By Aaron Grad

Concerto in E-flat for Chamber Orchestra (“Dumbarton Oaks”) [1938]
Igor Stravinsky
Born 1882 near St. Petersburg. Died 1971 in New York.

For orchestra consisting of flute, clarinet, bassoon, 2 horns and strings (3 violins, 3 violas, 2 cellos and 2 basses). Approximately 15 minutes.

 In 1938, the American diplomat Robert Woods Bliss marked his 30th wedding anniversary by commissioning a new work from Igor Stravinsky. Bliss and his wife Mildred provided the lavish setting for the premiere: the music room of their own house in the upscale Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, DC. The property, dubbed Dumbarton Oaks, is the source of the nickname for Stravinsky’s Concerto in E-flat for Chamber Orchestra. The composer was ill and unable to attend the May 8 performance, but he arranged for Nadia Boulanger—the legendary teacher of composers ranging from Aaron Copland to Philip Glass—to conduct instead.

The Concerto in E-flat was the last work Stravinsky completed in Europe before immigrating to the United States. The work falls within his “Neo-Classical” period, although this piece is more aptly “Neo-Baroque.” Borrowing from predecessors such as Corelli and Bach (especially the “Brandenburg” concertos), Stravinsky utilized a small ensemble in the concerto grosso style, in which each instrument figures in solo and ensemble textures. Some of the most antique touches are felt in the counterpoint, including a wry fugato section led by the viola in the first movement. Dividing the violins and violas into three parts each (and omitting second violins) brings to mind Bach’s “Brandenburg” Concerto No. 3, although the application is quite different; Bach’s divisi often thickens and enunciates a line, whereas Stravinsky’s separation of voices promotes diffuse, airy textures, such as the churning accompaniment under a bird-like flute solo in the second movement. The finale lives up to its Con moto (“with movement”) tempo marking with a pulsing beat and shifting accents, especially in the unstoppable surge to the finish.

Ricercare from Musical Offering, BWV 1079 [1747]
JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH
Born 1685 in Eisenach. Died 1750 in Leipzig.
Orchestrated by ANTON WEBERN  [1935]
Born 1883 in Vienna. Died 1945 in Mittersill, Austria

King Frederick II of Prussia was a committed patron of the arts and a respectable flutist. “Frederick the Great” equipped his court with the finest instruments, such as pianos by Silbermann, and hired the most talented musicians, including keyboardist C.P.E. Bach, son of Johann Sebastian. The elder Bach visited Frederick’s court in Potsdam in 1747, and tested one of the new pianos at a concert on May 7. When presented with a theme written by the king, he accepted the challenge to improvise a 3-voice fugue on the spot.

Bach took the theme back to Leipzig, and used it as the basis of a collection of canons, fugues and other movements he grouped together as Musikalisches Opfer (Musical Offering), dedicated to the king. Besides the three-part fugue born out of the improvisation, Bach wrote another treatment for six voices, dubbing both selections Ricercari. (The term Ricercare, from the Italian “to seek out,” first applied to early Baroque polyphony, a precursor to fugue.) Bach wrote the Ricercare a 6 with each part on its own staff, but did not specify instrumentation.

Anton Webern completed a chamber orchestra rendition of the Ricerare a 6 in 1935, on a commission from his publisher. The highly chromatic “royal theme,” nearly three hundred years old at the time, sounds not unlike the “tone rows” adopted by the composers of the Second Viennese School, a resemblance that must have attracted Webern. Just as in his own music, he deconstructed Bach’s fugue through the process of Klangfarbenmelodie (“tone-color-melody”), in which the musical line breaks into small fragments of diverse sounds.

The “head” of a fugue theme must have a distinct profile if it is to call attention to all the entries and re-entries of voices. The “royal” theme obliges with a stout five-note figure: an ascending minor triad, then a half-step up and a large leap down to the leading tone. Webern’s arrangement entrusts this opening figure to the muted trombone. The “body” of the theme snakes down chromatically, divided into groupings of as small as two notes, and passed among the muted brass with a few flecks of harp. The “tail” balances the “head” with diatonic leaps up and a descent back to the starting pitch. Webern’s surgical precision in distributing the voices adds clarity and dimension to a masterpiece of pure music.

Concerto with Echoes [2009]
AARON JAK KERNIS
Born January 15, 1960 in Philadelphia.
Currently resides in New York City.

For orchestra consisting of 2 oboes, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, trumpet, percussion (crotales, chimes, vibraphone, pitched gongs, medium tam-tam, medium suspended cymbal, timpani), violas, cellos and basses. Approximately 14 minutes.

The composer has provided the following program note:

The essential element in Bach’s “Brandenburg” Concerto No. 6 that inspired Concerto with Echoes comes from the very first measure: the opening passage with two spiraling solo violas, like identical twins following each other breathlessly through a hall of mirrors. I also had in mind other Bach works that I think of constantly, such as the Ricercare (also on tonight’s program), keyboard Toccatas, and the C-minor Organ Passacaglia. The concerto also echoes some of my own recent works, as well as other composers I love who have paid homage to Bach in their music.

Each of the “Brandenburg” Concertos is exceptional in its use of instruments. This concerto mirrors the Sixth by using only violas, cellos and basses, while gradually adding reeds and horns to loop back to the sound world of the First “Brandenburg” Concerto (and extending it with trumpet and percussion).

The first movement begins with a soft introduction that lays out some of the important building blocks of the concerto’s harmony, followed by a fiery, toccata-like virtuosic display. The lines in the movement are constantly mirrored and layered in a maze of sound. The heart of the piece, the slow movement, is essentially a Passacaglia built on slowly moving bass lines, mirrored layers of melody, and open harmonic spaces. Strongly consonant, its harmonies are built in imitative spirals, while the more angular climax uses compressions of the work’s opening harmonies. Rather than closing with a faster dance movement, the brief, slow Aria suggests a courtly dance, and is expressive and pensive, ending with a sigh rather than a flourish.

Concerto with Echoes was written in the spring and summer of 2009, and was commissioned by Orpheus for the New Brandenburg Project.

Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 61 [1806]
Ludwig van Beethoven
Born 1770, Bonn. Died 1827, Vienna.

For solo violin and orchestra consisting of flute, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani and strings. Approximately 42 minutes.

Beethoven’s usual method of composition was painstaking and deliberate, filling piles of sketchbooks before achieving a finished score. He did not have such a luxury of time, however, when he accepted a commission on short notice from his friend Franz Clement for a concerto for violin and orchestra. Beethoven had composed two Romances for violin and orchestra (Op. 40 from 1803, and Op. 50 from 1805), but the new work in D major was his first (and only) full violin concerto. He finished it just in time for the premiere on December 23, 1806, barely leaving Clement time to learn the solo part. The initial reception was tepid, probably because listeners were unprepared for so spacious and symphonic a work in a genre dominated by solo pyrotechnics and subservient orchestral accompaniment. The concerto was largely ignored until Felix Mendelssohn and the virtuoso Joseph Joachim revived it in 1844, but since then performers and audiences have embraced the work.

The piece starts with a quintessential Beethoven theme: the note D, struck for five consecutive quarter notes by the timpanist. This tapping motive suffuses the substantial Allegro ma non troppo (“fast, but not rushing”) first movement. Beethoven’s music from around this time—the Fourth Symphony and Fourth Piano Concerto are other notable examples—features an uncanny sense of distillation, like a premium vodka purified of all bitterness. One exemplary moment comes just after the first movement cadenza, when the violin offers a guileless melody over a nearly naked accompaniment of pizzicato strings. The Larghetto continues the rarified mood with a stately theme and variations, reducing the instrumentation to use only the warmest winds (clarinets, bassoons and horns) and muted strings. The Rondo finale, reached without pause through a solo cadenza, introduces a more extroverted spirit, starting with the cheery, dancing melody in triple meter.

 © 2009 Aaron Grad.