Quincy Symphony Orchestra

February 10, 2008
 
PROGRAM NOTES

Compiled by Dr. Lavern Wagner

Finlandia  ……………………………………………………………. Jean Sibelius (1865-1957)

Jan Sibelius is an outstanding representative of musical nationalism in the 19th century.  In 1899, the Finnish people were dominated by Imperial Russia.  In its “February manifesto” the Czarist regime abolished the Finnish parliament, then ruthlessly curtailed free speech, closing one Finnish newspaper after another.  In protest, the Finnish people proclaimed a series of “entertainments” with proceeds going to a Press Pension Fund.  For these Sibelius wrote an orchestral suite entitled Finland Awakes, the finale of which later became world-famous as Finlandia.  The work spread to France, as La Patrie, and Germany, as Vaterland, but everywhere understood as tribute to a native land.  Finlandia sounds so Finnish that many hearers think it is based on actual folk music.  However, Sibelius himself emphatically stated the melody was his own invention.  While it is not the Finnish national anthem, Finlandia represents Finland everywhere in the world.  With adapted 17th century words, Finlandia is widely used as a popular religious hymn:   “Be still my soul, the Lord is on thy side.” 
    The work opens with somber chords in the brass, reflecting the oppression of the Finnish people.  The hymn-like theme—the important characteristic melody--is announced in the flutes and gradually grows in intensity, ending in a powerful statement of triumph.

Saxophone Concerto in E-flat , Op. 109 .………………….Alexander Glazunov (1865-1936)
    Alexander Glazunov’s home was St. Petersburg, Russia, and early in his career he had the advantage of studying composition with Rimsky-Korsakov.  By 1899 he was a Professor of Music at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, where he was associated with the informal group of Russian nationalist composers:  Borodin, Lyadov, Scriabin and Rimsky- Korsakov.  He was elected Director of the Conservatory in 1905, a position he held until 1930.  Toward the end of his career he became interested in jazz, which may account for his composing the saxophone Concerto in 1934.  It was one of his last compositions.
The Saxophone Concerto is a single movement work which may be characterized as a rhapsody.  The strings in unison immediately present the main musical theme.   On his first entry the saxophone soloist embellishes this thematic material.  After lengthy scalewise passages by the soloist, an abrupt pause allows the strings to again present the main melody.  A contrasting tranquil passage in concert E-flat minor gradually brightens to the parallel major as the soloist adjusts tempos. This leads to a restatement of the main theme and at this point a lengthy cadenza, replete with staccato notes, is inserted.  New melodic material for the soloist is imitated in a short polyphonic passage; however, the main theme soon reasserts itself.  With ever increasing tempos, and swift changes in style, the soloist brings the work to a brilliant conclusion with a downward swoop through the entire gamut of his instrument.

Mass in C-minor, K. 427.  Gloria:  Laudamus te  …………Wolfgang A. Mozart (1756-1791)
    Though Mozart had already married Constanze Weber on 4 August 1782 in Vienna, in a letter home on 4 January 1783, Mozart vows that when he brought his wife to Salzburg he would have a newly-composed mass waiting for her.  However, when the couple arrived in Salzburg in August, 1783, the Mass in C-minor had only the Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus and Benedictus completed.  Constanze is reputed to have sung the solos at the first performance of these sections.  Mozart never finished the remainder of the mass.
    The Latin text for the Gloria of the Roman Catholic mass includes the words of this aria as phrases three to six, applied to the Lord:  Laudamus te (We praise you), benedicimus te (we bless you), adoramus te (we adore you), glorificamus te (we glorify you).   

Piano Concerto, No. 3, Op. 50………………………………Dmitry Kabalevsky (1904-1987)
    Movement 1, Allegro molto.
     Dmitry Kabelevsky as a composer worked within the restrictions imposed by the Soviet system on artistic expression.  Educated in the Moscow Conservatory, in 1932 he taught composition there, becoming a full professor in 1939.  He became senior editor of the state owned music publishing house, and after joining the communist party in 1940, became a prominent personality in Soviet musical life.  He was especially interested in promoting the musical education of children.
    The Third Piano Concerto (1952), subtitled “Youth,” was written for and dedicated to young performers in the Soviet Union.  It may serve as a student’s first piano concerto.  This sunny and tuneful piece manages to present pianistic pyrotechnics while keeping its difficulty within the ability of the younger artist.  The opening movement begins dramatically with a trumpet fanfare, and the piano soloist quickly follows by announcing the principal thematic material.  The second theme, quite lyrical, is also first presented by the pianist.  There is an extensive cadenza which allows the pianist to display musical and technical ability.  The first movement closes brilliantly with the pianist executing exciting and rapid passage work.

Symphony No. 2  …………………………………………………………………Jean Sibelius 
    While the early works of Sibelius were strongly tied to his Finnish homeland, as his career progressed, nationalism became less a factor, as shown by his Second Symphony.  The major themes of the symphony were developed while he stayed in Rapallo, Italy, in a room overlooking a beautiful garden of camellias, roses, almond trees, cypresses and palms.  In spite these Italian origins, the Finnish audience immediately related to the Second Symphony as expressing the true soul of Finland.  One Finnish critic said that in the first movement, the composer tried to reproduce the peaceful, pastoral life of Finland in times or contentment and freedom; the second movement is intensely patriotic, charged with high feeling against any form of oppression; in the third movement the awakening of national consciousness is portrayed; and the finale is an expression of hope in a future deliverance that stirs in Finnish hearts. Yes, when ascribing a program, the listener can make the music fit his/her desires!    
    The first movement immediately presents a tense harmonic progression under the pattern of three rising notes F#-G-A.  Soon there is an inversion of this three-note figure.  The woodwinds present what may be regarded as a second theme, extraordinarily gripping, introduced by a long held C-sharp, then dissolving into neighboring seconds of eighth notes.  In a development section, Sibelius ingeniously presents his themes in new guises.  The movement closes with the opening measures reappearing.
    Toward the beginning of the second movement there is a melody for two bassoons in octaves.  Originally conceived in Italy for a projected tone poem on Dante’s Divine Comedy, this melody was to represent Death’s visit to Don Juan’s castle.  The movement leads to a triple forte climax, then subsides pianissimo to the improbable key of F-sharp major. The bassoon melody reappears in the flute. After another climactic section, the movement ends on three rising notes.
    While the third movement may appear to be a conventional scherzo, the loud beginning in B-flat major suddenly stills to pianissimo.  After quiet B-flats on the timpani, this pitch becomes the third of the triad of G-flat major, the key of a short thirteen-measure trio.  An epilogue brings the figure of three rising notes again into focus, leading without pause into the finale.
    Opening the finale, a pulsating rhythmic background comes forward in timpani and trombones, then the basic pattern of three rising notes becomes the undisguised subject of the movement. A transition to b-minor allows the oboe to begin the second theme in its lowest register, followed by the clarinet.  In the development these subjects are presented in a variety of combinations.  A sonorous and impressive coda concludes the symphony. 
    The Second Symphony has proved to be the most popular of all Sibelius’symphonies.  It is dramatic, moving and stirring with its frequent climaxes.  Here Sibelius overpowers his listeners by presenting his deepest emotional feelings.