SAN DIEGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA A JACOBS MASTERWORKS CONCERT Fabien Gabel, conductor May 4 and 6, 2018 LEONARD BERNSTEIN Three Dance Variations from Fancy Free Galop Waltz Danzon LEONARD BERNSTEIN Serenade (After Plato s Symposium ) Phaedrus Pausanias: Lento Allegro Aristophanes: Allegretto Erixymachus: Presto Agathon: Adagio Socrates Alcibiades: Molto tenuto Allegro molto Simone Lamsma, violin INTERMISSION RICHARD STRAUSS Suite from Der Rosenkavalier, Op. 59 JACQUES OFFENBACH Selections from Gaîté parisienne Arr. Manuel Rosenthal Ouverture No. 1: Allegro brillante No. 2: Polka No. 6: Allegro No. 8: Valse Lente No. 10: Valse Moderato No. 13: Allegro molto No. 15: Allegro No. 16: Cancan No. 22: Vivo
Three Dance Variations from Fancy Free LEONARD BERNSTEIN Born August 25, 1918, Lawrence, MA Died October 14, 1990, New York City Some musical geography is necessary here, because the situation can be confusing. In the fall of 1943, the 25-year-old Leonard Bernstein became an overnight sensation when he replaced an ailing Bruno Walter and led a nationally-broadcast concert by the New York Philharmonic. At exactly the same moment, choreographer Jerome Robbins approached Bernstein and proposed that he write a ballet about three sailors on leave in New York City. This became Fancy Free, Bernstein s first ballet, and it was premiered at the Metropolitan Opera on April 18, 1944. That summer, Bernstein s friend, the lyricist Adolph Green, suggested to the young composer that the situation of the ballet three sailors on leave in New York City could be made into a musical. Bernstein quickly composed the music, and On the Town opened on Broadway in December 1944 and ran for 463 performances. But while the situation of the ballet and the musical comedy are exactly the same, the music is not. Bernstein was adamant that not one note of Fancy Free appeared in On the Town he composed the musical absolutely fresh. Fancy Free was the first ballet by both Robbins and Bernstein, and it was an instant success: The New York Times reviewer called it a smash hit. The plot of Fancy Free is quite simple. Three sailors have a 24-hour pass in wartime New York City. They go into a bar in search of companionship and eventually interest two young women. But three sailors and two women make an awkward combination. Someone will be left out, so the sailors devise a solution: each will dance, the women will choose the loser among the three dances, and he will have to leave. Each sailor performs his dance, but the women are unable to choose. At this point the sailors get into a terrific fistfight, and the horrified women vanish. The sailors pick themselves up, regroup, and set off in pursuit of the next attractive woman who passes by. Bernstein pulled a suite of movements out of Fancy Free and led the premiere with the Pittsburgh Symphony on January 14, 1945. The present concert offers three movements from Fancy Free that are often performed by themselves under the title Three Dance Variations. These are the dances the individual sailors dance in their competition for the women: a spirited Galop, a slinky Waltz and a jazzy Danzon.
Serenade (After Plato s Symposium ) LEONARD BERNSTEIN Born August 25, 1918, Lawrence, MA Died October 14, 1990, New York City Three unrelated events in the early 1950s led Leonard Bernstein to compose his Serenade. In June 1951 Bernstein s mentor Serge Koussevitzky died, and the Koussevitzky Music Foundation commissioned an orchestral work from the young composer-conductor in his memory. Second, violinist Isaac Stern asked Bernstein to write a violin concerto for him. And finally, while staying at an inn in Cuernevaca, Mexico, in the fall of 1953, Bernstein discovered in his room a copy of Plato s Symposium, a work he had read while a student at Harvard. The Symposium tells of a dinner party for the friends of Socrates in Athens at which they discuss the nature of love. Bernstein, who was on his honeymoon at that time, was particularly struck by their examination of the meaning of love. He decided to make that dinner-party-with-discussion the basis of his violin concerto for Stern, a work that also satisfied the commission from the Koussevitzky Music Foundation. He began the new piece, which he called a serenade rather than a concerto, later that the fall and finished it while on vacation at Martha s Vineyard during the summer of 1954. Stern was soloist and Bernstein the conductor at the premiere in Venice on September 12, 1954. Plato s Symposium, an account told by Apollodorus, takes place during a dinner at the home of Agathon in Athens. The literal meaning of symposium is drinking party, but at such a gathering the point was to allow each guest not only to drink but to participate fully in the discussion of the topic of the evening. At this symposium each of the guests Pausanias, Erixymachus, Alcibiades and the rest contributes his own views on love. While each section of Bernstein s Serenade bears the name of one of these speakers, listeners need not know Plato s Symposium to understand or enjoy this music. In fact, it might be simplest to take Bernstein s movement titles only as a general guide and listen to the Serenade as a virtuoso work for violin and orchestra; though this may not be called a Violin Concerto, Isaac Stern clearly got his wish for a concerto. Bernstein chose his title carefully a serenade is a love-song and he described his Serenade as a series of related statements in praise of love. Formally, the Serenade might be thought of as a sequence of progressive variations: it is in five movements, and each of these grows out of material presented in the previous movement. Bernstein used the Symposium only
as a general guide for his piece he re-arranged the order of the speakers and eliminated several of them. He also recognized that few listeners would be familiar with Plato, so he prepared a general program note for the benefit of those interested in literary allusion. That note is worth quoting at length: I. Phaedrus; Pausanias (Lento; Allegro). Phaedrus opens the symposium with a lyrical oration in praise of Eros, the god of love (Fugato, begun by the solo violin). Pausanias continues by describing the duality of lover and beloved. This is expressed in a classical sonata-allegro, based on the material of the opening fugato. II. Aristophanes (Allegretto). Aristophanes does not play the role of clown in this dialogue, but instead that of the bedtime storyteller, invoking the fairy-tale mythology of love. III. Erixymachus (Presto). The physician speaks of bodily harmony as a scientific model for the workings of love-patterns. This is an extremely short fugato scherzo, born of a blend of mystery and humor. IV. Agathon (Adagio). Perhaps the most moving speech of the dialogue. Agathon s panegyric embraces all aspects of love s powers, charms and functions. This movement is a simple three-part song. V. Socrates; Alcibiades (Molto tenuto; Allegro molto vivace). Socrates describes his visit to the seer Diotima, quoting her speech on the demonology of love. This is a slow introduction of greater weight than any of the preceding movements, and serves as a highly developed reprise of the middle section of the Agathon movement, thus suggesting a hidden sonata-form. The famous interruption by Alcibiades and his band of drunken revelers ushers in the Allegro, which is an extended rondo ranging in spirit from agitation through jig-like dance music to joyful celebration. If there is a hint of jazz in the celebration, I hope it will not be taken as anachronistic Greek party-music, but rather the natural expression of a contemporary American composer imbued with the spirit of that timeless dinner-party. Bernstein conceived this music with Isaac Stern s talents specifically in mind, and there is some spectacular writing for violin here it is by turn lyric, brilliant, reflective, animated. If one hears traces of jazz and Stravinsky in this music, Bernstein makes those influences fully his own, and the range of sounds he gets from his string-and-percussion orchestra is striking. There
may have been many influences on the creation of the Serenade, but the result was one of Bernstein s most successful works for the concert hall. Suite from Der Rosenkavalier, Op. 59 RICHARD STRAUSS Born June 11, 1864, Munich Died September 8, 1949, Garmisch-Partenkirchen Richard Strauss achieved international notoriety with a pair of shocking operas in the first decade of the twentieth century. Salome (1907), based on the Oscar Wilde play and essentially a study in sexual pathology, included the infamous Dance of the Seven Veils and the appearance on stage of the decapitated head of John the Baptist. Electra (1909), the story of the murder of Agamemnon and the revenge of his children, went even further in its lurid details and harmonic dislocation. Both operas were huge successes (and both made the composer a great deal of money), but he himself felt that he had gone too far with them, and now he wanted to pull back from the brink and write something sparkling, light and fun. That new direction came quickly. In February 1909, only a month after the premiere of Electra, Strauss librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal wrote him a letter, suggesting a new project: I have spent three quiet afternoons here drafting the full and entirely original scenario for an opera, full of burlesque situations and characters, with lively action, pellucid almost like a pantomime. There are opportunities in it for lyrical passages, for fun and humor Period: the old Vienna under Empress Maria Theresa. That sketch would become, with considerable modification, Der Rosenkavalier, which Strauss composed in 1909-10. The premiere in Dresden on January 26, 1911, was a complete success, and Der Rosenkavalier remains one of the most impressive (and best-loved) operas ever written. And for very good reasons. At one level, it is a satisfying love story, as young Octavian (a role sung by a soprano) falls in love with the beautiful young Sophia. At another level, it is terrific comedy, as the boorish Baron von Ochs is outwitted at every turn. But finally Der Rosenkavalier touches something deeper: the aging Marschallin begins the opera as Octavian s lover but eventually recognizes the rightness of his love for Sophia, releases him, and accepts life and her role with dignity. Lotte Lehmann, one of the great singers to take the part of the Marschallin, said of her: To experience growing old with dignity, to endure the inevitable with
a smile, that is her determination, her philosophy, her realization. It is the way of the world. The Marschallin, however, stands for something much more important than a wise older woman. Her given names Maria Therese are also those of Vienna s great eighteenth-century empress, and the Marschallin comes to symbolize an older Vienna, a city of vanished elegance, a code of behavior, and civility. In a famous remark late in his long life, Strauss said, I may not be a first-rate composer, but I am a first-class second-rate composer. Listening to Der Rosenkavalier, however, it is hard to place Strauss anywhere but among the absolute first rank of composers. This is some of the greatest music ever written sparkling, beautiful, brilliant, moving, subtle, energetic all of it perfectly conceived for the complex human situations that are evolving onstage. And along the way it offers some of the most memorable waltzes ever to set an audience swaying along with them. The opera was such a success that special Rosenkavalier trains ran from Berlin to Dresden to carry the thousands of people who wanted to see it. Strauss music is too good to remain in the opera house, but Rosenkavalier is a difficult opera to excerpt because it is a unified music-drama rather than a series of set-pieces that can be detached easily for concert performances. Various people (the conductor Artur Rodzinski among them) have drawn symphonic suites from the opera by gathering and stitching together its purely instrumental sequences, and music from Der Rosenkavalier is performed in various forms (including sometimes just the waltz sequences). The version performed at these concerts, published by Boosey and Hawkes, has become the most famous of these, but its provenance is unclear did Strauss himself assemble this version? No one knows. In any case, this Suite offers some of the best-loved music from the opera, and listeners will recognize favorite moments. This suite opens with the opera s buoyant introduction, then includes music drawn from the opening love-scene, the presentation of the rose, a number of different waltz episodes (including those that bring Act II to its close) and the defeat of Baron von Ochs in Act III. It proceeds to music from the great trio for the three lead sopranos in the final act, but rather than finishing up with the music that brings the opera to its close it circles back for another waltz episode and concludes with a concert ending.
Selections from Gaîté parisienne JACQUES OFFENBACH Born June 20, 1819, Cologne Died October 5, 1880, Paris Gaîté parisienne is one of Jacques Offenbach s best-known scores, but he never heard it. In fact, he didn t even know it existed. In 1937, more than fifty years after Offenbach s death, the choreographer Léonide Massine wished to create an entirely new ballet based on music by Offenbach, and he asked French composer-conductor Maurice Rosenthal to compile a score by arranging movements and melodies from Offenbach s operettas. Working from the scores (sometimes from the piano scores) of Offenbach s operettas, Rosenthal created a nineteen-movement ballet, occasionally re-composing Offenbach s music to fit the needs of Massine s story-line and in a few cases composing new music of his own. Rosenthal turned in his score and promptly got a bad surprise: Massine did not like it, and it took the intervention of Igor Stravinsky to convince Massine to accept what Rosenthal had created. Stravinsky s instincts were correct: Gaîté parisienne ( Parisian Gaiety ), as it was called, was a huge success when the Ballet Russes de Monte Carlo gave the premiere in Paris on April 5, 1938. Ironically, Gaîté parisienne a piece Offenbach never heard of has become one of his most famous works: the ballet is still produced, the music has been recorded many times, and the ballet has been made into several films. Offenbach would have been amazed (and delighted). The plot of Gaîté parisienne is much too complicated to explain, and perhaps it is simplest just to describe the setting and situation. The ballet tells the story of a wealthy Peruvian Tourist (none of the characters has a name) who comes to Paris and encounters its rich nightlife. The cast is full of types (soldiers, waiters, cleaning women, women of doubtful reputation, and so on), as well as a few characters identified only by profession: Glove Seller, Flower Girl, etc. Much of the music comes from Offenbach s La vie parisienne, but Rosenthal also drew music from Orpheus in the Underworld, Tales of Hoffmann and other operettas. The characters dance, flirt, pair off, fight, and finally pair off again, departing into the night as couples and leaving the Peruvian Tourist alone and forlorn on the stage. Conductors have felt free to create their own suites from Rosenthal s ballet score, and this concert offers ten of its 19 movements. These excerpts do not attempt to tell the story of Gaîté parisienne, and they should be enjoyed simply as the sparkling miniatures they are. Most
are dances waltz, polka, laendler, can-can, galop, and so on and all are full of attractive tunes and sizzling energy. Listeners will discover that they already know many of these toe-tapping melodies (and the only mystery surrounding this music is why Massine at first rejected it). Sit back, let Offenbach and Rosenthal transport you back to the Paris of 150 years ago, and enjoy a piece of music that sets out deliberately to be fun. And succeeds brilliantly. -Program notes by Eric Bromberger PERFORMANCE HISTORY by Dr. Melvin G. Goldzband, San Diego Symphony Archivist Bernstein's Three Dances Variations from his World War II ballet, Fancy Free, are being heard for the first time at these concerts. His piece for violin soloist, almost a concerto but titled Serenade, has been heard once before at these concerts, in the season 2005-06, when Jennifer Frautschi played it with the orchestra under the direction of Jahja Ling. The very popular suite from Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier was introduced to San Diego Symphony audiences when Maurice Abravanel conducted it in the summer of 1958. It has been repeated thirteen times at these concerts, most recently when Henry Lewis conducted it in the 1994-95 season. The gap between that performance and this concert is the longest in the orchestra's history for this piece. In the summer of 1960, Earl Bernard Murray introduced the Offenbach suite from the ballet Gaîté parisienne to delighted San Diego Symphony audiences. Andre Kostelanetz repeated it three summers later with the orchestra, but it has never been played at these concerts again, although excerpts have been played at numerous popular and family concerts.