THE SOLDIER’S TALE – VONNEGUT STYLE

Cristian Macelaru, Conductor

Lilly Classical Series, Friday, May 15, 8pm & Saturday, May 16, 8pm

FRANZ LISZT (1811-1886) Hungarian composer . Franz Liszt was born in 1811 in Hungary. . Liszt was a child prodigy. He started playing piano at the age of 7. . People were so impressed with his piano playing that a group of Hungarian aristocrats funded his music education with a yearly salary. . Regarded by some as the greatest pianist of all time, Liszt was inspired by the great violinist Paganini to develop the techniques of piano playing just as Paganini did for the violin. He pushed the edge of piano playing to a new level. . By age 16, Liszt was famous throughout Europe and financially self-sufficient.

. In 1830, the pianist met three musicians who influenced his musical work. Berlioz taught him about the sonorities of the orchestra. Chopin introduced him to a more refined piano playing style and Paganini’s electrifying stage presence and spectacular technical skill at the violin inspired Liszt to emulate that flair in his own piano technique. . Liszt toured over Europe in the 1840s, but eventually stopped for Princess Carolyne zu Sayn-Wittgenstein to focus on composing. . In 1847, Liszt was named Kapellmeister of Weimar, Germany, where he was responsible for directing performances of orchestral and operatic works. During his tenure, he managed to transform Weimar into one of Europe’s most renowned music centers. . Liszt had a fascination with mysticism and religion and was conferred by Pope Pius IX in 1865. In 1879, he shaved his head in preparation of joining the priesthood and received four minor orders; however, he was never ordained as a priest. . Franz Liszt died in July 1886 of pneumonia while in Bayreuth.

NICCOLÒ PAGANINI (1782-1840) Italian violinist and composer whose

works include six violin concertos and many other virtuoso violin pieces

FRÉDÉRIC CHOPIN (1810-1849) Polish-born French composer and pianist of the romantic era; His music, written chiefly for the piano, was based on traditional Polish dance themes.

MEPHISTO WALTZ NO. 1 INTERESTING FACTS

The Mephisto Waltzes are four waltzes composed in . Liszt could read music before he could read 1859-62, 1880–81, 1883 and 1885. No. 1 and 2 were the alphabet. composed for orchestra, later arranged for piano, . He wrote more than 1000 piano pieces. piano duet and two pianos, whereas 3 and 4 were . Liszt invented the solo piano recital. Artists written for piano only. Of the four, the first is the most had previously shared these programs. popular and has been frequently performed in concert . Cosima, Liszt’s daughter, married the and recorded. famous German composer, Richard Mephisto Waltz No. 1 is the best-known of the series Wagner. and, together with No. 3. It is a typical example of . The interest people had in following Liszt program music and the most praised musically. and his career was called “Lisztomania” Mephisto Waltz No. 1, Der Tanz in der Dorfschenke . Liszt was the first to turn the piano (The Dance in the Village Inn) is the second of two sideways so his audience could enjoy his short works he wrote for orchestra. While the work profile while playing. He was also known to preceding it, Midnight Procession ("Der nächtliche place two pianos on stage, so he could Zug"), is rarely given (though both works have been switch sides and let his audience enjoy recorded together), the waltz has been a concert seeing his other side. Needless to say, he favorite, with its passion, sensuality and dramatics was a very flamboyant and theatrical generating an emotional impact. performer.

The following program note, which Liszt took from Lenau, appears in the printed score: There is a wedding feast in progress in the village inn, with music, dancing, carousing. Mephistopheles and Faust pass by, and Mephistopheles induces Faust to Nickloaus enter and take part in the festivities. Mephistopheles Lenau snatches the fiddle from the hands of a lethargic fiddler and draws from it indescribably seductive and intoxicating German Poet strains. The amorous Faust whirls about with a full- blooded village beauty in a wild dance; they waltz in mad abandon out of the room, into the open, away into the woods. The sounds of the fiddle grow softer and softer, and the nightingale warbles his love-laden song.

WATCH & LISTEN

Mcgill Symphony Orchestra performs Franz Liszt’s Mephisto Waltz No. 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzUnML7SLJg

IGOR STRAVINSKY (1882-1971) Russian composer

. Words Igor Stravinsky was born on June 17, 1882 in Oraienbaum, Russia.

. Stravinsky says that his “conscious life as an artist and musician” began when he heard a performance of Tchaikovsky’s “Pathetique” Symphony.

. His father, a famous bass singer with the Russian Imperial Opera, discouraged a career as a musician, and enrolled Igor in law school.

. But the young Stravinsky became friends with the sons of famous composer Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov,. In and 1906, in he married Catherine Nossenko. fact INTERESTINGbegan taking orchestration FACTS lessons from this family . The famous ballet patron Serge Diaghilev was friend.. Stravinsky composed over 100 in the audience at a concert of some of . Stravinskypieces throughout never completed his life from a music degree, in part various genres. Stravinsky’s latest compositions, and because he was discouraged from this path by Rimsky- . In 1941 Stravinsky was arrested immediately commissioned him to write a ballet Korsakov,for changing who thequickly national became anthem a father figure score.after This would of course become The Stravinsky’sduring a performance father died in in Boston, 1902. Firebird, an instant success in Paris. but still was able to move past this incident and have success in . The piece was so popular that a stranger once America. walked up to Stravinsky and asked him if he were the famous composer, Mr. Fireberg.

. The ballet Petrushka followed, and was also met with critical acclaim, cementing Stravinsky into fame. The third commission by Diaghilev would not go so smoothly—The Rite of Spring caused a notorious riot, in which the audience yelled to drown out the music and fistfights started. At its London debut, a more demure review stated, “It has no relation to music at all as most of us understand the word.”

. While The Rite of Spring is now a well-known and appreciated work of music, Stravinsky never stopped pushing the art form forward and developing his skills. Although he was born in Russia, after the Russian Revolution of 1917, he voluntarily exiled himself to Paris, and became a French citizen in 1934. . Five years later, however, he took a job at Harvard University, and moved to America, becoming an American citizen shortly after World War II. . His music progressed through several distinct phases, including a neo-classical phase and later, a serialism period. But the music that has assured his immortality is his early compositions that changed the course of musical history and still spark discussion and interest today. . He died on April 6, 1971 in New York, New York.

STRAVINSKY/VONNEGUT – L’HISTOIRE DU SOLDAT (THE SOLDIER’S TALE)

Histoire du soldat (translated as The Soldier's Tale), is a theatrical work "to be read, played, and danced" by three actors and one or several dancers, accompanied by a septet of instruments. L’Histoire du soldat was replacing the original text by Ferdinand Ramuz with a version that Kurt Vonnegut wrote in 1993. L’Histoire du Soldat involves three “partnerships” which are equally-weighted: 1) the “neutral” narrator who enters the action halfway through the work; 2) the actors/dancers; and 3) the musicians. Stravinsky claimed, “The three elements of the piece …by their close co-operation were to form a unity… Our idea was that the three elements should sometimes take turns as soloists and sometimes combine as an ensemble.” Stravinsky's score is intact, but Vonnegut's new take on the subject retains nothing from Ramuz's original. Vonnegut's version is a dramatic account of the case of Private Eddie Slovik, the first American soldier executed for desertion since the Civil War, in France in 1945. The narration has four characters: Private Slovik, the General, the M.P., and Caroline the Red Cross nurse, who act out and describe the events leading up to Slovik's death. Vonnegut weaves his new tale into the existing music so naturally and brilliantly that it's hard to believe he hadn't actively collaborated with the composer on it. The historical specificity and visceral urgency of his rhymed text make the music seem even more bitterly sardonic than the original.

WATCH & LISTEN

László Kovács conducts Igor Stravinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale with the North Hungarian Symphony Orchestra:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWxLHzBlGd4

REFERENCES:

Carr, Maureen, Stravinsky's Histoire Du Soldat: A Facsimile of the Sketches, Issue, A-R Editions, Inc., 2005. Berger, Melvin, Orchestral Masterpieces, New York: Anchor Books/Doubleday, 1995. Clarson-Leach, Robert, Berlioz: The Illustrated Lives of the Great Composers, New York: Omnibus Press, 1987. Longyear, Rey M., Nineteenth-Century Romanticism in Music, Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 1988. Sadie, Stanley & Tyrell, John, “The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians”, New York: Grove’s Dictionaries, 2001. Searle, Humphrey, ed., Hector Berlioz: A Selection from His Letters, New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., 1966. WEBSITES: http://www.hberlioz.com/ http://www.michaeldaugherty.net/ http://www.supermanhomepage.com/ www.oxfordmusiconline.com http://www.favorite-classical-composers.com/ http://www.answers.com/ www.allmusic.com www.oxfordmusiconline.com

PICTURES: http://www.dvhh.org/ http://www.classical.net/ http://parade.condenast.com/ http://www.bach-cantatas.com/ http://home.messiah.edu/~ http://www.polishamericancenter.org/