January 20 Program Notes
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Gioachino Rossini (1792-1868)
Overture to "La Cenerentola"

On February 29, 1816, Gioachino Rossini - celebrating the occasion of his 24th birthday - signed a contract with Rome's Teatro Valle to produce a new work, which was to be performed that year, on Boxing Day (December 26).

Shortly after, he departed for Naples and began work on a number of projects, one of which was the opera La Gazzetta. It fared poorly - most accounts blame the clumsy libretto - and it was never staged again during Rossini's lifetime. The music carries much of Rossini's distinct charm, however, a crucial point regarding tonight's program.

Othello, the last of the works composed during this period, premiered in Naples on December 4, leaving Rossini little time to travel to Rome, let alone compose an opera by the agreed-upon deadline.

To make matters worse, the Ecclesiastical censor had rejected Gaetano Rossi's libretto for the proposed opera, "Ninetta alla corte," as immoral. The libretto had been suggested by the Teatro Valle's impresario, Pietro Cartoni, and one assumes that, by that point, Cartoni had abandoned hope for a new Rossini by Christmas.

Rossini was staying with Cartoni, and on December 23, Cartoni summoned the librettist Jacobo Ferretti to his home, where the three discussed and abandoned "20 or 30" subjects. Rossini retired to bed, with Ferretti sitting by his side, half-asleep. The fanciful legend of how the two decided upon a retelling of the Cinderella story is recounted by Ferretti's biographer Alberto Cametti:

"Weary of making suggestions and half falling asleep, in the middle of a yawn, I murmured 'Cinderella?' Rossini sat up straight. "Would you have the courage to write me a Cinderella?" And I in turn asked him, "Would you have the courage to set it to music?" And he: "When can I have the outline?" And me: "You can have it in the morning if I go without sleep tonight." And he (pulling the covers over his head): "All right. Good night."

Regardless of the veracity of this story, the two began the project immediately. Ferretti delivered the first part of the libretto to the composer on Christmas Day, with the rest following over the course of three weeks.

Rossini composed as he received the text, but he was facing a new and impending deadline. The exigencies of the situation demanded swift solutions, and while most of La Cenerentola's music was new, some of it was not.

Thus, the overture from the failed La Gazzetta received new life as the overture to the successful La Cenerentola.

The overture, though lesser-known is one of his finest. It begins slowly - characteristic of Rossini's overtures - with melodic material handled by the woodwinds, punctuated by crashing tutti chords.

The introduction gives way to a melodramatic, gravid transitional period before launching into a sprightly, brisk, light-hearted melody full of charm and bounce. The whirlwind conclusion, brash and thunderous, brings matters to a pointed close.

Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953)
Violin concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 63

1. Allegro moderato
2. Andante assai
3. Allegro ben marcato

Shortly after completing his first violin concerto in 1917, Sergei Prokofiev left Russia, ostensibly to undertake a concert tour in America under the patronage of Serge Koussevitzky's publishing house. He had no intention to return, however, having become increasingly concerned about the effect the Bolshevik Revolution would have on his artistic freedom. He secured permission to leave from The People's Commissar who told the composer: "You are a revolutionary in music and we are revolutionaries in life. We ought to work together. But I will not stand in your way."

Following travels to Siberia, Japan, and the United States, he eventually settled in Paris.

During his time away, the composer became increasingly sympathetic to Soviet ideology (and, one surmises, a little homesick). "I had not grasped the significance of what was happening in the U.S.S.R.," he said. "I did not realize that the events there demanded the collaboration of all citizens - not only men of politics, but art as well."

In 1933, he decided to return to Russia, aware that his compositional material would be affected. The astringent works he had composed in Paris would not be welcomed with as open arms by the Soviet government. Consonance, melody, accessibility - these were his watchwords as he prepared to compose in his homeland once again.

One of the first works he began after deciding to return to Russia was his second violin concerto. A group of French musicians had asked him to compose a work for the Belgian virtuoso Robert Soetens, a work that began as a sonata, but took on greater weight as work progressed. The first movement was written in Paris, the remaining two after the return (although, as Prokofiev was still allowed to tour, much was written in European hotel rooms). It was completed in fall, 1935.

The concerto is warm, tonal, even romantic: exemplary of Prokofiev's final Soviet period. The spirit of mockery is nearly subsumed in the flood of melody.

The soloist opens the first movement with a somber, unaccompanied theme, with dramatic, virtuosic passages making the transition from one lyrical theme to the next. Gerald Abraham notices a "distinct affinity" between the second theme and the gavotte from the Classical Symphony.

The second movement, the heart of the concerto, has been called "Mozartean in its brilliance of song." The melodic appeal sustains itself throughout the movement, with interesting textural interplay: staccato accompaniment and legato line played against each other gracefully.

The final movement is a stamping, brash rondo. Shifting, asymmetric rhythms and a touch of sardonic humor form the closest link from this work to the composer's first essay in the genre. Viewed together, the two works - separated by 22 years - perfectly frame the composer's time in Paris.

The second violin concerto received its premiere in Madrid on December 1, 1935. Robert Soetens was soloist, and Enrique Arbos conducted the Madrid Symphony Orchestra. Both musicians and audience gave the composer a standing ovation following the performance, and a special delegation was sent to the composer afterward to express thanks that he allowed the work to be premiered in Spain.

Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)
Symphony No. 3 in A minor, Op. 56 ("Scotch")

1. Andante con moto; allegro un poco agitato
2. Scherzo, assai vivace
3. Adagio cantabile
4. Allegro vivaccisimo; allegro maestoso assai

On the evening of March 9, 1566, an Italian musician named David Rizzio was murdered in the castle of Holyrood, in the supper chamber of Queen Mary of Scotland.

Rizzio had come to Edinburgh as part of the Piedmontese ambassador's entourage, and had stayed on as a lute player and singer by the Queen's request.

Apparently, he showed promise for more than music, as he was later installed as the Queen's "private foreign secretary," and, as rumors had it, her lover as well.

His influence engendered jealousy and rage among many of the Scottish nobles, and on the evening in question, a band of them broke into the Queen's chamber, hacked Rizzio to death and threw him out of the window, so the story goes.

Exaggerated or not, the story has inspired numerous dramatists, artists, and musicians throughout history, one of which was Felix Mendelssohn, who visited Scotland in 1830.

The composer, along with his traveling companion Karl Klingemann - secretary to the Hanoverian legation in London - toured the country extensively. They were able to secure an audience with Sir Walter Scott on the trip, who, Klingemann said, offered "one half-hour of superficial conversation."

They also visited the ruins of Holyrood.

On July 30, following the visit, Mendelssohn wrote: "We went to the palace of Holyrood where Queen Mary lived and loved. There is a little room to be seen there with a winding staircase leading up to it. This, the murderers ascended and, finding Rizzio, drew him out. Three chambers away is where they killed him...Everything is broken and mouldering and the bright sky shines in. I believe I found today in the old chapel the beginning of my Scotch Symphony."

On the grounds of the castle, Mendelssohn jotted down the first ten bars of the opening andante section; the seed of what was to come to full maturity more than a decade later. Although the symphony is listed as Mendelssohn's third, it is listed as it was purposed not as it was published. It was not finished until after the fourth, and is more accurately his fifth and last essay in the genre.

The title "Scotch" was not appended to the original manuscript: no suggestions about the work's origins. This is most likely because Mendelssohn resisted writing programmatic music. He never explained his work, and if there is a direct link, musically, to the death of Rizzio, or other Scottish legends, they are destined to remain unknown.

Even the character of the work has come under considerable controversy: exactly how Scottish is it?

This conundrum is adequately expressed by a tale involving Robert Schumann. Upon hearing the work for the first time, Schumann was assured by a friend that he was actually listening to Mendelssohn's "Italian" symphony. Schumann was overwhelmed by the images the work evoked of the Italian landscape: "It is so beautiful as to compensate for a hearer who has never been to Italy," he said.

Certainly, there are no typical Scottish signifiers in the work: no droning bass, no bagpipes. But to say the work has no Scottish influence (despite Schumann's experience) would be inaccurate.

The whole of the symphony demonstrates a tension between the martial and the lyrical, filled as it is with somber melodies and heraldic vigor. There may be no program, but the work does manifest a Scottish personality, a general impression of the land and its people.

The four movements are meant to be played continuously, with no pause between movements. The first movement offers a slow introduction with the main theme pronounced by the oboe. Following the introductory matter, the violins and clarinets present the melancholic, reserved main theme. The melody is said to have been inspired by a song the composer heard sung by the daughter of the mistress of the inn where he was staying in Edinburgh.

The second movement is a scherzo, though not set in triple time. the lively, merry dance theme is handled by the clarinet, set against staccato strings.

The adagio movement offers a tender, romantic theme, succeeded by a dour processional. Finally, the work concludes with a dramatic, flying allegro of drive and thrust. The coda concludes the work with (in the words of Gerhart von Westerman) "hymnic grandeur."

Mendelssohn dedicated the symphony to Queen Victoria, and it received its premiere on March 3, 1842 in Leipzig.