PROGRAM NOTES
MARIN CONDUCTS RACH 3
Maximilian Franz
FROM THE PODIUM by Marin Alsop
The music on this program was fueled by emotional extremes . Tchaikovsky had his personal neuroses and Rachmaninoff suffered from deep depression , yet they persevered through it and in their music we hear them being true to themselves — virtuosic but emotionally complex figures . But conducting Christopher Rouse ’ s Sixth Symphony takes me to a still deeper level of personal connection . I fell in love with the power of his music long before the Baltimore Symphony was on my radar , and through the years he qualified as a hallmark composer for the Orchestra . He was a great musical citizen of Baltimore , and when I moved here to become Music Director , I found it serendipitous to be living two miles from one of the great American composers of all time . We became close friends . He may have been the most erudite , well-read person I ever knew . He would talk about how much he loved going to Disneyland , and then in the next breath he would touch on Kant and Aristotle .
His music speaks to fundamental human emotions — anger , love , jubilation . He was a composer of extremes . Chris was a complicated person , and I was lucky to spend a lot of time with him just before he passed away . I don ’ t think I have yet grasped the full impact of his loss . I think he was an optimist somewhere in there , but he was also a tremendous realist . He knew this would be his last symphony and , true to form , he composed a profoundly emotional and honest piece . This is the work of someone coming to the end of his life and not reluctant to contemplate that end . In his art he was always willing to go places that were frightening , to explore emotions that were almost dangerous .
ABOUT THE PROGRAM
BY JAMES M . KELLER
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Born April 25 ( old style )/ May 7 ( new style ), 1840 , in Votkinsk , Russia Died October 25 / November 6 , 1893 , in St . Petersburg , Russia
ROMEO AND JULIET , OVERTURE- FANTASY AFTER SHAKESPEARE [ 1869 , REV . 1870 AND 1880 ]
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky dedicated his Romeo and Juliet , Overture-Fantasy to Mily Balakirev , a kingpin of Russian musical politics as well as an incorrigible egotist . A few months after they met in 1869 , Balakirev suggested that the 29-year-old Tchaikovsky write a concert overture based on Shakespeare ’ s tragedy Romeo and Juliet , and he sent a long letter instructing him in detail how he should realize the project . He kibitzed about the key , the harmonic structure , and the rhythmic niceties , and he even offered a sample of what the opening measures would sound like if he were composing it . Correspondence flew back and forth as Tchaikovsky worked on the piece , taking quite a lot of Balakirev ’ s advice to heart . “ The layout is yours ,” Tchaikovsky assured him . “ The introduction portraying the friar , the fight — Allegro , and love — the second subject ; and , secondly , the modulations are yours : also the introduction in E , the Allegro in B-flat minor and the second subject in D-flat .” He continued with servility that can only strike us as disturbing : “ You can tear it to pieces . . . all you want ! I will take note of what you say and will try to do better in my next work .”
The piece was not a success when Nikolai Rubinstein conducted its premiere , in Moscow in March 1870 , and that summer Tchaikovsky undertook extensive revisions . Its beginning as we now know it dates from this period , with the original E-major pseudo-liturgical chant being replaced by F-sharp-minor music that maintains an antique sound thanks to the wide-open intervals of the clarinets and bassoons . Balakirev had objected to the original opening , complaining that it reminded him more of a Haydn string quartet than anything suggesting a Catholic friar . Tchaikovsky also deleted a fugue that had seemed out of place in the original version , where it was meant to depict the conflict between the Montagues and the Capulets . The revised version , introduced in St . Petersburg in
26 OVERTURE / BSOmusic . org