Program Notes: November 8, 2008
It is remarkable how often Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet has inspired composers to produce some of their best music. Berlioz's "Dramatic Symphony" on the subject is among his most accomplished and original works, and Bernstein's West Side Story, arguably also among his best, is in any event his most famous. Both Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev brought a balletic sensibility to the subject, although the former's Fantasy Overture is fundamentally a concert piece. Tchaikovsky composed his overture during his extended flirtation with the moguchaya kuchka, the "mighty little heap" of Russian nationalist composers; Balakirev, the group's leader, helped him to plan it and suggested revisions after its less than successful premiere in 1870 (the final version was not performed until 1886). While there is much "descriptive detail" in the overture, the main opposing forces stand out in high relief, which opens with the strangely foreboding religious music of Friar Laurence and proceeds to two contrasting themes representing the encounters of the star-crossed lovers and the fateful conflict that will doom them. Because the two themes are actually closely related, it seems all but inevitable that in the end "Love" should be overtaken and overwhelmed by "Conflict." Along the way, though, we hear the two themes kept safely apart, with "Conflict" yielding twice to "Love," first warmly intimate and later in soaring ecstasy. In the end, Friar Laurence's music returns to offer benediction, and we may through this music imagine, if we choose, the lovers reunited in heaven--or is it just the good Friar's prayers that ascend?
Like Tchaikovsky, Max Bruch needed assistance in bringing his First Violin Concerto--his first large-scale instrumental work--to its now popular form after its unsuccessful premiere in 1866. Bruch's angel was none other than Joseph Joachim, the most celebrated violinist of his day, who premiered the revised work in 1868 and received its dedication. As with Tchaikovsky's overture, Bruch originally intended to call his concerto a Fantasy. In its final form, it retains, within its familiar three-movement concerto design, many peculiarities that reflect that intention, including the ruminative violin introduction and the foreshortened first movement, whose second tutti leads directly into the second movement. Unusually, but fittingly, Bruch calls the first movement a Vorspiel (prelude); notwithstanding its own dramatics, it serves ultimately as a pedestal for the ravishing middle movement, the concerto's soul. The brilliant finale, with its electrifying double-stops and vivid evocation of the Hungarian style, seems designed to honor Joachim--as would be Brahms's intention in his Violin Concerto a decade later, with a similarly conceived finale.
Both halves of tonight's program begin with excerpts from Wagner--a fitting way to bring out the recurring fantasy element of the program's featured works. In Siegfried's Rhine Journey we hear Siegfried's horn calls, the magic-fire music, and the waters of the Rhine as we retrace the heroic trajectory Wagner devised to launch Götterdämmerung (premiered 1876), the fourth and final opera in his gargantuan Ring cycle. Good Friday Spell, from the beginning of Act III in Wagner's final stage work, Parsifal (premiered 1883) sets Parsifal's arrival and anointment prior to his entering the Grail castle, and features the famous "Dresden Amen." In both excerpts, we hear Wagner's consummate command of his innovative orchestral style, in which choirs of like instruments create individuated sound worlds, forming the basis for the distinctively opulent sound of his orchestra.
-- Raymond Knapp
Katia Popov, violin
Katia Popov is a First Prize Winner of the International Violin Competition "Svetoslav Obretenov", The International Violin Competition "Kozian", and The International Competition for Russian Music. While pursuing her Master's degree in Performance at the National Academy of Music in Sofia, she served as a Concertmaster of the Sofia Chamber Orchestra and the Academy of Music Chamber Orchestra.
Continuing her studies at the Paris Conservatory in the Violin master class of Prof. Nell Goutkovsky she became Concertmaster of "Orchestre Symphonique d'Europe" (ESO), a vibrant and young orchestra with the ambitious goal to bring together the most talented musicians from every country in the United Europe and make the best young symphonic orchestra in the world. She traveled and soloed extensively with them, playing concerts in front of such dignitaries as the Prime Ministers of all the European Countries and the Royal Families of Spain, Belgium and Netherlands. Ms. Popov has participated in a Solo and Chamber Music master classes with Tibor Varga, Vladimir Spivakov, Iona Brown and had been part of such music festivals as The Bach Music Festival in Oregon, the Mozart Festival in Salzburg with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Brahms Music Festival in Tour, France.
Ms. Popov is a member of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, a Principal IInd Violin in The Long Beach Symphony and serves as Assistant Concertmaster and a Principal Second Violin in the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra. She has performed numerous times with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under such conductors as Esa-Pekka Salonen, Sir Simon Rattel, and Zubin Mehta. Ms. Popov received her Masters and concluded her Doctoral studies at the UCLA in the violin class of Prof. Alexander Treger. Ms. Popov is an avid chamber music performer, a founder and First Violin of the "California String Quartet" and a Music Director of the "Musical Sunday Afternoons"- popular and versatile music series at the Beverly Hills Presbyterian Church. She is a very active recording musician and has been part of more then 600 Motion Picture and Television sound tracks.
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