Concerto for Cello and Orchestra, Op. 85

Edward Elgar (1857-1934)

Adagio – Moderato

Allegro molto

Adagio

Allegro ma non troppo

The renaissance of English music in the twentieth-century began at its turn with the revelation of Elgar’s ‘Enigma’ Variations, a work soon taken up by the greatest conductors of the time and of all nationalities. In the two following decades, Elgar composed oratorios, symphonies and concertos but only at the end of this period, in the last of his large scale works, this Cello Concerto, did he create another which also earned its place, if more gradually, as a well-loved item in the permanent international repertoire. It was, effectively, Elgar’s swansong. Composed in 1919, it was first played by Felix Salmond at the Queen’s Hall, London, with Elgar conducting, on October 26 of the year.

Although cast in four main sections, in contrast to the three movement of the earlier Violin Concerto, the Cello Concerto is a leaner and more concise score. Here, Elgar, self-taught but wise in orchestral experience, successfully projects the solo cello line in clear relief against an orchestral background of unusual refinement and stripped of all inessentials.

The Concerto begins with a brief recitative-like introduction by the solo cello, leading into the first subject of the first movement proper, a Moderato in nine-eight time. Announced by the violas, it moves like a winding path in autumnal moods. It passes to the solo cello and then to an orchestral tutti before this opening section is rounded off by its return to the solo instrument. Clarinet and bassoons then introduce a second them, which, counterpointed by the solo cello, the violins continue. This then, in Tovey’s well-chosen word, blossoms into the major mode, before reverting to the minor and leading to a recapitulation of the opening section of the movement.

Cello recitative, anticipations of the succeeding scherzo, and a brief cadenza lead into the common-time Allegro molto, a kind of nimble moto perpetuo in E minor, with a contrasted second idea beginning in the remoteness of E Flat major. The music soon reverts to E minor and the initial idea, with the second theme reappearing in G major before the swiftly scurrying coda.

The slow movement unfolds like a prayer, led by the solo cello. I B flat major and three-eight time, it comes to rest on the dominant (F major). This leads into B flat minor for a false start to the finale, an introduction soon swerving into E minor for  another noble recitative and brief cadenza. They lead to the resolute announcement of the main subject of the final Allegro, ma non troppo (E minor, two-four time) by the solo cello to an off-beat accompaniment. An orchestral tutti leads to a more wayward second idea. Resourceful development, in which the initial them recurs rondo-like and engenders a powerful climax, is followed by a chromatic episode, (Poco piu lento, common-time) of deep poignancy. It subsides into a recall of the second phrase of the slow movement, and a final glance at the opening recitative of the Concerto. After which, the main subject supplies a brisk and brusque coda.

With hindsight, it is possible to read into the stately sorrow of the Cello Concerto, and particularly its penultimate episode, Elgar’s farewell to a former world, the more prosperous and leisurely Edwardian era he knew before the first world war. With the death of Lady Elgar in 1920, Elgar lost his creative mainspring, so that the Cello Concerto was indeed a valediction: certainly, he wrote little of real consequence after it.

Programme Note c Felix Aprahamian, 1983

ALBERT WILLIAM KETTLEBEY: IN THE PERSIAN MARKET

Albert William Kettlebey



In a Persian Market was composed by an English composer, Albert William Kettlebey who was born in 1880 and studied music at Trinity College of Music in London.

His imagination on the oriental atmospheric scene was clearly described in this master piece.

This piece begins with a theme, very soft and gradually getting louder, describes about a market place in Persia, in which people and camel caravan are entering, including those beggars lamenting. Another sweet theme signifies the scene of a princess amid her servants passing through the market, while jugglers are playing tricks and a snake charmer blowing his pipe in accompanying the dancing snake. The sweet theme is heard again as the princess and the caravan are leaving the place. The music is gradually fading away and finally the noisy market scene becomes the empty and isolated place.

QUIET CITY

Aron Copland (1900-1990)

On april 16, 1939, Irwin Shaw’s Quiet City opened in New York City at the Group Theatre. Thanks to Harold Clurman, the director, it had incidental music by his friend Aron Copland. The play, according to Copland, was “a realistic fantasy concerning the night thoughts of many different kinds of people in a great city.” It centered on a lonely Jewish boy, David Mellnikoff, who expressed his sorrow and isolation on his jazz trumpet and whose playing, says the composer, “helped to arouse the conscience of his fellow players and of the audience.” Using only clarinet, saxophone, trumpet and piano, the music aimed at expressing “the emotions of the characters, the nostalgia and inner distress of a society profoundly aware of its own insecurity.”

In 1940, at the urging of friends. Copland composed the concert piece Quiet City, for trumpet, English horn and string orchestra. This score, he told the annotator recently, is based entirely on the thematic materials of the music to the play” :

There wasn’t much continuous music with the play, just short sections, so that the orchestral piece bears little resemblance to the incidental music, which I never published.

The idea of contrasting trumpet with English horn was a travaille, a “find,” giving, I think, a certain freshness and variety of instrumental color. A practical reason for the English horn was to let the trumpeter have a breathing space, so that he wasn’t made to play continuously.

There are not many quiet trumpet-solo works in the repertory, and I doubt whether there are many English horn solo-pieces of any sort. Quiet City is challenging music for the soloists, with a comparatively straight forward orchestral accompaniment.

Copland’s atmospheric Quiet City is brooding and elegiac, with declamatory trumpet and English horn prominent against the commentary of the strings. (British critic Wilfrid Mellers has described the trumpet solo as “both Negroid in its blue notes and Jewish in its incantatory repetitions.”) In the final climax, the strings play an integral part. Copland views Quiet City as “a rather unusual showpiece for the two sololists—unusual because one seldom hears trumpet and English horn in roles as contrasting instruments in a soloistic yet quiet setting.”

Quiet City was given its premiere in New York, on January 28, 1941, by the Saisenberg Little Symphony Orchestra conducted by Daniel Sardenberg.

Phillip Ramey

Franz Liszt : Les Préludes (Symphonic Poem No.3)

Franz Liszt (1811-1886)

Franz Liszt was the son of a disappointed musician who served as land steward to the noble Esterházy family of Hungary. After he showed prodigious talent as a pianist at the age of nine, a group of Hungarian counts subscribed a six-years’ annuity to the boy’s family for him to study in Vienna. Liszt started giving successful piano recitals at the age of 12, became a salon idol as a young man, and later won recognition throughout Europe as the first of the great piano virtuosos. After the age of 40, however, he stopped playing publicly except on rare special occasions, and concentrated on conducting and composing. As a composer, Liszt is best known for his two piano concertos, some nineteen Hungarian Rhapsodies for piano, of which six exist in orchestral versions as well, and a dozen symphonic poems ( the third of which will be performed tonight).

Les Préludes (Symphonic Poem No.3) is the best known and most popular of Liszt’s symphonic poems. It is a colorful, dramatic work expressing Romantic musical ideas, but with an unexplicit “program” that permits the listener great freedom in interpreting the meaning. Originally written in 1848 as a prelude to a choral work. The Four Elements, it was revised several times in succeeding years, until it reached its final form in 1854 as an independent orchestral work.

Although Liszt used some of the thematic material of The Four Elements, he related the final version to the poem Les Préludes from Lamartine’s Méditations Poétiques (Poetic Meditations): …what is our life but a series of preludes to that unknown song whose first solemn note is sounded only by death? “Liszt depicts man’s struggle for existence through various interconnected episodes: first, love (“The enchanted Daybreak”), then the harshness of the real world (“Storms Whose Killing Breath Dispel Lovely Illusion”), a pastoral interlude (“A Pleasant Rest Amidst Nature’s Moods”), a call to battle (“The Trumpets’ Loud Clangor… The Post of Danger…”) and finally, self-recognition. Shop here

Bolero

Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)

Although raised in Paris, Maurice Ravel made much of his partly Basque ancestry and the influence of Spanish music on his development. At 14 he entered the Paris Conservatory, where he was greatly influenced by Erik Satie. With a series of works, Ravel became, next to Debussy, the most popular French composer in the years just before World War I. In 1928, Ravel’s Bolero, written for the dancer Ida Rubinstein, quickly became one of the most popular orchestral scores of the era; six different recordings appeared within a year, it was played frequently on radio, and its title was used for a 1932 Hollywood movie. Audiences of our generation might remember this piece of music from the Movie ‘Ten’

Ravel conceived the work as a technical exercise in a gradual, steadily building crescendo, repeating one rhythmic melody by passing it continuously from solo instruments to instruments in groups and then, finally, to the full orchestra. He insisted it was a simple work, not a virtuosic one. He also took issue with those conductors (including Toscanini) who played it faster than the fifteen-minute duration specified by him in the score.

Pietro Mascagni: Intermezzo From "Cavalleria Rusticana"

Pietro Mascagni (1863-1945)

Today, Mascagni's reputation rests entirely with one short opera called Cavalleria Rusticana. The opera is usually considered to be the first verismo opera and was written by Mascagni for a competition organized by the first verismo opera and was written by Mascagni for a competition organized by the music publishers Sonzogno. It won first prize and was soon popular on both sides of the Atlantic. The plot is based on a story by Verga, and as a play it was popularized by the great actress Eleanora Duse. Musically it contains moments of great passion, with some quieter moments of great beauty.

Cavalleria Rusticana tells of love brtrayed and a jealousy that leads to a duel and death in a Sicillian village. Its famous, intensely felt intermezzo is played between this one-act opera's two scenes.

George Enescu: Romanian Rhapsody in D Major, Op.11 No.2

George Enescu (1881-1955)

Born at Cordaremi, Romania in 1881, George Enescu was educated musically for the most part in Austria and France. In the latter country he studied with Gabrie Fauré (composition) and Martin Marsick (violin) at the Paris Conservatory. Enescu once admitted that most of the creative work by Romanians had been done in the early part of this century. The music is not influenced by the neighboring Slav, but by the Indain and Egyptian folk songs, introduced by the members of those remote races, now classed as gypsies, brought to Romania as servants of the Roman conquerors. However, Enescu’s music is considered to be his own, with traces of French and German influences but of a sensuous character that reflected personal esthetics rather than national moods.

Enescu composed two Romanian Rhapsodies and himself conducted the world premieres of his two Rhapsodies at one of Pablo Casals’ concerts in the Salle Gaveau, Paris, on February 7, 1908. The second Romanian Rhapsody opens with a slow subject which, although it is not the principal theme, is given considerable employment in the course of the work. The first subject is announced by the strings and twice repeated, each time more fully scored. Soon a melody is played by the English horn, while the strings play a tremolo near the bridge of their instruments. This idea is worked over and is followed by a return to the first theme fortissimo, this leading to the closing section, the theme of which is played by a solo viola.

Tchaikovsky: Capriccio Italien, Opus 45

Peter Ilyitch Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)



The decorative arts of 19th-century Russia abounded in glowing jewels, gleaming enamels and radiant cathedral colors. Under the Romanov czars, music especially reflected this love of the richly hued, and compositions drenched in wondrous sound were produced by one Russian after another.

But, surrounded as he was by manmade beauty, the upper-class Russian of the time was forced to escape from the bleak landscapes of his homeland by journeying to the colorful lands in the south of Europe. In Italy and Spain, especially, he could bask in the warmth of the sun, revel in the dazzle of the sky, and exult in the vivacity of the Latin temperament-all the while refreshing and revitalizing his normally wintry spirits.

Two especially well-traveled Russians of the late 19th century were Nikolai Rimsky Korsakov and Peter Ilyitch Tchaikovsky. Both were thoroughly at home in the world outside the confines of Russia-Rimsky-Korsakov through naval service, Tchaikovsky through his extensive concert tours-and both were highly receptive to the exotic sights and sounds of foreign lands. Rimsky-Korsakov’s enthusiastic description of a visit to Rio de Janeiro in 1863 is typical of his affection for things Latin : “The water in the bay was green-blue by day and phosphorescent at night, the shore and mountains a gorgeous green…The market was filled with endless quantities of oranges and wonderful bananas, as well as monkeys and parrots. The New World, the Southern hemisphere, a tropical winter in June!” Then one can almost hear him sigh as the composer wrote: “Everything was different—not the same as with us in Russia.”

Although the called himself “Russian in the fullest sense of the word, “Tchaikovsky was not regarded as such by his strongly nationalistic fellow musicians. Because of his extensive conservatory training and the “western” influence they felt in his work, the Russian Five (Balakirev, Borodin, Cui, Mussorgsky and Rimsky-Korsanov) generally considered Tchaikovsky to be outside the mainstream of the all-Russian music movement.

Tchaikovsky was however, “Russian in the fullest sense” in his appreciation of folk music of his own country and of those he visited. While touring Italy during 1880, he settled for three months in Rome, taking up residence near the barracks of the Royal Cuirassiers. Here his ear was caught by lively Italian street songs and the music of the military ceremonies nearby. During this period he also delved into volumes of folk music in search of material to use in what he called “an Italian fantasy.” To his patroness, Mme von Meck, he wrote: “Thanks to the charming themes, some of which come from collections and some of which I have heard in the streets, this work will be effective.”

Tchaikovsky possessed a remarkable talent for instrumentation, instinctively scoring his works to obtain a maximum variety of color and the widest possible range of total effects. His Capriccio Italien, vibrant with the raw colors of its Italian song and dance rhythms, is one of his most popular works and shows the composer’s complete mastery of orchestration. Its music passes vigorously from the opening trumpet call (echoes of the Cuirassiers) through a slightly melancholy phrase to a climax of power and brilliance reminiscent of the popular Italian dance, the Tarantella. Listen to samples

RHAPSODY ON A THEME OF PAGANINI, OPUS 43

Sergey Rachmaninov
(1873-1943)



The Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, composed in 1934, is one of Rachmaninov’s most popular works. The clear shape of the theme, from Paganini’s vilolin Caprice in A minor, heip Rachmaninov to control procedures which elsewhere had often become rather ramblingly improvisatory. The result is a taut structure in which the variations on the theme can roughly be divided into three sections, as Geoffery Norris and other writers have pointed out variations 1-10 (for the most part quick); 11-18 (predominantly slow); and 19-24 (lively throughout). These sections coincide loosely with the three movements of a concerto. The basic outline of the theme in the first variation precedes the theme itself. Rachmaninov has perceived that it bears a resemblance to the Dies Irae, which dominates variations 7-10 and plays an important role later as well. The florid variation 11, with its cadenza-like passages, effects a modulation from the key hitherto largely employed. A minor to D minor for the next two variations, then to F major and, in variation 18 (the culmination of the middle section), to D flat major for one of the most delectably lyrical of all Rachmaninov’s melodies, ingeniously based on a free inversion of Paganini’s theme. From variation 19 (again in A minor) the rhythmic impetus and tempo gradually increase until the final, twenty-fourth variation, in which the Dies Irae is portentously restated in the course of a dramatic peroration, capped by a whimsically soft snippet of the theme.

It is because this series of variations is constructed with such exquisite care, and encapsulates such a wide variety of moods and of moods and of melodies cleverly derived from Paganini’s original, that it is generally considered to be Rachmaninov’s greatest concerted work. And it is no mean feat to have matched the achievement of earlier composers who wrote variations on the same theme, most notably Brahms.

Romeo and Juliet (Orchestral Suites) Opus 64

Sergey Prokofiev (1891 - 1953)

Although a period of almost twenty years separates this compositions. Prokofiev’s Classical Symphony and his ballet Romeo and Juliet are strikingly close in musical language. In both, the composer successfully combines the formal mannerisms and especially the dance gestures of an earlier age with the most characteristic features of his own style – a wealth of melodic invention, strong rhythmic drive, vivid contrasts in pace and orchestration and above all, a sure sense of the dramatic. Not only is much of the music of the ballet reminiscent of the earlier work (the music of the lovers’ farewell in Act III of the Symphony’s slow movement, for example), but Prokofiev further acknowledged their musical ties by quotation: the Gavotte from the Classical Symphony reappears, in an extended and elaborated form, to accompany the guests’ departure from the Capulets’ ball. The Symphony, finished in September 1917, was almost the last work written before Prokofiev left his homeland for the United States in the wake of the Russian Revolution. Romeo and Juliet was one of the first works he composed on his return; most of the score was sketched out in the summer of 1935 at the rest-home of the Boishoi Theatre near Tarusa on the river Oka, south-west of Moscow. From its first performance in Revolutionary Petrograd on 21 April 1918, the Symphony immediately became the popular “classic” the composer hoped it might. The ballet, however, had its first performance outside Russia, in Brno, on 30 December 1938; it was only after four years of wrangling, which involved the revision of, first the plot, then the music, through the incorporation of several entirely new dance-numbers and the reinforcement of much of the original orchestration, that it was presented in Leningrad, and thereafter became an international success. It was largely because the ballet at first failed to reach the stage that Prokofiev arranged excerpts for concert performance. He extracted no less than three orchestral suites from the scene two, each of seven movements, in 1936, and third of six movements (given the separate opus number 101) in 1946-along with a set of ten piano pieces opus 75 in 1937. The numbers were selected on purely musical considerations; each of the suites presents a succession of contrasts between dance and character sketches, intimate genre pieces.

Sir George Solti’s compilation of numbers from the ballet has quite a different and arguably more interesting basis. For the most part it traces the intimate love story at the heart of Shakespeare’s and Prokofiev’s tragedy, largely avoiding direct reference to the Montague/Capulet feud or the subsidiary characters in the drama. It effectively retains the continuity of the most moving sections of the ballet score the opening street scene in which the character of Romeo is introduced, the youthful beauty and innocence of Juliet in the midst of the ball, the musically ecstatic balcony scene, the rhythmically terse duels between Mercutio and Tybalt, Tybalt and Romeo, and Juliet’s death.

ADAGIO FOR STRINGS

Samuel Barber (1910 - )




A suave style combined with elegant workmanship has made Barber one of the major voices in American music. For a long time he was regarded as a conservative composer, because he was more concerned with expressing his inmost feelings unashamedly than with embarking on new forms and novel experiments. But later compositions reveal an increasing independence of style and thought, together with the necessity to utilize the fullest resources of modern writing. The outstanding trait of his major works is a capacity to project subtle moods and atmospheres. His is a deeply poetic temperament reflected in everything he has written.

Written in 1937, and introduced at a concert of the NBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Arturo Toscanini, on November 5, 1938, the Adagio for Strings is built out of a single theme (heard at the beginning of the piece in the violins). A poetic mood is sustained throughout the work. Sibelius, who saw the manuscript, remarked: “I am glad to say that I consider this music excellent…(It is)…good art, and especially do I like its simplicity.

SYMPHONY NO.29 IN A MAJOR, K.201

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)



I. Allegro moderato
II. Adante
III. Menuetto
IV. Allegro con spirito

The piece was completed in Salzburg in April of 1774.
The character of this symphony is created by two main factors; the adoption of chamber music style orchestration consisting of two oboes, two horns and a string ensemble, and the use of A major in which Mozart often wrote fluent melodies.

The subtle second movement is the most beautiful and elegant passage, but we also appreciate the noble taste of the minuet in the third movement. The last movement revives the characteristics of the first movement in a more lighthearted and lively way, leading to the dramatic climax. With its excellent overall composition, the piece is one of the best works of Mozart from his early days.

In “Symphony No.29 in A major,” Mozart frequently incorporate bright and happy melodies and harmonies reminiscent of Italian music, which he tactfully mixes with the Austrian style. He also attempts a fusion between symphony and chamber music styles, to open up new possibilities.

Serenade For Strings In C Major, Op.48

Pyotr Ill'ych Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)

I. Pezzo in forma di sonatina

II. Waltz

III. Elegia

IV. Tema Russo

The formal title is "Serenade for String Ensemble."

This type of Music was in fashion during the heyday of the classical music, with Mozart as the typical example. Tchaikovsky wrote this serenade probably out of admiration with the same intention as that with which he wrote "Mozartiano" several years after.

Around 1880 when he wrote this serenade, he made puplic a series of orchestral suites which reflected his form of inclination toward the baroque or classical music. "Serenade for String in C major, Op.48" also shows the influence of this music and the composer himself confessed that he originally intended to call this piece a suite.

In his letter to Mrs Von Meck dated in September, 1880, Tchaikovsky wrote that he had not decided whether to write a symphony or a string quarter and then admitted that he had not yet the ability to write a symphony. So, he chose the middle road and wrote a string ensemble.

In a letter in October, he said that, although the piece was written based on his inner impulse, its artistic value had not been lost. "Serenade for Strings in C major, Op.48" is a crystalization of his pursuit of genuine formal beauty using strings alone, and of the balanced beauty of the classical music. In order words, this piece typically shows the West European taste of Tchaikovsky, who is often said to have belonged to the European school.

Bailero From Chants D'Auvergne

Marie-Joseb Canteloube studied music composition at Schola Cantorum in Paris and wrote symphonic poems, operas, chamber music and even some books before his death in 1957.

Particularly famous among his works are arrangements of traditional French folk songs which he collected by travelling across the country and gave them music scores. Folk songs from his native place, Auvergne, are very popular.

One typical example is "Bailero" which is the second song in the first volume of "Chants d' Auvergne," ("Song of a Shephard.") It is often included in the repertoire of French singers.

The piece in B-flat major and in simple quadruple time, with the designation "idyllic and meditative,"starts with a prelude on the wood winds, followed by a dialogue between a shephard and a maiden.

Maiden : "Mr.Shephard, is there much fun there across the river? Lerolero, bailero lo."
Shephard : "Not much. How about over there? Lero, bailero lo.
Maiden : "Beautiful flowers are in full bloom here. Why not come here, crossing the river?
Lerolero, bailero lo."
Shephard : "Why don't you come over here, with cozy grass in the meadow? Lero, bailero lo."

THAIS MEDITATION - JULES MASSENET

The piece comes from Massenet's masterpiece, the opera "Thais" base on Anatole France's novel of the same title. The opera was first played at the Paris Opera Theater in 1894. The story is set in the in the early first century, on the River Nile. A priest approaches Thais, a dancer of the night world of Alexandria, with the goal of talking her into repentance and leading her to a life of faith. Ironically, however, his own faith is replaced by love for Thais, just as she is becoming inclined to accept religion.

"Meditation" is played by a solo violin with harp accompaniment between the first and second acts. It portrays the change in Thais' heart, from wanting to seduce the priest, at the end of the second scene of the first act, to wanting to begin a religious life. It is effectively played at the opening of the second act when Thais visits the priest to tell him of her decision. The piece is often played independently as a violin solo.

MOZART : EXSULTATE, JUBILATE, O VOS ANIMAE BEATAE K.165

In 1773 Mozart was staying in Milan to play his opera titled "Lucio Silla" in which used a male soprano singer (of the type called castrato, frequently used in operas and oratorios during the baroque period.) Thia piece is a motet for the male soprano.

A motet is a vocal form with lyrics which originated and developed in Medieval Europe, as both secular and clerical music.

Although Mozart uses religious verses in Latin for this motet, the whole inpression is that of operatic glamour, and its 3 - movement composition in quick-slow-quick tempo reminds us of a vocal baroque concert.