November 19, 2024 | Tchaikovsky Concert Hall
Subscription Series No. 15: «Great Instrumental Concertos»
Soloist – Boris Berezovsky, piano
Conductor – Arsenty Tkachenko
Korngold. “Sea Hawk” Suite
Gershwin. Concerto for piano and orchestra
Respighi. “Pines of Rome” (Pini di Roma), P 141
Gershwin. "Rhapsody in Blue" for piano and orchestra
The main hero of the coming concert in the Tchaikovsky Hall – the dazzling pianist, Merited Artist of Russia Boris Berezovsky – dedicates the night to George Gershwin's oeuvre that echoes the composer's fascination with jazz. The NPR under Arsenty Tkachenko's baton will also perform symphonic works by European contemporaries of Gershwin, whose art was connected in some way with the USA culture before World War II.
The premiere of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue with the author at the piano took place in New York's Aeolian Hall on February 12, 1924. The composer wrote the work that brought him worldwide fame in just a month, having received a commission from one of the most famous bandleaders of those years, an adherent of "commercial" jazz, Paul Whiteman. Having masterfully combined his own style, early jazz (in which blues played a special role) and the characteristic features of a romantic piano concerto, Gershwin created an immortal masterpiece. The orchestration was performed by the arranger and staff pianist of Whiteman's orchestra, Ferd Grofé. It is remarkable that Gershwin improvised the solo cadenzas at the premiere.
Gershwin's Piano Concerto, commissioned by Walter Damrosch, music director of the New York Symphony Orchestra, was premiered on December 3, 1925, in the Carnegie Hall with the author as the soloist. The first movement Allegro is built on the Charleston rhythm and themes, in the second movement Gershwin devises 'a poetic, nocturnal atmosphere which has come to be referred to as the American blues', and in the final Rondo, though classical in style, he returns to the irrepressible element of rhythm, the essence of all jazz.
The mid-1920s witnessed also a rocketing career of Italian composer Ottorino Respighi, who, due to American benefactor Elizabeth Sprague-Coolidge, started his regular tours in the USA as pianist, conductor and author of sparkling orchestral music. The performances brought him a wide fame beyond Europe. His debut was in the Carnegie Hall on December 31, 1925, while in January of 1926 Arturo Toscanini and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra presented the American premiere of Respighi's symphonic poem “Pines of Rome” (the most known one of his Roman Trilogy), whereas on the next day the piece was played by the Philadelphia Orchestra directed by the author. In the USA he worked with the best orchestras and conductors, including the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Serge Koussevitzky who were the first performers of Rachmaninoff's Etudes-Tableaux in Respighi's famous orchestration.
As in the case of Rachmaninoff, America became the second mother country for Austrian composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold, who fled the Nazi regime. Korhgold was a real gem for film music, which he profoundly reformed. His scores are rich in melodies and marked by complex polyphony, and as he regarded films as operas without singing, he often used the leitmotif approach and a full symphony orchestra. Such is his music to Michael Curtiz's film “Sea Hawk”, which depicted wars between Spain and England in the end of the 16th century. The film was made as a romantic melodrama but in the historical plot of the film released at the beginning of WWII there were obvious political allusions to the current situation. In 1941, the film was nominated for the Oscars in four categories, music included.