{ Program Notes
NOV 24 DEC 15
Valet Seven Days A Week
What?
’
you re not in
Overture?
you’re
missing out,
hon.
Reach over 100,000 educated,
affluent patrons of the BSO five times
a year in Overture, a program that’s
about more than just beautiful music.
Design
Printing
AD sAles
to advertise, ContaCt:
Ken Iglehart: [email protected]
Lynn Talbert: [email protected]
Julie P. Wittelsberger: [email protected]
Advertising proceeds go to the BSO, not Baltimore magazine
18 O v ertur e |
www. bsomusic .org
profession— an abnegation that is very
rare.” The two collaborated closely on the
concerto, which they premiered together
in Berlin on October 23, 1931. For several
years thereafter, they gave recitals together,
for which Stravinsky also created his Duo
concertant for violin and piano.
The Violin Concerto is a shining
example of the spirit and manner of
Stravinsky’s neo-classical period. In full
revolt from late Romanticism and his early
folk-Russian style, the composer since
the early 1920s had espoused a rigorously
abstract aesthetic inspired by the forms
and musical language of the 18th-century
Baroque masters. In creating this Concerto, he dismissed the standard violin
concertos as models and harkened back to
Bach. “The subtitles of my Concerto —
Toccata, Aria, Capriccio —may suggest
Bach, and so, in a superficial way, might
the musical substance. I am very fond of
the Bach Concerto for Two Violins as the
duet of the soloist with a violin from the
orchestra in the last movement … may
show. But my Concerto employs other
duet combinations too, and the texture
is almost always more characteristic of
chamber music than of orchestral music.”
This chamber music-like relationship
between soloist and orchestra sets this work
apart from the typical solo showcase; as
the composer wrote: “I did not care about
exploiting violin virtuosity … because the
violin in combination was my real interest.” But when he claimed, “the technical
demands of the piece are relatively tame,”
he misleads us. Stravinsky larded the solo
part with difficult multiple-stopped chords,
beginning with the very first sound we
hear: the violinist playing the three open
strings of D, A and E, but with the A lofted
two octaves into the stratosphere. He called
it the “passport” to the entire work, and
its shocking, astringent sound launches all
four movements.
The opening Toccata has the ironic
detachment characteristic of many of
Stravinsky’s neo-classical works. After
the “passport” chord grabs our attention,
trumpets, then oboes introduce a twisting
Baroque “turn” ornament from which
the soloist builds a wry theme. The music
becomes more emotionally engaged in the
The final Capriccio is a
ligh