History of the Music

By Jeff Counts

Fires

Duration: 11 minutes in two movements.

THE COMPOSER – RAMINTA ŠERKŠNYTĖ (b. 1975) – Lithuanian composer Raminta Šerkšnytė currently finds herself in the vanguard of Baltic art music and enjoys a reputation as the most important voice of her home country. Her biography speaks of a wide-ranging catalogue that refuses to be bound by style or school. Equally comfortable with the traditional and the experimental, the grand and the intimate, Šerkšnytė's music searches for the "coexistence of archetypes from both Western and Eastern cultures. She has developed her own unique tonal language ("a fusion of major and minor") and uses it to imbue her work with a sense of meditative mystery that defines the special region of Europe she hails from.

THE HISTORY – Fires was commissioned by the Bavarian Radio Symphony in 2010 for a multi-season project that premiered six works by contemporary composers, each reflecting on the life and music of Beethoven and designed to share programs with his symphony cycle. "In this piece," Šerkšnytė wrote in her program note, "I have drawn inspiration from several sources. First of all, I knew long beforehand that it will be premiered in the program before Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, and thus picked some of its motifs, which became basis for the harmonic development in my composition. I also kept thinking about the fateful circumstances, including progressing deafness, which surrounded Beethoven at the time he was writing his Fifth. This provoked me to compose music of heightened dramaticism and ever-growing inner tension." "On the other hand," she continued, "Fires is a sequel in the series of orchestral works, whose titles directly refer to the natural phenomena and elemental forces (also including Iceberg Symphony, Mountains in the Mist, and Glow); even though any other indirect association that those titles imply might prove equally important. In this particular work, I tried to reflect diverse 'faces' of fire: from distant perception of the approaching calamity to thunderous explosions of the accumulated energy—the whole variety of shades and shapes, in which fire appears during the processes of heating, burning, and melting. Consequently, the composition is wrought as a continuous process of harmonic, rhythmic, textural, and timbral variation of several initial motifs."

THE WORLD – Elsewhere in 2010, Apple released the first iPad, a massive earthquake devastated the nation of Haiti, the world's tallest building opened in Dubai, and the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform exploded in the Gulf of Mexico.

THE CONNECTION – These concerts represent the Utah Symphony premiere of Fires and the first performance of a work by Raminta Šerkšnytė.

Concerto No. 1 for Cello in E-flat Major, Op. 107

Duration: 28 minutes in four movements (the final three performed without pause).

THE COMPOSER – DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH (1906-1975) – Stalin's death in 1953 closed dark chapters in the stories of many Soviet artists. The system he built was still putatively in place, but without his iron fist to enforce it, people like Shostakovich could finally release a decades-long held breath. Shostakovich's life in the late 1950s was so surprisingly "normal", in fact, that his opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District (yes, that same harshly forbidden work Stalin called "muddle instead of music" back in 1936) was again in production at the Kirov Theater. Humbled and still well aware of how fragile his existence once was, Shostakovich used this moment of national calm to reward the loyalty of a close friend and colleague.

THE HISTORY – When Shostakovich was dismissed from the Moscow Conservatory in 1948 during one of the Party's many capricious cultural purges, his star pupil Mstislav Rostropovich abandoned his studies immediately in solidarity. From that early comradeship grew a deep and respectful friendship. The two performed Shostakovich's Op. 40 Cello Sonata quite often and for years Rostropovich nursed a secret hope that Shostakovich would write a concerto for him. The hope was secret because of some good advice the cellist received from the composer's first wife Nina. Shostakovich kept his own counsel with regards to future projects and could be quite moody about suggestions from others. No doubt he had earned the right to be wary after years under Stalin's deadly gaze and Nina told Rostropovich that if he ever wanted a concerto from her temperamental husband, he better make sure to never actually ask for it. Rostropovich took the hint but continued to drop his own over the years and, in 1959, Shostakovich surprised him (and everyone else) by announcing a concerto as his next project. By the time he was ready to talk about it, Shostakovich had completed the march-like first movement but stayed quiet about how the rest of the work would unfold. The completed score comprised four movements (the last three linked without pause) and Shostakovich sent the piano reduction to Rostropovich on August 2. Four days later, the cellist was in Leningrad with his accompanist to perform a private run-through (from memory!) and the official premiere was given in October to great effect. The concerto was unique in Shostakovich's catalogue, in that it featured a rather small ensemble (no brass, save for a heroically prominent single horn), but typical in its use of quotations. The clear influence of Prokofiev's Symphonie-Concertante is heard throughout, as is Shostakovich's ubiquitous DSCH (D, E-flat, C, B) calling card.

THE WORLD – Elsewhere in 1959, Castro ousted Batista as the leader of the Cuban government, the 14th Dalai Lama fled Tibet for exile in India, and William S. Burroughs published his infamous book The Naked Lunch.

THE CONNECTION – Shostakovich's First Cello Concerto was last performed in Abravanel Hall in 2017 under Thierry Fischer. Narek Hakhnazaryan was soloist.

Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67

Duration: 31 minutes in four movements.

THE COMPOSER – LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770-1827) – Times of financial plenty were rare for Beethoven. He was never destitute for long, but the regular rises and falls of his fortune made him a rather nervous citizen. Which is why, in 1807, Beethoven sent a proposal to the Imperial Theatre Directors of Vienna for a yearly opera commission and a separate benefit concert also to be held annually in one of the performance halls. This request, if granted, would have provided him with some much-needed stability and would have provided posterity with the boon of a full operatic catalogue from the great master. Imagine a scenario where Beethoven wrote as many operas as Mozart, or Verdi, or…

THE HISTORY – Sadly, it wasn't meant to be, and the single 1808 concert offered by the Directors was to be the sole fruit of Beethoven's ambitious suggestion. The unfulfilling circumstances of the event in general and the premiere of the Fifth Symphony specifically are now legendary. The concert was notable not only for its prodigious length (four hours!) and poor preparation (only one rehearsal!) but also its rather uncomfortable hospitality (the hall was unheated on that bitterly cold December night!). The massive program included the shaky premiere of Symphony No. 5, yes, but also the first performances of Symphony No. 6, the Choral Fantasy, the Fourth Piano Concerto, and assorted vocal pieces. If that weren't enough to manage, Beethoven served as soloist on the new concerto, his last public appearance in that setting. It's hard to imagine that those present could recall anything specific from such a sonic and intellectual onslaught, but the stubborn frankness of the Fifth Symphony must surely have lingered in their minds afterward. In any case, the circumstances were not conducive to success. History, however, makes its own magic with the ingredients provided by fate and that night is revered today for good reason.

The Fifth Symphony owes its fame to the four notes that mark the opening of the first movement, but its importance is grounded in the paradigm-shifting impact of the entire work. Compositional innovations abound in the score and brass players the world over laud the piece for making the first purely symphonic use of the trombone. The initial insistent motif of the symphony has been referred to as "Fate knocking at the door" and even if we are no longer certain that Beethoven himself used that phrase it is aptly put. The stark energy of that simple idea contains a microcosmic completeness that informs all four movements and serves as the first fearless steps on the journey from darkness to light—a frequent emotional ideal in Beethoven's music but one employed here more perfectly than ever before.

THE WORLD – Elsewhere in 1808, Scottish poet Walter Scott's Marmion was published including the memorable line "Oh, what a tangled web we weave/ When first we practice to deceive" and Thomas Jefferson's presidency came to an end.

THE CONNECTION – Utah Symphony, like all professional orchestras, programs Beethoven 5 frequently. The most recent performance was in 2017 under the direction of Music Director Thierry Fischer.