Boston Symphony Orchestra Concert Programs, Summer, 1992
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introducing the "twisted" form of the "Nature" theme in flutes and clarinets: Othello's love has gone awry. The main Allegro con brio is dominated by a forceful theme repre- senting Othello's jealousy. Its characteristic triplet infects many other ideas as the score proceeds. Halfway through the score Dvorak interrupts any plan to shape the movement into a formal sonata pattern and yields to an impulse to trace the closing scene in dramatic terms. In his own score he pencilled in certain comments that clarify his understanding of the passage. The first of these, "They embrace in silent ecstasy," marks the beginning of the tragedy's closing stage. Soon after, Dvorak quotes Wagner's "magic sleep" motif from Die Walkiire, as an indication that Desdemona has fallen into slumber. Othello, contemplating her putative infidelity, is consumed with jealousy and rage; the triplets increasingly dominate the rhythmic texture. A quota- tion from Dvorak's own Requiem hints at what is in store for Desdemona. She dies to a reminiscence of their love music, chilled by string tremolos played sul ponticello . Aghast at what he has done, Othello prays (a brief chorale in the woodwinds). He recalls their love; the "magic sleep" is now a permanent sleep of death. Over a long crescendo in the timpani and double basses, the twisted "Nature" theme softly comments; Othello now turns his aggressive rage on himself and makes his own quietus. —Steven Ledbetter Bela Bartok Piano Concerto No. 3 Bela Bartok was born in Nagyszentmiklos, Transylvania (then part of Hungary but now ab- sorbed into Rumania), on March 25, 1881, and died in New York on September 26, 1945. The Piano Concerto No. 3 was composed in the summer of 1945. The last seventeen measures, left unfinished at the composers death, werefilled in by Tibor Serly. Thefirst performance was given by pianist Gyorgy Sandor with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy conducting, on February 8, 1946. The Boston Symphony has played the work on two previous occasions, neither of them at Tanglewood: Sidney Foster was soloist under Aaron Copland's direction in April 1965, and Peter Serkin was soloist under Charles Dutoit's direction in February 1981. In addition to the solo piano, the score callsfor two each offlutes, oboes, clarinets, and bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones and tuba, timpani, triangle, side drum, cymbals, bass drum, tam-tam, xylophone, and strings. The bitterness of Bartok's last years—compounded of exile from his homeland, a realization that America was even less interested in his music than Europe was, a difficult hand-to-mouth existence eked out from a few performance fees and research grants, and nagging ill health —was somewhat brightened by what seemed to be a sudden upward turn in his fortunes as a composer in what turned out to be his last months. Nothing roused him from his sickbed lethargy so effectively as the commis- sion for an orchestral work offered by Serge Koussevitzky with the guarantee that it would be performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The result, of course, was the Concerto for Orchestra, first performed in December 1944. But even before that auspicious premiere, Bartok had enjoyed the unaccustomed sound of applause from an American audience when Yehudi Menuhin gave the premiere of the Sonata for solo violin in New York. Then, after the rousing success of the Concerto for Orchestra a few weeks later, musicians began approaching him with commissions. William Prim- rose wanted a viola concerto; a piano duo named Bartlett and Robertson requested a concerto for two pianos. His publisher, Ralph Hawkes, asked for a seventh string quartet. And, for private reasons, he wanted to write a piano concerto. 11 Week 8.