A snowbound symphony

As I sat here contemplating snowpocalypse 2014, I started putting together a mental list of classical works that would make for appropriate listening for the snowbound.  I don't claim that this is exhaustive—it's just what I was able to come up with off the top of my head—but it does look nicely balanced to me.  Feel free to leave a comment with your own suggestions.

[ADDED 22 December 2022] Don't have all these handy? Never fear: here's a free Spotify playlist.

The list is in alphabetical order by composer.

Leroy Anderson

Leroy Anderson: Sleigh Ride – This cheerful orchestral depiction of a sleigh ride—complete with whip cracks and a derisive whinny from the horse performed by solo trumpet at the end—is probably the best-known piece in the list.  Ironically, Anderson got the idea during a heat wave in 1946. It was published in 1948, first recorded by Arthur Fielder and the Boston Pops in 1949, and had lyrics grafted on to it in 1950 by Mitchell Parish.  Anderson's own recording (on Decca) hit the Cashbox best sellers chart in 1950.

Debussy: Des pas sur la neige (Footprints in the Snow) – There's a wintry solitude to this music, with its fragmented melody and suggestion of a slow procession through the landscape.  It's from the composer's first book of "Preludes" from 1910.

Debussy: The Snow is Dancing – At the other end of the spectrum is this fanciful miniature from the "Children's Corner Suite" from 1908.  Unlike most of Debussy's music, the titles are all in English—probably a nod to the English governess of Debussy's daughter Claude-Emma, to whom the suite is dedicated.  The music wasn't meant to be performed by children—some of it is pretty challenging—but rather to reflect the world of childhood.

Frederick Delius

Frederick Delius: Sleigh Ride – Written at the request of the great Norwegian musical miniaturist Edvard Grieg for an 1887 Christmas party, this piece was orchestrated by Delius in 1890 and prefaced with this description: "On Christmas Even I stood in the open air.  The moon shone bright over a billowing landscape.  The sound of an approaching sleigh was heard from a distance, but it soon rushed by and disappeared.  And then gradually it was once more still and bright and peaceful."  The opening with sleigh bells and a perky melody on the flute is really pretty irresistible.

Liszt: Transcendental Etude No. 12, Chasse-neige (Snow storm) – Liszt's twelve "Transcendental Etudes" (Études d'exécution transcendante) are the Mt. Everest of piano music.  Originally published in 1837, the pieces were revised to make them less absurdly difficult to play in 1852, but even so they present technical challenges that separate the virtuosi from the run of the mill players.  This musical storm begins softly and relentlessly builds to a massive blizzard of notes.

Leopold Mozart: A Musical Sleigh Ride – We don't think much about Wolfgang Mozart's dad these days, but he had a fairly substantial career as a musician and composer.  Many of his works have been lost over the centuries but a few—like this charming miniature and his "Cassation in G for Orchestra and Toys" (a.k.a. the "Toy Symphony")—are still performed now and then.  Leopold Mozart loved using non-traditional sounds in his pieces, including bagpipes, whistles, and even (in anticipation of Spike Jones) pistol shots.

Wolfgang Mozart: German Dance No. 3, K. 605 (Sleigh Ride) – The younger Mozart's sleigh ride is a lilting dance in three-quarter time complete with tuned sleigh bells and an ingratiating posthorn solo.

A scene from Lieutenant Kijé

Prokofiev: Troika – This depiction of a ride in a traditional Russian three-horse sleigh comes from music written for the satirical 1933 film "Lieutenant Kijé," about a non-existent soldier created by a clerical error and kept "alive" by bureaucrats afraid of the Czar's wrath, should the mistake be discovered.  It's easily the most popular piece from the score and has been appropriated by a number of rock/pop stars including Greg Lake ("I Believe in Father Christmas") and Helen Love ("Happiest Time of the Year").

Strauss: An Alpine Symphony – Completed in 1915, this mammoth tone poem (it runs close to an hour) depicts and Alpine ascent and descent, complete with a trek across a glacier and a thunderstorm.  Strauss loved the mountains.  He built a villa for himself in the Bavarian Alps and often vacationed in Alpine regions.  That affection clearly shows in this music.

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 1 ("Winter Dreams") – First performed in 1868, Tchaikovsky's first attempt at a symphony had a rough time being born.  It took nearly a year to compose and received a fair amount of unflattering criticism along the composer's former teachers.  The structure is a bit clunky in places, but the first movement (subtitled "Dreams of a Winter Journey") is so powerfully evocative of a haunted journey through a frigid landscape that I, for one, am inclined to overlook the work's flaws.

Artists of The Royal Ballet in The Nutcracker
Photograph © ROH/Johan Persson

Tchaikovsky: Waltz of the Snowflakes – This final number from the first act of the "Nutcracker" ballet also depicts a wintry sojourn, but a much cheerier one than the "Winter Dreams" symphony.  The Nutcracker Prince has just defeated the Mouse King and, as a snowstorm rises, he and Clara are transported to the Kingdom of Sweets.  The addition of a wordless children's chorus in the final bars adds a lovely touch of whimsy.

Ralph Vaughan Williams: Sinfonia Antartica (Symphony No. 7) – Adapted from the music Vaughan Williams wrote for the 1947 film “Scott of the Antarctic,” the “Sinfonia Antartica” is pure symphonic wind chill.  Its five movements leave an indelible impression of the forbidding landscape and tragic end of Scott’s ill-fated expedition.  In the score, each movement is preceded by a literary quotation.  Vaughan Williams didn’t explicitly say that they should be read as part of the performance, but when they are (as in the Andre Previn/London Symphony recording from many years ago) the theatrical effect can’t be denied.

Vivaldi: Winter (from "The Four Seasons") – This is easily one of the most vivid bits of tone painting you'll find anywhere, with snowstorms, icy winds, and quiet evenings by the first all colorfully captured.

That's my quick list.  I limited myself to orchestral pieces, so Schubert's 1828 "Winterreise"  ("Winter Journey") song cycle has been left out in the cold, so to speak, along with (probably) many others.  I also rejected Arnold Bax's "November Woods" on the premise that he was thinking more autumnal than wintry.  What would you add to the list?  Let me know.

Soul music

Photo by Melanie Winning

Who: The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Andrew Davis with violinist Tasmin Little
What: Music of Delius, Elgar, and Beethoven
Where: Powell Symphony Hall
When: March 1 and 2, 2013

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The score of Elgar’s 1910 Violin Concerto carries the Spanish preface, "Aqui está encerrada el alma de ....." ( "Herein is enshrined the soul of ....." ). Is it a secret love letter to the wife of a member of Parliament or even, as Elgar biographer Jerrold Northrup Moore suggests, a tribute to several of the composer’s closest friends? And does it really matter anyway?

The answer to the first question appears to be "we don’t really know," but the answer to the second, in my view, is "no." With the exception of program music, where there are explicit non-musical reference points, a work has to stand or fall on its own merits. Biographical detail can provide illumination, but it can’t be a sine qua non.

I bring this all up because while it’s useful to know that the concerto was dear to Elgar’s heart, it doesn’t make the work any more approachable for me. Yes, it’s filled with much that is admirable and even moving. The second movement, for example, is often ravishingly beautiful and the remarkable accompanied cadenza in the finale, with pizzicato tremolando strings in the background, has an unearthly quality for which I find myself unable to find adequate words. But ultimately the lack of differentiation among the concerto’s themes, at least to my ears, renders it structurally murky and makes it feel overwrought and over-long.

In his liner notes for the 1993 recording of the concerto, Michael Kennedy quotes Elgar as describing the work as follows: "It's good! awfully emotional! too emotional, but I love it." Perhaps a little less love and a bit more rigor would have helped.

That said, you could hardly ask for a better performance than the one we got Friday night. Soloist Tasmin Little and conductor Sir Andrew Davis are major exponents of the work and their commitment showed in every note. Ms. Little, resplendent in a golden gown, attacked the music with a fierce and even (at times) grim concentration that yielded a presentation rich in poetry and virtuosity. Sir Andrew, for his part, led the orchestra in a nicely paced and lovingly shaped collaboration (you could hardly call it accompaniment, given how well Elgar integrated the solo part with the orchestra). Conducting without a baton, he shaped phrases with his hands in a way that was remarkable to watch. No wonder their 2010 Chandos recording has garnered critical raves. For those who, like Elgar, love the Violin Concerto, this was a performance not to be missed.

For me, though, the real highlight of the evening was the Beethoven Symphony No. 4 that followed intermission. Whether or not you go along with the "Music History 101" notion that Beethoven’s even-numbered symphonies are lighter in tone than his odd-numbered ones, there’s no getting around the fact that the fourth is all a-bubble with good humor. From the lively Allegro vivace that follows the highly dramatic opening Adagio of the first movement, to the comical little descending passage for bassoon that interrupts the coda of the finale, this is music by a composer young enough to be optimistic but mature enough to have mastered his craft.

Sir Andrew gave us a performance that was cheerfully boisterous without sacrificing the drama of that opening Adagio or the beauty of the second movement. The musicians played at their usual high level, which meant that the many little star turns Beethoven devised for the woodwinds sounded especially fine. Congratulations to Mark Sparks (principal flute), Barbara Orland (acting co-principal oboe), Scott Andrews (principal clarinet), and Andrew Cuneo (principal bassoon) for their solo work and, while I’m thinking of it, to associate principal timpanist Tom Stubbs as well for his reliably precise work.

The concert opened with an exquisitely nuanced Walk to the Paradise Garden, originally composed by Frederic Delius in 1907 to cover a long scene change in his opera A Village Romeo and Juliet. This portrait of the intense passion of the doomed lovers has since taken on a life of its own on the concert stage. It’s quintessential Delius, with shimmering strings and a pervasive sense of pastoral beauty, all of which came through wonderfully in this performance, including some nice solo work by Ms. Orland and associate principal clarinet Diana Haskell. Sir Andrew even allowed a moment of silence at the end that felt just right. Well done.

Perhaps the best thing about Friday night’s concert, though, was the obvious joy with which Sir Andrew approached the entire business. This was apparent, for example, during the curtain calls, when he ran back into the orchestra to shake hands with individual players and repeatedly encourage the musicians to stand up and take their well-deserved bows. This is a man who takes immense public pleasure from music making and, as a result, inspires it in the audience as well.

Next on the calendar: Soprano Tony Arnold and pianist Peter Henderson perform Messiaen’s Harawi on Wednesday, March 6, at 7:30 PM at the Pulitzer Foundation. The regular season resumes on Friday, March 8, at 10:30 AM and Saturday, March 9, at 8 PM with Alban Berg’s Violin Concerto, Brahms’s Variations on a Theme of Joseph Haydn, and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 2. David Robertson conducts with soloist James Ehnes. For ticket information: stlsymphony.org.

TPTBT (The Place to Be Tonight): Friday, March 1

Who: Violinist Tasmin Little and the St. Louis Symphony conducted by Sir Andrew Davis
What: Elgar's Violin Concerto, plus music by Delius and Beethoven
Where: Powell Hall
When: tonight and Saturday at 8 PM
Why: "Acclaimed by The Guardian for her 'wistful, poetic and powerful' performances, violinist Tasmin Little makes her St. Louis Symphony debut with Elgar’s Violin Concerto, one of the last great romantic violin concertos." And, as some have suggested, a love letter to the wife of a member of Parliament. Guest conductor Sir Andrew Davis is one of the great champions of British music. The program also includes Delius's "Walk to the Paradise Garden" from A Village Romeo and Juliet as well as Beethoven's lively Symphony No. 4.

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