PROGRAM NOTES by James Manishen Piano Concerto No. 2 Sergei Rachmaninov b. Oneg, Russia / April 1, 1873 d. Los Angeles, CA USA / March 28, 1943 Composed: 1900-1901 First performance: <strong>October</strong> 14, 1901 (Moscow) conducted by Alexander Siloti with the composer as soloist Last WSO performance: 2008, Vladimir Sverdlov, piano; Alexander Mickelthwate, conductor Perhaps Rachmaninov needed the total failure of his <strong>Symphony</strong> No. 1 at its premiere in 1897 to validate the total success of his Piano Concerto No. 2 not long after. The 24-year-old composer loathed his first symphonic effort, forbidding any further performances of it during his lifetime. The performance was a disaster, conducted by a reportedly drunk Alexander Glazunov and a badly under-rehearsed orchestra. Rachmaninov was thrown into such a fit of depression, he suffered a nervous breakdown. For more than a year he lived with “paralyzing apathy,” as he wrote in his memoirs. “All my selfconfidence broke down. Half my days were spent on a couch sighing over my ruined life.” Fortunately Rachmaninov had a concerned family and a formerly high-strung aunt that had been successfully treated by a certain Dr. Nikolai Dahl, a local physician who had studied hypnotherapy in Vienna and France. A meeting was arranged and in January 1900, the composer found himself making daily visits to Dr. Dahl, hearing over and over the words “you will compose a piano concerto…with the greatest of ease…of excellent quality!” 8 OVERTURE I <strong>September</strong> <strong>–</strong> <strong>October</strong> 2011 Rachmaninov was surprised at how the treatments helped him and by the summer, he was relaxed and at work on the second and third movements of the Piano Concerto No. 2, the work that would propel him into the world’s concert halls. The first movement was completed the following spring. The premiere of the finished work took place in Moscow. He dedicated it to Dr. Dahl. Eight chords begin the C minor Concerto, followed by the surging main theme, which occupies much of the development section. The Adagio is strikingly beautiful, with much variety and pianistic resource. The Finale is a perfectly gauged match of martial energy and sweeping Romantic fervor, its main theme one of Rachmaninov’s best-loved melodies that became the popular hit song Full Moon and Empty Arms. His career never looked back. <strong>Symphony</strong> No. 8 Antonin Dvorˇák b. Bohemia / <strong>September</strong> 8, 1841 d. Prague / May 1, 1904 Composed: 1889 First performance: February 2, 1890 (Prague) conducted by the composer Last WSO performance: 2004, Andrey Boreyko, conductor If one were to search out the happiest and healthiest of all composers, Antonin Dvorˇák would be among that company. Even though he had moved among the highest musical and social echelons, in later years he wrote, “I shall remain what I have always been <strong>–</strong> a simple Czech musician.” Nothing pleased Dvorˇák more than connecting to his beloved Bohemian soil <strong>–</strong> summer travel to the countryside, pleasure in folkloric tradition and the regular enjoyment his gregarious nature inspired among friends. Yet despite his humble self-description, Dvorˇák’s music has an immense depth to it, with deeply-felt melancholy, bursting melody and zestful rhythms bound with strong architecture in often innovative formal structures. Within his last three great symphonies (No. 9 being the famous From the New World) his <strong>Symphony</strong> No. 8 displays all this. Dvorˇák dedicated his Eighth to Austrian Emperor Franz Josef who sponsored a music academy in Bohemia designed to promote local artists. Dvorˇák was also awarded a stipend that allowed him to compose without the distractions of other tasks. In December 1889, Dvorˇák travelled to Vienna to receive it. The Eighth <strong>Symphony</strong> was composed during one of Dvorˇák’s summer country retreats in Vysoká and in the music, one can certainly feel the contentment of his surroundings. Especially rich is the fund of melody, about which Dvorˇák had written to his friend Alois Göbl that his head was so “full of ideas” he couldn’t write them down fast enough. Indeed, in the opening 126 measures of the first movement, there are eight separate tunes worked with disarming ease. But it’s the second movement where Dvorˇák mines the depths, especially as to form where two musical paths cross and commingle: the first reluctant and mournful, the second smooth and confident. Fragments and textures dictate the movement’s form rather than traditional themes and key arrangements. The third movement resembles an Austrian Ländler, shifting between minor and major key, melodic resources intact with a freshminted coda leading to the trumpet-heralded Finale, a resounding theme with variations that ends with a burst of high spirits. Vous adresser au service des abonnés ou consulter le site www.wso.ca pour la traduction en français.
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