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PROGRAM NOTES: & BESS

World Premiere: August 20, 1882 The 5,000 bells of Moscow’s steeples — whose Most Recent HSO Performance: July 4, 2014 thunderous combined tintinnabulation was Instrumentation: 2 flutes, 1 piccolo, 2 , said to make conversation impossible — were English horn, 2 clarients, 2 , 4 horns, to chime in at the work’s climax. There is no 2 cornets, 2 , 3 , , record, however, that this grandiose performance , triangle, tambourine, side drum, ever happened. Seemingly never having heard , , bells, cannon, SATB chorus, the work, Tchaikovsky wrote to the conductor and strings: violin I, violin I, viola, violoncello, Eduard Nápravník in 1881, “Last winter, at double bass Nikolai Rubinstein’s request, I composed a Festival Duration: 16’ Overture for the concerts of the exhibition, entitled 1812. Could you possibly arrange to PETER ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY have this played? It is not of great value, and I (Born May 7, 1840 in Votkinsk, Russia; shall not be at all surprised or hurt if you consider died November 6, 1893 in St. Petersburg) the style of the unsuitable to a symphony concert.” Nápravník gave the apparent premiere 1812, Overture Solennelle, on August 20, 1882 in Moscow. The Overture represents the conflict — Op. 49 (1880) militarily and musically — of Russia and France, and the eventual Russian “victory” over The Russian penchant for myth-making the invaders. It opens with a dark, brooding extends, of course, to her warfare. It is therefore setting of the Russian hymn God, Preserve Thy not surprising that Napoleon’s strategic People for violas and cellos. The full is withdrawal from Moscow in 1812 came to be gradually collected up as the section progresses regarded in Russia as a great military victory to make a splendid climax. The French forces achieved through cunning and resourcefulness, appear to the sound of thumping drums and conveniently ignoring the French General the martial strains of the Marseillaise. The battle Ney’s report that “general famine and general is joined with ingenious orchestral interplay, winter, rather than Russian bullets, conquered through which are heard fragments of the French the Grand Army.” marching song. Two Slavic melodies ensue. One Nearly seventy years later, the Cathedral of Tchaikovsky rescued from his first , The Christ the Redeemer was erected in Moscow Voyevoda; the other is a Novgorod folksong that to commemorate the events of 1812. For the he first set for duet in 1868-1869 as one Cathedral’s consecration, Nikolai Rubinstein, of his Fifty Russian Folk Songs. The sequence head of the Moscow Conservatory and director of battle–opera theme–folk song is reiterated. of the Russian Musical Society, planned a Following a huge rallentando (slowing-down) celebratory festival of music, and in 1880 he asked passage that occupies three full pages in the score, Tchaikovsky to write a work for the occasion. the opening hymn returns in a grand setting for Tchaikovsky was never enthusiastic about wind and brass choir reinforced with bells. The composing to commission. On October 10th, Marseillaise reappears, but is vanquished by the however, he wrote to Mme. von Meck, “Nothing artillery fusillade and the triumphant rendition is more unpleasant to me than the manufacturing of the Russian national hymn, God, Save the of music for such occasions…. But — I have not Czar, by trombones, horns and low strings. the courage to refuse [Rubinstein’s proposal].” (It is a curious historical footnote that neither The original plans for the work included a the French nor Russian melodies Tchaikovsky grand outdoor performance in Kremlin Square used in this Overture could have been heard by a large orchestra augmented by brass band, in 1812. The Russian hymn was composed by bells and cannon. The cannon shots were notated Alexis Lvov in 1833, and the revolutionary French precisely in the score, and were to be triggered by electrical relay from the conductor’s desk. anthem was banned when Napoleon proclaimed The traditional Japanese koto is a zither- later, DuBose Heyward, a poet and writer from Jolson told Heyward that he wanted to play himself emperor in 1804.) The 1812 is one of like instrument with a long, slender wooden Charleston, , published a novel Porgy in in a musical version created music’s most invigorating experiences — it never body across which thirteen strings in various titled Porgy loosely based on a local character for him by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein fails to rouse the spirits and stir the blood. pentatonic tunings are stretched on a series of called “Goat Sammy,” a cripple who got II. Kern and Hammerstein were soon engaged bridges. The sound is made by plucking the about town in a goat cart. Goat Sammy was on other projects, however, and Jolson’s plan strings with a plectrum in the right hand while known to many as a beggar on the city’s streets, fell through. Finally, on October 26, 1933, World Premiere: 1985 altering the pitches by sliding the left hand along but Heyward was struck by a news article in 1924 seven years after he had first proposed the idea Most Recent HSO Performance: This is the them. American koto master Elizabeth Falconer, reporting that the man had been arrested on a to Heyward, Gershwin signed a contract with HSO’s premiere performance of this work. a student of the Sawai Koto Academy, wrote charge of aggravated assault in a crime of passion. the Guild to compose the music for an Instrumentation: Solo Koto, 1 flute, 1 , that Sawai’s compositions, which often take Heyward thought it extraordinary that “the object opera based on . 1 , 1 , 3 horns, timpani, Porgy their inspiration from the natural world of flora, of public charity by day, had a private life of his Heyward had already been working for some 2 percussion, & strings: violin I, violin I, fauna, wind and water, are “dramatic and intense, own by night. It was a tempestuous life, and in time on ideas for the of . viola, violoncello, double bass yet with an element of lightness intertwined, it were the seeds of human struggle that make (The expanded title was used to distinguish Duration: 10’ leaving the listener spiritually refreshed.” Sawai for drama.” Porgy became a best-seller. Gershwin the opera from the stage play.) From his home TADAO SAWAI himself wrote of Tori Mo Yoni (1985, “Flying read the book in September 1926, and he was so in Charleston, where he preferred to write, he (Born December 16, 1937 in Aichi Prefecture, Like a Bird ”), “How would it feel, to fly free in excited by its potential for the musical stage that started sending scenes to Gershwin in New Japan; died April 1, 1997 in Tokyo) the sky, as a bird flies? Humans have invented he immediately dashed off a letter to Heyward York in November 1933. Gershwin, however, airplanes, but we are not free to feel the clouds suggesting that they collaborate on turning it who had just committed to do a grueling Tori No Yoni (“Flying Like a Bird ”) as we pass through them.” into an opera. The writer responded eagerly and 28-day/28-concert/28-city tour in January and positively to Gershwin’s suggestion, but told February celebrating the tenth anniversary of for Koto and Orchestra (1985) World Premiere: October 10, 1935 him that he and his wife, Dorothy, were just the premiere of his , had little Most Recent HSO Performance: October 17, 2008 then working the novel into a play, and that any time for composition just then, and he told Tadao Sawai, Japan’s preeminent 20th- operatic adaptation would have to wait until their Heyward he could not begin serious work until century koto composer and performer, was born Instrumentation: 2 flutes, piccolo, 2 oboes, English horn, 2 , , drama had been staged. A delay was inevitable on February, though he did sketch the melody for in 1937 into a family of musicians in Aichi Gershwin’s side anyway because he was just then Summertime during a visit with friends in Prefecture, 200 miles west of Tokyo on the main 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, , , reaching the pinnacle of his success as a Broadway Palm Beach in December. Heyward invited the island of Honshu. He began studying koto at and concert composer, and the demand for his composer to come to Charleston after the tour, age ten, was performing publicly within a year woodblock, cymbals, triangle, , suspended , bass drum, piano, celeste, music and shows was continuous — Oh, Kay!, but Gershwin had contracted to do a twice- and composing soon thereafter, and graduated both versions of Strike Up the Band, , weekly radio broadcast, and the composer from the Traditional Music Department of banjo, SATB chorus, solo voice, solo bass- voice, & strings: violin I, , , , and convinced the librettist to visit him in New Tokyo University of Fine Arts in 1959; he , as well as the Piano Preludes, York in April instead. Heyward worked with received the “Annual Best Hope for the Future violin I, viola, violoncello, double bass Duration: 40’ , the and George and his brother, Ira, who had agreed to of Contemporary Music” award from Japan’s the all appeared within the next help with the lyrics, for about a month before national broadcasting system that same year. five years. The Heywards’ Porgy was produced returning home. Sawai performed across Japan and in Europe by the in 1927, and became one When his radio series finished in June, and North America throughout his career, (Born September 26, 1898 in Brooklyn; died July 11, 1937 in Hollywood) of the dramatic hits of the Broadway season. Gershwin was at last able to travel to Charleston organized international koto festivals, recorded In March 1932, Gershwin wrote to Heyward to see the people and scenes which were the prolifically, composed nearly a hundred works Arranged by (Born June 15, 1894 in Kansas City, Kansas; expressing his interest in reviving the plans subjects of Porgy and Bess. He rented a ramshackle for his instrument, and in 1974 established the for a Porgy opera. Heyward, who hoped that cottage on , a small barrier island ten Sawai Koto Academy, which now has branches died August 18, 1981 in ) (1934-1935, arranged in 1956) a collaboration with America’s most popular miles from Charleston, and was joined a few days throughout Japan and in Australia and Hawaii, composer would afford some relief from the later by the Heywards. Gershwin was thoroughly and fosters the study of the instrument on financial difficulties he was experiencing in immersed in the project by that time, and university campuses in the United States and Porgy and Bess : A Concert in Songs those early Depression years, was eager to move DuBose later wrote, “James Island with its large Asia. Tadao Sawai was widely regarded at the for Soprano, Baritone and Chorus ahead with the project, but he was disappointed population of Gullah Negroes lay adjacent, and time of his death, in 1997, as the person who to learn that Gershwin could not begin work furnished us with … an inexhaustible source of had revitalized one of Japan’s most characteristic The Rhapsody in Blue of 1924 marked George until at least January of the next year. A further folk material. But the most interesting discovery musical treasures. Gershwin’s debut as a serious composer. A year difficulty arose in September 1932 when Al to me, as we sat listening to their spirituals, or watched a group shuffling before a cabin or Boat Dat’s Leavin’ Soon for New York and a half- Bess gone. Undaunted, he sets off in his goat Washington, D.C. were desegregated both on country store, was that to George it was more dozen others — immediately became standards cart to follow her (Oh, Lawd, I’m On My Way). the stage and in the audience for the first time like a homecoming than an exploration.” At a of the pop repertory, and maintained the show’s Gershwin’s music drama about the crippled in the histories of those cities. Gershwin, who local prayer meeting, Gershwin was fascinated reputation until 1942, when a new Broadway Negro, Porgy, and his determined love for Bess spent an entire summer in a Negro community by an energetic kind of unaccompanied vocal production had a longer run than had any other is among the most popular and widely performed near Charleston collecting material and ideas music known as “shouting,” which Heyward revival to that time. An American of all American . “This, Gershwin’s last for his work, would have been proud to know described as being based on “a complicated toured with the show throughout Western and serious work,” wrote David Ewen, “possesses that Porgy and Bess was the cause for such a rhythmic pattern beaten out by feet and Eastern Europe, the Near East, Mexico and that richness, vitality and variety of melody, that significant step in our national life. hands … indubitably an African survival.” South America continuously from 1952 to 1956; vigor of rhythm, that spontaneity and freshness In 1941, , Music Director of the Gershwin joined the “shout” and “stole the in February 1955, the troupe appeared at La we associate with Gershwin’s best music. Of all Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, requested that show from their champion ‘shouter,’” much to Scala in Milan, making Porgy and Bess the first Gershwin’s serious works, it is the only one to Robert Russell Bennett, the dean of American the amusement of the congregation. Though opera by a native American composer heard in reveal compassion, humanity and a profound Broadway arrangers, prepare an orchestral the visit was important for establishing the that hallowed auditorium. In 1975, Gershwin’s dramatic instinct. Its roots are in the soil of synopsis of Porgy and Bess. Bennett’s A Symphonic venue and some aspects of the opera’s musical original score, with its and cuts the Negro people, whom it interprets with Picture became the most popular orchestral style, Gershwin, occupied in that vacation completely restored, was given in a concert humor, tragedy, penetrating characterizations, version of the music from Gershwin’s opera, season with swimming, sunning and socializing, performance and recorded by and dramatic power and sympathy.” Beside its and in 1956 he expanded his arrangement as actually got little work done on Folly Island. the ; this complete version musical significance, Porgy and Bess also occupies “A Concert in Songs” to include soprano and Gershwin returned to New York on July 22nd, was staged a year later by the Houston Grand an important place in the social evolution baritone soloists and chorus performing many and he worked for the next year on Porgy — Opera Company, taken on tour and brought of our land — its premieres in Charleston, of the score’s most memorable selections. the orchestration, entirely his own, was not successfully to New York. In 1985, a full half- South Carolina, where the story is set, and ©2014 Dr. Richard E. Rodda completed until September 2, 1935, just four century after it was premiered, Porgy and Bess weeks before the opening in Boston. The Theatre was finally given the ultimate establishment Guild had begun preparations for the premiere imprimatur when it was first staged at the by late 1934, when , who House. directed the stage version of Porgy, was engaged Porgy and Bess is set in the 1930s in Catfish as producer and , a voice teacher Row, a Negro tenement in Charleston. The curtain at Howard University in Washington, D.C., rises on Clara singing a lullaby (Summertime) to accepted the title role. , a 20-year- her child. Crown quarrels with Robbins during old student at Juilliard, was cast as Bess, Warren a crap game, kills him and escapes. Robbins is Coleman as Crown and John W. Bubbles as mourned by his wife, Serena (My Man’s Gone Sportin’ Life. Porgy and Bess was a great critical Now). Crown’s girl, Bess, finds refuge with the and public success in its out-of-town cripple, Porgy, who loves her devotedly. They at Boston’s Colonial Theatre beginning on sing of their happiness (I Got Plenty o’ Nuttin’ and September 30, 1935, but its running length of Bess, You Is My Woman Now). During a three hours and the difficulty of Porgy’s part on Kittiwah Island, Sportin’ Life, the local dope necessitated extensive cuts and reworkings. peddler, describes his cynical attitude toward By the New York premiere on October 10th, religion (It Ain’t Necessarily So). Crown, who has tremendous expectation had accumulated been hiding on the island, confronts Bess and around Gershwin’s adventurous work (the major persuades her to stay with him. Having fallen dailies sent both their drama and music critics sick, she returns to Porgy, who nurses her back to the Alvin Theatre that evening), but, despite to health. They reassure each other of their love an enthusiastic reception from the audience, the (I Loves You, Porgy). During a storm, Crown reviews were mixed. Ticket sales declined, and returns to Catfish Row. Porgy strangles his Porgy and Bess closed in New York after just rival. The police suspect Porgy, and arrest him. 124 performances. However, its great songs — Sportin’ Life tempts Bess to accompany him to Summertime; It Ain’t Necessarily So; I Got Plenty New York with a package of his “happy dust.” o’ Nothing; Bess, You Is My Woman Now; There’s a Released from jail a few days later, Porgy finds