Boston Symphony Orchestra Archives

Boston Symphony Orchestra Seiji Ozawa, Music Director Colin Davis, Principal Guest Conductor Joseph Silverstein, Assistant Conductor Thursday, April 22, 1976, at 8:30 p.m. Friday, April 23, 1976, at 2 p.m. Saturday, April 24, 1976, at 8:30 p.m. Symphony Hall, Boston Ninety-fifth Season Baldwin Piano Deutsche Grammophon Records Philips Records Program Program Notes Seiji Ozawa conducting Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) Circus Polka Stravinsky: Circus Polka Composed for the Ringling Bros., Barnum and Bailey Circus in its origi- Movements for Piano and Orchestra nal scoring for wind band and percussion, the Circus Polka was first per- =110; meno mosso f =72 formed in New York's Madison Square Garden in the spring of 1942. The (interlude) f =52 composer later rescored the work for full orchestra and conducted its pre- = 52 miere in this form at a Boston Symphony concert in January, 1944. The present performance is the first by the Orchestra since then. (interlude) j` =72 John Ringling North wanted an elephant ballet to show off the = 72 talent of his performing pachyderms, and he engaged George (interlude) f =80 Balanchine (then as famous for his Broadway work in On Your Toes =80 as he would later become with the New York City Ballet) to direct (interlude) f =52 the choreography—and to choose the music. Balanchine picked up the phone and called Stravinsky. = 52 Eric Walter White relates the following: " 'What kind of music?' asked the composer. 'A polka.' For whom?' Elephants."How Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments old?' Young."If they are very young, I'll do it.' They were very Largo; allegro young, so Stravinsky agreed." In the brief (four minutes) work that emerged, the time signature is 2/4 throughout, but what is com- Largo monly thought of as polka rhythm makes an overt appearance only Allegro once, and then with a quotation from Schubert's Marche Militaire as countersubject. Michel Beroff, piano For the record, the piece in its original form was given some 425 performances by the Circus, with "Fifty Elephants and Fifty Beau- tiful Girls in an Original Choreographic Tour de Force," and Vera Intermission Zorina shared honors with the star elephant Old Modoc on open- ing night in New York. The music was apparently not much to the Stravinsky: Le Sacre du Printemps (The Rite of Spring) animals' liking (nor, probably, was the costuming: tutu skirts Part One: The Adoration of the Earth around their middles). Elephants respond quickly and naturally to waltzes and military numbers, but Stravinsky's music made them Introduction; Auguries of Spring (Dances of the Young faintly uneasy; the bandmaster kept a Sousa march dose at hand Girls); Mock Abduction; Spring Khorovod (Round Dance); during every performance . just in case. Happily, it was never Games of the Rival Clans; Procession of the Wise Elder; needed. Adoration of the Earth (the Wise Elder); Dance of the Earth Part Two: The Sacrifice Introduction; Mystical Circles of the Young Girls; Glorifica- Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments tion of the Chosen Victim; The Summoning of the Ancients; The Concerto is scored for 3 flutes, 3 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, Ritual of the Ancients; Sacrificial Dance (the Chosen Victim) 4 horns, 4 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani and contrabasses, and is dedicated to Mme. Natalie Koussevitzky. Its American premiere was given Michel Beroff plays the Steinway Piano by the Boston Symphony, Serge Koussevitzky conducting, in January, 1925, with the composer as soloist. Stravinsky and Serge Koussevitzky first met in 1907 at the home The Thursday and Saturday programs will end at about 10:10 p.m., the Friday program at about 3:40 p.m. of the composer's teacher, Rimsky-Korsakov. Their ties were strengthened a few years later when L'Edition Russe de la Musique, Koussevitzky's publishing firm, issued Petrushka. The man who was later to become Conductor of the Boston Symphony had throughout his career an uncanny knack for nosing out talent, and he continued to be closely involved with Stravinsky, both as composer and performer: Koussevitzky commissioned and published several of Stravinsky's works in subsequent years, conducted many premieres, and promoted his career as pianist and conductor. The Piano Concerto was finished early in 1924 for performance at one of Koussevitzky's Paris concerts the following May. Stravinsky had always been a competent pianist, and at the conductor's suggestion himself undertook to play the solo part at the premiere. The performance was so successful that the composer decided to launch himself seriously on a career as a performer of his own music. With the Boston Symphony he gave the American premiere the following January, Koussevitzky again conducting. The concert, incidentally, was devoted entirely to Stravinsky's work. Shortly before the performance at Symphony Hall, Stravinsky solo near the beginning, or the derivation of the three Fs announc- was interviewed by the Boston Post. He described the concerto as ing the last movement simply by knowing the original order, no "a sort of passacaglia or toccata." "It is quite in the style of the sev- matter how unique the combinatorial properties of this particular enteenth century," he continued, "that is, the seventeenth century series. viewed from the point of view of today. You know no one else has "Each section of the piece is confined to a certain range of instru- played this concerto—I only can play it. That is, I won't let anyone mental timbre (another suggestion of serialism?), but the five else play it until I no longer want to." He reserved the exclusivity movements are related more by tempo than by contrasts of such for five years. things as timbre, "mood," "character"; in a span of only twelve When Stravinsky had used a piano in his earlier music, he had minutes, the contrast of an andante with an allegro would make lit- treated it rather as a percussion instrument. In the two outer move- tle sense; construction must replace contrast. Perhaps the most sig- ments of the Concerto the writing is similarly percussive. In the nificant development in the Movements, however, is the tendency first movement the piano has a theme in toccata style, somewhat toward anti-tonality—in spite of long pedal point passages such as reminiscent of the keyboard music of Scarlatti and Bach. Eric the clarinet trill at the end of the third movement, and the sus- Walter White, in his invaluable book on Stravinsky (published by tained string harmonics in the fourth movement. I am amazed at the University of California Press), writes that "the second move- this myself, in view of the fact that in Threni simple triadic refer- ment, with its extremely slow, legato, rather viscous melody ences occur in every bar." accompanied by thick rich chords like folds of stiff drapery, comes as a complete change of mood." The final Allegro is more grotesque: the scheme is fragmentary, almost improvisatory in character. "The third movement," in Mr. Le Sacre du Printemps (The Rite of Spring) White's words, "produces an effect of disorder and disarray, and Stravinsky composed Le Sacre du Printemps in 1912 and 1913, as the balance of the Concerto is affected accordingly." music for Diaghilev's Ballet Russe. Its first performance, the most cele- —Andrew Raeburn brated musical premiere of the twentieth century, took place at the Theatre des Champs-Elysees, Paris, on May 29, 1913, in a production choreo- graphed by Nijinsky and conducted by Pierre Monteux. Within a year, Monteux conducted the work in concert form, and it is largely in that Movements for Piano and Orchestra manner that it has been heard ever since. Its first performance by the Boston Symphony was directed by Pierre Monteux in 1924; it was per- Stravinsky wrote Movements in 1958-59 and published it in 1960, formed most recently at Tanglewood in 1972, Michael Tilson Thomas directing its premiere at Town Hall, New York, on January 10, 1960. It is conducting. Its instrumentation is as follows: 3 flutes and alto flute, 2 pic- scored for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, bassoon, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, colos, 4 oboes, 2 english horns, 3 clarinets and D clarinet, 2 bass clarinets, harp, celesta and strings. This is its first performance by the Boston 4 bassoons, 2 contra bassoons, 8 horns, 2 tenor tubas, 5 trumpets, 3 trom- Symphony. bones, 2 bass tubas, timpani (2 players), bass drum, tam tam, triangle, As early as 1952, while stating his own contentment with and tambour de basque, guero rape, antique cymbals, harp and strings. preference for the possibilities contained within "seven notes of The score is in two distinct sections: "The Adoration of the the scale" (i.e., diatonic or tonal music), Stravinsky said in an Earth" and "The Sacrifice." The various episodes (including the interview that "the serial composers are the only ones with a dis- introductions to each part) are each an entity in itself. They are cipline that I respect." How much the advocacy of serial (twelve- played in continuous succession, but without preamble or tone) music by his amanuensis Robert Craft sparked or accelerated "bridge" passages. Stravinsky in this music is nothing if not direct the composer's interest in this technique is unclear, but it was and to the point. Much has been written about the influence of Le likely a major factor. Sacre upon the course of musical composition. One of its most Increasingly impressed by the works of Anton Webem, obvious effects was .to clear away the nineteenth-century verbiage Stravinsky edged closer to serial music throughout the 1950s.

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