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Saturday 2 PM & 8 PM February 6, 2010 KING CENTER, Melbourne
Scandinavian Serenades! |
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“Conductor Choices CD Recommendations”
Rautavaara - Cantus Arcticus (Concerto for Birds and Orchestra)
Royal Scottish National Orchestra/Hannu Lintu, conductor
NAXOS 8554147
Sibelius - Violin Concerto
Viktoria Mullova, violin
Boston Symphony Orchestra/Seiji Ozawa, conductor
Philips Import 464741
Nielsen - Symphony No. 2 The Four Temperaments
San Francisco Symphony Orchestra/Herbert Blomstedt, conductor
Decca 460985
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PROGRAM NOTES |
Einojuhani Rautavaara (1928-)
Cantus Arcticus, Concerto for Birds and Orchestra:
I. The Bog
II. Melancholy
III. Swans Migrating
Rautavaara offers his own commentary on Cantus Articus (1972): "Its effect and magic is due to the interaction of the rather simple orchestral texture with a counterpoint of northern birds on tape. The birdsong was recorded near the Arctic Circle and on the bogs of Liminka in northern Finland. The first movement, The bog, opens with a flute duet. Gradually, the other woodwinds join in, followed by the sounds of birds in bogland in spring. Finally, the strings introduce their broad melody, like the inner voice of a person wandering in the wilds. The second movement, Melancholy, features the warbling of the shore lark, considerably slowed down and thus at a much lower pitch than the original. The concluding movement, Swans migrating, ends in a mighty crescendo which on the tape is created by overdubbing the sounds of whooper swans so that they seem to multiply infinitely before disappearing into the distance.”
Jean Sibelius (1865-1957)
Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 47:
I. Allegro moderato
II. Adagio di molto
Jean Sibelius is the most widely acclaimed artist to have ever emerged from Finland. He is admired in America, England, Scandinavia and throughout the world as one of the great composers of the 20th century. Sibelius benefited from a head start owing to the excellent classical education he received as a result of his family’s comfortable financial circumstances (his father was a prosperous family surgeon). The boy from early on was grounded in piano studies and then at the age of only fourteen started lessons on the violin. Mastering the instrument became a mission, with the young musician writing, "The violin took me by storm and for the next ten years [from 1879-1889] it my dearest wish, my greatest ambition to become a great virtuoso.”
Provided with a government grant, Sibelius spent a year in Berlin and then a year in Vienna where he studied both violin and composition. As late as 1891, the 25-year old auditioned and was turned down for a spot in the Vienna Philharmonic. But the time spent in Vienna yielded something of even greater value: Sibelius became intensely aware of his own "Finnishness” and of an inner imperative to write uniquely Finnish music. When he returned to his homeland in 1892, he took a position at the Institute and allied himself with the "Young Finns,” a group of intellectuals and artists who united to free Finland of Russia’s domination. As the preeminent composer of the nationalistic movement, Sibelius was called upon to write considerable music for concerts and theatrical presentations in celebration of Finnish identity.
For inspiration Sibelius turned to the myths, sagas, and folklore of his native country. The national epic, The Kalevala, served the composer as a particularly rich source of material. Several scores emerged from it, including such works as Kullervo, En Saga, and the Lemminkainen tone poems. The four symphonic poems inspired by the tale Lemminkainen (a hero from the Kalevala) were published under the title Four Legends and include "The Swan of Tuonela.” These patriotic works greatly impressed the Finnish cultural establishment since they came at a time when the country was itself a Grand Duchy under Russia’s control. By the end of the 19th century, Finns hungered for independence and national sentiment escalated despite tsarist censorship. Sibelius made a powerful contribution to the protest movement by providing the music for several "historical tableaux.” The intention was meant to benefit a national newspaper writers’ pension fund. The music the composer wrote for the tableau "Finland Awakes!” struck such a powerful chord with his countrymen, that he decided to publish it as a separate work entitled, Finlandia. It was unveiled at a concert given by the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra in July of 1900 – the symphonic poem became such a rallying cry of Finnish nationalism that its performance was subsequently banned by the Russian regime. It took awhile, but by 1918 the independence movement prevailed and the Russians left Finland.
Meanwhile, the Finnish people understandably came to regard Sibelius as a national hero and the government decided to reward him by electing him to the post of Professor of Music at the University of Helsinki. For political reasons the offer was withdrawn, but as compensation he was granted an annual salary with no stipulated responsibilities. This freed Sibelius up from all other concerns and financial responsibilities and allowed him to concentrate solely on composition.
Over the years Sibelius amassed a considerable and impressive body of works and so became a legendary figure in his own lifetime. In the quarter century spanning 1899 to 1924, he produced seven magnificent symphonies; a Violin Concerto; a String Quartet ("Intimate Voices”) and other fine chamber compositions; several symphonic poems, including Pohjola’s Daughter, Night Ride and Sunrise, The Bard and The Oceanides; and a wide range of incidental music for the theater, including Kuolema, Pelleas and Melisande, Belshazzar’s Feast and The Tempest. After this incredibly productive period, ending with the bleak tone poem Tapiola in 1926, Sibelius wrote very little in his final three decades. Why he fell steadfastly silent for such a long time, all the while perfectly able to create, remains one of the great-unanswered questions in music history.
Begun in 1903, Sibelius’ Violin Concerto received its first performance on February 8, 1904, in Helsinki. Dissatisfied, he significantly reworked the piece and its second premiere was given in Berlin with Richard Strauss as conductor and Czech violinist Karel Halir as soloist. Although the first movement, Allegro moderato, is bleak in mood, it is nonetheless one of the most sublimely beautiful openings in all the repertory. Over the hushed murmuring of the muted strings, the violin sings the broad and haunting principal theme in gentle dissonance and against the beat. A Berlin reviewer observed, "Nordic winter landscape painters who through the distinctive interplay of white on white secure rare, sometimes hypnotic and sometimes powerful, effects.” The ensuing Adagio di molto is equally ardent, with the violinist extending a long, lyrical theme followed by soloist and orchestra working up to a dramatic and exciting climax, and then back to the opening theme and melancholy mood of the opening. The final movement, Allegro ma non troppo, is a dazzling technical tour de force for the soloist, with vibrant rhythmic energy from the orchestra. Music critic, Donald Tovey, irresistibly characterized it as a "polonaise for polar bears”!
Carl Nielsen (1865-1931)
Symphony No. 2, in D Major, Op. 16, The Four Temperaments:
I. Allegro collerico
II. Allegro comodo e flemmatico
III. Andante melancolico
IV. Allegro sanguineo
Universally recognized as Denmark’s greatest composer, unfortunately for many years Carl Nielsen’s music was not given its due. For many years often linked with fellow Scandinavian Jean Sibelius, Nielsen was shrugged off as a sort of junior partner. Although revered in his native land, his music was slow to win recognition for its distinct individuality and to gain champions who would carry the lantern. British composer and musicologist Robert Simpson helped to shine the light with his 1952 book of the composer. A decade later in the 1960’s, conductors Leonard Bernstein, Erich Leinsdorf, and Eugene Ormandy further illuminated the public. They and others provided performances and recordings that enabled Nielsen’s music to gain the international reputation it holds today.
Nielsen’s compositional style grew and progressed throughout his career. He was rooted in the Scandinavian Romantic nationalism of Gade and Svendsen. Also close to him were the high and post-Romantic idioms of Johannes Brahms, Gustav Mahler, and other German composers. But within those frameworks, Nielsen developed a highly personal style marked by unsentimental craftsmanship and a deeply humanistic philosophy. He rejected the modernism of Stravinsky and Bartok as well as the doctrinaire ideology of atonalism. However, occasionally a hint of atonality would find its way into his music and Nielsen was not afraid to experiment with new possibilities of color and harmony that could be challenging and even astringent to some ears. Nielsen put it this way: "Woe to the musician who fails alike to learn and love the good things in the old masters and to watch and be ready for the new that may come in a totally different form from what we expected.”
Composed in 1902, the Symphony No. 2, The Four Temperaments, is one of Nielsen’s most popular works. As a programmatic lead-in, each of the Second Symphony’s four movements corresponds to one of the classic "four temperaments”: choleric (angry); phlegmatic (sluggish); melancholic (sad); and sanguine (happy). The concept of the four humours traces back to an ancient Greek theory about the constitution of the human body, first posited by Galen - the Greek physician and philosopher. Galen related the structure of the human body to the structure of the universe, and believed that within this system, four different humours, or fluids, channeled through the body. The theory was that an imbalance of the proper levels of the four humours was behind all disease. The levels of these fluids in the body determined our range of emotions. For example, a rush of Black Bile to the heart caused melancholy, while an excess of Yellow Bile caused anger. These four humours are related in Nielsen’s Second Symphony in four musical personalities: Allegro collerico, Allegro comodo e flemmatico, Andante malincolico, and Allegro sanguineo (Italian tempo markings including the applicable temperaments).
Notes provided by: David R. Glerum, Music Director – WMFE-FM/NPR, Orlando, FL. (1990-2009); Music Director – WXXI-FM/NPR, Rochester, N.Y. (1980-1990)
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