Program Notes

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Marby April L. Racana

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Program Notes

Program Notes

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)

Slavonic March in B-flat minor, op. 31
Originally titled “Serbo-Russian March on Slavonic Folk Themes”,
this work was written by the composer for a charity benefit in 1876 toaid and support soldiers who were fighting in the Serbian-Turkish War.
The work had been commissioned by the Russian Music Society and wascomposed in less than a week. Tchaikovsky expressed his feelings in aletter regarding his homeland’s involvement in the war to support theSerbians: “It is terrifying yet also gratifying that our beloved country is13
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deciding at last to give confirmation of her worth.”
It was in this atmosphere that the composer ultimately chose toincorporate several Serbian folk songs as well as the Russian national anthem
to set the tone for the benefit concert of the Slavonic Charitable Society. Thefirst section uses the tunes from two Serbian folk songs. Opening at thecomposer’s direction ‘with the movement of a funeral march’, the first fourmeasures act as an introduction with the lower strings and timpani setting
the funereal pace. The folk tune “The Sun Does Not Shine Brightly” thenmakes its first appearance, continuing for most of the first part of the march,
before a more upbeat middle section incorporates a few more folk tunes:“The Kind Serb’s Doorstep” and “Their Guns Do Not Make Him Afraid”(also sometimes referred to as “The Serb is Happy to Go to War”).

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Program Notes“God Save the Tsar” is first heard in this central section, only briefly,
before the opening section is recapped much more strongly and dramatically,layering additional folk song material throughout.

Eventually the fullRussian national anthem brings the work to a climax and triumphant ending.
Nikolai Rubinstein, founder of the Moscow Conservatory (where thecomposer also taught), conducted the premiere in November of 1876, whichapparently served its purpose, Tchaikovsky commenting that the work
generated “a whole storm of patriotic enthusiasm.” One critic stated that“the rumpus and roar that broke out in the hall beggars description. The
whole audience rose to its feet, many jumped up onto their seats: cries of‘bravo’ and ‘hurrah’ were mingled together. The march had to be repeated,

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after which the same storm broke out afresh. …It was one of the most stirring
moments of 1876. Many in the hall were weeping.”
Work composed: 1876  World premiere: 1876, Moscow
Instrumentation: 2 piccolos, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons,
4 horns, 2 cornets, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion(snare drum, bass drum, cymbals, tam-tam), strings

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)

Violin Concerto in D Major, op. 35
This violin concerto has been said to be that of a Cinderella score, theperformer for whom it was written subsequently refusing to play it, and whenplayed eventually, it was received with less than a warm welcome. Tchaikovsky
was inspired to compose this piece after being snowed in with violinist Joseph
Kotek, while at a villa on Lake Geneva in 1878. After playing numerous sonatas
and concertos together, Tchaikovsky decided to create a concerto for violin,with Kotek apparently playing through the work as it was being composed.
Surprisingly, it was not Kotek for whom this piece was dedicated, but
Leopold Auer, a leading Russian violinist of the time. However, Auer, after16

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scheduled performance of it as well. Consequently, this work was not heard ina public performance for three more years, where in 1881, Eduard Hanslick, acritic of the time stated that the violin was ‘beaten black and blue’ and that theProgram Notes

determining that the piece was not playable even convinced Kotek to cancel afinale left a ‘stink in the air’.
The first movement opens gently with the string section, before the fullorchestra joins in and leads into the soloist’s first presentation of the main theme.
Later the orchestra takes up the theme with the brass section in full fanfare
before the soloist returns to elaborately decorate the melody. This is followedby another tutti section, which leads into the first extended cadenza by thesoloist, one that only seems to tentatively want to finish as the flute enters withthe theme and perhaps gently eases the soloist back to the recapitulation. One
can almost imagine Kotek and Tchaikovsky exploring the many possibilities asthe piece was being created all those years ago.
The original second movement did not meet with Kotek’s approval, soTchaikovsky replaced it with the current ‘Canzonetta’, indicating that theviolin be muted throughout, although many soloists modify this direction

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or disregard it all together. The movement opens with soft winds before thesoloist introduces the first theme. This wind ensemble returns at the closeof the movement before leading directly into an almost surprise entranceof the final movement complete with another extravagant cadenza andmore acrobatics on the featured instrument. The oboe melody, heard in themiddle section, is said to be an autobiographical gesture of remembrance
to the composer’s wife, as it plays reminiscences of Tatyana’s panikhida
rhythm as heard in the opera, Onegin. And indeed the violin seems to sighin soulful longing of previous times, before leading away to the almost
frantic closing sections and uplifting coda.
Work composed: 1878  World premiere: 1879, New York
Instrumentation: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2trumpets, timpani, strings, solo violin

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Program Notes

Aram Khachaturian (1903-1978)

Adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia            from the ballet‘Spartacus’
Symphony No. 3 –“Symphony-Poem”
Khachaturian was the son of an Armenian bookbinder who lived in theGeorgian region of the former Soviet Union. In 1921, he went off to Moscow
to enter college, but at the time music was only a side interest, studying celloprivately. Eventually his musical skills would develop to the point where heentered the Moscow Conservatory in 1926, studying composition and remaining
there until completing his graduate studies in 1936, (the same year he debuted hisPiano Concerto), quickly becoming a rising star among composers of the region.

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Spartacus was the last of Khachaturian’s three ballets, and was premiered
in December of 1956, in the city of Leningrad. Initially suggested by Nikolai
Volkov as a possible story for a ballet in 1938, the composer did not begin workon the piece until the summer of 1950, writing on the first page of the scorehis feelings, “beginning with a feeling of great excitement.” The composition
would not be completed until February of 1954 and following its premiere twoyears later, the ballet was staged again in 1958 at the Moscow Bolshoi, themusical score and composer winning the Lenin Prize later that year.
Khachaturian had toured around the regions of Italy where the story ofSpartacus was based historically, but determined that it would not be possible
to try to replicate the music of that time stating: “We know nothing of themusic of ancient Rome.” Instead he incorporated the musical style for which
he was well known from his previous works commenting: “I wanted the score
to express clearly the drama of the plot,” going on to explain that he felt theideals were relevant to the times:“I believe that the theme of Spartacus and the slave uprising in ancient
Rome has great importance and appeal today. I thought of Spartacus

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antique rebellion of the slaves on behalf of human rights…. The eraof Spartacus was an important one in the history of mankind. Today,
when most of the world’s oppressed people are waging an intense

Program Notes

as a monumental fresco describing the mighty avalanche of thestruggle for national liberation and independence, the immortal imageof Spartacus has acquired particular significance. When I composed
the score of the ballet and tried to capture the atmosphere of ancient
Rome in order to bring to life the images of the remote past, I neverceased to feel the spiritual affinity of Spartacus to our own time.”
Khachaturian began compiling several suites of music from the ballet
between 1955-1957. The second suite includes the work being presented forthis concert series, the Adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia, aptly expressing
the passion and depth of emotions when the two are reunited following theuprising and her rescue from slavery.
Symphony No. 3 was subtitled ‘Symphony-Poem’ and composed in 1947
as one single movement for the 30th anniversary of the Revolution. In thecomposer’s own words and presumably as a tribute to communism he stated:

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“I wanted to write the kind of composition in which the public would feel myunwritten program without an announcement. I wanted this work to express theSoviet people’s joy and pride in their great and mighty country.”
Unfortunately, Khachaturian did not include this written dedication, so his
intentions were misconstrued by the secretary of the Communist Party’s CentralCommittee, Andrei Zhdanov, who delivered a decree in 1948 condemning not
only Khachaturian, but also Shostakovich and Prokofiev, among other Soviet
composers, describing them as ‘formalist’ and ‘anti-popular’. All of the composers
were coerced into making public apologies, which had a tremendous impact onthem. Khachaturian himself reflected: “Those were tragic days for me… I wasclouted on the head so unjustly. My repenting speech at the First Congress wasinsincere. I was crushed, destroyed. I seriously considered changing professions.”

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Program Notes

This Third Symphony premiered in Leningrad on December 13th, 1947 with
Yevgeny Mravinsky conducting the Leningrad Philharmonic. The same conductor
presented the work in Moscow later that same month. The work features anadditional fifteen trumpets (on top of the regularly orchestrated brass alreadypart of the main ensemble), as well as a flourishing organ solo and an expanded
woodwind section. The middle section of the work incorporates a melody that issimilar to the main theme from the Adagio in the Spartacus ballet.
As one of his compatriots, Dmitri Kabalevsky, aptly summed up: “Theespecially attractive features of Khachaturian’s music are in its roots in national
folk fountainheads. The captivating rhythmic diversity of dances of the peoples
of Transcaucasia and the inspired improvisations of the ashugs (Armenia’s

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native bards), -- such are the sources from which have sprung the composer’screative endeavors. From the interlocking of these two principles there grew
Khachaturian’s symphonism – vivid and dynamic, with keen contrasts, now
enchanting in their mellow lyricism, now stirring in their tension and drama.”
Adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia from the ballet‘Spartacus’
Work composed: 1952-1954   World premiere: 1956, Leningrad
Instrumentation: 3 flutes (3rd doubling on Piccolo), 2 oboes, English
horn, 3 clarinets (3rd doubling on bass clarinet), 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 3trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion (tambourine, snare drum,bass drum, triangle, suspended cymbal, cymbals), harp, piano, strings
Symphony No.3 in C major, op.67 "Symphony-Poem"Work composed: 1947   World premiere: December 13th, 1947, Moscow
Instrumentation: piccolo, 2flutes, 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, 2bassoons, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion (snaredrum, bass drum, cymbals, tam-tam), harp, organ, strings, 15 solo trumpets

April L. Racana / Music Specialist at Nishimachi International School where
she has taught since 1992.  She completed her undergraduate studies at
the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana (BS/Piano Pedagogy) and her
graduate studies at San Francisco State University (MA/Music), as well asa post-graduate fellowship at Northwestern University, and the Japan
Studies Program at International Christian University.

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