Subscription Concert A Series

Subscription Concert No.999 A Series

Date: Thu. 30. May 2024 19:00 (18:00)

Venue: Tokyo Bunka Kaikan Venue Info Seat

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Michiyoshi INOUE, Conductor

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Program

Beethoven: Symphony No.6 in F major, op.68, “Pastorale”

Program Notes
Shostakovich: Symphony No.6 in B minor, op.54

Program Notes

Beethoven: Symphony No. 6 in F Major, op.68, “Pastorale”

Ⅰ Awakening of happy feelings on arriving in the country: Allegro ma non troppo
Ⅱ By the brook: Andante molto mosso
Ⅲ Merry gathering of country folk: Allegro
Ⅳ Thunderstorm: Allegro
Ⅴ Shepherdʼs song − Happy and thankful feelings after the storm: Allegretto

Ludwig van Beethoven: Born in Bonn, December 16, 1770; died in Vienna, March 26, 1827

　　The dividing line between program music and absolute music is a thin one, but Beethoven proved himself a master of both in his Sixth Symphony. Although the work has been produced with scenery, with characters who move about on stage, and as part of the cinema classic Fantasia, Beethoven took care to advise that the symphony is “more an expression of feeling than painting.” The composerʼs own love for the pleasures of the country are well-known. The time he spent in the woods outside Vienna offered his tortured soul precious solace and peace of mind. To quote the composer: “How glad I am to be able to roam in wood and thicket, among the trees and flowers and rocks. No one can love the country as I do … In the woods there is enchantment which expresses all things.”
　　The idea of depicting nature in tone was not new with Beethoven, of course. Many composers both before and especially after him were inspired to create some of their best music in such fashion, Vivaldiʼs Four Seasons being one of the most popular examples. The repertory of Pastoral Symphonies alone is quite impressive, including one by Vaughan Williams (No. 3), Wilfred Josephs (No. 5), Gretchaninov (No. 2), Glazunov (No. 7) and Don Freund. Although not a symphony in the Beethovenian sense, one of the numbers in Handelʼs Messiah is entitled “Sinfonia pastorale.”
　　The symphony received its first performance in Vienna as part of that incredible marathon concert of December 22, 1808 at the Theater an der Wien, an all-Beethoven concert that also included the Fifth Symphony, Fourth Piano Concerto, Choral Fantasy and some vocal and choral music.
　　The symphonyʼs opening places us immediately in relaxed, beatific surroundings. The day is sunny, warm, and abounding in natureʼs fragrances and gentle breezes. But aside from conjuring nature imagery, the music is remarkable for its motivic writing − virtually the entire movement is built from tiny musical cells found in the first two bars. Entire phrases and sentences are often formed from these motivic ideas repeated again and again.
　　The second movement invites contemplation. To Donald Francis Tovey, this is “a slow movement in full sonata form, which at every point asserts its deliberate intention to be lazy and to say whatever occurs to it twice in succession, and which in doing so never loses flow or falls out of proportion.”
　　The Sixth is the only symphony in which Beethoven departed from the four-movement format. The remaining three movements are played without interruption. Rough, peasant merry-making and dancing are portrayed, but the boisterous festivities suddenly stop when intimations of an approaching storm are heard. There is not much time to take cover; a few isolated raindrops fall, and then the heavens burst open. Timpani, piccolo and trombones, all hitherto silent in the symphony, now make their entrances. Storms have appeared frequently in musical compositions (in Verdiʼs Otello and Rigoletto, Wagnerʼs Flying Dutchman, Straussʼs Alpine Symphony, Berliozʼ “Royal Hunt and Storm” from The Trojans, etc.), but few have surpassed Beethovenʼs in power and fury.
　　With the tempest over, a shepherdʼs pipe is heard in a song of thanksgiving for the renewed freshness and beauty of nature. Timpani and piccolo withdraw, but the trombones, whose sonority was traditionally associated with sacred music until well after Beethovenʼs era, are retained. The joyous hymn is taken up by the full orchestra as if, to quote Edward Downes, “in thanks to some pantheistic god, to Nature, to the sun, to whatever beneficent power one can perceive in a universe that seemed as dark and terrifyingly irrational in Beethovenʼs day as it can in ours. That a man of sorrows and self-centered miseries like Beethoven could glimpse such glory and, by the incomparable alchemy of his art, lift us to share his vision, even if only for a few moments, is a miracle that remains as fresh as tomorrowʼs sunrise.”

Robert Markow's musical career began as a horn player in the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. He now writes program notes for orchestras and concert organizations in the USA, Canada, and several countries in Asia. As a journalist he covers the music scenes across North America, Europe, and Asian countries, especially Japan. At Montreal's McGill University he lectured on music for over 25 years.
　

Shostakovich: Symphony No. 6 in B Minor, op.54

Ⅰ Largo
Ⅱ Allegro
Ⅲ Presto

Dmitri Shostakovich: Born in St. Petersburg, September 25, 1906; died in Moscow, August 9, 1975

　　Nearly every one of Shostakovichʼs fifteen symphonies offers something strange, special or unique. In the case of the Sixth, the most outstanding feature is its formal design: a long, slow opening movement that lasts longer than the two remaining quick movements combined. The use of a slow opening movement in a symphony was not without precedent − Haydnʼs No. 49 (La Passione) or Mahlerʼs Tenth, for examples − but to follow such a grave, solemn movement with two lightweight, almost frivolous movements showed once again that Shostakovich was as unpredictable as he was talented. When the first performance was given in Leningrad on November 21, 1939, the public generally felt let down by this seemingly abstract work (many were expecting a grandiose tribute to Lenin), and the symphony was received coolly, particularly within the context of other musico-historical works heard during the two-month Festival of Soviet Music − works like Prokofievʼs Alexander Nevsky and Yuri Shaporinʼs On Kulikov Field.
　　The slow pace, deep melancholy, spaciousness of design, and subdued colors of the Sixth Symphonyʼs opening movement would be repeated in later symphonies (Nos. 8, 10, 11 and 13), but never again did Shostakovich resort to the peculiar format of a slow movement followed by two quick ones, a format that some have called “top heavy.” There is, however, a well-known precedent for this dramatic plan, that of Beethovenʼs Moonlight Sonata. Widely differing interpretations attempt to account for this unorthodox design. Some see in it the forced union of completely different ideas; others look at it as simply two sides of the same coin, or two different aspects of human nature. A totally different approach might be to think of the standard four-movement layout without a first movement.
　　Throughout the brooding, austere first movement we find a fascinating interplay of themes, intervals and even trills, all used as elements in a slowly shifting musical kaleidoscope. At times the texture is contrapuntal (several melodic strands in different voices woven together); at other times we find examples of Shostakovichʼs predilection for writing long, quiet, almost breathless passages in which a solo instrument (or pair) weaves a slow melody over a nearly static accompaniment: piccolo, flute(s), oboe, English horn, violins, and even timpani are all heard in this manner over the span of this long movement.
　　The funereal spell of the first movement is broken by the second, which is lively and rhythmic throughout, becoming sardonic, even grotesque at times. Special instrumental effects include solos by the high-pitched E-flat clarinet, a duet for flute and bass clarinet, bone-rattling outbursts from the xylophone, and a hilarious theme played by three bassoons in unison.
　　The finale flies along at breakneck speed, a test piece of orchestral virtuosity. Folklike elements, marches, and saucy tunes intrude from time to time. Annotator David Hall has termed this finale “‘public squareʼshostakovich, trivial but enjoyable for all that, winding up with a marching tune that might well accompany a Komsomol parade down Red Square.”
　　Various Soviet critics have had a hand in expressing the “meaning” of the Sixth Symphony. David Rabinovitch sees the work as follows: “An abruptly contrasting change of diametrically opposed mental states is the essence in Shostakovichʼs conception. Memories of the past and youthfully ebullient, optimistic concepts of reality mingle in the symphony.” Genrikh Orlov offers an all-embracing viewpoint, in which he believes Shostakovich “compares images of nonentity, the debauchery of evil powers, with exuberant cheerfulness, thereby suggesting the inexhaustible wealth of life. He reminds us that “in life, as in Shakespeareʼs tragedies, good and evil, beauty and ugliness, nobility and baseness, life and death – all are neighbors. This thought expressed relentlessly, powerfully and topically, makes Shostakovichʼs Sixth Symphony one of the most sensitive and original works of the Soviet Symphony.”

Robert Markow's musical career began as a horn player in the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. He now writes program notes for orchestras and concert organizations in the USA, Canada, and several countries in Asia. As a journalist he covers the music scenes across North America, Europe, and Asian countries, especially Japan. At Montreal's McGill University he lectured on music for over 25 years.
　

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