CARNEGIE HALL PRESENTS
Dmitri Hvorostovsky
Ivari Ilja

Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage
Thursday, April 3rd, 2008 at 8:00 PM

Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Baritone
Ivari Ilja, Piano

TCHAIKOVSKY "Why?," Op. 6, No. 5
TCHAIKOVSKY "The Love of a Dead Man," Op. 38, No. 5
TCHAIKOVSKY "Ah, If Only You Could For One Moment," Op. 38, No. 4
TCHAIKOVSKY "On the Golden Cornfields," Op. 57, No. 2
TCHAIKOVSKY "Pimpinella," Op. 38, No. 6
TCHAIKOVSKY "Tell Me, What's in the Shade of the Branches," Op. 57, No. 1
TCHAIKOVSKY "To Forget so Soon"
TCHAIKOVSKY "In the Midst of the Ball," Op. 38, No. 3
TCHAIKOVSKY "O Child, Beneath thy Window," Op. 63, No. 6
TCHAIKOVSKY "Don Juan's Serenade"
MEDTNER "Gone Are My Heart's Desires," Op. 3, No. 2
MEDTNER "To a Dreamer," Op. 32, No. 6
MEDTNER "Prosperous Voyage," Op. 15, No. 8
MEDTNER "The Wanderer's Night Song," Op. 6, No. 1
MEDTNER "Winter Evening," Op. 13, No. 1
RACHMANINOFF "'Tis Time," Op. 14, No. 12
RACHMANINOFF "Believe me not, Friend," Op. 14, No. 7
RACHMANINOFF "I Was With Her," Op. 14, No. 4
RACHMANINOFF "Let Us Rest," Op. 26, No. 3
RACHMANINOFF "Spring Waters," Op. 14, No. 11

Encores:
TAGLIAFERRI / VALENTE "Passione"
TRAD. Russian Folk Song
CESARE ANDREA BIXIO "Parlami d'Amore Mariù"

Sponsored by Bank of America, Carnegie Hall’s Proud Season Sponsor

Program Notes:

By Maya Pritsker

PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY “Why?,” Op. 6, No. 5; “The Love of a Dead Man,” Op. 38, No. 5; “Ah, If Only You Could For One Moment,” Op. 38, No. 4; “On the Golden Cornfields,” Op. 57, No. 2; “Pimpinella,” Op. 38, No. 6; “Tell Me, What’s in the Shade of the Branches,” Op. 57, No. 1; “To Forget so Soon”; “In the Midst of the Ball,” Op. 38, No. 3; “O Child, Beneath thy Window,” Op. 63, No. 6; “Don Juan’s Serenade,” Op. 38, No. 1
Born May 7, 1840, in Kamsko-Votkinsk, Russia; died November 6, 1893, in St. Petersburg.

Tchaikovsky’s romances enormously enriched the genre, which was cultivated earlier by Michail Glinka and Alexander Dargomyzhsky, the first important Russian composers, as well as by dozens of composers-dilettantes, authors of so-called bytoviye (“domestic”) romances. Tchaikovsky’s melodic style, the most memorable feature of his genius, apparent in all his works—from operas and ballets to symphonies, instrumental concertos, and chamber pieces, is linked directly to the tradition of Russian romance.

Dismissed by some contemporaries as not being Russian enough, and by Soviet critics in the 1920s as too “teary” and sentimental, Tchaikovsky’s romances, however, enjoyed long lasting popularity in Russia ever since the first group of them was published in 1869.

In their subjects as well as in their music they were openly emotional, often filled with melancholy, sometimes tragic and intense. They addressed emotional needs of the Russian society of the late 19th century, which was still oppressed despite the dramatic political and sociological changes. Music making, especially in Russian provinces, was the best and sometimes only way of self-expression and communication.

Tchaikovsky’s romances, which blended the unpretentious and elegiac tone of Russian domestic romance with motives of Ukrainian and gypsy songs and with some influences of Robert Schumann, struck a deep, personal cord, almost confessional on the one hand, but universal in its appeal on the other. Though vastly diverse, from children’s songs to hymn-like poems to humorous scenes to tragic monologues, Tchaikovsky’s romances explored themes, close to everyone’s heart: longing, loneliness, love’s anguish, vanished happiness.

Poetry and poets surrounded Tchaikovsky from his youth, spent at the St. Petersburg’s School of Jurisprudence. Many of his songs were written after texts of his friends and acquaintances, such as Apukhtin, Khomiakov, Fet, or Great Prince Konstantin Romanov. No matter how great or weak the poetry was, the composer treated it as a source of strong musical expression. Being very sensitive to the rhythm and inner melody of the verses, he was not so concerned with following each and every detail of the text. By creating a psychologically true and remarkably memorable musical image in the first bars, then by developing it (in accordance with the poetic story)—sometimes in one melodic and emotional wave—he transformed the song into a compact and expressive musical poem and achieved a powerful emotional impact, sometimes bordering on melodramatic. Like in his operas, the instrumental part continues the vocal one, adds to it, and often discloses the unspoken feelings.

“Why?” is the fifth of six romances, Op. 6, written in 1869, during his Moscow period, when the young, handsome professor of the newly opened Moscow Conservatory and the author of the First Symphony (Winter Dreams) had just completed another soon-to-be popular symphonic work, the overture-fantasy Romeo and Juliette. “Why?” and “To Forget So Soon,” written around 1870, bear similar characteristics. Each grows out of short motif-cell, based on the “melody” of the first word (Otchego) or phrase (Zabyt Tak Skoro). An almost obsessive repetition eventually gives way (in the third stanza) to a new mood: “Why?” has a dramatic recitative-like outburst and then brief conclusion filled with quiet despair; in “To Forget So Soon” a tender lyrical reminiscence is followed by a passionate reproach and a feeling of emptiness and sadness, which continues long after all words are spoken...

The tempestuous passionate plea of “Ah, If Only You Could for One Moment”; the cheerful “Pimpenella,” based on an Italian folk song heard in Florence; the dreamy and tender “In the Midst of the Ball”; and the bravura “Don Juan’s Serenade” of this program belong to Op. 38 (1878), which marked another period of Tchaikovsky’s life. Fleeing Russia after his brief and disastrous marriage, a failed attempt to “normalize” his life, Tchaikovsky recovered his emotional and creative strength in Switzerland and Italy. For the first time in his life he was also financially secure and free of the burden of a regular job’s duties, because of the support he received from a wealthy widow and philanthropist Nadezda von Mekk. One can sense a feeling of a freedom, easiness, relative lightness, and even joy in the romances of Op. 38. There is one exception, however, and that is the tragic and almost autobiographic, “The Love of a Dead Man,” tellingly dedicated to Tchaikovsky’s younger brother Anatoly. This confessional letter is full of dark passion, underlined by the funeral-like rhythm and declamatory melody.

“On the Golden Cornfields” and “Tell Me, What’s in the Shade of the Branches”are complex intense monologues of the same type, written by a mature master. Piano chords reminiscent of funeral bells begin the first romance, which is one of the most tragic vocal poems ever written by Russian composer. Bitter regrets of this confession give way in a second romance to a hymn-like celebration of life and love. In both, the line between recitative and arioso-like cantilena is blurred. The goal is expression and intensity.

“O Child, Beneath Thy Window,” like the earlier “Don Juan’s Serenade” of Op. 38, is a brilliant example of a different, “extrovert” Tchaikovsky. A genre of serenade in both brings out his graceful playfulness, love for theater and melodic inventiveness.


NICOLAS MEDTNER “Gone Are My Heart’s Desires,” Op. 3, No. 2; “To a Dreamer,” Op. 32, No. 6; “Prosperous Voyage,” Op. 15, No. 8; “The Wanderer’s Night Song,” Op. 6, No. 1; “Winter Evening,” Op. 13, No. 1
Born January 5, 1880, in Moscow; died November 13, 1951, in London.

Medtner was, like his older friend and fierce supporter, Sergei Rachmaninoff, a product of the Moscow Conservatory and a great pianist. He too was ready to abandon his successful performing career for composition and left Soviet Russia for the West four years after his friend, in 1921. Unlike Rachmaninoff, though, Medtner concentrated his compositional efforts on music for piano and on vocal miniatures. Refined and sophisticated, at times seemingly emotionally restrained and always texturally complex, his music lacked Rachmaninoff’s popular appeal and at the same time—the innovative courage of such contemporaries as Scriabin, Stravinsky, and Debussy. A devotee of Classical and Romantic music, of clear logical structure and of high simplicity, Medtner might be described as “retrospectivist.” The following words from his book Muse and Fashion can be read as his credo: “Simplicity plus simplicity equal emptiness. Complexity plus complexity equal chaos.”

Possessed with a very discriminative taste in poetry and a passion for philosophy, Medtner wrote only on the verses of the most profound and important poets. Almost half of his more than 100 romances were inspired by poems of Goethe and Pushkin, to which he turned throughout his whole life.

For Medtner who was born in a cultured, highly educated family of German descent, German was, like Russian, a native language, and in his songs he was perfectly attuned to each of these languages. His Goethe Lieder are a cross between Brahms and Hugo Wolf, as “The Wandrer’s Night Song” and “Prosperous Voyage” demonstrate.

These songs as well as three Pushkin romances of this program—”Gone Are My Heart’s Desires” (1903), “Winter Evening” (1907), and “To a Dreamer” (1914)—belong to Medtner’s most productive period, when the composer, remarkable for his exceptionally early creative maturity, was an active participant in the flourishing Russian cultural scene and traveled around Europe gaining acclaim for his penetrating interpretations of European classics, first of all—Beethoven.

In a time of special attention to the finesse of color and the beauty of sound, Medtner was concerned mostly with the “logic of emotion.” Dramatic monologue, of which “To a Dreamer” is one of the finest examples, was his preferred vocal genre. Here, declamation with its detailed following of the words is united in the most natural way with arioso-like cantilena.

Never fond of quoting folk tunes, Medtner was well aware of them. He used, for instance, Russian song intonations in “Winter Evening,” where the verses’ rhythm and sound almost dictate folk-like kind of melody.

Though complicated and intense piano parts in Medner’s romances sometimes reminds one of Rachmaninoff’s, it is distinctive for its complex counterpoint and the especially intricate interweaving with the vocal line that the piano often completes. Avoiding superfluous details, Medtner subjugates all musical means to content and expression, to the developing of an emotional narrative.


SERGEI RACHMANINOFF “‘Tis Time,” Op. 14, No. 12; “Believe me not, Friend,” Op. 14, No. 7; “I Was With Her,” Op. 14, No. 4; “Let Us Rest,” Op. 26, No. 3; “Spring Waters,” Op. 14, No. 11
Born April 1, 1873, in Oneg, Russia; died March 28, 1943, in Beverly Hills, California.

An admirer and direct musical heir to Tchaikovsky (he studied with former Tchaikovsky’s pupils, Taneev and Arensky), Rachmaninoff followed Tchaikovsky’s path of creating a song as an emotionally charged musical poem. Like Tchaikovsky, he possessed an extraordinary melodic gift, partly responsible for the huge popularity that his songs enjoyed in pre-Revolutionary Russia. Both composers viewed poetry as an initial impulse for a soul-grabbing musical picture, and both sometimes used verses of questionable quality.

Rachmaninoff, a great lover of gypsy songs (he preferred Schaliapin’s recording of Ochi Tchernyie [“Black Eyes”] to any other), tends to be in his music even more passionate and inclined to theatrical pathos and outbursts of emotions. On the other hand, he wrote some of the most beautifully “quiet” songs of a calm meditative mood. Sensual, full of colors, emotionally eloquent, and spontaneous, Rachmaninoff’s songs are a reflection of an era of symbolism and decadence in Russia.

Rachmaninoff’s first songs appeared when the composer was only 17, and displayed from the start a mature and original talent. However, all of his songs were written before 1917. The last 25 years of his life were spent outside of Russia, which had become a Bolshevik country. Without Russian-speaking audiences and with a burden of too many piano performances to provide for his family, there was no place for such genre as romance in his output.

“‘Tis Time,” “I Was with Her,” “Believe Me Not Friend,” and the most popular “Spring Waters” all are part of 12 songs, Op. 14. He wrote the whole group in 1896, not long before completing his Six moments musicae, Op.16, for piano and the ill-fated First Symphony. He rushed to finish the songs under financial pressure, which later in a letter he called beneficial: “At least it makes me work on schedule; on another hand this motif keeps me from being especially ‘nice’ in matters of taste.”

Already a great pianist, the composer created here quite generous, sometimes overpowering piano accompaniments that often ended the song with the rousing coda, such as in “Spring Waters,” dedicated to his early piano teacher Anna Ornatskaya, or in “Believe Me Not Friend,” of which a third is taken up by tempestuous piano conclusion. Some of the songs, like a dramatic plea “‘Tis Time,” which melody consists mostly of short exclamations, also show a declamatory style.

“Let Us Rest,” Op. 26, is quite different. It is written on words from Anton Checkov’s drama Uncle Vanya, which Rachmaninoff once considered using as a plot for opera. Rachmaninoff created this thoughtful mixture of melancholy and hope together with another 14 songs, Op. 26, in his beloved country estate of Ivanovka, in September 1906, two years after Chekhov’s death.


Copyright © 2008 by The Carnegie Hall Corporation

Maya Pritsker, the cultural editor for the Novoye Russkoye Slovo and talkshow
host for Russian Television Network of America (RTN/WMNB),
writes about music for various publications.

Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Baritone
Internationally acclaimed Russian baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky was born and studied in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia. In 1989, he won the prestigious Cardiff Singer of the World Competition.

From the start, audiences were bowled over by his cultivated voice, innate sense of musical line, and natural legato. After his Western operatic debut at the Nice Opera in Tchaikovsky’s Pique Dame, his career exploded to take in regular engagements at the world’s major opera houses and appearances at renowned international festivals, including the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, New York’s Metropolitan Opera, the Paris Opera, the Bavarian State Opera, Teatro alla Scala, the Vienna State Opera, and the Chicago Lyric Opera.

A celebrated recitalist in demand in every corner of the globe—from the Far East to the Middle East, from Australia to South America—Mr. Hvorostovsky has appeared at such venues as Wigmore Hall, London; Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh; Carnegie Hall, New York; the Teatro alla Scala, Milan; the Tchaikovsky Conservatory, Moscow; the Liceu, Barcelona; Suntory Hall, Tokyo; and the Musikverein, Vienna. The singer regularly performs in concert with top orchestras like the New York Philharmonic and the Rotterdam Philharmonic, and conductors including James Levine, Bernard Haitink, Claudio Abbado, Lorin Maazel, Zubin Mehta, Yuri Termikanov, and Valery Gergiev.

“Do Not Grieve,” a symphonic work by Giya Kancheli written for Dmitri Hvorostovsky and the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, premiered in May 2002. The distinguished Russian composer Georgi Sviridov wrote a song cycle, St Petersburg, especially for the baritone, who often includes it and other works by Sviridov in his recitals. He has also released the CD Sviridov: A Vocal Poem.

Mr. Hvorostovsky’s extensive discography spans recital and aria discs for Philips Classics and for Delos Records, as well as complete opera performances on CD and DVD, notably a disc of Verdi arias. His recent releases include 2007’s Heroes and Villains; a disc of Soviet-era songs, Moscow Nights, accompanied by Constantine Orbelian leading the Moscow Chamber and the Style of Five, a traditional Russian ensemble; a DVD in concert with the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal; and Passione Di Napoli, a compendium of blockbuster Neapolitan songs.

He has also starred in Don Giovanni Unmasked, an award-winning film (by Rhombus Media) based on the Mozart opera, tackling the dual roles of the lecherous nobleman and his disapproving manservant.

Ivari Ilja, Piano
Ivari Ilja was born in Tallinn, Estonia. He studied piano at the Tallinn State Conservatory with Laine Mets and at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory with Vera Gornostayeva and Sergey Dorensky.

He has won prizes in several national and international competitions, including the Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw and the José Vianna da Motta Piano Competition in Lisbon.

Mr. Ilja has given recitals and has performed as a soloist with orchestras including the Moscow Symphony Orchestra, the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, and the St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra, with such conductors as Arvo Volmer, Eri Klas, Leo Krämer, Veronica Dudarova, Urs Schneider, Roman Matsov, Imants Resnis, Andres Mustonen, Peeter Lilje, Theodore Kuchar, and Vello Pähn.

His repertoire includes Romantic works, such as those by Chopin, Brahms, and Schumann, as well as works from different periods by composers from Mozart to Prokofiev to Britten.

Mr. Ilja has accompanied such singers as Irina Arkhipova, Maria Guleghina, Elena Zaremba, Pauletta de Vaughn, and Dmitri Hvorostovsky.

He has performed concerts in Russia, Finland, Sweden, the Baltic States, Japan, the US, Germany, Great Britain, Spain, Poland, and France, among other countries.