Midsummer in Midwinter
February 4 & 5, 2012
Felix Mendelssohn • Music from A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Intermezzo, Nocturne, and Scherzo
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky • Variations on a Rococo Theme, op. 33
Antonín Dvořák • Notturno in B Major, op. 40, for strings
Camille Saint-Saens • Symphony No. 2 in A minor, op. 55*
Pre-concert Lecture by Mark Arnest, Saturday, 6:15 PM, Sunday, 1:45 PM
Let the cold winter melt away with Mendelssohn’s inspired music for Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”. Composed in 1826 when he was only 16, this work was an instant sensation. The piece was intended only as a concert work, but a commission from King Frederick William IV of Prussia would lead him to return to A Midsummer Night’s Dream in 1842 to add incidental music, turning the play and music into a surprisingly seamless experience.
Celebrated cellist Barbara Thiem of the Colorado State University faculty joins the Chamber Orchestra for Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Rococo Theme op. 33. The theme is actually Tchaikovsky’s own, though vaguely in Rococo style. Tchaikovsky sought the help of cellist Wilhelm Fitzenhagen in writing the piece which premiered in Moscow on November 30, 1877. Much to Tchaikovsky’s dismay, Fitzenhagen later discarded the final variation and changed the order of the rest of Tchaikovsky’s variations, and it is this version that is generally performed today. Eventually, Tchaikovsky reluctantly signed off on the revisions.
Given its somewhat confusing genesis, Dvořák’s Notturno (Nocturne) in B Major, op. 40 was clearly valued by him above other unpublished works to which it was attached, reassigned, and eventually expanded and published as a stand-alone composition. The basic ideas were formulated around 1870. Dvořák’ conducted the premiere in Prague, recommended it other conductors, conducted the first performance in London in March of 1884, and continued conducting it at concerts at home and abroad throughout his career.
Camille Saint-Saëns found symphonic composition so easy that he discarded his first symphony, written as an assignment at the Paris Conservatory, and never paid attention to it again. His Symphony No. 2 in A Minor, op. 55, follows Classical form closely and features a fugue as its main theme for the first movement. Each succeeding movement takes on a very different character, moving from a Beethovenian pastoral mood, to the frenetic pace of the third, and the “Italian” fourth movement that owes no small debt to the finale of Mendelssohn’s Fourth Symphony “Italian.” Premiered in a year that featured many “Romantic” blockbusters (1859), Saint-Saëns neo-Classical Second Symphony went largely unnoticed, despite its compelling melodies and superb craftsmanship. (Program Notes) (COS Feb Program)
