The Drama in Music
March 19, 2011 I 7:00 PM
First Baptist Church, Merritt Island
Modest Mussorgsky I Night on a Bald Mountain
Richard Strauss I Death and Transfiguration
Sergei Prokofiev I Romeo and Juliet, Suite No. 2
The SCSO closes its Fall/Spring series with a program full of drama. The concert opens with Modest Mussorgsky’s magnificent and wildly popular Night on a Bald Mountain. Following is one of the most important works of the 20th Century, Richard Strauss’s epic tone poem, Death and Transfiguration. The performance closes with Prokofiev’s unforgettable music from the ballet, Romeo and Juliet.
PROGRAM NOTES
Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky
Born March 21, 1839 Karevo, Pskov, Russia
Died March 28, 1881 St. Petersburg
Night on Bald Mountain
Mussorgsky originally composed this work as a tone poem based on a play by Gogol about a witches' Sabbath. The work contains inspirations from Liszt's Totentanz (Dance of Death). Later, Mussorgsky added parts for choir and incorporated it into Mlada, an opera he never completed. Subsequently, he revised the work and used it as the introduction to the third act of his opera Sorochintsy Fair. After Mussorgsky's death, Rimsky-Korsakov extracted the music from the opera, edited it and in 1886 published it under the title Night on Bald Mountain which is the title and arrangement with which we are now familiar and which you will hear today.
Mussorgsky was born into a well-to-do family. His mother taught him to play the piano at age 6. At age 10 he was taken to St. Petersburg to take piano lessons which he did for about 5 years. Mussorgsky began a career in the military but abandoned it for the civil service to give himself more time for music. Though his musical education was rudimentary, he developed a highly individual style which was strongly influenced by Russian history and folk music. Mussorgsky was a member of The Five, also known as The Mighty Handful. This group consisted of Balakirev, Borodin, Cui, Rimsky-Korsakov and Mussorgsky and worked toward creating a nationalist school of Russian music. Late in life, he became impoverished which led to heavy drinking and an early death at the age of 42. Of his compositions, perhaps the most familiar is Pictures at an Exhibition, originally a work for piano but most commonly heard as an orchestral arrangement by Ravel.
Richard Strauss
Born June 11, 1864 Munich, Germany
Died September 8, 1949 Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany
Death and Transfiguration (Op. 24)
As a young composer, Strauss was influenced by Franz Liszt's tone poems. For a period of about twelve years early in his career Strauss wrote several symphonic poems for which he received much acclaim. He wrote Death and Transfiguration in his mid-twenties and conducted its first performance on June 21, 1890 in Eisenach. It is one of the symphonic poems that brought him true celebrity status.
Strauss's intent in Death and Transfiguration, as he wrote in a letter, was to musically describe "the dying hours of a man who had striven toward the highest idealistic aims, maybe indeed those of an artist." After death triumphs, a transfiguration rises from the emptiness as a soaring hymn mingles with reminiscences of childlike purity.
Richard Strauss was the son of a leading French horn player. His musical talent was recognized at an early age and his father had him trained in strict classical traditions. He took piano lessons at the age of four, composed his first song at the age of six, and began serious study of composition and orchestration at the age of eleven. Strauss was very successful as both a conductor and a composer. He conducted extensively in Europe and the United States. Of his compositions, he is best known for his symphonic tone poems and his operas. His compositions typically convey specific events or ideas (i.e. they are program music) and contain rich, harmonic orchestral sounds and soaring melodies.
Sergei Prokofiev
Born April 27, 1891 Sontsovka, Russia
Died March 5, 1953 Moscow, Russia
Romeo and Juliet, Suite No. 2
Prokofiev’s ballet, Romeo and Juliet, was based on Shakespeare’s play of the same name. He completed the first version of the ballet in 1935 but its premiere was delayed, out of fear of political ramifications, until December 30, 1938 in Czechoslovakia. A significantly revised version of the ballet premiered on January 11, 1940 in Leningrad.
Prokofiev extracted three orchestral suites from the ballet, two of which were premiered prior to premiere of the ballet itself. The first suite premiered on November 24, 1936 in Moscow. The second suite was premiered on April 15, 1937 in Leningrad. The third suite premiered on March 8, 1946 in Moscow.
Sergei Sergeievich Prokofiev received his first piano lessons from his mother. At age 13, he enrolled in the St. Petersburg Conservatory where he studied with such greats as Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Reinhold Glière and Anatol Liadov. In 1918 he left his homeland to live in Europe and perform throughout the world. He returned to Russia in 1934. He was one of Russia’s outstanding twentieth century composers and achieved both popularity with the public and acclaim and admiration from professional musicians. Politically, however, he was sometimes on shaky ground. For example, in 1948 he was officially denounced for “excessive formalism” and “cacophonous harmony”. Among his works are symphonies, operas, ballets, works for band, concertos, piano sonatas, choral works, songs and chamber music.
Program Notes by Enoch Moser
Juan Carlos Siviero, principal viola
Death & Transfiguration
"Never heard this composition before I played it when I was 18 years old. Since then, on every single opportunity I am lucky to perform it, I understand more and more why Richard Strauss writes those amazing passionate phrases. They represent the life history of Man and his ascending acceptance to the Heavens"
Cathryn Leasure, trombone
Night on a Bald Mountain
"Mussorgsky's Night on a Bald Mountain brings back many memories for me. It is one of the first classical pieces I ever analysed, as a music student. On the practical side, there are some fun trombone parts to play in it too. Can't wait!"
