Romantic Journeys Program Notes Symphony No

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Romantic Journeys Program Notes Symphony No. 1 in E minor, Op. 39 Jean Sibelius Born December 8, 1865, in Tavastehus, Finland Died September 20, 1957, in Järvenpää

Jean Sibelius is one of the few composers from Scandinavia to become a musical figure

of worldwide importance. There was a time when serious critics, especially in England

and the United States, described his seven symphonies in terms usually reserved for

those of Beethoven and Brahms, but a later generation instead assigned him a place

with the finest national composers of Europe: Tchaikovsky, Dvorák and Grieg, for

example. He studied in Berlin and Vienna and was published in Leipzig and made

concert tours to the principal cities of Europe and England, where his works were very

popular, quite often. He taught for a while at the New England Conservatory of Music in

Boston and was awarded an honorary degree by Yale.

Like Beethoven and Brahms, Sibelius did not write his Symphony No. 1 until he had

composed quite a bit of other music. He completed the symphony when he was thirty-

four and conducted the first performance in Helsinki in the spring of 1899. In the same

year, he wrote his intensely patriotic tone poem, Finlandia, which became the Finns’

musical banner of revolt against their Russian rulers. The symphony shows some of the

same national interest: Finnish melodic elements struggle against the great strength of

Russian symphonic music. At the same time, the music makes an intense and profound

personal expression. In Sibelius’s later symphonies, the movements often begin with

mere fragments of melodies. In the Symphony No. 1, Sibelius stays close to the great

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European and Russian tradition. His themes are broad melodies, stated clearly and in full, and he develops them with standard symphonic procedure.

When he composed his Symphony No. 1, he was experimenting with a form that was a new means of musical expression for him. He clearly looked backward for models to the symphonies of Tchaikovsky and Borodin, and yet he already was in command of his own personal and distinctive style notable in melodic characteristics, use of harmony and orchestration, particularly in his use of woodwinds. One of Sibelius’s students described the subjective feel of this work in tandem with Symphony No. 2: “It is the first two symphonies which evoke the magic spell of the North with a particular power and intensity. Their monumental style and heroic romanticism, adding new and unknown words to the idiom of the preceding masters, are unique in the history of music.”

Symphony No. 1 begins with a clarinet playing a long, quiet, mysterious introductory theme, Andante ma non troppo, over a light timpani roll. Edward Downes commented about this beginning that it “already reflects one of Sibelius’s most personal characteristics: his love of loneliness.” One notes the multiplicity of melodies, many of great intensity, some exultant and joyful, others nostalgic and infused with pathos. The main portion of the first movement moves at a dramatic Allegro energico, introduced with a yearning melody in the violins. The flutes announce the second subject. The roll of the timpani signals the close of the movement.

The second movement, a lyrical Andante ma non troppo lento, has a very loose three- part A-B-A form. It begins with a distinctively Sibelius-like melancholy theme in the first violins and cellos and then grows in intensity, before becoming more tumultuous. The bassoons, accompanied by other winds, offer a contrasting theme and the horns play a This document was downloaded from RenoPhil.com. Content is owned by Reno Philharmonic Association. Reno Philharmonic Association 925 Riverside Dr. #3, Reno, NV 89503 p 775/ 323-6393 | f 775/ 323-6711 | [email protected] The Reno Philharmonic Association’s mission is to produce inspirational orchestral performances of the highest quality for broad audiences, support exceptional educational and outreach programs, and provide leadership in the performing arts community.

third subject. The movement closes with a reprise of the mournful melody of the

opening.

The third movement is a boisterous Scherzo, Allegro, built on a rhythmic fragment announced by the timpani. The second theme is more charming, and the trio has a gentler horn theme. The movement has a smooth and subdued contrasting middle section, and then, in closing, it returns to the energetic beginning material.

The finale, Quasi una fantasia, begins with the clarinet theme that opened the

symphony. The main part of the movement, Allegro molto, has a woodwind first theme

and a broad second theme that the violins and cellos first announce. This second

subject, one of Sibelius’s best known broad melodies, is the only exception to this

movement’s agitated, turbulent, passionate character, and it comes to a melancholy

sounding end, as the initial movement did, with a drum roll and two soft pizzicato string

chords after the climax.

The Symphony No. 1 is scored for two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons,

four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drum, cymbals,

triangle, harp and strings.

Piano Concerto No. 1, in B-Flat minor, Op. 23 Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky Born May 7, 1840, in Votkinsk Died November 6, 1893, in St. Petersburg

Nicholas Rubinstein, the Director of the Conservatory in Moscow, became the young

Tchaikovsky’s mentor when the composer began teaching there. Tchaikovsky was

usually eager for Rubinstein’s advice on his works-in-progress, but when Tchaikovsky

played him his Piano Concerto No. 1, Rubinstein was surprisingly negative and This document was downloaded from RenoPhil.com. Content is owned by Reno Philharmonic Association. Reno Philharmonic Association 925 Riverside Dr. #3, Reno, NV 89503 p 775/ 323-6393 | f 775/ 323-6711 | [email protected] The Reno Philharmonic Association’s mission is to produce inspirational orchestral performances of the highest quality for broad audiences, support exceptional educational and outreach programs, and provide leadership in the performing arts community.

presented his opinion in harsh terms. Three years later, Tchaikovsky could still narrate

them vividly in a letter to a friend, (here abridged):

A torrent then poured from his mouth, gentle at first, then bursting out with the force of a thundering Jupiter. My Concerto was worthless, unplayable; the passagework fragmented and clumsy beyond salvation; the music trivial and vulgar; stolen, in places, from others. Perhaps one or two pages were salvageable; the rest was to be thrown away or completely rewritten. An impartial witness would have concluded that I was an untalented idiot, a hack who had submitted his rubbish to a great man. “I shall not change a single note,” I answered. “I shall publish it just as it is,” and I did. The bold complexity of the concerto initially shocked Rubinstein, but he eventually

admitted his error and began to play the work as part of his repertory. Before that, with

determination and resilience, Tchaikovsky sent his new concerto to the brilliant German

pianist and conductor, Hans von Bülow, who gave the world premiere in Boston on

October 25, 1875. “Think what appetite for music the Americans have,” Tchaikovsky

wrote to Rimsky-Korsakov. “After each performance, Bülow had to repeat the entire

finale. That could never happen here.” When Tchaikovsky went to New York in 1891

for the opening of Carnegie Hall, he conducted a performance of the concerto at one of

the gala inaugural concerts.

This concerto is now so familiar that listeners often overlook its several interesting

features. The first of these is the broadly paced opening section, Allegro non troppo e

molto maestoso, which is not an introductory flourish. The movement is a protracted

and brilliant discussion between piano and orchestra. Each theme becomes so

thoroughly developed that Tchaikovsky never recapitulates it. The composer adapted

the principal theme of the Allegro con spirito section of the first movement from a

beggar’s street song. In 1879, he wrote to his benefactress Mme. von Meck, “It is

curious that in Little Russia every blind beggar sings exactly the same tune with the This document was downloaded from RenoPhil.com. Content is owned by Reno Philharmonic Association. Reno Philharmonic Association 925 Riverside Dr. #3, Reno, NV 89503 p 775/ 323-6393 | f 775/ 323-6711 | [email protected] The Reno Philharmonic Association’s mission is to produce inspirational orchestral performances of the highest quality for broad audiences, support exceptional educational and outreach programs, and provide leadership in the performing arts community. same refrain. I have used part of it in my Piano Concerto.” The second movement,

Andantino semplice and Prestissimo, combines a slow movement and the scherzo, whose waltzing theme Tchaikovsky derived from a French popular song. The finale,

Allegro con fuoco, contrasts lyrical and boisterous Slavic elements, before arriving at its imposing close.

The score calls for an orchestra of two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, trumpets, three trombones, timpani and strings.