TCHAIKOVSKY SYMPHONY NO. 4
he played electric guitar and synthesizer;
in high school at Florida’s Dillard High
School for the Performing Arts, he joined
the jazz orchestra.
Today, DBR seems to effortlessly
straddle all fields of music, earning
commissions from Carnegie Hall and
leading U.S. orchestras, as well as from
pop artists. That is certainly the case
with his charismatic Voodoo Violin
Concerto of 2002, which continues
this concert’s theme of the alluring
and dangerous worlds of Fate and the
occult. Here, though, Fate is much more
benign, as DBR demonstrates his own
hypnotic powers on the violin while
traveling from Haitian voodoo culture
into an immersive world of musical
sounds from everywhere.
The Concerto’s first section —
DBR doesn’t actually designate them
as movements—is largely a spectacular
cadenza for the electronically amplified
violin, which is called “Hollerin’ in the
Night.” Based on both classical violin-
virtuoso feats and jazz riffing, it calls for
plenty of improvisation on the soloist’s
part to capture the spirit of the moment;
no two performances will be exactly alike.
Gradually, the orchestra is drawn in to
take part in the riffing. The highlight
is DBR’s virtuoso improvisation on
“The Star-Spangled Banner.”
Next, we hear “Prayer,” which by
contrast is quiet, slow and filled with
the spare eloquence of American
folksong, especially from Appalachia. It
is beautifully accompanied by a piano
playing simple, hymn-like chords, as well
as vibraphone and harp. Led by the solo
viola, other instruments slip in gradually
to make their commentary on the
violinist’s tender melody. The conclusion
soars ethereally toward the skies.
After this slow interlude, the pace picks
up as the music returns to the “hollerin’”
theme of the Concerto’s opening. Then
DBR moves into a section called “Tribe,”
in which he challenges various members
and sections of the orchestra to join him
in improvising solos and duets. This
grows into a virtual concerto for orchestra,
as everyone from percussion to oboe takes
up the invitation in a joyful display of
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OV E R T U R E / BSOmusic.org
friendly competition. After this, soloist
and orchestra soar together to a climax
of gloriously uninhibited music making.
Instrumentation: Two flutes, two oboes,
two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two
trumpets, two trombones, tuba, timpani,
percussion, harp, piano and strings.
SYMPHONY NO. 4 IN F MINOR
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Born in Votkinsk, Russia, May 7, 1840; died in
St. Petersburg, Russia, November 6, 1893
In Tchaikovsky’s tempestuous Fourth
Symphony, the power of Fate to disrupt
human lives again dominates the music.
The Fourth is a tale of two women,
both of whom entered the composer’s
life in 1877— the year he composed it.
One of them nurtured his creative
career with bountiful gifts of friendship,
understanding and money; the other, in
a quixotic marriage, nearly destroyed it.
The composer’s bright angel was
Nadezhda von Meck, recently widowed
and heiress to a substantial financial
empire. An intelligent, highly complex
woman, she loved music passionately
and that passion became focused on
Tchaikovsky. Early in 1877, she began
writing long, heartfelt letters to him:
“I regard the musician-human as the
supreme creation of nature .…In you
the musician and the human being are
united so beautifully, so harmoniously,
that one can give oneself up entirely to
the charm of the sounds of your music,
because in these sounds there is noble,
unfeigned meaning.”
From such effusions grew one of the
strangest and most fruitful relationships in
music. Mme von Meck and Tchaikovsky
found they were soul mates, yet they were
determined to conduct their relationship