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FROM PARIS TO LENINGRAD

Leningrad, 1920sParis, 1920s

THE DECADESPROJECT 1920–1929

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CONCERT PROGRAM

Peter OundjianMusic Director

Darius MilhaudLa création du monde, Op. 81

Sergei ProkofievPiano Concerto No. 3 in C Major, Op. 26I. Andante – Allegro

II. Andantino

III. Allegro ma non troppo

Intermission (Nov 2 & 3 only)In the North Lobby, join Decades curator Tom Allen in conversation with Ingrid Mida (Fashion Historian and Curator of Ryerson University’s Fashion Research Collection) as they discuss the iconic fashions of the 1920s.

Dmitri ShostakovichSymphony No. 1 in F Minor, Op. 10I. Allegretto – Allegro non troppo

II. Allegro

III. Lento

IV. Allegro molto – Lento

Wednesday, November 2, 2016

8:00pm

Thursday, November 3, 2016

2:00pm

Saturday, November 5, 2016

7:30pm

James Gaffiganconductor

Jon Kimura Parkerpiano

As we continue to enjoy the music of the 1920s, one thing that becomes obvious is just how creative the decade was. James Gaffigan leads the Orchestra in three very different works, beginning with Darius Milhaud’s clever ballet, La création du monde. During this period, composers discovered jazz, largely through Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. The Europeans took up the sounds of jazz in their own way, and Milhaud’s score is a perfect example of the sophistication that they brought to it. Toronto favourite Jon Kimura Parker joins the Orchestra for Prokofiev’s wonderful Third Piano Concerto, one of his most popular works. Prokofiev was a unique figure in the 20th century, in that he retained a strong connection with the Romantic era, but spoke in a dynamic, rhythmically charged language that was uniquely his own. His younger countryman, Shostakovich, was catapulted to stardom with the première of his First Symphony. It completely abandons any trace of Romanticism, and substitutes spiky, acerbic, rather bleakly humorous, and singularly contemporary sounds.

MASTERWORKS (ENCORE) SERIES PRESENTED BY

CASUAL CONCERT SERIES PRESENTED BY

30

THE DETAILS

Milhaud created one of the broadest and most

varied catalogues of music of any twentieth-

century composer. Out of his nearly 450 works,

the early pieces, such as this fascinating jazz-

inflected dance score, are generally regarded as

his freshest and most enjoyable creations.

In 1923, he received a commission from Rolf

de Maré, producer of the innovative company

known as the Swedish Ballet. Author Blaise

Cendrars and choreographer Jean Börlin

developed their contributions to the new project

from African myths about the beginnings of

life. Rituals from the same continent inspired

designer Fernand Léger’s scenery and costumes.

Milhaud quickly realized that a musical style

with African roots—jazz—would suit the material

perfectly. As he wrote, “I adopted the same

orchestra as used in Harlem, seventeen solo

instruments, and I made wholesale use of the

jazz style to convey a purely classical feeling.”

In the original production, the curtain rose on

near darkness, gradually revealing a mass of

intertwined dancers. The giant gods Mzamé,

Mebère, and N’Kwa, African gods of creation,

intervened in this state of chaos by chanting

magic spells. Life began to erupt: trees shot up

and dropped their leaves, which sprouted into

animals. As night turned into day, human limbs

began to appear, until a male and a female

dancer emerged and performed a dance of

desire, then a mating dance. Finally, the couple,

united by love, stood peacefully on stage, as the

first Spring began.

Here is Milhaud’s own description of his

emotionally charged yet tender and dignified

music: “The expansive saxophone melody is

followed by the rhythmic theme, the fugue that

infects the whole orchestra with its agitation.

The music accompanying the appearance of the

plants and animals is very sinuous. Furthermore,

there is the clarinet concertino which heralds

the dance of desire, then the superimposition

of the concertino and the fugue which marks

the climax of the ballet, the mating dance. The

saxophone is heard once again and the coda

brings together and disperses the work’s different

melodic elements within the space of a few bars.”

Program note by Don Anderson

Darius MilhaudLa création du monde, Op. 81

Born: Aix-en-Provence, France, Sep 4, 1892 Died: Geneva, Switzerland, Jun 22, 1974Composed: 1923

16min

Fernand Léger’s set and costume designs for the original production of La création du monde.

31

Sergei ProkofievPiano Concerto No. 3 in C Major, Op. 26

Born: Sontzovka, Russia, Apr 27, 1891 Died: Moscow, Russia, Mar 5, 1953Composed: 1921

For most of the spring and summer of 1921,

energized by recent success overseas, Prokofiev

retreated to the village of Saint-Brevin-les-Pins,

on the coast of Brittany, where his big project

was the Third Piano Concerto. Following a strict

regimen of composition and exercise, he worked

contentedly and productively, even after a fall

from a bicycle turned his face “into a cutlet.”

On December 16, he performed the concerto

for the first time, with the Chicago Symphony

Orchestra. It was decently received, but later met

with outright hostility in New York; it had better

success in Europe and Russia—indeed, it was

for a time Prokofiev’s “meal ticket.” He made a

scintillating, unsurpassed recording of it in 1932.

In this brilliant and thrillingly virtuosic concerto,

Classical in its forms and proportions, Prokofiev

neatly balances and integrates the piano

and orchestra parts. The musical idiom is

unapologetically modern, yet presents no

insurmountable challenges to lay listeners (not for

nothing is this Prokofiev’s most popular concerto).

It is not a “neurotic” piece, Prokofiev insisted; there

are no Stravinskian “dirty tricks”. Various sides of

his musical persona come together here: the

music can be unabashedly Romantic as well as

sarcastic, soaring, and lush as well as bustling and

angular, playful as well as violent.

The first movement—notwithstanding the

poignant melody with which it opens—is

propulsive and passionate, sometimes ironic

(note the castanets!), with a busy, toccata-

like piano part. The theme of the second

movement is a lovely, courtly, tongue-in-cheek

march recalling the faux eighteenth-century

confections of the Classical Symphony; five

variations follow, all highly individual and

extravagantly imaginative, and at the height of

it all, the theme returns in its original form.

The opening theme of the finale is a sort of

grotesque tiptoeing, evidently humorous—at

first, anyway: the movement turns out to be

substantial, with a fiery piano part. Prokofiev

apes the rondo form of many Classical concerto

finales, and in so doing forges a balance of

moods that recalls the first movement. At the

heart of the finale is a beautiful slow waltz, though

the movement ultimately drives to a rousing close.

Program note by Kevin Bazzana

28min

A TASTE OF AMERICAProkofiev left post-Revolutionary Russia

for New York in the spring of 1918. As a

“Bolshevik composer” he was, at first, not

warmly welcomed in America, but his

reputation as a pianist and composer had

preceded him, and he had enough success

in his first concerts in New York to be

dubbed “the musical news of the season.”

Still, when he visited Europe in April, 1920, it

soon became obvious that audiences there

were more sympathetic to the avant-garde

style of his music. Indeed, after the hostile

reception of his Third Piano Concerto in

New York, Prokofiev gave up on America

and returned to Europe in 1922.

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THE DETAILS

Early in Shostakovich’s career, he truly seemed

the brightest musical beacon of the time and

place. When he completed Symphony No. 1 at

age nineteen, the conflicts between him and

the repressive Soviet cultural bureaucracy that

would repeatedly bedevil him lay years ahead.

The following year, this remarkably assured

work served as his graduation exercise from the

Leningrad Conservatory. The highly successful

public première (the scherzo was repeated by

audience demand), took place in Leningrad on

May 12, 1926. The symphony rapidly made its

way around the world, entering the repertoires

of such eminent conductors as Arturo Toscanini

and Bruno Walter, maestros who did not

conduct a great deal of contemporary music.

Even in so early a work lay the seeds of much

that would follow. Throughout, it runs, for

example, a deep if not yet fully mined vein of

melancholy and questioning. This reflected

not only his own, introspective personality but

also his love of similarly minded composers

such as Mahler, Mussorgsky, and Tchaikovsky.

His bold, sometimes raucous sense of humour

is also already on clear display, a quality

heightened by recent experience playing piano

accompaniments to silent film comedies at the

Bright Reel cinema.

The four movements of Symphony No. 1 divide

into two pairs. The dominant quality in the first

half is a brittle sense of humour. The impudence

that is the primary element of the first movement

increases sharply in the second. In October

1924, Shostakovich wrote in regards to these

two movements, “In general I am satisfied

with the symphony. Not bad. A symphony like

any other, although it really ought to be called

a symphonie-grotesque.” Forecasting more

serious moods to come, Shostakovich provided

a counterweight for the second movement’s

primary mood through a mysterious, chant-like

second theme.

The second half opens with a funeral march.

The darkest edges of its overall sobriety are

regularly cushioned by what would become

another Shostakovich trademark: prominent,

highly expressive passages for solo instruments.

The finale, which follows on without a break, is

marked by sharp contrasts. Outbursts of feverish

activity alternate with passages of deep meditation,

wrapped up by an assertive conclusion.

Program note by Don Anderson

Dmitri ShostakovichSymphony No. 1 in F Minor, Op. 10

Born: St. Petersburg, Russia, Sep 25, 1906 Died: Moscow, Russia, Aug 9, 1975Composed: 1924–1925

28min

A SYMPHONIE-GROTESQUEAfter completing the

first two movements,

Shostakovich admitted

to a friend that he was

in a significantly darker

frame of mind as he

composed the latter half of the work. “I am

in a terrible mood,” he wrote. “Sometimes

I just want to shout. To cry out in terror.

Doubts and problems. All this darkness

suffocates me. From sheer misery, I’ve

started to compose the finale of the

symphony. It’s turning out pretty gloomy.”

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THE ARTISTSJames GaffiganconductorJames Gaffigan made his TSO début in April, 2008.

Hailed for the natural ease of his conducting and the

compelling insight of his musicianship, James Gaffigan

continues to attract international attention and is considered

by many to be the most outstanding young American

conductor working today. In January 2010, he was

appointed Chief Conductor of the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra and Principal Guest

Conductor of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra; recently, he concluded

his tenure as Principal Guest Conductor of the Gurzenich Orchestra in Cologne.

In addition to these titled positions, Mr. Gaffigan is in high demand to work with the

leading orchestras and opera houses throughout North America, Europe, and Asia.

Mr. Gaffigan’s first recording with the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra for Harmonia

Mundi, an all-Wolfgang Rihm disc, received critical acclaim on both sides of the

Atlantic, as did his second recording with Lucerne of Dvořák’s Symphony No. 6 and

the American Suite, also for Harmonia Mundi. He is in the process of recording the

complete Prokofiev symphonies with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic and his

most recent recording is of the first Tchaikovsky and second Prokofiev piano concertos,

with Kirill Gerstein and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin for the Myrios label.

Jon Kimura ParkerpianoJon Kimura Parker made his TSO début in April, 1985.

Known for his passionate artistry and engaging stage

presence, pianist Jon Kimura Parker’s brilliant and versatile

career has taken him from Carnegie Hall and Berlin’s

Philharmonie to the Beijing Concert Hall and the Sydney

Opera House. This season, Mr. Parker performs as concerto

soloist with the Ann Arbor, Colorado, Pittsburgh, National, Toronto, and Vancouver

symphony orchestras, as well as the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and National

Arts Centre Orchestra. A committed educator, Jon Kimura Parker is Professor of Piano

at The Shepherd School of Music at Rice University. He is also Artistic Advisor of the

Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival. Mr. Parker has recorded for Telarc and CBC, and

on his own label. His new CD, Fantasy, features Fantasies of Schubert and Schumann,

as well as the sensational Wizard of Oz Fantasy by William Hirtz.

“Jackie” Parker studied with Edward Parker, Keiko Parker, Lee Kum-Sing, Robin Wood, Marek

Jablonski, and Adele Marcus. He won the Gold Medal at the 1984 Leeds International

Piano Competition. He lives in Houston with his wife, violinist Aloysia Friedmann, and

their daughter Sophie. For further information, please visit jonkimuraparker.com.