oininuniiv coiicm Associimon detents ARTUR RUBINSTEIN

PROGRAM

Toccata, C major ...... Bach-Busoni Prelude—Adagio—' Prelude, and Fugue ..... Cesar Franck

II. Prelude, A minor | ...... Debussy Ondine

Petrouchha...... Stravinsky (Dedicated to and written for Mr. Rubinstein) Russian Dance In Petrouchka’s Room Russian Fair (played without pause)

INTERMISSION

III. Scherzo, C sharp Two Polonaise, A flat

Steinway Piano

COMMUNITY CONCERT SERVICE By Courtesy of HUROK ATTRACTIONS, INC. ANNOTATIONS who for his own ends prefers to consider that a puppet has no soul. The action takes place in Petrograd during "Butter Week." The puppets have been endowed by the showman with human feelings and passions. Petrouchka is ugly in form and feature and in consequence, sensitive. He endeavors to console himself for his master s cruelly by exciting the sympathy and winning the love of his fellow-doll, the Ballerina; but I. in this he is less successful than the callous and brutal Moor, the third unit in the trio of puppets. Jealousy between Petrouchka and the Moor is the cause of the tragedy Toccata, C major ..... Johann Sebastian Bach which ends in the pursuit and slaughter of Petrouchka. (1685-1750) The Russian Dance is performed by the three puppets at the bidding of their Though the exact date of its composition is not known, it was prohahly a product task-master. The Showman draws the crowd to his booth, where he displays his three of Bach's Weimar period, 1708-1717. It consists of three movements, prelude, adagio, puppets, Petrouchka, the Ballerina, and the Moor. He puts them in motion, and to the and fugue. In its original form, the elaborately ornamented prelude opens with a astonishment of the onlookers, they dance to the jolly rhythms of a Russian folk tune. bravura passage on the manual. This is followed by a pedal solo of great length and These are no ordinary dolls. They are figures animated with human impulses and brilliance, a passage considered without equal in all organ literature. the frail emotional substance whose laws bring sorrow and tragedy. The plight of Two motives from the pedal solo are transformed into subjects for the subsequent Petrouchka is sad, and his destiny dark. In the second scene he is thrown into his allegro, which forms the principal part of the prelude. This allegro movement, said to dressing room, where he curses his evil fate. Then appears the pretty Ballerina. Her reflect the style of the Italian chamber music, which interested Bach at the Weimar light detached mood falls short of giving the consolation Petrouchka so much desired, Court, is the first of its kind to appear in Bach's organ music, and its affinity with the and her casual departure leaves him in deeper despair than ever. concerto form has been noted. Except for its sustained harmonic accompaniment, it Again the turbulence of the first scene in front of the booth. Out comes Petrouchka closely resembles the slow movement of the Italian Concerto. in a panic. The Moor, sword in hand, is after him, the Ballerina, trying in vain to hold back the pursuer. A rapid chromatic descent tells the end of poor Petrouchka. II. The music of Petrouchka is regarded by many observers as marking the end of an epoch. With the devastating humor of this ballet. Stravinsky made a whole generation laugh at its own musical predilections, and thereby diverted music into new channels. Prelude, Chorale and Fugue ..... Cesar Pranck More than this. Petrouchka is supposed to have voiced the spirit of a new age—the age (1822-1890) of machines and disbelief. Man. in Petrouchka, is reduced to a ridiculously pathetic Franck wrote but two major compositions for piano solo; Prelude. Aria and Finale, little automaton with an empty heart, seeking empty amusement. The gods of the and Prelude, Chorale and Fugue. He was influenced greatly by that greatest of all musical past are dead, and if it is not unanimously conceded that Stravinsky has given musical geniuses, Bach. In the case of this particular work, it is noticed in the form, us something in their place, it is at least evident that he has inspired voluminous, the titles and even the pervading spirit. But Franck's style is completely individualistic comment on his influence upon our generation through the medium of music. and into the mold which he borrowed from Bach he has poured the most intimate, subtle, and at the same time exalted qualities of a religious faith and experience to be in the music for this instrument. III. Two Compositions ...... Claude Debussy (1862-1918) Scherzo, C sharp Debussy did more than bring a new scale and new harmonics to the musical Berceuse Prederic Chopin scheme which prevailed up to his time. He opened up a horizon of illimitable scope and Two Mazurkas (1810-1849) in the words of one writer, "separated the music of the twentieth century from that of the nineteenth, in the same manner as Beethoven (with all due sense of proportion Polonaise, A flat be it said) separated the nineteenth from the eighteenth." There is no denying that in Chopin the culminating point of the art of piano music was reached. From other composers we have noble and inspired contributions Petrouchka...... Igor Stravinsky to the literature of the piano, but in no other do we find such wealth and variety of music for the piano sis an instrument. (1882—) The ballet “Petrouchka" depicts the life of the lower classes in Russia-—with all Scherzo, C-sharp minor: Chopin wrote four Scherzi. One wonders why he chose its dissoluteness, barbarity, misery and tragedy. Petrouchka is the Russian Polichinello. this title, for their mood is anything but playful and humorous. The one in C-sharp The plot owes nothing to folk-lore, but retains the quality of the fantastic. The chief minor is dedicated to Gutmann, a favorite pupil of Chopin’s; in fact the composer died protagonist is a lovelorn doll. The villain is in the person of the focusnik, a showman in his arms. It was ccimposed during Chopin’s stay at Majorca, and is replete with that drama of the soul which characterizes so much of his music. The lovely trio marks a liturgical interlude in the wrathful music that mounts to a fine climax—ending surprisingly in major key. The Berceuse of Chopin is perhaps the most marvelous instance of “filagree” work in music. Chopin, starting with two bars of a simple, rocking figure in the bass, takes a naive little melody of four bars, and with these two little phrases performs miracles, The picture is a dreamy, half-vanishing one of a young mother over the cradle of her child, lulling her to sleep. Two Mazurkas: In point of numbers, the seems to have been Chopin’s favorite form, as he wrote over fifty of them. The mazurka, or masurek, is a popular Polish dance, which Chopin must have seen often in the country. It was in three-four time, and was often accented by a little kick on the second beat of the measure. Chopin brought to the form an infinite variety of expression. So full of nuance and suggestive­ ness were his mazurkas that he himself, it is said, never played them twice alike. Perhaps the most splendid of Chopin’s works is the great Polonaise in A flat major. The title marks it as one of the stately dances of Poland, originating when the nobles paraded before John Sobieski after his victory over the Turks. The Opus 53, also known as the “Heroic Polonaise,” is both impassioned and majestic, with broad sweeps of expressive power.

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