GVO - 'Triumphant' Newsletter

[David Yoon]

		The Greenwich Village Orchestra e-Newsletter -  February 10th, 2008 In this Issue Welcome to the 2007-2008 season of the Greenwich Village Orchestra! This newsletter will regularly bring you insights into the music-making and activities of the GVO. In this issue, we discuss the upcoming "Triumphant" concert on February 10th at 3:00PM. For more information, please visit our website at www.gvo.org. Maestro Barbara Yahr Upcoming Concert - Triumphant Sunday, February 10th, 2007 3:00 PM Tickets: $15.00 (suggested) for general admission $10 for seniors and students (with valid school ID) Location Washington Irving Auditorium 40 Irving Place (between 16th and 17th) New York, NY 10003 map Program: Brahms Violin Concerto - Yosuke Kawasaki Shostakovich Symphony No. 10 Interview with the soloist - Yosuke Kawasaki: BY: Since you have an active career as both soloist and concertmaster of the National Arts Orchestra in Ottawa, can you tell our readers something about balancing those two jobs? YK: From a playing perspective, the only conscious difference that I make is how my sound and gestures are projecting. When I'm sitting as a concertmaster, I'm physically leading (giving cues and showing phrase lengths) but I'm also trying to blend my sound with the section (especially the 1st violins and the entire string section as one entity). When I'm playing a solo, I just try to bring some of those things to the forefront which requires some technical adjustments such as vibrato in the left hand and bow control for my right hand. As far as balancing my time as a soloist and concertmaster, most of my solo appearances are made with the orchestras that I already work with so the scheduling is quite simple. The challenge for me has been dealing with the jet-lag, going back and forth between Japan, Canada, and the US so often. It has recently become so bad that even the little perks that come along with the frequent-flyer mileage plan can't console the ever-present narcoleptic state that I find myself in. BY: With so much travel, tell us where you feel most at home? YK: I was born and raised in NY and this will always be my home. I feel most relaxed and comfortable in my apartment in Bronxville with Shannon (GVO's oboist) and my lap kitty Pease Blossom. With that said, my parents are Japanese and having grown up eating Japanese food, my trips to Osaka are a close 2nd to feeling at home. The cuisine in Osaka is considered top notch even within the country itself and my favorite of course is sushi. But after about a week in Osaka, I start getting cravings for a slice of NY pizza (that heavenly combination of stringy cheese and crisp crust) and I can't wait to go home. BY: I imagine you have played the Brahms Concerto numerous times, what is special about this piece for you? YK: I love the singing lines in all of Brahms' works. The second themes are always to die for. There's a passion behind them that speaks to my personality. Unfortunately, the beautiful melodies don't last long enough for me. I'm not criticizing Brahms' compositional decisions in any way: I just want more of it! The 2nd movement of this concerto is special to me that way. I can carry that emotion for almost 9 minutes. I'm basically a sucker for slow movements. BY: Since you have an active career as both soloist and concertmaster of the National Arts Orchestra in Ottawa, can you tell our readers something about balancing those two jobs? YK: From a playing perspective, the only conscious difference that I make is how my sound and gestures are projecting. When I'm sitting as a concertmaster, I'm physically leading (giving cues and showing phrase lengths) but I'm also trying to blend my sound with the section (especially the 1st violins and the entire string section as one entity). When I'm playing a solo, I just try to bring some of those things to the forefront which requires some technical adjustments such as vibrato in the left hand and bow control for my right hand. As far as balancing my time as a soloist and concertmaster, most of my solo appearances are made with the orchestras that I already work with so the scheduling is quite simple. The challenge for me has been dealing with the jet-lag, going back and forth between Japan, Canada, and the US so often. It has recently become so bad that even the little perks that come along with the frequent-flyer mileage plan can't console the ever-present narcoleptic state that I find myself in. BY: With so much travel, tell us where you feel most at home? YK: I was born and raised in NY and this will always be my home. I feel most relaxed and comfortable in my apartment in Bronxville with Shannon (GVO's oboist) and my lap kitty Pease Blossom. With that said, my parents are Japanese and having grown up eating Japanese food, my trips to Osaka are a close 2nd to feeling at home. The cuisine in Osaka is considered top notch even within the country itself and my favorite of course is sushi. But after about a week in Osaka, I start getting cravings for a slice of NY pizza (that heavenly combination of stringy cheese and crisp crust) and I can't wait to go home. BY: I imagine you have played the Brahms Concerto numerous times, what is special about this piece for you? YK: I love the singing lines in all of Brahms' works. The second themes are always to die for. There's a passion behind them that speaks to my personality. Unfortunately, the beautiful melodies don't last long enough for me. I'm not criticizing Brahms' compositional decisions in any way: I just want more of it! The 2nd movement of this concerto is special to me that way. I can carry that emotion for almost 9 minutes. I'm basically a sucker for slow movements. From the Podium The work of Dmitry Shostakovich (1906-1975) is bound to the politics and events of his time; his music and musical personality were defined by the tumultuous events that unfolded around him. With 15 symphonies to his name, his music ranges from the deeply personal to the most monumental statements about his country and about the world. Shostakovich is often thought of as the greatest symphonist of the mid 20th century. He came of age during the Russian revolution and a subsequent tyranny that claimed millions of innocent lives. Under constant police scrutiny, he was alternatively hailed by Stalin's press as the father of the Soviet composers; and at other times denounced as "primitive and vulgar." Through it all, he remained at the center of Soviet culture. The dictates of the Soviet totalitarian state applied to art, as it did to every other aspects of its citizen's lives. Shostakovich attempted to comply with the Soviet decree against so-called "formalist" music; a derogatory term that the state applied music considered to that exist for its own sake, rather than in the service of propaganda. By his own admission, Shostakovich was not able to eradicate "certain negative characteristics in my musical style." Perhaps because he issued this statement, adding " I know the party is right," or because else because his success in the west made it more difficult for Stalin to have him killed, Shostakovich avoided the fate of many of his colleagues and friends, and emerged from Stalin's purges alive. The Soviet terror was followed by German Army's 900-day siege Leningrad in World War II, which itself claimed nearly a million civilian lives. Shostakovich's experience of the siege inspired the composition of his Seventh Symphony. The score of that piece which was sent to the USA where Toscanini conducted the premier in 1942 and laid the foundation Shostakovich's musical legend. It is no coincidence that work on the Tenth Symphony was begun immediately after Stalin's death. Shostakovich had stopped writing symphonies in the 8 years that preceded the Tenth, at least in part due to perilous rumors that he had mocked the dictator in his Ninth Symphony. In his memoir, he wrote that the depiction of Stalin applied only to his Tenth: "I did depict Stalin in music in my next symphony...I wrote it right after Stalin's death, and no one has yet guessed what the symphony is about. It's a musical portrait of Stalin and the Stalin years. The second part, the scherzo, is musical of portrait of Stalin, roughly speaking. Of course there are other things in it, but that's the basis." Many legends have attached themselves to this piece: the stories of the composer's relationship with the events and with the man whom was chiefly responsible for so much of the tragedy that the Russian people endured during those yeas. The music is not an abstract commentary on those years: for Shostakovich, it is all deeply personal. He conceived the first movement as a memoriam for the millions who did not survive the purges and the war. In the second movement, we encounter Stalin, and it is a portrait of evil. The music is exuberant, rejoicing in a scherzo of pure menace and horror. The third movement opens with a sad, slightly grotesque theme in ¾ time. It is a waltz, and a strange one, to be sure. A stilted celebration follows, recalling the staged demonstrations of the worker's paradise. But then the solo horn intrudes with its theme of purity, offering the first sign of hope in this dark work, dominated by the interval of the perfect fourth, rising, in stark contrast to the crawling half steps of waltz theme it is set against. This noble horn call is said to be a coded message to a woman named Elmira with whom Shostakovich had correspondence. Using a mixture of French and German musical language, the notes: E, La, Mi Re, A make up this theme. Recollections of the first movement appear but all is vanquished by this horn and its hope and promise for a better time. With the slow introduction of the finale, we have the first moment of true calm in this work. We may well have earned it, but the mood is threatened by themes of uncertainty and pain which emerge in the extreme ranges of the woodwinds. The finale is a giddy romp shadowed by the distant marching of soldiers but still, a joyful affair overall. There are is another secret message posted on this musical bulletin board- the great theme which slowly emerges in the brass uses the notes D Eb( pronounced S in German) C B ( pronounced H in German) Translated it can be therefore, DSCH, for Dmitri Shostakovich. Why did Shostakovich insert his name here? Is it because he survived not only in body but in musical soul? Did he want to match the depiction of Stalin with his own powerful musical signature? Whatever his reason, this statement repeated over and over in the low brass shows us that while the rest of orchestra laughs and dances, the composer endures. We too live in political times. With the internet and 24/7 news channels, it has become much more difficult to hide from the events which surround us, and yet many people still do. Music is an abstract art and one can see it as removed from our everyday life but it is no less vital that those in our present stay connected to the extraordinary events of our unfolding world. Shostakovich, and the other artists of his time, had no choice. Maestro Barbara Yahr For more information: Greenwich Village Orchestra Greenwich Village Orchestra P.O. Box 910 New York, NY 10113
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