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PROGRAM NOTES by Klay and Karen Woodworth Ottorino Respighi Ancient Airs and Dances , Suite No. 3 Ottorino Respighi was born in Bologna and entered that city’s Liceo Musicale at the age of twelve. He finished his formal studies and began a career as a professional musician in 1901. Taking a position in the St. Petersburg Opera Orchestra gave him the opportunity to study with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov for two years. He also worked in Berlin for a season, which allowed him to attend lectures on composition given by Max Bruch. By absorbing the many musical elements swirling around Europe in the first decades of the last century, Respighi emerged as a musician with a comprehensive knowledge of modern music. Respighi joined the faculty of the Conservatorio di Santa Cecilia in Rome in 1913 and made that city his new home. He served as the conservatory’s director for two years. In the last decade of his life he conducted his music with orchestras around the world and served as an accompanist for singers. Over the years, Respighi spent a good deal of time with scores and collections long neglected in the libraries of cities in which he was working. This study led to some of his most popular compositions, including the three suites of Ancient Airs and Dances. Respighi released the first two suites in 1917 and 1924. The final suite was published in 1932. Written for string orchestra, the Third Suite is composed of four movements. The opening “Italiana” is an anonymous dance from the lute collections of Oscar Chilesotti. The second movement is made up of six melodies from a ballet called Airs of the Court by Jean Baptiste Besard. The “Siciliana” is another anonymous dance from the Chilesotti collection. The closing “Passacaglia” was written by Lodovico Roncalli for Spanish guitar. Respighi used the warmth and strength of contemporary instruments and performance practices to rejuvenate the gentle grace of music written for the lute and for courtly dance. Resphighi’s success at this endeavor has made him one of the most beloved composers of the past century. Alan Hovhaness Concerto for Harp and String Orchestra, Op. 267 The prolific American composer Alan Hovhaness worked throughout his career with only occasional notice from the classical music mainstream. Born and raised in the Boston area, he chose to engage with the Armenian culture of his father rather than the Scottish heritage of his mother’s family. Hovhaness studied at the New England Conservatory and began to compose using Renaissance and early Baroque models. Befriending Indian musicians active in the Boston area reinforced his interest in counterpoint and rhythm and kept him from working with either the strong harmonic language of composers like Mahler or the serial techniques of Schoenberg. Hovhaness’s Yankee stubbornness came out after a disappointing summer at the Berkshire Music Center in 1943, during which his compositions were criticized by Aaron Copland and Copland’s protégé Leonard Bernstein. Delving into personal meditation and Armenian sacred music, Hovhaness emerged in the 1950s with a strong and unique compositional voice. His music won the attention of Leopold Stokowski, who gave the premiere of Hovhaness’s second and third symphonies in the United States. Hovhaness made a successful musical tour through Asia. He gained a degree of commercial success in the 1980s when his music was discovered by the New Age movement. Hovhaness was professionally active into his later life and left a catalog of over 400 published works. If you are not familiar with Hovhaness’s music, the Harp Concerto is a wonderful introduction. Subtly constructed and of modest length, the five movements of the concerto exhibit alternations of mood similar to those of a Baroque suite. The dramatic climax of the work occurs in the evocative fourth movement, “Dawn in Paradise.” The music is built on modal melodies that are developed in organic structures, such as arcs of sound. Hovhaness plays with plucked and bowed string sounds, at times asking the orchestra to use pizzicato to interact with the always-plucked harp. Hovhaness composed his Concerto for Harp and String Orchestra in 1973. Claude Debussy Danses sacrée et profane Claude Debussy wanted to be a great concert pianist and entered the Paris Conservatoire at the age of ten. After eight years of study he had failed to win any of the school’s performance prizes so he entered the composition curriculum. Four years later he won the prestigious Prix de Rome. He traveled extensively during his early career and was influenced by musical developments in Russia and Germany. New musical ideas also traveled to Paris; the Javanese gamelan performances at the World Exhibition of 1889 proved to have a great influence on many composers. Debussy labored in obscurity until his work was presented on a concert of the Société Nationale in 1893. Success followed with works like Prélude à‘L’Après-midi d’un faune and Pelléas et Melisande. Due to the uniqueness of his style and his small output, Debussy never gained financial security through composition, relying instead on chamber music performances and conducting. Debussy composed Danse Sacrée (Sacred Dance) and Danse profane (Secular Dance) in 1903 on a commission from the Pleyel company. Pleyel was promoting a new chromatic harp and supporting the teaching of the instrument at the Brussels Conservatory. Debussy’s works were intended to be used as test pieces for the conservatory’s students. Based on musical modes rather than modern major/minor tonality, the two works sound quite exotic and take full advantage of the range of notes that had become available to harpists thanks to Pleyel’s innovations. The sacred dance is the slower of the two. It reflects a sense of solemnity while building, within a limited range, to a more ecstatic end (a formal element seen in many musical depictions of ritual dance). The secular dance is a lilting piece in triple meter that resonates with the energy of the ballroom. As with other works Debussy wrote for students, beauty surpasses any mere test of virtuosic ability. Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka Overture to Ruslan and Ludmila The New Grove Dictionary of Opera refers to Mikhail Glinka as “the figure to whom historians trace the existence of a viable national school of Russian art music on the classical Western model.” It is interesting that the music of a composer with this much influence is not heard often today. Glinka was born into happy circumstances as a member of a wealthy aristocratic family on a long-established rural estate. He was sent to the Boarding School for the Nobility in St. Petersburg at the age of fourteen, where he began to write music and started attending performances at the opera house. In his mid-twenties, Glinka apprenticed himself to a touring Italian opera company to absorb the popular opera style of the day. He furthered his education in Western music through extended stays in Milan and Berlin. When he returned to Russia he was ready to compose a grand Western-style opera in the Russian language and on a Russian subject. This monumental first opera was A Life for the Tsar, completed in 1836. Glinka’s second major opera was Ruslan and Ludmila. The plot is from a narrative poem by Alexander Pushkin. Four writers helped Glinka adapt Pushkin’s story to music he had already composed. The piece includes many European operatic styles, but lacks enough of any particular style to placate critics. After its premiere in December of 1842, the opera quickly fell from favor and dropped out of the repertoire completely until after the composer’s death. Music lovers are familiar with Ruslan and Ludmila today mostly because of its overture. The overture is based on music from the wedding feast scenes that open and close the opera. These festive strains are seasoned by the foreshadowing of arias for the heroic knight, Ruslan, and his nemesis, the evil dwarf Chernomor. Glinka dubbed this work a “magic” opera and the overture continues to hold audiences in its spell. Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky Serenade in C for Strings, Op. 48 Pyotr Tchaikovsky left a career as a lawyer to enter the St. Petersburg Conservatory in 1863. Despite being relatively unknown as a composer, he was invited to teach at the new Moscow Conservatory in 1866. In the beginning of his professional career his compositions won only mixed reviews. Over time, however, his works continued to be performed and Tchaikovsky’s music gained a following. Through rigorous tours, Tchaikovsky presented his music across Europe and even visited the United States, where he won acclaim. The Serenade for Strings came about as something of a personal rebellion against one of Tchaikovsky’s most famous commissions. Although he once stated that he was “prepared to set an advertisement for corn-plasters to music,” in reality he required a firm concept to focus his creative attentions along with enough money to serve as motivation. When his publisher forwarded a request for music for the Silver Jubilee of Tsar Alexander II, Tchaikovsky did not feel particularly focused or motivated. He managed to sketch out a concert overture inspired by Napoleon’s 1812 invasion of Russia. He never doubted the popular appeal of the 1812 Overture, but he was not particularly proud of the effort and described the overture as “very noisy.” To balance things out, he immediately created a serenade for string orchestra, commenting, “I wrote from an inward impulse; I felt it, and venture to hope that this work is not without artistic merit.” Of course, both works are favorites of the orchestral repertoire 120 years later. The Serenade is modeled on the instrumental serenades of the late 1700s—works generally for small groups of strings and winds, some of which could be up to ten movements in length. Tchaikovsky’s Serenade contains all the lushness of his other orchestral works. Of particular note are the second movement waltz and the serenade’s finale, which grew out of a Russian folk song. © 2009 Klayton Woodworth and Karen M. Woodworth |