Overture Magazine 2019-20 BSO_Overture_Sept_Oct | Page 14

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 12 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