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The New York Philharmonic performs Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony, which, the composer revealed, is “an echo of my most intimate spiritual life.” Israeli-American Grammy Award-winning violinist Gil Shaham, known for “the penetrating power of his interpretations” (The Baltimore Sun), solos in Prokofiev’s “First Violin Concerto,” with its dazzling fireworks, dizzying glides along strings and ethereal ending.
On the program:
“In the Steppes of Central Asia” (1880) by Alexander Borodin — In Borodin’s words: In the desert of Central Asia the melody of a peaceful Russian song is heard at first. The approaching tramp of horses and camels is heard, together with the doleful sounds of an oriental melody. A native caravan guarded by Russian soldiers crosses the boundless steppe. It completes its long journey trustingly and without fear under the protection of the victors’ awesome military strength. The caravan moves further and further away. The peaceful melodies of both vanquished and vanquisher merge into a single common harmony, whose echoes long resound in the steppe before eventually dying away in the distance.
“Symphony No. 4” (1878) by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky — It was against the unsettling backdrop of hoping to “cure” his homobaduality through a disastrous marriage and a subsequent suicide attempt that Tchaikovsky completed the present Symphony. Tchaikovsky maintained an intimate correspondence with his mysterious benefactress, Nadezhda von Meck, which often sheds light on the music he wrote, including this pbadionate revelation: “There is not a single bar in this Fourth Symphony which I have not truly felt, and which is not an echo of my most intimate spiritual life.”
“Violin Concerto No. 1 in D Major, Op. 19” (1917) by Sergei Prokoviev — The year 1917 was a year of political upheavals that saw Russia turned on its head; the czar was toppled and the Bolsheviks (Lenin, Trotsky, et al.) transformed Russia into a socialist state. Prokofiev wanted none of that. Instead he retreated to the Caucasus to compose. While Russia was in turmoil, he created such masterpieces as his Clbadical Symphony and the First Violin Concerto. With the unsettled political climate, the concerto’s premiere did not take place for six years.
Conductor: Tugan Sokhiev
Oct. 25, Thursday, 7:30 PM; Oct. 26, Friday, 2:00 PM; and Oct. 27, Saturday, 8:00 PM.
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