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Passion and Ecstasy

Featured as part of the Classic Series
Friday March 27, 2009 8:00PM
Saturday March 28, 2009 8:00PM
The Toledo Museum of Art Peristyle
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Description:

 “An ecstasy is a thing that will not go into words; it feels like music.”
       -Mark Twain 

Explore the concept of ecstasy in all of its infinte variety in this exceptional event featuring principal harpist, Nancy Lendrim and a super-sized Toledo Symphony under the direction of guest conductor Christoph Campestrini.
One definition of ecstasy is the mental transport experienced while contemplating divine things.  Franz Kikta’s Frescoes of St. Sofia can be considered one of the inspirational products of such a state of mind. Written for harp and orchestra, the piece alternates sparse orchestral textures with increasingly complex harp ‘ornaments.’ The cathedral is one of the Ukraine’s oldest architectural landmarks; many of the frescoes referenced in the composition date from the eleventh century. 
Romantic passion fuels the musical exploration of two iconic stories – Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, and the medieval German romance, Tristan and Isolde. Tchaikovsky’s tone poem captures both the feuding families and the young lovers in music that combines some of his most heart-racing battle music with a lush love theme that showcases the cello section. The Prelude and Liebestod from Wagner’s most popular opera, Tristan and Isolde, brings together two of the most heartfelt moments of an intensely passionate score.
The sense of rapture and delight suffuses the intoxicating Poem of Ecstasy that concludes this program. For Alexander Scriabin, music was the most evolved of the arts, and ecstasy the most evolved of the emotions. His one-movement symphonic exploration proceeds through three sections – an orgy of love, the realization of a fantastic dream, and the glorification of art.


Points of interest:
·         Tristan and Isolde is one of the most influential operas of the late nineteenth century. In fact, the very first chord of the piece is instantly recognizable to many musicians as the ‘Tristan chord,’ and has an almost iconic role in late-Romantic music. The ‘resolution’ of this dissonant chord to another dissonance seems to encapsulate the unfulfilled yearning and desire of the two lovers.
·         Scriabin composed five large works that he designated Symphonies, of which the Poem of Ecstasy is the fourth. Each work bears less and less resemblance to the classical symphonic form, and demands more and more performing forces. The Poem of Fire (the fifth) asks for a ‘color organ’; various attempts, including projections, flashing lights, and lasers, have been made to reproduce Scriabin’s intentions. Scriabin never finished what would have been his Sixth symphony.   To be titled Mysterium, Scriabin’s intention was to create a dynamic, multi-media work, to be performed on the highest peaks of the Himalayas. Never one to set low goals, Scriabin aimed for “a grandiose synthesis of all the arts which would herald the birth of a new world.”
·         If, while playing the popular video game The Sims, you turn up the volume on your speakers, you can hear the love theme from Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet if two of your virtual characters kiss.

 

Memorial concert in honor of Edward H. Schmidt

Program:

Tchaikovsky   Romeo and Juliet         23'

Kikta       Frescoes of St. Sofia Cathedral      22'

INTERMISSION


Wagner     Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde   17'

Scriabin    Symphony No. 4 "Poem of Ecstasy"                     22'