Tchaikovsky's "Pathetique"
Friday October 17, 2008 8:00PM
Saturday October 18, 2008 8:00PM
Description:
“Truly there would be reason to go mad were it not for music.”
-Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Toru Takemitsu’s Requiem launched the Japanese composer’s international career. Composed in memory of Takemitsu’s mentor, the film composer Fumio Hayazaka, the work features the orchestra’s string section that moves from delicate, almost impressionistic textures to harmonically rich, velvety textures that you can almost bathe in. The final dissolve is exquisite.
In Frank Martin’s Concerto for Seven Winds, Timpani and Strings, the string section is the conversational background over which the flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, French horn, trumpet, trombone and timpani play and interact. Here, rhythm and counterpoint are the most pervasive elements, and brightness and buoyancy predominate.
These two contrasting pieces help to highlight different elements of Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony, his last, and for many listeners, his greatest. The almost floating lightness of the balletic second movement and the driving march rhythms of the third movement (the closest to the ‘1812 Overture’ Tchaikovsky) do little to anticipate the passionate outcry and the resulting somberness of the finale. Though Tchaikovsky steadfastly refused to divulge his extra-musical influences for this work, he did acknowledge that the final movement had a requiem quality. For a composer who is renowned for earth-shattering finales, the final notes, faint and almost inaudible, are especially poignant and heart-rending.
Points of interest:
· Toru Takemitsu would likely have pursued an entirely non-musical path if he had been a little more sure-handed. As a teenager, he dropped an expensive camera into a waterfall while on a mountain climbing trip, and developed pneumonia upon attempting to retrieve it. As he was convalescing, he spent much of his time listening to music, and decided that he wanted to be a composer. He had his first music lessons at 16, and never obtained a formal degree in music.
· Originally, Tchaikovsky wished to title his sixth symphony “Program Symphony,” – explicitly tying his music to an extra-musical story or ‘program,’ but not divulging the source. His brother, Modest, suggested the title “Pathetique.” (In Russian, the title connotes passion, emotion, and suffering.) The temptation to search for the story behind the music has proven to be almost irresistible – not least because Tchaikovsky passed away a mere nine days after conducting the premiere.
· Günther Herbig is an internationally renowned conductor, whose appearances with the great American orchestras alternate with a well-established international career in Europe, Japan, Australia, and South America. His name is perhaps most familiar to Michiganders as the former Music Director of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Though he continues to reside in Michigan, this is, surprisingly, his first appearance with the Toledo Symphony Orchestra!
Concert in honor of Fritz and Mary Wolfe
Program:
Takemitsu Requiem* 10'
Martin Concerto for Seven Winds,
Percussion, and Strings 22'
Joel Tse, flute Kimberly Bryden, oboe
Georg Klaas, clarinet Gabriel Bergeron-Langlois, bassoon
Sandra Clar, horn Lauraine Carpenter, trumpet
Garth Simmons, trombone
INTERMISSION
Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 6 in B Minor "Pathétique" 48'
* TSO Premiere
WGTE - FM 91 broadcasts the Toledo Symphony on FM 91 In Concert. Tonight's concert will be re-broadcast Thursday, March 19, 2009 at 8PM through the generosity of the Edward H. Schmidt Musical Arts Fund.
Radio Clips:
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