Programme Notes | Shostakovich and Lutoslawski - 11 and 13 March 2022

Programme Notes

SHOSTAKOVICH AND LUTOSLAWSKI FRI 11 MAR 2022 • 20.15 SUN 13 MAR 2022 • 14.15

PROGRAMME dirigent Krzysztof Urbański cello Christian Poltéra Myroslav Skoryk 1938–2020 Melody in A minor [1981] Violin Solo: Igor Gruppman Witold Lutosławski 1913-1994 Little Suite [1950-51] • Fujarka • Hurra Polka • Piosenka • Taniec Witold Lutosławski Concerto for Cello and Orchestra [1968-70] • Introductie • Vier episoden • Cantilena • Finale Interval Dmitri Shostakovich 1906-1975 1906-1975 Symphony No. 5 in D minor, op. 47 [1937] • Moderato • Allegretto • Largo • Allegro non troppo Concert ends at about 22.25 Most recent performances by our orchestra Skoryk Melody: first performance Lutosławski Little Suite: Dec 1960, conductor Jan Krenz Lutosławski Cello Concerto: Apr 1998, cello Pieter Wispelwey, conductor Kent Nagano Shostakovich Symphony No. 5: Sep 2018, conductor Lahav Shani One hour before the start of the concert, orchestra members Wim Ruitenbeek and Galahad Samson will give an introduction to the programme, admission €5. Tickets are available at the hall, payment by debit card. The introduction is free for ’Vrienden’. The introduction is in Dutch.

Cover: Dmitri Shostakovich in 1938

Mstislav Rostropovich at the Berlin Wall, November 9, 1989 - photo Emmett Lewis Jr

MELODY As a declaration of solidarity to Ukraine, we open this concert with Melody in A minor by the Ukrainian composer Myroslav Skoryk. Skoryk composed this piece in 1981 as music to the film High Pass by Volodymyr Denysenko.

Denysenko wanted to tell the story of a family in the Ukrainian Carpathians being torn apart in the post-war ideological struggle between communism and nationalism. When his film was as good as finished, the authorities got involved; at the behest of the KGB the Ukrainian nationalists were to be portrayed as evil. Entire episodes were excised on the editing table, new scenes had to be shot to bring the film into line with Soviet ideology. Denysenko saw his original script altered beyond recognition; he asked Skoryk to compose music that would tell the audience what was not allowed to be shown. This is how the Melody in A minor got written.

High Pass has all but fallen into oblivion, but Skoryk’s Melody proved immortal. Our concertmaster Igor Gruppman – born and raised in Kyiv – chose the piece as the opening of this concert programme: ‘Every Ukrainian knows this music’.

Conflict and oppression The voices of Lutos awski and Shostakovich were both gagged by Stalin’s repressive policy on music. Both, however, managed to process this conflict in their work: the former as an abstract narrative through his cello concerto, the latter as a symphony that became so loved that the censor couldn’t get his hands on it.

From his early youth, the life of Witold Lutosławski had been characterised by conflict and repression. During World War One his family fled to Moscow, where his father was executed by the Bolsheviks. During World War Two Lutosławski was himself captured as a prisoner of war, escaped, and earned a living as a pianist in a bar, composing resistance songs. In the maelstrom of war, however, many of his early compositions were lost.

It was not until his early thirties when, following liberation, he could actually begin to realise his dream as a composer. He represented Poland in the International Society for Contemporary Music and in 1947 performed some of his compositions at a Polish-Dutch exchange concert in the Kleine Zaal of the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. Abstract music, but music full of dynamism and drive, as

music critic Hans Leerink described the work. His happiness would be short-lived, however. Two years later the repressive control of Stalin would force its way into Poland and Lutosławski was accused of being ‘formalistic’, a vague label used to gag music not approved of. His First Symphony was banned.

For the radio To be able to provide for his family, the composer now restricted himself to the composition of – in his view unimportant - utility music for music education purposes, radio and film. He kept his artistic ambitions and experiments with free tonality to himself. It was safer to find inspiration in folk music and it is with such a style that Lutosławski became recognised in Poland. His Little Suite dates from this period, composed in 1950 as a commission for the radio. They asked him to write

for a small orchestra, normally used for playing light classical music.

The folk music that he deployed, originated from a small village to the east of Krakow, where Lutosławski heard it at a festival of Polish folk music.

The first movement evokes fifes and drums; the second is based on the Hurra Polka, a dance from the same region. The composer subtly incorporated experiments with rhythm by overlapping the various folk tunes. He would later explain about this style: ‘I wrote as I was able, since I could not yet write as I wished.’ To his amazement, he won national awards for this utility music. In an interview he explained: ‘The authorities mistakenly believed that I had composed [functional music] to obey the guiding principles. That was a shock because I realized that I was not writing innocent, indifferent little pieces, only to make a living, but was carrying on artistic creative activity in the eyes of the outside world.’

Cockfighting After long years of isolation, in the 1960s Lutosławski finally received the international recognition that he deserved. He was showered with prizes and commissions. For example, Mstislav Rostropovich commissioned him to write a cello concerto. By way of encouragement, he promised: ‘I can’t guarantee I will play it well, but I certainly will play it very often.’ As soon as each movement was completed, Lutosławski delivered it to Rostropovich, with an explanation of the drama depicted by the music, in which the cellist and orchestra confront each other like as though in a cockfight. The cello begins with a repetitive note that then changes into something else. ‘This makes an impression as though someone, who

is deeply bored with a monotonous occupation, has tried to give variety to it.’ The conflict becomes immediately clear with the very first note played by the orchestra, a brutal interruption of the cello by a very harsh blare from the three trumpets. The pattern is repeated in each movement: a dialogue between

As soon as each movement was completed, Lutosławski delivered it to Rostropovich, with an explanation of the drama depicted by the music, in which the cellist and orchestra confront each other like as though in a cockfight the cello and a group of instruments from the orchestra, followed by the cello being cut off by the orchestra, and ending with a return of the cello with a lively motif. It is the steadfast loner that emerges victorious in each movement’s battle. Rostropovich could identify himself completely in such a role, given his regular confrontations with the Soviet authorities. During that period he

had sent angry letters to the press about the attacks on the dissident writer Solzhenitsyn, for which he faced various sanctions. As a result, it would be many years before he could ‘perform very much’.

Saved by the public and press In his letters in defence of Solzhenitsyn, Rostropovich had recalled how in an earlier period Shostakovich had been gagged.

‘Has time really not taught us to tread cautiously before destroying talented people,’ he wrote. Under the gaze of Stalin, Shostakovich had been the victim of vicious criticism. However, it was his Fifth Symphony that returned him to favour. The burning question remains, however, as to how far Shostakovich deliberately adhered to the restrictions of social-realism in order to encourage acceptance of his symphony. In fact, no one seemed to know how to apply these restrictions to a symphony. The work’s premiere in November 1937 made a huge impact on the public; it is said that the applause at the end lasted for a full thirty minutes, and that people had been reduced to tears during the slow movement. The orchestra in Leningrad had covered itself against any possible criticism by including a questionnaire in the programme for the second performance of the work asking the public what they had thought of the work.

Positive responses could prove the symphony’s popularity with ‘the people’. The press then created a fine background story to the work, as though it symbolised the ‘birth of a personality’, the conversion of the composer to social realism. It worked; the symphony was saved from the censors and found popular support amongst a wide public.

Carine Alders

Krzysztof Urbański, Conductor Born: Pabianice, Polen Education: Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw Recent position: Music Director Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra; principal guest conductor NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra Hamburg Before: chief-conductor and artistic leader Trondheim Symphony Orchestra; principal guest conductor Tokyo Symphony Orchestra Awards: Leonard Bernstein Award (20145); Prague Spring International Conducting Competition (2007) Breakthrough: 2009, debut Trondheim Symphony Orchestra Subsequently: Berlin Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, Vienna Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, New York Philharmonic Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, symphony orchestras San Francisco, Toronto, Chicago, Pittsburgh Debut Rotterdam Philharmonic: 2017

Photo: Nikolaj Lund

Christian Poltéra, Cello Born: Zürich, Switserland Education: with Nancy Chumachenco, Boris Pergamenschikow and Heinrich Schiff Awards: Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award (2004), BBC New Generation Artist (2004–06), Rising Star at Bozar (Brussels) and Amsterdam Concertgebouw (2006–07) Breakthrough: at age 17, replacing Yo-Yo Ma at the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich in Elgar’s Concerto Subsequently: Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Orchestre de Paris, with conductors such as Riccardo Chailly, Christoph von Dohnányi, John Eliot Gardiner, Bernard Haitink and Andris Nelsons Chamber Music: Trio Zimmermann (with Antoine Tamestit and Frank Peter Zimmermann), Leif Ove Andsnes, Gidon Kremer, Christian Tetzlaff, Mitsuko Uchida, Lars Vogt Instrumentens: Antonio Casini from 1675; ‘Mara’-Stradivarius from 1711 Debut Rotterdam Philharmonic: 2022

Photo: Marco Borggreve

AGENDA Sun 20 March 2022 • 10.30 Music for Breakfast No.4 Nielsen Serenata in vano Svendsen Two Swedish Folk Melodies Sibelius En saga Fri 1 April 2022 • 19.00 Sat 2 April 2022 • 19.00 Sun 3 April 2022 • 14.00 Ahoy RTM Stage The Lion King in Concert Live to Film Sun 10 April 2022 • 13.15 and 15.00 uur Peer Gynt (4+) conductor Adam Hickox actor Rogier van Erkel images Janneke Swinkels and Tim Frijsinger Grieg Peer Gynt (movements) Thu 14 April 2022 • 19.30 Fri 15 April 2022 • 19.30 Sat 16 April 2022 • 19.30 conductor Jan Willem de Vriend soprano Lydia Teuscher alto Ingeborg Danz tenor Jeremy Ovenden tenor James Gilchrist baritone Dietrich Henschel bass Florian Boesch choir Laurens Collegium Bach St Matthew Passion Fri 22 April 2022 • 19.30 Wotan Michael Volle Loge Gerhard Siegel Alberich Samuel Youn Mime Thomas Ebenstein Fricka Karen Cargill Wagner Das Rheingold Sun 1 May 2022 • 14.15 conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin soprano Christiane Karg mezzosoprano Karen Cargill Alma Mahler Songs Gustav Mahler Symphony No. 4

MUSICIANS Chief Conductor Lahav Shani Honorary Conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin First violin Igor Gruppman, concertmaster Marieke Blankestijn, concertmaster Quirine Scheffers Hed Yaron Meyerson Saskia Otto Arno Bons Mireille van der Wart Shelly Greenberg Cor van der Linden Rachel Browne Maria Dingjan Marie-José Schrijner Noëmi Bodden Petra Visser Sophia Torrenga Hadewijch Hofland Annerien Stuker Alexandra van Beveren Koen Stapert Second violin Charlotte Potgieter Cecilia Ziano Frank de Groot Laurens van Vliet Tomoko Hara Elina Staphorsius Jun Yi Dou Bob Bruyn Letizia Sciarone Eefje Habraken Maija Reinikainen Sumire Hara Wim Ruitenbeek Babette van den Berg Melanie Broers

Viola Anne Huser Roman Spitzer Maartje van Rheeden Galahad Samson Kerstin Bonk Lex Prummel Janine Baller Francis Saunders Veronika Lénártová Rosalinde Kluck León van den Berg

Clarinet/ bass clarinet Romke-Jan Wijmenga

Cello Emanuele Silvestri Joanna Pachucka Daniel Petrovitsch Mario Rio Gé van Leeuwen Eelco Beinema Carla Schrijner Pepijn Meeuws Yi-Ting Fang

Horn David Fernández Alonso Wendy Leliveld Richard Speetjens Laurens Otto Pierre Buizer

Double bass Matthew Midgley Ying Lai Green Jonathan Focquaert Robert Franenberg Harke Wiersma Arjen Leendertz Ricardo Neto Flute Juliette Hurel Joséphine Olech Désirée Woudenberg Oboe Remco de Vries Karel Schoofs Hans Cartigny Anja van der Maten Oboe/cor anglais Ron Tijhuis Clarinet Julien Hervé Bruno Bonansea Jan Jansen

Bassoon Pieter Nuytten Lola Descours Marianne Prommel Bassoon/contra bassoon Hans Wisse

Trumpet Giuliano Sommerhalder Alex Elia Simon Wierenga Jos Verspagen Trombone Pierre Volders Alexander Verbeek Remko de Jager Tuba Hendrik-Jan Renes Timpani/percussion Randy Max Danny van de Wal Ronald Ent Martijn Boom Adriaan Feyaerts Harp Charlotte Sprenkels