Jean René Désiré Françaix (1912 - 1997)
Divertissement for Bassoon and String Orchestra (1968)

My first brush with Jean Francaix came in my New World Quartet days. Casting about for new pieces to learn, we came upon a string quartet by Francaix, previously unknown. “Difficult” was the first word that came to mind, then came the “wow!” This was remarkable music, modern yet accessible, vibrant, energetic, and virtuosic in the extreme. I went home and brought down the “F” volume of my Grove Dictionary of Music to learn all I could about this brilliant composer.

Born in Le Mans, France, son of two professional musicians, Francaix started composing at the age of six. Steered towards the famous pedagogue Nadia Boulanger, he was a prize-winning student at the Paris Conservatory and matured into a prolific composer, virtuoso pianist, and brilliant orchestrator. Eschewing atonal music, his works are considered “neo-classical”, that is, reworking classical timbres and forms through the prism of his decidedly twentieth century sensibility. Francaix’s musical models included Stravinsky and Ravel, and you can clearly hear their influences in his work. He wrote over 200 pieces in a wide variety of combinations - this Divertissement for Bassoon and String Orchestra is just one example of his quirky and delightful orchestrations. He also wrote scores for many films. Even in 1981 he described himself as “constantly composing”, and wrote music continually until his death in 1997.

Written in 1968, Francaix’s Divertissement for Bassoon and String Orchestra is cast in four brief movements. The first, a virtuoso Vivace featuring glittering scales and leaping staccato passages for our soloist, sets an upbeat mood. A simple and soulful Lento showcases the warm, middle-register “cantabile” of the bassoon. The third movement, Vivo assai, is a quirky “scherzo”, full of rhythmic surprises and humorous interchanges between the soloist and the ensemble. A light-hearted march, Allegro, brings this delightful work to a satisfying conclusion.

Yu-Hui Chang (b. 1970)
Mountain is Mountain (2007) - world premiere

Yu-Hui Chang’s most recent piece, a concerto for flute and string orchestra, obtains its title from a Zen Buddhist saying “Seeing mountain is mountain, water is water. Seeing mountain is not mountain, water is not water. Seeing mountain is yet again mountain, water is yet again water.” Though not strictly a Buddhist myself, this saying has accompanied me through most of my life. It renders human cognition in three phases, especially in acquiring truth and knowledge, contemplating meanings of life, and most of all, understanding oneself. Written in three movements, Mountain is Mountain is my personal reflection of this simple yet insightful aphorism. I do feel the danger of limiting the audience’s experience by explaining too much, thus I would only use a few keywords to describe each movement. While the first movement is excitable, overconfident, and somehow simpleminded, the second one is more introspective and bewildered. The last movement is a process of seeing the truth with an unaffected and enlightened mind.

Mountain is Mountain is dedicated to flutist Tod Brody with much admiration.

Franz Schubert (1797 - 1828)
Rondo for Violin and String Orchestra, D. 438 (1816)

The brief and unhappy life of Franz Schubert reads like an Edward Gorey book: ignored by the musical establishment, all but unpublished in his lifetime, Schubert lived in poverty and died of syphilis in relative obscurity at the age of 31. End of story? Not!

One of the incandescent geniuses of classical music, Schubert was an incredibly prolific composer, an unsurpassed melodist, and a man who would certainly have changed the course of Western music had he lived longer. In his brief life, he penned more than 1000 works, including over 600 songs. His song cycles “Die Schöne MŸllerin” and “Winterreise” are unparalled masterpieces of the genre. Schubert’s symphonies, chamber music, piano works, incidental and liturgical music are among the best loved and most performed in the classical repertoire.

“I write all day,” Schubert said to an inquiring visitor, “and when I have finished one piece I begin another.” His evenings were spent with a small circle of close friends at the local pub, or at informal recitals of his music, dubbed “Schubertiades”. The loss of potential masterpieces caused by his early death is expressed in the epitaph on his tombstone written by the poet Franz Grillparzer, “Here music has buried a treasure, but even fairer hopes.”

Composed in June 1816, Schubert’s Rondo for Violin and String Orchestra (D. 438) wasn’t published until 1897. It is in two parts: an lengthy Adagio spins an magical web of sound, over which our solo violinist dips and turns with cascading runs and enormous leaps. The following Rondo is light-hearted in nature, Mozartian in its simplicity. Based on a playful theme, the mood throughout is songful, light, and virtuosic in the extreme for our soloist.

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840 - 1893)
Serenade for Strings, op. 48 (1880)

This arch-Romantic Russian composer penned many of our favorite concert works: his first Piano Concerto, Violin Concerto, 1812 Overture, Romeo and Juliet, six Symphonies, the operas “Eugene Onegin” and “Queen of Spades”, sextet “Souvenir of Florence” and of course his “Serenade for Strings” all hold special places in the hearts of music lovers around the world.

Born in the small Russian town of Voktinsk, son of a mining engineer, Tchaikovsky’s family moved to the imperial capitol St. Petersburg when he was 10 years old. Trained for a career in civil service, his interest in music became more acute following his mother’s death when he was 14. He enrolled in the new St. Petersburg Conservatory, and upon graduation was offered a post as professor of composition and music theory. Tchaikovsky gratefully accepted, and his career as a composer was finally underway at age 25.

A brief and disastrous marriage to his student Antonina Miliukova in 1877 led Pyotr to confront his homosexuality, a source of great emotional stress for him. In the months that followed the wedding and his subsequent suicide attempt, Tchaikovsky wrote two of his finest works, the Fourth Symphony and his opera “Eugene Onegin”. Pouring his mental suffering into his music, a new emotional directness became evident that linked Tchaikovsky’s name to the novelist Dostoyevsky and increased his fame considerably.

In the same year, 1877, Nadezhda von Meck, a wealthy widow, offered him financial support for life, although they never met. Their correspondence grew to over 1200 letters between 1877 and 1890, and to his patroness Tchaikovsky opened his heart and soul. Her support allowed him to resign his teaching post and concentrate solely on composing.

Tchaikovsky’s fame grew quickly. His gift for melody is unparalleled (except by Schubert!), and his love of Russian music and folk song imbues his works with a distinct personality. Romantic to the core, his best compositions are emotionally vivid and direct. Upon finishing his Serenade for Strings, Tchaikovsky wrote “I am violently in love with this work and cannot wait for it to be played”. Writing these program and anticipating our San Francisco Chamber Orchestra rehearsals and concerts, I feel the same way! I have performed and conducted this work numerous times, but never cease to be swept up in the music’s grace and power.

The mighty series of chords which begin (and end) the first movement are a stern Russian chorale surrounding the sweeping dance of the main section, Allegro moderato. Tchaikovsky delights in juxtaposing passages of great energy and extreme delicateness in this playful movement. The following Waltz is a charming evocation of a grand ballroom, although please don’t be tempted to dance - it’s rhythms are far too irregular! A soulful Elegie showcases Tchaikovsky’s melodic gifts, and is also the most emotional movement of the Serenade; the first violins at one point break out in an impassioned solo of their own, before the music subsides and returns to the somber, and very soft, opening music. The finale, variations on a Russian folk song, immediately follows the third, and the music is soon rollicking along in an idiomatic Allegro con spirito, extra on the “spirito!”

Program notes © Benjamin Simon 2008