Paul Turok has forged a unique and successful career as both composer and critic. He studied at Queens College with Karol Rathaus and earned his master’s degree at the University of California, Berkeley, as a student of Roger Sessions. He also studied at Juilliard for several years with Bernard Wagenaar before entering the army. His orchestral compositions have been played across the world by such prestigious orchestras as the Royal Philharmonic and the Cleveland and Philadelphia Orchestras, and he has had chamber works premiered at Lincoln Center’s Tully Hall, the Library of Congress, and Cleveland’s Severance Hall, and abroad in Paris, Tokyo, and Bogotá.
As a critic Turok regularly reviewed recordings for the New York Times and concerts for the New York Herald Tribune and often participated as a guest critic on WQXR’s First Hearing. In 1990 he founded Turok’s Choice, a monthly review of new classical releases that he continues to publish.
Turok originally composed his Fanfare for brass ensemble some three years ago, but it was never performed. Thus the Stockton Symphony is presenting the world premiere on this set of concerts. The piece was published as his Opus 102 by Subito Music. The composer writes: “When I set out to write a fanfare, I thought I’d do something different from the ordinary, usually based on bugle calls. I thought of a basic melody in the lower instruments, and chromatic runs in the horns and trumpets. As the piece developed, it turned into a simple A-B-A form, with the ‘A’s the chromatic runs and melody underneath, and the ‘B’ a contrasting, more lyrical section. A transition leads back to the final ‘A’ section.”
Though Turok’s Fanfare is not based on traditional fanfare gestures, it still creates a celebratory, annunciatory impression. Its chains of parallel chords, compelling melodic lines, and dynamic arch pack a dramatic punch.
—©Jane Vial Jaffe
Scored for 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, 2 euphoniums, and 2 tubas
Cello Concerto No. 1 in E-flat major, op. 107
Dmitri Shostakovich
Born in St. Petersburg, September 25, 1906; died in Moscow, August 9, 1975
My next major work will be a cello concerto. The first movement, an allegretto in the style of a jocular march, is already complete. There will probably be three movements in all. I would find it difficult to say anything about its content . . . I can only say that this Concerto was conceived quite a long time ago. The original impulse came from hearing Sergei Prokofiev’s Sinfonie concertante for cello and orchestra, which interested me greatly and aroused my desire also to try my hand at this genre.
So said Shostakovich in 1959 about his First Cello Concerto, which was written for and dedicated to the great Russian cellist Mstislav Rostropovich. Cellists still marvel at Rostropovich’s feat of learning and memorizing the challenging work in only four days, in time to play it for the composer with piano on August 6. On September 21 Shostakovich introduced the work to his colleagues at the Composer’s Club, and Rostropovich gave the public premieres on October 4 in Leningrad and October 9 in Moscow.
Later that month Shostakovich made an extensive tour of the United States with a distinguished group of Soviet composers and musicologists. During the tour Rostropovich gave the Cello Concerto its American premiere with the Philadelphia Orchestra, conducted by Eugene Ormandy. On this historic occasion, in addition to the Soviet musicians in attendance, were a great number of distinguished American composers, including Henry Cowell, Roger Sessions, Samuel Barber, Gian-Carlo Menotti, and Vincent Persichetti. The new work, its soloist, its composer, the orchestra, and conductor were all enthusiastically applauded.
November 8, 1959, in the Columbia studios in Philadelphia, marked the first time a Soviet composer attended an American recording session of his own works. Shostakovich closely collaborated with the conductor, instrumentalists, and recording engineers on a recording that included the First Cello Concerto, performed by the same forces that had just given the American premiere.
Auspicious occasions aside, the First Cello Concerto stands as a great piece of music. Much like Shostakovich’s recently completed Violin Concerto, the Cello Concerto employs a similar original sequence of movements. The most salient of these, the cadenza—a complete movement instead of a brief insert into another movement—serves to develop ideas in the preceding movements. Both Concertos employ Shostakovich’s own brand of expressive lyricism in their slow movements and present high-spirited folk-influenced finales. Both are also notable for their original use of celesta in the instrumentation.
Though the composer described the Cello Concerto’s first movement as a “jocular march,” it also shows something of the grim tension Shostakovich so often achieved with his driving fast movements. Shostakovich audio selection one A four-note motto permeates the movement Shostakovich audio selection two and returns in the finale. The single horn plays a prominent role solo role alongside the cello. Shostakovich audio selection three
The broad, singing slow movement again features the horn before introducing the plaintive cello melody, which is based on a Jewish folk song. Shostakovich audio selection four Wonderful dissonances creep into the texture as the result of independent voice leading. Shostakovich introduces a new melody, every bit as poignant, Shostakovich audio selection five before launching a more agitated climax. The return of the first theme in glassy harmonics, colored by the delicate chiming of the celesta, lends a ghostly atmosphere to the proceedings. Shostakovich audio selection six
Music from the slow movement’s second melody leads without pause into the cadenza, which Shostakovich labels as a separate movement. Though intensely virtuosic, the cadenza is no mere display piece for the cellist. In addition to developing ideas from the slow movement it alludes several times to the first movement motto. The cadenza builds climactically to the finale, which enters fiercely with no break.Shostakovich audio selection seven
Rostropovich pointed out that the five-note phrase played by the strings soon after the finale’s opening alludes to Stalin’s favorite song “Suliko,” but so altered that even the cellist did not recognize it at first. Shostakovich audio selection eight Such a disguise seemed necessary even six years after the tyrant’s death—Shostakovich subjects this idea to a brutal transformation and repetition. In many of its various details, the intense music of the finale shows the influence of Prokofiev’s Sinfonie concertante, which Shostakovich so admired; Rostropovich mentioned in particular the decisive timpani strokes toward the end. A return of the motto music of the first movement initiates the finale’s relentless drive to the finish. Shostakovich audio selection nine
—©Jane Vial Jaffe
Scored for 2 flutes, 2nd doubling piccolo, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2nd doubling contrabassoon, horn, timpani, celesta, and strings
Symphony No. 5 in E minor, op. 64
Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky
Born in Kamsko-Votkinsk, Vyatka province, May 7, 1840; died in St. Petersburg, November 9, 1893
There is not a single Russian composer of the latter nineteenth or early twentieth centuries who is not indebted in some measure to Pyotr Tchaikovsky. . . . Whenever I take up my pen to write some score my thoughts involuntarily turn to the methods used by this unsurpassed master of the art of composition (Dmitri Shostakovich, Russian Symphony, 1947).
Tchaikovsky has earned equally high praise from non-Russian composers, performers of his music, and audiences everywhere. Yet critics, including Tchaikovsky himself, deemed many of his works unsuccessful after their first performances. About the Fifth Symphony, Tchaikovsky wrote to his friend and patroness Nadezhda von Meck in December 1888:
Having played my Symphony twice in Petersburg and once in Prague I have come to the conclusion that it is a failure. There is something repellent in it, some over-exaggerated color, some insincerity or fabrication that the public instinctively recognizes. It was clear to me that the applause and ovations referred not to this but to other works of mine and that the Symphony itself will never please the public. All this causes a deep dissatisfaction with myself. It is possible that I have, as people say, written myself out, and nothing remains but for me to repeat and imitate myself.
Not only did the Fifth Symphony become one of Tchaikovsky’s best-loved works, but his creative powers had not dried up—he had yet to write some of his most celebrated works, including the Nutcracker and the Pathétique Symphony.
Tchaikovsky did not provide a detailed literary program for his Fifth Symphony as he had for his Fourth. In that Symphony he had dealt with man’s—or his own—struggle against “Fate,” represented by a motto theme. His jottings in a notebook indicate that he had similar ideas for the Fifth Symphony: “Introduction. Complete resignation before Fate, or which is the same, before the inscrutable predestination of Providence. Allegro (I) Murmurs, doubts, lamentations, reproaches against XXX. (II) Shall I throw myself into the embraces of Faith???”
A Fate motto pervades the Fifth in many guises, heard first as the introductory E minor theme in the clarinets. Tchaikovsky audio selection one The sonata-form first movement’s main theme (Allegro con anima, clarinets and bassoons) is connected abstractly with the Fate theme, but possesses a much more insistent quality due to its characteristic rhythm—a combination of dotted figures and ties. Tchaikovsky audio selection two Tchaikovsky’s use of D major for the lyrical second key area is striking in an E minor movement. The unusual harmonic link is solidified by the composer’s use of D major for the second movement—a unifying feature further revealing the cyclic nature of the Symphony.
The slow movement is beloved for its ultra-famous, expressive melody introduced by solo horn. Tchaikovsky audio selection three The heartbeats of principal horn players around the world begin to race even as the introductory measures are sounded. Tchaikovsky added the phrase con alcuna licenza to the tempo marking Andante cantabile to give a sense of freedom to the broad melodic line. His markings such as animando, ritenuto, sostenuto, con moto, and poco più animato every few measures indicate how and where that license should be taken. The Fate motto, played by the full orchestra, interrupts ominously at the climax of the movement. Tchaikovsky audio selection four
Tchaikovsky wrote a symphonic waltz for the third movement, following the tradition of using a dance-related movement in triple meter in this position. Tchaikovsky audio selection five The composer adapted the main dolce con grazia (sweet with grace) theme from an Italian street song, which had greatly affected him ten years earlier as sung by a boy in Florence. The middle section also brings to mind Tchaikovsky’s balletic master strokes, with its fast fleeting notes emphasized harmonically and rhythmically in cross-accents. Tchaikovsky audio selection six Fate briefly casts its shadow again, entering near the end of the movement in the clarinets and bassoons. Tchaikovsky audio selection seven
The Finale, in sonata form, begins with a long introduction dominated by the Fate motto, transfigured in the triumphant major key. Tchaikovsky audio selection eight The Allegro vivace returns to the minor home key with an energetic principal subject declaimed in sharp quick chords. Tchaikovsky audio selection nine At the end of the recapitulation occurs a notorious trap for audience members who, mistaking the dominant for the tonic and hearing a pause, believe the piece is over and begin to applaud. Tchaikovsky audio selection ten The Symphony is by no means over—the coda begins majestically, emphasizing the Fate motto in the major. A Presto, alla breve ensues, crowned finally by a return of the principal theme from the first movement, now also in the major.
The lack of critical acclaim that greeted the first performances of the Fifth Symphony on November 18 and 24, 1888, in St. Petersburg may have been due, as his brother Modest believed, to Tchaikovsky’s lack of self-confidence as a conductor. The orchestra’s slightest negative reactions caused Tchaikovsky to under-rehearse apologetically. When later the players in Hamburg were more enthusiastic, Tchaikovsky thought the performance went better, which it no doubt did if Tchaikovsky was more confident as a conductor. He went so far as to revise his opinion of the Symphony, writing to his nephew Bob Davidov: “The Fifth Symphony was magnificently played, and I like it far better now, after having held a bad opinion of it for some time.”
—©Jane Vial Jaffe
Scored for 3 flutes, 3rd flute doubling piccolo, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drum, triangle, cymbals, and strings
