Maxim’s Firebird – Season 2122 – Programme Note

MAXIM'S FIREBIRD 11 – 13 May 2022

SCO.ORG.UK

PROGRAMME

Season 2021/22

MAXIM'S FIREBIRD

The Perth Concert Series is supported by

Wednesday 11 May, 7.30pm Perth Concert Hall Thursday 12 May, 7.30pm Usher Hall, Edinburgh Friday 13 May, 7.30pm City Halls, Glasgow Beethoven Leonore Overture No 3 Prokofiev Violin Concerto No 1 in D Major Interval of 20 minutes

Stravinsky The Firebird Suite [1945] Maxim Emelyanychev Conductor Alina Ibragimova Violin Maxim Emelyanychev

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First Violin Sarah Kapustin Ruth Crouch Dániel Mészöly Kana Kawashima Aisling O’Dea Siún Milne Fiona Alexander Amira Bedrush-McDonald

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W H AT YO U ARE ABOUT TO HEAR Beethoven (1770-1827) Leonore Overture No 3 (1805–06)

––––– It’s always good to go out with a bang.

And tonight, the final live concert in the current Season, there’s no shortage of high drama. Our opening piece, in fact, might have had a bit too much of it – which, paradoxically, was one reason Beethoven ended up deciding not to use it.

Stravinsky (1882-1971)

The rather lengthily titled Leonore Overture No 3 is, in fact, one of no fewer than four overtures that Beethoven wrote for his only opera, Fidelio: the Overture’s title refers to the original name he gave to the opera as a whole. Leonore is the wife of Florestan, who’s been imprisoned by a totalitarian regime for his freethinking beliefs. She disguises herself as the boy Fidelio to gain employment in the prison in which he’s incarcerated, and therefore save her beloved from a slow, gruesome end.

The Firebird Suite [1945]

It was the management at Vienna’s

Adagio - Allegro

Prokofiev (1891-1953) Violin Concerto No 1 in D Major (1915) Andantino Scherzo: Vivacissimo Moderato – Allegro moderato

(1910) Prelude and Dance of the Firebird - Variations Pantomime I Pas de deux (Firebird and Ivan Tsarevich) Pantomime II Scherzo: Dance of the Princesses Pantomime III Rondo (Khorovod) Infernal dance Lullaby (Firebird) Final Hymn

Theater an der Wien, the venue that first staged Fidelio, who insisted on changing the opera’s title before the work’s premiere in November 1805, concerned that there were already two other operas called Leonora in circulation and worried that ticket buyers might get confused. The opera couldn’t have been premiered at a more apposite time, however. Just a week earlier, Napoleon’s troops had entered the city, causing many well-to-do Viennese to flee.

Beethoven’s first audience was therefore heavily occupied by officers from the invading French army, who were less than impressed by the serious-minded work, and even more disapproving of its progressive, liberal-themed subject matter.

And the problem with No 3 was that it was just too good – too strong, too vivid, too powerful.

Wagner called it ‘the most perfect drama in itself’ Ludwig van Beethoven

Indeed, Fidelio wasn’t merely an opera to Beethoven. It was more an expression of the whole political and social

(No 1, incidentally, was believed to have been written before the 1805 premiere, but is now known to have been created

philosophy of the 35-year-old composer.

It’s no wonder that he devoted so much effort – and, more importantly, time – to getting it right. There’s a question of whether he ever did, or could: even now, it’s generally considered a flawed masterpiece, its lengthy sections of spoken dialogue causing particular concern.

later for a planned 1807 performance in Prague, and was only discovered after Beethoven’s death.)

But let’s return to the thorny question of Fidelio/Leonore’s overtures (which by themselves took Beethoven more time than Rossini or Donizetti devoted to entire operas). His original version is what we now call the Leonore Overture No 2, replaced in 1806 by No 3, which was itself swapped out in 1814 for

And the problem with No 3 was that it was just too good – too strong, too vivid, too powerful. Wagner called it ‘the most perfect drama in itself ’, and that’s precisely the problem. In its mere 15 minutes of music, it tells what amounts to a potted version of the opera’s entire storyline, leaving the opening scenes on stage feeling fairly weedy by comparison (and spoiling the dramatic jeopardy of the bigger work, of course).

It was for that reason that Beethoven set it aside – though it’s by far the most popular of Fidelio’s four overtures in the

the Fidelio Overture that’s used today.

concert hall.

After a loud call to attention, we’re taken down into the darkness of Florestan’s dungeon, complete with his wistful

flowing melody while in a passionate relationship with Nina Meshcherskaya in 1915, and was galvanised into

memories of his beloved Leonore in the woodwind. The music pauses, and there follows a quotation from Florestan’s second act aria in which he imagines his wife coming to save him. A trumpet sounds to signal his liberation, and after a lyrical passage marking Florestan’s realisation that it is, indeed, none other than his wife Leonore who’s responsible for his freedom, the Overture ends in exultant celebration of freedom and love. Few other of his pieces so neatly encapsulate Beethoven at his most heroic.

completing the work as a whole after hearing eminent Polish violinist Paweł Kochański play Szymanowski’s heavily perfumed Myths in St Petersburg in 1916. Prokofiev took off on a cruise along the Volga and Kama rivers (describing the scenery as ‘wild, virginal and exceptionally beautiful, with its red mountainous shores covered in dark Siberian pines’), and completed the Concerto in just a few weeks.

Prokofiev’s First Violin Concerto isn’t without its drama as a piece of music, though it’s also one of the composer’s most overtly charming, lyrical works.

The real drama of the Concerto comes from the context in which the 26-year-old composer wrote it.

Against a background of endless strikes, anti-war demonstrations, the return of Lenin following a decade of exile, and, of course, two cataclysmic, epoch-defining revolutions, it’s a wonder that Prokofiev got any work done at all in Russia in 1917. And yet it proved to be one of his most productive years, in which he wrote his 'Classical' Symphony, Third and Fourth piano sonatas, Third Piano Concerto, Visions fugitives for piano, and the visionary cantata Seven, They Are Seven.

And then he was forced to wait. He made the decision to head to America until the turbulence in his homeland had passed (he wouldn’t return permanently until 1936), and his travels across Russia, Japan, the USA and Europe in the years immediately after the Revolution made it difficult to pin down a premiere. Furthermore, he lost touch with Kochański, his intended soloist for the Concerto’s premiere. Prokofiev finally settled in Paris in 1923, where the work was unveiled in a concert at the Paris Opéra in October that year, conducted by Serge Koussevitzky and with the youthful Marcel Darrieux (then concertmaster of the Opéra Orchestra) as soloist.

It was also in 1917 that he managed to complete his First Violin Concerto, though its roots lie a couple of years

It wasn’t much of a success. For a start, it was rather overshadowed by the conducting debut of one Igor Stravinsky, beloved enfant terrible of Parisian listeners, in his own Octet. And the French capital’s audiences preferred music that would shock and titillate them, as they’d grown used to with Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring a decade earlier. Prokofiev’s First

earlier: he wrote the first movement’s

Violin Concerto was simply too nice,

Sergei Prokofiev

Nonetheless, it’s an elegant, glistening work that’s found a more than happy home in the repertoires of violin soloists since then – aided, no doubt, by the championing of Joseph Szigeti, who was in the audience at the Paris premiere

too lyrical, too easy on the ear. Even the composer seemed to distance himself from the piece, writing in a letter: ‘I

Prokofiev reverses the age-old fastslow-fast structure of a traditional concerto in two slow movements

don’t especially like a lot of it although I am happy enough with the second movement. But the first movement and the finale were conceived in 1913 (!) and executed in 1916 and now, to be sure, I would do a lot of it very differently. It is so unpleasant when you write something and it waits several years for the favour of a performance!’

Nonetheless, it’s an elegant, glistening work that’s found a more than happy home in the repertoires of violin soloists since then – aided, no doubt, by the championing of Joseph Szigeti, who was in the audience at the Paris premiere, and was so impressed by the Concerto that he immediately took it into his

framing a faster central panel. With just a dusting of string tremolos and wandering commentaries from flutes and clarinets, the violin enters dreamily with its lilting opening theme, before becoming more impassioned in its more strongly defined second theme. After a more angular central development section, the dreamy opening melody returns to close the opening movement, with a solo flute floating heavenwards at its very end. The flashy violinistic pyrotechnics and frantic activity of Prokofiev’s dazzling second movement come as a complete contrast, though the composer returns to his easier-going lyricism in his calmer finale – and his solo flute makes a return, too, to bid us

own repertoire.

farewell.

...there was plenty of intrigue behind the scenes during the creation of The Firebird. For a start, Stravinsky wasn’t Russian impresario Sergei Diaghilev’s first choice of composer for the project, nor even his second.

No, he came fifth in line, following refusals (or simple lack of interest) from Alexander Tcherepnin, Anatoly Liadov, Alexander Glazunov and Nikolai Sokolov.

But their loss was Stravinsky’s gain: The Firebird was the work that launched the 28-year-old composer to international stardom.

Aside from the obvious drama (not to mention the dazzling colour and movement) on stage, there was plenty

impresario launched his Ballets Russes company in Paris, aiming to establish its identity with cutting-edge 20th-century

of intrigue behind the scenes during the creation of The Firebird. For a start, Stravinsky wasn’t Russian impresario Sergei Diaghilev’s first choice of composer for the project, nor even his second. No, he came fifth in line, following refusals (or simple lack of interest) from Alexander Tcherepnin, Anatoly Liadov, Alexander Glazunov and Nikolai Sokolov. But their loss was Stravinsky’s gain: The Firebird was the work that launched the 28-year-old composer to international stardom.

premieres. For its second season, he assembled a crack creative team – including choreographer Michel Fokine and designer Léon Bakst – to concoct The Firebird, an amalgam of two unrelated Russian fairytales.

Diaghilev’s first encounter with Stravinsky’s music had been in 1909, at a performance of the young composer’s orchestral showpiece Fireworks in St Petersburg. Later the same year, the

In retrospect, Stravinsky seems the ideal person to have contributed the music. He had recently finished studies with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, and had adopted the elder composer’s kaleidoscopically coloured, luxuriantly exotic idiom eagerly – just the style to match Diaghilev’s deeply Russian, multi-sensual experience set to charm and delight Parisian audiences.

The work’s storyline can be simply told. Out hunting in a forest, Prince

Igor Stravinsky

Stravinsky was always a canny businessman as well as an astonishing creative talent.

Ivan strays into the magical domain of Kashchei the Immortal, where he encounters the Firebird, sparing her

Marcel Proust and Claude Debussy. More importantly, it ensured Stravinsky’s place as Diaghilev’s star composer: he would

life in return for a magical feather that will summon her if he’s in danger. He later meets 13 princesses, all under the spell of the malevolent Kashchei, and falls in love with one of them, calling the Firebird when Kashchei sends his minions to deal with him. The Firebird saves Ivan’s skin by sending the demon and his monstrous servants into a wild, stomping dance. Later the Firebird reveals the location of Kashchei’s soul, which Ivan destroys, freeing the enchanted princesses and leading to a general celebration.

go on to complete his trilogy of Ballets Russes ballets with Petrushka, which enhanced his reputation further, and The Rite of Spring, which transformed him into the most notorious composer alive.

The Firebird went down a storm at its Paris premiere, in front of an audience that included Jean Cocteau, Maurice Ravel, Erik Satie, Manuel de Falla,

Stravinsky arranged three orchestral suites from his original ballet score, not only to bring his opulent ballet creation to the concert stage, but also to secure an income for himself from the music (Diaghilev retained the rights to the full ballet score). The 1945 version you hear tonight was created essentially to refresh US copyright on the score. Stravinsky was always a canny businessman as well as an astonishing creative talent. © David Kettle

Conductor MAXIM E M E LYA N YC H E V

––––– At the Scottish Chamber Orchestra Maxim Emelyanychev follows in the footsteps of just five previous Principal Conductors in the Orchestra’s 48-year history; Roderick Brydon (1974-1983), Jukka-Pekka Saraste (1987-1991), Ivor Bolton (1994-1996), Joseph Swensen (1996-2005) and Robin Ticciati (2009-2018).

Highlights of his 2021/22 season include his debut with some of the most prestigious international orchestras: Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester, Toronto Symphony, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. They include returns to the Antwerp Symphony, the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and a European tour with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, followed by appearances to the Radio-France Montpellier Festival and the Edinburgh International Festival.

In 2022/23 Maxim will tour the USA with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and will make his debut with the New Japan Philharmonic, the Osaka Kansai Philharmonic, the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, the Helsinki Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and will return to the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse and to the Royal Opera House in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte.

He regularly collaborates with renowned artists such as Max Emanuel Cenčić, Patrizia Ciofi, Joyce DiDonato, Franco Fagioli, Richard Goode, Sophie Karthäuser, Stephen Hough, Katia et Marielle Labèque, Marie-Nicole Lemieux, Julia Lezhneva, Alexei Lubimov, Riccardo Minasi, Xavier Sabata and Dmitry Sinkovsky.

Maxim is also a highly respected chamber musician. His most recent recording, of Brahms Violin Sonatas with long-time collaborator and friend Aylen Pritchin, was released on Aparté in December 2021 and has attracted outstanding reviews internationally. With the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Maxim has recorded the Schubert Symphony No 9 – the symphony with which he made his debut with the orchestra – which was released on Linn Records in November 2019.

For full biography please visit sco.org.uk

Violin ALINA I B R AG I M OVA

––––– Performing music from baroque to new commissions on both modern and period instruments, Alina Ibragimova has established a reputation for versatility and the “immediacy and honesty” (The Guardian) of her performances. Highlights of the 2021/22 season include returns to the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, London Symphony and Philharmonia Orchestra; debuts with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and St Petersburg Philharmonic; and appearances at Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie and Vienna’s Konzerthaus and Wigmore Hall.

Recent seasons have seen Alina perform with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, London Philharmonic, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Swedish Radio Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich; collaborating with conductors Vladimir Jurowski, Sir John Elliot Gardner, Jakob Hrůša, Robin Ticciati, Daniel Harding, Edward Gardner and Bernard Haitink.

Alina’s discography on Hyperion Records ranges from Bach Concertos with Arcangelo through to Prokofiev Sonatas with Steven Osborne. Her 2020 album of Shostakovich Violin Concertos with Vladimir Jurowski and the State Academy Symphony Orchestra of Russia received a Gramophone Editor’s Choice, Diapason d’Or and was one of The Times’ Discs of the Year. Her 2021 recording of Paganini’s 24 Caprices topped the classical album charts on its release.

For full biography please visit sco.org.uk

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