The Philharmonic Society of Orange County

Tuesday, November 24, 2009
8:00 PM
Renée & Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall

Series Name: ?**SERIES**?

Subscriber Sale Date: 6/1/2009
Public Sale Date: 6/22/2009

Artists

Long Yu, conductor
Yuja Wang, piano

There is no pre-concert lecture for this performance.

Program

MUSSORGSKY: Introduction from Khovanshchina
RACHMANINOFF: Piano concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18
CHEN QIGANG: Iris dévoilée

The Society’s celebration of Chinese Culture ends spectacularly with Yuja Wang’s vital performance of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 and Chen Qigang’s scenic cantata Iris dévoilée.

Program Notes

MUSSORGSKY: PRELUDE TO KHOVANSHCHINA
Of the five Russian composers known as "The Mighty Handful," Mussorgsky was the most sensational. He did not have the wide influence of his teacher Balakirev, or the urbane polish of Rimsky-Korsakov, but his innate melodic touch and muscular approach to harmony generated some of the most memorable and definitively Russian music ever written. The little success he did achieve in his life could not pull him out of poverty and alcoholism, and he died with his musical library in disarray. Rimsky-Korsakov did much to preserve his friend's reputation by editing and completing numerous works, yet his painstaking "corrections" often censored the rough-hewn charm of the music. The enigma of Mussorgsky is that we almost always hear him through the prism of another composer; the results may not be the most pure, but few will complain about such gems as Rimsky's edition of Night on Bald Mountain or Ravel's orchestration of Pictures at an Exhibition.

Mussorgsky's greatest success in his lifetime was the opera Boris Godunov, a saga of Russian history and politics based on the drama of the same name by Pushkin. At the suggestion of a friend and music critic, Vladimir Stasov, Mussorgsky borrowed another historical episode for his next opera, this time the Moscow uprising of 1682 and the ascent of Peter the Great. Mussorgsky wrote the libretto to Khovanshchina himself, fashioning a story around the title character of Prince Ivan Khovansky. The opera was historical fiction, but the resonance of a modernizing force rising against the old order sat not far beneath the surface in those waning years of the Tsars. Mussorgsky worked fitfully on the opera from 1872 to 1880, completing all but two numbers in piano score before his death. Rimsky-Korsakov made the first attempt to complete and orchestrate the opera, allowing for a public debut in 1886 in St. Petersburg. Stravinsky and Ravel reworked excerpts for a Diaghilev production, and Shostakovich prepared an entirely new edition in 1958, adhering more closely to Mussorgsky's unfinished score.

Mussorgsky wrote the opera's prelude in September 1874. Subtitled "Dawn on the Moscow River," it paints a gentle landscape of the city awakening. Various themes introduce themselves in turn - rising and falling arpeggios, lyrical lines, staccato chattering - like characters assuming their positions. The modal harmonies contribute to the antique feeling of the music, evoking the 17th-century setting. Mussorgsky's brief prelude has become a concert staple for orchestras, and both the familiar Rimsky-Korsakov realization and the starker Shostakovich score convey the timeless promise of the sun rising on a new day.

RACHMANINOFF: PIANO CONCERTO NO. 2 IN C MINOR, OP. 18
When Rachmaninoff wrote his first symphony in 1895, he was an established piano virtuoso but barely recognized as a serious composer. His Symphony No. 1 might have cemented his reputation, except that its 1897 premiere was an utter disaster. Rachmaninoff suffered a crisis in confidence, and found himself unable to compose anything significant for years. One friend sought to cheer him up by arranging a meeting with Leo Tolstoy, but contact with the eminent novelist did nothing to un-stick Rachmaninoff's writer's block. A more productive dialogue took place with Nikolai Dahl, a psychiatric doctor and noted hypnotist as well as an amateur musician. Rachmaninoff attended daily sessions with the doctor early in 1900, and by that summer he found the energy to compose another major work. He started sketching his second piano concerto in Italy, and by December he had the second and third movements ready for a trial performance. He added the first movement the next year, and appeared as the soloist for the first full performance in October 1901. Rachmaninoff dedicated the piece to Dr. Dahl, a lasting tribute to the man who helped restart a legendary composing career.

Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 is a perennial audience favorite. Unlike the glitzy third concerto that followed in 1909, the second concerto places the pianist in a delicate and understated role within the orchestra - what Rachmaninoff described as "a symphony with a strain of piano solo." The first movement, composed last, captures the essence of the piece. It begins with a simple prelude of chords and pedal tones from the piano, migrating from F minor to the work's home key of C minor. The orchestra immediately takes the melody, with saturated piano arpeggios filling the texture. As is so often true in Rachmaninoff's music, the most memorable tune enters as the lyrical second theme, this time entrusted to the pianist.

Rachmaninoff's special affinity for lush, romantic music can be felt throughout the slow movement, the music that first broke his dry spell. Once again there is an introduction, this time commencing in C minor (the previous movement's final chord) and progressing to E major. The piano enters with the movement's characteristic undulating rhythm, music that has its roots in a Romance composed in 1890 for three daughters in a family of distant relatives. Playing triplets grouped into sets of four, the piano seems to float in its own tempo while the orchestra elaborates a haunting theme, first led by the flute.

The finale breaks the spell of the adagio with a playful orchestral lead-in and piano cadenza, again starting with the final chord of the preceding movement and modulating to the movement's intended key. A brief flirtation with C major foreshadows the triumphant conclusion, but first the pianist and orchestra issue a C-minor theme with a tinge of mockmilitary pomp. Another unforgettable melody enters as the secondary theme; some scholars have argued that an old classmate of Rachmaninoff gifted him the tune, but others believe it to be so idiomatic of Rachmaninoff's melodic style that it must be original material. Either way, the treatment of the theme is quintessential Rachmaninoff, especially when it returns to close the work in a majestic climax, music that helped the famous pianist finally achieve his rightful recognition as a composer.

CHEN: IRIS DÉVIOLLÉE
Iris dévoilée, the most recent work by Qigang Chen, was premiered on February 6, 2002 in Paris with great success. Iris dévoilée is a concerto for full orchestra, soprano and traditional Chinese instruments.

"Iris" is the name of the Greek goddess of the rainbow. Chen uses the rich colors of a rainbow to depict female volatility and charm. In the concerto, the multifaceted female disposition breaks down into nine basic elements: simplicity, coyness, wantonness, sentimentality, jealousy, melancholy, hysteria and lust, after which the nine parts of the concerto are entitled. Reflecting on the short-lived beauty or woman, Chen sings her praise, and at the same time feels helpless or even despairs. When recalling the composition of the concerto, Chen confided that he had never realized how inexhaustible a subject woman's nature could be to the artist.

In recent years, Chen has repeatedly incorporated Chinese traditional music into his works. In Iris dévoilée, we hear pipa, erhu and guzheng, and the vocal part of the concerto is a combination of Western bel canto and Peking opera techniques. The vocal parts will be sung by Xiaoduo Chen (soprano) and Meng Meng (Peking opera singer), and traditional Chinese instruments played by Nan Wang (erhu), Jia Li (pipa) and Xin Sun (guzheng) under the direction of Maestro Long Yu.

© 2009 Aaron Grad.