What about the music?
An inside look with the Virginia Symphony Orchestra
Yuja Wang Piano Superstar
Saturday, February 8, 2025 | 7:30PM |Ferguson Center
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Selections from Swan Lake
Igor Stravinsky: Movements for Piano and Orchestra
Igor Stravinsky: Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Romeo and Juliet Overture-Fantasy
Igor Stravinsky: Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra
By Stella Feliberti
The Performers
Conductor
Eric Jacobsen
Hailed by the New York Times as “an interpretive dynamo,” conductor and cellist Eric Jacobsen has built a reputation for engaging audiences with innovative and collaborative programming. He is the newly-named Music Director of the Virginia Symphony, becoming the 12th music director in the orchestra’s 100-year history.
Jacobsen is Artistic Director and conductor of The Knights, and serves as the Music Director for the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra. Jacobsen founded the adventurous orchestra The Knights with his brother, violinist Colin Jacobsen, to foster the intimacy and camaraderie of chamber music on the orchestral stage. Eric splits his time between New York and Orlando with his wife, singer-songwriter Aoife O’Donovan, and their daughter.
Piano
Yuja Wang
Pianist Yuja Wang is celebrated for her charismatic artistry, emotional honesty and captivating stage presence. She has performed with the world’s most venerated conductors, musicians and ensembles, and is renowned not only for her virtuosity, but her spontaneous and lively performances, famously telling the New York Times ‘I firmly believe every program should have its own life, and be a representation of how I feel at the moment’.
Her skill and charisma were recently demonstrated in a marathon Rachmaninoff performance at Carnegie Hall alongside conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Philadelphia Orchestra. This historic event celebrating 150 years since the birth of Rachmaninoff, included performances of all four of his piano concertos plus the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini in one afternoon, and saw queues around the block for tickets on the day. This season has also seen Yuja perform the world première of Magnus Lindberg’s Piano Concerto No.3 in San Francisco with further performances of the work scheduled elsewhere in North America and Europe.
Yuja was born into a musical family in Beijing. After childhood piano studies in China, she received advanced training in Canada and at the Curtis Institute of Music under Gary Graffman. Her international breakthrough came in 2007, when she replaced Martha Argerich as soloist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Two years later, she signed an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon, and has since established her place among the world’s leading artists, with a succession of critically acclaimed performances and recordings. She was named Musical America’s Artist of the Year in 2017, and in 2021 received an Opus Klassik Award for her world-premiere recording of John Adams’ Must the Devil Have all the Good Tunes? with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under the baton of Gustavo Dudamel.
Last season Yuja embarked on a highly-anticipated international recital tour, performing in world-class venues across North America, and Europe, astounding audiences once more with her flair, technical ability and exceptional artistry in a wide-ranging programme including Beethoven, Ligeti and Schoenberg.
The Creators
Igor Stravinsky
Pronounced EE-gor stra-VIN-skee
Fast Facts:
- Stravinsky was born in 1882 to a musical family. His father was a distinguished bass singer, but Stravinsky did show any real interest in music growing up. Rather, he was interested in law. It wasn’t until he met composer Rimsky-Korsakov who helped teach Stravinsky composition that the composer began to find a liking to music.
- As a talented composer, Stravinsky wrote in almost every genre of music. From symphonies, chamber music, to even operas, Stravinsky was able to adjust his music styles to fit many genres. However, he is most known for his striking and evocative ballets.
- Stravinsky’s most famous work is his ballet The Rite of Spring. Its expressive and haunting melodies coupled with graphic choreography by Nijinsky sparked massive riots in Paris after its premiere in 1913.
- Towards the end of Stravinsky’s life, he developed a keen liking to the game Scrabble. His name earns 20 points in the game.
- Stravinsky had 3 major periods of his compositional life: his Russian period, his Neoclassical period, and his Serial period. His Russian period was heavily focused around Russian styles and folksong, which were incorporated into popular musical forms such as tangos or waltzes. The neoclassical period pulled from the Classical period of music such as the sonata form. During this period, he also composed many works that used Greek mythology as inspiration. Finally, his serial period pulled compositional techniques from the Second Viennese school with techniques such as a twelve-tone row. To learn more about Stravinsky’s compositional periods, click here.
Pyotr Tchaikovsky
peeyo-TER chai-KOFF-skee
Fast Facts:
- Tchaikovsky was born 1840 in Vyatka, Russia. He began displaying music passion very, starting to compose at 4 and piano lessons at 5. However, his parents hoped he’d work in civil service instead.
- He was one of the first composition students at the newly founded St. Petersburg Conservatory at age 21. He studied with Nikolay Zaremba and famous pianist and composer Anton Rubinstein.
- Tchaikovsky wrote in many genres of music, ranging from operas, to symphonies, to concertos, songs, and even ballets. His most prolific works include his late symphonies (4-5) and his ballets Swan Lake and The Nutcracker.
- He was a huge fan Shakespeare and often turned to the Bard for inspiration for his works. His works pull from dramas such as Hamlet, The Tempest, and Romeo and Juliet.
- Tchaikovsky earned an honorary degree from Cambridge University in 1893. He is one of many composers who also have honorary degrees. Some other composers include Camille Saint-Saëns and Max Bruch.
- Early in his career, Tchaikovsky took a job as a music critic. He infamously critiqued the works of Robert Schumann, who he considered was a poor orchestrator, and Johannes Brahms as lacking emotion.
Tchaikovsky
Selections from Swan Lake
Listen to selections of Swan Lake by the Bandung Philharmonic:
- The piece was written in 1875-1876. It was a commissioned piece as Tchaikovsky was struggling for money at the time.
- The ballet is based on the folk tale of Prince Siegfried and Odette, a young woman cursed to be a swan until someone swears their undying love to her. Read more about the tale here.
- The selections of this ballet are from Tchaikovsky’s Op.20a. It is unsure if Tchaikovsky himself picked these movements or someone else. However, each movement of this opus feature some of the most iconic melodies and scenes from the ballet.
Discussion Questions
- How does Tchaikovsky illustrates these scenes from the ballet?
- Is there a difference between Tchaikovsky’s compositions for ballet, like this one, and his other works (ex. His symphonies)?
Stravinsky
Movements for Piano and Orchestra
Listen to Stravinsky’s Movements for Piano and Orchestra by the Mahler Chamber Orchestra:
- Movements for Piano and Orchestra was written in 1958-1959 on commission from a Swiss Industrialist. The commissioner wanted the piece to be a gift for his pianist-wife, Margrit Weber, who premiered the work in 1960.
- The piece was originally asked to between 15-20 minutes in length. However, Stravinsky’s final version was only about 10 minutes.
- This piece is part of Stravinsky’s SERIAL period; he uses a tone-row (a series of non-repetitive order of pitches, as the basis as every gesture and general structure of the piece. To learn more about serialism, click here.
- Stravinsky once described the harmonic structure as anti-tonal because he favors the use of the tone-row and rhythms.
- This piece is a great introduction into the surrealism of nontonal harmonies and structures that helped push the boundaries of the classical music genre.
Discussion Questions
- Even with sparse musical lines, how do you think Stravinsky varies the characters in this piece?
- How do the roles of the piano and orchestra shift throughout the piece?
- Does this piece fit into the standards of piano concertos? Why or why not?
- How is this piece different from other Stravinsky compositions?
- Stravinsky once called this work as anti-tonal; why do you think that is?
Stravinsky
Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments
Listen to Stravinsky’s Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments by The Orchestra Now with pianist Blair McMillen:
- Stravinsky’s Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments was written first in 1924 but revised in 1950. It was written after Stravinsky was exiled in Paris after the Bolshevik Revolution unfolded in Russia.
- While exiled, Stravinsky wanted to redefine his style away from Russian folk song now that he was estranged from his homeland. Thus, he used inspiration from the Classical Era in this piece
- This piece uses the forms of the Classical Era as a symbolic device. He echoes the organization of Classical Era pieces, pulling inspiration from composers like Bach and Handel, while incorporating his own harmonic style.
- Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments is a great example of the diversity in Stravinsky’s music and his style during his neoclassical period.
Discussion Questions
- Does this piece remind you of any Classical or Romantic composer? Who and why?
- How does the use of only wind instruments to accompany the solo piano change and/or enhance the composition?
- Does Stravinsky successfully imitate the Classical Era? Why or why not?
- How does this work differ from Stravinsky’s other compositions?
Tchaikovsky
Romeo and Juliet Fantasy-Overture
Listen to Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet Fantasy-Overture by the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra:
- Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet Fantasy-Overture was first written in the 1870s. However, the final draft of the piece was not published until 1880 as Tchaikovsky went through 3 drafts before being satisfied with the work.
- The work was inspired by the Shakespearean play Romeo and Juliet. Tchaikovsky’s mentor, Balakirev, was the one who suggested Tchaikovsky write the work. Balakirev even went so far and suggested the key signatures, meter, and structure of the entire work to Tchaikovsky.
- Each section of the piece follows the different scenes and characters of the tragedy, making this work programmatic.
Discussion Questions
- How does Tchaikovsky narrate the story of Romeo and Juliet in this Fantasy-Overture?
- What elements of this piece makes it considered to be a programmatic work?
- What makes this piece considered a Fantasy-Overture instead of an overture?
- Do you think this piece accurately portrays the story of Romeo and Juliet?
Stravinsky
Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra
Listen to Stravinsky’s Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra by the Orchestra Symphonique de Montréal with pianist Yulianna Avdeeva
- Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra was written between 1926 and 1929 as a part of Stravinsky’s neoclassical era.
- In this piece, Stravinsky tries to emulate the conventions and styles of the Classical Era (1750-1820). Capriccios during the Classical Era were meant to be humorous pieces, often showcasing whimsical and technical skills of the performer. Stravinsky does this with its charming ambiguity and unpredictability.
- This piece pulls inspiration from a variety of composers including Weber, Mendelssohn, Prokofiev, Poulenc, and Liszt. However, there is still very much of Stravinsky’s own voice throughout the piece.
- This piece is in three movements: Presto, Andante Rapsodico, and Allegro Capriccioso.
Discussion Questions
- Do you think Stravinsky’s Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra is ambiguous? Why or why not?
- How does this piece fit into the genre of Capriccios? Does it fit the humor and flashy nature of these pieces?
- Do you think the piano acts as a soloist or more as another member of the orchestra?
- This piece is said to emulate many different composers’ styles. Does it remind you of any specific composers?
Glossary
Serialism
a method of composition using series of pitches, rhythms, timbres or other musical elements. Example: Twelve tone row
Tone-row
a series of non-repetitive ordering of pitches, typically of the twelve notes in the chromatic scale.
Click here for more info on serialism and tone rows.
Classical Period form
“Simple” Sonata form: Intro (optional) – Exposition (2 themes) – Development (works out themes) – Recapitulation (repeat of exposition)
Overture
An orchestral piece at the beginning of an opera which introduces the themes of the opera.
Concert Overture
a single movement orchestral piece not connected to a specific opera.
Capriccio
(kuh- PREE-chee oh); A lively, loosely structured musical composition that is often humorous in character.
Commission
When someone pays a composer to write a new piece of music for a specific purpose or event.
Programmatic music
instrumental music that carries some extramusical meaning, some “program” of literary idea, legend, scenic description, or personal drama.
