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Symphonic Cycle 09 |
Symphonic Cycle 09

10/11ABR2025|20:00H

Teatro de la Maestranza |
20:00 h.

BÉLA BARTÓK | Concierto para piano y orquesta nº1
ÍGOR STRAVÍNSKI | Petrushka

Piano | Juan Pérez Floristán
Conductor | Eun Sun Kim

Symphonic Cycle 09 | Program notes
Symphonic Cycle 09
Program notes

Two different territories (and not just in the geographical sense) are presented to us in tonight's concert. Two composers with extensive bodies of work and a great attention to the folklore of their respective countries, which they have also transformed into national symbols that transcend music. However, in the case of the internationally renowned Stravinsky, this is somewhat more debatable, as in 1917 he left Russia to live in several European countries and the United States, returning briefly and triumphantly to the USSR in 1962.

Know More

At the beginning of World War II, both moved to the United States. Their experiences were very different: Bartók arrived in 1939, but suffered from a certain lack of interest in his music, concerts became increasingly rare, and he faced financial difficulties. He died in 1945. In that same year, Stravinsky, a man of the world with a great instinct for business and relationships, obtained American citizenship. He lived in the country until his death at 88 years old, though he continually traveled due to his growing international fame.

 

Béla Bartók: Piano Concerto No. 1 and Orchestra

In the early 1920s, Béla Bartók was better known as a virtuoso pianist than as a composer, although he already had a considerable body of work behind him. He taught at the Budapest Academy and continued his remarkable research on Hungarian folk music.

Author of three piano concertos, he completed the first one in November 1926, and it was premiered in 1927 at the Frankfurt Music Weeks, with the composer at the piano and the orchestra conducted by Furtwängler. The concerto rejects romantic elements but is not provocatively modern either. While some critics spoke of "a return to Bach," the composer himself stated that he had been inspired by "music before Bach," and it is known that in those years he frequently performed works by Marcello, Scarlatti, or Frescobaldi in his recitals. It can be considered within the "neoclassical" aesthetic of the time. It is the most enigmatic of the three concertos and presents an extreme difficulty for the soloist, as the piano is treated in many passages as a percussion instrument, with radical rhythmic and timbral functions that give it an atypical sound.

Allegro moderato – Allegro

It stands out for its intensity, as the piano begins by striking a single note, followed by a percussive emphasis that distances it from the 19th-century tradition and destroys any melodic form. Glissandi and dissonances follow, leading to an abrupt ending.

Andante – Attacca

Todo el movimiento está atravesado por un clima sombrío, debido a la omisión de las cuerdas. En esta especie de música nocturna, al piano sólo se le unen las maderas, los metales y la percusión. Destaca el ritmo de una marcha que alcanza un climax sorprendentemente disonante por parte de la orquesta sobre un piano ostinato.

Allegro molto

Without pause, we encounter a highly agitated movement, featuring a dance dominated by the piano, whose rhythmic ostinato is emphasized by the woodwinds and reaches extreme speeds. After a brief fugue section and a dance-like passage, the concerto reaches a hurried conclusion.

Despite its apparent disorganization and sudden variations in intensity, the work possesses an organic unity based on rhythmic construction. Due to its atypical sound, the concerto was difficult to understand for early audiences, performers, and, of course, much of the critics, as evidenced by this review from 1928: "A tonal chaos is all that arises from the diabolical simultaneous use of unrelated tonalities. It is like a mystical labyrinth. Only the guide knows the path that leads to the exit."

Igor Stravinski: Petrushka

After the success of The Firebird, Petrushka became Stravinsky's second collaboration with the Ballets Russes, led by the "indispensable" impresario Serguéi Diaghilev, to whom King Alfonso XIII, a patron of the ballet during its Spanish tours, once asked: "What do you do in this company? You don't conduct the orchestra, you don't dance, you don't play the piano." Diaghilev's response was, "Your Majesty, I am like you. I don't work, I do nothing, but I am indispensable."

Written between August 1910 and May 1911, Petrushka premiered at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, conducted by Pierre Monteux, with choreography by Michel Fokin, sets by Alexander Benois, Nijinsky as Petrushka, and Karsávina as the Ballerina. Nijinsky's performance was exceptional ("the greatest actor in the world," according to Sarah Bernhardt).

While The Firebird still sat between two eras, Petrushka is fully a product of the 20th century and foreshadows the shock of The Rite of Spring (1913), with its "beautiful nightmare" of marked primitive rhythms. The composer himself understood that this "magnificent success" allowed him to "be sure of my ear at the very moment I was going to start The Rite of Spring."

The music Stravinsky initially began composing as a concert piece turned, through Diaghilev's intervention and Benois' collaboration, into a ballet. Stravinsky was searching for a title that would express the character of his music, and while walking by Lake Geneva, he found it: "Petrushka! The immortal and unfortunate hero of all the fairs of all the countries."

Brilliant and precise in its orchestration, it is a kaleidoscopic work, a succession of folk and popular themes with devilish polyrhythms. In this piece, Stravinsky's musical personality is solidified, distancing himself from the concept of development and creating contrasts with bold sound blocks, a technique often compared to the cubism of Picasso and Braque. A work of rupture, it contains quotes from two waltzes by Lanner and a number of Russian themes, some of which had already been used by Rimsky-Korsakov or Balákirev.

The protagonism in the work is divided between the individuality of the puppet and the presence of the crowd. The action is set around 1830 and presents four scenes. The first, "Popular Festival of Carnival Week," takes place in St. Petersburg's Admiralty Square during the carnival fair, with a large crowd. When the charlatan opens his puppet theater, three puppets are seen dancing. The Moor and Petrushka are in love with the Ballerina, who clearly prefers the Moor. Jealous, Petrushka attacks the Moor, and the puppeteer halts the show.

In the second scene, "At Petrushka's House," Petrushka is locked in his room by the charlatan and protests this cruelty by banging on the walls. The Ballerina appears, and Petrushka, excited, expresses his love roughly. The Ballerina leaves, scared by Petrushka's roughness, leaving him in sadness.

The third scene, "With the Moor," takes place in the Moor's room, also a prisoner but happy with his situation. The Ballerina enters, and, encouraged by the Moor's compliments, allows herself to be embraced. Preceded by a waltz taken from Lanner, the Moor dances clumsily with the Ballerina. At that moment, Petrushka enters, threatening the Moor, who defends himself with his scimitar, causing Petrushka to flee. A fast movement illustrates the chase.

The final scene, "Popular Festival and the Death of Petrushka," shows the carnival celebrations in the square, but the party is interrupted when Petrushka runs out of the puppet theater, pursued by the Moor, who kills him. The people are scared, thinking an actual murder has taken place. A police officer arrives and interrogates the charlatan, who shows him a rag doll on the ground. The festival ends, everyone leaves, and when the charlatan is left alone and goes to collect his puppets, he sees the ghost of Petrushka on the ceiling of the theater, mocking him in the final of his transformations: puppet, person, ghost.

Debussy early discovered in Petrushka "a kind of sonic magic, a mysterious transformation of mechanical beings into human souls, through an enchantment whose invention I think belongs to you alone".

In 1921, at the request of Arthur Rubinstein (who paid him generously), Stravinsky transcribed three of its movements for piano, creating one of the masterpieces of contemporary virtuosity. In 1947, he rewrote the piece "with the dual purpose of preserving copyright and adapting it for medium-sized orchestras," meaning it was conceived more for concert performance than for ballet.

Juan Lamillar