Sibelius & Tchaikovsky Program Notes

Sibelius & Tchaikovsky Saturday, September 16, 2017 | 8pm Miller Auditorium Daniel Brier, Conductor & Jennifer Frautschi, Violin WALKER b. 1922

Sinfonia No. 4 “Strands” (2011)

Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 47 SIBELIUS 1865 | 1957 Allegro moderato Adagio di molto Allegro, ma non tanto Jennifer Frautschi, violin INTERMISSION TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Op. 74 “Pathétique” 1840 | 1893 Adagio – Allegro non troppo Allegro con grazia Allegro molto vivace Finale: Adagio lamentoso Jennifer Frautschi’s appearance is underwritten by the Barry Ross Guest Violinist Fund.

Season 97 | 2017-2018

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george t. walker

b. 1922

Sinfonia No. 4 “Strands” The Details • A consortium of orchestras, with a grant from Meet The Composer (now New Music USA), commissioned Sinfonia No. 4.

• The New Jersey Symphony premiered the work in March 2012.

• The three other orchestras which co-commissioned the work—the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Cincinnati Symphony, and the National Symphony—each performed it in their 2012-2013 seasons.

• A recording of Sinfonia No. 4 performed by Sinfonia Varsonia conducted

by Ian Hobson was released on Albany Records in 2013 and is available on YouTube, iTunes, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, and Amazon.

• Walker scored Sinfonia No. 4 for piccolo, two flutes, two oboes (second doubling English horn), two clarinets (second doubling bass clarinet), two bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, two trombones, bass trombone, tuba, timpani, percussion (xylophone, glockenspiel, vibraphone, marimba, chimes, triangle, snare drum, tom-toms, bass drum, claves, timbales, wood block, glass chimes, suspended cymbal, sizzle cymbal, tambourine, temple block, tam-tam), piano, harp, and strings.

Approximate duration: 13 minutes.

The Background Born in Washington, DC in 1922, George Walker continues his prolific career well into his ninetieth decade. At age five, he began formal piano lessons and performed his first public piano recital at Howard University when he was fourteen. He graduated from the Dunbar High School that same year and began his studies at Oberlin College on full scholarship. By age eighteen, he graduated from Oberlin with highest honors in his class.

Advanced studies at the Curtis Institute of Music followed his Oberlin years. He studied piano with Rudolf Serkin, orchestration with Giancarlo Menotti, chamber music with William Primrose and Gregor Piatigorsky, and composition with Rosario Scalero—teacher of Samuel Barber. In GEORGE T. WALKER 1945, Walker became the school’s first black graduate to receive Artist Diplomas in both piano and composition. Later that year he debuted at New York’s Town Hall and performed with Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra—a first for a black instrumentalist. Further piano studies in France during 1947 prepared him for successful tours as virtuoso pianist in Europe and the United States. The following year, he performed Brahms with the Baltimore Symphony and composed his String Quartet No. 1 (the second movement of which, Lyric, is the most performed orchestral work by a living American composer.) In 1950, he became the first black instrumentalist to join the roster of a major management company and in 1954 embarked on an unprecedented tour of Europe including performances in Stockholm, Copenhagen, The Hague, KalamazooSymphony.com

Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Lausanne, Berne, Milan, and London.

Various circumstances, including widespread prejudice in the United States, prevented George Walker from continuing an exclusive career as concert pianist. After one year of teaching at Dillard University, he entered the Doctor of Musical Arts program at the Eastman School of Music in 1955. In 1956, he became the first black recipient of a doctoral degree from Eastman. In 1957, following graduation, he returned to France on a Fulbright Fellowship and John Hay Whitney Fellowship to study composition for two years with Nadja Boulanger. In 1959, he again embarked on another extensive tour as pianist playing concerts in France, Holland, and Italy. Upon returning to the United States, he embarked on a distinguished teaching career during which he served on the faculties of Smith College, University of Colorado, Rutgers University, and the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University.

Among Walker’s many awards are the 1996 Pulitzer Prize in Music for his Lilacs for Voice and Orchestra (a first for a living black composer), induction in to the American Classical Music Hall of Fame, honorary degrees from Lafayette College, Oberlin College, Montclair State University, Bloomfield College, Curtis Institute of Music, Spelman College, and the Eastman School, grants and fellowships from the Guggenheim, Rockefeller, Koussevitzky, Fromm, and MacDowell Foundations, and membership in the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. Walker has received commissions from leading organizations including the National Endowment for the Arts, Library of Congress, Cleveland Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, and the

interactive notes In Sinfonia No. 4 (Strands), George Walker fuses several melodic ideas into a modern, sleek musical mosaic.

1. The introduction begins with an outburst followed by the first musical idea in the bass clarinet, bassoons, cellos, and double basses. Plaintive woodwinds introduce a second musical idea to round out the twopart introduction.

2. The violins introduce the principal theme. A transition leads toward a modified re-statement of the principal theme in the violins.

3. An arching melodic line in the bassoons, violas, cellos, and double basses forms the foundation of the next section. Fragmentary outbursts in the winds and percussion interrupt.

4. Two heavily disguised fragments from spirituals follow. In the first, a placid setting of two phrases from “There is a Balm in Gilead”, the composer stretches the durations of the pitches and breaks up the melody--divvying the fragments up among various instruments.

5. The second spiritual, a fragment of “Roll Jordan, Roll”, is dovetailed to the end of the first. Each fragment of “Roll Jordan, Roll” is more disguised than the previous. First heard in the brass, an echo of the fragment immediately follows in the trombones. Next the piano intones the fragment over an arching melodic line similar to the aforementioned arching melodic line.

Again, the piano repeats a fragment of the spiritual this time accompanied by agitated triplets in the violins and powerful punctuations by the timpani and bass drum.

6. The final section of the work further develops all the melodic material.

Fragments of the principal theme, introduction, and transitional material are all tossed around until the final chord.

2017 | 2018 Season

Kennedy Center. George Walker’s compositions have been performed by every major orchestra in the United States and by many in Europe, South America, and Canada. He has composed over 90 works for orchestra, chamber orchestra, piano, strings, voice, organ, clarinet, guitar, brass, woodwinds, and chorus. Though George Walker boasts many “firsts” to his name, it is his detailed devotion to compositional craft which has secured his place as one of the great American masters.

The Context (1922) During George Walker’s birth year...

• James Joyce’s “Ulysses” published in Paris • Britain declares Egypt a sovereign state • Joseph Stalin appointed General Secretary of the Russian Communist Party by Lenin • Warren G. Harding signs a joint resolution of approval to establish a Jewish homeland in Palestine • Howard Carter discovers tomb of Tutankhamen in Egypt

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You might enjoy these KSO performances: • Walker: Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 1 January 26 & 27, 2018 • Bernstein: Serenade After Plato’s “Symposium” March 24, 2018 • Walker: Lyric for String Quartet April 20 & 21, 2018 • Muhly: Big Time for String Quartet and Percussion April 20 & 21, 2018 • Montgomery: Strum April 20 & 21, 2018

Further Reading Walker, George. Reminsicences of an American Composer and Pianist (The Scarecrow Press, Inc. 2009)

jean sibelius

1865 | 1957

Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 47 The Details • Sibelius composed the concerto from 1902-1904 and revised it in June 1905.

• Original version premiered February 8, 1904 Victor Novácˇek premiered the original version February 8, 1904 with the composer conducting the Helsingfors Philharmonic.

• Karl Halir premiered the revised version in Berlin on October 19, 1905 with Richard Strauss conducting.

• Sibelius scored the work for two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, timpani, violin solo, and strings.

Approximate duration: 31 minutes.

The Background The violin captivated Jean Sibelius’ imagination while he was still a young man. He began lessons at the age of fourteen (a late start by any standard) and devoted all his effort to learn and master the instrument. His overriding KalamazooSymphony.com

ambition: become a great violin virtuoso. Unfortunately, Jean Sibelius’ dream would never materialize.

In 1890-91, while studying in Vienna with Robert Fuchs and Karl Goldmark, he played in the conservatory orchestra. He oft complained the conservatory orchestra’s intonation gave him headaches. On January 8, 1891, he auditioned for the Philharmonic but to no avail. Upon returning from his audition, he broke down, wept, and resigned himself to practicing scales on the piano. Ultimately, he gave up his dream of becoming a great violin virtuoso and devoted the remainer of his musical life to composition.

The Music Sibelius’ Violin Concerto expresses his deep love for the violin--the “overriding ambition” to which he was forced to bid farewell. The opening, as atmospheric and otherworldly as any in the repertory, introduces a dreamy theme over an atmospheric bed of muted strings. This theme becomes more passionate and eventually gives way to a small cadenza (a passage for soloist alone). Next, an orchestral tutti, builds dramatic tension, eventually subsiding. A deeply expressive episode follows featuring an affecting duet between violin soloist and principal viola. The orchestra bursts in with a long, march-like section. As the orchestral episode IF YOU LIKED fades away, the soloist reenters. What follows is a formal THIS WORK... feature quite unique to Sibelius. Rather than allowing the soloist and orchestra to develop the thematic You might enjoy material together, as is customary, Sibelius allows these KSO the soloist to develop the material with an extended performances: cadenza. The bassoon signals a recapitulation and the • Bruckner: Symphony movement builds to a thrilling conclusion.

No. 1 October 28, 2017 The second movement, Adagio di molto, contains • Rachmaninoff: Piano some of Sibelius’ most intimate music. Pairs of Concerto No. 3 in D Minor clarinets and oboes introduce fragments of thematic November 11, 2017 material. These fragments yield to the deep sonority of solo violin, in it’s lowest register, playing a theme of great breadth. Michael Steinberg writes of this movement, “... it speaks in tones we know well and that touch us deeply....Sibelius never found, perhaps never sought, such a melody again: This, too, is farewell. Very lovely, later in the movement, is the sonorous fantasy that accompanies the melody (now in clarinet and bassoon) with scales, all pianissimo, broken octaves moving up in the violin, and with a delicate rain of slowly descending scales in flutes and soft strings.”

The final movement, famously described by Donald Francis Tovey as “a polonaise for polar bears”, wakes the listener from the Adagio’s reverie. This movement’s virtuosic bravura is both charming and aggressive. Propelled by rhythmic ostinato, the music builds to a brilliant conclusion.

Further Reading Mäkelä, Tomi. Jean Sibelius (Boydell & Brewer, Ltd. 2011) 2017 | 2018 Season

piotr ilyich tchaikovsky

1840 | 1893

Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Op. 74 “Pathétique” The Details • Tchaikovsky composed his last symphony between February and August 1893.

• Dedicated to Tchaikovsky’s nephew (Vladimir “Bob” Davidov).

• The composer conducted the first performance in St. Petersburg on October 28, 1893 (nine days before his death).

• Walter Damrosch conducted the New York Symphony in 1894 for the United States premiere.

• Tchaikovsky scored the symphony for three flutes (third doubling piccolo), two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, cymbals, bass drum, tam-tam, and strings.

Approximate duration: 46 minutes.

The Background In the last five years of Tchaikovsky’s life (1889-1893), mortality became his chief philosophical preoccupation. He composed The Sleeping Beauty, The Queen of Spades, and Souvenir de Florence with great speed. On the other hand, his fluency seemed to falter as he struggled to complete Iolanta and The Nutcracker, which received very tepid responses from critics and the public at their premieres.

By the time he started drafting a symphony in 1892, his creative muse had all but vanished. He feared he was “played out, dried up.” Complicating matters even further, his patroness and pen pal Nadezhda von Meck abruptly ended their relationship. Amidst this backdrop, Tchaikovsky found himself severely depressed by the beginning of 1893. In a letter to his nephew “Bob” Davydov, Tchaikovsky expressed feelings that he should give up writing “pure music, that is, symphonic or chamber music” altogether.

This funk, however, would not last. Just two months after writing that letter, Tchaikovsky began composing another symphony. He completed the first part in four days and outlined the remainder of the symphony in his head. “You cannot imagine what bliss I feel,” he wrote to his nephew on February 11, 1893, “assured that my time has not yet passed and that I can still work.” Later in the same letter, he added that the new symphony would have a program, “but a program of a kind that would remain an enigma to all--let them guess, but the symphony will just be called Program Symphony (No. 6)...This program is saturated with subjective feeling, and often...while composing it in my mind, I shed many tears....Do not speak of this to anyone but Modest.” Renewed and refreshed, he completed the symphony by August. His creative muse had returned!

“Without exaggeration,” he wrote to the Grand Duke Constantine, “I have put my whole soul into this work.” Even when feeling dispirited during rehearsals, KalamazooSymphony.com

Tchaikovsky reiterated that this was “the best thing I ever composed or ever shall compose.”

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You might enjoy these The Music KSO performances: Tchaikovsky begins his sixth symphony with an extraordinary introduction--an introduction • Tchaikovsky Discovers which hints at the journey ahead for the listener.

America A slow bassoon solo emerges out of the depths February 11, 2018 of the double basses and establishes a somber • Bernstein: Symphony No. mood. Violas reinforce the cadences. This somber 1 “Jeremiah” March 24, 2018 introduction yields to an agitated first theme, itself • Prokofiev: Symphony No. derived from the opening bassoon solo. The first 5 in B-flat Major theme grows increasingly agitated until it reaches May 19, 2018 a climax and subsequently subsides, preparing the way for the secondary theme. This secondary theme, a melody of perfect proportions, remains one of the most beautiful melodies Tchaikovsky ever composed. This expansive melody dwindles down to the nearly inaudible when the brass burst in and launch into a tempestuous development. Tchaikovsky folds the recapitulation into the end of the development and moves quickly back into that great second theme. “It is a powerfully original and effective plan,” writes Michael Steinberg, “to follow an almost recklessly spacious exposition with a combined, and therefore compressed, development and recapitulation.” After that lush secondary theme, a brass chorale, intoned over plucked strings, brings the first movement to a close.

Tchaikovsky provides respite in the middle two movements--a sort of two part intermezzo. Whereas the first movement deals with solemn and somber material, the second movement contrasts with a beautifully singing, albeit undanceable, waltz. (This waltz contains five beats in every measure as opposed to the customary three.) The third movement brilliantly alternates between a scherzo and a march. Dazzlingly scored, Tchaikovsky displays the full power of the orchestra. However, the melancholy from the first movement never quite goes away. The march provides no affirmation and with one terrifying last push obliterates all optimism.

“A great cry,” writes Steinberg of the final movement, “pierces the echo left by the last bang of the march.” This movement remains one of the great symphonic expressions. This cry of despair, yields to a yearning theme in the strings supported by a “heartbeat” ostinato in the horns. The mood grows darker gradually intensifying into a catastrophe. A single, soft stroke on the tam-tam signals a point of no return. From there, the music fatally fades until all that is left is a faltering heartbeat in the double basses.

The Epilogue On October 28, 1893; the audience in St. Petersburg rose to their feet and cheered as Tchaikovsky appeared on stage for the premiere of his sixth symphony.

However, after the symphony, the bewildered audience offered up tepid 2017 | 2018 Season

applause. In a letter to his publisher Piotr Jürgenson, Tchaikovsky wrote: “It is very strange about this symphony. It was not exactly a failure, but it was received with some hesitation.” Tchaikovsky had turned symphonic convention onto its head and no one knew quite how to react.

The next morning, Tchaikovsky decided that the symphony needed a title.

His first idea, Program Symphony, did the work no justice. The composer then turned to his brother, Modest, for help. Modest’s first suggestion, Tragic, did not meet the composers’ approval. However, Modest’s second suggestion, Pathetique, met the composers immediate approval. Tchaikovsky immediately wrote it on the score and sent the score to his publisher. For a full twenty-four hours, the title Pathetique received the composers’ full support. However, on October 30, Tchaikovsky wrote to Jürgenson and asked for the title to be removed and a brief dedication to his nephew to be added. Knowing a good title never hurt sales, Jürgenson declined to make the change and Pathetique remains the title to this day.

Fast forward a few days, and the second performance, under the baton of Nápravník on November 6, left a powerful impression on the audience. Tragically, Tchaikovsky had died of cholera just twelve days before. Black drapery around the hall and a bust modeled after his death mask heightened the mood. The performance was an unqualified success. Since then, Tchaikovsky’s Pathetique remains one of the most beloved symphonies to this day.

Further reading Wiley, Roland John. Tchaikovsky (Oxford University Press, 2009)

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2017 | 2018 Season

IN CONCERT Thursday, October 12, 2017 | 8pm Friday, October 13, 2017 | 8pm Miller Auditorium Daniel Brier, Conductor Exclusively underwritten by the Diane S. Robertson Charitable Foundation.

TICKETS KalamazooSymphony.com or 269.387.2300 Children must be six or older to attend this performance.

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