Stravinsky Returns to the Cincinnati Symphony
His first visit was
in 1925 when he was 43 and the toast of the music world following the premieres
of “The Firebird,” “Petrouchka” and especially “The Rite of Spring” with
Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes in
The CSO, led by
music director Paavo Järvi, will mark the 125th anniversary of the
Russian master’s birth, with a two-week Stravinsky Festival beginning this
weekend at Music Hall.
Concerts are 8 p.m.
Friday and Saturday, 3 p.m. Sunday and 8 p.m. Nov. 9 and 10 at Music Hall.
The CSO Chamber
Players will perform Stravinsky’s “L’histoire du soldat” (“The Soldier’s Tale”)
narrated by Stacey Woolley at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 16 at Memorial Hall.
This week’s CSO
program includes Stravinsky’s “Symphony of Psalms” and Chorale-Variations on “Vom
Himmel hoch da komm' ich her” (“From Heaven High I Come to You”) after Johann
Sebastian Bach. Both feature the May
Festival Chorus directed by Robert Porco.
The concert will conclude with Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 (“Eroica”).
Weekend two
comprises Stravinsky’s 1945 Symphony in Three Movements, Haydn’s Symphony No.
98 in B-flat Major and Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 1 with CSO principal
cellist Eric Kim.
As a kind of
extension of the Stravinsky Festival, Järvi will close the CSO season with “The
Rite of Spring” May 2 and 3 at Music Hall.
Now one of his most popular works (Music Hall was sold out for its last
outing by Järvi and the CSO in 2004), its savage rhythms and primitive theme
(fertility rites in pagan
CSO violist Mark Cleghorn
was a member of the CSO during Stravinsky’s last visit to the CSO in 1965. “I’ll never forget the contact I made with
him on a personal level, beyond the music, which was just incredible”(Stravinsky
conducted his ballet “The Fairy’s Kiss,” guest conductor Robert Craft led “The
Rite of Spring.”).
“On the podium, it
was all business. Not that he was rude.
He just didn’t want to fool around and do a lot of talking. He was very clear in what he did.
“I wanted to get
his autograph so I took scores of “Le sacre” (“Rite of Spring”) and
“L’histoire” backstage and knocked on his door.
I was 27 and totally spooked out about asking him.”
Stravinsky’s wife
came to the door and asked Cleghorn to wait while she spoke with her husband.
“She said ‘he’s
very tired right now, but he would like you to come back tonight and he will
sign them.’ I thought, ‘OK, I got
through this part of it, so I’m fine.’”
Cleghorn was on the
street behind Music Hall when, sure enough, Stravinsky and his wife came out. Seeing Cleghorn, she beckoned him over.
“I got right up
next to him. You could count the whiskers on his face. He said in very thick Russian, ‘My dear boy, I
want you to understand that I was too tired to sign, but I really want you to
bring the scores tonight because I do want to sign them for you.’
“I’ll never forget
how kind he was. To make sure I understood he wasn’t just putting me off. I was very touched.”
The idea for the
Stravinsky Festival was to pair some of his lesser known works with other strongly
established masterpieces, said Järvi.
Beethoven’s “Eroica,” which played the same revolutionary role in 19th-century
music as “The Rite of Spring” did in the 20th-century, eminently qualifies.
Composed in 1930,
“The Symphony of Psalms” is “one of the great masterpieces of the last century,
right at the top of the heap in terms of choral works,” said Porco. A setting of Psalms from the Latin Vulgate,
the three-movement work falls into Stravinsky’s
neo-classical period, a return to traditional forms and musical language
following his earlier, folklore-inspired Russian period.
In his
Autobiography, Stravinsky famously proclaimed that “music is, by its very
nature, essentially powerless to express anything at all.”
“The Symphony of
Psalms” is a good example of his self-proclaimed objectivity, said Porco. “He was always a little bit acerbic or
sarcastic referring to composers who set music in what he calls a sentimental
style, and he always put ‘sentimental’ in quotes.”
In fact, said Porco, “he takes a contrarian
view. For example, in the gorgeous
finale of ‘The Symphony of Psalms,’ where the text (Psalm 150) talks about
praising God with the cymbals and drums.
Where some other composer might have set that forte and in a big manner, he does it in a very hypnotic, soft,
chorale-like way.
“People have said it has some of his Slavic
roots in it and it’s like chant, but he said there was none of that. In the last movement, where the phrase
‘Laudate Dominum’ happens repeatedly, he puts the accent on the first syllable,
which is liturgically incorrect. He is
aware of that. He uses the text as
sound, not as it might be used in syntax.”
Regarding
Stravinsky’s denial of expressivity in music, “who knows if he really felt that
way?” said Porco. “He might have said some things just to roil
the water. Look at ‘The Rite of Spring.’ To me, it could not be more expressive than
that.”
Stravinsky’s 1956
Chorale Variations is a CSO premiere.
Although Stravinsky was in his third stylistic period then and had begun
writing 12-tone (atonal) music, “Vom Himmel hoch” is neo-baroque and based on a
chorale and variations by Bach.
“Bach took a
Christmas hymn and set keyboard variations on it. Stravinsky takes the same chorale and does a
bunch of his own variations on it. It’s
very Stravinskyian in its rhythmic activity and harmonies. The chorus sings the chorale tune in octaves
except for the last variation, where they sing it in mirror image, the basses
upside down and the women in its original form.”
The Symphony in
Three Movements, to be heard next weekend, has been called Stravinsky’s War Symphony,
since it was written between 1942 and 1945 in response to world events. Stravinsky’s own commentary on the work
speaks of having been influenced by a war film about scorched earth tactics in
”Stravinsky is one
of those composers who is instantly recognizable no matter which of his periods
you’re dealing with – because of the rhythmic part of it particularly,” said
Porco.
The CSO intends to
make the Stravinsky Festival affordable and fun as well as stimulating.
Järvi and CSO
assistant conductor Eric Dudley will present a special “Classical Conversation”
one hour before the concerts on Nov. 2, 3 and 4. Dudley and Joel Hoffman, professor of
composition at the
There will be a
post-concert “Bohemian Bash” following the Nov. 10 concert in the Music Hall
lobby, with live jazz by the Faux Frenchmen, beverages and dessert. The event is free for concert attendee.
Limited edition merchandise will be for sale
at the Bravo Shop in the Music Hall lobby, including a CSO Stravinsky double CD
set with “The Rite of Spring,” “Petrouchka,” “The Firebird” and “Scherzo a la
Russe,” commemorative Stravinsky Festival poster and mug (“The Igor”).
The CSO is offering a Stravinsky Festival
Pass for $75 that includes one admission to any or all festival concerts, free
festival poster, admission to the Nov. 10 “Bohemian Bash,” $5 off the CSO Stravinsky
double CD set and $1 off the commemorative mug.
Concert tickets are
$12-$75.25, $10 for students, half-price for seniors (evening concerts only),
$5 for ages 6-18 (Nov. 4 only).
Friday is “College
Nite” at the CSO. Following the concert,
there will be a free party for college students in
Call (513) 381-3300, order online at www.CincinnatiSymphony.org, or in
person at the CSO box office in Music Hall 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through
Saturday and two hours before the performance.
Half-price ZIPTIX are
available from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. concert days at the Music Hall box office (Saturday
for Sunday concerts).
CSO Stravinsky
Festival.