Subscription Concerts 2022-2023Program B
No. 1988 Subscription (Program B)

Respighi was a modern Italian composer whose Roman Trilogy (Fountains of Rome, Pines of Rome and Roman Festivals, 1915–1928) has fascinated orchestra fans. The elaborate scoring skills of the Bologna-born tone poet was honed in 1900 under Rimsky-Korsakov (1844–1908), a greatest orchestrator, while the younger man was working as a viola player in Saint Petersburg.
It was after the premieres of the Roman Trilogy that Respighi penned Three Chorales, orchestral arrangements of J. S. Bach’s three masterpieces for organ (for two manuals and pedal) each of which is a setting of a Protestant chorale tune. No. 1 is transcribed from Nun komm’der Heiden Heiland (Come, Savior of the Heathen) BWV659 of which Respighi transposed the mystique to a solemn string sound world. No. 2 is a brief adaptation, marked “scherzando (playfully),” of Meine Seel’ erhebet den Herren! (My Soul Magnifies the Lord) BWV648 where Respighi entrusts the chorale melody (derived from a Gregorian chant) to a trumpet. No. 3 is after Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme (Awake, the Voice is Calling Us) BWV645 which is based on the hopeful tenor aria from Bach’s own cantata BWV140. Respighi’s version is started by strings alone before the chorale tune enters with woodwinds. The texture becomes more colorful and thicker slowly to conclude with the brilliant brass support.
[Kumiko Nishi]

Respighi left us a vast catalogue containing original compositions inspired by early music as well as transcriptions of past works. He frequently used medieval church modes – famously in Pines of Rome –, partly because the singer Elsa Olivieri-Sangiacomo whom he married in 1919 was learned in Gregorian chant (a form of unaccompanied liturgical chant of the Catholic Church).
Concerto gregoriano (1921) lets the solo violinist turn his/her back on any hollow bravura so he/she leads the orchestra just like a cantor in church. The entire work is characterized by its use of church modes. The first movement, for example, opens with string chords in Aeolian mode (A/B/C/D/E/F/G-natural/A) before oboes give the principal theme in Dorian mode (A/B/C/D/E/F-sharp/G/A). After a cadenza by the soloist alone, the next movement begins seamlessly with the solo violin quoting Victimae paschali laudes (Praise the Paschal victim), a sequence (chanted hymn) for Easter Sunday. The jubilant finale is entitled “Alleluja”: the recurrent theme intoned by horns at the start then taken over by the solo violin resembles indeed the melody of the Gregorian chant Alleluia sung before Beatus vir, qui timet (Blessed is the man that fears the Lord) (Psalm 112:1).
[Kumiko Nishi]

In 1897, the Russian composer Rakhmaninov in his early twenties faced a disaster of the premiere of his new symphony in Saint Petersburg. He then suffered from deep depression and writer’s block for three years before restoring his confidence to complete the celebrated Piano Concerto No. 2. The symphony in question is none other than No. 1 Op. 13.
One theory says that the deciding factor in its fiasco is Alexander Glazunov who led the first performance. Though an able composer, he seemed not to have much ability for conducting nor respect for this symphony. Lambasted, it was since never heard during Rakhmaninov’s lifetime.
When he escaped from his motherland in the aftermath of the 1917 Revolution, the manuscript score of No. 1 was left there to be lost. After he died abroad, the parts used at the premiere were discovered in Leningrad. With the score reconstructed from them, the 1945 second performance in Moscow was received enthusiastically.
No. 1 is a “cyclic” work, as all the four movements are built of at least two common motivic/melodic elements. The first element is heralded by woodwinds at the symphony’s outset, as a swift triplet followed by a D note stressing D minor, the main key. The similar motives would open the three other movements without exception. The second element is typical of Rakhmaninov, for its first four notes are stemmed from the Dies irae (Day of Wrath) melody of the Catholic Mass for the Dead (this sinister melody is famously present in the composer’s many works). Strings disclose this cyclic element during the introduction of the opening movement, immediately before a clarinet imitates it as the first sonata theme. The next fairy movement, a scherzo, and the third slow movement packed with mellifluous tunes are succeeded by the D-major finale of which the overall mood comes to the fore with an elated flourish of trumpets. The slower valiant ending is spurred on by tam-tam (gong) used only during this movement and timpani.
[Kumiko Nishi]