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notesBy Dr. Richard E. Rodda
PETER ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKYBorn May 7, 1840 in Votkinsk;died November 6, 1893 in St. Petersburg.
ROMEO & JULIET, FANTASY-OVERTURE (1870)• First performed on March 16, 1870 by the
Orchestra of the Russian Musical Society in
Moscow, conducted by Nikolai Rubinstein.
• First performed by the Des Moines Symphony
on April 14, 1948 with Frank Noyes conducting.
Subsequently performed seven times, most
recently on April 17 & 18, 2010 with Joseph
Giunta conducting.
(Duration: ca. 19 minutes)
Romeo & Juliet was composed when
Tchaikovsky was 29. It was his first masterpiece.
For a decade he had been involved with the
intense financial, personal and artistic struggles
that mark the maturing years of most creative
figures. Advice and guidance often flowed his
way during that time, and one who dispensed it
freely to anyone who would listen was Mili
Balakirev, one of the group of amateur
composers known in English as “The Five” (and
in Russian as “The Mighty Handful”) who sought
to create a nationalistic music specifically
Russian in style. In May 1869, Balakirev
suggested to Tchaikovsky that Shakespeare’s
Romeo & Juliet would be an appropriate subject
for a musical composition, and he even offered
the young composer a detailed program and an
outline for the form of the piece. Tchaikovsky
took the advice to heart, and he consulted
closely with Balakirev during the composition of
the work. Though his help came close to
meddling, Balakirev’s influence seems to have
had a strong positive effect on the finished
composition.
Tchaikovsky’s Romeo & Juliet is in a
carefully constructed sonata form, with
30 SECOND NOTES: This all-Russian Des Moines Symphony concert observes the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s death with two masterpieces inspired by the Bard’s Romeo & Juliet: Tchaikovsky’s tone poem, the work that established his international reputation, and Prokofiev’s ballet, considered by many to be his most masterful creation. The heart of the concert is occupied by the lyrical and virtuosic C Minor Piano Concerto of Sergei Rachmaninoff, the composer-pianist-conductor who was one of Russia’s most richly gifted musicians. The evening closes with the powerful and exotic Polovtsian Dances from Borodin’s opera Prince Igor, set in 12th-century central Asia.
November 19/20
ROMEO & RACH 2
introduction and coda. The slow opening section,
in chorale style, depicts Friar Laurence. The
exposition (Allegro giusto ) begins with a
vigorous, syncopated theme depicting the
conflict between the Montagues and the
Capulets. The contrapuntal interworkings and
the rising intensity of the theme in this section
suggest the fury and confusion of a fight. The
conflict subsides and the well-known love theme
(used here as a contrasting second theme) is
sung by the English horn to represent Romeo’s
passion; a tender, sighing phrase for muted
violins suggests Juliet’s response. A stormy
development section utilizing the driving main
theme and the theme from the introduction
denotes the continuing feud between the
families and Friar Laurence’s urgent pleas for
peace. The crest of the fight ushers in the
recapitulation, in which the thematic material
from the exposition is considerably compressed.
Juliet’s sighs again provoke the ardor of Romeo,
whose motive is here given a grand, emotional
setting that marks the work’s emotional high
point. The tempo slows, the mood darkens, and
the coda emerges with a sense of impending
doom. The themes of the conflict and of Friar
Laurence’s entreaties sound again, but a
funereal drum beats out the cadence of the
lovers’ fatal pact. Romeo’s theme appears for a
final time in a poignant transformation before the
closing woodwind chords evoke visions of the
flight to celestial regions
The score calls for piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, English horn, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, cymbals, bass drum, harp and the usual strings consisting of first violins, second violins, violas, violoncellos and double basses.
SERGEI RACHMANINOFFBorn April 1, 1873 in Oneg (near Novgorod), Russia;died March 28, 1943 in Beverly Hills, California.
PIANO CONCERTO NO. 2 IN C MINOR, OP. 18 (1901)
• First performed on October 14, 1901 in
Moscow, conducted by Alexander Siloti with the
composer as soloist.
• First performed by the Des Moines Symphony
on January 16, 1949 with Frank Noyes
conducting and Eugene List as soloist.
Subsequently performed eight more times, most
recently on May 14 & 15, 2011 with Joseph
Giunta conducting and Ilya Yakushev as soloist.
(Duration: ca. 34 minutes)
When he was old and as mellow as he would
ever get, Rachmaninoff wrote these words about
his early years: “Although I had to fight for
recognition, as most younger men must,
although I have experienced all the troubles and
sorrow which precede success, and although I
know how important it is for an artist to be
spared such troubles, I realize, when I look back
on my early life, that it was enjoyable, in spite of
all its vexations and bitterness.” The greatest
“bitterness” of Rachmaninoff’s career was the
total failure of the Symphony No. 1 at its
premiere in 1897, a traumatic disappointment
that thrust him into such a mental depression
that he suffered a complete nervous collapse.
An aunt of Rachmaninoff, Varvara Satina,
had recently been successfully treated for an
emotional disturbance by a certain Dr. Nicholas
Dahl, a Moscow physician who was familiar with
the latest psychiatric discoveries in France and
Vienna, and it was arranged that Rachmaninoff
should visit him. Years later, in his memoirs, the
composer recalled the malady and the
treatment: “[Following the performance of the
First Symphony] something within me snapped.
A paralyzing apathy possessed me. I did nothing
at all and found no pleasure in anything. Half my
days were spent on a couch sighing over my
ruined life. My only occupation consisted in
giving a few piano lessons to keep myself alive.”
For more than a year, Rachmaninoff’s condition
persisted. He began his daily visits to Dr. Dahl in
January 1900. “My relatives had informed Dr.
Dahl that he must by all means cure me of my
apathetic condition and bring about such results
that I would again be able to compose. Dahl had
inquired what kind of composition was desired of
me, and he was informed ‘a concerto for
pianoforte.’ In consequence, I heard repeated,
day after day, the same hypnotic formula, as I lay
half somnolent in an armchair in Dr. Dahl’s
consulting room: ‘You will start to compose a
concerto — You will work with the greatest of
ease — The composition will be of excellent
quality.’ Always it was the same, without
interruption.... Although it may seem impossible
to believe,” Rachmaninoff continued, “this
treatment really helped me. I started to compose
again at the beginning of the summer.” In
gratitude, he dedicated the new Concerto to Dr.
Dahl.
The C Minor Concerto begins with eight
bell-tone chords from the solo piano that herald
the surging main theme, announced by the
strings; the arching second theme is initiated by
the soloist. The development, concerned largely
with the first theme, is propelled by a martial
rhythm that continues with undiminished energy
into the recapitulation. The Adagio is a long-
limbed nocturne with a running commentary of
sweeping figurations from the piano. The finale
resumes the marching rhythmic motion of the
first movement with its introduction and bold
main theme. Standing in bold relief to this
vigorous music is the lyrical second theme.
These two themes, the martial and the romantic,
alternate for the remainder of the movement.
The score calls for two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, cymbals, bass drum and the usual strings.
SERGEI PROKOFIEVBorn April 23, 1891 in Sontzovka, Russia;died March 5, 1953 in Moscow.
MUSIC FROM ROMEO & JULIET (1938)• First performed in Brno, Czechoslovakia in
December 1938.
• Music from Romeo & Juliet was first
performed by the Des Moines Symphony on
September 27 & 28, 1980 with Yuri
Krasnapolsky conducting. Subsequently
performed in 1996 and most recently on April 17
& 18, 2010 with Joseph Giunta conducting.
(Duration: ca. 20 minutes)
When Prokofiev returned to Russia in 1933 after
his long sojourn in the West, he had already
acquired a reputation as a composer of ballet.
His first balletic effort had been the volcanic Ala
and Lolly written for Diaghilev in Paris in 1914,
whose music is better known in its concert form
as the Scythian Suite. Though Diaghilev did not
like the piece and refused to stage it, he
remained convinced of Prokofiev’s talent and
commissioned Chout (“The Buffoon” ) from him
in 1921 and produced it with his Ballet Russe. Le
Pas d’acier (“The Steel Step” ) followed in 1927,
and The Prodigal Son in 1928, the last new ballet
Diaghilev produced before his death the
following year. Sur le Borysthène (“On the
Dnieper” ) was staged, unsuccessfully, by the
Paris Opéra in 1932. The last two of these works
showed a move away from the spiky musical
language of Prokofiev’s earlier years toward a
simpler, more lyrical style, and the Kirov Theater
in Leningrad took them as evidence in 1934 that
he should be commissioned to compose a
full-length ballet on Shakespeare’s Romeo &
Juliet. After difficulties staging the ballet in
Russia, Romeo & Juliet was premiered in Brno,
Czechoslovakia in December 1938 and has since
come to be regarded as one of Prokofiev’s most
masterful creations.
Montagues and Capulets incorporates, as
slow introduction, the music accompanying the
Duke as he forbids further fights between the
families on pain of death.
The ecclesiastical music depicting Friar
Laurence occurs as the friendly monk and
Romeo await Juliet in the cleric’s cell.
Dance is an episode from the scene of the
folk festival in Act II.
Romeo at Juliet’s Grave is taken from the
ballet’s final scene — Juliet’s funeral procession
and Romeo’s grief at her supposed death.
Death of Tybalt is based on the music
accompanying the duel of Tybalt and Mercutio,
Tybalt’s death and his funeral procession.
The score calls for piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, English horn, two clarinets, bass clarinet, two bassoons, contrabassoon, tenor saxophone, four horns, cornet, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, triangle, tambourine, cymbals, glockenspiel, xylophone, snare drum, bass drum, harp, celesta, piano and the usual strings.
ALEXANDER BORODINBorn November 12, 1833 in St. Petersburg; died there on February 27, 1887.
POLOVTSIAN DANCES FROM PRINCE IGOR (1890)• First performed on November 4, 1890 in St.
Petersburg, conducted by Karl Kuchera.
• First performed by the Des Moines Symphony
on February 4, 1945 and again on February 17,
1946 with Frank Noyes conducting.
(Duration: ca. 12 minutes)
Vladimir Stassov, the influential critic and
philosophical mentor of the Russian nationalist
composers, first brought the idea for Prince Igor
to Borodin in 1869. Stassov had sketched out a
scenario based on The Epic of Igor’s Army, a
poem, later shown to be an 18th-century fraud,
that Stassov thought to be a 12th-century
description of the conflict between the Russians
and the Tartars. Borodin devoted significant time
to the opera in 1869-1870, but then was unable
to return to it for several years, though he did
use many of the sketches in the Second
Symphony of 1871-1874. When Borodin resumed
work on Prince Igor in 1874, the Polovtsian
Dances were among the first numbers written.
He pecked away at the opera for the remaining
years of his life, but the score was left
incomplete when he died suddenly at a party
from a burst aneurysm. Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
and his student Alexander Glazunov finished
Prince Igor from Borodin’s sketches and
prepared the opera for its premiere, in 1890 in
St. Petersburg.
In the opera, Igor is captured while trying to
rid Russia of the Polovtsi, an invading Tartar
tribe from Central Asia. The leader of the
Polovtsi, Khan Kontchak, treats Igor as a guest
rather than a prisoner, and entertains him
lavishly. Khan offers him his freedom if he will
promise to leave the Polovtsi in peace, but Igor
refuses. Igor nevertheless effects his escape
and returns triumphantly to his people. Borodin
wrote that Prince Igor is “essentially a national
opera, interesting only to us Russians, who love
to steep our patriotism in the sources of our
history, and to see the origins of our nationality
again on the stage.” To make his opera as
authentic as possible, he studied the music,
history and lore of Central Asia, where the opera
is set, and sought out travelers with first-hand
knowledge of the region. His colorful, “Oriental”
writing for the Polovtsi was influenced not only
by authentic Caucasian melodies, but also by
music from the Middle East and North Africa.
The Polovtsian Dances are the centerpiece
of the Khan’s entertainment for Igor in Act II. A
brief introduction opens the scene in the
Polovtsian camp with an arch-shaped theme
played quietly by flute and clarinet. The first
dance, whose beguiling melody was transformed
into the song Stranger in Paradise in the 1953
Broadway musical Kismet, accompanies the
procession of captives. The women of the chorus
sing its text, a tender song extolling the high
mountains and blue skies of their Polovtsian
homeland. Next comes the entry of the
Polovtsian warriors to solid, rough music led by
the Oriental wailings of the woodwinds and a
sturdy version of the arched theme from the
introduction. A timpani solo introduces a
ferocious general dance in which the chorus,
accompanied by full orchestra, sings the praises
of the mighty Khan. The next dance, with its
galloping rhythm, its persistent descending
four-note motive and its continuing adulation of
the Polovtsian ruler, accompanies the war
games of the savage young men. The swaying
melody of the first dance returns in a richer
setting and is soon combined with the energetic
theme of the savage warriors. The rough music
and Oriental wailings that introduced the
warriors return with a ferocious vehemence to
bring the brilliant Polovtsian Dances to a rousing
close.
The score calls for piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, English horn, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, triangle, cymbals, tambourine, glockenspiel, snare drum, bass drum, harp and the usual strings.