notesBy Dr. Richard E. Rodda

PETER ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKYBorn May 7, 1840 in Votkinsk;died November 6, 1893 in St. Petersburg.

ROMEO & JULIET, FANTASY-OVERTURE (1870)• First performed on March 16, 1870 by the

Orchestra of the Russian Musical Society in

Moscow, conducted by Nikolai Rubinstein.

• First performed by the Des Moines Symphony

on April 14, 1948 with Frank Noyes conducting.

Subsequently performed seven times, most

recently on April 17 & 18, 2010 with Joseph

Giunta conducting.

(Duration: ca. 19 minutes)

Romeo & Juliet was composed when

Tchaikovsky was 29. It was his first masterpiece.

For a decade he had been involved with the

intense financial, personal and artistic struggles

that mark the maturing years of most creative

figures. Advice and guidance often flowed his

way during that time, and one who dispensed it

freely to anyone who would listen was Mili

Balakirev, one of the group of amateur

composers known in English as “The Five” (and

in Russian as “The Mighty Handful”) who sought

to create a nationalistic music specifically

Russian in style. In May 1869, Balakirev

suggested to Tchaikovsky that Shakespeare’s

Romeo & Juliet would be an appropriate subject

for a musical composition, and he even offered

the young composer a detailed program and an

outline for the form of the piece. Tchaikovsky

took the advice to heart, and he consulted

closely with Balakirev during the composition of

the work. Though his help came close to

meddling, Balakirev’s influence seems to have

had a strong positive effect on the finished

composition.

Tchaikovsky’s Romeo & Juliet is in a

carefully constructed sonata form, with

30 SECOND NOTES: This all-Russian Des Moines Symphony concert observes the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s death with two masterpieces inspired by the Bard’s Romeo & Juliet: Tchaikovsky’s tone poem, the work that established his international reputation, and Prokofiev’s ballet, considered by many to be his most masterful creation. The heart of the concert is occupied by the lyrical and virtuosic C Minor Piano Concerto of Sergei Rachmaninoff, the composer-pianist-conductor who was one of Russia’s most richly gifted musicians. The evening closes with the powerful and exotic Polovtsian Dances from Borodin’s opera Prince Igor, set in 12th-century central Asia.

November 19/20

ROMEO & RACH 2

introduction and coda. The slow opening section,

in chorale style, depicts Friar Laurence. The

exposition (Allegro giusto ) begins with a

vigorous, syncopated theme depicting the

conflict between the Montagues and the

Capulets. The contrapuntal interworkings and

the rising intensity of the theme in this section

suggest the fury and confusion of a fight. The

conflict subsides and the well-known love theme

(used here as a contrasting second theme) is

sung by the English horn to represent Romeo’s

passion; a tender, sighing phrase for muted

violins suggests Juliet’s response. A stormy

development section utilizing the driving main

theme and the theme from the introduction

denotes the continuing feud between the

families and Friar Laurence’s urgent pleas for

peace. The crest of the fight ushers in the

recapitulation, in which the thematic material

from the exposition is considerably compressed.

Juliet’s sighs again provoke the ardor of Romeo,

whose motive is here given a grand, emotional

setting that marks the work’s emotional high

point. The tempo slows, the mood darkens, and

the coda emerges with a sense of impending

doom. The themes of the conflict and of Friar

Laurence’s entreaties sound again, but a

funereal drum beats out the cadence of the

lovers’ fatal pact. Romeo’s theme appears for a

final time in a poignant transformation before the

closing woodwind chords evoke visions of the

flight to celestial regions

The score calls for piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, English horn, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, cymbals, bass drum, harp and the usual strings consisting of first violins, second violins, violas, violoncellos and double basses.

SERGEI RACHMANINOFFBorn April 1, 1873 in Oneg (near Novgorod), Russia;died March 28, 1943 in Beverly Hills, California.

PIANO CONCERTO NO. 2 IN C MINOR, OP. 18 (1901)

• First performed on October 14, 1901 in

Moscow, conducted by Alexander Siloti with the

composer as soloist.

• First performed by the Des Moines Symphony

on January 16, 1949 with Frank Noyes

conducting and Eugene List as soloist.

Subsequently performed eight more times, most

recently on May 14 & 15, 2011 with Joseph

Giunta conducting and Ilya Yakushev as soloist.

(Duration: ca. 34 minutes)

When he was old and as mellow as he would

ever get, Rachmaninoff wrote these words about

his early years: “Although I had to fight for

recognition, as most younger men must,

although I have experienced all the troubles and

sorrow which precede success, and although I

know how important it is for an artist to be

spared such troubles, I realize, when I look back

on my early life, that it was enjoyable, in spite of

all its vexations and bitterness.” The greatest

“bitterness” of Rachmaninoff’s career was the

total failure of the Symphony No. 1 at its

premiere in 1897, a traumatic disappointment

that thrust him into such a mental depression

that he suffered a complete nervous collapse.

An aunt of Rachmaninoff, Varvara Satina,

had recently been successfully treated for an

emotional disturbance by a certain Dr. Nicholas

Dahl, a Moscow physician who was familiar with

the latest psychiatric discoveries in France and

Vienna, and it was arranged that Rachmaninoff

should visit him. Years later, in his memoirs, the

composer recalled the malady and the

treatment: “[Following the performance of the

First Symphony] something within me snapped.

A paralyzing apathy possessed me. I did nothing

at all and found no pleasure in anything. Half my

days were spent on a couch sighing over my

ruined life. My only occupation consisted in

giving a few piano lessons to keep myself alive.”

For more than a year, Rachmaninoff’s condition

persisted. He began his daily visits to Dr. Dahl in

January 1900. “My relatives had informed Dr.

Dahl that he must by all means cure me of my

apathetic condition and bring about such results

that I would again be able to compose. Dahl had

inquired what kind of composition was desired of

me, and he was informed ‘a concerto for

pianoforte.’ In consequence, I heard repeated,

day after day, the same hypnotic formula, as I lay

half somnolent in an armchair in Dr. Dahl’s

consulting room: ‘You will start to compose a

concerto — You will work with the greatest of

ease — The composition will be of excellent

quality.’ Always it was the same, without

interruption.... Although it may seem impossible

to believe,” Rachmaninoff continued, “this

treatment really helped me. I started to compose

again at the beginning of the summer.” In

gratitude, he dedicated the new Concerto to Dr.

Dahl.

The C Minor Concerto begins with eight

bell-tone chords from the solo piano that herald

the surging main theme, announced by the

strings; the arching second theme is initiated by

the soloist. The development, concerned largely

with the first theme, is propelled by a martial

rhythm that continues with undiminished energy

into the recapitulation. The Adagio is a long-

limbed nocturne with a running commentary of

sweeping figurations from the piano. The finale

resumes the marching rhythmic motion of the

first movement with its introduction and bold

main theme. Standing in bold relief to this

vigorous music is the lyrical second theme.

These two themes, the martial and the romantic,

alternate for the remainder of the movement.

The score calls for two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, cymbals, bass drum and the usual strings.

SERGEI PROKOFIEVBorn April 23, 1891 in Sontzovka, Russia;died March 5, 1953 in Moscow.

MUSIC FROM ROMEO & JULIET (1938)• First performed in Brno, Czechoslovakia in

December 1938.

• Music from Romeo & Juliet was first

performed by the Des Moines Symphony on

September 27 & 28, 1980 with Yuri

Krasnapolsky conducting. Subsequently

performed in 1996 and most recently on April 17

& 18, 2010 with Joseph Giunta conducting.

(Duration: ca. 20 minutes)

When Prokofiev returned to Russia in 1933 after

his long sojourn in the West, he had already

acquired a reputation as a composer of ballet.

His first balletic effort had been the volcanic Ala

and Lolly written for Diaghilev in Paris in 1914,

whose music is better known in its concert form

as the Scythian Suite. Though Diaghilev did not

like the piece and refused to stage it, he

remained convinced of Prokofiev’s talent and

commissioned Chout (“The Buffoon” ) from him

in 1921 and produced it with his Ballet Russe. Le

Pas d’acier (“The Steel Step” ) followed in 1927,

and The Prodigal Son in 1928, the last new ballet

Diaghilev produced before his death the

following year. Sur le Borysthène (“On the

Dnieper” ) was staged, unsuccessfully, by the

Paris Opéra in 1932. The last two of these works

showed a move away from the spiky musical

language of Prokofiev’s earlier years toward a

simpler, more lyrical style, and the Kirov Theater

in Leningrad took them as evidence in 1934 that

he should be commissioned to compose a

full-length ballet on Shakespeare’s Romeo &

Juliet. After difficulties staging the ballet in

Russia, Romeo & Juliet was premiered in Brno,

Czechoslovakia in December 1938 and has since

come to be regarded as one of Prokofiev’s most

masterful creations.

Montagues and Capulets incorporates, as

slow introduction, the music accompanying the

Duke as he forbids further fights between the

families on pain of death.

The ecclesiastical music depicting Friar

Laurence occurs as the friendly monk and

Romeo await Juliet in the cleric’s cell.

Dance is an episode from the scene of the

folk festival in Act II.

Romeo at Juliet’s Grave is taken from the

ballet’s final scene — Juliet’s funeral procession

and Romeo’s grief at her supposed death.

Death of Tybalt is based on the music

accompanying the duel of Tybalt and Mercutio,

Tybalt’s death and his funeral procession.

The score calls for piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, English horn, two clarinets, bass clarinet, two bassoons, contrabassoon, tenor saxophone, four horns, cornet, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, triangle, tambourine, cymbals, glockenspiel, xylophone, snare drum, bass drum, harp, celesta, piano and the usual strings.

ALEXANDER BORODINBorn November 12, 1833 in St. Petersburg; died there on February 27, 1887.

POLOVTSIAN DANCES FROM PRINCE IGOR (1890)• First performed on November 4, 1890 in St.

Petersburg, conducted by Karl Kuchera.

• First performed by the Des Moines Symphony

on February 4, 1945 and again on February 17,

1946 with Frank Noyes conducting.

(Duration: ca. 12 minutes)

Vladimir Stassov, the influential critic and

philosophical mentor of the Russian nationalist

composers, first brought the idea for Prince Igor

to Borodin in 1869. Stassov had sketched out a

scenario based on The Epic of Igor’s Army, a

poem, later shown to be an 18th-century fraud,

that Stassov thought to be a 12th-century

description of the conflict between the Russians

and the Tartars. Borodin devoted significant time

to the opera in 1869-1870, but then was unable

to return to it for several years, though he did

use many of the sketches in the Second

Symphony of 1871-1874. When Borodin resumed

work on Prince Igor in 1874, the Polovtsian

Dances were among the first numbers written.

He pecked away at the opera for the remaining

years of his life, but the score was left

incomplete when he died suddenly at a party

from a burst aneurysm. Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

and his student Alexander Glazunov finished

Prince Igor from Borodin’s sketches and

prepared the opera for its premiere, in 1890 in

St. Petersburg.

In the opera, Igor is captured while trying to

rid Russia of the Polovtsi, an invading Tartar

tribe from Central Asia. The leader of the

Polovtsi, Khan Kontchak, treats Igor as a guest

rather than a prisoner, and entertains him

lavishly. Khan offers him his freedom if he will

promise to leave the Polovtsi in peace, but Igor

refuses. Igor nevertheless effects his escape

and returns triumphantly to his people. Borodin

wrote that Prince Igor is “essentially a national

opera, interesting only to us Russians, who love

to steep our patriotism in the sources of our

history, and to see the origins of our nationality

again on the stage.” To make his opera as

authentic as possible, he studied the music,

history and lore of Central Asia, where the opera

is set, and sought out travelers with first-hand

knowledge of the region. His colorful, “Oriental”

writing for the Polovtsi was influenced not only

by authentic Caucasian melodies, but also by

music from the Middle East and North Africa.

The Polovtsian Dances are the centerpiece

of the Khan’s entertainment for Igor in Act II. A

brief introduction opens the scene in the

Polovtsian camp with an arch-shaped theme

played quietly by flute and clarinet. The first

dance, whose beguiling melody was transformed

into the song Stranger in Paradise in the 1953

Broadway musical Kismet, accompanies the

procession of captives. The women of the chorus

sing its text, a tender song extolling the high

mountains and blue skies of their Polovtsian

homeland. Next comes the entry of the

Polovtsian warriors to solid, rough music led by

the Oriental wailings of the woodwinds and a

sturdy version of the arched theme from the

introduction. A timpani solo introduces a

ferocious general dance in which the chorus,

accompanied by full orchestra, sings the praises

of the mighty Khan. The next dance, with its

galloping rhythm, its persistent descending

four-note motive and its continuing adulation of

the Polovtsian ruler, accompanies the war

games of the savage young men. The swaying

melody of the first dance returns in a richer

setting and is soon combined with the energetic

theme of the savage warriors. The rough music

and Oriental wailings that introduced the

warriors return with a ferocious vehemence to

bring the brilliant Polovtsian Dances to a rousing

close.

The score calls for piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, English horn, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, triangle, cymbals, tambourine, glockenspiel, snare drum, bass drum, harp and the usual strings.