Korngold! Stravinsky! Gershwin! Weill! – Chamber Orchestra of Europe
Chamber Orchestra of Europe
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Robin Ticciati, conductor
Golda Schultz, soprano
Programme:
Franz Schreker: Kammersymphonie
George Gershwin: By Strauss
Kurt Weill: Youkali
George Gershwin: Summertime
Kurt Weill: Lost in the Stars
Igor Stravinsky: No Word from Tom (Anne Truelove), from The Rake’s Progress
Erich Wolfgang Korngold: Marietta’s Lied, from Die tote Stadt
Leonard Bernstein: Somewhere, from West Side Story
Igor Stravinsky: The Firebird
In co-operation with:
Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation
The COE is a private orchestra which receives invaluable financial support from particularly the Gatsby Charitable Foundation and a further number of Friends including Dasha Shenkman, Sir Siegmund Warburg’s Voluntary Settlement, the Rupert Hughes Will Trust, the Underwood Trust, the 35th Anniversary Friends and American Friends.
Korngold! Stravinsky! Gershwin! Weill! – Chamber Orchestra of Europe
Franz Schreker was one of the most prominent musicians in the German-speaking world in the 1920s, thanks to his successful operas and his teaching. His Chamber Symphony (1916) represents post-Mahlerian hyper-romanticism, in the spirit of Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht (1899), Webern’s Im Sommerwind (1904), and Richard Strauss’s symphonic poems.
The Chamber Symphony was commissioned by the Imperial Academy of Music in Vienna for its centenary celebration in 1917. Schreker wrote individual staves for each of the 23 players, though he suggested doubling the string parts in large concert halls.
The single-movement work consists of four sections—introduction, main part, adagio, and scherzo—that flow into one another. Except for the scherzo, the principal themes of each section return at the end. The work also contains the rich harmonic magic typical of Schreker’s music. A good example is the opening, where the flute and later the solo violin float above a shimmering soundscape of celesta, harmonium, piano, and harp.
Composed in 1936, By Strauss is a tribute to the music of Johann Strauss I and Johann Strauss II. With a wink, the singer declares a preference for waltzing to Strauss rather than enjoying Broadway.
Kurt Weill originally wrote Youkali as an instrumental interlude for Jacques Deval’s French play Marie Galante (1934). The following year, lyrics were added, turning it into a gorgeous “euro-tango.” The song’s lyrics describe an idyllic island that turns out to be nothing more than a dream.
Summertime is an aria composed by George Gershwin in 1934 for his opera Porgy and Bess. The song blends elements of jazz and African American song styles, and the melody, later a jazz standard, appears in several scenes of the opera.
With lyrics by Maxwell Anderson, Lost in the Stars is based on Alan Paton’s best-selling novel Cry, the Beloved Country. It was Kurt Weill’s last stage work, premiering on Broadway in 1949.
Stravinsky’s opera The Rake’s Progress (1951) is a Faustian, baroque-inspired, satirical morality play with the motto “the devil finds work for idle hands.” At the end of Act I, Anne wonders why she has not heard from Tom, who has sold his soul to the devil.
Korngold’s three-act opera Die tote Stadt (1920) includes the aria Glück, das mir verblieb, which speaks of the joy of love but also of the sorrow of life’s transience.
Somewhere comes from Leonard Bernstein’s Broadway musical West Side Story (1957). It appears in Act II and again at the very end, sung by Maria as the mortally wounded Tony dies in her arms.
The Firebird was the work that brought Stravinsky international fame, though somewhat indirectly: the commission from the newly founded Ballets Russes came only after other well-known composers declined. Ballet impresario Sergei Diaghilev turned in haste to the young, 27-year-old Stravinsky. He began composing in December 1909 in St. Petersburg.
The ballet is based on a Russian folktale about the benevolent Firebird. Other characters, such as Prince Ivan and the evil sorcerer Kashchei, also come from this tradition. Ivan tries to rescue the princess he loves from Kashchei’s clutches. With the help of the Firebird—whose life Ivan had earlier spared—he succeeds in freeing her and defeating Kashchei and his followers.
The folkloric subject encouraged Stravinsky to incorporate folk melodies, though the Firebird’s dance and the grand wedding march at the end are entirely his own. Chromaticism in the score is associated with the supernatural characters, while diatonic, folk-like gestures represent mortal humans.
By March 1910 the ballet was complete, but problems arose: the prima ballerina announced that she “detested” the music and refused to dance. A replacement was found, and Stravinsky’s rise to fame began. After the next two Diaghilev ballets—Petrushka (1911) and the sensational The Rite of Spring (1913)—his name was known throughout the musical world.
Text: Pekka Miettinen