Violin Concerto No. 1 in D Major, Op. 6…………...............…...............……………………….Niccolò Paganini (1782 - 1840)

Allegro maestoso
Adagio
Allegro spiritoso

The life and career of Niccolò Paganini represents several aspects of the nineteenth-century Romantic condition. Political upheaval in the early part of the century partially dismantled the traditional court systems of musical patronage and empowered a rising, concert-going middle class. These conditions gave rise to the new phenomenon of the public recital, and with it virtuosos such as Paganini and Franz Liszt. Paganini began his career as a full-time touring soloist at age 27, beginning in Italy and expanding his travels to all of the music capitals of Europe.

Aspects of Paganini’s performance persona satisfied the Romantic imagination, which enabled the so-called “cult of the virtuoso.” His ability was rumored to be linked to supernatural circumstances – the most common explanation that he had made a pact with the devil. Paganini’s gaunt, somewhat deformed and perhaps ghostly appearance encouraged the “other worldly” associations with the performer. Recent research, however, suggests that Paganini suffered from Ehlers-Dalos syndrome, a connective tissue disorder which, among several disfiguring effects, allows greater elasticity in the joints. This disorder could perhaps account for the performer’s dexterity in his hands.

A consummate performer, Paganini capitalized on the myths surrounding his life and his abilities, and his compositions often highlight all of the virtuosic techniques in his arsenal. This is particularly true of his violin concertos. The concertos themselves carried a certain mystique in that they were not published until 1851, over a decade after Paganini died, because of the common belief that only the composer could play them. The first concerto was one of Paganini’s favorite works for significant appearances and debut occasions as it features many of his most famous technical innovations, including left-hand pizzicato, multi-string harmonics, rapid sequential double stops, and unconventional bowing techniques.

Formally, the first concerto follows the model established by Mozart in the eighteenth century; the first movement is in a sonata-ritornello form with contrasting themes and key areas, the second movement is slower with singing melodic gestures, and the third movement is a lively rondo. However, while the first movements of solo concertos were traditionally the longest, Paganini’s opening Allegro maestoso is an exhaustive tour de force, nearly twice the length of the second and third movements combined. The extensive orchestral introduction features a vocal lyricism and longer melodic lines often characteristic of opera overtures. At times, the soloist repeats the themes in multiple registers, which accounts for some of the movement’s length, but Paganini also includes multiple cadenzas for the soloist. While the traditional concerto featured one cadenza before the final ritornello, Paganini created multiple opportunities to showcase his virtuosity. The second movement continues in an operatic vein, with homophonic textures featuring a long-breathed bel canto style melody. The finale demonstrates Paganini’s tendency toward variations, as he demonstrated in the last of his 24 caprices. While the variations in the concerto are not the most stylistically creative, they are unabashedly technically brilliant.

Romeo and Juliet Fantasy – Overture……….…………..........................……………..Peter Ilitch Tchaikovsky (1840 - 1893)


Peter Ilitch Tchaikovsky moved to Moscow in 1866 to teach at the newly-opened Moscow Conservatory. In Moscow he developed a fruitful professional relationship with Mily Balakirev, an unlikely friendship as Balakirev led a circle of non-conservatory-trained, anti-elitist Russian nationalist composers called “The Mighty Five.” In the late 1860s, the young Tchaikovsky had composed a number of piano works, a symphony, and an opera, none of which had achieved great critical or popular acclaim. At the time, Tchaikovsky was just recovering from the breaking off of his only romance with a woman – the Belgian opera singer Desirée Artôt – and, at Balakirev’s suggestion, channeled his emotional struggle into an orchestral piece based on Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet.”

The first version of the Fantasy-Overture was premiered in 1870, though the version performed today was not realized until 1880 following a decade of revisions, mostly at the suggestion of Balakirev. It was reportedly Balakirev who outlined the three basic dramatic and musical elements of the piece: the theme of the young lovers, the theme of their feuding families, and the theme of the sympathetic friar. When Tchaikovsky first forwarded Balakirev a draft of the main themes, the latter offered a fair amount of criticism for all but the famous “love theme” adding, “I play it often, and I want very much to kiss you for it.”

The work opens with a quiet chorale in the winds, suggesting Friar Lawrence. The stage is set with foreboding chords in the strings punctuated by glissandos in the harp. A single chord passed between the strings and winds eventually gives away to the agitated theme of the warring Montagues and Capulets. The frenzied figures in the strings eventually subside and Tchaikovsky subtly drops the key from B minor to a distant D-flat major (one of Balakirev’s suggestions) in preparation for the love theme. A fragment of the love theme is first presented in the low strings, but the composer creates a greater sense of longing and anticipation by delaying the full statement of the theme.

Although the piece is based on the famous love story, it is not necessarily a programmatic work. The piece does not provide a musical “play-by-play” of the story, but rather selects major dramatic elements of the story to correspond with the musical elements. Indeed, the form of the Fantasy-Overture resembles the traditional sonata form; the friar’s theme acting as a slow introduction, the warring family’s theme as the primary theme, and the love theme as the contrasting secondary theme. In accordance to proper sonata form, as well as the dramatic arc of the story, the themes are presented with conflict in the development section and reappear, though tragically transformed, in the recapitulation.


Suite from “The River”……………………………………..................................……………………Virgil Thomson (1896 - 1989)

The Old South
Industrial Expansion in the Mississippi Valley
Soil Erosion and Floods
Finale

American composer and critic Virgil Thomson composed the film scores for two of the most influential documentaries of the Great Depression: “The Plow That Broke the Plains” (1936) and “The River” (1938). The films’ narratives presume the resilience of American spirit and natural resources during times of crisis, which Thomson portrays using “traditional” American popular tunes and hymns while demonstrating a refined restraint. This sensibility and control rooted in American speech rhythms and hymnbook harmony is typical of Thomson’s style, though his output is considerably diverse. His film scores are, ostensibly, American in their aesthetic, though his background remains far more cosmopolitan.

Thomson was largely influenced by the Paris music scene. He traveled to Paris in 1921 to study at the Ecole Normale with Nadia Boulanger, who also taught American composers Aaron Copland, Roy Harris, and Elliott Carter. He was also active in the musical and intellectual circles surrounding Jean Cocteau and the French school of composers known as Le Six. He was particularly influenced by Erik Satie, whose ideals on clarity, simplicity, and occasionally irony are evident in Thomson’s works. Thomson would return to Paris in 1925, where he lived until 1940. During this period he completed his famous collaborations with fellow expatriate Gertrude Stein, emphasizing stage works. Though his musical adaptations of Stein’s cubist poetry may seem ideologically distant from the score for “The River,” both demonstrate Thomson’s gift for clarity and musical wit.

“The River” documents the importance of the Mississippi River in the American landscape and laments the environmental destruction caused through irresponsible farming and industrial methods. The film ends optimistically, celebrating advancements in farming technology that could potentially preserve the river and its surrounding areas. In painting a sonic landscape, Thomson draws on popular tunes to represent different parts of the country. The familiar tunes allow for Thomson’s characteristic open fourths, fifths, and octaves, and also what musicologist Richard Jackson calls a “diatonic dissonance,” in which two diatonic melodic gestures are somewhat at odds with one another. The effect delivers a sense of familiarity while challenging the listening to look beneath the surface.

Written and compiled by M.K. Ables