Program No. 9

Masterworks Series

Thursday, May 20 - Saturday, May 22, 2010

8:00 PM - Belding Theater, The Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts

Concert Proview, 7:00 PM - Belding Theater

Sunday, May 23, 2010

3:00 PM - Belding Theater

Concert Preview, 2:00 PM - Belding Theater

Edward Cumming, conductor

Karina Canellakis, violin

Martinu - Ives - Saint-Saens - Stravinsky

Reviewed by Donna Bailey-Thompson

If the evening’s concert had been a cocktail party, the invitation might have mentioned that heavy hors d’oeuvres would be served because, in effect, the four musical selections offered a variety of emotional nourishment that included two premieres as well as a soloist who first seduced the audience with her beauty and then with her expressive performance.

During Conductor Edward Cumming’s pre-concert talk, he said that he likes “mixing up” the selections “to see if you’re paying attention.” After giving little insights into three of the selections, he alluded to the fourth as “the most significant thing I’ve done during the last twenty-five years,” and quickly added, “I’m so nervous, I can hardly talk.” He was referring to his arrangement of four of the twelve sonatas for violin written by Charles Ives, “the first great American composer. ... iconoclastic, idiosyncratic . . .if you don’t like Ives [this collection of sonatas] might change your mind.” Following the concert, one woman was overheard stating, “He said we might change our opinion of Ives. Well, mine hasn’t changed. I still don’t like him.” (For Cumming’s program notes, please see below.)

The evening opened with Bohuslav Martinu’s La Revue de Cuisine (“The Kitchen Revue” that Cumming said he refers to as “the kitchen sink” because of its many components). This HSO Premiere performance showcased the talent of HSO musicians: Curt Blood (clarinet); Yeh Chi Wang (bassoon); Scott McIntosh (trumpet); Margreet Francis (piano); Leonid Sigal (violin); Jeffrey Kreiger (violoncello). An assertive piano got everyone’s attention for the Prologue which included, it seemed, to be whatever struck the composer's fancy. The Tango movement included a melancholy violoncello; possible allusions to Bolero via a muted trumpet; violin and clarinet pizzicato-like duet; a bassoon and clarinet melody. The kitchen sink quality of the third movement, Charleston, telegraphed its swinging content that lacked only Charlie Chaplin’s cocky walk. The final movement featured bursts of ragtime, and marches, the piano as anchor. The many delineated sounds pleased, and it was good to see the musicians really enjoying themselves.

And then came the Ives’ Sonata Set for Violin and Orchestra, arranged by Edward Cumming, and the classic blonde beauty of violin soloist Karina Canellakis wearing a periwinkle blue strapless column. Her expressive playing beguiled. As stipulated by Ives and honored by Cumming, during a long passage, the orchestra’s forte blanketed the violin, creating a fascinating question: was the topsy-turvy emphasis designed to illustrate the tenacity of whatever the violin was supposed to represent? Occasiionally, fleeting moments of pure violin broke through, like sunlight does when walking through a forest. Chimes and sudden thunder-like percussion followed at once by serenity – and that was only the first movement. Cellos dominated the opening of the second; a hoe down worthy of Agnes de Mille opened the third, paving the way for sweeping passages, a patriotic theme reinforced by a snare drum, and a bit of Turkey in the Straw. A mighty cadenza that suggested musing, introspection, carried into the fourth movement and onward to a lively, intricate conclusion.

Based upon the enthusiasm and warmth of the standing ovation, more people than not really liked the Ives’.

Following intermission, guest soloist Canellakis induced a complimentary murmur when she walked onto the stage wearing a stunning white satin gown with a halter neckline that topped horizontal shingle-like panels of graduated widths. Her interpretation of Camille Saint-Saens’ Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso for Violin and Orchestra was, at varying moments, delicate, lilting, fluid, firmly assertive, and always expressive, her fingers almost a blur, and yet she made the music she created look easy. The audience loved her.

Cumming conducted Igor Stravinsky’s Suite from The Firebird (Suite from 1919) without a score. From the orchestration, the four movements were self-explanatory: The Dance of the Firebird; Round Dance of the Princesses; Infernal Dance of the King Kashchei; and the final, Berceuse. Cellos portended the conflict to come. The strings dexterity (slicing, change of direction) made it easy to visualize the Firebird; to sense the exotic but substantive Far East flavor. Sudden percussion (bass drum and xylophone) projected agitation whereas the harp added shimmer. A prolonged crescendo built to the triumph over the evil monarch – and more shimmering – to a brass fanfare in a major key signaling all’s well. A booming drum, driving strings, created a Hollywood ending, followed by declension to a simple, pure note.

. . . And to the 2009-2010 season finale of Masterworks Series.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The World Premiere
of the
Cumming arrangenent of the Charles Ives’
Sonata Set for Violin and Orchestra

Program Notes by Edward Cumming

Charles Ives’ Four Sonatas for Violin and Piano are known to fans of his music and a few violinists, but certainly not far beyond this circle. As I began my study of Ives’s Four Violin Sonatas in 2007, it became evident to me that each sonata lent itself well to symphonic amplification. On that hunch, I orchestrated the final movement (‘At the River’) of the Fourth Sonata; it was performed on a summer concert that year. I did the same with the second movement (‘In the Barn’) from the Second Sonata which was performed on the Hartford Symphony’s “Celebrate America” concert in July 2009, again with the concertmaster of the orchestra, Leonid Sigal, as soloist.

Based on the success of these two performances, I was emboldened to take it a few steps further, and embarked on a multi-movement work by Ives for violin and orchestra to close the HSO’s 2009-10 Masterworks season. The work will receive its premiere on May 20/23, 2010, with violinist Karina Canellakis, a New York native and former member of the Berlin Philharmonic.

Why, Sonata Set?

The title alludes as much to what the piece is to what it is not. It is not a suite, nor is it a concerto in the traditional sense. As Ives himself used the term ‘set' to conflate other works, and since I wanted to keep the original sonata reference in the title, I settled upon ‘sonata set.’

Though the work will be drawn from all four violin sonatas, it still carries an organic, symphonic quality in large part due to Ives’s penchant for self-quotatiion. Two slow movements from the First and Third Sonatas begin much the same way – a falling third – and are both on the same key.

These two elegiac movements will frame two shorter, lighter movements, thus:

I. Large Cantabile
(2nd movement from Sonata no. 1)

II. Allegro: March
(1st movement from Sonata no.4)

III. Presto: “In the Barn”
(2nd movement from Sonata no. 2)

IV. Adagio (Cantabile)
(3rd movement from Sonata no. 3)