Richmond Symphony Orchestra the Grand Tour, March 16, 2019 NOTES on the MUSIC by Dr

Richmond Symphony Orchestra The Grand Tour, March 16, 2019 NOTES ON THE MUSIC by Dr. Robert M. Johnstone

Prelude to Act I of “Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg” Richard Wagner born in Leipzig, Germany, in 1813; died in Venice, Italy, in 1883 Premiere: Munich, June 21, 1868 Instrumentation: piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons; 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba; timpani, percussion, harp; strings Duration: 10 minutes

The great Polish pianist and patriot Paderewski described Die Meistersinger as “the greatest work of genius ever achieved by any artist in any field of human endeavor.” A debatable point---even among the staunchest of Wagnerians---but it is nonetheless a work of genius. Wagner’s only “comic” opera, its creation was to occupy a span of twenty-two years, from its inception in 1845 to its completion on October 24, 1867. Meistersinger was conceived as a humorous companion to his early success, Tannhäuser, yet comic writing did not come easily to Wagner; or perhaps it was just that other, more profound ideas intervened---Lohengrin, the Ring cycle, Tristan und Isolde---to push Meistersinger aside. He returned to it, in part, as a diversion from a sea of troubles, both musical and personal, that plagued him in the early 1860s. A story has it that one of his great loves, Mathilda Wesendonck, prompted him to return to Meistersinger in order to show his critics that he could smile in the teeth of adversity. He certainly seized the chance in his new opera to skewer some of his most implacable enemies, among them the critic Eduard Hanslick, who is deliciously dissected as the villainous rascal, “Beckmesser.” Meistersinger is not only Wagner’s sole comic opera, it is the only one to deal with ordinary historical figures. Wagner had become fascinated with the career of one Hans Sachs (1494-1576), a German poet-cobbler in the small German city of Nüremberg, noted for its architectural beauty and its many craft and art guilds. One such was a group of amateur folk minstrels known as the “master singers.” Wagner steeped himself in the culture and manners of this medieval age. By the winter of 1861 he had completed a libretto. Then his money ran out. He was forced to move from expensive (then as now) Paris to the Rhineland and finally to Switzerland where, thanks to the sudden largesse of the “Mad” King Ludwig II of Bavaria, he finished the opera. Die Meistersinger’s story centers around a song competition to be held at Nüremberg. The contestant with the “best” song will win the hand in marriage of Eva, the daughter of the goldsmith, a prize of inestimable worth. A passing knight, Walther von Stolzing, has fallen in love with Eva and seeks to enter the contest. Together the two confide their love to Hans Sachs who, although he too is in love with Eva, agrees to help them. Charmed by Walther’s song, Sachs writes it down, only to have it stolen by Beckmesser, the evil town clerk who is also a contestant. At the song competition, Beckmesser is made to look a fool as he attempts to pass the song off as his own. Walther wins the contest and Sachs hangs around his neck the collar of the guild of master singers. Eva weds Walther as the townspeople hail their “beloved Hans Sachs!” In the justly famous Prelude to Act I---arguably the most popular of all of Wagner’s orchestral music--- the composer weaves together a number of the themes from each setting in the opera, including the noble tune associated with the master singers, the “Banner” motif that represents the guild insignia of David strumming upon his harp, Walther’s “Prize Song,” and the music that evokes the romance between Eva and Walther. As Wagner put it, “the melodies of the master singers give rise to a love song---pedantry and poetry are reconciled.” The Richmond Symphony has performed this Prelude four times earlier: under Manfred Blum in 1960, 1969, and 1975, and under guest conductor Paul Gambill in 1997.

1 Dessin No. 1 Kathryn Salfelder born in Paterson, New Jersey, in 1987 Premiere: Boston, October 31, 2009 Instrumentation: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons; 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba; strings Duration: 9 minutes

A native of New Jersey, Kathryn Salfelder has made her base in and around Boston. She earned bachelor’s and doctora; degrees in music from the New England Conservatory and, in between, a master’s from the Yale School of Music. Her teachers have included Michael Gandolfi, Aaron Jay Kernis, and David Lang. She presently teaches at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. An award-winning composer (among them the 2012 ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award), she has been actively composing for over a decade, much of her music for chamber groups and wind ensembles. Her orchestral works include Lux Perpetua (2011) for soprano, saxophone, and orchestra, a Requiem for chorus, organ, and strings (2017) and Dessin No. 1 (2008). She seems to enjoy writing for unusual combinations of instruments; among her works are pieces for trombone quartet, saxophone quartet and, intriguingly, an arrangement of a Palestrina piece for 6 trumpets and 6 trombones. Dessin No. 1 was inspired by the novel, Le Petit Prince (“The Little Prince”) by Antoine de St. Exupéry, a popular children’s favorite. The music, writes Salfelder, “is the incarnation of the quote, ‘One only sees with the heart. The essential is invisible to the eyes.’” The French word “dessin” means “drawing,” and the reference is to the opening chapter of The Little Prince, in which six-year old St. Exupéry draws his first piece of art: an elephant inside a snake. “Every adult,” writes Salfelder, “misinterprets it, dismissing it as only a hat. Only the prince, with his innocent creativity, intuition, and perception, is able to correctly identify the image, imagining it in his mind’s eye.” Dessin No. 1 was premiered by the New England Philharmonic in Boston. The composer writes that it “is a single unit, an organic whole, one extended phrase derived from the opening violin solo.” It bears a haunting quality, with long lines for solo woodwinds and brass, The central section features a three=note descending motif that appears in varied combinations of instruments. The music doesn’t so much conclude as it expires into silence. This is the first music of Kathryn Salfelder to be performed by the Richmond Symphony Orchestra.

Three Dances from “The Bartered Bride” Bedrich Smetana born in Litomysl, Bohemia, in 1824; died in Prague in 1884 Premiere: Prague, May 30, 1866 Instrumentation: piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons; 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones; timpani, percussion; strings Duration: 12 minutes

In 1848 a series of revolutions broke out across Europe, mostly in search of more liberal and nationalistic governments. The young Czech composer, Bedrich Smetana, was 24 years old at the time. Swept up in the nationalist fervor of his native Bohemia, Smetana began to lace his music with references to the culture of his homeland. This enthusiasm was focused, as it often is, by time spent abroad, in his case in Sweden where he had found work as a conductor. Upon his return to Prague his nationalism was stoked by the opening of a Czech national theatre, for which he began to compose operas on Czech themes. The second of these was to prove his most popular, the comic opera, The Bartered Bride. A literal translation from the Czech offers the rather callous reading, “The Fiancée Who Was Sold,” but the opera’s early translation into German, as Die verkaufte Braut, led to its more euphonious English title. Some years later Smetana explained that the opera was composed not so much out of a yearning for a Czech nation state as from “a scornful defiance” of those who “accused me…of being a Wagnerite, one that could do nothing in a light and popular style.” This also implied, as one disdainfu critic put it, that Czechs were “simply reproductive artists” with no originality or inspiration for creativity.

2 One clear source of the opera’s popularity was its embrace of Bohemian peasant traditions, both in the story line (which is simple to the point of being simplistic) and also in its pointed use of Czech folk dances, especially in the interludes between scenes. Three of these have become staples of the concert hall, played together as “Three Dances.” The first is a staple of central European culture, a “polka,” that appears in Act I, scene 5. Said by legend to have been invented by a Bohemian serving maid, it was considered by Smetana to be the Czech “national” dance form. The second dance, from Act II, scene 1, is a “furiant” which, as the name would imply, is a fast-paced, frenetic peasant dance. The set concludes with “the Dance of the Comedians” from scene 2 of the Third Act. The RSO played the Three Dances from “The Bartered Bride” in 1976, with Manfred Blum conducting.

A Somerset Rhapsody Gustav Holst born in Cheltenham, England, in 1874; died in London in 1934 Premiere: London, June 4, 1910 Instrumentation: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons; 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba; timpani, percussion; strings Duration: 10 minutes

Born in the market town of Cheltenham in the Cotswolds, the young Holst bore the name “Gustavus Theodor von Holst” before softening its Teutonic associations at the dawn of the Great War in 1914. A student of Sir Charles Stanford, his best friend was Ralph Vaughan Williams who stimulated in Holst a love of English folk music. He also developed a passion for Eastern mysticism, his study of Sanskrit influencing his early music. Yet despite a considerable talent (and perhaps because of his eagerness to experiment with new trends) he found it difficult to make a living solely as a composer. Instead he earned his bread as a schoolmaster, serving for many years at St. Paul’s Girls’ School in Hammersmith, west London. Holst today is best known for his monumental tone poem to the astrological heavens, The Planets (for many, indeed, it is his only work they can recall). That work was to earn him fame and wide acclaim. But it is untypical of his music. Indeed, its popularity became a source of embarrassment to this self-effacing man who cared not a fig for fame or fortune. “Every artist should pray not to be a success,” he wrote. “If nobody likes your work, you have to go on just for the sake of the work, and you are in no danger of letting the public make you repeat yourself.” These words, however, were written later in life, after he had realized the consequences of his renown. As a young, struggling composer he may well have sacrificed a bit of his stubborn independence for a bit of lucrative recognition. A Somerset Rhapsody represents Holst in his earlier years, well before The Planets. The first performance was in 1910 in London, but A Somerset Rhapsody was not published until 1922, after the success of The Planets. It was composed in 1906-7 at the suggestion of his friend and fellow folk-music enthusiast and collector, Cecil Sharp. The piece was his first success, with the public as well as the critics. It reveals his talent for embodying folk idioms and reflects the influences of the so-called (by Benjamin Britten) “cow pat” school of English pastoralists, especially of Vaughan Williams. Holst quotes from four of his favorite folk songs, notably “The Sheep Shearing Song” and “The True Lover’s Farewell.” It also reveals Holst’s indebtedness to the Wagnerians, then still recognized as the “new music” of the time. And it reveals elements of Holst’s experimentalism, with its use of counterpoint and its inventive rhythms. This is the first performance of A Somerset Rhapsody by the Richmond Symphony Orchestra.

Pavane in F-sharp Minor, Op. 50 Gabriel Fauré born in Pamiers, France, in 1845; died in Paris in 1924 Premiere: Paris, November 25, 1888 Instrumentation: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons; 2 horns; chorus; strings

3 Duration: 7 minutes

Gabriel Fauré was a pathfinder for French music of the late nineteenth century and an inspiration and often a patron for such later luminaries as Ravel, Honegger, Poulenc, and Nadia Boulanger. His early musical training was as an organist and choirmaster, at first under the influence of Camille Saint-Saëns who introduced him to the “new music” of the day, notably Liszt and Wagner. But Fauré rejected these influences in favor of a lighter and leaner style that initially held him back from public esteem. By the 1880s, however, his work was widely admired. He was appointed to the chair of composition at the Paris Conservatoire, remaining there until his retirement in 1920 after serving the last fifteen years as its director. Fauré shares with Debussy the distinction of being the finest composer of French song. In addition he is noted for his writing for solo piano and piano-centered chamber music. He seems to have had little interest in composing for large orchestra, possibly because of an innate distaste for show or vivid effects and his preference for understatement. Later in his career he did write incidental music for the stage, notably his charming setting for Pelleas et Melisande, and for chorus and orchestra, most remarkably in his Requiem of 1888. It was while composing the Requiem that he wrote his lovely Pavane, originally for piano and small off- stage chorus. He re-wrote it for small orchestra in the summer of 1887 with its premiere occurring in the autumn of 1888 by the fashionable Lamoureux Orchestra. It is dedicated to Fauré’s generous patron, the Countess Greffuhle, who arranged a second “premiere” with a more dramatic impact, not only retaining the invisible chorus but adding a corps of dancers. The rhythm chosen for Pavane is patterned after the stately Spanish processional court dance, thus offering an enchanting late Romantic elegance. The mood is gentle and wistful, simple and melodic, reflecting the composer’s great gift for song. It exudes the Gallic charm characteristic of the composer’s work. It soon became---and remains---one of Fauré’s most popular concert pieces. Pavane has been performed once before by the RSO, in 1986 with Thomas Elefant conducting.

Capriccio Italien, Op. 45 Peter I. Tchaikovsky born in Votkinsk, Russia, in 1840; died in St. Petersburg in 1893 Premiere: Moscow, December 18, 1880 Instrumentation: 3 flutes, 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons; 4 horns, 4 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba; timpani, percussion, harp; strings Duration: 16 minutes

Somebody once described the Capriccio Italien as merely “a bundle of Italian folk tunes.” Though sadly dismissive, this is pretty much correct. Tchaikovsky composed it on a holiday to Rome in the winter of 1880. His brother, Modest, had urged him to take a break from his arduous duties and served as tour guide to Peter during his stay. It was Carnival season and the city was filled with frivolity. As Tchaikovsky wrote to his longtime patron, Nadezhda von Meck, he had heard “a delightful folksong which I shall certainly use.” Within weeks he wrote again: “I have already completed the sketches for an Italian fantasia on folk tunes for which I believe a good future may be predicted. It will be effective, thanks to the delightful tunes which I have succeeded in assembling from anthologies and partly through my own ears on the streets.” The Capriccio opens with a trumpet theme, borrowed from a military bugle call that Tchaikovsky heard daily issuing from the cavalry barracks across from his hotel window. The brass rhythms continue, but are overlaid by a melancholy melody in the strings. A brighter folk melody is heard in the oboe and flute. Both themes are developed before additional melodies enter, notably a festive march heralding a passing parade. The melancholy tune is brought back in various guises to alter the pace. But the Capriccio closes joyously with two tarantellas, folk dances that mount to a satisfying, and orchestrally spectacular, conclusion. Manfred Blum led the RSO in the Capriccio Italien in a concert of 1981.