UMS Concert Program, October 23, 1988: International Presentations Of Music & Dance -- State Symphony Orchestra Of The U.S.S.R.

Season: 110th
Concert: Sixth
Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor, Michigan

qntetfiatipna Presentations
THE UNIVERSITY MUSICAL SOCIETY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
State Symphony Orchestra of the U.S.S.R.
from Moscow
YEVGENY SVETLANOV Chief Conductor and Music Director
Sunday Afternoon, October 23, 1988, at 4:00 Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor, Michigan
PROGRAM Symphonic Fantasy, The Tempest, Op. 18.........................Tchaikovsky
Rhapsody No. 2 ..............................................Svetlanov
INTERMISSION
Symphony No. 1 in D minor, Op. 13..........................Rachmaninoff
Grave, allegro ma non troppo Allegro animato Larghetto Allegro con fuoco
The piano heard in this afternoon's concert is a Stcinway available through HammeU, Music, Inc.
Yevgeny Svetlanov and the State Symphony Orchestra of the U.S.S.R. from Moscow are represented by 1CM Artists, Ltd., New York.
Cameras and recording devices arc not allowed in the auditorium. Halls Cough Tablets, courtesy of Warner-Lambert Company, are available in the lobby.
Sixth Concert of the 110th Season 110th Annual Choral Union Scries
PROGRAM NOTES
Symphonic Fantasy, The Tempest, Op. 18.........Peter Ilyitch Tchaikovsky
(1840-1893)
Standing outside the nationalist circle of composers known as The Five (Balakirev, Borodin, Cui, Mussorgsky, and Rimsky-Korsakov), Tchaikovsky nevertheless dominated nineteenth-century Russian music as its greatest talent. It was Mily Balakirev, however, who advised and encouraged Tchaikovsky to write (and rewrite several times) the Romeo and Juliet overture-fantasy in 1869, the work that proved to be Tchaikovsky's first masterpiece.
In Russia, The Five were known as moguchaya kuchka, "the mighty handful," a term invented in 1867 by the critic Vladimir Stasov. As Balakirev had done just four years earlier, so in 1873 Stasov did with the symphonic fantasy The Tempest, Op. 18. It was Stasov who suggested the subject of Shakespeare's Tempest and to whom Tchaikovsky dedicated the resul?tant work, begun in August 1873 and finished three months later. It was also Stasov's program (a concise version of a lengthy and more detailed one) that was printed in Russian and French in the score:
The Sea. Ariel, spirit of the air, obedient to the will of the magician Prospero, evokes a tempest. Wreck of the ship which carries Ferdinand. The Enchanted Isle. First timid stirring of love between Miranda and Ferdinand. Ariel. Caliban. The love-lorn couple abandon themselves to the triumphant sway of passion. Prospero lays aside his magical power and quits the isle. The Sea.
Tchaikovsky's Tempest is dominated by the Ariel theme, which, although eloquent, cannot be considered to be one of his finest melodies. (The love theme, wrote Stasov, "must resemble the expanding and blooming of a flower.") Still, the Ariel theme effectively contrasts with the deliberately ponderous Caliban motive and the somber theme representing Prospero. The sea music is, throughout, so vivid as to be nearly cinematic, depicting both a calm and stormy ocean.
The Tempest was given its world premiere on December 19, 1873, at a concert of the Moscow Musical Society.
Phillip Ramey
Rhapsody No. 2.....................................Yevgeny Svetlanov
{b. 1928)
The performance this afternoon of the Rhapsody No. 2 marks the United States premiere of this work written in 1978 by Yevgeny Svetlanov. It is, in fact, programmed in only four of the twenty-two cities on the orchestra's current tour -the others being Chicago, New York, and Washington, D.C.
The Rhapsody genre, according to the composer, always addresses a large audience. Works written in this genre should have a striking, brilliant, and a definite democratic quality to them, characteristics which, however, do not exclude the profoundness of its meaning and emotional complexity. It is all of these attributes that the composer is striving for in his Rhapsody.
The images and themes evoked in Svetlanov's Rhapsody No. 2 reflect the folklore of the peoples from the regions of the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. Scored for full orchestra, the work is dedicated to the prominent Bulgarian composer Pantcho Vladigerov (who lived from 1899 to 1978, and whose music is rooted in Bulgarian folk songs).
Symphony No. 1 in D minor, Op. 13..................Sergei Rachmaninoff
(1873-1943)
Until the fiasco of the premiere of his First Symphony, Rachmaninoff was thoroughly confident in his own abilities. He had every reason to be. At the Moscow Conservatory he had graduated with the highest honors; his outstanding merits as a pianist were recognized; he had a publisher for his compositions, one of which -the C-sharp minor Prelude -had made his name well known all over the world; and his opera Aleko, written in 1892 while he was still in his teens, had been performed at the Bolshoi Theatre.
Rachmaninoff was still only twenty-two when he composed his First Symphony between January and August 1895. His high hopes for it shattered on March 15th, 1897, when Glazunov
gave the first performance in St. Petersburg. The choice of location was unfortunate __
St. Petersburg rarely took kindly to anything that came from Moscow -but less so than the
choice of conductor. Apparently Glazunov, who at best did not excel with the baton and was unsympathetic toward Rachmaninoff's music, merely beat time, showing neither interest nor understanding of the score. Inadequate rehearsal also resulted in bad playing.
The composer was so horrified that there were times when he put his hands over his ears in an attempt to shut out the sound of his own music. At one point during the performance he left the hall by an emergency exit and stood on a fire escape. Rachmaninoff's plight was not helped by the critics. The most vitriolic of them was the composer Cesar Cui, who wrote, "If there is a conservatoire in Hell, and if one of its gifted pupils were to be given the task of writing a symphony on the subject of the Seven Plagues of Egypt, and if he had written one like Rachmaninoffs, he would have acquitted himself splendidly."
As a result, Rachmaninoff lost his self-confidence for many years to come. He turned against his First Symphony and decided to cancel its publication, which had already been arranged, and not allow it to be played again. Whether or not he destroyed the score (authori?ties differ on this point), it disappeared. Only during the 1940s was it reconstructed from the set of orchestral parts that had been kept in the Leningrad Conservatory. Since its resurrection, it has been hailed by some as the finest of the composer's three symphonies, and Dr. Robert Simpson, English composer, musicologist, and author, has forecast that it still may come to be regarded as the strongest by any Russian composer since Tchaikovsky.
The Symphony's debt to both Tchaikovsky and Borodin is obvious, but even so, there is much in it that could only have been written by Rachmaninoff; the fact that it is not thor?oughly typical of him does not mean it is immature. The score is headed by the same biblical epigraph as Tolstoy's Anna Karenina -"Vengeance is mine; I will recompense" -and the Symphony's material derives from Russian Orthodox chants. Each of the four movements is related by the use of the small motive heard at the very beginning; it consists of a fast moving triplet followed by a sustained note. In addition, the first movement's principal theme returns to play a major role in the finale, and its second subject, initially in 74 time, reappears in the slow movement.
Malcolm Rayment
About the Artists
Founded by special government decree, the State Symphony Orchestra of the U.S.S.R. from Moscow performed its first concert in the Moscow Conservatory on October 5, 1936. The conductors for that historic concert were Alexander Gauk, the founder, first artistic director, and chief conductor of the orchestra, and the distinguished German conductor Erich Kleiber. The orchestra rapidly became an integral part of the Soviet Union's musical life, participating in many national and international music festivals and events.
The State Symphony Orchestra of the U.S.S.R. was the first orchestra to perform a number of works by Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Khachaturian, Kabalevsky, and other Soviet composers. Some of these composers, such as Prokofiev and Khachaturian, conducted the orchestra for the premier performances of their works. Russian music has always played a large role in the orchestra's repertoire, and the orchestra has been credited with greatly contributing to the interpretation of this music by foreign masters.
Barely three months after its founding, the orchestra made its first tour of the Soviet Union and, in 1940, participated in the centenary celebrations of Tchaikovsky's birth. The arrival of World War II greatly interrupted the orchestra's activities, and from 1941 to 1943 the musicians were evacuated to Central Asia where they performed concerts for many hospi?talized soldiers. In 1943, they returned to Moscow to give a celebrated performance of Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony (written during the siege of Leningrad).
The years following the war were filled with many successes, and in 1957 the State Symphony Orchestra became the first Soviet orchestra to appear beyond the borders of the Soviet Union. In 1960 the orchestra made its first tour of North America, an eight-week tour that included performances in Washington, New York, Chicago, Cleveland, Philadelphia, and other cities. It concluded with a spectacular concert before 16,000 people in New York's Madison Square Garden. Since then, the orchestra has traveled to Czechoslovakia, Japan, West Germany, the Scandinavian countries, Great Britain, Turkey, Australia, and New Zealand.
The 53-ycar history of the State Symphony Orchestra of the U.S.S.R. has been marked by a collaboration with some of the greatest conductors and soloists of this century. It has performed under the baton of such eminent conductors as Otto Klempercr, Lorin Maazel, Igor Markevitch, Evgcny Mravinsky, and Charles Munch. It has had four renowned music direc?tors -Alexander Gauk, Nathan Rachlin, Konstantin Ivanov, and Yevgeny Svetlanov, who has served as music director and chief conductor since 1965. Maestro Svetlanov's artistry, depth, and range of musicianship have been largely responsible for the orchestra rising into the ranks of the world's finest ensembles.
Known for its inspired performances and recordings, the orchestra has recorded exten?sively for the Soviet label Melodia, receiving such coveted honors as a Grand Prix Award and an Edison Prize for its recording accomplishments. It is currently in the midst of a project with Mr. Svctlanov, twenty years in the making, entitled An Anthology of Russian Music. This collection, which features all the great works of Glinka, Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, Borodin, Rimsky-Korsakov, and other Soviet composers, has been widely acclaimed as an unparalleled compilation of Russian music.
The Moscow State Symphony has made four previous appearances in Ann Arbor: two in 1969, conducted by Shostakovich and Svetlanov; one in 1975 under Alexander Dimitriev; and the most recent in 1986 under Svetlanov,
Yevgeny Svetlanov, chief conductor and music director of the orchestra since 1965, is recognized as one of the Soviet Union's leading musical figures. Born into a musical family, his goal from an early age was to become a conductor. His parents were members of the Bolshoi Theatre, and he spent much of his childhood attending the many rehearsals and productions of operas, ballets, and orchestral concerts.
Svetlanov studied piano and composition at the Gncssin Institute before enrolling in the Moscow Conservatory, where he studied composition with Yuri Shaporin and conducting with Alexander Gauk. His conservatory years were filled with many performances as a pianist, conductor, and composer, but it was at this time that he chose to pursue conducting as his career.
During the early 1950s, Mr. Svetlanov's compositions began to attract the attention of Moscow audiences. His cantata Nature's Fields, his piano preludes, and his piano concerto were among those that were extremely successful. In 1954, he made his first appearance with the State Symphony Orchestra of the U.S.S.R., conducting a performance of his own work, Siberian Fantasia. That same year, he won a coveted position as conductor of the Bolshoi Theatre, the next ten years bringing many successes that included highly acclaimed produc?tions of Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov, Rimsky-Korsakov's The Tsar's Bride, and Borodin's Prince Igor.
In 1965, Mr. Svetlanov left the Bolshoi Theatre to become chief conductor of the State Symphony Orchestra of the U.S.S.R., and under his direction the orchestra rapidly rose to become one of the most respected ensembles in the Soviet Union. Since taking over the State Symphony Orchestra, the maestro has enjoyed an illustrious career. He has toured extensively throughout the Soviet Union and abroad with his own orchestra and has made guest appear?ances with many of the greatest orchestras around the world. In 1982, he completed an entire season with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, performing highly acclaimed concerts throughout all of Great Britain. A respected scholar as well as musician, he has written numerous newspaper and magazine articles stressing the importance of operatic and sym?phonic heritage. For his great musical contributions to the Soviet Union he was honored by receiving the title of Hero of Socialist Labor, conferred upon him by the Supreme Soviet on April 25, 1986.
This afternoon's concert marks Yevgeny Svetlanov's fourth Ann Arbor appearance. He previously performed with the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra in 1965 and with the Moscow State Symphony in 1969 and 1986.
Coming Concerts
Royal Ballet of Flanders ........................Wed., Thurs. Oct. 26, 27
Special Fundraising Gala, Saturday, October 29
"Our Night of Celebration" with Leonard Bernstein and the Vienna Philharmonic
Musica Antiqua Koln Reinhold Goebel....................Tucs. Nov. 1
Vienna Symphony Orchestra Georges Pretre...............Fri. Nov. 11
Messiaen Birthday Salute: "Quartet for the End of Time"...........Tues. Nov. 29
Robert McDuffie, violinist; Gervase de Peyer, clarinetist; Santiago Rodriguez, pianist; Nathaniel Rosen, cellist
Handel's "Messiah" Donald Bryant, conductor .............Fri.-Sun. Dec. 2-4
Ashley Putnam, soprano; Kathleen Segar, alto; Richard Fracker, tenor; Stephen Bryant, bass; members of the Ann Arbor Symphony
Yo-Yo Ma, cellist.............................................Mon. Dec. 5
I Solisti Veneti Claudio Scimone...........................Tues. Dec. 6
Vienna Choir Boys..........................................Sat. Dec. 10
Kathleen Battle, soprano.....................................Mon. Jan. 9
Klezmer Conservatory Band.................................Sat. Jan. 14
Montreal Symphony Orchestra Charles Dutoit...........Wed. Jan. 25
Raou Lupu, pianist
Mazowsze, Polish Folk Company..............................Mon. Jan. 30
Canadian Brass............................................Thurs. Feb. 2
Beaux Arts Trio..............................................Sat. Feb. 4
Osipov Balalaika Orchestra...............................Thurs. Feb. 9
with stars of the Bolshoi Opera
Mummenschanz.....................................Sat., Sun. Feb. 11, 12
New York City Opera National Company ............Sat., Sun. Feb. 18, 19
Verdi's "La Traviata"
Richard Stoltzman and Friends............................Wed. Feb. 22
"New York Counterpoint"
Folger Consort & Western Wind...........................Mon. Mar. 6
Paul Taylor Dance Company.........................Tues., Wed. Mar. 7, 8
Israel Philharmonic Zubin Mehta.........................Tues. Mar. 14
Faculty Artists Concert (free admission) .....................Sun. Mar. 19
The Chieftains.............................................Wed. Mar. 22
Emerson String Quartet ..................................Wed. Mar. 29
Alicia de Larrocha, pianist.................................Thurs. Mar. 30
Stuttgart Wind Quintet ...................................Wed. Apr. 5
Dennis Russell Davies, pianist
Munich Philharmonic Sergiu Celibidache ................Thurs. Apr. 13
St. Louis Symphony Orchestra Leonard Slatkin .........Thurs. Apr. 20
96th Annual May Festival...........................Wed.-Sat. Apr. 26-29
Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and Kurt Masur Artists and programs to be announced in December.
Complete information in free color brochure, available upon request.
Pre-concert Presentations
Make new discoveries and enjoy nuances in the performing arts with this season's series of presentations by authoritative speakers. All are free and open to the public, held in the Rackham Amphitheater one hour before the concert.
Wednesday, Oct. 26 at 7:00, preceding Royal Ballet of Flanders
Speaker: Susan Nisbett, Features Editor and Dance Critic, Ann Arbor News Topic: Afterimages: Writing About the Dance
Friday, Nov. 11 at 7:00, preceding Vienna Symphony Orchestra
Speaker: Andrew Mead, Composer and Theorist, U-M School of Music Topic: Vienna Then and Now, or "Hou Did We Get Into This Mess"
Monday, Dec. 5 at 7:00, preceding Yo-Yo Ma, cellist
Speaker: Bert Hornback, Professor of English, U-M Topic: Oh, To Be a Cello!
Monday, Jan. 9 at 7:00, preceding Kathleen Battle, soprano
Speaker: Richard LcSueur, Head of Technical Services, Ann Arbor Public Library;
President of a consulting service for singers and accompanists Topic to be announced.
Wednesday, Feb. 22 at 7:00, preceding "New York Counterpoint," Richard Stoltzman & Friends Speaker: David Gregory, Associate Professor, and Director, Center for Performing Arts and
Technology, U-M School of Music Topic: The New Age of Multimedia Performance
Wednesday, Mar. 22 at 7:00, preceding The Chieftains Speaker: Marie McCarthy, Authority on Irish Music Topic to be announced.
Wednesday, Mar. 29 at 7:00, preceding Emerson String Quartet
Speaker: John Madison, Violist, Cassini Ensemble, Detroit and Toledo Symphony Orchestras Topic to be announced.
Wednesday, Apr. 5 at 7:00, preceding Stuttgart Wind Quintet
Speaker: William Bolcom, Professor of Composition, U-M School of Music;
1988 Pulitzer Prize Winner Topic: Live Program Notes on "FiveFoldFive"
Thursday, Apr. 20 at 7:00, preceding St. Louis Symphony Orchestra
Speakers: Robert Alexander and Judy Dow Alexander, Producers and Arts Consultants Topic: Performing With and Managing American Orchestras
UNIVERSITY MUSICAL SOCIETY Board of Directors
John W. Reed, President
David B. Kennedy, Vice President
Thomas E. Kaupcr, Secretary Norman G. Herbert, Treasurer
Robert G. Aldrich James J. Duderstadt Richard L. Kennedy
Patrick B. Long Judythc R. Maugh
John D. Paul Ann S. Schribcr Herbert E. Sloan
Kenneth C. Fischer, Executive Director Advisory Committee
Ann S. Schriber, Chair
Catherine Arcure Charles Borgsdorf Barbara Bryant Bradley Canale Sandra Connellan Katharine Cosovich Elena Dclbanco Anne Dudcrstadt
Judy Fry Joann Gargaro Joyce Ginsberg Anne Glendon Charles Hills Stuart Isaac Janet Jeffries Frances Jclinck
Shirley Kaupcr Howard King Lynn Luckenbach Carl Lutkchaus Alan Mandcl Ingrid Martin Charlotte McGcoch Joan Olscn
Agnes Reading Dorothy Reed Sally Rogers Alice Vining Raven Wallace Mary White Sally White Shelly Williams
Ex-ojficio: Kenneth C. Fischer, Nancy Cordincr Judge, Rebecca Liss Kott University Choral Union and Festival Chorus
Donald T. Bryant
Stephen L. Bryant
Nancy Hodge
Ncal Kurz
Staff
Sally A. Cushing Leilani Denison Barbara L. Ferguson Michael L. Gowing Nancy Cordincr Judge
Michael Kondziolka Rebecca Liss Kott William Orr Laura Rosenberg
Robin Stcphenson Drent Pamela S. Teeplc Carol G. Wargelin LornaJ. Young
U-M Student Intern: Mark Ewing
Student Assistants: Sara Billmann, Matthew Levy, Michele Mustert, Susan Natan, Karen Paradis, Annette Sievert, Clare Stollak, Trevor Young
UNIVERSITY MUSICAL SOCIETY
Burton Memorial Tower, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1270 Telephone: (313) 764-2538