Monday, May 3, 2010

Thursday May 13, 2010

On tonight's show:

Colorado Symphony Orchestra

Bedřich Smetana: “The Moldau” from Má Vlast
Jean Sibelius: Finlandia, Opus 26 No. 7
Jean Sibelius: “The Swan of Tuonela” from Four Legends, Op. 22 No. 2
Jean Sibelius: “Lemminkäinen’s Return” from Four Legends, Op. 22 No. 4
Jeffrey Kahane, conductor
recorded 3/6/10


Program notes

Bedrich Smetana (1824-1884): “Vltava” (The Moldau) from Má Vlast (My Country)

According to Smetana’s diary, Ma Vlast was “begun at the end of September,” 1874. However, two years earlier a newspaper article mentioned the composer at work on two symphonic poems titled Vysehrad and Vltava (The Moldau). In June, 1873, another article reported that Smetana was writing a series of “musical pictures of Czech glories and defeats.” By late 1875, the first four movements of the cycle were finished. Vltava (The Moldau) was completed on November 18, 1874, and first performed in Prague on April 4, 1876. Adolf Cech conducted the Royal Bohemian Provincial Theater Orchestra. Two more symphonic poems followed, and the entire set was introduced in Prague on November 5, 1882, again by Adolf Cech.

In a letter to his publisher, Smetana described The Moldau’s program: “Two springs pour forth their streams in the shade of the Bohemian forest, the one warm and gushing, the other cold and tranquil. Their waves, joyfully flowing over rocky beds, unite and sparkle in the rays of the morning sun. The forest brook, rushing on, becomes the River Vltava (Moldau). Coursing through Bohemia’s valleys, it grows into a mighty stream. It flows through dense woods from which come joyous hunting sounds, and the notes of the hunter’s horn drawing ever near and nearer. It flows through emerald meadows and lowlands, where a wedding feast is being celebrated with songs and dancing. By night, in its glittering waves, wood and water nymphs hold their revels. And these waters reflect many a fortress and castle--witnesses of a bygone age of knightly splendor, and the martial glory of days that are no more. At the Rapids of St. John the stream speeds on, winding its way through cataracts and hewing a path for its foaming waters through the rocky chasm into the broad riverbed, in which it flows on in majestic calm toward Prague, welcomed by time-honoured Vysehrad, to disappear in far distance from the poet’s gaze.”

Jean Sibelius (1865-1957): Finlandia, Op. 26 No. 7

“We are not Swedes, we can never be Russians, so let us be Finns” was the popular slogan in Finland. The country had been ruled by Sweden for five hundred years and then, in 1809, by Tsarist Russia. In 1894, Tsar Nicholas II appointed General Bobrikov as governor of Finland. Within months, the General had abolished all freedom of speech and assembly.

The people were not amused. Early in November, 1899, the wily Finns staged a series of “Press Celebrations,” ostensibly benefits for the Press Pension Fund, but really grand patriotic pageants meant to protest Russian rule. The November fourth show featured a series of six tableaux depicting various events in Finland's history. Sibelius wrote the accompanying music. The final section, titled “Finland Awakes,” roused the patriotic fervor of the audience to such an extent that the piece was banned by the Russian authorities.

Sibelius separated “Finland Awakes” from the other incidental music, revised it, and made a piano arrangement titled Finlandia. The orchestral tone poem had many names. “It was actually rather late,” Sibelius recalled, “that Finlandia was performed under its final title. At the farewell concert of the Philharmonic Orchestra before leaving for Paris, when the tone poem was played for the first time in its revised form, it was called Suomi. It was introduced by the same name in Scandinavia; in German towns it was called Vaterland, and in Paris La Patrie. In Finland its performance was forbidden during the years of unrest, and in other parts of the Empire it was not allowed to be played under any name that in any way indicated its patriotic character. When I conducted in Reval and Riga by invitation in the summer of 1904, I had to call it Impromptu.”

Sibelius was accused of cribbing tunes from folk music in Finlandia. He told his biographer that “there is a mistaken impression among the press abroad that my themes are often folk melodies. So far I have never used a theme that was not of my own invention. Thus the thematic material of Finlandia…is entirely my own.”

The score calls for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion and strings.

Jean Sibelius (1865-1957): “The Swan of Tuonela” from Four Legends, Op. 22 No. 2

In 1893, Sibelius and his friend, writer J.H. Erkko, were planning an opera, titled Veneen Luominen (The Creation of the Boat), inspired by the Finnish national epic, the Kalevala. “It was originally intended that Erkko should write the book of the opera”, Sibelius recalled, “but somehow or other I did so myself, while Erkko helped me as literary adviser. During the summer I completed the prologue to the opera and the book. When I returned to Helsingfors in the autumn, I called on Kaarlo Bergbom, the creator of the Finnish operatic stage, to ask for his opinion of the book. He said that it was effective, but too lyrical. In this he was indeed right; I realized this at once. This sealed the doom of the opera. But the labor I had devoted to carrying out the idea was not entirely wasted, for my fresh absorption in the world of the Kalevala gave the idea for the Lemminkäinen Suite. In the prologue to the opera I really had one movement of the suite ready made: ‘The Swan of Tuonela’.”

The Suite, also called Four Legends from the Kalevala, traces the progress of the hero Lemminkäinen, who must do three heroic deeds to win the Daughter of the North. The other three movements, “Lemminkäinen and the Maidens,” “Lemminkäinen in Tuonela” and “Lemminkäinen's Homecoming,’ were completed late in 1895. Sibelius conducted the first performance, after quarrelsome rehearsals, on April 13, 1896 in Helsingfors (Helsinki). One critic recognized “that Finnish quality we all recognize in our hearts and which is part of ourselves.”

For the premiere, “The Swan of Tuonela” was placed third; after the final revision of the score, it was moved to second.

The score contains the following preface: “Tuonela, The Kingdom of Death, the Hades of Finnish mythology, is surrounded by a broad river of black water and rapid current, in which the Swan of Tuonela glides in majestic fashion and sings.”

One of Lemminkäinen's tasks is to slay the Swan, as recounted in Canto 14 of the Kalevala, in which the hero
Went and took his twanging crossbow,
Went away to seek the long neck.
Forth to Tuoni's river.

Accordingly, the song of the Swan is played by the English horn, and the final section is an elegy for the Swan. The strings are divided into as many as seventeen separate parts. The score calls for oboe, English horn, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 3 trombones, timpani, bass drum, harp and strings.

Jean Sibelius (1865-1957): “Lemminkäinen’s Return” from Four Legends, Op. 22 No. 4

In 1893, Sibelius and his friend, writer J.H. Erkko, were planning an opera, titled Veneen Luominen (The Creation of the Boat), inspired by the Finnish national epic, the Kalevala. “It was originally intended that Erkko should write the book of the opera,” Sibelius recalled, “but somehow or other I did so myself, while Erkko helped me as literary adviser. During the summer I completed the prologue to the opera and the book. When I returned to Helsingfors [Helsinki] in the autumn, I called on Kaarlo Bergbom, the creator of the Finnish operatic stage, to ask for his opinion of the book. He said that it was effective, but too lyrical. In this he was indeed right; I realized this at once. This sealed the doom of the opera. But the labor I had devoted to carrying out the idea was not entirely wasted, for my fresh absorption in the world of the Kalevala gave the idea for the Lemminkäinen Suite.

The Suite, also called Four Legends from the Kalevala, traces the progress of the hero Lemminkäinen, who must do three heroic deeds to win the Daughter of the North. The other three movements are “Lemminkäinen and the Maidens of Saari,” “The Swan of Tuonela” and “Lemminkäinen in Tuonela.” Sibelius conducted the first performance, after quarrelsome rehearsals, on April 13, 1896 in Helsinki. One critic recognized “that Finnish quality we all recognize in our hearts and which is part of ourselves.”

“Lemminkäinen’s Return,” the last of the four, portrays his journey home with his companion, Tiera. The Daughter of the North destroys their boat, but the hero’s magic saves them. In the program book for the premiere, Sibelius quoted the following from the Kalevala:

Then the lively Lemminkäinen,
He the handsome Kaukomieli
From his care constructed horses,
Coursers black composed from trouble.
Then the lively Lemminkäinen
Started on his homeward journey,
Saw the lands and saw the beaches,
Here the islands, there the channels,
Saw the ancient landing-stages,
Saw the former dwelling places.

“I think that we Finns should really show more pride,” Sibelius once said. “‘Let us not bear our helmet crooked,’ a quotation from the Kalevala. What do we have to be ashamed of? This is the idea running through ‘Lemminkäinen’s Return.’ He is as good as the finest count.”

Biographer Robert Layton writes, “The piece is an exciting perpetual motion: the opening three-note figure is a kind of seminal motive that fertilizes all the subsequent thematic material.”

©2010 Charley Samson