Toledo Symphony

Description:

Two composers who personify the Russian Romantic tradition bring our 2007-08 season to a festive close.

Sergei Rachmaninoff is known as a peerless composer for the piano; Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky is often remembered as a great symphonist.  However, their prodigious compositional skills led them to excel in many forms of music.  This concert explores two of their lesser-known works – Tchaikovsky’s Second Piano Concerto and Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances. 

Though the First Piano Concerto is considered his most popular, Tchaikovsky actually wrote three piano concertos.  The Second is especially noteworthy for its extensive use of a solo violin and solo cello in the second movement – indeed, much of the movement could be considered a concerto for piano trio and orchestra.  Our concertmaster, Kirk Toth, and principal cellist, Martha Reikow, will join piano soloist William Wolfram in this unique musical moment.
   
The final composition of Rachmaninoff’s long career, the Symphonic Dances can be seen as a summing up of his entire oeuvre, complete with musical quotations.  The final movement is especially effective; here, Rachmaninoff juxtaposes the Dies Irae, a medieval hymn representing death, with a quote from his All-Night Vigil, representing Resurrection.  Fittingly, the Resurrection theme is triumphant. 

Points of interest:

• Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances were not conceived as a ballet, though the composer discussed the possibility of choreographing the work.  Nonetheless, the rhythmic energy that propels much of the work forward definitely gives the work a dancing quality.
• The Dies Irae, an important element of the final Symphonic Dance, has been used innumerable times in Classical music, with some of the most notable quotations including Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique, Britten’s War Requiem, Liszt’s Totentanz, Mahler’s Second Symphony, and Saint-Saens Organ Symphony.  Orff’s Carmina Burana (heard on our fifth concert this year) quotes the piece, and Tchaikovsky uses it in his Manfred Symphony.  Rachmaninoff himself uses it in no less than nine of his compositions.  And everytime the Stars and Stripes Forever is played, one can hear the Dies Irae; John Philip Sousa tucks it into the bass line during the first strain. 
• American pianist William Wolfram is one of the great exemplars of the Romantic virtuoso tradition.  Though he has the immense power demanded by this music, he is also a wonderful chamber musician; he will be the first artist to make two appearances on our unique Artists Up Close series, playing a nearly unknown Piano Quintet by Edward Elgar as well as this concerto by Tchaikovsky.  Fittingly, he garnered a great deal of fame and respect from his appearance at the prestigious Tchaikovsky  Piano Competition in Moscow.

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Program:

Tchaikovsky                        Piano Concerto No. 2 in G Major    46’
                                                    Allegro brillante
                                                    Andante non troppo
                                                    Allegro con fuoco

Intermission

Rachmaninoff                    Symphonic Dances    38’
                                                    Non allegro
                                                    Andante con moto 
                                                       (Tempo di valse)
                                                    Lento assai – Allegro vivace



WGTE – FM 91 broadcasts the Toledo Symphony on FM 91 In Concert.  Tonight’s concert will be rebroadcast Thursday, December 4, 2008, at 8:00 p.m. through the generosity of the Edward H. Schmidt Musical Arts Fund.

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