April 25 - 26, 2014 at 8 pm

MARCH 10 Deadline

THE FIREBIRD

Shizuo Z. Kuwahara, conductor

Stewart Goodyear, piano*

SHOSTAKOVICH Tahiti Trot

PROKOFIEV Piano Concerto No. 3*

KHACHATURIAN Masquerade Suite

STRAVINSKY The Firebird Suite (1919)

Along with Prokofiev and Khachaturian, Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) is one of few composers of the former Soviet Union to sustain a large following in the West, but his relationship with Stalin's regime was not always an easy one. The Soviets were quick to use the world-wide popularity of Shostakovich as propaganda so he never remained out of favor for long, but the composer nonetheless suffered official denouncements in 1936 and 1948. The charges stemmed from perceived Western-style "formalism," essentially accusing Shostakovich of letting the structural aspect of his music become an egoistic end in itself, rather than the means of communicating universal emotional realities with comrade listeners. Ironically, Shostakovich had detractors among the West’s avant-garde for the exact opposite reasons. Although their influence has since dulled, the self-styled “cutting edge” wielded its own brand of artistic totalitarianism through much of the second half of the 20th Century, insisting that composers reject accessible tonal idioms altogether in favor of more challenging mathematical or electronic compositional procedures. Ignoring the ideological tyranny on both fronts, performers and listeners have always embraced Shostakovich’s music, and he remains among the most performed and recorded 20th-century composers. With 15 symphonies and 15 string quartets to his credit, Shostakovich is often considered the chief 20th-century proponent of those genres, and he joins Stravinsky and Prokofiev as the most-esteemed Russian-born composers of the "Modern" era.

In 1926, conductor Nikolai Malko and the Leningrad Symphony Orchestra gave the first performance of Shostakovich's Symphony No. 1, Op. 10, which had been completed the year before as the student composer's graduation piece from the Petrograd Conservatory. During a visit with Malko a year later, Shostakovich heard a recording of a song from American composer Vincent Youman's popular musical, No, No, Nanette. The song was Tea for Two, known as "Tahiti Trot" in Russia, and the conductor challenged the 20-year-old composer to orchestrate the tune from memory, wagering that it could not be completed in an hour. Forty-five minutes later Shostakovich was 100 rubles richer. Despite it being an arrangement rather than an original composition, Shostakovich designated his version of Tahiti Trot as his "Opus 16," and Malko premiered it in Moscow in 1928. It was a hit, and Shostakovich incorporated the arrangement into his 1930 ballet, The Golden Age, Op. 22. While remaining affectionately faithful to Youman's tune, the witty score displays Shostakovich's ironic sense of humor as it soft-shoe shuffles among muted trumpet fanfares, percussion tunes tinkling like music boxes, slapstick swoons from trombones and piccolo, and the schmalzy swelling of the strings.

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Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953) ranks among the greatest composers of the 20th Century, and biographer Simon Morrison reckons that Prokofiev's concert music is played more often in America than that of any of his contemporaries. To put some of his compositional achievements in perspective, Prokofiev wrote his "Classical" Symphony No. 1, Op. 25, in 1917, three years before Stravinsky took up neoclassicism, and the brilliant Piano Concerto No. 3 in C major, Op. 26 (1921), appeared three years before Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue (1924) and five before Bartok's Piano Concerto No. 1 (1926).

In 1912, the 21-year-old Prokofiev premiered his Piano Concerto No. 1 in D-flat major, Op. 10, and in 1913, the Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 16, the "modernity" of which caused something of a riot. By this time the Ukrainian enfant terrible already had secured a contract with a music publisher who provided the financial backing for him to tour Paris and London in 1914. Momentously, this brought Prokofiev into contact with Serge Diaghilev, the impresario behind the famous Ballets Russes. Diaghilev's commissions already had resulted in some of the most glorious scores from the early 1900s, including Ravel's Daphnis et Chloé (1909-1912), and Stravinsky's The Firebird (1910), Petrushka (1911), and The Rite of Spring (1913). Although Diaghilev rejected Prokofiev's Ala and Lolli (1915, reworked by the composer as Scythian Suite, Op. 20), the impresario eventually would produce three very successful ballets he commissioned from Prokofiev: Chout (The Buffoon, Op. 21, 1915-21), Le pas d'acier (The Stride of Steel, Op. 41, 1926), and Le fils prodigue (The Prodigal Son, Op. 46, 1928-29), Diaghilev's last new production before his death.

In the meantime World War I and the Russian Revolution intervened, and Prokofiev abandoned the political uncertainty of Russia. He set out for the United States in 1918, where he met with a fair amount of success, as both pianist (with his Piano Concerto No. 1) and composer (with the Scythian Suite). But a delay in the production of a newly-commissioned work for the Chicago Opera, L'amour des trois oranges (The Love of Three Oranges, 1920), brought on financial hardship, so he returned to Paris in 1920, where his widowed mother recently had settled. [And he didn't return alone: a young Spanish soprano (with a Russian mother), Carolina "Lina" Codina (1897-1989), who had immigrated to New York City with her family, followed him, despite the composer's unwillingness to marry her until 1923, when she became pregnant with their first son, Sviatoslav (1924-2010), who was followed four years later by Oleg (1928-1998).]

In France Prokofiev immediately picked up where he had left off with Diaghilev, and Chout premiered to great acclaim in May 1921. By summer's end Prokofiev had finished his Piano Concerto No. 3, already having sketched all but two of the work's main themes through the previous decade. When he returned to the States for the October premiere of L'amour des trois oranges, he carried the new concerto with him, and both works were warmly-received in Chicago. They did not immediately fare as well with the New York crowd, but with their European premieres in 1922 both the opera and concerto enjoyed international successes. Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 3 remains the most popular among the five he wrote, and among all 20th-Century concerted works for piano and orchestra (not counting Rachmaninoff's) only those by Gershwin and Ravel (and possibly Falla) rival its universal popularity.

http://www.phoenixsymphony.org/plan-your-visit/lang-lang-performs-prokofievs-piano-concerto-no-3-10-13

http://www.kennedy-center.org/calendar/?fuseaction=composition&composition_id=2093

http://www.seattlesymphony.org/symphony/buy/single/programnotes.aspx?id=10715

http://www.barbwired.com/barbweb/programs/prokofiev_piano3.html

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1. Waltz

2. Nocturne

3. Mazurka

4. Romance

5. Galop

Aram Khachaturian (1903-1978) was born in Tbilisi, the capital city of Georgia, and he spent his adult life in Moscow. But his Armenian parents immersed him in the folk music of their homeland and it profoundly influenced Khachaturian's mature compositional style, in much the same way that American jazz suffuses the music of George Gershwin. Khachaturian's cultural identity was so distinctive that the composer was honored posthumously with his image on Armenian currency and postage stamps, even though he never actually lived in Armenia. Khachaturian often is grouped with Shostakovich and Prokofiev as the three "titans" of Soviet music, but as a child young Aram did not display any prodigious musical gifts. It was after he entered the prestigious Gnesin Music Academy in Moscow in 1922 that his buried talent was unearthed, and in 1929 he was accepted into the Moscow Conservatory. Khachaturian garnered international acclaim even before completing postgraduate studies in 1937, especially for his Piano Concerto (1936) which continues to command a place in the world’s concert halls, as do his Violin Concerto (1940) and music from the ballets Gayane (1941), with its famous Sabre Dance, and Spartacus (1954).

Khachaturian had a particular gift for writing descriptive music, which in addition to his ballets he applied in composing music for over three dozen plays and films. He wrote the incidental music for Masquerade for a 1941 production of the play by Mikhail Lermontov (1814-1841), from which Khachaturian culled the five-movement concert suite in 1944. Though Lermontov is little-known in the West, in his homeland he ranks among the giants of Russian literature, despite never reaching his 30th birthday. Regarded as the poet-heir of Pushkin and inventor of the Russian psychological novel, Lermontov also wrote a half-dozen plays, though none was published during his lifetime. When he was 21 Lermontov prepared three different versions of Masquerade (1835), hoping with each revision to appease the censor's pen for his unflattering depiction of the aristocracy. It was Lermontov's second version that finally was approved for publication, but not until after he had been shot and killed in a duel.

Masquerade unfolds like a Russian Othello, wherein the wealthy Eugene Arbenin ends up poisoning his beloved wife, Nina, convinced that she has humiliated him by being unfaithful. The intrigue begins during a masked ball when Prince Zvezdich flirts with a disguised woman who gives him a bracelet as a token of affection. The prince brags about his encounter to his friend Arbenin, who recognizes the bracelet as one belonging to Nina. When Arbenin asks her about the bracelet, Nina confesses that she lost it, never imagining the doubt that has begun to consume her husband. The actual mystery woman is a baroness friend of Nina, who, even after learning of Arbenin's suspicions, won't expose the truth for fear of damaging her own reputation. By the time the baroness ends her masquerade and sends a letter revealing Nina's innocence it is too late: Nina is dead, and Arbenin goes mad, overcome with grief and remorse.

Khachaturian's score reflects the glittering "upper crust" of society that masks the growing darkness of the drama. For the suite, Khachaturian extracted three lively ballroom dances, the Waltz, Mazurka and Gallop, and provides contrast with the Nocturne, a melancholy song for violin and orchestra, and the sentimental Romance. Khachaturian said that the Waltz had been the hardest piece to compose because he had to live up to Nina's reaction when she exclaims, "How beautiful the new waltz is! ... Something between sorrow and joy gripped my heart." The Waltz, with its ominous undercurrent, became one of Khachaturian's biggest hits, and it was performed at his funeral.

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Les Sylphides-from Stravinsky: No. 2. Nocturne in A-flat (Op. 32, No. 2); and the final: No. 8. Grande Valse Brillante (Op. 18)

Other 6 dances orchestrated by Glazunov, Anatoly Lyadov, Sergei Taneyev, Nikolai Tcherepnin

(1) Introduction—The Firebird and Its Dance—The Firebird's Variation

(2) The Princesses’ Khorovod (Round Dance)

(3) Infernal Dance of King Kashchei

(4) Berceuse (Lullaby)

(5) Finale

When Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) wakened on June 25, 1910, he was virtually unknown, but by the following morning he had become one of the most-celebrated composers in Europe. His overnight success came with the premiere of L'Oiseau de feu (The Firebird), the first original score commissioned by Serge Diaghilev for the Ballets Russes.

The dance company had dazzled Paris the previous year, but none of its first-season productions featured newly-composed music. Diaghilev was determined to remedy that one shortcoming, so for the second season his choreographer, Michel Fokine, and production designer, Alexandre Benois, devised a scenario for a new ballet combing two characters from Slavic folklore. One is Zhar-ptitsa, the titular Firebird, a shimmering creature whose magic can bring either good fortune or bad. The other is the (not quite) immortal ogre-demon Kashchei, whose back-story hobbies include kidnapping princesses and turning would-be rescuers into stone.

Since no fairytale seems complete without a prince in tights, the story begins with the Introduction of Ivan Tsarevich lurking through the shadows in pursuit of the wondrous Firebird. We can tell the prince is a good guy because he has given his entourage the night off, but the spooky music suggests that that might not have been a good idea. He very soon witnesses The Firebird and Its Dance (and Variation). The Firebird flutters about somewhat erratically, but nonetheless is very beautiful, and shiny. Being a prince, Ivan knows that shiny is good so he sneaks up and captures her, but, being a hero, he lets her go when she begs for mercy. For his kindness (or as a bribe), the Firebird rewards Ivan before she disappears, giving him a magic feather that can summon her should the need arise. Suddenly, thirteen energetic princesses flood into the orchard bandying about golden apples. They are prisoners of Kashchei the Deathless (though obviously not condemned to hard labor). Ivan joins The Princesses’ Khorovod, a tranquil setting of the Russian folksong, In the Garden (introduced by solo oboe). The romantic reverie is interrupted by the dawn and the appearance of Kashchei and his minions, who capture Ivan. Before Kashchei can add Ivan to his collection of stone guests, the prince whips out the magic feather and the Firebird instantly reappears. She casts a spell over the inhospitable horde, compelling them to dance the Infernal Dance of King Kashchei until driven to exhaustion, and then she lulls them to sleep with a Berceuse. With Kashchei safely snoozing, the Firebird reveals to Ivan the hiding place of a giant egg that contains the demon's soul. Ivan smashes the egg, Kashchei and his minions vanish, and as a fitting Finale the gloomy realm is transformed into a sunny tableau perfect for a wedding between Ivan and his dance partner from the previous night. There are happy endings all around as the formerly stone-faced knights join the remaining princess bridesmaids to the triumphant reiterations of another Russian folksong, By the Gateway There Swayed the Tall Pine Tree (introduced by horn solo).

The happy ending provided a very happy beginning for a young composer whose name practically became synonymous with 20th-Century music. The success led to future collaborations with the Ballets Russes, including Petrushka (1911), the (almost literally) ground-breaking The Rite of Spring (1913), and Pulcinella (1920), which introduced Stravinsky's neoclassical style. But the course of music history nearly took another path. The unknown Stravinsky was not Diaghilev's first choice for The Firebird--he settled on Stravinsky only because his usual go-to guys (Lyadov and Tcherepnin) proved unwilling or unable to complete the commission.

The Firebird incorporates many of the musical trends of the period, with nods to Debussy, Ravel and Scriabin, as well as to the Russian nationalists, including especially Stravinsky's most significant teacher and surrogate father, Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov. Since he time of Glinka's Ruslan and Ludmila, Russian composers tended to use exotic chromaticism to depict supernatural or villainous characters, contrasting with folk-like diatonicism for mere mortals. For the former, Rimsky-Korsakov favored an octatonic scale alternating whole steps with half steps. Stravinsky likewise uses the octatonic scale, and the two folksongs he adapts were taken from a collection Rimsky-Korsakov had arranged. Later in life Stravinsky reportedly would observe, "A good composer does not imitate; he steals."

The Firebird was, and remains, Stravinsky's most popular work. From it he arranged three different concert suites, in 1911, 1919, and 1945; among these, the 1919 version is the most-frequently performed. The composer would complain that he was invited to conduct music from his first ballet at the expense of his later works, but it must have held an enduring place in his heart. Stravinsky's last orchestral piece, the brief Canon on a Russian Popular Tune (1965), is based on the folksong used at the end of The Firebird.

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Too long:

When Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) wakened on June 25, 1910, he was virtually unknown, but by the following morning he had become one of the most-celebrated composers in Europe. His overnight success came with the premiere of L'Oiseau de feu (The Firebird), the first original score commissioned and produced by Serge Diaghilev for the Ballets Russes.

Diaghilev's ballet company had dazzled Paris the previous year, with a first season that featured Borodin's Polovtsian Dances and Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade. They also mounted a new production of Les sylphides, using orchestral versions of eight pieces by Chopin, including two arranged by Stravinsky. But none of the offerings had featured newly-composed music, and Diaghilev was determined to remedy that shortcoming. For an original, Russian-themed ballet for the second season choreographer Michel Fokine (1880-1942) and production designer Alexandre Benois (1870-1960) devised a scenario combing two characters from Russian fairytales. One was Zhar-ptitsa the titular Firebird, a mythical shimmering creature whose magic could bring either good fortune or bad. The other was the (not quite) immortal ogre-demon Kaschei, whose back-story hobbies included kidnapping princesses and turning would-be rescuers into stone.

The virtually unknown Stravinsky was not Diaghilev's first choice for the music. Diaghilev only settled on Stravinsky because his usual go-to guys, Anatoly Lyadov and Alexander Tcherepnin, proved unwilling or unable to complete the commission. So you might say we have those also-rans to thank for revolutionizing 20th-Century music, because if either had taken on The Firebird, Stravinsky would have missed the big break that led to future collaborations with the Ballets Russes, including Petrushka (1911), the (almost literally) ground-breaking The Rite of Spring (1913), and Pulcinella (1920), which introduced Stravinsky's neoclassical style.

The Firebird incorporates many of the musical trends of the period, with nods to Debussy, Ravel and Scriabin, as well as to the Russian nationalists, including especially Stravinsky's most significant teacher and good friend, Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908). Stravinsky spent a lot of time with his mentor's family, and he dedicated The Firebird to Rimsky-Korsakov's son, Andrei.

In 1902 Rimsky-Korsakov had written a short opera called Kaschei the Immortal, so Stravinsky had a ready-made model with a very similar subject matter. Since as early as Mikhail Glinka's opera, Ruslan and Ludmila (1837-42), Russian stage works typically used exotic chromaticism to depict supernatural or villainous characters, while using folksongs or folk-like melodies to represent mere mortals. Glinka uses the whole-tone scale for Ruslan's villain, whereas Rimsky-Korsakov prefers an octatonic scale, with alternating whole steps and half steps that create triadic structures forming diminished 7th chords. Stravinsky likewise uses the octatonic scale, and he also lifts a couple of folksongs Rimsky-Korsakov had collected and arranged elsewhere. Later in life Stravinsky allegedly observed, "A good composer does not imitate; he steals."

While visiting Russia in February 1909, Diaghilev had heard an orchestra performance that included two pieces by Stravinsky, Fireworks and Scherzo fantastique. Impressed, Diaghilev hired the budding composer to orchestrate two of the eight piano pieces by Chopin that would be used for his production of Les sylphides that June. A few months later, when plans for The Firebird were ready to go forward,

Last orchestral piece--45 seconds long: Canon on a Russian Popular Tune (1965) uses FInale tune

Ravel Rapsodie espagnole (March 1908)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/proms/whats-on/2013/analysis/191

http://www.stlsymphony.org/media/pdf/notes/1112/20120302.pdf

http://www.daanadmiraal.nl/Articles/StrawinskyFirebird.borrow.htm

http://ccsymphony.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/strav.fbd19.pdf