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Newark
AESTHETICS: a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature, creation and appreciation of beauty. Ah! The notion of beauty is something that has always fascinated me. It is something most of us do not care to analyze too closely. Yet we will admit that we recognize it when it confronts us. In most definitions of beauty, the elements of judgment and taste are mentioned--also a couple of slippery items! There is beauty in nature, our human response to it. But if we can appreciate the emotional uplift of a brilliant sunset, may we also exalt in the fury of a storm of life-threatening dimensions? Perhaps you can, if you are at a safe distance to observe its grandeur. If you are in a boat being helplessly tossed about at sea, wondering whether you will live or die--or worse yet, seasick and wishing you were dead--I doubt that you will contemplate anything glorious.
And then there is beauty in art, the human intention of communicating or sharing in the sublime. But, is all great art BEAUTIFUL? The paintings of Hieronymus Bosch depict tortured souls in eternal damnation, and Edvard Munch's The Scream is a gripping portrayal of overwhelming despair. Well, if the beauty is not in the subject matter, could it be in the power of vision and statement of the artist--its conviction? Could it be that when presented with images of horror or grief, we respond with a kind of yin and yang balancing act and create from within ourselves our own views of redemption and blissful peace of mind as beautiful alternatives?
In any case, it is the vicarious identification with the artist's state of being that contains the true aesthetic experience. The idea that "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" means that one must be postured to receive the content; not that its meaning is questionable! A certain amount of cultural orientation and perspective is needed in order to be moved by the aesthetic lever of Archimedes. The delicate gems of surprise and delight revealed by Japanese haiku will touch no one unless he or she understands Japanese. Once understood, the meaning is not in question.
Is your head swimming yet? Well, happily this convoluted preamble brings us to the point that under certain conditions (i.e., today's music and you, our audience), the perception of beauty should be universal--it abounds!!
During a visit to London in 1829 Mendelssohn was made an honorary member of the Philharmonic Society and was regarded as an Englishman in spirit. He then went on to Scotland, where he met with Sir Walter Scott and took a stormy sea passage to the island of Staffa in the Hebrides. Despite a case of mal de mer, his encounter with the engulfed Fingal's Cave, the dramatic rocky coast and the agitated ocean left him with such intense sensations that he immediately sketched out this concert overture, which could also be called a tone poem. The listener has no difficulty reliving with Mendelssohn the surging waves, dark clouds scudding across the sky, and wind howling through the rigging as the mysterious and legendary cavern comes into sight.
The style of Mendelssohn's music is romantic but not revolutionary. An elegant perfectionist of classical form, he was nevertheless dedicated to the musical expression of feeling and perceptions. Music, he said, can communicate what no words can speak--the inexpressible.
In this evening's program, the unfamiliar Double Concerto is bookended by two beloved masterpieces, yet you will find it in every way an equal work of genius. Bruch crafted the solo lines for the clarinet and viola with such loving care and pleasure in their timbre that its beauty will invite revisiting often in the future.
Today it is hard to understand all that controversy. We can be deeply moved by the music of both Wagner and Brahms, for different reasons, to be sure, but not in opposition to one another. Wagner's strength was music-drama (opera) with its spectacle, effect and emotionalism. The music of Brahms is more difficult to characterize. With the exception of his lieder (art songs) and choral works which embody literary texts, his music is without program or extra-musical message--it is absolute music. Since the vast majority of instrumental classical music falls into this category, the question remains: what makes it great? It is the perception of conviction, both spiritual and intellectual, that resonates unmistakably in Brahms' creations. For example, he was daunted by the nine symphonies of Beethoven as towering monuments of the unattainable. As a consequence, it was not until his 43rd year that he found the confidence to write his first symphony. And ultimately he composed only four to Beethoven's nine. But what what masterpieces they are! A romantic by inclination and classicist by discipline, Brahms brought a view of music and a mode of expression to a final culmination. Like Bach, he marks the ultimate fulfillment of his era. Beautiful!
-- R.P.
Concert themes such as All Russian and All French, or a holiday concert of Christmas Music are a tried and true way of structuring a performance. When we saw that this concert fell on the first day of Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights, then clearly it was the perfect time to present music of Jewish inspiration. This repertoire is emotionally expressive and conveys powerful convictions. It is music that reflects a long history and unique social traditions. Not just for the Jewish community, this is world art and has universal significance and enriches everyone with its diversity and humanity.
Korngold's writing for the voice and the theater was so successful that by 1927 he was the most-performed opera composer in Germany and Austria, excepting only Richard Strauss. His career and creations were a phenomenon ... until the anti-Semitic tide of the Third Reich made it too dangerous for him to remain in Europe. Like many of his Jewish colleagues, he relocated to Los Angeles. There, in order to make a living, he reluctantly embraced composing for films. That he was good at it goes without saying, but his heart was with the international world of opera. By the time he died in 1957, he believed he and his music had been completely forgotten. He was right. Now, after long decades of neglect, there is a reawakening of interest in his music, and those who pursue it will be handsomely rewarded.
Which brings us to Swiss-born composer Ernest Bloch. Deeply troubled by the misery and suffering at the outbreak of World War I, he was especially moved by the Ecclesiastes text and began sketching a work for voice and orchestra. Difficulties of language and translation kept the composition from completion. But after meeting and hearing cellist Alexandre Barjansky, he was inspired to give the solo voice part to the cello. Bloch stated that the cello solution was "vaster and deeper than any spoken language." He went on to say, "the violoncello is the voice of Solomon, the rhapsodist of Ecclesiastes, proclaiming the usefulness in all things, while the orchestra represents the world surrounding him and his experiences of life."
The Italian critic Guido Gatti wrote of Schelomo: "A veritable masterpiece...the entire discourse of the soloist, vocal rather than instrumental, seems like musical expression intimately conjoined with the Talmudic prose."
from Ecclesiastes
Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.
What profit hath man of all his labor
Wherein he laboreth under the sun?
One generation passeth away and another generation cometh;
And the earth abideth forever.
...And there is nothing new under the sun.
Leonard Bernstein exploded into international celebrity in 1943 when at age 24 he replaced the indisposed Bruno Walter on very short notice to conduct a Sunday concert of the New York Philharmonic. In that same year he completed his first symphony, Jeremiah. In resonance with Korngold, all of Bernstein's music is shaped by a clear and sure-handed dramatic impulse. Though not as specifically theatrical as his later work, Jeremiah in its three movements presents a dramatic musical structure based on Jewish liturgical traditions. Bernstein writes: "The first movement (Prophecy) aims to parallel in feeling the intensity of the prophet's pleas with his people; and the scherzo (Profanation) to give a general sense of the destruction and chaos brought on by the corruption with the priesthood and the people. The third movement (Lamentation), being a setting of a poetic text, is naturally a more literary conception. It is the cry of Jeremiah, as he mourns his beloved Jerusalem, ruined, pillaged, and dishonored after his desperate efforts to save it."
from The Lamentations of Jeremiah
Chapter 1, 1-3
How doth the city sit solitary,
That was full of people!
How is she become as a widow!
She that was great among the nations,
And princess among the provinces,
How she is become tributary!
She weepeth sore in the night,
And her tears are on her cheeks;
She hath none to comfort her
Among all her lovers;
All her friends have dealt treacherously with her.
They are become her enemies.
Judah is gone into exile because of affliction,
And because of great servitude;
She dwelleth among the nations,
She findeth no rest.
Chapter 1, 8
Jerusalem hath grievously sinned...
How doth the city sit solitary
...a widow.
Chapter 4, 14-15
They wander as blind men in the streets,
They are polluted with blood,
So that men cannot
Touch their garments.
Depart, ye unclean! they cried unto them,
Depart, depart! touch us not...
Chapter 5, 20-21
Wherefore dost Thou forget us forever,
And forsake us so long time?...
Turn Thou us unto Thee, O Lord...
All her pursuers overtook her
Within the narrow passes.
Please contemplate the image of Jerusalem's Wailing Wall on this program's cover. Shalom.
-- R.P.
Spectacular? Sensational? Good music is good music! What is the need or value of going over the top? Well, in the process of expressing human connections to the universe through music, some compositions seem to shimmer with sonic splendor--a tour de force of vivid color and imagination. A few well-known examples come immediately to mind. Maurice Ravel's stunning orchestration of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition takes the strolling viewer (listener) through a gallery of contrasting images, characters and emotions. The orchestral palette effectively evokes the grotesque, the serene, the fearful and the noble with magnetic charm and profound conviction. Then there is Ottorino Respighi's The Pines of Rome, which conjures up the ancient ghosts of the Roman legions marching over the Appian Way to the sound of antiphonal trumpets and symphonic enchantment. Also consider Richard Strauss' tone poem Till Eulenspiegel, where the legendary folk hero's merry pranks are presented with dramatic audacity and a devilish twinkle in the eye, which requires virtuoso playing from every member of the orchestra.
The connecting link here is the composer's reveling in the infinite potential of the symphony orchestra--thinking outside the box; pushing the envelope; going where no one has gone before!... Ah, excuse me, I get carried away! You get the idea--creativity unbound! This afternoon we have a few selections that will certainly hold your attention.
The opera Schwanda the Bagpiper is Weinberger's greatest masterpiece. When it was first performed at the Czech National Theater in 1927, its success brought him international celebrity. The convoluted plot is taken from a Czech folk tale whose dazzling improbabilities remind one of the Norwegian Peer Gynt and the Pied Piper of Hamelin. In a nutshell, Schwanda's inspired bagpiping releases the Queen from an evil spell. As reward, she offers marriage to Schwanda, and he responds enthusiastically with a kiss! However, he is already married, and when his jealous wife arrives on the scene, he swears to her that if he ever kissed the Queen, may he go directly to hell. Which he does! Now he begins to redeem his soul by refusing to play his bagpipes for the Devil and is eventually released from damnation when the Devil loses at a game of cards! Amused?
By joining two separate orchestral excerpts from the opera, the Polka and Fugue has become a highly popular concert piece. Sophisticated symphonic treatment of a catchy folksy dance tune sets up the statement of a new upbeat theme for the fugue, where every instrument in the orchestra is given a chance to shine. Then toward the conclusion, the polka theme returns simultaneously with the continuing fugue. Brilliant! This piece may have been a direct influence on Benjamin Britten, whose Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra presents a noble hornpipe by Henry Purcell in a series of elaborate variations followed by an original fugue where each instrument is presented in succession. Then at the contrapuntal climax, the Purcell theme majestically combines with the fugue for a spectacular conclusion, and with the same exuberance as in Weinberger's model.
Cécile Chaminade was a French concert pianist of the highest caliber and a prolific composer whose early creations were praised by Bizet. Though many of her compositions are for the piano, she has also written for ballet, opera, oratorio, orchestral suite, and chamber music genres. Her renown was widespread, and she was especially beloved in England.
There is a curious anecdote concerning the origin of her Concertino for Flute. The story relates that Chaminade had fallen deeply in love with an esteemed flautist of the day, even though he had declared that he was about to marry someone else. She composed the Concertino as a gift and a plea and presented it to him on his wedding day. He then went and married the other woman! Oh well, perhaps it was all for the best. After all, Berlioz' union with Henrietta Smithson after his Symphonie Fantastique ended up less than idyllic; in fact the final movement Witches' Sabbath may have been a premonition. In any case, the Concertino is a heartfelt statement that flows from gentle and tender yearnings to flights of virtuoso passions. I wonder whether Chaminade's amour ever played the piece? If so, he surely would have been moved.
Rachmaninov's compositional style would be considered late Romantic. He possessed an extraordinary facility of invention and a highly developed sense of harmony. And his spectacular orchestration demands from each player the same prowess as soloists that he displayed at the piano.
The Symphony No. 3 was first performed in 1936 by the Philadelphia Orchestra led by Leopold Stokowski. Its three movements are unified by a chant-like motto theme that is heard at the very beginning and then recurs throughout the symphony. The first movement alternates between moments of dramatic excitement and a dolce cantabile theme that is the hallmark of Rachmaninov's gift of memorable melody. The second movement is really two movements in one. A celestial Adagio lovingly embraces an inner Scherzo that reflects a Prokofievian angularity and spark. The final movement has the joyous energy of a Russian dance. Later on there is a substantial fugue that seems to form the mating bookend with the Weinberger fugue, giving a larger structure to the concert as a whole. At the juncture of the final return of the main theme, there is a brief quote of the Dies Irae chant for the dead, which is another of Rachmaninov's signatures and reveals his profound sense of loss for his mother Russia.
-- R.P.
The American dream...the land of opportunity; the great melting pot; life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; equality and justice for all; the land of freedom...freedom! Freedom, now there's a thought! Freedom of choice, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom to vote, freedom to bear arms...at what point does the freedom of one individual become license to conflict with that of another? And then, whose freedom is it? I sincerely wish our Founding Fathers had chosen the word "responsibility" instead of "freedom." Perhaps "responsibility" would not have inspired the patriotic spirit needed to overthrow the yoke of oppression. However, when "freedom" is considered constitutionally unbounded, we are bound for trouble. When freedom is abused we risk losing our freedom. (Please consult events of our time!) When freedom is exercised with wisdom and regard for the well-being of others, we become conservators of freedom. Maybe we should accept the fact that the American dream is still a work in progress, and the struggle to live up to our lofty aspirations is the source of that unique vitality that we recognize as being American.
I believe the music being performed this evening offers many facets for reflecting on the above. In addition, it reveals the depths of our values and the extraordinary diversity that keeps the "pot" simmering.
Indeed, it is still just the right music at the right time.
O beautiful for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain, For purple mountain majesties above the fruited plain. America! America! God shed His grace on thee, And crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea.
The composer requests that the following commentary be offered at performances:
William Billings (1746-1800) is a major figure in the history of American music. The works of this dynamic composer capture the spirit of sinewy ruggedness, deep religiosity and patriotic fervor that we associate with the Revolutionary period. Its rustic appeal, even today, is forceful and moving.
These pieces do not constitute a "fantasy" nor "variations" on themes of Billings, but rather a fusion of styles and musical language.
I. Be Glad Then, America
A timpani solo leads to a development in the strings. The main section is declaimed by the trumpets and trombones,
with the timpani eventually leading to a fugal statement that flows into the final climax--all of this resounding with
the exuberance of Billings' own anthem text:
Yea, the Lord will answer And say unto his people -- behold! I will send you corn and wine and oil And you shall be satisfied therewith. Be glad then, America, Shout and rejoice. Fear not O land, Be glad and rejoice. Hallelujah!II. When Jesus Wept
When Jesus wept the falling tear In mercy flowed beyond all bound When Jesus groaned, a trembling fear Seized the guilty world around.III. Chester
Let tyrants shake their iron rods, And slavery clank her galling chains, We fear them not, we trust in God, New England's God forever reigns. The foe comes on with haughty stride, Our troops advance with martial noise, Their vet'rans flee before our youth, And gen'rals yield to beardless boys.
The complete ballet Billy the Kid was commissioned by Ballet Caravan and was first performed with two pianos. Later Copland extracted about two-thirds of the music into a suite and orchestrated it. You may find Copland's own opinions of this music interesting. At the time of the premiere he represented the historic Billy the Kid as "one of the most industrious and generally admired bandits of the Southwest" and portrayed his exploits with relish. Thirty years later he reflected, "I didn't think of the story in a realistic sense. If I had, I never would have touched it as...a proper musical subject." He had thought of Billy as "a legendary character, a young innocent who went wrong, part of the picturesque folklore of the Old West, not the monster he was." How is that for a reflection of responsibility and artistic conviction?
The storybook character of Copland's Billy the Kid is evoked largely through the subtle use of authentic cowboy tunes as raw material. They include: The Old Chisholm Trail; Old Paint; Come Wrangle Yer Bronco; Git Along, Little Dogies; Great Granddad; and The Dying Cowboy. The six sections of the Suite flow from one to the next without pause.
French Romantic composer Saint-Saëns is of course a staple in the programming of ALL American orchestras as the musical public endeavors to experience the rich breadth of world culture. In addition, our exquisitely talented violin soloist, Malwina Sosnowski, is a Swiss citizen with Polish heritage and is studying at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia under full scholarship. She brings her unique international presence to our door, and then she will eventually take our American gifts abroad as she pursues her very promising career. Enjoy!
When Gershwin's friend Bennett arranged the Symphonic Picture in 1943, the intent was not so much a synopsis of the dramatic sequence as a seamless medley of the familiar tunes and moods that characterize the original. You will easily recognize Summertime, I Got Plenty O' Nuttin', Bess You Is My Woman Now, It Ain't Necessarily So, and I'm on My Way. But also included are some of the extraordinary scenes such as Morning on Catfish Row, Street Cries, and Storm Sequence.
So beloved was George Gershwin, composer of Rhapsody in Blue, An American in Paris, numerous Broadway musicals and countless popular songs, that at his death, writer John O'Hara expressed the sentiment of thousands when he wrote, "George Gershwin died on July 11, 1937, but I don't have to believe it if I don't want to."
-- R.P.
Newark