For this, the final concert of the Madison Symphony Orchestra's 81st season, we welcome the distinguished German conductor Wolfgang Gönnenwein. Our program is a varied menu of works from the early 20th century, beginning with two excerpts from Prokofiev's satirical The Love for Three Oranges. Pianist Christopher Taylor joins us for the Jazzy Concerto in F, Gershwin's ambitious sequel to the wildly successful Rhapsody in Blue. The main course is Carl Orff's Carmina Burana, performed with the Madison Symphony Chorus, Madison Youth Choirs, and three soloists: soprano Tonna Miller, Tenor Joel Burcham, and baritone Donnie Ray Albert.
 

Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953)
March and Scherzo from Suite from "The Love for Three Oranges," Op.33bis

Prokofiev composed his opera The Love for Three Oranges in 1919, and it was first produced in Chicago on December 31, 1921. Prokofiev himself conducted the premiere. In 1924, he extracted a six-movement suite from the opera. Our only previous performance of this music was in 1979. Duration 4:00.

In 1918, Prokofiev left Russia for the United States, the beginning of nearly 20 years away from his homeland. One of his first large compositions in America was The Love for Three Oranges. Before he left Russia, the playwright Vsevolod Meyerhold had given him his adaptation of an 18th-century Commedia dell'arte story by Carlo Gozzi. Prokofiev was immediately taken with this modernist and somewhat surreal take on Gozzi's satire, and wrote his own libretto, doing most of the work during the long cruise across the Pacific to Los Angeles. After a few delays the opera was produced in Chicago in 1921. Though there were sour notes from the critics, it was warmly received by a somewhat confused audience. But a production two months later in New York was a complete flop. Prokofiev later wrote: "It was as though a pack of dogs had broken loose and were tearing my trousers to shreds." The poor response to The Love for Three Oranges and other works by Prokofiev led him to leave America shortly afterwards.

The opera's plot is deliberately absurd, and its subtext is a parody of several turn-of-the-century theatrical movements. A hypochondriac Prince is physically unable to laugh until the sorceress Fata Morgana takes a fall, and he is cured. Laughing at an evil sorceress is always a bad idea, and she lays an unusual curse on him. He must go on a quest for three oranges, guarded by a female giant (sung by a bass in drag). When he finds them, each of the oranges turns out to contain a princess, two of whom promptly die of thirst. The third is saved, and after a few more misfortunes--she is turned briefly into a rat--the opera ends happily.

We will hear two short instrumental pieces from the opera, drawn from Prokofiev's later suite. The March comes from a procession scene in Act II--a large festival scene. It is filled with manic energy and a rather sarcastic tone. The Scherzo accompanies the Prince's quest for the Three Oranges. It is underlaid with a frantic tarantella rhythm, as it flits from idea to idea, eventually speeding up and coming to an abrupt ending.
 

George Gershwin (1898-1937)
Concerto in F

Gershwin composed this work in 1925, and was the soloist at the premiere performance on December 3, 1925, in Carnegie Hall. We have played the Concerto in F twice previously: in 1951 (with Gerald Borsuk) and 1980 (with Lorin Hollander). Duration 31:00.

The premiere of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue in February 1924 was a career-making event for the young composer. Gershwin had already made a name for himself in Tin Pan Alley--New York City's famous song-writing district--and had scored a huge hit in 1919 with the song Swanee. He and his brother Ira were already recognized as Broadway composers as well. But the Rhapsody was something entirely new: a Jazz-styled piano piece written for a rather pretentious "Experiment in Modern Music" organized by bandleader Paul Whiteman. Whiteman was exploring what he called "symphonic Jazz"--a fusion of Classical and Popular styles--and brought together many composers from both worlds. The "Experiment" was a mixed success: many of the pieces were weak, and it was an excessively long affair, with 25 pieces on program lasting well over four hours. But by all accounts, Gershwin's Rhapsody (the 24th piece!) was the hit of the evening. Among the musical notables present at the concert was Walter Damrosch, conductor of the New York Symphony Orchestra. Damrosch almost immediately approached Gershwin with a commission for a new work to be titled New York Concerto.

Gershwin accepted of course, but the prospect of writing a more "serious" piece was daunting. He was well aware of his lack of formal training in music, and sought out lessons throughout his career. In particular, he was inexperienced in orchestration--Whiteman's staff arranger Ferde Grofé had done nearly all of the scoring for Rhapsody in Blue. But Gershwin, who worked all his life for respect in the world of what he termed "serious" music, had something to prove, later writing: "Many persons had thought that the Rhapsody was only a happy accident. Well, I went out, for one thing, to show them that there was more where that came from." Gershwin worked on the concerto through the summer and fall of 1925, spending as much time as he could afford in retreat in upstate New York--he was also writing two different Broadway shows at the same time. Among other things, he was determined to orchestrate the piece himself.

Gershwin was the soloist at the premiere performance on December 3, 1925, in Carnegie Hall. A name change--from New York Concerto to the more academic Concerto in F--was Gershwin's idea, and seems to have reflected his desire for acceptance as a Classical composer. Reviews ranged from enthusiastic to condescending to hostile, and Gershwin suffered a brutal post-concert snub by the Russian composer Alexander Glazunov, whose fifth symphony was on the same program. They met backstage and Gershwin enthusiastically expressed a desire to study orchestration with Glazunov. Glazunov frostily replied (through a translator) that Gershwin hadn't even mastered the basics of counterpoint. Despite a few sour notes like this, Damrosch was delighted with the piece and so were audiences. The Concerto in F, a far more ambitious work than the Rhapsody, has become the most successful of all American piano concertos.

Many critics immediately placed the label "Jazz Concerto" on the work, but Gershwin resisted this categorization, arguing that the work used "...certain Jazz rhythms which are worked out in a more or less symphonic manner." There are certainly moments that refer to 1920s Jazz--the muted trumpet in the second movement or the dance rhythms of the first--but the concerto's musical form owes more to the Classical concerto than to Jazz. The opening movement (Allegro) pays tribute to Classical concertos in its sonata form, beginning with an exposition that carefully lays out the main thematic material. The themes are clearly influenced by Jazz, however: a syncopated melody that uses the rhythm of the "Charleston"--the most popular dance of the day--and a lighter, highly syncopated theme. In the development section, strings introduce a lush new idea that is given a broad treatment by the piano and orchestra. The main themes of the opening return, now with flashy piano ornamentation, and the movement ends with a brilliant coda.

Gershwin, who was occasionally a bit pedantic in writing about his more "Classical" works described the mood of the second movement (Andante) as "...a poetic nocturnal atmosphere which has come to be referred to as the American Blues." The opening of this "night music" is given over to a muted trumpet, which lays out a long bluesy melody. The tempo eventually picks up, and the piano plays a more animated version of the same theme. The rest of the movement develops rather freely, with a passionate string theme acting as a kind of refrain. In the end, there is a grand climax before the opening theme returns, but now in the flute with piano background.

Gershwin called the finale (Molto agitato) an "orgy of rhythm." It follows directly on the heels of the second movement with a cymbal crash and an aggressive rhythmic burst from the orchestra. This highly percussive music is quickly picked up and developed by the piano. There are reminiscences of the first two movements worked into the texture, but they now have a more heavily rhythmic character. The climax of the movement is signaled by an enormous gong crash and a grand reprise of the first movement's string theme. It ends with a final statement of the aggressive music of the opening.
 

Carl Orff (1895-1982)
Carmina Burana

Orff’s Carmina Burana was composed between 1935 and 1936, and was premiered in 1937, in Frankfurt. This is the fifth performance by the Madison Symphony Orchestra and Madison Symphony Chorus: previous performances were in 1956, 1968, 1989, and 1998. Duration 59:00.

During the 12th and 13th centuries, a tremendous body of Latin and vernacular poetry was created by poets collectively known as "goliards." To group them together under a single name is misleading, however, for the goliards were drawn from every rank of society. The poets include prominent churchmen such as as Walter of Châtillon (1135-1176) and Philip, Chancellor of the University of Paris (d.1236), as well as now-nameless students, vagabonds, and jongleurs. The poetry is similarly variable: there are moralistic and fervidly religious poems, as well as secular lyrics that range from love songs (heterosexual and otherwise) to humorous and obscene stories. The most famous collection of goliard poetry is the Carmina Burana (literally "Songs of Beuren"), a 13th-century collection of over 200 poems that was compiled at the Benedictine monastery in Benediktbeueren, south of Orff’s home town of Munich. This richly-illuminated manuscript was probably compiled for a wealthy abbot of the monastery. Most of its poems are written in Church Latin, but there are several poems in a Bavarian dialect of medieval German, and a few poems that are partially in French (for example, no.16 in Orff’s setting).

Carl Orff's "secular cantata" on texts from the Carmina Burana is certainly his best-known work. Orff is a familiar name to many music educators--he was the creator of a systematic method of music education for children, and the composer of an important body of Schulwerke, or educational music. However, much of his concert and stage music remains unknown to American audiences. Carmina Burana, composed in 1935-36, is the earliest of Orff's acknowledged works--in 1937, he withdrew from publication everything else he had composed up to that time. The success of Carmina Burana prompted the composition of two related works: Catulli Carmina and Il Trionfo di Afrodite, both of which were based upon medieval models [Note: Catulli Carmina was performed during our 1969-70 season -M.A.]. All three settings were conceived as stage works--in Carmina Burana and its sequels, Orff suggested that costumes, staging, and props would add to the effect of the work.

The musical style of Carmina Burana and much of Orff's later work owes a great deal to the neoclassical music of Stravinsky, and echoes of Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms and Les Noces are clear. Orff's style is harmonically simple, with ostinato rhythmic figures repeated over long static harmonies--the entire choral prologue, for example, is set above an unchanging D in the bass. The orchestration is simple, yet colorful: Orff shows a preference for percussive effects that highlight the accents of the text and his own rhythmic figures. Melodic figures are short and frequently repeated, with very little development. There are also moments of pure Romanticism, however, particularly in the baritone’s solo lines. The melodic material used in Carmina Burana is, without exception, Orff's own--he did not use any of the relatively few extant melodies preserved with goliard poetry. The end result of these compositional procedures is striking. His settings of these 700-year-old lyrics are imbued with both freshness and mystery.

In speaking about his aesthetic philosophy, Orff remarked that: "I am often asked why I nearly always select old material, fairy tales, and legends for my stage works. I do not see this material as old, but rather as valid. The time element disappears, and only the spiritual element remains. My entire interest is in the expression of these spiritual realities. I write for the theater to convey a spiritual attitude." This sensitivity to the underlying timbre of the text is readily apparent in Carmina Burana. Orff chose thoroughly secular poems, and his ordering of these texts reflects a deep understanding of the medieval spirit.

The 24 texts are arranged into three large sections: I. "Spring," II. "In the Tavern," and III. "The Court of Love," and each of these sections is further divided. The first two texts, serving as a prelude to Section I, deal with the most potent symbol of medieval life: the Wheel of Fortune. In countless manuscript illuminations--including a prominent page in the original Carmina Burana manuscript--this wheel is shown being manipulated by a capricious Lady Fortune (a 13th-century Vanna White). Fortune’s Wheel alternately raises and lowers the kings, churchmen, and peasants who cling to it. Section I, "Spring," reflects an idealized and mythological view of Nature and Springtime. Spring was an important medieval metaphor--both for resurrection and for youth--but here the enjoyment of the season is purely sensuous. In a subsection, titled "On the Green" (nos.6-10), the outdoor spirit is directed towards thoughts of love and dancing. This subsection contains the only purely orchestral music in Carmina Burana : an instrumental Tanz that opens the section, and a Reie (round-dance) inserted before the chorus Swaz hie gat umbe. The four numbers set in the tavern give four different perspectives of medieval merrymaking: drunken musings, feasting (sung from the perspective of the "feastee," a roasted swan!), a satire of a drunken clergyman (who invokes the spurious St. Decius, patron saint of gamblers), and finally the drunken and entirely democratic free-for-all of In taberna quando sumus. The third and longest section, "Court of Love," reflects the twofold conception of love common in medieval thought. We hear both the lofty ideal of courtly love--chaste longing for an unattainable lady heard in Dies, nox et omnia--and frankly erotic love in Si puer cum puellula. In most of the texts, these two theads are cunningly woven together. This section ends with "Blanchefleur and Helen" (no.24), a single poem, praising Venus in the same terms often reserved for addresses to the Virgin Mary. A repeat of the opening chorus, O Fortuna, serves as a postlude. In returning, Orff neatly encircles Carmina Burana within Fortune's Wheel.
________
program notes ©2007 by J. Michael Allsen