Program Notes of Spin, My Spinner, one of the Fifty Russian Folksongs Tchaikovsky arranged for publication in 1868-1869. The third movement is a quicksilver Scherzo, whose central trio shifts rhythmic gears into a jaunty duple meter. The finale, a dazzling display of orchestral color and rhythmic exuberance, is a set of variations on the Ukrainian tune The Crane. A slow introduction for full orchestra presents the basic shape of the melody before the variations are begun by the strings. The tiny tune is presented over and over, each time appearing in a different orchestral vestment so that the variations are based as much on changing tone color as on melodic manipulation. As a foil to the movement’s propulsive rhythmic energy, Tchaikovsky added a lyrical melody, first heard in the violins and then repeated by the flutes. Joyous festivity, however, is at the heart of this music, and it is not kept long at bay by tender sentiment. WITOLD LUTOSŁAWSKI CONCERTO FOR ORCHESTRA Duration: ca. 28 minutes Overview Witold Lutosławski was among the giants of late-20thcentury music. Born into a highly cultured family in Warsaw, Poland, on January 25, 1913, Lutosławski took up piano and violin as a teenager before entering the Warsaw Conservatory to study keyboard and composition. His first important work, the Symphonic Variations (1938), dates from the year after his graduation. He supported himself during the difficult years of World War II, when he was in constant fear of deportation, as a pianist in the Warsaw cafés. At that time, he also worked on his First Symphony, which was condemned following its 1947 premiere for not conforming to the government-prescribed style of “socialist realism.” Many of his works of the following decade avoided “formalism” by deriving their melodic and harmonic inspiration from folk songs and dances, a period that culminated in the splendid Concerto for Orchestra of 1950-1954. What to Listen For Like Bartók’s familiar work of the same title, Lutosławski’s Concerto for Orchestra allows each orchestral section solo opportunities, creating a richly varied kaleidoscope of instrumental colors enlivened by a clear and invigorating harmonic palette and a bursting rhythmic energy. The first THE FLORIDA ORCHESTRA | 2017-2018 movement is titled Intrada, a term used in the 16th and 17th centuries for the festive opening piece of a musical evening. Lutosławski’s Intrada begins over a gigantic sustained pedalpoint in the basses and proceeds through several sections that are played in reverse order after the movement’s central point to create a symmetrical, mirror-like structure with the pedal-point and its decorating themes returning at the end to round out the form. The second movement (Capriccio notturno e Arioso) opens and closes with skittering music that brings to mind the whirrings and buzzings of a country summer night. The Arioso at the movement’s center, initiated by unison trumpets, is an extended melody given above heavy accompanimental punctuations. The finale comprises three continuous sections — Passacaglia, a set of increasingly elaborate variations around an unchanging melody, first played by the basses; Toccata, a vibrantly rhythmic stanza commencing after the Passacaglia fades into silence; and Chorale, begun by oboes and clarinets and growing through the full ensemble to stentorian proportions. PETER ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY 1812, OVERTURE SOLENNELLE, Op. 49 Duration: ca. 16 minutes The Russian penchant for myth-making extends, of course, to her warfare. It is therefore not surprising that Napoleon’s strategic withdrawal from Moscow in 1812 came to be regarded in Russia as a great military victory achieved through cunning and resourcefulness, conveniently ignoring the French General Ney’s report that “general famine and general winter, rather than Russian bullets, conquered the Grand Army.” Nearly seventy years later, the Cathedral of Christ the Redeemer was erected in Moscow to commemorate the events of 1812. For the Cathedral’s consecration, Nikolai Rubinstein, head of the Moscow Conservatory and director of the Russian Musical Society, planned a celebratory festival of music, and in 1880 he asked Tchaikovsky to write a work for the occasion. That 1812 Overture represents the conflict, militarily and musically, of Russia and France, and the eventual Russian “victory” over the invaders. © 2017 Dr. Richard E. Rodda Please visit www.FloridaOrchestra.org for our full program notes. 50
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