Concert II Program Notes

by Robert Hurwitz

Respighi's most famous works of the 1920s are the several symphonic poems that followed the international success of The Fountains of Rome. The Pines of Rome and Roman Festivals were consciously planned as sequels to The Fountains, which were all set for huge orchestral forces, but between the Pines and the Festivals he wrote some subtle tone poems for more modest forces on non-Roman subjects, among which was the Trittico botticelliano.

The Trittico, composed in the spring of 1927 while the composer was visiting Washington, D.C., was dedicated to the American patron of the arts, Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge. This evocative little masterpiece for chamber orchestra draws its inspiration from three famous paintings by the Italian Renaissance master Sandro Botticelli (c.1444–1510), all dealing with birth and rebirth, that hang in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. In Trittico, Respighi chose to depict the sensory characteristics of the paintings, in contrast to Mussorgsky's approach in Pictures at an Exhibition, which concentrated more on the dramatic elements in Hartmann's paintings.

The first movement, Spring, depicts seasonal rebirth with trills in the winds and strings. The pastoral world, with its hunting and dancing, permeates the movement. A middle section for winds seems to hark back to dances from an earlier time, but the full orchestra returns the music to our own era. The trills return to close the movement.

The Adoration of the Magi brings to mind medieval church music, and includes a quote from the hymn O Come, O Come Emmanuel. The middle section is characterized by an exoticism that depicts the arrival of the three kings from the Orient. The last portion of the movement quotes from the old Italian Carol When Christ Was Born On Earth.

The Birth of Venus depicts the goddess in her sea shell as the waters gently undulate, depicted by the strings. A melody emerges from the flute, and the music builds very gradually to a high point, led by an expressive melody in the strings. The peaceful opening then returns and the music gradually fades away as Venus is carried out to sea.

Mozart composed the concerto in E-flat at the age of twenty one, and it is the first of his mature works in the genre. The impetus for the work occurred in January, 1777, when a French pianist, a Mlle. Jeunehomme, passed through Salzburg and asked Mozart for a concerto. The presence of a virtuosa stimulated Mozart's imagination, and a work with an entirely new concept, the "Jeunehomme Concerto," was born. Here, for the first time in his concertos, we see Mozart composing truly symphonic orchestral parts and making use of the various color possibilities of the orchestra to their full extent. Also for the first time, the instrumental introduction assumes what will become typical proportions, and the orchestra and the soloist are treated as cooperating partners rather than adversaries.

The opening of the concerto is unique for Mozart and indeed for classical piano concertos as a whole. The orchestra begins the main theme, but is immediately interrupted by the piano, which plays a brief, concluding motive. The orchestra attempts a second beginning and is again interrupted. Only then is it allowed to proceed with a full introduction, while the piano patiently waits for its traditional entering spot — well, not quite so patiently; it enters on a trill just before the orchestra's closing cadence, another bold innovation of the young composer. The material which follows takes a form which Mozart was to use in all of his mature piano concerti. In contrast to earlier concertos, the piano does not entirely predominate, but occasionally accompanies the orchestra, while the violins and the oboe take up important melodies. The development section is dominated by the piano, with only two oboes as accompaniment.

The slow movement is the first in Mozart's concertos to be written in a minor key. A tone of sadness pervades this piece. The soloist seems to become a character in a tragic, operatic scene. The move to a major tonality, which takes place later in the movement, does little to dispel the pervading sense of melancholy, and an extended cadenza also enhances the wistful tone.

The last movement is a lighthearted and energetic rondo, with, true to the form of the rest of the concerto, an unusual twist. In the middle of the movement the tempo abruptly changes from presto to "menuetto, cantabile" and a theme and four variations are heard. A cadenza, placed at the end of the final variation, leads ultimately to a return of the Presto, and the movement concludes with much vigor and optimism.

John Musto's song cycle Quiet Songs is scored almost identically to Trittico Botticelliano. This Emmy award-winning American composer's setting of poems by e.e. cummings, Eugene O'Neill, Amy Burton, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Arthur Symons and Leonie Adams is a masterpiece of soaring soprano vocals against an orchestral backdrop ranging from gentle intimacy to rich sonority.