Waterfront Concert
1020 Naito Pkwy, Portland, Oregon
Carlos Kalmar, conductor
Gregory Vajda, conductor
Dancers from Oregon Ballet Theatre
Program Notes
Mikhail Glinka
(born June 1, 1804, Novospasskoye, Russia; died Feb. 15, 1857, Berlin)
Overture to Ruslan and Lyudmila (1842)
Russia’s greatest literary figure, Alexander Pushkin, fully intended to supply a libretto to Mikhail Glinka for an opera based on Pushkin’s epic poem, Ruslan and Lyudmila. Unfortunately for Glinka, Pushkin died in a duel soon after Glinka began composing. Undeterred, Glinka continued to write the music without a libretto – an impressive feat. Eventually a friend created a libretto for Glinka, “in a quarter of an hour while drunk,” as the composer recalled.
Ruslan and Lyudmila centers around the abduction of the princess Lyudmila by an evil dwarf, Chernomor, and her rescue by the brave knight Ruslan. The music for the overture is taken primarily from the final act, Ruslan and Lyudmila’s wedding.
Antonín Dvořák
(born Sept. 8, 1841, Nelahozeves, in Bohemia (now the Czech Republic); died May 1, 1904, Prague)
Slavonic Dance No. 6 in D major, Op. 46 (1878)
When Johannes Brahms told his publisher, Fritz Simrock, about an exciting but largely unknown Czech composer named Antonín Dvořák, Simrock jumped at a new opportunity to capitalize on a growing interest in folk melodies and rhythms among music lovers all over Europe. Simrock asked Dvořák to compose a set of dances, modeled after Brahms’ popular and commercially successful Hungarian Dances, and Dvořák complied, writing a set of six Slavonic Dances for piano, which he also arranged for orchestra. They were an immediate success, and remain some of Dvořák’s most popular works. Unlike Brahms’ Hungarian Dances, which are arrangements of actual folk songs, the melodies of Dvořák’s Slavonic Dances are wholly original, composed in folk style.
No. 6 is a sousedská, a Bohemian dance in ¾ time similar to the Polish mazurka.
Giuseppe Verdi
(born Oct. 9 or 10, 1813, Le Roncole, Italy; died Jan. 27, 1901, Milan)
Overture to The Sicilian Vespers, (1855)
Based on a French libretto and first performed in Paris in 1855, Verdi’s Sicilian Vespers is one of his lesser-known operas. The plot dramatizes the 1282 Sicilian revolution against French oppressors, who have occupied the land. A wedding between members of opposite sides of the conflict serves as an opportunity for the Sicilians to mount a surprise attack on the unarmed French guests.
The overture is the most performed and best known music from I vespri siciliani. Verdi combines his signature lyrical melodies with fiery dramatic outbursts in the orchestra, which portray the Sicilian patriots’ revolt.
Edvard Grieg
(born June 15, 1843, Bergen, Norway; died Sept. 4, 1907, Bergen)
“Norwegian Rustic March” from Lyric Suite, Op. 54 (1891, orch. 1904)
Edvard Grieg wrote over 60 Lyric Pieces for piano during the course of his life, and the six lyric pieces of Op. 54 are considered among his best. They were originally orchestrated by Anton Seidl, an Austro-Hungarian conductor known for his interpretations of Wagner. Grieg was pleased that Seidl had orchestrated his piano music but didn’t care for Seidl’s heavy-handed adaptation and subsequently made his own arrangements.
The Norwegian Rustic March, (Grieg’s original title is Gangar), was inspired by an old Norwegian dance. Gangar translates as “walking tune.”
Ernesto Lecuona
(born Aug. 7, 1896, Guanabacoa, Cuba; died Nov. 29, 1963, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canary Islands)
Andalucía (1928) (arr. Morton Gould)
Often called “the Gershwin of Cuba,” Ernesto Lecuona was a composer and pianist of consummate skill. He knew many of the influential composers of his time, including Gershwin and Maurice Ravel, who described Lecuona’s best known work, Malagueña, as “more melodic and beautiful than my own Bolero.” Tonight’s selection, Andalucía, is better known in this country by its English title, “The Breeze and I,” a hit song for the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra in the late 1930s.
Edward Elgar
(born June 2, 1857, nr Worcester, England; died Feb. 23, 1934, Worcester)
Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1 in D major, Op. 39/1 (1901)
Elgar’s most recognized work in this country, Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1, is also England’s unofficial second national anthem. The familiar tune, which, Elgar said, “comes once in a lifetime,” is actually the secondary theme. Although a military march, the music does not glorify battle; Elgar meant it as a call to lay down arms. This sentiment is suggested by the title, taken from a speech in Shakespeare’s Othello, in which Othello resigns his military commission.
Conductor Sir Henry Wood recalled the reception given to Pomp and Circumstance No. 1 at its London premiere: “The people simply rose and yelled. I had to play it again – with the same result; in fact, they refused to let me go on with the programme.”
Johann Strauss II
(born Oct. 25, 1825, Vienna; died June 3, 1899, Vienna)
Egyptian March, Op. 335 (Egyptian March) (1869)
Johann Strauss the Younger, known as “The Waltz King,” came from a family that dominated musical life in Vienna during much of the 19th century. The Egyptian March was written to celebrate the opening of the Suez canal in 1869, and was first performed that same year by the Strauss Orchestra on tour in Pavlovsk, Russia. It features Strauss’ concept of an Arabic melody, replete with cymbals and other percussion, as well as a surprise from the orchestra.
John Williams
(born Feb. 8, 1932, Queens, NY)
March from Superman (1978)
John Williams’ music needs no introduction. He has scored more than 80 films, including some of the biggest blockbusters of our time, such as the Star Wars films, the Harry Potter films, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Schindler’s List and the Jurassic Park films. Williams has also written music for several Olympic Games opening ceremonies. His 1978 music for Superman was nominated for an Oscar for Best Score, and its opening theme, heard this evening, has been used in every subsequent Superman film.
George Whitefield Chadwick
(born Nov. 13, 1854, Lowell, MA; died Apr. 4, 1931, Boston)
“Jubilee” from Symphonic Sketches (1895)
George Whitefield Chadwick was a central figure in American music of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His musical activities included conducting, performing, teaching, administration (as director of the New England Conservatory), as well as composition.
Chadwick specified that the four movements of his Symphonic Sketches could be performed either as a group or individually. He also wrote a brief poem in the score at the beginning of each movement. For Jubilee, Chadwick wrote: “No cool gray tones for me!/Give me the warmest red and green/A cornet and a tambourine/To paint MY jubilee! /For when pale flutes and oboes play/To sadness I become a prey/Give me the violets and the May/But no gray skies for me!”
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
(born May 7, 1840, Kamsko-Votkinsk, Russia; died Nov. 6, 1893, St. Petersburg)
Serenade in C major for Strings, Op. 48 (1880)
Tchaikovsky composed his Serenade for Strings at the same time as the 1812 Overture, but his feelings about the two works could not have contrasted more strongly. When Tchaikovsky wrote to his patron Nadezhda von Meck, he dismissed the 1812 Overture, claiming it had no artistic merit. “The Serenade, on the contrary, I wrote from inner conviction,” Tchaikovsky wrote. “It is a heartfelt piece and so, I dare to think, is not without artistic qualities.”
The Serenade for Strings is Tchaikovsky’s homage to Mozart, particularly the first movement. “It is intended to be an imitation of his style,” Tchaikovsky wrote, “and I should be delighted if I thought I had in any way approached my model.”
Emmanuel Chabrier
(born Jan. 18, 1841, Ambert, Puy-de-Dôme, France; died Sept. 13, 1894, Paris)
Slavonic Dance from Le Roi malgré lui (The Reluctant King, or The King in Spite of Himself) (1884-7)
Le Roi malgré lui, which Chabrier described as “a comic opera with elaborate undies,” is loosely based on the historical figure Henri of Valois, Duke of Anjou, who was elected by the Poles to be their new king in 1572. Henri, however, has no interest in the job, and his attempts to avoid becoming Poland’s king form the basis of a convoluted and humorous plot. “I would rather have written Le Roi malgré lui than the Ring of the Nibelungen,” opined Maurice Ravel. The Slavonic Dance is adapted from the opera’s opening music to the third act.
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
1812 Overture (1880)
Although the 1812 Overture is one of Tchaikovsky’s best-known compositions, he considered it a mere trifle, unworthy of serious consideration by his colleagues or friends. Tchaikovsky’s friend Nikolai Rubenstein, director of the Moscow Conservatory, wanted music to commemorate the consecration of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow, built to mark the Russian victory in 1812 over Napoleon, and the 25th anniversary celebration of Alexander II as Czar. Rubenstein envisioned a grand outdoor aural spectacle for the audience, and Tchaikovsky was subsequently inspired to score the work for cannons, a military band and church bells in addition to the orchestra.
The premiere of The Year 1812 (the formal title of the 1812 Overture) in Moscow on Aug. 20, 1882, was actually held in a concert hall, minus cannons and bells. Despite the lack of firepower, it was an immediate success and has since become a summer staple of orchestras and a perennial audience favorite. Throughout the 1812 Overture, Tchaikovsky interjects fragments of the French national anthem La Marseillaise to represent Napoleon. Tchaikovsky also quotes the Russian national anthem, God Save the Czar, a Russian Orthodox Church hymn, God Save Thy People and fragments of a Russian folk song in the opening theme. These musical quotations symbolize the heart and soul of the Russian people.
Regarding the 1812 Overture, Tchaikovsky complained to his patron Nadezhda von Meck, “The ‘Overture’ will be very loud and noisy, but I wrote it without any warm feelings of love and so it will probably be of no artistic worth.” While critics have argued over the years about the “artistic worth” of Tchaikovsky’s music, audiences have remained his staunchest supporters, and his music is consistently among the most requested and performed by symphony orchestras around the world.
The enduring popularity of the 1812 Overture, in particular, has never diminished, thanks in part to the advent of recording technology. In 1958 conductor Antal Doráti and the Minneapolis Symphony (now the Minnesota Orchestra) made the first high-fidelity recording of the 1812 Overture for the Mercury “Living Presence” label. This innovative recording includes separate tracks for the cannons and church bells, as well as a voice-over narration, which explained the new recording technique. The recording also features a 1775 bronze cannon used in the Napoleonic wars.
Staging this work presents unusual challenges because of the inclusion of cannons in the finale. The timing of the cannon bursts is crucial, as Tchaikovsky indicated in his score that they were to sound on specific beats. Determining the length of the fuse and lighting it at the precise moment to fire on cue requires an expert. The cannons featured in our concert are actually howitzers provided by the Oregon Army National Guard, 218th Field Artillery.
The Oregon Symphony recorded this work, along with Tchaikovsky’s Hamlet and The Tempest, under the direction of Laureate Music Director James DePreist on the Delos label in 1989.
© Elizabeth Schwartz 2009
Program Notes by Elizabeth Schwartz
Elizabeth Schwartz is a freelance writer and musician based in the Portland area. She is the program annotator for the Oregon Symphony, the Cascade Festival of Music, and has also contributed to NPR’s Performance Today, (now heard on American Public Media). Ms. Schwartz holds a B.A. in music from the University of California and an M.M. from Boston University. She can be contacted at schwartzelizabeth@yahoo.com.