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Wednesday, 07 December 2005 01:15 |
| Berenika performed in Asheville on Nov. 20
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By STEPHANIE THOMAS
Russian symphonies embody irony and the landscape of Russia, and their composers are known for their ability to orchestrate, Daniel Meyer, conductor of the Asheville Symphony, said Nov. 18 during a preview of the program ?®Russian Soul??∆ The orchestra performed Russian works in a concert on Nov. 20, which featured pianist Berenika.
?®(Russia) is a huge, huge amalgamation of different kinds of climates and different kinds of landscapes,?∆ Meyer told the audience of about 150 people gathered at the Reuter Center at UNC Asheville.
?®Whether it??s Siberia, or whether it??s the more European nature of St. Petersburg and Moscow, or whether it??s the area around the Black Sea, or in the mountains where you have a more Asiatic culture ?±?± it??s just a fascinating and amazing mixture of peoples and of tribes and of backgrounds. So, you could pretty much say anything you want about Russian music, and one would be that it does embody a lot of these different styles.?∆
The presentation, which was sponsored by the Center for Creative Retirement at UNCA, began with John Bridges, the symphony??s educator, giving the audience biographical information about each of the three Russian composers to be featured: Sergei Rachmaninoff, Rodion Shchedrin and Sergei Prokofiev.
?®(Shchedrin) has been able to amalgamate classical styles and
folk-music styles,?∆ Bridges noted. ?®He goes from one type of music to
another, so there is nothing high-bound about him.?∆
He added that Shchedrin has ?®done a great deal of musical experimentation?∆ and ?®writes what he calls ?¥jokes?? in music.?∆
While giving the audience a brief description of the life and work of
Rachmaninoff, Bridges said that the composer??s last days were spent in
a place most symphony-goers do not realize.
?®He died in Knoxville, Tennessee, because he was on a concert tour and he got sick,?∆ he explained.
?®You??ve known about him since you were in the second grade, haven??t
you??∆ Bridges asked the audience, who responded with a laugh.
?®He was a child prodigy, not in playing the piano, but as a composer. He had one success after another,?∆ he added.
While Rachmaninoff often appears ?®very dour and menacing?∆ in
photographs, Bridges noted that ?®I??m told he was not menacing at all,
that he had a wonderful sense of humor.?∆
?®Something terrible happened to him very early in his career,?∆ he
continued. ?®He was all fired-up about his first symphony ?±?± how
wonderful it was going to be, everybody was just going to be blown away
by it. They were blown away, but in the opposite direction.
?®It could not have been a worse disaster. The public didn??t like it;
his colleagues didn??t like it; the musical establishment didn??t like
it,?∆ Bridges said. ?®Nobody liked it ?±?± they practically said, ?¥Go away,
let??s not hear anymore of this.??
?®Which he almost did, he almost gave up. But he was introduced to a
pioneer psychiatrist named Dr. (Nikolai) Dahl,?∆ he noted. ?®He worked
with Rachmaninoff, just talking to him and doing interviews with him
for a couple of years.?∆
These discussions with Dahl resulted in Rachmaninoff not abandoning his love of music and composition.
?®He convinced Rachmaninoff that he hadn??t given the world a chance, and
that he had to write more music,?∆ he explained. ?®So, Rachmaninoff
started writing music again, and it was successful this time.?∆
Bridges added that during this time, Rachmaninoff composed his most
famous piece, the work that ?®shattered him for the rest of his life.?∆
?®You probably played it when you studied piano,?∆ he told the audience. ?®The Prelude in C sharp minor.?∆
?®He hated it,?∆ Bridges added, with laughter from the audience. ?®Of
course, he couldn??t play a recital without playing it. Everybody wanted
that, and he called it ?¥It.?? He said, ?¥Do I have to play It tonight????∆
In addition, Bridges discussed the life and work Prokofiev, who
received assistance from an American icon while working on his original
compositions.
?®His father was an agricultural engineer, and when Prokofiev was a
little boy, a very famous man in (his father??s) field came to visit.
His name was McCormick, the innovator of the farm machinery,?∆ he
explained.
During this visit, Bridges noted that McCormick told Prokofiev to ?®look
me up?∆ if he was ever in the United States, stating that ?®I might be
able to help you a little bit.?∆
?®The peculiar thing is, many years later, (Prokofiev) had written an
opera in this country and was getting nowhere with it,?∆ he continued.
?®So, he decided, ?¥Well, I??ll go see McCormick,?? and he was living in
Chicago at the time, and so he did. And McCormick did help him in
publicity and getting him jobs.?∆
During the later years of Prokofiev??s life, he became more involved with the political status of his home country of Russia.
?®In August of 1918, he was still touring when the Bolsheviks took
over,?∆ Bridges stated. ?®Now, he was lukewarm about bolshevism and about
communism, and he thought, ?¥Something has to be done in Russia.???∆
Bridges added that after living in Paris for more than a decade,
Prokofiev returned to Russia in 1933, saying, ?®I am coming home ?±?± I
can??t live without my Russian land.?∆
?®He experienced the same things so many of the Russian composers did,?∆
Bridges told the audience. ?®That is, they beat him down, and they
didn??t let him do this, and it was a miserable existence. People would
say, ?¥Why
in the world would he do that? He knew what had happened to other Russian composers.???∆
During this period, he noted, numerous composers and the content of
their work had strict guidelines placed upon them by the government,
but Prokofiev was still able to win the Stalin Prize in the late 1940s
while generally being ?®in-and-out with the Soviets.?∆
?®Right at the end of his life, (he wrote) his sensational opera on ?¥War
and Peace,???∆ he added. ?®Then, the one that you know because you heard
it when you were in sixth grade music appreciation, and that??s the
Classical Symphony, in which he decided he would write a symphony,
which would be in the style of Mozart.?∆
Bridges added that Prokofiev also composed ballet works, the most
well-known being ?®Romeo and Juliet,?∆ and ?®everybody??s favorite piece:
?¥Peter and the Wolf.???∆
Following Bridges?? discussion concerning these three Russian composers,
Meyer played samples of each for the audience, noting some of their
more distinct qualities and how the composition of society affected
their work.
?®One of the great elements of Russian art, and particularly Russian
music, is the use of irony,?∆ Meyer stated, adding that Prokofiev was
merely one of the more famous composers of this era who ?®suffered quite
a bit under the suppressive Soviet regime.?∆
?®There was a panel of composers who essentially were the ?¥thought
police?? or the ?¥art police,?∆ he continued. ?®They were the ones that
decide whether or not music was decadent, or whether or not it was
really glorifying Mother Russia, whether it was something that would
uplift the people??s spirits.?∆
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