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Program notes
2008-09 concert season
All seasons guide |
Program notes, Dec. 5 & 6, 2008
by Horace Work
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
Three German Dances, KV 605
How many dances and marches did Mozart write? It is difficult to say exactly, but Volume 6 of the complete Mozart edition by Philips records 208 of them. Each piece is quite short — usually about two minutes — the organization of the music is simple, such as A/repeat/B/repeat/C/ repeat/D/repeat/da capo, and each section might be four or eight measures long.
hese compositions show Mozart at his most playful and light. Their simple melodies often repeated do not call for high-level thought as might a symphony, and one can easily dance to these tunes. In fact, the melodies are so obvious, one can practically sing along with them on first hearing!
It is well known Mozart was a boy genius who performed before kings and princes, showing off his abilities at age 6 by demonstrating his perfect pitch (naming the notes by ear), and improvising at the keyboard “as long as may be desired and in any key,” but Mozart’s love of dancing is not usually mentioned.
“Madame Mozart told me that, great as his genius was, he was an enthusiast in dancing, and often said that his taste lay in that art, rather than in music,” wrote Michael Kelly, a friend and student of Mozart.
In a letter to his father in 1783, Mozart wrote, “Last week I gave a ball in my lodgings; of course each gentleman paid two guilders; we began at 6 in the evening and finished at 7 – What? Only an hour? No, no – at 7 in the morning…”
Pietro Mascagni (1863-1945)
Intermezzo from Cavalleria Rusticana
Many fathers of great composers raised their sons for a profession such as the law (for example, Tchaikovsky), and so Mascagni’s father wanted Pietro to be like him, a baker. Luckily, the father yielded to his son’s determination to study music, and Pietro became one of the best-known opera composers of the 19th Century.
While he wrote 17 operas in all, only “Cavalleria Rusticana” rose into the common repertoire. It is still performed today around the world, and secured Mascagni’s reputation single handedly. The opera, his first staged work, took first prize in a competition held by a music publisher, and when it was performed two years later in Rome, was a sensational success.
“Cavalleria Rusticana” initiated the “verismo” or realism school, based on the literary realism of late 19th Century authors such as Zola, Ibsen and others. This new verismo style contrasted with the grand productions of earlier opera composers, whose subjects — kings, mythological characters, magic and historical matters — were replaced by realistic people in everyday life settings.
The opera was quite short, complete in one act, so it was usually presented in two parts. The Intermezzo was played between the two parts and soon became a popular orchestral number performed separately.
Manuel de Falla (1876-1946)
Dance of the Miller’s Wife from The Three-Cornered Hat
Manuel de Falla is considered to be one of the greatest Spanish composers. In his late 20s he won two big prizes in Madrid, one for his opera, La Vida Breve, and another for winning a piano competition. Then he traveled to Paris, where he befriended Debussy, Dukas and Ravel, and adopted their principles of impressionism — without giving up his personal and national style.
His sojourn in Paris ended when he returned to Spain seven years later, and he settled in Grenada. While it is possible to speak of the effect of impressionist techniques on de Falla’s music, one could also speak to the effect of Spanish music on composers in France. Both Debussy and Ravel wrote large orchestral works using Spanish idioms, rhythms and instruments.
"The Three Cornered Hat" is a lush, romantic, orchestral tour de force, with exotic rhythms, accents and chords that create an energetic mood reminiscent of the flamenco style, which also is very energetic. It is the overall effect of the music that de Falla was interested in, more than, say, a beautiful melody line, or some counterpoint, as one hears in Bach. And that effect comes from pure, uncomplicated sounds and big rhythmic events. Welcome to impressionism!
Piotr Ilyitch Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)
March, Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, Chinese Dance, Dance of the Toy Soldiers, Russian Dance, from The Nutcracker
When one mentions the common repertoire, the Nutcracker should immediately come to mind, for it represents our culture so well by dint of its innumerable performances over the last century, it is highly unlikely any one of us will be hearing these dances for the first time tonight.
And considering that Tchaikovsky at age 10 attended a school of jurisprudence in St. Petersburg, graduated at 19, became a government clerk, studied music on the side, and did not display conspicuous talent either on piano or in composition, it is an almost unbelievable paradox that his compositions would ever become so entrenched in that vaunted common repertoire. Nevertheless, after two years of clerking he gained admission to a newly established music conservatory, to be named later the St. Petersburg Conservatory, and graduated at 25 with a silver medal in composition for his cantata on a Schiller poem.
Tchaikovsky wrote “The Nutcracker” at the same time he was composing his Symphony No. 6, a somber and dark composition. Called the Pathetique, its first movement starts out with trombones playing the theme of the Russian service for the dead. That apparently did not prevent him from penning his gayest, most upbeat and exuberant “Nutcracker,” which eclipsed in popularity almost every other piece he wrote.
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
Hungarian Dances No. 5, No. 6, & No. 7
Audiences will no doubt recognize Hungarian Dance No. 5, played today in its orchestral arrangement in G Minor. It comes from the original set of 21 dances composed for piano four-hands — that is, with two pianists at one keyboard. Brahms only orchestrated three of his dances, Nos. 1, 3, and 10. All 21 have been transcribed for orchestra by other composers, notably among them, Antonin Dvorak.
Most composers like to please their audiences, and to hear their pieces played often at home on the piano or on the concert stage. The Hungarian Dances achieved both of these goals and made Brahms a lot of money besides.
The Hungarian dance in general often started with a well-known folk melody. The typical ensemble — violin, hammered dulcimer and bass — would start with the melody and continue by improvising variations. Musicians in different regions of Hungary followed their own unique styles. The character of each folk tune has within it qualities that lend themselves to improvisation and a spontaneous playfulness, all retained beautifully by Brahms in his formal rendering of these folk tunes.
Edward Elgar (1857-1934)
Nimrod From Enigma Variations
No composer from England after Henry Purcell in the late 16th Century made his presence felt in the world of music until Edward Elgar. Handel, of course, was exceptionally well known, but he was a German citizen transplanted to England later in life. One might ask, where is the British Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms? Simply, there was none. Great Britain was in a dry spell, off the concert stage, really, until Elgar. Sir Edward Elgar will always be remembered for Pomp and Circumstance, a stately, slow march played perennially for graduation ceremonies. Yet, Enigma Variations could claim our affections too, if it got similar airtime.
Nimrod is No. 8 in a set of 14 variations on an original theme. Like the other variations, No. 8 is marked by initials of, supposedly, friends of the composer. Over the years, Elgar gave cryptic clues to the identity of those 14 sets of initials and most of the personages – owners of those initials – have been discovered.
Nimrod sounds different, or I should say, more different than the other variations in the set. There is a calm, harmonic and consonant serenity that sets this variation No. 8 apart for me, and makes it one of the high points of the Enigma Variations.
Georges Bizet (1838-1875)
Habañera; Danse Boheme from the opera Carmen
Georges Bizet was most certainly a child prodigy, entering the Paris Conservatory as a youth of 9. There he won several prizes, starting at 14 with first prize in piano, at 17 for organ and fugue, and at 18 the Grand Prix de Rome. In addition, at 17 he wrote his first symphony. Not published until 1935 (80 yars later!), it was then finally recognized as an astonishingly brilliant work. Never has any other composer written symphonies so well so early in life.
Great fame came to Bizet posthumously for his Carmen, although the first performances did not greatly excite its audiences. Bizet died at 37, only three months after the first performance of the opera, and he was chagrined by the cool reception it received. Within three years, however, Carmen had been performed in major cities around the world to endless applause, and has never left the repertoire.
The Habañera (a dance from Cuba, Havana actually) is a slow dance with characteristic rhythms somewhat similar to those of the tango. Bizet used this Habañera as a borrowed folk song to which he made slight changes for insertion into his opera. But actually, unbeknownst to Bizet, it was a melody written by the Spanish composer Yradier.
Danse Boheme exemplifies Bizet’s engaging, eminently effective use of rhythms and melody, traits he employs so easily throughout Carmen.
Jean Sibelius (1865-1957)
Finlandia
There is no doubt Sibelius is the greatest Finnish composer who ever lived. Perhaps he started something, because Finnish musicians, conductors and composers are popping up in many places today. The music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic is Esa-Pekka Salonen, a famous composer from Finland.
Sibelius in his 20s impressed enough people to be granted a government stipend for study in Berlin. A little later, he traveled to Vienna for study with Robert Fuchs and Karl Goldmark. In his 30s, he earned a 10-year annual stipend from the Finish Senate.
In July of 1900, his Finlandia received its first performance by the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra. A patriotic, inspirational composition, Finlandia had the power to arouse the Finns to a state of belligerent patriotism, or so the Czarist government believed in any case. For that reason, during times of political unrest any performance of it was officially banned.
Finlandia begins in a minor key and rises inspirationally to a rousing finale in a major key. In between, a graceful and wonderfully powerful hymn sounds beside martial music that comes and goes, but every section leads inexorably on to the grand finale.
Encore
Leroy Anderson (1908-1975)
Sleigh Ride
Leroy Anderson’s parents moved to the USA from Sweden as children and settled in Cambridge Massachusetts, where Leroy was born. His father was a postal clerk and played the mandolin, and his mother was an organist at the Swedish Church in Cambridge.
At 11 years of age, Leroy began piano and music studies at the New England Conservatory of Music. For his high school graduation he composed, and orchestrated his class song, and then conducted the Cambridge High and Latin School orchestra in the performance on graduation day. His present on graduating that day was a trombone, which he would go on to play at Harvard where he had been accepted as an underclassman.
Anderson was a brilliant linguist and mastered Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic, German, French, Italian, and Portuguese in addition to the English and Swedish of his upbringing. He planned to teach languages because he thought making a living at music was not possible. Then, just about to take a teaching position in Pennsylvania, he decided to give music a final try.
Joining with the Boston Pops under his friend Arthur Fiedler, he arranged popular songs for orchestra and wrote his own pieces as well. “The Syncopated Clock,” “Blue Tango,” “Belle of the Ball,” “Sleigh Ride,” and many other hits often had their premier at the Boston Pops in the ‘30s and ‘40s, and Leroy Anderson’s career was launched.
© 2008 Symphony in the Valley
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