Legendes, Op.76 (16’)*

 

Variations on an Original Theme, Op.36 “Enigma” (31’)*

C.A.E. (L’istesso tempo)

H.D.S.-P. (Allegro)

R.B.T. (Allegretto)

W.M.B. (Allegro di molto)

R.P.A. (Moderato)

Ysobel (Andantino)

Troyte (Presto)

W.N. (Allegretto)

Nimrod (Adagio)

Intermezzo: Dorabella (Allegretto)

G.R.S. (Allegro di molto)

B.G.N. (Andante)

Romanza *** (Moderato)

Finale: E.D.U. (Allegro – Presto)

 

INTERMISSION

 

Violin Concerto in D Major, Op.77 (41’)*

 

 

Jacques Hétu (b. Trois-Rivières, 1938 / d. Saint-Hippolyte, Québec, 2010)

 

First performance: May 28, 2008 in Québec City

This is the ESO premiere of the piece

 

Légendes was a commission from Radio-Canada for Québec City’s 400th anniversary in 2008. Mr. Hétu explained his approach as follows: “I embraced legends from different regions (Saguenay, Gaspé, Outaouais) since Québec City is the cradle of all of Québec. I hope that people will enjoy listening to Légendes as much as I enjoyed composing this work, which is playful, festive and even droll.”

 

I – Alexis le Trotteur “I was inspired by a real hero from the Saguenay whose amazing exploits made him into a legend. Alexis Lapointe (a.k.a. the Trotter) thought of himself as a horse. He could in fact run faster than horses, bikes, cars and trains and also spend all evening dancing. The lively, frenetic music evokes a boisterous man (horn theme), his race against a train (woodwind fugato), his dancing (Shandon Bells jig), and the endless galloping of this tireless horse man.”

 

II – Le Diable au bal “This theme had several variants (Rose Latulipe, The Stranger, The Handsome Dancer). This version features a young girl who loves attending dances. One day, she is invited to a dance held in a fancy ballroom. At the time, waltzing is forbidden by the Church. During the evening, a tall, handsome man arrives, starts courting the young girl and gives her a beautiful gold necklace that gradually turns into red-hot iron. The girl falls down dead, and the young man,  actually the devil in disguise, steals her soul away. The gentle rhythm at the end of the piece suggests that the girl’s soul still dances on.”

 

III – La Chasse-Galerie “This legend dates back to the fur traders. Later, lumberjacks in remote logging camps told the story. The Québec version takes place on New Year’s Eve. Lonely lumberjacks at a logging camp feel glum and wish that they could spend a few hours in the city with their sweethearts. The more intrepid men agree to sign a pact with the devil that has three conditions: they mustn’t swear, mustn’t touch a Christian cross, and must be back to camp before dawn. In return, the devil will fly them in their bark canoe over the forest and mountains and later bring them back the same way. A gradual crescendo conveys the impetuousness of the men who have gathered. The canoe takes flight, depicted by successive orchestral rises. At a festive house that is all lit up, the celebrations get into full swing. The night passes and the men must leave. The canoe takes off, but it grazes a few church steeples and the drunk lumberjacks start swearing (short ’inebriated’ orchestral episode). The first rays of sunlight suddenly stretch across the sky and wake the men, who grow frantic and start swearing again. The canoe goes into a nosedive (the entire orchestra in free fall). A few men grab hold of branches of fir trees; the others fall into the deep snow (jolting of the bass strings). All the lumberjacks suffer amnesia, except one man, who tells the tale of the flying canoe to future generations (coda).”

 

 

Edward Elgar (b. Broadheath, Worcestershire, 1857 / d. Worcester, 1934)

 

First performed: June 19, 1899 in London

Last ESO performance: January 2007

 

After a tiring day spent teaching one day, Edward Elgar returned home, and daydreamingly sat at the piano, making up a tune. That’s nice, his wife Alice said, play it again. So, he did, only making up variations on the tune as he did so, in little musical portraits of their friends. This was the genesis of the “Enigma” Variations, the work which would eventually establish Elgar as a major new composer. He eventually wrote 14 variations, orchestrating them over the course of 1898-99. So what’s the Enigma?

 

Not the tune – that’s presented at the outset, prior to the set of variations. Not the identities of all the friends – we have the names behind the initials and affectionate nicknames. Rather, Elgar has said, there is another theme, but one which is “never played.” Whether he meant a theme as a musical idea, or an overall “meaning,” Elgar never said, and despite decades of speculation as to the indentity, Elgar took the answer with him to the grave.

 

Following the G minor theme, variation one is for Elgar’s wife. Variation two is named for H.D. Steuart-Powell, a pianist friend of Elgar’s. The Allegretto third variation in G Major is for R.B. Townsend, an amateur actor whose vocal gifts for sudden changes in pitch is gently parodied. Variation four is W. Heath Baker. The fifth is named for R.P. Arnold, son of the famous poet, who was noted for his sense of humour. “Ysobel” was the nickname for violist Isabel Fitton, so her instrument is given prominence in variation six. Arthur Troyte Griffiths was a more willing pianist than an able one, and his enthusiasm colours the seventh variation. Elgar said that, while the eighth variation is named for Winifred Norbury, the music itself is meant to depict an eighteenth-century house.

 

The most famous variation, often excerpted as a stand-alone moment, is the serene “Nimrod” ninth variation, named in tribute to Elgar’s friend A.E. Jaeger. Variation ten teases Dora Penny (“Dorabella”) and her tendency to speak hesitatingly. Organist G.R. Sinclair is depicted throwing a stick into a river for his bulldog to retrieve – listen for the bark – in the eleventh variation. The cello spotlight in number twelve is for cellist Basil Nevinson. No initials are given for variation 13, though the reference to Mendelssohn’s Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage was a nod to Lady Mary Trefusis, who was on a sea excursion at the time. Elgar gave himself the last word with the final variation – “Edu” was a nickname for himself.

 

 

Johannes Brahms (b. Hamburg, 1833 / d. Vienna, 1897)

 

First performed: January 1, 1879 in Leipzig

Last ESO performance: May 2007

 

Two violinists played major roles in the career of Johannes Brahms. A major boost to the start of his life as a public artist came from Eduard Reményi (1828-1898), a violinist who made something of a career as a touring virtuoso, specializing in a crowd-pleasing faux gypsy style. Beginning in 853, Reményi took Brahms on tour with him as accompanist, and it was certainly during this time that Brahms got the inspiration for the famous Hungarian Dances which proved quite lucrative for the blossoming composer. And it was Reményi who introduced Brahms to another Hungarian expatriate – and the other violinist so central to Brahms’ art – Joseph Joachim.

 

In Joachim (1831-1907), Brahms found a kindred artistic spirit, and probably his best friend (other than Clara Schumann), and it was for him that Brahms composed his only Violin Concerto. The process of the work’s composition was a taxing one for both men; Brahms constantly cajoled Joachim for advice on writing the violin part – and would then unceremoniously ignore nearly every suggestion Joachim made. Joachim demonstrated amazing patience and restraint, as he knew that his patience would be rewarded with a masterpiece. The work’s premiere in Leipzig, with Brahms conducting for his friend, met with a cool response, so Brahms declined to conduct the Viennese premiere. That was a pity, as the work was rapturously received there. It took several years for the concerto to take its place as the third great pillar in the German romantic violin concerto pantheon (alongside Beethoven’s and Mendelssohn’s), however. Even the conductor of the Viennese premiere, Josef Hellmesberger, famously described the work as, “a concerto not for, but against the violin.”

 

As ever with his concertos, Brahms assigns the orchestra and violin equal importance in the Violin Concerto. The orchestral introduction is long, with several important musical ideas presented in an opening filled with passion and dignity. When the violin enters, while it is certainly to the fore, it is often accompanist to ideas in the orchestra as much as it is the instrument presenting the main melodic material. This is certainly a lyrical movement (and longer than the next two combined), but its gentle melodies are often interrupted by disquieting interjections and unsettled tonalities. There are moments of grandeur amid the violin’s intense flights with and around the lyrical main ideas, with particular emphasis on the violin’s upper register (the better to be heard above the orchestra – a factor of which Brahms was particularly conscious). Brahms relied on Joachim (who was also a composer) to fashion his own cadenza, which is the one to be performed by Ms. Kang tonight.

 

The second movement is a set of variations on a theme first presented by – the oboe? “Does anyone imagine I’m going to stand on the stage, violin in hand, and listen to the oboe playing the only tune?” huffed no less than the great Sarasate as to why he did not take up Brahms’ concerto. The violin is key to the movement, however, presenting embellishments on the oboe’s song. In the final movement – not quite a rondo, not quite sonata form – Brahms gives a bit of a nod, perhaps, to his old friend Reményi, with a gypsy-tinged dance in which both orchestra and soloist take some rough and tumble delight. Brahms labeled the movement Allegro giocoso (“happy and jocular”), though it was Joachim who pressed him to add ma non troppo vivace (“but not too lively”), adding cursively that without it, “otherwise difficult.”

 

 

2010/11 brought a slew of return engagements in North America. Highlights in Canada included a Werther production with the Montréal Opera, and engagements with the Calgary Philharmonic, Québec Symphony, Symphony Nova Scotia, and I Musici de Montréal in a rare guest appearance. In the U.S., he conducted the Oregon Symphony, San Antonio Symphony, and Rigoletto with the Cincinnati Opera. From 2002-2006 Jean-Marie Zeitouni was associate conductor and chorus master at l’Opéra de Montréal and was Music Director of their Young Artist Program. He was also Music Director of the Banff Centre "Opera as Theatre" program (2005-06), chorus master at l’Opéra de Québec (2003-05) and choir director of the Québec Symphony Orchestra (2001-03). He was as well director of the orchestra and opera workshop of the Faculty of Music at Laval University (1999-2002). In the summer of 2004, Zeitouni acted as assistant conductor at the Mostly Mozart Festival in New York City for the Jonathan Miller production of Così fan tutte. Jean-Marie Zeitouni graduated from the Montréal Conservatory in conducting, percussion, and theory. He studied with Maestro Raffi Armenian.

 

Mr. Zeitouni last appeared with the ESO in April 2011.

 

Ms. Kang’s recording debut--a recital on the Discover International label, including the premiere recording of Lutoslawski’s Subito, was issued to rapturous acclaim and followed by a recital CD recorded “live” at Carnegie Hall. On the CBC label is her orchestral recording debut, Schumann and Wieniawski concertos with Sergiu Comissiona and the Vancouver Symphony. Ms. Kang has also been a member of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, was assistant concertmaster of the Boston Symphony, and in 2005-2006 joined the Philadelphia Orchestra as First Associate Concertmaster. Ms. Kang has been profiled in The Strad, The Indianapolis Star, The New York Times, The Globe and Mail and many other publications.

 

Ms. Kang last appeared with the ESO in October 1998.