2008-2009 Concerts
From Folksong to Symphony
Sunday, October 5, 2008 at 7 p.m.
Washington Center for the Performing Arts
Conductor
Huw Edwards
Guest Artist
Angela Niederloh
Concert Sponsor
From Folksong to Symphony |
|
|---|---|
| Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908) |
"Dance of the Tumblers" from The Snow Maiden |
| Malcolm Arnold (1921-2006) | Four Scottish Dances, Op. 59 1. Pesante 2. Vivace 3. Allegretto 4. Con Brio |
| Gustav Mahler
(1860-1911) |
Songs of a Wayfarer I. Wenn mein Schatz Hochzeit macht II. Ging heut' Morgen ubers feld III. Ich hab' ein gluhend Messer IV. Die zwei blauen Augen |
Ms. Niederloh INTERMISSION |
|
| Pyotr Ill'yich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) |
Symphony No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18 "Little Russian" I. Andante sostenuto - Allegro vivo II. Andante marziale, quasi moderato III. Scherzo: Allegro molto vivace - Trio, L'istesso tempo IV. Finale: Moderato assai - Allegro vivo - Presto |
Program Notes
"Dance of the Tumblers"
from The Snow Maiden
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908)
This exhilarating and high-spirited orchestral miniature is arguably the most famous segment of Rimsky-Korsakov's four-act opera The Snow Maiden, composed in 1881 and first performed at the Marinsky Theater, St. Petersburg in February 1882. The "Dance of the Tumblers" (from Act III) pays homage to the lauded troupes of traveling entertainers--skomorokhi--which Rimsky-Korsakov seemed to have admired greatly. This energetic music, based on a Russian children's song, is well known, great fun and the composer created some musical magic to accompany the magicians and high-flying acrobats of the traveling circus.
Four Scottish Dances, Op. 59
Malcolm Arnold (1921-2006)
Although Malcolm Arnold wrote many fine symphonies and concertos, it is through his "lighter music" that many people have come to this underrated English genius. Arnold was a prolific composer of film and TV music and he penned many works for amateur and school ensembles. A professional trumpet player—Arnold was principal with the London Philharmonic and BBC Symphony Orchestras--he knew what players liked to play and, equally important, what audiences enjoyed hearing.
Following his successful sets of English Dances, op. 27 and 33 respectively, written in 1950 and 1951, Arnold was inspired to write his Four Scottish Dances in 1957. This was not the composer's first foray into a Scottish symphonic piece, as his Overture Tam O'Shanter had been a big hit two years earlier. The brass and percussion take center stage in the robust first dance, with its tribute to the "Scotch snap" rhythm and the marvelous imitation of the highland bagpipes. A quick reel serves as the second dance as the woodwind instruments pass the traditional tune around amongst themselves. The pace slows for the tipsy-sounding middle section--as the bassoon tries to find his way home after one single-malt too many! The third dance is softer and slower in mood and takes an Ayrshire folksong as its basis, with the flute and harp adding a palpable rusticity to the music at the end. The final dance (Con brio) brings a corporate exuberance to the mix and all join in for a rousing concluding Ceildgh.
Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen
Gustav Mahler (1860-1911)
Song and folklore was at the heart of Mahler's musical psyche and his amazing songs often shaped the emotional content of his lauded symphonies. Themes from Mahler's Ruckert Lieder found their way into his Fifth Symphony (1902), and motives from the morbid Kindertotenlieder (Songs on the Death of Children) were utilized in the tragic Sixth Symphony (1905). The composer started this trend with his first song-cycle, the Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (Songs of a Wayfarer), which was composed--to Mahler’s own texts--between 1883-5. Direct quotations from the second song became the thematic basis for the first movement of Mahler's First Symphony (1888), and the doleful last song was the catalyst for the First Symphony's bizarre third movement.
Echoes of Schubert's inconsolable song-cycle Winterreise (Winter's Journey) surround the Songs of a Wayfarer, which depicts a man wandering disconsolately through the countryside, having been rejected in love. Mahler wrote these songs shortly after being spurned by an actress, Johanna Richter, and he wrote his own words having read many of the poems in the famous collection of German folk poetry, Des Knaben Wunderhorn (The Child's Magic Horn), which fascinated Mahler throughout his life. Although the orchestration is quite bold and elaborate--especially in the wild third song--Mahler often supports the voice with a chamber-like clarity, and the folksy innocence of the songs is retained by simple harmonies and imitations of the sounds of nature. (Mahler loved nature and once stated, "My symphonies are like the world and the sounds of the earth", and said of the gargantuan opening movement to his primordial Third Symphony, "here nature roars!") The final song is a funeral march, as the lover reluctantly leaves the town of his girlfriend and seeks anonymity under a lime tree. Mahler would go on to include a funeral march in each of his ten symphonies--this macabre obsession becoming a true hallmark of this anguished and intriguing composer's music.
Symphony No. 2 in C minor, Op. 17 ("Little Russian")
Piotyr Il'yich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)
Tchaikovsky's final three symphonies, nos. 4-6, are performed so often it is easy to forget that he wrote any other symphonies before this celebrated trilogy. The first three of Tchaikovsky's half-dozen symphonies are more Russian in tone and possess a certain innocence and simplicity which the second trilogy eschews. Symphonies 1, 2 and 3 are far less neurotic and less biographical than the later works, especially Tchaikovsky's ultimate symphony, the Pathetique (1893). Although it would be hard to label Tchaikovsky a Nationalist--in the same sense as Mussorgsky or Glinka--he always harbored a deep love of Russian folksongs and music from the Orthodox Church. Despite viewing himself as "more European"--he adored France and like many composers during the 19th-century enjoyed traveling to Italy--Tchaikovsky was not afraid of utilizing the songs and rhymes of Russia in his music and many of the composer's piano pieces center on traditional Russian melodies.
As Tchaikovsky's sister, Alexandra, lived at Kamenka in the Ukraine, the composer had reason to make regular visits to that large corner of Russia. In 1872, on one such family sojourn, Tchaikovsky began sketching ideas for his Second Symphony. The composer incorporates three folk themes in the course of the work--including a couple of well-known Ukrainian folksongs--so thus became the work's nickname as the Ukraine was known in Tsarist times as "Little Russia".
The first movement's slow Introduction (Andante sostenuto) opens with one of the adopted folksongs, as the principal horn intones "Down by the Mother Volga"--a tune everybody would have recognized. Tchaikovsky surrounds this tune with a myriad of decorative runs and instrumental commentary before the music launches headlong into the Allegro vivo section. An angular theme in the lower strings, derived from the Introduction, initiates much momentum especially when subjected to some fugal treatment. The second theme is somewhat shy, which paves the way for Tchaikovsky to unleash the opening "Volga" theme at the height of the movement's tempestuous development section. It returns for a final airing in the mysterious coda.
If the dainty march in the second movement reminds you of the ballet--a genre in which Tchaikovsky excelled--it actually originates from music the composer intended for an opera, Undine, which never came to fruition. This charming movement is in an arch form, ABACABA: the A section being the toy-soldier march so redolent of The Nutcracker; B is the dotted-note figure in the strings; and C, which forms the movement's arch-stone, is a curvaceous melody borrowed from the Russian folksong "Spin, O my spinner". The movement dies away at the end, with much reluctance, over the throbbing timpani drum.
The third movement is a fleet-footed Scherzo which brings Mendelssohn to mind. The music is impetuous and lithe and surges forward in three-bar phrases. For the Trio section, the rhythm changes to 2/8 time (from the 3/8 of the Scherzo) and its perky march-like mood recalls the Andantino second movement. The Scherzo music is then repeated in full.
A burst of orchestral sound heralds the splendid finale--though the pomposity and grandeur is short-lived. The movement is based on the popular Ukrainian song Ta vnadyvsya zhuravel ("The Crane"). Following the initial full-orchestra statement, Tchaikovsky impishly introduces it as a soft game of cat-and-mouse in the violins before it gradually grows layer by layer. As our beloved "Crane" walked about in fairly square, four-bar phrases, Tchaikovsky installs the necessary contrast with the intervening theme--with its catchy 3+3+2 gait. The two themes jockey for position throughout the movement but it is the "Crane" theme that comes to the fore in the sizzling Presto coda, which closes the Second Symphony with a paean of Russian brilliance.
Program Comments Copyright 2008 by Huw Edwards
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