105 / 116
Rostropovich recognized that there might con-
sequence for his outspoken statements: “I know
that a er my letter there will undoubtedly be an
‘opinion
’ about me, but I am not afraid of it.” e
penalties were quick and extreme. Rostropovich
was banned from traveling abroad and from
giving performances in the USSR. Vishnevska-
ya, one of the principal sopranos at the Bolshoi,
was passed over for leading roles. In
, Ros-
tropovich requested and was granted permis-
sion to leave the Soviet Union: “Before that, I
was thinking of suicide. I thought everything
was lost.”
at approval followed the political
intervention of Senator Ted Kennedy, whom
Leonard Bernstein had encouraged to appeal
directly to General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev
during a trip to the Soviet Union. Following
a four-hour meeting between Kennedy and
Brezhnev in April
, the General Secretary
granted Rostropovich and Vishnevskaya their
two-year leave.
Initially, the couple traveled with their two chil-
dren to the United States, where they were feted
in private receptions (by Ted and Joan Kenne-
dy, among others) and public performances.
e time abroad, as the cellist later explained to
the
Washington Post
, was “not an escape from
Russia, but the only way to realize our musical
dreams by which we express our love for Russia
and our great people.”
In
, Rostropovich was named successor to
Antal Dorati as music director of the National
Symphony Orchestra; his -year tenure be-
gan in the fall of
. His immediate plans for
the National Symphony included a series of
world premieres, the orchestra’s rst recording
(Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto with soloist
Isaac Stern), its rst European tour at the end
of the
/ season, and a vision for a world-
class music conservatory in Washington, DC.
To open his rst season as music director, Ros-
tropovich invited pianist Rudolf Serkin to be
the soloist in Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No.
across October – .
e following week (October – ) featured an
all-Bernstein concert—with no fewer than three
world premieres—on which the composer and
cellist shared time on the podium.
e major
new work
Songfest: A Cycle of American Poems
for Six Singers and Orchestra
occupied the sec-
ond half, conducted by Bernstein. Rostropovich
also ceded the baton to Bernstein to assume the
soloist role for the premiere of
ree Medita-
tions from Mass
, which Bernstein had arranged
for cello and orchestra expressly for the National
Symphony Orchestra and Rostropovich, at the
end of the rst half.
e concert opened with a “rousing new over-
ture” commissioned by Rostropovich entitled
Slava!
(A Political Overture), a deliberate dou-
ble-entendre on the Slavic word’s celebratory
meaning and the nickname of the composition’s
honoree. In this scintillating four-minute romp
in a “fast and amboyant” tempo, Bernstein
repurposed themes from his recent Broadway
op, the politically charged bicentennial musi-
cal
Pennsylvania Avenue
, which opened at
the Mark Hellinger eatre on May ,
, and
closed four days later.
Bernstein began his celebratory overture with a
variation on “ e Grand Old Party” from “ e
Money-Lovin’ Minstrel Parade” in Act Two of
Pennsylvania Avenue
.
ough not notated
in the score, it is traditional for the orchestra to
shout “Pooks” (the name of Rostropovich’s ubiq-
uitous long-haired miniature dachshund) with
the woodblock strike immediately before the
second theme. is
molto ritmico, con brio
(very
rhythmic, with re) melody in / —initially
scored for soprano saxophone and guitar; later
joined by horns in canon—is derived from the
upbeat “Rehearse!” heard in the opening scene
of
Pennsylvania Avenue
.
A short development section features a fugue
based on ve timeworn political proclamations,
pronounced above a vamping accompaniment.
Actors Michael Wager and Patrick O’Neal, lyr-
icist and playwright Adolph Green, and Bern-
stein taped these lines at a recording studio on
New York City’s East Side for playback during
the original performance.
“ … and if I am elected to this most high o ce,
I shall do everything in my power to bring about
the changes this country so desperately needs and
wants … ”
“ e people of this nation are sick and tired of the
abuses and misappropriations of power … ”
“Never again shall we submit to the dictatorial
evils of alien military power!”
“Permit me to quote the words of that mighty
statesman and champion of the downtrodden … ”
“I give you … the
!”
A erward, Bernstein reverses his original mate-
rial, starting with a fully orchestrated version of
the / theme. A brief piano interlude leads to a
recapitulation of the circus-march opening (mo-
mentarily broken by one phrase of the / theme)
and a robustly proclaimed “Slava!” at the end.
MAURICE RAVEL (1875–1937)
Piano Concerto in G major
Scored for ute and piccolo, oboe and English horn,
two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, trumpet,
trombone, timpani, triangle, snare drum, cymbals,
bass drum, tam-tam, wood block, whip, harp,
strings, and solo piano
e critical and monetary rewards of his rst
concert tour of the United States ( – ),
during which he conducted two performances
of his music with the Chicago Symphony Or-
chestra, encouraged Ravel to plan a return trip
for the early
s.
is time, he considered
appearances as solo pianist in an as-yet-unwrit-
ten concerto. Unexpectedly, the Austrian pia-
nist Paul Wittgenstein—who lost his right arm
during World War I—commissioned Ravel for
a le -hand concerto. He consequently found
himself in the remarkable position of writing
his rst two concertos simultaneously. His own
project was placed on hold while Ravel ful lled
the Wittgenstein commission over nine months
during
– . Ravel described this period to
London’s
Daily Telegraph
:
“Planning the two concertos simultaneously
was an interesting experience. e one in which
I shall appear as the interpreter is a concerto in
the truest sense of the word: I mean that I have
written very much in the spirit as those of Mo-
zart and Saint-Saëns.
e music of a concerto
should, in my opinion, be lighthearted and bril-
liant, and not aim at profundity or at dramatic
e ects. It has been said of certain great classics
that their concertos were written not ‘for,’ but
‘against’ the piano. I heartily agree. I had intend-
ed to entitle this concerto ‘Divertissement.’ en
it occurred to me that there was no need to do
so, because the very title ‘Concerto’ should be
su ciently clear.”
Leonard Bernstein (1976)
Paul Wittgenstein
AUGUST 13 – AUGUST 19, 2018 | RAVINIA MAGAZINE
103