PROGRAM NOTES by James Manishen Violin Concerto No. 1 Dmitri Shostakovich b. St Petersburg, Russia / <strong>September</strong> 25, 1906 d. Moscow / August 9, 1975 Composed: 1947-48 First performance: <strong>October</strong> 29, 1955 (Leningrad) conducted by Yevgeny Mravinsky with David Oistrakh as soloist Last WSO performance: 1993, Cho- Liang Lin, violin; Bramwell Tovey, conductor It was déjà vu for Shostakovich in 1948 as he composed his Violin Concerto No. 1. He had felt the purge in 1936 when his opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk was called “muddle” by Soviet officialdom. Again, he was condemned in 1948 in the general purge by the authorities to ban abstract or difficult music that might be challenging for the Soviet people to accept. Only simple music glorifying the State would be allowed. Shostakovich knew both purges had come from Stalin. After the 1936 purge, he responded with his magnificent Fifth <strong>Symphony</strong> and soon became a world figure. But the 1948 censure was too much to bear, and he decided to withhold releasing any of his substantial works for a fair hearing until after Stalin was out of the picture. Stalin’s death on March 5, 1953 <strong>–</strong> the same day as Prokofiev’s <strong>–</strong> was like a dam bursting for Shostakovich. His Violin Concerto No. 1 waited until 1955 for its premiere by David Oistrakh, who had worked on the score with Shostakovich and was one of the greatest violinists of the time. Shostakovich’s alleged memoirs Testimony reveal that the genesis of the Concerto came from a combined bond to Jewish folklore plus the moral issue of what had happened to the Jews during the terror of the Second World War. Shostakovich was deeply affected by the Holocaust yet also by what he called the multifaceted flavour and spirit of 18 OVERTURE I <strong>September</strong> <strong>–</strong> <strong>October</strong> 2011 Jewish music, its ability to “be happy while it is tragic…almost always laughter through tears.” As always in Shostakovich’s major works, the symphonic argument is powerful, compelling and plotted with airtight logic. In this concerto too, his initials become a musical signature: D, E-flat (German S), C, H (German B-natural). In the opening Nocturne, the solo violin grows continuously from the dark string melody underneath, the centre-piece of the movement, a powerful statement leading to the return of the quieter opening material to close. The wild Scherzo couldn’t be more different, recalling the similar one in the Tenth <strong>Symphony</strong>, a work Shostakovich called “about Stalin.” The Passacaglia uses the ancient variation form of a repeating theme layering increasingly elaborate material on top, with deeply moving results. The Finale is a stunning virtuosic display that encapsulates previous material to close this brilliant, complex yet most accessible masterwork. Hamlet: Incidental Music Dmitri Shostakovich Composed: 1932 First WSO performance Shostakovich loved Shakespeare’s Hamlet and studied it comprehensively over many years. His first supporting music was for a notorious production by Nikolai Akimov in 1932. Here, Hamlet was a revolutionary fighting with the authorities - not for his ideals but for personal gain - Ophelia an alcoholic nymphomaniac, and Elsinore as the morally bankrupt state. Naturally, the production was shut down and Shostakovich refused to be associated with Hamlet until composing a completely different score for a traditional production in 1954 and a film in 1964. His 1932 score has much to enjoy though, with nods to Russian ballet plus the famous Dies Irae chant in the Requiem. <strong>Symphony</strong> No. 9 Dmitri Shostakovich Composed: 1945 First performance: November 3, 1945 (Leningrad) conducted by Yevgeny Mravinsky Last WSO performance: 1991, Bramwell Tovey, conductor Begun in 1941, Shostakovich’s large-scale <strong>Symphony</strong> No. 7 reflects the siege of Leningrad, a Leningrad “Stalin destroyed and Hitler finished off,” the composer wrote in Testimony. Shostakovich’s <strong>Symphony</strong> No. 8 (1943) is a profoundly tragic and epic depiction of massive conflict and the war’s consequences. With victory over Hitler’s Nazis in 1945, the resulting expectation for Russia’s greatest composer was to provide a suitably monumental symphony to glorify Stalin in no uncertain terms, regardless of the terrible losses of the Russian people. After all, Beethoven and Mahler wrote auspicious Ninth symphonies. So too here, but with a more significant dedication the politburo felt. Shostakovich did attempt an epic first movement but abandoned it, observing Stalin “like a frog puffing himself up to the size of the ox. Everyone praised Stalin and now I was supposed to join in this unholy affair.” Shostakovich’s response was a far more compact symphony in the new Ninth <strong>–</strong> full of biting wit, economy of gesture and pointed barbs of anger under its surface. The work was one of the main reasons Shostakovich was targeted as an Enemy of the People during Stalin’s second wave of repression in 1948. The Ninth <strong>Symphony</strong> is in five movements, the last three played without pause. The first movement cackles with violins, solo trombone, piccolo and muted trumpets all grabbing the spotlight to make their points. The second movement is a waltz, which Shostakovich was so adept at in his lighter music. A scherzo leads to a largo, where solemn trombones and tuba are answered by a mourning solo bassoon, perhaps a benchmark emotional state for the entire work, who then leads off a finale masked with dark secrets inside its boisterous façade. Vous adresser au service des abonnés ou consulter le site www.wso.ca pour la traduction en français.
PRESIDENT’S ADVISORY COUNCIL Al Alexandruk Mal Anderson Carol Bellringer Doneta Brotchie John and Bonnie Buhler Edmund Dawe Julia De Fehr Susan Feldman Jamie Dolynchuk Judy Fields Barbara Filuk Wally Fox-Decent John Fraser Helen Hayles Kaaren Hawkins Sherrill Hershberg Ian Kay Michael D. Kay Roger King Bill Knight Michel Lagacé Zina Lazareck Gail Leach Dr. Hermann Lee Naomi Levine Bill Loewen Don MacKenzie Bill Marr Michael Nozick Andrew Ogaranko Harvey Pollock John Rademaker Kathleen Richardson George & Tannis Richardson Leney Richardson Ed Richmond Lorne Sharfe Graeme Sifton Joanne Sigurdson Bonnie Staples-Lyon Dennis Wallace <strong>September</strong> <strong>–</strong> <strong>October</strong> 2011 I OVERTURE 19
Change language