NATIONAL SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA OF UKRAINE VOLODYMYR SIRENKO, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR AND CONDUCTOR ALEXEI GRYNYUK, PIANO Saturday, March 4, 2017, at 7:30pm Foellinger Great Hall PROGRAM NATIONAL SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA OF UKRAINE Volodymyr Sirenko, artistic director and conductor Theodore Kuchar, conductor laureate Yevhen Stankovych Suite from the ballet The Night Before Christmas (b. 1942) Introduction Oksan and Koval Kozachok Robert Schumann Piano Concerto in A Minor, Op. 54 (1819-1896) Allegro affettuoso; Andante grazioso; Allegro Intermezzo: Andante grazioso Allegro vivace Alexei Grynyuk, piano 20-minute intermission Antonín Dvorák Symphony No. 9 in E Minor, Op. 95, “From the New World” (1841-1904) Adagio Largo Scherzo: Molto vivace Allegro con fuoco The National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine appears by arrangement with: Columbia Artists Management LLC 5 Columbus Circle @ 1790 Broadway New York, NY 10019 www.cami.com 2 THE ACT OF GIVING OF ACT THE THANK YOU TO THE SPONSORS OF THIS PERFORMANCE Krannert Center honors the spirited generosity of these committed sponsors whose support of this performance continues to strengthen the impact of the arts in our community. 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It evokes Born September 19, 1942, in Svaliava, Ukraine the power of the energy and strength of the Suite from the ballet The Night Before Christmas Ukrainian people. —Yehven Stankovych Based on the novel of Nikolai Gogol from the cycle Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka, which was also used for the librettos of operas by ROBERT SCHUMANN Born September 13, 1819, in Leipzig, Germany Tchaikovsky (Cherevichki), Rimsky-Korsakov Died May 20, 1896, in Endenich, Germany (The Night Before Christmas), and M. Lysenko (Christmas Night). Created in 1992, Stankovych’s Piano Concerto in A Minor, Op. 54 ballet demonstrates an emotional freedom and an Central to Schumann’s music is the reflection of artistic and imaginative richness that is inherent in his so-called “split personality,” that is, the free his music. and happy Florestan side and the restrained With extensive experience in the genre of and pensive Eusebius side, so named after the imaginary characters that Schumann created to ballet (other works include Princess Olga and express his life. How much this reflects his own Prometheus), Yevhen Stankovych implemented a new form with clear aesthetic criteria and mental illness resulting in his attempted suicide with his own original concept. Although the in 1854 by a leap into the icy Rhine and his death story “The Night Before Christmas” already two years later in a mental institution, we shall exists in the opera genre, neither Lysenko nor leave to the psychiatrists. What we need to study Rimsky-Korsakov fully developed its theatrical is the glorious result of his compositional efforts and entertainment qualities, wealth of customs, despite, not because of, his sufferings. We might beliefs, and fantasy. Perhaps Yevhen Stankovych note, however, that Schumann was subject to the for the first time in Ukrainian music turned to a well-known conflict of two artists in a marriage, this time somewhat in reverse of Gustav and Alma genre like ballet pasticcio that allowed him to freely operate in different stylistic layers. Mahler or Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath. Robert —Edward Jaworski, Ukrainian musicologist Schumann was aware of being in his wife Clara’s shadow but suffered much from any separation The music tapestry of my ballet [The Night Before from her as she pursued her active pianist career. Christmas] is based fully on Ukrainian folklore and reflects all that is inherent in Gogol’s story. It For the most part, Schumann’s music was written depicts vignettes of people celebrating Christmas in periods of specific musical genres such as and singing carols and New Year songs. It chamber music, songs, or orchestral music. After portrays great human love and fantastic images of a year of songs in 1840, he turned to orchestral evil spirits and celestial bodies. The Introduction music with his Symphony No. 1, Op. 38 of 1845 is a large musical portrait based on the Ukrainian and his Piano Concerto in A Minor, Op. 54, a work folk song “Shchedryk“. “Oksan and Koval” that evolved from his earlier Fantasie in A Minor evokes the eternal theme of love in the broadest for Piano and Orchestra of 1841. Clara Schumann sense. And the final movement, “Kozachok,” is premiered the A Minor piano concerto in Leipzig 5 on January 1, 1846, with the work’s dedicatee, ANTONÍN DVORÁK Ferdinand Hiller, as conductor. This would remain Born September 8, 1841, in Nelahozeves, Robert Schumann’s only fully realized piano Czech Republic concerto, although he wrote two other works Died May 1, 1904, in Prague, Czech Republic for piano and orchestra—the Introduction and Symphony No. 9 in E Minor, Op. 95, Allegro Appassionata in G Major, Op. 92 and the “From the New World“ Introduction and Allegro Concertante in D Minor, Op. 134. At the invitation in June 1891 of Jeanette Thurber, the founder of the National Conservatory in New In the first movement of the A Minor concerto, York, Antonín Dvorák took leave of his position at brilliant opening chords arrest our attention the Prague Conservatory and came to New York followed by the beautiful lyricism—for both piano City the following year in order to serve as the and orchestra—that so marks the concerto. In this Director of the National Conservatory. Dvorák fully developed movement, repeated themes are was enticed to leave his homeland with the offer traded back and forth between various orchestra of a salary nearly 25 times that which he was members and the pianist that artfully tie the work being paid at the Prague Conservatory as well as together. Rippling arpeggios and expressive solo a yearly four-month vacation and the opportunity moments from the pianist entrance us before a to conduct the conservatory orchestra for 10 return to the opening power of the movement. concerts each year. The composer was to hold this position for the next three years. During The second movement Intermezzo brings the this time, Dvorák composed some of his most proverbial moment of relief with its graciousness, successful works, notably the “New World“ charm, and lyricism. Piano and horn calls then Symphony, Op. 95, the String Quartet in F Major, usher us into the thrilling final movement with its Op. 96, and the Concerto in B Minor for Cello and great show of Romantic virtuosic display within Orchestra, Op. 104. the boundaries of Classical order. No one is cheated in this concerto. Dvorák wrote his Symphony in E minor, Op. 95 in 1893; it was subtitled “From the New World.“ If you would like a little Hollywood in your In explaining this subtitle, the composer stated Schumann, look up the 1947 film,Song of Love. that it signified “Impressions and Greetings from Robert Walker plays an unconvincing Brahms, but the New World.“ While various American musical Katharine Hepburn is an effective Clara, and Paul influences are in evidence in the Ninth Symphony, Henreid a most moving Robert Schumann. Arthur it remains, nonetheless, fundamentally Czech Rubenstein recorded the soundtrack. music. Dvorák himself attested to this fact as he © 2017 Lucy Miller Murray stated, “The influence of American music can be felt by anyone who has a nose;“ yet in his own estimation, the symphony remained “genuine Bohemian music.“ Dvorák listened to Black spirituals and Native American music with much interest, and regarding American influences in this symphony the composer stated in an interview in the New 6 York Herald when the work was about to be often moved him to tears. On one of these performed for the first time: days I suggested that he write a symphony embodying his experiences and feelings in . I found that the music of the Negroes America—a suggestion which he promptly and of the Indians was practically identical. I adopted. therefore studied a certain number of Indian melodies that a friend gave me, and became It was also Mrs. Thurber who suggested that, thoroughly imbued with their characteristics— in the interest of pushing a nationalist element with their spirit in fact. It is this spirit which I in developing the American “school“ of music, have tried to reproduce in my new symphony. I Dvorák compose an opera on The Song of have simply written original themes embodying Hiawatha; for this purpose she provided the the peculiarities of the Indian music, and using composer with a libretto, which ultimately proved these themes as subjects, have developed to be inadequate, and the project never really them with all the resources of modern rhythm, took off. harmony, counterpoint and orchestral color. Dvorák’s Ninth Symphony opens with an Adagio He also stated in the article that the second introduction wherein the violas, cellos, and horns movement was: foreshadow the first part of the main theme of the Allegro molto.