PROGRAM NOTES
CONLON PRESENTS BERNSTEIN ’ S KADDISH
the Vienna Conservatory , he made his most resounding mark as a stage composer , staking out his niche with the stage pantomime Der Geburtstag der Infantin ( The Birthday of the Infanta , after Oscar Wilde , introduced in 1908 ) and his ravishingly beautiful opera Der ferne Klang ( The Distant Sound , premiered in 1912 ). Critics frequently linked him to Debussy , thanks to his uncommon interest in novel timbral effects , and to Richard Strauss , not necessarily to Strauss ’ s advantage .
In 1920 , Schreker became director of the Hochschule der Musik in Berlin and for several years he toured as a conductor , made recordings , and wrote the first piece ever commissioned for broadcast on German radio . Toward the end of the decade , however , economic crisis threw the German opera establishment into disarray . The coup de grâce came when the Nazis seized political power in 1932 – 33 . They despised most modern composers , but Schreker ’ s Jewish roots made his situation still more perilous . Forced to resign his position at the Hochschule , he began investigating possibilities for a life elsewhere . Plans to be involved in a new conservatory in Los Angeles fell through , as did a tentative offer from the University of Chicago , both torpedoed by the Great Depression . Stress escalated into high anxiety , and after suffering debilitating strokes , he died two days before his 56 th birthday .
Die Gezeichneten involves a physically contorted nobleman who builds a pleasure-island where decadent activities take place . The story includes allusions to what are understood to be paintings by the composer Arnold Schoenberg , particularly to his studies of hands . Schoenberg noted the reference , and years later , after seeing a performance of this opera , he presented Schreker with one of his hand paintings .
The opera ’ s Prelude was completed early in the composition process and premiered independently in 1914 , four years before the opera was staged . Its alluring sound-world draws on the large orchestra to create sonorities of mysterious delicacy , including creative doublings — muted trumpet plus glockenspiel , for example — that together sound like some instrument not otherwise imagined . The harmony , though extended in its chromaticism , is tonally grounded ; and yet it displays polytonal touches that can leave a listener wondering which of two harmonic poles is the more magnetic .
Instrumentation Three flutes including piccolo , three oboes including English horn , three clarinets including bass clarinet and E-flat clarinet , two bassoons , four horns , three trumpets , three trombones , tuba , timpani , percussion , two harps , celeste , piano , and strings .
Leonard Bernstein
Born August 25 , 1918 in Lawrence , MA Died October 14 , 1990 in New York City , NY
KADDISH , SYMPHONY NO . 3 [ 1963 ]
Balancing his gifts as composer , conductor , pianist , and media personality became especially challenging during Leonard Bernstein ’ s 11 years as music director of the New York Philharmonic ( 1958 – 69 ), when he managed to complete only two substantial compositions — his Kaddish , Symphony No . 3 ( in 1963 ) and Chichester Psalms ( 1965 ), which together add up to roughly an hour of music . Kaddish had been commissioned back in 1955 to celebrate the Boston Symphony ’ s 75 th anniversary the following year , but Bernstein didn ’ t manage to commit much time to it until August 1963 , when he began to work furiously on the piece . He wrote both the music and a narration he had decided to pen himself , eking out sung texts from traditional Jewish prayers . Three months later , shots rang out in Dallas , and he resolved to dedicate Kaddish “ to the Beloved Memory of John F . Kennedy .”
It was an appropriate dedication . In its various forms the Kaddish can serve a breadth of liturgical functions , although it is particularly associated with mourning , more from its usage rather than from anything explicit in its text . It does not mention death but is instead a prayer of praise that focuses on the sanctification of God ’ s name . To Bernstein , however , religion was never simple , and he accordingly built his Kaddish into a complex structure by interweaving the traditional prayer with the extended narration , an emotionally potent argument between man and God , a rumination on faith , doubt , and mortality . His text also turned to the theme of Son vs . Father as the Speaker debates with God , sometimes escalating into violent outbursts ; this must surely relate also to the complicated relationship Bernstein had with his father , with whom he shared little common ground . When he revised this score in 1977 , he tamed some of his narration ’ s most extrovert flare-ups , but even at that the text has remained opened to reinvention . Alternate versions have been penned by Jamie Bernstein ( the composer ’ s daughter ) and by Samuel Pisar ( 1929 – 1915 ), a Holocaust survivor whose words are delivered here by his widow Judith and daughter Leah .
The score qualifies as one of its composer ’ s eclectic endeavors , its language ranging from forthright diatonic harmonies and melodies reminiscent of chant or folksong or Copland to intense chromaticism ( stretching to tone rows ) and dense polyphony , from passages flavored with jazz to the enveloping lyricism of musical theatre .
Instrumentation Four flutes including alto flute and piccolo , two oboes , English horn , two clarinets , bass clarinet , E-flat clarinet , two bassoons , contrabassoon , alto saxophone , four horns , four trumpets , three trombones , tuba , timpani , percussion , harp , celeste , piano , and strings .
Musical Terms Overture : An orchestral introduction to an extended work , such as an opera or ballet . Incidental music : written to accompany a dramatic performance on stage , film , radio , television , or recording ; to serve as a transition between parts of the action ; or to introduce or close the performance . Chromatic : In Western music , notes in a composition that are outside the primary scale upon which the composition is based ( probably a surprise to your ear !). Diatonic : Involving only notes in the composition ’ s key without chromatic alteration ( see above !). Polyphony : A style of musical composition consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody .
24 OVERTURE / BSOmusic . org