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Tchaikovsky: Variations On A Rococo Theme / Bruch: Kol Nidrei / Bloch: Schelomo

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Tchaikovsky: Variations On A Rococo Theme / Bruch: Kol Nidrei / Bloch: Schelomo

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Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky (1840 - 1893) Variations on a Rococo Theme, Op. 33 Max Bruch (1838 - 1920) Kol Nidrei, Op. 47 Ernest Bloch (1880 - 1959) Schelomo...

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Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky (1840 - 1893)

Variations on a Rococo Theme, Op. 33

Max Bruch (1838 - 1920)

Kol Nidrei, Op. 47

Ernest Bloch (1880 - 1959)

Schelomo

Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky (1840 - 1893)

Pezzo capriccioso, Op. 62

Nocturne, Op. 19, No.4

1876 was not the most successful year in Tchaikovsky's career. He had spent ten years teaching at the Conservatory in Moscow, after completing his own studies at the comparable institution in St. Petersburg. His first three symphonies and first piano concerto had been completed and performed, and he enjoyed already a considerable reputation at home and abroad. Nevertheless his Romeo and Juliet had been hissed by an audience in Vienna, where the critic Eduard Hanslick had expressed an unfavourable opinion, as later he did of the violin concerto. At the same time the opera Vakula the Smith had not proved a popular success. Tchaikovsky's own health was uncertain, while social pressures were leading him into the disastrous contemplation of marriage, as an answer to problems posed by his own homosexuality.

The autumn brought the composition of the symphonic poem Francesca da Rimini, a drama of forbidden love based on an episode in Dante's Inferno, but this was followed, towards the end of the year, by a very different work, the Variations on a Rococo Theme, presumably commissioned by his Conservatory colleague, the German cellist Wilhelm Fitzenhagen. The work, couched largely in the composer's own idiom, expresses his admiration for Mozart and is modestly scored for an eighteenth century orchestra, with pairs of woodwind instruments, horns and the usual complement of strings.

The Variations, to the composer's dismay, were revised and re-ordered by Fitzenhagen, although in the end he allowed the revision to stand. A brief introduction is followed by the solo cello statement of the theme. The first variation is in triplet rhythm, while the soloist shares the second variation with the orchestra. The third variation, marked Andante sostenuto, changes the mood and key, restored in the fourth Andante grazioso variation. In the fifth the cello enjoys a more decorative role, while the flute maintains the theme. A cadenza leads to the sixth variation, in D minor, and the seventh, with its opportunities for technical brilliance.

Fitzenhagen had been the cellist in the first performances of Tchaikovsky's three string quartets, the first of which was composed and performed for the first time in March 1871. He seems to have arranged the slow movement for cello and string orchestra at about the time he was working on the Pezzo capriccioso and the transcription of the Nocturne from Six morceaux, Opus 19, of 1873, for piano, for cello and small orchestra. The cause of this particular activity seems to have been his association during a visit to Paris with the young Russian cellist Anatoly Brandukov, a pupil of Fitzenhagen, whom Tchaikovsky found very charming. He dedicated to him the >Pezzo capriccioso, and Brandukov gave the first Russian performance of the work, not, as its title might imply, a scherzo, but music of a more romantic cast, in Moscow on 7th December 1889.

Max Bruch, two years older than Tchaikovsky, outlived him by more than a quarter of a century. Born in Cologne in 1838, he enjoyed a career as a conductor that took him as far afield as Liverpool and as a composer of choral music that enjoyed contemporary popularity. He is chiefly remembered in modern international repertoire for his G minor Violin Concerto, which is widely known, and by his Scottish Fantasia, also for solo violin and orchestra. Kol Nidrei is probably the best known of the shorter instrumental pieces Bruch wrote. It is an Adagio on Hebrew themes, published in 1881 in Berlin, where ten years later the composer was appointed professor at the Academy, with responsibility for the composition master-class. The title, which means "All the vows", is taken from a prayer used on the Day of Atonement.

Hebraic Rhapsody, Schelomo (Solomon), was completed in 1916 and has an even closer affinity with music familiar from the synagogue, with which Bruch had only a second-hand acquaintance. Born in Geneva, Bloch moved to the United States of America in 1916 and was to establish himself there as above all a Jewish composer, although his music is by no means limited to this mode of composition, exploring as it does a more varied melodic and harmonic language than this might imply.

Maria Kliegel

Maria Kliegel achieved significant success in 1981, when she was awarded the Grand Prix in the Rostropovich Competition. Born in Dillenburg, Germany, she began learning the cello at the age of ten and first came to public attention five years later, when, as a student at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt, she twice won first prize in the Jugend Musiziert competition. She later studied in America with Janos Starker, serving as his assistant, and subsequently appeared in a phenomenal series of concerts in America, Switzerland and France, with Rostropovich as conductor. She has since then enjoyed an international career of growing distinction as a soloist and recitalist, offering an amazingly wide repertoire, ranging from Bach and Vieuxtemps to the contemporary.

National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland

The RTE Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1947 as part of the Radio and Television service in Ireland. With its membership coming from France, Germany, Britain, Italy, Hungary, Poland and Russia, it drew together a rich blend of European culture. Apart from its many symphony concerts, the orchestra came to world-wide attention with its participation in the famous Wexford Opera Festival, an event broadcast in many parts of the world. The orchestra now enjoys the facilities of a fine new concert hall in central Dublin, where it performs with the world's leading conductors and soloists. In 1990 the RTE Symphony Orchestra was augmented and renamed the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland. Under its Principal Conductor, George Hurst, it quickly established itself as one of Europe's most adventurous orchestras with programmes featuring many 20th century compositions. The orchestra has now embarked upon an extensive recording project for the Naxos and Marco Polo labels and will record music by Nielsen, Tchaikovsky, Goldmark, Rachmaninov, Brian and Scriabin.

Gerhard Markson

The conductor Gerhard Markson studied with Karl Maria Zwissler, Igor Markevitch and Franco Ferrara and spent 1975 as assistant to Markevitch at the Weimar International Conducting Course. He is now Assistant Music Director at the Freiburg Theatre. He makes frequent guest appearances as conductor in the opera-house and concert hall, including performances at the Hamburg State Opera, the Bavarian Opera in Munich, Stuttgart Opera, and with the South West German Radio Orchestra in Baden-Baden. In early 1989 he organised the project Russian Tradition and Soviet Contemporary Music, which included some seventy events over a period of six weeks, with performances of works from Borodin to Schnittke and Gubaidulina. He conducted the first performance of Dmitry Smirnov's opera Tiriel

in a series of performances that opened with Alfred Schnittke's Cello Concerto, in which the soloist was Maria Kliegel.

Disc 1

Variations on a Rococo Theme in A major, Op. 33

(more info)

Performed by: Latvian National Symphony Orchestra Ireland National Symphony Orchestra Canadian National Arts Centre Orchestra English Chamber Orchestra Paraiba Symphony Orchestra
Composed by: Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky
Conducted by: Mario Bernardi Geoffrey Simon Gerhard Markson Terje Mikkelsen Eleazar de Carvalho
Emmanuel Lopez, cello
Wen-Sinn Yang,
Maria Kliegel, cello
Denis Brott, cello
Raphael Wallfisch, cello
Recording date: 17-18 May 1993

Variations on a Rococo Theme in A major, Op. 33 - 18:46

Kol nidrei, Op. 47

(more info)

Performed by: London Symphony Orchestra Ireland National Symphony Orchestra Edmonton Symphony Orchestra Studio orchestra Russian Philharmonia
Composed by: Pablo Casals Max Bruch Nina Kotova
Conducted by: Gerhard Markson Uri Mayer Constantine Orbelian
Landon Ronald, piano
Maria Kliegel, cello
Shauna Rolston, cello
Recording date: 27 November 1936

Kol Nidrei, Adagio on Hebrew Melodies, Op. 47 - 10:07

Schelomo

(more info)

Performed by: Chicago Symphony Orchestra Ireland National Symphony Orchestra Lyon National Orchestra Russian Philharmonia
Composed by: Ernest Bloch Nina Kotova
Conducted by: Gerhard Markson Constantine Orbelian Emmanuel Krivine Miguel Harth-Bedoya
Yo-Yo Ma, cello
Maria Kliegel, cello
Anne Gastinel, cello

Schelomo - 23:08

6 Morceaux, Op. 19 (version for cello and strings)

(more info)

Performed by: Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra Shanghai Symphony Orchestra Ireland National Symphony Orchestra English Chamber Orchestra
Composed by: Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky
Conducted by: Geoffrey Simon Gerhard Markson David Geringas Terje Mikkelsen
Wen-Sinn Yang,
Maria Kliegel, cello
Raphael Wallfisch, cello
Vytautas Sondeckis, cello

Nocturne in C sharp minor, Op. 19, No. 4 - 4:55

Pezzo capriccioso in B minor, Op. 62

(more info)

Performed by: Shanghai Symphony Orchestra Ireland National Symphony Orchestra Moscow Chamber Orchestra English Chamber Orchestra
Composed by: Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky
Conducted by: Geoffrey Simon Gerhard Markson Constantine Orbelian Terje Mikkelsen
Wen-Sinn Yang,
Maria Kliegel, cello
Alexander Zagorinsky,
Giorgi Kharadze, cello
Raphael Wallfisch, cello

Pezzo capriccioso in B minor, Op. 62 - 6:28

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Composer(s):
Bloch, Ernest; Bruch, Max; Tchaikovsky, Pyotr Il'yich

Conductor(s):
Markson, Gerhard

Orchestra(s):
Ireland National Symphony Orchestra

Artist(s):
Kliegel, Maria

Label: Naxos Classics
UPC: 730099551922
Item Number: 8550519
Release Date: Jun 3, 1994