Jon Powers u Kathy Bosin
{ Program Notes
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Brahms
SEPT 22 OCT 20 NOV 24
Valet Seven Days A Week
34 O v ertur e |
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his patroness Nadezhda von Meck. “Perhaps it is just because — being a child of
my time — I feel broken and spiritually
out of joint, that I find consolation and
rest in the music of Mozart, music in
which he gives expression to that joy in
life that was part of his sane and wholesome temperament.”
“Rococo,” from the Italian word for
“shell,” was originally the name for a
shell-like ornament used for interior
decoration in mid-18th-century palaces;
its popularity eventually gave name to
an entire cultural style of delicate ornamentation and lightheartedness. Tchaikovsky adopted the rococo spirit here in
his simple, graceful theme, in the charm
and fancifulness of his variations, and in
the use of a small 18th-century orchestra, with only pairs of woodwinds plus
strings to support the cello soloist.
In the seven variations that follow the
cello’s presentation of the theme, Tchaikovsky sticks closely to the melody so
that we never forget its original shape.
The heart of the work is the lengthy
third variation: a soulful, slow-tempo
song for the cello that is a masterpiece of
heartfelt lyricism. Variation five shows
off the soloist’s virtuosity with chains of
trills, an extremely wide range (Tchaikovsky emphasizes the cello’s highest
notes throughout this work), and rapid
figurations. The sixth variation moves
into the minor mode with a darkly
melancholy Russian melody, exquisitely