Program Notes: November 1, 2009
Tonight's program is both a global and a historical affair, featuring music from four continents composed at fairly even intervals across nearly two centuries. Additionally, we honor Peter Sculthorpe, who celebrated his 80th birthday this past April.
Beethoven's Second Piano Concerto (1794-95) is the earliest and most traditional work on the program, composed, moreover, during Beethoven's most tradition-oriented phase. Indeed, his first three piano concertos follow a pattern similar to that of his first three symphonies: a First in C Major that relates obviously to a familiar Mozartean model in the same key, a Second that retains Mozart as an obvious model but is stamped more distinctly with Beethoven's own composing personality, and a Third that breaks ranks with the past in order to set out on a "new path" (as he put it to a friend). To be sure, the tidiness of this picture is misleading, since the first two concertos are numbered in reverse order of their composition, and since the Third Concerto, however distinctively Beethovenian in tone, retains an allegiance to Mozart far more than the Third Symphony (the Eroica). But the traditional numbering has its own logic, reflected in the delicious poise of the Second Concerto, at home within its Mozartean frame and quasi-operatic idiom, yet also offering up a fresh voice, especially in the orchestral elaborations and moments of pianistic transport in the first movement, its poignant slow movement, and the insouciance of the finale, closer in spirit perhaps to Haydn than Mozart.
Tchaikovsky's enduringly popular Second Symphony (1872) was dubbed the "Little Russian" by Nikolay Kashkin, a Moscow critic, because of its use of Ukrainian folk tunes ("Little Russia" being a familiar designation for the Ukraine). Besides being traditional in this sense, the symphony also responds well to the symphonic tradition, freely adapting conventional forms in the first movement and opening the finale with a witty adaptation of Beethoven's opening to the finale of his First Symphony, portentously building up to an unassuming initial presentation of the main theme, based on the folk song "The Crane." The first movement sets the tone for the work with "Down by Mother Volga," reprised at the end of the movement. The slow movement, originally intended as a bridal march for an unfinished opera, includes a familiar spinning song ("Spin, Oh My Spinner") in the middle section; whereas the scherzo retains a folk-like demeanor (like Beethoven in his Eroica and Pastoral Symphonies) without actually quoting folk music. The finale dresses its "Crane" in a wide variety of orchestral variations, a manner of orchestral presentation Tchaikovsky regarded as distinctively Russian.
Sylvestre Revueltas's Caminos (1934) is exemplary of both the Mexican composer's sure hand with orchestral sonority and his imaginative wit. Caminos ("Roads") offers a foil of sorts to his nearly contemporaneous Redes (1935), a seriously toned piece that the Santa Monica Symphony performed in October 1998. Caminos follows the tradition of the travel narrative, but with tongue firmly planted in cheek, presenting a saucy mix of distinctive Mexican rhythms, Mariachi brass, ostinato (repeating figures), folk tunes, and allusions to Stravinsky (Rite of Spring), all presented within the blend of the earthy and the vivacious characteristic of Revueltas.
Peter Sculthorpe's Kakadu (1988) takes its name from the Kakadu National Park in northern Australia, an enormous wilderness area that continues to support the living culture of its Aboriginal inhabitants. Sculthorpe, widely regarded as Australia's most nationally representative composer, explains that Kakadu "is concerned with my feelings about this place, its landscape, its change of seasons, its dry season and its wet, its cycle of life and death. The outer sections are dance-like and energetic, sharing similar musical ideas. The central section [based on an Arnhem Land chant, 'Djilile' ('Whistling Duck')] is somewhat introspective, dominated by an English horn solo representing the voice of Emanuel Papper, who commissioned the work. [In addition to cockatoos and other kinds of birds], the melodic material of Kakadu was suggested by the contours and rhythms of Aboriginal chant."
-- Raymond Knapp
Rina Dokshitsky, pianist
Israeli pianist Rina Dokshitsky returns as soloist, earlier performing Beethoven's piano concerto no. 4 with the Santa Monica Symphony in 2005. She frequently performs in chamber music programs and appeared several times at both the Italian and US Spoleto festivals with musicians such as Joshua Bell, Steven Isserlis and Kyoko Takezawa. Besides her frequent collaboration with Alban Gerhardt, with whom she played both his New York and Washington DC debuts (they recently recorded a CD with Spanish pieces), she performs with cellists of such caliber as Colin Carr (among others on a concert tour of Italy), Gary Hoffman and Soren Bagratuni (at Weill Recital Hall, New York, and Jordan Hall, Boston) as well as with members of the Borromeo String Quartet.
As a soloist she has performed with numerous orchestras in the United States and recently performed recitals for National Radio in Jerusalem and the Tel-Aviv-Museum recital series as well as concerts with the Israel Chamber Orchestra.
Dokshitsky won the 1987 Young Concert Artist International Auditions, the Bruce Hungerford Memorial Prize and the Mortimer Levitt Career Development Award for Women Artists, and debuted in the YCA series, the 92nd Street Y and the Kennedy Center. Her awards include the 1989 Arthur Rubinstein International Master Competition silver medal as well as gold medals at the International Competition for Young Artists in Serigallia, Italy and the Jerusalem Symphony Competition.
Before coming to the US, Rina Dokshitsky has performed as a soloist at age of 13 with the Israel Philharmonic and Zubin Mehta and David Shallon. She began her piano studies at six with Ilona Vinzse in Israel, and studied with Russell Sherman at the New England Conservatory, where she earned both bachelor's and master's degrees.
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