Connoisseur's Choice Concerts
Sheffield Philharmonic Orchestra
J. S. Bach arr Stokowski
There are some who hold the opinion that Bach was either not the composer of this piece, or if he did write it, it wasn't meant for the organ, but the violin.There is no doubt that Stokowski's treatment of this piece is not in keeping with the period when the piece was first performed during Bach's Weimar period. Thise who think this arrangement was produced for the film Fantasia will be surprised to learn that it dates from even earlier; Stokowski first performed it in February 1926 (in the days of silent films!)
However, if you're one of those who feel that Bach's works are improved by being played by a modern symphony orchestra rather than the forces of Bach's time, then the improvements on display in this arrangement prove, once and for all, that it really is by Bach!
Henryk Czyz
The name of Henryk Czyz is not well known around here, but later in the season audiences will get their first taste of his music in concerts given by the Sheffield Philharmonic Orchestra.These concerts mark the composer's 85th birthday on 16th June. He was born in Grudziadz, (16 June 1923), nowadays a city of 100 000 and located on the right bank of Vistula river in the northern part of Pomerania Region.
He took up his first conducting post (1948, with the Bydgoszcz PO) while still studying philosophy at Torun University. He subsequently went to the Poznan Conservatory to study conducting with Bierdiajew and composition with Szeligowski. He was conductor and artistic director of the Lódz PO (from 1957), the Warsaw Opera (from 1960), where he conducted the Polish stage première of The Rite of Spring, and the Kraków PO (from 1964); from 1969 to 1972 he was Generalmusikdirektor in Düsseldorf.
Engagements throughout Europe included appearances with the Berlin PO and Leningrad PO. In 1966 he conducted the world première of Penderecki’s St Luke Passion. He became a professor at the Warsaw Academy of Music in 1980.
Liszt - Les Preludes
Following on from the Weimar connection with Bach, we have the Weimar connection with Franz Liszt. Les Preludes dates from Liszt's own Weimar period. The preface heading reads: “Les Preludes/ After Lamartine’s ‘Meditations Poetiques”. Below the heading is printed Liszt’s writing:“What is life but a series of preludes to that unknown hymn, the first and solemn note of which is intoned by Death? Love is the enchanted dawn of all existence; but what fate is there whose first delights of happiness are not interrupted by some storm, whose fine illusions are not dissipated by some mortal blast, consuming its altar as though by a stroke of lightning? And what cruelly wounded soul, issuing from one of these tempests, does not endeavor to solace its memories in the calm serenity of rural life? Nevertheless, man does not resign himself for long to the enjoyment of that beneficent warmth which he first enjoyed in Nature’s bosom, and when `the trumpet sounds the alarm’ he takes up his perilous post, no matter what struggle calls him to its ranks, that he may recover in combat the full consciousness of himself and the entire possession of his powers.”
Les Preludes became the most successful piece from the 12 symphonic poems. It was the only one to become a part of the standard classical repertory**. Liszt claimed that Les Preludes were inspired after the French poet Alfonse-Marie Lamartine’s “Meditations Poetiques”.
However, the actual history of the piece raises doubts to Liszt having really based the music on this particular poem.
**I hear that there will be a performance of one of his other Symphonic Poems Mazeppa given by the CSYO in July.
Franck
The old joke about naming three famous Belgians either receives blank looks, or the name of César Franck crops up. Franck only wrote the one symphony, the one in d minor in three movements. This year marks the 120th anniversary of its completion.There are not that many symphonies by French composers - Berlioz, Saint-Saens, Chausson, Bizet and D'Indy all wrote for the genre, but compare the output of Brahms and Beethoven and it is noticeable that the French Symphony is a rare form. The Franck Symphony was not well received at its premiere in 1889, but this can be explained to its Germanic influences at a time when Franco-German politics were anything but harmonious. These days we can enjoy the work without any political overtones.
This concert will be repeated in Doncaster Minster the following afternoon at 3pm.
Sheffield Symphony Orchestra
Gershwin
George Gershwin was born in 1898 and An American in Paris dates from 1928, so that gives us two anniversaries to celebrate. Going back to the Franck Symphony and its 1889 premiere; this year was also the birth of the Eiffel Tower, probably the symbol of Paris, which gives us a nice lead into the Gershwin piece.
In 1928 Gershwin spent some time in Paris and worked on An American in Paris from the Spring onwards, before the piece was first performed in December of that year at Carnegie Hall.
Prokofiev
While Gershwin was in Paris, he met Prokofiev. There is a theory that Prokofiev influenced Gershwin's music before this. According to Jeffrey Biegel,"I remember my teacher, the late Adele Marcus, teaching me the Prokofiev Third—she recalled when Josef Lhevinne took her to the concert in 1921 to hear Prokofiev play it—she remembered everything about it and taught it to me that way—much the way she did for Byron Janis when he was younger—and remember Byron’s wonderful LP w/Kondrashin. It’s since become my signature piece—perhaps one day I’ll bring it to Atlanta. Surely Gershwin must have been in Prokofiev’s esteemed audience too, for the piano entry of the second movement of the Prokofiev concerto—trill with ascending scale to high B-flat—finds itself opening Gershwin’s own ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ in 1924! "
Elgar
There are many theories about just what the original melody was that forms the subject of the variations. The latest theory I've heard is that it can be found in one of Elgar's songs (not a bit of one of his choral works). I don't know the songs sufficiently well to be able to comment on this, but there are more words on this subject at the Enigma page of my website.Other potential sources that I've come across (not the same as believing them!) are Rule Britannia and Mozart's Prague Symphony, although the most recent theory, from Dr Clive McClelland in the Leeds School of Music suggests it was based on the melody of the popular hymn ‘Now the day is over’.
For more information check out the orchestras' websites
Sheffield Philharmonic Orchestra