CONCERT PROGRAM TCHAIKOVSKY VIOLIN CONCERTO

Transcription

1 CONCERT PROGRAM TCHAIKOVSKY VIOLIN CONCERTO Friday, June 8, :30pm Saturday, June 9, :30pm Thomas Dausgaard conductor Vadim Gluzman violin In gratitude for their generous philanthropy, Blake and Belinda Goldring are recognized as Patrons of Vadim Gluzman s June 8 appearance with the TSO. Richard Wagner Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde (Jun 8 only) Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 35 I. Allegro moderato II. Canzonetta: Andante III. Finale: Allegro vivacissimo Intermission (Jun 8 only) Antonín Dvořák Symphony No. 8 in G Major, Op. 88 I. Allegro con brio II. Adagio III. Allegretto grazioso IV. Allegro ma non troppo 42

2 THE DETAILS Richard Wagner Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde (Jun 8 only) 17 Born: Leipzig, now in Germany, May 22, 1813 Died: Venice, Italy, Feb 13, 1883 Composed: Tristan und Isolde opens with a long instrumental Prelude and closes with the so-called Liebestod ( love-death ), which Isolde sings over the dead body of her lover Tristan. The two sections, with or without a soprano in the Liebestod, often appear on concert programs, and they work well together, not merely because they are the bookends that contain the opera, but because they so neatly summarize the opera s dramatic trajectory and musical style. Composed between 1857 and 1859, and first performed in Munich in 1865, Tristan und Isolde is a watershed in European music comparable to Beethoven s Eroica Symphony (a half-century earlier) and Stravinsky s The Rite of Spring (a half-century later). Modern music really began with Tristan, for Wagner s radical new style undered assumptions about tonal music that had held for more than a century, and set in motion a thread of musical development that led, ultimately, to atonality. Tristan was the music of the future, and though listeners in 1865 could not have imagined where its revolutionary style would lead, it was controversial from the start. That Prelude is a manifesto. It immediately and unforgettably establishes the opera s musical idiom, with its unstable, floating harmonies, its luxuriant chromatic counterpoint, its infinitely unfolding melodies, and its rich, sensuous orchestration. The very first chord the famously ambiguous Tristan chord sets the tone for the whole Prelude, in which the music hovers around and passes through and feints toward a variety of keys without ever solidly establishing one. Again and again the music swells toward a cadence only to be sidetracked, frustrated, and in the end, the Prelude simply dies away, unresolved. The unstable idiom of Tristan grew naturally out of the opera s subjectmatter: Wagner sought a musical metaphor for the intense longing and unconsummated passion of Tristan and Isolde, and in this sense the yearning Prelude makes an ideal overture. As the opera unfolds, Wagner renews and heightens the musical tension again and again to underscore the frustrated passion of the lovers, with sometimes excruciating effect: the long love duet in Act Two, for instance, is shattered by a massive deceptive cadence on the very brink of a climax. Only in death, after the inevitable tragic consequences of the plot have unfolded, can the lovers find peace, and only in Isolde s swansong does Wagner permit the ecstatic release of the opera s unparalleled musical tension. 43

3 THE DETAILS Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto in D Major, Op Born: Kamsko-Votkinsk, Russia, May 7, 1840 Died: St. Petersburg, Russia, Nov 6, 1893 Composed: 1877 In July 1877, Tchaikovsky, who was homosexual, entered into a disastrous marriage, the strain of which drove him to nervous collapse and attempted suicide. To recover, he fled to Western Europe, and in Switzerland, the following spring, as he and a friend played violin music together, he was inspired to write a violin concerto. He completed it in just 11 days the first movement sprang suddenly into my head, he recalled and orchestrated it within two weeks. But at the première, in Vienna, on December 4, 1881 (the soloist was Adolf Brodsky), it was not well received. The conservative critic Eduard Hanslick wrote a damning review, dismissing it as long, tasteless, undiscriating, pretentious, crude, brutal, coarse, and vulgar (he actually used the word stink ). Tchaikovsky, deeply hurt, could recite this review by heart for the rest of his life. It is difficult to fathom how this of all pieces could invite such invective, for the music is inspired and polished, and its gentleness, charm, and melodic beauty are remarkable. Every principal theme of the first movement is lyrical and intimate; only in the process of extending and intensifying these themes does Tchaikovsky permit a flowering of virtuosity. The orchestra is small by late 19th-century standards larger by only two horns than that of Mozart s Paris Symphony, composed exactly a century before yet still Tchaikovsky s scoring is discriating: more than a third of the first movement has passed before we hear an extended statement from the full orchestra, and it does not last long; much of the movement sounds like chamber music. There are some striking departures from Classical conventions. In the first movement, for instance, the orchestral introduction begins with a melody that, having established the lyrical, pastoral tone of the music, is never heard again; also, the cadenza for the soloist is placed in the middle of the movement, much earlier than usual. The lyricism of the first movement is given fuller voice in the second, the Canzonetta ( little song ); note the chorale-like opening theme, the sombre, folk-like main theme, the brief, sweet diversion in the middle. Even in the bustling, dazzling, unpredictable rondo finale, the lyrical element emerges proently, in the soulful and brooding episodes. All of the finale s themes, Tchaikovsky acknowledged, have a strong Russian flavour, and there are some rustic effects in the scoring; indeed, the solo part sometimes conjures up a peasant fiddle. 44

4 Antonín Dvořák Symphony No. 8 in G Major, Op Born: Nelahozeves, near Kralupy, Bohemia (now the Czech Republic), Sep 8, 1841 Died: Praha, Bohemia (now the Czech Republic), May 1, 1904 Composed: 1889 The Eighth Symphony was a product of one of those periodic, prolific upsurges of nationalist sentiment during which Dvořák favoured a distinctively Slavonic idiom. He wrote the work quickly in the late summer of 1889, in the Bohemian countryside, and completed the scoring in November, in Prague, where he conducted the première the following February. Every movement of the Eighth alludes to Slavonic folk music, through rusticsounding melodies and harmonies, country-dance rhythms, imitations of traditional instruments; we hear, too, Dvořák s great love of nature. This is a cheerful, proud, optimistic work, unusually animated and tuneful, though it incorporates a streak of melancholy that occasionally erupts into fury. The first movement is mostly joyful and its main theme (first played by a flute) is chirpy and fetching, yet it opens with a chorale-like tune in a or key, which reappears at important junctures; when the main theme is rescored for English horn late in the movement, it seems to have absorbed some of the darker emotion of the chorale. The movement s final effect is of happiness deepened by poetic sentiment. Dvořák boasted of individual thoughts worked out in a new way in this symphony; perhaps he meant the clever transformations and interrelationships of themes, or the reimagining of Classical forms (sonata, rondo, variations). Or perhaps he meant the picturesque middle movements, which seem like iature symphonic poems. The second seems to evoke the natural landscape and social life of a Czech village; the two main, alternating sections are both unmistakably Slavonic, and the scoring sometimes suggests a village band. The third movement opens with a melancholy, lusciously scored waltz, and the Trio section in the middle features cross-rhythms reiscent of the Dvořák of the Slavonic Dances; in a charg coda, the Trio theme becomes a little polka, and the final bars wittily parody a village band winding up. The finale unfolds in an idiosyncratic and unpredictable variation form, with a curious, somewhat grotesque march in the middle and one wildly dancing variation (listen for raucous woodwinds and horn trills) that eventually yields an exhilarating coda. 45

5 THE ARTISTS Thomas Dausgaard conductor Thomas Dausgaard made his TSO début in January Thomas Dausgaard is Chief Conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra, Music Director Designate (2019/20) and Principal Guest Conductor of the Seattle Symphony, Honorary Conductor of the Orchestra della Toscana (ORT), and Honorary Conductor of the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, having previously served as its Principal Conductor from 2004 to He is renowned for his creativity and innovation in programg, the excitement of his live performances, and his extensive catalogue of critically acclaimed recordings. Dausgaard performs internationally with the world s leading orchestras, and is a committed advocate of contemporary music, having premièred works by many living composers. He has made over 50 CDs, including a variety of complete symphonic cycles. Currently, he is completing a Brahms cycle for BIS, and, with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra, a project that combines J.S. Bach s Brandenburg Concertos with a set of six newly commissioned companion works. Dausgaard has been awarded the Cross of Chivalry by the Queen of Denmark, and elected to the Swedish Royal Academy of Music. Vadim Gluzman violin Vadim Gluzman made his TSO début in February Vadim Gluzman s extraordinary artistry brings to life a wide repertoire that embraces new music and his performances are heard around the world through live broadcasts and a striking catalogue of award-winning recordings exclusively for the BIS label. Highlights of his 2017/18 season include appearances with the Gewandhaus Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Czech Philharmonic, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the Boston, San Francisco, Toronto, Vancouver, Oregon, Gõteborg, and Lucerne symphony orchestras, as well as his début performances with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Gluzman also leads performances with the Vienna Chamber Orchestra and the ProMusica Chamber Orchestra in Columbus, Ohio, where he continues in his fourth year as Creative Partner and Principal Guest Artist. Born in the former Soviet Union in 1973, Gluzman began violin studies at age 7. He studied in Russia and Israel before moving to the United States, where he studied at The Juilliard School. In 1994, he received the prestigious Henryk Szeryng Foundation Career Award. Vadim Gluzman plays the legendary 1690 ex-leopold Auer Stradivari on extended loan to him through the generosity of the Stradivari Society of Chicago. 46