October 7 & 9 program notes

MAURICE RAVEL

Valses nobles et sentimentales

(1911 for piano, orchestrated in 1912)

ABOUT THE COMPOSER

Born March 7, 1875 in Ciboure, France; died December 28, 1937 in Paris.

PREMIERE OF WORK

April 22, 1912; Paris, France; Maurice Ravel, conductor

PSO LAST PERFORMANCE

January 14, 2018; Heinz Hall; Juanjo Mena, conductor

INSTRUMENTATION

Pairs of woodwinds plus English horn, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, two harps, and celeste

PSO PREMIERE

April 28, 1967; Syria Mosque; William Steinberg, conductor

DURATION

18 minutes

Ravel wrote that his Valses nobles et sentimentales “shows clearly my intention to compose a chain of waltzes in the style of Schubert.” The musical style, however, is French rather than Viennese, with the spirit of Satie hovering above much of Ravel’s music. The work comprises seven continuous miniature waltzes followed by an epilogue that provide a variety of contrasting moods, keys and tempos encompassing more emotional states than the title indicates. The hushed epilogue recalls disembodied wisps from most of the preceding waltzes.

SAMY MOUSSA

Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, “Adrano”

(2019)

ABOUT THE COMPOSER

Born June 1, 1984 in Montreal, Canada.

PREMIERE OF WORK

November 28, 2019; Montreal, Canada; Kent Nagano, conductor; Andrew Wan, soloist

PSO FIRST PERFORMANCE

These concerts mark the first Pittsburgh Symphony performance of “Adrano.”

INSTRUMENTATION

Piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, contrabassoon, two horns, two trumpets, and timpani

DURATION 15 minutes

Composer and conductor Samy Moussa was born in 1984 in Montreal and completed his undergraduate degree at the Université de Montréal before undertaking graduate studies in composition at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Munich with Matthias Pintscher and Pascal Dusapin, and participating in conducting master classes with Pierre Boulez. Moussa became music director of the INDEX Ensemble in Munich in 2010, and has since conducted leading ensembles and orchestras in Europe and Canada. As a composer, Moussa has received commissions from the orchestras of Dallas, Brussels, Berlin, Munich, Montreal and Toronto, and written two operas: L’autre frère (“The Other Brother”) was premièred at the Munich Biennale in 2010, and Vastation first seen at that festival in 2014. His honors include the Villa Massimo Fellowship at the German Academy in Rome, Hindemith Prize from the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festspiele, Composer’s Prize from the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation, and the Fondation Banque Populaire Award.

Adranus, a god of fire believed to live beneath Mt. Etna, was worshipped by the ancient local peoples of eastern Sicily, who established a town in his honor at the eastern base of the volcano — Adrano — around 400 B.C.E. After a visit to Adrano, Moussa was inspired by the town and the legend to compose his eponymous Violin Concerto in 2019, which was premiered on April 28, 2019 by the Montreal Symphony Orchestra and violinist Andrew Wan, concertmaster of the MSO, under the direction of Kurt Nagano. The Concerto is in four brief movements, the first three played without pause, and suggests an almost ritualistic narrative. The subterranean god Adranus is invoked by a lone worshipper in the opening movement (contrabassoon, capable of producing the orchestra’s deepest notes, is prominent in the orchestration) and stirs to life in a climax near its end. The second movement is an accompanied Cadenza (senza misura — “without meter”) that is quiet and apprehensive, a wariness answered by the fiery movement that follows. The finale is quiet again, perhaps even awed, with muted trumpets echoing the opening notes of Richard Strauss’ Also sprach Zarathustra, which was famously used in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey to evoke nature’s ineffable primal forces.

Chausson’s Poème for Violin and Orchestra, one of his most successful works, shows the lyricism, advanced harmonic style presaging the Impressionists, and soulful melancholy that mark Chausson’s best works. Though unified through melodic reiteration, the work does not follow any traditional Classical formal model, but is rather constructed around lines of rising and falling tension. Wrote the British critic and composer Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji, “The prevailing mood of Chausson’s music is an entrancing melancholy, tender and twilit, a melancholy free from whine or morbid sentiment, [which] is expressed in the terms of the utmost sensitive refinement, subtle beauty and aristocratic distinction of manner.”

ERNEST CHAUSSON

Poème for Violin and Orchestra, Opus 25

(1896)

ABOUT THE COMPOSER

Born January 20, 1855 in Paris, France; died June 10, 1899 in Limay.

PSO LAST PERFORMANCE

November 26, 2017; Heinz Hall; Manfred Honeck, conductor; Noa Wildschut, soloist

PREMIERE OF WORK

December 27, 1896; Nancy, France; Guy Ropartz, conductor; Eugène Ysaÿe, soloist

PSO PREMIERE

February 2, 1945; Syria Mosque; Fritz Reiner, conductor; Jascha Heifetz, soloist

INSTRUMENTATION

Pairs of woodwinds, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, and harp

DURATION 16 minutes

IGOR STRAVINSKY

Petrushka, Ballet in Four Tableaux

(1911, revised 1947)

ABOUT THE COMPOSER

Born June 17, 1882 in Saint Petersburg, Russia; died April 6, 1971 in Manhattan, New York.

PSO LAST PERFORMANCE

March 19, 2017; Heinz Hall; Yan Pascal Tortelier, conductor

PREMIERE OF WORK

June 13, 1911; Paris, France; Pierre Monteux, conductor

PSO FIRST PERFORMANCE

March 11, 1966; Syria Mosque; Ronald Ondrejka, conductor

INSTRUMENTATION

Piccolo, three flutes, three oboes, English horn, three clarinets, bass clarinet, two bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, harp, piano, and celeste

DURATION 34 minutes

“In composing Petrushka,” Stravinsky wrote, “I had a distinct picture of a puppet, suddenly endowed with life.... Having finished this piece, I struggled for hours to find a title which would express in a word the character of my music and, consequently, the personality of this creature. One day I leaped for joy, I had indeed found my title — Petrushka, the immortal and unhappy hero of every fair in all countries. Soon afterwards, [ballet impresario Serge] Diaghilev came to visit me. He was much astonished when I played him the piece I had just composed and which later became the second scene of Petrushka. He was so pleased with it that he would not leave it alone, and persuaded me to develop the theme of the puppet’s sufferings and make it into a whole ballet.”

Tableau I. The Shrove-Tide Fair. Crowds of people stroll about, entertained by a hurdy-gurdy man and dancers. The Showman opens the curtains of his little theater to reveal three puppets — Petrushka, the Ballerina and the Blackamoor. He charms them into life with his flute, and they begin to dance among the public.

Tableau II. Petrushka’s Cell. Petrushka suffers greatly from his awareness of his grotesque appearance. He tries to console himself by falling in love with the Ballerina. She visits him in his cell, but she is frightened by his uncouth antics, and flees.

Tableau III. The Blackamoor’s Cell. The Blackamoor and the Ballerina meet in his cell. Their love scene is interrupted by the arrival of Petrushka, furiously jealous. The Blackamoor tosses him out.

Tableau IV. The Shrove-Tide Fair Towards Evening. The festive scene of Tableau I resumes with the appearance of a group of wet-nurses, a performing bear, Gypsies, a band of coachmen and several masqueraders. At the theater, Petrushka rushes out from behind the curtain, pursued by the Blackamoor, who strikes his rival down with his sword. Petrushka dies. The Showman assures the bystanders that Petrushka is only a puppet, but he is startled to see Petrushka’s jeering ghost appear on the roof of the little theater.

PROGRAM NOTES BY DR. RICHARD E. RODDA