Overture Magazine - 2018-19 Season BSO_Overture_JanFeb_19 | Page 25

RESPGHI PINES OF ROME
Colin Currie last appeared with the BSO
in February 2016, performing James
MacMillan's Percussion Concerto No. 2,
Marin Alsop, conductor.
About the Concert
VARIATIONS ON A THEME BY HAYDN
Johannes Brahms
Born in Hamburg, Germany, May 7, 1833;
died in Vienna, Austria, April 3, 1897
Johannes Brahms was introduced to the
theme for his Variations on a Theme by
Haydn by Haydn’s biographer C. F. Pohl.
However, recent scholarship has proven
that this theme was not by Haydn, but
probably by his student Ignaz Pleyel.
Even Pleyel hadn’t written the tune itself;
known as the “Chorale St. Antoni,” it was
likely a pilgrims’ hymn from an earlier
era. Whatever its origins, the theme
had just what Brahms needed to set his
imagination afire.
Brahms has oboes and bassoons
introduce the theme in their distinctive,
plaintively colored tones. The ending is
picked up in the first variation, where
continuous B-flats anchor the free-flowing
string lines. All eight variations alternate
between B-flat major and minor.
Other variations of note include
variation 4, a mournful, minor-mode
piece led by solo oboe and horn. Darkly
colored, it is a tour-de-force of graceful
counterpoint with winds and strings
trading off the melody. This reverie is
blown away by variation 5, a lively scherzo
with bright winds and Brahms’ favorite
rhythmic play of three beats against
two. Hunting horns open the bounding,
rhythmically crisp variation 6. Its
antithesis is variation 7, a graceful siciliana
melody, emphasizing the warm colors of
violas and horns. The last variation is a
soft, mysterious scurrying of muted strings
and winds in the minor mode.
For the finale, Brahms built a series of
17 brief variations on the theme in the bass,
repeated as a Baroque-style passacaglia. As
Brahms’ invention soars above his strict
bass, the St. Antoni theme finally emerges
in a triumphant apotheosis.
Instrumentation: Two flutes, piccolo,
two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons,
contrabassoon, four horns, two trumpets,
timpani, percussion and strings.

PERCUSSION CONCERTO
Helen Grime
Born 1981, in York, England
The young Scottish composer Helen
Grime is truly a special musical voice
to discover. Listen, for example, to the
testimony of the great British conductor
Sir Simon Rattle: “I simply was fascinated
by Helen’s music. Helen was one of the
people who came up through the London
Symphony Orchestra’s Young Composers
Program, and I was immediately taken
with her work.” So impressed was Rattle he
arranged for London’s Barbican Centre to
commission her to write a two-part work
for his inaugural season as the LSO’s music
director in 2017–18.
Equally impressed was the exciting
Scottish percussionist Colin Currie, who
has become a great favorite here at the
Meyerhoff. “I’ve known Helen and her
extremely powerful music for some time
now, and we began talking of a concerto
some years ago. [Her] recent concertos for
Violin and Piano leave me very excited for
what could happen for percussion.” That
Percussion Concerto written for Currie
JA N – F E B 201 9 / OV E R T U R E
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