Overture Magazine - 2015-2016 Season January-February 2016

program notes { slow movements. Written four years before Romeo and Juliet, the Andante second movement anticipates the poignant, dark-hued lyricism that would make the composer’s treatment of that ultimate tale of doomed love so memorable. The orchestra alone presents the soaring, heartbreaking theme. When the soloist finally enters, he becomes the orchestra’s sensitive partner in weaving an exquisite tapestry of colors and emotions. In the beautiful closing coda, listen for a brief but powerful crunch of dissonance: a masterstroke that elevates this music beyond mere loveliness. Mercurial in mood and extremely episodic, movement three opens in a moderate tempo with a rather harsh theme, led by trumpet and emphasizing pounding repeated notes. This idea— which unconventionally combines the feeling of an angular, driving march with a 3/4 meter—remains the focal point to which the music will return during its continual shifts of thematic material in a variety of moods from reflective to aggressive to sarcastic. It is as though several strong personalities were contending for dominance in this provocative, always-fascinating music. Capitalizing on left-hand piano technique, Prokofiev exploits big octaves deep in the piano’s bass register and intensifies them with blows of the bass drum. Continuing this concerto’s strategy of high contrast, Prokofiev then returns to his quick-silver opening music for his brief finale: music that is as airy and weightless as the previous movement was heavy and grounded. This time he runs its brilliant circuit in just one highly compressed minute. Symphony No. 3 in A Minor Sergei Rachmaninoff Born in Semyonovo, Russia, April 1, 1873; died in Beverly Hills, California, March 28, 1943 When Sergei Rachmaninoff fled the Russian Revolution in December 1917, his life was turned upside down. He would mourn his lost native land for the rest of his life, and in his successive homes in Switzerland and America, he tried to recreate a little Russia with icons, samovars, and Russian-speaking servants. Having left all his wealth behind, he took up a grueling schedule of touring as a virtuoso pianist to support his wife and two daughters, in the process becoming one of the 20th century’s keyboard legends. But his composing, so prolific until 1917, languished. Rachmaninoff was acutely aware of his creative problems and of their probable causes. “Perhaps the incessant practice and eternal rush inseparable from life as a concert artist takes too much toll of my strength; perhaps I feel that the kind of music I care to write is not acceptable today,” he wrote. “And perhaps my true reason … is none of these. For when I left Russia, I left behind … my desire to compose: losing my country I lost myself also. To the exile whose musical roots, traditions and background have been annihilated, there remains no desire for self-expression.” But creativity gradually reasserted itself, and in 1933–34 he wrote his first great post-Russian success: the incandescent Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. Buoyed by its enthusiastic reception, he turned to something more ambitious: a Third Symphony to follow his immensely popular Second, written nearly 30 years earlier. Composed at his Swiss lakeside villa, the Third demonstrated that his musical voice had matured over his long hiatus. But not all listeners at its premiere on November 6, 1936, were pleased with these changes. For one thing, with the exception of the first movement’s yearning cello theme, the Third Symphony lacks the soaring melodies that had made his music so popular. However, the composer counters this with tighter symphonic construction, more daring harmonies, and dazzling orchestration that rivals Ravel and Debussy in its mastery of subtle instrumental timbres. Mingling tones of nostalgia and anguish, of paralyzing fear and grim determination to get on with life, it fulfills Rachmaninoff’s dictum: “Music should … be the expression of a composer’s complex personality.” Like the Second Symphony, the first movement opens with a motto theme that JANUARY 4,7,2015 ATat 4 PM February 2016 4PM (ticket required) $15 nur Cantata 93: Wer den lieben Gott läßt Cantata 112: Der Herrwalten ist mein Cantata getreuer169: HirtGott soll allein mein Herze haben Handel: Water Music Suite #1 (ticket required) $15 at Zion Lutheran HWV 348 Church, City Hall Plaza, 148 N. Gay Street, Church Baltimore At Christ Lutheran 701 S. Charles St., Baltimore, MD 21230 March 5, 2016 at 7PM (Saturday) FEBRUARY 1, 2015 AT 4 PM St. Matthew Passion, FREE! BWV 244–Part I Cantata 179: Siehe zu, dass deine March 6, 2016 at 4PM Gottesfurcht nicht Heuchelei (Sunday) sei Violin Concerto in A minor, St. Matthew BWV 1041 Passion, BWV 244– Part II At Christ Lutheran Church (ticket required) $25 each concert 701 S. Charles St., Church, Baltimore, MD Chatham 21230 at First Lutheran 3604 Road, Ellicott City MARCH 1, 2015 AT 4 PM aPril 3, 2016 at 4PM (tickets required) —Pay you $38 wish! $33 in what advance; at the door Cantata 82: Ich habe genug B Minor Mass Cantata 170: Vergnügte Ruh, At First Lutheran Church beliebte Seelenlust 3604 Chatham Rd., Ellicott City, MD 21042 at Zion Lutheran Church, City Hall Plaza, 148 N. Gay Street, Baltimore APRIL 5, 2015 AT 4 PM - FREE May 1, 2016, 4PM Cantata 49: Ich geh und suche In Memoriam emit verlangen Rutter: Requiem At Zion Lutheran Church, Haydn: MissaSt., Sancti Nicolai 400 E. Lexington Baltimore, MD 21202 Gawthrop: Sing Me to Heaven (ticket required) $30 MAY, 3, 2015 AT 4 PM at Towson United Y]

Overture Magazine - 2015-2016 Season January-February 2016 | Page 17