Program Notes for March 18, 2023
written by RSO Principal Cellist Michael Beert
D’un matin du printemps Lili Boulanger
Composer: born August 21, 1893, in Paris, France; died March 15, 1918 in Mezy-sur-Seine, France
Work composed: 1918
First performance: March 13, 1921, at the Paris Conservatory, by the orchestra of the Concerts Pasdeloup, Rhené-Baton conducting
Instrumentation: two flutes, piccolo, two oboes, English horn, two clarinets, bass clarinet, two bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, two trombones, bass trombone, tuba, percussion, harp, celesta, and strings
Estimated duration: 6 minutes
This is the first Rockford Symphony Orchestra performance of this work
Lili Boulanger belonged to one of the most under-appreciated musical families in France. Her parents were both musical and her older sister Nadia became one of the most important music composition teachers of the twentieth century. In 1913, Lili was the first female to win the prestigious Prix de Rome, a prize awarded to top music composition students of the Paris Conservatory. Previous winners included Georges Bizet (Carmen), Jules Massenet (Manon), and Claude Debussy (Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun).
The work, D’un matin du printemps (Of a Morning in Spring), was first composed as a work for violin (or flute) and piano in 1917. She reworked the composition as an orchestral piece in 1918 and it was the last work to be completed before she died prematurely of Crohn’s Disease. The work is dedicated to her father Ernest Boulanger, who along with the great French composer, Gabriel Fauré, were important in her development as a composer. The work is a brief celebration of Spring written in an Impressionistic style. Musicologist Harry Halbreich described it as a scherzo “in a spontaneous style. . .with a transparent orchestral texture.”
The work features wonderful melodic use of woodwinds, harp, horns, and strings. Brass is used for shading as well as for power near the end of the work. The percussion and celesta are used to aid in color. This transparent use of the orchestra comes from the French subtle use of the Russian “playbook” on orchestration written by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov that featured more use of woodwinds, brass, and percussion instead of the heavier orchestration of the German school of composition.
Clarinet Concerto Aaron Copland
Composer: born November 14, 1900 in Brooklyn, New York; died December 2, 1990 in Cortlandt Manor, Westchester County, New York
Work composed: 1947 – 1949
First performance: November 6, 1950, by Benny Goodman and the NBC Symphony Orchestra, Fritz Reiner conducting
Instrumentation: solo clarinet, strings, harp, and piano.
Estimated duration: 17 minutes
Most recent RSO performance: January 25, 2003, with Darlene Carl-Beck, Steven Larsen conducting
Aaron Copland's Clarinet Concerto was commissioned by the Jazz clarinetist, Benny Goodman. The work is in two movements connected together by a cadenza for the solo clarinet. The work's second movement has many Jazz influences in it as Copland was fond of this style of music and frequently borrowed from Jazz, from his earliest compositions all the way through his career. Copland was able to incorporate Jazz syncopations and rhythms in his music effortlessly. In the second movement, there is even a Jazz "vamp" or improvisational sounding section between the soloist, the piano and a solo bass.
The first movement is slow and elegaic in nature. Copland considered offering the first movement as a stand-alone work to Serge Koussevitsky and the Boston Symphony orchestra. He later decided against it as he thought the concerto would suffer as it was not yet premiered.
At the time he began the concerto, Copland was teaching and conducting in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. His interest in Brazilian music comes through in the second movemnt of the work along with his love for using Stravinsky-like motor rhythms and ostinatos as well as Jazz. Copland had a nickname before this as the "Brooklyn Stravinsky" with his use of repeated patterns and layered effects. The work concludes with a brief cadenza-like section with the soloist having the final word in a long ascending chromatic scale or Jazz slide.
Scheherazade, Op. 35 Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Composer: born March 18, 1844, in Tikhvin, Russia; died June 21, 1908, in Lyubensk, Russia
Work Composed: 1887 – 1888
World premiere: October 28, 1888, in Saint Petersburg, Russia, the composer conducting
Instrumentation: two flutes and piccolo, two oboes (one doubling on English horn), two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, two trombones, bass trombone, tuba, timpani, harp, and strings
Estimated duration: 47 minutes.
Most recent RSO performance: January 14, 2012, Steven Larsen conducting
I. The Sea and Sinbad's Ship
II. The Kalendar Prince
III. The Young Prince and the Young Princess
IV. Festival at Baghdad. The Sea. The Ship Breaks against a Cliff Surmounted by a Bronze Horseman
Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov was part of a group of composers that were called the "Mighty Five" or "Mighty Handful." The group was led by the composer Mily Balakirev (1837–1910) who inspired the group musically to produce works that used Russian music and topics. The others among the group were Rimsky-Korsakov, Modest Mussorgsky, Cesar Cui, and Alexander Borodin. They continued the work that others such as Mikhail Glinka had started a generation before.
The purpose of the group was to reject the music of German and Italian composers that was popular at the Russian court. In its place, these composers used melodies inspired by Russian folk music and Russian church music. This gave a greater sense of realism or truthfulness to the music that hopefully, the court and the general Russian population could relate to.
In historical context, Russia was expanding in the nineteenth century just as the United States was. It was coming into contact with cultures that were foreign to Russia, particularly in Central Asia: The Caucasus region, Kazakstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and eventually, Northern Afghanistan and Siberia. The music from these regions was hard to assimilate as it was radically different. The composers in the late nineteenth century attempted to use these new sounds in their music, creating what is called "exoticism."
Rimsky-Korsakov was not immune to this new "exoticism." Scheherazade is a wonderful example of this on many different levels: melodically, harmonically, orchestrationally, and especially in regard to the program or story involved. Considered to be Rimsky-Korsakov's finest work and one of the most popular compositions of the late nineteenth century, the work never fails to intrigue and capture the attention of listeners, performers, and composers alike.
In 1887, Rimsky-Korsakov was hired to conduct the Russian Symphony Concerts, a series of concerts in St. Petersburg, Russia that featured contemporary Russian composers. This appointment encouraged him to find new ways to express his talents. Scheherezade was composed at a time when Rimsky-Korsakov was perhaps at the height of his powers, writing some of his most popular orchestral works: Scheherazade, Capriccio Espagnol, and the Russian Easter Festival Overture. Each work utilizes folk music or what could be considered inspired by authentic folk or church music.
In regard to the story or program of Scheherazade, the music is inspired by the 1001 Arabian Nights, translated by the English explorer and writer Sir Richard Francis Burton in 1885. There were earlier editions reaching back to approximately 1720. One of these translations obviously inspired Rimsky-Korsakov to begin writing a large scale work for orchestra. What should be advised to the listener is that Rimsky-Korsakov did not want a continuous story line told through music but suggestions of characters and events from the tales in each movement.
The only continuous plot told in the music is the story of the heroine, Princess Scheherazade and her Sultan. Each has an easily recognizable melody, similar to a leitmotif in a Wagner opera or a theme found in a John Williams music score (think Indiana Jones, Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, etc.). The Sultan's Theme is heard at the beginning of the work in orchestral unison and Scheherazade is portrayed by the solo violin. These two themes act as a framework for the other characters and are found in each movement. However, Rimsky-Korsakov wanted the listener to hear the work on its own merits and said:
"All I desired was that the hearer, if he liked my piece as symphonic music, should carry away the impression that it is beyond a doubt an Oriental narrative of some numerous and varied fairy-tale wonders and not merely four pieces played one after the other and composed on the basis of themes common to all the four movements."
The work is similar to a symphony as it has four distinct movements that correspond to the four movements of a traditional symphony with a moderately fast first movement, a lively scherzo, slow movement, and a fast and vigorous finale.
The framework of the story concerns the Sultan and his horrific treatment of his wives. He sleeps with a different princess every night and then has them executed the following morning. To prolong her life, Scheherazade tells a story to the Sultan but does not finish the tale, telling him that she will resume the story the next night. This continues for 1001 nights, and at the conclusion of the 1001 nights, the Sultan stays the execution of Scheherazade and they are united in peace and forgiveness.
Rimsky-Korsakov concerns himself with this framework in each movement. It is easy to hear the Sultan's Theme as it is stated in the beginning. It features a more robust and Russian style melody, and is played fortissimo. Scheherazade's theme is more Eastern in nature and features ornamentation and melissmas, many times played in a free rhythmic way on the solo violin.
In the opening section of the first movement, Rinsky-Korsakove also borrows a device from the opening of Felix Mendelssohn's Overture to A Midsummer Night's Dream: a series of woodwind chords describe the beginning of the magic that is to come. It acts as a beautiful transition from the harshness of the Sultan's Theme to the Scheherazade Theme in the solo violin accompanied by the harp.
Each movement portrays a character from the Arabian Nights with the first movement titled The Sea and Sinbad's Ship. The second movement is titled The Kalendar Prince, the third movement is The Young Prince and the Young Princess and the finale has the longest title: Festival at Baghdad. The Sea. The Ship Breaks against a Cliff Surmounted by a Bronze Horseman.
The last thing to keep in mind is the brilliant orchestration in Scheherezade. In his early life, Rimsky-Korsakov was a Colonel in the Imperial Navy. His job was to inspect the military bands at Russian Naval bases. Because of this job, Rimsky-Korsakov gained first-hand knowledge of woodwind, brass, and percussion instruments. More importantly, how to use them effectively in orchestral music. His works rely heavily on these instruments in a new and unique way, entirely different from the standard orchestrations found in most German and Austrian composers' works. He eventually wrote a textbook on his ideas of orchestration that were used through much of the twentieth century by such modern composers as Debussy and Ravel in France, Respighi in Italy, and the Russian composers Glauzunov, Prokofiev, and Stravinsky.