Ravinia 2022, Issue 5

PAVILION 8:00 PM THURSDAY, AUGUST 18, 2022 CHICAGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA PETER OUNDJIAN, conductor ITZHAK PERLMAN, violin COLERIDGE-TAYLOR Ballade for Orchestra * MENDELSSOHN Violin Concerto Allegro molto appassionato [ attacca ] Andante [ attacca ] Allegro molto vivace Itzhak Perlman –Intermission– MUSSORGSKY Pictures at an Exhibition (orch. Ravel) Promenade 1. Gnomus (The Gnome) Promenade 2. Il vecchio castello (The Old Castle) Promenade 3. Tuileries 4. Bydlo Promenade 5. Ballet of the Chicks in Their Shells 6. Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuyle 7. The Market Place at Limoges 8. Catacombs (Roman Sepulcher— Cum mortuis in lingua mortua) 9. The Hut on Fowl’s Legs (Baba-Yaga) 10. The Great Gate of Kyiv † Ravinia debut * First performance at Ravinia Itzhak Perlman’s appearance is made possible in part by the Barbara S. Herst Memorial Guest Artist Fund . SAMUEL COLERIDGE-TAYLOR (1875–1912) Ballade for Orchestra in A minor, op. 33 Scored for two flutes and piccolo, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, cymbals, and strings Daniel Peter Hughes Taylor, the son of a wealthy merchant in Freetown, Sierra Leone, formed a relationship with Alice Holmans while pursuing medical studies at King’s Col- lege Hospital and the Royal College of Sur- geons. Daniel and Alice may have secretly married, for she listed the surgeon as the fa- ther and her name as “Taylor” on the birth certificate of their son, who entered the world on August 15, 1875, in London. But Dr. Taylor returned to Freetown long before the boy’s birth, and he never played a role in his life. Alice named the child Samuel Coleridge-Tay- lor—an homage to the English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834)—and raised him in the household of her parents in Croy- don. His grandfather Benjamin Holmans, a blacksmith who possessed a love of music, became 5-year-old Samuel’s first violin teach- er and later paid for his instrument and pri- vate lessons with more qualified instructors. Coleridge-Taylor became a standout student at The British School and a chorister at St. George’s Presbyterian Church, whose choir- master guided Samuel’s musical training un- til he entered the Royal College of Music in London at age 15. The RCM maintained an outstanding music faculty that included com- poser Sir Charles Villiers Stanford, violinist Henry Holmes, pianist Algernon Ashton, theorist Charles Wood, and organist Walter Parratt. By the time Coleridge-Taylor fin- ished at the RCM in the summer of 1897, he had emerged as a skilled violinist and pianist, a published composer, and an individual dis- covering himself as a Black man of African descent living in Victorian England. The Three Choirs Festival commissioned Ballade for Orchestra in A minor, op. 33, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1905) for its 1898 festival held in Gloucester. Coleridge-Taylor conducted the Three Choirs Festival Orchestra in the premiere on Sep- tember 12, 1898. The composer dedicated the score “To my friend, A.J.J.”—August Johannes Jaeger (1860–1909), the friend and patron of Edward Elgar, office manager for the music publisher Novello & Co., and a champion of Coleridge-Taylor. The Ballade for Orchestra directly resulted from Jaeger’s advocacy, since he had convinced Gloucester Cathedral’s or- ganist, Herbert Brewer, to commission a new work from “young S. C-T.” This “rising and talented young composer” (preview article in the Gloucester Chroni- cle , September 10, 1898)—just one year out of conservatory—did not disappoint. After attending the rehearsal in London, Elgar declared: “I liked it all and loved some and adored a bit.” The composer’s future wife, Jes- sie Sarah Fleetwood Walmisley, whom he had met during their student years at the Royal College of Music, suggested the title Ballade . The contemporary influences of Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Antonín Dvořák, as well as an occasional orchestra effect borrowed from Richard Wagner (for example, the trills, somewhat reminiscent of the “Ride of the Valkyries,” heard in the introduction), appear throughout the score. The strings introduce a theme that firmly establishes the tonic key of A minor. Coleridge-Taylor displays a firm mastery of orchestration, layering and re- combining strings and winds in a prolonged crescendo. This musical intensity subsides for the entrance of the con passione secondary theme, played by muted strings in C major. The horn section sustains quiet harmonies that decrescendo into the development sec- tion, marked by large-scale modulations and motivic development. Coleridge-Taylor re- verses the order of the two main themes in the recapitulation, allowing for the music’s growth from lyricism to dynamic conclusion. Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast , the first of a trilogy of cantatas based on Henry Wadsworth Long- fellow’s epic poem “The Song of Hiawatha,” premiered two months after the Ballade, although Coleridge-Taylor had, in all prob- ability, completed it earlier. The successful premieres of these two compositions spread Coleridge-Taylor’s reputation throughout the English-speaking world. FELIX MENDELSSOHN (1809–1847) Violin Concerto in E minor, op. 64 Scored for two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, timpani, strings, and solo violin Mendelssohn first mentioned his long-range plans to compose a work for his friend, the violinist and composer Ferdinand David, on July 15, 1838: “I would like to write you a vio- lin concerto for next winter. One in E minor RAVINIA MAGAZINE • AUGUST 15 – AUGUST 28, 2022 26