Orchestra Concerts

Sun. Jun 28 Benson Great Hall, Bethel University
Pre-concert talk 1:00pm
Concert 2:00pm
3900 Bethel Drive, Arden Hills, MN 55112

Amit Peled, cello

Program

Overture on Hebrew ThemesSergei Prokofiev

Hassidic Suite
   Amit Peled, celloJoachim Stutschewsky


Kol Nidrei, Opus 47
   Amit Peled, celloMax Bruch


Concerto Grosso No. 1Ernest Bloch

 

Program Notes

 

Overture on Hebrew ThemesSergei Prokofiev (1891-1954)

Sergei Prokofiev was born in the Ukraine (Russia) in 1891 and died in Moscow in 1953. In between he spent time in Paris and the United States. His music is known for wit, sarcasm and a lyricism that always seems fresh and stimulating. He had a unique approach to harmony (constantly changing keys in unexpected manners and times), and because of this, one can clearly identify his music.

The Overture on Hebrew Themes was originally composed for some friends who, at the time, were living in New York, but were former fellow students with him in St Petersburg. The friends were all Jewish and had formed a chamber music group called Zimro. The instrumentation of the group was clarinet, piano and string quartet, and their concerts were a combination of duos, trios and quartets. They asked Prokofiev to use some Hebrew themes (they gave him a notebook filled with suggestions), and create an overture using all of the players, so that they could open their concerts as a full ensemble. Prokofiev was reticent at first, as he preferred to work only with original material. But after leafing through the notebook, he found some tunes that he liked, and in one day sketched out the overture. Ten days later, a finished score was presented, and the first performance of this chamber version took place in 1920.

In 1934, Prokofiev took the material and filled out the instrumentation to a full orchestra version. Because the word “Jewish” appeared in the title, performances were very rare in antisemitic Russia. In the 1970s a performance by the Moscow State Philharmonic was scheduled but almost had to be canceled because of the title. A compromise was reached by simply calling the piece Overture, opus 34, and leaving out references to “Jewish.” However, word leaked out that this was the Jewish overture, and consequently, the hall was packed and the performance was a smashing success. jf



Hassidic SuiteJoachim Stutschewsky (1891-1982)

Joachim Stutschewsky was born in the Ukraine, and he, like so many of his Jewish contemporaries, lived in many countries. In 1938, fleeing the Nazis, he eventually moved to and settled in Palestine.

He trained as a cellist in Leipzig, and in 1924, along with Rudolf Kolisch, formed the famous Vienna String Quartet. The quartet was quite adventurous and was responsible for premiering new works by Arnold Schoenberg and other contemporary composers. Stutschewsky’s early compositions followed in the same vein as Schoenberg, Berg and other “avant-garde” composers, but in 1939, after becoming inspector of music in the cultural section of the Jewish National Council, his composing began to incorporate Sephardic (Spanish), Ashkenazi (German, East European) and Yemenite Jewish folk elements. Starting in the 1950s, he dedicated his time and efforts almost exclusively to composing.

Hassidim comprise a small but very religious Jewish sect. They are probably best known (certainly recognized) for their all-black attire, the men wearing fur and/or fedora black hats, specially knotted tzitzis (tassels/fringes), beards, and long sideburns that often curl. I do not know if the four movements of the Hassidic Suite are taken directly from Hassidic music, or if the title is simply meant to suggest an association. The first movement is a Bessarabic song – Bessarabia originally was part of Moldova and the Ukraine. The second movement is for solo cello, and I don’t know of its association. The third and fourth movements are “typical” melodies and dances that are familiar in Jewish music and culture. jf



Kol Nidrei, Opus 47Max Bruch (1838-1920)

Composed in 1880 and published in 1881, the Kol Nidrei (which means “all vows”) is a solo setting for cello and orchestra based two Jewish themes. The first is from the prayer that is sung by the Cantor on the evening of Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, which is arguably the holiest of all Jewish holidays. The second theme, also of Jewish origin, was from a set of arrangements of old Jewish synagogue melodies by Isaac Nathan. For some of the settings, Nathan asked Lord Byron to write poetry that he then set to the melodies. “O Weep for Those that Wept on Babel’s Stream,” which was part Byron’s collection and Nathan’s arrangements, was incorporated by Bruch for the Kol Nidrei.

Max Bruch was not Jewish. In fact he was Protestant, but he took an interest in Jewish music when he became friends with the chief cantor of Berlin, Jacob Lichtenstein. Bruch did not intend to create a synagogue service or Jewish prayer, but rather to compose a rhapsody for cello with beautiful and meaningful melodies. In that respect, he succeeded admirably. jf



Concerto Grosso No. 1Ernest Bloch (1880–1959)

Ernest Bloch was a very well-known and respected teacher and composer. He won several prestigious composition awards including the Gold Medal for music from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and two New York Music Critic’s Circles Awards. His students included Roger Sessions, Quincy Porter and Bernard Rodgers. He held directorships of both the Cleveland Institute of Music and the San Francis Conservatory, and later in his career taught at the University of California, Berkeley.

Although there were several influences in his compositional style — some of his music was neo-classical, other works were composed in a neo-romantic style, and some had impressionistic tendencies — his Jewish heritage and background were major influences. In the words the esteemed English musicologist and music critic Ernest Newman:

[Bloch] I suppose, is the first truly Jewish composer the modern world has known. Bloch writes Jewish music; and an order of imagination, a range of perception, personal and racial, here come into play that have been submerged by centuries of European culture. It is not only that Bloch presents us with images and experiences hitherto strange to Western music; what especially attracts some of us to his work is the new freedom of his language—really a reversion to a freedom possessed by music centuries ago but long since lost.

About his music and his approach to composing, Bloch wrote:

“It is not my purpose, not my desire, to attempt a ‘reconstitution’ of Jewish music, or to base my works on melodies more or less authentic. I am not an archaeologist. I hold it of first importance to write good, genuine music, my music. It is the Jewish soul that interests me, the complex glowing agitated soul that I feel vibrating throughout the Bible; the freshness and naïveté of the Patriarchs; the violence that is evident in the prophetic books, the Jew’s savage love of justice; the despair of the Preacher in Jerusalem; the sorrow and immensity of the Book of Job, the sensuality of the Song of Songs. All this is in us; all this is in me, and it is the better part of me. It is all that I endeavor to hear in myself and to transcribe in my music: the venerable emotion of the race that slumbers way down in our souls.”

The Concerto Grosso No. 1 (being played on this program) has influences both of Judaism and neo-classicism. In particular, the second movement has a Jewish feel to it, probably because of the harmonies and the nature of the main theme. The last movement is a fugue — a bow to J.S. Bach, Handel and the many classical and baroque composers who preceded Bloch in music history. jf

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