TMSO Special（6/29）

This concert is over. Date: Sat. 29. June 2024 14:00 (13:00)

Venue: Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre Venue Info Seat

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Artists

Jakub HRŮŠA, Conductor

Profile

Program

Smetana: Overture to Libuše [Smetana 200]

Program Notes
Janáček (arr. by Hrůša): The Cunning Little Vixen, Grand Suite [Japan premiere]

Program Notes
Dvořák: Symphony No.3 in E-Flat major, op.10

Program Notes

Smetana: Overture to Libuše

Bedřich Smetana: Born in Litomyšl, Bohemia, March 2, 1824; died in Prague, May 12, 1884

　Libuše was the fourth of Smetanaʼs eight completed operas, following The Bartered Bride by about six years. It was finished in 1872, though not presented on the stage until June 11, 1881, at the National Theater in Prague, one of the Czechsʼ most important and enduring cultural institutions. This event also marked the grand opening of the National Theater. Eleven more performances followed, after which the theater was closed for finishing touches. While this was in progress, a fire broke out, destroying much of the building. When it reopened on November 18, 1883, it was again Libuše that served to mark the event. In 2018, Czechs celebrated the centenary of the founding of Czechoslovakia as an independent state uniting the Czech and Slovak peoples with a new production of Libuše. (On January 1, 1993, Czechoslovakia peacefully split into independent Czech and Slovak Republics.) The strong sense of patriotic pride inherent in Libuše, and its potential to fan the flames of national fervor, caused it to be banned during the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia during World War II.
　While working on the opera, Smetana called Libuše “my most perfect work in the field of higher drama.” The lofty subject matter (fraternal strife over an inheritance, judgment from the head of state, a paean to the Czech nation and prophecies), its aura of monumentality, use of Leitmotivs and chromatic harmony, a castle set high above a riverbed, and its sense of national pride all contributed to the charge of “Wagnerism” in Libuše. To some extent this is true, but more dominant is Smetanaʼs own voice. His particular brand of nationalism is epitomized in the operaʼs final words, which the Czechs have taken to heart: “My beloved Czech nation will not perish; gloriously she will vanquish the terrors of hell.”
　The title character comes from Czech historical myth. As described in a publication from the National Theater in Prague, “Princess Libuše … is not just a mythical sovereign foretelling glory for the Czech nation but, first and foremost, a cathartic, fabulous symbol of womanhood and motherhood, clemency, and peaceful life.”
　The Overture alone was first heard in Prague on April 14, 1872. Three years later it became Smetanaʼs first published orchestral score. It opens with a long, impressive brass fanfare representing Libušeʼs home and her position of authority. The lyrical oboe melody that follows belongs to Libuše herself, and the grandiose brass theme portrays her husband Přemysl.

Robert Markow's musical career began as a horn player in the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. He now writes program notes for orchestras and concert organizations in the USA, Canada, and several countries in Asia. As a journalist he covers the music scenes across North America, Europe, and Asian countries, especially Japan. At Montreal's McGill University he lectured on music for over 25 years.
　

Janáček (arr. by Hrůša): The Cunning Little Vixen, Grand Suite [Japan premiere]

Leoš Janáček: Born in Hukvaldy, Moravia (now incorporated into the Czech Republic), July 3, 1854; died in Moravska Ostrava, the Czech Republic, August 12, 1928

The arranger, Jakub Hrůša, contributed commentary.

　The intention to organize my own suite from The Vixen by Janáček was driven by several circumstances. On the one hand, I was happy to repeatedly perform the so-called Talich suite (which, of course, Talich did not actually compose himself, but commissioned from his collaborators; it is a suite that does not respect Janáčekʼs original instrumentation, but corresponds to Talichʼs opinion at the time that Janáček needed to be helped as for his using the orchestra), but lately in the guise furnished for the Universal Edition in Vienna by Sir Charles Mackerras. The "Mackerras suite" is actually almost identical to Talichʼs, but in the original instrumentation restored. However, I was equally happy to perform (and also record) another similar piece, precisely speaking the “entrʼacts” from The Vixen, namely by the Brno conductor and connoisseur of Janáčekʼs work, František Jílek.
　While Talichʼs Suite is plus or minus the outline of the entire first act, but there is absolutely nothing from the operaʼs other music in it, Jílek chose (with minor exceptions) only orchestral passages of the whole opera evening, of which there are many in this piece and which mostly connect the individual scenes, and true to his belief that even in the operas, Janáček shows a “symphonic logic” of the composition, he created a remarkably functional and compact whole. However, when this second suite, Jílekʼs, is played, there is nothing at all from the beginning of the opera there.
　Years ago, as I was staging the opera at Glyndebourne in England, I conceived the idea that it would be great to be able to convey to concert audiences a cross-section of the orchestral music of a truly complete opera, strictly chronologically, though. In principle, I therefore decided to combine the two suites together and supplement the music created in this way with a few other sections, which it would have been a shame not to have included: for example, the music of the so-called „Inn Scene" from the 2nd act, etc.
　This is really how the longest suite from Bystrouška was created, which I also called “Große Suite” for the publishing house Universal Edition in Vienna, which published the new shape. I've designed a lot of optional cuts in this organism, so the final shape is highly variable. However, the listener clearly gets an impression of the whole, of the arc of the opera, with its changing character: from the almost balletic pantomime of the opening to the nostalgic "forest" and balanced, reconciled ending with the apotheosis.
　Again, the key for me is that the suite contains the entire framework of the work, chronologically. (Occasionally I add one or two singing scenes, most often the love scene between the Vixen and the Fox, and the final monologue of the Forester - and on the contrary, I cut some other passages so that the whole is not too long. But this is not the case with the Tokyo performance, which is purely orchestral.)
(Jakub Hrůša)
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　The Cunning Little Vixen is the seventh of Leoš Janáčekʼs nine operas. He himself adopted the libretto from a story serialized on a Brno newspaper from April to June, 1920. Rudolf Těsnohlídek (1882-1928) provided poetry to accompany illustrations by Stanislav Lolek (1873-1936). It was Janáčekʼs maid who suggested him to write an opera based on this.
　A qiuck synopsis: Bystrouška, a vixen, is caught by a forester. She later manages to escape from him, gets married and has cubs, but is shot by a peddler and dies. The forester reflects on the fond memory of Bystrouška and ponders upon the passage of time, and upon the mystery of life with its ever-lasting succession of death and re-birth.
　This time, Jakub Hrůša will conduct an orchestral suite, which he himself arranged for concerts. Suites by Václav Talich (1883-1961) and by František Jílek (1913-93) have often been performed [Charles Mackeras (1925-2010) also produced a suite, but he chose almost the same music material from the opera as Talich did. Mackeras restored Janáčekʼs orchestration, where Talich tried to achieve richer effect in the sound.], Talich used only the music material from Act 1, while Jílek gathered material from all three acts, although they were mostly orchestral sections without songs.
　Hrůša covers the whole opera and includes sections with songs. You can say it combines the merits of both predecessors and makes up for their shortfalls. However, in Hrůšaʼ version, somewhat similar to Jílekʼs, he does not allow instruments to “sing” vocal parts and the instruments play only their parts as they are in the opera. Thus, most of the sections where main themes were sung are omitted, to condense the 95-minute opera into 30-minute suite. Hrůša also elaborates on details, such as avoiding the repetition of motives in the same pattern.
　Althougn Hrůša does not put down acts or scenes in his score, and the suite is played through without breaks, the below description refers to acts and scenes. Since the operaʼs full score which Hrůša used as his source (the new critical edition published in 2010), has only Acts and Scene Changes, we follow the traditional section namings such as ‘Preludeʼ, ‘Scene 1ʼ and ‘Pantomimeʼ.

ACT 1
PRELUDE: A summer afternoon in the valley. Insects and animals come in. A blue dragonflyʼs ballet.
SCENE 1: The foresterʼs famous monologue is omitted. The insectsʼ waltz. The forester captures Bystrouška, a young vixen, and takes her to his hut. The blue dragonflyʼs pantomime starts with the flute solo.
SCENE CHANGE: Sorrowful strings start this section.
SCENE 2: The yard of the foresterʼs hut. An afternoon in autumn. Oboeʼs brisk motive starts the scene. Scenes of the hound approaching Bystrouška, and of the foresterʼs son teasing her, who retaliates and bites his leg, are omitted. At night the vixen falls asleep, followed by beautiful music at the dawn. Bystrouška fights with hens and cocks, and then escapes from the forester. A climactic closing of the Act 1.

ACT 2
PRELUDE: An afternoon in the forest. An energetic tutti by the orchestra.
SCENE 1: Bystrouška drives an badger out of his den, and occupies it as her home. To present this, Hrůša extracted only 20 bars from the introduction and the coda from the scene.
SCENE CHANGE: Cheerful section with vibrant bass.
SCENE 2: For a moment, the stage shifts from animals to human world. At Pásekʼs inn, three friends − the forester, the schoolmaster and the priest − indulge in the memories of their young days. This scene is, however, all skipped, and the grandiose music close to the end of act 2 is displayed, reminiscent of the broad night sky.
SCENE CHANGE: Flute plays fragmets of the ‘night skyʼ motive, for only four bars.
SCENE 3: A path in the woods alongside a hedge of sunflowers. The schoolmaster and the priest are on the way home, slightly drunken. Bystrouška teases them, by pretending to be the woman they are attracted to. The forester recognizes her as the vixen, but she runs off from the site. Here again, the main scene is omitted, while lively 8 bars from the coda are presented.
SCENE CHANGE: Chorus sings elaborate music. In this suite, the melody is played by oboe (written by Hrůša) and English horn.
SCENE 4: Bystrouška meets a male fox, whom she marries. This suite uses only the festive wedding music.

ACT 3: While the original story closes at the wedding scene, the third act was added by Janáček. Act 3, scene 3 reflects his own view of life, and he wanted it to be played at his funeral, which wish was accomplished.
PRELUDE: Viola and bass clarinet parts proceed like walking steps.
SCENE 1: Edge of the woods, noon in the autumn. The talk of the forester and Harašta, a peddler, is omitted. A fox family appears and the cubs run around. Harašta tries to shoot the foxes but was retaliated by Bystrouška and falls down the hill. Two fatal shots by the outraged peddler met Bystrouška (cymbal and low strings). Instead of the music of mourning, the woodwinds play the theme which is called ‘hymn for re-birth’ in the coda (This theme will eventually appear at the end of Scene 3 and lead to the climax there).
SCENE CHANGE: Ostinato quadruplets make audience feel the passage of time.
SCENE 2: Yard of Pásekʼs inn. The forester is sympathizing with the heart-broken schoolmaster. He says his hound is old now, and so is he, and then makes his way home. Although abridged, more music of the original opera is retained here than other sections in the suite.
SCENE CHANGE　A quartet of horns creates the nostalgic atmosphere of the woods.
SCENE 3: The forester sits on the same spot as in Act 1, and ponders upon the time passed, and upon the late Bystrouška. Hrůša plays the whole latter half of scene 3 in his suite, enabling the audience to appreciate the moving finale of the opera even in the concert hall.
（Ryosuke Masuda／translated by Tadashi Mikajiri）

COMPOSITION and PREMIERES
　　Opera: Composed from 1921 to March 1923. Revised in October 1924.
　　Suite by Jakub Hrůša: Arranged in 2017
PREMIERES:
　　Opera: November 6, 1924, at National Theatre Brno,
　　　　　　conducted by František Neumann.
　　Suite by Hrůša (World Premiere): September 28, 2018,
　　　　　　conducted by Jakub Hrůša, with Bamberger Symphoniker.
　　Suite by Hrůša (Japan Premiere): June 28 & 29, 2024,
　　　　　conducted by Jakub Hrůša,
　　　　　with Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra.
　

Dvořák: Symphony No.3 in E-Flat major, op.10

Ⅰ Allegro moderato
Ⅱ Adagio molto, tempo di marcia
Ⅲ Finale: Allegro vivace

Antonín Dvořák: Born in Mühlhausen, Bohemia (today Nelahozeves, Czech Republic), September 8, 1841; died in Prague, May 1, 1904

　The first two of Dvořákʼs nine symphonies (both from 1865) are rather weak works, and are rarely played. The Third Symphony, however represents a great advance in the composerʼs compositional talent. It was written in 1872-1873 during a period when his reputation was spreading rapidly. He was still working as a violist in the orchestra of the Provisional Theater in Prague, but by 1873 he had also been composing for some time − chamber music, vocal music, other orchestral works, even opera. He saw his first big success early in 1873 with the patriotic hymn The Heirs of the White Mountains, an orchestral setting of an epic poem by the Czech poet Vítězslav Hálek.
　The Third Symphony was premiered by the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra on March 29, 1874 in the hall on Sophia Island (Žofín) conducted by Bedřich Smetana. Dvořák revised the score in 1887-1889, but it was not published until 1912, eight years after the composerʼs death, by Simrock in Berlin. It was the first of his symphonies Dvořák heard performed. That Brahms thought highly of it opened doors to Dvořák in Vienna.
　The symphony is unique in other ways as well. It is Dvořákʼs only symphony in three movements. It has the longest slow movement and the shortest finale except for possibly the Eighth. The Wagnerian influence is strongest by far in this symphony (Wagner had recently visited Prague and conducted some of his music there.) The symphony makes a fitting companion to Smetanaʼs Libuše Overture, which opens this concert, not only because Smetana conducted the premiere and because of its whiffs of Wagnerian, but because, as biographer Otakar Šourek puts it, the symphony conveys “the same sense of patriotism and fervent interest in the future of the nation.” Šourek was referring to Dvořákʼs The Heirs of White Mountains, but he could as easily have been referring also to Smetanaʼs opera.
　The opening theme is typical of Dvořák − an expansive, broadly-flowing melody that seems to breathe boundless joy and contentment. Most obvious is the six-note turn immediately following the first note of the theme. This will be found pervasively, both in the foreground and background material. One normally expects a recognizable second theme in the key of the dominant (in this case, B-flat) in a big nineteenth-century symphony, but Dvořák has other ideas. Following considerable elaboration of the opening material, a mere scrap consisting of a four-note descending scale fragment serves as the second subject − not in B-flat, but in G-flat major. But is this new material? Not at all. Dvořák plucks it from that broad first theme. In fact, the more we examine the movement, the more we realize that virtually everything derives from the opening measures. (Small wonder Brahms thought highly of this symphony.)
　The sense of symphonic unity continues in the second movement, an Adagio in C-sharp minor. A sense of deep pathos pervades its outer sections, while the central episode might almost have come from Wagnerʼs Ring cycle − a passage of pomp and nobility that recalls the Valhalla motif, retaining even the key in which that motif first appears in the Ring, D-flat major. Here English horn and harp make their appearances − the latter prominently so, a fact worth mentioning as this instrument was not yet commonly used in a symphony. The perceptive listener will detect throughout the movement elements carried over from the previous one (for example the sextuplet turn, or the descending scale fragments). Following the symphonyʼs premiere in 1874, the critic Ludevít Procházka proclaimed that “it is here [in the Adagio movement) that the composer opens up what is deep inside him and seizes our whole being. The sublime ascent of this movement with its second motif in C sharp major, evolving organically from the first, recalls the greatness of the spirit of Beethoven.”
　The exuberant finale, in more-or less sonata-rondo form, adds piccolo and tuba. The main theme fairly exults in the joy of life. American composer Jonathan Kramer described the movement as “a study in the consequences of a simple, two-note figure [that] pervades the piece in many guises.”

Robert Markow's musical career began as a horn player in the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. He now writes program notes for orchestras and concert organizations in the USA, Canada, and several countries in Asia. As a journalist he covers the music scenes across North America, Europe, and Asian countries, especially Japan. At Montreal's McGill University he lectured on music for over 25 years.
　

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