March- Pictures at an Exhibition Composers

Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975)

Violin Concerto No. 1 in A minor, Op. 77/99 (1948/1955), 42 minutes

Flutes, piccolo, oboes, English horn, clarinets, bass clarinet, bassoons, contrabassoon, horns, tuba, timpani, xylophone, tambourine, tam-tam, harp, celesta, strings, solo violin

This is the first performance of this work by the GJSO

Dmitri Shostakovich was born in Saint Petersburg in 1906 and began piano lessons at age nine. At thirteen he enrolled at the Petrograd (Saint Petersburg) Conservatory. He completed his Symphony No. 1 as a graduation project at nineteen. Shostakovich embarked on his professional career completing new works while working at a theater. His opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, which premiered in 1934, was initially a success. However, after Stalin attended a performance in 1936, the work and Shostakovich were denounced. To rehabilitate his image, Shostakovich completed Symphony No. 5 in 1937, a more conservative work. After his return to favor, Shostakovich began teaching composition at the Leningrad (Saint Petersburg) Conservatory.

While Leningrad was under siege during World War II, he wrote the first three movements of the Seventh Symphony, whose premiere, under extraordinary circumstances, was a patriotic rallying cry for a beleaguered nation. In 1948 Shostakovich, along with almost every major figure in Soviet music was denounced for his “formalist” musical sensibilities; his music was banned and he lost his job at the conservatory. Over the next few years, Shostakovich earned a living by composing film scores, works that he hoped would rehabilitate his standing, and “desk drawer” works that were more personal. Some of Shostakovich’s restrictions were eased because Stalin needed representatives to appear on behalf of the Soviet Union in New York City. Shostakovich went to New York in 1949 but was forced to read prepared remarks. Stalin’s death in 1953 freed many artists, including Shostakovich, from intense scrutiny. In 1960 Shostakovich joined the Communist Party to serve as General Secretary of the Composers’ Union, although it is unknown whether it was his choice or not. Shostakovich’s last works feature some of his most extreme harmonies and appear to be written without fear of, or influence from, the government and are filled with glorious, yet somber music as he contemplated his own mortality. Shostakovich died in 1975 leaving behind a legacy of music that was able to transcend politics.

Shostakovich completed his Violin Concerto No. 1 in 1948. However, due to his recent denunciation, Shostakovich knew the work would not be accepted because it was too complicated, atonal, and individualistic. He kept the work back and it wasn’t premiered until 1955. When it was finally premiered it was a masterwork filled with technical virtuosity requiring a heroic effort from the soloist.

What to listen for:

Nocturne:

• long, meditative melody in the low register of the violin
• melody slowly evolves
• brief interjections from the orchestra, especially harp and celesta

Scherzo:

• sardonic humor
• spiky violin melody accompanied by flute and bass clarinet
• klezmer-inspired tunes that feature Shostakovich’s musical monogram D-S-C-H (D-E-flat-C-B)

Passacaglia

• based on a Baroque form with a repeated bass line with melodic variations
• horns introduce the melody which passes to the winds then the soloist
• growing tension throughout the nine variations
• violin plays the bass line then an extended cadenza which leads directly to the finale

Burlesque

• virtuosic violin lines
• unsettled and crazed dance which races to the end

Notes From the Director

Violin Concerto No. 1 in A minor, op. 77 – The older I get, the more I appreciate Shostakovich. I’d explain more, but you’ll just have to wait until you’re older. This piece features our winner of the 2024 GJSO Young Artist Competition, Kenneth Naito. Kenneth actually won the competition playing a different concerto – Bela Bartók’s 2nd. But the Bartók concerto is… well… not a happy piece and it’s not a great fit for the GJSO. I asked Kenneth if he might come perform the Erich Korngold concerto, and he counter-offered with Shostakovich #1, which is a great fit!

Modest Mussorgsky (1839-1881)

Pictures at an Exhibition (1874/1891), 38 minutes

Flutes, piccolo, oboes, English horn, clarinets, bass clarinet, alto saxophone, bassoons, contrabassoon, horns, trumpets, trombones, tuba, timpani, xylophone, snare drum, tam-tam, triangle, whip, ratchet, cymbals, bass drum, glockenspiel, suspended cymbal, chimes, harps, celesta, strings

The GJSO last performed this piece in 2010, Kirk Gustafson, conducting

Modest Mussorgsky strove to create a uniquely Russian style of music. He was born into a wealthy family in 1839 and began piano lessons at age six with his mother, who was classically trained. When Mussorgsky was ten, the family moved to Saint Petersburg to further his education. He enrolled in military school at thirteen and was commissioned into a distinguished unit after graduation in 1856. In addition to his formal education, Mussorgsky continued his music studies. Shortly after graduation, Mussorgsky met Alexander Borodin and Alexander Dargomyzhsky, fellow composers who would become influential friends. Dargomyzhsky held regular soirées where Mussorgsky met the composer Mily Balakirev, with whom he began studying.

In 1858, Mussorgsky resigned his military commission to compose full-time. While he professed to love “everything Russian,” Mussorgsky’s early compositions follow traditional Western European formal structures. Mussorgsky quit studying with Balakirev in 1863 and began writing in a new more realistic style. He took a job as a civil servant to support himself and completed his first two songs in his new style in 1866, followed by Night on Bald Mountain the following year. Around 1867 Mussorgsky began to be associated with “The Five,” a group of Russian composers who wrote much of their music based on folk songs, stories, and legends.

Over the next few years, Mussorgsky worked on two operas, Zhenitba (The Marriage) and Boris Godunov, which would become one of his most well-known works. Mussorgsky used a realistic singing style, carefully setting the Russian texts musically to match speech patterns and inflections. He completed Boris Godunov in 1871, with a final version appearing on stage two years later. The next few years were difficult for Mussorgsky. The Five, which was never really a cohesive group, fell apart, much to Mussorgsky’s dismay. He suffered from serious health issues due to his alcoholism and often missed work, which led to his dismissal in 1880. Friends raised money to pay his bills and help support him so he could continue to write. In 1881, Mussorgsky was admitted to the hospital, where he died a week after his forty-second birthday.

Composing was a painstaking process for Mussorgsky, often taking years to complete. Many of his works became known only through revisions by other composers or well after his death. One notable exception was Pictures at an Exhibition. In 1868, Mussorgsky met the artist Viktor Hartmann and the two quickly became friends. Hartmann’s sudden and unexpected death in 1873 affected Mussorgsky deeply. An exhibition of Hartmann’s works was presented at the Imperial Academy of Arts as a tribute. After Mussorgsky visited, he was compelled to write an homage to his friend. Unlike previous compositions, Mussorgsky finished the work in only three weeks, completing a ten-part piano suite that represented a visit to the museum. The different movements each depict one of Hartmann’s paintings with a “Promenade” theme uniting the work, portraying Mussorgsky strolling through the gallery. Although originally written for, and still performed as, a work for solo piano, Pictures at an Exhibition came to greater prominence after Mussorgsky’s death. There are several orchestral versions of the work, but the most well-known and widely performed was orchestrated by Maurice Ravel in 1922 at the request of conductor Serge Koussevitzky. In Ravel’s orchestration, Mussorgsky’s depictions of the paintings come to life with the variety and color of the orchestra while maintaining the unique melodies and depictions that Mussorgsky wrote to memorialize a beloved friend.

What to listen for:

Promenade

• opening trumpet fanfare
• melody presented by the entire orchestra

Gnomus

• a lurching, twitchy melody with shrieks and cracks depicting a nutcracker

The Old Castle

• lyrical bassoon melody evolving a desolate scene
• saxophone and English horn over lute-like strings

Tuileries

• jaunty melodies passed between the strings and woodwinds portray children playing

Bydlo

• steady and plodding melody
• brass throughout to depict an ox-cart

Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks

• light and bouncy music featuring woodwinds and harp

Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuÿle

• a conversation between a rich man (winds and strings) and a poor man (trumpets)
• stuttering motifs

The Market of Limoges

• busy overlapping melodies depict a bustling marketplace

Catacombs

• a dark heavy melody in the brass
• a minor version of the Promenade

The Hut on the Fowl’s Legs (Baba Yaga)

• the witch from Russian folklore flies through the air on a quick, dark chase

The Great Gate of Kyiv

• a grand restatement of the Promenade theme

bells and chant-like melodies to create a majestic end.

Notes From the Director

Pictures at an Exhibition (orchestrated by Maurice Ravel) – Here’s another piece I’ve studied for years and years and have never had the opportunity to conduct. Mussorgsky wrote Pictures as a piece for piano. Many other composers have since orchestrated it for larger ensembles, but Ravel’s version is the most famous. When I was Music Director of the Bloomington Symphony Orchesta from 2006-2013, our principal 2nd violin was a composer named David Canfield. David had a business for many years dealing classical records. He has collected and catalogued a list of 700 different orchestrations and 1177 different recordings of Pictures at an Exhibition! So, every time I brought up the idea of performing Pictures, David would suggest a dozen unknown (but certainly worthy) alternative versions, but I only wanted to conduct Ravel’s! We were at a stalemate. But I’m fairly confident that David isn’t going to be attending our performance here in Grand Junction, and I’m looking forward to sending him a recording afterward that he can add to his collection.