SAN DIEGO SYMPHONY a JACOBS MASTERWORKS CONCERT December 2, 3, and 4, 2011 VIVALDI the FOUR SEASONS Concerto in E Major, RV
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SAN DIEGO SYMPHONY A JACOBS MASTERWORKS CONCERT December 2, 3, and 4, 2011 VIVALDI THE FOUR SEASONS Concerto in E Major, RV 269: Spring Allegro Largo Allegro Concerto in G minor, RV 315: Summer Allegro non molto; Allegro Adagio; Presto; Adagio Presto Concerto in F Major, RV 293: Fall Allegro Adagio molto Allegro Concerto in F minor, RV 297: Winter Allegro non molto Largo Allegro GLASS Violin Concerto No. 2: The American Four Seasons Movement I Song No. 1 Movement II Song No. 2 Movement III Song No. 3 Movement IV INTERMISSION GLAZUNOV The Seasons, Opus 67 Summer Autumn The Four Seasons ANTONIO VIVALDI Born March 4, 1678, Venice Died July 26/27, 1741, Vienna Is Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons concerto suite the most popular work in the whole classical literature? The evidence seems to suggest this–over ninety recordings are currently available. Only Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos, Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, and Ravel’s Bolero approach that number. Yet sixty years ago, hardly anyone had heard of The Four Seasons. It was a recording of this music that led to the revival of interest in baroque music after World War II, and today new recordings appear all the time. A mark of its popularity is that–in addition to the violin version–the current catalog lists arrangements for flute, recorder, trombone, brass quintet, guitar trio, electronic synthesizer, and koto ensemble. The Four Seasons are the first four concertos in the set of twelve Vivaldi published in 1725 as his Opus 8, which he nicknamed Il cimiento dell’ armonia e dell’ inventione (“The Battle between Harmony and Invention”). Each of the four is a small tone poem depicting events of its respective season, and in the published score Vivaldi printed the four anonymous sonnets his music was intended to depict (the poems may have been written after the music was composed, however). The Four Seasons are thus one of the earliest examples of program music, but audiences should not expect the kind of detailed musical depiction of a composer like Richard Strauss. Strauss, who once said that his highest aim was to write fork music that could never be mistaken for a spoon, was a master at painting scenes with an orchestra. Vivaldi’s music, written nearly two centuries earlier, can seem a little innocent by comparison: his fast movements tend to depict storms, the slow movements shepherds falling asleep. But this music is so infectious and appealing, the many little touches so charming, that The Four Seasons seem to have an air of eternal freshness about them. Certainly these four concertos continue to win new friends for baroque music every day. Each of the four is in the standard form of Vivaldi’s concertos–the first movement opens with a ritornello, or refrain, that will recur throughout the movement; between its appearances, the soloist breaks free with florid, virtuoso music of his own. The slow movement is usually a melodic interlude, while the finale–dynamic and extroverted–is sometimes cast in dance forms. Spring marches in joyfully with a buoyant ritornello, and soon the solo violin brings trilling birdsongs and the murmur of brooks and breezes. Thunder and lightning break out, but the birds return to sing after the storm. In the slow movement a shepherd sleeps peacefully while his dog keeps watch; the dog’s quiet “Woof! Woof!” is heard throughout in the violas. Nymphs and shepherds dance through the final movement, which shows some relation to the gigue. But the movement is no wild bacchanal, and Spring concludes with this most grave and dignified dance. At the beginning of Summer the world limps weakly under a blast of sunlight–the ritornello is halting and exhausted. Soon the solo violin plays songs of different birds–cuckoo, dove, and goldfinch–and later the melancholy music of a shepherd boy, weeping at the prospect of a storm. The Adagio depicts more of his fears: buzzing mosquitoes and flies (quiet dotted rhythms) which alternate with blasts of thunder. The concluding Presto brings the storm. A rush of sixteenth-notes echoes the thunder, and lightning rushes downward in quick flashes. The jaunty opening of Fall depicts a peasants’ dance, and the solo violin picks up the same music. Soon the violin is sliding and staggering across all four strings–the peasants have gotten drunk and are collapsing and falling asleep; the Adagio molto, an exceptionally beautiful slow movement, shows their “sweet slumber.” The final movement opens with the sound of the orchestra mimicking hunting horns. Vivaldi’s portrait of the hunt is quite graphic–the violin’s rushing triplets depict the fleeing game that finally collapses and dies from exhaustion. The beginning of Winter is one of the most effective moments in The Four Seasons: quick turns in the orchestra “shiver” with the cold, and later vigorous “stamping” marks the effort to keep warm. In the wonderful Largo, a graceful, melodic violin line sings of the contented who sit inside before a warm fire while outside raindrops (pizzicato strings) fall steadily. In the concluding Allegro, the solo violin shows those trying desperately to walk over ice. The ice shatters and breaks and strong winds blow, but Vivaldi’s music concludes with a sort of fierce joy–this is weather that, however rough, brings pleasure. Violin Concerto No. 2: The American Four Seasons PHILIP GLASS Born January 31, 1937, Baltimore Philip Glass’ Violin Concerto No. 2, subtitled The American Four Seasons, was co- commissioned by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Aspen Music Festival and School, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts at University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana and Carlsen Center at Johnson County Community College in Overland Park, Kansas. The first performance was given by violinist Robert McDuffie on December 9, 2009, with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra conducted by Peter Oundjian. The concerto’s publisher, Dunvagen Music Publishers, Inc., has made available a program note by the composer: The Violin Concerto No. 2 was composed for Robert McDuffie in the Summer and Autumn of 2009. The work was preceded by several years of occasional exchanges between Bobby and myself. He was interested in music that would serve as a companion piece to the Vivaldi Four Seasons concertos. I agreed to the idea of a four-movement work but at the outset was not sure how that correspondence would work in practice–between the Vivaldi concertos and my own music. However, Bobby encouraged me to start with my composition and we would see in due time how it would relate to the very well known original. When the music was completed I sent it on to Bobby, who seemed to have quickly seen how the movements of my Concerto No. 2 related to the Seasons. Of course, Bobby’s interpretation, though similar to my own, proved to be also somewhat different. This struck me as an opportunity, then, for the listener to make his/her own interpretation. Therefore, there will be no instructions for the audience, no clues as to where Spring, Summer, Winter, and Fall might appear in the new concerto–an interesting, though not worrisome, problem for the listener. After all, if Bobby and I are not in complete agreement, an independent interpretation can be tolerated and even welcomed. (The mathematical possibilities, or permutations, of the puzzle are in the order of 24.) Apart from that, I would only add that, instead of the usual cadenza, I provided a number of solo pieces for Bobby–thinking that they could be played together as separate concert music when abstracted from the whole work. They appear in the concerto as a “prelude” to the first movement and three “songs” that precede each of the following three movements. -Program note by Philip Glass; the program note for The American Four Seasons is used by permission of Dunvagen Music Publishers and Orange Mountain Music. The Seasons, Opus 67: “Summer” and “Autumn” ALEXANDER GLAZUNOV Born August 10, 1865, St. Petersburg Died March 21, 1936, Paris The cycle of the seasons has proven an attractive subject for composers, and not just for the composers on the first half of this concert. Haydn used that natural cycle as the subject for his oratorio The Seasons, Tchaikovsky wrote a set of piano pieces titled The Seasons, and– surprisingly–John Cage wrote a ballet score for Merce Cunningham called The Seasons. One of the most substantial treatments of this subject came in 1899 when Alexander Glazunov composed a score with the same title for the Imperial Ballet in St. Petersburg. The first production took place on February 20, 1900, at the Imperial Theatre of the Hermitage in St. Petersburg. The choreographer on that occasion was the legendary Marius Petipa, who had designed the choreography for Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker, and for the revival that established the greatness of Swan Lake after its initial failure. There is no real plot to Glazunov’s The Seasons, which has been described as “an allegorical ballet”: it is in four parts, one for each season, and the forty-minute score is performed without pauses between the seasons. Beginning with winter, the four seasons pass in review, with dances characteristic of each season. This concert offers the final two sequences of The Seasons: Summer and Autumn. Summer opens with a great blaze of sunlight and summer heat, and the opening dance, called the Waltz of the Cornflowers and Poppies. Naiads enter bringing water, and this section comes to its climax as the Spirit of Corn dances triumphantly. The music proceeds without pause into the concluding Autumn, which offers a sort of review and conclusion to the ballet.