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Notes for Classics 8: French Mystique Saturday, March 23 and Sunday, March 24 Arthur Arnold, Music Director Finalist — Simone Porter, violin Francis Poulenc Suite from Les biches THE VITAL STATS Composer: born January 7, 1899, Paris; died January 30, 1963, Paris. Work composed: Poulenc composed the ballet in 1923; 16 years later, he eliminated the movements with chorus and reorchestrated the remaining five movements to create the orchestral suite (dedicated to pianist Misia Sert), heard on tonight’s concert. World premiere: The Ballets Russes premiered the ballet Les biches on January 6, 1924, at the Salle Garnier in Monte Carlo. Poulenc premiered the suite on May 21, 1943, in a concert presented by Les Société des Concerts du Conservatoire at the Théâtre National du Palais de Chaillot in Paris. Instrumentation: piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drum, cymbals, field drum, glockenspiel, snare drum, tambourine, triangle, celeste, piano, harp, and strings. Estimated duration: 15 minutes In May 1921, when impresario Serge Diaghilev asked 21-year-old Francis Poulenc to collaborate on a ballet, the young French composer was understandably overwhelmed. Diaghilev and his Ballets Russes were at the height of their legendary fame, thanks in large measure to their groundbreaking collaborations with Igor Stravinsky. A composer beginning his career could not have sought a more high-profile opportunity. Diaghilev and Poulenc’s resulting ballet, Les biches, proved extraordinarily successful, and continues to be performed in both its ballet and orchestral versions. Surrealism – the avant-garde aesthetic from the early 20th century that explored the world of the unconscious in performing and visual arts, as well as literature – infuses Les biches. The dual meaning of “biche” in French – female deer or doe, and a sexually charged slang term for a young woman that has no direct English corollary – creates a fundamental ambiguity that allows for various interpretations. The ballet has no real plot; during a party in a large country house, groups of young people bent on pleasure interact in a series of playful tableaux. Poulenc wanted to create what he described as “an atmospheric ballet” infused with “the erotic atmosphere of my early 20s … In this ballet, the characters do not succumb to lifelong love, they simply have affairs!” The lively Rondeau sets the scene with a series of lighthearted melodies and exuberant trumpet solos, while the Adagietto suggests a fleeting but hardly devastating disappointment. “In Les biches,” Poulenc explained, “it is not a question of love, but of pleasure. That is why the Adagietto must be played without romantic pathos.” French-inflected jazz and dance hall idioms animate the Rag-Mazurka (fans of Chopin will hear a quote from his Polonaise in F-sharp minor). The Andantino recaptures the merriment of the opening Rondeau, and the Finale’s breathless whirling phrases set the entire house party alight with energetic celebration. After Poulenc’s friend and fellow composer Darius Milhaud attended a performance of the ballet, he wrote, “I was filled with wonder by Les biches. I dream of it. It is a masterpiece.” Camille Saint-Saëns Violin Concerto No. 3 in B minor, Op. 61 THE VITAL STATS Composer: born October 9, 1835, Paris; died December 16, 1921, Algiers. Work composed: March 1880, written for and dedicated to violinist Pablo de Sarasate. World premiere: de Sarasate gave the premiere at a Châtelet concert in Paris on January 2, 1881. Instrumentation: solo violin, 2 flutes (1 doubling piccolo), 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, timpani, and strings. Estimated duration: 30 minutes Camille Saint-Saëns’ career spanned seven decades; during that time, he was both vilified by conservatives for his endorsement of Richard Wagner’s music in the late 1850s, and dismissed by Claude Debussy as “the musician of tradition” in 1903. One explanation for Debussy’s remark could be Saint-Saëns’ preference for established (and, to his French detractors, foreign) genres: symphonies, concertos, sonatas, and chamber music. During his childhood and teen years, Saint-Saëns had immersed himself in the music of Beethoven, Mozart, Mendelssohn, and Schumann. On July 19, 1870, French soldiers invaded neighboring Prussia, igniting the Franco-Prussian War. The conflict dragged on for another seven months and resulted in a humiliating defeat for France. Afterwards, Saint-Saëns joined a movement to revive French art and culture. In particular, Saint-Saëns set himself the task of proving the French could produce not just operas and ballets but also achieve renown in the abstract genres – symphonies, string quartets, concertos – dominated by German composers. To that end, Saint-Saëns co-founded the Société Nationale de Musique, whose motto, “ars gallica,” emphasized the Society’s mission to nurture new French music. Saint-Saëns completed ten concertos overall: five for piano, two for cello, and three for violin. Of those for violin, No. 3 in B minor is the most popular and performed today. Written for the virtuoso Spanish violinist Pablo de Sarasate, who had premiered Saint-Saëns’ first violin concerto at age 15, Op. 61 deftly combines Sarasate’s matchless technique with Saint-Saëns’ masterful command of harmony and melody. The outer movements abound with singable themes and fiery passages, while the central Andantino features a lilting barcarolle – a French sea lullaby. We can hear Sarasate’s influence in this concerto – Saint-Saëns consulted the man he called “his violinist” during the writing of Op. 61 – particularly in the closing moments of the second movement, which feature a series of featherlight harmonic arpeggios (players sound harmonics by barely touching the string with their finger, rather than pressing down while they bow; Sarasate was known for his ability to execute harmonics with seeming ease). One reviewer opined that the Andantino “shows what can be done by a great musician when he imposes on himself the simplicity which embarrasses the lesser man.” Béla Bartók Concerto for Orchestra THE VITAL STATS Composer: born March 25, 1881, Nagyszentmiklós, Hungary (now Sînnicolau Mare, Romania); died September 26, 1945, New York City. Work composed: Summer 1943, revised 1945. Commissioned by Serge Koussevitzky. World premiere: Serge Koussevitzky led the Boston Symphony on December 1, 1944, at Symphony Hall in Boston. Instrumentation: 3 flutes (one doubling piccolo), 3 oboes (one doubling English horn), 3 clarinets (one doubling bass clarinet), 3 bassoons (one doubling contrabassoon), 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drum, cymbals, snare drum without snare, triangle, tam-tam, two harps and strings. Estimated duration: 35 minutes The last five years of Béla Bartók’s life were dominated by political upheaval, financial difficulty and illness. Bartók’s mother died in December 1939, and ten months later Bartók and his wife fled Nazi- occupied Hungary. Grief-stricken over his mother’s death and overwhelmed by the many obstacles confronting him as a newly arrived immigrant, Bartók fell into a deep depression in 1940. Financial hardship caused by lack of interest in and performances of Bartók’s works added further to his despondency. The ultimate blow came in 1942, when Bartók was diagnosed with leukemia. In a letter to his publisher, Bartók wrote, “Artistic creative work generally is the result of outflow of strength, highspiritedness, joy of life, etc.—All these conditions are sadly missing with me at present. Maybe it is a breakdown. Until 60 I could marvelously bear all annoyances and mishaps. But lately, I often wondered how long I will be able to endure all those sad experiences continually exposed to. Maybe [sic] I reached the limit.” In the early summer of 1943, conductor Serge Koussevitzky came to visit Bartók in the hospital and offered the composer $1,000 to write an orchestral work for the Koussevitzky Foundation. Bartók agreed, used the money to pay for his medical treatment, and began composing what would become the Concerto for Orchestra in mid-August. In his letters, Bartók noted a parallel between his improving health and his productivity; he completed the Concerto in just seven weeks. Music reviews noted the general absence of folk influence and the lack of harsh dissonances typical of Bartók’s earlier works. The critic for The Boston Globe wrote, “The style is fairly light, the dissonance is expressive rather than idiomatic, and the five movements are, on the whole, engagingly emotional.” However, many musicians felt Bartók had irretrievably compromised his artistic aesthetic by writing a more “accessible” work clearly tailored for an American audience. Bartók, however, made his position clear: “In order to express our ideas and sentiments through music it is necessary to forsake all that weighs down its flight and to make use of all the means within our reach.” Bartók’s instincts proved correct; critical and audience reception of the Concerto for Orchestra was unequivocally positive. The day after its premiere, The Boston Herald raved, “His [Bartók’s] Orchestral Concerto, given yesterday for the first time, is a work which must rank as the composer’s masterpiece, which is to say it must also rank among the musical masterpieces of recent years.” In the Concerto for Orchestra, Bartók’s most performed and most popular work, the orchestra itself is the featured soloist, each family of instruments taking its turn in the spotlight. Bartók described the emotional mood of the movements as a progression: the somber, inescapable theme of the first movement, the joking second, the death lament of the third, and the sarcastic, biting wit of the fourth all culminate in a life-affirming finale. The cyclical nature of the music is also commonly interpreted as Bartók’s response to his battle with leukemia. He died in the autumn of 1945, ten months after the Concerto’s premiere.