MUSIC

RIMSKY-KORSAKOV/CAPRICCIO ESPAGNOL BARTÓK/THE WOODEN PRINCE RACHMANINOFF/SYMPHONIC DANCES

College of Charleston Sottile Theater May 28 at 7:30pm

Stefan Asbury, conductor Spoleto Festival USA Orchestra

Capriccio espagnol (1887) Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844–1908) I. Alborada II. Variations III. Alborada IV. Scena e canto gitano V. Fandango asturiano

The Wooden Prince (Suite, 1914–16) Béla Bartók (1881–1945) Prelude The Princess The Wood Worksong of the Prince The Stream Dance of the Wooden Prince Epilogue

INTERMISSION

Symphonic Dances (1940) Serge Rachmaninoff (1873–1943) Non Allegro Andante con moto—tempo di valse Lento assai

This performance is made possible in part through funds from the Spoleto Festival USA Endowment, generously supported by BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina. PROGRAM NOTES comparison of how the “same” music can give off a notably different flavor and scent. The second movement meanwhile sets Capriccio espagnol, Op. 34 (Rimsky-Korsakov) the scene at night and lays out five variations on the reflective When Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov started emerging in the second melody first heard in the horns. half of the 19th century, a push by fellow Russian composers Another scene, nearly cinematic in the way it alternates solo was underway to cultivate a distinctly Slavic brand of music. But close-ups and the wide shot of the full ensemble, depicts a “gypsy the principle of mining the riches of folkloric dance and melody song” via five fantasia treatments of the material. These end with encouraged a skill that could be readily transferred to other a full-scale outburst of orchestral sonority that sets the tone for cultures. Thanks to his parallel career in the Russian navy, Rimsky- the dance-oriented last movement. Based on a timeless fandango Korsakov was widely traveled and had in fact passed through theme, the finale also throws backward glances at the Capriccio’s Spain in his youth as a cadet. earlier themes as it whirls towards its finish with thrillingly Written in 1887, Capriccio espagnol was originally envisioned unbridled energy. as a violin concerto (hence the prominent role of violin solos, especially in the fourth movement). As it took shape, the Capriccio Suite from The Wooden Prince, Op. 13 (Bartók) came to include many soloistic passages for other instruments as In 1911 Béla Bartók composed his first (and only) opera, well: the musical term “capriccio” connotes images of virtuosity Bluebeard’s Castle, but its rejection only intensified his alienation and fantasy. from Hungary’s conservative musical establishment. His librettist In addition to the Spanish associations it elicits, the Capriccio, for Bluebeard, the playwright Béla Balázs, was at the time which was an instant success, can be enjoyed as a crash course exploring a potent blend of folk and fairy-tale with symbolism, in the marvelous contrasts and combinations of sound a brilliant and his tale of The Wooden Prince captured Bartók’s imagination. orchestrator can call forth. Cast in five brief movements, With his folk research travels curtailed by the first World War, the Capriccio begins with a lively, fanfarish “morning song” Bartók focused on composing again, this time preparing a (“Alborada”). This music is repeated in the third movement—but “ballet-pantomime” score rather than an opera from Balázs’s not quite verbatim. Rimsky-Korsakov shifts the key up a half step scenario. When it premiered in Budapest in 1917, The Wooden and reallocates his orchestration, which makes for a fascinating Prince marked the composer’s first real breakthrough with the

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public. The score consolidates many of the influences of Bartók’s Much of the movement’s drama is generated from the contrast youthful period while also displaying his early mastery in writing between this opening material and the folk song-like melody that for a large orchestra. emerges as its foil (scored for saxophone). Rachmaninoff stages The one-act narrative relates the quest of a nameless prince the return of the opening theme to marvelous effect: relentlessly, to win the favor of a nameless princess who lives nearby. A local the theme stalks its way back on the scene. The composer’s fairy uses the elements of the natural world to thwart his efforts. fondness for bell-like sounds emerges in a colorful coda. Unable to get close to her, the prince creates a wooden likeness The second movement unfolds as a rueful waltz. Solo instrumental of himself that he hopes will alert the princess to his presence. lines emerge and retreat like a rapidly fragmenting dream. The But she becomes too interested in the substitute when the fairy final movement—the longest of the three—alternates between intervenes and animates it, and she ends up preferring the effigy extreme slow and fast tempos. Rachmaninoff recalls some of to the human original. The tables are turned as the princess tries the spirit of the opening movement, but the music has a more to win the prince, who has become aloof after this rejection. demonic character. The medieval chant known as the Dies irae All ends happily though as the two embrace in a long final kiss. (“Day of wrath”) from the requiem mass for the dead appears in On another level, this seemingly charming story allegorizes various disguised forms as a challenge to the main theme. the challenges of genuine human love versus the immature, The Dies irae had served Rachmaninoff as a recurrent motif in “romantic” emotion and the role of the artist in structuring earlier works.Toward the end of Symphonic Dances, he challenges perceptions of the world. its fatalism with a more hopeful sacred melody taken from his Bartók’s original full ballet score lasts close to an hour. From luminous a cappella choral music written decades ago, before this he later fashioned a shorter concert suite which presents his exile from Russia (the All-Night Vigil). In the end, its consoling several interlinked dances framed by a prelude and a postlude. In presence robs the Dies irae of its sting. general the sound world here recalls the lush orchestral tapestries and nuances of composers who had been Bartók’s early models: ©2013 Thomas May Richard Strauss and the French Impressionist composers. The opening music seems to riff on the strategy Wagner used STEFAN ASBURY’S (conductor) recent to launch his Ring cycle: the sounds of a world emerging from and current highlights include performances mystery and slowly assuming shape. Bartók however blurs the with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, pristine C major backdrop with chromatic harmonies. This music the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, corresponds to the significant role played by nature in the ballet Sinfonieorchester des Bayerischen (in contrast to the “artificial” wooden prince). The princess Rundfunks, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, enters the scene as a capricious character associated with the and the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, among clarinet. Nature is again at the center in Bartók’s swirling scales others. Previous seasons have also included for the forest and the “dance of the trees” set in motion by the engagements with the London Symphony, fairy to impede the prince and his resolute theme. So, too, in Seattle Symphony, Seoul Philharmonic the “dance of the waves,” as the fairy sets the river raging. Here and West Australian Symphony orchestras, the Los Angeles Bartók’s orchestration is especially striking, including a passage Philharmonic, RAI Turin, Dresdner Philharmonie, and the Orchestra for saxophones set against flute triplets. of St Luke’s. Asbury enjoys frequent collaborations with the Basel At its center the ballet revolves around the princess’s dance with Sinfonietta, WDR Sinfonieorchester, hr-Sinfonieorchester, NDR the wooden prince. Bartók’s rhythmic accentuations and brittle Sinfonieorchester and ORF Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien. sonorities are almost like Cubism in sound. The dance reaches Asbury is a regular guest conductor at such festivals as Automne a climax, and then the suite gently concludes with a return to en Normandie, Wien Modern, Wiener Festwochen, Munich and where we started: a reconciliation with the rhythms of nature Venice Biennale, and Salzburger Festspiele. In opera, Stefan heard in the prelude. conducted John Adams’s A Flowering Tree for the 2009 Perth International Arts Festival with other recent productions including Symphonic Dances, Op. 45 (Rachmaninoff) Wolfgang Rihm’s Jakob Lenz for the 2008 Wiener Festwochen, Symphonic Dances is Rachmaninoff’s last major work and was a concert version of Britten’s Owen Wingrave with Tapiola completed in 1940, just three years before his death. From the Sinfonietta, the world premiere of Van Vlijmen’sThyeste at Théâtre start, Rachmaninoff prepared two simultaneous versions of this Royal de La Monnaie, Staud’s Berenice at the Munich Biennale, music: the familiar one for orchestra that we hear on this program, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream in Karlsruhe in December 2010. as well as a suite for two pianos. In this way Symphonic Dances, which is often considered a kind of final artistic testament, also THE SPOLETO FESTIVAL USA ORCHESTRA appears sums up Rachmaninoff’s dual personalities as a composer and as at the Festival in many different configurations, performing in a pianist. opera, symphonic, choral, chamber, and contemporary music During the preliminary stages of composition, Rachmaninoff performances. Formed anew each year through nationwide implied a loose program by naming each of the work’s three auditions, the orchestra is largely comprised of young movements after times of the day (“Noon,” “Twilight,” and professionals or players in advanced degree programs. Alumni of “Midnight”). Though he later abandoned these titles, it’s possible the Spoleto Festival USA Orchestra are on the rosters of leading he conceived this music as a metaphorical series of panels orchestras throughout the world, including the Metropolitan reflecting on different stages of the artist’s life. Events in Europe Opera Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, The Cleveland during the summer of 1940, when Rachmaninoff composed Orchestra, and San Francisco Symphony, among others. the work, may well have triggered a desire to take stock of the direction his career had followed in a violent century, and he weaves quotations from a number of his earlier works into the score. After a brief opening passage, Symphonic Dances hurtles forward Pianos generously provided by Steinway & Sons. with a restlessly driving three-note rhythmic idea as the engine.

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