SINFONIA TORONTO'S MENDELSSOHN/SHOSTAKOVICH/KHACHATURIAN CD

Program Notes

 

Mendelssohn wrote an astonishing amount of music while he was still in his teens. Between the ages of 11 and 15 he wrote 22 large-scale works: 13 string symphonies, 5 concertos, 4 singspiels, and many shorter compositions including chamber works, pieces for piano and organ, songs, and sacred choral works.

 

While the first 6 string sinfonias clearly show the influence of Haydn, Mozart and Pleyel, the seventh sinfonia shows that the young composer had already matured enough to study the works of Beethoven. The contrasting themes in the first movement are a new departure for him, and the work as a whole marks his first experiment with a four-movement structure. The Andante’s lovely melodies are characteristic of the graceful lyricism present from Mendelssohn’s earliest pieces through his last. The Menuetto is terse, with an economy worthy of Beethoven; but it is the Finale, with its dramatic, insistent tone and its startling rhythmic displacements that most strikingly reveals the beginning of Beethoven’s influence on the young Mendelssohn.

 

Shostakovich composed his Quartet No. 10 in A flat major in July of 1964, during one of his frequent stays at the Soviet Composers’ Retreat in the picturesque town of Dilijan Armenia. Shostakovich had developed a warm bond with Armenia and the many hospitable colleagues there. The quartet was dedicated to another colleague, Moisey Weinberg, a Soviet composer who had often worked with Shostakovich.

The serenity and tranquility of the work’s slow movements flow above a hidden inner tension, which breaks forth into violence and agony in the second movement in a profound lament for the human condition. In the finale the underlying unease is almost, but not quite, resolved. It is a movement highly typical of Shostakovich. Elements from the first movement are reprised, and the long arc of tension ends in an ambivalent, ironically cheerful mood that can be experienced in two ways -- as a happy ending, or as a mocking rejection of happy endings. The symphonic proportions of the work have made it a dramatic addition to the string orchestra literature.

 

Khachaturian’s musical idiom was strongly marked by his Armenian heritage. His scores are treasured for their sensuous, singing melodies, colorful orchestration and irrestistible rhythms. Best known as the composer of vivid scores for the ballets Spartacus and Gayaneh, Khachaturian also wrote brilliant concertos, several symphonies, a great deal of film and theatre music, works for band, some chamber music and many popular songs.

Khachaturian composed Masquerade in 1941 as incidental music for a production of Mikhail Lermontov’s play of the same title. The Suite soon became a popular concert work. This CD presents the world premiere recording of the string orchestra arrangement by Nurhan Arman, created to celebrate Khachaturian’s centenary in 2003.

 

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