Midori Plays Sibelius

Carlos Kalmar, conductor
Midori, violin

JEAN SIBELIUS
Canzonetta, Op. 62a

Vital Stats

Composer: born Dec. 8, 1865, Hämeenlinna, Finland; died Sept. 20, 1957, Järvenpää, Finland

Work composed: 1911

World premiere: Apr. 3, 1911, with Sibelius conducting the Helsinki Philharmonic

Oregon Symphony premiere: Dec 29, 1912, with George Jeffery conducting

Most recent Oregon Symphony performance: At the December 1912 concert

Instrumentation: string orchestra

Estimated duration: 4 minutes

In 1903, Jean Sibelius’s brother-in-law Arvid Järnefelt asked Sibelius to compose incidental music for Järnefelt’s play Kuolema. “I’ll think about it,” Sibelius replied, rather gruffly, but he did eventually write four movements; of these, the Valse triste is the best known. In 1911, Järnefelt made substantial revisions to Kuolema, and this new version was staged by the Finnish National Theatre. In Act II, Järnefelt added two dance scenes, performed by young girls, and Sibelius was asked to compose new music to accompany them, which he originally called Rondino der Liebenden and Vals-intermezzo. Today these two movements are better known as the Canzonetta and the Valse romantique.

In 1963, Igor Stravinsky received the Sibelius Prize for composition, and while in Helsinki he said of the Canzonetta, “I like that kind of northern Italianate melodism.” As a further tribute to Sibelius, Stravinsky arranged the Canzonetta for four horns, two clarinets, harp and contrabass. A gentle melancholy infuses the Canzonetta. The muted strings carry the melody like a gently flowing stream, moving among the violins, violas and cellos.

JEAN SIBELIUS
Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 47

Vital Stats

Work composed: 1904, revised 1905

World premiere: Sibelius conducted the Helsinki Philharmonic on Feb. 8, 1904, with violinist Victor Nováček. The revised version heard on tonight’s program was first conducted by Richard Strauss, who led the Berlin Philharmonic and soloist Karl Halir on Oct. 19, 1905.

Oregon Symphony premiere: Nov. 7, 1966, with Jacques Singer conducting; Tossy Spivakovsky, violin soloist

Most recent Oregon Symphony performances: Guest conductor Michael Christie led the orchestra and soloist Nikolaj Znaider on Mar.12-14, 2005.

Instrumentation: solo violin, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, timpani and strings

Estimated duration: 31 minutes

“The violin took me by storm,” Jean Sibelius wrote in his diary, “and for the next 10 years it was my dearest wish, my overriding ambition, to become a great virtuoso.” Unfortunately, Sibelius never attained great proficiency on the violin, despite much effort. He began studying the instrument at the relatively late age of 14, and he was also limited by a lack of first-rate teachers in Finland. Sibelius’ Violin Concerto is a kind of melancholic farewell to that childhood dream, and the bitterness of that failure spilled over into the writing of the concerto itself.

Sibelius had promised it to violinist Willy Burmeister, concertmaster of the Helsinki Orchestra during the 1890s and a longtime fan of Sibelius’ music. However, Sibelius made it impossible for Burmeister to play the premiere because Sibelius insisted on a premiere concert date in November 1903, even though Burmeister was not available at that time. Although he refused to move the date of the premiere, Sibelius tried to placate Burmeister with the promise of future performances. “When you come in March you will launch it. … I’m so grateful that you will do it in so many places.”

Sibelius finished the first version of this concerto in the autumn of 1903 and sent the score to Burmeister, who loved the work: “I can only say one thing: Wonderful! Masterly! Only once before have I spoken in such terms to a composer, and that was when Tchaikovsky showed me his concerto.” Sibelius led the Helsinki Philharmonic in the premiere, with soloist Victor Nováček, a mediocre violinist who was completely unequal to the demands of the work. After this lackluster debut, Sibelius revised the work and Burmeister again offered to play it. “All of my 25 years’ stage experience, my artistry and insight will be at the service of this work,” he wrote to Sibelius. “I shall play the concerto in Helsinki in such a way that the city will be at your feet.” However, Sibelius’ German publisher wanted another violinist, Karl Halir, the concertmaster in Berlin, to undertake the solo part. Sibelius agreed, although with some twinges of conscience over his now twice-broken promise to Burmeister. Burmeister was understandably outraged and vowed never to play the work himself, a promise he kept.

Reviews were mixed. The Deutsche Zeitung described the concerto’s colors as “the Nordic winter landscape painters who through the distinctive interplay of white on white, secure rare, sometimes hypnotic and sometimes powerful effects.”

“Even it in its revised form the concerto will not, I think, win wide appreciation,” wrote another critic. “With the exception of the Adagio, the concerto is far too complex, far too busy, dark and dingy … above all it is laden with technical and rhythmic difficulties of such a kind that even the greatest master of the instrument will be hard put to make a successful repertoire work of it that will really catch the public ear.”

Despite critical opinions like this one, the public has thought otherwise, and Sibelius’ Violin Concerto now has the distinction of being the most recorded violin concerto written in the 20th century.

PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY
Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Op. 64

Vital Stats

Composer: born May 7, 1840, Kamsko-Votinsk, Viatka province, Russia; died Nov. 6, 1893, St. Petersburg

Work composed: between May and Aug. 26, 1888.

World premiere: Tchaikovsky conducted the premiere on Nov. 17, 1888, in St. Petersburg.

Oregon Symphony premiere: Nov. 2, 1913, with Mose Christensen conducting

Most recent Oregon Symphony performances: Oct. 11-13, 2003, with James DePreist conducting

Instrumentation: 3 flutes (one doubling piccolo), 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani and strings

Estimated duration: 47 minutes

“I desperately want to prove, not only to others, but also to myself, that I am not yet played out as a composer,” wrote Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky to his patron Nadezhda von Meck in the spring of 1888. With the benefit of hindsight it seems amazing that Tchaikovsky could think of himself as “played out”; after he completed the Fifth Symphony he went on to write Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker and the “Pathétique” Symphony. But all artists go through periods of self-doubt, Tchaikovsky perhaps more than most.

If you ask a Tchaikovsky lover to name their favorite symphony, they’ll most likely say either the Fourth, with its dramatic “Fate” motif blaring in the brasses, or the Sixth, the “Pathétique.” Sandwiched in between these two monuments is Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony, often overlooked or undervalued when compared to its more popular neighbors. But the Fifth is a monument in its own right, as it showcases Tchaikovsky’s undisputed mastery of melody; indeed, the Fifth rolls out one unforgettable tune after another.

Over time it has come to take its rightful place in Tchaikovsky’s symphonic output, and in the orchestral repertoire itself, but Tchaikovsky, as did 19th century music critics, wavered in his opinion of its worth. At the end of the summer in 1888, Tchaikovsky wrote to von Meck, “It seems to me that I have not blundered, that it has turned out well,” and to his nephew Vladimir Davidov after a concert in Hamburg, “The Fifth Symphony was magnificently played and I like it far better now, after having held a bad opinion of it for some time.”

After a performance in Prague, however, Tchaikovsky wrote to von Meck: “I have come to the conclusion that it is a failure. There is something repellent in it, some over-exaggerated color, some insincerity of fabrication which the public instinctively recognizes.”

Critics dismissed the new symphony as beneath Tchaikovsky’s abilities, and one American critic damned him with faint praise when he opined: “[Tchaikovsky] has been criticized for the occasionally excessive harshness of his harmony, for now and then descending to the trivial and tawdry in his ornamental figuration, and also for a tendency to develop comparatively insignificant material to inordinate length. But, in spite of the prevailing wild savagery of his music, its originality and the genuineness of its fire and sentiment are not to be denied.”

The Fifth Symphony features a theme that appears in all four movements. The clarinets open the symphony with this foreboding melody, which exploits the clarinet’s lowest chalumeau register and gives the theme a portentous quality. Musicologist Michael Steinberg describes the theme’s effects in all the movements, “It will recur as a catastrophic interruption of the second movement’s love song, as an enervated ghost that approaches the languid dancers of the waltz, and … in majestic and blazing E major triumph.”

The poignant melancholy of the horn solo in the Andante cantabile has inspired music lovers beyond the classical realm. In 1939, this melody became the popular song Moon Love, which became a hit for Glenn Miller.

© 2010 Elizabeth Schwartz

Program Notes by Elizabeth Schwartz

Elizabeth Schwartz is a Portland-based free-lance writer, researcher and musician. In addition annotating programs for the Oregon Symphony and other ensembles, she has also contributed to NPR’s Performance Today (now heard on American Public Media). Schwartz also co-hosts The Portland Yiddish Hour, heard at 10 a.m. Sundays on KBOO 90.7 FM. Email: schwartzelizabeth@yahoo.com.

Recommended Recordings by Michael Parsons

Sibelius: Canzonetta
Adrian Leaper-Capella Istropolitana
Naxos 8550330

Sibelius: Violin Concerto
Midori-Violin
Zubin Mehta-Israel Philharmonic Orchestra
Sony Classical 58967

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5
Leonard Bernstein-New York Philharmonic
Deutsche Grammophon 429234 
OR
Evgeny Mravinsky-Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra
2-Deutsche Grammophon 419745

These selected recordings are available at Classical Millennium, located at 3144 E. Burnside in Portland.