectacle, and prolifically generated by composers like Meyerbeer and Spontini. Indeed, Meyerbeer himself championed Rienzi and Wagner clearly had Paris in his sights, which later productions confirm. The success of Rienzi granted Wagner access to staging operas in Paris and the opera remained popular across Europe s operatic stages well into the late nineteenth century. 1

2 Wagner s (originally) six-hour epic sets the tragic story contained in Edward Bulwer-Lytton s 1835 novelization of the life of Cola di Rienzo, a medieval Italian populist leader who attempted to unify Italy in the 14th Century. The overture matches the scale of the operatic production, beginning with a remarkably simple yet distinctive trumpet call. The slow introduction shares the melody of Rienzi s Prayer, a most popular number from the opera s 5th act. A rousing military march forms the most substantial portion of the overture. Concerto for Trumpet and String Orchestra Robert Planel Robert Planel was born in 1908 to a musical family. His father, Alphonse, a composer, had founded a school of music in his hometown of Montelimar, at that time a small commune of just over 10,000 people (the population has more than tripled since then). Alphonse also directed La Lyre, Montilier s Harmonie Municipale, which in English would be called their city band. Robert took violin lessons from the first violinist of the opera orchestra in Paris, Rene Chedecal. From 1922 to 1933 he studied at the Conservatoire de Paris, taking courses in violin, composition, harmony, and counterpoint. His violin skills allowed him to play in the pit bands of Parisian cinemas during this time and his composition study and experience gave him the skills to win the prestigious Prix de Rome in 1933 with the composition of an original cantata called Idylle Funambulesque. The Prix de Rome gave its winners a stipend to study their chosen art in Rome and was awarded annually between 1663 to 1968 to sculptors, painters, architects, and, later, musicians. The list of musical winners includes such French musical luminaries as Hector Berlioz, Jules Massenet, Charles Gounod, Georges Bizet, and Ambroise Thomas. After the Second World War, Planel became Inspector General of Paris, using this position to champion the cause of improving music education throughout the city. In the 1970s he cofounded music conservatories in and around Paris. He died in Planel s compositions span a broad range of genres and ensembles. This charming mediumscale trumpet concerto reveals his gifts for appealing melody, rhythmic vitality, and nuanced orchestral texture. Cast in the 3-movement fast-slow-fast form popular since Vivaldi s concertos of the 18th century, the writing throughout exemplifies the balance, transparency, and freshness of so much modern French music. More in the vein of Ravel than Debussy, with its clear, astringent timbres, ticking rhythms, and occasionally jazzy sensibility, Planel s concerto contains passages by turns youthfully optimistic and quietly plaintive. 2

3 Legende Georges Enesco/Enescu George Enescu, or as he was known in France, Enesco, was Romania s most important musician. Prodigious and versatile, Enesco began his musical activities at the age of 4, playing the violin and composing his first works within that year. His mature range of activities would grow to include performing on the piano and violin, conducting, and composing. He also became an important advocate and educator, building important infrastructure in his home country to nurture future generations of musicians and facilitate performances in his native Romania. So significant a figure did he became to his fellow countrymen that the name of his birth village, originally Liveni, was changed to his in his honor. Enesco s studies took him first to Vienna, where he became both the youngest pupil to gain admission into the Vienna Conservatory and also the only non-austrian, and then to Paris. It was in Paris that he truly forged the spirit of his mature style, combining the strongly flavorful and evocative elements of his beloved Romanian folk music with the sophisticated sensibility of Debussy s Impressionism that was infusing all French musical thought during the time he studied there and beyond. The resulting style is earthy, moody, and dark - a rich stew of nuanced rhythms, chromatic harmony, cloudy textures, and dreamy mists. It was customary for French composers of the late 19th century to write musical works called Legends, often for a solo performer. These pieces were so-called for their legendary character, as if weaving the tale of a hero in a faraway land through a combination of evocative mythos, grand gestures, and epic sweep. Enesco s Legende of 1906 fills this framework with all the marks of his mature style, combining his Romanian substance and French nuance. It was premiered by Merri Franquin, who served as professor of trumpet at the Paris Conservatory from 1894 until The Legende has since become a staple of solo trumpet recitals. Originally composed for trumpet and piano, it is presented here in an orchestrated version. One such project, and an offer he initially rejected, was the composition of a grand opera to be staged at Cairo s new Khedivial opera house in celebration of the opening of the Suez Canal. The inaugural performance of the opera house, given in 1869 was also a Verdi favorite, Rigoletto. The resulting piece was Aida, and remains to this day one of the world s best loved operas in any language. The plot involves the tragic tale of the decorated Egyptian warrior, Radames, who is prophesied to lead the Egyptian army to victory against the agressing Ethiopians in battle and does between the first and second acts. While he is betrothed to the Egyptian princess Amneris, he falls in love with Aida, an enslaved Ethiopian princess and is 3

4 eventually executed by entombment for treason. Aida sacrifices herself to join him in death and the opera closes with Verdi tugging on our heartstrings as they sing a sublimely tear jerking duet bidding farewell to the earth. One of Aida s greatest hits, frequently performed in concert both in its original choral version and also various instrumental arrangements, as it is here, is the Triumphal March, found halfway through the second act. This show-stopping number encourages opera producers to pull out all the stops and whip up as grand a spectacle as possible to accompany the Egyptians ecstasy as they great their warriors, returning fresh from their victory over the Ethiopians, slaves in tow. Pictures at an Exhibition Modest Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition, a novel work among the output of Modest Mussorgsky, and indeed in all of Western music, is, at its core, a heartfelt tribute and eulogy. In 1868, invited to the home of his friend and advocate Vladimir Stasov, the most influential Russian critic of his generation, the 29 year old Mussorgsky was introduced to the artist and architect Viktor Hartmann, 5 years his senior. Unified by mutual affection and a common aim to cultivate and promote an aesthetic that was authentically Russian, Mussorgsky and Hartmann became devoted friends and admirers of one another. So close did the two artists become that the composer even accepted the painter s advice in revising his opera Boris Godunov, perhaps his greatest and certainly his most monumental work. How great a blow, then, to Mussorgsky and the entire community of Russian artists for Hartmann to suffer an untimely death from a brain aneurysm a mere half decade after their introduction? What magnitude of grief must Mussorgsky have endured at the tragic terminus of this cherished friendship? By all accounts he was devastated, and, already prone to depression and alcohol abuse, sunk into an episode of deep despair that was to last the better part of a year. About half a year after his death, Stasov arranged for a commemorative showing at the Imperial Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg which included about 400 of Hartmann s works. Among them were two paintings on loan from Mussorgsky, both though to have inspired parts of his composition. And just a few months after this was organized, Mussorgsky was inspired to pay tribute in his own way through the creation of a musical work which simulated his subjective experience of walking strolling through the exhibit and studying its various pieces. The resulting suite, called Pictures at an Exhibition, was handily completed in 20 days during June of 1874 in its original manifestation for solo piano. 4

5 While the original version is still occasionally performed by virtuoso pianists, Pictures at an Exhibition is best-known today in the splendid and colorful garb provided by the French composer Maurice Ravel as he responded to a 1922 commission from Serge Koussevitzky to arrange it for the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Indeed, musicians of all stripes, and representing ensembles of near every configuration, have craved the opportunity to participate in performances of Mussorgsky s evocative and eccentric suite, resulting in dozens of arrangements made since its composition. Ravel s superb version is justly the most famous and most-often performed of them all. Pictures at an Exhibition is perhaps best-known for the clever and endearing Promenade, a creative device that Mussorgsky used to tightly unify what could otherwise have become a diffuse and confusing collection of diverse moods and atmospheric portraits. The Promenade, in Ravel s casting first presented by the distinctive and memorable timbre of the solo trumpet, opens the work and returns in between subsequent movements cast in different kinds of orchestral colors, representing the protagonist (Mussorgsky, autobiographically), strolling irregularly from specimen to specimen in Hartmann s exhibit. Indeed, the Promenade is marked by its use of irregular meters with an even mix of bars including 5, 6, and 7 beats, and odd metric emphasis. This quirky little tune is probably the most recognizable part of Pictures. Over the course of the visit to this exhibit we take in the following paintings: The Gnome A grotesque, even tragic and terrifying movement, full of starts, stops, and awkward gestures, thought to depict a short gnome doing his best to run on crooked legs. This number darkly contrasts with the light and optimism of the opening Promenade. The Old Castle A lilting, pallidly colored ballad depicting an ancient castle, perhaps through the mists of time and myth, with a troubadour singing of courtly love. Full of hushed and muted strings, dark woodwinds, and notable for the alto saxophone solo, rare in the symphony orchestra, and masterfully added here by Ravel. Children quarreling after playing games in the Tuileries Garden Cheeky upper woodwinds repeat an insistent playground taunt and flutter about depicting the carefree energy of children at play. Cattle Another slow, darker movement which depicts a Polish cart with enormous wheels drawn by oxen. The tonality and orchestral color indicate a labored, downtrodden quality to the subject in the image. Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks A scampering scherzo depicting children in costumes of canaries poking out of their shells designed for a ballet called Trilby with music by music by Julius Gerber and choreography by the great Marius Petipa, who choreographed all of Tchaikovsky s great ballets. 5

6 Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuyle A richly characterful movement based on portraits of two aged Jews, the first rich, dignified and dour, and the second poor, pattering and obsequious. The two themes are presented in sequence and then in counterpoint. The Market in Limoges A bustling movement depicting women gossiping about great news in the marketplace in Limoges, France. Catacombs and When in a dead language These linked movements explore the theme of death, beginning with a solemn and dreary funeral hymn and eventually incorporating the melody of the Promenade, here presented in its murkiest tessitura The Hut on Hen s Legs In what is the most grotesque and fantastic movement of the suite Mussorgsky paints a fascinatingly horrifying picture of Baba Yaga, the terrifying witch of Slavic folklore. While it is often unclear just how evil and menacing Baba Yaga is from the various stories about her, she is often described as inhabiting a bizarre hut that walks around on the legs of a chicken. Hartmann s painting depicts an ornamental Russian clock fashioned in the style of Baba Yaga s most memorable dwelling. The Baba Yaga movement transitions directly into The Bogatyr Gates In Kiev, often known as The Great Gate of Kiev Here, Mussorgsky and Ravel serve up finale to the entire procession of wonderful and fantastic images that is suitably grand and inspiring. Based on Hartmann s award-winning sketch of a hero s gate in Kiev that was never built, Mussorgsky and Ravel incorporate Russian Orthodox chant, church bells, and an amplified orchestration of the Promenade that fills out this longest movement of the suite. Program notes by Aaron Marx 6