Subscription Concerts 2022-2023Program A
No. 1986 Subscription (Program A)

Following the 1917 Revolution, Prokofiev left his homeland in May 1918 by permission of the Soviet authorities to compose and perform overseas. Avoiding western disasters of war, he headed east for America via Vladivostok and Tokyo. During this voyage, he prepared the libretto for his opera based on The Love for Three Oranges by the Venetian playwright Carlo Gozzi (1720–1806). The opera would be first-staged in Chicago in 1921. The symphonic suite consists of six excerpts arranged by the composer.
The plot is wacky: everyone tries in vain to make the hypochondriac Prince laugh, but he does accidentally during a party seeing the Witch falling over. Furious, she puts a curse on him so he falls in love with three oranges that he goes in search of. The first two Princesses coming out of the enormous oranges die of thirst. The Prince marries the third Princess and expels the villains from the Kingdom. The best-known of the suite, the blatant March is from the scene where the sick Prince is forcibly carried from his bedroom to the party. At Scherzo, a rhythm of the Italian folk dance tarantella accompanies the hero' s feverish hunt for the oranges in the desert.
[Kumiko Nishi]

Marked by a fierce modernism, the Piano Concerto No. 2 belongs to Prokofiev’s early period prior to the Bolshevik Revolution. The Ukraine-born Russian artist was still a twenty-one-yearold student when he began working on the piece in 1912. His forward-looking Piano Concerto No. 1 (1912) had created a stir establishing his status as an enfant terrible in the country’s music scene, but the more daring, radical, virtuosic concerto No. 2 aroused sharply divided reactions when it was premiered by the composer as soloist in 1913. Regrettably, this version’s score was lost amidst the chaos of the Revolution. Prokofiev reconstructed it from 1923 so the new version – the only one we know today – would be first heard in Paris in 1924.
No. 2 is unusual in its four movements all of which have their overall dark tone set by their main key (G or D minor). Requiring a technical prowess and physical toughness, the solo part is known as a most difficult one to play in piano literature. In fact, the opening sonata-like movement has a famously extended, demanding cadenza (pianist’s solo without orchestra) with dissonant sounds, and the second Scherzo movement dominated by perpetual motion has both the soloist’s hands play ceaseless sixteenth notes in unison. Headed “tempestoso,” the final movement in rondo-like form has indeed the stormy main section contrasted with the calmer central section unfolding a folkish theme.
[Kumiko Nishi]

Born in Turin, Casella speaks for Italian modern music along with Respighi. The former entered the Paris Conservatory in 1896 to be trained by Fauré. He since deepened his friendship with musicians active in the French capital including Ravel, before going back to Italy in 1915.
The general transition of Casella’s styles mirrors the vital times of music history, as his early works reflect influence of the late-Romanticism (Mahler and R. Strauss) and the Impressionism (Debussy), his middle period being more or less experimental adopting even Schönberg’s atonalism, while his later compositions after leaving France show neo-Classical approaches: in all cases, Casella's orchestral output – his strong field – is known for its expert, colorful scoring and solid sound.
Unlike Verdi or Puccini, Casella left us only three operas all of which date from his mature period in Italy. The first one, La donna serpente (The Serpent Lady) was composed in 1928–1931 to be premiered in 1932 in Rome. It is based upon an eighteenth-century fairytale play by, again, Carlo Gozzi whose works had inspired Puccini’s Turandot and Prokofiev’s above-mentioned piece. The intricate plot of Casella’s opera, often compared to Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte (Magic Flute), features the fairy princess Miranda who falls in love with and marries the mortal king Altidòr. Miranda’s father promises to make her mortal on condition that she tests her husband under cover: if he curses her, she shall be a snake. As Altidòr faces too severe trials to stand, she actually becomes a snake to be imprisoned, but he fights against monsters to rescue her. Miranda, mortal now, and Altidòr are reunited.
The Symphonic Fragments prepared by Casella comprises six movements divided into
two series. The opening movement Musica del sogno di re Altidòr (Music of King Altidòr’s Dream) takes a form of lullaby foretelling the couple’s misadventure. Its somnolent mood uncovered by the oboe solo recalls Debussy, while the wild Marcia guerria (Bellicose March) evokes Prokofiev’s March from The Love for Three Oranges. Marked by snaky, ominous melodies, the mysterious and dark Preludio (Prelude) suggests Miranda’s metamorphosis into a serpent.
[Kumiko Nishi]