Ravinia 2023 Issue 2

middle movements]” and replaced them with a single Adagio movement, which he consid- ered “poor.” Sensing his work time dwindling away, Brahms tried unsuccessfully to delay the scheduled premiere. Joachim composed a cadenza for the first movement. Revisions continued for seven months after the first performance. A seamless integration of solo and orches- tral material resulted from the unified efforts of these two skilled symphonic composers. Brahms had completed his Symphony No. 2 the previous year, a work that shares its spirit and key with the Violin Concerto. By 1878, Joachim listed three overtures and three works for violin and orchestra among his own compositions, dedicating the Concerto in the Hungarian Manner , op. 11, to Brahms. Brahms’s symphonically conceived concerto elicited mixed reactions. Josef Hellmesberg- er remarked that it was a “concerto not for, but against, the violin.” The composer him- self expressed uncertainty to Joachim: “Is the piece really good and practical enough to be printed?” Encouragement from his friends, especially Clara Schumann, strengthened his commitment to the work, which was pub- lished in 1879. The Allegro non troppo opens with the deli- cately scored first theme, immediately repeat- ed by the full orchestra. A soft, chromatic passage contrasts with louder marcato music in preparation for the solo violin entrance. Brahms considers the solo violin an addition- al orchestral color; its writing is lyrical, not excessively virtuosic. Brahms adds variety to his orchestral writing by scoring the opening of the Adagio for wind band. The solo violin responds, accompanied by the strings. The rondo finale is imbued with free-roaming spirit. Joachim was of Hungarian stock and performed with an exciting rhythmic free- dom and noble bravura that Brahms admired. To capture the necessary mindset, Joachim suggested the tempo marking Allegro gioco- so, ma non troppo vivace (fast and playful, but not too lively). Johannes Brahms PETER ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY (1840–1893) Symphony No. 5 in E minor, op. 64 Scored for three flutes and piccolo, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, and strings After an exhilarating tour of Germany during early spring 1888, Tchaikovsky returned to Russia in April and impulsively rented a house in Frolovskoye, near the Taneyev es- tate. The idyllic surroundings diverted his attention from music to gardening; he lat- er expressed to his benefactress, Nadezhda von Meck: “When I am quite old and past composing, I shall devote myself to growing flowers.” By mid-May, a complete disinterest in composition had overtaken Tchaikovsky. “To be honest, I have not yet felt the desire to create anything. What does it mean? Surely, not that I am finished? No ideas, no moods at all! But I still hope that, little by little, materi- al for a symphony will come,” he wrote to his brother Modest. The composer projected a deeper sense of desperation in a letter to Meck at about the same time. “I shall work very hard to prove not only to others but to myself that I am not yet played out. Very often, doubt seizes me, and I ask myself, isn’t it time to stop writing music, haven’t I overstrained my imagination, hasn’t the wellspring itself dried up? This must happen sometime if I live on for 10 or 20 years, and how do I know the time is not ar- rived when I should lay down my arms.” Tchaikovsky then informed her that progress on a new symphony had gained momentum. A sketchy, enigmatic program—not nearly so detailed as the Fourth’s—guided this current project. Its hidden meaning Tchaikovsky only confided to his patron: “Introduction. Com- plete resignation before Fate, or, which is the same, before the inscrutable predestination of Providence. Allegro (I) Murmurs, doubts, plaints, reproaches against XXX. (II) Shall I throw myself in the embrace of faith???” The specter of Fate (“the fatal force which Nadezhda von Meck prevents our hopes of happiness from being realized”) also had cast its shadow over the Fourth Symphony. Did the new symphony offer the composer “complete resignation” to this same unnamed Fate or to another myste- rious destiny? Tchaikovsky shrewdly left that question unanswered, though more than one writer has interpreted his encrypted state- ments as allusions to his homosexuality. Remarkably, Tchaikovsky fleshed out his Fifth Symphony within one month’s time at Frolovskoye. In mid-June, he wrote to Mod- est: “At last it looks like summer! It has been absolutely awful up to now, and I did not feel at all well. But, in spite of this, the work kept moving on. Nearly all the sketches for the symphony are ready, and at the beginning of next week I will start orchestrating it.” Tchaikovsky added final touches to the score on August 26, 1888—more than 10 years af- ter completing Symphony No. 4—and con- ducted the world premiere in Saint Peters- burg on November 17. This musical eloquence did not lessen the composer’s utter disappointment in the score. “After two performances of my new symphony in Petersburg and Prague, I have come to the conclusion that it is a failure. There is something repellent, something su- perfluous, patchy, and insincere, which the public instinctively recognizes. It was obvi- ous to me that the ovations I received were prompted more by my earlier work, and that the symphony did not really please the audience. The consciousness of this brings me a sharp twinge of self-dissatisfaction. Am I really played out, as they say? Can I merely repeat and ring the changes on my earlier idiom? Last night I looked through our Symphony [No. 4]. What a difference! How immeasurably superior it is! It is very sad!” Audiences persisted in their enthusias- tic affirmations, and Tchaikovsky grew in his affection for the Fifth. As in his Fourth, Tchaikovsky employed a “motto” for thematic unity in the Symphony Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky No. 5 in E minor. Heard first as a melancholy clarinet melody, the motto contains easily recognizable rhythmic and melodic traits. The opening two measures, presenting the hallmark dotted rhythm, are repeated a third higher. A two-measure descending line also repeats. The theme comes from Mikhail Glinka’s opera A Life for the Tsar , with an appropriate text roughly translated as “Turn not into sorrow.” Tchaikovsky’s music grows livelier with a Slavic-sounding Allegro con anima woodwind theme in 6/8. Several con- trasting ideas—mixing rustic and Roman- tic traits—crowd into the secondary theme area. Vast development and recapitulation sections follow. The string choir intones a solemn chorale in- troduction to the Andante cantabile, con alcu- na licenza . Tchaikovsky’s wondrously lyrical main theme blossoms forth from the French horn. The composer reportedly inscribed on his score at this point, “O, que je t’aime! O, mon amie!” (Oh, how I love … If you love me … With desire and passion!). An oboe soon joins in duet with the horn. The clarinet in- troduces another melody, then the music un- expectedly crescendos for a brass statement of the motto. Luxurious string writing rein- troduces the first theme, whose growing rush of passion the motto again interrupts. Tchaikovsky’s elegant Valse harkens back to his youth, to a melody he heard on the streets of Florence and later incorporated into his song Pimpinella , op. 38, no. 6. Strings rattle off long spiccato lines in the trio, then the waltz melody resumes. The clarinet and bas- soon quietly interject a subtle variation of the motto in the coda. This motto dominates the entire immense in- troduction to the final movement. The tempo changes for an agitated Allegro vivace string theme. High woodwinds quell the storm with a more tranquil melody. In typical course, Tchaikovsky expands his themes in the de- velopment and recapitulation. Brash restate- ments of the motto completely surround these important structural divisions. The coda accelerates from a march-like version of the motto to presto cadential figuration and a concluding reminiscence of the first move- ment’s 6/8 Slavic melody. –Program notes © 2023 Todd E. Sullivan MARIN ALSOP, Ravinia Chief Conductor For Marin Alsop’s biography, see page 42. RAVINIA.ORG • RAVINIA MAGAZINE 39