From the Acorn

Saturday, May 10, 2008, 8 pm
Millard Auditorium, University of Hartford
200 Bloomfield Avenue
West Hartford, Connecticut

Glinka: Kamarinskaya
Mikhail Glinka (1804-1857) is rightly known as the father of Russian Music and is best known for his short but sparkling overture to his second opera Ruslan and Ludmilla.. He had no formal musical training and initially wrote sentimental parlor music. Glinka traveled to Italy in 1830 and spent the next three years absorbing all he could of its musical styles. He then went to Berlin where he received his only formal musical training. Here he began to incorporate Russian folk themes in his music, devoting himself to establishing a Russian nationalist school. Kamarinskaya was written in 1848 and is based on two folk songs. Tchaikovsky recognized the importance of this early work of the Russian Nationalist School claiming “the Russian symphonic school is all in Kamarinskaya as the whole oak is in the acorn.”

Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto, Opus 35
Tchaikovsky began and completed his violin concerto in 1878; however, the violinist to whom he intended to dedicate it refused to perform the controversial composition. It was not until 1881 that it received its first performance by the Vienna Philharmonic. There the concerto, particularly the folk-like third movement, was met with harsh criticism. The first movement begins with a gracious melody by the violins, with minimal orchestral accompaniment. When the solo violin appears it is at first a response to the orchestral violins’ melody, but the solo develops fully into its own theme. The cadenza is Tchaikovsky’s own; it embellishes the existing themes as well as providing additional technical explorations.

The second movement was extensively reworked after a first run-through by a violinist and the composer. The resulting canzonetta, or dance song, is compelling both in its melodic inspiration and beautifully detailed accompaniment. Tchaikovsky dramatically links the second and third movement with a transitional cadenza. Tchaikovsky displays his folk heritage in the melodies and mood of the third movement.

Moussorgsky: Prelude: Khovanschina
Moussorgsky began work on his historical opera in 1872. He continued to work on it until his death in 1881 at the age of 42. The opera was completed and orchestrated by Rimsky Korsakov and was first performed in 1886. The Prelude was written in 1874 and Moussorgsky’s own title for it is “Dawn on the Moskva River.”

Stravinsky: Suite from The Firebird
In 1906 the Russian impresario Serge Diaghilev sponsored a show of Russian art in Paris. In 1909 he brought his Ballets Russe to the Paris stage and in 1910 he commissioned Anatol Liadov to write music for his new ballet based on the legend of the Firebird. Liadov’s inability to write the music in a timely fashion lead Diaghilev to turn to the little known Russian composer, Igor Stravinsky, whose short work “Fireworks” of 1906 had made an impression on Diaghilev. Firebird was the first of three ballets Stravinsky wrote for the Ballets Russe and established him as perhaps the greatest composer of the first half of the twentieth century. The suite Stravinsky compiled in 1919 consists of five sections of the ballet that are listed in the evening’s program.