TCHAIKOVSKY SYMPHONY NO . 4 in Residence at the Tokyo Symphony , Venice Biennale , Lucerne Festival , and musica viva ( Munich ), and from 2012 – 15 was director of the International Program for Music Composition at Suntory Hall ( Tokyo ).
His synthesis of Eastern and Western musical traditions often give rise to pieces that unroll at a deliberate pace , tend toward spare orchestration rather than overt voluptuousness , sometimes mix Japanese instruments with those of a Western symphony orchestra , and unleash sounds within a respectfully acknowledged context of silence . His piece unrolls through six connected sections whose headings convey the work ’ s trajectory : Earth ’ s Beat , Calligraphy , Meditation , Elegy , Fear , Prayer .
Instrumentation One piccolo , two alto flutes , one clarinet , two bassoon , two horns , two trumpets , one trombone , rims of the timpani , bass drum , bongo drums , wood blocks , crotales , tam-tam , and strings .
Camille Saint-Saëns
Born October 9 , 1835 in Paris , France Died December 16 , 1921 in Algiers , Algeria
CELLO CONCERTO NO . 1 IN A MINOR , OP . 33 [ 1872 ]
Camille Saint-Saëns started piano lessons at the age of two-and-a-half and embarked on composition and organ instruction at seven , by which time he was already performing in public . In 1846 , he presented his formal debut recital at Paris ’ Salle Pleyel , a program that included piano concertos by Mozart and Beethoven — with a cadenza he had written for the Mozart — plus solo pieces by Bach and Handel . “ We have attended the debut of a charming child of ten who … has made known to us one of the most formidable talents of the day ,” reported the magazine L ’ illustration . “ He knows everything , but lacks inexperience ,” bantered Hector Berlioz .
By the time he composed his Cello Concerto No . 1 , in November 1872 at the age of 37 , Saint-Saëns was highly regarded in French musical circles , but had not yet written the works for which he is most famous today . His opera Samson et Dalila was on the back burner and his famous Third Symphony and Carnival of the Animals lay far in the future . Of his symphonic poems , he had achieved only Le rouet d ’ Omphale ( Omphale ’ s Spinning Wheel ); his Danse macabre would emerge in 1874 . He was a bit farther along in the genre of the concerto , having completed the first three of his five piano concertos and two of his three violin concertos , as well as the popular Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso for Violin and Orchestra . A Second Cello Concerto would follow in 1902 .
His biographer Stephen Studd suggests that the composer ’ s sudden interest in the cello — this concerto was immediately preceded by a sonata for the instrument — resulted from his mourning a recently departed great-aunt . “ His feeling for the cello ,” writes Studd , “ with its deep , dark tone and capacity for both dignified and impassioned utterance , was now rekindled by the melancholy that set in after his bereavement .” Though dependably fervid , this concerto is elegiac only in a short Tchaikovskyesque interlude in the finale ( revisited near that movement ’ s end ). Still , the second movement — a minuet introduced by strings , muted and staccato — may underscore the great-aunt ’ s connection to the music of an earlier time . A review of the work ’ s premiere observed , “ It should be clarified that this is in reality a Concertstück , since the three relatively short movements run together . The orchestra plays such a major role that it gives the work symphonic character , a tendency present in every concerto of any significance since Beethoven .”
Instrumentation Two flutes , two oboes , two clarinets , two bassoons , two horns , two trumpets , one timpani , and strings .
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Born May 7 , 1840 in Votkinsk , Russia Died November 6 , 1893 in St . Petersburg , Russia
SYMPHONY NO . 4 IN F MINOR , OP . 36 [ 1877 – 78 ]
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky began composing his Fourth Symphony just when he got involved with his mysterious patron Nadezhda von Meck , who pledged to support him financially so long as he never sought to meet her in person . “ I should like to dedicate it to you ,” he wrote her in May 1877 , “ because I believe you would find in it an echo of your most intimate thoughts and emotions .” Then his life veered off track when he precipitously married and just as quickly abandoned his baffled bride . During his subsequent meltdown , the Fourth Symphony was put on hold , but by late summer he reported to his patron , “ Our symphony moves ahead . The first movement … is very long and complicated : at the same time , I consider it the best movement .”
The center of gravity is indeed placed on the first movement , and the other three stand as shorter , less imposing pendants . When Meck begged him to explain the meaning behind the music , Tchaikovsky broke his rule of not revealing his secret programs and penned a detailed prose description of the opening movement : “ The introduction is the seed of the whole symphony , undoubtedly the central theme . This is Fate , i . e ., that fateful force which prevents the impulse toward happiness from entirely achieving its goal ….”
So he continues for the ensuing movements : the second , “ that melancholy feeling that comes in the evenings when , weary from your labor , you sit alone , and take a book — but it falls from your hand ;” the third , conveying “ the elusive images that can rush past in the imagination when you have drunk a little wine and experience the first stage of intoxication ;” the fourth , “ a picture of festive merriment of the people .” Even if we recognize that Tchaikovsky penned these words after he had essentially completed the symphony , they seem accurate .
On the other hand , music is not prose — or , as Tchaikovsky reminded Meck by quoting Heine , “ Where words end , music begins .” To his pupil and friend Sergei Taneyev , Tchaikovsky wrote : “ Of course my symphony is program music , but it would be impossible to give the program in words . … But ought this not always to be the case with a symphony , the most lyrical of musical forms ? Ought it not to express all those things for which words cannot be found but which nevertheless arise in the heart and cry out for expression ?”
Instrumentation Two flutes , one piccolo , two oboes , two clarinets , two bassoons , four horns , two trumpets , three trombones , one tuba , one timpani , bass drum , cymbals ( pair ), triangle , and strings .
MAR-APR 2024 / OVERTURE 25