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Around the World
Saturday, April 12, 2008, 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, April 13, 2008, 2:00 p.m.
 Program Notes
"POLOVTSIAN MARCH"
From the Opera PRINCE IGOR
Alexander Borodin 1833-1887
Trained both as a scientist and musician, Alexander Borodin spent a
lifetime juggling his two loves. He made his living as professor of
chemistry at the Medico-Surgical Academy in St. Petersburg and also as
the first professor of physiological chemistry in the newly founded
medical courses for women. Borodin played the flute, cello and piano; he
was fluent enough in German, French, English and Italian to translate
scientific books; and in any time left over, he composed, calling
himself a "Sunday composer."
In 1869 Borodin began working on the opera Prince Igor, based on a Russian epic from the twelfth century. It recounts the story of the heroic Russian warrior, Prince Igor, who goes to war with the Polovtsi, a Tatar warrior tribe, in spite of the fact that a sudden eclipse of the sun foreshadows the defeat of his army. The Prince and his son are captured by the Polovtsi’s Khan, who – surprisingly – treats them with respect. After many trials and tribulations, including seductive dances by the Polovtsian slave maidens, whom the Khan offers the prince as a temptation into a political alliance, Igor manages to escape and rejoin his faithful wife, although his son remains behind and marries a Polovtsian maiden.
Borodin and his colleagues were intrigued with all aspects of the indigenous music from the vast Russian steppe. Whether any of the music of Prince Igor bore any relationship to authentic ethnic music is dubious, but an appropriately exotic and/or atavistic atmosphere could be accomplished with some modal melodies, a good percussion section. Borodin conducted research into the musical culture of the Polovtsian tribes but settled in the end on the vague orientalism so popular in Russian music at the time.
 Borodin's work on the opera was protracted and erratic; at his death 18 years after beginning the project, he left the score unfinished and mostly unorchestrated. Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov, the dean, judge and jury of his generation’s professional and amateur composers, came to the rescue, taking it upon himself to finish the manuscript,
"modifying" the orchestration to fit his own ideas. Recently a number of attempts have been made to complete the opera in a style more faithful to Borodin.
The "Polovtsian March" opens Act III, when the army returns victorious from its battle with a Russian army. In contrast to the more famous "Dance of the Polovtsian Maidens," the March emphasizes the savage – although militarily effective – nature of Asiatic tribalism from the
"civilized" Russian point of view. A pounding beat and mildly dissonant refrain
alternates with two rudimentary themes.
Symphonie Espagnole
Édouard Lalo 1823-1892
 Edouard
Lalo came from a military family in Northern France, his father having
fought for Napoleon. Although his parents at first encouraged his
musical talent and he studied both the violin and cello, his more
serious inclinations towards music met with stern opposition from his
father. He left home at the age of 16 to pursue his musical studies at
the Conservatoire in Paris. While working for a long time in obscurity
as a violinist and music teacher, in 1855 he started a string quartet to
popularize the quartets of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. It was only in
the 1870s that Lalo got a break as a composer.
The debacle of the Franco-Prussian war of 1870 and its aftermath created
havoc in France’s musical life. However, the rapid reconstruction that
followed gave rise to the creation of the Société nationale de
musique and the inauguration of three concert series under three
great conductors, Jules Pasdeloup, Edouard Colonne and Charles Lamoureux,
producing a demand for new works. Young French composers, including Lalo,
were inspired to write large-scale orchestral works although such works
had been out of fashion in France at the time.
Lalo’s name as a composer became known via a series of works he composed
for the Spanish violinist Pablo Sarasate. One of the most spectacular
violin virtuosos of the late nineteenth century, Sarasate was known for
his beautiful tone, perfect intonation and élan on the stage. He was a
striking figure, usually dressed all in black, and with a huge ego and a
matching flair for publicity. He lived in lavish Paris mansions
decorated by James McNeill Whistler in the nineteenth-century equivalent
of "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous". Many composers dedicated works
to him, including Max Bruch, Camille Saint-Saëns, Joseph Joachim, Henryk
Wieniawski, Antonín Dvorak, and in particular, Lalo.
In 1873 Lalo composed his Violin Concerto, Op.20 for Sarasate and a year
later followed up with another work for violin and orchestra, the
Symphonie espagnole, the composer’s most enduring work. Sarasate
premiered both with the Colonne Orchestra.
Symphonie espagnole is neither a real symphony, nor a traditional concerto. It is more like a five-movement suite, especially in its incorporation of dance rhythms. But Lalo hated the term
"suite," considering it "a tainted and discredited title." The Symphonie is French in character, but Spanish in rhythm. What it lacks in musical depth it makes up for in bravura and a wealth of catchy themes. Although the five movements are not named for dances, they all correspond to Spanish dances and folk rhythms, although the structure of the movements corresponds to classical symphonic and concerto models.
The first movement is a habanera, with the three themes of this sonata form in the same rhythm – although not the same mood. The first two themes run together, and although the first is little more than a motive, it servees as the glue that holds the movement together as both refrain, as well as the most developed musical idea.
The second movement, a seguedilla, is a modified ABA form,
the middle section is almost a recitative for the soloist, with dramatic shifts of tempo.
The Intermezzo opens with an introduction for orchestra, based on a two-beat measure with a triplet and duplet rhythm of Spanish-Moorish origin.
The violin then introduces a series of themes, all with the underlying Moorish rhythm.
The pavane is a slow dance supposedly related to the gait of the peacock. The movement's slow tempo and minor key project the sense of a funereal lament. The orchestra introduces the movement's first theme,
which the violin answers with a new theme of its own,
continuing its lament after a brief orchestral interruption.
The lighthearted mood of the fifth and final movement breaks the lugubrious spell. The orchestra begins by setting up an ostinato pattern
over which the violin weaves delicate counter melody with elaborate embellishments.
The movement contains a
malagueña in its slower middle section.
FOLKLORIC DANCE SUITE
Kaoru Wada b.1962
Born in Shimonosekishi, a harbor town in Southern Japan, composer, arranger and producer Kaoru Wada grew up to the sound of the samisen (a plucked, square-bodied string instrument with a long narrow neck) played by his grandmother. He taught himself musical composition and harmony, starting at the age of 17. He entered the school of composition at the Tokyo Music College in 1981 and while in school, began to win awards in competitions given by the Japan Orchestral Foundation. In 1987 he won the composition award at the New York International Modern Music competition, which introduced him to Western audiences. His Three Pieces for Orchestra and Folk Music Suite for Orchestra won him European acclaim. In 1995, Wada received the Japanese Academy Award for music for his work on the film Chushingura Gaiden Yotsuya Kaidan (Crest of Betrayal). In addition to composing and working as coordinating producer for music in film, TV, stage, broadcast, and CD dramas, Wada also performs with his own percussion group. He has published numerous works commissioned from Japan and abroad.
 Wada has also published many works for Japanese indigenous instruments, as well as compositions using Japanese folklore and folksongs as motifs. Folkloric Dance Suite, composed in 1987, combines Japanese traditional folk music with modern Western orchestration. Wada dedicated it to the conductor Jun'ichi Hirokami.
The Suite is divided into five sections, all of which have distinctive orchestral coloring, enhanced by an enormous battery of Japanese and Western percussion instruments: wood blocks, tambourines, wooden and metallic bells and various drums.
- Hayashi: is Japanese festival dance music, using syncopated cheers and drums to enhance the orchestra.
The movement is ABA form with a slower middle section with a more delicate use of percussion instruments.
- Magouta – are folk songs of horseman who take tourists on horseback rides. In this unexpectedly slow dance, the horseman's wooden bell dominates the percussion section. The melody is played by solo trumpet and later by English horn. The slow slightly irregular rhythm suggests the spirit of horses past their prime carrying inexperienced riders.
A middle section consists of a new melody for the solo viola to which new solo instruments are added one at a time.
- Odori – The characteristic rhythmic motif of this dance, "Shika Odori" (deer dance), comes from the Tohoku area in Japan. It is akin to the galloping of horses, heard first in a long drum solo, later taken up by other percussion instruments and the brass.
- Oiwake – This is an old-established musical form in Japan related to the
Magouta(the horseman’s song). It is a long, elaborately ornamented phrase in free rhythm. The melody of the solo cello is punctuated with short interjections by percussion instruments and the occasional accompaniment of the strings.
- Folkloric Dance Suite – This movement has three sections using previously heard dance rhythms and motifs.
A different rhythmic ostinato is used in each of the sections. The movement concludes with a reprise of the first section.
LES PRÉLUDES , Symphonic Poem
No.3
Franz Liszt 1811-1886
Franz Liszt was a man of paradoxes and extremes who could only have flourished in the Romantic period. He was a contemplative artist and superficial showman, mystic and hedonist, genius and poseur, saint and sinner. He broke many a commandment and many a heart, exhibiting incredible flamboyance in his virtuoso piano performances before adoring audiences, yet longed for a life of religious contemplation. He fathered numerous illegitimate offspring but ended up taking minor orders in the Catholic Church with the right to the title Abbé Liszt. He witnessed first-hand the cultural and musical transformation of Europe but unfortunately never wrote his memoirs, being
"too busy living it."
 Most of Liszt’s compositions underwent numerous revisions and transformations over many years before reaching their final form. Les préludes started life in 1848 as the introduction to a choral work, The Four Elements (The North Winds, The Waves, The Stars, The Earth) ultimately reaching the form we know today in 1853. The title refers to a poem by the French Romantic poet Alphonse de Lamartine but, according to the composer himself, any relationship to the text of the poem is tenuous at best. The score is preceded by a long preface, added as an afterthought, which begins:
"What is our life but a series of preludes to that unknown song of which death sounds the first and solemn note?" and goes on to describe various events and stages of life. For generation, concert goers and music appreciation students solemnly learned about Liszt’s transformation of transcendental ideas into music, whereas, as Liszt biographer Alan Walker puts it," …The Symphonic Poem (Les préludes)
is not a philosophical meditation but a description of Mediterranean
atmosphere."
It’s not unthinkable, however, to recast Lamartine’s idea in terms of the life and adventures of a theme. The melodies of the work all originate from the opening germ motive on the strings, through a process of thematic transformation, a technique in which a musical theme undergoes many changes in mood, rhythm, key and tempo while retaining its basic shape and identity. Liszt favored this technique for achieving musical unity in a work. The process of transforming motives was certainly not original with Liszt; his is an evolution of the development section of Classical sonata form.
Liszt presents the germ motive in a slow introductory section in which the opening three notes are frequently repeated, as if to establish them solidly in the listeners' ears.
The first grandiose transformation is a sharp contrast in orchestration and mood.
The next statement incorporates the motive into a full-fledged theme, in which it comprises only the first few notes.
In a second broad theme, even though the actual intervals are altered, the relationship between the opening interval of this new theme and the germ motive is discernable.
The following incarnation emphasizes the motive alone in a harmonically unstable section akin to a Classical development.
A quiet passage, featuring the solo horn, clarinet and oboe, represents one of the more distant modifications.
And, of course, the motive is used as an accompanying figure throughout and as a transition between the sections of the piece.
Like a standard sonata form, Les préludes returns to the two principal themes based on the germ motives at the end of the work, but in a completely new, triumphant mood as befits a Lisztian conclusion.
Program notes copyright ©
Elizabeth and Joseph Kahn 2007
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