Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)
Serenade for Strings, op. 48
One of Tchaikovsky’s most popular works, for musicians and audiences alike, came about almost “accidentally.” In 1880, he wrote his patroness Madame von Meck “My muse has been so kind that in a short time I have got through two long works: a big festival overture for the Exhibition, and a serenade for string orchestra in four movements. I am busy orchestrating them both.” The “big festival overture” was the 1812 Overture, a work he came to loath, but the serenade remained a favorite of the composer and audiences alike. In September, he had begun to sketch “either a symphony or string quartet.” By October it had evolved to a suite for string orchestra, but by November it had become Serenade for String Orchestra. Upon completing it, Tchaikovsky wrote his publisher “I am violently in love with this work and cannot wait for it to be played.” The first public performance, however, took place nearly a year later in St. Petersburg to enthusiastic response, with the Valse encored. Performances the next year in Moscow brought further acclaim. Most gratifying to the composer was the enthusiastic embrace of the piece by his former teacher Anton Rubinstein, who had previously only grumbled about his former pupil’s compositions.
While recalling the rococo/classical period use of the term “Serenade,” a multi-movement instrumental piece for entertainment, Tchaikovsky crafted his work formally in four-movements and a tight network of motivic connections associated with descending and ascending scales. All the while, listeners are carried along through beautiful melodies and the rich luxurious sounds of the string orchestra. The first movement, Tchaikovsky’s avowed homage to his hero Mozart, opens and closes with a broad theme, contrasted with an intricately developed Allegro moderato section. Tchaikovsky, no stranger to waltzes, gives us one of most enchanting and memorable of his waltz melodies built on an ascending scale. The following Élégie movement continues the ascending scale motive in a rich introduction that leads to the main theme–one of the composer’s loveliest melodies. Although the term "Élégie" may give the connotation of lament, the use of the major rather than minor mode lends itself more to a feeling of nostalgia rather than sadness. The final movement, Tema Russo, brings East and West together with two Russian folk songs: “A kak po lugu,” a Volga hauling song used for the introduction, and “Pod yablonyu zelyonoyu,” a well-known street song from the district of Kolomna presented Allegro con spirito. The concluding reappearance of the work’s opening theme demonstrates Tchaikovsky’s desire that we see that this grand theme actually grew out of the preceding exuberant folk song.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
Symphony No. 35 in D Major, K. 385 (Haffner)
Mozart's festive Symphony No. 35 in D Major originated from a request for a new Serenade for a gala occasion celebrating the enoblement of the son of Salzburg's Burgomaster Sigmund Haffner. The composer, having moved to Vienna and establishing himself as a freelance composer and performer, was extremely involved in other projects and lacked time for a new undertaking. But, perhaps because a previously commissioned work for a Haffner family wedding had yielded good pay, he told his father Leopold (still living in Salzburg) that he would try to comply and send something by every post. The Serenade was written in a period of about two weeks and sent piecemeal as promised. Six months later, Mozart needed a new symphony to be performed at one the Academies (concerts given during Lent when the theaters were closed), and requested that the Haffner score be returned to him. When it was returned he wrote his father, "The new Haffner symphony has quite astonished me, for I did not remember a note of it. It must have been very effective."
It was and is effective, especially after Mozart, dropping the introductory and closing march and one of minuets, transformed it from a party piece to the four-movement symphony we know today. An additional change was adding flutes and clarinets to the opening and closing movements. The music has a charm and a simplicity that has made it a concert favorite. An unusual feature of the joyous first movement is Mozart's use of a single theme throughout–but varied with such skill that one doesn't even miss a customary second theme. The pastorale flavor of the slow movement exhibits characteristics of the typical Mozart Serenade. The Menuetto is thoroughly Austrian Rococo with a Ländler-like trio. Ending the piece with a flourish, Mozart directed that the final rondo movement, the main theme from his opera Abduction from the Seraglio, should be played as fast as possible. The piece was first heard on a Lenten concert, March 23, 1783 at the Burgtheater in Vienna.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
Piano Concerto No. 17 in G Major, K. 453
Mozart’s first foray into the world of solo instrument accompanied by orchestra was at the age of nine when he arranged sonata movements by J.C. Bach for harpsichord and orchestra. His last contribution to the genre was the Clarinet Concerto written two months before his death. In between, he gave the world not only a wealth of concerted works for nearly every keyboard and orchestral instrument, but contributed to the growth of the genre through adding a sense of the dramatic, ideomatic writing for each instrument, and originality of thematic treatment. Through Mozart’s treatment, the concerto was elevated from merely a piece of entertainment for social gatherings to a serious musical endeavor. Following the composer’s move to Vienna to establish himself as a performer, teacher, and composer, twelve of his greatest of his piano concertos were written in the time span of 2 ½ years. Most of the these works were composed for the composer’s own use as a performer, and were written during the winter months with the intention that they be performed during the Lenten Academies or other public and private occasions. The works written for himself were often left without complete notation, leaving room for his prodigious talent at improvisation, and were often written with greater technical demands “which make me sweat.”
The Piano Concerto in G, K. 453 was written for one of the composer’s most accomplished students, Barbara von Ployer, to be played in a concert at her father’s house June 10, 1784. Mozart was obviously proud of his student and the new concerto writing to his father: “Tomorrow Herr Ployer is giving a concert in the country at Döbling, where Fräulein Babette is playing her new concerto in G and I am playing . . . . I am fetching Paisiello (prominent Italian opera composer) in my carriage, as I want him to hear both my pupil and my compositions.” The orchestral exposition of the first movement of this work shows Mozart’s thematic extravagance. Where a traditional classical concerto would give two contrasting themes, this exposition offers no less than six, one growing out of the previous one. Contemporary Karl Ditters von Diettersdof said of Mozart: “I have never yet known any composer who possessed such an astonishing wealth of ideas. I wish he were not so lavish in using them. He does not let the listener get his breath back, because while one wants to think about a beautiful idea, another, even more splendid, takes its place and banishes the former... . This wealth of a multiplicity yet beauty of ideas also graces the second movement where five separate themes are employed. The finale movement brings a sense of fun to the otherwise rather serious, elegant enterprise. This movement utilizes a theme variation treatment of a theme inspired by the composer’s pet starling. The drama of the building complexity of each variation is heightened through the introduction of a new theme, Presto, for an extended coda worthy of an opera finale.
Béla Bartók (1881-1945)
Roman nepi tancok (Rumanian Folk Dances)
As a young man, composer Béla Bartók wrote his mother of his life’s ambition: to contribute to “the good of Hungary and of the Hungarian nation.” Although he made his living primarily as a pianist and teacher, he is now recognized primarily for his compositions and his ethnological work. During his lifetime Bartók collected and classified more than 14,000 folks melodies of Hungarian, Slovak, Rumanian, Croatian, Turkish, Bulgarian, and North African origin. Much of his original work, done with his friend and colleague Zoltán Kodály, took place in the years preceding World War I. After the war, the changing political map of Eastern Europe made it increasingly difficult to travel to the various ethnic regions that they found so rich in folk heritage. Bartók and Kodály had long believed that music of the “Hungarian” style often found in Western European music was more of a stylized urban gypsy music rather than real indigenous peasant music. In their collection process, they first jotted down melodies by hand, but later began to use Edison cylinders to record songs and dances. Bartok was particularly drawn to the Rumanian folk traditions because he felt that the Rumanian groups had been more isolated from outside influences and were therefore more authentic. He also attracted the variety and colors of instruments used in the Rumanian music– violins, peasant flutes (panpipes), guitar, bagpipes.
The outbreak of war restricted collecting, but it was during this time that Bartók formalized various settings of folk songs and dances for the piano. Román nepi táncok, a set of six Rumanian dances, was written in 1915, arranged for violin and piano the next year, and for salon orchestra in 1917. The material had been collected in 1910 and 1912 among the Rumanians living in areas of what was then Hungary. The use of the piano by necessity required that timbres of the original instruments be given up, however, the composer chose a register and keyboard touch aspiring to represent the flavor of the original. He simplified the intricacies of melody and rhythm, but compensated for this by enriching the harmonic structure in the left hand. The subsequent orchestral transcription allowed for reintroduction of a richer palate of instrumental timbres through strings and winds. Bartók’s folk dance arrangements typically do not follow the original temps, he makes the fasts faster, and the slow ones slower. The Román nepi táncok, fall into three tempo groups: fast/faster; slow/moderate; and fast/faster/fastest. I. Joc cu bâtâ (Dance with sticks) comes from Mezoszabad, Transylvania. II. Brâul (Sash dance) refers to a cloth belt worn by men or women and is from Egres, the district of Torontal. The tune is introduced by the clarinet, then taken up by strings. III. Pe loc (In one spot, or stamping dance) is a difficult dance done in one place and is introduced by a drone-like pattern on strings, the haunting melody given to the piccolo. IV. Buciumeana (Horn dance) from Butschum, Transylvania gives the beautiful nostalgic melody first to a solo violin; the second time, strings and winds join. V. Poargă Românească (Rumanian Polka), a children’s dance/game, and VI. & VII. Măruntel (Quick dance) are the last three dances. They hail from the Beleyes district of Bihar on the border between Hungary and Transylvania and are played in quick succession .
Program notes by Linda Mack. Copyright 2005.
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