San Francisco Opera Orchestra 1918, in Leningrad, Conducted by the Composer
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
CAL PERFORMANCES PRESENTS PROGRAM NOTES Sunday, June 3, 2012, 3pm Sergei Prokofiev (1891–1953) study with Alexander Tcherepnin, a good and Zellerbach Hall Symphony No. 1 in D major, Op. 25, “Classical” wise teacher who allowed the young composer to forge ahead in his own manner while mak- Composed in 1916–1917. Premiered on April 21, ing sure that he had a thorough understanding San Francisco Opera Orchestra 1918, in Leningrad, conducted by the composer. of the great musical works of the past. It was in 1916 that Prokofiev first had the idea for a sym- Nicola Luisotti, conductor “In the field of instrumental music, I am well phony based on the Viennese models supplied with content with the forms already perfected. I by Tcherepnin, and at that time he sketched out want nothing better, nothing more flexible or a few themes for it. Most of the work, however, Amit Peled, cello more complete than sonata form, which con- was done the following year, as Prokofiev re- tains everything necessary to my structural counted in his Autobiography: purpose.” This statement, given to Olin Downes “I spent the summer of 1917 in complete sol- PROGRAM by Prokofiev during an interview in 1930 for itude in the environs of Petrograd; I read Kant The New York Times, seems a curious one for and I worked hard. I had purposely not had my a composer who had gained a reputation as an piano moved to the country because I wanted to Sergei Prokofiev (1891–1953) Symphony No. 1 in D major, Op. 25, “Classical” ear-shattering iconoclast, the enfant terrible of establish the fact that thematic material worked Allegro 20th-century music, the master of modernity. out without a piano is better.... The idea oc- Larghetto While it is certainly true that some of his early curred to me to compose an entire symphonic Gavotte: Non troppo allegro works (Scythian Suite, Sarcasms, the first two work without the piano. Composed in this fash- Finale: Molto vivace Piano Concertos) raised the hackles of musi- ion, the orchestral colors would, of necessity, be cal traditionalists, it is also true that Prokofiev clearer and cleaner. Thus the plan of a symphony sought to preserve that same tradition by ex- in Haydnesque style originated, since, as a result Joseph Haydn (1732–1809) Cello Concerto No. 1 in C major, H. VIIb:1 tending its boundaries to encompass his own of my studies in Tcherepnin’s classes, Haydn’s Moderato distinctive style. A glance through the list of technique had somehow become especially clear Adagio his works shows a preponderance of established to me, and with such intimate understanding Allegro molto Classical forms: sonatas, symphonies, concertos, it was much easier to plunge into the danger- operas, ballets, quartets, overtures and suites ac- ous flood without a piano. It seemed to me that, Amit Peled, cello count for most of his output. This is certainly were he alive today, Haydn, while retaining his not to say that he merely mimicked the music style of composition, would have appropriated INTERMISSION of earlier generations, but he did accept it as the something from the modern. Such a symphony conceptual framework within which he built his I now wanted to compose: a symphony in the own compositions. classic manner. As it began to take actual form Luigi Cherubini (1760–1842) Symphony in D major Prokofiev’s penchant for using Classical I named it Classical Symphony; first, because it Largo — Allegro musical idioms was instilled in him during the was the simplest thing to call it; second, out of Larghetto cantabile course of his thorough, excellent training: when bravado, to stir up a hornet’s nest; and finally, in Minuetto: Allegro non tanto he was a little tot, his mother played Beethoven the hope that should the symphony prove itself Allegro assai sonatas to him while he sat under the piano; in time to be truly ‘classic,’ it would benefit me he studied with the greatest Russian musi- considerably.” Prokofiev’s closing wish has been cians of the time—Glière, Rimsky-Korsakov, fulfilled—the Classical Symphony has been one Liadov, Glazunov; he began composing at the of his most successful works ever since it was San Francisco Opera Mozartian age of six. By the time he was 25, first heard in Leningrad in 1918. David Gockley, General Director Prokofiev was composing prolifically, always The work is in the four movements custom- Nicola Luisotti, Music Director brewing a variety of compositions simultane- ary in Haydn’s symphonies, though at only ously. The works of 1917, for example, represent 15 minutes it hardly runs to half their typical widely divergent styles—The Gambler is a satiri- length. The dapper first movement is a miniature cal opera; They Are Seven, a nearly atonal cantata; sonata design that follows the traditional form the Classical Symphony, a charming miniature. but adds some quirks that would have given old Cal Performances’ 2011–2012 season is sponsored by Wells Fargo. This last piece was a direct result of Prokofiev’s Haydn himself a chuckle—the recapitulation, 6 CAL PERFORMANCES CAL PERFORMANCES 7 PROGRAM NOTES PROGRAM NOTES for example, begins in the “wrong” key (but He composed concertos for a number of them so When Haydn’s health broke and he was living before the soloist’s recapitulation and there is no soon rights itself), and occasionally a beat is left they could show their skills in the best light to his last days in a comfortable Vienna apartment, cadenza in the last movement. out, as though the music had stubbed its toe. their employer. He lived in the same so-called one of his most frequent visitors was the younger Much of the charm of this Concerto lies in The sleek main theme is followed by the enor- “music building” with them, and became their Weigl. He came to share with the older com- the manner in which the vigorous young com- mous leaps, flashing grace notes and sparse tex- close friend and trusted advisor. He was a wit- poser the respect and love that had maintained poser poured the new wine of sentiment and ture of the second subject. A graceful, ethereal ness at many of their weddings, and he even the family friendship for 50 years, a friendship melody into the old bottles of form and nobility melody floating high in the violins is used to stood as godfather to a number of their children. whose beginning was marked by this Concerto. of spirit. It is of such music, and of the man who open and close the Larghetto, with the gentle One who extended to him this last honor was The C major Cello Concerto was written wrote it, that Mozart said, “He alone has the se- pizzicato middle section reaching a brilliant tutti the cellist Joseph Franz Weigl, a close friend for during the years of transition from the Baroque cret of making me smile and touching me to the before quickly subsiding. The third movement, many years. It was for Weigl that Haydn wrote to the Classical era, and shows traits of both the bottom of my soul.” a Gavotte, comes not from the Viennese sym- the lovely C major Cello Concerto as one of the old and new styles. Its harmonic and melodic phony but rather from the tradition of French products of those fertile early years with the components are largely of the modern type, Baroque ballet. The finale, the most brilliant Esterházys. The Concerto was certainly played while certain formal characteristics and modes Luigi Cherubini (1760–1842) movement of the Symphony, calls for remark- at one of the palace concerts, after which Haydn of expression look back to the models of preced- Symphony in D major able feats of agility and precise ensemble from entered its opening measures into a catalog of ing generations. The first movement gives the the performers. his compositions that he compiled in 1765. The impression of an old-fashioned stately proces- Composed in 1815. Premiered on May 1, 1815, in piece then disappeared for 200 years. sion, much in the grand style of Handel’s orches- London, conducted by the composer. Though Haydn may have written as many tral works. Also backward-looking is the move- Joseph Haydn (1732–1809) as a half dozen concertos for cello, it was long ment’s abundance of thematic material. At least Beethoven wrote to him, “I value your works Cello Concerto No. 1 in C major, H. VIIb:1 thought that only one had survived—that in six melodic ideas are presented by the orchestra more highly than all other compositions for the D major. Some works once attributed to him in the first 20 measures alone, far more than the stage.” Schubert maintained that Medea was his Composed during the early 1760s. proved to be spurious; others were lost. It was one or two upon which most of Haydn’s later favorite opera and Brahms called it “the high- this latter fate that had apparently befallen the movements are founded. This technique is clos- est peak of dramatic music.” The wealthy Berlin Haydn was among the most industrious com- C major Concerto, whose only trace seemed to er to that of the opening orchestral section of banker Abraham Mendelssohn, who could have posers in the history of music. He summarized be the listing in Haydn’s 1765 catalog and an- the Baroque concerto, with its little treasury of consulted any musician in Europe, presented his his philosophy of no-nonsense professionalism other entry by his assistant, Joseph Elssler, in an motivic material that is mined throughout the brilliant son Felix to him for his evaluation and when he wrote, “I know that God has bestowed 1805 index.