PERFORMERS:
Soloist: Alexei Lukirsky (violin)
The Mariinsky Youth Orchestra
Conductor: Anton Gakkel
PROGRAMME:
Johannes Brahms
Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 77
Felix Mendelssohn
Symphony No 4 in A Major, Italian, Op. 90
The Mariinsky Youth Philharmonic was founded in 1999 on the initiative of Valery Gergiev with the aim of training the next generation of theatre musicians and perfecting their performing skills. From that day to this, the orchestra has seen a constant flow of new young musicians. Since its inception, the orchestra has been conducted by such maestri as Gianandrea Noseda, Algirdas Paulavičius and Valery Gergiev himself, thus ensuring the continuity of traditions and involving young performers in the established routine of theatre life. The orchestra has also been conducted by Vladimir Feltsman, François Xavier-Roth, Kazuhiko Komatsu, Daniel Smith and young conductors from Russia, the USA, Greece and China who trained under Ilya Musin. The orchestra made its first independent appearance in 1999 at the Stars of the White Nights festival when it featured in a performance of the opera Le nozze di Figaro. That same year saw the Youth Philharmonic Orchestra undertake its first tour to cities in Italy. The ensemble went on to perform in Finland, Germany and Japan.
Thanks to the opening of the Mariinsky II the orchestra now has increased opportunities to present the public with its own unique programmes.
Brahms’ only violin concerto was written in the summer of 1878 in Pörtschach, a small town in the south of Austria. The air of the town had a beneficial effect on Brahms, who worked on his Second Symphony in Pörtschach the previous summer, and he was now returning to images and the tonality of the symphony (in D Major) for his violin concerto.
The concerto is dedicated to Joseph Joachim, an outstanding violinist of Hungarian descent. It was Joachim who introduced Brahms to the Schumanns, who played an extremely important role in Brahms’ life, and they remained close friends for many years. While working on the concerto, Brahms asked Joachim numerous questions about violin technique, but he did not always follow his advice. But when writing the first section he did not compose a cadenza for it, instead using Joachim’s cadenza.
Brahms’ concerto is one of the most virtuoso works in the genre. Hans von Bülow, comparing Brahms’ concerto with Bruch’s popular violin concerto, stated that Bruch’s concerto was written “for the violin” while Brahms’ concerto was written “against the violin”. Moreover, the complicated nature of the violin part is connected rather with the structure of the work and the complexity of the idea than with a wish to display the technical abilities of the soloist.
As with the Second Symphony, the concerto is imbued with a typically Brahms-like atmosphere of airy and light triumph which is not darkened by the dramatic moods that invade from time to time. Leading the listener in the first and second sections through a series of lyrical images, in the finale Brahms becomes immersed in the spirit of a Hungarian folk dance. And not just because the concerto is dedicated to Joachim, but also because the very sound of the violin was, for Brahms, indissolubly linked with the expression and passion of Hungarian melodies.
Yekaterina Yusupova
The Fourth Symphony, Die Italienische, was written by the young Mendelssohn who had been influenced by travel to Italy. “Italy appeared before me so gentle, so quietly welcoming, with such an all-pervading tranquil pleasure and joy that it was impossible to describe. <…> The whole country was somehow festive, and it always seems as if you are some omnipotent Duke travelling through it,” the composer wrote to his family. A similar mood is conveyed by the music of the symphony, radiant and positively life-affirming. Like an attentive and delighted observer, Mendelssohn depicts the musical impressions of sunny Italian nature and Italian life. In the first movement of the symphony and in the finale, the nature of dance reigns supreme. In the finale, Mendelssohn even includes the Italian folk dance the Saltarello, with its characteristically resilient “tarantella” rhythm in third. The comfortable, а-la-Haydn light minuet and the thoughtful second movement form a contrast to the dynamic dance melodies of the first movement and the finale. The composer allocated the second movement the secondary title of “Procession of the Pilgrims” – one of the most beloved of all Romantic images. The main theme of the second movement is like church chant sung by pilgrims, while the low voices denote draw their monotone and measured steps.
Yegor Kovalevsky
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