Symphony Preview: David Robertson and the SLSO offer a preview of their Carnegie Hall concert Saturday and Sunday, March 14 and 15, 2015

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This weekend's classical "double header" continues as David Robertson conducts the St. Louis Symphony in the music of Tchaikovsky, Debussy, and James MacMillan on Saturday and Sunday, March 14 and 15.

Two of the three works on this weekend's program—Tchaikovsky's "Symphony No. 4 in F minor," op. 36, and Debussy's "Nocturnes"—will also be on the bill when the orchestra appears at Carnegie Hall in New York on Friday, March 20th. The third piece is the 2009 "Violin Concerto" by contemporary Scotch composer James MacMillan. In the Big Apple, that will be replaced by "Weave," a brand-new work by Meredith Monk.

James MacMillan
boosey.com

MacMillan, whose "Piano Concerto No. 3" got such an impressive performance from Jean-Yves Thibaudet and Stéphane Denève at Powell Hall last month, is perhaps best known for "Veni, Veni, Emmanuel," his 1992 percussion concerto closely identified with Evelyn Glennie. His style is approachable, colorful, and, while clearly the work of someone who is familiar with the full range of 21st century compositional techniques, disdains the elitism that infects so much "serious" music these days.

Specifically, Mr. MacMillan disdains composers who are “deeply suspicious of any significant move towards tonality, any hint of pulse that is actually discernible, and any music which communicates successfully with a non-specialist audience.” If, in other words, you are weary of music that sounds more like an orchestra tuning up than a deliberate composition, or that seems to have been written more for a grant-funding committee than for a paying audience, Mr. MacMillan is undoubtedly your man.

I haven't heard the "Violin Concerto," but if it's anything like his piano concerto, we should expect writing that conjures up strong visual images. Think movie music, but with much more complexity. We should also expect, as Paul Schiavo writes in his program notes, music that " reflects the Celtic culture with which the composer strongly identifies." "I’ve grown up with fiddle music," recalls Mr. MacMillan in an interview quotes in the notes. "I used to play in folk bands when I was younger, and fiddles were always the core part of that music."

Debussy in 1908
en.wikipedia.org

Debussy's "Nocturnes" should conjure up some images as well, although they'll probably be more like Impressionist paintings with their suggestiveness and subtlety than a Technicolor film. It consists of three short tone poems (total playing time is around 25 minutes) inspired by literary poems by the symbolist writer Henri de Regnier. The composer wrote a fairly detailed program for "Nocturnes," and rather than attempt to paraphrase it, I'm just going to quote it in toto, using the translation from Donald Brook's Five great French composers: Berlioz, César Franck, Saint-Saëns, Debussy, Ravel: Their Lives and Works (thank you, Wikipedia):

The title Nocturnes is to be interpreted here in a general and, more particularly, in a decorative sense. Therefore, it is not meant to designate the usual form of the Nocturne, but rather all the various impressions and the special effects of light that the word suggests. 'Nuages' renders the immutable aspect of the sky and the slow, solemn motion of the clouds, fading away in grey tones lightly tinged with white. 'Fêtes' gives us the vibrating, dancing rhythm of the atmosphere with sudden flashes of light. There is also the episode of the procession (a dazzling fantastic vision), which passes through the festive scene and becomes merged in it. But the background remains resistantly the same: the festival with its blending of music and luminous dust participating in the cosmic rhythm. 'Sirènes' depicts the sea and its countless rhythms and presently, amongst the waves silvered by the moonlight, is heard the mysterious song of the Sirens as they laugh and pass on.

The role of the mythological sirens will be played by the women of the Symphony Chorus.

The concerts will conclude with my favorite Tchaikovsky symphony—his Fourth, in F minor, last heard in Powell Hall three years ago when Christopher Warren-Green was on the podium. He began writing it during a winter of discontent (to paraphrase Shakespeare) in 1876-77. "Since we last met," he wrote to his friend Klimenko, "I am very much changed—especially mentally. Not a kopek's worth of fun and gaiety is left in me. Life is terribly empty, tedious, and tawdry. My mind turns towards matrimony, or indeed any other steady bond. The only thing that has not changed is my love for composing. If he conditions of my life were different, if my desire to create were not balked at every step...I might write something really decent."

"Tchaikovsky with wife Antonina Miliukova"
by Ivan Grigoryevich Dyagovchenko
Licensed under Public Domain
via Wikimedia Commons

His disastrous attempt at marriage in 1877 to a former student, Antonina Miliukova didn't help matters any. He was gay, she didn't get it, and the entire business collapsed after only a few months. The following year, Tchaikovsky would refer to his marriage in a letter to his brother Anatoly as "my brief insanity. That man who in May took it into his head to marry Antonina Ivanovna, who during June wrote a whole opera as though nothing had happened, who in July married, who in September fled from his wife, who in November railed at Rome and so on—that man wasn't I, but another Pyotr Ilyich".

Still, by the beginning of 1878, all that Sturm und Drang had resulted in the creation of "something really decent." Although initially dismissed by critics who were baffled by the first movement's length of (at just over 17 minutes, it takes up about half of the symphony's total time) and unusual structure, the Fourth would gradually gain acceptance and acclaim. It's now one of Tchaikovsky's most popular symphonies.

As well it should be. The composer poured all of his hope and despair into this most compact and dramatically expressive of all his symphonies. From the commanding "fate" motive first intoned by the brasses at the beginning to the nearly hysterical triumph of the finale, this is a piece that grabs you by the lapels and doesn't let go until the end. I've loved this work from the first time I heard it in a recording by Sir John Barbirolli and the Halle Orchestra on my parents' old console stereo some fifty years ago. I think you will as well.

The essentials: David Robertson conducts the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra with violinist Vadim Repin and the Women of the St. Louis Symphony Chorus on Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m., March 14 and 15. The program features Debussy's "Nocturnes," James MacMillan's "Violin Concerto," and Tchaikovsky's "Symphony No. 4." The concerts take place at Powell Symphony Hall, 718 North Grand in Grand Center. For more information: stlsymphony.org.