Four Centuries of Great Music August 11, 2024 Music Heard at Tanglewood in July, 2024

FCGM-08-11-24 - Tanglewood July, 2024

I spent three weeks up in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts this July attending several music festivals.  Among them were two festivals at the Tanglewood Music
Center in Lenox/Stockbridge.  Concertos were at the center of this year’s experience at Tanglewood for me.  There were an interesting selection of concertos at both the Boston Symphony Orchestra concerts and the Contemporary Music Festival concerts which I attended.

On the afternoon of July 14th the Boston Symphony Orchestra Andris Nelsons, conductor and Augustin Hadelich, violin performed Sergei  Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto #2 in G minor, Op. 63, written in 1935 by Sergei Prokofiev, is a work in three movements:
Sergei Prokofiev: Violin Concerto #2 in G minor, Op. 63 - I. Allegro moderato
Sergei Prokofiev: Violin Concerto #2 in G minor, Op. 63 - II. Andante assai
Sergei Prokofiev: Violin Concerto #2 in G minor, Op. 63 - III. Allegro, ben marcato

The concerto is more conventional than the composer's early more bold compositions. It starts off with a simple violin melody related to traditional Russian folk music. The graceful violin melody flows throughout the entire second movement, and ends with the initial violin theme reappearing in the orchestra's somber lower register, now accompanied by the solo violin. The third movement rondo's theme has a taste of Spain, with the clacking of castanets each time the theme appears.

Here is a performance of Sergei Prokofiev: Violin Concerto #2 in G minor, Op. 63 by Joshua Bell, violin and the Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal conducted by Charles Dutoit from the album Joshua Bell: Violin works by Prokofiev & Shostakovich Decca Classics

During the last performance of the Contemporary Music Festival on the evening of July 29th, the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra conducted by Stefan Asbury performed Steven Mackey’s piano concerto Stumble to Grace with guest soloist Orli Shaham (for whom the piece was originally written).  It is in 5 movements called stages 1 to 5 played without pause.  Mackey writes “There is a narrative running through the piece that reflects the title: the piano is all thumbs (literally and metaphorically) as it stumbles in its first entrance, playing naïve and awkward plinks and plunks. By Stage 5 the piano plays sophisticated, virtuosic and, at times, graceful contrapuntal music—a fugue, in fact. The intervening music reflects various stages of progress and regress in the physical and spiritual evolution of the piano.”  The work is a metaphor on how a child develops skills - in stages.  There are very complicated meters that require an intricate coordination between soloist and orchestra.

Here is a performance of
Steven Mackey: Stumble to Grace 26:37
Steven Mackey: Stumble to Grace - Stage 1 5:58
Steven Mackey: Stumble to Grace - Stage 2 5:02
Steven Mackey: Stumble to Grace - Stage 3 4:36
Steven Mackey: Stumble to Grace - Stage 4 4:10
Steven Mackey: Stumble to Grace - Stage 5 6:51
Orli Shaham, piano
David Robertson, conductor
Los Angeles Philharmonic
American Grace
Canary Classics

Let’s open this second hour of Four Centuries of Great Music with Aram Khachaturian: Piano Concerto in D-flat major, Op. 38.  This was part of a series of concerts honoring the 150th anniversary of the birth of Serge Koussevitzky, the long time conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and for whom the Koussevitzky Shed performance venue at Tanglewood is named. The work was premiered by the Boston Symphony Orchestra in October 1943 with the 21 year old pianist William Kapell and together they  recorded it in 1946- the recording you will hear today.  Kapell’s interpretation was so poplar that he was regularly requested to play it.  But his career was cut short when he died in a plane crash in 1953 at the age of 31.  

At Tanglewood on July 27th it was performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Andris Nelsons with soloist Jean-Yves Thibaudet

The work is in 3 movements

Aram Khachaturian: Piano Concerto in D-flat major, Op. 38 - I.  Allegro ma non troppo e maestoso
Aram Khachaturian: Piano Concerto in D-flat major, Op. 38 - II. Andante con anima
Aram Khachaturian: Piano Concerto in D-flat major, Op. 38 - III. Allegro brillante

Here is the 1946 recording of Aram Khachaturian: Piano Concerto in D-flat major, Op. 38
William Kapell, piano Serge Koussevitzky and the Boston Symphony  Orchestra
Piano Music
BMG Entertainment

We will be closing todays celebration of concertos I heard this year at Tanglewood Music Center with Aaron Copland: Piano Concerto.  This was played in another concert honoring the 150th anniversary of the birth of Serge Koussevitzky. This work written in 1926 while Copland was in Paris and premiered the following January by Serge Koussevitzky and the Boston Symphony Orchestra.   It is in two movements played attacca

Aaron Copland: Piano Concerto - 1. Andante sostenuto
Aaron Copland: Piano Concerto - 2. Molto moderato - Allegro assai

At Tanglewood on July 28th it was performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Andris Nelsons with soloist Paul Lewis

Leonard Bernstein conducting the New York Philharmonic with Aaron Copland, piano
Copland: Piano Concerto-Schuman: Concerto on Old English Rounds & To Thee Old Cause        Sony

Thank you for joining me on this episode of Four Centuries of Great Music, and join me again this coming Saturday from 3-5pm for an encore of this episode and next Sunday from 3-5 pm for a new episode