Johann Sebastian Bach: Brandenburg Concerto no. 5 in D major, BWV 1050

Johann Sebastian Bach (b. Eisenach, March 21, 1685; d. Leipzig, June 21 1750) German composer. Principal works: two passions, including the St. Matthew Passion; well over 200 sacred and secular cantatas; six motets; other choral music, such as the Mass in B minor; four orchestral suites and many concertos, including the six "Brandenburg Concertos; sonatas and other chamber music; many organ and keyboard works.

 

Despite the death of his first wife, Maria Barbara, during this period, the most productive and unclouded years of Bach’s often turbulent career were spent as music director at the court of the deeply musical prince of the small principality of Anhalt-Cothen. The scores commonly known as the "Brandenburg" concertos were written and initially performed by Bach and the expert little court orchestra at Cothen during the years 1719 and 1720. In the winter of 1719, Bach made an extended journey to Berlin for the purpose of supervising the purchase and delivery of a splendid new harpsichord for his noble employer, Prince Leopold. While in Berlin, Bach may well have been introduced to Christian Ludwig, Margrave of Brandenburg. Despite the grand title, the Margrave’s court in Berlin was even more modest than the one at Cothen, but he had a fine library and enjoyed collecting manuscripts. Thus the Margrave seems to have asked Bach for some examples of his music to add to his collection: the concertos were not intended for the Margrave’s small and scrappy court band in Berlin. During the process of copying out the scores, which were dispatched in 1721, Bach submitted the original version of these concertos to a process of enrichment and revision.

Due to its complexity and stunning originality, musicologists suspect that this was probably the last of the Brandenburg Concertos to be finished. The solo instruments featured in this concerto are flute, violin and harpsichord. (The harpsichord may have been chosen in order to use the splendid instrument Bach brought back from Berlin.) The first movement commences with a lively, rhythmic motif, after which the trio of soloists begin their elaborate parts. During the course of this movement the harpsichord assumes greater and greater prominence, until it finally explodes into a virtuoso cadenza of formidable difficulty. The succeeding movement is scored just for the soloists, and, unusual for these generally extrovert concertos, plumbs unwonted depths of emotion. The orchestra rejoins the soloists for the finale, a vivacious flight of polyphonic fancy. This is a startlingly original work for its time, as Bach liberates the harpsichord from its usual role as a continuo instrument plunking away at chords in the background. By doing so, Bach invented the modern keyboard concerto, almost by accident.

 George Gershwin: Lullaby for string orchestra

George Gershwin (b. Brooklyn, New York, September 26, 1898; d. Beverly Hills, California, July 11, 1937.) American composer; according to the birth registry, his real name was Jacob Gershvin. Principal works: one grand opera, Porgy and Bess; musical comedies, including Lady Be Good, Strike Up the Band, Funny Face, Girl Crazy, and Of Thee I Sing; one piano concerto as well as one set of variations and two rhapsodies for piano and orchestra; orchestral works, including American in Paris; piano pieces; many great songs.

 

George Gershwin was the quintessential tough-but-tender New Yorker, and his music often reflects that duality, moving from the highest of spirits to gentle introspection. While Gershwin got his start on Tin Pan Alley, and wrote some of his greatest songs for popular consumption, he yearned to be accepted as a "serious" composer. To this end, he began humbly to study classical music systematically after having made a fortune composing hit tunes like "Swanee River" and spectacularly entertaining musicals. He applied himself to these studies with enormous seriousness and industry, taking piano lessons with Ernest Hutcheson and music theory with Rubin Goldmark—who also taught Aaron Copland—and Joseph Schillinger. (Near the end of his life, one of Gershwin’s great friends in California was the composer Arnold Schoenberg, with whom Gershwin occasionally played tennis.) Through his studies, Gershwin turned himself into America’s first "crossover" composer, an artist equally at home on Broadway and Carnegie Hall.

Gershwin composed his Lullaby for string orchestra in 1920; it is one of the first of his serious scores. Cast in a beautifully articulated three-part song form, the Lullaby is touching in its tender introversion. Like Samuel Barber’s famous Adagio for strings, Gershwin’s piece was originally scored for string quartet. This gentle work contains subtle anticipations of one of Gershwin’s finest songs, "Summertime" from his great opera, Porgy and Bess.

 

Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Serenade in C major for strings, op. 48

Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (b. Votinsk, Viatka District, Russia, May 7, 1840; d. St. Petersburg, November 6, 1893.) Russian composer. Principal works: eleven operas, including Eugene Onegin and Queen of Spades; three ballets, Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker; six numbered symphonies as well as the programmatic Manfred Symphony, op. 58 and an unfinished symphony in E flat major; two piano concertos, a violin concerto and the Variations on a Rococo Theme for violoncello and orchestra; four suites for orchestra; other orchestral works including the concert overtures Romeo and Juliet, Francesca da Rimini and Hamlet; three string quartets and other chamber music; piano music; choral music; songs.

 

During the spring of 1880, Tchaikovsky was hard at work composing two quite disparate scores: the first, which he considered a tiresome pot-boiler written for cash, was the exuberantly vulgar 1812 Overture; the second, however, was the coruscating Serenade in C major for string orchestra. Composing the Overture was sheer drudgery, but creating the Serenade brought the temperamental composer great joy. In a letter to his publisher, Jurgenson, Tchaikovsky predicted, with an amusing lack of prescience, that the garish Overture would be soon forgotten after its first performance, while the elegant Serenade would prove enormously popular and would endure. Of this Serenade, Tchaikovsky wrote, "I am violently in love with his work and cannot wait until it is played." Tchaikovsky was forced to wait for over a year to hear his new creation, for the Serenade was premiered in October 1881 in St. Petersburg. The new work garnered enormous acclaim and was quickly welcomed as a permanent addition to the repertory for string orchestra.

 

Indeed, this Serenade represents the quintessence of its composer, who worshiped Mozart and strove for formal perfection within the context of his deeply emotional idiom. The four movements of this evergreen score evince a remarkable formal poise and variety of mood; Tchaikovsky’s instinctive grasp of the sonorities offered by a string orchestra is simply stunning. The first movement, entitled "Pezzo in forma di Sonatina" ("Piece in sonatina form"), commences with a stirring introduction that is quickly succeeded by a vivacious allegro. (Sonatina form is just like a regular sonata structure except for a truncated—or nonexistent—development section.) The next movement is a lilting waltz; its winsome charm recalls the gracious waltzes in the ballets Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker. The third movement is a deeply felt "Elegy." This affecting movement contains one of its composer's most haunting melodies, scored as an almost operatic duet between the first violins and the cellos. The joyous finale is predicated on two Russian folk tunes that Tchaikovsky found in a volume of traditional melodies collected, edited and harmonized by his eccentric contemporary Balakirev. (Ironically, Balakirev detested Tchaikovsky and his music.) In the coda of this movement, Tchaikovsky quotes the opening of the first movement, which is then miraculously transmogrified into the first of the two folk songs used in the finale. After this compositional slight of hand, the Serenade hurtles to a brisk and exuberant conclusion.

-- Byron Adams

 

Harold Meltzer:  Full Faith and Credit for two bassoons and strings

The seven sections of Full Faith and Credit were conceived originally as program music about weddings and marriages.  Music for the recessional closes the piece, but also opens it now; the sixth section begins as a wedding hymn.  The concerto was composed in the fall of 2004 at the American Academy in Rome, then revised early in 2006 in New York.  It is dedicated to Peter Kolkay, whose exceptional artistry brought the music to life.  The work has been programmed by eight orchestras, including St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and the Vancouver Symphony, and was commissioned by Concert Artists Guild, in conjunction with the Brooklyn Friends of Chamber Music, the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, and the Westchester Philharmonic.