Program Notes: December 16, 2001
Schubert’s Overture to Rosamunde (publ. 1827 with incidental music to the play by Helminy von Chézy)–or at least the piece now known by that name–was originally the overture to an unrelated operatic work from a decade earlier, Die Zauberharfe (The Magic Harp), an unsuccessful crossbreed between Mozart (Die Zauberflöte) and Rossini, then very much in vogue in Schubert’s Vienna. While Die Zauberharfe failed, its overture was well-received; hence its resurrection in the published version of Rosamunde (which was originally performed with still another overture from a discarded operatic work). Although the introduction to this charming piece is eminently Schubertian, particularly in its brief flirtation with a waltz idiom and its intimation of intruding darker forces, the body of the overture is distinctly reminiscent of Rossini, both in its blithe tunefulness and in its repeated use of a climactic crescendo, building up gradually from simple material repeated at a soft dynamic level.
The Argentinian Alberto Ginastera achieved much success as a composer with great rhythmic and orchestral flair in the late 1930s, which was a time when the United States was developing an enthusiastic taste for Latin-American dance rhythms. Scarcely surprising, then, that he should receive a commission from the short-lived American Ballet Caravan (founded by George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein in 1938), for which he composed his one-act ballet Estancia in 1941. Although the troupe disbanded in 1942, and the ballet had to wait until 1952 for its first performance (in part because the politically active Ginastera persistently ran afoul of Juan Péron’s fascistic regime), the orchestral suite on tonight’s program brought some of Estancia’s music before the public in 1943, to great acclaim. Estancia is the first musico-dramatic work to draw upon the "gauchesco" literary and dance traditions, portraying through characteristic dance and song a "day-in-the-life" of an Argentine ranch. Striking rhythms pervade the suite, especially in "Los trabajadores agrícolas" ("The workers of the land"), "Los Peones de Hacienda" ("The Cattlemen"), and the concluding "Malambo"–the latter a type of dance in which gauchos compete through undertaking ever-more-energetic dance steps. "Danza del trigo" ("Wheat Dance") provides the needed lyrical contrast.
Wieniawki’s Second Violin Concerto, in D Minor is far and away the most famous piece by the violinist many believe to have been the best in the generation after Paganini. Born in Poland, Wieniawski eventually settled in St. Petersburg at the urging of Anton Rubinstein, where he helped develop a Russian violin school. In 1862, early on in his Russian tenure, he introduced the Second Concerto to an enthusiastic audience that included a rapturous César Cui, later one of Tchaikovsky’s harshest critics. The trajectory of the piece is as irresistible as its melodic and virtuosic abundance: a dramatic first movement leads without interruption into the famous song-like slow movement, which in turn sets up a fiery Hungarian finale.
It is remarkable how many composers have produced some of their very best work in response to Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Berlioz’s "Symphony" on that subject is arguably his best piece, although scarcely his most famous. Bernstein’s West Side Story, on the other hand, while also arguably among his best, is hands down his most famous. Both Tchaikovsky and his fellow Russian Prokofiev brought a balletic sensibility to the subject, although the former’s Fantasy Overture is first and foremost a concert piece. Tchaikovsky composed the work during his extended flirtation with the moguchaya kuchka (literally, the "mighty little heap," but usually referred to as the "mighty handful") of Russian nationalist composers, and the leader of that group, Balakirev, helped him to plan the overture and suggested revisions after its less than successful premiere in 1870 (the final version was completed in 1880 and not performed until 1886). Among the most obvious changes was the elimination of the fugue Tchaikovsky had originally written to depict the clashing families (borrowing, perhaps, from Berlioz, much as Bernstein would later evoke Tchaikovsky’s famous love theme in "Maria"). While there is much "descriptive detail" in the overture, the main opposing forces stand out in high relief, at least in the final version of the overture, which opens with the strangely foreboding religious music of Friar Laurence and proceeds to two contrasting themes that are obviously meant to represent the star-crossed lovers and the fateful conflict that will doom them. But the two themes are actually closely related, which makes it seem all but inevitable that in the end "Love" should be overtaken and overwhelmed by "Conflict"–and this is precisely what we hear in the late stages. Along the way, though, we hear the two themes kept safely apart, with the initial statement of "Conflict" yielding to the warmly intimate first version of "Love," scored for violas and clarinet; and the extended, full-blown treatment of the conflict-theme in the central section yielding in its turn to the soaring, ecstatic version of "Love Triumphant" (in recent times made almost too familiar through its use in innumerable commercials.) In the end, Friar Laurence’s music returns to offer benediction–if we are inclined to hear it that way, we may through this music imagine the lovers reunited in heaven (or is it just the good Friar’s prayers that ascend?).
--- Raymond Knapp
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