Overture to Russlan and Ludmilla

Mikhail Glinka (1804-1857)

Mikhail Glinka had a profound influence on the Russian composers who followed in his footsteps, like Mussorgsky, Borodin, Rimsky-Korsakov, Prokofiev, and Shostakovich. Born into a noble family in Smolensk, he was primed for a life in government service—but his true passion was music. He eventually developed a strong interest in Russian folk song, and after an 1830 trip to Italy during which he met Bellini and Donizetti, began conceiving of a distinctly Russian musical style that merged the melodies and harmonies of native music with the aesthetic of Italian opera. His first opera, A Life for the Czar (1836), was praised for its integration of folk and serious music. In Russlan and Ludmilla (1842), Glinka strayed slightly from his folk-like idiom. After his death in Berlin in 1857, however, the opera became much more popular.

Russlan and Ludmilla is based on a fairy tale by Pushkin that centers on Russlan's efforts to save his love Ludmilla from the evil dwarf Tchernomor. Russlan perseveres, and the pair are finally married in the opera's final scene. The spirited Overture is derived from themes from the opera. The opening section is based on two melodies from the marriage scene (the tutti chord and rushing scales of the first measures and the fleet theme presented by the strings and flutes). The contrasting, lyrical second theme (played by bassoons, violas, and cellos) is from Russlan's second-act aria in which he sings of his love for Ludmilla.

---

Program Notes by Jennifer More ©2018

Duet-Concertino

Richard Strauss (1864-1949)

The last instrumental composition Richard Strauss completed before his death in 1949, the Duet-Concertino is one of a small group of works like the Oboe Concerto (1945) in which he eschews the huge orchestral textures of his tone poems in favor of greater simplicity and a more small-scale, agile style. Strauss completed the work in late 1947, dedicating it to his friend Hugo Burghauser, formerly the bassoonist of the Vienna Philharmonic, to whom he had written a year earlier, "I am very busy with an idea for a double concerto for clarinet and bassoon thinking especially of your beautiful tone—nevertheless, apart from a few sketched out themes it still remains no more than an intention. Perhaps it would interest you." Otmar Nussio led the small orchestra of Radio Svizzera Italiana (Lugano, Switzerland) in the concerto's premiere on April 4, 1948.

While Strauss may have moved away from the grand scale of his earlier instrumental compositions, the Duet-Concertino still has extramusical associations. He reportedly told conductor Clemens Krauss that the work's subject was Hans Christian Andersen's tale The Swineherd, in which a prince (the bassoon) surreptitiously woos a princess (the clarinet) by posing as a swineherd at her father's palace. To Burghauser, however, Strauss wrote, "A dancing princess is alarmed by the grotesque cavorting of a bear in imitation of her. At last she is won over to the creature and dances with it, upon which it turns into a prince. So in the end, you too will turn into a prince and live happily ever after."

Whatever its true narrative, the Duet-Concertino is a graceful and jovial showcase for its two soloists, who engage in natural and compelling conversation with the orchestra throughout all three movements. Particularly noteworthy is the lengthy third movement, which is highly reminiscent of the composer's oboe concerto. Scholar David Hurwitz concludes, "Works such as this are unique and have no true antecedents in the orchestral literature...That Strauss wrote it at all is something miraculous."

---

Program Notes by Jennifer More ©2018

Intermezzo from Cavalleria Rusticana

Pietro Mascagni (1863-1945)

In February 1890, Italian composer Pietro Mascagni entered his third opera, Cavalleria Rusticana, into a competition sponsored by the music publisher Sonzogno. Not only did he win, but the work's Roman premiere on May 17 was extremely successful—so successful, in fact, that none of his other works ever approached Cavalleria's popularity. Cavalleria Rusticana deals with rural Sicilians and their code of honor—although most of its characters are not particularly honorable—and is set in Sicily on Easter Morning. Though the Intermezzo does little more dramatically than mark the passage of time, the Intermezzo has become one of the most famous tunes in the history of opera.

---

Program Notes by Jennifer More ©2018

Suite No. 1 from Peer Gynt, Op. 46

Edvard Grieg (1843-1907)

Written in 1867, Henrik Ibsen's drama Peer Gynt—the story of the downfall and redemption of a Norwegian peasant—was not initially intended for stage performance. Ibsen had second thoughts in 1874, however, and asked his compatriot Edvard Grieg to compose music for a production. While Grieg accepted enthusiastically, he struggled with the project. "Peer Gynt progresses slowly," he wrote to a friend in August 1874, "and there is no possibility of having it finished by autumn. It is a terribly unmanageable subject." Grieg eventually immersed himself in the project, however, and his wife reported, "The more he saturated his mind with the powerful poem, the more clearly he saw that he was the right man for a work of such witchery and so permeated with the Norwegian spirit." Grieg completed work in the fall of 1875, and the composer conducted the premiere on February 24, 1876. He assembled two suites from the play's music, in 1888 and 1893. The Peer Gynt Suite No. 1, with its movements "Morning Mood" and "In the Hall of the Mountain King," is one of Grieg's most beloved orchestral compositions.

---

Program Notes by Jennifer More ©2018

Romance in F Minor, Op. 11

Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904)

Antonín Dvořák learned to play the violin as a child, composing marches and waltzes for the village band. He went on to study piano, organ, and viola. After moving to Prague in 1857, he earned a living as a violist before finally becoming a composer full-time in 1871. His music soon attracted attention, particularly the March 1873 premiere of his patriotic cantata Heirs of the White Mountain, but after his opera The King and the Charcoal Burner was rejected, he turned to chamber music and wrote his String Quartet in F Minor, Op. 9. When this composition was also not enthusiastically received, he transformed the slow movement into the Romance for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 11. Published in 1879, only the Romance's principal theme—at once languid and rhapsodic—is rooted in the earlier quartet, while the remainder is newly composed. The work favors expression over abject virtuosity, the violin maintaining a passionate, yet restrained mood throughout.

---

Program Notes by Jennifer More ©2018

Rêverie, Op. 24

Alexander Glazunov (1865-1936)

Born in St. Petersburg in 1865 and a student of Rimsky-Korsakov, Alexander Glazunov was active as a teacher and composer well into the 20th century. He was also skilled on many instruments, including piano, violin, cello, trombone, trumpet, and clarinet—and was an especially talented French horn player. As Rimsky-Korsakov recounted, "He even took lessons on the horn from Franke, first hornist of the opera orchestra." Glazunov's colleague Dmitri Shostakovich recalled one particularly amusing anecdote that took place while Glazunov was conducting his own music on tour in England:

The British orchestra members were laughing at him. They thought he was a barbarian and probably an ignoramus, and so on.  And they began sabotaging him. […] The French horn player stood up and said that he couldn't play a certain note because it was impossible. The musicians heartily supported him. […] But here's what Glazunov did. He silently walked over to the horn player and took his instrument. The stunned musician didn't object. Glazunov "took aim" for a while and then played the required note, the one that the British musician insisted was impossible. The orchestra applauded. The insurrection was broken, and they continued the rehearsal.

Glazunov's Rêverie for Horn and Piano, op. 24, is an excellent illustration of his facility with the instrument.

---

Program Notes by Jennifer More ©2018

Boléro

Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)

As did most of his orchestral works, Maurice Ravel's Boléro began life as a piano piece—or at least in this case, it almost did. In the late 1920s, the dancer Ida Rubinstein asked Ravel to make an orchestral arrangement of six pieces from Iberia, a set of piano pieces by Albéniz. In the process of fulfilling the commission, Ravel ran into one of the realities of the 20th century—copyright law. As Spanish conductor Enrique Arbós had already orchestrated the dances, Ravel was prohibited from making his own arrangement. Arbós was happy to waive his rights, but Ravel decided to switch directions, ultimately crafting a new work based on the musical form and Spanish dance known as the boléro. According to one story, Ravel played the work's memorable melody on the piano for his friend Gustave Samezeuilh, asking, "Don't you think this theme has an insistent quality? I'm going to try and repeat it a number of times without any development, gradually increasing the orchestra as best I can." One of Ravel's most popular compositions, Boléro, was the result.

---

Program Notes by Jennifer More ©2018