Masters Program Notes: A Dramatic Conclusion

Masters Program Notes: A Dramatic Conclusion

A Dramatic Conclusion
Friday, June 12, 2009 - 7:30 pm
Saturday, June 13, 2009 - 8 pm
William Eddins, conductor
James Ehnes, violin

MENDELSSOHN
A Midsummer Night’s Dream Overture, Opus 21 (12’)*

CHAUSSON
Poème in E-flat major for Violin, Opus 25  (16’)*

WIENIAWSKI
Fantaisie brillante on Themes from Gounod's Faust, Opus 20 (19')*

INTERMISSION

PROKOFIEV
Romeo and Juliet: Suite No. 2, Opus 64b (33')*
  Montagues and Capulets
  Juliet as a Young Girl
  Friar Laurence
  Dance
  Romeo and Juliet Before Parting
  Dance of the Maids with Lilies
  Romeo at Juliet's Grave

*indicates approximate performance duration

Program Notes

Cross-pollination is an essential element of many art forms, classical music being no exception.  The written word has been fodder for any number of orchestral compositions with the master William Shakespeare leading the inspirational way.  Today’s concert runs the gamut from comedy to tragedy, from the sacred to the profane.  Fate is the common denominator.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream Overture, Op.21
Felix Mendelssohn
(b. Hamburg, 1809 / d. Leipzig, 1847)

First performance: February 1, 1827 in Stettin
Last ESO performance: May 2008

It was de rigeur for composers of the 19th century to write “incidental music” – music to be performed between scene changes for plays.  Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann and many of their contemporaries all had a go at various times and so it is no surprise to find Felix Mendelssohn trying his luck.  His incidental music to A Midsummer Night’s Dream has proven to be some of his most popular music.  This viciously difficult overture captures the overtones of misdirection and playfulness found throughout Shakespeare’s play and it has become a tour de force for orchestras.  Starting with chords in the woodwinds which evoke a certain timelessness, or perhaps the element of suspended time that is a leitmotif in the play, Mendelssohn then moves on to the skittering string music which has made this overture so famous.  This music, as well as the Scherzo that follows, make regular appearances on audition lists due to their difficulty.  Performances of the complete incidental music are now quite rare.  What theatre company in their right mind would hire an entire orchestra just to play this incidental music?  It’s rather cost prohibitive.

Poème in E-flat Major for Violin, Op.25
Ernest Chausson
(b. Paris, 1855 / d. Limay, 1899)

First performance: December 27, 1896 in Nancy
Last ESO performance: October 1999

French composer Ernest Chausson is perhaps the musical poster boy for bicycle safety.  Just when his career was starting to flourish he died when he lost control of his bicycle and ran smack into a brick wall.  His rather small output includes his very popular Symphony in B-flat as well as this Poème for Violin and Orchestra. But his most enduring legacy may have been that of a facilitator for other musicians and artists.  For some thirty three years until the time of his death he was secretary of the Société nationale de musique, and in that capacity would have hosted many of the leading musicians of the time, including Debussy, Fauré, and Albéniz.  It is also claimed that Chausson was the first to write for the Celeste, putting it to use in his incidental music to Shakespeare’s The Tempest.

Fantaisie brillante on Themes from Gounod’s Faust, Op.20
Henryk Wieniawski
(b. Lublin, 1835 / d. Moscow, 1880)

First performance: 1868 in Leipzig
This is the ESO premiere of the work

Proving that Shakespeare did not have a stranglehold on the Written Word along comes the Faust legend, first put into modern form by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832). For some reason this legend was particularly resonant with the French, and many composers from Hector Berlioz through Lili Boulanger had their own particular take on the tragedy.  Charles Gounod’s opera on this subject was a flop at the premiere (1859), but just three short years later it was a huge success.  The opera is a massive undertaking, with five acts and a full ballet corps, and it has the distinction of being the first opera performed at the Met when that opera house opened in 1883.

The opera obviously became immensely popular in a hurry, for it was only in 1865 that Henryk Wieniawski wrote his Fantaisie on Themes from Gounod’s Faust.  Wieniawski could very readily be called the Polish Paganini.  His violin virtuosity was legendary throughout Russia (his long time home) and Europe.  This Fantasia is emblematic of Wieniawski’s compositional output – your average Sunday afternoon violin duffer should not attempt to play this piece under any condition.  Double stops, massive leaps, extreme bow techniques – all are as prevalent here as they are throughout his music and lend a true devilishness to this most devilish subject.

Romeo and Juliet: Suite No. 2, Op.64b
Sergei Prokofiev
(b. Sontsovka, Ekaterinoslav, 1891 / d. Moscow, 1953)

First performance of the ballet: January 11, 1940 in Leningrad
Last ESO performance of the suite: all three suites were performed in September 1996. The Edmonton Symphony also accompanied Alberta Ballet’s last production of Romeo and Juliet in October 2005. The work will be staged again by Alberta Ballet, with the ESO, on November 6 & 7, 2009.

Despite Goethe’s wonderful legend, it is Shakespeare who still has pride of place when it comes to adaptation, and in his cannon no play stands out more than that of the star-crossed lovers Romeo and Juliet. Sergei Prokofiev received a commission from the famed Kirov Ballet on this subject and set to work on the ballet in 1935, just a short time before moving from Paris (his home for many years) back to the Soviet Union.  The previous few years had been fertile indeed – the Fourth and Fifth Piano Concertos, Second Violin Concerto, and the film score to Lieutenant Kije had all flowed from his pen, but despite his love for Paris he was homesick.  This commission was another reason to move back to the East.

Prokofiev was a natural for an adaptation of Romeo and Juliet.  He had extensive experience writing in dramatic forms and his interest in ballet had gone back more than 20 years, plus he was good friends with Diaghilev who was the driving force behind Prokofiev’s very first ballet Chout (1921).  No less luminaries than Cocteau, Stravinsky, and Ravel considered it a masterpiece.  Despite that, there were problems with the Romeo production.  First, there was the problem of the “happy ending.”  Other production problems ensued and it wasn’t until December, 1938 that the ballet was premiered.  It has come to be one of Prokofiev’s most popular works, and the experience of writing the music led him to start work on the massive film score Alexander Nevsky. 

Program Notes © 2009 William Eddins

Program notes © 2009 by the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra and its respective annotators. All Rights Reserved. Program notes may not be printed in their entirety without the written consent of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra; excerpts may be quoted if due acknowledgment is given to the author and to the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra. For reprint permission, contact D.T. Baker, Music Resource, by email, dave.baker@winspearcentre.com.
 
These notes appear in galley files prepared for Signature magazine, official publication of the ESO, and may contain typographical or other errors, or may differ from the final print version. Programs and artists subject to change without notice.