Symphony Preview: Traditional values

Back home from its first European tour since 2017, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra continues the current season this weekend (April 14–16) with a mix of works from early 19th century Poland, late 19th century England, and WW II USA—all of which use composition techniques that go back to at least the 18th century.

[Preview the music with the SLSO's Spotify playlist.]

Samuel Barber, photographed by
Carl Van Vechten, 1944
Public Domain

With Assistant Conductor Stephanie Childress at the podium, the orchestra opens the concerts with the Second Essay for Orchestra, written in 1942 by Samuel Barber (1910–1981) and last heard at Powell Hall back in 2009 with former Assistant Conductor Ward Stare at the helm. Like its literary namesake, Barber’s Essay presents a thesis (i.e., a musical theme) and then elaborates on it by altering the theme’s mood and orchestral dress and generally expanding on it in a freer version of the traditional theme and variations form.

In Grove Music Online, Barbara B. Heyman writes that this and Barber’s other two Essays “employ a rich orchestral palette and are characterized by well-crafted formal design, fluent counterpoint, and haunting themes–often assigned to solo woodwind instruments–that reflect a strong vocal orientation.” In the Second Essay, the theme is first stated by the solo flute, which is soon joined by the bass clarinet, English horn, and oboe. It has an uncertain feel, as if the composer were beginning his essay with a musical question.  Soon the rest of the orchestra joins in, and the theme begins to undergo a series of transformations. The work builds to the first of several climaxes as rapidly changing time signatures (6/8, 9/8,3/4, etc.) create a sense of restlessness—a feeling emphasized in a contrapuntal central section that prominently features the woodwinds, brass, and percussion.

This is music that clearly reflects the anxiety of a world at war. It ends with a sense of serenity and hope for the future—something that probably felt as uncertain then as it does now.

When Fryderyk Chopin (1810–1849) composed his 1829 F minor piano concerto (officially the Concerto No. 2 because, even though it was written before the Concerto No. 1 in E minor, it was published six years later) he was also experiencing a profound mix of anxiety and hope. In his case, though, it was heavily seasoned with what Alan Walker, in a 2018 biography of the composer, describes as “his first sexual awakening.”

The cause of all that hormonal uproar was one Konstancja Gladowsky, the manager of an apartment building in Warsaw and possessor of an impressive mezzo-soprano voice. Chopin saw her perform in a concert on April 12, 1829, and was immediately smitten. Alas, Konstancja did not lack for male admirers and Chopin was so painfully shy that instead of pouring his heart out to her, he unburdened himself in a series of increasingly steamy letters to his friend Tytus Woyciechowski. We’ll never know what Tytus made of it all since no letters from him to the composer have survived, and Konstancja went on to marry the wealthy diplomat Józef Grabowski. So the only real product of Chopin’s repressed passion was the Larghetto of the F minor concerto.

Chopin age 25 By Maria Wodzińska
,Public Domain.

Ah, but what a heartbreakingly beautiful thing that Larghetto is. “It reaches such expressive heights,” writes Walker, “that the roulades and grace notes with which it is adorned become virtually indistinguishable from the melody those ornaments were meant to decorate.” Indeed, the entire concerto is steeped in the composer’s characteristically decorative Romanticism while staying true to Classical-era structures like sonata form (in the first movement) and the rondo (in the finale). The latter is also heavily informed by the Polish mazurka, a folk dance that so entranced the composer that he wrote close to 60 of them. There’s no cadenza as such in the first movement (although the piano plays such a prominent role that one could regard the whole movement as a cadenza), but Chopin makes up for it with plenty of virtuoso flash in the concluding minutes of that last movement.

This weekend’s soloist will be the young French pianist Lise de Salle (b. 1988), who began performing in public at the age of 9 and won First Prize at the Seventh International Contest in Ettlingen, Germany, at the age of 12. A native of Cherbourg, de la Salle comes (not surprisingly) from a musical family. Her mother sang with the chorus of L’Orchestre de Paris, her grandmother taught piano, and her great-grandmother was a concert pianist in Russia where she “rubbed shoulders” (“oú elle côtoya”) with Tchaikovsky.

Finally, it’s back to the theme and variations format with the “Enigma Variations (Variations on an Original Theme),” op. 36, composed between 1898 and 1899 by Edward Elgar (1857–1934). Effectively a musical family album, the fourteen variations are vivid little sound portraits of Elgar, his wife, and his friends. Even a pet bulldog puts in an appearance in a comical variation (number 11) that portrays the dog tumbling down a grassy bank into the river Wye and then, according to the composer, "paddling up stream to find a landing place (bars 2 and 3) and his rejoicing bark on landing (second half of bar 5)."

Edward Elgar, circa 1900
en.wikipedia.org

My personal favorite, in terms of pure orchestral inventiveness, is variation 13, dedicated to an unnamed friend on a sea voyage. The solo clarinet (presumably Principal Scott Andrews this time around) plays a phrase from Mendelssohn's "Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage" over an eerie pianissimo roll played on the tympani (Shannon Wood) with the wooden drumsticks instead of the usual mallets.  Elgar meant the sound to suggest "the distant throb of engines of a liner." It’s an effect that can be hard to appreciate on recordings but has a truly eerie quality in a live performance.

The “Enigma” of the title, according to Elgar, refers to “another and larger theme” which is “not played”. The composer never revealed what that theme might be, and speculation has been lively ("most convincingly Auld Lang Syne," according to the late British musicologist Robin Golding). I'm inclined to go along with the school of thought that the “theme” to which Elgar referred wasn't musical at all but rather the common thread of friendship and good humor that pervades the music.

The Essentials: Stephanie Childress conducts the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and piano soloist Lise de la Salle in Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2, along with Barber’s “Second Essay for Orchestra” and Elgar’s “Enigma Variations.” The full program will be performed Saturday at 8 pm and Sunday at 3 pm, April 15 and 16. The Saturday concert will be broadcast live on St. Louis Public Radio and Classical 107.3.

There will also be a special Crafted Series performance of the “Enigma Variations” only on Friday, April 14, at 6:30 pm. Doors open at 5:30 pm for “happy hour” with local drink samples and complimentary snacks from Soul Burgers, Perennial Artisan Ales, Switchgrass Spirits, The Popcorn Bar, and All Rolled Up. Seating is on a general admission basis.

This article originally appeared at 88.1 KDHX, where Chuck Lavazzi is the senior performing arts critic.

Symphony Preview: Variations squared

St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) Conductor Laureate Leonard Slatkin has been a favorite of local audiences since his tenure as Music Director from 1979 to 1996. The orchestra’s international profile increased substantially during his years here and has remained high ever since. Now that he and his wife, composer Cindy McTee, have settled permanently in Clayton, he has once again become a fixture in the local music scene and hosts a nationally syndicated radio program, “The Slatkin Shuffle.”

Frank Bridge
PD-US, Link

This weekend (April 23-25), Mr. Slatkin returns to conduct the orchestra he has called “his family” in a program dominated by the popular musical form theme and variations, in which a simple theme becomes the basis for increasingly elaborate changes and transformations. It’s an ancient approach to composition, dating back to at least the 14th century. It has sprouted variations of its own, such as the passacaglia and chaconne, which served as the foundations for some massive works of musical architecture in the hands of composers such as Bach and Biber.

This weekend’s concerts open with one of the less famous examples of the form, the “Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge,” op. 10 for string orchestra by Benjamin Britten. Written with astonishing speed in 1937 (three months, end to end) on a commission by conductor and practicing physician Boyd Neel for the orchestra that bore his name, the “Variations” are a tribute to Britten’s teacher, the British composer Frank Bridge (1879-1941).

Bridge was an early champion of Britten’s music, while Britten, for his part, greatly respected and admired the older man, both as a composer and mentor. Based on a pair of themes from the second of Bridge’s “Three Idylls,” Op. 6 from 1906, the work’s ten variations are each intended as a representation of what Britten saw as aspects of Bridge’s personality (as described in Tim Munro’s program notes). A few are also witty parodies of the styles of earlier composers, such as the “Aria Italiana” (variation 4) with its echoes of Rossini.

“Britten's variations,” writes Kai Christiansen, “are a multi-layered tour de force that entice one to seek out not only more Britten, but music of the worthy Frank Bridge as well.” If you want to make their acquaintance in advance, let me direct you to a rather striking performance by the Royal Philharmonic under Sir Charles Groves on YouTube. You will, however, want to mute the annoying commercials.

Jelly d’Arányi
By Unknown author,
Public Domain

Next, Assistant Concertmaster Erin Schreiber is the soloist in Maurice Ravel’s 1924 high-wire act “Tzigane.”  The title is French for "gypsy," and while this fiercely difficult piece for violin and orchestra doesn't use any actual Hungarian folk tunes, it certainly conjures up the feel of that kind of music. The slow, smoldering romanticism of the opening eventually gives way to a wildly energetic finale that will test the skill of the best violinists.

Ravel was inspired to write the work after hearing the Hungarian-born violinist Jelly d’Arányi in a private performance of Ravel’s Sonata for Violin and Cello. Although she was a classically trained performer, Ravel asked her to play some “gypsy” music. She responded with what William E. Runyan calls “a dazzling informal improvisation in the Gypsy style,” and Ravel was hooked.

The virtuosity continues in the final work, the "Variaciones concertantes," op. 23 by the Argentine composer Alberto Ginastera. It takes the conventional theme and variations form and combines it with a concept that emerged mainly in the 20th century, the "concerto for orchestra"—a work in which each section of the ensemble gets an opportunity to take the spotlight. Bartok's "Concerto for Orchestra" is probably the most famous example. Benjamin Britten's most famous set of variations, the "Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra," is another.

Alberto Ginastera
en.wikipedia.org

Ginastera adds a bit of whimsy by giving each variation a descriptive title: "Variazione giocosa per Flauto" ("Playful variation for flute"), "Variazione drammatica per Viola" ("Dramatic variation for viola"), "Variazione in modo di Moto perpetua per Violino" ("Variation in perpetual motion style for violin"), and so on. "These variations have a subjective Argentine character," writes the composer in his notes for the Boosey and Hawkes edition of the score. "Instead of using folkloristic material, I try to achieve an Argentine atmosphere through the employment of my own thematic and rhythmic elements... All the instruments of the orchestra are treated soloistically. Some variations belong to the decorative, ornamental, or elaborative type; others are written in the contemporary manner of metamorphosis, which consists of taking elements of the main theme and evolving from it new material." Should be a good workout for our "orchestra of virtuosos."

The last time the SLSO performed the "Variaciones concertantes" Juanjo Mena was on the podium conducting the large orchestra version with 50 players in the string section. The work was originally written with a smaller ensemble in mind, though, and that’s how we’ll hear it this weekend, with a string section about half the size of the one used seven years ago.

The Essentials: Leonard Slatkin conducts the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra in Britten’s “Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge,” Ravel’s “Tzigane,” and Ginastera’s "Variaciones concertantes." Only 300 tickets will be sold for each performance and strict health protocols will be in place. For more information, visit the SLSO web site.

This article originally appeared at 88.1 KDHX, where Chuck Lavazzi is the senior performing arts critic.