Grammy Award-winning and internationally-lauded violinist Gil Shaham joins NWS for an exclusive evening at the Adrienne Arsht Center. Deemed “unplayable” before its premiere, Tchaikovsky’s masterpiece Concerto demands virtuosic fireworks with its unwavering passion, flowing lyricism and folkloric dance rhythms, especially in its flamboyant finale. Beethoven’s serene Sixth Symphony calms the storm with blissful-sounding winds and soaring strings—setting the scene for a picturesque stroll through the Vienna countryside with bird calls, yodeling, hymns and more. Both styles are masterful in the hands of Cristian Măcelaru, a University of Miami Frost School of Music graduate who is now Conductor-in-Residence of The Philadelphia Orchestra. 

Program

Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Concerto in D major for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 35 (1878)
Approximate duration: 34 minutes

After Tchaikovsky’s disastrous marriage and subsequent mental breakdown in 1877, a visit to Switzerland in November did wonders for his health and spirit. He returned the following March for another retreat, this time joined by Iosef Kotek, a violinist and former composition student for whom Tchaikovsky had developed a strong (and not entirely platonic) affection. Together they played through major works of violin repertoire, a process that sparked in Tchaikovsky a “burning inspiration” to compose a violin concerto, as he explained in a letter to his patron, Nadezhda von Meck. 

It took Tchaikovsky only 25 days to compose the Concerto, including the orchestration. Kotek proved an indispensable assistant, trying out the solo parts and allowing Tchaikovsky to hear and reshape passages as needed. Tchaikovsky considered having Kotek perform the premiere and also thought of dedicating the work to him, but instead he chose to offer the debut to Leopold Auer, a Hungarian virtuoso based in Saint Petersburg. Auer, however, found aspects of the work unplayable (or at least too technically awkward to sound good), and Tchaikovsky was forced to cancel the scheduled premiere and look for another soloist. The work did not reach the public until an 1881 performance in Vienna by Adolph Brodsky, to whom Tchaikovsky rededicated the score. In time, violinists—even Auer, eventually—warmed to the work’s passionate lyricism and fiery virtuosity, and it has become essential repertoire for all serious soloists. 

As impressive as the rapid passagework may be, it is the luscious melodies that make Tchaikovsky’s Concerto a perennial favorite. 

The opening movement frames the violin’s seductive themes in a grand and spacious form. Borrowing a device from the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto, the cadenza arrives early and flows seamlessly into a sweet recapitulation. 

The second movement is a nostalgic Canzonetta, or “little song.” 

Tchaikovsky wrote this movement to replace a discarded version of the slow movement, which he recycled a few months later in a work for violin and piano, Souvenir d’un lieu cher (Memory of a Dear Place). 

The finale commences without a pause, launching right into a suspenseful solo cadenza. 

In the Allegro vivacissimo body of the movement, the violin blazes through thrilling pyrotechnics and several contrasting themes en route to a breathless conclusion. 

 

Additional Resources 

PDF score from the IMSLP Petrucci Music Library 

Description of the Violin Concerto on the Tchaikovsky Research site 

Article in The New York Times on controversial statements about sexuality by the Russian director of a Tchaikovsky biopic

 

Ludwig van Beethoven

Symphony No. 6 in F major, Op. 68, "Pastoral" (1808)
Approximate duration: 40 minutes

Beethoven composed his Fifth and Sixth Symphonies concurrently in 1808, and introduced them together (with their numbers switched) as part of a four-hour extravaganza in Vienna. The following year, they were published in the familiar order, with adjacent opus numbers. Beethoven’s Sixth stands as one of the first programmatic symphonies, using descriptive movement headings to evoke specific ideas and images. The “Pastoral” nickname came from Beethoven himself, when he marked the parts for the initial performance with the heading “Pastoral Symphony, or Recollections of Country Life: More an Expression of Feeling than Painting.”

Beethoven’s journals and letters reveal his love of nature, as when he wrote in 1810, “How delighted I will be to ramble for awhile through the bushes, woods, under trees, through grass and around rocks. No one can love the country as much as I do. For surely woods, trees and rocks produce the echo that man desires to hear.” Recognizing and appreciating the natural world was a cornerstone of the Romantic ethos, and Beethoven’s “Pastoral” Symphony joined a common thread in music, art and literature of the early 19th century that rhapsodized on the beauty and grandeur of the natural world, with a reverence that was in no small part spiritual.

Just as the first four notes of the Fifth Symphony influence every measure of the opening movement, the Sixth Symphony builds an expansive essay out of a seemingly naïve theme. The first movement, characterized as the “Awakening of Cheerful Feelings upon Arrival in the Country,” enters bashfully, with four quiet measures that trail off.

Fragments of this figure build slowly, basking in long stretches of unmoving harmony.

The development section, often an opportunity for increased turbulence and activity, instead sinks deeper into a country calm, savoring each radiant chord change.

The second movement, “Scene by the Brook,” establishes a lapping triplet pulse under another mere wisp of melody.

The idyllic scene ends with a trio of birdcalls from the woodwinds, representing a nightingale, quail and cuckoo.

From here, the Symphony diverges from a typical four-movement pattern. There is a scherzo-like third movement, “Merry Gathering of Country Folk.”

The rollicking dance music halts unresolved and is supplanted by the first staccato raindrops of the “Thunderstorm.”

Fearful dissonances and thunderous timpani strikes make for a convincing tempest, until it trails off in one last upward patter from the flute.

A clarinet takes over to establish the sing-song contours of the “Shepherd’s Song:  Happy and Thankful Feelings after the Storm.”

This tune, at once humble and heroic, returns the Symphony to its pastoral calm. Near the end, a hymn-like variant lends a deeper resonance to this sunny conclusion.

 

Additional Resources

PDF score from the IMSLP Petrucci Music Library

Guide to the Sixth Symphony from The Guardian

Depictions of Beethoven in nature from the Beethoven-Haus in Bonn, his birthplace

-- Copyright © 2016 Aaron Grad

Aaron Grad is a composer, guitarist and writer based in Seattle. Besides providing program notes for the New World Symphony, he has been the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra’s program annotator since 2005 and also contributes notes to the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and Seattle Symphony.

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