KNOXVILLE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Lucas Richman, Music Director
2014-2015 - Seventy-Ninth Season
Lucas Richman, Music Director
Natalie Leach Haslam Music Director Chair
Thursday & Friday evening
January 22 & 23, 2015~ 7:30 p.m.
Tennessee Theatre
Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4
Sponsored by:
Lawrence Loh, conductor
Julie Albers, cello
BerliozRoman Carnival Overture, Opus 9
Shostakovich
Concerto No. 1 for Cello and Orchestra in E-flat Major, Opus 107
I. Allegretto
II. Moderato
III. Cadenza
IV. Allegro con moto
Julie Albers, cello
Intermission
Tchaikovsky
Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Opus 36
I. Andante sostenuto - Moderato con anima Moderato assai, quasi Andante - Allegro vivo
II. Andantino in modo di canzona
III. Scherzo. Pizzicato ostinato - Allegro
IV. Finale. Allegro con fuoco
This concert will air on WUOT 91.9 FM on Tuesday, February 17, 2015 at 8:00 p.m.
This concert will be rebroadcast on Monday, August 10, 2015 at 8:00 p.m
Performances of the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra are made possible in part by grants from the City of Knoxville, the
Knox County Government and by contributions to the Knoxville Symphony Society’s Annual Support Drive. This project is
funded under an agreement with the TENNESSEE ARTS COMMISSION. Latecomers will be seated during the first convenient
pause in the performance. The use of recording devices and/or cameras is strictly forbidden. Please remember to turn
off all electronic devices and refrain from text messaging during the concert. Programs and artists subject to change.
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Program Notes: Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4
Notes on the Program by Ken Meltzer
Roman Carnival Overture, Opus 9 (1843)
Hector Berlioz was born in La Côte-SaintAndré, Isère, France, on December 11,
1803, and died in Paris, France, on March
8, 1869. The first performance of the
Roman Carnival Overture took place at the
Salle Herz in Paris on February 3, 1844,
with the composer conducting.
Instrumentation: The Roman Carnival Overture
is scored for piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, English
horn, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two
trumpets, two cornets, three trombones, cymbals,
tambourine, triangle, timpani and strings.
Duration: 8 minutes
Hector Berlioz’s opera, Benvenuto
Cellini, based upon the life of the Italian
Renaissance sculptor, goldsmith, architect, writer,
and musician, premiered at the Paris Opéra on
September 10, 1838. The performance was a
fiasco. As Berlioz recalled, the opera’s Overture
was “extravagantly applauded; the rest was hissed
with exemplary precision and energy.”
Berlioz, however, maintained faith in
Benvenuto Cellini. In 1850, he wrote: “I have just
re-read my score carefully and with the strictest
impartiality, and I cannot help recognizing that
it contains a variety of ideas, an energy and
exuberance and a brilliance of color such as I may
perhaps never find again, and which deserved a
better fate.”
In 1843, Berlioz composed his Roman
Carnival Overture, based upon music from
Benvenuto Cellini. Berlioz conducted the
Overture’s successful February 3, 1844 premiere
at the Salle Herz in Paris. During the composer’s
lifetime, the Roman Carnival enjoyed a dual life
as both a second Overture to the opera, Benvenuto
Cellini, and as an independent concert piece. The
vivacious and brilliantly-scored work remains one
of the French composer’s most popular overtures.
§
Concerto No. 1 for Cello and Orchestra in
E-flat Major, Opus 107 (1959)
Dmitri Shostakovich was born in St.
Petersburg, Russia, on September 25,
1906, and died in Moscow, Russia, on
August 9, 1975. The first performance
of the Cello Concerto No. 1 took place in
Leningrad (St. Petersburg) on October
4, 1959, with Mstislav Rostropovich as
soloist, and Evgeny Mravinsky conducting
the Leningrad Philharmonic.
Instrumentation: In addition to the solo
cello, the Concerto is scored for piccolo, two
iv
flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons,
contrabassoon, horn, timpani, celeste and strings.
Duration: 28 minutes
Dmitri Shostakovich finished the score
of his First Cello Concerto on July 20, 1959.
The composer notified the great Russian cellist
Mstislav Rostropovich (1927-2007) of the work’s
completion. Rostropovich and his accompanist,
Alexander Dedyukhin, then journeyed from
Moscow to Leningrad. There, on August 2,
1959, Rostropovich received the score of the
Shostakovich Cello Concerto No. 1.
Four days later, Rostropovich and
Dedyukhin performed the Concerto for the
composer. Shostakovich was amazed that the
cellist had already memorized the entire work.
Shortly thereafter, Shostakovich dedicated his
First Cello Concerto to Rostropovich.
Mstislav Rostropovich was the soloist
in the triumphant world premiere of the Cello
Concerto No. 1, which took place in Leningrad on
October 4, 1959. The composer’s longtime friend
and champion, Evgeny Mravinsky, conducted
the Leningrad Philharmonic. Five days later,
Rostropovich again performed the work, this
time in Moscow. Alexander Gauk conducted the
Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra.
The Concerto is in four movements.
Shostakovich described the first movement
(Allegretto) as being “in the style of a jocular
march.” The concluding three movements are
played without pause. The slow second movement
(Moderato) juxtaposes introspective and agitated
emotions. The third movement is an extended,
unaccompanied Cadenza, featuring echoes from
the preceding movements. The whirlwind finale
(Allegro con moto) is the Concerto’s most virtuoso
movement.
§
Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Opus 36 (1878)
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky was born in
Kamsko-Votkinsk, Russia, on May 7, 1840,
and died in St. Petersburg, Russia, on
November 6, 1893. The first performance
of the Symphony No. 4 took place in
Moscow on February 22, 1878, with Nikolai
Rubinstein conducting.
Instrumentation: The Symphony No. 4 is scored
for piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets,
two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three
trombones, tuba, timpani, triangle, bass drum,
cymbals and strings.
Duration: 44 minutes
“This is Fate, that inexorable force
that prevents our aspirations to happiness from
reaching their goal…” That is how Peter Ilyich
Program Notes: Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4
Tchaikovsky described the implacable opening
bars of his Fourth Symphony. Tchaikovsky
composed this great work during one of the most
turbulent periods in his life, a time when the
power of Fate must have been paramount in his
mind.
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky completed his
Fourth on Symphony on January 7, 1878. On July
18 of the previous year, Tchaikovsky wed Antonina
Milyukova. Tchaikovsky realized from the outset
that the marriage was a mistake. He lapsed
into a profound depression, and later attempted
suicide. Finally, on October 6—less than three
months after the wedding—Tchaikovsky left his
wife forever, rushing to St. Petersburg to meet his
brother, Anatoly. Tchaikovsky suffered a nervous
breakdown, and doctors stated that a resumption
of the marital relationship was out of the question.
Tchaikovsky, under doctor’s orders, journeyed to
Switzerland for recuperation.
The premiere of the Tchaikovsky Fourth
took place in Moscow on February 22, 1878, under
Nikolai Rubinstein’s direction. Tchaikovsky
dedicated the Symphony to his patroness,
Nadezhda von Meck, whom the composer
described as “my best friend.” And, in a letter
to von Meck, Tchaikovsky divulged the meaning
of his Fourth Symphony (all of Tchaikovsky’s
comments are in italics below):
I. Andante sostenuto—Moderato con
anima—Moderato assai, quasi Andante—Allegro
vivo—
The introduction is the germ of the
whole symphony, unarguably the main idea.
This is Fate, that inexorable force that prevents
our aspirations to happiness from reaching
their goal, that jealously ensures our well-being
and peace are not unclouded, that hangs over
our heads like the sword of Damocles, that with
steadfast persistence poisons our souls. It is
invincible, you will never master it. One can only
resign oneself to fruitless sorrow.
Tchaikovsky depicts the inexorable
power of Fate with stunning fanfares by the brass
and winds. It is one of the most arresting and
dramatic openings in all of symphonic literature.
The joyless, hopeless feeling becomes
more powerful and fierce. Would it not be better
to turn away from reality and submerge oneself
in dreams?
Oh joy! There is at least a sweet and
tender dream appearing! A bright and gracious
human form flits by and lures us on somewhere.
How lovely! And how remote the obsessive first
allegro theme now sounds! The dreams have
gradually taken full possession of the soul. All
that was gloomy and joyless is forgotten. Here it
is, here is happiness! No! They were dreams and
Fate rouses us from them.
So life is a constant alternation between
grim reality and evanescent visions and dreams
of happiness...There is no haven. Sail upon that
ocean until it seizes you and engulfs you in its
depths. That is roughly the program of the first
movement.
II. Andantino in modo di canzona—
The second movement of the symphony expresses
another phase of depression: that melancholy
feeling that comes on in the evening, when you
are sitting on your own, tired with work, and
you take up a book but it falls out of your hands.
Memories come flooding in. It is sad that so much
has been and gone; it is pleasant to recollect
one’s youth. One regrets the passing of time yet
there is no wish to begin life anew. Life wears
one out. It is pleasant to rest and reflect. There
are so many memories! There have been happy
moments when young blood coursed through the
veins and life was good. There have also been
difficult times, irreplaceable losses. But now that
is all somewhere in the past. There is a sweet
sadness in burying oneself in the past.
III. Scherzo. Pizzicato ostinato—
Allegro—
The third movement does not express
any precise feelings. These are whimsical
arabesques, the elusive images that flash across
one’s imagination when one has had a little wine
to drink and is in the first stage of intoxication.
One’s spirits are not happy, but neither are
they sad. One does not think about anything:
one gives free reign to one’s imagination that,
for some reason, sets about painting strange
pictures. Amongst them one recalls a picture of
some roistering peasants and a street song. Then
somewhere in the distance a military parade goes
by. There is no connection between these images
that are like those which flash through your mind
as you are going to sleep. They have nothing
to do with reality: they are strange, wild, and
incoherent.
IV. Finale. Allegro con fuoco—
The fourth movement. If you find no cause for
joy in yourself, look to others. Go amongst the
common people and see now they know how
to enjoy themselves, abandoning themselves
completely to feelings of joy. Picture of a peasant
celebration on a holiday. But scarcely have you
managed to forget yourself and be distracted
by the sight of other people’s pleasures than
inexorable Fate appears once more and reminds
you of its existence.
Tchaikovsky portrays the “peasant
celebration” by quoting a popular Russian folk
song, “The Little Birch Tree,” sung by the winds
after the Finale’s brief, raucous introduction.
Later, the celebration is interrupted by the return
of the “Fate” motif that launched the Symphony’s
first movement.
Tchaikovsky continues:
But you are no concern of anyone else.
They do not even turn round, they do not glance
at you, and they have not noticed that you are
lonely and sad. Oh! What fun it is for them!
They are so lucky that all their feelings are simple
and direct. Blame yourself and do not say that
all the world is sad. There are simple but potent
pleasures. Enjoy other people’s happiness. One
can live despite everything.
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