KNOXVILLE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Lucas Richman, Music Director
2014-2015 - Seventy-Ninth Season
Lucas Richman, Music Director
Natalie Leach Haslam Music Director Chair
Thursday & Friday evening
May 14 & 15, 2015~ 7:30 p.m.
Tennessee Theatre
Lucas Richman’s Finale
Sponsored by
Lucas Richman, conductor
Gabriel Lefkowitz, violin
Beethoven
Overture to Egmont, Op. 84
Tchaikovsky Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D Major, Op. 35
I. Allegro moderato
II. Canzonetta. Andante
III. Finale. Allegro vivacissimo
Gabriel Lefkowitz, violin
Intermission
Mahler
Symphony No. 10: Adagio
Ravel
La Valse, Choreographic Poem for Orchestra
This concert will air on WUOT 91.9 FM on Tuesday, June 9, 2015 at 8:00 p.m.
This concert will be rebroadcast on Monday, September 21, 2015 at 8:00 p.m
Performances of the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra are made possible in part by grants from the City of Knoxville, the
Knox County Government and by contributions to the Knoxville Symphony Society’s Annual Support Drive. This project is
funded under an agreement with the TENNESSEE ARTS COMMISSION. Latecomers will be seated during the first convenient
pause in the performance. The use of recording devices and/or cameras is strictly forbidden. Please remember to turn
off all electronic devices and refrain from text messaging during the concert. Programs and artists subject to change.
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Program Notes: Lucas Richman’s Finale
Notes on the Program by Ken Meltzer
Overture to Egmont, Opus 84 (1810)
Ludwig van Beethoven was baptized in
Bonn, Germany, on December 17, 1770,
and died in Vienna, Austria, on March
26, 1827. The first performances of
Beethoven’s incidental music to Egmont
took place at the Burgtheater in Vienna on
June 15, 1810.
Instrumentation: The Overture to Egmont
is scored for piccolo, two flutes, two oboes,
two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two
trumpets, timpani, and strings.
Duration: 9 minutes
Ludwig van Beethoven maintained a lifelong
admiration for the immortal German poet,
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832). In
February of 1811, Beethoven asked a friend: “If
you write to Goethe about me, try to find all the
words that will assure him of my deepest respect
and admiration…who can ever give enough
thanks to a great poet, the most precious jewel
a nation can possess?” Beethoven composed
several works inspired by the writings of Goethe,
including songs, the incidental music to the play
Egmont (1809-1810), and the cantata for chorus
and orchestra, Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage
(1815).
Beethoven composed his incidental music to
Egmont for a production of Goethe’s 1788 play
at the Vienna Burgtheater. The story of Egmont
was one that greatly appealed to Beethoven, a
tireless champion of political freedom. Egmont
takes place in the 16th century, and concerns
the oppression of the Netherlands at the hands
of the Spanish dictator, the Duke of Alva. Count
Egmont, a Dutch patriot, is imprisoned by
the Duke, and sentenced to death. Egmont’s
heroic martyrdom serves as a rallying cry to the
Dutch people to defeat the Spanish invaders.
Beethoven’s thrilling orchestral Overture
foreshadows the course of Goethe’s drama.
§
Concerto in D Major for Violin and
Orchestra, Opus 35 (1878)
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky was born
in Kamsko-Votkinsk, Russia, on May
7, 1840, and died in St. Petersburg,
Russia, on November 6, 1893. The first
performance of the Violin Concerto took
place in Vienna, Austria, on December
4, 1881, with Adolf Brodsky as soloist
viii
and Hans Richter conducting the Vienna
Philharmonic.
Instrumentation: In addition to the solo violin,
the D-Major Concerto is scored for two flutes, two
oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns,
two trumpets, timpani, and strings.
Duration: 33 minutes
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky composed his only
Violin Concerto during the spring of 1878.
Tchaikovsky dedicated the Concerto to Leopold
Auer, the great Hungarian-born violinist, who
was living and teaching in St. Petersburg. Auer,
however, declined to play the Concerto.
It was violinist Adolf Brodsky who took up
the cause for Tchaikovsky’s Concerto, serving
as soloist for the first performance, which took
place in Vienna on December 4, 1881. Hans
Richter conducted the Vienna Philharmonic.
The reaction by the audience and critics was
unfavorable, to say the least. The performance
inspired the prominent critic, Eduard Hanslick,
to write one of the most (in)famous reviews in
music history.
The Russian composer Tchaikovsky is surely
not an ordinary talent, but rather an inflated
one, with a genius-like obsession without
discrimination or taste. Such is also his latest,
long and pretentious Violin Concerto. For
a while it moves soberly, musically, and not
without spirit. But soon vulgarity gains the
upper hand, and asserts itself to the end of the
first movement. The violin is no longer played;
it is pulled, torn, drubbed. The Adagio is again
on its best behavior, to pacify and win us. But
it soon breaks off to make way for a finale that
transfers us to a brutal and wretched jollity of
a Russian holiday. We see plainly the savage
vulgar faces, we hear curses, we smell vodka.
Friedrich Visser once observed, speaking of
obscene pictures, that they stink to the eye.
Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto gives us for the
first time the hideous notion that there can be
music that stinks to the ear.
For several months after the concert,
Tchaikovsky carried a copy of the review and, to
the end of life, could recite verbatim Hanslick’s
caustic prose.
Still, Brodsky persevered in his advocacy of
the Concerto, playing it throughout Europe.
In time, the merits of the Tchaikovsky Violin
Concerto became clear. Even Leopold Auer
finally performed the work, as did such protégés
as Mischa Elman and Jascha Heifetz. But
Tchaikovsky dedicated this beloved masterpiece
to its first champion, Adolf Brodsky.
The Concerto is in three movements. The first
(Allegro moderato) opens with an orchestral
introduction, but it is not long before the soloist
Program Notes: Lucas Richman’s Finale
enters with a brief opening passage, yielding
to the flowing, principal theme. The compact
and extraordinarily beautiful second movement
(Canzonetta. Andante) leads without pause
to the Concerto’s whirlwind Finale (Allegro
vivacissimo). The virtuoso writing for the soloist
throughout the Finale is brilliant, perhaps
nowhere more so than in the thrilling closing
pages.
§
Symphony No. 10: Adagio (1910)
Gustav Mahler was born in Kaliště,
Bohemia, on July 7, 1860, and died in
Vienna, Austria, on May 18, 1911.
Instrumentation: The Adagio from the Symphony
No. 10 is scored for piccolo, three flutes, three
oboes, three clarinets, three bassoons, four horns,
four trumpets, three trombones, tuba, harp, and
strings.
Duration: 22 minutes
By 1906, Gustav Mahler had composed eight
Symphonies. Mahler was acutely aware that
several composers, including Beethoven, Schubert
and Bruckner, were never able to advance beyond
their Ninth Symphonies. And so, when Mahler
composed his work for two vocal soloists and
orchestra, he decided upon the title, Das Lied
von der Erde (The Song of the Earth) (1909),
rather than “Symphony No. 9.” While composing
his next Symphony, which he did call his Ninth
(1909), Mahler informed his wife, Alma: “Actually,
of course, it’s the Tenth, because Das Lied von
der Erde was really the Ninth.” In the summer
of 1910, when Mahler began work on his Tenth
Symphony, he announced to Alma: “Now the
danger is past.”
But Mahler was acutely aware of his own
mortality. In the summer of 1907, Mahler
suffered the dual tragedies of the death of his
first daughter (from scarlet fever and diphtheria),
and the diagnosis of the severe heart condition
that would lead to his own demise. Despite the
physicians’ warnings after the diagnosis of his
heart condition, Mahler continued an exhausting
work schedule. After resigning his position as
Kappellmeister in Vienna, Mahler traveled to New
York, where, beginning in 1908, he was conductor
of the Metropolitan Opera. The following year, he
assumed the additional responsibility of serving
as conductor of the New York Philharmonic. The
strain proved too much. In February of 1911,
Mahler conducted his final concerts in New York.
He then returned to Vienna, where he died on
May 18, 1911, at the age of 50.
At the time of Mahler’s death, his Tenth
Symphony remained incomplete. Mahler had
essentially finished the opening movement,
and prepared sketches (in various stages of
completion) of the remaining four. There have
been several attempts to fashion a complete
performance score of the Mahler Tenth, the
most famous by Deryck Cooke, which premiered
in London on August 13, 1964. But the
Tenth’s opening Adagio stands on its own as a
masterpiece by a unique symphonic genius. The
extended slow movement inexorably builds to a
shattering climax, finally resolving to music of
breathtaking peace and beauty.
§
La valse, Choreographic Poem for
Orchestra (1920)
Maurice Ravel was born in Ciboure,
Basses-Pyrénées, France, on March 7, 1875
and died in Paris, France, on December
28, 1937. The first performance of La valse
took place in Paris on December 12, 1920,
with Camille Chevillard conducting the
Lamoureux Orchestra.
Instrumentation: La valse is scored for
piccolo, three flutes, three oboes, English horn,
two clarinets, bass clarinet, two bassoons,
contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets,
three trombones, tuba, timpani, orchestra bells,
triangle, snare drum, tambourine, castanets, tamtam, cymbals, suspended cymbal, crotale in C,
bass drum, two harps, and strings.
Duration: 12 minutes
Maurice Ravel completed La valse in early
1920. Sergei Diaghilev, Director of the Ballets
Russes, agreed to stage La valse as part of the
upcoming summer season. Previously, Diaghilev’s
company had presented the world premiere of the
composer’s Daphnis et Chloé (1912).
In the spring of 1920, Ravel and Marcelle Mayer
performed the composer’s two-piano version
of the score for an audience that, in addition
to Diaghilev, included Francis Poulenc, Igor
Stravinsky, and choreographer Léonide Massine.
According to Poulenc, once the performance
concluded, Diaghilev commented: “Ravel, it’s a
masterpiece...but it’s not a ballet...It’s the portrait
of a ballet...the painting of a ballet.” Ravel calmly
gathered his manuscript and left the room. He
and Diaghilev never again worked together.
(continued)
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Program Notes: Lucas Richman’s Finale
The premiere of La valse, a “Choreographic Poem for Orchestra,” took place in Paris on December
12, 1920, as part of the Concerts Lamoureux, with Camille Chevillard conducting. The first ballet
staging of La valse took place several years later.
In his score, Ravel provided a brief choreographic argument for La valse:
Through whirling clouds, waltzing couples may be faintly distinguished. The clouds gradually
scatter: one sees an immense hall filled with a swirling throng.
The stage is gradually illuminated. The light of the chandeliers reaches its peak at the fortissimo.
An imperial court, about 1855.
Ravel offered these insights during interviews conducted in 1922 and 1924:
It is a dancing, whirling, almost hallucinatory ecstasy, an increasingly passionate and
exhausting whirlwind of dancers, who are overcome and exhilarated by nothing but “the waltz.”
Some people have seen in this piece the expression of a tragic affair; some have said that it
represented the end of the Second Empire, others said that it was postwar Vienna. They are wrong.
Certainly, La valse is tragic, but in the Greek sense: it is a fatal spinning around, the expression of
vertigo and of the voluptuousness of the dance to the point of paroxysm.