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Home , Mikhail Glinka, Modest Mussorgsky

PROGRAM NOTES by Paul Schiavo

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The emergence of an extremely vital school of composition in Russia was one of the most important musical developments of the . Taking their cue from , sometimes referred to as “the father of Russian music,” a small but influential group composers sought to create a self-consciously nationalist style, one distinct from Western European traditions. To that end, they favored tone poems over or concertos, and a particularly colorful kind of .

While the work of the nationalist school — whose members included , Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and — was in many ways the most conspicuous event in the flowering of Russian music, it was not the only one. Somewhat in contrast and to it was the work of certain composers, most notably Piotr Tchaikovsky, who were more sympathetic to the larger currents of 19th-century in music.

The traits that generally characterize the nationalist and Romantic schools of Russian composition do not constitute firm distinctions, however. Tchaikovsky sometimes wrote tone poems and was not adverse to colorful instrumentation when it suited his purposes, while lines and harmonies typical of the Romantics often found their way into the music of the nationalist school. The achievements of both camps are on display in the compositions that form the program of this concert. Works by Glinka and Rimsky-Korsakov, especially the latter’s Scheherazade, epitomize the vibrant-hued and picturesque style of the nationalist school. Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto addresses a compositional genre whose broad outlines were well established by Beethoven, Mendelssohn and other composers, but fills that familiar vessel with music in a distinctly Russian vein.

MIKHAIL GLINKA Summer Night in Madrid (Spanish No. 2) BORN: June 1, 1804, in Novospasskoye, Russia DIED: February 15, 1857, in WORK COMPOSED: 1848–51 WORLD PREMIERE: Unknown

All of the important Russian composers of the 19th century worked to establish a national musical ethos. Ironically, a number of them were drawn to Mediterranean lands and culture, and celebrated these in their work. Tchaikovsky visited Italy repeatedly and used tunes he heard there in composing his , for . Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov served in the Russian navy aboard a ship that visited half a dozen countries, including Spain. He later wrote what he called his “Spanish fantasy,” the colorful Capriccio espagnol. And Mikhail Glinka, Russia’s first significant composer, attained a more intimate knowledge of Iberian culture, living there and studying Spanish folk music for two years. His sojourn produced two “Spanish ,” as Glinka called them: Jota Arogonesa and Summer Night in Madrid.

Glinka began the latter composition, which opens our concert, in 1848, while still living in Spain, but completed it three years later, by which time he was residing in Warsaw. The work is essentially a potpourri of Spanish melodies inventively harmonized, varied and extended, and brilliantly orchestrated.

WHAT TO LISTEN FOR: Glinka’s musical recollection of a warm night in the Spanish capital begins with a poetic introductory passage. The first of the succession of melodies that follows is a lilting tune introduced against the clicking of castanets, which flamenco dancers still use to accompany their own performances. At other times Glinka employs cymbals, snare drums, figures that imitate the strumming of guitars, and pizzicato (the string players plucking their instruments instead of bowing them) to impart Spanish color. Lively of Spanish dances animate the piece.

Scored for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 , 4 horns, 2 trumpets, trombone, timpani, percussion and strings.

© 2016 Paul Schiavo