Overture Magazine: 2017-2018 Season September-October 2017 | Page 19

POETIC FIRE: FROM HAMLET TO DON JUAN It had been percolating in Tchaikovsky’s brain since 1876, when his brother Modest suggested the subject and even provided the composer with a scenario involving portraits of three of the drama’s principal characters: Hamlet, Ophelia and her father, Polonius. But at that time, Tchaikovsky found himself more intrigued by Dante’s Francesca da Rimini, and so created a tone poem about her ill-starred love affair and eternal condemnation. A letter in February 1888 from the composer’s friend, the French actor Lucien Guitry, asking for an overture and inci- dental music for a performance of Hamlet he was planning, finally struck the spark. Ultimately, Guitry’s production never came off, but its overture was completed and premiered in St. Petersburg under Tchai- kovsky’s baton on November 24, 1888. The audience loved it, but the critics were less convinced. Actual correspondences to elements of Shakespeare’s plot in Tchaikovsky’s tone poem are rather vague; rather than following a dramatic scenario, the Hamlet Overture is more a series of portraits of psychological states. Musically, it is cast as a sonata form in F minor with a slow introduction, but without a true development section. In a tempo marked Lento lugubre, the music opens in a mood of dark foreboding. Violas and cellos sing a brooding melody with a pronounced downward trajectory: this is the theme of Fate, which constrains Hamlet’s actions. With a crash of the tam- tam, the ghost of Hamlet’s father appears, demanding retribution. The main Allegro vivace section then presents a more active, upward-striding theme, representing Hamlet’s desire to avenge his father’s murder. Coming from a different harmonic and emotional world is Ophelia’s beautiful second-subject music in B minor, a distant key from Hamlet’s F minor. A solo oboe represents her in one of Tchaikovsky’s most poignantly haunt- ing melodies, and a romantic, balletic love scene between the two follows. The exposition section closes with resolute military-march music: this stands for the Norwegian Prince Fortinbras, who will ultimately rescue the situation at Elsinore. Bypassing a development section, the music returns to more elaborately scored versions of Hamlet’s active theme and Ophelia’s romantic song. As Hamlet moves toward his doom, trombones roar the opening Fate theme. Hamlet fights his fatal duel with Laertes, and a brutal clash signals his death. A quiet epilogue, with strings solemnly reprising the Fate theme, mourns his end. A CHRISTMAS CAROL SAT, DEC 9 | 11 AM Nicholas Hersh, Associate Conductor Tim Marrone, actor Instrumentation: Three flutes including HANDEL’S MESSIAH piccolo, two oboes, English horn, two clarinets, SAT, DEC 9 | 7:30 PM SUN, DEC 10 | 3 PM Edward Polochick, conductor & harpsichord Christina Pier, soprano Hannah Ludwig, alto Norman Shankle, tenor Sidney Outlaw, bass Concert Artists of Baltimore Symphonic Chorale, Edward Polochick, Artistic Director two bassoons, four horns, two cornets, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion and strings. DON JUAN Richard Strauss Born in Munich, Germany, June 11, 1864; died in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, West Germany, September 8, 1949 HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS