Season Schedule

Program notes

ProMusica opens the New Year with the music of Golijov, ZZ’s Dream, a brief and almost nostalgic score. Tchaikovsky’s fiery Violin Concerto, with soloist Esther Yoo in the spotlight, will snap you right out of any dreaming and take you headlong into the romanticism of 19th century Russia and the pyrotechnic world of violin virtuosity. After introducing you to our music director’s father with the Elegie of Wolfgang Danzmayr, we’ll cap off the evening with Haydn’s Symphony No. 75, which took London by storm.

Osvaldo Golijov (b. 1960): ZZ’s Dream
Instrumentation: flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn, trumpet, trombone, vibraphone, harp, celeste and strings
Composed: 2008
Premiered: Boston, 2008
Duration: 7 minutes

THE SCOOP:
The path of composer and teacher Osvaldo Golijov has been a circuitous one. Born in Argentina to a physician father and pianist mother, Golijov and his family emigrated to Romania; subsequently Osvaldo moved, first to Israel and shortly thereafter to America, where he worked with George Crumb, among this country’s most experimental and important composers. Since 1991 Golijov has been a resident of Massachusetts. As Golijov’s reputation grew, so did the call for commissions and today the composer has established a reputation for both inventive and highly accessible scores.

He has always borrowed from other composers, leading in one case to an accusation of plagiarism. Even so, Golijov remains in great demand, both as a film composer and for his vocal and orchestral music. His four-minute ZZ’s Dream offers a sublime example of his appeal: the score, which suggests something of the language of Chopin with a dash of South American folk, remains completely accessible, despite its unique nature. As its title suggests, this lazy and liquid work takes on a dreamlike hue, perfectly capturing the essence of the poetry which inspired the score:

Once upon a time, I, Zhuang Zhou, dreamt I was a butterfly, fluttering hither and thither. I was conscious only of my happiness as a butterfly, unaware that I was Zhou. Soon I awoke, and there I was, veritably myself again. Now I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly, dreaming I am a man.

Piotr Ilych Tchaikovsky (1840-1893): Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D major, Op. 35
Instrumentation: solo violin, pairs of flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons and trumpets, four horns, timpani and strings
Composed: Switzerland, 1878
Premiered: Vienna,1881
Duration: 33 minutes

THE SCOOP:
The ease by which Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto initially took shape belied what would ultimately prove to be a frustrating and somewhat tortuous history. The original work was dispatched in only a month’s time, while the composer was taking a cure on the shores of Lake Geneva, Switzerland. Initially spirits were high. Tchaikovsky worked with his composition pupil, a violinist named Itself Kotek, who coached his teacher with respect to the technical intricacies of the violin writing, and who initially appeared fully committed to the project. At this early stage Tchaikovsky planned to dedicate the work to Kotek, with whom he was most certainly romantically involved. However, Kotek evidently developed cold feet with respect to the score and Tchaikovsky, who took great pains to hide his homosexuality, ultimately decided that furthering their connection in print would only fuel gossip. Tchaikovsky’s concerto needed another violinist.

Enter Leopold Auer, the famed Hungarian violinist and teacher. Evidently Tchaikovsky not only hoped Auer would deliver the work’s premiere but went so far as to have the score published with a dedication to the violinist even before consulting him. Auer, however, was reluctant to commit to playing the premiere, which again had to be tabled. To his credit, Auer did set about making significant revisions to the violin part, all with the intent of making the writing better suited to the instrument; even so, his choice not to premiere the work hurt Tchaikovsky deeply. It was a decision Auer came to regret. Tchaikovsky did grant him absolution prior to his premature death (did he drink cholera-tainted water intentionally or by accident?). Ultimately, Tchaikovsky tapped the Russian virtuoso Adolph Brodsky, who finally premiered the work in 1881, 3 years after its completion.

Tchaikovsky adhered to the by-now traditional three movement plan. The concerto opens with a sonata-form Allegro, complete with a full-fledged orchestral introduction and incorporating a dazzling cadenza toward its close. This is followed by a lovingly crafted Andante, which Tchaikovsky entitled “Canzonetta”, or little song, and which was actually the composer’s second attempt at a slow movement, having found his original attempt less than adequate. Tchaikovsky launches into the third movement without pause, creating an air of tremendous thrust (the movement has been equated with an SST taking off from the tarmac). The finale is without doubt one of the great Russian juggernauts, its coda guaranteed to leave both the soloist and audience breathless.

The great music critic Eduard Hanslick, a staunch advocate of Brahms, was on hand at the premiere and found Tchaikovsky’s score “odorously Russian” and was of the opinion that “the violin was…beaten black and blue.” Of course, the effect of the concerto is about as far from Brahms’ own as is possible, but time has had the final say with respect to Tchaikovsky’s score. The work has been embraced by every major soloist and has become an audience favorite. A tour de force, the concerto contains some of the composer’s most memorable melodies and while making tremendous demands on the soloist, creates an undeniable air of electricity and triumph.

FROM THE COMPOSER:
Wolfgang Danzmayr (b. 1947): Elegie
Instrumentation: flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, two horns, trumpet and strings
Composed: 1970 as a piano piece, orchestrated in 2018
Premiere: January 2020
Duration: approximately 9 minutes

THE SCOOP:
Wolfgang Danzmayrs “Elegie” was one of his first compositions, originally written in 1970. With this piano-piece Danzmayr wanted to prove his abilities of his studies in composition with Alfred Uhl at the Viennese Academy of Music. Variations in different styles of music were the result. In 2018 he decided to create an orchestral version of this composition, which his son David liked to play on the piano, when he still was a child.

Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809): Symphony No 75 in D major, Hob I:75
Instrumentation: flute, two oboes, bassoon, two trumpets, two horns, timpani and strings
Composed: 1779-1781
Premiere: unknown
Duration: 20 minutes

THE SCOOP:
Franz Joseph Haydn spent the bulk of his musical career in the service of the Hungarian Esterházy family and much of that at their family estate, a palace built in swampland that incorporated a former hunting lodge. Haydn worked here from 1766-1790, tirelessly composing works for every conceivable event or need: operas (he also rehearsed and conducted operas by other composers), symphonies, religious works and even chamber pieces for his musical employer Prince Nikolaus Esterházy to play. When Nikolaus died, his son Anton inherited the palace but with neither his father’s interest in music nor the desire to remain so isolated, he freed Haydn up to travel. Although the now-famous Haydn was required to maintain his connection to the family, Haydn was finally in charge of his own destiny. In 1791 the 58-year-old composer crossed the English Channel—seeing the ocean for the first time—and made his way to London.

This first visit (he would return again several years later), which lasted about a year, proved fantastically successful. The English embraced Haydn as one of their own. His music, already enormously popular prior to his arrival, experienced continued success as the public clamored to hear his latest symphonic offerings. Among those works presented was the Symphony No. 75, a work typically joyous and witty, yet which, according to Haydn’s diary experienced a rather macabre connection:

“On 26 March at Mr Barthelemon’s concert, an English clergyman was present who fell into the most profound melancholy on hearing the Andante (or ‘Poco adagio’, as it was more usually marked) … because he had dreamt the previous night that this piece was a premonition of his death. He left the company at once and took to his bed.Today, 25 April, I heard from Herr Barthelemon that this Protestant clergyman had died.”

The D major Symphony opens with a Grave introduction, feigning a dark and gloomy atmosphere but this is immediately dispelled at the start of the spirited and often laughing Presto, precisely those qualities that drew the English to “Papa” Haydn’s scores. At the movement’s center we catch a glimpse of Haydn’s command of developmental procedures as he breaks down his theme’s small motives, a technique the older man certainly passed on to Beethoven. Listen also to his treatment of counterpoint, the note-against-note style reminiscent of the late J.S. Bach. The Adagio is cast as a set of variations, another of Haydn’s favorite forms, and based on a hymn-like theme, another of the master’s beloved specialties. The aristocratic dances of the minuet are followed by a spirited Vivace rondo, typical of Haydn’s symphonic finales. Keep an ear out for how Haydn toys with his material toward the movement’s close, including those Haydnesque unexpected silences, and you’ll understand why the Londoners hung on his every bar.

© Marc Moskovitz
www.marcmoskovitz.com